Tag Archive: Vegetarian

Tangy Kale and Carrot Quinoa

Written on May 2, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from living off meal plan in a dorm room, it’s how to get savvy with the foods and cooking tools available. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I made a meal on an actual stove the past few months, and I can’t wait to move back to somewhere where that’s more convenient.

I haven’t had a chance to run to the store and the day I made this it was pouring outside, so this was truly a winging-it meal made with whatever I had lying around. Quinoa’s a great pantry staple and cooks perfectly in any rice cooker(which is what I cooked this in, although I wrote the recipe for a stove since I figured that’s more common). Add some vegetables and a source of protein and you’ve got a meal.

Another example of ingenuity? The eggs I ate this with were baked, not boiled! I picked that up from this post I found on Pinterest. If you ask me I’d much rather toss eggs in an oven for 30 minutes and get other stuff done than stand over a stove waiting for water to boil. You could also serve this with baked tofu, tempeh, or chicken on top and it’d be just as good.

Tangy Kale and Carrot Quinoa

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 servings):

3/4 cup dry quinoa
1 1/2 cup water*
2 cup kale
2 large carrots, shaved into thin strips
2 Tablespoons mustard
1 Tablespoon agave
1/2 teaspoon salt

*This is the ratio with water I usually cook my quinoa in. If the brand you’re using tells you to do differently, follow the box’s cooking instructions.

Method:

Rinse the quinoa and then combine it with the water in a small pot. Cook for 15 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is light and fluffy.
Turn off the heat and add the kale and carrot strips into the pot. Cover with a lid for 5 minutes until the kale and carrots have steamed.
Add in the agave, mustard, and salt and mix everything together. Serve while still hot.

The agave and mustard aren’t too strong or overpowering but give this just the right amount of flavor to be light and refreshing. Next time I might add toasted cashews and eat this all on its own.

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Miso Mushroom Quinoa

Written on March 20, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

It always really surprises me when I find out people I know in real life read my blog; I’m not sure why since I have it connected to all my social media accounts, but still it does, and the support is always amazing.

One thing I almost always get asked by friends is where do the recipes come from? There are a whole slew of answers. Sometimes they just pop into my head; other times I’ll pass over one online that I can’t ignore. Over the weekend Whole Foods tweeted their quinoa, mushrooms and peas with miso from the Whole Foods recipe blog and for once I had all the ingredients on hand and knew I had to make it.

Miso is a paste made out of fermented soybeans. It’s available in most grocery stores. A container will last you months and months and it can be used in sauces and soups.

Mushroom Miso Quinoa(adapted from this recipe)

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup dry quinoa or 2 cups cooked
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup frozen peas
2 carrots, diced
2 Tablespoons white miso
Juice and zest from 1/2 an orange
1/2 Tablespoon fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon sesame oil

Method:

Cook the quinoa according to box directions.
While the quinoa cooks, combine the rest of the ingredients in a large pan and mix over the heat.
Toss over medium heat until the vegetables have cooked through and the liquid mostly evaporates.
Pour the vegetables into the cooked quinoa and mix thoroughly. Serve hot or cold as leftovers.

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Healthy Tofu Stir-Fry

Written on January 19, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

When I posted about seasoning rice, I got asked what I was eating it with. Well, here’s the recipe. It’s really hard to find gluten-free vegetarian options at Chinese restaurants. Most of the times I’ve been able to eat out, it’s been fried tofu, which is lovely the first few times but after a while starts weighing you down. Some things are just better to make yourself.

I didn’t press my tofu before making this but it would probably help the texture of the tofu. You could swap in tempeh cubes, seitan, or shredded chicken. To keep it gluten-free, make sure to use a wheat-free soy sauce.

