vegan fun

Carrot and peas soup

2009-11-03T11:47:00.003+02:00

Vegan MoFo ended before I knew it. I didn't have a lot of time this year, but it was great. I have tons of posts to read, I'll catch up around January...
Just before the end of Vegan MoFo, winter finally started here. I'm not too thrilled about it in general, but if there's something good about winter it's the food. On top of the list-soup!

I opened this winter with carrot-peas soup. I just had a lot of carrots and thought peas would be nice with it, and they did. I'll add corn next time.

Carrot peas soup

7 carrots
3-4 cups water
cloves from 1/2 garlic bulb
1 potato (or some potato flakes if you're lazy)
1 tsp grounded ginger
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tbs lemon juice
1.5 cup frozen peas
salt to taste

Peel and cut the carrots and cook in water with the garlic and potato. Once it's soft, blend everything.
In the meanwhile, defrost the peas.
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a few more minutes.

Casserole? Pie?

2009-10-25T12:07:00.005+02:00

Crust-less pie? Whatever you call it, I baked a few of them a while ago.

The first is a veganized recipe, zucchini pie that tastes more like an onion pie. YUM.

Zucchini pie

5 big zucchinis, shredded
3 big onions, chopped
1.5 cup self rising flour
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup oil (I used less and it was fine. 3/4 cup just seems too much)
3 egg replacer mixtures
1 spoon instant soup powder (you can leave it out)
salt and pepper

You're supposed to get rid of the water in the zucchinis. I didn't feel like squeezing them so I just used less water later.
So just mix everything and bake 40-50 minutes at 180C.
Let it cool completely before you slice it.

I also made an orange version of this pie. I replaced the zucchinis with sweet potatoes and carrots and used less onions. It was delicious.

Sweet potatoes and carrots pie

Then I wanted to make a pie without using an egg replacement, since it's not sold here and my stock from abroad won't last forever. I couldn't find nice vegetables that week so I made a cabbage pie. Not my first choice for a pie and probably something that most people wouldn't like, but I just didn't want to wait.

Cabbage pie

1\2 bug cabbage (about 1kg)
1 big onion
1 cup whole wheat flour
1\2 cup white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1\2 cup water
1\2 cup oil
1\2 cup potato flakes
salt, pepper, garlic
bread crumbs (optional)

Chop the cabbage and simmer it till it gets soft.
In the meantime, chop the onion, place in a big bowl and add the rest of the dry ingredients, except for the bread crumbs.
When the cabbage is ready, add it to the bowl. Add the water and oil and mix well. If the batter is too dry, add a little more water.
Oil a 22cm baking dish. Spread bread crumbs at the bottom if you want.
Transfer the batter into the baking dish, squeeze and flatten it and bake 45 minutes at 180C.

Black bean burger

2009-10-24T16:29:00.003+02:00

I had to defrost the freezer and was reminded I had cooked black beans that I had froze a while ago. A few hours later I had a bigger freezer and a dish for dinner.

This was a total improvisation, a very tasty one.
I blended the beans (I think I had about 1.5 cup, maybe more) with a large carrot and added 2 spoons of tahini, some spices, onion flakes and bread crumbs. Too many bread crumbs, so I added a bit of water.
I fried 2 (first photo) and baked the rest (next photo).

Usually I like frying burgers because they taste a lot better this way. I was surprised that the baked burgers tasted almost the same as the fried burgers this time.

Chocolate chocolate-chip pancakes

2009-10-22T17:40:00.004+02:00

Chocolate chocolate-chip pancakes, how didn't I make you before?

I got a cool birthday present, a pancake skillet:

I tried making the chocolaty pancakes in it, but the first one stuck to the bottom and I didn't want to waste another drop of batter on it. Maybe next time.

Did I mention I loved the pancakes?
They were super yummy, but that was no surprise. Chocolate with chocolate chips, what can go wrong? But it was also so fluffy, just the way I like my pancakes.

When I was making them I thought they were getting burned. it's so hard to tell when a brown food burn. They didn't, phew.

