Recipe: Ridiculously Decadent Vegan French Toast Casserole

This dish is great for entertaining guests and is infinitely versatile. Also, because you prepare all the ingredients the night before it makes breakfast an almost no-brainer.

Full recipe follows.

Recipe: Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes

When Rick and I started dating I was surprised to discover that what I called a pancake and what he called a pancake were in fact two very different creatures. The fluffy, flap-jack style cakes I grew up eating are a rarity at the local brunch places and in fact, Rick had never eaten an “Anglo style” pancake until I made one for him. He’d grown up eating thin, egg-y crepes, as I suspect many Quebecois do. But luckily, he loved them, being somewhat better at absorbing maple syrup than a French crêpe; and I can usually count on a promise of pancakes to lure a reluctant Rick out of hibernation on the weekend.

I had made a bunch of carrot cake cupcakes for a wedding consultation this weekend and had some shredded carrot left over, so on Sunday I decided to whip up some carrot cake pancakes for brunch. I used whole wheat pastry flour to make them a little more hearty and added some vegan cream cheese for added richness. The results were unbelievably moist and flavourful! I recommend eating them with lots of pure maple syrup, or even a pat of vegan cream cheese.

Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes (Adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan with a Vengeance)
1 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour (or just use more whole wheat flour, it’s up to you)
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg (I grate mine fresh in, so much yummier!)
2 Tbs Canola Oil
2 Tbs Pure Maple Syrup
1 Cup Soy Milk (I used Vanilla, but you could use plain and just add a little vanilla extract)
1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Vegan Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Shredded Carrot

In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, the baking powder, spices and the salt. In another bowl (I use a glass measuring cup) mix together the oil, syrup, soy milk, water and cream cheese. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a whisk until everything is just moistened. Do not over-mix as this could make your pancakes rubbery. Fold in the shredded carrot and let the mix sit for a few minutes.

Preheat your oven to 200F and melt a small pat of Earth Balance margarine in a non-stick pan. When the margarine just starts to bubble, ladle in some pancake batter (1/3 cup for medium pancakes, 1/2 cup for large ones). Cook for a couple of minutes, until the edges start to lift and bubbles in the middle no longer close. Turn and cook for another minute or two, then transfer to the oven to keep warm. Continue cooking until all the pancake batter has been used.

Top with maple syrup and enjoy!

Recipes: Vegan French Toast with Sticky Banana Topping

French Toast has got to be one of my favourite ways of using up leftover bread and I’ve been struggling for years to come up with a recipe that doesn’t include 8 billion eggs and a bunch of cream. I’ve tried using mashed banana, straight soy milk and tofu based batters, but none of them yielded the crunchy crust/custard-y center I’ve been striving for. Until now.

I originally put this one together for my father since he has recently developed an interest in vegan cooking due to a sudden intolerance to eggs and dairy. Since it was the holidays at the time I actually used a mix of Soy Nog and Silk creamer, but I’ve also made it with regular soy milk and it’s turned out just fine.

Vegan French Toast

1 Cup Soy Milk (you can also substitute soy creamer like Silk)
2/3 Cup Chickpea Flour
2 Tbs Maple Syrup
1/2 tsp Cardamon or Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla
Half a loaf of French bread
Earth Balance Margarine

Whisk together the first five ingredients and allow to sit for a couple of minutes while you prep the bread. Slice the bread about an inch thick if it is not already sliced and take off the crusts if you like (I usually don’t bother, but I guess it depends on your bread and your personal preference). Soak the bread slices in the batter while you heat up a non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Melt a little Earth balance in the skillet and then begin adding the batter covered slices. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes until a golden crust starts to form, then flip and cook for another 2 – 3 minutes. Enjoy immediately with maple syrup or my Sticky Banana Topping, which is a great way to use up overripe bananas.

Sticky Banana Topping (adapted from Healthy Happy Life)
2 Very Ripe Bananas
2 Tbs Maple Syrup
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Vanilla

Slice the bananas into thick chunks and toss with the syrup, cinnamon and vanilla. Melt 1 tsp of Earth Balance in a small saucepan over medium heat, then add banana mixture and cook for 5 minutes or until bananas are caramelized and everything is sticky and gooey. Serve over French toast, pancakes, oatmeal or anything you like.

Recipe: Nut-free Vegan Spinach Pesto

Came up with this one on the fly the other night when I could only find one measly, tiny pack of basil at the grocery store. Obviously if I’d had time to go to the marché I would have had more basil than I knew what to do with, but time was tight and I was in a pinch so I opted to improvise. How was I to know that the results would be SOOO delicious? It’s great with pasta, or mixed with almost anything that needs a boost of flavour. And the spinach and pepitas mean that it is high in Iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, as well as being a good source of fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Calcium and Copper.

