Hello again my cauliflower friends.

It's been a while. I know. Apologies, final exams and Christmas. While the holiday season has come and gone along with it's delicious food, my camera was fairly absent during all of my eating. I while mention however the Chocolate truffle dome i had at the Fairmont Palliser for Christmas dessert. Phenomenal. For my first posts of the new year, ima throw back to '09 and finish up with those meals before I delve in to 2010. spoiler: 2010 is looking deliciously RAW. BUT FIRST -



Cauliflower Latkes

Need - Cauliflower, Chickpeas, Leeks, oil, water, flour, avocado(optional), garlic, whitewine(optional), spices

Not the most traditional latkes but delicious none the less.


1. Chop a quarter head of cauliflower into 4ths. add to food processor with 1/2 can chickpeas, half a leek. and spices such as cumin, garlic, and curry powder to taste. Processes. add 2-4 tbs of flour of choice (rice for me) and add oil, water or soy/rice milk till mixture is sticky but not liquidy.
2. Form mixture into little latke shapes and place in a hot pan with oil. fry till golden on both sides.
3. For avocado puree blend 1 avocado, salt and pepper to taste, 1 clove of garlic and 2-3 tbs of white wine.



Serve!

As always siracha sauce is a good bet for almost any dish. Drizzle as needed.

Italy a go go - Fava Bean Puree

I have been cooking stir fries with rice noodles for 3 years. I have used soysauce in almost every meal I have made since I can remember. We ran out of soy sauce the other day and I immediately went to the library and got and Italian cook book. Biba's Italy is my new latest and greatest. Despite the fact that I still shop at the Asian supermarket in china town for all my fresh and dirt cheap veggies, I am leaving the Asain fusion stirfry on the back burner. I even crossed the street to Kensington market the other day and bought myself some fava beans for one of Biba's first recipes. I have never used them before, nor bought any bitter greens (bok choy, 29 cents, that's all there is) but that's what it's all about - new ingredients and getting out of the stirfry rut. In the end, this is a great little appetizer and the fava bean puree is my new fav substitute for mashed potatoes or anything white and pureed.


Fava Bean puree with Bitter Greens inspired by Biba Caggiano.

Due to intolerance's I am substituting cauliflower for potatoes and rice patties for bread. Biba says as follows:

1. Soak the beans over night, peel them and cook in boiling water for one to two minutes.
2. Place beans and cauliflower in a pot just covering them with water. boil till soft and season with salt.
3. Blend beans and cauliflower together with a half a tbs of oil and season to taste. NOTE: my roommates said some extra flavor could be added - oregano? basil? whatever you like
4. Boil bitter greens (baby mustard leaves in this case) until tender the toss lightly with olive oil and salt

Biba says to serve the above with lightly toasted bread rubbed in garlic but - no bread in this kitchen. Substitute -

Brown rice pattie.

Using well down brown rice, crush using the back of a spoon and flatten in to a pattie. Lightly fry with garlic and oil cause seriously, who needs bread any way?

Wants and Needs - Lentils Two Ways

Want: To use my awesome new food processor all the time.
Need: To make something delicious out of all the ingredients in my house.

The ingredients in my house last week were as follows - lentils, onion, tofu. Plus the 20 kg bag of brown rice but it's always there. In it's enormity.

To combine my wants with my needs I decided to blend some lentils. Not once, but twice because I like to eat just that much. Even though I ate these meals on separate days two meals in one post gives me that good old "I'm a huge vegan fatty" vibe and I like it.

First off was the easiest lentil meal anyone could ever make because as long as you don't undercook the lentils, it will be delicious - lentil soup. My favorite lentil soup is Wolfgang Pucks 4 dollars a can organic lentil soup. There is noway I could reproduce that can of overpriced deliciousness at the moment because as stated above, I only have 3 ingredients in my fridge. My entire fridge contents probably cost me 3 dollars and I've been living off it for half a week. I may not be Wolfgang Puck but I am the inventor of Broke Cooking, the newest craze in life below the poverty line aka. being a university student.

Broke Cooking Presents: Blended Lentils and Onions OR Lentil Soup!


Need - Dry lentils, onions, spice cabinet, food processor

1. Cook lentils until tender - approx. 15-20 mins.
2. While lentils are boiling away, saute a quarter to half an onion in oil with a touch of salt.
3. Add onion and any available herbs from your spice cabinet to the lentils about 7 mins before the lentils are done. PLEASE NOTE: the herbs I choose are usually basil, oregano, thyme and of course, S'n'P. I say any avaible because on the Broke Cooking budget you never now how full or empty your spice kit may be. Sage would also be nice and rosemary if your feeling woodsy.
4. Once lentils are done and the delicious aroma of lentils, onions and random herbs is wafting through your kitchen, put half the lentils in the food processor with any remaining water from cooking them. Vegetable stock would make this soup even better but is no where to be had in my house at the moment. Add water/stock till your preferred soup consistency is met. Add to the other half of whole lentils and voila, lentil soup.