Healthy Tofu Stir-Fry

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 servings)

1 block firm or extra firm tofu, cubed
2/3 cup bean sprouts
2/3 cup broccoli slaw
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar OR 3 Tablespoons liquid sweetener
1 Tablespoon sriracha sauce(optional)
2 Tablespoons cooking starch(arrowroot, tapioca, or corn) + 2 Tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil(optional)

Method:

Heat up a large frying pan over medium heat and toss in the tofu, bean sprouts, broccoli slaw, soy sauce, sweetener and sriracha. Mix thoroughly
Cover with a lid and let the contents steam until the vegetables are tender and the tofu has taken on a brown color, about 5-10 minutes.
Dissolve your cooking starch in the water and pour it into the pan. Quickly mix the contents around while the starch turns the cooking liquid into a glaze.
Finish with salt and sesame oil if using. Serve hot with vegetables or rice.

This goes great with seasoned rice or healthy Chinese broccoli. I wouldn’t omit the sweetener or it would taste rather bland. If you don’t use the sriracha, add about 1/2 Tablespoon of rice vinegar instead to make the flavor pop.

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New Years Eve Chocolate Cake

Written on January 6, 2012 by Wannabe Chef in Dessert

This recipe comes almost 4 months in the making. I needed a lot of time and a big celebration to make it for so New Years fit the bill. It’s also my submission for the Scharffen Berger elevated classic recipe contest.

The point of the contest is to take a classic dessert and elevate it with chocolate. My favorite chocolate dessert has always been flourless chocolate cake, which has been made in my family for years with the same recipe. It’s certainly a good recipe, but not the best.

To elevate it, I added a raspberry fudge sauce and topped the whole thing with a coconut milk mousse, all made with Scharffen Berger chocolate. I love the combination of the dense cake with the airy mousse and the tartness of the raspberries between the two sweet layers. Technically it was probably one of the hardest desserts I’ve made; I’ve never successfully separated and tempered yolks before now. Needless to say I was very happy on New Years Eve when the cake turned out as well as I planned.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Fudge Sauce and Coconut Milk Chocolate Mousse

For the cake:

4oz room temperature butter
1/2 cup sugar
6 medium room temperature eggs
1 9.7oz 70% Scharffen Berger baking chocolate

For the sauce:

8oz raspberries
2oz 62% Scharffen Berger baking chocolate
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 Tablespoons Scharffen Berger unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons liquid sweetener

For the mousse:

3/4 cup coconut cream*
1/4 coconut water*
6oz 62% Scharffen Berger chocolate
3 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1/2 cup powdered sugar

*To get coconut cream, leave a can of coconut milk undisturbed for a week or so. When you open it, the water should have separated from the thicker part, the cream. Just be careful not to mix the two together and you should be able to scrape the cream off the top easily.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Beat together the butter and sugar, adding in eggs one at a time until all of them are incorporated. The batter should be smooth and ribbony.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.
Slowly temper the melted chocolate into the batter until it’s completely mixed in.
Grease a 9-inch cake pan and pour the batter in.
Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remove the cake and let it sit undisturbed until it cools to room temperature. It should deflate as it cools. Don’t worry if the top cracks since it will get covered eventually.
While the cake cools, make the sauce by bringing all of the ingredients together to a boil in a small sauce pot.
Mix the contents of the pot until the chocolate has melted and the sauce is uniform in color.
Pour the sauce over the cake. Let it cool completely and then refrigerate to chill.
While the sauce sets, make the mousse by bringing to a light boil the coconut cream and water in a sauce pot. Chop the chocolate and add it in, mixing off of the heat until the chocolate has melted.
Beat together the 3 egg yolks. Temper them by adding a little of the chocolate coconut mixture in as you beat. Once the yolks have been tempered you can mix them into the pot along with the salt. Keep the pot off of the heat stirring occasionally to prevent fit rom getting a film.
Beat the egg whites while sifting in the powdered sugar until light peaks form like you’re making a meringue.
Carefully fold the egg whites and chocolate coconut mixture together in a large bowl until it’s all mixed. Be careful not to over-mix the mousse and deflate the egg whites; fold just enough until it’s all the same color.
Put the mousse into the refrigerator until it’s set, about 3-4 hours.
Once the mousse has set, carefully scoop it on top of the cake. Spread it out into one layer as if it were a frosting. Using a piece of saran wrap to push down for a flat surface is an easy way to do this.
Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Remove from the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before cutting and eating.

