Sometimes I "Veg"

February 10, 2012
by Miriam
2 Comments

Welcome to the 2nd guest post of my series. In this series I ask other bloggers: “What would you feed a vegan coming to dinner”.  Genevieve of Vanilla & Spice was one of my earlier readers.  She writes a scrumptious blog of vegetarian and vegan creations.  And like me, she’s Canadian and a graduate student. I’ll let her give you her perspective.

Hi everyone! My name is Genevieve and I blog about healthy vegetarian and vegan food at Vanilla & Spice. I’ve been a fan of Sometimes I Veg since well before I started my own blog because I really admire Miriam’s cooking style and food philosophy. So when she offered me the chance to do a guest post on her blog, I gladly accepted the opportunity!

I also liked the idea of writing a guest post on the theme of “What would you feed a vegan coming to dinner?” Most of the meals that I cook for myself are vegan, so I don’t have any problems coming up with ideas for healthy and delicious vegan dinners. But I can definitely understand how the thought of having to cook a vegan dinner for a new guest could be a bit daunting for someone who isn’t familiar with the vegan diet.

I think it can be hard enough for some people to cook meatless meals, and then having to eliminate common ingredients like eggs, cheese, milk, butter and honey makes it even more difficult to plan a menu! What I love about vegan/vegetarian blogs is that they help show people that it’s actually easier than they might think to come up with vegan meals that anyone will enjoy!

If you are feeding a group of people with mixed diets, one idea could be to make a meal that’s easy to modify with different proteins – you can make one main dish and cook the proteins separately for people to add to their own servings if they want. One easy way to do this is to make a pasta dish – I recommend this recipe on my blog for Ginger-Peanut Noodles, which can be topped with cooked tofu or chicken.

Another way to please both vegans and omnivores is to make two different versions of a similar dish. This is something we do a lot in my family (since both my older sister and I are vegetarian), especially during BBQ season. So for example, we’ll make both meat and veggie burgers, then we can all share the same toppings and side dishes. These Spinach Tofu Patties and Beet Chickpea Sliders are some of my favourite veggie burgers that I think non-vegans would like too!

Of course, the easiest approach would be to make only one dish that everyone can eat and enjoy! If you have some picky eaters in your family or some who are resistant to try vegan food, then your best bet might be to modify a familiar meal that’s traditionally non-vegan. I think some of the most successful vegan recipes are ones where the people eating it like it so much that they don’t even realize it’s vegan!

Here’s a recipe I made recently that fits the category of meals that are traditionally non-vegetarian, adapted to be vegan. Growing up, chicken potpie was one of my family’s favourite meals. This vegan version turns traditional potpie into a stew that is just as delicious and comforting as the meal I remember, and I’m sure everyone in my family would happily eat it without missing the meat at all!

Veggie Potpie Stew

Adapted from Appetite for Reduction

• About 20 pearl onions (1 bag, 8-10 oz), unpeeled
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• ½ lb (8 oz) cremini mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 1 ½ tsp dried sage (I didn’t have any so I substituted dried rosemary)
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• Ground pepper
• ½ cup dry yellow split peas
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• ¼ cup dry white wine (optional)
• 1 lb red potatoes, diced
• ½ lb carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 heaping tbsp fresh thyme (leaves only)
• 1 cup water
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup frozen peas

First, bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add the whole pearl onions. Boil for 2 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water. Once they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins and cut the larger onions in half. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, mushrooms, dried sage or rosemary, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for about 3 more minutes, until the mushrooms have released their moisture.

Add the split peas, vegetable broth and white wine. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes, then add potatoes and carrots. Lower the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the split peas have softened and the potatoes and carrots are tender.

Meanwhile, place the water in a large measuring cup, add the flour to the water, and mix until it dissolves.

Remove lid from the pot and add the flour-water mixture, fresh thyme leaves and peas. Let cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring often, until the stew thickens. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary (mine needed more salt).

Serve with vegan biscuits.

Makes 5-6 servings.

Since potpie is traditionally served with some sort of crust, I decided to make some vegan biscuits to serve with the stew. Appetite for Reduction recommends a recipe for sweet potato drop biscuits, but I decided to make whole wheat biscuits and added some fresh herbs and garlic powder for flavour. You can eat these on their own, but I liked to add the biscuit on top of my stew to eat them together.