Sprouts spread

2009-10-21T17:48:00.003+02:00

Mung beans are really easy to sprout. I sprouted a lot of them and after eating them in salads, with cooked grains and in sandwiches, I still had a lot left. I was worried they'd go bad and tried to find a way to eat a lot of them fast.

Sprouts spread

Spread for the rescue! This actually solve another problem we often have, the lack of something to put on bread.
I ground the sprouts (3 cups) with a small piece of tofu, 2 spoons olive oil and spices. I added a few spoons of water at the end to make it smoother.
And that's how we ate a mountain of sprouts in no time.

Hurry Up Alfredo

2009-10-19T16:33:00.004+02:00

I follow the vegan yum yum blog and enjoy every post, however, I rarely make something from there. I'm mostly fascinated by the wonderful creations.
Now there's a vegan yum yum cookbook, and one of the recipes from it was posted to the blog. It's not like I didn't want the book already, but this taste definitely makes me want it even more.

Hurry Up Alfredo

Hurry Up Alfredo is one of the most simple pasta sauces, and it tastes so good! I have no idea if it resembles the dairy sauce and have no desire to find out. It's tasty and that's what's important.
It's creamy and nice looking and you won't have any leftovers for tomorrow.
I used olive oil instead of margarine, nothing interesting about it.

Energy balls

2009-10-19T16:10:00.005+02:00

Last year in vegan mofo I made energy bars. Lately I made energy balls, which is basically the same thing but in a ball shape. Only, it's not the same thing when it's a ball. Shape matters.

Energy balls

easiest recipe ever!

2 cups walnuts
2 cups soft dates (about 15 large dates)
1 tbs ground flaxseed

Just blend everything together and shape into beautiful balls.
I rolled some in coconut (in the photo) and some in carob powder. The carob balls were more chocolaty and very tasty.

Keep refrigerated or frozen.

Pizza! (and focaccia)

2009-10-18T11:07:00.005+02:00

Some time ago we found out that the oven in our friend's house is actually working. So instead of ordering expensive pizza, we made one. After that, this friend got addicted to pizza making. No complains here! He makes an amazing pizza.

Thick pizza, tasty sauce made from fresh tomatoes and all the toppings you can think of.

My favorite part? He puts sesame seeds on the Pizza. That's right, sesame seeds. I've never thought about it before and I wish I did. Too many years I ate incomplete pizzas.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of the sauce the next time you're making pizza, you have to try it.

Last time we met he also made an attempt to bake focaccia. We probably didn't wait enough for the dough to rise so we got thin and crusty focaccias. I liked it better than regular focaccia.

One with rosemary and one with onion. And sesame seeds, of course!

All the photos so far were taken by the baker. Vegan people can be so talented, they can bake and photograph!

To make the evening even better, we played Beatles rock band. If you recognize yourself in the photo let me know :P

If you're not lucky enough to find a working oven in your house and your toaster oven can only make small and sad pizzas, I want to remind you that you can make pizza in a skillet.
That's how I make pizzas since we happen to be oven-less and suffer from a small toaster oven case.

My lid isn't perfect for this use since it lets most of the heat get out, but if you can cover your skillet well you can have a better oven effect inside.
The challenge in skillet pizza is getting the top ready without burning the bottom. I sprinkle the skillet with cornmeal (something I learned from Vegan with a Vengeance) and that seems to help with it, and also makes a nice crust.

Kubbeh

2009-10-15T14:40:00.004+02:00

Kubbeh

Kubbeh is a traditional dish that has many variations, depending where your grandmother was born. There are cooked kinds and fried kinds, and they aren't really similar, and there are many kinds of each of them, probably each is unique in something.
My grandmother wasn't born in a Kubbeh-making country so I discovered the beauty of it late. But not too late! I got some help from my friend, the internet, and from a friend's mother, and got myself a vegan recipe for this Iraqi style kubbeh.

There are 3 parts in making kubbeh. You have to make the dough, filling and soup. It can be a lot of work, but you won't regret it.

Dough
3 cups semolina
1.5 cup water
a bit of turmeric, for color
you can add other spices if you want, I think it's unnecessary.

