To get started blogging again, I thought I’d do something very low-key and post my responses to this survey on gluten-free vegan eating. Note that xgfx is their shorthand for gluten-free vegan.

1. What’s your favorite gluten-free flour?
Tough one! It changes depending on what I’m making. Lately I’ve been loving coconut flour, but of course you can only use it in things that you want to have that coconut flavour. Of course, my go-to flour for 99% of what I make is sorghum, so maybe I should say that.

2. What have you always wanted to deglutenize, but haven’t yet?
Seitan! Apparently, it IS possible….

3. What’s one of your favorite xgfx meals to make?
Pad Thai

4. Your biggest gluten-free success that makes ya most proud?
Well, there isn’t one specific recipe, but I’ve found that I’m able to convert almost any cake, cookie, quick bread or muffin to a gluten-free, vegan version. Admittedly it sometimes takes a few tries, but I usually do succeed eventually! As I described to someone once, it’s really just about chemistry.

5. Most “epic xgfx fail”?
Oh dear. Not long after I went gluten-free, I bought potato flour instead of potato starch for a bread recipe. Lets just say the bread turned into a rock, and I’m not even sure the squirrels I tried to feed it to were going to eat it.

6. What product do you wish was xgfx that isn’t?
Veggie dogs! I’m totally serious. Here in Canada no one makes a tofu dog, only a tofu-and-seitan dog. I can very easily make a gluten-free, vegan bun! I just need a veggie dog to put in it.

7. If you could pass along one gluten-free tip to a gluten-free newbie, what would it be?
Learn to appreciate the foods that are naturally gluten-free, like rice and quinoa. If you’re always trying to replicate foods that have gluten in them, you’re going to be disappointed sometimes.

8. What’s your favorite xgfx product?
I’ll say two:

In Toronto: bread from Bunner’s Bake Shop.

Available all over the place: Sol Cuisine Veggie Breakfast Patties

9. Is there anything you miss being gluten-free?
Regular bread. Not being able to eat bread means finding a quick vegan meal can be difficult.

10. Any xgfx techniques you’ve learned that have been most helpful?
My main advice to anyone baking gluten-free is to blend flours. Never try to make something with just a single flour – you won’t get the results you’re hoping for.

11. Have you found a favorite gluten-free pizza dough recipe that makes your heart sing?

Yes! Sometimes I play with the flours I use and it STILL comes out tasty every time. Rich likes it so much that he doesn’t like going out for pizza, he prefers that I make one instead.

12. Xanthan gum. Do you or don’t you? Love it or leave it?
I’m meh about it. I’ll use it when I need to, but try to leave it out if I don’t.

13. Favorite gluten free prepackaged bread?
Well other than the great stuff from Bunner’s, I do really like the buckwheat bread from Organic Works and the quinoa bread from Little Stream. Oh, and Organic Works also makes a yummy cinnamon raisin loaf, if you want something a bit more sweet.

14. What’s your favorite way to nosh on quinoa?
Quinoa salad. Easy to make, easy to modify to your own tastes.

15. Name five of your most coveted pantry staples.
Chickpeas, short-grain brown rice, gluten-free tamari, rice pasta, good quality olive oil.

16. If you could only buy three gluten free flours to last you for three months, what would they be?
Sorghum, corn starch, chickpea.

17. Any xgfx ingredients you are intimidated about trying?
Nothing I can think of at the moment! I’m pretty, err, daring in the kitchen.

18. Favorite place to buy foods?
I have a few: Karma Co-op for their bulk gluten-free flours, nut butters, and spices, Fiesta Farms for their ‘international’ groceries section, and Sweet Potato because they are in my ‘hood and a good place to get organic veggies and fruits.

19. Favorite meal when dining out?
I like foods that are naturally gluten-free and vegan, like a lot of Indian or Thai curries. Easy to order and very yummy.

20. Name one xgfx product you’ve tried that you didn’t like.
A LOT of the breads out there are not very good. I’ve been disappointed many times. The only brands I buy are the three mentioned above, plus sometimes if I can find them I get Aidan’s gluten-free breads or bagels.

