spring salad with maple mustard ginger dressing
November 26, 2010
This is my favourite dressing recipe. The stand-by that I always turn to when I’m tired, and have little energy, and need something comforting and familiar. Like an old friend at the end of a long day. Add it to a spring salad with red onion, sprouts, toasted almonds, and sliced radishes.
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon grated ginger
dash maple syrup
1/2 cup Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
porcini corn thyme risotto
November 23, 2010
This just in – and apologies to dairy farmers and the fine cheesemakers of Parma – I’ve veganized my favourite Risotto recipe and it’s just as good without the butter and parmigiano. Italian sacrilege, I’m sure, but true. Not only did the original recipe call for butter and parmigiano, but pancetta as well! No matter. It’s just as good without all of that in its pure, unadulterated, vegan form. Eat it and weep folks.
1 tbsps olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup white wine
dried porcini mushrooms
4 cups veggie stock
fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups corn niblets
salt and pepper to taste
Heat olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add onion and garlic and saute until fragrant. Add arborio rice and stir until well coated, about 3 minutes. Meanwhile, boil white wine with dried porcini mushrooms to rehydrate mushrooms. Remove mushrooms, chop, and add to rice mixture. Add stock slowly, just covering rice, and stir continuously. Continue to slowly add stock and wine and continue to stir. Risotto is all about the spoon – slowly add and stir, keep sitrring, keep adding stock and wine. When the risotto is almost al dente, add corn, thyme, and salt + pepper to taste. When done, adjust seasoning, put in a big, beautiful serving bowl, and warn everyone how delicious it will be. If there are non-vegans at the table, top half with grated parmigiano and don’t whisper a word. They’ll never know.
how-crunchy-can-you-get granola
November 20, 2010
I started making this granola years ago. I’m not sure how I came up with the ingredients but they work. A number of granola aficionados have asked me for the recipe so I figure that’s a pretty good sign. I stopped eating it for awhile – I suppose because I got really into the dulse for breakfast – but Bekah got me back into it again. Topped with a little soy yogurt and berries, how can you go wrong?
6 cups oatmeal
1 cup wheatgerm
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup flax seeds
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup safflower oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp sea salt
Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Bring wet mixture to a rolling boil on the stove. Toss wet ingredients into dry. Spread on 2 cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.
curried butternut squash soup
November 14, 2010
This looks a lot like my spicy pumpkin fennel soup I know but I’m a firm believer that you can never have enough soup in your life. The question has been posed: “Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests?”
Amen to that. This is an old favourite from years back. I think I originally found it in the Silver Palate Cookbook but I can’t be certain. I have veganized it for your vegan pleasure. Have it on a blustery Fall Sunday for lunch with a warm baguette and a glass of wine. It will feed your soul. And your stomach. Beware – it’s incredibly filling!
4 tbsps oil
2 cups yellow onion, finely chopped
4-5 tsps curry powder
2 medium sized butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes
2 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into cubes
3 cups veggie stock
1 cup apple cider
salt and pepper to tast
Heat oil in s heavy-bottomed pot. Add yellow onion and saute until soft and translucent. Add curry powder and stir constantly for about 2 minutes. Add butternut squash and apples and saute for a few minutes until warmed through. Add veggie stock. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer until squash is cooked. Set aside and let cool slightly. Blend in a food processor until it reaches desired consistency. Return to the pot. Add apple cider and salt and pepper to taste.
johnny apple sauce
November 5, 2010
After years of singing “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh……the Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the apple seed…” I am thankful for the sun and the rain. And I’m happy to have the apple sauce that comes from the apple seed. This is sweetness at its best with a hint of spice and the grape of the gods. Have it for breakfast, dessert, or a mid-afternoon snack. Or as a saucy side to roasted squash, portobello mushrooms and brussels sprouts.