Mix everything together well and set it aside. It's alright if there seem to be too much water, the semolina will absorb them, but make sure it's not too dry.

Filling
1.5 cup TVP
1.5 cup hot water
1 large onion
1 tsp salt
2 tsp grill flavor spice mix
5 tbs oil

Chop the onion and simmer it till it changes its color a bit.
Mic the TVP with the spices and add the hot water. Mix well and make sure there aren't any spots of dry TVP.
Mix with the onion and oil and cool.

Make sure the filling isn't hot before you start assembling the kubbeh balls.
Place a bowl of water next to you and work with wet hands while making the kubbeh.
Take a piece of semolina dough, roll it to a ball and flatten it on your hand. Take a little filling, squeeze it into a ball and place it in the middle of the dough. Carefully close the dough to a round ball. making sure there are no holes.
Some say it's ideal to make the dough as thin as you can. Some say the dough is yummy and a large portion of it in each ball is nice. Some eat no matter what.
Place the balls on a plate and go make your soup.

Soup
(I got this recipe from a friend's mom, thanks!)
1 onion
3 tbs oil
3-4 carrots
5 celery stalks with their leaves
100 gram tomato paste
1.5-2 liter hot water
salt and pepper
3-4 tomatoes
1 tbs instant soup powder (or use stock instead of water. Or just leave it out)

Chop the onion and fry it in the oil till it's transparent.
Add finely chopped carrots, celery and tomato paste.
When everything start to stick to the bottom of the pot add hot water.
Spice with salt and pepper and add the tomatoes, cut to small squares, and the soup powder.
Cook for a few minutes, make sure it's boiling and then add the kubbeh to be cooked inside.
If you want you kubbeh to be really round, give each ball another roll before you place it in the soup and get rid of the flattened part at the bottom it got from sitting on a plate.
Cook the kubbeh in the soup for 30 minutes. The soup doesn't have to boil the whole time, but don't turn the heat all the way down. Gently mix the soup once or twice during cooking to make sure there isn't a kubbeh stuck to the bottom.

As I said, it's not my tradition, so you can see in the photo that we once had it in simple vegetable soup. You can cook it in any soup you like, even in a simple stock. Just don't tell anyone I said it, my Iraqi-Jewish neighbors will get mad.

Tahini Quinoa

2009-10-12T19:02:00.002+02:00

We love quinoa, but it can be boring to make it plain all the time, so I try to use it in different dishes. (I've just realized I wrote about it last year in vegan mofo). So here's another way to cook quinoa that I like, with tahini. I got the idea from a friend. I thought I wouldn't like it, but it was a tasty surprise.
Just add a few spoons of tahini when cooking the quinoa. The amount of spoons depends on how much you like the taste of tahini. I'm not crazy about things with dominant tahini taste, it's a bit bitter, so I use 4 or 5 spoons for 1 cup of quinoa. Mixing it with a little water before adding to the pot helps it dissolve, so you won't get tahini lumps in your dish.

Usually I don't add spices other than salt, but since we're talking about tahini, any form of garlic can be great here. I like dripping fresh lemon on the dish after it's done.
The quinoa in the photo was cooked with sweet potatoes.

Fruit cake

2009-10-11T19:32:00.004+02:00

I baked this cake a while ago for Tu Bishvat. I don't really like this holiday, I'm not sure why, Maybe it's because there was never day off in school on this holiday. However, it is one of the more vegan holidays in the Jewish calendar. It's a kind of celebration for nature and there's a tradition to eat dried fruits and nuts. That means that dried fruits and nuts were sold in a cheaper price around this holiday, and that's how I came up with this cake.

1 cup raisins
10 dried apricots
a handful of dried strawberries
1\2 cup walnuts
a handful Brazil nuts
a piece of marzipan (I don't know the weight, go wild)
1.5 cup flour
1 cup sweet red wine
3 tbs sugar
2 tbs oil
1 tbs baking powder

Cut the apricots, strawberries, walnuts and marzipan into small pieces.
In a big bowl mix everything together. You'll get a pretty purple batter.
Pour the batter to a baking dish and make sure the fruits are spread evenly.
Bake at 180C, about 40 minutes.