Nut-Free Vegan Spinach Pesto

1/2 Cup Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
4 – 5 Cloves Garlic, chopped roughly
2 Tbs Fresh Basil Leaves
1 Cup Fresh Spinach Leaves
1/4 – 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbs Ground Flax Seed
1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
Salt & Pepper to taste

Using a food processor or a blender, grind up the pepitas until they look like chunky sand. Add the garlic and pulse for a few seconds. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the olive oil and pulse to combine, then slowly start drizzling in the olive oil until the desired consistency is reached. Enjoy immediately over pasta, as a base for pizza or a flavour booster in your favourite dip or spread.

It’s so delicious in fact that I even added some to my avocado spread:

Vegan Spinach Pesto Avocado Spread

1 Tbs Nut-free Vegan Spinach Pesto (recipe above)
1 Ripe Avocado, mashed
1 tps Nutritional Yeast
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix everything well and then spread on your toast in the morning. Would also make an insanely delicious mayonnaise substitute.

The GamerWife Guide to Pinching Pennies: Taking Stock of Making Stock

This is another one of those frugal living tips that also happens to be much friendly for the environment. See, I’d been trying to convince Rick that we should be composting in our appartment, but the truth is the idea even skeeved me out a little bit so I wasn’t really pushing that hard. That’s when I saw a post, probably on TheKitchn although it was so long ago I couldn’t tell you for sure, about saving your vegetable scraps for making stock. And since soup season is well upon us I figured I’d share some of my thoughts on how to get the most out of your stock making experience.

To start, get yourself one of those big Ziplock containers and designate it as your “scrap bin”. Keep it in the freezer and just pull it out when trimming/cutting veggies. You can toss virtually anything in there: carrot tops & ends, chard stocks, mushroom stems, onion roots, etc. As long as it’s not rotten, chop it into 1 – 2 inch segments and put it in your bin. The only things you might want to avoid are cruciferous stocks (broccoli & cauliflower) & asparagus as they can make your stock taste a bit “funky” but that’s as much personal taste as anything else.

When your bin is full, pull it out, do a quick inventory of your fridge to see if anything in the crisper is on it’s last legs and turn everything out onto a cookie sheet. Spray with a bit of olive oil and roast at 400F for 30 – 50 mins, making sure not to let everything burn to a crisp. When your veggies look nice and roasty, dump them into your stock pot and cover with water. If you’ve got fresh herbs lying around toss a few handfuls of those in too. I also like to add a tablespoon of miso to increase the flavour depth, but it does tend to darken the stock so use your own judgement. Cover everything with water, add some salt and pepper and heat until boiling. Once it’s all at a roaring boil, turn the heat down to low and simmer for an hour or two. Or if you’re me, all day.

Allow your stock to cool and then drain out the veggie bits. I like to use 1 Cup containers to store my stock because it makes it very easy to grab the right amount for a recipe. Some folks advocate using muffin tins or ice cube trays to freeze your stock, which is cool because it means that once frozen you can transfer the cubes to a big freezer bag for storage, but I usually only use liquid stock in big recipes so this seems a little fussy to me. Keep in the freezer until needed.

*Note: The roasting step isn’t necessary, but it does add wonderful depth of flavour that boiling alone just can’t match.

Recipe: Vegan Ma Po Tofu

As promised, here’s the recipe for the Ma Po Tofu that turned Rick around on my vegan “mush in a bowl”. While the name basically translates as “pockmarked woman”, I still love the heck outta this dish. It’s comforting, a little spicy and very hearty. Perfect for a rainy fall evening.

Vegan Ma Po Tofu
Serves 4

1 Package Yves Ground Round
1 Large package of soft tofu (not silken)
2 Cloves garlic minced
1 tsp Minced ginger
1 Tbsp Black bean and garlic sauce
1/4 Red pepper flakes
2 Carrots, diced
1/2 cup Frozen peas
1 Cup Vegetable broth
2 Tbsp Dark soy sauce (use Chinese soy sauce, not Tamari)
1 Tbsp Corn starch mixed with 1 Tbsp Water

Chopped scallion
Sesame oil

Put a small pot of water on to boil and salt liberally. Very liberally. Like ocean liberally. Carefully cut up the tofu into 1 inch cubes and add to the boiling water. Let that boil for 2 – 5 minutes, then add the carrots and boil for another 2 minutes. Drain the tofu and the carrots and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a wok and add the Ground Round. Stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic, ginger, black bean sauce, soy sauce and red pepper flakes. Cook for a couple more minutes until everything is nice and fragrant, then add the vegetable broth, peas, tofu and carrots. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and add the cornstarch mixture. Continue cooking until everything is nice and thick. Serve over rice and top with sliced scallions and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Recipe: Rick’s Favourite Hummus (Vegan)

Continuing our efforts to makeover Rick’s diet, I’ve started making hummus with lemon juice just for Rick to take to work. Hummus is a great afternoon snack because it’s packed with protein, which means it’ll stick to your ribs, but it’s relatively low in fat. I like to make my own because it takes about 5 mins and I know exactly what’s in it. Here’s my basic recipe:

Rick’s Favourite Hummus

1 Can Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)
2 – 4 Cloves Garlic, depending on how garlicky you like it
2 Tbs Tahini
1 Tbs Olive Oil
Juice of 1 Lemon
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Paprika
Salt & Pepper to taste

Drain the chickpeas, reserving the liquid, then add to a food processor. Roughly chop the garlic and toss in with the chickpeas. Pulse lightly to break up the chickpeas, adding a little of the chickpea liquid to keep it from gumming up the food processor. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth, adding chickpea liquid whenever it’s looking too thick. Serve with crunchy vegetables like carrots or cauliflower.

