Deep Dish Caramelized Onion Pizza Pie

I made a regular yeast pizza crust, rolled it out to about 12" across and put it in a lightly greased 9x2" deep, glass pie pan. I crimped the edges like a pie. Poke holes in the crust with a fork so the bottom will rise evenly.
Bake the crust at 425F for 5 minutes.
I filled the crust with a mixture of caramelized onions, mushrooms and Yves Lettuce Wrap crumbles. It's not just for wraps, says the label!

I baked the whole thing for another 15 minutes at 425F. Even though the outer crust is hard, the pie looks and smells really good.

Delicious. Very sweet with a tender crust.

The Condiment Chronicles :: Vegan Mayo De-Classified

The word is out. The mystery is solved. The myth de-bunked. You CAN make delicious mayo at home, cheap, without bothering any hens! (graphic)

Who knew it was this easy? Vegan Epicurean knew!

After reading the article with the original recipe about what she did, Here's what I did:

I went to BigLots and got a $2 bottle of canola oil, so this was REALLY cheap. I used one cup of oil (50c) and a 1/2 cup of soy milk ($3.50 for a 1/2 gallon, even cheaper when I make the soymilk myself) and the price of the spices and salt. That isn't very expensive to make over a cup of mayo.

Vegan Mayonnaise on the Cheap!

1 1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup plain soy milk (very slightly sweet so I left out the sweetener called for in the original recipe)

1/4 tsp vinegar

1 tbs lemon juice 

1/2 tsp salt

Put all in blender with whatever seasonings you want (I used 1/2 tsp dried mustard but you should adjust the salt, sweetness and tartness to your personal taste. It's only as good as you spice it)

If you have a high speed blender you should be able to whip this up in about 30 seconds. With a regular blender, you may have to mix longer.

Makes about a cup and a half of mayo

Scrape the mayo into a jar with a tight lid and store in the fridge. 

I will let you know how long it stores sometime in the future! It should last as long as the milk is good and when it's mixed with vinegar, salt and oil I think the milk should last a while in the fridge. We'll see. Let me know if you find out first!

Vegan Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe

Southern Style Vegan Buttermilk Biscuits













Pre-heat oven to 450F

2 cups flour
4 tsp aluminum free baking powder 
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

4 tbs olive oil

1 cup chilled vegan buttermilk (1 cup chilled vegan milk of your choice, add 2 tbs vinegar or lemon juice, stir well, allow to thicken in fridge about 10 minutes)

In a chilled bowl mix dry ingredients well.
Cut in oil until it's a crumbly texture. Use a cold fork, you fingers will make it too warm and you won't get the crumb-like texture you want.
Add chilled buttermilk and stir until a thick dough forms.
Turn out on a heavily floured board and sprinkle flour on top then fold dough over onto itself. Continue to sprinkle and fold until you have a workable dough that you can roll out and cut. Don't over work.
Roll out to about an 3/4" thick
Cut with a 2" biscuit cutter and arrange on dry baking sheet with the circles barely touching each other.
Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top.

This recipe made 14 biscuits.

Really easy, really good, 100% veganized for your convenience.

Next time I will use 3 tbs oil and 1/4 tsp salt, but these are DEE-LICIOUS! I'm going to serve them with vegan gravy and steamed collard greens.

The Culmination of An Entire Day of Preparing Falafel Dinner

Ah, the Chick Pea. Also known as Garbanzos, these tasty legumes are full of fiber and oh-so-versatile. They are the main ingredient in hummus and I love me some delicious chickpea curry (chana masala) but many people don't know that they are the major component in falafel.

Yesterday was Falafel Appreciation Day so we had falafel for dinner last night.

Soak and sprout 1 cup of dried garbanzo beans. This takes four days. If you don't have the time you can just soak them over night. When you are done you should have about 3 cups of soaked/sprouted beans.

Do yourself a favor and do not use canned beans. Or any canned food for that matter. They line the cans with BPA and that leaches into the canned food causing all kinds of problems that we won't get into here. It's cheaper to buy dried beans and very simple to soak and sprout them. Do it. You will feel more self sufficient, create less waste and you will thank yourself later. Soaked and sprouted beans are more nutritious and easier to digest. You will have less bean related gas if you soak and sprout beans before cooking.