Baking takes most of the purple color away, but the cake is still a little pinkish at the bottom.

Vegan brunch

2009-10-08T11:17:00.004+02:00

When I heard there was going to be a vegan brunch cookbook I was so excited. I had 2 good reasons to be happy about it: I love brunch food and I love Isa's cookbooks. I pre-ordered it and ran to the mail when it arrived (early!).
Here's what I made from it so far.

Scramble tempeh

Unlike some of my (broken?) vegan friends, I really like tempeh. I didn't think it would make a good scramble but I gave it a try. Can't say I didn't like it, it was good, but I think I'll stick with tofu for future scrambles.
I really want to try the tempeh cakes from the book, I've heard a lot of good things about them.

Tofu omelet

YUM!
I made it twice. First time with silken tofu and cheezly, two products we can't get here unless someone brings some from a vacation abroad. It was great. Perfect taste, perfect texture. The second time I used regular tofu with some water. I probably didn't use the exact amount of water needed, but it was still very good.

I have a vague memory of making the basic tofu scramble too, probably with onion. I can't find a photo of it, so it's as if it never happened.

Muffins! I made 3 recipes so far. We can eat muffins for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so it's best that we don't make them too often.

Blueberry ginger spelt muffins

I was looking for something to do with spelt flour that I had left. I didn't go crazy about them because of the ginger, but the boyfriend loved them. They look a bit tired because I used dried blueberries, it's hard to get anything else here.

Coffee chip muffins

Those are tiny loaves, but I made them in their muffin shape too, don't worry. Their bad side is they are a bit too sweet for muffins. The good side is they are sweet. I think I used more coffee to enhance the flavor.

Lemon poppy seed muffins

Amazing muffins. Amazing. I can eat them all day, everyday. I made them for friends and they all loved them too. Go make some!

Lunch box

2009-10-07T23:44:00.007+02:00

Happy vegan month of food everyone!
It's a week into vegan mofo and I'm just starting to post. Oops! I'll try to make up for it in the next 3 weeks, hoping I'll have the time for it.
I haven't posted in a long time but I have been cooking a lot during this time, so I'll take vegan mofo as a chance to catch up and post some old photos here, starting with some lunch box photos.
My lunch boxes are pretty like the boxes from the vegan lunch box blog. In fact, they aren't pretty at all. I don't really care about it (ok, maybe just a little bit), they are carried around in a bag and get mixed anyway and, well, they are eaten by adults. I do care, however, about not being hungry when I have a long day out. Here are a few boxes I made a while back. Lately I'm studying from home so I don't really need them. Maybe I'll start making pretty boxes just for fun (another thing to do when avoiding the books, hooray!).

Leftovers from a semi-Indian meal I made the day before. Spicy potato thing on the right with brown rice and some tomatoes.

I get hungry just by looking at this photo. I love cauliflower! The pie next to it is onion pie and it was divine! I couldn't wait to have a break when I knew I have this in my bag.

I think this was an attempt to take as much food as possible in a little box. There's a vegan burger under the steamed broccoli. My mom made the noodles.

Too much rice with TVP. Didn't finish this lunch, it was too heavy, I think.

I made this one in the morning before I had to leave. I needed something really quick so I made couscous with TVP, olives and dried tomatoes. Yummy.

It looks like I eat a lot of TVP. I don't, really, but it's so easy to make in the morning when I have no time and still want to take food with me. This time it's with rice and vegetables. I think I see some baby leaves under the sticks, how healthy of me.

The next 3 boxes weren't for me, so I tried to make them a little nicer :) This is seitan with vegetables and Brazil nuts. I was afraid it would keep him hungry but the seitan did its job well.

Quinoa with vegetable and mamaliga (polenta) in different shapes. I was told the shapes were a nice surprise :)

Quinoa again, it's another favorite in our house, with small seitan hot-not-dogs and some olives.

