Thai Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber Relish

This recipe was on Vegan Dad quite awhile ago, and as with the recent tempeh recipe, I had been meaning to make it for quite a while. As I had my reservations (and as I am only one person!), I only made a half batch, and I think this was probably wise: I wasn't crazy about how these turned out. To be fair, I did not have red curry paste or oyster sauce, so these may have not tasted all too similar to the original. Still, I appreciate the idea, and I am going to use this method again. Although making little cakes (much smaller than burgers) is an unnecessary hassle (especially when you end up, like I did, putting the leftovers into some sort of weird Thai burrito), it's rather fun, even cute:


Re: the relish: I would have liked less onion and vinegar, more spices or herbs or something. Eating raw onions makes me unbelievably thirsty--is this typical? As for the cakes, I can see how the nori is supposed to make the cakes taste more "fishy," but it didn't really happen. Maybe a different sea vegetable? In any case, a fun idea that merits further experimentation.

Thai Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber Relish

(from Vegan Dad)

Ingredients
Cucumber Relish
1/4 c rice vinegar
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 c diced cucumber

Chickpea Cakes
1 nori sheet
1 19oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp red curry paste, or to taste (I used rooster paste, ground cumin, etc.)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce (I omitted)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oil
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c frozen french cut beans, thawed

Instructions
Relish

1. Heat vinegar, sugar and water over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add garlic, ginger, and shallots. When cool, add cucumber and mix well. Let marinate for as long as possible.

Chickpea Cakes (makes 12)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
1. Rip up the nori sheet and place in a food processor with the blade attachment. Process on high speed until chopped into small pieces. Add chickpeas curry paste and pulse until chopped up but not like a paste (you're not making hummus here).
2. Dump chickpeas in a bowl, add sauces, oil, lime juice and mix well. Add cornstarch and mix well. Add beans and mix well.
3. Using wet hands, press mixture into a moistened 1/4 cup measure (don't fill it right up--more like 1/3 full. Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining mixture.
4. Spray cakes lightly with oil and bake for 15 mins, or until golden--don't over bake or they will be dry. Serve with relish.
5. You can also fry them for about 3 mins per side in 350 degree vegetable oil.

Orange Pan-Glazed Tempeh

This was really good! I saw this on 101 Cookbooks a while ago, and had been meaning to try it, but the words "Pan-Glazed" put me off--it sounded labor-intensive. Far from it! This recipe is really easy, and it tastes phenomenal. The tempeh is moist, chewy, and flavorful. I found that the orange tasted a little bitter, though; I might use more sugar the next time, or it might have just been the particular oranges I used (not that they weren't really nice oranges--my friend picked them in her backyard). As Heidi Swanson notes on the original recipe, you could use tofu in this recipe, too.  Update, February 2010: For tofu version, see Orange Pan-Glazed Tofu.

Orange Pan-Glazed Tempeh
(from 101 Cookbooks)

Ingredients
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (3-4 large juicy oranges)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (or puree from a jar)
2 teaspoons tamari
1 1/2 tablespoons mirin (I used rice vinegar)
2 tsp brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
roughly 10 ounces of tempeh
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 lime
a handful of cilantro leaves

Instructions

1. Put the orange juice in a small bowl. Squeeze the grated ginger over the bowl to extract the juices, then discard the pulp. Add the tamari, mirin, sugar, ground coriander, and garlic. Mix together and set aside.
2. Cut the tempeh into thin-ish, bite-sized pieces.
3. Put the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the tempeh and fry for 5 minutes, or until golden underneath. Turn and cook the other side for another 5 minutes, or until golden. Pour the orange juice mixture into the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced to a lovely thick glaze. Turn the tempeh once more during this time and spoon the sauce over the tempeh from time to time.
4. Serve the tempeh drizzled with any remaining sauce and a squeeze of lime, with the coriander scattered on top. Serves about 3.

