Quickest edamame cucumber salad

You guys, this is hardly a recipe. No cooking, and no fussy measurements! It's takes about 5 minutes to prepare. More to the point, I just ate it for lunch and it was damn tasty. Sorry, no pictures, but can you imagine what a nice bowl of edamame and diced cucumber and sesame seeds would look like? Yeah, it looks like that.  Serves 1: scale up as you see fit!

Ingredients:

1/3 of an English cucumber, (or 1/2 of regular-sized cucumber, or you could just use one of those mini-cukes)
About a cup of edamame, out of the shell, frozen or fresh
One shake toasted sesame oul
Two shakes rice wine vinegar
Three shakes toasted sesame seeds
Salt and pepper to taste

Dice the cucumber into small (1/2 inch or so) pieces. Dump them into whatever bowl you want to eat your salad out of. If your edamame is frozen, thaw it in the microwave, or by pouring it in a colander and running warm tap water over it. Pat the edamame dry with a paper towel and add it to the bowl. Add a little salt and pepper, the vinegar, and the sesame oil and seeds. Taste and adjust seasoning. Voila! Time to eat.
Or you can put it in your lunch box for tomorrow!

Bulgur Mujadarra

This is an important staple in our dinner rotation because it's yummy and cheap. I sometimes make this dish with rice, but I like it best made with bulgur wheat.

2 cups cracked bulgur wheat

1 cup dry green lentils

2-3 large onions

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 pinches salt (or to taste)

1 pinch ground cinnamon

1 small pinch ground star anise (if you don't have this, don't worry about it, but it's a nice touch.)

1. In a medium-sized bowl, cover 2 cups of cracked bulgur wheat with cold water. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cut the onions in half lengthwise, and then slice width-wise as evenly as you can. Pour the olive oil into a casserole dish, and add the onion slices, tossing to coat evenly in the oil. Put the onions in the oven--it's ok to do this even if the oven isn't fully pre-heated yet. Check them every 15-20 minutes and give them a stir to help them cook evenly. You want them to turn dark golden-brown and slightly crisp around the edges.

3. While the onions cook: In a medium saucepan, cover the lentils with cold water and bring to a boil. Boil for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and test for doneness. Drain by pouring the lentils into a mesh strainer over a large bowl (to catch the cooking water, which you'll use to cook the bulgur.)

4. Measure out 2 cups of the cooking water from the lentils. If you don't have a full 2 cups, add in plain water until you reach 2 cups. Pour this into a dutch oven or covered casserole dish or oven-safe heavy-bottomed pot. Drain the bulgur, and add it to the dutch oven. Add 2 pinches of salt, a pinch of ground cinnamon, and a small pinch of ground star anise, if using. Stir, cover, and put it in the oven. Cook for 30 minutes, and check for doneness. The bulgur should be cooked through, but still slightly chewy, and the water should all be absorbed. If they need more time, put them back in the oven uncovered, checking again after 5 minutes. When the bulgur is ready, remove it from the oven, and add in the lentils, tossing lightly with a fork. You can put everything, uncovered, back into the oven to warm evenly and dry out a little bit.

5. The onions might be ready by now, but if they're not, just keep checking them and stirring every few minutes. You can turn down the heat to 300 if you're worried about them burning. Once the onions are nice and brown, pour them over the lentils and bulgur, along with the oil they were cooked in, and toss again with a fork.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

A no-measure recipe-- so easy, and perfect for a cold day like today!
Serves 4


Ingredients:
1/4 of a medium onion, or 1 shallot, minced
A few shakes of curry powder
One shake turmeric
One shake cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
1 can pumpkin puree (or of course, you could use fresh  pumpkin, just cook it until soft and mash or puree in a food processor.)
1/3 of a bag of frozen spinach
1 can of chickpeas
Olive oil-- just a little
A little bit of veggie or un-chicken bullion or broth (I like Better Than Bullion No-Chicken Base)
1/4 can lite coconut milk

In a medium saucepan, sautee the onion in olive oil. When the onions start to get translucent, add in the spices. Keep cooking for about a minute to toast the spices, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add in the chickpeas, pumpkin, and about a quart of water. Let this cook for about 10 minutes, and then taste and season with a little bullion, and some salt and pepper. Add in more curry/cayenne if needed. Add the coconut milk and spinach, and cook until the spinach  thaws. Taste, and adjust seasonings, adding more water if it's too thick.

