I’d never actually made my own nut butter before, so this was a fun challenge. Since we were allowed to make any savory recipe with the nut butter, I decided to make almond butter and then use it to make the Raw Pad Thai recipe from Jae Steele’s Ripe from Around Here, which I’d just purchased days before completing the challenge.

Making nut butter is pretty easy: Get out your food processor. Put in some nuts: about double the amount for the quantity of nut butter you need, so if you need half a cup of nut butter, put in a cup of nuts. Turn your food processor on and let it process the nuts for a few minutes, then stop, scrape the sides, and process for a few more. If after about 5 minutes you don’t have nut butter, add a neutral tasting oil in small amounts and continue to process until you do have the right consistency. Then, use immediately in whatever recipe you want. You can also add a bit of salt to your nut butter or roast the nuts before using them to give the end product more flavour.

I’ll be honest with the pad thai – I didn’t go 100% raw. I didn’t want to spend the money on a ton of raw ingredients (such as raw tamari) when I have good non-raw ones in the house. As well, I modified the recipe very slightly by adding in some beets, since we had some from our CSA that week.

The end result was amazing.

If you want to try making this yourself, go grab a copy of Ripe from Around Here, which I really recommend that you do. Yes, it’s a vegan cookbook with lots of raw and gluten-free recipes, but I really do think everyone will enjoy the recipes, even those of you who eat meat at every meal and aren’t really into vegan recipes.

If you want to see what the other Daring Cooks did with this month’s challenge, just check out the Daring Kitchen!

What exactly was I thinking? I was seriously missing out!

Sadie’s is a fantastic vegetarian and vegan diner located at Adelaide and Portland in downtown Toronto (just south of Queen and Bathurst). They do an all day breakfast along with simple lunch items (soups, salads, sandwiches, etc), smoothies, juices, coffee and (of course!) dessert.

These photos are from our first visit. We both ordered Huevos Rancheros; Rich got the traditional with real eggs and cheese, and I got the vegan option with scrambled tofu and vegan cheese. Since these photos were taken they’ve switched to using Daiya cheese in their vegan options, which I heartily approve of. The vegan option is also gluten-free, as far as I am aware.

We’ve been back a few times since. On our last visit we both ordered tofu scramble, which is essentially a ‘traditional’ breakfast done vegan style: toast, tofu scramble, veggie bacon or veggie sausage, homefries and coffee. We both ordered sausage and found that they deep fry it (or at least they seem to!), which makes it even more delicious than when we cook similar fake sausage at home. Not the most gluten-free breakfast, admittedly, but really good and a nice occasional treat.

My only real complaint about Sadie’s is the coffee (fair trade and organic) could be a bit stronger. But in true diner style, refills are free, and their mugs are huge. So I’m not really complaining all that loudly.

I hear the desserts (especially the vegan cupcakes) are awesome, but I’ve always been too full from the rest of my meal to try one.

You should go. Even if you aren’t vegan or vegetarian, you should go.

Sadie’s Diner, 504 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, (416) 777-2343. Meals for two with coffee, $20.

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!

Daiya is a company that produces two kinds of  vegan ‘cheese’ products that look, smell, melt and taste a lot like cheese. No, really, they do! Even Rich, who has been mostly skeptical of the various ‘cheese’ products I’ve tried over the last year, really likes Daiya ‘cheeses’ and says they taste convincingly like the real thing. Lucky for me and all the other gluten-sensitive folks out there, Daiya’s products are also gluten-free. They’re also free of many other allergens, like soy and nuts.

Up until recently, you could only get Daiya products in some restaurants and at some American health food stores, which purchased the products in large quantities and then repackaged them for resale. That’s how we got our hands on some; Panacea on Bloor just west of Bathurst started purchasing them in late February. They got what they figured would be a six week supply for the store, only to find eager vegans snapped it up so quickly they were out of stock in five days!

