Tag: recipe

Papa Chorizo Frittata

Or, how to use up that half a package of veggie chorizo languishing in your freezer. I’ve been really happy with veggie omelet, quiches, etc. that I’ve tried in the past. So when I saw Alicia’s recipe, Papa Chorizo Frittata, I immediately marked it for future use. Tofu, potatoes, chorizo, roasted red peppers….what’s not to like? Plus, it’s gorgeous!

It was missing something green, and since I like to be a bit balanced, I picked up some callaloo at the market this weekend since they actually had it. If you haven’t tried this green, do. It’s really tasty. I ended up using a jamaican recipe as a vague guideline, but deviated quite a bit, so I’ll go ahead and tell you what I did.

 

  • 4 cups callaloo, washed and chopped
  • ¼ cup boiling water
  • 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, not the oil packed ones
  • 1 med. onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste

Cover the sun-dried tomatoes with the boiling water. Set aside.

Add oil to a large deep-sided skilled heated on med-high heat. Add onion. Cook stirring occasionally until softened. Add garlic. Cook a minute more. Add tomatoes and their water and thyme. Stir. Add callaloo and cover pan. After a couple of minutes, callaloo should be wilted. Stir and replace cover. Cook a few more minutes until callaloo is tender but still bright green. Salt to taste.
Here’s the happy dinner: Papa Chorizo Frittata, Callaloo and sliced oat bread I made this weekend.

Cajun Tofu & Jackfruit “Carnitas”

I’m usually too lazy to cook something that involves this many pots & pans. So it should be considered a treat. This is the Cajun Tofu from Yellow Rose Recipes. It’s actually baked, not fried, so it’s good for you and shit. The potatoes are your basic red & purple potatoes, chopped up, tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper and roasted til they’re done. The spinach is just sautéed with garlic, onions, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Also in olive oil. And look, there’s one of those sourdough biscuits! By the way, the leftover tofu on one of the biscuits made an amazing little sammich.

 

cajun tofu potatoes spinach biscuit

I saw this recipe for Jackfruit “Carnitas” Tacos a while back and knew I’d eventually get around to trying it. I was right! I ate them with sautéed mustard greens, taking advantage of the opportunity of Kevin being out of town to enjoy some bitter greens. I’m post the recipe of what I did because it deviates a bit from the one linked to above. The spice amounts are approximate as I just eyeballed it and starting tossing stuff in there. I felt like it was a little acidic, so a vegan cheese or sour cream might be especially nice. I just “suffered” with avocado. 

jackfruit carnitas tacos

Jackfruit “Carnitas” Tacos

  • 2 20 cans young green jackfruit in brine rinsed and drained
  • 1 7oz can mexican green sauce
  • 1 11oz can whole tomatillos drained
  • ½ large onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon chile powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin powder
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
  • 18-24 small corn tortillas
  • 2 avocados

Drain & rinse the jackfruit throughly. With your hands, press the moisture out of each piece & add it to the crock pot.

Toss all of the spices in the crockpot with the jackfruit. Stir around until jackfruit is coated.

Add onion and garlic to the pot. Dump in green sauce. Add tomatillos squeezing between your fingers to bust up as you add them. Stir everything around.

Cook for 7-9 hours on low. Before serving, smash jackfruit with a spoon. It’ll shred into stringy pieces. No need to be thorough, just want to smack the chunks down a bit.

Dry fry tortillas in a cast iron or other heavy pan until they get some brown spots on each side. Spoon some jackfruit “carnitas” into a tortilla all soft taco like, squeeze a little lime juice on top, toss on a few pieces of avocado and then add whatever it is you like to add to tacos.

Vegan Waffle Cones & Bowls

We had the perfect opportunity to work out the waffle cone maker yesterday when our friends had a vegan ice cream social at their store to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the retail location of Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe. The recipe we used last time turned out cones that were a little too hard. So after a bit of googling, I found one that didn’t rely on a ton of eggs and was easily veganizable. And they turned out perfect.

box of vegan waffle cones and bowls

I think there were about 16 total, and they went fast. Hey, I ate one. I’m not shy about stuff like that. No one wants to be the first at the buffet, etc. I don’t mind getting things started.

vegan waffle bowl sundae

Turnout was crazy. Seriously, who were all those vegans packing the store for at least two hours? Pretty good for one of the top 10 least veg friendly cities, eh? *cough*vegnewssux*cough* Others were taking pictures of actual people, so those should show up on the intarwebs soon enough.

Oh, yeah, there’s a recipe too! It’s adapted from the one I found here. And yeah, you do need a waffle cone maker. Oh, and in case you’ve ever wondered, you can indeed put regular granulated sugar into a food processor to make powdered sugar.

Vegan Waffle Cones

1 box SoyaToo Topping Cream
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Oil, for the iron

In a bowl with a whisk, whip the SoyaToo Topping cream with the vanilla until thick. Beat in the remaining ingredients to make a batter. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.

Heat up waffle cone iron and brush with a little oil. Pour some batter in and close the lid to bake and brown. Open the iron and remove the browned batter and fold over itself, overlapping it, on a wooden cone-form into a cone. Or, throw over an upended flat bottom bowl, lightly press it to the shape, and remove when cooled enough to be firm and cool on a cookie sheet or rack.

Or, if you’re lazy, you can just get cones from Let’s Do Organic. They have regular vegan and gluten-free sugar and cake cones and bowls. You can even get a party pack that includes bowls and sprinkles.

Citrus Multi-Grain Salad

Salad
1 cup Lundberg wild rice/brown rice blend, cooked
1 cup quinoa, cooked
2 tangerines, peeled, sectioned and cut into bite sized pieces
1 blood orange, peeled, sectioned and cut into bite sized pieces
2 scallions, sliced

Dressing
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 medium clove of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon orange or tangerine zest 
3/8 cup olive oil

Garnish
1/8 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted lightly in a dry pan   

Mix together all the salad ingredients in a big bowl. Whisk all the dressing ingredients except oil together in a separate bowl. Gradually whisk in oil or use immersion blender. Add dressing to salad, to taste. Sprinkle toasted walnuts on top. Eat cold or at room temperature. Will be better if flavors can combine for a couple of hours. 

Some collected random thoughts

  • Ina Garten made something vegan today. No really!
  • To the companion animal that keeps puking on my bed: please do that on the hardwood floors in the future. kthx
  • According to Paula Deen, fish “has no fat.” Um, okay.
  • So far, this election has been far more entertaining than I’d imagined. I’m not looking forward to Tuesday when it’ll probably narrow down to two.
  • They’ve made this whole blog customization crap way too easy. Why I remember when templates were so simple and bare that you had to fiddle with ’em forever to get them to look reasonable. Now it’s just grab, upload, activate. Select widgets. Done. I haven’t touched the code at all this evening. I’m getting soft.