Saag Paneer and Roasted Chickpeas

Today is the first lazy day at home I’ve had in a while, so I decided to take the time to make a delicious lunch. I had some tofu and frozen spinach, so Saag Paneer seemed an obvious choice. I used the recipe from the Elizavegan blog, and it turned out great, despite my not having basic spices like turmeric and coriander (although now I have an excuse to go grocery shopping tomorrow). It was so creamy and flavorful, and filled the house with the aromatic scent of an Indian kitchen. This recipe makes so much food; I’ll be able to eat off this for a couple of days.

Saag paneer is also known as palak paneer, and is a traditional dish of India and Pakistan. Saag simply refers to greens, although spinach seems to be the most popular choice. Next time I make this dish, I’m going to try using kale. Although paneer is cheese, firm tofu makes a great substitution.  This dish is typically eaten with roti or rice, but I chose to serve it with quinoa, mainly for its health benefits (protein, calcium, iron, and fiber, to name just a few) and because I’d been craving it lately.

If you search the internet, you’ll find thousands of slightly different variations of this dish, including hundreds of specifically vegan recipes. I’m sure many of them are delicious, but I do recommend the Elizavegan recipe, mainly because the curry and nutritional yeast-crusted fried tofu is a delicious addition and goes so well with the spinach and coconut milk.

I also made one of my favorite snacks: roasted chickpeas. I like my snacks to be savory and salty rather than sweet, and chickpeas are much healthier than the potato chips or bread I would otherwise reach for. Versatility is the best part of snacking on roasted chickpeas – you can literally season them in hundreds of different ways. The recipe I’m sharing for you today is my favorite.

Savory Mushroomy Chickpea Snacks

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp mushroom seasoning (I used Lunds & Byerlys, which I couldn’t find online, but FungusAmongUs is great too)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Pinch of paprika
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (Truffle salt would be great here
1 tsp white truffle oil, plus more to finish

Preheat oven to 425. Line a pizza pan or baking dish with parchment.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss until the chickpeas are coated thoroughly. Spread in a single layer on the parchment. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

When chickpeas are nice and golden, and slightly crisp, remove from oven and allow to cool a bit. Add truffle oil to taste.

And try not to eat them all at once! 😉

Other than cooking, today has been  a very calm day. My boyfriend has recently gotten me into video games and lent me his PSP to play Final Fantasy Tactics, so my goal for today is to play games and eat delicious food. Sounds like a great time, right?

My Gas Station Thanksgiving

I volunteered to work on Thanksgiving, not only to let my co-workers have the day off to be with their families if they wanted, but because I wanted to get paid time-and-a-half. (Hell yeah!) I’ve been working so much that I haven’t had time to do much, including grocery shopping. I have literally been eating rice or oatmeal for lunch for days because I don’t feel like walking to the grocery store. Last night it dawned on me that everything would be closed today, so I stopped at a gas station on my way home from work out of desperation. I ended up with a couple packages of ramen noodles, a box of elbow macaroni, a can of Manwich Sauce, and a bottle of wine.

So, my thanksgiving lunch:

Macaroni noodles with doctored-up Manwich sauce. I sauteed some onion and garlic, and added cumin and Adobo seasoning. I also added some Mexican-style hot sauce. Not at all Thanksgiving-y, but it was edible. Poverty diet prevails!

I also made Chocolate Covered Katie‘s No-Bake Coconut Crack Bars. I was searching through a bunch of recipes I’ve been saving, and realized I had all the ingredients. I love coconut, and these were delicious. I ended up with eight bite-sized bars, and I ate two for my lunch dessert. I love Katie’s recipes, mainly because they’re healthier than your typical desserts, but also because her recipes aren’t overly sweet.

What are you eating today?

Rockin’ Raw-fredo Sauce

I was playing around in the kitchen for lunch last week when I came up with this delicious recipe. It feels really decadent and will definitely satisfy you. I started off with some cashews I had soaked, and added ingredients that reminded me of alfredo sauce. I’m sure it doesn’t taste anything like real alfredo, but it’s close enough! I served this over zucchini noodles that I made using a vegetable peeler.

If you don’t like nutmeg, feel free to leave it out. I happen to love it, so I added a lot more than I wrote in the recipe below. You can use ground nutmeg, but I used freshly grated.