It’s very simple and incredibly good, two of the top criteria for me when cooking. One question before I go on. Why is it that everything homemade is always better than prepared?? Rhetorical question of course because I know the answer. Thing is, it’s making it next to impossible to go the store-bought route for things like hummus, tapenade, and now apple sauce. I swear the difference in taste is night and day.
2 1/2 cups water
4 tbsps strained fresh lemon juice
8 medium-sized Granny Smith or other apples (tart is good but you choose – there is such a variety)
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
2/3 cup good sweet white wine (try Henry of Pelham late harvest vidal)
ground cinnamon and nutmeg
Mix half of the water and half of the lemon juice together in a bowl. Peel and core the apples and cut them into 1 1/2 inch chunks. As you cut each apple, drop the pieces into the water to prevent discoloration.
In a medium size saucepan with a heavy bottom, combine remaining water and lemon juice, the sugar and the wine. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add the apple chunks, cinnamon sticks, and star anise. Partially cover and cook gently until apples are tender. Remove cinnamon sticks and star anise. Add ground cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Serve warm or cool, cover and refrigerate.
roasted spicy sweet potato wedges
October 30, 2010
Today was ode to the sweet potato. Not sure why other than I had wanted to experiment with Sweet Potato Pâté (hopefully coming soon to v:gourmet), I bought too many, and was looking for other things to make with this amazing but undervalued tuberous root. I found this recipe on a new blog – smitten kitchen – that I discovered while getting my hair cut. Go figure. It got 5 out of 5 from Bekah and her friend Katya. We ate it with the Tagine and Socca. A great triad if there ever was one.
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes (the latter will make them quite spicy, so using according to your preferences)
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 pounds medium sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 425°F. Coarsely grind coriander, fennel, oregano, and red pepper flakes in an electric coffee/spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Stir together spices and salt. Cut potatoes lengthwise into 1-inch wedges. Toss wedges with oil and spices in a large roasting pan and roast in middle of oven 20 minutes. Turn wedges over with a spatula and roast until tender and slightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes more.
Recipe adapted from smitten kitchen
socca
October 30, 2010
Last spring my friend Emily and I went on a yoga retreat on the shore of Lake Simcoe. It seems like a decade ago now but I can still conjure up the feeling of sitting under a huge maple tree, overlooking the vast expanse of the lake, wind and sun soaking us with their warmth. A lovely young woman, whose name I now can’t remember, made all the food. Not only was it delicious but completely vegan. For afternoon tea she made socca. Something I had never heard of before. Turns out it’s a dish traditionally made by women in Nice overlooking the Mediterranean, which was apropos to the sun, wind, water, and comraderie of the retreat.
I read on a food blog that with socca “you ain’t re-creating the Mona Lisa: socca is meant to be in rough shards, eaten with your fingers, and is especially good after a long day on a sun-saturated beach when your skin is tingling with sand and you can lick your lips and taste the sand of the Mediterranean.” I get that, and would love to be there, but it’s also especially good after a errand-packed Saturday on a cold, fall day with Tagine and Roasted Spicy Sweet Potato.
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (280ml) water
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
freshly-ground black pepper, plus additional sea salt and olive oil for serving
1. Mix together the flour, water, salt, cumin, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Let batter rest at least 2 hours, covered, at
room temperature.
2. To cook, heat the broiler in your oven. Oil a 9- or 10-inch (23cm) cast-iron or non-stick pan with the remaining olive oil and
heat the pan in the oven.
3. Once the pan and the oven are blazing-hot, pour enough batter into the pan to cover the bottom, swirl it around, then pop it
back in the oven.
4. Bake until the socca is firm and beginning to blister and burn. The exact time will depend on your broiler.
5. Slide the socca out of the pan onto a cutting board, slice into pieces, then shower it with coarse salt, pepper, and a drizzle of
olive oil.
