Pumpkin pie

I got this recipe from La Dolce Vegan and tried it out on family a few days ago. It worked so well I thought I’d pass it along to others.

Pie crust

• 2 cups pastry flour
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup margarine
• ¼ cup soy milk

1. Sift the flour and salt together.
2. Add the margarine and mix together until it becomes a coarse meal.
3. Add the milk in and mix until a dough forms.
4. Roll into a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. Roll it out into pie shell.

Filling

• 400 ml pumpkin purée
• ½ cup soy milk
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp allspice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Mix the milk and syrup together and slowly add the cornstarch, whisking if necessary.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.

Topping

• ¼ cup walnuts
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp margarine

1. Crumble the walnuts as fine as you can. The dustier the better.
2. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
3. Add the margarine in and combine.
4. Sprinkle on top of the pie evenly.
5. Bake at 375°F for 40-45 minutes. Done!

French Toast

• 1½ cup soy milk
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp oats
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Just mix all that together and soak some bread in it. Put the bread on an oiled frying pan until nice and golden. As for topping, I suggest margarine, maple syrup and freshly picked blackberries. They’re a lot cheaper than you’ll find in the store and as fresh as they’ll ever get.

Peanut butter chocolate pie

• 2 blocks of silken tofu
• 12 oz of chocolate, double-boiled
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 pie crust

Blend the tofu, chocolate, maple syrup and vanilla. Spread the peanut butter in the pie crust. Pour the mixture on top and let it sit in your freezer for about an hour or two. Oh yeah.

Strawberry rhubarb jam

Thanks to Mishka, my desire for strubarb has been sated. Behold!

Ingredients

• Rhubarb, 2 stalks
• Strawberries, 1 clamshell
• Sugar, ½ cup or a little more
• Lemon juice, 1 tbsp

Instructions

1. Slice the strawberries and rhubarb up into thin slices.
2. Simmer them with the sugar and lemon until it gets all soupy.
3. Simmer it some more until it thickens a bit.

Seriously. That’s it. If you want it to thicken a little more, add some corn starch (careful to dilute it in water first; you don’t want clumps like I got on my first try).

Variety

I had no idea what this was when I was making and I’m still not sure what it was now that it’s done. All I know is that it was tasty and new.

1. Look in your fridge, cupboards, whatever.
2. Find things that have been sitting around for a while.
3. Combine.

This isn’t guaranteed to result in tasty, but that’s not really the point here. We’re aiming for new ideas. Someone had to invent that favourite dish you ate last week, right?

Chocolate peanut butter cake

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen via Reddit some time ago. I’m a big fan of any combination of peanut butter and chocolate, so this recipe goes over quite well in my books.

The recipe originally called for a chocolate glaze on top of the icing, but that takes so much time and it’s just way more sugar than I’m willing to indulge in. Shaved dark chocolate on top does fairly well in stead.

Cake

• 2 cups flour (cake or all-purpose will do fine)
• 2½ cups sugar
• ¾ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup “sour cream” (Tofutti’s probably the best option)
• 1½ cups water
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 “eggs” (dry egg replacer works well)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Mix the dry items together
3. Add in the wet items in the above order (although I doubt that really matters)
4. Pour into whatever forms you’d like (e.g. cupcake) and bake for until toothpicked (~35 minutes or so)
5. Chill in the fridge for an hour or so before icing

Icing

• 5 oz. “cream cheese” (again, Tofutti does the best job I’ve found)
• 2 oz. margarine
• ⅓ cup peanut butter
• 2 cups icing sugar

1. Mix the wets together until creamy.
2. Slowly add in the icing sugar, being careful to avoid lumps if at all possible.

Pancake/waffle batter

I think I’ve made this recipe at least a hundred times and it’s worked out on every occasion. It’s suitable for both pancakes and waffles, can easily be modified with buckwheat flour or walnuts, and takes only a minute to prepare.

Recipe

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground flax seed (optional)
• 2 cups “milk” (soy will work better than rice or almond)
• ⅓ cup oil
• Spices to taste (e.g. cinnamon, cardamom, cocoa, vanilla extract, almond extract, etc)

Variations

• Banana chocolate checkers
• Food colouring swirls

Beer bread

• 2 cups of some kind of flour (multigrain, rye, whatever)
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour (unbleached preferably)
• 1 can of beer (of the standard 355 ml variety)
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. sugar (I’ve mostly been using brown)
• 1 tsp. salt

That’s really about it. Mix it together, throw it in a 375°F oven for 55 minutes or so and you’re done. The fun part comes when you start playing around with the theme: adding figs and walnuts, raisins and ground cloves, y’know, experimenting. Before you know it, you’ll be saying “I’m quite happy with that maple glaze, but it might go well with some sprinkled oats”.

Carrot and coriander soup

I got this recipe out of Fresh’s first cookbook, Juice For Life. It’s tasty and does well with a dash or two of cayenne. If you can get a hold of it, fresh marjoram will taste a lot better than dried.

Recipe

• 3 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 onions
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp marjoram
• 3 carrots
• 1 sweet potato
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• ¼ cup cilantro
• ½ tsp salt

1. Toast the dry coriander in the bottom of the pot on medium heat for about 3 minutes to release the flavour.
2. Toss in the onions and garlic to cook for a bit.
3. Add the carrots and sweet potato and let cook for a bit more.
4. Toss in everything but the cilantro and let simmer.
5. Blend and serve with a little topping of cilantro.

Truffled cauliflower

I got this recipe from my new cookbook, Great Chefs Cook Vegan. It’s full of fancy pictures and provides frequently intricate plating instructions. This cauliflower recipe here is part of a 4-parter, but works well on its own.

Recipe

• 1 head cauliflower
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup soy milk
• 2 tbsp truffle oil
• 1 tbsp mirin
• Sprouts of some kind

1. Cut 8 cross sections out of the cauliflower florets. Sear these in olive oil and train on a paper towel.
2. Chop the remaining cauliflower and simmer in salted water until tender. Drain the cauliflower and blend with heated soy milk down to a purée.
3. Mix the vinaigrette by whisking the truffle oil, vinegar and a little salt. Toss the sprouts in this.
4. Spoon the purée into 4 bowls, garnishing first with the cauliflower, then with the sprouts.