Your Vegan Mom

Bacon and Chive Potato Salad

So the best gal's baby shower is over and I think was enjoyed by all.  We barbecued sausages and peppers and onions and ate heaps of my dad's guacamole.  There was a big ol' green salad made by a soon-to-be-grandma and hungarian cookies and ice cream from Scoops.  We decorated the tables with pinwheels and candles in jars and bowls of popcorn and candy and platters of watermelon.  We played bocce ball and flew kites and talked about babies.  We lounged in the sun and then visited in the flicker of candle light. It was a nice, nice day.  

Oh, and also, there was potato salad - a potato salad that I've been making all summer and thought you might enjoy on this one last big summer weekend.  I hope yours is lovely - maybe enjoyed near the beach?  Somewhere where the air quality is not hazardous?      

Bacon and Chive Potato Salad
makes about 4 generous side servings

1 1/2 pounds red potatoes (about 10 smallish)
2 tablespoons snipped chives
2 tablespoons bac'un bits

dressing:
1/3 cup vegenaise
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 1/2 teaspoons dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste (about 1/4 teaspoon of each suits me fine)

Dice the potatoes into 1/2 inch chunks.  In a medium sauce pan, cover them with cold water and a few pinches of salt.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender but not mushy and falling apart.  Drain and set aside to cool.  Whisk together ingredients for dressing.  Place chives and bac'un bits in a large bowl, cover with warm potatoes.  Add dressing and toss.  Chill for an hour or even overnight before serving either cold or at room temperature.  

Happy Three Day Weekend!  

A Week of Summer: The Meal Salad

I really like the Vegan Cobb at Swinger's.  What's your favorite meal salad in Los Angeles?

The Salad Bar

It is impossible to find one meal that seven kids will like.  Even when the oldest in the bunch is 32. When Mom and Terry came back from their Mediterranean cruise last week we managed to get all the step-kids together for a quick jet lagged meal before a couple of them scooted off to work.  So the limitations on this dinner were two-fold: it needed to be extraordinarily simple to prepare, and please the disparate palates and dietary restrictions of nine family members.   Present at the meal were: no-nuts-vegan, regular-vegan, lactose-intolerant-meat-eater, sometimes-vegetarian, I've-just-gorged-myself-on-vacation-and-I-am-only-eating-salad-and-water-for-the-rest-of-my-life, no-onions-please, and y'all-are-so-freakin'-picky.   A build-your-own salad bar was clearly in order.  The base salad consisted of mixed greens, strawberries, oranges, finely diced bell pepper, and avocado.  Available add-ons were soy chicken, toasted pecans, probably some kind of cheese, and actual chicken (ooh gross).  Here was the dressing, served on the side of course (to please the I-only-eat-Thousand-Island contingent):

Orange-Serrano Vinaigrette with Marinated Red Onions

1/2 cup orange juice (2 valencia oranges worth)

zest of one organic orange (ooh, don't eat the peel if it's been sprayed)

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 serrano chile, minced

1 teaspoon sugar

a pinch of cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1 red onion, sliced thinly

Add all ingredients to a jar big enough to hold them and shake (mine was pint size, with a wide mouth), if you don't have a jar, a bowl will do, but then you can't shake and everyone knows it's more fun to shake.  Refrigerate for a couple hours or even overnight to allow the red onion to get sweet and mild.  Everyone agrees on the sharp taste of raw onion.  Right? 

The Story of the Magic Beans

Once upon a time there was a bag of beans. They looked like ordinary beans if a little on the small side. Just by looking at them you would never know it, but they were magic.

New to town, and knowing nothing of the special powers of the famed local legumes, a little boy and his mama innocently grabbed them off the shelf of the neighborhood Kroger. They brought them home and cooked them, more or less, according to package directions:

Cover with 10 cups water and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Simmer about one hour. Saute 1 minced onion and 1 clove garlic in a teaspoon of butter. Add to the bean pot along with a pinch of thyme, a bay leaf, salt and pepper. Gently simmer for about half an hour or until the beans are soft and flavorful.

That very night they ate those magic beans with sauteed spinach over rice. The next day they ate the beans again. This time the mama just threw some shredded kale and cubes of smoked tofu right into the pot. Again, with a bit of rice and a shake of hot sauce, they had a delicious meal. You might think the story ends here, but we couldn't rightly call those beans magic if that were so.

When the family woke up the next day, there were still beans in the pot. Maybe even more beans than the day before. The family sure liked those beans, but they were ready for a change. Thinking quickly, the papa grabbed a fork and smashed them up. Good thing too. If it weren't for his quick thinking and agile bean smashing that pot would have lasted until the wee babe was a grown man himself with children of his own to tend to. The papa added some vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast and cajun seasoning and turned those beans into seitan cutlets!

Along with mashed potatoes and gravy, those southern bean cutlets made a hearty meal.

The next day was bright and sunny and the family decided to go on a picnic. Dressed as cutlets, the beans came too. With apple-pecan coleslaw and a view of Caddo Lake, the family gobbled up that seitan.

But there were still some left! The next day, while the baby was sleeping, the mama was h-u-n-g-r-y. She sliced a cutlet thin, simmered it with barbecue sauce, heaped some left over coleslaw on a bun and enjoyed an excellent sandwich all by herself.

And wouldn't you know? That wasn't the end of those beans. They turned up the next night in cutlets again coated with a sweet hot sauce glaze. Before they skipped town for good, they made one last appearance as strips of buffalo seitan on a bed of mixed greens drizzled with buttermilk ranch.

Now I can't be certain where or when those beans will turn up again, but I can say that that happy bean eatin' family lived happily ever after.

The End

March Salad

1 bunch watercress, chopped
1 cara cara orange, cut off peel and chop into small segments
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1 smallish handful toasted pistachios

squeeze of lime juice
drizzle of agave nectar
shake of salt
shake of cayenne

Toss and serve.

Notes: Tonight I'm going to use romaine rather than watercress. Also, I'm going to roast a beet, dice it and throw it in hot? Maybe. I love hot and cold contrast in a salad, but then you have to eat it fast, because I don't love everything kind of warm in a salad.

Thoughts? How would you improve on this "recipe"? What is you current house salad?

Another little note: I just made a quick version with romaine because I was embarrassed by the lighting in the watercress photo. Oh my, is that a good salad.