To Live and Eat in L.A. - A Vegan Food Photo Blog

I was having a sudden fit of NEEDING something delicious and as close to immediate as possible. A quick survey of foodstuffs on hand didn’t offer much hope, but I realized that with what slim pickins I did have, cornbread was an option. I was able to scrape together all the ingredients for making the skillet cornbread recipe from The Veganomicon… only I don’t have a cast iron skillet so I used a normal pan. Also I didn’t have all-purpose flour so I used spelt instead. Oh, and I also added in an extra drizzle of agave nectar to the batter for good luck.

It was freakin’ delicious and I had to tell someone. That someone is you.

I may have just found my new favorite recipe, the Tamarind Lentils from the Veganomicon cookbook. Oh mama, were these good! I love this delicious vegan recipe not only for it’s inherent deliciousness, but also because it was super easy to make, and from start to finish I prepped, cooked and ate my food all in less than one hour. The recipe is pretty foolproof.

Described in the book as “savory, tangy, and sweet… Indian-inspired lentils”, that’s exactly how they taste. The flavor is full and exotic, the tartness of the tamarind cut nicely with sweetness coming from agave nectar, garam masala and tomato paste. You also get a nice spicy kick now and again from cayenne and ginger.

I did make some of my own modifications because I’m the sort that just can’t leave well enough alone. The recipe calls for onion which I wasn’t going to subject myself to, so instead I used fennel. Yes, I realize that fennel tastes nothing like an onion, however it does look kind of similar when cooked… and what the heck, I love fennel. Whatever change this gave to the flavor of the dish did nothing but enhance it’s greatness. The recipe also calls for 3 tablespoons of coconut or peanut oil, neither of which I had on hand, so I used canola instead and cut it down to 1 tablespoon. Really, 3 seems excessive, don’t you think? I needed to cook the lentils a little bit longer than the recipe suggested in order to get them tender, so I just added a bit more water and let them simmer until they softened up.

The recipe suggests having this with basmati rice but at the time I was making it I was already very hungry and wasn’t about to mess with making rice or the like. Instead I made a Jamie Oliver inspired (and veganized) raw-slaw of red & purple carrots, yellow beets and red cabbage* with miso-seseame dressing.

If you don’t already own a copy of the Veganomicon then you’ll want to get one now for your uncensored, all-access pass to the tamarind lentils recipe. If I were to tell you that your life will never be complete until you’ve made and eaten this dish, than I would only be slightly exaggerating.

*Why is it called red cabbage when we can all clearly see that it’s purple?

Tonight I made the cholent recipe from Veganomicon. It came out really good, though it didn’t really remind me of real cholent the way my mama and her mama used to make it, but it does make for a delicious and hearty stew all the same.

I made a few changes to the recipe. I used red lentils instead of French lentils because that’s what I had on hand. I used peas instead of lima beans, not because I don’t like them but because I couldn’t find them already cooked (I wanted to make this now and not wait for beans to soak… the recipe said peas could be substituted), and I used ready made seitan instead of TVP chunks. They specify in the recipe that it must be TVP chunks and not the flakes, however TVP chunks are impossible to get just about anywhere unless I wanted to bother mail-ordering some (or try harder), which I didn’t. The seitan made a fine substitute and allowed me to make the entire recipe using all organic ingredients.

I really liked the flavor that came through from the caraway seeds. Next time I make this I’ll use more garlic, leave out the lentils and instead use barley which is more traditional. I’ll also acquire lima beans as it’s not really cholent without them. Overall, a great recipe as is, regardless of whatever you call it. There’s lots of interesting info on cholent to be found in the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholent

Le Chaim!

So of course I was eager to make something with the purple cauliflower from the farmers market. I mean hello, it’s purple! Simple is what I do best, so very simply I roasted the cauliflower along with butternut squash in a light coating of olive oil, agave nectar, coriander, ginger powder and red pepper flakes. It came out very tasty, with the butternut squash perfectly caramelized at the edges.

To go with this dish I also tried my hand once again at the infamous Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlets. This time around I was much more successful (you can read about my not so successful first try, here). What did I do differently this time around?

As suggested by Your Vegan Mom, I made sure to use the exact measurements of liquids so as to not mess up all the mysterious wheat gluten magic action. Since I didn’t want to use as much soy sauce as the recipe calls for (2 tablespoons), I instead used 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of Bragg’s and substituted the last 1/2 with water. Also, this time I fried them instead of baked.

The texture and consistency was much better. They are quite good! I had to use a lot more oil in order to fry them up nicely than I’d normally like to use when I cook (my fault for not using non-stick pans), so next time I’ll try baking them again but will make sure to use enough liquid, perhaps even a bit extra to compensate.

Before I forget, here’s a few more things I recently cooked up…

Yummy salad of red cabbage, fuji apple, garbanzo beans, lime juice, flax oil and ‘Bragg Healthy Organic Vinaigrette’.

Quinoa cooked with kale, garlic, coriander, cumin and turmeric.

Kamut pasta with a sauce made from walnuts, red bell pepper, garlic, lemon juice, flax oil, sambal, agave nectar and a dash of black pepper. Wow, this came out way better than I could have hoped for as I was inventing it on the fly. The picture doesn’t make it look very appetizing (that’s Nooch sprinkled on top btw), but you’ll have to take my word for just how good it tasted. Would I lie to you?

Being a gal who loves her chickpeas, I was eager to try my hand at the ‘Chickpea Cutlets’ recipe from Veganomicon. My book arrived, the ingredients were gathered, my hopes were high.

Sadly the cutlets didn’t work out so well. I don’t really know what went wrong as I followed directions nearly to the letter. I opted to make the baked version rather than the fried version and the only change I made was using 1 tablespoon of Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. They weren’t burned but came out really dry, hard and breadlike… more like chickpea flavored thick bread than a cutlet or burger. The recipe said that baking them “gives a toothsome chewy texture and firm bite”. Hmmm. I don’t think this is what they meant though, these were just too chewy/firm to be enjoyable. Oh well.

That said, the flavor was really nice. I did make my way through about a quarter of the thing before deciding to give up. I can tell it’s tasty when it comes out right. What do you think could have gone wrong considering my only change was the soy sauce?

The spinach on the side started out as inspired by another recipe from Veganomicon, the ‘Sauteed Spinach and Tomatoes’ but the mealy, unflavorful tomatoes that I brought home didn’t seem worth eating once I cut them open. Um, when you pay more for locally grown organic tomatoes, aren’t they supposed to blow your mind with tomato goodness? But I digress. I used olive oil instead of peanut oil. The recipe also calls for onions which I don’t do unless under duress. It calls for salt, which I left out as well, cuz that’s how I roll.

So basically what became of a simple yet elegant recipe turned into spinach wilted in a bit of olive oil with ginger, garlic and lemon. Thankfully that’s all good stuff and good flavor and something I’d pretty much do anyway without referring to a recipe… therefore let’s call this one modified rather than messed up.

Update: Here’s my more successful 2nd attempt at making the Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlets.