Virtual Vegan Potluck 2013: Pomegranate-Infused Brown Rice Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Cauliflower, Hazelnuts, and Arugula

 

Today I could not harbor more excitement toward participating in the third biannual Virtual Vegan Potluck! Hosted by three dedicated vegan bloggers, Virtual Vegan Potluck connects vegan bloggers worldwide in an online extravaganza of vegan recipe-sharing and food-gawking. Each participating blogger signs up to post a recipe for an appetizer, a beverage, a bread, a salad, a side dish, a soup, a main dish, or a dessert at exactly the same time on exactly the same day to simulate a real-life potluck for our beloved online vegan community. This year’s potluck garnered 169 participants—the largest turnout yet—and I cannot wait to see what plant-based compassionate yummies everyone cooked up.

For my contribution to the virtual party, I signed up to create a refreshing yet complexly flavored salad in celebration of the hot-weather foods I’ve craved since the onset of springtime. Way back in January during my college winter break, I visited my good friend and current housemate at his permanent residence in Brooklyn, NY. After meeting my friend at his capoeira class, I excitedly received a full tour of the vibrant Park Slope neighborhood in which he grew up, stopping at independent bookstores, health food co-ops, and Prospect Park along the way. Late in the afternoon, my friend and I met up with his mother and brother at the Brooklyn Museum to see the mind-boggling “Gravity and Grace” exhibition by Nigerian artist El Anatsui.

Having not eaten a proper meal for the entire day, my friend requested after we departed from the museum that we stop into a nearby modern café and deli called Lincoln Station. The sleekly decorated local-centric eatery serves soups, salads, and sandwiches to order, as well as an array of deli items made fresh daily. Though not a vegan business by any means, the café did offer a respectable array of animal-free options, including a delightful farro salad in which my friend chose to partake. Emphatically singing the praises of this salad as he munched, my friend eloquently narrated how each individual ingredient—roasted butternut squash and cauliflower, toasted hazelnuts, and arugula—sang with purity of flavor while peppered among the chewy, nutty farro and lightly coated in a simple, lemony dressing.

Upon returning to our home of Ferry House at Vassar, my friend requested that we recreate this salad together. We finally did so in celebration of the end of the academic year, and of the Virtual Vegan Potluck, of course. I did, however, imbue the salad with my own mischievous twists: First, I substituted short-grain brown rice for the glutinous farro. Second, I roasted the butternut squash and cauliflower with a hint of sweet, tart, and unctuous pomegranate vinegar, obtained at an artisan oil and vinegar shop called Scarborough Fare during my recent jaunt to New Paltz. The flavor of the resulting salad proved layered, complex, tangy, succulent, bright, and oh so delicious—perfect to share in the Virtual Vegan Potluck.

One important suggestion: immediately after toasting and chopping the hazelnuts, stick your nose right into them and get a big ol’ whiff. Your entire day—nay, week—will be fulfilled.

Pomegranate-Infused Brown Rice Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Cauliflower, Hazelnuts, and Arugula—Soy Free, Low Sodium

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

2 cups short-grain brown rice
1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed into small florets
1 smallish butternut squash, peeled and small-diced
4 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 tbsp pomegranate vinegar, divided
1 cup raw hazelnuts
Juice of 1 lemon
2-3 oz baby arugula

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a large skillet, toast the rice over high heat until fragrant but not browned. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large pot, bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add the toasted rice and boil for 45-50 minutes or until tender. If needed, add more water to ensure that the rice can move around freely rather than stick together. This will ensure that the rice will remain in individual grains rather than clumped together in the finished salad. When cooked, drain the rice and spread over a baking sheet to cool and to again prevent clumping.

While the rice cooks, in a medium bowl toss the diced butternut squash with 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp pomegranate vinegar. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. Repeat with the cauliflower florets. Transfer both roasted veggies to a large bowl.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 5-7 minutes, checking diligently to ensure that they don’t burn. Lay out a large dishtowel on the countertop and transfer the toasted hazelnuts into the middle of it. Pick up the corners of the towel to form a pouch and vigorously rub the hazelnuts around in it to remove their skins. Roughly chop the skinned hazelnuts and add them to the bowl with the roasted veggies. Stir to combine.

Spoon the brown rice into the veggie/hazelnut bowl in batches, stirring well to combine after each addition until all of the rice is fully incorporated. Add the lemon juice to the mixture and stir well to incorporate. Gently stir in the arugula in small handfuls until well-mixed. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday and Wellness Weekend.

Check out Bite Me (I’m Vegan)’s bread recipe!

Check out Luminous Vegans’ salad recipe!

Until next time, Ali.

How to Cook for a 20-Person Veg Co-op and a Recipe for Slow-Cooked White Beans with Snap Peas & Caramelized Onions

As occurs every two weeks, this Monday I once again donned the Ferry House chef hat to provide a fabulous vegan meal for my 20 fellow co-op members. Planning the menu for my biweekly scheduled night of cooking proves consistently provocative of critical thought, as it requires serious contemplation of a recipe that normally serves 4-6 people to decipher whether or not it would suit itself well to a five-fold multiplication of ingredient amounts. Casseroles, bean & mixed veggie salads, grain pilafs, stews, curries, and veggie burger patties all lend themselves quite nicely to large-scale preparation, whereas recipes that require individual portion preparation—such as stuffed veggies, cabbage rolls, and sandwiches—as well as those which call for a large amount of ingredients that cook down to a small size—such as roasted veggies and sauteed greens—necessitate more preparation and/or resources than we Ferry cooks would prefer.

A Ferry chef must also consider ingredient availability when planning a House dinner. For example, the House grocery shoppers do not purchase fruit (other than our weekly bushel of farmers market apples), including avocados; certain bulk items such as canned coconut milk, specific dried bean varieties, tahini, or gluten-free flour may have run out before the delivery of the upcoming bulk order; and less familiar vegetables such as fennel, certain types of squash and root veggies, and herbs do not make it into the regular grocery rotation. Clearly, not every entry in my cookbooks or 43-page-long Word document of recipes to try—especially those featuring more specialized ingredients—proves well-suited to serving 20 rather budget-minded college students, so I find myself every other Sunday analytically sifting through my arsenal of recipes to unearth a perfect one for Ferry dinner.

This week, I decided that a version of the Kale and Slivered Brussels Sprout Soba Noodles from Sprouted Kitchen, as well as a cannelinni bean stew inspired by both Peter Berley’s White Beans with Sugar Snap Peas & Mint and his Savory Adzuki Beans, served as this Monday’s “perfect recipes.” Case in point: a 5-lb. bag of dried cannellini beans sat largely unused alongside a heap of brown rice noodles in the pantry while the refrigerator positively exploded with leafy greens and brussels. These recipes practically begged themselves to be made.

Plates laid out for dinner.

