Mini Broccoli Quiches

We had brunch this weekend with our friends Hannes and Joy. They made fantastic Blueberry and Banana pancakes from the cookbook How it all Vegan and served fresh fruit. We made spicy roasted potatoes and broccoli quiche.

I do not have a pie dish so I made the quiche in a square casserole dish. It was fine, but more shallow than it would normally be. Therefore, I had a lot of leftover broccoli/tofu mixture. So, this morning I made mini quiches.

Pumpkin and Wild Mushroom Lasagna

The original recipe, from Vegan Planet, calls for butternut squash, not pumpkin. But, because it is Halloween and I was able to find pumpkin and not squash, I thought it would be a very creative and delicious swap. It was!

Here is the recipe. The tofu that I used had basil in it and I left out the vegan mozzarella completely. I used 2 cups of fresh, white mushrooms and 1 cup of a re-hydrated blend of wild mushrooms.

It seemed that there was too much of the tofu blend when I was assembling the dish, but after it baked I was not disappointed. We dug in before it had sufficient time to cool so the pieces didn't come out so beautifully!

November is Vegan Month of Food

I am going to participate in this fun project called Vegan MoFo: Vegan Month of Food. For the entire month of November, my goal is to make something new for each letter of the alphabet (this idea was stolen from the Vicki Vegan blog site! Thanks Vicki!)

So, stay tuned for 26 new and hopefully fabulous recipes, beginning tomorrow!

And, check out the website behind this fantastic concept here.

Chilean Corn and Un-Turkey Chowder

Holidays are my favorite excuse to make elaborate, often expensive, and always gourmet meals that take days to plan and prepare. So, with Thanksgiving only 26 days away, I have already begun the search for the perfect meal!

When I was growing up, holidays were a big deal in my family. We would gather, eat the traditional foods, play games, eat more, and basically spend the day together catching up. Because John and I live so far away from both our families and rarely make the trip back during any of these peak days, friends are crucial to the plan. This year: Hannes and Joy!!!

Anyway, I found this recipe while re-reading the Vegetarian Times Nov/Dec2008 issue. The timing was just right because Joy wanted to make a batch of baked seitan (from this recipe!!!) and seitan was the perfect "un-turkey" for the chowder. Additionally, an important lesson was learned: Gluten flour is NOT the same as Vital Wheat Gluten and will NOT make seitan!

I ran out of veggie broth but substituted water with a few herbs sprinkled in. I used dried thyme instead of fresh and added a carrot and spinach but left out the avocado and cilantro.

The chowder was very hearty and creamy and rich. The flavor of lime was strong, in a good way!

Tofu Tikka Masala with Red Rice

During one of my latest trips to the Asian Market, I found a jar of Tikka paste and set my sights on Tikka Masala! Tikka means chunks of; masala means a mixture of spices.


There is a speedy recipe on the jar that calls for 500 grams of chicken, but tofu was the perfect vegan substitute. The tofu is marinated in the following for 2 hours: 4 TBSP Tikka paste, 1 TBSP soy yogurt, 2 TBSP vegan butter.

After marinating, pour the tofu and sauce into a pan, add veggies and cook to the desired vegetable consistency.

While I was in Thailand in August of this year, my absolute favorite Thai meal was served with red rice. I was extremely excited to find red rice in Denmark.

Breakfast Burritos

We ran into friends, Joy and Hannes today. Vegetarian, fans of Portland, stellar taste in music...all around our kind of people! The topic of brunch came up and made me so hungry for something brunch-like, such as breakfast burritos.

Actually, more like tacos. But, our intention was to make burritos! We didn't realize how tiny our tortillas were when we were rolling them out and cooking them but when it came time to fill them, it became very obvious! We also spent very little time worrying about making them perfect circles. Because this recipe is so fantastic, it has been easy to stick to my guns and not buy tortillas.

The burrito buffet included: roasted potatoes; tofu (pressed, then sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with sesame parm); roasted veggies: carrots, red pepper, zucchini, red onion, and mushrooms; sauteed spinach and garlic (which I mixed with the roasted veggies after it was finished cooking); black beans mixed with salsa; fresh tomatoes and Sheese Mexican Style spread (great on tacos or other things with various flavors but too strong to eat on its own or as a dip).

Chickpea and Potato Soup

So simple but so much flavor! Here is the recipe.

On the side, Poppin' Popovers from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes.

Braised Seitan with Brussels and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

The recipe, along with the recipe for the seitan, are from Veganomicon. It calls for kale but due to the fact that we couldn't find kale at the store, we left it out. There was discussion about substituting spinach, it just didn't happen. I made the seitan the day before. Here is a link to the actual pages from the cookbook, also including the recipe for chickpea cutlets (best. things. ever.) I love this seitan recipe because it is very easy and unlike the recipe for Simple Seitan, the cutlets bake, not boil.

We spooned it all over rice and really enjoyed the flavors of the sun-dried tomatoes, wine, brussels, shallots, and everything else! Easy and delicious.

Tomato and Roasted Eggplant Stew with Chickpeas

I swear I have made this recipe before but I can't find it on my blog anywhere! So, here it is again. I made it for dinner tonight and John brought home a loaf of fresh bread. The recipe, from Veganomicon, says to serve it with polenta. I opted for bread because I thought polenta would be too much food! Everyone (including me) has been talking about eating less and slimming down lately.

Sausage and Mushroom Pizza

I had such a craving for pizza today. When I was young, we would order pizza almost every week. I don't feel guilty about eating this pizza though! I used spelt flour for the crust and loaded a ton of veggies including yellow peppers, red onion, mushrooms, and sun dried tomatoes. I used a boxed tomato sauce and made a batch of Seitan Chorizo Crumbles. I also added black olives.

And finally, I added a few slices of this cheese alternative, broken up into bits and spread out over the crust. It melted and added a really nice, tangy flavor.

Cholent

Yet another excuse to use my newly acquired TVP, this recipe is from Veganomicon. Great flavor and extremely filing. Also, lots of leftovers.

I made a batch of homemade crackers seasoned with nutritional yeast and topped with poppy seeds. It was a perfect addition to the meal.

Meaty Burgers and White Bean Salad

I finally found TVP here in Denmark so I was able to try this recipe from the blog, Your Vegan Mom. The burgers were chewy, like seitan, but the chunks of TVP made some bites spongy. I really liked the texture compared to some of the softer, pastey consistency bean burgers I have made in the past.

I made the buns from this recipe. They are so easy to make yet John still gives me a strange look for making hamburger buns. "Normal people just buy buns." Whatever.

Also from the Vegan Mom blog, I made Teriyaki sauce to top the burgers with. So freaking good!

And finally, I had cooked white beans that needed a nice recipe and this one fit the bill. I also added diced sun dried tomatoes.

Cauliflower and Mushroom Potpie with Black Olive Crust

Good cook, bad blogger. I have been busy with work lately and making a lot of old favorites. This was a new one though from Veganomicon. John's first reaction, nicely done. We then proceeded to eat the entire casserole in one sitting! Here is the recipe.