Healthy Peanutty Brown Rice Bowl

Sometimes we just want something nourishing and comforting - a big, layered bowl of varying textures and tastes, tied together with some sort of sauce.

From the bottom up, this was a layer each of:

• Baby spinach
• Brown rice
• Steamed broccoli
• Crispy panfried tofu

Topped with my creamy spicy peanutty sauce.  So good!

I'm going to write down proper measurements sometime for this so I have something to give you that's more concise and easy to follow, but if you're the type to whip up stuff to taste in the kitchen, the sauce is:

• Peanut butter (about 1/4 cup)
• Soy sauce (about 4 tbsp)
• Sesame oil (about 2 tsp)
• Rice vinegar (about 2 tbsp)
• Lime juice (a squirt to taste)
• Sriracha hot sauce (to taste - we like it hot, so several squirts!)
• Water to thin out to a nice drizzleable texture 

Appetite for Reduction has some great ideas for multi-layered bowls.  Yum.  Makes a great weeknight meal!

- Crystal

Cauliflower Red Lentil Curry

Why don't I make this recipe more often?  It's so good - from Veganomicon.  It's got caufliflower, red lentils, parsnip and a ton of spices in it, it's so flavourful and really tastes even better the next day.  On top of it is a few pieces of Masala Baked Tofu from Appetite for Reduction.  Chewy, spicy, and a nice addition to the creaminess of the curry.

The salad is just simple but features a dressing that I heard some of my vegan friends talking about on Facebook - a mixture of vegenaise, soy sauce and nutritional yeast to taste.  I thinned it out with a bit of water, too.  WOAH MY GOD.  Best salad dressing ever.  Ever.  I could drink it straight up, probably.  But I won't.  In the salad is some cherry tomatoes from my balcony and some peppers given to us from Trevor's friend.

- Crystal

Cookies 'n' Cream Cake

It was my dad's birthday on Thursday.  I love to gift people with baked goods - as people get older and don't need as much stuff anymore, I think home-baked goods make lovely gifts.  My dad always puts oreos in our stockings at Christmas because they are vegan.  So, a little payback - a cookies 'n' cream cake made with oreos.  Yum.

I kind of did the piping in a rush - don't judge!

This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe.  I've made it so many times and it's never failed me.  For this cake, I did two layers so I could have cookies 'n' cream buttercream and more cookie crumbs between the layers.

Really Moist Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white or brown sugar
3 tablespoons sifted good quality cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, optional
5 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Make three deep holes in the dry mixture. Into one hole, pour the oil, into the next hole, pour the vinegar, and into the final hole, pour the vanilla.

2. Pour the water into the bowl, over all. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until there aren't any more lumps and pour into an ungreased 9x9 baking pan, 2 inches deep.

3. Bake for about 30 minutes, test with a fork.

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I always use the Vegan Fluffy Buttercream recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (which I found online for you here).  I added crushed up oreos.  Pick up that book, by the way; each recipe is phenomenal and will "fool" even the most discerning of my-cake-needs-to-have-eggs-dammit people.  

It's Trevor's dad's birthday on Tuesday, so next up - peanut butter chocolate cake!

- Crystal

Mujaddara

Have we ever told you about mujaddara? You have to try it. Its a popular middle eastern dish consisting of lentils, rice, and sweet caramelized onions. Guess what? Its usually vegan, so look for it at your favorite middle eastern place. Or you can make it yourself. We've tried a few recipes, but the one we like the best is from Veganomicon.
You just roast sliced onions in oil for half an hour, while cooking the rice and lentils on the stove with cumin and cinnamon. Combine it all when its done, and serve it with some pita chips and salad. This dish also pairs nicely with and assortment of other middle eastern side dishes like hummus, falafel, grape leaves, etc.
We served it with a side of sauteed kale, and some fresh veggies. Check out those tomatoes! We grew those on our balcony.

- Trevor

Seitan Sausages, Grilled Corn and Ranch-Dressed Salad

We were going to have a nice dinner on the balcony tonight but while we were barbecuing it started to rain, so we cooked everything as quickly as we could and brought it inside!

Grilled corn on the cob, garden salad (with vegetables from my balcony garden!) dressed with the Sanctuary Dressing from Appetite For Reduction, and a seitan sausage with mustard and sauerkraut.  

The sausage recipe is from the PPK blog, but I can't find the entry right now (I had it copied to a text file) so I'm just going to post it here.  I like to make a batch of these and freeze them to use up on the grill, a couple at a time.

The recipe is also incredibly versatile and the spices can be changed up depending on what you want it to taste like.  I change it up and add garlic powder instead of microplaning garlic, I use navy beans instead of pinto because it's easier for me to find them, and I never add fennel seed because I don't love fennel.


