Day 19 & 20 – Root Vegetable Soup & Tempeh Curry

Root Vegetable Soup (inspired by Cafe Sunflower)

The last 20 days have been a great adventure for me in terms of cooking out of my comfort zone and trying new and different things.  Don’t get me wrong, I like to eat all kinds of foods, but there are certain things I just never have got around to cooking at home.  The CSA sent some root vegetables this week so that prompted me to try something new.  I’m in love with Lin Sun’s Cafe Sunflower cookbook and found a recipe for Root Vegetable Soup there.  I made it for dinner on Monday night with a few variations based on my preferences and things I have in the house.  It was hearty and complex.  I paired it with a salad and a loaf of Crunchy-Munchy Pumpkin, Sunflower and Flax Seed bread (from the book Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett).  A perfect meal for a cold winter night!

The recipe calls for half of the vegetables to be pureed and returned to the pot.  I decided to purée all of them.  I also added some cashew cream to make it even more decadent!  I finished it off with some pepitas and a drizzle of mushroom-infused olive oil.  I’ve got it up on the recipe page if you want to try it yourself.  Like most soups it was even better the next day for lunch.

Heidi Swanson's Tempeh Curry - from 101cookbooks.com

Tonight, I made the most incredible Tempeh Curry – found on 101 Cookbooks.  If you haven’t visited 101 Cookbooks you are in for a treat.  Amazing, healthy recipes, incredible photography, and great writing.  I love Indian food and curry, just have never made it at home, except for bottled curry sauces from Trader Joe’s (I know, not so adventurous).  This recipe is incredibly simple to make and just blew my mind!  Lele hasn’t stopped talking about it.  He’s asked if we can have it one night a week, like our pizza night.  Pretty amazing thing for an Italian to put something in the league with pizza night.  My photo does the dish no justice, if you want to get your mouth-watering, head over to Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks and check out her recipe and her picture.  The only change I made to the recipe is that I substituted Cashew Cream for the cream.

Lastly, I’ve been experimenting with different recipes for homemade power bars.  Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks has a recipe called Big Sur Power Bars which I made this week.  Chunky, crunchy, sticky with a kick of some espresso, they are a great but healthy treat.  I had one with breakfast this morning.  They are also a great, quick snack on the run.  I’m going to play around with this recipe (as Heidi encourages her readers to do) and see what else I can come up with!  I’ll be sure to let you know!

Day 18 – Cafe Sunflower’s Roasted Portobello Mushroom Wellington

Cafe Sunflower's Roasted Portobello Mushroom Wellington

I remember when I was a kid, my older sister Ellen went on the QE2 for a vacation.  She saw many exciting places and I’m sure she came back with lots of stories about what she saw.  I guess I was a foodie even at that young age, because one of the more interesting stories to me, was that she ate Beef Wellington aboard the QE2.  I think her story about Beef Wellington even spawned a family trip to a restaurant so everyone could sample it.  Ellen, you’ll have to fill us in on the details.  Anyway, I’ve had some appetizer versions of Beef Wellington since then, but never really had an opportunity to have the real thing.  When I saw the recipe for Roasted Portobello Mushroom Wellington in Lin Sun’s Cafe Sunflower Cookbook, I just had to try it!

As my luck would have it, today was a busy day.  Lots of grocery shopping to do and I had another project on the docket, building a light box so I can improve some of my photography.  These are my first pictures with the new set-up.  I know I have a long way to go, but I’m amazed at how much better things come out with the right lighting.  Anyway, I spent almost all night building this light-box from a cardboard box, poster board, and fabric.  I felt like I was in grade school again working on a science project.   Lots of fun!  So I didn’t start cooking until close to 8 p.m.  I told Lele that the Wellington is an “all-time favorite” at Cafe Sunflower and according to the cookbook, when it’s on their specials board it sometimes sells out within an hour.  He asked me why it wasn’t on their menu all the time.  Now I know why!   It’s an amazing dish, but a little labor intensive with several different steps.  But, it was well worth the result.

