And, the perfect summer cookies require no oven!

No-bake peanut butter oat cookies

We used my mom's recipe (which is actually kind of my recipe, on my mom's blog) to make these, but cut down the oats by 1/2 cup and used 1/4 cup agave with 1 cup sugar (instead of 2 c sugar). I think I added a few tablespoons of peanut butter too. They came out brilliantly (they were brilliant in the British sense, they weren't actually intelligent, we don't eat intelligent beings).

Recipe here. Stovetop required, but no oven, so your kitchen can stay cool!

Summer lunch: Vegan BLT and gazpacho

BLT with gazpacho, and scissors...

We went to the farmer's market last weekend hoping for some good tomatoes, but it looks like this weekend or next weekend would be a better week for that--one stall was selling them, however, and we managed to get three good red tomatoes and one yellow, as well as a cucumber and a multigrain bread loaf elsewhere at the market. We then picked up lettuce and LightLife® Smart Bacon from the grocery store. Then we came home and immediately made BLT sandwiches and gazpacho!

The gazpacho was made up of about two and a half tomatoes (yellow and red), one cucumber, some seasoning, a half piece of bread, and onions (which we cooked first, because I don't do well with raw onions/garlic.) The BLT had the Smart Bacon (fried lightly in a pan), those amazing tomato slices, lettuce and veganaise. Together, the soup and sandwich made for one of the best lunches we've had this summer! So, next time you're at a farmer's market, we recommend that you pick up some tomatoes and cucumbers and bread and make this for yourself...

Randy Radish at Truckeroo

Every month throughout the summer, food trucks of DC gather for the Truckeroo Food Truck Festival outside of Nationals Ballpark. We've avoided this food-and-drinks festival in the past due to rumors of long lines and lackluster vegan options. However, we heard that new all-vegan food truck The Randy Radish would be there this month, so we decided to brave the crowd and the heat and try what they had to offer. We were not disappointed!

Veggie corn dog, jackfruit bbq sandwich, and spring rolls with chipotle ranch sauce

We ordered three of their menu items, which are on the small side but priced fairly low ($5-7 each, so $18 for all three). The corn dog is a Field Roast dog with a delicious corn batter. The spring rolls have a Southwestern twist with corn and black beans, with the chipotle ranch sauce as a nice kick. The jackfruit barbecue was perfect! Way better than the last jackfruit bbq we tried at another restaurant. The cole slaw and bun were wonderful compliments. The sandwich was the star of the show, but all three options were great. I'm not crazy about Field Roast hot dogs, but the corn dog batter was excellent. Glad we got to check out this vegan food truck, and we hope The Randy Radish makes its way to DC again soon!

Vegan egg-less salad

I'm the type of vegan who doesn't really miss cheese or milk at all. Even before I was vegan, I would take the cheese off my pizzas and only eat the ice cream toppings, leaving the ice cream to my friends. I'm guilty, however, of having a thing for egg salad sandwiches when I was younger. I'm not sure if Dan feels the same way, or if he ever spent his summer lunchtimes boiling eggs for an egg salad sandwich, but I definitely did. When I moved to London I would buy egg and cress sandwiches daily from the local Pret A Manger. I thought going vegan meant saying goodbye to the precise taste of egg salad, which I admit isn't super appealing, but it was comfort food nonetheless.

I was wrong! I saw a recipe for vegan egg salad with tofu and black salt (kala namak) and it totally tastes like the egg salad I remember.

This tofu is cage-free!

My version is a little less firm than "authentic" egg salad, but that's because I skipped some refrigeration steps out of excitement. I also added about 4 tbs water (recipe calls for 7, but with the potato flakes I used, I actually should have used about 2). Mine has a teaspoon of brown mustard and a few teaspoons of relish as well, which I think made for the perfect final touch. We were out of bread but had some leftover hot dog buns, which is why that's not quite a sandwich in the photo.

If you are like me, and miss eggs and egg salad, you should make this -- the kala namak (black salt) is pretty much necessary for the eggy taste, but if you're turned off by eggs and want to try this anyway, you could do without. I admit that the kala namak smells kind of gross, but the taste is less overpowering than actual eggs, so it works out really nicely. Keep in mind the tips about the amount of water or it'll be really runny, but still good! Here is the recipe--it comes highly recommended!

What we're eating, part 3

No original recipes this time, but links and photos are almost as good, right?

This week we indulged on vegan raspberry cheesecake and baba ghanoush, among other things.

Vegan and better than ever.

Vegan news in the District

First, if you haven't been to Sticky Fingers lately, you need to go there and try a shake (orange creamsicle and cookies and cream are our favorite so far.) Better yet, go on a Tuesday or Thursday and have a donut as well (while supplies last). This Thursday they had a creme-filled chocolate glazed donut that was impossible to resist, and a blueberry glaze we saved for later. I was never the biggest fan of non-vegan donuts, but I've had so many awesome vegan donuts. These were no exception; they could compete with vegan offerings of the famous Voodoo Doughnut of Portland--though they're not quite as flashy, yet!

Creme-filled, or is it cream filled? Second only to jelly-filled.

In other news, two vegan food trucks have popped up this summer, but not in downtown DC. Everlasting Life of Maryland has two food trucks in Montgomery County, it looks like they're primarily located in downtown Silver Spring. The menu looks just as awesome as that of the restaurant, I would love to try it! Also, Northern Virginia now has The Randy Radish food truck, offering lots of vegan sandwiches, small dishes, and desserts! I know food trucks downtown have a lot of vegan options, but I wish trucks like these would start appearing--vegan mac and cheese and tofu reubens? Yes please.

Also, according to Twitter users, District of Pi in Penn Quarter has the best vegan pizza. Now we're obligated to go there, since we haven't yet... 

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Spicy Peanut Sauce

What's the deal with broccoli lately? People kept mentioning it on twitter, and it made us hungry for broccoli with peanut sauce... so, last night we cooked up some rice noodles and vegetables in a pad thai. We always make a peanut sauce from scratch, and this is the first time I actually wrote down what I used! The stir fried vegetables and tofu are pretty standard, we sautéed chopped onion and mushroom for a few minutes, then added broccoli and tofu with some scallions, and added the cooked rice noodles with the peanut sauce. Nothing fancy there, but I'll share with you my recipe for a somewhat spicy, tangy peanut sauce that's great with pad thai or stir fry with rice.

Summer Squash Fajitas

Summer squash was our choice vegetable of the week from the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace, which goes on every Saturday. With the DC summer in full force, we decided to bring our own heat to the table and cook up some squash fajitas. The preparation is super fast and can probably be done in 20 minutes or so if you have pre-made tortillas (but it's much more fun to make your own...)

Homemade tortillas

It's not hard at all to make your own tortillas, and it only takes a few ingredients and minimal effort. There are tons of homemade tortilla recipes out there, and most of them are vegan (some have lard, but most use oil), so if this one doesn't work out for you, Google on. I've tried out a couple recipes and made my alterations, and this method always results in soft, tasty tortillas.

Week of eating

Here's a look at our plates for this week... 

Mini donuts

We used my mini donut maker to create these, with VeganYumYum's recipe and some chocolate ganache. Next time I might make a more sugary and less healthy chocolate glaze... they were good, though.