this film is scary and important (and also the photography is beautiful).

my family and i have a lot of work to do. i bet your family/household does too.

seitantest
Originally uploaded by zaftigvegan.

btw, you cannot beat seitan when it comes to eating well on a budget.
these two 'roasts' cost me 'round about $4 total to make, and will feed my family of four 2 large meals plus leftovers for sandwiches and snacks. it's high quality protein, very low fat and zero cholesterol. if you don't have a gluten sensitivity or allergy, i don't know why you wouldn't be making seitan already. even meat-eaters enjoy it if it's prepared well.

yes, i know i misspelled unequivocally.
you word-police should be glad i didn't use the word that i really wanted to use (unequivocababbly).
no i have not been drinking.
much.

hey it's monday night.

tell me a secret. it's totally anonymous!
(if you remember to click the anonymous button before you post your comment, that is.)
i'm temporarily screening things so that trolls and the like aren't tempted to engage in trollery, but i'll release comments as they come through.

Seems that many people have their own version of Morning Glory Muffins, and they all think their version is the best. Well, I haven't tried anyone else's but this recipe is so great I have no idea why I'd want to. I have to make a double batch of these a couple-few times per week now, because they get gobbled up so quickly.

The successful batch of muffins is fluffy and moist and the best way to achieve that is to studiously avoid over-mixing. Streaks and spots of flour in your finished mixture are fine; in fact, that's what you want to see in there. I suggest rather than stirring with a wooden spoon, you gently and methodically fold the wet ingredients into the dry, using a sturdy spatula, until everything is just moistened.

Also, I find a great way to get your muffins to be of a uniform size is to use an ice cream scoop to tranfer the batter to the muffin tins.

2 cups whole grain spelt flour (whole wheat will work too)
1 cup natural, dry sweetener (brown sugar or sucanat)
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder

4 carrots, grated
2 apples, cored & grated

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy milk whisked with 2 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 F and prepare your muffin tin by lining it with papers or lightly oiling each cup. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Create a well in the centre of the mixture. Whisk the vegetable oil, soy milk + starch, and vanilla together in a seperate bowl or liquid measuring cup. Pour this into the centre well, then add the grated carrots and apples. Fold this quickly and gently together until everything is just mixed. Scoop into the prepared tin and bake for 22 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean.

Yields 12 big muffins.

I've varied the ingredients in these to great results. I've used these muffins to trick the kids into eating finely minced kale, and grated beets in place of the carrots give them a pleasing violet colour. Slivered almonds instead of pumpkin seeds, a combination of poppy seed, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds instead of coconut. Pears or rhubarb instead of apples. The addition of lemon zest or replacing the vanilla with orange extract. The possibilities are near-on endless, and I encourage you to experiment.

I also reccommend making a double batch if you are sharing these around. They'll go fast.

( photo under cut )

lentil-walnut pies and maple-glazed carrots

i feel like we just had a weekend that wasn't. it was so damn busy. it was all kid stuff. parent helper at a field trip to historic fort langley. art classes, musical theatre practices, one best friend sleeping over, daughter running a 'marafun', another best friend's birthday party. you could tip me over into bed with a feather right now. i need the school week to start so i can have a break.

hey, who keeps calling me from a pennsylvania, anyway?

vichyssoise, crusty french bread, marinated asparagus and mint salad, and in the back are some carmelized balsamic beets


peanut butter oat bars (recipe ( under the cut. )

whatchyall eatin these days? isn't this time of year so fab? i love the return of spring and summer produce.

for breakfast today i had 1/2 a pound of strawberries (yes, organic, YES IMPORTED FROM CALIFORNIA, but they were marked down to $1.99 from $3.99 a pound because they were about to go off and goodness knows we don't want to see food wasted! especially not after it travelled all that way! plus i love strawberries! also i am super tired of explaining and justifying my food purchases. it's exhausting. so i'm gonna stop.) and two of my super delicious 'morning glory' muffins (carrot, apple, ginger, cinnamon, almond, coconut, spelt).

for lunch it was a quesadilla on a whole wheat tortilla with vegan gourmet cheddar, hot pickled pepper rings, baby spinach & blobs of homemade guacamole & salsa leftover from last night's burrito fest.

for dinner, i'm not sure. i might be meeting up with a friend but i don't know if that's for dinner or for later. if it's for later, i've got a lot of spinach i need to use so it will probably be saag with tofu paneer. maybe some chickpeas vindaloo too.

i've a mad hankering for this asparagus salad my mom made us on easter. i think i just want to keep a big vat of it in the fridge. so good. i think she got it out of the newspaper or something.

Marinated Asparagus and Mint Salad

1/1/2 pounds asparagus
1 teaspoon minced ginger
3 teaspoons white sugar
1-tablespoon light soy sauce
3 teaspoons sea salt
½ teaspoon dried red chili flakes
1cup rice vinegar
½ cup mint leaves, finely shredded
½ cup white sugar toasted sesame seeds


Wash asparagus and remove any tough ends. Finely slice on the diagonal and place into a mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt and mix well; set aside for two hours.

Combine rice vinegar and ½ cup sugar in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer uncovered, without stirring for about 10 minutes, or until reduced by one third or until slightly syrupy. This should be about ¾ cup. Stir in ginger, soy sauce and chili flakes. Set aside to cool.

Add the cooled syrup and the mint to the asparagus and transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Serves 4-6.

AMAZON RANK!

(have a look over here if you aren't sure what this is all about.

oh em gee, my deviled tofu "egg" filling tastes 10,000 times better than i ever remember actual deviled egg filling tasting. i made way too much and i'm just sitting here eating it off a spoon. nom nom nom.

