hot for food

I bet you had NO idea you could make a vegan quiche. It’s not just my imagination. I know, I know, a quiche is a savory baked egg tart. BUT I figured out a way to mimic the taste and texture without the use of dairy or eggs! I sort of remixed a couple of recipes I’ve seen, and improv’d a little. So as per usual I didn’t follow a recipe and what I’ve listed below might not be EXACT, but its all about mixing and then tasting. Maybe you want it tangier, saltier, spicier etc. So PLEASE do with this what you want and create your own personal vegan quiche!

Vegan Mushroom Leek Quiche

Dough:
1 cup pastry flour OR all-purpose flour
3-4 tbsp Earth Balance
2-3 tbsp cold water
pinch of sea salt

This is a very simple tart/pie crust. I eyeballed the whole thing and only had 1 cup of flour in my cupboard. This made 5 tarts in a muffin pan. So if you’re making a dozen you should double this recipe. Using a pastry blender or your fingers cut the cold Earth Balance into the flour so it becomes crumbly but don’t over mixed. Then add the water a bit a time and mix with your hands or the pastry blender until you’ve got a ball of dough. The texture is pliable but not really wet or dry. Roll out on a floured surface and cut rough circles out approx. 3-4 inches wide. Just using your hands form and press the round of dough into lightly oiled muffin pan cups. Make a couple of stabs with a fork into the bottom of the crusts. I DIDN’T bake my crust in advance, but I should have. Bake these at 350 F for approx. 10-15 minutes until they are very lightly browned. Allow to cool before pouring in the filling.

Filling:
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 leek
1 cup mushrooms
8 oz silken tofu
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbsp tamari or shoyu
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp tumeric
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
fresh ground pepper

Put all the ingredients, except the leek, mushroom, and onion in a blender or food processor and mix until well blended. Again some of these ingredients can be eliminated or replaced with other herbs and spices depending on your tastes. I made this all by eye balling and tasting as I went along until I got the right taste I wanted. However, the cornstarch should not be altered, only increased if you make more of this recipe.

Chop the onion, mushroom and leek into fairly small pieces. Saute everything until cooked through. Add the vegetables to the quiche mixture and fill each tart crust just before the top edge. Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes or until the filling is browned on top and bubbling.

I am still in awe of the versatility that tofu has. I encourage you not to shy away from incorporating it into your diet even if you’re not vegan or vegetarian. Yes, some people are allergic to soy. But the reason that happens is because people are eating a lot of packaged food and therefore eating a lot of processed genetically modified soy. You had no idea did you! Whole organic soy (Wildwood is a great brand) is good for you and the possibilities and uses for it are limitless.

I swear, I could eat sweet potato and avocado exclusively, for the rest of my life! Well, perhaps that’s a stretch. But I have been eating this winning combo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the past few weeks. I thought I would show off the photos from my last few dates with these amazing ingredients. In most cases, the sweet potatoes have been microwaved until almost cooked through, then chopped and pan fried in a drizzle of olive oil, S&P, cayenne, paprika, cumin, and nutmeg. The possibilities for tasty additions is endless!

Here’s a simple side of potatoes for breakfast – pan fried sweet potato with onions, fresh avocado, salsa, and cilantro

This was a yummy warm lunch salad – pan fried sweet potato, with fresh avocado, green onion, red pepper, and sweet raisins all tossed in a good dose of lime juice. Next time I would add sliced or chopped almonds too!

This is a quick dinner staple. And if you want to be real quick, microwave your sweet potato or yam. Baking just takes SO long! Then slice it open and mash the insides, then top with freshly made guacamole. I always carrot ribbons for extra crunch!

Crispy sweet potato fries make a great dinner starter or mid-day snack. But instead of dipping them in a vegan spicy mayo, I’ve now resorted to my guacamole salsa for dipping.

If you have not incorporated these two ingredients, sweet potatoes and avocado, into your life yet you are truly missing out! Hopefully this gives you some ideas to start eating these vegetables together. If you have your own ideas and recipes for the marriage of sweet potato and avocado, let me know! Oh, and if anyone knows the difference between and sweet potato and a yam, please inform me?!

I attempted to make crepes for the first time in my life. What a crappy experience. Well crappy is a little harsh, but I definitely don’t have a natural talent for making crepes. I actually made 2 whole crepes out of an attempt at probably close to 15 or 16 times. These are the only 2, yet beautiful and tasty results.

Vegan Asparagus Mushroom Brown Rice Crepe with Hollandaise

Vegan PB & Apple Cinnamon Buckwheat Crepe with Maple Syrup

The recipes for the crepe batter, asparagus, and vegan hollandaise sauce are from VeganYumYum. I made some modifications, trying brown rice flour and buckwheat flour for the crepe batter. Which also make these g-free as well as vegan! These 2 lonely crepes worked out perfectly and tasted amazing. You can’t even imagine how incredibly close the vegan hollandaise sauce is to the real thing; at least from what I can remember of eating eggs benedict! The buckwheat flour crepe is quite a full bodied flavor – perhaps too nutty for some. You could use only half buckwheat flour with another type. But I thought the flavor of buckwheat was great, especially paired with peanut butter, apples, cinnamon and maple syrup.