It was a lot of work but completely worth it. Everybody loved the cake. And I think the mousse would be a great and impressive dessert to make on its own for another occasion.

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The Most Popular Recipes Of 2011

Written on December 30, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Recipe Round-Up

Life’s a bit of a popularity contest; I’m not delusioned into thinking otherwise. And so, instead of me telling you what my favorite recipes have been so far, I figured it’d be more useful to show you the recipes you all picked as the best—the popular crowd.

These are my 5 most visited recipes over the past year. Rereading the comments on all of these posts, I’m shocked by how many people tried(and loved) them. It makes me happy since I loved all of these, too. Hopefully as popular as they are you’ll find one that’s new to you and be inspired to try it out like others have.

hazelnut-chocolate-cake

These Raw Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Cakes blew up on stumbleupon. With almost 40,000 views and a couple hundred likes, it’s been a huge hit for plenty of foodies. But don’t think it’s just for raw vegans; this tastes delicious no matter who you are(even the avocado frosting, which I swear you won’t be able to taste anything funny in).

July 14th 074

Healthy Frozen Smore Parfaits were a huge hit on Pinterest over the Summer. I have to say I made these more times than I can count myself; they were the perfect way to beat the Summer heat with 2 servings of fruit in each serving.

If you’ve ever googled “Almond Flour Cookies”, you’ve probably landed on these Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies. It’s one of my most visited daily pages and has been visited even more frequently in the past few weeks; looks like a lot of people will be having gluten-free holidays. The best thing about these is that you probably already have all the ingredients for them in your pantry.

May 8th 049

To this day I’m surprised by how often this Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip is pinned on Pinterest. If everyone who pinned this onto a board called “NEED TO MAKE!!” actually has—well that would be a lot of peanut butter. Apparently it’s a big hit with little kids, which I can understand since I love it and am pretty much just a big kid at heart.

This Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Hummus is probably my most made recipe judging by the comments and testaments I’ve gotten. If you’re still afraid of the idea of a sweet hummus, trust the hundreds of people who tried it and know that you can’t taste anything but goodness.

Here’s to 2012 being an even tastier year.

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Walnut & Herb Quinoa Cakes

Written on December 29, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

One of my favorite things about being home so far has been having a stove to use whenever; it’s much more motivating to cook something when your refrigerator and stove aren’t separated by 3 flights of stairs.

Quinoa cakes are something that have always intrigued me; they look so fancy and yet always sounded like something easy to make. Finally after seeing Emily post about them, I knew I had to try them. These couldn’t have been easier to throw together. I just took the ingredients out of my pantry and they were cooked before I knew it.

This recipe calls for precooked quinoa, so if you’re planning on making this note that cooking the quinoa will take extra time if you don’t already have some.

Walnut & Herb Quinoa Cakes(inspired by this recipe)

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 2 cakes or 1 serving):

3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons cooked quinoa
1 egg
1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons crushed walnuts
Oil for cooking

Method:

Combine the first five ingredients together in a bowl and mix until it all comes together.
Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add a little oil to keep the cakes from sticking. Drop a lump of the quinoa mixture onto the hot pan and with a spoon or fork flatten it into a patty shape.
Cook for 5 minutes on each side, flipping once halfway through to get a nice, crisp crust. Repeat with the other half of quinoa and egg mixture.
Serve hot or cold as leftovers.

I loved how the walnuts on the outside toasted up and gave incredible flavor to the cakes. Overall this was a surprisingly easy and delicious recipe, something I’d make again and again.