1 398mL can of chickpeas, well drained (or 2 cups well-cooked)
1/2 cup vegenaise
2 tbsp dry sweetener
1/4 cup sweet pickles, minced (or sweet pickle relish)
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp indian black salt
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp tumeric (depending on how yellow you want it to be)

place in your food processor and blend for a really, really, really long time. when you think it's smooth enough, blend for another five minutes. chill. use as a sandwich filling, a dip, or as filling for tofu "eggs".

to make tofu eggs, use silken tofu cut into small squares (you could carve it carefully into ovals if you are going for high realism). use a melon baller to scoop out the centre of each square, leaving at least a couple of centimeters of tofu in the bottom and around the sides. invert into a colander and let drain into bowl for several hours. you'll be surprised how much liquid comes out of these, so don't skip this step unless you want soggy "eggs". sprinkle the bottoms of the "whites" with a little of the indian black salt. invert onto a serving platter and fill each hollow with a generous amount of the chickpea mixture.

Here's the basic recipe, that you can flavour differently each time. See below for my suggestions.

1 lb seitan of your choice (I have taken to steaming mine lately - it gives comparable results to the long cheesecloth simmer but takes a fraction of the time; I'll post the recipe if you want me to.)
1/3 cup non-dairy milk
3 - 6 slices stale bread
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
couple splashes of soy sauce or Bragg
ground pepper to taste
spices & other seasonings (as listed in variations below)
oil for frying

Chop your seitan into chunks and pulse in your food processor to a fine grind, but not a paste. Tranfer to a large bowl. Chop your onion into chunks and process, with the garlic cloves, into a fine mince. Add to the bowl with the ground seitan. Add all the seasonings, and use your hands to mix it all together nicely. Now, start adding the bread. You dip a slice of bread very quickly in your non-dairy milk, just enough to dampen it. Tear it into pieces and add to the seitan/spice mixture. You will need at least 3 slices of bread, and possibly more. Mix after each addition until the meatball has a thick, dough-like consistancy. Try rolling up a small ball and see if it holds together. If it doesn't, add another dampened slice of bread. I can't account for the amount of variation between each batch except that sometimes my homemade seitan isn't as consistent, sometimes I'm using different kinds of bread, and sometimes it's the full moon. Really, you just wanna use enough bread to get it to bind and stick, and no more.

Start rolling the mixture up into balls. They can be whatever size you like. Just remember the bigger they are, the longer they're going to have to cook (and the lower the temperature slightly to prevent the outside from burning before the middle can be cooked); and vice versa for smaller balls.

Once all the mixture is rolled up into balls, heat your skillet on medium flame with a splash of oil in the bottom. Place balls in the hot pan leaving enough room for them to be rolled around so they brown evenly. This may mean you have to cook them in multiple batches - not to worry! You can keep the cooked balls hot in a 250 F oven while you finish up the rest of the frying.

Once they are finished you can eat them as-is, or you can serve them up with one of the sauce suggestions below. This recipe will yield enough balls for 4 servings approximately. You can also freeze the cooked balls and reheat them (direct from frozen) in a 400 F oven for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on how large they are.


Wünderball Variations

Greek-style (Keftedes): To the seitan mixture add 1/4 cup minced fresh oregano, 1/4 cup minced fresh mint, 2 tsp lemon zest & 2 tbsp lemon juie, an extra few cloves of garlic. Fry in quality olive oil. Serve with a nice garlic-cucumber tzatiki (soy yogurt or sour cream mixed with grated cukes, minced garlic, salt & pepper).

Swedish-style: To the seitan mixture add 1 tsp each allspice, nutmeg and white pepper. Mix in 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley. Once all the balls are fried, keep hot in the oven while you make the gravy. Add 1/4 cup unbleached flour to the pan and whisk over low heat until it becomes aromatic and slightly toasted. Add 3 cups broth of your choice (beef-style is traditional, but a mushroom-onion broth is fantastic) and whisk constantly until thickened. Stir in 1/4 cup non-dairy milk and add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle over the cooked wünderballz and serve hot. IKEA likes to give you boiled potatoes and lingonberry jam with these. I think it works.

Italian-style: To the seitan mixture add 1/4 cup minced fresh basil, 2 tsp dried oregano, 1/3 cup tomato paste, 1/4 cup parmesan cheez (I use a blend of equal parts ground almonds and nutritional yeast). Fry in olive oil. Serve with a rich tomato sauce. It's weird in Italy to eat these with pasta but it's quite the rage here in North America so go nuts.

Sweet-n-Sour: To the seitan mixture add 1 tbsp Chinese 5 spice powder, 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine, and 2" piece of ginger, minced fine. When they are being kept warm in the oven, make the sauce. Combine 1/2 cup tomato ketchup, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar & 1/2 cup brown sugar. Add 2 tbsp cornstarch and whisk. Pour this into the frying pan and cook over medium-low heat until thickened. Add water if it gets too thick for your tastes. Pour over hot ballz and serve over rice.


( Steamy Seitan )







Side note: I must apologize for not having photographs of all my latest recipes. My camera ran out of batteries a while back (I never remember to get new ones when I go out, either, yeesh) and my phone's camera does not do anything flattering to my food images. I will try very hard to add images to my foods posts again soon.

i'm crazy for vegan 'meat'balls (seitan-based) lately. we've had them greek-style (keftedes), swedish-style, italian-style, and tonight i'm not sure what to do with them. someone mentioned meatballs in sweet-n-sour sauce. that sounds kinda weird to me. have you had that? is it actually good? we'd have them over rice.

is it just me, or is the internet totes boring lately?