The inside of the puff pastry has a layer of veggie burger, grilled eggplant, roasted portobello, and onions and kale.  There’s some shiitake mushrooms and bread crumbs in with the onions and kale.   It’s served with a pineapple sauce that has a little bit of a kick from Jamaican jerk spices.  Very tasty and very meaty!  I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with the way the puff pastry cooked (you can see it in the picture).  I had a box of whole wheat puff pastries in the freezer.  But, it’s been in there for longer than I want to admit.  I had some doubts.  The recipe calls for the corners to be gathered and twisted tightly, which is what I did.  But it was a little more crispy than I expected (and hoped for).  I think I was hoping for a little more of a doughy texture.  I may have cooked them for too long or perhaps I need to try a different pastry the next time.  Even with this disappointment it was clear to see why this is such a hit at Cafe Sunflower.

Root veggies from the CSA

I sketched out my plans for the week in terms of meals.  Tomorrow night I’m making another dish from Cafe Sunflower, with those root vegetables I got from the CSA.  I’ll make a Root Vegetable Soup, using the homemade stock I made today.  I’m also making a no-knead pumpkin and sunflower seed boule.  A nice, simple meal for winter.   I’ll share the details with you tomorrow night!  And now, since it’s almost 1:00 a.m. I think I better get to bed!

Day 16 & 17 – CSA, Pizza, and Flat Stanley!

Perhaps the biggest news of the last two days is that a visitor arrived in the mail.  Yes, in the mail.  My nephew sent us his friend Flat Stanley who will be staying with us for the next 20 or so days.  A billboard fell on Stanley and he is only 1/2″ thick!  So, Matthew was able to fold him up and put him in an envelope.  He’s going to have quite a vegan adventure in Atlanta!  When I asked Matthew if Flat Stanley had any food allergies he told me that he didn’t like chicken!  Just like Lele.  And lucky for Flat Stanley he won’t be eating any chicken with us!  Anyway, as you can see, I immediately put Stanley to work last night helping me roll out dough for pizza.  He did a great job, getting the pizzas nice and FLAT – badump, bump!

So, we had pizzas last night for dinner as you can see.  I made a conventional pizza for Lele.  For my pizza, I used the Daiya vegan cheese that I tasted at zPizza on Day 8.  (Sorry folks, I couldn’t seem to get a decent picture of this pizza last night.  I still have a long way to go when it comes to my food photography.  Any and all comments are welcome!)  I had some leftover cashew cream in the fridge so I whirred some of that together with fire-roasted tomatoes and some nutritional yeast to make a mock vodka sauce.  After putting that on the pizza I added the Daiya cheese.  My pizza was about 10″ and the Daiya package said the optimal amount for a 10″ pizza was 4 ounces.  It seemed a bit much, so I used a little less than that.  Toppings were oven-roasted shiitake mushrooms and eggplant and a drizzle of mushroom-infused olive oil (which I had leftover after Day 5′s shiitake mushroom and polenta feast night).  The pizza was very tasty.  As I said before, the Daiya has a very nice flavor to it, and it does melt.  But the texture of the melted cheese reminds me of cream cheese vs. a real mozzarella cheese.  It’s a great substitute though and I know I could get used to it over time.  I think the important thing is to be sure to incorporate interesting toppings.  I think the cheese by itself would be a bit bland.     I also plan to try my friend Judith’s pizza.  As I understand it, correct me if I’m wrong Judith, she makes her pizzas with no cheese sometimes.  I like that idea too, letting the vegetables and sauce take center stage.

Speaking of vegetables, I found a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in our area that delivers organic, pesticide-free, and mostly local vegetables and fruits to locations around the community.  We decided to give it a try this week and ordered their large produce bag.  It cost us $40 plus tax for what you see on the right.  A bit pricey, I know, but there’s an obvious premium that goes along with trying to eat organic.  I like the idea of having to decide what I’m going to eat/cook based on what’s available to me.  Obviously, some of what you see here is not local to Georgia at this time of the year.  The squash came from California, the oranges from Florida, the other items were not marked.  Anybody have any experience with this?  My guess is that as the seasons change the bag may be more abundant (and hopefully a lot more local than California).

