The Healthy Vegan Kitchen

Tonights dinner was brought to you by Veganomicon.  I made the Portabello Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing on page 87 tonight for dinner.  It does require some planning ahead.  You need to roast the portabellos for an hour before you make the salad, so keep that in mind when you make this one, but definitely make it!  The only differences I made to the recipe was to replace the grapeseed oil with ground flaxseeds and water and for the portobello marinade I just left the oil out. 

Verdict: I really liked it.  I served it with some pita chips on the side, but I think I will serve it with a hunk of bread instead.  My hubby?  He loved it, he took seconds and said that I could make this one again!  Yeah! 

The salad comes together quickly and it tastes great, very refreshing and filling as well. 

So, I woke up this morning to a mixture of rain and snow, not too bad, but when I got to work (which is 1,000 feet higher than where I live), there was over 1/2 an inch of snow.  It was really nice, it’s very refreshing looking tomorrow, but at 3pm it was still only 43 degrees outside. 

Back in May of 1995, it did snow 10 inches over Memorial Day weekend, but it is so not common to have snow in May!  It was starting to get nice and warm outside (hitting the upper 70’s and lower 80’s), but there is hope, it’s supposed to be back in the 70’s tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to wearing shorts and getting a little sun on my pasty white legs. 

Back to food tomorrow!

My next dinner from Veganomicon was the Black Bean Burgers on page 99.  YUM!  I made this one for the family (sorry, no plating pictures), and everyone liked it. 

I didn’t change anything about the recipe except that I cooked the burgers in a dry skillet instead of adding oil.  I served them with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles on the side.  Next time I would slice up some avocado to add as well.  For leftovers, we used them in tostadas, crumbled up a bit, it worked great.  I will definitely be making these again. 

A couple of nights ago we had Udon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Kale in Miso Broth on page201.  Here are the modifications that I made: I cooked the noodles in the soup pot, not separately, I couldn’t find fresh shiitake mushrooms this week, so I used dried and used the soaking water in the soup, I substituted vegetable broth for the oil and used vegetable broth and water for the broth.  I also used the recommeded 4 tablespoons of light miso, because that’s what I had.

The soup came together very easily and is a quick meal (30 minutes).   

Verdict: I loved it!  My husband and I are a huge fan of udon noodles and miso, so there was no doubt that I was going to try this soup.  I loved everything about this soup, it is simple yet full of flavor.  I happen to love kale, so that was a nice bonus.  Now for my hubby, he visually does not like kale, so he was indifferent with the look of this soup, but he loved the flavor.  He would’ve liked more noodles (his favorite part), but he would eat this again!  Yeah! 

We like to eat our udon soup with chopsticks, to get all of the good veggies and noodles, and with a spoon to slurp up all the broth. 

Yesterdays lunch came from pages 90-91 of Veganomicon: Prospect Park Potato Salad. 

I made the recipe basically as it is in the book, but I did chop the carrots instead of shredding them, which she says not to do, but I just hate using the grater.  I always grate a nail or a knuckle.  I also omitted the olive oil.  After cooking the potatoes, this came together really quickly.  While the potatoes were cooking, I prepped everything else and had it all ready to go a little before the potatoes were done.  Oh, the other modification I made was that we ate it slightly warm instead of chilled. 

Verdict: I really liked it.  It has a nice tang from the vinegar, but it is still sweet from the cucumbers and carrots.  My hubby really loved the cucumbers, he says they made the potato salad for him.  I liked it enough to have it for lunch again today.  One last picture for you:

I forgot to share about the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project (Rock N’ Roll Museum) on one side with the Sci Fi Museum on the other side.  We only walked around a little (It closed at 5pm and we arrived at 4:45pm) and took a couple of pictures, here they are.

This week is brought to you by Veganomicon.  I have picked out a few recipes to try and thought I would take some pictures and share them with you.  Today’s recipe is Jicama-Watercress-Avocado Salad with Spicy Citrus Vinaigrette on page 83. 

I made a couple of modifications to the recipe:

For the vinaigrette, I used ground flax seeds mixed with water to replace the oil and I used chili paste to replace the chile oil.  For the salad, I added some romaine lettuce and chopped up the carrots instead of shredding them. 

Verdict: I really liked it, I absolutely love jicima and I liked the tanginess of the dressing.  My hubby, well, he thought it was okay.  He’s not a big fan of jicima and he would rather have more romaine with just a sprinkling of watercress.  Would I make it again?  Yes, but for K, I would add more romaine and less of the watercress and jicima.  Here’s one more picture for you:

On Saturday, we all got to spend the day together, so we drove up to Snoqualmie Falls

to see the most beautiful waterfall:

Here is my sister and her family in front of the falls, and us:

After the falls, we drove up to Roslyn where Northern Exposure was filmed.  What a cute little town, we stopped for lunch at the cafe, not knowing what would be on the menu.  To our wonderful surprise, they had a roasted portabella burger with sweet potato fries!  You can also sub a boca burger for any of their burgers.  Wow!  That was the best portabella sandwich I have ever had.  We were so pleasantly surprised that a little town in Washington had vegan items on the menu, especially when half the restaurants here don’t have anything, unless you take a bunch of things off. 