Serve on its own or with some bread and/or salad for a nice winter dinner. This also makes a really nice lunch to bring to work/school.

M-Y-Ogurt

You may recall that a few years ago I tried to make coconut yogurt, pretty much failed at it, inexplicably shared it on this website anyway, and then gave up. I was kind of discouraged, but during the notorious WholeSoy Crisis of 2013 (you know what I'm talking about!) I began seriously thinking again about making my own yogurt, but didn't really have the confidence to give it another try. The thought of making a batch of yogurt that I might end up just throwing out made me a little anxious. Fortunately, my curiosity ended up getting the best of me, and I ended up with a batch of real live plain yogurt! Of soy! That I made all by myself!

A word on texture: One really great thing about making my own yogurt is that it doesn't have all the thickeners and stabilizers that contribute to the sometimes-very-weird texture of commercial vegan yogurt. Homemade yogurt is often a little runny, and there are a number of things you can do to make it thicker. I tried straining the first batch I made (like how you'd make Greek yogurt) which was cool but I found the very extreme thickness disconcerting, so I actually mixed a little bit of the strained whey right back in because  I guess Greek yogurt just isn't my thing. (Isn't it crazy that I've been vegan so long that I completely missed the Greek yogurt craze, by the way? That makes me feel old.)
The other option is to add soymilk powder to the milk, and/or to evaporate off some of the water by extending the heating step by a few minutes before cooling your milk & adding the starter yogurt. I've included instructions for these thickening steps in the recipe below.
I also like having more control over the sweetness of the yogurt-- it's easy, just don't add a whole bunch of sugar. Achieving a really satisfying level of tartness has been a little trickier. While I haven't been able to make a batch of soy yogurt with the same tartness as dairy yogurt, I think my homemade yogurt does usually have a little bit more tang than the commercial yogurt. However, this is something that I'm continuing to work on.

Now for a quick lecture on fermentation. The difference between (soy) milk and (soy) yogurt is bacteria! Our cast of friendly bacterial characters, if we're using the Trader Joe's yogurt as our starter, are Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. bifidum, L. bulgaricus, and Streptococcus thermophiluis. Your yogurt will have the same bacteria as the starter you use-- although since the conditions in your kitchen aren't exactly the same as the conditions at the TJ's yogurt factory, they might be present in different proportions. It's even possible that after a generation or two, you might have fewer species that your starter. I don't know if this has any particular health implications, but there's lots of reading material about probiotics if you'd like to learn more. (Just be warned, there's lots of speculation about what bacteria are "good" and what bacteria are "not good," and a lot of it seems to be written by people who don't actually know a whole lot about science, and throw around the C word a whole lot in a way that to me seems a little reckless. And by C word, I mean cancer, but they might also talk about other words that start with a c such as colitis and Celiac's. Read at your own risk.)
To me, the main thing to take into account is that in order for your yogurt to turn out right, you really have to pay attention to the thermal needs of those bacteria that are working so hard to ferment the sugars in your soymilk and produce lactic acid, which is what you want. If you don't make sure these guys are nice and warm, they won't eat that sugar rapidly enough, and you won't get yogurt. If you add them while the milk is too hot, they'll get burned up and die and then you really won't get yogurt. Be nice to your little bacterial friends, or no yogurt.

Here's what you'll need
The milk: 4-5 cups plain soy milk (I haven't tried this with other non-dairy milks, besides coconut, which was a fail. I know lots of people want to avoid both dairy and soy, but I really have no experience (yet) with making a good non-soy vegan yogurt, so I'm probably not the person to ask.
The starter: 1/4 cup starter yogurt-- I've used plain Whole Soy and Trader Joe's Vanilla, which both work well but if you use a flavored starter, some of that flavor will be present in the final product. After the first batch, you can use your homemade yogurt for the starter.
A container: A glass or plastic container to make the yogurt in. I use a pyrex 1.5 quart bowl with a tight-fitting lid, which is perfect. I've also used a quart-sized plastic tupperware. You could also use a wide-mouth jar.
A warm place: I use my oven with the light turned on, and I put the bowl pretty close to the bulb. I also tried the oven with just the pilot light, but it was too cold. If you have an oven that you can set to the very low temperature of 118 degrees F, or a dehydrator or proofing box that can be set to this temperature, you're very lucky and you should do just that. Alternately, you can use a slow cooker or an insulated cooler with a heating pad, but you'll have to google the directions for doing it that way, sorry!
And a thermometer is kind of a must for this, too-- either an instant-read or candy thermometer will work great.
Optional: 2 Tbsp. soy milk powder-- this gives you a thicker yogurt, but it's just fine without it.