So my challenge for this weekend is to figure out what to do with the squash and the turnips.  I’ve cooked squash before and I do have some ideas, but not sure what to do with the turnip.  Anybody have an awesome turnip recipe for me?  Thanks to all for reading, will write more later.  Flat Stanley just woke up and I have to feed him breakfast!

Day 14 & 15 – Heidi Swanson’s Otsu!

Heidi Swanson's Otsu

When I first saw Heidi Swanson’s food blog 101 Cookbooks, I was instantly mesmerized by her writing, photos, and her healthy approach to cooking and eating.  She truly sets the bar with her blog.  I recently purchased her book, Super Natural Cooking:  Five Ways to Incorporate Whole & Natural Ingredients Into Your Cooking.  It reads like her blog, chock full of personal anecdotes about what she’s cooking and her wonderful photography.  I highly recommend it!

So far, I’ve made some Do-It-Yourself-Power-Bars from her book.  These are a yummy, chewy, healthful snack made with rolled oats, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, crisped rice cereal, and crystallized ginger.  They were a bit on the sweet side, so I’ll probably tweak the recipe a bit the next time I make it.

Heidi has a list of sources in the back of the book and mentioned the name of a place to buy organic, whole grain soba and udon noodles.  I’ve had a hard time finding them in the stores that are most convenient to me so I ordered about a pallet of them!  I tend to buy much more than I could humanly need of things sometimes.  (You should see my tea cabinet).  My box arrived today, with udon, soba, and lo mein noodles, all whole-grain and organic.  I also ordered some nori for sushi rolls and a tofu maker.  Not sure what possessed me to buy the tofu maker, but I thought it would be fun.  More to come on that later.

Tonight I made Otsu for dinner.  Heidi tells us that the recipe was inspired by one of her favorite dishes at a small restaurant in San Francisco called Pomelo.  It’s very tasty.  I ended up cheating a bit and using baked tofu from Trader Joe’s.  It cooks up quicker and I love the texture of it.  The sauce on the noodles has a little kick from cayenne pepper and ginger but it’s balanced nicely against the cucumbers.  I had a few ideas about variations on this dish, which I plan to try with my pantry full of noodles.  The other nice thing about the recipe is that it was relatively quick to make.   Check out the recipe page for details.

Tomorrow night will end up being a leftover night as I have several things in the fridge from the last couple of dinners.  Friday night I’m going to make pizzas.  I picked up some Daiya vegan cheese and also found a vegan mozzarella.  Can’t wait to try them!  This weekend I’m going to try another recipe from The 30-Minute Vegan.  Stay tuned!

Day 12 & 13 – Steak Night!

Peppercorn-Encrusted Portobello Fillets with Tomato Bèarnaise & Mashed Potatoes

I’ve been cooking like a fiend!  Today is day 13 and tonight was a feast night.  Lele picked a recipe from Tal Ronnen’s book.  I made Peppercorn-Encrusted Portobello Fillets with Tomato Bèarnaise and Mashed Potatoes.  In fairness, the title of the recipe in the book is “with Yellow Tomato Bèarnaise” but yellow tomatoes weren’t to be found so I made it with regular tomatoes.

This multi-step recipe was well-worth the results, flavor and taste.  We all know that the portobello can be a great substitute for a steak and this recipe really brings that idea home in spades!  The mushrooms were marinated for an hour in a white wine marinade and then seared to a charred perfection in a piping hot cast-iron frying pan.  The result is a tangy flavor with a texture that is reminiscent of a tender steak.

The fact that you are eating these babies with a big scoop of  mashed potatoes contributes to the mirage that you are eating a steak.  The mashed potatoes were creamy and buttery thanks to my new best friends, cashew cream and Earth Balance.  The béarnaise sauce goes wonderfully with everything yous see on the plate up there – especially the crisp asparagus.  Ronnen’s recipe calls for seasoning the mushrooms with thyme, crushed peppercorns and salt.  I was worried that the peppercorns would be too much but they were just perfect.  So, once again, Ronnen hits a home run in my eyes.