The first time we picked it up, we got the Italian Blend, which Daiya has now renamed Mozzarella Style Shreds. We used it to make a pizza, which is of course the most obvious use for it! As you can see from the photos, the pizza turned out great. The product really does melt and really does stretch, much like real cheese. I would also happily use the product in place of mozzarella or other mild cheeses in cooking – it would be delicious in any baked pasta, sprinkled on top of vegetables, or melted into a sandwich.

More recently I picked up some of the Cheddar Style Shreds, which I’ve been using in Mexican food (quesadillas and the like). It is also excellent and very cheddar-like. I bet it would be awesome as a topping for nachos!

Fortunately for all the vegans out there, Daiya has now started packaging their product for sale to consumers, and should eventually be available in select grocery stores all over North America.

In Toronto and want some? As mentioned, Panacea has it in stock now. They’re a great vegan shop and well worth heading to anyway – they have a wide selection of vegan and eco-friendly products. But if you’re on the other side of the Don Valley, you can try looking for it at The Big Carrot – Daiya’s website lists them as one of their retailers.

Outside of Toronto? Just try searching for a retailer near you.

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.

A quick poll of my twitter friends yielded a few ideas, but in the end I decided to pull out my copy of Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar and make the Vegan Lemon Bar recipe. Actually, it’s the exact same recipe as in Veganomicon, so if you own that, you’ve got a copy. I’ve also reproduced it here. The only change I made was to make the recipe gluten-free by using a gluten-free flour mixture where the all-purpose flour was. Oh, and I also just mixed everything by hand instead of with a food processor as the original recipe states to do. If you’d rather use a food processor, just pulse together all the crust ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then continue on with the recipe from there.

By the way, if you’re not familiar with agar agar, you can find it at most natural food stores. I found mine at Qi (Bloor/Christie location), for those of you who are in Toronto.

Vegan Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (I used Earth Balance)

Filling:
1 1/3 cups water
3 tablespoons agar agar flakes
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (I needed five lemons for this)
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from two large lemons)
1/4 cup soymilk

Extra powdered or confectioners’ sugar to decorate finished bars

Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan. You might also want to put some parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, as that helps get the bars out when they’re done, but it’s not strictly necessary. Also, don’t start your oven just yet – the cookie crust layer needs to chill for a bit before you bake it.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together your flours, cornstarch and powdered sugar. Then, using a fork or a pastry cutter (aka pastry blender), incorporate in the margarine, a few tablespoons at a time, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Then dump the mixture into your prepared pan and press down firmly to form an even layer, with slightly raised sides to hold in the tasty filling you’re about to make. Put that in the fridge and set a timer for 30 minutes. Once your timer goes off, preheat your oven to 350F and when heated, bake the crust for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned. Set this aside to cool, then start on your filling.

In a medium sauce pan, soak the agar agar in the water for 15 minutes. Leave that to soak while you zest your lemons and squeeze as much juice as you can out of them, or until you have 2/3 cup of juice. Mix the arrowroot powder in with the lemon juice until it is fully dissolved.

When the agar has been soaking 15 minutes, put the pot on the stove and bring it to a boil over high heat. Let it boil for 10 minutes, or until the agar is fully dissolved. Then add in the sugar and turmeric and boil 2-3 minutes until dissolved. Then, lower the heat to medium and add the arrowroot/lemon mixture, then the lemon zest and soy milk. Whisk constantly now until the mixture thickens; it should take about 5 minutes or so. What I found was that I had to make sure the mixture stayed at a good simmer (not boiling!) in order for it to thicken enough, so if you find your mixture is cooling too much, turn up the heat just a bit.

Pour the filling mixture into the crust. Let this cool for 20-30 minutes on your counter, then place the pan in the fridge for at least 3 hours. You want the filling to be set – only slightly jiggly, much like Jello.

To serve, cut into squares and sprinkle each square with powdered sugar. Try not to eat the entire pan in one night (it’s hard, I know!).

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!

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!

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.