'Feta Cheese'

A few friends of mine decided we should have a cheese and wine party to celebrate the end of an exhausting semester. Everyone was to bring a vegan cheese or two. I decided on a Feta and Jalapeno Cheddar. Both came out so good that my non-vegan family members insist I keep them in the house at all times for snacking purposes. The feta was also the favorite at the party.

 This 'feta' was drizzled with some olive oil and garnished with green olives, although good, it wasn't as good as the way I prepared the feta for the party.

The 'feta' (on right) for the party was prepared with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, a few olives, and tapenade to top it off. This to me (and everyone else) really tasted like feta.


2 cups raw macadamias, soaked 4 hours
1 cup water
1 teaspoon non-dairy probiotics: I buy mine at a health food store in the refrigerated section in capsules. For mine about 8 opened capsules equals 1 teaspoon. I like the Solaray brand, I get something similar to this.

Using a vitamix or other high power blender, blend above ingredients until smooth. You will need a few pieces of cheesecloth, a nut-milk bag, or brand new pantyhose for this next step. Get a bowl and place a large strainer over top so drainage can occur throughout the process.

 If using cheesecloth, line the bottom of the strainer with the cheesecloth, place the mixture in the lined strainer, and line the top with another piece of cheesecloth before putting a weight on it.

If using a nut-milk bag, fill the nut-milk bag with mixture and place it in the strainer, add weight to top.

If using brand new pantyhose, cut a leg off the pantyhose and fill with the mixture. Most likely just the 'foot' fill be filled, squeeze it down to the bottom before knotting and cutting off all the excess fabric. Place this in the strainer and add weight to top.

The weight should not be so heavy that it pushes the cheese through the cloth, but heavy enough to gently start to press the liquid out. You can use a small glass bowl, or a plastic container filled with a little bit of water. Cover with a clean dish town and leave to culture for 24 hours at room temperature. The probiotics will prevent any molding process from occuring.  Once culturing is complete take the solid mixture out of the cloth/fabric and place it into a bowl. Stir in the below ingredients.

3⁄4 (scanty) teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast (found at health food stores, Whole Foods has it in the bulk bins)

Line a loaf pan with parchment or wax paper, have the paper come up the edges of the loaf pan. Spoon mixture into pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Grind some black peppercorns over top. Allow to sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours to firm up a bit. Once it sets you can carefully remove the mixture by lifting up the sides of the wax paper. Cut into bite sized pieces, garnish, and serve or refrigerate for later. Because the probiotics prevents molding it can last (supposedly) six weeks in the fridge, mine has never made it past five days without someone polishing it off.

This makes a lot of cubes, about five times the amount that is shown in the first picture.

*This process seems really intimidating at first but each step just takes a few minutes, it's more of a waiting game than anything. After making it once you'll be able to do it again without even referencing the recipe.

Recipe adapted from Russell James

Pot of Beans

I don't know about you, but I could live off of a big pot of saucy beans, it's such a comfort food to me. We probably eat them about once a week, both because they're so delicious, but mainly because they're so easy to make. I generally prefer to use Azuki beans, but other beans, including black beans can be subbed. Just note that black beans (in my experience) can take hours and hours to cook, and still never be ready. Azuki beans have the same texture as black beans, and to be honest, they don't have a taste difference when cooked like this.

2 cups dried Azuki beans
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups water
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 cubes
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 bay leaves
2 heaping teaspoon onion powder
2 heaping teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
Juice of 2 limes, plus extra wedges for serving

In a large pot add the dried Azuki beans and enough water to cover the beans by an extra inch or two. Bring to a boil, boil for 2-3 minutes, take caution not to burn beans- stir often. Lower to a high simmer and cook another 10 minutes. Drain beans and rinse them, set aside. Add the 2 tablespoons of oil to the pot, once hot throw in the onions and saute on medium until they start turning a golden color, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and saute another 2 minutes. Next add in the drained beans, remaining 1/4 cup oil, water, sweet potato, spices, and salt. Raise to a boil, then reduce to medium to medium-low heat and stick a lid on the pot. Cook until beans are just about soft, about an hour, checking often to make sure the bottom isn't burning and the water hasn't cooked out completely yet. Once the beans are soft remove the lid and cook out the remaining liquid until desired consistency, as the water starts to simmer out your beans will start becoming really saucy. Stir in the lime juice, taste and adjust seasonings. Spoon into bowls, sprinkle each bowl with a little bit of coarse salt and garnish with a lime wedge.

This makes enough for 6-8 portions, but it freezes well. It's nice to have some in the freezer for the nights when I'm too busy to cook. I usually serve this with some baked banana or plantains, I cut them thin, add some refined coconut oil to the pan and allow them to crispy up with the broiler on. Oh, and this is great over rice, obviously.

Sauteed Kale with Sesame Seed Crunch

This stuff is good! I love sauteed kale, and when a friend recommended the sesame seed crunch, I knew it was going to be a hit. It really heightens the taste element, those little seeds pack quite the flavor punch when they're mashed.

 

1 bundle kale, deribbed and torn into bite size pieces

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lime/lemon

4 tablespoons black sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Using a mortar and pestle grind the black seseame seeds and salt until it becomes paste-like.

Heat the oil and red pepper flakes in a pan, once hot, add the kale and saute until it wilts down, about a minute. Add in the garlic and continue to saute for another minute. Remove from heat and toss with the juice of 1/2 a lime/lemon and the sesame salt paste, mix until incorporated. Sprinkle a few sesame seeds over top before serving. Yummm!