Tal Ronnen's Cream of Asparagus Soup

Sunday night I also made another recipe from his book.  We had a Cream of Asparagus soup and I made a loaf of fresh bread and some grilled artichokes to go along with it.   I was thinking that this supper would be kind of boring frankly but it was incredible.  Ronnen’s recipe for Cream of Asparagus basically calls for asparagus, celery, stock, onion, cashew cream, and spinach.  The soup was so much more flavorful and exciting than it looks in my picture here.  It had an amazing buttery taste to it, but with no butter (or Earth Balance for that matter).  Amazing meal for a rainy Sunday night.

Last, but finally not least.  Believe it or not, I’ve lost 7 pounds over the course of this adventure!  I feel a heck of a lot healthier too.  These results were with eating what you’ve seen me write about and with moderate (to light) daily exercise.  Amazing to have such results while eating such amazing meals!  More to come later!

Day 11 – Feast night at Cafe Sunflower

Cafe Sunflower's - Recipes You Can Cook at Home

Today ended up being a busier day than I bargained for and after doing all my grocery shopping I realized that I didn’t have it in me to cook even a 30-minute meal.  Thankfully, I live in Atlanta and there is Cafe Sunflower!  I have eaten at Cafe Sunflower once before when vegan friends came to visit from out-of-town.  It was the only vegetarian/vegan restaurant that I could find in the metro area.  We loved the food there, but never went back.  Tonight, it was the perfect choice!

Cafe Sunflower’s menu has both vegetarian and vegan items. There’s a good balance between vegan and vegetarian options.  The restaurant is egg-free and the dishes that are dairy-free and/or wheat-free are clearly marked on the menu.  The atmosphere in the restaurant is cozy and comfy and the service was friendly and attentive.

Lele had a delicious Red Bean soup for an appetizer and I had the Basil Rolls.  The soup was wonderful, with a delicious creamy texture.  The Basil Rolls were to die for!  They were cold rolls with glass noodles, baked tofu, jicama, and carrots.  Each roll had a basil leaf under the rice paper.  The texture of the soft rice paper and crispy veggies was awesome.  The dipping sauce on the side was a ginger sauce with a sweet, slightly spicy tang.  Delicious and so inspiring.  I know I’ve said this before, but I’m someone who used to choose vegetables as an afterthought to a main meat dish.  My experience the last 11 days has opened my eyes to how fulfilling and wonderful a plant-based diet can be!

Our starters were followed by a delicious romaine lettuce and shredded carrot salad with a Soy Sesame dressing.  The salad had a sprinkle of tabouli on the top that gave it a nice chewy and earthy taste.  I will definitely be trying this at home.  It brings a whole other dimension to a salad.

For my main course I had the Moo Shu Vegetables – oh so reminiscent of the Moo Shoo Pork I used to eat.  The vegetables (carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, green onion) were rolled in a flour tortilla and drizzled with Moo Shu Sauce.  Mixed in the tortillas with the veggies was some sliced, baked tofu, a perfect replacement for pork.  Lele had a Tuscan Sandwich which was served on a rosemary focaccia bread with meaty portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, basil and cheese.  His sandwich was served with a side of oven roasted sweet potato fries.

We topped off the meal by splitting a piece of chocolate layer cake that was heaven on a plate.  Yet again, another I can’t believe it’s vegan experience.  All of the desserts offered were dairy-free so vegans rejoice!  I was thrilled to see that Lin Sun, the owner, has released two cookbooks.  I purchased the new one and Lin signed it for me.   She assured me that all the recipes in the cookbook were the exact same recipes they use in the restaurant!  I can’t wait to try them at home.

If you are in the Atlanta area and want to experience some amazing vegetarian cuisine be sure to stop by Cafe Sunflower.  If not, visit their website to buy Lin’s beautiful cookbook.  The photos are breathtaking and her recipes will provide you with some wonderful additions to either a vegan or vegetarian diet.

Day 9 & 10 – Burgers and Chickpeas!