Rockin’ Raw-fredo Sauce (serves 1-2)

1 cup raw cashews, soaked
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 Tbs stone-ground mustard
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1/8-1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tbs fresh chives, minced
2 Tbs chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1-2 zucchini, made into noodles using a vegetable peeler

In a blender or food processor, blend the cashews, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, oil, water, nutmeg, salt and pepper until smooth. Season to taste. Add chives and sun-dried tomatoes, and pulse to incorporate into the sauce, but don’t blend all the way.

Toss with zucchini noodles, and then devour. 🙂

Gluten-Free Pizza, & How to Make Balsamic Glaze

I’ve long been interested in gluten-free cooking, but gluten-free baking almost scares me. I don’t want to have to run out and buy a bunch of crazy bean or nut flours, new starches, etc. When I move back to Asheville I’ll stock up on all of those things if I find them cheap at Amazing Savings, but for now I want to keep my gluten-free cooking simple.

When I saw this recipe for a chickpea flour based gluten-free crust from Meghan Telpner, I got excited. I love the flavor of chickpea flour, so it’s the one non-all-purpose flour I buy regularly. Although the dough seemed way too wet after mixing the ingredients, after baking it transformed into an awesomely crispy thin pizza crust. And the best part was that there is absolutely no rising time! I made the entire pizza in half an hour. As I continue to eat healthier and consume less wheat and sugar, this will undoubtedly be my go-to pizza crust.

I topped the pizza with homemade pesto (fresh basil, chives, spinach, cashews, oil, salt, garlic, and lemon), sun-dried tomatoes, broccoli, and balsamic glaze. I love balsamic glaze on pizza, and I know a lot of other people do too. I’ve been out with so many people who get super excited when a pizza place offers it. Luckily, it’s super easy to make.

Balsamic Glaze

1 cup balsamic vinegar

In a small saucepan over high heat, bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. The liquid will reduce in volume and become syrupy. You’ll end up with 1/4 cup or so.

That’s it! Now you can make it at home and drizzle it over everything like I do. 🙂 It keeps for a ridiculously long time in the fridge, but I usually finish it off fairly quickly because it tastes so damn good.

Almost Raw Wednesday + 2 Recipes

Every time I lose track of eating healthy, I begin to feel like shit, and I have to remind myself to get back on track. This usually happens when I work an excessive amount, because by the time I get home at night I’m not willing to cook, so I grab something easy but not necessarily nutritious. So today, my first day off in 8 days, I decided to eat mostly raw.

I love eating raw foods, but during the winter months I tend to stay away from them. The quality of raw meals are based on the quality of the ingredients you use because you’re not cooking anything. Luckily, as spring continues onward, supermarkets are getting better fruits and vegetables.

Raw foods make me feel clear-headed and focused, and I love finishing a meal and not feeling weighed down by the things I just ate. I also love being able to taste every component of a recipe. Raw meals can be as simple or as complicated as you want, and you don’t need a Vita-Mix or Excalibur Dehydrator to make varied and delicious raw recipes. The food I made today was super easy.

Breakfast – Orange Carob Chia Pudding 

Chia pudding is hard to make pretty.

Originally, I had planned on having a carob-orange smoothie for breakfast, but as crazy as it sounds, there are no ice cube trays in this apartment. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to use my brother’s crazy blender. So I made my idea into chia pudding! And it was great and satisfying.

Chia seeds are an amazing superfood, full of minerals and nutrients our bodies need. Chia also contains a ridiculous amount of protein. Most health-food stores now carry chia seeds, and you can also order them from numerous places online. I love chia for breakfast because of how filling it is (one small bowl and I’m great until lunch), and if you google chia seed recipes you’ll find hundreds. Here’s mine:

Carob-Orange Chia Seed Pudding (serves 1)
1/4 cup walnuts, soaked for at least 1 hour
2 Tbs chia seeds
1 orange, peeled and cut into segments
1 Tbs raw carob powder
1/2 Tbs agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

Drain the walnuts.  Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend on high until creamy. Top with fresh fruit.

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Lunch – Mango Mayo Wrap and Kale Chips

Lunch was raw except for the baked kale chips, but who cares? The wrap was a variation of this recipe from Megan Elizabeth. I didn’t have any fresh herbs on hand, so I left those out, but I did add some curry powder to the “mayo”. Inside the wrap I used alfalfa sprouts, red pepper, and carrot shavings (made with a vegetable peeler). Megan used tomato in her wrap, but since I was having tomato for dinner, I left it out. I’ve found that because of their acidity, my body can’t handle more than one tomato every couple days.