My changes to the original soba noodle recipe:

• Used olive oil instead of sesame oil. Ferry did stock toasted sesame oil in the pantry for a brief period of time, but house members ultimately decided that we preferred olive oil instead.
• Substituted apple cider vinegar for the rice vinegar. No rice vinegar in Ferry! Just your run-of-the-mill apple cider variety.
• Replaced the soy sauce with Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, the soy-based seasoning of choice in Ferry.
• Used cayenne pepper instead of red pepper flakes since the Ferry spice cabinet had just run out of the latter.
• Substituted brown rice noodles for the soba noodles. The latter noodle variety cost significantly more than the former, plus many soba noodle brands contain gluten, which we try to avoid including in House dinners for those who must avoid it (i.e. me).

Man, did that industrial-sized pot of cooking water for the noodles take just about an eternity to boil, but the fresh-tasting and pleasingly toothsome dish that it helped to yield surely merited the wait.

A whole mess of brown rice noodles, kale, and brussels sprouts.

As for the white bean dish, I somewhat combined two of the bean recipes in The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen to produce a delightful hybrid dish. Deriving the Asian-style ingredient list from the Savory Adzuki Beans and the snap pea-white bean mix from the White Beans with Sugar Snap Peas and Mint, I created a light, springtime bean stew rife with crisp-tender snap peas and caramelized onions that provided a lovely sweet contrast to the savory cannelinnis. The recipe requires little hands-on preparation, involving no more than throwing beans, minimally prepped veggies, and seasonings into a slow-cooker, and quickly sauteeing the onions and snap peas, yet yields quite yummy results.

Big ol’ pot o’ beans.

Slow-Cooked White Beans with Snap Peas & Caramelized Onions—Nut Free, Low Sodium, Low Fat.

Makes about 6 cups.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked white beans (cannellini, Great Northern, etc.), soaked overnight and drained
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
4 cloves
6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 4-inch piece of ginger, cut into big chunks
2 tbsp maple syrup or agave
1-inch piece kombu seaweed or 1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tamari, soy sauce, or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
1-2 tbsp coconut or olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
8 oz sugar snap peas, cut in half on the bias

Stick two cloves into the rounded side of each onion half. Place the cloved onions, soaked white beans, garlic cloves, ginger, maple syrup or agave, kombu or bay leaf, and enough water to cover the whole mixture in a slow-cooker. Set the slow-cooker to its highest setting and cook the beans until meltingly tender, about 2-5 hours. When tender, drain the beans and remove the onion halves, garlic cloves, and ginger chunks. Stir in the tamari, soy sauce, or Bragg’s.

In a medium saute pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the sugar snap peas and cook until bright green and crisp-tender, about 3-5 minutes. Remove the saute from the heat and stir into the beans. Serve.

Until next time, Ali.

Raw Garden Vegetable Sandwiches with Scallion Cashew Cream Cheese & Marinated Mushrooms

After nearly three years of wishing, yearning, longing, pining, and desperately hoping to gain immediate access to a dehydrator, I’ve finally had one of my utmost culinary wishes fulfilled after moving into the Vassar campus’ vegan/vegetarian egalitarian housing cooperative known as Ferry House. One of Ferry’s past members left her old Excalibur dehydrator in the house after moving out, and I ecstatically unearthed the dust-gathering appliance from the Ferry pantry the other day (aka, the happiest day of my life). Now armed with the necessary equipment as well as a freezer full of almond and vegetable pulp leftover from homemaking almond milk and juice, I set out to create my very own raw bread as my first authentic dehydration endeavor.

A while back, I crafted a savory green juice, loosely inspired by the bloody mary drink, of kale, tomatoes, red bell peppers, and carrots. Combining the frozen pulp of this juice with fluffy almond pulp, a couple of my favorite umami seasonings, and flaxmeal for binding yielded a deeply flavored, veggie-packed, verdant raw bread that spoke to me as the essence of hot-weather food. Inspired to create a raw variation of the finger sandwiches that one might enjoy at a white-gloved garden party, I naturally had to whip up a brightly flavored cashew cream cheese to spread on the bread. Finally, playing off of the unctuous umami flavors in the bread, I decided to marinate a couple of sliced mushrooms in the ever-famous Liquid Gold Dressing and slightly dehydrate them to achieve a chewy, meaty texture.

Marinated mushrooms fresh out of the dehydrator.

From the combination of these three recipes ensued one of the most flavorful, fresh, and satisfying raw sandwiches I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying; I plan on crafting oodles more raw sandwiches in the coming dehydrator-filled weeks. If you don’t, however, own a dehydrator, you can still enjoy this and other fabulous raw sandwiches by following my instructions for How to Dehydrate Without a Dehydrator. Also, if you don’t have a surplus of almond and veggie pulp, you can use ground almonds and a blend of shredded vegetables (such as zucchini and carrots) squeezed of excess moisture instead.

Raw Garden Vegetable Sandwiches with Scallion Cashew Cream Cheese & Marinated Mushrooms—Raw, Soy Free, Low Sodium.

Makes 3 sandwiches.

Raw Bread Ingredients:

1 cup almond pulp (thawed if frozen)
1 1/2 cups vegetable juice pulp (I used a blend of kale, red bell peppers, tomatoes, and carrots; thawed if frozen)
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp miso
2 tbsp chia seeds
2-4 tbsp water to blend

Scallion Cashew Cream Cheese Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashews, soaked overnight (or for at least 2 hours)
1/4-1/3 cup water
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp miso
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 scallions, white parts only, sliced

Marinated Mushrooms Ingredients:

6 large button mushrooms, thinly sliced
6-8 tbsp Liquid Gold Dressing

Ingredients for Assembly:

2 medium tomatoes, sliced
3 large leaves of lettuce

Raw Bread Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth, adding just enough water to facilitate blending. Spread the mixture evenly onto a Teflex-lined dehydrator sheet and score into 6 rectangles. Dehydrate at 115°F for 6 hours or until dry and crunchy, flipping once about halfway through the dehydration time. Once dry, carefully remove the bread from the dehydrator sheets and snap along the score lines to separate into six pieces.

Alternatively, if you don’t own a dehydrator, you can use your oven to dehydrate the crackers by following my instructions for How to Dehydrate Without a Dehydrator.

Scallion Cashew Cream Cheese Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients except scallions in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the sliced scallions and blend until just incorporated. Refrigerate until thickened.

Marinated Mushrooms Directions:

Place the sliced mushrooms in a medium bowl and toss to coat with the Liquid Gold Dressing. You can now do one of two things: allow the mushrooms to sit in the marinade for 2-4 hours until softened, or place the coated mushrooms on a Teflex-lined dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 120°F for about 1-2 hours or until the mushrooms’ texture becomes meaty and chewy.

Directions for Assembly:

Spread about a tablepoon of the cashew cream cheese evenly onto one slice of bread. Layer on two slices of tomato, a leaf of lettuce, and 1/3 of the marinated mushrooms, then top with another slice of bread spread with another tablespoon of cashew cream cheese. Repeat to make two more sandwiches.

Recipe submitted to Waste Not Want Not Wednesday, Allergy Free Wednesdays, Raw Food Thursdays, Foodtastic Friday, Healthy Vegan Friday, and Wellness Weekend.

Until next time, Ali.

