Did you know about our Vegan Recipe of the Day? Each morning Vegan Digest selects a Vegan Recipe of the Day. Be sure to today’s latest release! Vegan Digest’s Vegan Recipe of the Day.
I’ve been on a edamame kick lately, because the local grocey store had the frozen shelled variety on sale. I went a little crazy whe I saw the Buy One Get One Free tag — I bought out all 12 bags they had in stock! While trying to decide what make, I remembered a roasted edamame recipe I had seen on the Food Network’s Good Eats show with Alton Brown. So easy with just basic ingredients (beans, corn, tomatoes, and seasoning) and it came out delicious. Here’s a link. Enjoy!
Roasted Edamame Salad
Susan from the Fat Free Vegan blog is having a challenge called Vegetable Love 2009. Fat Free Vegan is one of my favorite Vegan Food blogs and always a fun read. Here is her description of the challenge:
“I’m talking about Vegetable Love, my annual challenge to my fellow bloggers to create some hot, sexy, vegetable-filled Valentine’s recipes, the kind of dishes that will put some zing into an intimate dinner for two.”
Since I am never one to turn down a challenge, here is my entry…
The sweetness of the roasted red peppers combined with the fragrant parsley and garlic, make this dish prefect to share with your valentine. Enjoy!
Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
2 large red bell peppers
2 large garlic cloves
3/4 c. fresh flat leaf parsley
2 Tbsp. pimentos
2 tsp. white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. water
black pepper to taste
1/4 c. reserved pasta cooking water
Roast the red peppers and garlic. (Gas stove top or oven method are fine.) While the peppers and garlic are cooling after being roasted, prepare the pasta according to package directions. Combine pepper, garlic, and remaining ingredients into food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Combine pasta and pesto in large bowl and toss. Add as much reserved cooking water as needed to make pasta moist. Toss again and serve immediately.
If you are still buying your beans canned, you really should try to make them from scratch using dry beans. It is so easy and so much cheaper than buying canned. Baked beans are another perfect example. Below is one of my favorite baked bean recipes. So easy, and I guarantee the non-vegans will love it, too.
Easy Vegan Baked Beans
- 1 pound dry navy beans
- 2 onions
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1/4 c. molasses
- 1/3 c. ketchup
- 1/4 c. mustard
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
Soak the beans overnight in water. In the morning, drain and rinse before putting the beans in the crockpot. Add all other ingredients and cook on low 8-10 hours or until beans reach desired tenderness.
I came across this rice cooker at my local thrift store last week. Only $5 and it was in like new condition, including the cooking pot, steaming rack, special spoon, measuring cup, and instruction manual. The cooking pot was almost 3 times the size of my current one, so for $5 I figured it was worth a try. And now after using it to cook vegan brown rice, seasoned white rice, lentils, beans, and even quick oatmeal, I love it! It’s amazing how much faster this one heats up. Steam starts coming from the vent within minutes of turning it on. My old one would take 10-15 minutes at least to heat up and start boiling. I’m going to donate the smaller one back to the thrift shop.
A new Vegan Digest exclusive recipe was added today for a Citrus Couscous salad. The ingredients are whole wheat couscous which you make with orange juice instead of water. Add chickpeas and grapefruit pieces to create the salad. It’s refreshing, delicious, and a great way to utilize the in season cirtus available now. Enjoy!
A trip to the grocery store is never an quick visit for me. There are so many decisions. Even in the produce aisle alone. My first choice is to buy local, organic produce. I find organic produce (especially fruit) tastes way better than non-organic and it is best for the planet, of course. But buying local organic, produce is not always possible for many reasons. First, it may not even be available. Second, it may be too expensive for my budget. So as I study the produce options at the local grocery store, I have to make decisions.
Case in point, my visit to the local Publix this past week. Non-organic peaches from Chili were on sale. I literally began drooling. I hadn’t had a peach in so long! (Since eliminating most processed food and sugar from my vegan diet, I live for good fruit.) I bought six peaches.
