Vegan Mofo: The Best Fried Rice and Chocolate Avocado Pudding

One of my favorite things to make is fried rice. It's easy, it's tasty and it's filling. The oils that I use in my fried rice were originally gathered by Alicia Silverstone in the Kind Diet but we differ on ingredients to go in the rice. This dish is great because it's customizable. You don't need to measure things, you don't have to follow a set of ingredients, just keep tasting till it tastes right! As with a lot of Asian dishes, I have found, a lot of knowing when the dish is done is based on smell. If you want your fried rice to have a saltier flavor, add more tamari till it smells salty. If you want it to be more vinegary add more vinegar until it smells like you have enough. Personally I prefer more salt to vinegar but to each his own.

Fried Rice for 2

1 cup basmati brown rice, cooked
3 organic carrots, sliced into rounds but not peeled
1/2 red onion, diced
1 portobella cap, cleaned and sliced
toasted sesame oil
brown rice vinegar
braggs liquid amino or tamari
(also consider things like peas, kale - which should be added at the same time as the rice, cabbage, daikon, adzuki beans or water chestnuts)

1. Heat about two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil in your cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and mushrooms. Sautee until the onions are getting translucent and the carrots and mushrooms have taken on a darker, saturated color - about 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Add the already cooked brown basmati rice. Stir the veggies and rice together to mix. Start adding your vinegar and tamari a little at a time. I tend to do about 1-2 tablespoons worth of tamari first, then about a teaspoon of vinegar. Taste.

3. Let the rice and veggies keep cooking until the carrots are soft but certainly not mushy. Keep seasoning as needed. I would guess that I use roughly 3 tbsp of tamari and perhaps 2 tsp of vinegar in all. Serve hot topped with sesame seeds, shriracha or just as is!

For dessert I have been somewhat obsessed with avocado pudding lately. I don't remember where I first saw it but I jotted down the ingredients from somewhere and then just finally got around to making it. SO GOOD!



Oh were you expecting a picture of it? I ate it all....

Avocado Pudding

2 ripe avocados
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp carob or chocolate powder

1. Put it all in a blender. Blend. Eat.

This dessert is so simple and so tasty. Everyone I have made it for, and I have made both carob and chocolate, agree that it has so much more complexity and character than your standard pudding, while still satisfying that fat-kid desire to finish (or start) the meal with a Snack Pack.

Vegan Mofo: Early Fall Avocado Kale Salad

You know those first few days when it first starts to get blustery and the first few leaves begin to shift in color? That time of year is certainly upon us! Soup! Boots! Hot Tea! Everything to get excited for. But I must admit, the end of summer has it's sadness too. The saddest part of summer ending for me is the disappearance or scarcity of some of my favorite summer eats like sweet corn, tomatoes and avocados.

While I'll admit I eat avocados all year round, like its my job, like its going out of style, like your mama gave you...wait that doesn't work....they have a tendency to get, shall we say, poopy after the summer months. So as my last hurrahs of summer come to an end I have been adding in the last of the summer avocados to my salads, sammies and puddings.

This salad is a massaged kale salad. That is, you wont SEE the avocado because it's been used as a massage oil to slap the kale into a more digestible and palatable form.

Massaged Avocado and Kale Salad

1 cup chopped and washed kale, tough end of stems removed
1 cup chopped and washed chard
2 ripe avocados
2 ripe red plums, sliced
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup golden raisins
2 tbsp chia seeds

1. Place the greens in a large bowl. Scoop both avocados out of their shells and into the bowl. Add the lemon juice. Use your hands to massage the avocado into the kale until the greens are soft and dark green. This takes several minutes.

2. Top the salad with plums, raisins and chia seeds. Sprinkle a touch or salt and pepper if desired.

Chop Mexican Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

I've been a bad blogger. I apologize. Here is me trying to get back on the horse. So recently I subscribed to Vegetarian Times magazine. Great mag with lots of healthy, quick meals. For those of you that got the July/August magazine you might remember this recipe. I changed aspects of it to suit my taste, but the credit certainly goes to VT on this meal.