To make today just that little bit nicer, I decided to make some vegan pho. For those not familiar with pho, it’s a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup, usually made with chicken or beef broth as the base. Hearty, warming, spicy and delicious, just what we needed on a bit of a dreary Monday.

For my vegan soup base, I used this great recipe from Emily at The Kitchn as my inspiration, but made a few changes to include some miso in the broth and make use of the spices I had available to me. I also simmered the broth for longer to allow the flavours to develop.

When it was time to eat, I loaded up my bowl with baked tofu cubes, bok choy, bahn pho noodles and thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms, then garnished with bean sprouts, cilantro and sriracha.

Perhaps not a traditional pho, but it certainly works as a vegan version! The only problem with this recipe is it only makes two bowls. You might want to double it if you want leftovers, or if you’re really hungry after a day of complaining about politics.

Vegan Pho
Inspired by The Kitchn

Broth (none of these ingredients need to be chopped perfectly, as most will be strained out of the final product):
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 2-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and chopped into 2 or 3 pieces
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise or 1/2 teaspoon anise seed, if you can’t find star anise
2 cloves
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
4 cups water
2 tablespoons miso (use a rice-and-bean-based miso if you’re sensitive to gluten)
1 teaspoon soy sauce (gluten-free for those who can’t do gluten!)
4 carrots, washed well or peeled then chopped

Other ingredients:
1/2 pound pho noodles (dried flat rice noodles – you can use any width you like, even the ones packaged as ‘pad thai noodles’)
1/2 a block of tofu, cut into small cubes and baked or pan fried until lightly browned
3 baby bok choy, washed and ends removed, then lightly steamed
1/2 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms, steamed with the bok choy

For serving: bean sprouts, cilantro, sriracha (other things you could use include green onions, Thai basil, lime wedges, chile peppers)

To make the broth: put the chopped onion and ginger in a small pan and cook them under the broiler until they are browned but not burnt, 5-10 minutes. While they brown (keep an eye on them, the broiler can turn things from brown to black in about 2.2 seconds flat!), place the cinnamon, anise, cloves and coriander in a large pot and place on the stove over medium heat, stirring every so often to prevent burning.

Once your spices are nice and aromatic and your onion and ginger are ready to go, put the rest of the broth ingredients into the pot with the onion and ginger. Let come up to a gentle simmer, then cover and let cook for 1 hour.

Strain the broth, making sure to reserve the liquid and get rid of the carrots and other vegetable bits. I know usually we do the opposite in the kitchen, so I figured a reminder might be appreciated! Yes, I’ve nearly lost broth on more than one occasion because I was on auto-pilot, how did you guess?

When the broth is nearly finished cooking, you can prepare your noodles according to package directions. You want them to be a bit chewy – don’t overcook them to the falling apart stage.

To assemble: Place half the noodles into a bowl, and top with half the tofu, bok choy and mushrooms. Cover with half the broth. Make a second bowl exactly like the first. Let each person add in their preferred amounts of cilantro, bean sprouts and any other toppings you like.

Eat!

^*For those not catching what I mean, pho is pronounced like ‘fuh’ not ‘foe’. Ahem.

We got a wonderful bunch of kale, some garlic, and some tomatoes in our latest CSA share, so I immediately thought pasta would be wonderful. I just scored an old (but still in great condition) Cuisinart food processor at a yard sale, so I wanted to make up a pesto to go on said pasta. But my basil plant was looking a bit sad, so that was out. Have no fear – kale to the rescue!

This is a kale pesto made with chopped kale (with the most woody stem bits removed), several cloves of garlic, pine nuts, nutritional yeast, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. To that I simply added some chopped tomato and served it over corn pasta. If you don’t try to avoid gluten, you could easily serve this over any vegan pasta you like.

Ok, let’s be honest right from the first paragraph here: I didn’t do the challenge exactly as John wrote it, but I think he’ll forgive me.