Later, I felt a bit guilty for buying the peaches. Seems so silly. I tell myself that everything is a give and take. I’ve made huge strides in cutting down on my pesticide intake by simply becoming vegan. We are faced with choices everyday and do the best we can. Thoughts?
Being a vegan over the holidays is difficult for me. When I’m not faced with office parties and holiday gatherings, I am dealing with family get togethers that often involve eating out in restaurants. What can a vegan order at a barbeque restaurant that isn’t an iceberg lettuce salad?
A couple of tips that I have learned.
1. Pack food with you. Travel with some essentials, so you’ll have something to eat when caught in a bind. I like cans of beans, fresh fruit and vegetables, small containers of soy milk, etc.
2. Check out area restaurants. Find out which restaurants are vegan friendly, or those that have just one vegan option. Especially focus on places you know others in your family will like, but have something a vegan can eat, too. You’ll never talk the whole group into trying the raw vegan restaurant 30 miles away.
3. Research the places you know you’ll be visiting. Even the local steak place may be able to accomodate you if called in advance. Check the restaurant’s website for ideas, too.
4. Treat yourself. It’s hard not to feel deprived when everyone around you is splurging on holiday treats. You can bake and bring your own. Or find a local grocery store where you can pick up some goodies that happen to be vegan.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
The last post got me thinking about parchment paper. I use it in my baking, but I don’t really bake that often. It is a great way to reduce the fat content in your baking because you don’t have to grease the pan. You can use it to line cookie sheets when baking cookies. I also use it on the bottom of pans, like purex glass ones or metal baking pans when cooking cakes. Give it a try!
The paper I use is called If You Care brand and here’s the product description:
When using IF YOU CARE® Parchment Paper and Baking Paper no greasing is necessary. The paper has been coated with silicone, a non-organic natural product, on both sides. Many parchment papers are coated with quilon. Quilon is a chemical containing chrome, a heavy metal, which when incinerated becomes toxic and leaves trace elements. The reason for the majority of parchment paper to be quilon-coated is the cost, which is substantially lower than silicone. So, in order to be environmentally friendly, the paper should be silicone-coated. A silicone-coated paper is also the choice of professionals as it can be reused several times.
There are lots of recipes on Vegan Digest for vegan cakes from scratch, but sometimes a mix is just what you need. I found this mix at my local Jewel here in Chicagoland and thought I would give it a try. It’s so simple to make. The box calls for combining the mix with a 1/2 cup of oil and 1 cup of cold water. I used 1/2 cup of unsweetened organic applesauce instead of the oil. And 1 cup of cold club soda (sodium free) instead of the water. I baked the cake in a 8″ X 8″ glass pyrex dish, with parchment paper on the bottom so I wouldn’t have to grease the pan. (No added fat) What came out of the oven was a delicious, brownie like chocolate cake with rich chocolate chips. The flavor is really intense chocolate and quite delicious. I didn’t even use icing, the cake was perfect as is with a cold glass of soy milk.
Here are the details from the box:
Safety Information
Contains wheat and soy ingredients.
Ingredients
Unbleached Flour [Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Evaporated Cane Juice, Non-dairy Chocolate Chips [Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Dextrose, Cocoa Butter (No Dairy Derivatives), Soya Lecithin, Pure Vanilla Extract], Natural Cocoa Powder, All Natural Vanilla Flavor, Baking Soda. Sea Salt.
Directions
This box makes one 9 inch single-layer cake or 12 cupcakes. All You Need is: 1/2 cup vegetable oil; 1 cup cold water; chocolate cake mix. 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 inch round cake pan. For cupcakes use baking cups. 2. Combine oil, cold water, gluten free vanilla and cake mix in a bowl, scraping occasionally until well blended. pour into pan. 3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes; reduce baking time to 22 minutes for dark pans. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Cupcake baking time is 15 - 18 minutes). Cool 10 minutes before removing from your pan. Cool completely before frosting. 4. Enjoy!
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