Veganomicon Recipes
OK, I bought my copy of Veganomicon (cookbook from the same authors as Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) last week at Barnes & Noble. Over the weekend, I made my first recipes from the book. I made the Chickpea Cutlets with the Mustard Gravy. I also made the Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans. For sweets, I made the Chocolate-Chocolate Chip-Walnut Cookies. Everything was really good. I've been having a difficult time staying away from the cookies, they're so good (very thin, crispy, chewy!). Has anyone else here purchased this cookbook yet and made any recipes? I'd love to hear what people are making and enjoying from this cookbook. I really enjoy Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's other cookbooks, and I'm looking forward to exploring more in this new book.
[Hey, purpledancer. Just so you know, I rarely ever use all AP flour, even when a recipe calls for it. Like SB said, I also use half-AP/half-WW pastry, and this substitution seems to work great! In baking, whole wheat pastry flour seems to act a lot like all-purpose, but it has more fiber so it's a good way to sneak a little "health" into your baked goods. It's nice because it doesn't "taste healthy" like whole wheat flour, but it's still slightly better for you than white flour.
You don't necessarily need to find a recipe that specifically calls for WW pastry flour; you can just sub half of the white flour with it. For instance, I use it in biscotti, cookies, chocolate cake, brownies, etc.
Thanks for the tip! :) I'm new to baking, so I'm trying to learn from every experience. Why is vegan baking so addictive? Back when I still baked with eggs I made the same cookies like once a year. Now I bake once a week & I try something new each time!
Hey, purpledancer. Just so you know, I rarely ever use all AP flour, even when a recipe calls for it. Like SB said, I also use half-AP/half-WW pastry, and this substitution seems to work great! In baking, whole wheat pastry flour seems to act a lot like all-purpose, but it has more fiber so it's a good way to sneak a little "health" into your baked goods. It's nice because it doesn't "taste healthy" like whole wheat flour, but it's still slightly better for you than white flour.
You don't necessarily need to find a recipe that specifically calls for WW pastry flour; you can just sub half of the white flour with it. For instance, I use it in biscotti, cookies, chocolate cake, brownies, etc.
Yeah. pd, I actually JUST use WW pastry flour in all of my baked goods (unless I'm doing WW flour for bread), and I've never noticed any problem. I don't use any AP. I think the only issue I foresee is if you wanted something to be white, like a white cake or something. But, I've never had any density/texture/flavor issues with it. So, yeah...you could do the 1/2 and 1/2 thing..or you could just do all WW pastry! :)
Thanks for the tip! :) I'm new to baking, so I'm trying to learn from every experience. Why is vegan baking so addictive? Back when I still baked with eggs I made the same cookies like once a year. Now I bake once a week & I try something new each time!
i know! me too! i think its cus part of you is like "can i really make this without eggs? now i gotta try it and find out!" then you realize that vegan baking=black magic that becomes all-consuming.
I made the pasta della california w/ one avocado (the other one I picked up was rotten), no oil, and added some white beans. It was pretty good. By the time we got around to eating it, the pasta was a little dry, but I think that is probably my fault for taking out the oil. Next time I'll make one of the light pasta sauces from Fat Free Vegan and throw that in the mix to keep the pasta more tender.
Avocado? I'm on it!
I just made this..and it's pretty good. Nothing really special, and I think I like my avocado sandwiches better..but it's a nice change. I don't have any cooking wine..need to get some! ...so that probably would have made it better. I did, however, just make some homemade veg. broth..so I was excited to use that. I used lemon instead of lime..which seemed like it would go better, to me (plus the store didn't have ANY limes!). I also added some sliced tofurkey-really good!.
last night i had a couple of disappointments.
Couscous w/Tomatoes and Capers - ummm yeah, the optional cloves (i don't know what i was thinking even putting these in) RUINED the dish. they overpowered everything and now i just have a crapload of leftover clove-flavored couscous. and here's the truly crappy thing: when i went to sprinkle them in, the top flew off the container, drowning everything in cloves. however, i scooped out EVERYTHING contaminated by the cloves (i thought) and couldn't even see any more cloves anywhere, added more couscous and water and it STILL came out tasting like clove central. (i guess i'm asking here what i can add to this to cut out the clove taste, since i'm still going to eat it anyway since i can't stand to waste food.)
i also made the Marinated Italian Tofu and baked it, but it was soooooooo salty. i think this may be my fault since i used frozen tofu. i knew it would suck up all the marinade, so i doubled the recipe. and man did it ever suck it up. generally good flavor... just overpowering in every way.
oh well.
You read the ingredients in Pasta Della California and it sounds sooooo good, but then when it comes together, it's :sleep:. I think this combo of flavors (pepper flakes, zesty citrus, avocado... would work better as a flatbread, adding the avocado after baking.
Yeah! ;)b
I feel like it might have been better if I had used some more of the ingredients that were called for (I forgot to add that I didn't use arugula), but I dunno. I guess it's supposed to be a "light" dish.....but it's not light in a good way..and it's not even really light. haha Hm.
mdv, that sounds AWESOME!
Last time I made the chickpea cutlets, I left out the recommended spices and used a few tbsp of red curry paste instead! They were really, really good! I took them to an omni bbq and they all disappeared.
