vegan cashew cream sauce

One of the more delicious things I’ve learned to make since becoming vegan is cashew cream sauce.  You just blend raw cashews with whatever amount of water you need to create the thickness you are looking for.  This sauce works as a creamy addition to many meals.  So far, here are a few of the ways I have used it:

• blended with a chipotle pepper and drizzled over sweet potato ravioli
• stirred into a curry-spiced tomato sauce and combined with vegetables and chickpeas for a creamy indian dish (serve with rice)
• stirred into tomato sauce to create a creamy tomato pasta sauce

This cream sauce, since it is made with raw cashews, is naturally a little bit sweet, very similar to dairy cream, and its flavor can be changed really easily by adding salt, basil, or other spices when you are blending.  This is a higher-fat vegan item, but in comparison with actual dairy cream, it is much healthier because the fat in it is healthy fat that comes from cashews, as opposed to saturated and cholesterol-filled fat in cream.

what we ate today, july 12 edition

We got a LOT of arugula from our CSA this week, so I have been searching online for things to make with this bitter green.  We also got a bag of little new potatoes, so I was excited to find a recipe for arugula and potato salad at A Lifetime of Culinary Adventures.  It was pretty delicious, but we still have a lot of arugula left…I will keep looking.

Here’s the recipe:  arugula and potato salad

What to eat…

I am planning a more comprehensive set of posts about this topic, but wanted to link to the blog of the urban vegan, who has created lists of at least 303 easy and fast vegan meals. I have sent links to these lists to several people who are interested in eating vegan meals but don’t have much time to cook or to figure out what they should cook. The latest list is vegan picnic fare, and once again it is awesome. These aren’t full out recipes, they are just simple meals that anyone can put together, making them very easy for anyone, and especially for transitioning vegetarians or vegans!

Here’s the link: the urban vegan: 101 fast recipes for inspired vegan picnics

India Star

I have been visiting India Star since it was at its old location on Beaver, where I first started out eating their chicken shahi korma dish and my husband always ordered the fish masala.  It’s been several years, India Star has moved to a new location on Douglas, and while we have given up the meat, there are several very delicious vegetarian and vegan options at this restaurant, making it one of my favorite places to eat, even if it is a bit slow.

India Star has a whole section of vegetarian appetizers on its menu.  Our favorite appetizer to get is the vegetable samosa, which is spiced potatoes and peas in a fried shell.  You can dip it in either a tamarind sauce or a cilantro sauce, and it is so delicious.  Yeah, it’s not that healthy though.

For vegetarians, the saag paneer is a combination of pureed spinach and Indian cheese that is really delicious with rice or naan, which is kind of like the most delicious and soft pita bread you ever ate.  The navratan korma is what my husband always orders, it has a combination of several vegetables and cheese in a really rich tomato-cream sauce.

For vegans and vegetarians, there is aloo gobi, which is a combination of spiced potatoes and cauliflower, or channa masala, which is my current favorite.  This is a dish made of chickpeas in an Indian-spiced tomato sauce.  It’s so good!

There’s also bengan bartha (eggplant); mattar paneer (peas & cheese); vegetable biryani (kind of a fried rice); and several other vegetarian and vegan options.  The nice thing about India Star is that it also denotes in the menu whether something is vegan.  Another nice thing about India Star is that it is a place that my parents can also enjoy.  They order their non-vegetarian dish and I can still have plenty of options!

India Star

5514 Douglas Ave
Des Moines, IA 50310
(515) 279-2118

vegan mother’s day brunch

I am no mother.  I do, however, have a mother, and a grandmother.  So, I invited them, my dad, and my siblings over for a Mother’s Day brunch that also doubled as a vegan coming-out party.  I’ve been practicing my vegan baking and cooking skills for awhile now (my husband’s friends can attest to this, as I’ve been doing my best to gorge them pretty regularly), but this marked the first time I made an entirely vegan meal for an entirely carnivorous guest list.  It was a hit!  In fact, I would like to post a photo but there is hardly anything left after 8 people, two dogs, and several grazing trips back to the buffet…but here’s the menu:

• roasted potatoes seasoned with rosemary and olive oil
• steamed asparagus
• biscuits and gravy
• “fronch toast” from Vegan with a Vengeance
• banana coffee cake from FatFree Vegan Kitchen
• raspberry crisp

Wow, it was a lot of food and took a lot of time to prepare…but it was so good.  I was expecting my mom to show up with some bacon to pacify my dad but she didn’t (though she did bring chocolate milk, which I sent back home with her).  Anyway, it was a nice day and my mom enjoyed spending time with all of us…this is our first Mother’s Day since my dad’s mom passed away last year so it’s a bit of a sad day too.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Food Politics: grassley Sucks

What does Iowa’s Republican senator do when confronted with the argument that using gas to grow corn in order to make more gas is contributing to the rise in food prices around the world? Well, to paraphrase, he says those selfish Chinese people should stick to eating rice and we’d all be fine.

I love it — that ability to deflect blame and focus it elsewhere.

