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

The big rectangular pan holds my Tofu Pot Pie; bread and cornbread stuffing to the right; Pelka's "Wadorf-y" green salad above that; Sarah's mashed Comox Valley German Butter potatoes above that. Center right-- a trio of condiments-- orange-y homemade cranberry sauce, my homemade palm oil-free vegan "Buttah" and  vegan "ham" gravy, flanked by a platter of my roasted beets with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Above that is a platter of roasted local veggies, and beside that roasted home-grown cauliflower and red peppers.  At the top corner of the table is a butternut squash casserole; at the end of the table is my seitan "ham", and you can just see the corner of a glass bowl with lemon-almond green beans.  More description below!

My Tofu Pot Pie in the foreground (it's been a traditional holiday main dish since the 90's); my Cranberry Sauce on the right (I added orange rind, chopped orange and apple and some ginger, this year); and my roasted beets with olive oil and balsamic vinegar with parsley on the left.

  David and Tanya's delicious lemony-almond green beans.

                                                     My seitan "ham"

 David and Tanya's delicious casserole of butternut squash from their garden, baked with garlic and parsley and olive oil and topped with toasted sesame and nutritional yeast "Parmesan".

 On the left, Holly's roasted cauliflower and red peppers (both from her garden); on the right, my stuffing (a mix of DH's whole wheat bread and my cornbread, with traditional herbs, onion and celery).

              Fireweed's  gorgeous roasted local veggie platter.

 Along with the homemade cranberry sauce (described above), my homemade palm oil-free vegan "Buttah" and Vegan "Ham" Gravy.

 And for dessert, along with So Delicious Coconut Non-Dairy Vanilla Bean Frozen Dessert, my Ginger Apple Crumb Pie, made with all Denman Island apples (Mutsus from our neighbors at Apple Lane Orchard, and large Russets from friend and guest, Holly).

Phoebe and Ringo got lots of lovin' from our guests and family (Sadie and Thelonious made themselves scarce!) and they were all worn out by the evening!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I almost forgot to announce this! Go to this link for the recipe(s) , which I developed a few weeks ago for the So Delicious Dairy Free blog, using their Coconut Milk Beverage (Original) in all three (dairy-free, soy-free, and gluten-free) components of the recipe.These recipes might seem complex at first, but as you'll see, with all three components, you'll be creating a stupendously delicious dairy-free (and gluten-free!) meal— crunchy waffles, crispy sweet potatoes, and the *exceptionally silky* chik'n gravy. (And all can be enjoyed in their own right with the appropriate accompaniment.)  And, since most of the recipes can be made well ahead of time, this hearty meal will be a snap to put together when it's time to serve.

Enjoy!

A real down-home dinner- vegan meatless loaf  with creamy lowfat mashed potatoes and vegan brown gravy. (Our favorite no-fat vegan meatless loaf recipe here. Can be GF.)

Why mashed potatoes when it's almost summer, you may ask? Because it's bloody freezing here! I'm still craving cold-weather foods. But, in any case, it gives me a chance to share something I just learned from Cook's Illustrated magazine. This magazine, BTW, is not vegetarian, but you can learn alot about food science from it, as well as good tips about cookware, ingredients, etc.

I love mashed potatoes, but I'm not about to put a stick of butter (or even my new palm-oil-free homemade vegan "butter") into a 2 lb. batch of mashed potatoes. I've been making them fat-free for years now, but I thought they could use a little "face-lift", so-to-speak. Then, I happened to read an article in Cook's Illustrated. Although their goal was not to make tasty fat-free mashed potatoes, the article helped me do just that.

They discovered that using a different cooking method from boiling worked better. In addition, they advised using a potato ricer to make the potatoes fluffier. Now, I have never owned a potato ricer, and my husband had never heard of it and thought I was nuts, but, then, he's used to me chasing after kitchen gadgets that take my fancy. I had just been talking to Julie Hasson about potato ricers and she told me they make great mashed potatoes. The article clinched it-- I was off to the local kitchen shop and laid down my $20 or so (including tax) for the nifty new model.

I often use Yukon Gold potatoes for mashed because they have a warm, slightly buttery look to them, and a rich flavor. And that's what the magazine recommended, for the same reasons. They added 1/4 cup of butter to their potatoes (instead of their usual 8 tablespoons), but I didn't use any, and they were still yummy. That way, you can either use a fat-free vegan gravy and be really virtuous, or you can melt some vegan marge (Update; try my new palm-oil-free homemade vegan "butter") on top and still not be ingesting THAT much fat.

Here is what the author had to say about the cooking method:

"Gluey potatoes are a result of starch granules that swell with water and then burst during cooking, releasing a gel that turns potatoes sticky. Cooking the potatoes with their skins on protects the starch granules, reducing the chance of a gummy mess. To give peeled potatoes the same protection [the magazine's cooks were trying to avoid needing to peel freshly-cooked hot potatoes before mashing BCG], we made two alterations to our usual technique. Steaming rather than boiling the potatoes exposes the potato pieces to less water, reducing the chance of the granules swelling to the point of bursting. Some granules, however, will inevitably burst; rinsing the potatoes midway through cooking removes the resultant gel. As a bonus, we found that this method requires less butter and dairy to achieve the same richness as conventional mashed potatoes."

It sounded a bit complicated, but it really wasn't-- and the results were great. Give it a try next time you cook potatoes for mashing.


Printable Recipe

FLUFFY FAT-FREE VEGAN MASHED POTATOES A LA COOK'S ILLUSTRATED 
Serves 4

To make these even more rich-tasting, you can blend some extra-firm SILKEN tofu with your non-dairy milk to make a sort of fat-free cream. (Some people call for non-dairy creamer, but I find most too sweet for mashed potatoes.) Another suggestion-- add some roasted garlic while mashing.

