Peanut Curry Tacos Because Taco Cleanse

Good evening and welcome to Blog Update After Two Gin And Tonics Night! Now that I've "achieved" "adulthood," just two cocktails can make for some pretty entertaining VEGAN MOFO so let's get this party started like we're 25 and we're up past our 10 pm bedtime!!

I have little to say about this dish, other than obviously it combines three of my favorite things - curried tofu, peanut butter and tacos. This is pretty simple and quick(assuming you don't regularly spend 20 minutes looking for spices like I do), and tasty to boot, so I'm pretty proud of this dinner. Perfect for the working mom!

#joke #neverhavingchildren

(headlamp edition because it's dumpster night)

Here's the stuff you'll need for these yumtown tacos (serves 2-3 because #singlelady and #leftovers):

1/2 small/medium onion, chopped
2 Tbl olive oil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp thyme
1 Tbl curry powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbl Texas Pete or other Louisiana style hot sauce of choice
1/2 a crown of broccoli, chopped
1/4 block extra firm, well-pressed tofu
2 Tbl nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 Cup chopped red cabbage
2 Tbl natural peanut butter
1/4 Cup coconut milk
also corn tortillas #duh
fresh cilantro

Get yourself a medium-sized cast iron skillet, and heat 2 Tbl olive oil in it over medium heat for about a minute. Toss in your onions and sauté for about 5 minutes. Toss in the cayenne pepper, paprika, thyme, curry powder, black pepper and salt, chili powder and garlic powder and mix thoroughly. Stir over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add the hot sauce and stir to mix evenly.

Next, add your chopped broccoli and sauté for another 5 minutes. Toss in the tofu and make sure everything is evenly coated with spices.

Once evenly coated, add your nutritional yeast coat evenly. Toss in the red cabbage and stir another 3 minutes. Finally, stir in the peanut butter until it is homogeneously mixed throughout the veggies. Stir in the coconut milk and cook on medium heat another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool.While you're at it, heat the tortillas using a small skillet (no need for oil or butter here) over medium heat for about a minute at a time, then flip.

Spoon the mix onto freshly toasted tortillas, and top with fresh cilantro. Need I even say it? Best paired with a freshly cracked PBR.

(Side note: these are good for boosting morale after a highly unsuccessful dumpster dive. It sucks that you can't hit the jackpot every time.)

Sausage Egg and Cheese McMuffins and ALSO VEGAN MOFO KICKOFF

Ladies, it's here. The month I always look forward to each year, in my long and storied history of veganism.

Which is nearing two years by the way, so I will now confess to you that only last year I discovered VeganMofo's existence, and THIS year I decided to participate. I figured blogging every day for a month wouldn't be too difficult but clearly I have already blown it by failing to post on the very first day. #theveryfirstday

So getting off to a great start. What is Vegan Mofo, you may ask? Is the the scary-looking, pleather-jacket-wearing biker dude with face tattoos at your neighborhood bar who will slash your tires for eating fried chicken? The name of Isa Chandra's pet bulldog? The newest vegan video game where you ninja-style destroy the owners of confined animal feeding operations and set free herds of cattle into the streets of southside Chicago?

Sorry, those are all good guesses, internet, but Vegan Mofo is the month of the year when we all come together as a vegan blogging community and celebrate our commitment to the lifestyle, our good jokes, our recipes and stories, our collective sass and our individual struggles. Like WHAT IN HELL in an OPML file?

Check out more at VeganMofo.com, where you can get a complete list of all the participating blogs and stare at cool vegetable cartoons and get altogether lost in a world of vegan internetness.

SO let me "start off" by apologizing for the run-on nature of this post. I haven't even started the real recipe yet but I've already started to notice. I attribute this completely to my recent massive intake of John Green videos. He's the sort of person whose vlog style is all about talking and talking and talking and occasionally switching viewpoints but never speeds, really, which I find incredibly endearing and thus I have subconsciously taken up certain mannerisms of his. As you can see.

In a related note, if you aren't familiar with the Vlog Brothers, here's a thing that could possibly change your world.

Speaking of changing your world, on to the McMuffin.

At first I thought that I wouldn't really call this a "recipe post" so much as a "post where there's a pretty picture and I show you how to make a sandwich." But then I decided that the eggish tofu was a big win for me, and let's face it not everyone "knows" how to "make a sandwich."

