After eating the beet red quinoa at Source, I was inspired to make some at home coupled with a chicken and chard stir-fry. I like the yin yang symbolism in the plate. Instead of white and black, I have red and green going on representing a plant flow of energy. See how metaphysical I go there for a sec?
Continue reading "Dinner Idea: Stir-fry Chicken and Chard With Beet Red Quinoa" »
I've been wanting to experiment with vegan enchiladas for awhile now, and happy to say that my experiment turned out really well. My carnivore dad wanted to eat these!
Continue reading "Easy-bake: Cheesy Vegan, Gluten-free Chicken, Kale, Pasilla Pepper Enchiladas" »
I took your standard fried rice to a new fun level with this creation. This dish is tasty and is real fast to cook!
Continue reading "Vegan, Gluten-free Chicken and Five Spice Tofu Fried Brown Jasmine Rice" »
Deciding to cook at home instead of going out for dinner one night, my friend Nima had the most brilliant idea of cooking a Fish Chowder Sandwich he saw on Hulu.com on an episode of Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home starring Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. For those with good memories, Julia and Jacques did this public television cooking show back in 1999 for one 22-episode season. Fortunately, you can watch all the episodes for free on Hulu.
Continue reading "Cooking An Allergy-friendly Fish Chowder Sandwich At Home With Julia & Jacques " »
This is my kind of healthy fast food, and a new vegan favorite great for Meatless Monday! This dish takes about 5-minutes to make and no-cooking is involved except cutting up some tomato, avocado, and onion chunks, and micro-waving an 8.5oz bag of Organic Ready-to-heat Quinoa Brown Rice from Seeds of Change Foods. I bought a whole small case of the stuff at Costco.
I went the extra mile and used all organic ingredients in my dish.
When I lived in Phoenix, one of my favorite restaurants was Dr. Andrew Weil's Kitchen. The food there is amazing! They make healthy eating fun and sexy. I went so much I was the Foursquare mayor several times of the Scottsdale location.
One of True Food Kitchen's signature dishes is their Tuscan Kale Salad. Here is the recipe for their version which contains Pecorino or Asiago cheese and bread crumbs. I made a version at home of their Tuscan Kale Salad that is vegan AND gluten-free.
For the kale, I got a bag of Tader Joe's pre-cut Organic Lacinato Kale. Instead of dairy cheese, I shaved some of Daiya's vegan Jalapeno Garlic Havarti Wedge. In place of bread crumbs, I pulverized walnuts in a food processor until it had the texture of bread crumbs. The crushed walnuts added the same texture as bread crumbs but with more protein, and safe for those avoiding gluten.
This Tuscan Kale Salad is so delicious, you can easily eat this every day!
One of the fun things about living in San Francisco is the Saturday farmer's market at the Ferry Building. I love going to that market because I always find something new and exciting.
This week, I discovered tatsoi which is a beautiful leafy Asian green also known as spinach mustard, spoon mustard, or rosette bok choy. To me, tatsoi tastes like a cross between bok choy and spinach. I love it! I have a new green to add to my list of favorites.
For a gluten-free dinner, I made a simple dish using the tatsoi combined with leeks, cremini mushroom, and ground turkey.
Let's cook:
Couple your tatsoi and turkey with jasmine rice and dabbles of sriracha sauce. Enjoy!
Have you tried tatsoi? What is one of your favorite dishes?
Happy New Year! I'm still in holiday mode and don't have the motivation to cook anything from scratch, but did want to start off the new year eating healthy things. For dinner, I made these vegan Thai peanut noodles which took 10 minutes to make because everything came from a packet or a bottle.
For the noodles, I used Trader Joe's organic gluten-free, brown rice spaghetti noodles. These noodles are the best gluten-free pasta I've tried. In fact, my folks thought they were eating regular wheat spaghetti noodles. These spaghetti noodles cook in 9 minutes. I made about 2 cooked cups worth.
For the peanut sauce, I used Whole Foods 365 brand organic peanut sauce. This sauce is vegan but not gluten-free. If you can find a bottled peanut sauce that is gluten-free, then you can make this whole dish gluten-free friendly.
Voila! Ready to eat in 10 minutes. If you want to make this dish from scratch, here is a recipe I did back in April.
For Fun Food Friday, I made a holiday themed vegan Oatmeal cookie using dried cranberries instead of raisins based on this recipe from About.com Vegetarian. This oatmeal cookie is not only fun, but is allergy-friendly as it is egg-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and gluten-free.
