Wok and Roll

For some reason, I've spent the past couple of months refusing to buy corn starch. I don't have any particular moral objection towards this powdery stuff - it's just that it comes in big boxes and you never need more than a couple of tablespoons and I didn't see the point. I finally ended up caving when I came across today's recipe for Kung Pao Sauce, and I'm so glad I did!

This sauce is incredible - the flavors are amazingly complex, the texture is thick and smooth, and the whole thing just soaks right up into any veggies you happen to throw into it. My sister just moved to DC and has access to a functional kitchen for the first time in years, so obviously we spent a good portion of her first weekend in town cooking up delicious noms.

The beginning of greatness. 

I need more cowbell chilies.

This lovely recipe comes to you courtesy of The View from Great Island - my only regret is that I neglected to account for the fact that my sister and K are two of the most spice-obsessed people I know, so this wasn't nearly enough heat for their seared-off tastebuds. Adjust accordingly and enjoy!

Ducks in a row. 

Two cutting boards for twice the fun. 

Hipsters Love This

As I've noted before, I'm not the kind of vegan who exclusively worships at the altar of kale. I prefer a more polytheistic approach, with plenty of idol worship to the demi-gods of brownies and mac n' cheez thrown in for good measure. That said, there's something about this Garlicky Kale salad that I just can't get enough it!

I went to DC Veg Fest this past weekend, and among the samples of nut cheeses, tofu sausages, and gluten-free cupcakes (laugh all you want, it was goddamn awesome), the Whole Foods tent was doing a roaring trade passing out little cups of this crunchy salad with its creamy, tart dressing. I kid you not, K and I went home and recreated it that very evening.

The trick to this recipe is to let the kale marinate in the dressing before you serve it. This wilts the leaves while also letting the ingredients of the dressing do their chemistry magic and mellow out a bit.

Hush, Liz. Eat your kale.

Garlicky Kale
adapted from Eating Bird Food

Serves 4

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice (this was one big lemon for me)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 cups kale
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (optional, but the sesame seeds on sesame paste adds a nice Inception element to your salad)

Dump all the ingredients except for the kale into a blender, then go to town with that pulse button. You'll only need a couple of rounds to get everything nicely mixed up - taste test and add whatever your little heart desires (more tahini if it's too sour, more lemon if it's too bitter).

A study in beige.

Throw your kale into a large bowl and pour the dressing over it. Use salad tongs to toss it all together so that your leafy greens get completely coated in the dressing, then put the whole bowl in the fridge while you make the rest of your meal.

I can see the vitamins!

Right before serving, sprinkle the sesame seeds over your salad. Buen provecho!

Don't Get It Twisted

I was so skeptical about my ability to pull off these Pretzel Bites. I don't know why, but the idea of cooking with yeast totally freaked me out and I was certain that I'd end up with rock-hard dough bites that no one wanted to eat. Wrong! 

I attribute my success to the easy peasy recipe more than anything else, but these turned out delightfully puffy and soft. I coated half of this batch with cinnamon sugar, and the other half with nutritional yeast, garlic, and oregano. It was really difficult deciding which ones were tastier - I was simply forced to eat a dozen and still couldn't make up my mind.

A disclaimer: these are more like tiny dinner rolls than pretzels since you don't boil the dough before baking it, but if you douse them in enough delicious dust, I promise no one will be able to tell the difference!

The recipe over at Averie Cooks leaves nothing to be desired (the woman suggests dipping your pretzel bites in chocolate...I like her), so enjoy the photos and click here to create your own magical pretzel creations!

My Muffin Top

I'm not sure I want to know what kind of Google searches are going to lead people to this post (fun fact, more than one poor soul has ended up here as a result of searching for "Pokemon eating sweets"), but I don't care - the more people know about today's Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, the better!