The whole crepe creation problem is a combo of having an old non-stick pan, burners that are very sensitive and difficult to regulate temperature on, and the fact that I’ve never done it before. While I even followed the very helpful video tutorial Lolo posted, I think that I kept fiddling with the pan temperature too much. Ultimately, this recipe requires patience… hmph. I’m just glad I didn’t attempt it with a room full of starving brunchers!

Over a month ago I blogged about my obsession with muffin tops and made scrumptious blackberry cobbler muffins… or should I say, muffin. Because to get that awesome top requires a lot of batter! I finally made a full dozen and figured out the recipe, although I didn’t make ridiculous muffin tops. But you could make 6 ridiculous muffins or 12 nicely plumped ones. These are SOOOO good. I had to freeze them to prevent myself from eating them all.

Blackberry Cobbler Muffins

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat)
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 tbsp ground flax seed
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 cup almond milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blackberries

Topping:
2 1/2 tbsp Earth Balance (Cold)
1/3 cup large oats
2 tbsp brown sugar

Combine the first 8 ingredients (dry) together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine the agave, almond milk, and vanilla extract. Add wet ingredients to the dry and combine until just mixed. You can fold in blackberries. But my secret is placing blackberries strategically within the muffin batter as I spoon smaller amounts of it into the muffin pan. Then you don’t risk smashing the blackberries with a spoon or something while you mix them into the batter. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray or use liners, and spoon batter into the cups. Make the topping by crumbling the cold Earth Balance, oats and brown sugar with your hands and sprinkling on top of each muffin. Bake for approx. 30 min at 400F.

I love everything about these blackberry cobbler muffins… taste, smell, texture, color. Just check out the bursting insides. Oh man! I have no control, I have to eat one right now.

My recent post on Brekkie mentioned a first trial run at making vegan french toast. Some would think it’s an impossible feat, but it’s not! I figured out the tricks this time. I tried a different recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, just for curiosity sake. But this time  around I used denser bread and toasted it in the toaster slightly, before dipping it in the mixture, then pan frying it. I don’t really like soft french toast. It is called TOAST isn’t it?! I also made sure to use a non-stick pan. I guess without the use of eggs you don’t get quite the same crispy outside as what you might be used to, but the FatFree Vegan recipe adds a nice touch with the nutritional yeast,  and you could still combine this recipe with the one I tried in Brekkie using mashed banana for extra flavor.

And how much do you luuuuvvvv Maple Syrup! I wish I could drink it.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I LOVE breakfast! And it hasn’t been so hard to eat a fulfilling vegan breakfast. The more I have avoided eggs, the easier it gets to not want to eat them. Except, I have to make my vegan breakfast and my boyfriend’s non-vegan breakfast. ugh. I mean I love doing it, but it makes me go crazy in my head…. “don’t taste the egg… don’t do it Lauren!” dammit. Well I didn’t this morning. Like I said, the temptation is becoming less and less. Plus, I’m pretty sure my tofu scramble tasted way better! It was made with the left over spicy peanut tofu, and I just added nutritional yeast, paprika, cumin, salt & pepper, chopped shallots and spinach. Nonetheless, I can still make a mean scrambled egg!

Let’s take a closer look at this fruit salad shall we… I think I’ll call it Berry Red Fruit Salad.

I’m a big believer in frozen fruit. It’s good because I make lots of smoothies, but it’s totally easy, less expensive when berries are not in season, and they keep well and still have nutrition. I didn’t intend it, but I love how the thawed raspberries and blueberries drenched the whole fruit salad in bloody red juice!

Another discovery, and continuing experiment, is vegan french toast! I know, right… you can make vegan french toast!? Well here it is my starvin’ Marvin’s…

Minor problem, I didn’t use a non-stick pan, which I think is an absolute necessity (as much as I don’t like it). It’s delicious! But since my batter stuck to the pan, it didn’t crust up and caramelize the way it should on the surface of the bread. So it was still a bit sogs. But I do think the picture still shows how appetizing it is. While I am going to work on this recipe – and post those updates – this is a mixture of mashed up 1-2 ripe bananas, mixed with 1/2 cup  soy milk, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla, and a drizzle of maple syrup. I used a semolina raisin bread, but you can do as you like. Coated the bread in the mixture and fried it in the pan on low-medium heat. Again, make sure to use a non-stick skillet and you can dollop some Earth Balance in the pan first too for extra flavor.

Those are just a couple breakfast ideas. My next breakfast challenge, will be trying to make a vegan omelette for the first time!