See, I’ve only done a bit of canning before, and it had been a while, so I didn’t really remember all the rules, other than the general food safety stuff. Since I wasn’t an experienced canner/food preserver, I was supposed to make one of three recipes: apple butter, bruschetta, or roasted tomatoes with garlic and basil.

But as you will see, I didn’t make any of those things.

A few weekends ago I got together with my friend Carole and did a bunch of canning with her. We canned corn and roasted tomatoes (with just oil and salt). I took home about a half dozen of the jars and have used most of them since.

Then, real life^tm attacked. Rich and I both have a lot of commitments outside the house in the coming months (starting, err, tomorrow!), to the point where there are some weeks we won’t be able to cook dinner at home at all. Well, not unless we want to be eating at 10 or 11pm! So I knew I had to start making some meals ahead that we could easily grab and reheat at home (or on the run). Suddenly making apple butter just didn’t fit into my schedule.

The last two weeks have been spent making a lot of different things: vegan chili, corn soup, squash/corn/chipotle soup, and several types of muffins. I started to can up some of the soup and quickly realized there was no where to store it.

Seriously, have you seen my cupboards? There isn’t room for a bunch of big jars of soup!

So instead, I tossed them all into my freezer. You can freeze jars of soup or chili, providing you let them cool completely before doing so (to help reduce ice crystal formation) and you leave an inch or two of space at the top of the jar, to allow for expansion (due to freezing). I have had tons of room in the freezer, so this plan worked really well.

The corn soup you see pictured above is a jae steele recipe, from her book Ripe From Around Here. The chili isn’t really much of a recipe: in a large pot, saute up one diced onion until softened, then toss in a few minced cloves of garlic. Cook for a few minutes, then add in a 19 oz can of kidney beans, black beans and two large cans of diced tomatoes. Dump in some chili powder, chopped chipotle peppers and cumin to taste. Add in corn (an entire jar in my case!) and stir everything super well to let the flavours meld. Cook for 20 minutes or so, then taste and adjust seasonings. Done.

The squash soup is based on a recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I’ve posted it with my modifications below, but the kudos go to Susan for the original idea! Oh and ignore the nutrition label on the jar in the picture… I really did make this soup, I just reused an old jar.

Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato and Corn Soup
Heavily inspired by Susan’s recipe at FatFree Vegan Kitchen

1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons chipotle pepper sauce
3 cups butternut squash, chopped into 1-inch cubes
2 cups sweet potato, chopped into 1-inch cubes
5 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)
2 cups fresh corn kernels
freshly ground pepper
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onion over medium heat in a large pot until browned, about 5 minutes or so. Add in the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute or two, then add in the chipotle, squash, sweet potato and broth. Lower your heat to medium-low and cook until both the squash and sweet potato are tender, 20-30 minutes. If you need to, add a bit of water to the pot periodically to make sure the liquid level remains the same.

Once your squash and sweet potato are cooked, add in the curry powder and non-dairy milk. Then, grab your trusty hand blender and puree the soup until smooth (be careful not to let it splash on you!). Add salt and pepper to taste, and a bit more curry powder and/or chipotle if you feel it needs the extra kick.

Last but never least, add in your corn kernels and cook until tender, about 3 minutes or so.

Eat!

I certainly had fun jarring up all that stuff, and I hope some of you who have never really tried prepping food ahead will try freezing or canning – it really is pretty easy and will make eating healthy meals a whole lot easier when you barely have time to think!

To check out more of what my fellow Daring Cooks did with this month’s challenge, just visit the Daring Kitchen.

Tonight’s dinner was going to be a thai green curry, but we forgot to grab tofu at the store. So, instead I grabbed some of our gorgeous Russian Blue Potatoes from our CSA, which I chopped and roasted with garlic and thyme and a liberal amount of salt, pepper and oil. I then grabbed some CSA baby spinach and sauteed it with some wheat-free soy sauce, garlic and brown sugar. All of that I paired with a veggie burger. I had mine on a slice of buckwheat chia bread, which is gluten-free, and topped it with a spicy curry sauce we also got from our CSA. As you can see, the CSA is a huge part of our meals around here.

