Your Vegan Mom

Collard Citrus Salad

 

I'm proud of this recipe.  It's both hearty and light and tart and sweet.  It's got warm toasted walnuts and cold creamy avocado and sweet bites of orange that ooze their juices all over the slivered onion and vinegar and brown sugar to make a zesty dressing right in the bottom of the bowl.  Married with a tangle of the thinnest ribbons of deep dark collard leaves, a little drizzle of olive oil, and a pinch of salt, you have the perfect winter salad.  It's both what you are supposed to be eating and what you want to eat.  I love it when that happens.  

Also, you should know, I made this for Paul and me, just not thinking that shredded raw collard greens would be a kid thing, but Desmond totally dug it.  We had to share.  Two-year-old Felix on the other hand, no, but that kid won't eat anything these days.  He's terribly two.  He's definitely going through that whole exerting his independence thing.  While many of his choices (no greens, lemon lollipop for breakfast, arched-back limp-limbed freak-outs) are frustrating, others are totally cute like insisting on wearing his brother's size 5 astronaut costume to school or belting out Baby Beluga when you least expect it.  Salty and sweet that one is too.  

Sweet Potato Tots

 

It's Valentine's Day next Tuesday, and that, of course, means that you need to know how to make sweet potato tots.  Can you think of a better way to show your love than with the delicate crunch of fried potato giving way to its sweet and creamy insides as it's dipped into a cool and smoky sauce - each nugget lovingly shaped between your fingers rather than shaken out of the freezer bag? Homemade tater tots?  That's love, man.

Party Snacks for Super Heroes

 

I took an informal poll recently of a few friends and family members gathered around the table.  The results surprised me.  So I'm putting the question to you a bit more guardedly.  My expectations are lowered, but still I have to ask -   

When you were a kid, were you pretty sure you could fly if you just ran fast enough or really, really tried?

Roasted Kale and How to Dress Your Seitan

To recap, for Thanksgiving 2011, so far we have made a 2-pound hunk of seitan that will become your Thanksgiving roast and, more importantly, the protein bit in your post-Thanksgiving sandwich.  At the same time, we made about 6 cups of tasty broth to use in your stuffing and gravy.  We made the gravy - cashew mushroom to be precise, and it's delicious.  Now, with Thanksgiving just two days away, it's time to talk about how you're going to serve the seitan.  

Just like a tofurky from the store, you can surround it with any vegetables that you like roasted for an hour.  The roots are classics here.  You could not go wrong with a combination of potatoes, onions, parsnips, and carrots.  But if you're having mashed potatoes as well (and you are, aren't you?), well then this classic combo might feel a bit redundant.  

I wanted something green and bright, but that could withstand all that cooking.  

I turned to my old pal, kale, and he did not let me down.

Around the World with Bryanna Clark Grogan

Nine years ago this December, Paul and I got married.  After the stress of fabricating the most perfect day in our entire lives, I didn't care where we went on our honeymoon as long as it was warm and we could lounge.  We settled on Montreal.  In December.  

I can't remember precisely how we settled on Montreal.  In December.  But I had always wanted to go there, and we have an irritating tendency to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing even when they are right.  

So we went to Montreal.  In December.  And everyone there was eating poutine - a snacky, regional specialty of fries slathered in cheese curds and brown sauce.  And we wanted in.  So on one of our last days in the city, in a movie theater no less, Paul asked the French Canadian in charge, "Could we get an order of poutine without meat or cheese?"  With a mixture of French Canadian bewilderment and disdain, the concessionaire told Paul, "It is made of meat.  It is meat sauce."    

Unsatiated, I've had a niggling desire for poutine for the last nine years... until Bryanna Clark Grogan's new cookbook, World Vegan Feast, arrived on my doorstep in August.  Flipping through the roster of international recipes - Spanish Omelet - Saigon Crepes - Serbian Braised Sauerkraut and Seitan - South African Bobotie - Moroccan Bisteeya - Vegan Poutine - I knew where we would begin.