Homemade vegan ravioli

Last weekend we made vegan ravioli with cashew "ricotta" filling. The pasta dough worked out superbly. I'll share the recipe below so others can partake in the ravioli fun -- it is a bit of work without a pasta roller, but they cook really quickly, and what's better than homemade pasta?

I'll give the recipe, then a few photos of the process, rather than interrupting the instructions with photos - that gets really confusing to follow, I know. So look to the end for photos, and enjoy!

Homemade ravioli! With kalamata olives and spinach over tomato sauce

Thanksgiving food

(I know this is late for Thanksgiving, but wanted to post in advance of any Christmas or New Year's meals people might need ideas for!)

Thanksgiving has its drawbacks--it's based on a misleading story and it has turned into a tradition of killing and eating turkeys and then watching the news about people duking it out over stuff on sale (I know of more people who make fun of black Friday shoppers than who actually go shopping, which is kind of just as bad?)

I will take any excuse to cook a big meal once or twice a year, though. But our family Thanksgiving tradition, if we ever have kids, will be to explain what actually happened when Europeans came to the 'new world' here, and also how life was much better for turkeys before that time.

This year, we ordered a few vegan smoked goose packages from May Wah and cooked those along with a ton of other dishes:

Too much for one photo!

I'll try to list the dishes from top to bottom: We've got cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, store-bought rolls off to the side there, gravy, brussels sprouts, smoked non-goose, stuffing, and green bean casserole. And lots of wine, of course!

Sweet potato gnocchi

Yesterday I was reading a list of "The Ten Healthiest Foods on the Planet". I don't really pay much attention to lists like this, since I like to figure out what foods make me feel good and healthy & also help the planet to be healthy, and try base my diet off of that... but we needed ideas for what to cook. I sent the list to Dan, and said to pick anything but garlic, avocados, and obviously, salmon. From this, we came up with a plan to make sweet potato gnocchi--maybe not the most healthy way to prepare a healthy food, but certainly enjoyable!

Sweet potato gnocchi with herb white sauce

Red on red

When we were thinking of dinner yesterday, Dan mentioned quinoa, which I knew we had a package of somewhere buried in cabinets. I knew we also had veggie beef in the fridge, from H-mart, as well as carrots, spinach, and onion. We've also had a bottle of red wine hanging out for about six months that we haven't yet broken into. So, with all these need-to-use ingredients in mind... veggie beef in red wine sauce over quinoa? Sounds pretty good.

I also thought it would -look- good, until I brought out the package of quinoa and realized it was red quinoa. Red on red? And it's not even February... well, either way, it turned out well, and would be a great dish for Valentine's Day!

A lot of red, with some green and orange for balance.

Lasagn-yum

On Monday (technically Labor Day, but we didn't really 'celebrate') we decided to make lasagne (lasagna?) with spinach, mushrooms, and tofu. We had the tofu already, but went to the store to buy noodles, tomato sauce, spinach, and mushrooms. The cashier--who was working on Labor Day, mind you--recognized our ingredients, and asked, "You guys making spinach lasagne?" ...how did he know! We also bought wine and some frozen juices, which he suggested we mix together. Not such a bad idea.

Lasagne we did make, and I'll share the (very easy) recipe with you!

Out of the oven.

Tempura pancakes, and happy Vegan Mofo

Four years ago when I started following vegan blogs (a year after going vegan), I noticed a trend going on in the Fall. Everyone was talking about "Vegan MoFo". At first, I thought it was just some catchphrase, like, yeah, vegan m****f****!!!! But no, it's much more classy than that--Vegan MoFo stands for "Vegan Month of Food"--sounds deliciously humane! You can read more about it here on the website, and look at a full list of blogs (we're listed on some of the category pages, but I think the overall list is still being worked on.)

So, this month, we'll try to post every day (or more often), with lots of photos, recipes, tips, and reviews all focused on vegan food. We don't quite have a theme, other than... feeding two on a vegan diet in DC. We'll accompany posts with a graphic like this, to show... solidarity? support? participation? all of the above:

Anyway, onto the post... tempura pancakes!

Vegetable tempura pancakes and miso soup

Seitan sausage paella

**This is a recipe posted a little over a year ago on our former blog. We're re-posing because it's a good recipe for summer, and it's still summer out there, as DC heat reminded us this week. Enjoy!

This is the only photo we got of the paella, sadly. Other photos not of paella will accompany this post.

Every time I cook something that has potential to be spicy (as in spicy hot, like chili peppers on a Thai menu), I cook it in a way that fulfills that potential and then some. My own threshold for that kind of spice is so high that only certain brands of salsa and a few four-chili dishes at restaurants can hit it. Dan’s tolerance is about on par with mine, so if we cook to our respective levels, it usually works out for both of us. Since I’ve started cooking for more guests after moving into the JASCastle , though, I’ve gotten some cues that maybe not everyone can enjoy the same kind of heat in their food--mainly due to remarks like “wow, this is spicy--good, but...really spicy”.

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...

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.

Vegan Bacon Roll-Ups

According to Wikipedia, a slice of pig bacon has 44 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, and 2.9 grams of protein. According to my Tofurkey smoked maple tempeh bacon package, a slice of vegan bacon has 18.6 calories, .14 grams of fat, 1.7 grams of protein, and 0 dead pigs. I'll give up a gram of protein to save 3 grams of fat and the life of one piglet any day. That's just what I did last week, but I drew a blank on ideas for how to use my vegan bacon. 

I came across a few other straggling ingredients in the fridge-- a vegan sausage, an open can of green chilies, and half a tub of vegan cream cheese--and that set a lightbulb off in my head. For my vegan bacon roll-ups, I cut 6 inch pieces of vegan bacon and spooned a layer of cream cheese evenly on the upward facing edge of the bacon. I topped the cream cheese with an layer of green chillies and set the strips aside. Then I cut the sausage into thin slices and rolled the bacon around the sausage, sealing the roll with a toothpick. I think these would be good prepped on a grill, but I fried them in oil over medium heat and they turned out fine. Next time we'll make our own sausages and be sure there's a football game and friends to share this protein packed vegan hors d'oeuvres with.

Roll-ups with vegan creamed spinach

Green (and red) green curry

We got the idea of brussels sprouts in a curry from the Fojol Brothers Volathai food truck here in DC, which offers a "Green Green Curry" with brussels sprouts, green peppers, and other greens. We made our own twist on this, with red peppers for a slightly different color palette.

Italian "sausage" sandwiches

So good!

Imagine an Italian version of a Philly cheese steak, with italian sausage, peppers, onions, and marinara sauce... ok, maybe more of an Americanized Italianized Philly cheese steak. Anyway, doesn't that sound good? I thought so, too, so I decided to make some seitan sausages and mix them with onions and peppers to try it out. It was great! The sausages turned out really well, and since I love marinara sauce, the sauce-topped sandwich was fantastic. I know some seitan-skeptics, but this one is flavorful and comes out tasting great when thinly-sliced and sautéed with peppers and onions. Alternatively, you could buy Tofurkey's vegan sausages, or another type, and save yourself some time. Recipe follows, for the sausages and sandwich assembly.