2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes (4 to 6 medium), peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks, rinsed well, and drained
about 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 2/3 plain full-fat soymilk, or almond milk, warmed (2/3 cup made them a bit too soft for me, put that's a personal preference)
NOTE: You could also use hemp milk, if you like the taste-- it is quite creamy.
Freshly-ground black pepper

Place a metal colander or steamer insert in large pot or Dutch oven. Add enough water for it to barely reach bottom of colander. Turn heat to high and bring water to boil.


Add the potato chunks, cover, and reduce heat to medium-high. Cook the potatoes for 10 minutes.


Transfer the colander to the sink and rinse the potatoes under cold water until no longer hot, 1 to 2 minutes. (Or, if you use a steamer, place it in a colander in the sink and rinse as instructed, then transfer the steamer back to the pot.)

Return the colander and potatoes to the pot, cover, and continue to cook until potatoes are soft and tip of paring knife inserted into potato meets no resistance, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Pour off water from Dutch oven.

ENERGY-SAVING ALTERNATIVE:  Micro-steam the potato chunks in a covered microwave-safe casserole.  The amount for this recipe, cut as instructed above and cook at 100% power for about 12 minutes total, rinsing as instructed above after 6 minutes, and then returning to the casserole to finish cooking. You do NOT need to add water to the casserole, BTW. 



Set the potato ricer over now-empty pot. Working in batches, transfer the potatoes to hopper of ricer or food mill and process, removing any potatoes stuck to bottom. Press all the potatoes through the ricer into the pot. (Use a food mill if you don't have a ricer.)


Using a spatula, stir in the salt until well-mixed. Stir in the warm non-dairy milk until the consistency you prefer. Season to taste with more salt, if necessary, and freshly-ground pepper. Serve hot with fat-free vegan gravy.

Enjoy!

I had a hankering for biscuits and gravy this morning, but didn't have much time. (Biscuits and gravy are a Southern US dish which I did NOT grow up with, but have come to enjoy very much.) I decided to try making biscuits from my homemade vegan, partly wholegrain pancake mix, which I had blogged about a couple of weeks, ago. I tried making them with less fat and also with oil instead of a solid fat, but they were much lighter and tastier this way:

BRYANNA'S QUICK BISCUITS USING HOMEMADE BISCUIT MIX

2 cups Bryanna's Vegan All-American "Buttermilk" Pancake Mix
2 Tbs COLD vegan butter(try my homemade palm oil-free vegan Buttah)
1 Tbs lemon juice plus
10 Tbs soy or nut milk (2/3 c. liquid all together)

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Dump the mix into a bowl and cut in the cold vegan butter with two forks, or a pastry cutter until the mixture is like crumbs.

Mix together the lemon juice and milk. Pour into the mix and mix briefly with a fork.

Place the dough on a lightly-floured piece of cooking parchment and fold one side over the other, then repeat. Roll out to about 1/2" thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter. You can re-roll the scraps, but handle them gently so they don't get tough. Place on a baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Serve hot.

Servings: 8
Yield: 8 biscuits

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per biscuit): 132.3 calories; 38% calories from fat; 5.7g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 178.4mg sodium; 135.8mg potassium; 17.6g carbohydrates; 2.2g fiber; 1.5g sugar; 15.4g net carbs; 3.3g protein; 2.7 points.

Cooking Tips
FOR DROP BISCUITS:
Use about 3/4 cup lquid in total and drop spoonfuls close together in a nonstick baking pan.

For the gravy, I usually make a vegan "milk gravy" with some kind of vegan "chicken" or "sausage" in it. I had, for some reason, picked up a box of Bisto Traditional Gravy Mix last time I shopped. It's made for use with poultry and meat gravies, but the actual mix is vegan. It's a British product, but we have it here in Canada in most supermarkets. I was in a hurry, so I decided to try it with the biscuits, and it worked out very well! I have never used a gravy mix before! There are other brands with better ingredients, perhaps that would work in this  recipe, but you might have to tinker with the amount of mix and you probably won't need to use the vegan broth powder. 



BRYANNA'S QUICK VEGAN "MILK GRAVY" FOR BISCUITS

Also good on toast!  NOTE: I used Soy Curl "crumbs" in this-- the little pieces at the bottom of the bag. Just soaked them in hot vegan chicken-style broth and drained them.

2 1/2 cups soymilk or other nondairy milk
3 1/2 Tbs Bisto Traditional Gravy Mix (for poultry) (this is a vegan product-- see text above for info and alternatives)
2 tsp dark Asian sesame oil
1/2 Tbs vegan "chicken-style" broth powder (you  may not need this with the alternative mixes listed above) or broth paste

1 cup ready-to-eat chopped vegan chicken sub (such as reconstituted Soy Curls) or vegan sausage, crumbled and browned

Mix the milk, Bisto, sesame oil, broth powder together with a whisk. Pour into a small skillet or medium saucepan and whisk constantly over high heat until it thickens and boils.

Remove from heat and stir in the chicken substitute. Serve hot over split biscuits.


Servings: 5

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 98.8 calories; 29% calories from fat; 3.3g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 625.1mg sodium; 263.8mg potassium; 10.6g carbohydrates; 0.7g fiber; 4.7g sugar; 9.9g net carbs; 8.1g protein; 2.1 points.


I tried a cappuccino with Almond Breeze-- the foam is nice, but the coffee is creamier with soymilk.

CAT BLOGGING:


"Our gang", Sinéad, Ringo, and Tina waiting on the stairs like they do every morning, for us to come up and feed them!

Enjoy!