Cheesy Shishito Biscuits (Vegetarian)

Happy (belated) American Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Long Weekend!

I apologize that I didn’t get this recipe out to you in time for any Friendsgivings potlucks or family dinners you might have had. But if it makes you feel better, I almost regretted bringing these biscuits to a Friendsgiving potluck, because I wanted to save them all for myself instead 😉

I took a 3 ingredient biscuit recipe and ended up making it ahem…more complicated. But the little extra effort is worth it.  The star of this recipe (yogurt) makes this batch taste different than your plain old buttery biscuit but they have all the essentials of a star batch: Moist on  the inside, a little crumbly and crisp on the outside.

Even more, these pretty ones are sizzling with flavour: The shishito peppers add a kick but offer less fire than say, jalapenos, though you could certainly turn it up a notch and sub in spicier peppers. But even if you get the odd mouthful of spice, the cheesy bready surroundings will round it out.

 

INGREDIENTS:
Makes 12 relatively large biscuits.

• 1 2/3 cup plain yogurt
• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup grated cheese (I used extra sharp cheddar)
• 3 tbsp shishito peppers, finely chopped (I left the seeds inside but you can remove them for less spice, more flavour)
• Splash of almond milk (literally). Or other milk substitute of your choice.
• 1 tbsp olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add yogurt, salt, baking powder.
3. Slowly add in flour, quarter cup at a time, mixing well. But don’t overmix yet; it’s OK if the dough is a bit lumpy.
4. Fold in cheese and pepper, making sure that the flavours are well distributed.
5. Add in a splash of almond milk (literally!) and olive oil, folding in these final ingredients into the dough. By now, the dough should be well mixed but relatively goopy (a technical term) and sticky.
6. On a greased cookie sheet, drop small lumps of batter into the shape desired. I used a 1/4 cup measure since the dough is quite sticky, and the cup measure helps achieve more consistency in shape.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until biscuits are lightly browned.
8. Allow to cool for a few minutes and serve.

Zucchini Apple Muffins (Vegan)

Oh hey, I’m back!

What better way to spend a rainy Veteran’s Day holiday than to fill the kitchen with the smell of apples baking, stock up for breakfast/snacks for the week and snuggle away from the cold?

I wasn’t intending on blogging this, mainly because I was planning on following Dana’s muffin recipe and only playing around with the flavours (zucchini instead of carrots). I was also tempted with Ella’s version that included a delicious oat crumble on top.

But of course, as per usual, I didn’t have all of the ingredients for either of these recipes! I usually shy away from improvising with baked goods (much more of a novice with baking than with cooking), but my vision of a warm morning with coffee and muffins was too hard to resist.

So I stuck mostly with Dana’s recipe but upped the fruit proportions and played around with the sweeteners, liquids, and spices to make sure that I’d get the right tastes and consistency. The result was spectacular:

These muffins are moist inside, crisper on top, and communicate subtle tones that hint at zuccchini, apple, maple syrup and cinnamon. It was hard not to eat them all right away- they misted up my camera when I tried to get a close up and so how I could I resist…?

INGREDIENTS:
Makes 12 muffins.

• Flax egg (1.5 tbsp ground flax seed, 3 tbsp water)
• 3/8 cup maple syrup (Or 1/4 cup plus another splash!)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 1.5 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 cup zucchini, grated (~3 mini zuchs)
• 1 cup apples, grated (~ 2 small ones)
• 2/3 cup oats
• 1.5 cup all purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Mix ground flax seed with water and set aside for a few minutes. After 5-10 minutes, mixture should have egg-yolk type consistency.
2. Preheat oven to 375 F.
3. Add flax egg into mixing bowl and stir in wet ingredients in above order, from the maple syrup to almond milk.
4. Add in spices and grated apple and zucchini.
5. Mix in oats and flour slowly, adding in 1/3 of a cup at a time and folding it into batter.
6. Dole out batter into a greased muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes until edges are brown and pulling away from the pan.
7. Remove and allow to cool (or not, and devour them immediately).

They store well too- reheat batches in subsequent days and top them off with a little sliver of butter!

Fizzy peach mojitos

Hello summer.

It is HOT today. 30 degrees Celsius (88 degrees F for our American friends).

It is the kind of heat where you don’t bother to wear makeup, cross the street just to walk in the shade and feel grateful, for once, when you enter an overly air conditioned building. Really, I love it all. After 8 feet of snow that took forever to thaw,  it’s  nice to feel warmth on my skin, swat away bees, touch flowers spilling out of their beds and just…bask in all the glory.