Directions

1. Put your soymilk in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally with a spoon (not a whisk-- that makes the milk too foamy on top.) Heat it like this until it reaches 180 degrees F. I like to keep it over low heat at 180 for about 10 minutes before cooling it down, because this helps give you a thicker end product. Then, remove it from the heat, and check the temperature every few minutes. Once it reaches 120 degrees, you can pour it into your yogurt-making bowl or jar and stir in your yogurt starter. If it's a little cooler that 120 that's ok, but hotter than that and you might kill your starter bacteria, and then your end product will be a bowl of lukewarm milk and you'll be upset. The ideal temperature for yogurtization is between 115 and 120 degrees.

2. Now for the boring part: place your bowl in whatever warm location you've chosen and wait. You'll want to checck the temperature periodically to make sure it's still warm. I just touch the side of the bowl to do this-- what you want is for the bowl to feel just a little warmer than body temperature. After four hours, start giving the bowl a little jiggle to check the texture. You can also taste-test it with a clean spoon. (Seriously, make sure the spoon is clean, and no double dipping!) If it's still runny, continue to keep it warm. This can take a long time, and that's ok! I find that it typically takes 12-16 hours to get to the consistency I'm looking for. Just be patient! Once it's thickened, put it in the fridge to chill.


3. Optional: Straining, to make Greek-style yogurt
If you want to strain your yogurt to make it thicker, you'll need a mesh strainer and some cheesecloth or large basket-style paper coffee filters. Line the strainer with the coffee filter or cheesecloth, place it over a bowl, and pour in the yogurt. Cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to drain for 2-4 hours. Keep checking it until it's the thickness you like. The translucent, pale yellow whey that drains into the bowl can be used for cooking or smoothies, if you want.

4. Now you get to eat yogurt! Put some granola and fruit on there and enjoy! It also makes an awesome yogurt sauce for savory dishes (think raita, tzatziki, that kind of thing) but that's a post for another day.

A note about yogurt failures: Sometimes a batch just doesn't turn out. If your yogurt never thickens, if you want you can reheat, cool it down again, and re-inoculate with some more of the starter yogurt, and try again. This sometimes works, but not always. And don't be too bummed if it doesn't turn out! Cultured foods can be tricky, but you'll get the hang of it as you make more batches.

Harissa lentil burgers

Making  veggie burgers at home is a piece of cake totally manageable, and they're tastier than the ones you buy at the store. And cheaper depending on what you put in them. As in, don't make them out of store-bought seitan and black truffle shavings. (Seriously, why is seitan so  expensive?)

The beets are totally optional; they were just sort of hanging out in the fridge, so I added some to the recipe. They added a smidge of creepy red-meaty color to the insides of the burgers, which I sort of enjoyed, but flavor-wise I don't think they did a whole lot of anything. Leave them out if you want to!

I'd like to redo these with even more mushroom for a less dry texture, but the burgers were delicious and easy so I'm posting the recipe anyway. I'll post the final draft, too!


Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups cooked brown lentils
1/4 cup low sodium tamari
1 small onion, diced
4 oz. (1/2 a package) cremini or button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (panko are usually vegan)
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
2 Tbsp. harissa paste (substitute tomato paste if you don't like/ can't find the harissa)
1/2 cup shredded raw beet
salt and pepper
oil for frying

1. Fry the onion and mushrooms over high heat until deep brown, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool to room temperature before proceeding to the next step.

2. Combine all the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir/ knead with your hands until thoroughly combined.

3. Divide the burger mix into 6 equal pieces (or 8 if you like them a little more modest-sized.) Form each piece into a ball, and slowly press down into a round disc about 1 1/2 inches thick. (Or maybe you like square burgers. Whatever you want! It's up to you.)

4. To cook, fry in a little oil in a cast-iron skillet over high heat for five minutes per side. Don't move them around while they're cooking, so that they can brown on the outside. Bake them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes to firm them up a little more.

