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!

Summer Mung Bean Sweet Soup (Vegan)

    

In Chinese medicine, all foods have a so-called “charge” of hot, cold, or neutral. This is not to be confused with temperature. It’s hard to define the metrics from a Western scientific lens, and often I’m left calling up my mom to ask a particular food is hot or cold. Typically, anything fried or baked tends to be categorized as “hot”, and most fruits and veggies are “cold”. In general, you want to keep your bodily hot and cold “qi”, or energy, in balance. When you get sick, it’s said that you’ve either got too much hot or cold qi.

The West coast has been unseasonably warm this year, to the point that we woke up this weekend to a forest fire cloud overhanging all of Metro Vancouver. Apparently there are about 150 forest fires currently burning up in BC. Keep your ciggies away from the woods, folks!

PSA aside, one of my favourite summertime cool-down snacks is sweet mung bean soup. It is super simple to make – just 3 ingredients – and you can make a whole pot at a time, perfect for a tea party or to keep for several days. Mung bean is one of those quintessential “cool” foods in Chinese cuisine, and I’ve added some dried lily leaves for some neutral texture.

*The photos look a little pink because I added some rose petals – gives a floral scent to the soup.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 8-10 servings

• ½ cup mung bean
• ¼ cup lily leaves
• 5 cups water
• 3-5 tbsp sugar, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Wash and soak the mung beans and lily leaves in separate bowls, for about 5 minutes.
2. Pour in the washed mung beans and lily leaves with the water into a pressure cooker. Add sugar.
3. Heat on high for 15-20 minutes after boiling, until your mung beans get mushy.
4. Let soup cool for 5 hours or overnight in the fridge.
5. Serve and enjoy!

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,

Backyard Garden Summer Salad (vegan)

Living in the ‘burbs has its inefficiencies (ie. no car, no leavin’ the house), but one thing I love is having the space to grow your own food. My dad and I built a veggie patch in the backyard back in February, and planted a whole bunch of veggies. My mom, brother, and sister have been watering them every day (it’s a family affair!) and after some nice April and May showers (always wet in Vancouver), June is starting to witness some early harvest. The first of the batch – lettuce!

Here are some my favourite salad ingredients:

1. Greens: lettuce, arugula, spinach
2. Colourful veggies: tomato, peppers
3. Protein / filler: nuts, tofu, tempeh, avocado, a nutty soft cheese
4. Sweet accent: raisins / craisins, fruit (mango, peach, apple, pear, kiwi)

Bursting with colour and flavour, this start-of-summer salad is sure to be a treat at any summer barbecue or potluck – especially if moms or health nuts are in attendance. Here are the simple steps.

INGREDIENTS

Salad (makes 4+ servings):

• 8-10 leaves of fresh lettuce
• 1 tomato
• 1 avocado
• 1 kiwi
• ½ cup craisins
• ½ cup nuts

Dressing:

• 3 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup lemon juice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash, cut, and prep veggies.
2. Toss everything together in a bowl.
3. Mix together oil, salt, and lemon juice for the dressing.
4. Mix in dressing, serve, and enjoy!

Cheers to a yummy, healthy summer!

Anatomy of the perfect fruit smoothie

In my glory days of diet-dabbling, I went (almost) raw vegan for a summer, wherein my breakfast consisted of fruit smoothies, lunch of salads… and I got pretty bad munchies. I was biking to and from work every day, where I was out and about chasing thirty jumpy campers for over eight hours a day. In hindsight, the fruit energy was good, but I was definitely lacking protein.

I’ve since begun to wrap my head around the complexity that is food + body, in relation to geography and lifestyle. It may seem like common sense, but where you live and how you live plays a big role on your bodily needs! My fascination with the 80-10-10 diet began in the early spring of 2013, when I was living in Lyon, France. I got hooked on YouTubers like Kristina the raw foodie, but overlooked the fact that a student living in the Rhone-Alps region doesn’t have quite the same dietary needs as a long-distance runner in Austin, Texas.