Whole Wheat Herb Biscuits

Adapted from All Recipes

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme (or another herb)
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ cup canola oil
• ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk

Preheat oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, thyme and garlic powder.

In a separate bowl, combine the canola oil and almond milk. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until the mixture forms a dough. Drop dough by large spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until biscuits are slightly firm and lightly browned.

Makes 8 biscuits.

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Thanks for that post, the meal looks scrumptious.

Want to participate in this guest post series?  Visit my post: What I Would Feed A Vegan for details on how to join in.  Guest Posts are run once a week on a first come first serve basis.

February 9, 2012
by Miriam
1 Comment

I don’t often do a “what I ate wednesday post”. Possibly because I don’t feel that I can take pictures of my food to make it interesting enough.  Worst of all, I forgot my cell phone at work so my snacks won’t be pictured here.  I’ll update this post later with those pictures.

I started the morning by making a smoothie for my hubby, he usually gets yogurt in his smoothie, but I didn’t have any that could be sacrificed so I made him a strawberry chia seed smoothie.

He liked it enough but he said that it wasn’t as good as his normal fare.  The little bit I did taste (his smoothie had banana in it) was much better than the green smoothie I made myself.

My smoothie had a tiny bit of raspberry, but was mostly kale, pineapple, chia seed, coconut, agave and non-dairy milk.  It was pretty good, but it was also my first green smoothie in a while and I had forgotten how green smoothies tend to have a texture.

For lunch I threw together a kitchen sink salad. As in everything but the kitchen sink.  There was heart of palm, beets, carrots, sprouts, tomatoes, cashews and onion.  It was pretty satisfying as a lunch. I also had a few snacks during the day.

People often ask me how often I only eat vegan and that’s hard to quantify for me.  Being a flexitarian, I try to reduce my consumption of animals and animal product.  But most days I will have at least 1 item that isn’t vegan.  Sometimes it’s milk in coffee.  But today it was my favorite icelandic cheese/yogurt.  These puppies are not cheap.  But I find that they are worth it. I had it with some pineapple on the side.

Before heading to the gym I made myself some oatmeal with granola and blocks of 61% cocoa chocolate with quinoa in it.  It was apparently Chocolate day yesterday.  I had to do my part.

For dinner I whipped up some kale and mushroom cousous with orange ginger tahini dressing.

Now that was a yummy treat that was worth sharing.  Pearled couscous seems to be a type of pasta.  But I didn’t mind one bit. It was actually my first time using the bag I had had sitting around forever.

It was also surprisingly quick to whip up.  The couscous cooked while I was sauteeing the veggies.

Tomorrow we have an awesome guest post by Genevieve at Vanilla and Spice.  Very exciting for me!

What did you eat today?

February 8, 2012
by Miriam
2 Comments

I have a confession to make.  When I was in college, hiking the White Mountains of New Hampshire I made a few quick trips to Canada to get a fix.  I never got in trouble for it and I didn’t even lie to the border officials.  My addiction, Poutine! 

French fries, cheese curds and gravy mixed together in one.  I can’t even imagine the calorie count.  Of course I was heading over there after a day hiking in the mountains. 

It’s a great Canadian “ethnic” food.  Perhaps our only really famous “traditional” dish.  Actually Cooper’s is named after the dish.  His registered name is French Fries and Gravy.

When Vegan Mother Hubbard posted about teese cheese (soy based), I just had to get my hands on some to make a vegan version of my favorite junk food.  Because no one in NH sells the stuff I had it shipped to my house in a cooler with ice packs.

Oh and I made it with sweet potato because it’s what I had in the house.  I don’t eat real potatoes much anymore.  Real potatoes seem to mess with my hypoglycemia.

The three things you need are:

• Fries (sweet potato, potato)
• Vegan cheese cubed (I used teese mozzerella)
• Mushroom gravy (see my recipe below)

Pretty straightforward.  Place fries on plate, sprinkle cheese on and among the fries and pour gravy on top.  I popped mine in the microwave for 30 seconds to make sure the cheese would melt.

The cheese didn’t have that amazing cheese curd texture, but it was still pretty good with the strong baby bella gravy.

I played with my new camera a little this morning.

It’s taking a little getting used to.

What is your favorite veganized/made healthier junk food?