hot for food

I haven’t been posting much because I have a full time job as a TV Host at MuchMusic, and when I was cooking and posting on my blog a lot I happened to be unemployed. But change is good and I am SO happy to be working on TV again. It allows me to go to fun places like Los Angeles! I have never been before and while it was a short work trip, there was one place I had to go.

Kind Kreme is a gourmet, raw, vegan and organic ice cream shop. I thought this was just something I dreamed about on a weekly basis, but as it turns out this dessert haven actually exists. And I just happened to be staying at a hotel right beside it!

This place is no joke. They have well over 30 flavors and a deliciously velvety salted caramel sauce as a topping. There’s also other menu items like shakes, smoothies, and lunch fare. I am in love and I NEED to bring this place to Canada. Its not fair! I swear to the earth that if you weren’t told that this was vegan ice cream you would never able to tell the difference. It’s rich, creamy, smooth, sweet, and even better than the real creamery ice cream I remember eating as a kid. But I don’t have any of the pain and guilt afterward, like I did when i was a kid!

This is me mowing down on the Superfood flavor which is a raw cacao base with chia seeds, goji berries, cacao nibs, and pieces of some other crunchy things I can’t remember. You could eat this shizz for breakfast it’s that good for you! So if you go to L.A. you have to make sure you drop into Kind Kreme a couple of times. You will love yourself for it!

There are so many vegan and vegetarian friendly restaurants opening up all the time, and I’ve noticed more options being added to menus at restaurants that still serve your typical fare. Which is huge. But finally Veggielicious is here! This is the first community restaurant event of its kind and it’s hitting Toronto from April 9 – 24. The cities best vegan/vegetarian restaurants will be offering special deals on meals to encourage people to get out and try eating great food that is free of animal products, heart healthy, compassionate, and eco-friendly.

So if you think you could never eat vegetarian or vegan food – even for just one week – now’s your time to challenge yourself. Trust me, rather than go out and spend lots of money on groceries you might not be familiar with or start experimenting with cooking vegetarian/vegan, just get outside and try one of the Veggielicious restaurant offers and see just how delicious and satisfying this way of eating can be.

If you enjoy the menu items at places like Rawlicious, Live Organic Food Bar, and Vegetarian Haven maybe that will make a change in your mind and jumpstart some motivation to experiment with plant based meals at home. I’ve linked the restaurants listed above to my Yelp reviews for you to check out. While I eat at some of these places regularly, I’m so excited to venture outside my neighborhood and try some new places. Veggielicious is great excuse to do so! Most of the participating restaurants are in Toronto but I love the inclusion of Kind Food in Burlington and Brooklyn’s Restaurant in Thorold. I’ve heard amazing things about both and I plan on making a trip out there during this event.

If you go out to a yummy resto during Veggielicious please share your reviews with me or post to yelp.ca so we can spread the word and change the world, one eater at a time! For a full listing of participating restaurants and other info check out Veggielicious.ca

Tonight was one of the best! I went to the soft opening of Hot Beans in Kensington (160 Baldwin St.). It’s a new vegan takeout restaurant specializing in latin-inspired fare and it is SCRUMPTIOUS! It’s owned by long time friends and foodies Scott McCannell, Ross Corder, and Madeleine Foote. A special shout out to Ross (veganeastblog.com) for inviting the boy and I because I’ve been anticipating this food for over a month ever since I heard it was happening.

First of all, there is NO place like this in the city, and its about freakin time! The menu is the perfect size and not overwhelming, the location is hot, and the food is fresh and all handmade (including the seitan).

I want to try everything – and I will – but tonight I tried the TVP “Beef” Burrito as well as a Yuba “Chicken” Taco and Jackfruit “Pulled Pork” Taco with the most delicious homemade coleslaw I’ve ever had on the side. This was all shared, BTW. I had been dreaming of cashew sour cream for days leading up to this too, because I knew it would be like the one they serve at Live (where the chef’s worked prior), and my dreams were fulfilled tonight! Excellent.

The strips of bean curd used in the “chicken” taco and the jackfruit “pulled pork” tasted amazing and both something I’ve never seen done before. The “Beef” Burrito was the best vegan “beef” I’ve ever had and I’m not the biggest fan of “mock meat” or TVP (textured vegetable protein) for that matter. But Hot Beans preps and cooks it right. The burrito is massive, stuffed with garlic-annatto rice, refried black beans, pico de gallo, cashew sour cream, and a fresh cilantro-jalapeno salsa. YUMMO!

If you can believe I had more room, I also had a chocolate cinnamon donut. I know… vegan donuts!! YES. The selection may vary from day to day, but also look for a cafe con leche and coconut-lime variety. You will die! Hmm the only thing I didn’t eat and should’ve were the hot beans! Next time.

It was great to see so many friends out to support Hot Beans and I can tell it’s going to be a huge hit. But you need to go and see for yourself! The official opening is Friday Feb 25, 2011. They’ll be open at noon that day and until 2 am every Friday and Saturday. I’ll see ya there!