Use those beans to make Falafel!

These are baked falafel. Crisp on the outside, warm and soft inside.

Because they are baked, they are very low fat. You can also fry these in oil for a crispier (greasier, heavier) product. A sort of "happy medium" can be reached by baking them in advance and gently heating them in a lightly greased skillet before serving.


Sprouted wheat flat bread, falafel, tomato, onion, vegan yogurt sauce and red lettuce came together and made my mouth very happy.

The money shot:

What did you do for Falafel Appreciation Day?

Sprout-ghetti

How many kinds of sprouts? Buckwheat, red wheat, adzuki, lentil, sunflower, sesame, fenugreek and fennel sprouts with red lettuce, steamed broccoli and roasted eggplant/sun dried tomato marinara sauce over the buckwheat and red wheat. I put lime juice and chopped onion on the red lettuce.

Warm marinara on top of the sprouted buckwheat/red wheat was very satisfying. I call it sprout-ghetti. I'm silly like that.

Bacon/Avocado Burger Vegan Dinner Sandwich

I had some mystery patties in my freezer (I want to say Garden Burgers but here are some recipes for patties), Lightlife Smart Bacon, avocado, lettuce, fermented cashew cream, tomato, onion and plain bagels. I took it to the logical conclusion.

I can't eat something that had a face but I don't mind eating things in the SHAPE of a face :)

Greasy goodness. I cooked them in a tsp of olive oil...
Look at that bacon foam! How authentic :P



This is the man's finished sandwich on bagel, with bacon, onion, tomato, pickle, mystery vegan patty, red lettuce, mayo and ketchup

And mine looking at itself.

"What?? No TOMATO???"

We are really liking the Smart Bacon. The rest are still in the freezer waiting. I'd like to thank Lightlife for making them and for sending me the coupons so I could try them. Thanks!

Sprouted Bean Experiment Concluded!

The other day I started some beans sprouting and this is what happened:


4 days ago I soaked a cup of white beans for 24 hrs. Then I put them in a jar with a draining lid and set them up to sprout. Three days and many rinsings later they were starting to show little tails!



















I rinsed them one last time and then cooked them in broth until they were soft and all the liquid was gone. I had to keep adding water. It was just like cooking regular beans, no different.

My conclusion about sprouted beans? I will continue to do it. They were delicious. I appreciate that when germinated they are much easier to digest. They take just as long to cook and I didn't really taste any difference. I think from now on I will soak for one day and germinate for one day, shortening it from a four to a two day process. We have beans about twice a week, with a two day soak I won't have to have multiple jars germinating just to keep us in beans. My kitchen isn't that big and I don't feel like branching out right now. Master bathroom with the skylight, I'm talking to you.

Last night's dinner was delicious. I made whole wheat tortillas, I made a wonderful salsa from tomato, onion, corn, garlic and lime juice.
















I cooked up some brown and wild rice, steamed about 2 cups of spinach leaves in broth with minced onion and made cashew sour cream.

Burrito night.














Roll your own :)



Today for lunch I sauteed some collard greens and minced onion in a 1/2 cup juice from the salsa. When the collard is thoroughly wilted and the onions are translucent I added a tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder and stirred it in until all dissolved. I added another 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer until the liquid was almost gone.

I served it over wild and brown rice with a scoop of "refried" sprouted beans.














When I say "refried" I mean re-heated with a little bit of water.


Today's smoothie was different.
2 Banana
1 big handful dried mint
1/4 cup Dried Kelp
3 tbs flax seed
Plenty of water














MMM-mm-Minty! It smelled just like summer time. I brought a bunch from the old house and planted it here. I sure hope it grows big. I'd like to plant more around the house but I need this bush to grow so I can make more bushes.

How to Store Leeks

This question has been bothering me for a while now. "How do I store leeks so they last longer than a couple of days before they start to get all dried up and while we're at it, so it's not an awkward 2 foot long vegetable taking up valuable real estate in my fridge?"

