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Vegan, Gluten-free… flourless chocolate cake?

Yes, it can be done!

Making flourless chocolate cake gluten-free is pretty easy, since naturally it’s already gluten-free. But veganizing it takes a bit more work. The usual recipe takes chocolate, eggs, sugar and butter and turns it into a dense, moist, very chocolatey cake. And the eggs in the recipe are what gives it its structure, so you can’t just go and replace them with the usual flax seed, mashed bananas, or ‘vegan egg replacer mix’ that most vegans use in place of eggs.

So, how does this work, then?

Pumpkin! And also, umm, a little flour. But it’s buckwheat flour, and as the person who wrote this recipe mentions, buckwheat isn’t really flour, it’s a groat! So it doesn’t count, right?

The recipe is extremely easy to make: just put everything in a blender and blend blend blend! Then pour into a greased Springform pan and bake for about an hour at 350C.

This recipe is from Gluten-Free Goddess, and I didn’t modify it at all, so I’ll simply link to her blog. I will mention that you don’t need a Vitamix for this recipe, any blender will do, as long as it is decently high powered and has about a 2L capacity (or more).

I served mine with a simple caramel sauce: Take 2 tablespoons of soy milk and combine them with 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Set aside. Then take 1/4 cup of vegan butter (like Earth Balance) and melt in a small pot. Stir in 1 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup soy milk and let come to a boil. Let it boil for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Then, take the pan off the heat and stir in the arrowroot mixture – it should thicken pretty quickly. Serve over your cake or over ice cream or anything else that could use a little caramel.

This is my final post on the February Vegan Challenge. I have to say, it wasn’t bad at all having zero animal products for the month of February. It was a bit tricky at times, as eating out when you’re vegan can be a challenge, but cooking at home was completely fine. I even finally got to try soy-based ’sour cream’ and I liked it! Like most vegan ‘replacement foods’ (butter, sour cream, etc) it has to be a sometimes food because of the high amounts of palm oil, but it was a tasty addition to some vegan tacos we had a few weeks ago.

If you’ve ever thought of going vegan for a while, I encourage you to do so!

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Vegan Pad Thai

Tonight while finishing up for the day at work I was pondering what to have for dinner. At first I thought I’d just throw together a simple stirfry, since I already had some ingredients for one in our refrigerator. But then I got a sudden craving for pad thai, so printed off my favourite vegan recipe, grabbed the ingredients, and away I went!

I can’t take credit for this recipe – that goes to Isa Chandra Moskowitz and her book, Vegan with a Vengeance. Which I’ve posted recipes from before, so you know this book gets a lot of use in our house.  I’ve modified the recipe ever-so-slightly to my own tastes. And, let’s be honest here – this isn’t an authentic pad thai. But it is vegan and it is delicious!

Awesome Vegan Pad Thai
Serves 4

1 pound rice noodles

For the sauce:
6 tablespoons tamari (I used wheat free)
6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons tomato puree (not gonna lie here – I used ketchup, as I was out of tomato puree. Thought I had some, oops!)
2 tablespoons chilli sauce or hot sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons tamarind concentrate or lime juice (I used lime juice as tamarind is really hard to find!)

For the pad thai:
6 tablespoons peanut oil
1 pound tofu, drained, pressed, cut into small triangles (instructions are below)
1 medium red onion, cut in half, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon finely minced lemongrass
1 cup bean sprouts
2 green onions, sliced into 1 inch lengths
2 small dried red chillies, crumbled (optional – if you like extra heat)
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts
4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Lime wedges for serving

Pressing tofu: take your block of tofu and remove it from any packaging it is in. Place it on a plate, wrapped in some clean paper towel or a clean dish cloth you don’t mind getting dirty. On top of that, place a heavy object, like a big hardcover book or heavy cast iron frying pan. Leave to press for 30 minutes, then flip it over and repeat the process. Pressing the tofu gets out a lot of the liquid and makes it a more chewy texture.

Cutting tofu: once pressed, cut the tofu into small triangles. First, cut the tofu along the short side into 1/2 inch pieces. Then, cut the tofu in the middle along its long side (or length).  You now have a bunch of small rectangles. Cut each one in half to create triangles. Set aside while you get the noodles going.

Prepare the rice noodles according to the directions on the packet. Once they are almost cooked, you can start on the rest of the recipe – just make sure to time them so you don’t overcook them.

Mix together the ingredients for the sauce, stirring well to make sure it’s combined. Set aside.

