I’m one of those people that likes to buy and look through cookbooks. It’s not often that I bust out a book and cook right from a recipe though, but they do give me inspiration and I sure do like to see them lined up on the shelf.

I recently found a very good vegan cookbook at the used bookstore for only $4. It’s called ‘150 Vegan Favorites‘ by Jay Solomon. Many great sounding recipes, most of which seem pretty easy to make. I had most of the ingredients on hand called for in the ‘Curried Squash with Chickpeas’ so that’s what I made.

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium red onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 - 3 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
1 jalapeno seeded and minced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 1/2 to 3 cups of peeled, diced butternut squash
2 cups water
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, drained

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion, garlic, ginger, and jalapeno and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes.
Stir in the curry, cumin, pepper, salt and turmeric and cook 1 minute.
Add the squash, water and chickpeas and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Lower heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender, 20 to 25 minutes. To thicken, mash the squash against the side of the pan with back of spoon. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Serves 4.

It was very tasty and easy to make, though peeling and chopping the squash took forever. Getting pre-diced onions was a timesaver though, and for an onion-impaired individual like myself, it’s the only way to go (I don’t mind them once they’ve been cooked). It was pretty spicy, I may have used a slightly large jalapeno. I did everything according to the recipe along with the addition of about 1/4 teaspoon of coriander, cuz that’s how I roll. It was served over couscous.

I had these lovely organic heirloom cheery tomatoes at home needing to be used, so when I happened upon a nice locally made herbed pizza dough at Whole Foods, I was inspired to put together my first vegan pizza. It was also initially inspired by this picture from Seitti on Flickr.

The Italian herbed crust was first rubbed with olive oil then a thin layer of tomato pasta sauce. Topped with fresh garlic, spinach, fennel, red bell pepper, sweet cherry tomatoes and Follow Your Heart’s vegan Mozzarella and popped in the oven (it’s finally cool enough to turn it on again) at 425 for 15 minutes. The cheese wasn’t super melty but it had a nice taste and texture. The addition of the fennel here, as in most things, was a stroke of genius.

Update: Darn it. Found out after that fact that the crust was not vegan as it contained butter.

It’s a crying shame that I’ve lived so close to Papa George’s Hy Mart Deli all this time without realizing that they offer some of the best sandwiches and wraps in town, until now.

Hys Mart is a small family run Mediterranean Deli. The mom, pop and son who run this place are super cool and have been in business for over 30 years. They make all kinds salads, deli style sandwiches and middle eastern specialties like gyro’s and falafel. Where they shine in my humble opinion is in their vegetarian specials. There’s at least 10 different vegetarian plates to choose from. Some of them come with feta cheese and/or labni yogurt, but they can make your order dairy free by request.

My favorite is the ‘Shahkloot Special”. It’s a large lavash wrap stuffed with tabouleh, olives, cucumber, mint, basil, avocado, hummus, falafel, tomato, pickles, tahina, lettuce and pepperchinis. The standard version minus my editing would also include feta cheese and onions. The owner told me that Shahkloot means basically throwing in everything that’s in the kitchen. It’s so good, and so big and makes for the perfect lunch… or dinner. I even picked a few up the other day to take on a picnic. My mom loved the chicken wrap she had as well, so consider this another place where you can eat comfortably with mixed company.

When my aunt brought out her homemade honey cake on the first evening of Rosh Hashana I asked if it had been made with eggs. My uncle replied that of course she had used eggs, or else it wouldn’t taste good, that no cake could taste good without eggs. I took that as a challenge to prove him wrong.

For the second night of Rosh Hashana I busted out with 2 dozen mini vegan cupcakes from Leda’s Bake Shop and proceeded to rock my egg eating family’s world.

I got two flavors, the velvet cake (their version of red velvet cake without the artificial red) and peanut butter-vanilla. Both were fabulous and moist and rich and delicious. I like the tiny little size, about two hearty bites worth each, which allows you to try out a couple of flavors without filling up or pigging out. Unless of course you keep all 24 of them for yourself. I had read many raving reviews about Leda’s and am very pleased to report back that it’s definitely all that, and then some. They also have vegan scones, brownies and cookies. Quite an indulgence.

‘To Live and Eat in L.A.’ has now got a review profile set up on Yelp.com as well as a brand spankin’ new Myspace page. If you frequent either of those websites consider adding me (your humble Foodeater) as a friend:

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Update 4/7/08: Soul Vegetarian has sadly closed but there’s a new vegan restaurant in it’s place, the Vegan Village Cafe
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Now this was a special treat, my first visit to Soul Vegetarian which recently opened here in Los Angeles. Even though it’s all the way across town from where I live and in a somewhat sketchy area, I’m so glad I made the journey. I just learned that the restaurant is run by the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who, among other things, practise Veganism and a regenerative diet. All’s I really know about them is that they sure can cook, and ultimately, that’s all that matters.