I dunno, do I really need to sell you on muffins with chocolate in them? Vegan muffins and quick breads often end up unpleasantly gummy for some reason - any chemists here to clarify why this is so? - but these little treats are a happy exception. The insides are soft and fluffy, the tops are crunchy and sweet, and all the potassium and vitamins in the bananas cancels out the fact that you're eating chocolate for breakfast. Pro tip: I highly recommend eating these muffins warm for maximum chocolatey gooeyness.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
adapted from Doron Peterson’s Sticky Fingers’ Sweets

Makes 16 muffins

¼ cup coconut oil
½ cup sugar
3 ripe bananas
½ tsp vanilla
¾ cup soymilk
2 ¼  cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼  tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¼  tsp allspice
¼  tsp nutmeg
¾ cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 F and pop paper liners into a muffin tin. You can also use a little bit of Earth Balance or coconut oil to grease the pan instead. In a medium bowl, cream together the coconut oil and sugar until it's super smoothly - this should only take a few minutes. In another bowl, mash the shit of your bananas. They should look like something a toddler might smear in her hair while you try to give her a snack.

Pre-smooshing. 

Add the bananas and the vanilla to your sugar mixture and stir until evenly incorporated. Then add the soy milk and slowly stir until everything is blended up really well. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salta, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. Dump this into the wet batter and carefully stir together to avoid a spicy cloud of flour from settling all over your kitchen. Don't overstir here! Just mix until there aren't any patches of flour or weird banana clumps visible in the concoction.

Bliss. 

Finally, the most important step - toss in the chocolate chips and stir the batter a couple of final times, stopping as soon as all the nuggets are mixed into the batter. Use a big spoon to drop the batter into the prepared muffin cups.

Taste-test liberally. 

You can fill them up almost to the top, and be sure to monitor for appropriate chocolate chip distribution. Pop the muffin tin in the oven for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick stuck into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Enjoy!

Sour Spicy Sweet

Labor Day has come and gone, my friends, and it's time to pack away your white pantsuit for another year and prepare for the imminent takeover by our pumpkin overlords. In the meantime, though, as you're packing in as many picnics as possible before the weather turns, I highly recommend this amazing Spicy Tahini Dip for all your September snacking needs.

I love how thick and creamy this dip is, and that there are no weird ingredients or high-speed blenders required! Just dump everything in a bowl and whisk it up - the tahini makes everything nice and smooth, while the lime and spices give it a tangy bite that keep the sesame flavor from being too overwhelming or heavy. 

An embarrassing amount of this dip was transported into my mouth via roasted purple potatoes, because they're adorable and delicious, but you can and should eat this with raw veggies, baked tofu or tempeh, grilled corn or artichokes, or anything else that would benefit from this magical combination of flavors (hint: everything). Bonus: if you add a little water to thin it out, it magically transforms into a dressing for your favorite salad!

Spicy Tahini Dip

adapted from The Vegan 8

Makes about 1 cup

¼ cup tahini
¼ cup lime juice (this was one giant juicy mutant lime for me)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chili powder (or cayenne, or paprika - whatever you've got on hand)
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk together all the ingredients until you have a smooth, evenly blended mixture. Adjust the chili powder, lime, and maple syrup as necessary to achieve your desired taste and thickness, then shovel into your mouth with a spoon. Does this even count as a recipe??

Note the overflowing bowl of chili powder.  

Tahini looks like it would be tasty by itself...but it isn't.  

Summer Snickerdoodles

The title of this post is a little misleading - there's nothing particularly summery about these snickerdoodles, aside from the fact that it's summer right now and I'm currently finishing off the last cookie in this batch. You can totally be a rebel and make these in the winter, too!

Snickerdoodles are never the first cookie to pop into my mind when I'm trying to decide what to bake, but I'm never mad when I do end up cranking out a batch of them. I like to make these cookie fatty and fluffy rather than chewy, and of course to douse them with a healthy coating of sweet, crispy cinnamon sugar. The coconut oil in this recipe makes these little guys extra fragrant, too, so your kitchen will smell particularly delicious!

Snickerdoodles
Makes 18 small cookies

1¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup Earth Balance
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

In a medium bowl, whisk together all your dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Separately, melt the Earth Balance and coconut oil, then pour in the maple syrup, soy milk, and vanilla, and stir everything up really well.