Preheat a large nonstick frying pan or wok over moderate high heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of peanut oil into the pan, giving it a few minutes to heat up. Add in the tofu and stir fry for 4-5 minutes until the tofu is crisp on the outside. Remove from pan and set aside.

Pour 2 tablespoons more of peanut oil into the pan. Add half the red onion and cook for 30 seconds. Add half the garlic and half the lemongrass and cook for another 30 seconds. Add half the sauce and when it starts to bubble add half the noodles. Cook for two minutes stirring constantly, then add half each of the tofu, bean sprouts, spring onions, chillies (if using), and peanuts. Stir for 30 more seconds. Transfer to two serving plates and garnish with coriander and lime wedges.

Repeat with remaining ingredients for the other two servings.

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Sometimes, you just need junk food

One of the stereotypes vegans get labeled with is that everything they eat is healthy. While I will say that many people I know who follow a vegan diet do eat a very healthy, balanced diet, there IS a lot of junk food out there. I mean, come on, look at Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. And of course they are tons of vegan snacks out there – chips, popcorn, candies, chocolate, and so on. Yes, you have to be careful that the ingredients are actually vegan, but still, my point remains: being vegan does not mean healthy eating all the time.

Which brings me to last weekend. See, Rich had a craving for poutine. Prior to discovering my milk allergy, this would have been a really easy thing for us to make at home. But then I had to eliminate cow’s milk. Well, no problem, there’s some pretty decent goat’s milk curd out there! But… vegan poutine? Would that really work?

I searched the internet for recipe ideas and realized that everyone came to the exact same conclusion I did: Take french fries. Take your favourite vegan cheese substitute. Take vegan gravy. Combine and eat. Just like this video suggests.

Ok, so my version was less, umm, fancy. I bought store bought fries and put some Follow your Heart mozzarella on top in the last few minutes of baking, then made my own vegan gravy and combined it all to eat.

Now, there’s no pretty way to photograph poutine, but here’s proof we did it, in all its gravy smothered glory.

It was quite tasty! Admittedly, it was missing the squeakiness of fresh cheese curds, but it tasted good and certainly had that Friday-night-junk-food feel to it. So I’ll call the experiment a success.

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Daring Cooks February: Mmm, Mezze!

So, I’ve hung up my Daring Bakers apron. It became too time consuming to be converting elaborate recipes containing a lot of eggs and butter into vegan, gluten-free versions. Maybe some day I’ll go back, but for now, I simply don’t have the energy to do it. However, I know I can convert cooking recipes; I do it every day! And so I’ve put on an apron for the Daring Cooks.

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

So mezze. I love small plates and I love mezze, even if the trend is getting a bit old at restaurants here in Toronto. But at home, I think it’s a great idea for a party. Unfortunately, we had no event to have a party for, so instead I just made this month’s challenge just because I could.

We were required to make pita bread from scratch, and hummus from the recipe Michele found. Other than that, we could make whatever else we wanted for our mezze table. I opted to go the slightly easy route: a gluten-free pita, hummus, and falafel (also gluten-free). Everything was already vegan, so I didn’t have to worry about that end of things.

The pita was the real challenge for me. The original recipe was of course filled with gluten, so I had to get creative and figure out how to make a good flatbread that would go well with hummus. I searched around for a recipe that caught my eye and found this one, which was apparently adapted from the book The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman. After playing with the ingredients a bit to make sure they were vegan and used what I could find the day I wanted to make my pita, I set out pouring my flours, mixing my dough, and, well, hoping! My pita turned out decent but not as good as they could have. It didn’t rise much, which isn’t a huge surprise, but I think next time I might add a bit more yeast to give it more rise. They also didn’t have pockets, which is also no surprise. Fresh out of the oven, it was a bit too chewy and dense, although it did have good flavour. The next day, it was actually better, which does not surprise me much, as I’ve found most gluten-free, vegan baked goods need to cool completely so their texture will ‘develop’. I think next time I might try some flax+water to replace some of the egg whites and maybe add some agar instead of just adding in extra xanthan to replace the gelatin.

Gluten-Free Pita – Adapted from Gluten-free Gastronaut
This recipe makes 9, 6-inch pitas.