Look how it fits in the briefcase, it was meant to be!

Okara bread

2009-06-20T17:39:00.002+03:00

I found a small baking dish which looked perfect for baking breads. It was shorter than the one I have so it fits the toaster oven better (that's right, I baked a bread in a toaster oven, it's possible) and it was so cheap! I bought it and started thinking about which bread I'd bake. I decided to try okara bread because I always ends up with tons of okara from making soy milk.

I used a recipe I found on the vegan freak forums. (If you haven't checked out their podcast yet, go do it!).

Okara bread

I think I let it rise too much but other than that the bread is great. Very soft, but with a nice crust.

I'm going to make another one soon, maybe even later today. I might try to make it at least half whole wheat next time.

Uncheeses

2009-06-09T12:41:00.005+03:00

Shavu'ot was a few Shavu'ot (weeks) ago and I tried a few uncheeses recipes for the holiday.
I've made the crock cheez from the uncheese cookbook, both the basic version and the smoked version. It tasted like blended tofu, which is basically what it was. I don't recommand that recipe.

I also tried the gooda cheez from the same book. It doesn't taste a lot like cheese, but it's fairly good. I recommand using less cumin or not at all because its taste can easily take over the whole thing.

gooda cheez

I made my garlic-dill cheese spread again. This time I blended the cheese to make it extra smooth. And I used too much garlic, it was hot!

Another uncheese I made is the buffalo mostarella. I made one regular, one with olives and one with chilli powder.

Buffalo motsarella
(this photo was taken by Barak)

I made this recipe many times in the past without knowing it was from this book (Someone posted it online) and I love it. It's simple and tasty.
I used the leftovers to make lasagna.

Deep fried cauliflower

2009-06-09T12:34:00.003+03:00

Deep fried cauliflower

A friend made deep fried cauliflower and I was so jealous I had to make some myself.
I separated the flowers and steamed them till they were soft, but not mushy.
The batter was made out of... I don't really remember. Not blogging for months has its consequences. But it was basically flours and matzo meal instead of bread crumbs.
I coated the flowers in batter and deep fried them. It was amazing.
Why is deep frying so not healthy? Otherwise I could eat this dish every day.

Okara cookies and brownies

2009-06-09T11:48:00.002+03:00

Okara cookies

I've finally made Susan's okara cookies and they were great!
I usually like my cookies more crunchy. Those were really soft, but tasted good. I was amazed to see how good they are and with no oil in them!

I used the cookies recipe as a base and tried to make okara brownies.

Okara brownies

I thought it wasn't sweet enough but bf loved it. It was really heavy. I might try again with some modifications. After all, I have a lot of okara in the freezer.

If you make your own soy milk and get okara-go make the cookies!
No really, now.

My first bread

2009-06-09T10:54:00.004+03:00

Oops, looks like I haven't posted since Passover. Oh well.
I cooked a lot of new things lately, I'll quickly post a few.

I baked bread for the first time! I used a simple recipe (in Hebrew here), partially whole wheat (half).
The dough was super sticky, not really a dough, but I decided to bake it anyway and found out it created a nice homemade bread. The bread was heavy, but tasted great.

Homemade bread

I really want to try better recipes for breads, but I don't have an oven now and baking in a toaster oven isn't the same.

Oh, we ate the first loaf with hummus. Homemade hummus.
We ate so much we couldn't move, it was so good.

Homemade bread and hummus

I baked a few more loafs after that, with herbs and with garlic. I think the herbs worked best.

Stuffed matzo balls

2009-04-07T20:26:00.005+03:00

Stuffed matzo balls

Last year I saw a (not vegan) recipe for stuffed matzo balls but didn't get to try it. I tried it last week and it turned out to be really easy to make and really yummy!

I made 2 different stuffing. The first was simply chopped parsley. I should have cooked it before, it was a little weird fresh, but it might just be me not liking parsley so much.

I used my regular matzo ball recipe for the balls, the first one in this post.

I simply took a chunk of the matzo balls mixture, shaped it like a small bowl in my hand, filled with about 1 tsp parsley and closed it to a firm ball.