The great thing about this recipe is that it’s low-fat. I ended up eating 3 collard wraps (my leaves were small), and along with the kale chips, I ended up satisfied without being full.  Oh, and if you’d like a tutorial on rolling up collard wraps, there’s a great one over at Choosing Raw.

The wraps were really tasty, and you guys already know how much I love mango.

I don’t have a dehydrator, so I baked my kale chips, but I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal. They were delicious. I wanted something other than the salt and vinegar style chips I usually make, so I came up with the following recipe. You can add soaked cashews if you want for a creamier texture, but I wanted to keep it lower in fat. The flavor the herbs gave to the dressing reminded me a little of Ranch, but much thinner.

Ranchy Kale Chips
2 cups kale, washed and de-stemmed
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 garlic clove, skin removed
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried dill
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
2 tsp nutritional yeast

Preheat oven to 300. Combine all the ingredients (except kale) in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Toss kale with the dressing, and then lay on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crispy. Enjoy immediately.

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Dinner: Zucchini Noodles with Raw Vodka Sauce, and Salad

Dinner was so yummy! The recipe for the zucchini noodles with raw “vodka” sauce is from Bonzai Aphrodite. The sauce was so good I wanted to eat it with a spoon as if it were soup! I had a perfectly ripe tomato to work with, and along with the sun-dried tomatoes, the flavor was so vibrant. The cashews added the creaminess.

I ate it alongside a very simple baby green and sprout salad.

(The picture sucks because I had already started eating it before I remembered to take a picture. I was really hungry!)

Overall, it was a great day filled with delicious fresh-tasting food. I feel great! What are your thoughts on raw food?

Spinach-Walnut Pesto Pasta

Traditional pesto can be expensive to make. Unless you grow your own basil, it can be pricey to buy a few bunches to get enough for a good-size batch of pesto. And who the hell can afford pine nuts?

Although my preferred nuts for pesto are cashews (which I used for my pesto risotto and pesto gnocchi), I’ve been interested in experimenting a little more. I also wanted to branch out with the greens a little more, and luckily I had a bag of baby spinach.

My trick to making a great pesto is blending the nuts and oil before adding any of the other ingredients. My food processor isn’t exactly a beast, so it takes up to 5 minutes to get it blended as smoothly as I want. If you have a Vita-Mix or other high-powered blender, that would make this a lot easier.

Also, I’m a garlic fiend, so I realize that four cloves of garlic might be too much for some people. Feel free to cut it down to two.

I served this pasta with a roasted portabello. The recipe is in Veganomicon.

Oh, and in case you guys haven’t noticed, I don’t write how many servings are in a recipe. This is because I don’t measure the food I eat – I just eat until I’m almost full. This recipe makes a ton, so it’d be great if you’re feeding a large group or if you want something you can eat for days.

Spinach-Walnut Pesto Pasta
3 cups baby spinach, washed
1 cup fresh basil
1 cup walnuts, raw
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs nutritional yeast
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
1 lb pasta of choice (I used shells)

First, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook noodles according to package instructions.

While the pasta is cooking, add the walnuts and olive oil to a food processor or high-speed blender. Blend until almost completely smooth (time will depend on your machine). Once smooth, add the basil and spinach, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.

Once the pasta is done cooking, drain and place in a large bowl. Toss with the pesto and cherry tomatoes. Serve.

What is your favorite herb/green and nut combo for pesto?

Wacky Cake

What you see in this picture is the most delicious vegan cake I’ve ever made, topped with very simple chocolate and orange glazes.

The recipe for the cake (wacky cake!) is from The Vegan Zombie. There are only a few ingredients, and they’re all pantry staples. I was thrilled when I found the recipe, because I was craving something chocolate-y, but I was out of soy milk. Luckily, this recipe uses water as the main liquid. You can get easier than that!

The cake turned out super moist, almost fudgey.

The icing was from FatFree Vegan’s Chocolate-Orange Cake recipe. In fact, it was two icings. One was a chocolate-orange frosting, and the other was an orange icing. I used some high quality ingredients here, whose tastes shone through in the cake.

(The orange sugar wasn’t for the icing, I used it in the actual cake.)