Granola

Granola

I feel like every granola recipe has a cheesy alliterative modifier preceding it. "Groovy granola" or "great granola" or "gratuitous granola," etc. Yet I think this is just granola. And it still needs some work.

Like the broccoli-lentil salad, this is a recipe I made a lot during my ascetic life outside of academia. It's cheap and relatively nutritious. Remaking this recipe now, I think I skimped on sugar and nuts. Although the molasses and walnuts taste great after being toasted, the granola didn't form enough chunks. Any thoughts about how to improve this granola, besides using more molasses? Perhaps different cooking time or temp?

Update 2/6: Granola epiphany--a better way to make granola.

Granola

Ingredients
3 1/4 c rolled oats
3/4 c flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
½ c crushed walnuts
1/8 c sesame seeds
1/8 c flax seeds
*
1/3 c canola oil
1/3 c molasses
1 tsp vanilla
*
2/3 c raisins

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325*. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for about 40 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. When golden brown, remove from oven, allow to cool, and toss with raisins. Store in a dry and sealed container.

Generic yet tasty

Not much to say here. Plain foods can taste great when you use spices. Bay leaves and toasted cumin give this dish a warmth or a roundness. Or maybe that's just because it's hot lentils. The lentils and carrots should be well cooked but still have some texture.

Curried lentils, carrots, and spinach over basmati rice

Ingredients
2 TB olive oil

3 TB cumin seeds

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, diced

*

1 bay leaf

2 carrots, chopped

1/2-1 c lentils
2 TB tomato paste

1-2 c stock or water

salt to taste

2 c fresh spinach, stems removed and washed

Instructions

1. Toast cumin seeds. Reserve half, and grind the rest.

2. In a large skillet, heat oil over low-medium heat. Add spices (including ground cumin) and cook until fragrant. Add onion and garlic, stir to coat, and cook until vegetables begin to brown.

3. Add bay leaf, carrots, lentils, tomato paste, liquid, and salt, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally. Add water as needed, cooking 30-35 minutes or until lentils are soft. Stir in spinach and reserved cumin seeds and cook 5-10 more minutes. Serve over rice. Serves at least 4.

Chocolate-Almond Brownies

I decided to make brownies to take to a gathering this evening. But wow... once I started looking at recipes and blog posts, I realized that the brownie is like the [insert perfect French phrase here--I'm sure there is one] of vegan baking. That is, the perfect vegan brownie is sort of a mark of competence. Everyone wants to make them. Everyone has a recipe. How to decide?

I knew I didn't want to make brownies with tofu or beans or anything weird in them. I ended up starting with the recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking because it seemed pretty basic. Having made many of the recipes in this book, however, I knew that the author tends to put a great deal more sugar in her recipes than I would, so I reduced the sugar by 33% (but then increased it a bit). I also used Zulka sugar, this less-refined-looking sugar that's made in Mexico, because it looked like it would be better in baking than turbinado sugar, and it wasn't any more expensive than the normal refined white sugar ($1.59 for 2 lbs at Jons). There also wasn't any fat in the recipe besides in the chocolate chips and the negligible amount in some flaxseed, so I un-substituted some of the recipe's applesauce for buttery-tasting corn oil (people typically go the other direction to reduce the fat).

Having worked in more than one bakery-café, I’m also aware that nuts in brownies are a contentious issue. But as I like nuts, and as I wanted to avoid winding up with a textureless glop of chocolate in a pan, I went for nuts (also for the sake of texture, I subbed whole wheat flour for 25% of the white flour). Slivered almonds were what I had, so I toasted and chopped them. I’m not sure if toasting improved the flavor and texture of some rather sad nuts, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. Since I was adding almonds, I also added a bit of almond extract.

