Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

This is the time of year that I switch from making soup several times a week to making hearty full-meal salads with whole grains, potatoes, pasta and noodles, or sweet potatoes, with beans or tofu or other vegan protein and lots of vegetables (and sometimes fruit-- fresh or dried-- and nuts).  This ensures that we have something ready-made, nutritious and tasty in the refrigerator at all times for quick meals or snacks.

These recipes are two that we have enjoyed recently-- one an old favorite, and one new, made up to utilize what I had in the freezer and fridge.

NOTE: About Szechuan chili garlic paste in the first recipe-- the best kind contains fermented soybeans, which give added flavor and umami to this condiment. My favorites are Six Fortune Mandarin Jah-Jan Sauce (ingredients: vegetable oil,  bean curd, chili sauce, soybean paste, bamboo shoot and mushroom) or Six Fortune Soybean Paste with Chili Paste (ingredients: Chili, soybean paste,salt, sugar, sesame oil), but there are other brands with similar ingredients.



*****************************************************************


 Printable Copy

BRYANNA'S ASIAN-FUSION VEGETABLE-NOODLE SALAD  
Serves 8

This is a very easy, versatile and delicious salad, which I adapted from a recipe in Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (Broadway Books, NY, 1997) about 15 years ago.  I often make it for potlucks or  family gatherings, and invariably have several requests for the recipe.  I've adapted it even more over the years to use various types of noodles, vegetables and vegan protein.

The noodles:
1 lb. gan mian or ji mian (plain, thin flour and water noodles) or mian xian (extra-thin Amoy-style flour and water noodles), or egg-free chow mein noodles
OR, if you can't find Chinese noodles, spaghettini, vermicelli or cappellini (thin Italian pasta)
1-2 bunches green onions, chopped
1/4 c. toasted sesame seeds (and/or 1/2 cup roasted peanuts)
The vegetables:
1 lb. of lightly cooked vegetables-- any of the following or a mixture:
whole green beans or asparagus, cut into 2" lengths
broccoli flowerettes, thinly sliced
broccolini, broccolette or gai lan, thinly sliced
snap peas (cut in half if they are large)
Protein:
slivers or cubes of any vegan protein you like, such as:
cubes or strips of crispy "B of T" (my "Breast of Tofu") or marinated Inari Sushi Pockets, cut into thin strips
cubes or strips of vegan "ham" or any type of seitan
reconstituted Soy Curls
any sort of marinated, grilled and/or fried tofu or tempeh (see 2nd salad recipe below for a quick grilled tofu that is also good in this salad)
Dressing:
7 T. soy sauce (can be low-salt)
1/4 c. dark sesame oil
3 1/2 T. brown sugar
3 T. balsamic vinegar (or Chinese black vinegar)
3 T. water
1 T. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. salt (this sounds like alot, but it's a BIG salad)
1 tsp. Szechuan chili garlic paste (preferably the type with fermented soybeans in it-- see text above  recipe for more information)
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water until tender.  Run cold water over them in a colander.  Drain well. Mix the Dressing ingredients together well and pour over the noodles.  Toss well.  Add the green onions, sesame seeds (and/or peanuts), vegetables, Protein of choice and optional red pepper slices, if using.  Toss well.  Store in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature before serving.

I can't believe this week has gone by so fast! Sheesh! And here it is Thursday again! We did have a fun few days with DH's stepdaughter from Montreal and her two lovely 12-year-old twin daughters. We had a picnic the beach with some friends and 2 of my granddaughters, the girls having a great time swimming, canoeing, going out on my stepson's motor boat, and getting to know each other. We went to Salt Spring Island for a night, with the "gang" (as DH calls them) to visit more family-- driving in style in a friend's immaculate white 1972 Chevy Caprice. We would have been squished in our little car, with no air conditioning on the hottest weekend of the year, so our friend offered his ride. Very fun, and a big surprise for the Salt Spring relatives when we drove up!

But, along with company, cooking, the ordinary daily running of a house and job, family, and, of course, the Book-- hours of editing-- it's been mostly work and very little serious cooking, I'm afraid!

I did make an interesting recipe yesterday-- Lucuma ice cream (vegan, of course!). Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it isn't eaten as a fruit, per se. Mostly it is used for a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver last, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!

Yesterday I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel®, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say "sweetened" and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!

I tried diluting it with more soymilk-- still overpoweringly sweet! (I now have about 2 quarts of very sweet milky liquid in the fridge that I have to think of some ways to use!  Any ideas?) So, I started over and used no sweetener at all. It still tasted too sweet to me, but I know that when food is frozen, the sweetness is not as apparent, so there was hope. I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best, as I was hoping to take it to a family dinner with my sister and my mother on Friday-- they will remember this treat, too!

