Tag Archives: cookbook

Spinach Spaghetti with Pesto from Vegan on the Cheap

Spinach Spaghetti with Pesto

Hello VegCookbook Clubbers!

I made one dish from our May VegCookbook (Vegan on the Cheap) last week, and it was a goodie: Spinach Spaghetti with Pesto. The recipe is actually called Linguine with Variations on Pesto, but I used spinach spaghetti, that had 7 grams of protein in it, instead of plain linguine. I topped it with some chickpeas sauteed in oil, with salt and pepper, for even more protein (otherwise, I’ll eat the whole pot of pasta!).

VegCookBook Club Story Swap
Because last week was the end of April, and the beginning of May, folks cooked from two cookbooks:

Vegan on the Cheap (our May VegCookbook)

How It All Vegan! (our April VegCookbook)

What did you VegCook last week?

Tuscan White Bean Pizza Recipe from Vegan on the Cheap

tuscan white bean pizza from vegan on the cheapIf you haven’t gotten your copy of our May VegCookbook,  Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson, yet, be sure to check out the sample recipes on her website, and the recipe for Tuscan White Bean Pizza that she was nice enough to share with us, below. Enjoy!

Tuscan White Bean Pizza
Makes 1 (12-inch) pizza

The people of Tuscany come by the moniker “bean eaters” owing to their inclusion of fagiole in everything from soups and stews to this creamy protein-rich pizza topping that will help you forget all about mozzarella cheese.

This recipe is from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson © 2010. Used with permission.

For dough:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup lukewarm water

For topping:
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 1/2 cups cooked or 1 (15.5-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup vegetable broth or water
3 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
2 ripe plum tomatoes, very thinly sliced

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Stir in the water until combined then use your hands to knead it into a soft dough.

2. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding additional flour as needed so it doesn’t stick. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place in oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature in a warm spot until double in volume, about 1 hour.

3. After the dough has risen, transfer it to a lightly floured work surface, punch it down and gently stretch and lift it to make a 12-inch round about 1/4-inch thick. Transfer the round to a floured baking sheet or pizza stone. Use your fingertips to form a rim around the perimeter of the dough and let rise in draft-free place for 20 minutes. Place the oven rack in the bottommost position of the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

4. Make the topping: In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the beans, salt, and pepper.

5. Mash the beans to break them up, then stir in the broth and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is creamy, about 8 minutes. Stir in the basil and set aside.

6. To assemble the pizza, spread the bean mixture evenly on top of the dough round, to within 1/2-inch of the edge. Arrange the tomato slices on top and season with salt and pepper. Bake until the crust is crisp and browned, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Splurge a little: Add sliced pitted kalamata olives when you add the tomatoes. Garnish with thin strips of fresh basil leaves.

If you’re new to the VegCookbook Club, you can read about how to participate on the VegCookbook Club’s About page, and read about folks’ experiences with on the Love Notes page.

What Should Our May VegCookbook Be?

It’s time to choose our next VegCookbook! Please vote in the poll below (check out the links to the cookbooks below the poll, if you want to read more about them). I’ll announce our May VegCookbook on Saturday, April 27th.

 

Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton

Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats by Allyson Kramer

Happy Herbivore Abroad by Lindsay S. Nixon

Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson

Spicy Garlic Toss for Noodles + Corri’s Easy Green Chop Suey from How It All Vegan

Spicy Garlic Toss for Noodles

Last week was a noodle kind of week. I made two noodly dishes. The first was the Spicy Garlic Toss for Noodles, which was sooooooo good. Like Babette said in her comment about making the Burnin’ Butt Burritos,  I can’t believe that I’ve had our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan, for so long, and never made this. Plus, it’s crazy simple and quick. I used thin udon noodles, and smoked paprika, rather than regular paprika, which I think made it extra delicious.

Corri's Easy Green Chop Suey

I also made Corri’s Easy Green Chop Suey, which was also yummy. My only complaint is that I wish both recipes made a lot more, because they were so good. I used sesame oil, rather than olive oil, and put in about 2 inches of finely grated ginger, rather than the suggested 2 teaspoons (I love ginger!). I also used a lot more spinach than bok choy ’cause the baby and regular-sized bok choy didn’t look so hot at the store. I’ll definitely make both recipes again. Yum.

If you haven’t chimed in yet, don’t forget to take the What Is Your Biggest VegCooking Challenge? poll. I’ll post the poll to vote for our May VegCookbook tomorrow.

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook last week ?

