Vegan MoFo: On the Go

Starting my new job today (!!!), so a quick post full of quick vegan noms.

Fast and easy vegan breakfast, take 3-ish:

How to: Fry up some potatoes in olive oil. After flipping (once brown on one side), add soyrizo. Fry a little more. Nom. Swoon.

Quick vegan dinner in October:

Souuuuuup. Minestrone soup. Ok, ready? Set?
– Pan. Olive oil. Onions + garlic. Saute (no burning!) until slightly wiggly.
– Add carrots, celery, potatoes, other harder veggies of your choosing. Saute a little more.
– Add pasta, chopped kale/cabbage, small can of crushed tomatoes (with liquid), veggie stock to more than cover. Also add salt, pepper, Italian seasoning. Simmer for a while — until pasta is cooked.
– Again, nom.

Easy like… something that’s really easy, like… slipping on a banana peel. Or, considering I’ve never done that, someting easier. Like sleeping in on the weekend. Only tastier.

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Vegan Mofo Day 4: Best Vegan Cookbooks for a Sick Girl

Ugh. It appears that a weekend of traveling and one drink too many has left me sick. What’s a girl to do?
I have been playing this game all day in bed. Go doggy, go! Gotta say, it’s a good way to amuse myself.

But on the food front:

I’m whipping out one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, How It All Vegan. This cookbook, Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan are my go-to cookbooks and have been with me since high school. They’re well-loved, with oil stains, pages falling out, writing all over my favorite recipes.

When I’m sick, I always get myself some kombucha and mix it with pomegranate juice and nurse the mixture all day. I figure there are enough antioxidants in there to give my body what it needs to fight the ickies. I’m also a fan of, early in the getting-sick process, mincing some garlic and putting it in a spoon, then covering that with honey and swallowing everything. It sounds weird but it is a good way to get raw garlic without killing your stomach.

So I’m whipping up a batch of Jana’s Winter Sicky Soup, which appears in How It All Vegan. I’m hoping it does the trick.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium butternut squash, peeled & cubed
4 medium carrots, sliced
1/2-1 c burdock roots, sliced
1/2 dandelion ROOT (I almost got leaves), chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium white onion, chopped
4 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
8 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
8 c vegetable stock or water
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp curry powder
pinch of salt
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
3 lemon slices
4 whole leaves of collard greens, roughly chopped
1/4 c miso
1/4 c green onions, chopped (garnish)

In large soup pot, saute the squash, carrots, and burdock and dandelion roots in oil on medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes or until ingredients are tender. Add the onions, ginger, and garlic and cook 5 minutes more. Pour in the stock and add the cayenne, curry, salt, rosemary, lemon, and collard greens and simmer on medium-low head for 40 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in miso*, and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with green onions. Makes 4-6 servings.

*Miso should never be boiled, as it will destroy all the good stuff in it.

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Trial By Fire — Roasted Tomato Soup

A few days ago I attempted to make my way through my plethora of tomatoes by making a roasted tomato soup. I’m happy to report it was a success.

Evidence (and timeline) follows:

(Sorry for the blurriness — it’s not easy to take an oven picture!) About twenty minutes after this shot, the house started to smell incredible. It only got better… but there was still much waiting to be had! Notice the great color of the onions I had from the farm stand…

Three hours later, the tomatoes were roasted and squishy:

From there, they went into the food processor with some stale bread, with some veggie broth added and came out looking like… well…

I was so excited to eat the soup that I didn’t document the post-process state. I do, however, have this to show how much was left after four people attacked the soup:

It was tasty, to say the least. The goodness of dry-farmed, organic, seasonal tomatoes cannot be overstated. I had some of what was left on pasta. My mouth is watering just thinking about it…

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