Roasted Eggplant Muffuletta Sandwich

This is a recipe from Veganomicon. I have been eyeing it since I got the cookbook and finally made it the other day. I am going to make this many times more.



You can find the recipe in it's entirety here.

I didn't change anything about recipe. It is perfect the way it is. You need to press the sandwich for a few hours prior to the devouring and you should have seen all the physics text books I had stacked on top in my office. It was comical.

Notes
My husband thought this needed a creamy layer, like a mozzarella cheese. Maybe some tofu would suffice? I thought it was great.

Pizza!

My husband and I regularly make pizza. Well, I usually sit on the couch, drink wine, and chat with my husband while he makes pizza. The recipe below is all based on my observations with some input from him.




Ingredients
pizza dough (bought from the grocery store. Now that we have a bread machine it will be easier to make our own)
homemade hummus
potatoes
sun dried tomatoes
olives
caramelized onions (we made these in the crock pot. Super easy.)
basil
oregano
rosemary
red pepper flakes

Method
According to the husband:

The pizza dough is really hard to roll out, so I usually roll it out a bit, then put it in the cast iron skillet to heat it up some. When it is warmer, I roll it more and go back and forth until the dough is of a sufficient size.

The thinly sliced potatoes are cooked in a bit of water in a sauce pan until they are par-cooked.

Now that your dough is sufficiently large, spread the hummus (or tomato sauce, it tasted better then the hummus when cooked) over the dough. Top with the tomatoes, tomatoes, onions, and olives. Top with the seasonings. Bake at 450F until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Notes
The first time I had potatoes on a pizza was when I was hanging out with my friends Mark and Laura and they had just found some potatoes from their garden and they made it to the pizza. I was surprised at how good they are on it. Try it, and you may like it!

We were experimenting with making a large scale hummus pizza. It tastes much better when the hummus is not heated. So I would suggest using tomato sauce. Not that it is bad, just not as tasty as it could be.

Bread Machine Bread

Recently, my husband and I bought a bread machine from Goodwill for $15! We go through bread pretty frequently and with this, it is a lot cheaper and we get the smell of fresh bread in the apartment. I am so happy we bought it.




We use a recipe from Bob's Red Mill for white whole wheat flour. Instead of the water/dry milk called for in the recipe, we use the same quantity of almond milk.

We also proof the yeast before putting it in the machine. I know, they tell you to never do that, but it seems to make the loaf come out so much better. The vital wheat gluten is vital to the success of bread dough in general. It makes the dough rise by about 10% more. We had the dough hit the top of the lid a couple of times.

Also, while the dough is mixing, we open the lid and check for dryness/wetness and add more flour or liquid as appropriate. You can still touch, feel, poke your dough even though a machine is doing most of the work for you.




Look at it! It is delicious!

Almond Milk

Making your own nutmilk is easy, cheap, and delicious. We started making our own when we decided to stick to a food budget and the carton of almond milk was constantly going bad from us not using it fast enough. Now we usually only make enough for the recipe we are using it for.

Ingredients
blanched, slivered almonds (if you do this with whole almonds you will need to blanch them first and discard the skins. I think it makes the milk bitter, or that is what I heard. I haven't tried it with the almonds skins on.)
water
maple syrup (I haven't added sweetening to it in a long time, it doesn't really need it.)

Method
Using a ratio of 1 part almonds to 4 parts water, place the water and almonds in a blender.



Blend until everything is blended about 30 seconds - 1 minute. Add any sweetener. Devour.



Notes
I don't strain this. The almond bits are pretty small and can usually be added to whatever I am putting the almond milk into.

We both think this a pretty fantastic. We use it every Saturday in our weekly pancakes and when we make bread or any other time a milk is needed.

Breakfast for dinner

We needed to use up some homemade bread, so I thought French toast would be the perfect dish. We also had some horribly out of season blue berries that were nearing the end of their life as well, I added them to the mix. Then some potatoes and kale called out to me. As well as the nutritional yeast in my pantry. They all got to come to the party in my belly.





Ingredients
bread
almond milk

blueberries
soy yogurt

yukon gold potatoes
kale
onion
garlic

Cheezy Sauce

Method
Put the almond milk in a pie dish and soak the bread in it until it is nearly soggy, but not falling apart. In a cast iron pan over medium heat, cook the French toast until brown on both sides. Keep warm.

Blend the soy yogurt and blueberries together in a blender. Add an sweetener you desire. I thought it was perfect.

In a cast iron pan, saute the onions and garlic until brown. Add the diced potatoes and cook until tender. I added a bit of water and put a lid on the pan to help steam them a bit. Near the end of cooking time, add the kale and mix until it has wilted. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, basil, more black pepper, and magic.

Warm the cheezy sauce and either pour it over the potatoes or put it in a condiment cup.

Plate it up and eat.

Notes
All of this was great. I liked the cheezy sauce, but there is something about it that makes me want to experiment more and make a better sauce.

The husband thought this was good.

Baja Style Tempeh Tacos

Another recipe from Veganomicon.

I halved the recipe from the book and I used water instead of beer for the marinade because we didn't have any.




My sister bought me a cast iron wok for my birthday and used that to push down the cabbage slaw. It is coming in handy, already! I need to wait until I move next month to season it before I can start using it.





