Cookbook Project Week 5: Appetite for Reduction

The update to Veggiegirl.com is coming along swimmingly, so things will be pretty quiet over there on this blog while I'm working on the new one. I will be sure to let you know when the new blog is in place. In the meantime, back to my cookbook project...

This week's cookbook is Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. This book was just published a few months ago. I really didn't need another cookbook, but the Decemberists made it buy it.  Actually, it was getting good reviews and some of the recipes looked really yummy so I bought it. The book is full of nutritional info and the recipes include lots of veggies, especially greens, so it gets a big thumbs up from me. The dishes are really delicious too - they're not what you would expect from "diet food". Just like with other cookbooks in my project, I was able to get two meals from most dishes, so Dennis and I were able to have leftovers for lunch from most of these meals.

My one teeny tiny complaint about the book is that recipes start on right hand pages and continue onto the back of the page. I use a covered recipe stand, which makes flipping pages while I'm cooking difficult. As a designer myself, I know that it's good practice to start something a right hand page, because people look at pages on the right first. But for a cookbook it's not very practical. I love my recipe stand because it keeps my books from getting covered in my dinner and it spares counter space in my tiny kitchen, but I wasn't always able to use it while cooking with this book.

 Forty Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli was one of the recipes that made me want to buy this book. This was super duper easy to make and really tasty. I doubled the recipe so I'd have some leftover for lunch the next day because I knew we'd each eat more a "serving" size.

 Chickpea Piccata was actually the clincher for me when considering buying this book. It's served with Caulipots (mashed cauliflower and potatoes) and arugula. It was really delicious. 

 Upside Down Shepherd's Pie is also served with Caulipots, so I made a double batch. This was really nice and warming - the perfect dish for winter!

Isa posted the recipe for this Tempeh Helper on her blog about a year or so ago, so I've made this recipe a few times already and I really love it. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of broth powder and two cups of water. In the past I've skipped the powder and water and just used liquid broth, but this time I followed the directions and used a powder. I wasn't crazy about the flavor of it, so this dish wasn't as good as it was in the past. It's still a favorite of mine though!

I love tacos, so I really wanted to try Zucchini, Black Bean and Olive Tacos. These had a really nice flavor. The recipe made eight tacos, but they weren't filling, so Dennis and I actually had four each for dinner!

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Quick Fix Vegetarian

Operation Cook Book is in full swing! This week I cooked several dishes from Robin Robertson's Quick Fix Vegetarian. What I really like about this book is that it's full of creative flavorful recipes that all take half an hour or less to make - proof that quick vegan dishes don't have to be bland or boring. Despite the name, the dishes are all egg and dairy free. I also like the clean page layout of one recipe per page. I really hate when recipes run into each other on a page! My one complaint is that I think the dishes don't have enough veggies. That's a simple fix though - just add more veggies!

Polenta and Pinto Bean Pie. This recipe is super easy to make and really tasty. It's basically pre-cooked polenta, a jar of salsa mixed with a can of pinto beans, tortilla chips and cheese, all baked together. I added sautéed peppers and onions to mix.

 Spicy Coconut Rice Noodles with Tofu and Cilantro. I added red peppers and snow peas to this dish to make it a complete meal. Yum!

 Tempeh with Coconut Peanut Sauce. By now, I think my love of peanut sauce is well known, and because of it, this was my favorite dish that I made from Quick Fix Vegetarian. I made a peanuty kale dish from this month's issue of Vegetarian Times to go with it. When Dennis had the leftovers for lunch the next day, a few coworkers followed their noses to his office and asked what the amazing smell was!

 Stir-Fried Tofu and Vegetable Teriyaki. I loooove teriyaki sauce, and this dish was quite delicious. 

Udon Noodles with Bok Choy and Creamy Tahini Sauce. This recipe called for baby bok choy, which I couldn't find, so I used the regular sized variety. I added red peppers and shittake mushrooms for some color and because I wanted a few more veggies in the dish. The tahini sauce was so good that I'm sure I'll be using it again on other dishes!