For Fun Food Friday, I made a holiday themed vegan Oatmeal cookie using dried cranberries instead of raisins based on this recipe from About.com Vegetarian. This oatmeal cookie is not only fun, but is allergy-friendly as it is egg-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and gluten-free.
To make the cookies soy-free, in place of soy milk I used rice milk, and for butter, I used Earth Balance Soy-free buttery spread.
I also used organic vegan sugar and brown sugar made by Wholesome Sweetener brand. Make the cookies gluten-free by using gluten-free oatmeal from brands like Bob's Red Mill and Glutenfreeda.
For a softer cookie, bake for 12 minutes, and for crunchy cookies bake for 15 minutes. These cookies are so easy to make, and great to take to a holiday party or give as a gift.
When I took this pizza out of the oven my parents thought the pie was made with real chicken and dairy cheese. Nope, it's vegan! I'm kinda proud of myself for finding a way to make the cheese look like real melted mozzarella. I shall share my secret in a moment.
One of my beefs (no meat pun intended) with most vegan pizza I've tried or seen is that the cheese doesn't look melted or tastes like you would imagine vegan cheese to taste. I've been doing experiments with different vegan cheeses, and this experiment proved successful.
This is only the second time I've ever made pizza at home. The first time was a disaster because the baking pan I used burned the outside of the crust and left the inside a bit gooey. This time I bought a pizza stone, and what a difference. I bought my stone at Cost Plus World Market for $12.99, and what a great investment.
My crust turned out fat because I didn't roll out the dough thin enough, but that's okay. We can be creative and call it fat crust versus thick crust like we did it on purpose. I like my pizza topping heavy, so as you can see I loaded up on the stuff. The crust is a darker brown because it's made with whole wheat.
This entire pizza is made with pre-made ingredients I purchased from two stores: Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
From Whole Foods:
From Trader Joe's:
Daiya also has a Jack Wedge which is another nice looking cheese that is white like mozzarella, but it doesn't have as much flavor as the Havarti. If you like mild, try the Jack. Although the Havarti has Jalapeno, the heat is really mild to almost non-existent, at least to me.
If you don't have a Whole Foods nearby, Trader Joe's also has pre-made pizza dough and vegan chick'n strips. I really like the Beyond Meat Chicken because it shreds like real chicken. With the barbecue sauce, the Beyond Meat Chicken comes very close to the taste and texture of real chicken. Remember my Beyond Meat chicken salads?
I used the coconut flour instead of wheat flour to help roll out the dough and to make shreds with the Daiya Havarti wedge because loose wheat flour can burn. Cornmeal is also recommended.
Here's the secret to making my melty looking vegan cheese. I combined two different vegan cheeses, the Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella and the Daiya Havarti wedge which I turned into shreds. Daiya does make mozzarella shreds, but I do not care for the taste and I don't like how it melts. The Trader Joe's vegan mozzarella by itself doesn't melt that great in my opinion and is not that tasty.
The Daiya Wedges have the best melt I have seen of any vegan cheese on the market to date. My vegan grilled cheese sandwich and cheesey vegan Cheddar Mac & Cheese are classics that I still cannot believe are dairy-free!
When you mix the Daiya and Trader Joe's cheese together some magic happens!
The trick to making Diaya Havarti shreds
I tried making shreds with the Daiya Havarti wedge straight on a handheld cheese shredder and it was a disaster because the havarti is too soft and clumps so you end up with a sticky ball. What works better is to cut about a 1/4 of the whole wedge, coat it with some coconut flour or cornmeal, and put the wedge into the freezer for about 90 minutes so the cheese hardens but is not rock solid.
The semi-frozen havarti will now make some nice shreds that won't stick together. As you shred, periodically stop and sprinkle some of the coconut flour on the shreds and mix them around so the shreds coat with the flour. This will help prevent the shreds from clumping together. In a bowl, blend the Trader Joe's vegan cheese and Daiya Havarti together.
An important point about the cheese
Save the shredding of the Daiya Havarti until the very end. Rolled out your pizza dough to your desired pizza size, and top your pizza with the BBQ sauce, Beyond Meat Chicken, mushrooms, red onion, and basil. Blend the TJ cheese and Daiya Havarti together and top at the very end because the Havarti will warm up fast and start clumping together. The key is to keep the Daiya as frozen as long as possible.
I baked my pizza on the stone for 15 minutes at 450 degrees rotating the pizza about 90 degrees every five minutes. Another good tip is to pre-heat the stone for about 10 minutes before you put your pizza on top of it.
Now that I have discovered a cool way to make melty looking vegan cheese on pizza, I cannot wait to try other flavor combinations. Are there any tricks you've used to make melty and better tasting vegan cheese for pizza?