Not the world’s most fancy dinner but it was delicious, and pretty typical of what we eat when we want to do a ‘meat and potatoes’ meal vegan-style.

Things have been really busy in our household this month, and to top it all off, I ended up with a terrible cold last weekend (which Rich ended up catching a few days later, oops!). So making these was a bit rushed, and the post will have to be short and sweet.

The green chile sauce was simple, but it was a bit of a challenge to find tomatillos and Anaheim peppers. In the end, I found tomatillos at one of the Mexican/Latino markets in Kensington Market, but was not able to find Anaheim peppers. I ended up substituting jalapenos, and just used less of them, as jalapenos are actually hotter.

As you might have guessed, I converted the recipe to vegan by simply using vegetables in my filling instead of chicken. I chose red bell pepper, mushrooms and onions and seasoned them well with salt and black pepper. Then I tossed in a little Daiya ‘cheddar’ cheese to help hold everything together.

The tortillas were easy to make gluten-free – I just did corn tortillas as suggested! I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to make.

I ended up rolling my enchiladas instead of making stacks, as I just prefer them that way.

And the final product?

Yum! A totally delicious challenge and I do have some chile sauce left over, which I’ll be sure to use on something this coming weekend.

Want to make this yourself? You can find the recipes on the Fine Cooking Website. Most bags of masa harina have instructions on making corn tortillas on them, but a pretty good one is this one from Bob’s Red Mill. And as always, I recommend heading over to the Daring Kitchen to see what everyone else did with this recipe!

What is Brunswick Stew? Well, it’s a very thick, meaty stew (usually with at least some game meat, and often including bacon) popular in the southern United States. This is one challenge recipe I probably never would have made if I wasn’t a member of the Daring Cooks. Since the recipe is very meaty, it’s not something I’d really have thought of making to be honest! However, it did make for a fun challenge to try and veganize, so that’s what I did.

We were given two versions of the recipe to try. The first was the ‘long way’ and involved a lot of ingredients and making your own broth. The second version was a bit more simple, and seemed easier to make vegetarian, so that’s the one that I chose.

I replaced the meat in the recipe with mushrooms and tempeh. I marinated the tempeh with some liquid smoke, wheat-free tamari, a little garlic and some red miso. This was to give it a somewhat smokey flavour, to replace the flavour of the bacon in the original recipe. The mushrooms I used were a mixture of cremini and portobella, to further enhance the flavours of the dish.

Otherwise I made the recipe as written. I included all of the vegetables, herbs and spices and just replaced the meat with my mushrooms and tempeh. I also replaced the butter with vegetable oil.

And the result? Pretty tasty! I probably won’t make it again, as I have a number of really delicious vegan stews that I make over the cold winter months, but I have to admit it was fun to try this out! And as you can see in the picture below, my stew was indeed very thick – my spoon easily stood up in the middle.

I just wonder what folks from the southern US will think of my version.

If you’d like to make this yourself, just head on over to The Daring Kitchen and nab the recipe!

A few weeks ago, however, I stumbled on a recipe that actually works! It’s from the same website where I found the bread recipe that I now use (which I will share with you another day, complete with pictures that show it doesn’t fall in the middle like the other recipe I was using). I did modify the recipe a little bit by changing the flours I used and ‘veganizing’ it, but it still worked beautifully.

These waffles are great. Really crispy, light tasting (but not light, that’s a lot of Earth Balance!) and perfect for pouring tons of maple syrup on. As written, they are just slightly sweet. You may want to increase or decrease the amount of sugar to your personal taste.