In the end, this brownie needed a little more sugar to taste as chocolatey as it should (cf. Chocolate-Coconut Muffins). The texture, after only 35 minutes of baking, was very moist but not gooey (i.e., it was "cakey"). Despite the lack of eggs, the brownies held together and came easily out of the pan, and the edges were slightly chewy. 1 c of nuts ended up being a lot, and I would use less next time. The recipe has been adjusted to address these changes. Also, this recipe was a bit more complicated than it needed to be. Although it asks for you to mix water and flaxseed separately before adding it to the other wet ingredients, there is so much more water than flaxseed that this is something of a moot point. Overall, I'm quite happy with how this brownie turned out.

Chocolate-Almond Brownies

(adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking)

Ingredients
1 1/4 c sugar
½ c unsweetened applesauce
¼ c corn oil
generous ½ c water
2 tsp ground flaxseed
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
*
1 c white flour
1/3 c whole wheat flour
¾ c unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped dark eating chocolate
1/2-1 c almonds, toasted (optional) and coarsely chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Oil an 8x8 baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, combine ingredients sugar through almond extract. In another bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just enough to mix.
3. Pour into baking dish. Bake 35-40 minutes (depending on your oven, and on your preference for gooey or cakey brownies).

Roasted Fennel with Orange

Fennel is a rather controversial vegetable. In fact, besides cilantro, what is more controversial than licorice flavors? I have to admit, I've never been a huge fan, but I'd been curious about fennel for a while now, and this recipe seemed promising. I used stock with lemon juice instead of a whole cup of orange juice; otherwise, this recipe is pretty close to the original. To me, it tastes a bit like Thanksgiving, which surprises me, given that fennel most certainly did not play an important role in Thanksgivings growing up. Yet perhaps the mellow flavors of the roasted onion, with the citrus and the rosemary, do the trick. In any case, this dish ended up being far tastier than I expected--even as cold leftovers. Ideally, the onions and fennel should be tender but not yet totally mushy.

Roasted Fennel with Orange
(adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

Ingredients
2-3 TB olive oil
1 bulb fennel, in very thin moon slices (trim, and reserve green fronds)
1 onion, in very thin moon slices
1 orange, in very thin moon slices
1 c vegetable stock
1 TB lemon or orange juice
1 tsp dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 500*.
2. In a cast iron skillet, heat olive oil over medium low heat and add fennel, onion, and orange.
3. Add stock, juice, and rosemary, and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Place skillet in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes, until vegetables are soft and just beginning to get brown and crispy.
5. Garnish with green fennel fronds.

Green Hummus

Those who have visited the prepared foods section of a WholeFoods may have noticed a bright green hummus sitting coyly in the corner of a fridge case or salad bar. This yummy hummus (yummus?) contains large quantities of parsley and scallions, and it is pretty easy to reproduce with success.

Today, however, I present a different kind of green hummus, born, as usual, out of necessity/chance/convenience. Certain circumstances meant that I wound up with a TON of cooked mung beans in my fridge. I also recently purchased a new, small, steel frying pan, for which this receipe was a perfect maiden voyage (I'm slowly phasing out all my scary teflon-coated pans).

FYI: The mung bean is a small, lovely-green bean (about the shape and size of an adzuki bean) which appears most commonly in South and East Asian cuisines.

Frying the garlic gives it a toastier, less intimidating flavor (I usually don't bother, but it's probably worth it). The chopped cilantro not only adds deliciousness, but also amps up the green shade of the mung beans from puke to a lovely pistachio color. My guess is that due to the fresh greens, this hummus won't keep as long as your typical homemade hummus.

Green Mung Bean Hummus

Ingredients
2 c mung beans, cooked until very soft
2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
1-2 TB olive oil
1 c fresh cilantro, chopped (plus some for garnish)
1/4 c tahini (optional but will give a creamier taste and texture)
ample cumin, cayenne, and salt to taste

Instructions

1. In a small frying pan, saute garlic in olive oil over low heat until browned and fragrant. Remove from heat and allow to cool while you are chopping the cilantro.
2. In a blender or food processor, blend all the ingredients (including oil and garlic). Adjust seasonings to taste. Garnish with additional cilantro, cumin, cayenne, and/or olive oil. Makes 2+ cups.