Jamaican Rice and Peas

This is called rice and peas, but it's really more like rice and beans. This can be made with pigeon peas or cowpeas, if you want it to be more pea-y and less beany.
It makes a good dinner with just a vegetable on the side, but if you're feeling fancy, or trying to impress someone, it's pretty great served with some jerk tofu. And beer. I guess Red Stripe would be a classic pairing, but I'm drinking Peak Summer Session and it goes just fine, thank you! (I know wine pairings are classy, but what about beer pairings?)
The scotch bonnet peppers in this recipe are really hot, but don't worry because you don't eat the whole peppers in this dish. Rather, you cut a small slit in the skin of the pepper, which allows some flavor and heat to infuse the rice, but not in a way that makes fire come out your ears. Then when it's time to eat, just remove the scotch bonnet. Its really not very spicy at all, and the creamy coconut . milk mellows everything down considerably.
Look for scotch bonnets in a Caribbean market. They can be hard to find, depending on where you live, so you can substitute a habañero or even a couple of minced jalapeños.

Anyway, here's what you need:
1 heavy-bottomed saucepan
1 can coconut milk
1 can red or 1 cup cooked red kidney beans
2 cups basmati rice (that's how I like it but use any long-grain rice, just know that brown rice takes 40 minutes instead of 20)
1 scotch bonnet pepper
3 scallions
1 clove garlic
1/2 inch  piece of ginger
1 tsp. kosher salt, or 3/4 tsp. regular salt

Now, to cook it:
1.  Put the rice in a bowl and cover with cold water. Allow this to soak while you prep the other ingredients.
Wash the scallion and pepper. Trim the roots off the scallions (just the hairy part not the whole white part) and slice them. Cut a slit in the scotch bonnet. Throw those into the pot.
2. Pour the coconut milk into a measuring cup, add enough water to make 3 1/4 cups, and add those to the pot. Add the salt. Grate in the ginger and garlic (or mince if you prefer.) Drain, rinse, and add the beans. Bring everything to a gentle boil. Drain the rice and add that in. You can stir it once or twice but not too much cause it will break the rice, and then it'll be mushy.
3. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 20 minutes, or until the water is absorbed. Allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes (that's when I go to the bodega for beer, if that gives you an idea of the timing.) Fluff with a fork and serve.
4. Eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.
5. And the day after that, cause it makes a lot.

Meat-less pies revisited, and a pita recipe

Do you remember those Lebanese meatless pies I made back in March? Well I finally got around to making a batch with the pita crust, and it was very yum yum. I left out the soy sour cream from the filling, and didn't miss it at all. I also added a little more paprika and cinnamon, and a little extra mint since it's still really thriving in my garden.
One advantage of making a pita crust is that if you have leftover dough, you can make pita bread! They get nice and puffy in the oven. I was too hungry to take pictures, sorry!

Pita dough
Combine 1 packet of yeast with 2 1/2 cups warm water. Let stand 5 minutes.
Combine 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour with 2 tsp. salt. Add to the yeast mixture and whisk until smooth.
Knead in 3 1/2-5 cups white flour, until a soft but not sticky consistency is reached. Knead until stretchy. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm place about an hour, or until doubled in size. Punch down and let rise again. (That step isn't really necessary, but the extra time gives the pita more flavor.)

If you have a pizza stone, this is a great time to use it. Place the stone near the bottom of your COLD oven and preheat to 450 F.
If you don't have a pizza stone, you can preheat a cookie sheet and bake the breads on that.

To Make Pies:
Divide your dough into 12-16 equal pieces. Roll them out to 1/4 inch thickness and spoon some of the "lamb" mixture into the center. (Don't worry if they're not perfectly round, just do your best.) Bring up 3 sides of the circle and pinch together in the middle. Pinch the seams closed to form a triangular pie. Brush the tops with olive oil. Bake them 2 or 3 at a time on the preheated baking stone or cookie sheet for about 9 minutes. The tops should be barely golden and the dough should still be soft.

To Make Pitas:
Roll out the dough into 1/4 inch thick rounds (or ovals or amoebic shapes or whatever) and let rest 5 minutes. Bake on a preheated baking stone or sheet until puffy, about 5 minutes.

Serve the pies and pita with some green salad, and maybe some hummus and baba ganouj, for a gigantic and tasty Middle-Eastern feast.

