Vegan: Day 28

I have a confession to make...while in New York, I never ate a vegan meal!  I don't like the idea of being a guest in someone's apartment and then making it awkward for you to eat together.  I decided I would keep my Lenten resolution when by myself, but then ended up never being alone.  So, the trip was filled with sushi, shrimp curry, ice cream, bagels and cream cheese, egg dishes, buttery pastries, cream in my coffee - It was a true vacation!  


Well now it's back to real life in Worcester, and back to vegan eating.  I opened the fridge after getting home and saw a huge bag of carrots purchased awhile ago, and while occasionally being munched, were sort of sadly neglected.  I unpacked with them on the brain, and then made another batch of these muffins and decided to experiment with a soup.


I've been turning to soups regularly during this trial vegan period, although this is the first time I've posted about it.  They are the perfect food! - limitless in variety, easy to pack full of healthy ingredients, very easy to make vegan, and can be light or filling.  I didn't follow a recipe for this dish, just made it up as I went along, tasting and adding accordingly.  And I'm sort of on a kick where I try using a bunch of different spices so I can learn more about what goes well together, so you'll see that I used a lot...in this dish I tried to play off the earthiness and sweetness of carrots.  It turned out really well, so if you'd like to try it, here's what I did:


Carrot Soup


Cut up the majority of a 5lb bag of carrots into bite sized pieces and saute them in olive oil with fresh garlic and ginger, salt, pepper, dill, and thyme, stirring occasionally.  After the carrots have begun to get soft on the outside and everything starts to smell really good, add one can of coconut milk and two cans of water.  Add cinnamon, chili powder, and a bit of paprika, and cook until  the carrots are soft.  Put liquid and carrots in blender to puree, but do so in small batches or the heat of the liquid can make everything explode.  Pour the soup back into the pot and add some chopped chili pepper for spice, and freshly grated nutmeg.  Let simmer for another 5 minutes to allow all the flavors come together.


Enjoy :)

Vegan: Day 19

The grad school application process is completely finished, and my schedule is now wide open, leaving more time to experiment in the kitchen!  A friend lent our apartment two cookbooks, The Conscious Cook and Veganomicon.  The first is good, the second, really good.  It has tons of awesome recipes and gives practical information and tips on how to make the most out of ingredients, making it easy to develop basic skills for your own cooking repertoire so you don't always have to be staring at a book.  I like looking at a recipe, getting the general idea of it, and then leaving it behind and tweaking it however I like.  I  was looking for something warm and satisfying because it was really chilly outside, and ended up staring at a spinach lasagna with tofu ricotta filling.  Woo! I still hadn't tried cooking with tofu yet during this vegan adventure.  It turned out really well and tasted even better as leftovers.

If you want to try making it at home, the only thing you really need to know is how to substitute for the ricotta. Mash up tofu and mix it with lemon juice, basil, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast (which we like to put on popcorn), and some olive oil.  Layer it with sauteed or steamed spinach, and tomato sauce.  Then, instead of sprinkling the top with parmesan, put some nuts in the cuisinart with salt and lemon zest.  They add tons of flavor and texture.  Yum.  Clever tactics are needed to survive in a world without cheese :)

Vegan: Day 10

The world of breakfast has seemed limited since abolishing the wonderful variety of the egg and eliminating yogurt.  I was looking into options for vegan baked goods to make the morning exciting and came across a recipe for coconut-carrot muffins.  Yum.  These were very hearty and filling, and not super sweet, which I liked.  It's interesting trying to bake without eggs...after perusing recipes it seems like it's common to use what's called a "flax egg", which is just flax meal mixed with water.  It gets thick and helps hold the batter together, but I think it also makes it more dense.  I generally followed this recipe, but ended up adding a lot of water to the batter to lighten it up, and also a more generous amount of spices, fruit, and nuts.

Vegan: Day 8

So far the worst I think the worst thing about following a vegan diet is that it's really easy to slip into the habit of eating a lot of carbs, and often more sugar.  We've been trying not to turn automatically to bread and pasta when we get hungry.  I made a huge amount of hummus following directions from one of my friends in Israel  :)  It takes a little while with the soaking and cooking of the chickpeas, but it's so easy and really good.  For lunch I topped it with roasted sweet potato and beets.  If you want to try it, here are the directions:


Hummus


Soak the chickpeas overnight.  Drain them and fill the pot with fresh water up to a couple of inches above the chickpeas.  Cook on low heat with a teaspoon or two of baking soda, otherwise they will not get soft enough.  For more flavor, add an onion cut in half and some cloves of garlic.  When the chickpeas are soft, put them in a food processor and add some of the cooking liquid, tahini, lemon, and salt - however much of each for the texture and flavor you prefer!  

The Temporary Vegans

Today marks the start of Lent, and our household is saying goodbye to meat and dairy for 40 days!  We're actually not big meat eaters at all, but eggs, yogurt, and cheese are a huge part of our daily pleasures; giving them up will eliminate a lot of the foods we automatically turn to at meals.  It should be a cool experiment and encourage us to try recipes we might otherwise brush aside, and I will post about our exploration into the world of vegan eating throughout the process!  Day 1 is nothing too out of our usual habits - peanut butter toast and coffee at breakfast, roasted green beans and potatoes with a lemon and balsamic vinaigrette at lunch, and sweet potato and black bean tacos at dinner.  Yum.