Homemade Vegetable8, Pear Apple Grape Juice, Anything Goes Very Berry Shake, Fragrant Garlic Parsley Pasta, Anything Goes Vegetable Stir-Fry, and Faux Egg Salad

 I hope you all are safe and well. Because of everything that happened in Boston yesterday, I decided to wait until today to post the weekly round-up.

I made a lot of recipes last week from our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan. I guess I felt more restrained from only being able to cook Vegan Brunch food than I realized!

I tried two more juice recipes. The Homemade Vegetable – 8 was good, and felt very virtuous, I mean, nutritious (: Look at all of those vegetables! It was a little salty for my taste, so I would make it again without the garlic, or soy sauce, (which I used instead of the recommended Braggs).

Homemade Vegetable - 8

The Pear Apple Grape Juice was sweet and refreshing too, but so far my favorite juice recipe is the Carrot Apple Ginger Juice from the week before last.  I’ll *definitely* make it again and again. So yummy.

Pear Apple Grape Juice

Continuing on the liquid recipe theme, I also made the “Anything Goes” Very Berry Shake, which was tasty (it’s hard to make a yucky smoothie). I had to smile when I read that one of the ingredients was spirulina. My first thoughts were, “Where in the world am I going to get spirulina? Does anyone eat spirulina anymore?” (How It All Vegan first came out in 1999). Are any of you old enough to remember when spirulina was the acai/kale chip/coconut oil of the day?

All I could find were huge containers of spirulina powder, or “green vitamin” powder, until I finally found a local health food store that sold individual packets of Green Vibrance. It wasn’t straight spirulina, but spirulina was one of the first ingredients, so I figured it would do. The taste was a little chalky, but fine.

"Anything Goes" Very Berry Shake

Moving on to solid foods…I made one of my favorite How It All Vegan recipes last week, the Fragrant Garlic Parsley Pasta. This is one of my go-to dishes for when the hubs, or I feel like we’re getting sick. I make it with the Roasted Garlic from The Garden of Vegan for extra germ-fighting power. It’s topped with the same Faux Parm I used for the Artichoke Rotini Pasta week before last. Yum yum. I love this recipe.

Fragrant Garlic Parsley Pasta

I also made the “Anything Goes” Vegetable Stir-Fry, which made me smile too. Raise your hand if you remember when stir-frying was the hot new thing along with hummus, pita, frozen yogurt, and salad bars. I haven’t stir-fried in years. It was great to be reminded of how fun, and easy it is. Plus, it’s a great way to use up random veggies left over in your fridge.

veggies ready to stir fry

I made a few changes to this recipe. In addition to the recommended veggies, I also added a few leaves of red chard, an orange pepper, a 1.5″ piece of ginger, and 2-3 cloves of garlic. Instead of olive oil and Braggs, I used sesame oil and soy sauce. I didn’t use the flax oil, which, though very tasty, is pricey. I also added a few dashes of soy sauce to each pile of veggies as that went into the fry pan, rather than adding the soy sauce at the end as a garnish. The result was delish, and it made a lot of food!

"Anything Goes" Vegetable Stir-Fry
Finally, I made the Faux Egg Salad, which was good, but like the Homemade Vegetable – 8, was a bit salty for me. I would use less garlic, or salt, if I make it again.

Faux Egg Salad

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook last week ?

Crazy for Carrots

The big news is that we got a juicer!  I’m so excited.  Every since we cooked from Crazy Sexy Kitchen in January, and you shared photos of the juices you made from it, I’ve wanted a juicer.

I made my first juice, the Carrot Apple Ginger Juice, from our April VegCookbook, How It All Vegan!, by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. Soooooooo good. The combination of the sweet carrots and apples with the spicy ginger was fantastic.

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice

I’m wondering if I have a vitamin A deficiency ’cause I couldn’t stop cooking with carrots! I also made the Artichoke Rotini Pasta topped with Faux Parmesan Cheese with a side of JB’s Sweet Dill Carrots. Everything was delicious. The faux parm was easy to make (you throw toasted sesame seeds, nutritional yeast and salt into the blender), but don’t rush pouring the sesame seeds into the blender (like I did), or you’ll be sweeping up sesame seeds for days!

Artichoke Rotini Pasta, Faux Parmesan, JB's Sweet Dill Carrots

I also made Tanya’s Asian Creation with a side of Jana’s Lemon Carrots.
Tanya’s Asian Creation is one of my favorite recipes from How It All Vegan!. I’ve made it many, many times. This isn’t really the season for butternut squash, so it didn’t have the amazing sweetness is usually has, but it was still good. I used olive oil rather than flax seed oil (flax seed oil is expensive), and soy sauce instead of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, ’cause I had it on hand.  After my sesame seed explosion while making the Faux Parmesan, I wasn’t up for making the gomasio from scratch, so I bought a bottle of Eden Organic Gomasio. I like gomasio, so I know I’ll use it again.

