Cookbook challenge! (from PPK) 11. Vegan Fire and Spice
A group on PPK is doing this, and I think it's a great idea! We're going to go through a group of cookbooks to try new recipes. Join in, post what you made, what you thought, and some pics! Do whatever weeks you want, however many days per week you want, and however many recipes you want-one, some, all, whatever! I want to be on the same time frame as PPK (so I can do both), so we'll do the rest of this week VCON (through Sunday), and start anew on Monday, with the next book. I've included a couple options, too. I think we might throw VCON in again, later, so we can have more time with it. Let's do it! (sorry about the day/time difference for you outside USAers!)
In order of use:
- VCON (Thursday, 27th-Sunday, 30th)
- VWAV (Monday, 31st-Sunday, 5th)
- VB (Monday, 6th-Sun, 12th)
- Yellow Rose and/or Radiant Health, Inner Wealth (Monday 13th-Sun, 19th)
- Eat Drink and Be Vegan and/or Vegan Table (Monday 21st-Sun, 27th)
- Vegan Planet (Mon, 28th-Sun, 4th)
- Vegan Soul Kitchen (Mon, 5th-Sun, 11th)
- Vegan Vittles and/or VCON )Mon, 12th-Sun, 18th)
- How It All Vegan
- Get It Ripe
- Vegan Fire and Spice
eta: if you want to follow the ppk challenge, it's here: http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=102840&p=1
No, YOU won't bite my butt. But instant karma might! ;)
p.s. Does this mean you think my butt is less appetizing than beer-battered tofu?
i'm eating the chelsea waffles right now. second time this week. it was a waffle night!
Those waffles rock.
Ok! For my last recipes of the week, I did Italian feast sausages, basic scramble with black olives and carrot, and English muffins.
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs241.snc1/8820_261204240532_507120532_8851390_3295023_n.jpg
Sausages: It looks a lot better than it turned out. Thankfully, I only unrolled one foil, and noticed that it probably wasn't done. I'm not completely sure what the texture is supposed to be after steaming, but I don't think it's supposed to be gummy. I tried to saute some pieces, but that didn't really work either. I had some crunchy bits that were good, but it was otherwise really gummy, and weird. The flavor was pretty good. I used fennel powder instead of seeds, because I didn't know I was out. I also added in some dark beer for half of the veg. broth. I'm going to try to re-steam the other foils, or maybe boil? I dunno.
Scramble: Yum! A really good scramble. I don't like huge pieces of tofu in my scrambles, and this turned out just right. I didn't use any thyme, because I never like it, so I added some onion powder and rosemary, along with the cumin and turmeric. I added the olives and carrot, along with some red hot pepper. It turned out pretty perfectly.
English muffins: Mmmm. I could tell after pan-frying, and baking, that they were actually going to be English muffins, but I was slightly disappointed that I didn't have many nooks and crannies! I made myself knead it for like 10 minutes, which I never do... I don't know how to get the nooks, but they do taste like English muffins, and they are really good. I forgot the cornmeal on the first two, and I ended up using blue cornmeal on the rest, because it's what was on top. I could have added more. They are good! I'm going to toast some.
Your english muffin looks amazing, AC! you're making me hungry! :D
Looks good! I have Radiant Health and hope to join you this week with a new recipe I haven't tried.
I started early with RHIW. I made:
Rich tomato sauce but I had to use a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, instead of the mix with tomato sauce (so it wasn't as saucy). I usually make my own sauce, so I decided to try this mixture. However, I did use a small onion processed with the garlic (instead of the granules). I'm sure the lack of sauce was part of it, but the color came out a bit off..just not as red as regular. That's fine, though. It tasted good, but it was a bit too sweet! I don't usually add sugar to my sauce, but I think the onion might have made it sweeter, too. Nice to try.
Kid's kale Not too different from one of my usual kale preparations, so it was good. I didn't use black kale, and I didn't do ribbons. I did stick with the 2 cups, and it turned out to be a lot less than we usually eat, but that's fine. It was good with the pasta.
I put leftover VB Italian feast sausages on the top, and they were great. I had to re-boil then, and then sauteed them..and they are 876% better than the first one I had.
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_262885130532_507120532_8887649_6040314_n.jpg
For dinner tonight, I wanted something really simple and non-fattening so I made the Moroccan Quinoa and Anna's Zucchini. They were both really easy to make but really, really good! I had never used that exact technique with zucchini, it was so simple but really tasty. The quinoa had a really wonderful flavor, especially since it's a "green" recipe (lowfat, ultra-healthy). I love all of the contrasting spices and flavors, so yummy!! I will be making a staple out of both from now on!