A Veg-anza in New Paltz

Last weekend, instead of taking the train into New York City to see my beloved mother (and now fellow vegan!), I invited her up to Poughkeepsie in honor of Vassar’s annual spring Families Weekend. While we did not engage in any of the (thrilling, I’m sure) planned campus activities, my mother and I enjoyed ourselves immensely by paying a visit to the adorable gem of a town known as New Paltz. A mere 30-minute drive from Poughkeepsie, New Paltz functions essentially as a much more thriving, hipper city than the 18th most miserable city in America that Vassar calls home (sigh). In keeping with the town’s hip young atmosphere, New Paltz boasts an all-vegan cafe, a vegan fair-trade chocolate shop, a quaint health foods co-op, plenty of vegan items on many restaurant menus, and a grand slew of unique handmade jewelry stores, clothing boutiques, and antique shops. Needless to say, I wholeheartedly wish that I could gather up the Vassar campus and relocate it to New Paltz, but as that seems rather impossible, I’ll settle for weekend visits to the happy little town.

Upon first arriving in New Paltz, my mother and I sought lunch at a traditional Japanese restaraunt called Gomen Kudasai. The noodle shop features an entire vegan menu, as well as plenty of gluten-free items, including mung bean thread and yam noodles. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to experience the full extent of Gomen Kudasai’s offerings, as the restaurant only offered their brunch menu during our visit. Regardless, my mother and I found plenty of vegan options, as specially denoted by helpful symbols on the menu. We began our meal with a complimentary bowl of always-satisfying salted edamame, followed by a simple and elegant triangular prism of brown rice and seaweed known as onigiri. For her entree, my mother opted for a stir-fry of udon noodles, chewy browned tofu, and succulent vegetables in a delightful gingery sauce. As for myself, I ordered an incredibly comforting bowl of kaki ten soup with gluten-free noodles, which comprised of slippery, chewy, semi-transparent noodles and crispy shredded veggies in an unctuous umami broth. All of Gomen Kudasai’s fare tasted fresh, simple, and quite thoughtfully prepared, though it did verge on the overly salty side.

 

 

After contentedly filling ourselves with noodles and other Japanese goodies, my mother and I set out on the gorgeously sunny day to explore the town of New Paltz. Our ventures brought us first to the much-acclaimed Lagusta’s Luscious—a vegan artisanal chocolate shop with a commitment to social justice, environmentalism, and animal rights. Indeed, the lovely and hugely talented ladies at Lagusta’s source all of their ingredients from small farms and producers in and around New Paltz, package all of their chocolates in 100% post-consumer recycled paper boxes and packing materials, use only fairly traded chocolate certified not produced with child/slave labor, and often donate to various worthy causes including animal sanctuaries and feminist organizations. The shop’s proprietor, Lagusta Yearwood, also just contributed an insightful and inspiring essay to the Defiant Daughters anthology entitled “Eat Chocolate, Have Faith in Women,” which she read at the book’s launch at Bluestockings Bookstore in NYC, where I had the honor of meeting and chatting with her.

The Lagusta’s Luscious storefront.

Greeted by my favorite professor’s wife, who works at Lagusta’s Luscious and refers to me as her “vegan sister,” my mother and I gazed in awe at the tantalizing and uniquely flavored chocolate truffles and bars lining the blue-and-brown walls of the tiny shop. Yearning to spoil me after not seeing me since spring break (that’s my mother for ya), my mother eagerly gifted me an eight-piece box of assorted chocolate truffles, a smoky corn-on-the-cob chocolate bar, and a block of Lagusta’s housemade chickpea-kidney bean tempeh (I know, right?). From the glass-plated truffle case, I chose to include in my assorted chocolate box a Rosemary Sea Salt Caramel, a Sea Salt Shiitake Truffle, a Caramelized Onion and Chipotle Truffle, a Coriander-Beet Truffle, a Fennel-Apple Truffle, a Grapefruit Cream, a Macadamia Maui Vanilla Cream with Chamomile, and a Raspberry Balsamic Truffle. Um, can you say heaven on earth?

Every spice imaginable to inject oodles of flavor in Lagusta’s decadent chocolate.

The April 2013 Chocolate-of-the-Month: a vegan “bacon” bar filled with shiitake-miso-yuba caramel.

Two chocolate barks: a Sea Salt and Almond Slate, and a Fig and Fennel Bark.

My very own box of chocolate truffles.

Homemade chickpea-kidney bean tempeh.

After bading goodbye to Lagusta’s rather magical shop, my mother and I meandered around New Paltz for the better part of the afternoon, peeking inside and browsing nearly every quaint little storefront in the small town, including a shop called Scarborough Fair that specialized in artisan infused oils and vinegars. There, my mother insisted upon buying me a 4-oz bottle each of avocado oil and pomegranate balsamic vinegar (hey, I’m not complaining), but they also boasted other intriguing varieties like porcini mushroom extra virgin olive oil and fig balsamic vinegar. I hope to experiment with the avocado oil and pomegranate balsamic to produce a couple winning recipes for the blog in the near future, so keep an eye out for those.

Oil and vinegar jugs at Scarborough Fair.

Our wandering also brought my mother and me to Inquiring Minds—an independent bookstore that, incidentally, will host a reading by three contributors to the Defiant Daughters anthology, including Lagusta Yearwood herself, this Saturday at 7pm (stop by if you’re in the area!). Inside the bookstore, I excitedly discovered an entire display table devoted to vegan cookbooks and animal rights literature, including the cult classic The Sexual Politics of Meat by vegan pioneer Carol Adams. With her feminist background and newfound veganism, my mother immediately became enthralled with the book’s cover and premise. After purchasing the book, my mother and I agreed that I would read it first while at Vassar, hand it off to her when she comes to help me relocate to D.C. for the summer, and discuss the book’s still groundbreaking ideas once we had both finished reading it. I can’t wait to start paging through the book that has enlightened so many individuals to the unavoidable intersections of veganism and feminism.

Vegan & animal rights display table at Inquiring Minds bookstore.

I planned on accompanying my mother back to New York City to spend Sunday with both of my parents, so before departing from New Paltz, my mother and I picked up a dinner to enjoy on the train ride home at organic and local vegan deli, bakery, juice & smoothie bar Karma Road. Though I didn’t obtain photos of the actual food that my mother and I ordered (snapping pictures on moving trains does not translate to quality photography), I did document the deli case, which boasted gluten-free veggie burgers, coleslaw, kale pizza with Daiya cheese, mixed vegetable curry, braised greens, and spelt sweet potato biscuits among other offerings. For our to-go dinners, my mother ordered a hummus wrap and a small portion of coleslaw from the deli case, while I chose the Karma Combo salad—kale, sunflower sprouts, carrot, celery, tomato, and roasted peppers in a tahini dressing—accompanied by two logs of hearty and sweet apple juice-glazed tempeh. Followed by a piece each of my smoky corn-on-the-cob chocolate bar, our meal from Karma Road provided immense satisfaction on the train ride to NYC.

