Macaroni & Cheeze, oh yeah.

Vegan Macaroni & Cheese is a popular dish among vegans, both raved and grumbled about. I have tried many versions of this dish and honestly, I have enjoyed each one. Macaroni & Cheese was a staple of my childhood so I’m always game for a new recipe to try out. In the January + February issue of VegNews, in the “Veganize It” column, a recipe for the pasta caught my eye. It’s different than other recipes I’ve made in the past (no nutritional yeast!) and I made a mental note to try it in the future. Tonight for supper, I finally got around to making it and below is photographic evidence of the results.

This turned out to be a wonderful meal, creamy and comforting. I found it to be quite different than the other nutritional yeast base recipes with it’s addition of pureed vegetables which lended a nice, homestyle quality to it’s flavour. I definitely recommend this recipe although next time I’ll up the spice amounts to give it a bit of a flavour boost.

Here’s the recipe in pdf form but I’ll type it up here in case you’re link-a-phobe (I know I am).

VegNews’ Macaroni & Cheese

Serves 6

4 quarts water
1 tablespoon sea salt
8 ounces macaroni
4 slices of bread, torn into large pieces
2 tablespoons + cup non-hydrogenated
margarine
2 tablespoons shallots, peeled and chopped
1 cup red or yellow potatoes, peeled and
chopped
cup carrots, peeled and chopped
cup onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup water
cup raw cashews
2 teaspoons sea salt
teaspoon garlic, minced
teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
teaspoon black pepper
teaspoon cayenne
teaspoon paprika

1. In a large pot, bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

2. In a food processor, make breadcrumbs by processing the bread and 2 tablespoons of the
margarine into medium-fine crumbs. Set aside.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, add shallots, potatoes, carrots, onion, and
water, and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are
very soft.

4. In a blender, process the cashews, salt, garlic, remaining margarine, mustard, lemon juice,
black pepper, and cayenne. Add the softened vegetables and cooking water to the blender
and process until completely smooth.

5. In a large bowl, toss the cooked pasta and blended sauce until completely coated. Spread mixture into a 9 x 12 casserole dish, top with prepared breadcrumbs, and dust with paprika. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese sauce is bubbling and the top has turned golden brown. Enjoy!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Or Pie. Or Pah.

(The title comes from a discussion with my sister.  I frequently converse with her about what I’m baking via MSN Messenger and I was telling her about this Cookie Pie which I suppose is really more of a cake but whatever and she said that she can’t say pie without a Southern accent ever since we watched Waitress a few weeks ago.)

 I have had a cookie cake once before in my life.  It was years ago, I was probably six.  But I still remember how awesome it was and have always meant to try another one.  So I finally baked one this evening.  I used Kittee’s Blondie Recipe using a container of soy yogurt for the egg replacer and leaving out the nuts (not that I have anything against them, I live with people who do).  I threw the dough into a greased 9 inch round cake pan and baked it for 40 minutes (next time I’d bake it for a bit longer, it was a tad underbaked not that it was a bad thing though.  I like gooey).  It was fantastic!  This is a most wonderful cookie recipe (I also ate more than a fair share of the dough) and the Cookie Cake was the delightful, chewy wonder that has been stuck to my memory for all these years.

Happy New Year!

I received The Joy of Cooking for Christmas and I have been perusing this vast book, eyeing recipes to veganize.  One such recipe I stumbled upon was one for Hoppin’ John, a dish I have vaguely heard of, the description mentioned that it was to be eaten on New Year’s Day so I thought what a perfect opportunity to not only test my new book but become associated with Southern cuisine.

Hoppin’ John is traditionally a rice and black-eyed pea pilaf that is cooked with ham, sausage or bacon.  I have decided to ditch the meat by way of smoked tofu, which is an ingredient I’ve actually never used before.  (I’ve also never cooked with dried beans so this is all new territory people, seems to be an excellent way to start the new year)  Sometimes on New Year’s Day, a new dime is hidden in the dish and the person who finds the coin is guaranteed good luck throughout the rest of the year.  I have decided to not participate in this custom as I am fearful of killing someone which would be a horrible way of starting 2008.

For this recipe, I used my brand new cast iron dutch oven I bought on Boxing Day for only $30!  If you don’t have an oven safe pot, just transfer the mixture to an oven-safe dish with a cover when you need to bake it.

Hoppin’ John

adapted from The Joy of Cooking.