Dry ingredients:
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1 1/4 cups tapioca starch
3 tablespoons almond meal
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons xanthan gum
1 tablespoon egg replacer

Wet ingredients:
4 teaspoons dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon agave
3 tablespoons earth balance (vegan margarine)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot water
egg replacer for 3 egg whites (depends on the brand, check your box)

Take 2 large cookie sheets and grease them well, or cover them with silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Mix your dry ingredients in a mixer with the paddle attachment. If you don’t have a mixer, you can do this by hand – just take a whisk and mix everything together really well.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water with the sugar. While your yeast is getting frothy, put the hot water in a small bowl and drop in the Earth Balance, stirring to make sure it melts.

Pour both the yeast mixture and the Earth Balance mixture into the bowl with your dry ingredients, and then turn your mixer to medium-high. Beat for 3 minutes. If you’re doing this by hand, just take a wooden spoon and mix well until everything seems blended. This will probably take a good 5 minutes – you need to give the xanthan gum time to do its thing.

Grease your hand with a little Earth Balance or plain tasting oil (such as canola or sunflower). Make balls of dough slightly larger than an egg and then pat them down onto your prepared pans. You want to end up with dough rounds that are about 6-inches in diameter and about a 1/4 inch thick. Keep going until all your dough is used up; you should get about 9 pitas. Leave the pans in a warm place to rise for an hour or so, until about 50% higher.

Preheat your oven to 500C. Once fully heated, bake your pitas for 5 minutes or so, watching carefully to make sure they do not burn.

For best taste, let them cool completely before eating, but they’re fine eaten right away if you like.

The hummus recipe was good, but I have to admit I prefer my own recipe. This one is very lemon-y.

Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.

1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

And last, the falafel. It was easy to make these gluten-free by simply using chickpea flour instead of all-purpose. They turned out really great, although I do recommend having a large food processor to make it. Mine couldn’t keep up with all the dry ingredients it needed to chop. Also, I think next time I’ll half the amount of onion – this was too strong for me. But they were delicious otherwise, and not too difficult to make – try it some time!

Falafels - Recipe from Joan Nathan and Epicurious.com
Prep Time: Overnight for dry beans and 1 hour to make Falafels

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight OR use well canned drained chickpeas (7 ounces/100 grams)
1/2 large onion (roughly chopped, about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried parsley (.2 ounces/5 grams)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried cilantro (.2 ounces/5 grams)
1 teaspoon table salt (.1 ounce/5 grams)
1 teaspoon dried hot red peppers (cayenne) (.1 ounce/2 grams)
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon cumin (.1 ounce/2 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder (.13 ounces/4 grams)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 ounce/24 grams) (you may need a bit extra) *** I used chickpea flour instead to make this gluten-free!
tasteless oil for frying (vegetable, canola, peanut, soybean, etc.), you will need enough so that the oil is three inches deep in whatever pan you are using for frying

Directions:
1. Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Let soak overnight, and then drain. Or use canned chickpeas, drained.
2. Place the drained, uncooked chickpeas and the onions in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the parsley, cilantro, salt, hot pepper, garlic, and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed. If you don’t have a food processor, then feel free to mash this up as smooth as possible by hand.
3. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour, and pulse. You want to add enough bulgur or flour so that the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.
4. Form the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.
5. Heat 3 inches of oil to 375 degrees (190C) in a deep pot or wok and fry 1 ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little flour. Then fry about 6 balls at once for a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels.

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Delicious raw, vegan… takeout?

Mmm. Live. One of my favourite restaurants here in Toronto. I’ve been meaning to make a post about them for ages, but didn’t have any pictures to share, as I have never brought my camera with me when dining there. But the other day I picked up one of their take-out containers of food from Noah’s Natural Foods and decided that now would be the perfect time to post about them, what with this month being my Vegan Challenge month.

I’ve been going to Live off and on for about a year now, and fell in love with the food from the first bite. The restaurant started out as an all raw, vegan place back in 2003, but added in some cooked dishes a few years after they opened. Now they’ve got a whole line of products they sell at various stores in the GTA, including these take-out dishes.

The one I picked up was a ‘Spaghetti Bolognese’: zucchini noodles with tomato, cabbage and carrots, topped with a sundried tomato sauce, almond ‘cheese’ and walnut ‘bolognese’. Ok, I know that sentence was a little excessive with the quotation marks, but that’s unfortunately one of the things that happens with raw food sometimes – raw, vegan versions of old favourites that, well, aren’t quite like the old favourite. Admittedly, we always have a bit of a laugh over it, but enjoy the food none-the-less.

This take-out container made an awesome, filling lunch and made me feel like I’d eaten something healthy without it being the least bit boring. It was perfect after a long run at the gym.

Now I just need to get back to the restaurant to take some pictures and share with you more of their dishes!