As my mother and I strolled around New Paltz, we discussed the pervasive feeling of great clarity achieved after adopting a vegan lifestyle, the abhorrently corrupt nature of the meat-industrial complex and food corporations, and cruelty-free cosmetic brands. I never could have fathomed that my own mother of all people would find herself caught up in the same issues that I hold near and dear to my heart, and feel so unbelievably greatful to now call my mother an ally in the vegan movement. To those individuals feeling frustrated with their own family members who haven’t yet found their vegan calling, I’d encourage you not to lose hope, to always speak to those family members with patience, kindness, and compassion, and to continue to embody your own values in your everyday life. Even if your loved ones don’t adopt a vegan lifestyle in this lifetime, you can rest confident that you at least shifted their consciousness, if just a smidgen, to a more compassionate mode of existence. At the end of the day, I’d call that successful advocacy.

Until next time, Ali.

A Night of Academic Discussion and Vegan Deliciousness

A number of readers have expressed interest in hearing more about the general happenings as well as the fantastic food of Ferry House, the egalitarian vegetarian/vegan co-op in which I reside at Vassar along with 20 of the kindest, most insightful individuals I’ve ever met. To fulfill such readers’ wishes, I thought it fitting to recount on the ol’ blog a recent Ferry event: Professor Dinner. Every semester, the members of Ferry invite one or more of their favorite professors to enjoy a convivial vegan potluck dinner in the Ferry living and dining rooms, as well as to engage in stimulating conversations with the academics they most admire. Rife with a cornucopia of plant-based yummies and enough throught-provoking interactions to blow the roof off of Ferry, this semester’s Professor Dinner proved wildly successful and highly enjoyable. Pictured below is the vast array of dishes on the Professor Dinner buffet table, contributed by Ferry members and professors alike.

Mixed berry smoothies served in an assortment of mix-and-match glassware.

Gluten-free spicy tempeh empanadas with sweet potatoes, swiss chard, raisins, and pepitas. Made by yours’ truly and inspired by the recipe to which this picture links.

Shepherd’s Pie with mixed veggies, veggie meat crumbles, and mashed potato topping.

Fruit salad–a rare and coveted occurrence in Ferry since fruit proves too expensive to fit into our weekly shopping budget. For Professor Dinner, though, we go all out!

Salad with dark-leaf lettuce, carrots, snap peas, and cherry tomatoes served with a take on my famous Liquid Gold Dressing.

Whole wheat linguine tossed with peanut sauce and roasted tofu, carrots, and broccoli, with a smaller portion of gluten-free peanut noodles next to it.

Millet pilaf with almonds and raisins.

Peanut butter bread.

GUACAMOLE! Also a highly prized dish in Ferry since avocados cost a pretty penny.

My plate of Professor Dinner scrumptiousness.

To my immense disappointment, the professor I invited to the potluck—fellow vegan, animal rights advocate, Joyce-lover, and blogger—had to cancel at the last minute, but luckily, my dear friend and fellow VARC member Alan had invited another like-minded professor to dinner—Jill Schneiderman from the Earth Science department. Professor Schneiderman shared a troubling story with Alan and I that detailed a social experiment she performed informally on a group of students she planned to take on a week-long venture to the deserts of the American Southwest. In preparation for the trip, Professor Schneiderman had to collect the eating preferences of the participating students so that the desert facility where they would stay could adequately cater to their needs. As a pondrous vegetarian and scientific researcher, Professor Schneiderman decided to tell her students that the facility provided vegetarian meals by default, and that individuals who wanted to eat meat had to request it specially. She then passed around a sheet on which students could denote whether or not they felt it necessary to eat meat on the trip, and to make the facility provide dining options that included meat. To Professor Schneiderman’s surprise, nearly all of the students checked the “Wants to Eat Meat on Trip” box, and displayed their indignance that the facility would dare not serve meat unless specifically asked. The situation reminded me of Melanie Joy’s book—Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows—which discusses how society regards the eating of animals as “normal” and the abstention from eating sentient beings as “deviant.”

While rather disheartening that such a phenomenon would occur on a college campus as progressive and liberal-minded as that of Vassar, the fact that at least a handful of incredibly passionate students and faculty members understand the ethical implications of eating animals and work to spread this awareness throughout campus make me proud to attend Vassar. Additionally, since many of these individuals live in Ferry or often interact with Ferry members, I feel so lucky and honored to reside in a house surrounded by like-minded individuals, which provides me with the strength to interact with those who may not share my viewpoints on veganism and animal rights in a compassionate manner. All hail, Ferry House!

Until next time, Ali.

What I Ate Wednesday #66: My Last WIAW

Yes, I understand that another “What I Ate Wednesday” constituted my last post, as well. Yes, I understand that recipes, ethical/philosophical musings, and restaurant reviews serve as vastly more intriguing topics than my weekly eats do (perhaps some of you may argue to the contrary, but that’s simply my humble opinion). However, in the midst of authoring an important piece for a vegan-related, non-blogging outlet as well as beginning my second essay in my three-part series exposing Michael Pollan’s ulterior motives, I’ve devoted much of my intellectual/writing-related energies toward venues other than my beloved blog. Fear not though, dear readers, for I hope to soon channel these energies back to the world of the vegan blogosphere. Once that happens, I intend to no longer participate in this weekly meal recap as I have for 66 past Wednesdays, for I’d prefer for my blog to cultivate a more professional atmosphere fostering intellectual discussion among innovative recipes. Hopefully, the elimination of What I Ate Wednesdays from my blog will allow me to provide more intriguing content on a more regular basis. So now, for the last time, please enjoy another round of my stupendously intriguing meals.

Breakfast: A breakfast salad of baby spinach, amaranth, brown rice, goji berries, wild blueberries, and chia seeds tossed in a dressing of plain unsweetened soy yogurt, homemade sprouted almond butter, and Amazing Grass Green Superfoods Powder, sprinkled with the contents of one capsule of Rainbow Light’s Advanced Enzyme Systems digestive enzymes.

Breakfast Checklist: Protein—soy yogurt, sprouted almond butter, chia seeds. Whole Grain—brown rice, amaranth. Fruit—goji berries, blueberries. Leafy Green—baby spinach. Superfoods—goji berries, chia seeds, Amazing Grass powder.

Morning Tea: Rooibos Red Tea from Alvita.

Lunch: An open-faced sandwich of a lentil-brown rice-roasted sweet potato & broccoli burger on top of a brown rice cake slathered with tahini, sauerkraut, and dulse seaweed flakes, accompanied by a bowl of mushroom, leek, and spinach soup sprinkled with nutritional yeast.

Meal Checklist: Protein—beluga lentils, tahini. Whole Grain—brown rice. Vegetables/Fruit—sweet potato, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, spinach, mushrooms. Leafy Greens—spinach, broccoli, cabbage in sauerkraut.

Afternoon Beverage: Kukicha Twig Tea from Eden Organics.

A bottle of GT’s Kombucha in Cosmic Cranberry flavor.

Dinner: A breakfast-dinner of savory Sweet Potato Belgian Waffles (made with my new, very own waffle iron!) topped with Coconut-Braised Kale and served alongside strips of Tempeh Bacon, courtesy of Kathy Patalsky—my biweekly dinner contribution to the Ferry household.

Meal Checklist: Protein—chickpea flour, fava flour, tempeh. Whole Grain—sorghym flour. Vegetables—kale, garlic, onions, sweet potato. Leafy Greens—kale.