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Maple-Sriracha Lentils

Written on December 16, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

Hi, again. I’m back after a short posting hiatus. I figured I needed to post something if only so that my parents don’t think I died. I’ve done plenty of writing over the past few days, but not about food; it’s mostly been commentaries on ancient elegiac and epic poetry, and I figured no one wants to read that(I don’t even really want to read that). And cooking? Oh, cooking. Well, there’s plenty of time for that now.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really don’t like sriracha sauce—at least not on its own. It’s far too spicy for me; even just thinking about pouring large amounts of it over food makes jump back. I do, however, love the flavor it adds to sauces with a little sweetness to balance the heat. I’ve made this sauce with maple syrup and soy sauce a few times lately and poured it over everything: Lentils, quinoa, eggs—there’s no bad combination.

If you’re a sriracha fan, I’m sure you’ll love this. Even if you’re not a sriracha fan, give it a shot and you might just be surprised how much you like it.

Maple-Sriracha Lentils

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 4 servings):

1 cup dry lentils
3 cups water
3 Tablespoons maple syrup
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 Tablespoons sriracha sauce

Method:

Cook the lentils for 30-40 minutes in the boiling water until they’ve become tender and soaked up all the liquid.
Turn off the heat and add in the soy sauce, maple syrup, and sriracha and mix, letting the lentils sit over the burner for a couple minutes to absorb the sauce.
Serve hot or cold as leftovers.

The sriracha adds a great complexity to a sauce that’s only 3 ingredients. For a little more depth of flavor you can add a Tablespoon of toasted sesame oil at the end of cooking.

And now I have 6 weeks with not much to do and a full kitchen at my exposal so expect to hear a lot more from me.

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My Favorite Comfort Food

Written on November 16, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Entree

I think you can tell a lot about people based on what they love to eat: If they go to bed dreaming of bagels slathered in cream cheese, or wait each year until grilling season for authentic BBQ, or haunt the same local restaurant week after week for all-you-can-eat sushi.

A few years ago if you asked what my favorite comfort food meal was—the dinner I couldn’t get enough of—I’d say buffalo wings and pizza. It was the same thing we got every Tuesday night from a downtown restaurant where the pizza was particularly doughy and greasy and the wings drenched in batter and hot sauce. It wasn’t a particularly gourmet(or even good) meal but just the sight of it was familiar and inviting.

A lot’s changed since then. Having to stop eating gluten and becoming a vegetarian have opened my eyes up to a whole new set of foods. Most of all it’s shown me that there are healthier options than greasy pizza and fried chicken that can be just as familiar and comforting at the end of a long day.

When I was little I spent most of my Summer at my grandparent’s apartment since both my parents worked and they lived 1.5 miles away. My grandmother knew how to cook a few things, one of them being scrambled eggs that she cooked with a large wooden spoon and served with buttered toast. Now whenever I need that taste of home I go straight for the scrambled eggs—occasionally made with a wooden spoon—and served next to buttered home fries and a bed of steamed kale for color.

A lot of people will tell you the secret to good scrambled eggs is adding milk to the batter. I don’t think that’s it. The key to making good eggs is to take them off the heat before they’re finished cooking—when they’re mostly cooked but still have a glossy, wet shine on top. Eggs, like any protein, continue to cook even when they’re cooling; if you cook them fully on the stove, they’ll dry out as soon as you take them out of the pan.

And the secret to good potatoes? Time. Time in the oven, and then time on a hot pan on each side to get a brown crust. Oil, butter, and sliced onions never hurt either.

And of course there’s nothing more comforting than the whole plate covered in tangy, salty-sweet ketchup, coarse sea salt and fresh black pepper.

What’s the one meal that feels like home to you?

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Chili Lime Butternut Squash

Written on October 28, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Side Dish

It’s gotten to the time of year when I’m in denial that Summer’s gone. I’ve had a week full of midterm exams and now there’s talk of snow. SNOW. I’ve still got a marathon to run next month; I can’t begin to think about running across slippery pavement again. So I’m doing the totally normal thing about it all and going into denial.