(NOTE: photos of food were provided by Hot Beans, all others were taken by the author)

Who doesn’t like PB Cookies? If you don’t, you’re insane! Or allergic to peanuts, I guess. That would be a shame. Luckily I have not developed a peanut allergy. I LOVE peanut butter. The REAL kind… just peanuts. If you eat that other crap you will probably die.

I was inspired to bake with brown rice flour and very few ingredients after discovering some delicious g-free vegan treats at Hibiscus in Kensington. If you have not been here you MUST go! It’s amazing. They serve homemade salads, soups, crepes, ice cream, baked squares and cookies… and it’s ALL gluten free and vegan. All of it! They don’t have a website, so here’s their yelp page (my review is also posted!).

Anyway, I made my first batch of g-free, vegan PB & Chocolate Chip Cookies with only six ingredients. They are delectable! You saw I used brown rice flour to make crepes recently, and now with these cookies turning out perfectly soft and tasty, brown rice flour is my new best friend.

G-free, Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups natural peanut butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup non-dairy, g-free chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl combine peanut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Add flour and sea salt and mix until combined. Then fold in chocolate chips. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350 F for approx. 11-13 mins depending on cookie size. Makes 1 dozen large cookies or 2 dozen small cookies.

Now, you definitely need a tall glass of “milk” to accompany these babies. I have my favorite soy or almond beverage on hand at all times, but I finally worked up the courage to try rice milk again. I’ve been skeptical of rice milk because the one’s I have tried have all been tasteless, watery, and gross. But YÜ basmati rice beverage is definitely where it’s at.

So if you’re sick of getting bogged down by too much refined flour or wheat, whip up a batch of these cookies next time or go check out the goods at Hibiscus. Your tummy will thank you for it!

Ok, I was a bit premature to dismiss kale the other day. I learned a little bit more about the leafy greens on the internet and I’m loving them. I came across a recipe on Modern Hippie and the secret is sea salt! This Kale Avocado Salad was incredible. Natalia of Glowing Temple who posted the recipe also goes onto say, the more greens she eats the more her body craves them. Well, I’m not there yet, but I will give it a try!

The salad is also good stuffed in a whole wheat pita with other pairings like crispy tofu or homemade falafel (I’ll post that recipe next). Like this, it sort of reminds me of tabouleh. It’s a good way to get more greens, still eat healthy, but not get bored of eating ONLY salad all the time.

I also found a recipe for Kale Soup on The Hot Yam! blog site. Which means I was able to use up all that kale I had in the same cooking session! I was hoping to try Hot Yam for the first time too, but they’ve closed for the semester. This was more like a lentil soup, as the kale wasn’t really the feature ingredient, but it was still tasty and it’s a keeper!

Kale Soup

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
6 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 red potatoes, diced into ½-inch cubes
1 cup green lentils
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried sage
3 cups kale, chopped
salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add carrots and celery, and saute for an additional 10 minutes. Add all ingredients except for kale, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chopped kale, salt, and pepper. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

After my disastrous attempts at trying to find yummy food elsewhere, I knew I had to keep it real and bring it on home. Even though I might momentarily lapse and get lazy, I would rather make my own food, and besides it always turns out better! So while my Moroccan stew at Urban Herbivore was less than appetizing, I was encouraged to do my own version. I know I don’t have a pic of that meal to show you how bland it was, but here’s what I made and it is was insanely more delicious, fresher, and had a hell of a lot more to it.

I didn’t really follow a recipe, I just started cooking! I also paired it with the Orange Scented Couscous a staple I’ve made before, and some lavish. Beats the F out of millet! So here’s the gist of this remixed Moroccan stew.

I half-cooked a sweet potato in the microwave to speed up the process. Meanwhile I sautéed some onion and garlic in olive oil, and added some red chilli flakes. Once the onion was soft, I tossed in chopped carrot, red pepper, canned and rinsed chickpeas, a can of tomato paste, half a can of coconut milk, the sweet potato chopped into smaller pieces, frozen peas, fresh cilantro, cumin, coriander, and salt and pepper. I let it cook down a bit and absorb the flavours, and topped with green onion and cilantro before serving. It was YUM! This is also the type of meal that warrants left overs.

Toronto continues to disappoint me when it comes to dining out. But I was excited to see Now Magazine’s list of Toronto’s best green/veggie resto’s. I still have to experience most of them, but I was really intrigued to try Cruda Cafe – a live, raw, organic cafe located in St. Lawrence Market. Ok, not the most ideal location. You would never come across it if you weren’t looking for it, as it’s tucked away in a far off corner of the lower level of the market. but I trekked there to give it a try. I’m not fully informed about eating raw, but since this vegan transition I’ve been reading more about it, so I get it, and I know what to expect.