After-Dinner Beverage: Traditional Medicinals’ Organic Eater’s Digest tea.

Happy WIAW!

Until next time, Ali.

What I Ate Wednesday #65

Before I dive into regaling my weekly eats, I’d like to direct you toward the essay on Michael Pollan’s that I recently published on the blog. In it, I demonstrate how Pollan manages his audience’s emotions in order to persuade him both of the acceptability of eating meat, and of the impossibility of vegetariansim. I also argue that Pollan wrote the book essentially to justify his own meat-eating. I do hope you’ll check out the piece. Thank you.

Breakfast: A plate of baby kale water-sauteed with cumin and fennel seeds, wilted down, and mixed with nutritional yeast, Bragg’s liquid aminos, ground ginger, and coconut oil—my new favorite way to prepare greens, introduced to me by The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen cookbook. I accompanied the greens with a bowl of Whole Soy’s unsweetened plain soy yogurt, 1 tbsp homemade sprouted almond butter, about 3/4 cup Hemp and Greens Superfood Cereal, and about 1 tbsp goji berries.

Since returning to Ferry Haus from my two-week-long spring break, I’ve eschewed my habitual morning smoothie in favor of this new breakfast pairing of lightly cooked, ridiculously flavorful, and (dare I say…) downright buttery greenswith a crunchy-creamy bowl of granola, soy yogurt, goji berries, and almond butter. After returning from Austin, I ventured straight to Whole Foods to purchase more of the absolutely astounding raw sprouted granola from Live Superfoods that I enjoyed while in Texas. To my sheer glee, Whole Foods now stocks that very granola in their bulk section, along with a fairly large selection of other sprouted granolas, trail mixes, nuts, and grains. I also partook in a large bag of sprouted almonds, with which I pureed up a batch of homemade sprouted almond butter. After experiencing the ease and frugality of homemaking nut butter, I’m never again purchasing another jar of the stuff. Yay, economics! I’ve seen on a number of blog posts offering directions on how to make almond butter that the almonds take quite a long time to transform into creamy lusciousness; however, my sprouted almonds made the shift from ground to buttery relatively quickly—after about 7-10 minutes as opposed to the 20 that I’ve commonly heard other bloggers experiencing. Moral of the story: if you want more digestible almond butter more quickly, use sprouted almonds.

Breakfast Checklist: Protein—soy yogurt, sprouted almond butter, sprouted sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, hemp protein. Whole Grain—sprouted buckwheat, brown rice bran & germ. Fruit—coconut, bananas, sultanas, goji berries. Leafy Green—baby kale. Superfoods—spinach powder, spirulina, chlorella, alfalfa powder, dandelion leaf powder, goji berries.

Morning Tea: Eden Organic Genmaicha tea.

Lunch: A waffle sandwich of two herbed carrot-chickpea waffles slathered with pesto chutney from the Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen and encasing a brown rice-beluga lentil-roasted sweet potato & broccoli burger inspired by Gena’s Leftover Grain & Bean Burgers. I served the sandwich alongside a simple salad of mixed greens and dulse seaweed flakes tossed with Liquid Gold Dressing and topped with brown rice and kimchi.

Waffles: A savory take on my Spirulina-Mango Waffles with Goji Berries that omits the cardamom, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and spirulina while replacing the mango puree with the parsley and thyme carrot sauce in the Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, the plant-based milk with salt-free vegetable stock, and the goji berries with chickpeas.

Pesto Chutney: a generously herbed and spiced spread of tahini, dulse seaweed, lemon juice, flax oil, dill, parsley, fennel seeds, and cumin based on the recipe in the Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen. Perhaps due to my minor substitutions as well as my accidental purchasing of lemon-flavored flax oil, the pesto imparted much too harsh of a flavor for my liking and adopted a displeasing bitterness after a few days of refrigeration, even though the directions assure that it will keep for up to three weeks.

Burgers: Based on Gena’s instructions, in a food processor I mixed together 3 cups of leftover short-grain brown rice; 2 cups of a salad of beluga lentils, roasted broccoli, and sweet potatoes in a lemon vinaigrette (a take on this recipe from Cookie and Kate); and 1/4 cup flaxseed meal to create 14 hearty patties of smoky, crispy deliciousness.

Meal Checklist: Protein—chickpea flour, fava flour, flaxseed meal, chickpeas, tahini, beluga lentils. Whole Grain—sorghum flour, brown rice. Vegetables/Fruit—carrot, parsley, dill, sweet potato, broccoli, dulse seaweed, kimchi veggies. Leafy Greens—broccoli, mixed greens, dill, parsley, cabbage in kimchi.

Afternoon Beverage: Choice Organic White Peony tea.

A bottle of GT’s Kombucha in Original flavor.

Dinner: The French Lentil Salad with Creamy Yogurt Dressing from the Modern Vegetarian Kitchen served alongside roasted brussels sprouts and brown rice.

Peter Berley, author of the Modern Vegetarian Kitchen and former executive chef of 37-year-old NYC vegan restaurant Angelica Kitchen, combines toothsome French lentils; finely diced carrots, celery, and bell peppers; and plenty of fresh herbs with a tangy dressing of yogurt, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and olive oil in his French Lentil Salad with Creamy Yogurt Dressing. Naturally, I substituted soy yogurt for dairy-based, added mixed greens along with the rest of the veggies, and served this refreshing, light salad to my fellow Ferries for dinner to yield rave reviews.

Meal Checklist: Protein—lentils, soy yogurt. Whole Grain—brown rice. Vegetables—carrots, bell peppers, celery, dill, parsley, brussels sprouts. Leafy Greens—mixed greens, parsley, dill, brussels sprouts.

After-Dinner Beverage: Traditional Medicinals’ Organic Eater’s Digest tea.

Happy WIAW!

Until next time, Ali.

Austin Extravaganza, Day 4: Daily Juice, Sweet Ritual, & the Wheatsville Co-op

Aware that the conclusion of my Austin adventure would pass the next morning, I resolved to take full advantage of my final day in the southern gem of a city by indulging in vegan soft-serve sundaes at Sweet Ritual and sampling the animal-product-free portion of Austin’s famed taco culture. Ashley and I intended to accomplish the latter endeavor at The Vegan Nom—an electric-blue food truck self-described as “Austin’s first vegan taco hub” specializing in breakfast and regular tacos loaded with tofu scrambles, caramelized veggies, alfalfa sprouts, avocados, plant-based meats, refried beans, and non-dairy cheeses. However, after waiting for a bus that arrived over 30 minutes late, trekking down a rather godforsaken street, and all the while nursing a grumbling tummy, we reached a very not-open Vegan Nom only to discover the owner preparing to take the truck in for inspection. Short story: no tacos for Ali and Ashley.

Disappointed, irritated, and ravenous, Ashley and I frantically searched HappyCow.net on her iPhone, desperately hoping for a vegan restaurant within walking distance. Thankfully, we discovered that dining at Mother’s Cafe and Garden—a vegetarian restaurant boasting standard café-style fare as well as enchiladas—would require only a couple block’s walk. However, as we approached the intersection of Duval and 45th Streets, a mere two blocks away from Mother’s, Ashley and I stumbled upon an adorable eatery called Daily Juice located in a refurbished gas station and offering nourishing vegan eats alongside raw entrees, desserts, and green juices. Lo and behold, the cozy sunlight establishment also housed Sweet Ritual, the vegan soft-serve joint that Ashley and I had planned to patronize since day one of my arrival to Austin. Clearly, the universe decided to smile upon Ashley and I after throwing us a curveball of a morning.

