Category: Food Blog

A sporadically-updated log of what I cooked, why, and how. Not a recipe creator. Mostly Vegan MoFo posts.

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Food Blog

Hummus twist

Pretty basic, but:

  • 1 can cannelloni beans
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • about 1/3 cup almond butter
  • splash or two white wine vinegar
  • nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt

Blended in the food processor until nice and creamy. Good with bread (but what isn’t) and fresh slice tomato.

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Food Blog

Multi-purpose pesto drizzle

I signed up for Vegan MoFo, so maybe I will post more. Not that anyone follows me…which is all well and good, really. But for that, I really ought to bother to take pictures of my food. So more more plain text monstrosity.

This one’s easy: pesto dressing.

  • basil leaves – like, a handful
  • walnuts – also something like a handful
  • garlic – five or six cloves
  • olive oil – just poured some in
  • nutritional yeast – as much as it took
  • lemon juice – fresh squeezed, most of one
  • salt – just a pinch
  • water – to thin it out for blending purposes

Put in blender. Blend. Blend some more. Let sit.

We ate this with baked tofu + tomato slices, mixed greens and spinach, and brown rice. But it would work with any number of things, because pesto. Yup. That’s it.

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Food Blog

Two-fer

On Sundays, I pick up two cubes of fresh, locally made tofu at the farmers’ market. This comes in a baggie and does not last long, so I’m always making different tofu dishes on Monday/Tuesday evenings. And on weeknights, the boyfriend and I discuss dinner via text–today’s suggestion was tofu and soba noodles. A good combination.

So I made:

  • Baked tofu in homemade spicy teriyaki marinade
  • Shredded raw vegetable salad with cashew-sesame dressing
  • Soba dressed simply with chives and toasted nori

That’s two sauces, with a splash of things in noodles that isn’t really a sauce.

First, the teriyaki tofu.

Marinade (which I did not actually measure, so this is approximate):

  • Two cloves garlic, microplaned
  • 2" piece of ginger, microplaned
  • One tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
  • Two tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
  • One tablespoon mirin
  • One teaspoon agave nectar or maple syrup
  • One teaspoon hot sauce

Other ingredients:

  • About half a cup of thinly sliced red onion (I used a leftover half of a large onion, sliced into quarter moons)
  • Half a pound of fresh tofu, sliced to fit in your baking dish (I put mine in an 8" glass square dish, which fits four thick slices perfectly)
  • Black sesame seeds to cover

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Mix the marinade in the bottom of the baking dish, then toss in the onions to cover with sauce. Move aside the onions and dredge the tofu slices so each side is covered and place them in the baking dish, with the saucy onions gently layered on top. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds. Bake for about 20 minutes, flip, and bake another 20 minutes.

Shredded vegetable salad is up next.

You can make this with any vegetables you like, though firmer ones hold up better–more crunch, less wilt. This is the balance I had:

  • Red cabbage, about ¾ of a medium head (it’s what I had sitting around) – thinly shredded
  • Half a long cucumber, julienned to the core (I tossed out the seeds)
  • One carrot, julienned
  • One red bell pepper, seeded, quartered, and sliced thinly

Dressing (again, all approximate, because I’m a degenerate):

  • Quarter cup raw cashew butter (toasted would add too much of a strong flavor–soaked and pureed cashews would do instead)
  • Tablespoon seasoned rice wine vinegar
  • Teaspoon toasted sesame oil
  • Splash soy sauce or tamari
  • Water to thin out to desired consistency

I just whisk this all together in a little bowl and pour over the shredded vegetables, then use tongs to combine.

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Food Blog

garam masala-spiced cashew butter and lemon

The sauce I make most often is a simple dressing that’s a variation on the following formula: nut butter + acid (vinegar or citrus) + seasoning + water to desired consistency.

Tonight I made a kale salad intended to eat alongside a warm channa masala (chickpea curry) and brown rice, so I wanted to tweak the formula to complement more cooling elements (kale and cucumber) but have a tiny kick.

Dressing:

  • About ¼ cup creamy cashew butter
  • Juice of one lemon
  • One garlic clove, microplaned
  • Few shakes of prepared garam masala spice blend
  • PInch salt

The dressing ingredients are whisked together in the bottom of a big metal mixing bowl. It takes a little roughhousing to break up the nut butter, often – tap the whisk against the side of the bowl, use it to mash the elements together, until you can really cream them together. It shouldn’t take too long. Once they begin to come together, add a little water and keep mixing until you get the consistency you want to dress your salad (or whatever). I find that for a salad that serves two I use about two tablespoons of water.

Salad:

  • One bunch curly green kale, stem removed, leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
  • One cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely diced
  • Half a medium red onion, thinly sliced into quarter moons

Raw kale salad, if you’ve never had the pleasure, is made using a massaging technique to break down the tough leaves. Use your hands to squeeze and knead the leaves in the mixing bowl. Really work those things. As you do this, the dressing should be getting mixed around too, and it helps with the massage process (what good is massage without massaging oil?). The volume of the leaves will reduce by almost half. Don’t worry, they still have some crunch! Plus you’ll add other chopped veggies to keep things fresh.