vegan recipes: a list thread

yay for this thread!

i just purchased How to Cook Everything Veg AND the Veganomicon recently, but haven't had a chance to put them to work yet. But Bittman's great, in my experience.

You absolutely HAVE to try the Penne Vodka in Veganomicon--it's the best thing I've made vegan. The Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo sauce was killer too, the black beans were absolute perfection but the chipotle sauce was a bit too sweet and oniony for my tastes.

made the sweet chili lime tofu! it's awesome.

tell me about quinoa? I have never heard of it. does anyone know how hard it is to find in the UK? would something else do for that recipe? cook's thesaurus has suggestions: http://www.foodsubs.com/Grainoth.html

I am quite fond of quinoa and can get it here in the US in both white and red varieties at Whole Foods and health food stores. I mostly use it as an alternative to rice/couscous/other grainy type thing as a side dish for meat/fish/chicky. But for a light vegan dish you could toss it with any sort of cooked veg with some sort of dressing (a lemony vinaigrette is good), maybe chuck in some toasted almonds or other nuts, maybe some raisins or currents or dried cranberries if you are into that sort of thing. Basically you can treat it exactly the way you would couscous, although the cooking bit is different.

quinoa's easy enough to get in the uk: it'll probably be in your supermarket, albeit perhaps in some kind of confusing ethnic food/vegan diet/special items aisle. that said, i never saw the red variety. learning about bulgar and quinoa really expanded my grain-based-meal horizons.

Quinoa's great for breakfast too - a nice crunchy change from oatmeal, etc.

Thanks guys. Like I say, I had never heard of it until I read the tofu lime chilli recipe, but it turns out they sell it in Tesco.

I just started using it a week or so ago - apparently there are brands that are pre-washed and others you need to rinse before using. Some kind of bitter stuff (natural protective coating?) has to be washed away.

for real, for breakfast? just quinoa with milk on?

Nope, with a little butter and brown sugar or jam, like I do with Malt-o-meal.

which, ya know, isn't vegan. Do vegans use margarine instead of butter?

i get vegan margarine. i can't remember what it's called; whole ... garden or something. i am not vegan but have vegan aspirations, though.

Margarine isn't vegan? I thought it was just vegetable oil and water whipped up smooth.

earth balance is a good butter substitute, i think

would something else do for that recipe?

oh, definitely! in fact, since we were out of quinoa i used basmati rice. it's less about the type of grain and more about the spices you cook it with, i think. and, speaking of spices, i didn't have cardomom pods so i used dried whole star anise. not the same flavor, but it worked very well.

"Tempeh" has started looking like internet-speak to me..

OMG EARTH BALANCE IS MY LIFE. It's got such a rich buttery taste. They've also got the Soy Garden variety, which is still tasty but less OMG BUTTER, which I like to use in some things instead of the original buttery spread.

Also I don't think I've posted it here yet: Google Books has a "preview" of Veganomicon that seems to half the entire book, if not more:

http://books.google.com/books?id=tjN8uJETBpIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=veganomicon

I had a "melted chocolate and pumpkin spice" sheet-cake on Friday that was vegan and OMG delicious, and I do NOT make a beeline for the vegan goods in general. Wow my mouth. I think it's still tingling a little.

The only downside, vegan-wise, was that the richness made me want a glass of milk on the side.

veganomicon looks pretty great. there are some kind of lasagne noodles involved in the lasagne - is there a vegan substitute?

i think i need pictures in recipe books to get me excited enough to cook. i might try kosheri (rice + lentils + onions + stuff) tonight; at the moment i just want to eat things i can scoop with a spoon.

hey, vegan/veg people (and anyone else who enjoys tofu) - you know about the freezing thing, right? if you freeze your block of tofu (firm/xtra firm), then thaw and squeeze out before cooking, it gets really "meaty" and super-absorbent.

do I need to do that for the sweet chili lime thing? I have my tesco.com order set up and am getting ready to pull the trigger on this.

don't be nervous! i didn't freeze it this time around bcz i was lazy, and anyway it's not specified in the recipe (which is SO forgiving - don't be afraid to customize it). it's just something to keep in the back of your mind.

Ooh here's that cake recipe: I can highly recommend it: http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/10/chocolate-pumpkin-pudding-cake.html

that does sound good. if all vegan baking focused on stuff like this that can be done really well without dairy, then it wouldn't have such a bad rep.

Yeah, except for the soy milk it's not really substituting anything. It does call for oil instead of any other shortening, I think C used coconut oil? Anyway, whatever, it was awesome.

i have to say, though, that there is a vegan bakery in chicago (or maybe evanston) that produces the most amazing, rich, homestyle vegan birthday cakes - "buttercream" icing and all.

I think tofu is a bit more exotic here than it is in the U.S. I like it, but I don't think I've ever had it outside a restaurant, and I didn't even realise Tesco stocked it. I was all ready to go to the Chinese supermarket. I will steel my nerves by getting good and drunk when I cook it, which will hopefully be later this week.

i think selling souls to the devil was involved somewhere down the line.

xpost - srsly, don't sweat it! it will be awesome. is there anything in particular you're worried about re: cooking?

that I will not be drunk enough

haha, no it will be fine. I gather the problem with tofu is it can be too sloppy, but it probably ends up tasting the same whatever.

that's why you need firm or extra firm.

i really like this method because i've always had reservations re: cooking tofu for stir-fry, etc. http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Cook_Tofu_Like_the_Pros

it consumes time but it's easy to do ahead of time

I was JUST looking for a good pumpkin dessert recipe! Hooray!

I made vegan lasagna tonight. I really wish I had a working camera so I could start my own food porn blog

That tofu thing worked! Hunh. I need to come up with a good marinade though.

I made vegan lasagna tonight.

i would like to know about this.
i've never been sure whether making the sauce is one of those things that needs the exact physical constitution of milk to succeed or whether using alternatives is o k. needing lasagna replacement confuses me further.

are you talking about the freezing thing, cas? it's a great trick. i'm pretty sure that's what the "natural" pizza place i love does to make their vegan "feta cheese."

my tofu is being delivered tonight but I am too tired to cook and will eat pasta. this weekend though!

A+, would eat again. Next time I will use less lime zest (I didn't have a zester so I was trying to cut up peel with a knife, which is retardé). The tofu was fine though, and quinoa is good stuff. And the tofu marinade sauce stuff -- high intensity.

isn't the sauce delicious?? i'm glad it worked out

the sauce is fierce!

Oh, no, not the freezing, the frying thing from harbi's link. My freezer situation right now is not idea.

'm pretty sure that's what the "natural" pizza place i love does to make their vegan "feta cheese."

where's the natural pizza place? i'm not vegan but am kind of shying away from dairy and consequently pizza.

viva herbal, on 2nd ave near 10th street.

a bit pricey, due to the fact that they cater to vegans, gluten intolerants, and kosher folk, but it really is great (even though those restrictions sound dire).

thank you, it sounds good. i'd like a deli where that kind of thing was a given, because then wondering about vegan margarine or separate cutting knives isn't going to feel like an affront in the name of culture war.

White bean and roasted garlic soup--delicious!! Except next time I won't add the fennel seed. And for some reason, unlike every other soup ever, it's much better right when you make it than it is when you reheat it.

post recipe plz!

I made the tofu/sweet chili sauce/quinoa! It was grebt! Mr. Que liked it, too.

Yeah I love it! Some of the substitutions I make: broccoli (make sure to peel them) instead of green beans, tahini instead of peanut butter, and srirachi because I don't have sambal oelek. Perfect blend of savory with a touch of sweet.