But it’s even lovelier to come home and mix a cool drink with all the flavours of summer: in this case,  a modified mojito with a twist that leaves it sweeter, crisper and more refreshing than before.

This recipe is so simple: Add your base, muddle. Add alcohol, stir. Add liquid base, stir. Fizzy drink, stir. Top with garnish. Raise glass and sip.

INGREDIENTS:

Serves one.

• ¼ cup fresh peaches, cut
• 5-6 mint leaves plus another sprig for garnish
• 2 ice cubes
• Plain vodka
• Peach iced tea
• Lime seltzer water

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Brew peach iced tea in advance if you can. I brewed some the day before: Steep peach tea bags in boiling water for 4-5 minutes (or to your desired strength level). Remove tea bags and let tea cool completely. Keep in the fridge before brewing drink, if possible.
2. In a small 8 oz glass, add cut peaches. Tear up mint leaves by hand and add them also. Muddle the mixture together (I used a chopstick to smash up the fruit!)
3. Add in a splash of vodka, if desired.
4. Muddle the fruit-mint-alcohol mixture further and add ice cubes.
5. Fill the glass 2/3 of the way with chilled peach tea.
6. Top off with some sparkling lime water.
7. Give one final stir and mix in an extra spring of mint.

Cheers, friends!

Blueberry Pancakes For One (Vegan)

Well actually, there’s enough for two- just in case you have company. Or for one really big appetite.

I actually store a running list of potential Veganish posts on my phone. But I cross items off that list very slowly, mostly because cravings and circumstance cause me to whip up something impromptu.

This Sunday was one such case. I was thinking of writing about How to Be Veganish in Boston (more on that later). But I woke up after 10 restful hours of sleep to pouring rain ,a growling stomach and a sudden desire for…pancakes.

But how to make pancakes without eggs or sugar in the house? Prior to my foray into veganism, I would have made a soggy trip to the grocery store to satisfy my craving. Now, I have learned to scour the Internet for substitutions/vegan/hack recipes and then tweak them a little based on my pantry’s availability.

I also usually don’t make pancakes or crepes for myself, but really, why should solitude bar an indulgent breakfast? This mini batch of ‘cakes are fluffy, fruity and light. Top it off with ground cinnamon, ginger and real Quebecois maple syrup. Wash it down with some coffee and watch the rain outside.

INGREDIENTS:

Yields 6-8 small pancakes.

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your choice)
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 3 tablespoons of maple syrup, divided (2 tablespoons for batter, 1 tablespoon for topping)
• ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
•  ½ tablespoons of canola oil (I use olive oil because that’s all I had this time!)

• 2/3 cup of blueberries
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a mixing bowl, add in the wet ingredients in the order listed above. Once the oil is added, whisk vigorously so that liquids are well blended together.
2. Add in the blueberries and stir.
3. Add in the dry ingredients in the order listed above. Add in half of the flour, stir to ensure that there’s no lumps. Add in the second half and repeat.
4. Heat a non-stick pan to medium low. Add in a little bit of oil.
5. Using a 1/3 cup measure (or a ladle that’s half-filled with batter), dole out equal sized portions onto the heated pan.
6. Once the pancake has started bubbling and the edges have browned, flip the cake over and heat, about 3-4 minutes on each side.
7. Allow pancakes to cool and top with your preferred toppings. I used:
   • Slivers of vegan butter
   • Ground cinnamon
   • Ground ginger
   • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup.

Finally, two other lessons I have learned over the years of crepe making that are worth sharing:

1. Your first pancakes are always the ugliest. It’s not you, it’s the pan- it’s just heating up to the right consistency.
2. Use a non-stick pan. Seriously. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Happy eating,

The “I can’t believe they’re leftovers” Stuffed Bell Peppers (Vegetarian)

This is a blog post (and recipe) that I did not think I would be making. It just happened a few days ago as I was wrinkling my nose at some of the food in the fridge. A few weeks of evening meetings and dinners out made the vegetables hanging in my fridge sad and soiled. I hate wasting food and after throwing out once-perfectly-good arugula, I decided that I couldn’t make the recipe I had planned to post about and improvise instead.

What did I need to use up?

• Leftover refried beans, from this wrap.
• Leftover Thai black rice, once paired with this tofu dish.
• 1.5 bell peppers that were getting soft and mushy.
• Some green onion shoots, drying out around the edges.