Notes
We both enjoyed these tacos throughly. When I was cooking the tempeh, I just added all the marinade to the pan and let it cook down. My husband couldn't stop eating that sauce. I look forward to making these again.

Tofu "Quiche"

This is based on a recipe from Vegan Brunch. I was a little dubious if this would come out edible, but it was great.





Ingredients
Crust(I used a recipe from Whole Foods for the Whole Family)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 t salt
2 T cold water
1/4 cup oil

Filling
1 - 2 onions
olive oil
1/2 cup cashews (my grocery store does not carry raw cashews, so I used toasted and it worked out fine)
salt
black pepper
sriracha
nutmeg
thyme
1/2 lb extra firm tofu

Method
Crust
Mix the flour and salt together. Add the water and oil using a fork and mix until a dough is formed. It took about 1 minute to properly mix it up. Roll the dough between two sheets of waxed paper until it is a then circle. Place either in a pie pan or tart pan(s). This recipe makes enough for one pie crust or three individual tarts. Prick with a fork and bake at 350F for about ten minutes until slightly brown.

Filling
You are going to caramelize the onions. I usually do this in my crock pot, but I didn't plan it out last night, so I did it on the stove top. A little time consuming and it is worth it.

Place the onions over low heat with enough olive oil to coat and not stick to the pan. Put on a lid and walk away. Come back about every five minutes and stir. They should turn an amber color. This should take 15 - 20 minutes. Now take the lid off and raise the heat to medium. Stir more frequently and let the moisture evaporate. The onions should now turn a dark caramel brown, about 8 more minutes. Taste to make sure they are okay and try to stop eating the whole pan.

In a food processor, place the cashews and process until there are only crumbs left. Pulverize the nuts. Add the seasoning. Whatever you think would be tasty. I will be greatly increasing the seasonings next time. Next add the tofu. Make sure to try to wring out some of the water before adding it to the food processor. Process the mixture until smooth, about 2 minutes. At this point you can add some of the caramelized onions and pulse to chop up into the mixture, then add the rest of the onions and mix to combine.

Spoon the mixture over the crust and smooth the top. Depending on your vessel will determine the amount of time it will take to cook. The full pie should be about 40 minutes, the individual tarts about 20 minutes. It should be browned on top and on the crust.





Notes
As mentioned above, this tasted really good, it just needs more seasoning. I'll add a bit more thyme and oregano as well as black pepper. This is also open to different fillings: spinach, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, olives.

My husband, who is a pie crust snob was incredulous when I told him I was making a vegan crust for the quiche. He is of the school where butter rules all. After this came out of the oven super flaky and good, he said he might use it with his pies. Dairy free crust for the win!

Veggie Calzones

This is a meal my husband made with all his awesomeness.





Ingredients
pizza dough (we picked up dough at the grocery store)
veggie sausage (Tofurky Italian sausages)
onions
garlic
mushrooms
olive bar olives
tomato sauce

Method
Preheat oven to 400F. We do this in the toaster oven and it cooks just as well as in a regular oven.

Sauté the onion, garlic, and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until browned. Add the veggie sausage and cook until heated through. Mix in the olives at the end.

Roll out the pizza dough in a 12" circle. Put on a tiny, little bit of sauce. Add the ingredients. Fold the dough over to create a semi-circular parcel. Bake in oven until browned about 20 minutes.

Fantastic! Both my husband and I love this a lot.

Orzo Pasta Salad

This is another recipe from Supermarket Vegan. I really really like this book. It doesn't have any pictures, but it has a great amount of recipes easy enough to do when ever you have a little bit of time to cook. My only complaint is the seasonings are never high enough, although, I think I say that about every recipe I try.





Ingredients
orzo pasta
lemon juice
olive oil
crushed garlic cloves
salt
black pepper
fresh basil
kalamata or other cured olives (I used a mixture from the olive bar)
artichoke hearts
frozen corn
green onions

Method
Boil orzo until tender, about 8 - 10 minutes. Place the frozen corn in the colander and slowly pour the hot pasta cooking water over the corn. Drain the orzo. Leave the strainer over the sink while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

In the still warm saucepan, place it on the same warm burner and add the oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Stir until the oil smells like garlic. Add the orzo/corn mixture as well as the other ingredients. Stir and either serve warm or refrigerate for three hours.

I wish I had added some red pepper flakes when I was heating up the oil. Other then that, it was delicious. I might add smoked tofu next time I make it, for some added protein.

My husband gave this one two thumbs up.

Breakfast Sandwich

I have previously written about breakfast sandwiches, but since I eat them so much, I thought they deserved another mention.

My husband and I have these about twice a week and after we eat them, we fantasize about opening up a sandwich cart and only serving the best sandwiches.

The toppings tend to change based on what we have in the house but below is a favorite combination:
sourdough toasted bread
vegan mayo
sriracha
pickles
avocado
kale
smoked tofu
sautéed onions

Other optional ingredients:
cucumber
mushroom
fried egg - I do that for my husband
olive tapenade
pretty much anything that is tasty on a sandwich should go on here.

I love these so much and I would make them every morning if avocados didn't cost so much and I need a bit more variety in my diet.