Muffin tops are amazing! Don’t we all want them… not the kind above our tight jeans… but the crunchy, moist, crumbly top of a fresh baked muffin! I thought it would be hard to duplicate a bakery muffin at home. But it was not! I figured I would just over-stuff the muffin tin, and have the top of it sit and bake right around the edges. Well, it worked!

These are scrumptious and healthy (but watch out, there’s extra calories with that huge top!) Vegan Blackberry Cobbler Muffins. But this was like a “test kitchen” recipe because it only made 3 large muffins when I followed the same recipe from my carrot spice muffin post. I will work out a proper dozen recipe and let you know what it is. In the meantime, just drool at the photo.

Scones are scrumptious! But usually I stay away since they’re typically fat-filled with butter. A certain POPULAR coffee shop makes delectable pumpkin scones that are my downfall. But now I’ve made my own, even better, version! I found it posted on a veggie message board, with no original link, so I don’t think I need to credit the author. I added the maple glaze though to make them more reminiscent of that certain POPULAR coffee shop’s version.

Maple Glazed Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all-spice
1/4 cup earth balance
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 cups pumpkin puree

In a large mixing bowl combine flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Cut in earth balance and coconut oil with a pastry blender or your hands. Then add in pumpkin puree and fresh ginger and combine well. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a bit forming a large circle about 1 – 2 inches thick. Cut into 12 triangles, like cutting a pizza and put onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 425 F for 13-14 minutes.

Once the scones are cooled off you can make the maple glaze by whisking 1 cup of icing sugar with maple extract, to your taste, and add in cold water a bit at a time until you get a glaze that is stiff but will run in a stream from the end of your whisk. Drizzle over scones.

Today’s V-Day Breakfast Menu was Green Frittata and Carrot Spice Muffins. I also had a coffee, which I’ve started to add cinnamon into everyday. I heard somewhere there are lots of good benefits to having a tbsp of cinnamon a day. It’s incredible in coffee so it’s now my new thing. I failed at sticking to vegan. The muffins are and obvi the frittata is not. But it was delicious, and I don’t care!

I discovered an unbelievably healthy carrot muffin recipe on Fat Free Vegan. Susan V’s recipes are amazing, mostly all fat-free, using whole, natural, unrefined ingredients, and the photos are to die for! I will add this site to my blog roll to share it with you. hot for food can only dream of being this good! Hey… I’m trying! Her recipe for the muffins is here, but I did a few things differently.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 shredded apple
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Combine the first 9 ingredients (dry) together in a large bowl. Combine the second group of 6 wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add wet to the dry and combine until just mixed. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray or use liners, and spoon batter into the cups just to the top. Bake for 15 min at 400F. Makes 12 muffins.

This is the first time I’ve made a frittata. I didn’t really know what made it different from an omlette, but turns out it’s an Italian omlette! You could do this with any ingredients obviously, but this is a good for you, green version!

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup chopped asparagus
1 cup baby spinach
1/2 avocado, chopped
2 chopped green onions
fresh basil & thyme
S&P
1 tbsp olive oil
shredded cheddar or feta cheese

Pre-heat oven to broil. I blanched the asparagus in advance, so I ended up combining all the above into a bowl and then putting it into a hot iron skillet coated with olive oil. But you could cook the asparagus with the other veggies, onion, and herbs in the pan, then whisk eggs with milk, adding salt and pepper, then pouring that into the pan with the lightly cooked veggies. Once everything is in the skillet, sprinkle the top with cheese and just leave it to cook for 6-7 minutes, without touching it. Then transfer the skillet to the oven and broil it for 1-2 minutes. You’ll be able to see when it’s done.

Yet another recipe recreation from Fresh, or just a vegan staple, the tofu scramble… or if you must eggless scrambled eggs. No… I don’t like that name. Anyway, I have to admit I am starting to get a distaste for eggs. I mentioned before that baking without them has resulted in me having an acute sense for them, so much so I am finding I gag at the smell or sight. This is a good thing, by the way. I don’t want to eat them. It’s just when you’re so used to something you don’t know what it’s really like until you eliminate it. Surprisingly it hasn’t taken that long for me to get to the revolted stage!

So these past few weekends I’ve started making tofu scramble instead of scrambled eggs. It’s just as easy and more flavorful. Really the recipe is easy. Add whatever you want to your crumbled extra firm tofu. Some essentials though, would be cumin, chopped onion, salt & pepper, and tabasco. Then chop up veggies you have in the fridge like, tomato, spinach, red peppers, mushrooms and saute it up in a pan with a bit of olive oil. Really anything goes. Whatever you would normally want in an omlette is allowed to this scramble… give it a try!

Btw, that’s Vegan Gourmet cheddar shredded on top. It’s an unnecessary ingredient to this dish because it tastes nothing like cheese, and it just makes me want real cheese even more!