The Jana’s Lemon Carrot recipe was a new one for me, and very tasty. Both carrot recipes were quick, which is a big plus for me when adding a veggie side dish to a meal.

Tanya's Asian Creation + Janas Maple Lemon Carrots

Before we go into the VegCookBook Club Story Swap, I wanted to let you know that Sarah posted on her blog that her surgery is tomorrow (April 9th). Her shop will be closed for two weeks while she recovers. You can send her an encouraging note via email, snail mail, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook last week?

Let’s Support Sarah Kramer with Our April VegCookbook (Poll)

On March 14th, VegCookbook author, Sarah Kramer, announced on her blog that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I felt so sad when I read her  post. As if I’d received bad news from a good friend. I’ve been cooking from How It All Vegan! and Garden of Vegan, that she co-wrote with Tanya Barnard, for over a decade. Sarah’s cookbooks are a part of my daily life.

How many of you got one of her cookbooks as your first VegCookbook?

I would like to support Sarah during this challenging time by cooking from one of her VegCookbooks in April. Please vote in the poll below by 5 PM PT on March 27th for which one of Sarah’s VegCookbooks you would like to cook from together next month.

You can follow Sarah’s journey on her blog, Twitter, and Facebook.


How It All Vegan!


The Garden of Vegan

La Dolce Vegan!

Vegan a Go-Go!

Carrot Fries, Sweet Potato Tacos + Lemony Pan-Fried Chickpeas with Chard

Last week was super busy, so I made all of my VegCookbook Club recipes last night:

Sweet Potato Tacos

Sweet Potato Tacos

These were tasty, but I don’t know that I’ll make them again. I kept wanting them to be mashed up beans. What did excite me about the recipe is that I discovered that yams, or what some people call “sweet potatoes” have protein in them! The Sweet Potato Tacos recipe says that a serving contains 7g of protein. I was curious where it was coming from, so I did a little research. The tortillas I used, La Tortilla Factory Hand Made Style White Corn Tortillas, have 5g of protein in each tortilla. According to the SF Gate article, How Much Protein is in a Cooked Sweet Potato?,  a “4-ounce sweet potato provides nearly 2 grams of protein.” Who knew?

Carrot Fries

Carrot Fries

Crazy good. I didn’t add the recommended cumin to them, but I did add the suggested tablespoon of agave nectar. I used one bunch of orange carrots, and once bunch of purple and yellow carrots, so they turned out extra pretty (:

Lemony Pan-Fried Chickpeas with Chard

Lemony Chick Peas and Chard

Yum!  This wasn’t a particularly complicated recipe, so I can’t put my finger on why they were so good, but they were. Something about how the chick peas were cooked made them extra creamy and delicious. I followed the recipe as written, except for adding two cloves of minced garlic to the sautéing onions at the beginning.

VegCookBook Club Story Swap

What did you VegCook this week?

February 2013 VegCookbook: Color Me Vegan by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

ColorMeVeganA big thanks to everyone who voted in our February VegCookbook poll. You selected Color Me Vegan by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau to be the next VegCookbook we’ll cook from together.

If you’re new to the VegCookbook Club, you can read about how to participate on the VegCookbook Club About page.

You can learn more about Colleen on her website compassionatecook.com, follow her on Twitter at @PatrickGoudreau and like her Facebook Page. If you’ve been VegCooking with us for awhile, you’ll remember that we cooked from Colleen’s cookbook, The Vegan Table, in February 2012.

I’m looking forward to cooking through Color Me Vegan with you in February!

Call for 2013 VegCookbook Ideas

The VegCookbook Club will be one year old in January (yay!) and it’s time to start thinking about what VegCookbooks we want to cook from in 2013 (double yay!). Please share your suggestions in the comments, or on Twitter (@vegcookbookclub).

Here are the VegCookbooks we cooked from together in 2012:

January: Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

February: The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

March: The Inspired Vegan by Bryant Terry

April: Blissful Bites by Christy Morgan

May: Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

June: Everyday Happy Herbivore by Lindsay S. Nixon.

July: Wild About Greens by Nava Atlas

August: Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton

September: The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester

October: Chloe’s Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli

November: Forks Over Knives by Del Sroufe

December: Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas