Your Vegan Mom

Super Easy Homemade Baked Applesauce

I am surrounded by apples.  The preschool just completed their fall fundraiser apple sale and shelves and drawers and bowls are now spilling over with fragrant red and yellow fruit.

And I just finished reading The Orchard by Theresa Weir.  Have you read it?  It's both a memoir of her time living on an apple farm in Henderson County, Illinois in the seventies and eighties and a parable of the dangers of conventional farming.  She experiences firsthand the effects that pesticides and other farm chemicals have on the families whose livelihood is raising our food.  The book reads like chick lit - it's a quick, easy read - there's romance - but at the same time, it makes real what for many is just a vague idea - that there is a human cost to that piece of cheap flawless fruit in the grocery store that is far greater than what we are paying.  

And then my weekly produce box showed up, with more apples.  

So when I came across a recipe I wanted to try that called for applesauce, I thought, there is no flipping way that I am buying a jar of flipping applesauce. 

And I love Amelia Saltsman's technique for making it at home.  You cut the apples in half, roast them, and then scrape out the soft flesh.  It could not be easier.  She suggests you roast the apples with thyme and use a smidgen of calvados or cider to deglaze the pan, and that makes me want to throw a Hannukah party for grown-ups.  But my day to day applesauce needs are for the 2 to 5 year old set and their simple palates.  I did throw a few beautiful yellow pears into the mix that had recently fallen prey to a dangerous game of fridge jenga, and they added a nice floral sweetness to the sauce.  Also, it's important to note - if you use a red variety of apple, your sauce will blush a beautiful rosy pink.  That color, and the smell of roasting apples filling your house, just cannot be bought in a jar at Trader Joe's.  

Your Tuesday Tip: Halloween Soup

Black sesame seeds make good eyes for (vegan) sour cream ghosts floating in a bowl of black bean soup.  Pipe the sour cream from a plastic sandwich bag with a tiny corner snipped off.  You could even get fancy and pour the soup side by side with a sweet potato bisque, gently swirling them together with a knife to make spooky patterns, but next time I'll just stick with a simple black bean soup.   

Fig Tart

Our best pals are in town, and I am beside-myself excited.  I made a tart this morning to celebrate - my favorite tart filled with my best pal's favorite fruit.

I remember a few years ago in the LA Times food section, Russ Parsons talking about how easy it is to make frangipane (that puffy almond-y paste) in the food processor, and when I looked at the recipe I realized that it would totally work with flax-y goop in place of the egg, but it took me until now to actually try it.

It works.  Beautifully.

So, here's Your Tuesday Tip:

Any vegan can tell you that 1 tablespoon flax meal + 3 tablespoons water = 1 flax egg, which works well in most baked goods - cookies and muffins and pancakes and such.  If you let it sit for about 5 minutes and then whisk it up, you will see that it has created an egg-like gel that will work as a binder. 

But you should also know, that if you need to replace an egg yolk, in say a sweet tart dough, you can just cut the water in half.  So 1 tablespoon flax meal + 1 1/2 tablespoons water = 1 flax egg yolk.

Armed with flax eggs and vegan butter, a half dozen figs and a bag of almond meal from Trader Joe's, you have everything you need to veganify and fig-ify, Dorie Greenspan's excellent tart recipe.  

Mushroom and Brussels Sprouts Gratin

Thanksgiving went well this year.  Nothing was burned.  Nobody got the flu, or a flat tire, or had to trudge six miles through the snow for an emergency pack of disposable diapers.  It was leisurely and well-planned, for once, and hopefully for always.  We went simple with the tofurky feast.  It comes with cake now.  And a wishbone and gravy and a postcard, which I'm sending you right now.

When Desmond and I broke the wishbone and he won, he announced that he had wished for the whole cake.  Fortunately at four he doesn't understand the intricacies of wishes yet - too young to understand that if you say it aloud it doesn't come true.  Later, he did eat most of it.  And I'm pretty sure he polished off the rest for breakfast dessert the next day.  Holidays have special rules.  The boys' Uncle Denny declared that the cake tasted like paint, but the rest of us were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the defrosted chocolate loaf - it was moist, with a mild chocolate flavor.  You could totally pass it off as homemade.

The tofurky made a reliable centerpiece, as well as sandwiches the next day, and as always, the rich brown vegan gravy was coveted by the dwindling number of turkey eaters in the party.