Today it dawned on me. Why not just store them the way I store all my other leafy greens?


I cut the root end off, cut the leek in half and chopped the halves in half long-ways.














Spread them out on a clean dish towel.

















Roll them up in the towel and stick them in a produce bag.














Actually, that is an old bread bag.














Produce is expensive and I HATE wasting food. This method keeps the leaves from touching each other, it keeps them an even moisture all over and it prevents contact with air and will keep your leeks fresh for a week or more and over time save a bundle of cold, hard cash on your grocery bill.

I wrapped these up with out washing and will wash them as I bring them out to use. Some people wash them first when using this method. If you do, make sure you dry them well, because overly wet spots will cause faster spoilage.

Reuse. It comes between Reduce and Recycle.

Being vegan is about reducing unnecessary suffering. I became a vegan as a direct off shoot of my desire to produce zero waste. Food that doesn't come in packages is mostly raw and vegan, really. The no-poo, the paperless kitchen, composting, and a bunch of other stuff are all about putting out less trash.

Reusing things is important. The less we buy new, the less we throw in the landfill.

Today I made a pitcher to hold my kitchen utensils out of an old blender carafe.

I took the bottom ring off the carafe, removed the blade (important!), replaced the blade with a with a small mouth canning jar lid then screwed the ring back on.


















































Ta-Da!















Leave a comment and tell me about your fabulous DIY Recycling by Reusing projects.

Dinner last night was cabbage and carrots with steamed with cumin, polenta, spinach and a three color tomato and cuke salad. A very good dinner all around.

Fresh Pasta Ravioli Dinner for Valentine's Day

Making pasta. Raviolis ready to dry in the dehydrator.
















We bought a pasta maker at Goodwill for $4.99! One of the nice manual ones that really works.

Vegan Noodle Recipe Pasta Dough
3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 tbs olive oil
Put it in the food processor with the dough blade until it forms a ball and starts to clean the sides of the bowl.
Turn it out on a lightly floured board and knead it for about 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, silky ball.
Place dough ball in a lightly greased bowl to rest for 30 minutes.

Form the dough with your pasta machine or with your hands. I'm not gonna go all technical with a description on how to make noodles, ok? I will say that this machine makes fresh, home made pasta possible. I have made it with my hands before and that is a waste of time, IMO. This machine is fantastic.















Filling was vegetables, Gimme Lean and seed cheese.















Vegetable Filling for Vegan Ravioli
1 medium white onion, chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, pureed
1/2 cup broccoli, chopped
pinch of salt
Sautee onion and garlic in a little oil and broth until very soft
Add pureed tomato and broccoli and cook until tender and most of the liquid is gone.

Sunflower seed cheese
1 cup soaked sunflower seeds
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
all in food processor until a thick paste
Add water a tbs at a time as needed and scrape the sides often.

Gimme Lean sausage is broken up into 1/2 tsp sized chunks and heated in a skillet until it begins to brown.

I thawed the frozen tube in the dehydrator, 95F for about an hour.















This is about 2" of the tube broken in chunks and heated in skillet w a tsp of oil until browned.















Each ravioli contains about a 1/2 tsp each of vegetables, cheese and sausage. Don't overfill.





























I started making them in sheets then remembered that I had the press. Much easier.















Let the raviolis sit and dry out in a warm place. I put mine in the dehydrator at 95F for about 1 hour.

Just before serving place each ravioli in a large pot of boiling water, do not crowd. Boil for 5 minutes or less, it doesn't take too long for the fresh pasta to cook up.

Serve with marinara sauce.

1 chopped onion
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tomatoes pureed
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1 tbs Italian seasoning
Water or broth as needed.
Saute onion and garlic
Add tomatoes, mushrooms and seasoning
Add about 1/2 cup water
Simmer until thick and delicious
Salt if needed.


We also made some fettuccine and some linguine.
The linguine was just like fresh ramen. I used to live on ramen noodles and haven't had it a LONG time so homemade ramen was quite a treat.














The extra raviolis, enough for at least two more meals, were dried and put in a big ziplock in the freezer.

