Summer's here

After what feels like weeks of rain, we finally got some blue sky today (before the late afternoon thunder and clouds arrived). This dinner felt like summer: sauteed garlic scapes and homemade seitan sausage, broccoli, and a Greek salad with lemon oregano feta.
For dessert, we had strawberries and dumplings, topped with some mimiccreme. This recipe is originally from Gourmet, but I went with the smitten kitchen version. With the cakey dumplings and warm strawberry sauce, this was very much like what around here we call "Australian style pudding" (as opposed to "American style pudding"). (The very best Australian style pudding is of course The Magic Pudding. Apparently Norman Lindsay wrote the book to settle an argument -- he was defending his claim that children would rather read about food than fairies.)

Faux pho

We love pho.
(Broth recipe based on the one here, plus a vegetarian pho stock cube. Here's another one that I've been meaning to try -- it includes dried shiitakes.)

Science Fiction/Fantasy Foods

  Kittee won the Vegan Potluck this go-round, hands down.  Check out her cupcake (left) with a fig slice for the eye!  What you can't see is the banana cupcake with peanut butter filling beneath it.  I'm guilty of the "green eggs and ham" to the right of that cupcake.  Let me just say that I will not be rushing back to the frozen food aisle for another ham loaf.  Yuck.  (Think squishy pink tofu with liquid smoke.  Better yet, put it out of your mind altogether.)   

Lazy

There was a time I would have made the pita.  But it's cucumber season already, and, frankly, it's hot.  So this was the offering.  Muhamarra.  (Yes, I even used roasted peppers out of a jar.)

Chickpea Flour, Take 2

Frittata-ready, I cracked a few eggs... and then a spoiled one... into a bowl.  What I really wanted was an English Muffin, so I decided to make the "scramble" from 660 Curries.  I'm not sure I followed the directions well (imagine)... but it was tasty.  I think I'll be sticking to the vegetable curries for a while, though...

More Hadley

I rationed it.  Here's the last -- with some bits of pickle and a heavy-on-the-parsley dressing.

Simple

I first heard of this tomato sauce recipe via Orangette a couple of years ago, but only got around to trying it this week after seeing it again at Your Vegan Mom. It's originally from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan. It has a list of ingredients you can count on one hand, and it's really good.

One 28 oz can of tomatoes (I used Muir Glen fire roasted); 5 T unsalted butter (I used salted EB); one onion peeled and cut in half; salt to taste. Simmer slowly, uncovered, for about 45 minutes, or until you see droplets of fat floating on the surface. Done. (Remove and discard the onion.) Eat. Ask yourself why your usual sauce has twice as many ingredients.

Hot dog!

We made two very fancy dogs, and halved them so we could try them both. In the back, there's one with caramelized onions, sauerkraut, mustard and cheese; the one in the front has caramelized onions and avocado. The sausage is Field Roast Italian, and it was superb.

This was a meal totally worth setting off the smoke alarms for.

For sp, waiting for the book to arrive, a recipe

Tonight we had some old favourites (chana masala and saag, both leftover from a couple of nights ago) along with a new one from 660 Curries: Chunky Potatoes with Garlic and Peanuts (recipe here). Delicious!
I didn't have any tomato -- note to self: read the whole list of ingredients before you start, don't just fall for the recipe's name -- but made do with 3 T of tomato paste, and things worked out just fine. Oh, and I bet the cilantro and curry leaves that the recipe calls for would've been great to have too. Oh well.

VBLAT!

It makes me think of a sound effect from a Batman comic, but VBLAT is what our local vegan-friendly breakfast joint calls their take on the BLT. It's the Vegan Bacon Lettuce Avocado Tomato sandwich.

They use tempeh bacon, but when I make VBLATs at home I prefer to use crispy seitan bacon (recipe from have cake, will travel). (Things I have learned about the seitan bacon recipe: it makes about 1 cookie tray's worth; it burns fast so you should check on it before the time is up; the best way to spread it thin is to put a piece of plastic wrap over it and spread the mixture out with your fingers).

Migas

For ages now I've been wondering how to veganize Tex-Mex style migas. This was a pretty good first attempt, I think. I was inspired by the recipe for Scrambled Tortillas in Vegan Brunch, which uses pureed soft tofu, but instead I blended up a box of (firm) silken tofu with about 6 T of chickpea flour (maybe a little bit more?), about 1/2 a cup of water, some nutritional yeast, black salt, turmeric, cumin, salt and pepper. I sauteed onion, jalapeno, peppers and 5 corn tortillas (cut into small strips), and then poured in the tofu mixture. I cooked it over med-high heat, stirring often and scraping up the cooked bits. At the last minute, I grated on some cheese. We ate this with a spicy tomato sauce (not pictured) based on the one in the Vegan Brunch recipe.

I was worried that the mixture would never cook through and firm up, but it did eventually. The texture was very much like the scrambled chickpea flour recipes I've tried from 660 Curries, but a bit softer.