Everything was delicious, from the sweet potato casserole to the classic jellied cranberry sauce, to the mashed potatoes, to the sourdough stuffing, but what stood out was the one dish that I had gambled on this year - the mushroom and brussels sprouts casserole.  It's the traditional green bean affair down to the crunchy onions on top, but with nary a canned vegetable or cream of anything in sight.  It was comforting and delicious and not at all disgusting in that way that so many traditional Thanksgiving dishes are - shockingly loved out of some sense of nostalgia or commitment.  Every component here tasted good on its own terms, silky and lush, slightly bitter and then sweet, hearty and warm and creamy and then crisp, even if it did sort of nudge you in the ribs and whisper, "Hey remember that other dish?  The one with the canned green beans and mushroom soup.  That's totally gross.  Call me gratin." 

Mushroom and Brussels Sprouts Gratin 

• 1 stalk of brussels sprouts (or about 1 1/2 pounds loose sprouts)
• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus a tiny bit extra for roasting the sprouts
• 3 tablespoons non-dairy butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups broth 
• 1 1/2 cups soy milk
• salt 
• pepper
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/3 - 1/2 can fried onions (This pop-top doesn't count as a canned vegetable; it's a whole unimpeachable class of food.  Do it.  Oh, and the leftovers are great on top of veggie burgers slathered in barbecue sauce.) 

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Trim brussels sprouts, toss with a small swirl of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and spread out on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until browned.  

In the meantime, heat the oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms, toss in the hot oil, and let cook until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.  Add the shallot and a pinch of salt.  Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir.  Cook, stirring occasionally for about 2 - 3 minutes, until the shallot is transparent, the whole pot is incredibly fragrant, and the mushrooms have given off their liquid.  Add the flour to the pan.  Stir and cook for about a minute until the flour has become a slightly toasty paste.  Slowly stir in the broth and milk.  Add a pinch of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir and cook until the sauce is smooth and heated through and has thickened to the consistency of a cream soup.  This will just take a minute or two.  You don't need to bring it to a boil.  

Add the roasted brussels sprouts to the mushroom sauce.  Pour the whole thing into a three quart casserole pan.  Top with fried onion pieces.   Return to oven and bake until bubbling, another 15 - 20 minutes.  

Cooking Light: Way to Cook Vegetarian

  This photo is used with permission from the book.  That's cheese there on top.  I obviously skipped that garnish.  Diced avocado would be a nice vegan replacement.  

I was skeptical.  I assumed that most of the recipes in Cooking Light's new vegetarian cookbook would be filled with non-fat milk and light cheese products.  And there are a number of these sorts of recipes, but there is also a ton here to recommend this book to the vegans.  From Malaysian Noodles to Tempeh Fajitas, there are loads of crowd-pleasing healthy recipes for realistic meals.  I've made the Mexican Bean Soup with Corn Dumplings three times now, for five different families, to universal raves.  It's a simple, flavorful, hearty winter meal of a soup, with an ingenious twist in the form of masa harina dumplings.   You essentially make tiny balls of corn tortilla dough and plop them into the simmering soup near the end of cooking.  I just love this idea.  And it turns out as delicious as I had hoped.

The book is also filled with appealing photos and really informative step-by-step photo diagram how-tos that make this a great introductory cook book.  There's one on how to saute tofu and another on how to prepare spaghetti squash.  Yet another teaches you how to properly roll maki which I plan to study before my next sushi making adventure because, man, my rolls are sloppy.  

I have a list of a dozen recipes from this book that I still want to try and leafing through the pages right now I find myself getting excited about it all over again.  I had forgotten about the flaky dinner rolls that look just perfect for a holiday table and oh! the stuffed Moroccan flatbreads.  The baking recipes list ingredients by both weight and volume.  Thank you.  And it's this sort of attention to detail and recipe precision that really sets this book apart.  

Here have a taste -

Mexican Tomato-Bean Soup with Corn Dumplings 

Soup:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 cups organic vegetable broth (I used the cooking broth from the chickpeas.)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained

Dumplings:

• 1/3 cup masa harina
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 1 teaspoon olive oil

Remaining Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1. To prepare soup, heat 2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven (or big pot) over medium-high heat.  Add onion; saute 3 minutes or until tender.  Add chili powder and garlic; saute 30 seconds.  Add broth and next 6 ingredients; bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.

2. To prepare dumplings, combine masa harina and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl.  Add 3 tablespoons hot water and 1 teaspoon oil; stir until a soft dough forms (dough will be dry).  Divide dough into 24 pieces, shaping each into a ball.  Add dumplings to soup; cook, uncovered, 3 minutes or until dumplings float.  Stir in cilantro and juice.  Ladle 1 cup soup into each of 4 bowls.  

Yield: 4 servings