Also it's worth noting that I enjoyed this sandwich so much that I stole my brunch companion's half-finished sandwich when he was in the bathroom and finished it in 20 seconds.

Here's the stuff to get for this fantastic hangover companion:

English muffins (ALERT. I know we're all adults and we are pretty good at checking labels and reading ingredients, but be aware that English muffins are rarely vegan. It's strange, I know, but most contain whey at the very least.)
a tomato, sliced
cheese  (I used Daiya havarti-style wedge, sliced. Literally yum.)
1/4 block extra firm, pressed tofu
1/4 Cup soy creamer
1/4 Cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pack of sausage (I used gimme lean)
2 Tbl pure maple syrup
1 tsp red pepper flakes

See how easy that list is? Nothing scary and foreign, just mostly some good old grocery store corporate vegan food. :)

The assembly is fairly straightforward, right? You've got your cheese. You've got your tomato. The tofu is supposed to be the quote "egg" part and the maple sausage part is, well, the sausage part. Let's talk about the tofu.

First, slice your tofu pretty thin. Next, in a small bowl, whisk together the creamer, nutritional yeast and turmeric. Salt and pepper to taste. Prepare a small skillet with a dabble of vegetable oil, and heat on medium high. Dip your tofu slices in the creamy nooch mixture, then fry on medium high until golden brownish on each side. Voila egg life.

The sausage is easy too. Using your fingers, mash together the maple syrup and pepper flakes with the sausage. Pat these into patties and pan fry like you're supposed to. Like.. medium? In a skillet?

There you have it. Now crack open a PBR and let's get this crazy party month started!!

This is My Buddha Bowl (and a ramble on vegan running)

This was my last cooked dish before my most recent half-marathon, and I gotta say, it definitely energized me to finish. It's amazing what we can accomplish with plant power when we are not hungover!!

Here's what went into this bowl:

Citrus Black Beans and Rice
Coconut-Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Steamed Kale
Baked Peanut Tofu

#yumtown

The kale and the Brussel Sprouts are pretty self-explanatory, so I won't delve into detail with them here. But let's talk about how this all went down. A lot of people ask me about how to cook certain things sometimes, and I always tell them that most of the time, it's a simple process - you just need to get your timing right. Which gets easier the more you cook! How convenient.

First, preheat your oven to 400. Thankfully, the sprouts and the tofu need about the same time to roast/bake, so no headache needed with your oven. While your oven is preheating, mix the tofu sauce. Here's what you'll need:

1/2 Cup peanut butter (chunky - always chunky in my world!)
2 Tbl Bragg's liquid aminos
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 Cup water
1 Tbl brown sugar

Whisk all ingredients together really well. Then toss with well-pressed, cubed tofu. I used about 1/3 a block with this dish, since I was only serving one.

[crickets]

Throw your tofu in a glass baking dish and prepare your sprouts. I love sprouts because they are super easy and not as terrible tasting as childhood folklore holds. Also they are good for you? Half them (because it's precious) and place face down in a cast iron skillet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Once your oven is heated, throw those suckers in. About 5 minutes later, take one spoonful of coconut oil and toss it in your cast iron wherever you please. This will seep through the Brussel Sprouts and make them mega-tasty. Now close the oven, you dummy!

The cool part here is that you get to wait another 20 minutes before needing to do anything again. You can do dishes or push-ups or laundry or update your blog (nope) or chase your roommate around the house for a good old fashioned tickle fight or walk to Spencer's for a double espresso. But after the first 20 minutes of roasting, take both dishes out and flip them to let the other sides bake evenly. Then put them in for another 20 minutes. (For English majors, this is a total of FORTY minutes for baking).

After you've gotten from espresso from Spencer's and have flipped your oven babies, start the rice. This stuff is BOMB and I must give a huge shoutout to my boy Justin Philalack (roommate and culinary artist extraordinare) for this inspiration. It's easy peasy, delicious and full of nutrients perfect for kicking ass at a half-marathon in a relentless rainstorm.

Grab these things:

rice (however much suits your fancy)
1 can black beans
1/2 orange peel, minced
2 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbl Braggs liquid aminos
1 tsp ginger powder, or 2 tsp fresh minced ginger (better. obvi)

Cook the rice first. This should be simple. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat the garlic in a dab of olive oil over medium for about 2 minutes. Add the orange peel and stir to incorporate for about 1 minute. Then stir in the rest of the ingredients, and heat on low, stirring occasionally, until the rice is finished. Once it's done, drain the rice and incorporate into the black beans.