Honestly though, wow. First, grassley ignores the legitimate criticism of the ethanol industry that Iowa (and other locations) are currently profiting from and points the finger elsewhere. THEN he points it not at AMERICAN meat-eaters, pretty much the most prolific of them all, but at meat-eaters in China who are simply becoming more americanized in their eating habits. I’m not saying that I want Chinese people to eat more meat obviously, and I believe it’s a huge problem that they are going in that direction, but the ridiculous hypocrisy of grassley’s statement just irritates me.  Instead of focusing on what others are doing wrong and becoming paralyzed, why not focus on what WE can most definitely change — our own production and consumption of certain products?  This whole “I don’t have to change anything because others are doing equally bad/worse things” is immature, counterproductive, and it’s getting pretty old.

going vegan and another recipe

Although DSM Veg appreciates all forms of reducing the consumption of animal products and all efforts, however small, that people take in that direction, it has become necessary for THIS individual vegetarian to transition to a vegan diet. For me, it is the right choice ethically and environmentally. My only excuse was convenience. It’s only been slightly more than a week and I have had some setbacks and forgetful moments (aka mindlessly eating a Hershey’s Kiss before remembering what I was doing), but overall it’s going well and I feel healthier already. One of the benefits of a vegan diet is that now instead of saying “I shouldn’t” to that plate of Gateway Market/La Mie pastries that seems to CONSTANTLY replenish itself at work, I can now say, “I can’t” and my external reason for avoiding these non-vegan items helps me resist. It’s kind of sad at the same time, though, since it just means I’m not as able to make healthy choices based on the goal of taking care of me, which should always be an important goal as well, if that makes any sense.

So, all of the recipes posted will now be vegan as well as delicious. Everything I had posted up to this point was vegan already, but not necessarily intended to be so. Today for lunch I had a curried tempeh salad, based off of the recipe for tempeh “chicken” salad here. Instead of vegan mayo I used plain soy yogurt to avoid some of the fat, and I added curry powder and a few raisins and raw cashews to the mix instead of pecans. This is a really good lunch, very filling and tasty. I had it on a wheat tortilla with some spinach. Yum.

pumpkin spice cupcakes

Many of us have a strong desire to eat healthy foods, but have to balance that goal against the equally formidable sweet tooth and lack of time. These muffins are no perfect solution, but they do strive to achieve a balance of health, sweetness, and speed.

All you need to make these delicious cupcakes is one box of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Spice Cake mix and one 14-ounce can of pumpkin. Not the pumpkin PIE mix, it’s JUST a can of pumpkin. Mix these two ingredients together completely. You may wish to thin it a little bit with a splash of soy milk or something, and you can do that if you like but it’s not necessary. You can follow the directions on the back of the Duncan Hines box for baking, but I use mini muffin tins so mine take less time: 12-15 minutes.

These are really good, and are much lower in fat and higher in fiber than traditional cupcakes. The sugar and processed cake mix, of course, keep this from being as healthy as something you might make from scratch. For most people, though, this is a step in the right direction, and is fast!

Two notes: First, I believe that the cake mix I used here is vegan, but am not 100% since I have not checked all of the ingredients. There is no milk or eggs in it, I know that. Second, you don’t have to use the spice cake mix, you can also use chocolate cake or whatever other mix you like. If you use chocolate cake mix, the pumpkin flavor is completely hidden.

lucca

I’ve never been to lucca, in des moines’ east village, before I went for a work event about a week ago. It was really good! Since we were there for work we had a fixed menu so i didn’t get to see all of their offerings, but there were vegetarian options for each course. For the first court I chose gnocchi with a thyme butter sauce rather than a romaine/apple salad, because I had never had gnocchi before and wanted to try it. It was softer and less chewy than I thought it would be and it was really good. For the second course, my only vegetarian option was a four-cheese pasta. It was really good, but very rich and it would have been nice to have some vegetables. Dessert was apple cake, and that was also very delicious. If I’d been able to mix and match between courses, I would have rather had the salad and the gnocchi, both choices for the first course.

Since I didn’t see a full menu, I can’t say for sure how vegan-friendly lucca is (considering they have a cheese cave i assume not very). I bet, though, that if someone were to call ahead and request a vegan option this place might do a good job in accommodating them. I tend to be more of the opinion that every restaurant should think ahead and put something on the menu that, if not already vegan, would be easily made so. Most restaurants provide a variety of meat options to their non-vegetarian patrons and it would be nice to not be relegated to an exception from the normal dining experience. I do understand how a place with a smaller, changeable menu might find that more difficult than somewhere with a fixed set of dishes that never changes.  I’d be interested in hearing what other people think about this restaurant.

vegan chili

This is a pretty delicious chili recipe that I adapted from a chili one of my co-workers kindly brought to a work potluck to make sure I had something to eat.  It was delicious then but had cheese in it, and I never actually got the recipe from her so I sort of made this up from my rudimentary knowledge of cut-up pieces of vegetables and chili in general.

• 1 can of crushed or diced tomatoes
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 can (drained) of each of the following: corn, chickpeas, and some other type of bean (I used black beans)
• 1 diced onion
• 1-2 tbsp oil
• 2 (or more) cloves of garlic, diced
• 6 (or more) celery stalks, chopped
• 1/2 cup bulgur wheat
• 2 (or more) tablespoons chili powder, to fit your taste
• 2 cups chopped green leafy vegetables (I’ve used spinach, kale, and now mustard greens)
• optional: 1 tsp. of cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
• optional: diced jalapeno pepper

Heat up the oil and saute the onions and celery for about 5 minutes.  Add in the garlic for another minute or so, then pour in your tomatoes, broth, bulgur, chili powder, optionals, and canned goods.  Cover and let everything cook at a medium-low temperature for about 20-30 minutes or until the bulgur is cooked.  If you think the chili looks too thick after the bulgur has taken in some of the broth feel free to add some water or broth to it.  Just before serving, stir in the greens and let them get wilty for a second before serving.

Sorry for so many approximations, I’m not a big recipe person myself.