Me gusta la canela, me gustas tu. 

Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a wooden spoon to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. It'll come together quickly and easily, so no need to bust out the electric mixer for this! Once all the ingredients are evenly incorporated, cover the bowl with a towel or some plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge. You want to get these nice and cold so that it's easier to make snickerdoodle snowballs.

Exhibit A. 

When you're ready to bake some cookies, preheat the oven to 375 F and cover a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Now grab that extra sugar and cinnamon, pour it into a shallow bowl, and mix it up really well. Scoop the dough up into little golf ball-sized nuggets and roll them around in the cinnamon sugary goodness to completely coat them.

Like little donut holes!

You can flatten the balls out a little bit with your fingers or the bottom of a drinking glass once you put them on the cookie sheet, but you don't have to - they're small enough that they'll bake quickly and evenly either way. Pop them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are firm and the bottoms are getting a tiny bit golden brown, then let them cool slightly before enjoying with some afternoon coffee or tea!

Not-So-Krabby Patties

Okay, let's talk about veggie burgers for a sec. Veggie burgers can be delicious and flavorful and full of nice things like beans and grains, or they can be horrendous processed little frisbees that are dry and crumby and blerhgh. Since we have a solid month of summer and grilling left this year, do your mouth a favor - skip the cardboard crap and try out these amazing Black Bean Burgers instead!

I'm actually surprised that we managed to capture photographic evidence of this nomtastic burger, because I  inhaled it within 5 minutes flat. It's super flavorful, and leaving half of the black beans whole and coating the outside of the patty with quinoa gives it a really great texture. The recipe looks a little complicated, but it's actually much easier than I expected - I'm going to make a big batch of these soon and freeze them, so that I have a quick and tasty meal on hand for busy weeknights. Or just so I can do this after my next long run:

Black Bean Burgers

adapted from the always incredible Love & Lemons

Makes 4 patties

½ onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed 

¼ cup cashews, soaked for at least 4 hours
¼ cup grated carrot

1 tablespoon steak sauce

2 tablespoons Sriracha (for a more mellow burger, substitute with 1 tablespoon ketchup and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar)

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne

½ teaspoon mustard
¾ cup cooked quinoa
olive oil, to coat your pan and drizzle over the patties

salt and pepper, to taste

Toss the onion and garlic, along with a little bit of olive oil, into a pan set over medium heat. Cook these up until the onions are translucent and everything smells nice and garlicky. Add 1/2 cup of the black beans, the cashews, the grated carrots, and all your sauces and spices into the pan as well, and saute for about 3 minutes, until everything is heated through and the beans are getting pretty soft. 

Turn off the heat and let this mixture cool for a few minutes. In the meantime, grab a bowl and mix together the remaining 1/2 cup of black beans and 1/2 cup of the cooked quinoa. Take the rest of the quinoa and spread it out over a small plate - you'll need this for the last step!

Throw all the deliciousness you've cooked up in the saucepan into a blender or food processor. Whip it around until it comes together into a big mushy ball, stopping to scrape down the sides of your blender a couple of times to catch those errant beans. The mixture doesn't have to be completely smooth, but it should be fairly blended up and unappealing at this point (hence the lack of photos).

Dump the contents of your blender into the bowl of black beans and quinoa, and gently fold until everything is evenly distributed. Feel free to taste test the mixture and add salt and pepper as needed. Now for the fun part! Divide the patty mixture into four little balls, then roll each ball around in the plate of quinoa you set aside earlier. Once it's completely coated, smoosh it down with your hands to form a patty and set it on a plate. When you're done with all four patties, stick the plate into the fridge for half an hour to let everything cool down and set up. In the meantime, you can clean up and prep your burger fixings!

Preheat your oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Gently slide your patties onto the sheet and stick them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Then take them out, carefully flip them, and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the top of the patties feel dry and non-squishy. Toast your buns, slather on the ketchup and mustard, and enjoy!