The result? Mix beans, rice with cheese for a little indulgence. Stuff in peppers. Bake and top with chopped green onions. And all the things that looked gross and sad suddenly become this delicious, warm, gooey dish.

INGREDIENTS:

Makes 3 appetizer or light dinner servings

• 3 bell pepper halves
• 1/2 cup of vegetarian refried beans
• 1/2 cup of cooked rice (I used Thai black rice)
• 1/8 cup of shredded cheese (I used parmesan, asiago and romano shavings)
• Bread crumbs, to taste
• Canola oil, to taste
• Green onion shoots, to taste
• Cracked pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a bowl, mix refried beans, rice and cheese together. Add a little cracked pepper.
3. Slice bell peppers and clean out the insides, removing the seeded core but leaving a little bit of the stem intact.
4. Spoon bean and rice mixture into the refried beans and pat it in.
5. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
6. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and add a few drops of oil to the sheet.
7. As you place the peppers on the sheet, rub the bottoms in the oil so that the peppers are lightly greased.
8. Drizzle a few drops of oil on top of the bread crumbs so that they’ll brown in the oven.
9. Bake peppers for 35 minutes, until the mixture is bubbling and the peppers are soft and browned.

And to be extra meta, save some this as leftovers for later.

Doubledecker Baked Nachos (Vegetarian)

These are “nacho” ordinary chips.

Usually, I try not to take too many food pics in public. Or be too fickle with the way things are presented on a plate…or the lighting…or the garnishes.

But when my friend and fellow blogger Viola (check out: Stylish Wanderers and Wanderer’s Pantry) drops by for the weekend, food pics are part of what we do. Cooking meals together is also what we do. So after a long day of walking ALL up and down Cambridge/Somerville, and shivering in the non-summer weather, it’s time for a Saturday night in: Nachos, wine, and Netflix.

These beauties are super easy to make, loaded with veggies, and taste better than those sad restaurant nachos where after a few exciting cheese-filled bites, you’re left with naked tortilla chips. The trick? Tuck in some filling between 2 layers of chips, and top it all off with some more beans, cheese, and the works.

Throw it in the oven for a couple minutes until the cheese gets all gooey and you’re good to go!

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 2-3 (Meal sized servings)

• 3 Cloves of garlic
• 4 Green onion bulbs
• 15-20 grape tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil
• 1 Can of black beans
• Approx.¼ chopped cilantro

• Approx. half a bag of tortilla chips of your choice (I mixed it up using two different types of chips including Trader Joe’s Vegetable Flax Seed and Black Bean Quinoa Chips)
• Approx.¼ cup of salsa (I used Trader Joe’s Double roasted salsa)
• Approx.½ cup of grated cheese (I used Gruyere since that’s all I had!)
• Guacamole, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Mince up the garlic and cilantro. Divide chopped cilantro into 2 halves, one for each layer of filling.
3. Slice up the green onion and divide into halves, roughly separating the bottom ends (onion) from the top ends (shoots). Further divide the shoots into two halves, one for each layer of filling.
4. Slice grape tomatoes in half and rinse out the canned black beans.
5. Add oil to a frying pan and heat on medium high. Add in garlic, onion-y portions of the green onion and fry lightly (3-4 minutes). Add in tomatoes and green beans and cook for 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes are softened. Using your spatula, press down on the beans to “smush” them a little.
6. In a baking dish (we used a glass pie plate), layer tortilla chips on the bottom.
7. Spoon on half of the bean mixture, and half of grated cheese, salsa, chopped cilantro and onion shoots.
8. Layer on more tortilla chips atop the mixture and repeat step 7.
9. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Lay out some salsa and guac (and libations) so that people can help themselves. Bon appetit!

DISCLAIMER: 

Not sponsored by Trader Joe’s. Just live really close to one.

Rosemary-Olive Beer Bread (Vegan)

Yup, you read that title correctly.

For the weeks when you have midterms, late meetings or apartment-viewings (or all of the above). For when you don’t have enough time to make breakfast, lunch AND/OR dinner: This recipe’s for you. A loaf of this will last you a week, and serve as a great base for versatile meals, including open-faced sandwiches (more on those later) and pairings for soups or salads.

I first had beer bread at the Rabbit Hole Cafe in Montreal: a vegan pay-what-you-can cafe tucked in the basement of The Yellow Door. So beer bread brings back special memories of Friday lunches with friends, taking refuge from classes and the dead of winter, and sharing tea, piano songs and laughter.