To be completely honest with you, in all the excitement last night we forgot to take photos of the plates. They were beautiful. I made roasted sweet potato and yam with black pepper and an organic red leaf lettuce salad with spicy pickles.
These photos were just taken today and with a different sauce.

RAW! Cabbage Kale and Broccoli Coleslaw

So pretty and so tasty.
















Cabbage Kale Broccoli Coleslaw

1 c shredded green cabbage
1/2 c chopped curly kale
1/2 cup chopped broccoli
1 tbs olive oil
Juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp organic cane sugar
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Pinch of salt (optional)

Makes two cups, enough for 4 sides or two entrees.

Vegan Dinner Last Night Roasted Eggplant over Pasta with Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce

This is what we ended up eating for dinner last night:













Roasted eggplant with morel mushroom sauce over pasta with a lovely green salad sporting fresh tomato and basil.



Here is the technical stuff if you are so inclined.


Roasted Eggplant
Preheat oven to 400F

Peel and slice an eggplant, lay the slices on a board.
Sprinkle some salt all over the top and put a towel on top of all the slices.
Put a cutting board on top and a heavy bowl full of water on top.
Let it rest for an hour or so then put sliced onion on top of the eggplant, cover with a kitchen towel, weight and let rest for 1 more hour.
This process draws some of the liquid out of the eggplant and begins the cooking process. It is optional, you can just roast fresh eggplant.

Oil a cookie sheet with olive oil and lay your eggplant and onion slices on the pan.
Spread a light layer of oil on the vegetables.
Bake in 400F oven for about 12 minutes until eggplant and onions start to get brown at the tips.
Remove from oven and turn vegetables over.
Drizzle with olive oil or add a tbs of water to the pan if you think they look a little dry.
Bake an additional 20 min or until the veges are tender.


Morel Mushroom in a Cashew Cream Sauce

1 med yellow onion chopped fine
4 cloves garlic chopped fine
1 tbs olive oil

.5 oz dried morel mushrooms soaked in 1 cup water for 20 min.
1/2 cup fresh basil
Salt to taste.

4 tbs dry cashews soaked in clear water.

Coarsely chop mushrooms and save soak water for making cashew cream :)
Saute onion and garlic in oil until they are a caramelized.
Add chopped, soaked morels and chopped basil to onions and let them cook a bit. Add a tbs of water if it seems to dry.

















Once mushrooms and basil are cooked, add cashew cream made from mushroom water and cashews in blender and blend until very smooth. The smoother, the better.
Add cashew cream to veges and stir until thickened. Add more water if you find the sauce gets too thick.

Mild Sweet Corn Salsa Raw Vegan Side Dish

Corn Salsa

1/2 cup frozen corn
1 roma tomato
1/2 med yellow onion
juice of one lime about a 1/4 cup

Pulse tomato and onion separately in processor or chop fine.
Transfer to bowl.
Add corn and lime juice
Mix well and chill for one hour or more
Drain before serving.

My Raw Vegan Dinner Last Night: Enchilada Salad

@snarkyvegan on twitter linked to @tofu666 's blog where I found this Raw Vegan Enchilada recipe and modified it, thusly:
















Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Red lettuce, sliced avocado, failed tortilla chips, grilled vegetables, sauerkraut, spicy raw pickles and in the center is spicy walnut filling and mild sweet corn salsa. All over the top is cashew sour cream.

Fantastic.

I tried to wing a raw tortilla recipe but the tortilla failed so we had Enchilada Salad and used the fail as chips. It worked out deliciously, I must say. The show must go on and all that.

Vegan Pizza!

I made a yeast pizza crust from the recipe on the Bob's Red Mill flour bag, but I used whole wheat flour and I add 1 tbs garlic powder (not garlic salt) to the recipe.

I rolled the crusts out super thin for a change, I usually make them thicker. Both are good :)

Crust drizzled with olive oil.















I like my home made vegan pizza sauce-less so it is topped with sliced tomatoes, basil, grilled onions, green olives, chopped seitan nuggets, chopped pickled garlic and cashew sour cream.















Bake 15 minutes at 425F, until crust is browned and crispy. Don't bake too long or the crust will be like a cracker.

Nom.