My brother, a friend, and I all agreed this cake was killer. I keep finding myself going back for more. I’m actually eating some now. 🙂

Fried Rice & A Few Kitchen Faves

Since I almost always have leftover rice in my fridge, I tend to eat a lot of fried rice. It’s easy, and you can use whatever vegetables or protein you have lying around. Apparently I’ve been making it all wrong though.

Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian was one of my wisest purchases. I use it all the time, and if you’re running low on ingredients I’ll almost guarantee you’d be able to find a delicious way to use whatever few things you have left with this book. I have a surplus of rice right now so I was searching for some easy pilafs or something to make. I ended up reading his recipe for fried rice and thinking that I found it odd that he was cooking all the ingredients separately. I never do that – I just saute everything together.

I was intrigued by this method, and made it for dinner last night (using his Thai style variation), and was impressed at how much better it turned out when you do cook everything seperate. Especially the tofu – it was super crispy. I also added some black salt at the end of cooking to give it the “eggy” taste that I used to love about fried rice in my pregan days. So, apparently, cooking everything separate results in every component of your fried rice being cooked perfectly, and when you combine all the ingredients at the end, it’s delicious.

On the back of the plate is a really sub-par green bean salad I played around with. It was gross, so no recipe.

While I was making the fried rice, I was reminded of how amazing jasmine rice smells when it’s cooked. The slightly-sweet, nutty aroma makes me way too happy. It’s one of my favorite scents. The rest of this post is devoted to a few other things I love.

Brussels sprouts! These were roasted with extra-virgin olive oil, nutritional yeast, and garlic salt. I like to keep some around for smart snacking. They’re good hot or cold.

Potato Pancakes! Crispy fried potatoes dipped in hot sauce and ketchup? Awesome.

Open-faced breakfast sandwiches! This is a slightly new obsession of mine. Whole wheat toast, alfalfa sprouts, and tofu scramble.

 

Have you ever found out you were making a favorite dish wrong?

Mango Curry

Most of my friends know the one thing they can do for me if they ever make me mad – give me a mango. Mangoes are the sunshine of my life. Eating the ripe flesh of a mango boosts my mood like nothing else in the world can do. I’ll forgive practically anything if someone gives one to me. They just make me so damn happy!

So, obviously, I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate mangoes into my day-to-day life. And mango curry is a great option. I’ve been craving a Thai-style curry for a while, and since I finally got my hands on some red curry paste (why is it so hard to find in Virginia Beach? ugh) I figured today would be a nice opportunity to get my curry fix and try something new.

Here’s my basic recipe for the curry I made tonight. It was good – spicy with a hint of sweetness.

Mango Curry

2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 small red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
1 small jalapeno, de-seeded and minced
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 can full-fat coconut milk, plus 1 can’s worth of water
2 Tbs red curry paste
1 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs tamari
1 block extra-firm tofu, pressed and cubed
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
1 bunch Thai or regular basil, chopped

In a large saucepan over medium high heat, saute the onion in the oil for 5-7 minutes, until the onion begins to turn translucent. Add  the red pepper strips, garlic, ginger, and jalapeno, and saute for a few more minutes, until everything is fragrant. Add the coconut milk, additional water, curry paste, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil.

After the curry is boiling, turn the heat down and bring to a low simmer. Add the tofu and mango. Let simmer, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes for all the flavors to come together. Right before you turn off the heat, add the basil. Serve over jasmine rice, or another grain of choice.

I loved having a curry with fresh fruit in it. I think the next curry I make will have pineapple – I once went to Thai Basil in Asheville and ordered a pineapple curry that was out of this world. Have you ever had a curry made with fruit?

Birthday Lunch

Today might be my 25th birthday, but I just don’t feel like baking a cake for myself today like I’ve done in years past. Instead, I’m treating myself to tapas and drinks with a life-long friend. However, I did make one of my all-time favorite meals for lunch – mujadarah.

I’ve written about mujadarah before (a variation using chipotle peppers and adobo sauce), and it’s a dish I find myself making all the time. It’s so simple – rice, lentils, onions, spices. One of the reasons I enjoy eating this so much is that you can twist the ingredients to suit your mood. Today I added orange juice and zest to the Veganomicon recipe. After cooking, the orange flavor was very subtle, and made the dish interesting. I topped it off with some orange pulp habanero hot sauce.

The tempeh was marinated for half an hour in soy sauce, veg broth, curry powder, and mirin. It was then fried lightly in olive oil until browned.