Because I like my bread to have stuff in it, I amped up the classic recipe with rosemary and olives, and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds and oats. And while most beer bread recipes call for lagers, I used an ale (Sam Adams Cold Snap) because I was intrigued by the “blend of exotic fruits & spices including orange peel, plum, hibiscus & fresh ground coriander” … and because it was the only beer I had lying around.

The result was a dense and fragrant bread. The top was firm, the middle a little crumble-y and cake-y and the flavours subtle enough to complement whatever you may put on top.

INGREDIENTS:

Bread:

• 2 ½  cups of all purpose flour
• 1 bottle of beer of your choice (I used Sam Adams Cold Snap*)
• ⅓  cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½  tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1 – 2 teaspoons sea salt

Mix-ins: 

• 2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary
• ½ cup of sliced olives (Both canned and fresh work)
• Roasted pumpkin seeds, to sprinkle
• Oats, to sprinkle

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift and combine flour, salt and baking powder.
3. Add in the olive oil and mix coarsely.
4. Crack open a bottle of beer and pour it into the mixture (If you sneak in a sip or two, you’re forgiven!).
5. Wait a few seconds for the fizzing to stop, and mix the beer in thoroughly, until a batter-like consistency is reached.
6. Drizzle on the maple syrup and mix into the batter.
7. Chop up the rosemary** and the olives and add to mixing bowl.
8. Fold in the mix-ins with a spatula.
9. Transfer dough to baking pan**. Sprinkle on oats, pumpkin seeds or other toppings, pressing lightly onto the top of the dough.
10. Bake for 50 minutes until the top is browned and the insides are cooked.

*DISCLAIMER:

 We are not endorsed by Sam Adams or anyone else. We wish we were.

**NOTES:

• Before chopping the rosemary, try to break apart or crush the leaves with your hands. This will release the natural oils and lend to more fragrance. After doing so, run your knife over the leaves to coarsely chop into smaller pieces.
• Please use a bread pan  and/or avoid filling up the baking pan the whole way like I did. Otherwise you’ll get a weirdly shaped loaf like mine. And if the rising loaf is not contained by the baking pan, rogue pumpkin seeds may fall off in the hot oven and cause you to fret over the house burning down.

…Veganish: experimenting and (occasionally) making mistakes, so that you don’t have to.

Brussel Sprouts Apple Salad with Sriracha and Lime (Vegan, Gluten-free)

Thanks A.C. for bringing this to my potluck! I am amazed at how dishes evolve as recipes migrate from person to person and across time and locations. This salad has roots (*pun intended*) in some swanky NYC restaurant. My friend A.C. ordered a sans-apple version of this salad at said restaurant, liked it, but decided to add apples when he recreated it at home. He brought it over to mine one night, I loved it, but decided to play around with the vinaigrette recipe and with roasting the sprouts instead. And so, three generations of salads later, this recipe was born:

One of the perks/quirks of growing up in an immigrant family is that I never ate Brussel sprouts as a kid. Or if I did, it would have been in an experimental bhaji doused with spices. So come adulthood, I did not retain any sort of Pavlovian aversion to these veggies.

But if you still wrinkle your nose at sprouts…try this recipe and tell me what you think. I first pan-fry the sprouts and then pop them in the oven so that they are more caramelized and not too bitter or fibrous.The apples provide a nice, cool crunch contrasted with the zesty kick of the vinaigrette and the warmth of the sprouts. Perfect transition for spring: phasing out the roasted vegetables and spices and bringing in fresh fruit and citrus!

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 2-3 (Appetizer-size servings)

• 1 packet of Brussel sprouts (~20-30)
• 1 apple (I used Fuji)

Sriracha Lime Vinaigrette:

• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon Sriracha (add more or less depending on spice preference)
• Cracked pepper, to taste
• Sea salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Wash sprouts, and slice off bottoms and cut in half.
3. Heat a pan to medium-high and add sprouts Season with salt and pepper.. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until sprouts are lightly brown around the edges.
4. Transfer sprouts to oven and roast for another 7-10 minutes.
5. Thinly slice an apple and cut into small pieces.
6. Combine Sriracha, olive oil and lime juice in a bowl/container and whisk well till blended.
7. Take sprouts out of oven and mix in apples. Drizzle a little bit of vinaigrette (you’ll only use about half).

Pair this with an open faced sandwich like beet avocado toast or some artichoke antipasto (shown below). After a ridiculous morning of essay-writing, I needed this clean, relaxing, quiet lunch for one.

OAT FIG SQUARES (VEGETARIAN / VEGAN)

I love mornings.