The second stuffing was spinach. I used about 100 gram fresh spinach, 1 onion and about 1\2 cup nuts.
I browned the onion in a little oil, chopped the spinach and added it to the skillet for a few minutes, till it was all soft. I turned off the heat and added the nuts and a big of salt.
This stuffing was really good. The spinach and nuts were great with the vegetable soup they were in.

They can also be served with a sauce and not in a soup. I might make them for a passover vegan meetup. It will be difficult to bring hot soup to a park, so I might try the sauce option, or just serve them as they are.

Matzo-not-balls

2009-04-04T14:03:00.003+03:00

Matzo-not-balls

For me, getting ready for passover doesn't mean cleaning or consuming all the flour. It's all about the matzo balls. But then I thought, they don't have to be balls. So I discovered the matzo-not-balls!

I made the first recipe from my matzo balls post from last year. I flattened part of the dough on a plate and used a cookie cutter to make shaped matzo-not-balls.

I used my own hands to make the cubes, and my own knife to make the star. Oh, and I made some balls too, how traditional of me.

I wanted them to keep their shaped so instead of boiling them, I steamed them!
I places a bamboo steamer on top of a pot with boiling water. I placed a moist cheese cloth on top of the steamer so the matzo-not-balls won't stick to it and I steamed them till they were cooked. I wish I could tell you how long it took, but I didn't really pay attention. I was a lot longer then boiling, I just left it there for some time and went to the computer or something in the meanwhile.
They were different than the boiled kind, a little more firm, but I think a linger steaming might make them fluffier. I like them firm so I didn't try it.
Make sure the cheese cloth you use is wet, it'll stick to a dry one. Of course, you can also use big leaves or some vegetable. Also, keep a little space between the not-balls so they won't stick together. You'll be able to separate them easily, but the shape might be damaged, and it's kind of the point here.

I thought about making matzo-letters and spell "happy passover" in the soup in the Seder (it's shorter in Hebrew so you don't have to eat so many letters...). You can challenge your guest to spell as many (curse) words as they can from the letters in their soup etc.

Happy passover!

Next-stuffed matzo-balls.

Garlic-dill cheese

2009-03-31T13:19:00.003+03:00

Garlic-dill cheese

The garlic-dill cheese spread was a big hit at the Friday the 13th party, so I made it again and wrote the amounts of everything. That kind of make a recipe.

Garlic-dill soy cheese

2-2.5 liter soy milk (I use homemade soy milk. Store bought will work as long as it's plain soy milk without additional ingredients).
4-6 tbs apple cider vinegar
3 tbs mined garlic
1.5 tbs dry dill
1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1 tsp salt

Heat the soy milk and mix in the vinegar. I make soy milk in a soy milk maker so I just use it when it comes out of the machine.
Give it a few minutes, the soy milk will separate into white solids and liquid. The solids are your cheese, collect them all.
Place a cheese cloth over a colander and strain the soy milk through it.
I know some keep the liquids and cook with them, I haven't tried it yet.
Let it get drained for a few minutes and then mix with the rest of the ingredients. You can blend the whole thing to get a more smooth spread, but I think it can be spreadable enough without blending.
Keep in the refrigerator, dah.

Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits

2009-03-21T09:40:00.004+02:00

Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits from Veganomicon.

Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits

This is a recipe that was on my list for a while and I finally got to it this week.
It tastes great. It was a heavy dinner, we ate too much because it was so tasty and I still had leftovers to eat the next day. But, as tasty as it was, I think it called for too much work. I had to cook, simmer, mix, make dough, stir, bake... It took a lot of time to make and I'm not even sure it was all necessary. Next time I might just stuff everything to the oven for a while and add the biscuits at the end.
Oh, and the biscuits, they were a problem. I didn't have shortening so I used margarine, I had to add some more. And then when I added the liquid it didn't create a dough, I had to use a lot more flour to fix it. I came out alright after all the changes, but it was annoying to make. I don't know if it's because I added more flour or not, but I felt like it's too much biscuits for this dish. The main thing supposed to be the stew, isn't it?