Ingredients
- 1/2 cup pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup cold vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, grated (with a microplane, or very finely minced)
- 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Several dashes fresh black pepper

Method
1. Before mixing your ingredients, get your steaming apparatus ready, bring water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.
2. Have ready 6 sheets of tin foil. In a large bowl, mash the pinto beans until no whole ones are left. Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed and mix with a fork. Divide dough into 6 even parts. Place one part of dough into tin foil and mold into about a 5 inch log. Wrap dough in tin foil, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming because this recipe is awesome.
3. Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes.  Now they are ready to use in a recipe or put on the grill.

- Crystal

Veg Out Brunch

We are so fortunate to live within walking distance of the amazing Veg Out, which is an all-vegan restaurant, so last Sunday morning we decided we wanted to treat ourselves to their scrumptious brunch.

I had the french toast, which was so delicious and cooked to perfection - with a side of tempeh bacon, of course.

And I had the cocobanana smoothie, too....coconut, banana and I think dates?

Trevor had the pancakes, which were really delicious and unlike any other pancake we've had (I tried a bite because he was marvelling at how good they were).  They were sort of crispy on the outside and really spongy so they soaked up the maple syrup nicely.

Mmm.  We love Veg Out.

- Crystal

B.B.B. (Bread, Beans, Basil)

We made a light, delicious snack with some leftover white beans, a fresh Italian loaf, balsamic vinegar, and some fresh basil. No cooking required!
Here is what you do:
Slice the loaf in half, and then slice each half in half length-wise. Drizzle lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Lay down a layer of basil leaves on top of that, and some white beans (navy or white kidney) over that. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
There you go, a nice lunch or dinner in less than 5 minutes! That should give you some extra time to finish that book you've been reading, go for a bike ride, or whatever else it is that you do.

- Trevor

Lebanese Moussaka

Unlike the Greek moussaka which is a casserole, Lebanese style is more like a thick stew.  This delicious and comes together in a snap.  We love the smoky flavour of eggplant and that flavour really shines in this.  This is really great warm or at room temperature.

Recipe is at Messy Vegetarian Cook.

Note:  This recipe calls for pomegranate molasses which I have never been able to find, so I just substitute with a touch more lemon juice and a teeny drizzle of agave syrup.

- Crystal

Red Breakfast

This was breakfast one lazy Saturday morning - my strawberry freezer jam and Earth Balance on toast and a small bowl of raspberries and strawberries for me to graze on.  So good; I'll be making that jam each year from now on.

Another strawberry-full concoction - a smoothie using up some of the frozen strawberries I had from when we went strawberry picking earlier in the season, with some banana, orange juice, soy milk, and a drizzle of coconut milk for creaminess.  Yum.

- Crystal

Plum Glazed Tofu

The plan for tonight was to make a simple stir-fry along with Vegan Dad's Pan Fried Tofu with Plum Glaze. With the ridiculous heat and humidity in our area today, we just wanted to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. This here thing took about 15 minutes.
We didn't have Hoisin Sauce, Woostashurr Sauce or Tobasco Sauce on hand, which Vegan Dad's recipe calls for, so we just made up our own recipe.
Here's what you do. Whip up the sauce first. Just combine all the ingredients listed below and whisk together with a fork. Then cut a block of tofu into triangles and fry it in a non-stick pan at medium head until it is browned. No oil necessary. Now pour the sauce on it and cook for a minute or two at low heat while it thickens up. That's it.
You know how to make a stir-fry, so make that next. Maybe use some of the leftover tofu glaze in your stir-fry like we did.

Sweet Plum Tofu Glaze
1/2 cup plum sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
1 tbsp agave syrup (or another sweetener)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp your favourite hot sauce
1 tsp caper brine (optional)
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Pinch of black pepper

-Trevor

American Vegan Kitchen Giveaway

Another great giveaway for you!

Tamasin Noye's American Vegan Kitchen is chock full of delicious recipes with that greasy-spoon, comfort-food diner flair.

Around-the-Clock Coffee Cake, Beer-Battered Onion Rings, Darngood Donut Bites, Cajun Pot Pie, Fork-and-Knife Reubens, Midtown Greek Salad, Spicy Balsamic Maple Wingz, Yankee Cornbread, Southern Fried Seitan, Mom's Apple Pie...goodness gracious.  How amazing does that all sound?!  You need this cookbook.

To enter, tell us what your favourite vegan comfort food is in the comments below.  

Contest closes August 10, 2011 at 7pm EST, open to international readers.  Winner will be drawn at random.

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The contest is now closed!
Comment #30 has been picked at random as the winner.

Congratulations, VeganCraftastic!