Done! Somewhere in there should be the steaming of a good handful of kale. But all it requires is 5 minutes of heating in a pan (with a little bit of water) with a saucepan lid over the kale to keep in the steam. Duuh easy.

This was the longest race as a vegan, and I gotta say, it felt pretty damn good. I know I didn't train well enough, but adrenaline and crowds and Katy Perry and American-flag-guy and goal-setting got me through it. It's unfortunate that we have grown up believing that animal products supply us with bountiful nutrients we can't get anywhere else - that are in fact vital to a physically demanding lifestyle.

Just for example, this meal alone (one serving) contains the following:

Vitamin C -294%. Vitamin C forms important proteins that build tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and skin. It also acts as an enzyme in the breaking down of all your delicious front-porch meals, AND acts as an antioxidant to clean up the mess that all those free radicals make when you break down food. Vitamin C keeps you younger longer and keeps your body functioning with efficiency!

Iron - 71%. Some vegans/vegetarians don't get enough iron in their diet, which is simply because they don't eat enough vegetables. It is found in lots of animal products but is just as abundant in dense vegetables. We need iron to make certain proteins in our body, and also to carry oxygen to blood.

Vitamin B-6 - 40%. Protein is essential to building muscle mass to prepare for a race, but it is nothing without a good dose of B-6, which is crucial in breaking down those proteins. It also produces antibodies that fight diseases and keep your immune system strong.

Magnesium - 42%. One silly obscure mineral that is actually involved in more than 300 biochemical functions in your body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady, supports a healthy immune system, and keeps bones strong. It also helps regulate blood sugar levels, promotes normal blood pressure, and is involved with metabolism and protein synthesis. Woah!

Vitamin A - 133%. Helps maintain healthy skin, teeth, skeletal and soft tissues, mucus membranes, etc. This stuff helps keep us healthy when we are putting our physical bodies under great stress.

Calcium - 53%. Clearly very important for keeping your bones strong! It also helps the messaging system between the nerves and muscles and brain efficient.

Protein - 39 grams. Any vegan gets this question all the time - "But where do you get your protein??????" It can get frustrating talking with people who refuse to believe that you are in fact getting enough nutrition to be a runner, cyclist, casual waterpark volleyballer, etc. on a plant-based diet. I don't want to hop up on a conspiracy-theorist soap box or anything, but there truly is a LOT of nutritional propaganda put out there by the meat industry. They want us to believe that a) we need more protein than we do and b) that we can only obtain said massive amounts of protein through animal products.Check out the Vegetarian Resource Guide for a more detailed breakdown on the nutrients at play here.

Potassium - 831 mg. Potassium is important. The end.

Vitamin K - 600%. What???? That's like, 6 times more than what is recommended by our socialist president Barack Hussein Obama???! Check it out - kale is super high in Vitamin K, which is good for your blood and good for your bones. It helps prevent calcification in your arteries AND is good for your liver.

Fiber - 87%. Besides the obvious benefit of keeping you "regular," which is a HUGE advantage to a fiber-rich diet (vegans are the quickest poopers), it also can reduce your risk for breast cancer.


Now that I am finished with the half-marathon, I am now training for my FIRST FULL in October! It's terrifying and exciting and I can't wait to share how it's going. If you are a vegan athlete, holler and me and share your favorite pre-race recipes!

Spicy Cashew Miso Tofu

I've been really into stacks lately. They just look so gee-dee fancy. So simple and yet so elegant. Like this dish: simply sliced tomatoes, seasoned quinoa, steamed kale and spicy cashew miso tofu, plated with sriracha. Most elements to this dish are relatively self-explanatory, so let's dive into the tofu.

First and foremost, always press your tofu. This can be done overnight in your fridge, for an hour while you're doing laundry or updating your blog, or in ten minutes with a paper towel while your'e downing your first working-PBR.

This isn't quite a marinade tofu dish, so go ahead and preheat your oven to 400.

Here's what you'll need for the mix:

1 cup cashews
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup chili garlic sauce
3 Tbl miso paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

In a food processor, process the cashews with water until creamy. Then add remaining ingredients to the processor and pulse until thoroughly mixed.