Though I no longer live off of breakfast smoothies, I do appreciate the quick protein fix smoothies can provide after a hefty workout.

Here’s what I consider the anatomy, or essential elements, of a protein-rich fruit smoothie:

1. Base: This is the “meat” of the smoothie, providing the majority of the caloric energy and the texture of the drink. Usually a tropical fruit and most commonly bananas. My other faves are oranges and mangoes.
2. Secondary fruit: Add some dimension and antioxidants with some fresh or frozen fruit like berries or kiwi.
3. Protein: To ensure your smoothie packs a punch, add a tablespoon of protein powder, peanut (or other nut) butter, or flax seed. Also a great option is to sneak in some protein-y greens like spinach or kale.
4. Liquid: This will help “glue” all the dry ingredients together. Depending on how light or heavy you want to go, add a milk (eg. soy, almond, dairy, etc.), juice (eg. orange, apple, cranberry), or water (eg. coconut).
5. Flava-flav: The best part is customizing the flavour, colour and texture with fun ingredients like: coconut flakes, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, medjool dates, raw honey, or matcha powder.

Here’s what I used for today’s Tabata Sunday smoothie:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 banana
• ½ cup frozen blueberries
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• ½ cup soy milk

In this extra protein-y shake, the peanut butter acted as both protein and the flava-flav. For extra fruit (and aesthetics), I garnished with a kiwi slice.

Work that body and treat yourself!

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.

Wild Berry Egg Tarts (Vegetarian)

If you’ve ever been to Hong Kong – or Vancouver, or any Chinatown for that matter – you have probably stepped into a Chinese bakery. There is something comforting about the combination of stark fluorescent lighting, that distinct sweet buttery aroma, the click of plastic tongs and trays, and the curt mid-Menopausal cashier that rings up your order before you have time to grab your wallet.

But for those who don’t have the luxury of such an experience in the vicinity, or prefer avoiding the outrageous $1.30 price tag on these treats nowadays (they were 33 cents back in the 90s!), you can now turn your own kitchen into said bakery.

You may have noticed that many of my recipes contain (frozen) blueberries. One of the perks of living in the ‘burbs is that I’m at the nexus of residential and agricultural land. In other words, there is a blueberry farm a 5-minute walk from home! Can’t beat picking fresh berries as a post-dinner digestion aid. So we do a lot of that in the summertime, then freeze ‘em up for baking the rest of the year.

Now, you may not have a blueberry farm next to your house, but maybe some wild blackberry bushes nearby, or a backyard ready to host some fruit trees or veggies, and most likely a farmer’s market in your ‘hood. (A few months ago, my dad and I set up our backyard garden, and we’ve got tons of yummy produce ready to bloom. Be on the lookout for a post on gardening!) Whatever your local flava – add it to the mix! Veganish is all about experimenting, so I encourage you to customize these recipes to your taste and the bestest, freshest goods in your reach.

I must admit, this recipe is super simple largely because I use pre-made tart shells, which you can find at most grocery stores (I got mine at Superstore / Loblaws). The toughest part of this whole process is getting the egg tarts into the oven without spilling! Seriously, requires zen Qi-gong hands. Just imagine you’re moving through a giant block of jello. If you manage to make these tarts sans spillage, I will personally mail you a gold star.

INGREDIENTS:

Makes 12 egg tarts

• 3 eggs
• 150ml milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• ½ cup blueberries & blackberries
• 12 frozen tart shells

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Lay out tart shells onto baking rack.
2. Beat the eggs, add milk and sugar and stir until smooth.
3. Place 3-4 blueberries & blackberries in each tart.
4. Pour mixture into shells.
5. Carefully place baking rack into the oven.
6. In a toaster oven, bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes until tart shells slightly brown.
7. Share and enjoy!

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.