Last night I looked for unsweetened lucuma puree in Canada online-- no luck. But I did find lucuma powder. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments!

BTW, lucuma is being called a "superfood", but I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's true that it has lots of fiber and beta carotene, but, then, so do carrots! It is high in natural carbohydrates, so it was used by the Incas to provide energy, and evidently the trees are very prolific-- no wonder it was a popular food. Tasting sweet and butterscotch-y didn't hurt! I just feel that we should not go hog wild over exotic foods that are supposed to provide miraculous nutrients, when, in fact, we have foods at home that are just as good, more available, and much cheaper! For me, his is an exotic treat to relive some childhood memories.

Anyway, that said, we tried a bit of the ice cream when I was photographing it and re-packing it, and it is delicious! Here is the recipe I used with the sweetened puree, but I plan to try it again with the lucuma powder and will report back!


Printable Recipe

Update Aug. 2012: See a recipe for Vegan Lucuma Ice Cream using lucuma powder here. And stay tuned for Take 3!

BRYANNA'S VEGAN LUCUMA ICE CREAM (PERUVIAN), TAKE 1 (WITH SWEETENED LUCUMA PUREE)
Servings: 10
Yield: 5 cups

1 1/2 cups soy creamer (plain)
1 1/2 cups nondairy milk
1 1/2 cups lucuma puree (with sugar)
3/4 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
(if allergic to nuts, use 1/2 cup more nondairy milk, or soy creamer, and 2 tablespoons oil)
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons Instant Clearjel® (see info below recipe)OR 3/8 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gum

Place the creamer, milk, and lucuma puree into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).

Mix all of the remaining ingredients, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.

Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into a quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours (preferably 24 hours) before serving.


Keep cool!

Denman Island corn and our own tomatoes and basil for lunch...




BC blueberry pancakes (made with my vegan pancake mix)


Zucchini Bisque-- delicious and uses up 2 1/2 lbs. of zucchini in one recipe!

MAKING APPLESAUCE THE EASY WAY:
I use a food mill or mouli. There are a variety of them on the market-- mine is this one. Here's an all-stainless-steel one.

For smooth applesauce, you just wash the apples and cut them into quarters-- no peeling (unless there are bad spots), not coring, not stemming, even! Toss them in a big pot with a little water and cook until soft.

Then you place the food mill (I use the plate with the larger holes) over a large pot or bowl and feed the cooked apples through, cranking the handle (it's not hard). When you're done, you have the seeds, stems (if any) and skins left in the mill and a big pot of smooth applesauce! Sweeten if desired and can or freeze. (I freeze mine in little containers to use primarily in low-fat baking.  (In recipes that call for oil, you can use use approximately 3 parts smooth unsweetened applesauce to 1 part oil, but be sure to use pastry or cake flour, or low-gluten or GF flours, for best results. This doesn't work as well in recipes calling for solid fats, but you can experiment. You can also experiment with using no oil, but sometimes the baked goods come out a little too chewy that way!)






What's left behind...


The results!

Here's one of the recipes I mentioned in my blog the post before last:



Printable Recipe

SUMMER BULGUR AND GREEN BEAN SALAD (with my changes--BCG)
by Tyler Florence for Food & Wine magazine
This was a lovely salad and simple to make. I made some changes according to what I had in the house.

2 cups boiling water
2 cups medium (#2) bulgur (11 ounces)
1 pound thin green beans
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved (I just used slightly larger red tomatoes, cut in half-- BCG)
1/2 cup roasted salted almonds, coarsely crushed (I used toasted unsalted slivered almonds--BCG)
1/4 cup coarsely shredded mint leaves (I had no mint, so used fresh basil instead-- BCG)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large, heatproof bowl, pour the boiling water over the bulgur. Cover the bowl and let stand until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and boil over high heat until just tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold running water, then pat dry. Cut the green beans crosswise.

In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice and olive oil. Fluff the bulgur with 2 forks. Add the green beans, tomatoes, almonds, mint (or basil) and lemon dressing. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Transfer the bulgur salad to a large serving bowl and serve lightly chilled or at room temperature.

The salad can be refrigerated overnight. Add the tomatoes, almonds and mint (or basil) just before serving.
Servings: 8

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 237.8 calories; 37% calories from fat; 10.2g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 12.1mg sodium; 371.0mg potassium; 33.9g carbohydrates; 9.4g fiber; 2.1g sugar; 24.5g net carbs; 6.8g protein; 4.8 points.

Hope you're having a good summer!