At first glance nothing looked appetizing or appealing when I first walked up to this place. It was pretty plain-looking, like someone’s condo kitchen. Raw soup does not sound delicious as it has to be served cold in order to be raw. So I opted for a Rawrap. The “wrap” was made of corn, flax, and herbs, and it was filled with your basic salad bar veggies and a cashew pesto cream. It was tiny and it cost $8.48. While it was good it is not worth the money. The part that made it tasty, really, was the cashew pesto cream, which I now know I can just make at home.

Now this delicious looking raw chocolate raspberry tart was staring at me from the window so I decided to take a piece home. Unfortunately, it was a complete disappointment. The chocolate filling was a combination of raw chocolate and avocado, it had the consistency of pudding, and tasted like nothing. It wasn’t chocolatey or even sweet. The raw crust was soggy and chewy, and I have no idea what it was made out of, but it too, had no taste at all. $5.10 for the tart puts me at almost $14 for the raw meal, if you can call it that. I’m not convinced. Plus if you were a raw foodie, you probably already know how to make these things at home, and I would hope, make them taste better… or taste like something. There was also a couple of vegan cupcakes available, which were the only not raw thing, and I can’t believe how crappy they looked. The ones I made recently are way better!

This disappointing excursion to Cruda is just one of many depressing dining out experiences I have had in the last week or so. I wanted to try the gourmet vegan restaurant Fressen the other night, and while the website said it was open, and so did the hours on the window, it was not. I was totally looking forward to nourishing myself and eating a classy vegan meal and I was so bummed.  I also went to their other, more casual location in Kensington called Urban Herbivore, and had an over priced, small portioned bowl of Moroccan Stew with Millet and Black Beans. Not only was a I treated like an outsider, but what I was served was like a meal from a third world country. And finally after being shut out from eating at Fressen I decided to try the roti at Gandhi Cuisine, which everyone raves about in Toronto, and found myself overwhelmed by too much roti that was so incredibly spicy that I couldn’t eat it, plus it was soggy, and despite the spice would have been very bland… and all that after paying $11.00 for it.

There is nothing worse than paying for horrible food.

Eating at Toronto’s Saving Grace is an inspiration to any foodie. It’s like the restaurant I would want to own, serving up the kind of comforting and tasty food combo’s I wish I thought of!

It was my first time there… and I know I’m a little late discovering the weekend brunch at this west-end, beyond hipster hot spot. But give me a break! I’ve been living in Vancouver for the last 5 years so I’m still getting re-acquainted with Toronto’s food gems. Sitting cozy in Saving Grace’s dining room squished together with 20 others, I contemplated for nearly 20 minutes about what to eat. I mean just check out these specials… what would you have done!?

Well, I opted for the Scrambled Egg feature. Pomegranate Guac is exactly the kind of thing I wish I had done. Of course, now I’m going to make it and claim it as my own…. Shh don’t tell… since it was delicious and refreshing. My mouth was dancing with flavors from the eggs melted with Monterey Jack, the black beans mashed with onion and cilantro, and the lightly herbed and salted potatoes… and all this was only complemented by an incredible Americano.

I wish I could have stuffed the scrumptious muffins in my tummy too. Baked fresh was a lavender pistachio and pear hazelnut variety. Ultimately, I made a wise menu choice, but I can’t get this food out of my head. A menu staple that makes me drool is the old cheddar, avocado sandwich on whole-wheat raisin bread with rosemary mayo. Yum!

While I am going to experiment with creating some of these dishes myself, I’m sure I’ll be lined up at Saving Grace again in no time!

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!

One of my favorite restaurants in Toronto is Fresh. Luckily I live only 4 blocks south of one (147 Spadina Ave)! But unfortunately, I am near income-less so I will not be dining there in the near future. This past weekend I was craving their Banana Nut Pancakes, as I often do, so I thought, what the heck, I can make these things myself! Even better, by adding in banana to a traditional pancake mix recipe I can eliminate the eggs! One more step in the right direction…that is, my slow and steady transition to be vegan.

Don’t they look scrumptious! Now, I am putting in measurements here that’ll make about 4-6 pancakes depending on size. BUT you need to learn how pancake mix should look and feel when you make it from scratch. And that way you can make up a small stack for one or a massive brunch for 10. I don’t care what anyone says, it’s not a science!

Ingredients:

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of Salt
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 mashed ripe (or thawed from frozen) Banana
1/4 Soy Milk
Cold Water
Toasted walnuts and/or pecans.

Mix together the dry ingredients, then add mashed banana, and the liquids. You want a batter that has the consistency of a thick-ish soup. It should be able to pour onto the pan easily. No lumps, so mix well. Sometimes, if I care a lot, I’ll sift the dry ingredients.  I just start adding in soy a bit at a time until it’s almost the right consistency, then a bit of cold water until I feel I have the right mix.

Using more cold water to thin out your batter will make a more dense pancake, and using more soy milk will make it a bit fluffier. Experiment! Make sure your pan is HOT when you start dropping in batter (med-high). And it’s time to flip when the pancake starts to bubble. Now please NEVER drizzle your homemade pancakes with Aunt Jemima…ugh. What a shame that would be. Please go the extra mile and use pure maple syrup… thank you and enjoy!