There was so much great stuff on the menu, so I was happy to see they offered a sampler platter, which just happened to have most of what I wanted to try: marconi & cheese (very garlicky, yum), BBQ Delights (deliciously flavored wheat gluten), black-eyed peas, kale salad, candied yams (can I get an amen?) and vegan roast (I don’t know what it was made of but it was damn good). Oh sweet heaven, it was all excellent.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that I have one weakness and it’s name is corn bread, so of course I wasn’t going to leave a vegan soul food place without sampling their version. The corn bread here at Soul Vegetarian was not only to-die-for good, it was also fresh and hot right out of the oven.

Between the amazing food, the lovely old L.A architecture of the building and neighborhood (a little bit intimidating), and the super cool & cute waitress (I’ve heard there’s a very cute waiter too), this place is definitly worthy of all the buzz and good reviews it’s been getting. Now if I could only get them to open one up in the Valley…

Awhile back a groovy gal named Briar contacted me on Flickr requesting the use of one of my food photos for her magazine. Turns out she’s the head art director at Bitch Magazine and wanted to feature my photograph (of a tempeh dinner I’d cooked) in an article extolling the virtues of tempeh. Bitch mag is a large and well established publication which sites itself as the “Feminist Response to Pop Culture”. I’m totally down with that.

I didn’t get paid for my photo, but I did get a copy of the magazine, as well as the right to from now on refer to my work as “featured in Bitch magazine”. The issue it’s printed in is the one currently on the stands (August 2007, page 64). Here’s the image that was used:

And here’s where you can see my original post about it:
Roasted broccoli, fennel, apple & tempeh.

The truth of the matter is that the picture was printed really super tiny small (and in black & white)… blink and you’ll miss it. I was also told I’d get my name credited but I’ve searched every page of the magazine cover to cover and haven’t found my name yet. No matter, I’m still a proud mama.

The vegan Reuben at Follow Your Heart has long been at the top of my list of favorite foods to eat in Los Angeles, and I was loving this sandwich long before I was ever even a vegetarian or vegan. Yeah, it’s that good.

This monster serving consists of: thinly sliced wheatmeat, sauerkraut, mustard and Vegenaise on oversized rye bread, with oven-baked baked fries. Served with dill pickle and Thousand Island dressing. It normally comes with Swiss cheese, but they offer it with their amazing non-dairy “cottage-style tofu” instead to make it vegan, and I tell you, that stuff is so delicious. I preferred it to the real stuff even when I was a cheese eater. I don’t know if the Thousand Island dressing they served it with is vegan or not, but it’s delicious without it.

Despite how huge it looks in the picture, this really does not do justice to the size of this beast. It’s truly a giant sandwich. One half of it is probably enough to feed two people, so you can imagine that I was working on leftovers for a while. I’m not exaggerating when I rave to you about how yummy this sandwich is. It’s the sort of thing that you suddenly get a craving for late at night, long after the restaurant has closed and there’s not a thing you can do about it but wait until daytime. I’ve been going to Follow Your Heart specifically for this meal since I was a teenager and I still love it. They’ve got so many other fantastic items on their menu but I’ve tried only a few of them, because every time I go there and start checking out the menu, it’s always the Reuben that calls my name.

That said, I did have something different there recently… more on that soon to come.

p.s… Thank you Don Bolles, because if it wasn’t for the little review you wrote about this sandwich in the L.A. Weekly many years ago, I may have never learned of it’s existence. A tip of the hat, and a squirt of Dr. Bronner’s soap to you, Sir.

As mentioned, another visit to Follow Your Heart presented itself, so for once I opted to have something other than the vegetarian Reuben.

I had the “Organic Tempeh Tacos: Two organically grown, stone ground corn tortilla shells, filled with seasoned, grilled organic tempeh, jack and cheddar cheese (substituted with their excellent vegan cheese), tomatoes and fresh cilantro. Served with Spanish rice, black beans guacamole and lime wedges.” It was good, they managed to give the tempeh a texture that was very similar to ground taco meat. The sides were all tasty too, and this serving like everything else there, was huge.

A delight indeed. I got this pre-made lunch at Whole Foods, unsure as to whether it would actually be good, or kinda dry and tasteless like some of these ready made meals often tend to be. I was pleasantly surprised to find it not only juicy and fresh, but also totally yummy.

The “Asian Mex Delight” is made by Foodology, a local company that supplies natural prepared foods to markets. It’s a spinach tortilla wrapped around organic edamame, black beans, corn jicama, green and red bell peppers, red onions and comes served with a tasty mild salsa. Pretty simple in theory but awesome in the execution. It makes for a delicious and hearty lunch… filling but not too heavy. Good stuff for when you’re too lazy to make anything but not too lazy to roll into Whole Foods to pick up something quick.