Gluten-free, vegan waffles

1/2 cup brown rice flour (white rice would be fine too, but in either case, make sure you get the super finely ground stuff)
1/2 cup tapicoa starch or corn starch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Vegan egg replacer (such as Ener-G) for 3 eggs
1/3 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine, melted and cooled but not re-solidified
1 1/2 cup milk (soy, almond, rice, etc) at room temperature

Mix together the flours/starches, baking powder, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the egg replacer until a bit frothy and then add in the milk and melted margarine. Stir until combined. Slowly pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mix until everything is combined.

Use batter on your waffle iron, following manufacturers instructions. Make sure you coat the iron with butter or oil really well before you cook each waffle. For mine I needed about 3/4c of batter and to let the waffle keep cooking until no more steam was coming out of it.

Risotto, huh? Risotto was actually the very first thing I ever posted to this blog. It’s something I make on a semi-regular basis, so to be honest, I didn’t find this challenge all that challenging. The only thing I’d never done before was make my own vegetable stock. Making vegetable stock is not difficult, it just takes a bit of time and patience.

Before making my stock, I read a whole bunch of posts online with various recipes for making it. Some roasted the vegetables before making the stock, some didn’t. Some included a lot of herbs and spices, some didn’t. I went with my own variation on the theme.

I started with a good sized red onion, a bunch of cloves of garlic (at least half a head, if not the whole thing), some baby-cut carrots I had left from another recipe, and several ribs of celery. Cut the celery and onion into chunks, but leave the garlic cloves whole. Put everything into a pan and lightly coat with some oil (I used safflower) and salt and pepper. Then roast at 375C for about 30 minutes.

After it’s roasted, put all the vegetables into a large pot. Cover with enough water to completely cover the vegetables; at least 6 cups. Add in a bay leaf, some thyme (fresh thyme sprigs would be best here, but I didn’t have any) and a few peppercorns. Turn on the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a simmer, then turn the heat to low and let simmer for an hour. Strain your stock right away with a fine-meshed strainer or even cheesecloth over a colander if need be. Taste the end product and if need be, add some salt and pepper. You should have at least 4 cups of stock, which you’ll need to make the risotto.

I then added some dried mushrooms into mine. These are dried oysters. Leave them to soak for 15-20 minutes, then remove the mushrooms and put aside for your risotto. They’ll leave behind some extra flavour in your vegetable stock. Take the stock and heat it lightly in a pan, so it’s still nice and warm when you need it for the risotto.

Then you make your risotto: Heat some oil in a pan, then add in some onion. The original recipe said to take out the onion after a few minutes and get rid of it, but I don’t see why you’d do that – just make sure it’s diced small and leave it in! I also added in some minced garlic at this stage. Once the onion and garlic are very lightly browned and soft, add in the risotto rice and stir to coat the rice in the oil/onion/garlic mixture. Continue stirring for a few minutes; you’re looking to lightly toast the rice.

Next, add in some wine. I used red wine as we don’t have any white in the house right now, but tons of bottles of red. Either is fine, as long as you like the flavour of the wine. Don’t use wine that is so-called ‘cooking quality’ – use something you’d be happy drinking! This is an important flavour component of your final dish, after all. If you don’t drink wine or avoid alcohol, you can use a bit of extra vegetable stock instead. Stir the rice to coat it with the wine (or stock). Once it’s fully absorbed, you’re ready to start adding in that lovely vegetable stock.

Cover the rice with an inch or so of your stock. Stir constantly until that is absorbed, then add in another inch of stock. Keep doing this until you’ve got just a little bit of stock left (half a cup or so). At this stage, add in whatever things you want to your risotto. I added lightly sauteed cremini mushrooms, those rehydrated (and chopped) oyster mushrooms from before, some chopped sundried tomatoes and some rosemary. Once you’re mixed in your ingredients, add in that last bit of stock. Once the stock is fully absorbed it should be ready to eat – nice and creamy but still with some bite, not mushy.

Serve piping hot. If you’re not eating vegan, you might want to add in some parm cheese right at the end.

For the full recipes, including more exact amounts of ingredients and several flavour combination ideas, just visit The Daring Kitchen!

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
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate OR 3 tablespoons lime juice

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.