Veg Italian Wedding Soup...sort of.

Tonight I made a simple soup, something that`s been kicking around my head for awhile. I can`t remember the last time I had Italian Wedding Soup, but I kinda sorta remember the flavour, and this recipe comes pretty close. At some point I`ll try making mini-meatballs, but whatever, ground round and lentils make a nice quick tasty alternative...

1 small onion, in small dice
1 celery stalk, in small dice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 pk Yves Italian ground round
1 tomato, small dice
1 carrot, grated
3/4 cup white wine
1 mushroom bouillon cube
1/2 cup Israeli couscous

3/4 cup cooked lentils (Puy lentils preferred)
1-2 tsp smoked paprika
ground pepper & salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a stock pot over medium-high heat. Add in onion and celery, fry until golden, 3-4 minutes. Add ground round, continue frying until browned, stirring to prevent it from sticking to bottom of pot. Add tomato, carrot, wine, bouillon cube and Israeli couscous. Add enough water to cover by 1 inch or so, and bring to boil. Continue boiling until Israeli couscous is cooked through, add more water as needed. Finally, add lentils, paprika, salt and pepper, and simmer 1 minute longer.

Sprinkle with veg parmesan cheese to serve, and crusty bread to soak up the broth!

Starbucks' Chocolate Cinnamon Loaf - veganized, reduced in fat & sugar

I'm weak. I've come to accept that despite my efforts to be "good" when it comes to sweets, I MUST have a little something here and there. I'm working towards doing a 10k open water competitive swim this summer, so I NEED to be good, but I also need to balance it with the inevitable cravings to have a little somethin' somethin'. 

This afternoon, I decided to give my hand at making a loaf similar to Starbucks' "Chocolate Cinnamon Bread." Yep, before the holidays I was especially weak and had this on my morning commute to work a few times. yum yum yum. Much to my surprise, Starbucks had actually posted their own recipe online! Seriously surprised they would give away the recipe for something they make money off of, but hey, awesome. 

Not so awesome is the nutritional profile. Just look at the original recipe...1 1/2 cups butter and 3 cups of sugar to 2 cups of flour, yikes. Sure, that makes 2 loaves, but still, from the perspective of ratio that still crazy. I decided to both veganize the recipe and reduce the fat and sugar. I made 1 large loaf, and 6 muffin-sized. The muffin sized-ones pop out of the tin easily, the loaf wasn't an issue but the top has a nice crusty crumble to it, making it a little harder to turn out without ruining the look of it. Just let it cool a bit, maybe cut it in half and be gently when turning it out.

The loaf doesn't have the same look, it doesn't rise as high as the original version but the taste is dead on, even with half the sugar and 2/3 the margarine. I'm really pleased they posted the recipe, and seeing as how I've already had 2 of the muffin-sized ones, it's safe to say this recipe will be a keeper. I'll freeze some of it. Maybe. Depends. Weak, weak, weak...

Loaf

1 cup margarine (2 sticks), room temperature, cut into pieces

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar of choice

6 eggs' worth of egg replacer (prepared with water)

2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups dutch pressed cocoa

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups plain (or vanilla) soymilk

1 tsp vanilla

Cocoa spice topping

2 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cocoa

pinch of ground ginger

pinch ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Prepare 2 loaf baking pans - I spray my pans with cooking oil, then shake a spoonful of floor along the bottom and edges, I find it helps make sure nothing sticks.

In a mixing bowl, use the electric mixer to blend the margarine and sugar. Add in the egg replacement, scrape down sides and mix until smooth.

Mix remaining dry ingredients together. Measure out the soymilk. Keeping the mixer on, add the dry ingredients and milk to the butter mixture bit by bit, alternating between wet and dry.

Turn batter out into prepared pans, and sprinkle evenly with cocoa spice topping. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes, be sure to check if done with a toothpick - sometimes vegan goods are a bit more dense, and need a bit longer.

Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then gently turn out onto a cooling rack.

Once cool, move to a cutting board to slice. 

Makes 2 loaves, one can be frozen whole or in slices if needed, for up to a month. 

Smoky Basil Chickpea Bowl

Husband made supper tonight, this is what he came up with. The first spoonful was barely in my mouth when I popped up from the table, grabbed my camera and started taking pics. Apparently this is a source of irritation. "NO, you CAN'T eat that YET. I haven't taken my blog pics." Well, this time I snapped pics of my own bowl, and then devoured its contents. 