For dinner, my b-i-l fixed us a fabulous dinner with tofu mambo, rice and a couple other dishes that were so yummy!  It was a great night. 

On Sunday, we went to church with my sister and got to hear my nieces sing, then back home to change and then off to Mighty-O Donuts for a few more donuts for the road.  Then we stopped at Cyber Dogs, a vegetarian hot dog place on Pike Place.  It was great!  Hot Dogs are one of the cravings K gets, so we thought it would be fun to get one.  I had the Red Hot Bayou dog with red beans and peppers, “beef”, onions, celery, corn and cajun spices mixed with rice and a dog on top.  K had the El Bandito with chili, avocado, salsa and onions.  They were both really good!  They are located in this little space by the convention center and have over a dozen options to choose from, I would totally go back. 

After lunch, we met my sisters family back at Pike Place Market to get another Audrey III, some more grapples and some moscato grapes, then off to the International District and Uajimiya to pick up some spoons, chopsticks and some matcha tea.  Back to the house for some more family time, packing up and getting things ready to go for our Monday departure.  It was a great trip!!!  If you get a chance to go to Seattle for a visit, go, you’ll have a great time.

On Thursday, we slept in and then met my brother-in-law for lunch at Araya’s Vegan Thai Cuisine which is located near the Ave (by the University of Washington).  It was really good!  My brother-in-law and I got the buffet and K got the Avocado Curry.  The curry had avocadoes, soft and fried tofu, bean composition, veggie beef, bell peppers and basil in green curry.  The buffet had a variety of dishes like Vegetarian Spring Rolls (seasoned garden vegetables and bean thread noodles wrapped in wheat shells, deep-fried and served with sweet and sour sauce), Tom Yum (hot and sour tofu soup flavored with lemon grass, lime leaves, mushrooms, onions and chili paste), this was a favorite of my b-i-l and K liked it too.  The buffet also had Fried Rice, Spicy Noodles and some salad.  After lunch, we drove around a little.  I wish we could’ve walked around instead, but it had started raining.  We then went back to my sis’s house for a quick dinner and then off to my niece’s softball game (she’s in 3rd grade).  The game was fun, but very cold!  We were outside for about 2 1/2 hours on a windy night and this Arizona girl got a bit chilled, but it was worth it, her team lost, but they played well.  The other team had a couple of amazing players that ended up ruling the game. 

On Friday, off we went to the DaVinci Bakery, which is mainly gluten-free, but also has vegan options.  Well, the bulk of their vegan options are on Saturdays and Sundays, so we didn’t get anything, but headed over to Whole Foods to grab a quick lunch and get the fixin’s for dinner, then headed off to Chateau St Michelle for a wine tour with my sister.  This is the first wine tour we’ve been on and it was really interesting.  It took about 1/2 an hour for the whole tour which was very informative.  We got to taste their Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Moscato wines.  We really liked the Merlot and Moscato wines.  They are actually famous for their Reisling, although we didn’t get to taste it, but my sister says it is fabulous.  Back home to hang out with the kids and to make some cookies and pasta for dinner. 

I made some chocolate chip cookies with the help of my nieces:

Chocolate Chip Cookies 2

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Yield: 3 dozen cookies

¾ cup applesauce (or prune puree)

1 cup sugar

1 TBSP molasses

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (make sure they don’t contain milk fat)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the applesauce & sugar until combined. Add the molasses & vanilla, whisking to combine.

3. Gently stir in the whole wheat flour, baking soda & salt until incorporated.

4. Fold in the chocolate chips & spoon onto a baking sheet, 2” apart.

5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Tip: You can add ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans with the chocolate chips. Store in an airtight container.

For dinner, we had Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta that I have posted before with that Audrey III artichoke and some fresh baked french bread, toasted and rubbed with a garlic clove.  It was a really nice day. 

Okay, like the big goober that I am, I forgot to take a picture of the artichoke!  I was running late getting dinner, so I popped the artichoke in to cook and didn’t take a picture.  It was about 6 inches across with a stem that was about 8 or 9 inches long.  I did, however remember to take a picture after I cooked it and before we ate it.  So you don’t get the full effect, but you can kind of see the stem that I cut into two pieces in the background. 

Here I added a fork so you can get a general idea of the size

Overhead view:

A preview of the heart:

One of the leaves:

Now for the heart:

My husband and I usually cut the heart in half and split it.  This one was so big (he was watching tv while I fixed it), he though his half was a full one and cut it in half to split with me.  When I told him that was all his, he was still amazed (even after knowing the size of the artichoke):

For dinner I served the artichoke and just a baked potato with salsa, we were so full we could barely finish the artichoke!  This one artichoke could be lunch for one person, easily!  Oh, yeah, it was also delicious!