Almond Milk

It's been really hard getting my family to switch from cow's milk to plant based milk. It's not because they don't understand the health benefits of switching, nor is it their lack of understanding where their milk comes from, it just was a habit that was difficult to break. But with persistence, constant re-education, and patience, the switch has been made. At first they weened down to soy milk, and with more patience and time, they eventually kicked the soy (thank goodness) and moved to almond milk. Now instead of buying almond milk (that tastes more like cardboard than anything), I'm making it. It's so delicious it's seriously like dessert in a cup. The coolest thing about making your own almond milk is there is no waste. The end byproduct, almond pulp, can easily be turned into almond flour, which is great for baking!

Vanilla Almond Milk
1 cup raw almonds, soaked for a minimum of 1 hour, ideally overnight
3 cups water
3 dates, pitted (sounds strange, trust me on this one)
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (depending on taste)

Chocolate Almond Milk
1 cup raw almonds, soaked for a minimum of 1 hour, ideally overnight
3 cups water
3 dates, pitted
1-2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Rinse the almonds, add them to the blender with the remaining ingredients, blend for one minute. Pour mixture into a nut bag, or a fine mesh strainer. Collect the milk and store in an air tight jar for up to a week in the fridge.

*If the dates or vanilla bean are hard/dried out, soak them along with the almonds.

Almond Flour
If you have a dehydrator, I recommend setting it to 115º F and leaving the pulp overnight to dry, making sure to spread it in a thin layer. You can also set your oven to the lowest setting, place pulp in a thin layer on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 3-5 hours, or until dry. Once dried put it in the food processor for a minute until it turns into a fine powder. Store the almond flour in an air tight jar until needed. You can make awesome cookies, like these cookies, or even power bars using almond flour.

Birthday Breakfast Muffins

It's my brother's birthday today! I wanted him to wake up to something special, a nice little birthday muffin to get the day going. He's been on this health kick lately (I wonder if living with me, my big mouth, and my always busy kitchen has anything to do with it) so it was my obligation to make him a muffin that satisfied his taste buds but didn't sacrifice his health. Here's to the healthier side of the muffin... and to my brother's 25 birthday!

3/4 cup all purpose flour*
1/2 cup cake flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup raw sugar**
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce***
1/4 cup almond milk, or alternative plant-based milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease muffin pan and set aside. If using paper liners, lightly spray inside of liners with cooking spray to prevent sticking. In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. In another bowl, cream mashed banana with applesauce and sugar. Add in the plant-based milk, vanilla, zucchini, chopped walnuts, and chocolate chips. Stir until evenly combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture to banana mixture until completely incorporated. Spoon batter into greased muffin pan and bake 18-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

*The recipe called for 1 1/4 cups pastry flour, which can be hard to find. I subbed it for the cake flour and AP flour- the texture came out nice, moist and soft like a cupcake.

**To be completely honest, the sugar could have probably been cut down to 1/4 of a cup. I'm curious to see how it would turn out with agave instead of raw sugar, if you try subbing let me know how it turns out!

***I made my own with the apples I had in the fridge. Just peel, slice, add some water and cook down over medium low heat on the stove until you can mash it to a sauce. This was easier for me than having to run out and buy a jar of applesauce that would have become forgotten in the fridge.

This recipe made 9 extra large muffins and they do well in both the fridge and freezer!
 Recipe adapted from Lindsay S. Nixon of Happy Herbivore blog

Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes

I'm a huge fan of vegetable samosas (well, all Indian food to be exact!), so when I came across this spin on samosas in my trusty Veganomincon cookbook I just had to make them. They came out to be delicious (even though they weren't wrapped in crispy dough like they usually are). They ended up getting rave reviews, and to be completely honest I secretly ate one for breakfast the next morning. Later on I got to thinking... these would be awesome if I stuffed mini potato halves and served them as hors d'oeuvres. Or...I could skip the potato halves altogether and just roll the samosa mixture into tiny balls, bake them, and serve them with toothpicks and dipping sauce on the side. How fun would that be as a little appetizer? Oh, the possibilities are endless...

4 large Russet Potatoes, scrubbed, baked, and cooled
1/4-1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 heaping teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
1 yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 heaping teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 heaping teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup frozen peas (I did a heaping half cup because I really enjoy the pea element in samosas)
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Extra oil

Once the potatoes have baked and are cool, slice them lengthwise and scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Set aside the skins for later. Mash the potatoes with the water and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot add the mustard and coriander seeds, place a lid on the skillet because the mustard seeds will pop out of the skillet. Allow the seeds to pop for about 30 seconds, then add the onions and carrots, saute for 7-10 minutes until the onions begin to brown.

Add in the garlic and ginger, saute for another minute before adding the cumin, turmeric, and sat, along with a splash of water. Stir well, then add in the potatoes, mixing until everything is incorporated. If the mixture is dry, add a splash more water to it along with the lemon juice. As the filling is heating through take a tiny bit of oil and brush the insides of the potato skins, then carefully spoon the filling into them. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes before serving.

I usually sprinkle these with some chopped mint from the garden, I also drizzle on some leftover homemade mango jam. Normally samosas are served with a sweet tamarind sauce and a spicy cilantro chutney, but I made do with what I had and it turned out to be spectacular.