Summer corn soup

5 ears of corn, shucked with the silk removed

3 scallions, washed and trimmed

1 serrano (or jalapeno) pepper

2 Tbsp Earth Balance

1 qt water

Salt and Black pepper, to taste

1. Roast the pepper by holding it with tongs over an open flame until the skin is wrinkly with black spots. Or, you can cook it in a dry skillet over high heat. Shake the pan frequently so it doesn't stick. Once it is nice and toasty, remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool. Once it is cool enough to handle, cut it in half the long way and remove the stem and seeds. Mince one half of the pepper. (Adjust the amount of pepper to your taste, but remember that the corn is very light in flavor, and it could be overwhelmed by too much chili.)

2. Use a sharp knife to remove the kernels of corn from their cobs. Then, use the back of the knife to scrape the juice into a bowl.

3. Chop the scallions and set aside.

4. In a heavy-bottomed pot, melt the earth balance. Add the corn and corn juice, along with the scallions and chili. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the water, salt and black pepper. Bring the broth to a simmer, and then cook for an additional 5 minutes over medium heat.

5. Puree the soup in a blender in batches, filling the blender only halfway for each batch. You don't have to go crazy trying to make this 100% smooth; a few kernels of corn are nice.

6. Impress your friends!

Lazy Pants Macaroni

This is pretty good.

Boil 2 c. water with a sprinkle of salt and one (minced) clove of garlic and a shake of chili powder.
Add 1 c. shell pasta (or whatever shape you feel like, gosh.)
Reduce heat to medium.
When almost all the water is gone, add 2 Tbsp. tasty flakes (aka nutritional yeast), a couple grinds of pepper, and a smidgy pinch (in the ballpark of 1/8 tsp) or dijon mustard. Cook until the water is absorbed.
Eat it. You might want to use a fork, but no judgments either way.

Bubbe's Kasha Varnishkes

When I was a kid, my mom would always try to persuade me to eat kasha varnishkes, and I would tell her that I hated it because it tasted "like dirt." This is probably because I hated anything that was whole-grain until I was about ten, and kasha is made of buckwheat groats, which are very whole-grainy-seeming to a little kid.
Now, you may ask, what even is kasha varnishkes?
Well kasha varnishkes is a traditional Eastern European Jewish dish made of buckwheat groats with bowtie pasta, and it often has onions and mushrooms as well. I myself have more or less refused to eat kasha varnishkes since about forever.

Well, one of my grandmother's favorite activities is to bring food to me (we live in the same neighborhood.) In the last few years, this has been a bit of a problem for her since she's somewhat overwhelmed by the idea veganism and vegan cooking. Lately, the main thing that she seems comfortable making without any meat or eggs or dairy is soup.
Soup! In July!
So I told her, Bubbe, it's the summer. You have to stop bringing me soup to eat because I'll just put it in the freezer til the fall, anyway.

So do you know what she brought me instead?


Well if you guessed kasha varnishkes, you guessed right.
And I tried it.
And it was delicious! I mean, really really delicious! I ate the whole container full of it.
I think the reason I didn't like it when I was little was because it has a very earthy flavor--maybe because of the minerals in it? Kasha is a good source of iron and phosphorus, and if my Bubbe cooked it, it's also a good source of onions. It's traditionally made with an egg, but this is Bubbe's veganized version.
Incidentally, she says this is "a pain in the ass" to make. I say, totally worth it.
You can eat it hot or room temperature. Oy! So good.

Chop one large onion, and cook it in a saucepan over low heat in some olive oil. Add 1 cup kasha and cook until the kasha is toasty. Add 2 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt (Bubbe never adds salt, but I do.) Cover the pot, and simmer for about 12-15 minutes over medium-low heat. You want to cook it until the water is absorbed and the kasha is fluffy.
Meanwhile, cook 1 lb bowtie pasta (farfalle) in boiling water until it's tender, around 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, brown 8 oz. sliced button mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil.
Once the kasha is finished, fluff it with a fork and add the mushrooms and bowties.

Lebanese Meat-less Pies

Ok, here's my vegan version of something delicious that I used to eat a long time ago: lebanese meat pies. They're tasty, but they're traditionally made of lamb, which isn't really my style. So here's my lamb-friendly version, 'cause of this t-shirt.