6. Cook the remaining socca batter the same way, adding a touch more oil to the pan between each one.
From The Sweet Life in Paris. Photo credit: David Lebovitz
rustic bean cassoulet
October 25, 2010
I was at a slow food event the other day where they paired chefs with producers in the name of fantastic slow food creations. A lot of the food looked out of this world but, sadly, there was so much that I couldn’t try because it was all meat meat meat. Mostly pork for some reason – pulled pork, stewed pork, deep fried pork. Thank goodness for Brad Long who made a wonderful bean dish with wild chanterelle mushrooms. I asked him for some tips, tried to commit them to memory, and came up with my own version last night. Gotta say, it rocked.
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
good quality organic olive oil
herbs of your choice but you might want to head towards rosemary, marjoram, thyme, and parsley, chopped
dried mushrooms of your choice (or fresh if you have them but sometimes it’s hard to find fresh chanterelles, porcini etc.)
1 cup white wine
beans (navy, adzuki, black turtle), cooked
salt and pepper
Cook beans of your choice and reserve. Heat up white wine in a small pot on the stove. Add dried mushrooms to rehydrate. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a heavy dutch oven on medium-high. Add onions and saute until nicely browned. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add herbs and saute until the kitchen is filled with the smell. Pour wine off the mushrooms and add to the dutch oven. Bring to a boil and let the wine reduce. Add reserved mushrooms. Add slow roasted tomatoes and let simmer for 5 – 10 minutes until the flavours start to blend. If the mixture gets too dry, add some additional wine and reduce. Add cooked beans. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve immediately with parsley garnish, hearty bread, and a glass of red wine. Let me tell you, it hits the spot on a rainy, grey, fall night. And if you’re eating it as leftovers the next day, you can always add green beans, cauliflower, or other veggies as seen in the photo above. Thanks Brad!
spicy pumpkin and fennel soup with carmelized apples
October 10, 2010
I came across a lovely, big pumpkin the other day in all its autumn glory. It was a Rouge Vif d’Etamps. I just love the name but beyond it’s moniker – also called a Cinderella Pumpkin – it’s a unique French heirloom pumpkin. They say that it is the variety cultivated by the Pilgrims and served at the second Thanksgiving dinner. How apropos. They are beautiful, and tasty, a fact to which this soup can attest.
3 lbs pumpkin (or orange winter squash), peeled, seeded and cubed
2 cups fennel, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1 to 2 cups fresh cider
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
1 apple, cubed
2 tbsps organic cane sugar
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, cook 5 minutes, or until softened. Add garlic and saute for another minute or two. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, sweet paprika, cayenne pepper and saute for another minute or two.
Add pumpkin and sliced fennel. Pour in veggie broth and 1 cup cider. Add bay leaf. Bring to a boil; cover and simmer for 25 minutes, or until pumpkin is tender. Remove and discard bay leaf. Puree in batches; return to saucepan. Add salt and pepper to taste. If soup is too thick, thin it with remaining 1 cup of cider as needed.
Meanwhile, peel, core, and cube apple. Sprinkle with sugar. Heat a frying pan on the stove on medium high. Saute apples until carmelized and nicely brown. Ladle soup into bowls. And top with carmezlied apples, seeds and/or nuts (I used curried cashews).
french toast with coconut milk and banana
October 7, 2010
The kids in our house love French Toast. It’s an almost daily routine – throw some cinnamon bread on the griddle for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, you name it. One weekend I decided to try this vegan version to test the limits of their adoration for this comfort food. Full disclosure: they didn’t love it. But we did! They had a hard time switching gears to the banana and coconut milk but for us it was a lovely indulgence on a Saturday morning.
1 banana
1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
1/4 tsp salt
1 loaf of good french-toast-making bread
Place all ingredients (except bread) into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a large shallow bowl and set aside.
Slice bread into 8 thick slices. Heat a griddle or pan and brush with oil. Submerge bread slices in the batter, lift out with a pair of tongs and place on the hot pan. Cook until golden brown, flip and cook on the reverse side. Serve immediately with your favourite topping.
Adapted from Rebar Cookbook.
v:gourmet 