Wildwood Shiitake Burger

OK, it was bound to happen.  That uncontrollable urge for a burger was bound to come knocking at my door sooner or later.  It paid a visit on day 9 of my vegan challenge – right about lunch time.  The rumble in the tummy came and all I could think about was a burger, smothered in mayo and ketchup with pickles and lettuce and tomato.  Thankfully, the vegan goddesses were with me and I had the appropriate ammunition in the refrigerator.

Wildwood makes a veggie burger patty that I buy at Trader Joe’s.  I’ve been doing this for quite some time.  Yes, even in my carnivorous days I ate a veggie burger every now and then.  They are super easy to cook, healthy from what I can tell and good for a quick-lunch.  In the past, I probably didn’t spend much time dressing up my veggie burgers.  But, on day 9 I spent a good deal of time shredding some lettuce, slicing some tomatoes and chopping some pickles.  Armed with my vegenaise and organic ketchup I was golden.  I had some whole grain buns in the freezer to boot.   This really did the trick for me.  The texture of the Wildwood burger to me is better than other veggie burgers I’ve tried.  It doesn’t crumble or fall apart as easy and looks damn good on a bun if I do say so myself!

Today was day 10 and for lunch I wanted to try something real different.  Tal Ronnen has a recipe for a Mediterranean Chickpea Wrap in his book.  This is one hearty dish – chickpeas, cubed potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and lots of spice and kick!  The recipe calls for either vegan wraps or naan.  I had some whole grain naan in the freezer, but was bummed to see they had eggs in them.  I ended up using whole grain hot dog buns for the bread in the sandwich.  They were perfect.

I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food, so take this with a grain of salt, but this dish was SPICY!  But, I really enjoyed it.  Like anything it’s all about building tolerance I guess.  I added some fresh spinach to the mixture.  This hearty lunch kept me satisfied well into the dinner hour!  Check-out the recipe for Mediterranean Chickpea Wraps on my recipe page!

Mediterranean Chickpea Hot Dogs!

Stay tuned this weekend for some more fun!  Tomorrow I get on the scale to see how I’m doing in the weight department.  I’m picking up some Daiya cheese tomorrow (see my entry on zPizza’s Berkely Pizza) to give it a try on my homemade pizza.  I asked Lele to pick a feast meal for us this weekend and he picked Peppercorn-Encrusted Portobello Fillets with Yellow Tomato Béarnaise and Mashed Potatoes.  Also, time permitting I’ll bake some no knead bread and a cream of asparagus soup.

Day 7 & 8 – zPizza’s vegan pizza

zPizza's Berkeley Pizza

I’m still here folks, and for now…still a vegan!  Day 7 was fairly uneventful.  I ate a beautiful leftover meal for dinner on day 7 (Dave Anderson’s Grilled Shiitake Mushroom with Polenta, Roasted Japanese Eggplant, and Smoked Paprika Crème).  Tonight, I was craving pizza.

I love to make pizza at home, dough included.   The problem is, I haven’t really found a vegan cheese that I like yet.  To be fair, I haven’t really looked too hard.  Anybody have any suggestions?  I know that many of the transitional products that are on the market are not so healthy.  So, I’ve steered clear of buying vegan cheese for now.

I had a long day at the office today so I decided to check out zPizza.  Through Twitter I learned that they’ve just released a vegan pizza called The Berkeley.  That’s it, on my plate, up above.  It has marinara sauce, vegan cheese, veggie burger crumbs, zucchini, red onions, mushrooms, and red peppers.  The company says they opened in 1986 to “create a pizza that was lighter, healthier, delicious and creative.”  This pizza was really very tasty.  The crust was thin and crispy and the pizza was virtually greaseless.  The veggies tasted wonderful and I loved the bits of veggie burger too.

Now for the cheese….  Okay, I will admit, it’s not the same.  The consistency of the cheese is very different from your standard mozzarella.  And it certainly can’t hold a candle to a fresh disk of mozzarella.  But, I honestly have to say, it tasted great.  The texture is more creamy than melty if that makes sense and it has a nice cheesy tang to it.  I’m not so sure how I would have felt if it didn’t have the other toppings.  But it was very flavorful and tasted healthy.