Mujadarah is awesome because it is so damn filling! Brown rice and lentils will fill your belly, nourish you, and keep your wallet heavy. Do any of you have creative ways to change up the basic recipe?

Hermits and Toast Cups

Food that is cute is so much fun to eat. Sure, you could eat tofu scramble with a side of toast. But why not do something fancy with it. Like this:

I saw this on Your Vegan Mom‘s blog. It’s one of those things that, despite being ridiculously easy to do, will undoubtedly impress your friends. I baked the toast cups while I made the scramble, and it was done in 20 minutes. I kept the scramble super basic – just tofu, spices, and shredded carrots.

I really enjoyed chowing down on these for breakfast. They were a little messy (the scramble kept falling out), but in all honesty I stuffed these suckers to overflowing.

Another breakfast option I’ve been eating lately are the coffeehouse hermits from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Regular readers of Ahimsa will know that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and that I’m not particularly fond of anything overly sweet, so I was thrilled to find out after baking these that the sweetness is very subtle. The coffee flavor is deep, and I love the chewy raisins. I’ve been eating these on my 45-minute walks to work every morning, and I’ve become somewhat addicted. I topped them off with a little orange sugar that my awesome vegan chef friend made. The only problem I encountered with this recipe was that I had to add almost a cup more of flour than the recipe called for.

Picadillo

The weather here at the beach has been so beautiful. With temperatures in the high 70s and cloudless skies, spring is already in full swing. Flowers are blooming everywhere, the beach is full of people, and everyone just looks happy that winter is over. I’m happy as hell to be able to walk outside in a tank top and flip flops.

Although fall has always been my favorite season (those beautiful colors are mesmerizing!), I’ve always loved spring because it feels like a good time to start on something new. Everything around you is sprouting up after a long winter, there are new buds on the trees…. why not start something new in your own life? It can be a fresh beginning.

Anyway, you came here for the food. For lunch today I made picadillo, a Latin American dish similar to the American hash. I stumbled across the Wikipedia article which highlighted some regional varieties of the dish, and created this recipe that combines a little from both the Domincan Republic and Puerto Rican versions.

This is an easy recipe to make, and a lot of the ingredients are probably already in your pantry. This recipe is going into weekly rotation for me – I love the combination of flavors (allspice, green olives, capers, tomato) and the versatility of ways you can eat this. I served this along with brown rice, but it can be used in a wrap, as the filling for savory pastries, as stuffing or in tacos. Get creative!

The rum-soaked raisins are particularly awesome, so although you can omit the rum and just use the raisins plain, I would definitely recommend the rum. It’s delicious. The rum I used is actually from Latin America, but use whatever you have.

Here’s the recipe. If you make it let me know what you think.

Picadillo

2 cups tvp granules
1 3/4 cups water
2 Tbs tamari
1/4 cup raisins
1 Tbs rum
3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp allspice
1 (150z) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup capers, drained of brine
1/2 cup whole green olives, pitted
Fresh parsley, to garnish

First things first – soak the raisins in the 1 tablespoon rum and set aside. Allow to soak why you prepare and start cooking the other ingredients.

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the tvp, water, and soy sauce. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Stir, and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the onions and green pepper for about 7 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, tvp, and spices and saute another 3 minutes, until the tvp is browned. Stir in the tomatoes, drained raisins, capers, and olives. Lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 5 minutes to heat through. Remove from heat, and garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

 

Seitan Piccata

When my 2+ year relationship ended a couple of months ago and I was forced to get used to single life again, I realized that I had acquired the bad habit of spoiling other people while forgetting to treat myself. I would cook lavish meals for my ex and I to share, but whenever I had to feed only myself, I would basically eat whatever shitty food I could whip up quickly. I would put so much effort into impressing or taking care of people I loved, but I never gave myself a second thought. I have no qualms about admitting that I come first these days – I think it’s incredibly important to be mindful of your own happiness before you even consider trying to make someone else happy.

An example of this newfound wisdom of mine is the seitan piccata I made for dinner last night. In the old days I would have saved this fancy dish for a date night or for feeding friends, but treating myself with this delicious dinner for one lifted my mood and satisfied me to my core. The recipe is from Veganomicon, and although not at all difficult to make, it is time-consuming, especially if you don’t have any seitan already made.

Piccata is basically just a way of preparing a protein by lightly breading and frying it, and then topping it with a sauce of lemon, fat (traditionally butter, but in this case extra virgin olive oil), and parsley. Since Isa and Terry are kitchen geniuses, they added wonderfully salty capers and kalamata olives to the recipe.