Am I supposed to copy this into the RHIW review thread? Not sure, so I'll do it just in case.
Am I supposed to copy this into the RHIW review thread? Not sure, so I'll do it just in case.
I'll see it, and add it either way, so it doesn't matter! : )
Wanted tofu and wanted something simple and fast, using stuff I already had without going to the store. "Yellow tofu" came through. I was a great combination of tastes. I didn't have onion or garlic "granules" but had powders...is garlic powder the same as garlic granules? Or is granules bigger. Nonetheless it was fabulous.
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs260.snc1/10720_1136229204746_1197836956_30351937_3622229_n.jpg
I don't know why I'm choosing "kid" recipes, but I made the kid's favorite fried rice. I couldn't wait to let my rice be "leftover," so it didn't have the right texture, but it was still a tasty, easy dish. I used kale instead of spinach, and some fresh corn. I also added some veggie broth powder. Realllyyyy simple if you already have the rice done.
I forgot to take a picture!
eta: I don't use granules either, tweets. I have had them before, but I just forget to buy them. They are different. I think I'll make the yellow tofu sometime.
Tweety, there's a note in my book about garlic granules. I think you can look it up in the index. Glad you liked the Yellow Tofu, I've been craving it lately too! :)
AC, you should just go to the kid-friendly section of the book and do those recipes. Cut out the middle man. :)
I've been trying to be less of a fat butt lately, so I've been using a lot of quintess' "green" recipes and some "blue" recipes. So, tonight I made the Black bean, cilantro, and apricot salad. It was so good!! I didn't expect it to have so much flavor for being so low in fat and calories, but it was absolutely mouth-watering. I tossed everything together and ate it without marinating it much and it was still good. Absolutely fabulous!
Thanks Tess...I'll read up on that. I like the fact the recipe was quick and easy. The combo of tumeric and dill is not one I've tried before, but it was good!
I don't have any pictures of these but I made the Cocoa Raspberry Muffins from VB and although they tasted fantastic, they didn't rise much (in fact, most of them rose a tad and then sunk.. boo) and I think I put in the called for 1 1/2 c raspberries but, although I loved the flavor of them they just ended up being gooey-raspberry inside which then made the 'cake' part of the muffin get gooey too, altogether giving quite a bizarre texture I must say.
Like I said though, the flavor is fantastic. I'm going to make them again soon and cut down the Raspberries (and cut them in half maybe, so they're not so big?) and make them rise a bit more.
I added the optional 1/3 cup choc. chips because I had a teeny bit I needed to get rid of and also because we take muffins as snack to work/class so we enjoyed the extra sweet. They made the gooey texture not too terrible by adding a bit of a crunch!
Yay!
Thanks to tweets' picture, I made the yellow tofu for breakfast. It was perfect, because I had 1/2 block of tofu leftover in the fridge, and wanted something just for me. Plus, I had leftover brown rice, so I could have it just like tweets! ; ) I like the dill addition, and the flavor was really good. Mine was a bit salty, and I didn't add the additional salt. It was realllyyyy easy (like under 5 minutes), and very tasty! Oh, and good with sriracha.
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_264258970532_507120532_8916996_5380396_n.jpg
Today I made the green chili and tomatillo tamales.
I've never made tamales before, but I've eaten them lots of times. These were actually the best tamales I've ever had! I can't believe I made tamales all by myself! But I did it, and I feel so proud of myself! They felt really light (as quintess says, they have way less fat than regular tamales), but were really satisfying. I used the green chili sauce recipe from RHIW to top them and it was a delicious combo. They were especially good with some vegan sour cream on top with some beans and rice on the side. Oh, and I should mention that I was concerned at one point that the mixture wouldn't firm up. But letting them steam the whole hour made them firm up great. They really need that whole hour I think. Overall, an excellent recipe---Success!!!
Vegshari, are you one of Quintess' relatives?! ;)
Vegshari, are you one of Quintess' relatives?! ;)
Soul sister maybe! :)
I wanted to make some mushroom gravy, so I went back to VB, and used that recipe. Really good! I used a leek instead of onions, white mushrooms, and dark beer for the wine. I had it on top of some identity crisis potatoes (was going to mash them, but lightly sauteed them instead), with cauliflower and salad.
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs261.snc1/8820_264586470532_507120532_8923212_5838274_n.jpg
I've been mostly eating out today (shame!) but I did manage to make a breakfast drink. I made the Four Goodness Shake. I haven't used carob much, but it was very enjoyable. I like how the flavor is sweet enough without using sugar, too. I shared some with a friend, and she also really liked it. Good start to the day!
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