I am curious though about the ingredients of the vegan cheese.  In my mind, it doesn’t make sense to make such a drastic life change if I’m going to be eating transitional products that are filled with chemicals or unhealthy.  I’m going to try to see what I can find out about what’s in the vegan cheese that they use.  Although the zPizza website lists the nutritional content of a slice of the Berkeley Pizza, it doesn’t list any ingredients.  Let’s see what I find out.

Anybody have any good suggestions for homemade pizza?  One of my readers suggested Daiya or Teese cheese for use on pizza.  Anyone have any favorite vegan pizza recipes or pizzerias?

Day 6 – 30-Minute Vegan’s Pasta Florentine

Pasta Florentine from The 30-Minute Vegan

As promised, this week I’ll be trying some quick and easy vegan meals from the book, The 30-Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray.  This book has over 175 quick and easy vegan recipes.  Tonight I didn’t want to spend all night in the kitchen.   I had a huge bag of organic spinach in the refrigerator and was in the mood for a pasta dish so I chose Mark & Jennifer’s Pasta Florentine recipe.   They promised a “you won’t believe it’s vegan” experience and this recipe definitely delivered!  I made this dish, and a salad, within the 30-minute timeframe.  The result was a pasta dish reminiscent of alfredo but with some extra layers of flavor.  Best of all, the ingredient list is wholesome and healthy.

I was definitely pleasantly surprised with this dish.  All too often cookbooks that focus on quick and easy fall short on taste.  It may have only taken me 30 minutes to make this dish, but it certainly didn’t taste like it.  See my recipe page for the details, I used a whole grain spaghetti, feel free to use what you have in the cupboard.  Mark and Jennifer offer some wonderful alternatives to this recipe in their book.  Pick it up to get all of the inside scoop!

Tal Ronnen's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Berry Sorbet

Speaking of scoops!  We topped off our meal tonight with leftover dessert from last night – Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cake with Berry Sorbet, from Tal Ronnen’s book.  Scrumptious!

Day 5 – Feast Night!

Dave Anderson's Grilled Shiitake Mushroom with Polenta, Roasted Japanese Eggplant, and Smoked Paprika Crème

Sunday is a perfect day to play in the kitchen and that’s what I did today!  Tal Ronnen’s book, The Conscious Cook features the amazing work of different chefs.  Dave Anderson, a vegan himself, is the chef at Madeleine Bistro in LA.  He presents a three-course menu in Ronnen’s book.  I was almost tempted to try all three-courses, but instead picked his entreè, Grilled Shiitake Mushrooms with Polenta, Roasted Japanese Eggplant, and Smoked-Paprika Cream.

The time estimate for making this dish is 1 hour and 15 minutes.  I suppose that could be about right, but I took a break between some of the steps of the recipe.  (The polenta needs to be chilled for 2 hours after you make it.  The mushrooms take two hours to cook in the oven and then are refrigerated until before the final assembly of the dish.)  The time spent in the kitchen was well worth the results.

This is clearly one of those dishes that I can say could easily help me to say goodbye to meat and dairy.  The polenta is cooked, molded and chilled and later grilled.  It has a golden crispy exterior and mimics the texture of meat.  The shiitake and the eggplant also have a very meaty texture.  The spinach and green beans add another layer of flavor and the paprika crème is smoky and tangy.  It’s amazing how tasty a plate of vegetables can be with a little time and effort.   When I’m not cooking vegan, the vegetables are always a last-minute decision for me.  Something that I do because I have to do it.  This dish is an example of how exciting vegan cooking can be!  Can’t wait to keep trying some of the other dishes in the book!

For desert I made a Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cake with Berry Sorbet – also from Ronnen’s book.  The sorbet couldn’t have been any healthier – frozen organic berries with agave nectar and a little lemon juice.  The sorbet against the peanut butter cake reminded me of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Very tasty!

Stay tuned for my week coming up when I take some recipes from The 30 Minute Vegan and feature them here.  I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do easy and quick in the kitchen on a work night.  Tomorrow I’ll clue you in on what I’m planning on cooking!