Although mashed potatoes as the base of this dish sounded delish, I had no potatoes on hand. Instead, I made creamy polenta seasoned lightly with garlic salt and olive oil. The green beans were frozen, thawed and boiled. Like I mentioned above, it’s actually a really easy recipe to make, there’s just a lot to do at the same time (unless you have time to make some of the components ahead of time).

I really enjoyed this piccata. The combination of flavors and textures were really satisfying, and it was also very filling. Cooking something fancy for myself turned a casual Tuesday night dinner into something special.

What are your favorite ways to treat yourself?

My Favorite Breakfast for Lunch

SURPRISE! Ahimsa is alive and kicking again!

After a tough weekend at work, I let myself sleep in this morning. So I had a nice big breakfast… for lunch. My favorite breakfast in the world is something savory, filling, and versatile – tofu scramble and tempeh bacon.

The tempeh bacon is from Vegan Brunch, but if you don’t have that cookbook (and, let’s be honest, you should. It’s incredible.), recipes abound on the internet. Just like anything else, the longer you let it marinate, the better it’s going to taste.

Every vegan has their preferred method and recipe for their favorite tofu scramble. My technique involves a tip I learned from, again, Vegan Brunch. It involves using a wet seasoning mix – spices and dried herbs mixed with water – and adding it to the tofu after it is browned in oil. I was in the mood for a few kalamata olives, so I decided to mix up an Italian-style herb mix (sage, basil, thyme, garlic, and salt). Of course, I also added the expected turmeric for color, black salt for the “egginess,” and nutritional yeast for the super-awesome vegan points. I finished it with fresh chopped parsley.

I love dry tofu scrambles. When I first went vegan, my scrambles were always wet, with a bit of liquid oozing out. Gross. It’s really important to press the tofu as much as time allows, and to cook the rest of the water out.

Tofu scrambles are an easy, cheap, and fast meal solution. Most importantly, a scramble is completely open to customization. There is no end to the combinations of veggies and spices you can add. You could get fancy and finish it with white truffle oil; you could add Mexican spices, salsa, and guacamole; it’s great in a burrito or on a breakfast pizza; or heck, put it in stromboli.

So guys – what are your favorite tofu scramble variations?

(psst – don’t forget to like Ahimsa on Facebook!)

What I’ve Been Eating: Jan 2012

I’ve had so much time to cook lately, and it feels great! Cooking releases so much stress for me, and I get really excited about having loads of times to try new things. Here’s some of what I’ve been making recently.

Tofu Jerky & Flax Crackers
Both of these recipes are from Another Fork in the Trail. I really like this cookbook (thanks again Pandacookie!), and these are two of my absolute favorite recipes.

Unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures of the finished recipes, and since I’ve long since ate everything, I’ll just have to tell you how great both turned out. The tofu ends up looking and tasting better than any store-bought jerky I’ve tried, and I can’t wait to make a huge batch of these to take hiking/camping with me.

The sun-dried tomato flax crackers are really simple to make, plus they are super-filling. They make a great quick snack, especially with some nut cheese or pate.

Garlic Cream Dressing from Rawvolution

This dressing only contains 5 ingredients, and it’s a beautiful creamy sauce. I had this over a simple baby greens-apple-carrot salad, but I’ve also had it over steamed veggies and it was great.

Roasted Potatoes and Greens

This is a recipe I’ve been developing, and I should have it for you guys soon. Every time I make this it’s even better than the last time. Basically it’s potatoes and a green (in this case Swiss chard), and a really delicious, slightly creamy sauce. It’s definitely not low-fat though! It’s pretty oil-heavy, but eaten sparingly that isn’t a bad thing. This is a great side dish.

Pizza!!

This is a homemade crust made with half all-purpose and half spelt flour, topped with Muir Organics pizza sauce (my favorite – there’s so much deep flavor!), pepperjack Daiya, roasted red peppers, Twin Oaks chorizo, and broccoli. It was slightly spicy and very delicious.

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A couple weeks ago I mentioned there would soon be a post on pan-sauces. I haven’t forgotten to post it, but I’m still working on perfecting the recipe. The last couple times I made it wasn’t as good as the previous recipes, and I want to make sure what I’m posting is delicious. Here’s a teaser photo though:

Have a good weekend! 🙂