Taro Barley Soup

Every few months, I like to take inventory of what I've got in the pantry and freezer, and make sure I'm using up all the things I've purchased for recipes and then get shoved to the side.  Sunday was inventory day.  As of today, in addition to every spice and condiment imaginable, plus staples like sugar, salt, baking soda, and the like:

freezer
scallion flatbreads
sweet potato biscuits
4 apple sage Field Roast sausages
pita
2 portions curried split pea soup
injera
leftover ethiopian lentils
2 blocks tofu
chunked pineapple, cherries, mango, bananas

pantry
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
large tvp chunks
wheat spaghetti
spicy peanut butter
salsa
coconut milk
marinara
rice noodles

produce
pepper squash
baby spinach
pomegranate arils
3 peppers
3 beets
4 carrots
1 large taro root
3 sweet potatoes
4 onions
purple kale
a grapefruit
4 kiwis

beans, peas, lentils
dried lima beans
1 cup green lentils
1/2 bag each green and brown lentils
dried romano beans

breads
6 large tortillas

flours
chickpea flour
vital wheat gluten
all purpose flour
whole wheat flour
corn meal
empanada flour

grains
white rice
brown rice
pearl barley
quinoa
couscous
steelcut oats

nuts and seeds
cashews (lots)
sesame seeds
almond slivers
peanuts (lots)
1-2 cups walnuts
1 cup pistachios
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds

fridge
4 firm blocks of tofu
pickled red onions
pickled asparagus
1/2 jar sofrito
niter kibbeh

This means it's time to get creative and work with what I've got instead of purchasing more ingredients for specific recipes.  I start off with what's going to go "off" first, and work from there.  I've had the taro root for a couple weeks, and a hankering for a big pot of soup, so I set to work.

The thing with soup is I feel like if you know the basics of cooking and flavour affinities, it's kind of impossible to screw up.  Infact, I'm pretty sure that soup started out as a way to use up whatever you've got, simmer it down and make it good.

Last time I was in Toronto, I went to my favourite Latin shop in Kensington Market to see what things I could bring home.  I like a good shortcut now and again, so I bought a jar of sofrito, which is basically just a thick sauce of tomato, olive oil, garlic, cilantro, peppers, to be used as a base for dishes like stews, soups, rice and beans.  I had a half jar left of it from making sofrito tempeh last week.  Terry Romero has a nice sofrito recipe in Viva Vegan.

This soup tastes just like my grandmother's lecso, which is a Hungarian stew that has yellow peppers, tomato, onion and paprika in it, and is served over what is called egg barley noodles (tarhonya).

With sweet potato drop biscuits from the cookbook Appetite for Reduction.

Simple Taro Barley Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium taro root, peeled and chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

1 yellow pepper, diced

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups vegetable broth

1/2 jar sofrito (Goya brand, or homemade)

1/2 cup pearl barley

salt to taste

Heat your olive oil on medium-high heat in a large soup pot.  Add the onion and carrot and sautee until the onion is pearly and translucent.  Add the garlic, taro and pepper and stir to coat everything in oil.  Add the broth and sofrito, stirring to mix everything.  Bring to a boil, and reduce to a low simmer once its reached boiling.  About 15 minutes before carrots are fork-tender, add the barley.  It's done when the barley is cooked.  Taste for salt.  The taro will be very soft in the finished soup, which is nice because it adds creaminess to the broth.

Tastes even better the next day.

New York City (Part II)

(See Part I of our vegan food tour of NYC!)

Me upon arrival at our NYC apartment sublet, summarizing how I feel about the whole trip

Ahhhh...another entry to profess my love for NYC and all the vegan noms and fun things to do within it.

We're huge fans of Louis CK and the show Louie, so on Tuesday night we went to the Comedy Cellar, which is in the opening sequence of the show, and where Louis does the stand-up bits in his show.  In the opening sequence, he's walking around Greenwich Village.  

He comes up from the Washington Square subway station:


Walks down the street and gets pizza, and ends up here:

We walked around singing the song in the opening sequence ("Brother Louie") and had a grand old time laughing until our faces were melting at the Comedy Cellar (some of the comics that night were from Louie, and one of them plays Frank on 30 Rock).  

Before we got to that point though, we had dinner at Red Bamboo (West 4th St/6th Ave):

I had the "chicken" parm sandwich, which was absolutely incredible.  Following that with the oreo cheesecake was not my best idea due to how full it made me, but I don't regret it at all.  Not even a little bit.

Trevor had the Philly cheesesteak, which he didn't take a photo of but says, "It was the best sandwich I've ever had!"  Pretty high praise.