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Tempeh Fricassee

As I mentioned last week, I grew up eating things out of boxes, bags and cans. I never at anything with any kind of exotic sounding name like scallopini, marsala, piccata or fricassee. Until recently, I didn't even know what dishes with those names were. Fortunately, veganizing those meals is very easy.

I saw a recipe for Tempeh Fricassee and it looked so good that I wanted to try it, even though I didn't know what fricassee meant. It turns out it's a catch-all term used for a stew. It's usually made with meat that's been stewed in gravy. This recipe uses tempeh, mushrooms and leeks. The recipe calls for celery leaves and herbs to be tied together, added to the stew and later removed, but I skipped that step and used dried herbs instead. I also altered the recipe slightly by adding a little cornstarch to thicken the stew. This was really, really delicious, and it was a nice warming meal for a cold evening.

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Tempeh Scallopini

Growing up, my diet wasn't very varied. I my meals were usually things that came out of bags, boxes and cans. Dinners were usually tacos, hamburgers and fries, chicken cutlets with Rice-A-Roni, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese or pizza. The only fresh vegetables I remember eating was iceberg lettuce, which was always smothered in French dressing. I was still living at home when I went vegetarian, and I pretty much had to teach myself how to cook so I wouldn't starve. So when I was younger I never had any kind of adventurous or "exotic" food and when I was older, I never cooked any kind of meat. I certainly never ate or cooked anything scallopini. I didn't even know what kind of food is usually made scallopini, so I had to look it up. (It's usually chicken.) But none the less, tempeh scallopini looked really appealing to me. 

This recipe is from the Candle Cafe cookbook. It was given to me for my birthday in June and I haven't made anything out of it yet, so it was time to try something. The recipe calls for two blocks of tempeh, which was too much for just Dennis and I, so I only used one block but I cut the pieces smaller than the recipe said. I still made the amount of mushrooms and shallots, because I wanted dinner to be veggie heavy. The tempeh was cut up and then baked in a marinade for half an hour. The shallots and mushrooms were sautéed together and then set aside. After the temepeh was baked, it was dredged in flour (I used brown rice flour) and then fried in the leftover marinade. Then the mushrooms are cooked again in a red wine and lemon juice and served over the temeph. I served the dish with a side of sautéed kale. This dinner was really, really good and I know I'll make it again. It's quite a huge change from the food I grew up on, and now I know that I like scallopini!

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Vegan MoFo!

Welcome to Vegan MoFo! Vegan MoFo stands for Vegan Month of Food and it's basically a month of blogging about food. So I'll pretty much be doing what I normally do when I blog!

This is one of those "what's in the fridge?" meals. I didn't have much in the house and I didn't feel like going to the grocery store. I had some carrots, acorn squash and parsnips that I cut up and mixed with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. I then roasted everything together with some garlic cloves on 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. I had a package of tempeh that I sliced into 6 pieces and marinaded in olive oil and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. I then panfried it until it was crispy on both sides. I also had some Swiss chard that sautéed and served on the side. This meal was perfect, but alas, it did totally empty out my fridge and I was forced to go shopping!

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Cauliflower Cashew Curry

I love this time of year, because I love stews and curries. This cauliflower cashew curry recipe from 101 Cookbooks is a fall/winter favorite of mine. I didn't make this dish at all last winter because I was avoiding both coconut and soy. But since I've added them back into my diet, I've been looking forward to making it again. I used tempeh instead of tofu and served the dish with black rice. I doubled the recipe so there would be leftovers for lunches. It was delicious!

Since the Great Cauliflower Incident of July, I have been able to work through my fear of cauliflower. But I am still only able to buy pre-cut cauliflower. Pre-cut veggies are more expensive but cut down on prep time and make cooking on busy weeknights easy, so I'm okay with the extra cost. And of course, there's the peace of mind that comes from knowing there aren't any large bugs setting up house in the middle of my veggies.

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