I happen to have sprouted my own mung beans the other day (2 dollars for a package of these organic beauties) and threw them on top as a garnish. Noms noms noms.

The second dish is my last foray in to anything remotely Asian inspired for a while (minus when I'm cooking 5 days a week at a Japanese restaurant). My upcoming post will explain why I have made this choice and the next culinary direction I will be traveling in. That said -

Broke Cooking Presents - Asian Lentils and Tofu!


This may sound very unappealing but trust me, it's another delicious 25 cent meal. The financial break down: Lentils - 2.35 for 100g Tofu - .99 cents for a block Miso paste - 2 dollars for a package. If we did the math - portioned bulk used per meal, times by per portion pricing etc this meal is probably less then 25 cents. Broke Cooking Strikes again!

The tofu used in this meal is the miso tofu I did the other day from Vegan Yum Yum. Get that started before the lentils.

Asian lentils - Hong Kongs next big thing.

1. Cook lentils till tender (15-20 mins)
2. Place lentils in food processor. Here comes the Asian influence. Add 1 tbs each of lemon juice and soy sauce. Half a tbs of sesame oil and the same or to taste of ginger. S'n'P those lentils and blend. You know have Asian lentil puree.

The lentils should still be fairly warm from just being cooked but reheat them if necessary. Place your miso tofu on top of the lentils and you have an Asian fusion protein palooza.

In the words of Win Butler - Sesame dressing

So the other day I woke up in the middle of an Arcade Fire song. Not Neon Bible, not The Well and the Lighthouse, it was Power Out. The power in my house was out. No lights, no computer, but most importantly, no stove. It's not like I was going to cook myself a breakfast feast, you know - pancakes and tofu scramble and berry sauce, it was just going to be some noodles and garlic but no, not even my 1 dollar, 3 min meal could happen. So what, a breakfast.... salad? All I have is cabbage. Guess it's a breakfast coleslaw. With.... salad dressing I don't have?

What I do have - 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs balsamic, 1 tbs sesame oil, and a pinch of SnP. It was a perfect and quick sesame dressing. You could almost call it an Easy Asain Coleslaw. But really it's just cabbage for breakfast.

Stir Crazy - Miso Tofu

Upon hearing about my limited diet, most people ask "Well what do you eat then?". I jokingly reply "rice and bok choy". It would be funny if it wasn't so true. The easiest and most cooked meal in my kitchen is a stirfry. I also work at a Japanese noodle house and cook stirfrys for 5 hours every evening for people who don't get the privilege to eat stirfrys everyday. All day. Nothing but. Rice noodles and bok choy. As repetitive as it gets, there is nothing easier to make and I won't lie, I'm tired and lazy most of the time. But I am a big girl. I work hard and deserve to give myself a little extra sometimes. So I surfed over to Vegan Yum Yum to help beef up my stirfry.

My basic stirfry: Rice noodles, red onions, bok choy (on sale for 29 cents a pound this week!), and tomatoes. Throw some garlic in a hot pan with oil, add the veggies, some soy sauce and lemon juice and balsamic and throw the pre-cooked rice noodles in. Why balsamic? Because it's always in my cupboard and it gives the dish a nice acrid taste with the lemon.

Now the Yum Yum - Smokey Miso Tufo. Minus the smokey.

2 Tbs Red Miso
2 Tbs Lemon Juice
2 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Tamari/Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Nutritional Yeast

I have a bad habit of not measuring my ingredients and just going by taste so I can't comment exactly on the above recipe, but my approximate use of all ingredients needed a touch less nutritional yeast and little bit of water for a more subtle taste. Baked the tofu and placed it on top of my stir fry. Making the tofu the center piece made me eat in a more conscientious fashion, cutting tofu, adding some noodles to the fork, rather than just shoving it all in my face. Ima defiantly do this again.

Montreal Mayo Madness

Two weeks ago I went to Montreal for the weekend to see my girl friends. Amidst the climbing gyms, photo exhibits and Pop Montreal concerts, I REALLY wanted some vegan cheesecake. My carnivorous friends were not so much in the know about where i could get my hearts desire, but thanks to google i knew there ws a few good places on St. Laurent. As our evening walk was nearing it's end, I got a little exasperated and flung my head tot he left dramatically. It's a good thing I'm so melodramatic because right there, on my left, amidst my anguish and cravings, was Aux Vivres, a great vegan resto with vegan cheesecake on the menu. Unfortunately the cheesecake wasn't in. I was satisfied however with a perfect vegan truffle and the best tofu burger I have ever had. The "burger" was on a bed of lettuce (keepin it g-free) with grilled tofu, caramelized onions, pickles, tomatoes and THE BEST chipolte mayo I have ever had. If they sold that mayo in liter pails, I would buy it like nobodies business. They don't however mass produce Montreal vegan mayo for fat torontonians like me, so I must make my own.

