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.)

Roasted Zucchini Pepper Pasta

There are times when I begin writing a blog post and I am overcome almost immediately with the notion that my time would be better spent recreating and re-eating the thing I am covering in said post. It takes tremendous willpower to continue sitting at my desk, writing about the nice-looking photo above and remembering how delightful it felt in my belly. Today is one of those days, so bear with me!

Yes, this pasta dish was incredible. AND nearly all local to boot. The summer is the most fabulous time for my mouth, on account of the abundance of produce in and around my life. Thanks as always to my local farmer's market (and my good friends) for making fresh vegetables available to my tummy. One beautiful thing about this sauce, which I think highlights one benefit of cooking with local produce, is that it is not heavily seasoned. The vegetables sort of speak for themselves in this one.

Here's what I used to make this sauce:

roughly 1 1/2 Cup chopped zucchini (or about 1 "normal size" zucchini - though mine was about the size of a small child)
1/2 Cup roasted red peppers
4 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 an heirloom tomato - all yellowish and reddish, diced

(also you need pasta. obvi)

To begin, go ahead and boil your pasta water to prepare your elbows or whichever pasta you prefer, because the sauce doesn't take too long. I must say, this sauce goes disgustingly well with elbows.

Note: if you don't already "have" roasted red peppers, go ahead and do this first. I have a post on roasting red peppers here if you need some guidance. You obviously may used jarred roasted red peppers but they tend to be pretty pricey. It's quite silly. I roast some every so often and keep them in the fridge and pretend they are from Kroger's, which turns out to be a bad idea because they won't last as long.

Heat a dab of olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in the zucchini and sauté for about 2 minutes, or until slightly browned. Remove from heat and let these cool. Throw them into a food processor, along with the roasted red peppers, chopped basil and salt, and process for about one minute.

Return the sauce to a small saucepan and add the diced tomatoes. Heat for about 5 minutes on low, stirring regularly.

HEY and I bet you thought there was going to be more here, didn't you? No. It is that simple. Other than to say of course, that I garnished mine with a dollop of Tofutti's Better Than Sour Cream, which contains no hydrogenated oils and is delicious to boot. Also a sprig of basil. YUM town.

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!

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.

Pile O' Nachos

Leftover nachos! Blue tortilla chips with Daiya under the broiler. Topped with refried beans, green peppers, sautéed kale and mushrooms, and with mango salsa.

Fresh Spring Rolls

Favorite quick lunch: spring rolls filled with spinach, shredded carrot, tempeh and vermicelli.

Sauce is a mixture of Braggs, chunky peanut butter, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and garlic chili sauce.

Green Pea Samosas

I never wrote down the recipe to these samosas, unfortunately, but I can imagine what it would be like? The dough is made with your basic pastry recipe: 2 tablespoons oil per cup of all-purpose flour, plus add a little turmeric. Make sure to roll them out super flat - these need to be thick enough to hold the hearty filling but thin enough to let the filling speak for itself.

What sort of filling might one use here, you might ask? Traditionally, I'd go with potatoes and peas, green chiles, onion, ginger/garlic/corriander. I'm sure I used some sort of combination of these, but may have also included shredded carrots, as I am wont to do.

AND this has been, The Most Uninformative Blog Update of the Century. Thank you!

(Go read Vegan with a Vengeance. Isa has a fabulous samosa recipe in there. I truly could not improve on it, even if I did right this one down.)

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