Never one to pass up a gourmet raw meal, I ordered from the uncooked portion of the Daily Juice menu, opting for the Raw Enchilada—a tomato “tortilla” rolled around a kale salad with sesame seeds and Bragg’s liquid aminos, smothered in cashew queso and topped with red bell peppers and alfalfa sprouts. Tempted by the raw dessert case while waiting for my entree, I decided to immediately satisfy my hunger with a chocolate-walnut truffle cup topped with a mixture of goji berries and coconut. Gorgeously dense, silky smooth chocolate encased crunchy walnuts and provided a decadent base for the fruity, chewy topping to culminate in an extravaganza of bittersweet gastronomic luxury. So, like, yeah, the truffle was okay. As for the enchilada, each of its components offered a lovely fresh flavor, though the massaged kale filling felt a bit ersatz without a more hearty accompaniment inside the tortilla—perhaps some spiced ground walnut meat?

Raw chocolate-covered strawberries with walnuts and coconut in Daily Juice’s dessert case.

Goji chocolate truffle cups.

YUM.

Raw Enchilada.

Ashley fell for the Avocado Wrap—a spinach tortilla folded around a generous amount of avocado, mixed salad greens, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, and onions. Both overly excited and overly hungry, Ashley began to devour the wrap before I could even snap a photo (hence the teeth marks in the picture below).

After returning to Ashley’s apartment and working up another appetite, Ashley and I commissioned her skeptical-of-veganism boyfriend to drive us back to the Daily Juice location for vegan ice cream sundaes at Sweet Ritual. The shoppe’s hard-pack case offered such tantalizing flavors as lavender blossom blueberry, salted caramel, and raspberry chocolate, while the sundae menu included Rocky Road (chocolate sauce, Dandie’s marshmallows, and pecans), Dirt and Worms (oreos and gummy worms), Faux Butterfinger (Chick-o-Stix and chocolate sauce), and Glitterbeast (salted caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, and edible glitter). Seduced by the lavender blossom blueberry and salted caramel ice creams, I opted for one scoop of each flavor topped with toasted coconut, while Ashley (after much deliberation) ordered the Turtle Sundae—vanilla soft-serve drizzled in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with pecans (no photo, many apologies!). Somewhat begrudgingly, Ashley’s boyfriend tested the waters of vegan desserts with the sundae of the day—salted caramel ice cream drizzled with peanut butter hard-shell, salted peanuts, and chocolate-covered cookies. Needless to say, all three of us immensely enjoyed the creamy, animal-cruelty-free deliciousness. What better way to showcase the pleasures of a vegan lifestyle to cynics than with plant-based ice cream? Effective and yummy, I must say.

Lavender Blossom Blueberry and Salted Caramel ice creams topped with toasted coconut.

Sundae of the Day.

I mentioned in my Austin Extravaganza, Day 3 post an absolutely magical place known as the Wheatsville Co-op. Enamored with the vast array of vegan & gluten-free baked goods; the hot foods bar rife with vegan options, the entire half-aisle devoted to raw foods like kale chips; flax crackers, and cacao truffles; the well-stocked bulk section; and a whole host of other various health-food products, Ashley and I journeyed to the co-op two days in a row to gawk at the impressive selection housed between their colorful walls. While perhaps Wheatsville’s material offerings don’t appear too dissimilar from those of other co-ops around the country, the overwhelmingly welcoming, knowledgable atmosphere cultivated in this friendly Austin co-op provided in me a deep sense of homecoming—I felt quite confident that the vast majority of the co-op’s employees wouldn’t question my veganism or choice not to consume sugar, would share in my enthusiasm for kombucha, and would understand (and confidently answer) my inquiry as to the gluten-free-ness of the tempeh taco filling offered on the deli menu. In other words, the folks at Wheatsville seemed like my kind of people.

One of many vegan & gluten-free baked goods at Wheatsville.

Samples of raw energy bars from local company the Bearded Bros.

During our first excursion to Wheatsville, Ashley and I merely oohed and ahhed at their exciting selection, but on our second visit, we actually purchased some of the co-op’s tantalizing offerings in the form of our final dinner together in Austin. Determined to enjoy tacos in the land of acclaimed southwestern food before I returned to the east coast, I ameliorated my lunchtime taco failure by ordering from the Wheatsville made-to-order deli counter two fragrant corn tortillas filled with juicy and spicy tempeh crumbles, diced tomatoes, jalapeno slices, shredded carrot, romaine lettuce, and alfalfa sprouts. I accompanied these delightful handheld eats with a salad of kale, beets, and alfala sprouts coated liberally in a creamy, tangy tahini dressing, also from the deli case. To round out the meal, I picked up a small box of raw chocolate-hazelnut “love” truffles from Lulu’s. Ashley and I enjoyed our meal while basking in the evening’s setting sun and entertaining Bella, Ashley’s boyfriend’s absolutely delightful canine companion—a perfect finale to a perfect four-day adventure.

Tacos!

Kale-Beet Salad.

Lulu’s Chocolate-Hazelnut “Love” Truffle.

Needless to say, my four days in Austin proved absolutely magical, both because of the 48 straight hours I spent with my best friend of eleven years after not seeing her in person since sophomore year of high school, and because of the vibrant vegan community rampant in the heart of Texas. I also found myself truly appreciating Ashley’s open-mindedness regarding and support of my veganism—by the end of my visit, she truly seemed to understand the reasons behind my leading a vegan lifestyle. I don’t know if she intends to start making the shift towards a plant-based diet, but the fact that she will advocate on behalf of the vegan community against her antagonistic boyfriend means the world to me. My spreading of the compassionate message into Ashley’s life, as well as into the lives of everyone I meet wherever I journey, reminds me of Johnny Appleseed except with veganism—just call me Ali Vegan-seed!…or something like that. I eagerly await my next bout of traveling during which to positively affect the hearts and minds of those I meet.

Until next time, Ali.

What I Ate Wednesday #64

Breakfast: A green smoothie of 1 cup frozen mango, 3 deglet noor dates, 1 scoop Amazing Grass Green Superfoods powder, 2 tbsp chia seeds, 4 large leaves lacinato kale, and 1 cup homemade almond milk, all topped with a homemade granola of apples, buckwheat groats, cooked brown rice, walnuts, goji berries, blueberries, hemp seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, maple syrup, and coconut oil.

I crafted this particular granola on the first morning of my stay in my parents’ NYC apartment over Vassar’s spring break, implementing the limited supply of items in their pantry as well as the various superfood ingredients that had traveled with me. Thus, instead of abiding by my usual template for fresh fruit-sweetened granola by pureeing up a mixture of fresh & dried fruit with various spices and coconut oil in which to coat nuts and grains, I shredded an apple and mixed it with about 2 tbsp each of maple syrup and olive oil to provide adequate moisture for the rest of the granola. Quite crunchy, nicely spiced, and bejeweled with bursts of juicy blueberries, this makeshift granola turned out surprisingly well for a creation comprised of odds and ends.

