Peas and Pasta Soup

This recipe (a spin on an Italian soup with peas and pancetta) is fairly simple in that it does not have a lot of ingredients, and so its success relies on making sure those ingredients are top quality.  Making your own veggie stock is ideal, and making your own pasta is essential unless you are lucky enough to live in a place that sells eggless fresh pasta.  The key to the pasta is making a firm dough and giving the noodles some time to dry before they go into the broth.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 cup finely chopped firm or extra firm tofu
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ketchup
- 1/4 tsp liquid smoke

- 2 tbsp margarine
- 1 onion, small dice
- 3 cups peas, frozen or fresh
- 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 8 cups vegetable stock
- salt and pepper to taste

- 1 recipe fresh pasta, rolled out to #4, cut into wide strips

METHOD
1. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over med-hi heat.  Add tofu and fry, stirring regularly, until golden brown on all sides.  Add salt, ketchup, and liquid smoke and mix well.  Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Heat margarine in a stock pot over medium heat.  Sauté onion for 5-7 mins, until softened.
3. Add peas, parsley, and stock.  Bring to boil over high heat.  Add pasta and tofu and cook until paste is tender.  Season to taste and serve.

Cream of Tomato Soup

This soup is thick and rich and creamy and perfect for a soup and sandwich lunch on a cold winter's day.  It does take a little time to make, but the flavour and the texture that comes from reducing all the ingredients down is well worth the wait.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups chopped cherry tomatoes (or plum tomatoes)
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 stems of fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup diced carrot
- 1/4 cup red lentils
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 can light coconut milk
- salt and pepper to taste

METHOD
1. Make a tomato paste: Place chopped cherry tomatoes in a small saucepan.  Bring to bubbling over medium heat and cook, uncovered, for 10-12 mins, until thickened and tomatoes have broken down.  Mash with a spoon as they cook.
2. Use a spoon to push the tomato mixture through a fine sieve until just the skins and seeds are left behind.  It will yield about 3/4 cup.
3. While tomatoes are cooking, sauté onions with a large pinch of salt over medium heat in a large pot for 5-7 mins, until softened.  Add garlic, thyme, carrot, and lentils and sauté for 2 mins more.
4. Add stock, canned tomatoes (juice and all), and the cherry tomato paste.  Bring to bubbling over high heat, then reduce heat to medium and cook uncovered for about 40 mins, or until liquid has reduced by a third and veggies are barely covered.  REMOVE THYME STEMS.
5. Blend with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender, until very smooth.  Return to heat and add coconut milk.  Mix well.  Heat through, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve.

Spiced Sweet Potato Soup

A new year, the Gregorian calendar tells us.  What will 2014 bring?  For me, it brings a return to blogging.  Inspired by my time at the Atlanta Veg Fest, I am recipe developing and testing once again and posting the results here.  I am still pretty busy in my non-blogging life, but I realized that I really needed the creative outlet that is this blog.  Plus, I met so many great people in Georgia who love what I do, even though I had not been doing it for a while.  So thanks to everyone: the people who email me about the recipes they like, the almost 27,000 likes on Facebook, the amazing people I have met in person during my travels, etc., etc.  Here's to the vegan family in 2014!

This Christmas Santa brought me a Breville FastSlow Cooker--a slow cooker and a pressure cooker all in one.  My mom never was into the whole crock pot thing, so it's not something I am familiar with.  If you are also unfamiliar with the ways of the slow cooker, this recipe will show everything you need to know.  The beauty of slow cooking this soup (besides dinner being ready when you come home from work) is that is makes the chunks of sweet potato tender and delicate without being mushy and breaking apart in the broth.  Delightful.  This soup is reminiscent of Indian dal, and so its warm spices and hearty lentil goodness are perfect for a cold polar vortex kind of day.

INGREDIENTS:
- 2 tbsp oil
- 4 cups of sliced onions (halve and slice onions, then measure)
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, de-seeded and minced (optional, or more if you want more heat)
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 whole cloves
- 6 cups of peeled sweet potato chunks (large, but still bite-sized)
- 1.5 cups chopped tomato (canned or fresh)
- 1 cup red lentils
- 6 cups vegetable stock (or water)
- 1 tsp salt (or as needed, to taste)
- chopped cilantro for garnish (optional)

METHOD
This method is for the Breville FastSlow Cooker.  You may have to adjust for your own appliance.
1. Set the slow cooker to the saute setting.  Sauté onions for 8-10 mins, until deep golden brown.  Add garlic and jalapeno (if using) and sauté for 1 min.
2. Add spices and sauté for 1 min.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  Adjust salt as needed (it depends on how salty your broth is).  Put the lid of the slow cooker on and cook for 8 hours.  Adjust seasoning as needed.  Top with chopped cilantro if you like it.  Serve.

Holiday Nog

OK, I think I have all of my holiday beverages sorted out now.  For the past few years I have made Isa's Matrioshka EggNog, but the problem has always been getting the perfect avocado (as this image suggests).  Considering how far avocados have to travel to get all the way up here, it's no surprise.  If you have a party to host and all the avocados at the store are as hard as rocks then it's no nog for you.  So this year I swapped out the avocado with cashews, blended like crazy, and presto: holiday nog!  For better or worse it is very much like the 99 cent cartons of eggnog we used to quaff down when I was a kid (i.e. sweet milk with nutmeg).  Works for me.

.  For the past few years I have used Isa's

INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup whole, raw cashews soaked in cold water overnight
- 3 cups plain almond milk, divided
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- rum to taste

METHOD
1. Place the soaked cashews and 2 cups of the almond milk in a blender.  Blend until very smooth.  If you are like me and have a pretty crappy blender, you can pass the mixture through some fine cheesecloth at this point to remove any graininess.  Or leave it as is if you don't mind a little texture.
2. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.  Chill and reblend right before serving.

Vegan Irish Cream

Another quick post because I have not posted enough calories on this blog for the holiday season.  Har har.  When Vegansaurus posted this recipe for vegan Irish Cream it caught my eye because Bailey's was one of my all-time faves back in the day.  I'm not sure why I have not explored Irish cream before because there are a bunch of recipes for it out there on the interwebs that are easily veganized.  I made the recipe linked to above, but I remember Bailey's being much sweeter.  Granted, it's been a good 8 years since I have had the original version, but the combination below satisfies my food memory. The above pic is a 50/50 mix of the Irish Cream and almond milk with ice--delicious!  Here is what I did, just in case you like specific measurements.   

INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup extra strong coffee
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup each maple syrup, white sugar, brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups Irish whiskey
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 cup plain almond milk (optional, see note)

METHOD
1. Brew coffee and place into a pitcher.  Blend in cocoa powder, then sugars and maple syrup until dissolved.
2. Add extract, whiskey, and coconut milk and blend with an immersion blender until smooth.  Thin with almond milk if desired.
3. Refrigerate in a glass jar with a lid and serve cold.  Shake jar to re-blend before serving.

Note: I made this with full-fat coconut milk.  It's a bit thick and rich, so I thinned it with almond milk.  I think this would work just as well with low fat coconut milk, but you might not want to thin it.  Do what works for you.