I've been trying to eat more veggies lately. I came to the sad discovery that multivitamins aren't inherently vegetarian. I don't know why I thought they would be, but then I was in the Common Market looking at vitamins and noticed they had a bunch marked vegetarian and vegan. Huh....so I did some research. No more Centrum for me. And hey, here is an idea...why not get my vitamins and minerals from a good diet. Yes!



Mexican Chopped Salad

Salad:
1 small head of romaine, sliced
1/2 bunch spinach, stems removed, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 avocados, diced
1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and then sliced
the corn cut from one fresh cob, raw
1 can black beans
several large pieces of roasted red pepper, sliced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 cup broccoli or alfalfa sprouts

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
juice from one lemon and one lime
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
pinch cayenne pepper


1. Heat the oil, garlic, cumin, coriander, sugar and salt in a saucepan for until the garlic begins to sizzle.
2. Blend the remaining dressing ingredients with the garlic oil. Blend in a blender if you want it to be smooth (I left it chunky)
3. Toss over the chopped salad




I gave this salad to a few friends without the dressing a few days later and the veggies had marinated to the point where they even liked it with no dressing at all. If you want the salad to last a few days keep the avocado on the side and just top each bowl with it rather than putting it in the whole mixture.

Vegan Black Bean and Squash Soup

Pee Pang was kind enough to send me a bag of black beans and made me promise I would post my finished products. I made this soup over Christmas break for New Years and I thought it turned out pretty good and have been craving it ever since. Despite it looking like a bowl of mud I assure you it's delicious!

This recipe comes from the book Love Soup by Anna Thomas who also wrote the Vegetarian Epicure. I got both of these books for Christmas and have been lovingly flipping through them for the last few months. The only problem I have with these books is the lack of pictures. Shouldn't I have the right to know that I'm making mud soup? Im absolutely guilty of buying recipe books based on the pictures inside.



I made some changes to her recipe but I don't deviate too far.

Vegan Black Bean Butternut Squash Soup
For about 6 people

1 1/2 cup dried black beans
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 small butternut squash
1 Tbs olive oil
1-2 yellow onions, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
1 Tbs cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 1/2 cups veggie stock or canned veg broth
2 Tbs lemon juice
For the garnish
avocado, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese or aged cheddar (if you don't care about it being vegan of course)

1. Rinse the black beans and put them in a large pot with 7 cups of water and the garlic. Bring the beans to a boil then simmer, covered for 1 hour or until they are tender. When they are tender (not mushy!) take out 1 to 1 1/2 cup of beans with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. While your beans are cooking, cut the squash in half and place the halves cut side down on a lightly oiled pan and roast them for 45 minutes to an hour or until the squash is soft. When the squash is done take it out of the oven and let it cool slightly, then scoop the insides out into a bowl, making sure not to include any of the skin.
3. While your beans and squash are cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onions, the bay leaf and some salt. Caramelize the onions at a low heat for 25 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and discard.
4. When the beans are tender add the carrot, celery, and jalapeno. Simmer 10 to 12 minutes or until the carrot is soft. Add the squash, onion, cumin and veggie broth. Let cool slightly.
5. Puree the soup in batches or with an immersion blender. Taste and correct seasoning with salt as needed. Add the lemon juice and mix well. Split the soup into bowl and top with garnishes of choice!



A note on cumin: Toasting and Grinding cumin seeds sounds kinda daunting and tiring but I assure you its easy and worth it! Here is how I do it. Put a small sauce pot on the stove on medium high heat and let it warm up. Prepare your measurement of cumin seeds. When the pan is hot, take it off the stove and pour in the cumin seeds (you are still holding the pot by the handle) and shake the pot so that the seeds receive the heat but do not burn on the bottom. The seeds will start to turn a darker shade of brown but will not get black. They will release their aroma and then you know they are ready. Do be careful though - if the seeds get overly toasted they will have a bitter flavor. Pour them into a food processor as soon as they are toasted and grind them to a choppy powder.