The next day, we got up bright and early, ready for what we dubbed the "Art Day".  That would include me getting tattooed at Kings Avenue in Manhattan by the talented Philip Szlosek.  Not all tattoo ink is vegan, but many of the dudes at Kings Ave are vegan (and straight edge!) so they know what's what when it comes to that.  

Also, not related to art, but we walked over to Moo Shoes and bought some kicks and pet the cats who take up residence in the store.  

We then headed back to Midtown so we could go to the MOMA and look at some of the most famous and influential art of all time:

We hadn't really planned our food for this part of the trip, figuring we could find something.  WRONG!  Turns out, the area surrounding the MOMA sucks for vegan food.  We ended up buying the most stale big pretzel from a street vendor, and our saving grace was another street stall that had fresh juices, so we got some sort of kale/celery/apple/ginger concoction which was at least some sustenance.  

After an exhausting day, and I still had a ton of leftover adrenaline and endorphins in my system from being tattooed, we got totally dressed up and headed to Candle 79, the crown jewel of vegan restaurants.  This, for me, was the highlight of the whole trip.  Located in the Upper East Side, one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the world, this make-reservations-a-month-ahead restaurant is worth the trip to NYC alone.  The service was impeccable, the ambiance was gorgeous, and the food was truly some of the best I've ever eaten.  We couldn't really take photos since the whole restaurant is dimly-lit by candlelight.

We started with the steamed dumplings (seitan, shiitake mushrooms, baby bok choy,
sesame-ginger soy sauce), and the chef brought over an amuse-bouche of a delicious chickpea salad.  For entrées, I had the Seitan Piccata and Trevor had the Pomegranate Chipotle-Grilled Tempeh.  We finished with Trevor having the spiced espresso (espresso, ginger-agave, cinnamon, chili pepper, mole bitters, orange twist) and I had the cannoli (chocolate chip-vanilla cream filling, coconut ice cream, chocolate drizzle).

Again, I have to say, every detail about that meal was just incredible.  After we returned home to London, I received a personal email from the manager thanking us for our business, and hoped we'd return next time we found ourselves in NYC.  Now how's that for service?

--

The next day was BROOKLYN/vegan meetup day.  A group of us from the PPK met up for breakfast at Yonah's, since no one else had been there yet!  See that gorgeous, rolly-polly baby in the background?  Vegan from birth, yo.  And she's just the most energetic, squishy, huggy, fun baby around.

Stuffed with knishes.  Rachel (red shirt) ordered two because she didn't believe me that they're filling and was only able to finish one!  I tried her sweet potato one and it was really good.

Next up was hopping back on the subway to head over to Brooklyn.  The Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn was probably my favourite, most-livable place we visited in NYC.  It has a really different energy than Manhattan; less manic.  Plus, vegan donuts and pizza.  Behold:

"Lunch" #1:  Two donuts each.  Mine were chocolate with sprinkles and raspberry-jam filled.    Trevor says jam-filled is gross (hater!) so he opted for cinnamon glazed instead.

Our take-home box that made it home in our luggage!   Chocolate sprinkles, chocolate, cinnamon, raspberry filled, raspberry glazed, vanilla with chocolate sprinkles

Mac and cheese pizza, soy BBQ chicken pizza

The donuts were from Dunwell Donuts (Montrose/Bushwick, Brooklyn) and the pizza was from Vinnie's (Bedford/N 6th St., Brooklyn) and they were everything I could've hoped for.   

Next up was Champs (Ainslie/Leonard, Brooklyn) for our last dinner in NYC.  We met up with more vegan friends!

No one goes away starving at Champs.

Where's the photos of the food, you ask?  Good question.  I totally forgot.  Just like I forgot to take photos of our ice creams at Lula's later that night...

Lula's Sweet Apothecary (Avenue B/E 6th St.) was going to be our first stop on the trip, but their shortened winter hours went into affect the weekend before our trip, so the first time they were open on our trip was Thursday.  It was the last thing we did, and it was really the cherry on top of the whole trip.

Everything at Lula's is handmade, and their policy is giving those of us with dietary or ethical requirements for what we eat the experience of being a kid in an ice cream shop.  You want it, you got it.  I got the banana split, and when asked what sauce toppings I wanted (caramel, chocolate or hot fudge), I asked which was the best.  The man behind the counter said, "Well, why don't you have all three?"  Yessir!  You don't need to ask me twice.

I totally failed at getting any photos, like I said.  It seems like more than enough people have captured the experience though, a quick google search tells me.

