What Vegans Eat

I've been posting the occasional link over the past few months to recipes on Mike K's Vegan for the People food blog. I've especially been spending a lot of time ogling his posts since the beginning of January, when he began participating in something called E.A.T. World, where bloggers "travel the world" by sharing recipes and food-related posts from around the globe. It's really worth checking out what he's posted so far, including his most recent recipe for Feijoada. I'd posted a recipe for a variation on this popular Brazilian dish back in March of 2008.

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Cookbook author Robin Robertson recently shared a recipe that caught my attention on her Vegan Planet blog, mostly because I've been looking for a vegan recipe for Jewish Apple Cake. Robertson's is indeed an Apple Cake, but I'm not quite sure that it even vaguely resembles the finished product of my significant other's mother's recipe, which is the sort of beloved nostalgic childhood foodstuff that's best left either reproduced accurately or not at all. I'm posting about Robertson's recipe anyway because it looks really yummy! (Oh, and if anyone has a good recipe for a vegan version of traditional Jewish Apple Cake to share, I'd really appreciate it!)

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So I leave you with that and with a favourite recipe of mine I'd initially posted on My Face Is on Fire back in January of 2008. It's for Spicy Sweet Potato and Bean Burritos. They're simply amazing. I usually make them using black beans and don't always add avocado. The recipe is very roughly adapted from a couple of different recipes found online over the years. It's a hybrid that's taken on a taste of its own. Enjoy!

Spicy Sweet Potato and Bean Burritos

1-2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of kidney beans or black beans, canned
1 cup of water (or leftover bean liquid)
1Tbs chili powder, heaping
1 tsp cumin, heaping
2 Tbs soy sauce
4-10 inch soft whole wheat tortillas
2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (with an optional dab of margarine)
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
1/4 cup salsa
chopped jalapeno peppers (optional)
vegan cheese shreds (optional)

Cook in advance enough sweet potatoes to make two cups (I usually bake a couple of small ones or a really big one). Set aside.

Heat the oil in saucepan over medium heat. Sautée onion in oil until transparent. add garlic and stir. Add beans, water, chili powder and cumin. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce head to low. Simmer until beans are very soft, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in soy sauce.

Mash beans in the pot with a potato masher or large fork. Simmer over medium-low heat to cook away any excess liquid, about 20-25 minutes (watch it really closely, though). Taste and add more seasoning if warranted or desired. If you like things REALLY spicy add some chopped jalapenos at this point.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spread about 2/3 of a cup of the bean mixture down the middle of a tortilla and top with a 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with some green onions. Roll up the burrito and place it seam side down (to keep it from opening) on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with vegetable cooking spray (alternately, you can brush on a bit of oil). Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Bake for 15 minutes or until burritos are crisp and turning slightly golden. Top burritos with avocado and salsa.

Optional: Sprinkle some vegan cheese on top (I rarely bother, 'cause it's really unnecessary).

Makes 4 servings.

What Vegans Eat

With the holidays just a few days and a nearly two-week long internet hiatus looming for me, I figured that now would be as good a time as any to take that periodic peek at what's been happening on some of my favourite vegan food blogs.

Nathan Kozuskanich shared a recipe for Green Potato Soup on his Vegan Dad blog a little less than a week ago. With heaps of leeks, chard and spinach, it looks as good as I've no doubt it tastes. It sounds like the perfect thing to ladle into a big bowl and curl up on the sofa with to watch holiday claymation specials.

Mike K at Vegan for the People posted a couple of recipes over the past few weeks that caught my attention and that I hope to try out soon. One is for Sesame Long Beans with Five Spice Tofu and the other for Somali Sambusas. The sambusas are filled with lentils , scallions and cilantro and seasoned with spices like cardamom, cumin and coriander. They sound wonderful --and I'm not just sayin' that because I'm a huge fan of filled things and finger foods.

Speaking of filled things, check out the Baked Whole Wheat Empanadas recipe Alicia shared with her readers on the Vegan Epicurean blog. This blog is relatively new to me and I'm already sold on it after looking over the dozen or so most recent recipes and their photos. I also appreciate that she includes nutritional information on the recipes she posts. I'll be lurking over there a fair bit in the New Year, I'm sure.

Just in time for holiday entertaining for those who like to cater to their guests sweet tooths, Claire at Chez Cayenne offered up a recipe last Saturday for Orange-Chocolate-Chocolate Chip cookies. She also provided a recipe for those who like to cater to those guests who like to indulge a little to engage in their holiday merrymaking: Vegan Irish Cream! (By the way, for some great info on chocolate and what is or isn't vegan, check out this 2006 blog post by cookbook author Dreena Burton!)