The most idyllic of days include waking up early, brewing coffee, cooking breakfast and lounging around listening to the radio.

…That being said, such mornings are rare in grad school.

So for the days when I wake up at 6:30 to catch the 7:30 bus for an 8:30 class, I have to take my breakfast-to-go. Packing your own breakfast is often cheaper, healthier, more satisfying and more accommodating of dietary restrictions. And it’s not too inconvenient if you plan it properly. One of my favourite to-go breakfasts are these oat fig squares, both because of their convenience and because of their tastes.

Think of it as the best Nutrigrain bar you’ve ever had…it’s hearty, not too sweet, a little crumbly, and a little gooey. I make a batch on Sundays, store it in the fridge and throw two squares in the oven each morning to warm up. Pair it with coffee, yogurt and fruit (all easily transportable) and you’re on your way.

The recipe is easy and versatile. Takes less than an hour to prep and bake. Want a change of flavours for different weeks? Swap out the filling with different jams.  Or try a nut butter filling and drizzle maple syrup on top. I’m already dreaming of making a pumpkin-pie version to make in the fall!

INGREDIENTS:

For six squares:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup oats
• ⅓ cup canola oil
• ¼ cup milk (or almond milk)
• ¼ cup honey (or maple syrup or agave)
• ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ tablespoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ~ 4 tablespoons of Fig Butter (or jam/nut butter of choice. Or make a fig filling from scratch)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, combine the milk and honey and whisk together till smooth.
3. Add in vanilla extract and canola oil and mix till blended.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, mix flour, oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.
5. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture, mixing well.
6. Spoon half of the oat mixture into a greased baking pan (mine was ~ 15 cm x 10 cm). Spread and press down the mixture so that it covers the bottom of the pan, and is about 1 cm deep.
7. Spoon the fig butter on top of the oat mixture. Spread it across the pan, taking care to leave a 1 cm margin around the edges. Add more butter if you want it extra gooey.
8. Add the remaining half of the oat mixture and spread it to cover the filling. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
9. Bake for 20 minutes. The top crust should be lightly browned.
10. Allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before cutting into squares.

…and if you’re like me, try not to eat it all in one go.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 

This recipe was adapted from GaylaJ’s recipe on Food.com.

RECONSTRUCTED SALADE NIÇOISE (VEGETARIAN, GLUTEN-FREE)

A former co-worker of mine ate this for lunch almost every day of the summer, paired with some olive bread and cheese. So despite the name, this salad reminds me of the most sublime summer days in Montreal. And since the days are getting longer and I’m gearing up for a spring trip back to la belle province, whipping up this beauty for lunch provided a dose of nutrition and nostalgia.

This reconstruction of the classic salade niçoise arose out of several reasons: I don’t eat tuna, I prefer arugula over other salad blends, and I found that olives and red onions combined in a salad gave me really bad breath! So I made some changes but the overall colours, flavours, and heartiness have not gone away.

INGREDIENTS**:

For two meal-sized servings:

Dressing:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon all-purpose seasoning
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

• 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons mustard (Dijon, preferably)
• ¾ to 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 to 2 ½ extra virgin olive oil

“Tuna”:

• ½ cup white cannellini beans
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon hummus
• ½ teaspoon all-purpose seasoning

Salad:

• 2 to 3 eggs
• 3 to 4 small potatoes
• ½ red bell pepper
• ¼ small red onion
• 3 to 4 large handfuls of arugula leaves
• 2 to 3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
• 2 to 3 handfuls of thin green beans

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat up some water in a saucepan to boiling. Drop in potatoes and cook for 8-10 minutes, until soft enough to be pierced with a fork.
2. In another sauce pan, boil the eggs until the insides are fully cooked.
3. While eggs and potatoes are boiling, prepare tuna: Mash the beans in a separate bowl and add hummus, lemon juice and seasoning.
4. In another pot, boil more water. Throw in the green beans and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
5. Prepare the dressing: cut cloves of garlic in half and combine with all other ingredients in a bowl. Whisk together until fully blended.
6. Empty all boiling items into a strainer and run them over cold water.
7. Slice everything up! Quarter the potatoes, halve the tomatoes, and cut everything else up into small, bite-sized pieces.
8. Layer your salad: Create a bed of arugula and tuna, pile on the potatoes and eggs, and top with veggies.
9. Drizzle dressing over it all.

**NOTE: I’ll be honest, I’m not one for measuring out my ingredients, even when I’m writing a blog post! Most of the quantities are best estimates. Keeping the dressing ingredients in similar proportions to each other is the most important.