Anyway, this entry was kind of hard to write because when we took the trip, I wasn't in a blogging mode and didn't think I'd ever write this all out.  But if you have one takeaway from this poorly-written entry, it's that you need to go stuff your face in NYC.

The end.

- Crystal

Vegan Eats World

I'm super excited about this cookbook.  I finally added it to my repertoire at Christmas and I've just been blown away by everything we've made so far.  You know a cookbook is good when you read it like a novel.

I really liked Pho when I was a meateater.  Since being vegan, I've discovered it's nearly impossible to find a version in a restaurant that isn't loaded with tripe, tendon and other assorted nasties.  Yeuch.

I nearly jumped with joy when I was first flipping through the index of Vegan Eats World and saw a recipe called Sizzling Seitan Pho Noodle Soup (the recipe is in that link).  Trevor made it one day while I was working and he was off work (yeah, I'm a lucky lady, my husband makes me soup that includes broth from scratch. I know).  He said the soup was labour intensive, but the final result was out of this world.

That broth.  Holy crap.  It was sweet, spicy, sour, savoury all at once.  I couldn't stop slurping my broth.  Screw the rest of the dish, that broth!  

Those chunks are both the Coriander Seitan Cutlets from the book, and baked tofu.  Honestly, I preferred the tofu, and I think next time we make it, I'll just make it a Tofu Pho instead of seitan.  

This book also has so much more.

• Kale, preserved lemon and pomegranate salad
• Scrambled tofu breakfast Banh Mi sandwiches
• Greek Creamy Lemon Rice Soup
• Flying Massaman Curry
• Sri Lankan Red Lentil Curry
• Garlic Chive Seitan Potstickers
• Edamame Gyoza
• Sweet Potato-Stuffed Paratha
• Yogurt Naan Griddle Bread
• Steamed BBQ Seitan Buns
• Pad Mee Kao
• Korean Veggie Bulgogi
• Roasted Gnocchi with Roasted Tomato Caper Sauce
• Baked Punky Pumpkin Kibbe
• Roasted Eggplant Masala
• Pumpkin Churros
• Vanilla Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango
• Ethiopian Chocolate Flourless Torte

I hope everyone gets this book because Terry is awesome. 

- Crystal

A Weeknight Dinner Narrative

What's a lady to do when she's had a long day at work, went to the gym, husband's working late and it's 6:30 before she even starts thinking about dinner?

Before she even solidifies her game plan, she puts on a pot of whole wheat rotini.  She hasn't had pasta in a while, and it'll come together quickly.

She assesses that her pantry and refrigerator and the first things that pop out to her are: a bag of carrots, a bunch of kale that won't be good much longer, an avocado, 1 orange pepper and 1/2 a yellow pepper, some broccoli sprouts, some garlic.

She grabs the biggest wok she can find, adds a glug of olive oil, puts it on medium heat, and sets out to chop the carrot, mince the garlic, tear the kale, dice the pepper and avocado.

She adds the carrot to the sizzling wok first, followed by garlic.  Then comes to the kale, left for a few minutes to wilt, then the peppers.  She leaves this to do its thing quickly while she drains the pasta.

Back to the wok.  Now everything is nice and bright, hot and crisp-tender, it gets doused in a squirt of lemon juice, a big pinch of dried basil, generous pinches of salt and black pepper, and LOTS of nutritional yeast.  Mmm, cheesy, cheesy nutritonal yeast.

The pasta gets added back in.  Everything gets tossed together.  Then plated.  Then topped with the sprouts and avocado.  And some hemp seeds for some protein.

And some hot sauce, of course.

- Crystal

Orange Chick'n and Broccoli

I'm not huge on faux meats in my own cooking, since I really like cooking with whole ingredients and not premade stuff, but I am totally not above a good Chinese-style chick'n dish now and again.  We found some mock chick'n chunks at the huge Asian market that opened up in London.

What better way to use them than to put them in a Chinese take out style chick'n and broccoli dish in a tangy, garlicky orange sauce?

1 300g bag premade vegan chicken nuggets or equivalent chicken-style seitan strips
1 head broccoli, chopped into florets
~1 tbsp canola oil

The sauce:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
salt and pepper

Add any mild-tasting oil (canola, peanut) you have to a wok and heat on medium-high heat.  Add your chick'n chunks or seitan strips and sautee until golden brown.  Remove from pan and set aside.  With the remaining oil in the pan, add the broccoli florets and cook until bright green but still with some crunch.  Add the chick'n chunks back to the pan, add some salt and pepper, then coat with the sauce, stirring to coat everything.  Cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens up.