Cookbook author Bryanna Clark Grogan featured a recipe for a simple Rustic Apple-Almond Cake on her blog a few days ago that does indeed sound like a yummy treat to have on hand for family or friends who might come calling.

Finally, the six vegans over at Cooking from 1,000 Vegan Recipes have been busy! As of last Saturday, they'd prepared 155 out of the 1000 recipes in Robin Robertson's book. Go have a look at the gorgeous photos of the dishes they've reproduced from it. Better yet, buy the book and cook along with them, using their notes as pointers.

So there you have it--the last instalment of "What Vegans Eat" for 2009. If you think that going vegan is hard because your food options somehow become limited, or, if you're just stuck in a food rut and can't think of what to make for dinner, read the food blogs mentioned above (as well as those whose links I've listed off to the right) and let yourself be convinced otherwise.

Go vegan and stay vegan and enjoy the good healthy eats that come with it!

Oh, What to Eat?

Vegan Examiner Adam Kochanowicz's recent post ("How to eat vegan: practical ideas") reminded me this morning that it's been a while since I've poked around online to see what some of my favourite vegan food bloggers have been tossing together in their kitchens. I've said it before that it was 1) the availability of vegan recipe sites and cooking threads in vegan online communities, as well as 2) the assortment of decent vegan cookbooks I accumulated that both taught me how to really cook for the first time, as well as facilitated a healthy transition to a plant-based diet. These days, those who are adopting the vegan lifestyle also have an incredible number of vegan food blogs to peruse for everything from cooking tips to recipe suggestions (or even plain old tempting photos of vegan dishes).

As Kochanowicz points out in his article: "It's not just the presence of non-vegan food but the absence of vegan food which creates a barrier for you to immerse yourself in a vegan way of living." I agree with this and also think that an absence of meal preparation ideas can be detrimental for vegans--particularly those who've never really spent much time cooking for themselves. When you just don't know what to make or how to make something, it's all too easy to reach for junky alternatives. Not being a food blogger myself, I'm grateful that I can pick and choose from a wide variety of offerings from others online and highlight them here from time to time. I also hope to begin a regular (and possibly monthly) series of guest cookbook reviews within the next few weeks, thanks to some fellow vegans who've offered to pitch in occasional posts. In the interim:

Claire over at Chez Cayenne shared a recipe for Tempura Nori this past weekend. I could definitely see these becoming quite an addictive snack.

Gaia at Live It Up Vegan! posted a recipe for James Barber's Tofu on Pita. I remember watching Barber's old cooking show The Urban Peasant in my pre-vegan days, too. It was a CBC staple.

Kitchen Dancing's Sinead salvaged some leftover Halloween pumpkins to make Scavenged Pumpkin Buns, using whole grain spelt flour and the kinds of spices that leave a kitchen smelling that almost comforting sort of way it always should when the weather starts to turn cold -- of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg. (You should check out Sinead's other web project--her Ask Science Dude website and podcast.) Speaking of pumpkins...

Mihl at Seitan is My Motor posted a recipe a few days ago for Curried Pumpkin Soup with White Wine and Seitan, with a link to one for another blogger's Pumpkin Chili.

Finally, if you want an eyeful of what gorgeous and delicious vegan food looks like, check out Cooking from 1000 Vegan Recipes. Better yet, pick up a copy of Robin Robertson's book 1000 Vegan Recipes and cook along with them. So far, the six bloggers have 79 recipes down and 921 to go.

Vegan Noms

Gracious! The recipes that have been posted online over the past while and all of the recent developments regarding vegan food blogs have left me really, really happy.

First of all, I want to announce that a half-dozen of my favourite abolitionist vegans have decided to start up a blog specifically devoted to testing recipes from Robin Robertson's 1000 Vegan Recipes. With everything from Tempeh Satay to Pear Fritters w/ Caramel Sauce, they're off to a great start. Buy the book and bookmark the blog and watch for updates!

The Comfort Food Vegan blog featured a recipe for a dark and decadent looking avocado-based Soy-free Chocolate Mousse yesterday. I've never made a raw mousse or pudding before, but will be trying this one out quite soon.

The Vegan Dad has been blogging up a harvest-season-related storm over the past while. I want to highlight something that particularly got my attention from a week and a half ago, though -- his Perfect Pumpkin Custard. I can almost taste the ingredients coming together to make these and the custard looks absolutely scrumptious in the photo he included.