Lay out your tofu flat in a casserole dish, and pour over your cashew mix over the tofu.

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes, then remove from oven and flip the tofu with a fork. Return to oven and bake again for another 25 minutes.

To assemble a dish like this, I use a ramekin. I just layer each piece of the dish into the ramekin, obviously putting the top layer in first, and making sure everything is packed tight into the dish. Then flip it over onto a plate, and top with toppings and/or sauce. Easy peasy and elegant to boot!

Breakfast Pizza

I have been dreaming of making a breakfast pizza for FOREVER, and today I finally had the day off work to do it.

There are four basic elements (read: four different stages of prep work [read: four different rounds of dishes]) of this pizza: homemade pizza dough (obvi), sweet avocado sauce for the base, tofu scramble with peppers mushrooms carrots spinach, topped with maple tempeh bacon. Geeeeeee.

As always, I recommend Isa Chandra's pizza dough recipe, which is straightforward and thorough. Also, I've covered the basics of tofu scramble somewhere on here before, so we'll skip that tutorial.

The maple tempeh bacon, however, requires some forethought. Make this one day ahead. Here's what you'll need:

1/2 package of tempeh
1/2 C soy sauce
2 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chile powder
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 T pure maple syrup

Slice the tempeh into thin strips, and place in a shallow dish big enough to lay each strip flat. In a small sauce pot, heat the soy sauce and apple cider over medium-low heat. Once heated, add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Add the remaining spices and stir on low heat for another 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Once cooled, stir in the liquid smoke and maple syrup.

Pour the marinade over the tempeh strips, making sure that each one is completely inundated. Cover with plastic wrap and chill (bro) in the fridge overnight.

Now it's PIZZZZZZA TIME. Let's talk about the sauce.

No literally, let's have a conversation about pizza sauce.

Well no one has called or texted or g-chatted me yet so I'll continue with my MONOlogue about this pizza sauce. Now would be a good time to mention that I have a "thing" for avocado, and this sauce is not for the faint of heart. It's a little sweet, but definitely avocado-y and therefore definitely earthy and... avocado-y. Get these stuffs:

1/2 an avocado
1/2 C raw, unsalted cashews
1/4 C water
1 T honey (or your preferred sweetener if you don't "believe in" honey)

In a food processor, pulse the cashews until crumbly, then slowly add the water until it's all creamy and what have you. Add the avocado and honey (or your preferred sweetener if you don't "believe in" honey), and puree until it's all smooth and what have you. Look down into that little food processor hole and see if the sauce is all "loosey goosey" or all "stiff and boring." If it's all "stiff and boring" and might not hack it as a pizza sauce, continue to process and slowly add more water, one tablespoon at a time. I confess I was not diligent in writing down all of these measurements. Just pretend you didn't hear that.

Wait! Before we get any further, go ahead and preheat your oven to FIVE THOUSAND -- I'm sorry -- FIVE HUNDRED degrees.

So! Prepare the crust, spread the sauce, and cover the pie with your tofu scramble. Top with the maple tempeh bacon strips and, when your oven has done its "thang" (read: preheated), throw that pie in for 20 minutes.

Serve with coffee and good poems!

Simple Green Curry Soup

GRACIOUS ME do I love anything curry. Green curry, what will we do with you? I am in love. For life, green curry. I am yours for life.

So this post is less of a recipe and more of a love letter to green curry. I do love making my own curry paste from time to time, but this wasn't a cooking-intensive day so we shall save that recipe for another time.

Here's how I made this soup-for-one. It is literally easy. Literally.

Stuffs:

1 clove minced garlic
2 small yukon gold potatoes, washed and chopped
1/2 carrot, sliced
a couple stalks cauliflower, chopped
1/3 package tofu, drained and pressed
1 T green curry paste
1 tsp yellow curry powder
1/2 C spinach, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 C coconut milk
1/2 C almond milk
1/2 C water

Bring oil to a current over medium-low heat, then saute garlic. Add potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add carrots, cauliflower and tofu, followed by curry paste and other spices, and stir to coat veggies evenly. Cook veggies another 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then add the spinach and cook another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes. Finally, add almond milk and water, and simmer until evenly heated throughout.