Serve over rice with hot sauce on the side.  Eat!

- Crystal

IKEA food

So, I've got some postdated blogging to do.  Back at the beginning of December, we went to IKEA.  I love their little food section as I'm really fascinated by Scandinavian cuisine (even though it's decidedly not vegan-friendly traditionally.  Though these days, since that block of countries is generally way more progressive than the rest of the world in almost every way, there's plenty of vegan options).  I always get a packet of the ginger thin biscuits they have; they're a nice tea break snack.  I knew I wanted a jar of lingonberry jam so I could try to make Swedish meatballs.  Wishfully thinking, I picked up a pack of this frozen gingerbread dough, which seems to be a seasonal item, and read the ingredients list:  another accidentally vegan score!  I like to make things from scratch, but I am not above the occasional shortcut.  These were really pleasant and spiced, I'll be sure to get them next time I see them!

I hated the Glögg.  I'm always looking for interesting alcohol-free to have when I'm with people drinking (I'm straight edge) drinks, but this was...really nasty.  Tasted like cough syrup.

Gingerbread moose!

Anyway, yeah, I wanted to make Swedish meatballs.  I remember eating meatballs as a child and thinking they were gross; they were sort of greasy and slimy.  These were really good, with a nice savoury, meaty bite.  I used the recipe from Mo Betta Vegan, the only change I made was substituting soy sauce for the Worcestershire sauce.

I made mashed potatoes, Chris and Crystal Tate's white peppery gravy (which used to be posted online, but the link is dead.  If you have Melisser Elliott's book "The Vegan Girl's Guide To Life", it's in there, too), and a proper helping of the IKEA lingonberry jam.

It was a pretty beige meal which I try to avoid most often, but sometimes the craving for colourless comfort food wins!

- Crystal

New York City (Part I)

In November, we headed to New York City for a week.  We'd never been!  I've wanted to go for as long as I can remember, so we made 2012 the year.  Now that I've been, I don't think I'll be able to help but want to go again and again and again.  And in true "us" fashion, most of our trip revolved around where we were going to eat.

We arrived on a Monday in late afternoon.  We were pretty tired from annoying flight delays and lots of travel, but we hailed a cab and headed to Lan Cafe (1st Ave/East 6th St).  Got dropped off out front, realized they weren't open Mondays.  I was super grumpy about that as I was hungry and tired, but Trevor hailed another cab, and we headed to Soy and Sake (7th Ave South/Morton St).  Vegan sushi!  We were so thankful to rest our bones and we were starving, so we both ordered bento boxes; I got the tempura chicken and Trevor got the teriyaki chicken.

It was really good.  The chicken was eerily chicken-like, and the California rolls had mock crab in them which was nice!  The pan-fried gyoza dumplings were great, too.  To celebrate finally being in NYC, I ordered a shirley temple.  

Next morning, we got up for a big day of sightseeing and walking around, so we started the day off in the best way, by walking to Yonah Schimmel's (East Houston St/2nd Ave) and getting knishes.  The vegetable varieties are vegan (potato, kasha, red cabbage, spinach, mushroom, sweet potato, vegetable and broccoli).  This place is a landmark in NYC and is a part of Jewish NYC history.  

I ordered the spinach, Trevor ordered the potato.  Knishes are by default made of potato, so the different varieties just mean potato + whatever.  These knishes were massive, piping hot, and each table had a squeeze bottle of spicy mustard which was great on them.  A great, filling meal to start off a busy day, which included going to the top of the Empire State Building (which I would highly recommend):

                             

Part of the trip also included hitting up the best coffee/espresso places in NYC.  Over by the Empire State Building is NYC's location of Stumptown Coffee (5th Ave/West 29th St).  I'm not a coffee drinker, but Trevor has a tattoo of a coffee cup on his arm, so you do the math.  He had a soy macchiato, which he said was one of the best cups he's ever had (and dude knows his coffee).

From there, we had a big day in Midtown, which included seeing the flatiron building (I looooved it), the Strand bookstore (which is the bookstore where a few weeks before, Morrissey had saved a fainting woman), and Muji.  We ended up at Murray's Bagels (6th Ave/West 13th St) for lunch.  They have a bunch of vegan options for toppings and so many delicious fresh bagels.  I got the herbed vegan cream cheese on a sesame bagel, and Trevor got the regular vegan cream cheese on a pumpernickel bagel.

Okay, that's enough for one entry.  We'll cover the rest (which includes donuts) in another one.

- Crystal