You'll need:
1 1/2 cups dry TVP granules
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 tsp. vegan Worcestershire sauce*
2 tsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce*
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. sweet paprika*
1/8 tsp. ground cloves*
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint leaves
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (traditionally you're supposed to use pine nuts, but I'm not that rich right now)
1 Tbsp. soy sour cream
salt and pepper (how much? you ask. Figure it out yourself! I believe in you!)

1 package filo pastry and some oil, for brushing

*these ingredients are not traditional, but they help the TVP not taste bland

So that was a lot of ingredients! Well, if you're still feeling ambitious you can wrap these lil' guys in home-made pita dough, but I'm gonna take the shortcut and wrap them up in pre-made phyllo. Cause that's how I roll.

Ok so here we go. Let's make the filling:
1. Heat up the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and spices and saute, stirring occasionally.
2. Mix the Worcestershire, soy sauce, tomato paste, and boiling water. Pour this over the TVP. Let this sit for five minutes, and then add it to the skillet. Adjust the heat to medium, and let it sit. You want the TVP to brown a little bit, so don't stir too much! Cook for 15 minutes, and then remove from heat.
3. Pour the TVP mixture, walnuts, lemon juice, herbs, and soy sour cream into a mixing bowl and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Now you have to find something to do while you wait for that to cool down to room temperature. (Like for instance, check if anyone posted on your facebook wall? Brush your hair? Walk the dog?)

4. This is the tricky/ fancy part. If you don't want to deal with it, you could also serve the filling inside of store bought pita, especially if you warm up the pita first. Otherwise, follow these instructions for how to fill the pastry. (I could describe it for you but it would not help you one bit. Just watch the video.) Bake them in a 350F oven for about 15 minutes, until they are golden.

They are a bit involved to make, and they will disappear quickly so you might be annoyed. Sorry? Um, enjoy.

Smoky Lentil Soup With Spinach

There's nothing very exciting about lentil soup. Still, this is some goooood soup! Especially now, when there's a foot of snow on the ground here in Brooklyn. I decided to season the soup with smoked paprika and lemon zest, and I used some split red lentils for the sake of a) speed and b) prettiness. I got the idea to season lentil soup with smoked paprika from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, whose The Minimalist column in the NY Times will be sorely missed, at least by me. (And please, please note that this dish is actually part of a healthy meal, and not a house made of cookies and candy! Don't accuse me of just wanting you to eat junk.)

You'll need:

1 lb. split red lentils
1 lemon
1 medium onion
1 large carrot (or two small)
2 stalk of celery--I know, I know, I really had a thing going with just one of everything! I guess you could use one if you wanted?)
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup oil (I used canola. Use whatever oil you like!)
A handful of frozen spinach, thawed--I used about 3 ounces, which were left over from another dinner this week. Or, if you want to use fresh, that would be awesome, obviously.)

Heat the oil in a large pot with the bay leaf. Dice the carrots, onion, and celery and add them too. Saute these veggies together until the onion looks translucent and the carrot is starting to think about maybe getting tender some day. While this is going on, pour your lentils into shallow pan and sort through them. This way, if the package had any lentils or bugs or clumps of dirt or other kinds of legumes mixed in, you can avoid putting them in your soup. Once you are satisfied that your lentils are in fact lentils, dump them into a colander and give them a quick rinse. Then they go right into the pot with the veggies. Add enough water to cover everything, plus an inch. (Not a very precise measurement! I swear, it's really okay; you can add as you go.) Add the smoked paprika and stir it in.
Bring the lentils to a boil, and then you can turn down the heat and let everything simmer on medium to low heat for about 40 minutes. The exact timing varies every time you cook dried beans. Just give them a stir every now and then. Add water periodically, so that the lentils always have some water covering them.
While all that's going on, you need to drain your spinach. Once it has thawed, grab hold of it and squeeze all the water that you can out of it (hold it over a bowl or the sink.) Yes, you lose some vitamins this way, but you avoid turning your soup green. If you really really can't stand throwing out the baby with the bathwater (wait, I mean....) then it's really your call, cause it's your soup. That's all I'm gonna say about that.
Plop the spinach down on a cutting board and chop it up. You don't want long stringy pieces of spinach falling out of your spoon and making you look like a fool when you eat.
Now wash your lemon and, using a microplane or box grater, grate as much zest as you can from the skin of the lemon. (Keep in mind that with zest, you always want only the yellow part on the outermost layer of skin, not the white stuff underneath.) Put all your zest to the side--now comes the juicing part. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze as much juice as you can from each half into a bowl or cup. You can strain it to remove any seeds, or else you can fish them out with your fingers (or chopsticks if you're really, really good at chopsticks.)
Once your lentils are soft, season to taste with salt and pepper. If you want, you can puree the soup in a blender (or with an immersion blender if you have one!) After pureeing, add in the spinach you've chopped.
Immediately before serving, stir in the lemon juice and zest. It's pretty hearty, so it can be a meal on its own, especially with some whole-grain bread. Yum!