Breakfast Checklist: Protein—chia seeds, almond milk, walnuts, hemp seeds. Whole Grain—buckwheat, brown rice. Fruit—mango, dates, apples, goji berries, blueberries. Leafy Green—kale. Superfoods—Amazing Grass powder, chia seeds, hemp seeds, goji berries.

Morning Tea: Mayan Secret Green Tea from local NYC store Spices and Tease.

Though the aroma of this tea (which includes sencha green, mate, rooibos, and darjeeling teas mixed with lemongrass and bits of carrot, pineapple, and papaya) promised a complex fruity flavor, the amalgamation of various teas created a harshness that vastly overpowered any hope of a pleasingly refreshing tang. Perhaps I’ll simply have to play around with the steeping time and amount of tea used for each cup, but my experiences with this tea thus far have proved rather unfortunate.

Lunch: A sandwich of BBQ Tempeh strips, celery-apple-carrot slaw coated in Luscious Lemon Dressing from the Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen, and avocado slices between two experimental cornbread fritters. I served the sandwich alongside a salad of mixed greens, alfalfa sprouts, mixed bean sprouts, sprouted almonds, and dulse flakes, tossed with Liquid Gold Dressing and topped with Green Raw Slaw from Bao’s. For dessert, I enjoyed a raw truffle made with sprouted sunflower seeds, sprouted almonds, dates, and maca powder, inspired by this recipe.

The impetus for this sandwich began with my discovery of a waffle iron hidden in the back of a cabinet in the NYC apartment currently subletted by my parents. Inspired to craft a savory waffle in part by this recipe of Kristy’s, I contemplated a southern-flavored checkered quickbread to complement the Barbequed Tempeh Sandwich Filling that I had made earlier that day from a new cookbook of mine—the James Beard award winning Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley, who apparently served as the executive chef at NYC vegan staple restaurant Angelica Kitchen for nine years. Unfortunately, the lack of gluten-free flours in my parents’ sparse pantry rendered me scrounging for waffle base options. In a bout of vegan MacGyver-ness, I combined 1/2 cup white cornmeal (already in the pantry), 1/4 cup roasted buckwheat grouts finely ground in the food processor, and 1/4 cup almond pulp leftover from the milk I had made that morning to comprise the full cup of flour required for four waffles. After mixing the flours with nooch, baking powder, baking soda, paprika, cumin, oregano, tomato paste, maple syrup, liquid smoke, almond milk, and coconut oil, I excitedly heated up the waffle iron, oiled it, spooned the batter in to yield a satisfying sizzle, closed the iron, waited for the light to signal the waffle’s completion, opened the iron, and…experienced utter failure. The batter had all but completely stuck to the iron, probably due to both an inadequate oiling of the iron and an overly thick batter lacking in a starch of any sort. Sigh. I managed to salvage the remaning batter by pan-frying it into thick pancakes, but still reeled from crushed waffle-based dreams. Curse you waffle iron! I shall prevail eventually.

Meal Checklist: Protein—tempeh, sprouted almonds, sprouted sunflower seeds, almond meal, tahini. Whole Grain—cornmeal, buckwheat flour. Vegetables/Fruit—celery, apple, carrot, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, bean sprouts, dulse flakes, ginger, pears, dates. Leafy Greens—mixed greens, kale, collard greens, dandelion greens, radish greens.

Afternoon Beverage: Choice Organic White Peony tea.

A bottle of Carpe Diem’s Kombucha in Quince flavor.

With an off-putting taste of artificial sweetener (certainly not one of the actual ingredients, though) and an inadequate amount of carbonation, this particular brand of kombucha failed to fully satisfy my mid-afternoon beverage needs. Try as I might to find a brand of local kombucha (other than the Madison-based NessAlla, of course) of as high a caliber as GT’s, I’ve not yet honed in on one. The search continues!

Dinner: A Middle Eastern feast, shared with my parents in their temporary NYC apartment, of Cookie & Kate’s Crispy Baked Falafel with Creamy Tahini and Dill Dressing, sandwiched between Cara’s Gluten-Free Pita Bread along with mixed greens and cherry tomatoes, accompanied by a side of cauliflower and carrots roasted with cumin, paprika, and coconut oil.

My changes to Kate’s original falafel recipe include substituting canned chickpeas for dried (I worried about the digestibility of merely soaked rather than fully cooked beans), adding 1/2 cup sprouted almonds and 1 tbsp GF flour blend to the mixture, and omitting the salt. Though Kate warns against implementing canned beans in the recipe, I found that adding the almonds and flour ensured adequate binding of the falafel, even when using the more moist canned chickpeas. Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and not at all dry or mealy like many of the falafel recipes with which I’ve experimented in the past, the falafel verily impressed my parents (and fulfilled my mother’s three-day-long craving for falafel), who helped me to scarf down the entire batch of herby chickpea fritters. My only critique of the recipe pertains to the Creamy Tahini and Dill Dressing; the lemon tasted a bit too harsh, in my opinion. However, that minor flaw certainly did not prevent me from slathering the dressing all over my falafel sandwich.

As for the pita bread, I utilized the gluten-free flour blend from Bob’s Red Mill instead of Cara’s homemade blend, replaced the sugar with maple syrup, substituted 1 tbsp flaxseed meal for the xanthan gum, and decreased the salt to 1/4 tsp. I had rather excited myself about the prospect of perfectly crisp, toasty, homemade pita pockets, and therefore became thoroughly disappointed when the pitas would not puff up or slice open as promised (reasons for this fault include the omission of xanthan gum, not allowing the water bath to adequately heat up in the oven, or over-working the dough). Regardless of cooking complications, the pitas still tasted delicious, acting as sliced of bread between which to sandwich the falafel and fixings, rather than as pockets in which to stuff the ingredients.

Meal Checklist: Protein—chickpeas, sprouted almonds, tahini, chickpea flour, fava bean flour. Whole Grain—sorghum flour. Vegetables—onion, garlic, tomatoes, cauliflower, carrots. Leafy Greens—mixed green, parsley, cilantro, dill.

After-Dinner Beverage: Traditional Medicinals’ Organic Eater’s Digest tea.

Comment Provoking Questions: How do you adapt your cooking to kitchens not as well-stocked as to which you’re accustomed? Do you own a waffle iron? Have you had luck with it? What is your favorite brand of kombucha other than GT’s? Have you made pita bread yourself before?

Happy WIAW!

Until next time, Ali.

Austin Extravaganza, Day 3: Casa de Luz & Beets Cafe

Don’t miss the vegan eats and adventures of my first two days in Austin here and here.

The penultimate day of my visit to the liberal-hippie-progressive-veg-friendly city of Austin, TX commenced with a scenic stroll along Lady Bird Lake, which eventually led Ashley and I to our lunch destination of Casa de Luz. The “favorite place in the world to eat” of one of my ultimate vegan inspirations James McWilliams, who attests to patronizing the restaurant for breakfast every morning, Casa de Luz serves macrobiotic vegan fare out of an open kitchen in a community-centered atmosphere, with a group of different chefs providing each meal. The restaurant offers a set meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day (no menus here!), which always includes tea, soup, salad, and an entree complete with a whole grain, a bean, a leafy green, and a pickled vegetable—all for $12, not including dessert. On the day that Ashley and I patronized Casa de Luz, the menu boasted a creamy soup of cauliflower and yellow squash; a salad of crisp greens and red cabbage in a tangy sunflower seed, basil, and parsley dressing; meltingly tender pinto beans swimming in their own silky broth; short-grain brown rice in an earthy mushroom sauce; a saute of crisp-tender burdock root, carrots, and green beans; steamed greens topped with a dollop of sesame-almond-pecan sauce; and pickled red sauerkraut. I sprinkled my serving generously with a Japanese sesame seed condiment known as gomasio, a jar of which graced every table.

The picturesque walkway into Casa de Luz.

Casa de Luz’s open-style kitchen.

Creamy cauliflower and yellow squash soup.

Crisp Salad with Sunflower Seed, Basil and Parsley Dressing.

Entree plate.

Gluten-Free Pecan Pie.

Nourishing to both the body and the soul, macrobiotic cuisine never fails to impart a feeling of having given a generous gift to myself; indeed, I would argue that nothing more holistically fulfilling exists than the act of enjoying and truly appreciating a wholesome vegan meal prepared by caring hands. Surrounded by diners and restaurant employees who clearly shared in my sentiments, I could certainly understand why James McWilliams speaks so highly of Casa de Luz. Before departing from the oasis-esque nature of Casa de Luz, Ashley and I shared a slice of sticky and scrumptious gluten-free pecan pie, and browsed through the shelves of the restaurant’s mini macrobiotic market, which offers books on macrobiotic principles, animal rights, and veganism, as well as traditional Japanese food products and cooking supplies like miso, umeboshi plums, mochi, bamboo rolling mats, and suribachi.

Raspberry-flavored brown rice syrup; yes, please.

Love me some mochi, especially with medicinal herbs thrown in!

Harboring an avid sweet tooth and a passion for crafting baked goods, Ashley requested to learn the ways of animal secretion-free baking from the experienced vegan gastronomer that she held at her fingertips for the next couple of days. Thanks to the multiple dairy-and-egg-less desserts we’d enjoyed prior to our baking excursion, Ashley already felt quite confident about the high quality of sweet vegan treats, and ardently awaited the opportunity to craft her own. Unfortunely, our first bout of recipe experimentation with a veganized version of this Pomegranate-Soaked Almond Hazelnut Cake fell rather flat due to my mistaking of the 1/2 cup measure for the full cup measure to yield a lack of flour…oops. Determined to fully impart to Ashley the joy and success that usually ensues from vegan baking, I searched for recipes that would use up the rest of the baking ingredients we had purchased from Whole Foods, and discovered two cookies: Almond Flour Cookies with Almond Butter and Pistachios (we subbed peanut butter for almond butter and walnuts for pistachios), and Banana-Flax Crackers. Both of these recipes yielded infinitely more delicious results than our failed cake, and even impressed Ashley’s skeptical meat-eating boyfriend.

Our baking extravaganza filled up most of the afternoon, but Ashley and I decided to while away the remaining few hours before dinner by perusing the area around Guadalupe Street, which includes such desirable locations as the nostalgic wonderland of Toy Joy; the vintage, thrift, and clothing swap store of Buffalo Exchange, which recently participated in the noble endeavors of discontinuing the use of plastic bags and accepting used fur apparel donations to benefit Coats for Cubs; and my new happiest place on earth, the Wheatsville Co-op, of which I’ll provide a full review in the blog post regaling my final day in Austin.

For dinner, Ashley and I excitedly visited Beets Café—a raw restaurant serving up gourmet uncooked cuisine in a chic yet unpretentious and quite welcoming dining room to everyone from moms with strollers to bulky machismos to bespectacled hipsters to college students. After a bit of a bus-induced planning hiccup (thank you, Austin bus system, for picking us up an hour later than scheduled), Ashley and I yearned to fill our growling tummies immediately and began our meal with raw treats from Beets Cafe’s dessert case. While all of the sweets looked absolutely beautiful and surely ambrosial (can you say Blueberry-Lavender Cheesecake and Chocolate Macaroons?), Ashley and I decided to partake in the Almond-Raspberry Cookies and the cacao-coated Superfood Clusters (chock full of goji berries, coconut, brazil nuts, spirulina, raisins, inca berries, maca powder, and mesquite powder), respectively. Bittersweet, chewy, crunchy, and creamy all at once, the Superfood Clusters served as the perfect beginning to a stunning meal. However, even though Ashley regaled the wonders of her Almond-Raspberry Cookies, the bite I snuck of them left me unimpressed by their miserly amount of raspberry filling and rather unflavorful cookie exterior. Glad I made the right choice on pre-dinner dessert.

While I beat Ashley on dessert choices, she prevailed in entree selection by ordering the Raw Reuben—two pliable slices of sunflower seed flatbread layered with Thousand Island dressing, sauerkraut, marinated portabella mushrooms, dehydrated “caramelized” onions, and cashew Swiss cheese, served alongside a shredded beet salad and a pile of dill-and-nooch-dusted sweet potato chips. Ashley generously offered me a bite of her sandwich, which transported me to veritable raw food heaven due to the genius mingling of creamy-tender-tangy-umami-ness bursting from in between the flatbread, the hearty and chewy texture of which impressed me more than most of the raw flatbreads I’ve sampled in the past. With Ashley’s blessing, I also finished off the last of her sweet potato chips, which exactly resembled an oil-free, dehydrated variation on sour-cream-and-onion potato chips.

Though Ashley’s entree proved a tad more extraordinary than mine, I still thoroughly enjoyed my Cha-Lu-Pas—two crunchy corn tostadas spread with sunflower seed “refried beans,” topped with shredded lettuce, salsa, guacamole, and olives, drizzled with a cashew sour cream, and served alongside a kale salad in a tangy marinara-style dressing. All of the components proved quite fresh-tasting, though the creamy sunflower seed beans served as my favorite aspect of the dish, which satisfied my intense day-long craving for avocado. While quite tasty, the Cha-Lu-Pas simply could not match the sheer perfection of Ashley’s Reuben. I suppose I’ll just have to return to Beets Café during my next visit to Austin—darn.

On the bus ride back to her apartment, Ashley expressed her happy surprise at how much she enjoyed her first experience at a raw food restaurant. In fact, for the remainder of my trip, she continually waxed poetic about her sandwich at Beets Café, and even asked me if she could make a version of the sunflower seed flatbread at home (I passed these two recipes from Gena at Choosing Raw along to her). If not for the slightly out-of-reach price tag, Ashley would have suggested that we dine at Beets Café again the next day. Instead, we planned our meals for my final day in Austin to include ice cream at Sweet Ritual and dinner from the Wheatsville Co-op (more details on our eventful lunch excursion in the next post).

Until next time, Ali.