The best thing about hummus is how darned versatile it is. Almost anything you add to it just makes it that much better. Here’s some of my favourite add-ins:

Sundried Tomatoes
Roasted Red Peppers
Roasted Garlic
Fresh Herbs (Thyme is particularly nice)

You can also replace some of the chickpeas with another legume like red lentils or white beans, or add in a roasted starchy vegetable like sweet potatoes or butternut squash. The possibilities are endless!

Recipe: Vegan Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage “Butter” Sauce

As I have hinted at elsewhere, I am allergic to damn near everything. Dairy products, eggs, citrus fruit, nuts, chocolate, oats, rye, barley, quinoa… which makes eating pre-packaged foods unenviably difficult. This isn’t such a bad thing in most cases as we all know that food preservatives and sulfates are the devil, but it does mean that I’m more likely to try making something from scratch that most people would assume is way too much trouble.

However, when I finally got around to attempting homemade pasta, I was shocked at how darned easy it actually was. Mix, roll, cut, boil. That’s it. So of course I had to go the extra mile and try to stuff that pasta with something, but for a cheap and impressive meal for guests, this totally hits the spot. And it’s great for me because I get to avoid everything ravioli usually involves: eggs, cheese, sometimes meat and sometimes nuts. Also, did I mention it’s delicious?

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage “Butter” Sauce

Ravioli
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Durum Semolina
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2/3 Cup Water

Filling
1 1/2 Cups Roasted Butternut Squash (Slice squash in half, remove seeds and roast on a baking sheet for 50 mins at 350F)
1 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1/2 tsp Ground Sage
1/4 Nutmeg
Salt & Pepper to Taste

Begin by preparing the pasta dough. In a medium bowl, combine the ingredients using a fork until they start to come together. Using your hands, knead the dough lightly in the bowl until it is smooth and uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside. In a food processor, puree the squash, then add the remaining ingredients. When everything is combined, set aside the filling and put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Now back to the dough. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into two parts, covering one with a damp tea towel. Using a rolling pin, roll out the remaining dough as thin as possible. You don’t want to be able to see through it, but it should be quite thin. If you are fancy and have a pasta maker you can use that and save yourself some grief. Using a cookie cutter or a clean drinking glass, cut out rounds approximately 2 inches in diameter. On half the rounds, place one teaspoon of the filling directly in the middle, then wet your finger with warm water and trace around the filling. Top with an empty dough round and press to seal. Use a fork to firmly seal up the raviolis. Once the first batch of raviolis is done, toss them into the boiling water and cook until they float to the top, around 3 – 5 mins tops, then drain. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

Sage “Butter” Sauce
4 Tbsp Earth Balance Margarine
1 Tsp Dried Ground Sage (obviously if you have access to fresh Sage, use that, but if not the ground stuff is fine for this recipe)

In a large skillet, mealt the margarine over medium high heat. When it starts to bubble, add the sage and stir. Toss in the cooked ravioli and stir to coat. Serve immediately.

The GamerWife Guide to Pinching Pennies: Bread

Bread bag by Wonder Thunder (actually a vegetable bag)

As I had eluded to in my previous musings on housewifery, I tend to believe that certain skills, often grouped under the umbrella of home economics, have been lost to our more consumer based society. And the lack of these skills and knowledge mean that we need to spend more money to get other people to do them for us. Some would argue that time is the true limiting factor, but with proper organization, seemingly time consuming activities can be completed in minutes, making the costs savings that much more remarkable.

One such “revolutionary” practice I have adopted lately is to make our own bread. I use the “no-knead” method, which means I mix the dough together as soon as I get up in the morning and then leave it for the rest of the day to rise. Then, after dinner I just dump the dough into a loaf pan, let it proof about an hour, then bake. Voila, bread.

After the jump is the recipe and process I use, adapted from The Kitchn.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Vegan Pakoras

One of the other unintended consequences of not having a day job is being able to cook fresh lunches for the hubby and I every day. While usually these lunches still amount to the usual “stuff something between two slices of bread” that our work-a-week selves enjoyed, I decided to splash out yesterday and try something a little different. The results are surprisingly light (though not at all healthy) and wholly satisfying. Keep reading for the full recipe.