Does it seem like I'm the worst blogger ever? And butternut squash ravioli.

I know I haven't posted any tasty things in months. MONTHS!
But yesterday I made butternut sqash ravioli and I want to tell you all about it.

Did it take about three hours? Yes, it did. Was it totally worth it? Yes, it was.

Did I do that totally lame thing I do and not take any pictures, even though everyone knows that's the whole point of a food blog? Ummm..... maybe. But I'll tell you how to make ravioli! That should count for something, right?

You'll need:
One butternut squash
One box firm silken tofu (such as Mori-Nu)
One medium onion
Dried sage
Garlic powder
1/2 lemon
2 tsp white miso paste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 cups flour--I used 1 cup each of semilina and whole grain spelt. I don't necessarily recommend using the spelt, since it's rather low-gluten and therefore a little hard to handle in the dough. That said, I did it and it turned out fine.
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

First, make the squash: Use a big sharp kitchen knife to cut the very top and bottom off the squash. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to peel off the skin, and scoop the seeds out of the middle. Cut the squash into 1-inch cubes, coat with a little oil, and bake at 400 degrees until they're very tender. (This will take about 20 minutes.)

For the dough: Combine 1/4 of the tofu, 1 tsp. of sage, 1 tsp. salt, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and 3 Tbsp. water in a blender. Puree until smooth. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl or onto a large clean surface, like a cutting board. Make a well in the center of the flour, and pour the tofu mixture into the middle. Using your fingers or a fork, incorporate the dry stuff into the wet stuff. If it's really too dry, you can add a little more water, one tablespoon at a time. You need to really knead this dough a lot before it will come together, so don't get discouraged! Once the dough finally comes together, knead it for about five minutes so that it can get nice and stretchy. Wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for an hour.

While the dough is resting, combine the miso, juice of half a lemon, and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix until it's all incorporated. Add the rest of the package of tofu, and mash it all together. It doesn't need to be perfectly smooth, but you want the tofu to absorb all the flavors. Add salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Next, cut the onion in half, and slice thinly. Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, and add the onion to it. Add 1 tbsp of dried sage. Stir occasionally until the onion is nice and brown and caramelized. (This part makes the whole house smell yummy.)

Add the squash to the onion and smush with the back of a fork and comine the squash and onions into a nice little filling for your ravioli.

Now, tear off a small hunk of dough--more or less 1/3 cup. Place it on top of a piece of wax paper and pat it out into a flat round disc. Use a rolling pin to roll it out (very gently) until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Now, do exactly the same thing to another piece of dough so that you have two pasta sheets of about the same size. Lay one sheet on a flat surface and scoop teaspoonfuls of the tofu mixture about 3 inches apart. Scoop the squash in the same way right on top of the tofu. Use your finger or a pastry brush to brush some water around all the little mounds of filling. Lay the second sheet of dough on top of this and gently press the dough down around the scoops of filling so that it will stick. Use a knife or cookie cutter to cut out the raviolis, and place them on a plate dusted with cornmeal or flour. Continue to do this until all your dough is gone--you can re-roll the scraps of dough until you run out.

Now just boil them in salted water until they float! Now you are an accomplished ravioli chef. (Just like Chef Boyardee?)

Cheater "Chicken" Salad

I can't really take credit for this recipe, since I started with Trader Joe's mock chicken stir-fry strips. I just made the dressing. But it's hot outside, and this was quick and easy! So this is like The vegan version of "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee." Except that I wont' tell you how to make a cocktail and tablescape (what even is a tablescape?)
I can't find my camera so I didn't take pictures (I'm sorry!!! I'm the worst at that!)
Naturally, I didn't actually measure anything (because when do I ever do that?) but here's what I did:
First, I chopped half of the package of strips into little chunks, and added some finely diced celery, and chopped scallion and parsley.
In a measuring cup, I mixed the juice of half a lime with two heaping tablespoons vegan mayo. I added about a quarter teaspoon of grated ginger, and a tablespoon of finely chopped jarred lemongrass. It was still a little bland, so I added tiny splash of rice vinegar and a few drops of sriracha chili sauce, which I've been adding to everything lately.
Then I stirred the dressing into the salad and refrigerated it for a couple of hours.