Last time I made the chickpea cutlets, I left out the recommended spices and used a few tbsp of red curry paste instead! They were really, really good! I took them to an omni bbq and they all disappeared.
Someone else mentioned this earlier in this thread, or in another thread about them (may have been you, actually) so I tried this too and it came out very well!
i made the cashew tofu ricotta again to put on some pizza and mix into pasta, it's so good and i always just used roasted salted cashews and then don't add as much salt if any to the mix. Anyway, I used frozen/thawed/pressed regular firm tofu which made to the leftover ricotta turn into a really firm spreadable cheeze. it reminded me of that garlicky herbed spreadable goat cheese (without that super strong goat cheese taste).. it was so good spread on crackers & topped with a slice of fresh tomato!
Last time I made the chickpea cutlets, I left out the recommended spices and used a few tbsp of red curry paste instead! They were really, really good! I took them to an omni bbq and they all disappeared.
Someone else mentioned this earlier in this thread, or in another thread about them (may have been you, actually) so I tried this too and it came out very well!
LoL, it might have been me...sometimes I forget what I said 10 minutes ago :-[
Hehe, I'm glad you liked em though!
last night i made the soft polenta w/poppy seeds and it was heavenly. i added just about a teaspoon of dried thyme to the mix and a teeny bit less oil (2 TBSP seemed like a bit much). yeah. it was good.
I also made the Braised Seitan with Brussels, Kale and Sundried tomatoes. I thought it was a little oily (I did use oil-packed SD tomatoes, though). DH really liked it.
you should try it again with just the plain dried sundried tomatoes, not oil packed. it was delish that way, and the braising rehydrates them so you don't have to do it beforehand.
i made the beanballs last night and they were downright mushy. michael hated them :'( we tried to make them into beanball hoagies, but they ended up just being a bean sammich. he didn't even finish his. so next time i'm going to have to up the amount of wheat gluten to make em springier i guess. and change the flavoring, because he hated that too. suck. i thought they were ok... but not nearly as good as i'd thought they would be. sad.
i made the beanballs last night and they were downright mushy. michael hated them :'( we tried to make them into beanball hoagies, but they ended up just being a bean sammich. he didn't even finish his. so next time i'm going to have to up the amount of wheat gluten to make em springier i guess. and change the flavoring, because he hated that too. suck. i thought they were ok... but not nearly as good as i'd thought they would be. sad.
Yeah, I have tried the Beanballs a couple times without luck. :( I really had high hopes for them, but blech! Not a bad flavor, per se, but I have never had anything but mush turn out. I've thought about baking them, but I think I am done with that recipe.
Dreena Burton has a really delicious Walnut-Pecan Ball recipe here. I thought they were really good, but my boyfriend almost passed out from how delicious he thought they were! ;)b I wouldn't say they taste like meatballs, so don't expect that, but they're an awesome addition to spaghetti. Definitely halve the recipe, unless you're feeding an army because a half recipe made about 20 balls for us!
AP and JC, make sure you are making your bean balls small enough. Mine have only turned out mushy if they're too big. I also prefer to bake them with no sauce (dries them out a little) the add them to the sauce before serving.
well, it said to make em walnut sized and to have 12-15 balls...i had 12. maybe i should have aimed for 15? also, i didn't add the sauce to them until after i had baked them longer than the book said anyway... who knows. i really think more gluten is the way for me to go here. i'll try it out and let anyone who's interested know what happens.
I made the Lasagne Marinara with Spinach, and it's really wonderful! I made all of the components yesterday and assembled it, then threw it in the refrigerator until today. I halved the recipe and made this in an 8" x 8" glass pan, so I could bake this in my toaster oven. A half recipe seemed perfect--I got 6 nice servings out of it. I did just the basic spinach version with Marinara Sauce, Cashew Ricotta, and Almesan. I didn't bother with the Pine Nut Cream (that seems kind of overkill to me). All of the components were tasty on their own. This was my first time making all of them. I'll definitely be making these 3 components again in the future, as well as this tasty lasagna. I did the no-cook pasta version, as I never pre-boil the lasagna noodles and always just throw them in uncooked, using a little extra sauce or water. I agree with the recommendations on sauciness in the tip section. I thought the lasagna was fine, but extra sauce is always good. If you like a saucy lasagna, make extra Marinara Sauce.
I made the samosa stuffed potatoes Friday to bring to a friends house. I had really little potatoes so they were appetizer sized. ;)b ;)b <------ this is "two thumbs up!"
I just added some extra salt to mine because I was feeling extra salty (noone else thought they needed more salt) & I think next time I may add a little cayenne pepper to spice them up.
i finally made the basic broiled tofu, it was so easy and it tasted great! i ate it with my leftover pad thai for breakfast. it had a nice chew exterior to it without having to coat and fry it. it would pretty much go with just about anything...
Does anyone have a good substitute for capers? I absolutely love the Cesar Salad recipe from this book :)>>>. However, capers are kind of expensive & I only use the little bit required for the recipe. Then the rest sits in my fridge until it goes bad.
Suggestions? I'd really like to make this tonight. Also, if anyone has played with the recipe and has suggestions for making it even tastier, I'd love to hear them!
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