For the beans:

1 1/4 cups dried black-eyed peas
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (about 1 1/2 onions)
2 cloves of garlic
1 package of smoked tofu (my package was 100 g)
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
3 cups water
salt and pepper

For the rice:

Vegetable broth
1 tbsp olive oil
1 package (I ended up only using 3/4 of the 100 g package) Smoked Tofu, diced (I would have liked to use tempeh bacon but I had no tempeh so if you have some and are inclined to make a batch, use a few strips!)
1 1/4 cups brown rice
1 tsp salt

To finish:

1/4 cup parsley, minced

For the beans:

1.  Combine 3 3/4 cups of water and the peas in a pot.  Cover and soak overnight.

2.  Once your peas are soaked, drain and rinse them well.  Place them in a pot and add onions, garlic, smoked tofu, thyme, crushed red pepper flakes, bay leaves and water.  Bring to a simmer and gently simmer uncovered until the peas are tender (about 30-50 minutes).

3.  Drain and reserve the cooking liquid.  Remove and toss the bay leaves.  Transfer the pea mixture to a bowl and season with the salt and pepper to your liking.  Cover and set the bowl aside.

For the rice: 

1.  Add enough vegetable broth to the reserved cooking liquid to make 2 1/2 cups of liquid.

2.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

3.  Using the pot you used to cook the beans, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add the smoked tofu (or tempeh bacon) and cook until lightly browned.

4.  Add the rice and salt.  Stir to coat the rice with the oil for about 1 minute.  Add the pea cooking liquid and pea mixture.  Bring to a simmer.  Once simmering, stir once, cover and place in oven.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid.

5.  Add the parsley (which as you can see in my photo, I forgot to do), fluff the rice and mix it all up.  Before diving in, let the dish stand uncovered for 10 to 30 minutes.

Happy 2008, everyone!

More Christmas Cookies…

I believe that this is the third post in a row that features Christmas cookies (Edit-I checked, no it’s not).  Today is the Shortbread edition.

I love Shortbread cookies (it very well could be because of my heritage) and when I think of Christmas cookies these delicately textured and flavoured biscuits come to mind.  My mother made these cookies from a recipe borrowed from a co-worker a few years ago, and they were delicious buttery little mounds.  I haven’t had Shortbread since before going vegan and have been wanting to veganize this recipe for awhile now.  Shortbread recipes are simple (traditionally they are one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour, that’s it!) but fear of it resulting in a too-salty cookie (shortbread recipes always seem to call for unsalted butter and Earth Balance is well, quite salted) prevented me from any attempts.  Today I was feeling courageous and decided to give it a shot.

As you can see, I succeeded!  The Earth Balance was a fine replacement, I had no reason to question its purposiveness.  The cookies turned out just as I remembered (god I’ve been nostalgic lately!) and not all too-salty and with a wonderful melt-in-your mouth texture.

Shortbread Cookies

1 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease (or use parchement paper) a cookie sheet.

1.  Cream the Earth Balance and the sugar (I sifted the sugar into the earth balance to avoid those clumps typical of confectioner’s sugar) until just blended.
2.  Sift in the cornstarch and the flour and mix until well combined.
3.  Roll heaping teaspoonfuls of dough in to balls, drop on to sheet and flatten slightly into discs.
4.  Bake for 7-10 minutes, until the edges are just golden.

The edges of the cookies may turn a little wonky (mine did) because of the high fat content of shortbread.  So I just took a round cookie cutter and cut the baked cookies into circles to make perfect little cookies.  Top the cookies with a Maraschino cherry halve if you so desire for a festive look.   I got 16 (or 18?) cookies out of the deal.

Baking with Grandma

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my grandmother and baked a batch of Christmas cookies with her.  Okay, my grandmother is not a woman who cooks so I made them.  I make these Sugar Cookies that Nowhey over on the ppk forums posted awhile back. These are the best Sugar Cookies ever. I make them quite frequently, in fact I think for every holiday since Nowhey posted the recipe…Christmas…Valentine’s Day…Easter.  I look for any excuse to bake these and nothing says Christmas like cookies shaped as christmas trees, snowflakes, stars and gingerbread (sugar cookie?) people.

Sugar Cookies

2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

egg replacer = to 1 egg
4 teaspoons soymilk
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease cookie sheets.

1.  Cream the shortening, sugar and vanilla extract together thoroughly in a large bowl.
2.  Add the egg replacer (I have used a few different ones and I find that my preferred ingredient is 1/4 cup soy yogurt) and beat until light and fluffy.
3.  Stir in soymilk.
4.  In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
5.  Add the dry mix to the wet mix, blending until combined. 
6.  Chill dough for at least an hour.
7.  Roll out dough to a 1/8 inch thickness and cut out desired shapes.
8.  Bake cookies for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the size.  Cool on pan slightly then remove from sheets. 
These cookies were approved by my grandmother (she ate at least 5 that afternoon) and the rest of my family are huge fans as well and the cookies will most likely be making more appearances this holiday season.