A tiny post on this fine spring day

Today was my last day of classes as an undergrad! Hooray, obviously, but also I know that I'll probably just be nostalgic about college for years to come. (Blah blah blah, right? On to the recipes.)

I just had a lovely quick lunch of pasta with zucchini and garlic and some basil and nutritional yeast, and it was so good I just had to write about it, even though I devoured it much to fast to take a picture. That's ok, you know what pasta looks like! Here's how I made it, in case you want to give it a try, but I didn't measure anything so be warned.

Pasta with Zucchini and Garlic

First, cook up a serving of pasta-I used some broad noodles that I found in the cupboard.
In a skillet, heat enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add one clove of sliced garlic, and 1/4 to 1/2 of a zucchini, slivered up into matchsticks. Stir over medium heat until the zucchini is tender. Add a little bit (maybe one ounce) of drained and crumbled extra-firm tofu. Add salt and black pepper to taste, and a generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Add the pasta and stir-fry for a minute until everything is combined. Add some chopped fresh basil and parsley. EAT!
(I bet you could add some cherry tomatoes to that with delicious results, too.)

Here is a picture of the basil I just planted in the front yard of my house. I'm not sure if it will make it (it's not looking too healthy, unfortunately) but if it does, hopefully the students that live here next year will enjoy it!

And now it's time to go study for finals.

Let's talk about macaroni and cheese

Ok, how to make vegan macaroni and cheese is probably one of the top controversies of veganism. And I'm not even talking about when omnivores are like "how can you even call that mac and cheese?" cause that's a whole nother can of spam. But no two vegans seem to like the same fake-o cheese on their macaronis!
Well, I guess that's fine--your recipe might be different from mine, but this should be a good guideline.

This recipe will make enough for just one super hungry person, but if there's more than one of you, fear not; you can scale it up with good results.
If it's dinner time and this is all you feel like eating, mix in some thawed and heated green peas.

Here we go:
Leftover pasta is great for this! Otherwise, throw 1 cup of macaroni (I like spirals or tiny penne) into a pot of boiling water (to salt or not to salt? I'll leave that up to you!)
And cook it until it's al dente, which ought to be about 9 minutes but keep checking cause soggy pasta is bad news.

Meanwhile make the sauce:
2 or 3 tbsp. nutritional yeast
2 shakes garlic powder
2 shakes reduced sodium seasoned salt (I like that stuff! Don't judge me.)
about a tsp. margarine--this is completely optional if you make the sauce in the microwave
1 pinch tumeric if you want it really yellow
black pepper
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
awesome but optional: tahini and a splash of lemon juice
a couple spoonfuls of soy sour cream if you've got any lying around--yum
a splash of soymilk (0r almond milk or rice milk or hemp milk yata yata yata)
but if you're out of soymilk (which I sometimes am, argh) you can even substitute with water, I do it that way all the time.

Microwave instructions: Do you know anyone who says microwaved food is bad for you? What's up with that?
Put all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth. Microwave at about 60% just until hot--in my microwave that takes about 40 seconds, but keep checking it. If it's too thick, you can thin it out with a little more milk/water/sour cream.
Add the (drained) pasta to the bowl and stir. Yum!

If you don't have a microwave, melt the margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add nutritional yeast and spices and stir to combine. Add mustard, sour cream and milk and stir, cooking until thoroughly heated. You can add more milk if you need it. Add the drained pasta and stir until coated.

EAT IT! You can even eat it right out of the pot. I won't tell.


The next question of course is what do you call your vegan mac and cheese? Mac and cheez? Mac un-cheese? My boyfriend calls it mac and trees--but he eats real cheese so maybe that has something to do with it. Anyway, I'm gonna leave that up to you.

One more thing--pour cheezy sauce over your tortilla chips for some nice nacho cheese, (which is what you call cheese that doesn't belong to you.)