I probably won't make it again soon, but I'm glad I tried it. mmm leek.

Chickpea pizza

2009-03-16T21:29:00.002+02:00

Disclaimer: This is not a pizza.

This is a little recipe from The Uncheese Cookbook. I have no idea why it's called a pizza. It's a nice snack, it tastes good, but it's not a pizza. Ok, I think I said it enough.
The original recipe is just for the savory pancake. I added olives and nutritional yeast sauce (lazy sauce-I just mixed them with water) to make it more like a pizza (but it wasn't like a pizza, you know that already).
What I like about this recipe is that it really takes just a few minutes to make. We often look for a little something to snack on or get just a little hungry and don't feel like really cooking, and this kind of dish can be a good solution for those times.
And it tastes good. But not like a vegan pizza :)

Pi(e) day 2009

2009-03-16T09:23:00.003+02:00

okara pot pie

Saturday was Pi day for people who write the date in the wrong way and for people who like silly holidays (yours truly).
The original plan was to make a chocolate pie, but we had no recipe and worse, no blender, so the chocolate will have to wait for another time. Hopefully sometime before pi approximation day (22/7).
I had a lot of okara in the fridge, even after the massive okara giveaway I had in the Friday the 13th party. And okara pot pie it was!
I basically mixes okara with some oats and lots of vegetables. I used everything I had that seemed suitable: carrot, red pepper, celery, spinach, corn. And spices, of course.
I used sweet paprika mixed in water to cover the top, it gave it a nice slightly red color and it helped to stick the sesame seeds.

Yum!

It's too bad the crust is full of margarine, it means I won't make it a lot. I'll try to think of something else with the same okara stuffing but without the evil crust. It's a good way to use up all the okara we have from making soy milk.

Friday the 13th

2009-03-15T12:16:00.002+02:00

Friday the 13th, muhahaha.
This day doesn't scare us, we are brave vegans. But the food in the party, oh, it was terrifying!

I made 3 kinds of cheeses from organic witch milk. It's important to use organic witches, it's better for you and the witches still suffer and get killed at the end.
There was one spicy cheese with chipotle, one yellow (boo) and one with garlic and dill. I think the last one was everyone's favorite.
We slaughtered carrots and cucumbers and dipped the slices in the cheeses.

Some swamp water with bugs, what a treat!

The main dish was some guy's left hand.
And a guy.
And another guy, minus his head.

Jazz made congealed blood with worms for dessert. With vodka <3

The vegan truth behind this meal: (if you must ruin the fun)

The cheeses are homemade soy cheese spreads. I made soy milk in a soy milk maker, mixed it with vinegar to separate the protein from the liquids and filtered it through a cloth. It's like making tofu without pressing it.
I mixed each batch with a little oil, to make it more creamy, and with different spices. The spicy cheese was with chipotle, salt and onion powder, the yellow one is with tumeric, nutritional yeasts, mustard powder, onion powder and salt, and the garlic-dill is with garlic and dill, big surprise, and too much salt.

The swamp is red lentil soup and the bugs are black beans.

The dead corps are made of seitan. I wasn't sure how to shape them and eventually I baked it, I think it's the easier way to make it keep its shape (or at least not lose it too much). To make the hand I flatted the seitan and made cuts to make the fingers. I wrapped each finger seperately in foil and then wrapped the whole hand in foil and baked it. I accidently mashed the palm a little so it bacame a triangle, but I think it still resambeled a hand, doesn't it?
I made the dead dudes in a similar way. I made the legs and arms and wrapped them individually, like the fingers. I found out that it's hard to make a round head when wrapping it like a ball. In fact, that's the reason one of the corps has no head, it had no shape and I had to take it off. For the second head I just made a bow from foil and place it around the head. It kept it from loosing shape when swelling. I guess I could have used foil bows for the legs and arms too, but it was easier to just wrap them.

The blood is jello shots with vegan candy as worms. Thanks Jazz!

This was fun. I hope to have better photos to post soon.
Next: Pi day!