When the seasons change I find so do our taste buds usually. I’ve started to like earthier tasting foods like cinnamon in banana quinoa bakes, nutmeg in mashed squash, and candy corn in just about everything else. This week though I’ve looked back to Summer for more spicy and bright flavors like the chili and lime on this squash. Maybe it’s a little “off” to put lime on squash but there isn’t exactly anything right about snow on Halloween and the butternut here has just a mellow enough flavor to highlight the seasonings.

Chili Lime Butternut Squash

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Trunk(i.e. the part without seeds in the center) from a medium butternut squash
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon lime juice, plus more for finishing
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a baking tray.
Cut the squash down the middle into two semi-circle halves. Slice each half across into 1/2-inch wedges.
Toss the wedges with olive oil, lime juice, chili powder, and salt until covered.
Lay the wedges out in a single layer on the baking tray and roast for 40 minutes until a fork easily passes through.
Finish with an extra touch of lime juice.

As if I couldn’t be more confused, I’m listening to Bing Crosby Christmas music as I write this. What can I say? It’s been a long week and I’m starting to think Summer ain’t coming back.

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What I Miss As A Vegetarian

Written on October 16, 2011 by Wannabe Chef in Uncategorized

5 months ago yesterday was the last time I ate meat. I can still remember it, but wasn’t very exciting; it was grilled chicken from an airline meal on a plane coming back from London. At that point, I was already set on becoming a vegetarian, and wrote about it on the blog a few weeks later.

I haven’t written about being a vegetarian very much since because—honestly—it doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. I eat the same 90% of the time as I did before being a vegetarian. My grocery cart is virtually identical as before. I’ve eaten out a few times as a vegetarian and it’s been slightly difficult, but not even close to as difficult as it is to eat out gluten-free so it’s nothing I’m not used to. Basically it’s going well, I’m a happy eater, and I’m never at a lack of recipes to try.

Even before becoming a vegetarian, I was aware of the reasons some vegetarians choose to eat meat again: They start craving chicken and red meat; they develop vitamin deficiencies that leave them feeling weak; they gain weight; they can’t eat enough to feel full anymore.

None of those have affected me on a vegetarian diet. If I crave animal protein, I can usually curb that by eating eggs, tempeh, or something sodium-rich. I’ve been running faster than before. I’ve gained muscle lifting. Any weight I’ve gained I assure you is from sugar and chocolate—not vegetables and beans. And if I’m not full, I just eat more.

But there is one thing I miss, and it’s something nobody told me to expect before becoming a vegetarian: I miss cooking meat. Not eating it; just cooking it. You can’t replicate the smell of a roasted chicken pulled straight out of the oven filling up a kitchen, the sound of sizzling from searing a steak so that the outside turns a deep brown and the inside is pink and bloody, or the complex flavor that bacon grease adds to golden home fries. Tofu and tempeh just don’t work that way.

Does that mean I’m going to stop being a vegetarian? Of course not. While I miss these intricate parts of cooking, being a vegetarian for ethical reasons is much more important to me. Maybe if I’m lucky my family will let me cook and carve the Thanksgiving turkey, but I’ll take an extra helping of potatoes on my plate instead, please.

Sidenote

This week is also the first time I’ve made a “vegetarian blunder”, i.e. ate something not vegetarian.

I could have sworn Brach’s candy corn were gluten-free and vegetarian, but after I finished off my first big size bag I looked at the ingredients and sure enough gelatin was on there. I’ve always avoided things made with gelatin like most commercial marshmallows in the past, and while I considered making an exception for sweet, sweet candy corn I couldn’t accept my own hypocrisy. Luckily, I’ve found a solution:

The generic CVS brand candy corn and candy pumpkins are both completely vegetarian. While I remember these having a somewhat stale texture from my childhood, I’ve eaten 2 bags over the past 2 days and they get an “A” grade from me. They’re still clearly not health food, but if you’re a vegetarian who just can’t see yourself giving up candy corn, give these a shot and you won’t be sorry.

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