Green curry, I'm not sure I could love you more. One of the most delicious meals I have ever had in my life (this is a very serious matter) was the green curry soup at Roots, on Bardstown Rd. in Louisville. I spared no emotion in relating my feelings to my server, Guy, who seemed to appreciate my appreciation. I feel silly just simply saying "it was a spiritual moment" -- I wanted to go buy Guy a Christmas present. I felt like we were friends. I almost got him hot pink socks from Urban Outfitters.

I confess, I was simply trying to replicate this soup tonight. Of course, it couldn't hold a candle, but I offer you this poem, green curry soup, as a token of my love for you.

He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven

W.B. Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams, green curry soup.

Tofu Pot Pie

Whew! Tofu pot pie. This was a grand adventure. I am sad to report that one of the three pies I made fell on the oven door as soon as I removed it, but the other two were plenty tasty.

Pot pie is tricky business, and I’ve learned there are two different rhythms of veggies to prepare. They are as follows:
1. In a skillet, sauté onions and garlic in a gratuitous amount of margarine. Add tofu and sprinkle in a handful of flour. Add mushrooms and 1.5-2c soymilk and stir for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the hardy veggies - boil anything like squash, taters, carrots or beans that need a little more cooking, for about 10 minutes. Drain and add to tofu mixture. Save a bit of water too, to add to the mix. If you want to add (canned) peas, do that last.

Once all cooked and good, let chill in the fridge.

Crust: I use Vegan Dad’s crust recipe, which is bomb but requires an extra step. He says freeze 1/2c margarine and 1/2c shortening for a half hour, then grate it into 2.5c flour (plus a pinch of salt). Gradually add tablespoons of ice water until you get a good dough.

Cashew Curry Tofu

Curry is my favorite dish IN the world. Normally I use a canned paste or make my own, but this one was a lazy curry so I just used curry powder.

Heat rice to a roiling boil then cover and simmer. Meanwhile, sauté onions and garlic until translucent. Add diced potatoes and cover, let simmer 15 minutes. Add lightly fried tofu (fatty!) and stir a few minutes. Add half a can (or however much you’re in the mood for), of coconut milk, raisins, cashews and curry powder. Cover and simmer another 15 minutes. Serve hot over rice.

Baked Tofu Sammich with Mushrooms and Spinach

Sammich. Pressed tofu baked in a shallow pool of balsamic vinegar. Sautéed spinach and mushrooms, Daiya, broiled open-face for a few minutes. And sriracha, of course.

Scramble and Hash Breakfast Burrito

Breakfast burrito! Filled with rosemary hash brows and tofu scramble.

Scramble: sauté garlic and onions till translucent. Add veggies (here I used mushrooms and finely chopped kale). Gradually crumble in well-pressed tofu. Add water occasionally to keep from sticking. Stir in spice mixture of sage, cumin, paprika, turmeric, nooch, salt and pepper. Cover and stir occasionally, adding more water if needed, for 10-15 minutes.

The wrapping is tricky. I always use aluminum foil to keep it held together tightly.

Smoked Tofu Pizza with Cashew Spinach Sauce

Killer pizza.

I usually use Vegan Dad’s dough recipe, but this time I used Isa’s. Both are stellar.

The tofu here was marinated overnight in Frank’s redhot, liquid smoke, balsamic vinegar and soy milk.

The sauce is a purée of spinach, cashews, coconut milk, basil, salt/pepper.

Topped with Daiya, mushrooms and artichokes.

Basic Tofu Scramble

It’s amazing how much I love tofu scramble, considering how much I have always disliked scrambled eggs. It was the smell that got me. Ew.

I have prepared this dish so many times I could do it in my sleep. Start off with the onion garlic thing - sauté in a skillet (cast iron FTW) on medium-low heat until translucent. Crumble in well-pressed tofu with your fingers (serving shown here is 1/3 a package). Add a little bit of water to keep the tofu from sticking (continue to do this as needed until it’s done - which shouldn’t be very much). Stir a few minutes and add veggies - here I used snap peas and red peppers. Stir for 5 minutes, then add softer veggies like mushrooms and spinach. Grate in carrot just to be fancy. Add spice mixture - muy importante. I use an eyeball mix of cumin, paprika, sage, salt and pepper, turmeric, and nooch. Continue cooking another 5-10 minutes. Most important: follow your heart