Garlic and herb mayo -

1 pack silken tofu
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp wine vinegar
1 tsp chopped garlic (1-2 cloves)
oregano, salt and pepper to taste

Blend that shit and put on anything and everything.

Happy Turkey Day!

One of the very first things my parents said to me when I became a vegetarian 7 years ago was “What about the turkey?” As delicious as it smells and as eventful as the carving of a 23 pound bird may be, I am thankful every thanksgiving and christmas that I’m able to help one small turkey have a happy holiday by not eating it. As glad as I am not eating one of North American’s most popular birds, the quality of my festive family meals have gone down since I caught the veggie train. Though I used to do the potatoes sans gravy and stuffing that wasn’t stuffed, my plate never looked as good as my fellow loved ones. This year was the turning point. Working 5 days a week as a dinner service “chef on duty” and getting paid to make peoples plates look good, I figured I could take 20 minutes out of big dinner prep and family chit chat to make myself something good to eat.


Dinner 1 - Sunday with the Fam and cousins

The Main Meal- two large pieces of extra firm tofu, lightly marinated in soy sauce and freshly chopped “poultry herbs” (sage, rosemary and thyme). Baked in the oven on top of rice,cranberries, apple and walnut un-stuffed stuffing. The rice stuffing was pre made by my aunt and was amazing. She used red rice, cooked it till is was well done the baked it with the other ingredients till it was just the right amount of mushy.

The Greens - broccoli and cheese sauce is the favorite at almost every family gathering I’ve ever been to. Unfortunately for me, broccoli means extreme flatulence and as much as my family loves me, I try to increase the amount of time they spend with me by decreases the amounts of gas I emit. Why broccoli in particular? I don’t know. But that’s the answer to most of my stomaches inner workings - I don’t know. Anyways, I picked up 2 dozen brussel sprouts for my own pleasure and surprisingly there was zero left overs. As a child I hated brussel sprouts but it seems that my 3 cousins aged 5 - 10 have much more cultured tastes then me when I was young. The brussel sprouts were boiled, then halved, lightly sauteed with garlic, salt and pepper and devoured.

Should our back woods family cabin had an extra stove or two, there would have been room for me to whip up some vegan cheese sauce but forests for stovetop burners is trade off I’d make any day. I saved my sauce recipe for leftovers the next day. It’s pretty standard, but simplified a little bit for cabin ease- a 1/2 cup of unsweetend soy milk, approx. 1 tsp garlic, 3-4 tbs nutritional yeast, 1 tsp onion powder, touch of flour/cornstarch for thickening and S’n’P to taste.

Dinner 2 - Monday with the BF and the best family a boy friend could have.

I happen to be really good friends with my boyfriends older sister and immediate family which makes dinners with them fun, delicious, and far less stressful to my delicate intestines. In addition, the younger sister is vegetarian which means I don’t have to tenderize tofu all alone!


The Gift of Salad - I brought over my favorite green as my meal contribution - arugula. Arugula with anything is good in my opinion but mixed with baby spinach, diced pears, pine nuts and a cilantro lime dressing from WineLand dressings was a particularly good combination.


The Centerpiece - a full skillet of rice, onions and bok choy was ready for soy sauce as I walked in the door. I had some extra tofu and mushrooms that I had previously sauteed with the above mentioned poultry herbs and they were stirred right in there long with some extra oil and soy-sauce for pleasingly large portion of easy vegan delights.


The Piece de Resistance - In my opinion the most essential part of any turkey centric feast, besides the cranberries, is the gravy. Why I have gone 7 years without making my own veggie gravy is unbeknownst to me, especially now that I can do it in 5 mins. Inspired by the best veggie gravy I have ever had (miso gravy w/ yam fries from Fresh), I quickly googled (capitalized? non capitalized?) a recipe and adjusted to my kitchen contents to form an easy and delicious gravy. I shared with the veggie sister to many a thumbs up. Thumbs get raised as follows (recipe for 2) - 1 cup water, 1 large tbs miso paste, 1tsp tamari (or preferred soy sauce), 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp garlic, and S’n’P to taste. Heat everything up in a small sauce pan, and add extra ingredients to taste. While constantly whisking, slowly add flour or thickening agent of choice. Once thickened, pour through a wire mesh colander or similar to remove lumps. Pour finished gravy over absolutely everything.