My hubby like to cook from whatever's around, and never, ever cooks from recipes. Tonight's creation was a hit...smoked paprika, fresh basil, lemon juice seasoning a mixture of couscous, chickpeas, corm and grated carrots. mmmmmmm. 

And, the best part, no cooking. He made this in a large mixing bowl without using a single pot or pan...

Fully sated, I'm now kicking back with a brown cow (does anyone else actually still drink these? how nineties) made with soy milk and peppermint mocha Kahlua over ice, and listening to Belle and Sebastian. Did I mention we gave up watching tv during the week? Well, we watch one hour a night to chill, but otherwise it's sewing, or food stuff, or just hanging out. For your listening enjoyment as you read over the recipe: 

Another Sunny Day

I Want the World to Stop

The State I Am In

Serves 4

1 cup dry couscous

1 cup corn kernels

1 large carrot, shredded

1 can chickpeas (drained)

2 Tbsp olive oil

sriracha hot sauce, to taste (2-4Tbsp)

lemon juice (to taste, 3-4 Tbsp)

"fresh" basil, we use one of those tubes of herbs, frozen cubes would work - dry basil flakes wouldn't be that great though, you want a real herby zing here. to taste (2-4 Tbsp)

smoked paprika (2-3 Tbsp)

spicy seasoned salt, or regular salt with a little cayenne

Layer the following ingredients, in this order, in a large mixing bowl: couscous on the bottom, then carrot, then corn, lastly chickpeas. Pour in 1 cup boiling water, and cover with a lid of some kind (very important, steams the veggies while it absorbs into couscous). Let sit 7-8 minutes, remove the lid, fluff and stir with a fork. Stir in oil, lemon juice and sriracha hot sauce. Add basil, mix in thoroughly, and then season with salt. 

yummers...

Breakfast Bagel Bun Sammies

Wow, where has the year gone?!? It's been forever since I've posted anything new. I've had a great year, new job, new adventures, but none of them in the kitchen, unfortunately. But this week, as fellow Ontarian Vegan Dad announced the end of his blogging activities, I realized I really missed getting creative in the kitchen and putting my recipes out there for the veg world to try out. And, I'm getting really sick of eating pre-made/frozen meals from the grocery store - thank goodness for husband and the nights I come home to a hot meal he's prepared. What's worse, is I really have no excuse..Vegan Dad = 4 vegan kids, wife in grad school, 3 book projects. Yeah, beotch, get off your lazy butt, cook something, and blog about it. Done.

Today was an especially productive morning, I'm trying harder to be more organized and part of that is prepping food on the weekend to ensure I have breakfasts and lunches during the week. Here's what I came up with: breakfast bagel bun sandwiches. There's a small coffee shop  on the ground level where I work, they make something similar. But, it's pricey, and the egg is some kind of weird "egg-like" product. Blech. No more.

Here's what I did...

1. Make a batch of this bagel dough (plain), but instead of shaping them like bagels roll out flat circles of dough, about 1/2" thick.

2. Rise, boil and bake as directed, but reduce the temperature to 410 degrees. Keep an eye on your "bagel buns" to make sure they don't overbake and dry out.

3. In the meantime, prepare your fillings. Make a large omelet of your choice, either with eggs/egg whites, or the yummy vegan from the Post Punk Kitchen. Include spinach or pan-fried veggies in your omelette if you like, and get out something saucy - pesto, for example, or give Erős Pista a try (Hungarian hot pepper paste, look for it in little euro speciality shops). Slices of this vegan Spicy Hickory Maple Seitan Bacon would totally rock. Grab your favourite cheese slices too!

4. If you're going to be wrapping up your breakfast sammies to store in the fridge, make sure your bagel buns, omelette and fillings are cool before you assemble them. Otherwise you'll wind up with condensation and the bagel bun will get soggy, gross.

5. Cut your omelette into the number of portions you're making. Carefully slice the bagel bun, smear your favourite spread on one half and start stacking up your fillings on the other.

6. Wrap up in plastic or foil wrap, and store in fridge. These last for days, but if you're picky like me, I won't eat anything that's been in the fridge more than 2-3 days  :-)

Keep up with Vegan Dad on his facebook page.