Unsweetened Cashew Soy Yogurt

Nowhere in my region seems to sell unsweetened vegan yogurt, but fortunately it seems to be as simple as making dairy yogurt.  I have now made vegan yogurt two different ways, one with cashew and one without.  The cashewed version is obviously fattier, but it also has a significantly nicer texture.  I got the recipe from Miyoko Schinner's Artisan Vegan Cheese.  I've eaten it plain (would be great in a parfait) and also used it in place of plain dairy yogurt in things like Cranberry Waldorf salad. 

Ingredients
4 cups unsweetened soy milk
2/3 cups cashews, soaked in water for 3 hours then drained and rinsed
1 probiotic capsule (this is the only one I've ever used for this purpose because Fo Reals Life, where I found my non-cashewed vegan yogurt recipe, said it's the best)


Directions

1. Put the cashews and 1 cup of the soy milk in a blender and process until smooth and creamy.
2. Transfer to a heavy medium saucepan and whisk in the remaining soy milk.
3. Warm over low heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture reaches 110 degrees F or until a few drop placed on the wrist feel barely warm. Remove from the heat. 
4. Empty the probiotic capsule into the warm milk and stir until thoroughly combined.
5. Pour into a clean 1 quart glass jar and cover. Let rest in a warm place for 4 - 8 hours, until set and the desired degree of tartness has been achieved.  Alternately, use a yogurt maker, which is severely unnecessary, but mine was a gift.
6. Refrigerate the yogurt; it will thicken more as it cools.
7. Stored in a covered container in the refrigerator, Cashew Yogurt will keep for 1 to 2 weeks.

Slow-Cooker Refried Beans

Ingredients
2 cups dried pinto beans
8 cups water
3 small (or 2 large) yellow onions, quartered
2 jalapeno chiles, seeded and roughly chopped

"Taco Spice"
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili powder

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into slow cooker.  Turn it on low and ignore it for about 8 hours.  Alternately, you can cook on high for about 3 hours.


2. Turn off slow cooker and drain as much water as you can from the beans.


3. Use an immersion blender to puree the cooked bean mixture.  If you don't have an immersion blender, wait until the beans cool to put the mixture in a blender in batches.


4. (Optional) Add a few tablespoons of salsa and/or low-fat plain yogurt to make a creamy bean dip.  Also tastes good as a spread in quesadillas and hot sandwiches.

Kale Butter

This recipe comes from the Engine 2 Cookbook, but I found it on here.  I've been looking for new ways to get Simran to eat green vegetables, and I had heard of kale butter.  She tends to enjoy dips, so I'm hoping she'll actually try this.

I imagine it would taste even better with a clove of garlic and a tablespoon of Bragg Liquid Aminos in place of the salt -- it would be like pureed kale in walnut sauce, the way Simran used to enjoy it before she had teeth.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale, rinsed and chopped
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup water
• Salt to taste

Directions

Steam kale for 5 minutes, until tender. Blend with walnuts and 1/2 cup of green water from steaming. Add salt to taste if desired. Process in blender until smooth.

Mushroom Pâté

This recipe comes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Ingredients
3 tbs neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
About 2 lbs cremini or white mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, and roughly chopped
1/4 cup dried porcini (optional), reconstituted
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs tomato paste
3/4 cup dry white wine (optional)
2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup Fresh Bread Crumbs or crumbled crackers, plus more as needed
Finely chopped chives or parsley leaves for garnish

Directions

1. Put the oil in a large skillet over high heat. When it is hot, add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook for another few minutes, then add the tomato paste and the white wine if you're using it. Stir and cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated, about 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the vegetables cool.

2. Transfer the mushroom mixture to a food processor, add the lemon juice and bread crumbs, and pureé until smooth. Taste and season with more salt, pepper, or lemon juice as needed. The consistency should be fairly thick  but still easily spreadable; add more bread crumbs if it's too thin; add vegetable stock or water if it's too thick.

3. Spoon the pâté mixture into a terrine or ramekin(s) and refrigerate until chilled. Serve at room temperature, garnished with chives or parsley. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Vegan Remoulade Sauce

I found the non-vegan version of this recipe on Food.com.  I chose this one because I knew I could find all the ingredients at the grocery store and wouldn't have to try to find "Creole mustard" or figure out what exactly "chili sauce" meant.  I'm using this sauce on vegan po'boy sandwiches.

Ingredients

1 cup vegan mayonnaise
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped scallion
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 stalk finely chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions

 

1. Whisk all ingredients together.

 

2. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Lazy Chipotle Mayo

I'm not sure how complicated this recipe was when I started making it, but I'm pretty sure it at least had fresh lime juice in it.  Now I just make the laziest version possible, and I don't think Sameer has ever been able to tell the difference.  We use it as a spread on black bean burgers, and it makes the entire sandwich.

Ingredients
1-2 chipotles in adobo, from can (typically found in the Latin-American section of the grocery store's "international" aisle -- please note this calls for 1-2 actual chiles, NOT entire cans of them)
1 cup mayonnaise (substitute vegan mayo to make vegan)
garlic salt, to taste
juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend.  Serve immediately or store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Buffalo Hummus

This recipe comes from a cook book called No Meat Athlete by Matt Frazier, but I found it on OhSheGlows.com.  I made some pretty substantial changes when I made it in order to make it both low-fat and mild enough Simran could enjoy it too.  I swapped out the standard chickpeas and tahini for white beans, since white beans create a rather comparable level of creaminess and I generally avoid tahini on account of its fat content.  Aside from the salt, the recipe below is so low-fat and healthy that it meets even Caldwell Esselstyn's 'prevent and reverse heart disease' standards. 

Everyone in the house liked it, and we ate all of it immediately.  It is good as a dip for celery sticks, pita chips, and crispy breaded tofu strips, and I'm pretty sure it would be good as a sandwich spread too.  It's very simple and only takes a few minutes to throw together.  If you like spicy wings with Buffalo sauce, I suggest you try the spicing from the original recipe linked above, which calls for much more hot sauce and cayenne pepper as well -- mine is much milder.

Ingredients

• 1 15-oz. can white beans, drained and rinsed, but set the bean water aside in case you need to add it back in (Cannellini, Great Northern, or Navy beans will work)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 dashes Frank's Red Hot sauce (add more if you aren't serving it to a baby)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup jarred roasted red pepper

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine and then scrape down the sides.  With motor running, add bean water slowly until you reach desired consistency.

2. Add more salt, lemon juice, or hot sauce, to taste.

White Bean Sandwich Spread

I invented this recipe for use on vegan paninis and other sandwiches that would benefit from something creamy and cheese-like.  It is based loosely on Esselstyn's simple no-tahini hummus, the fact that tahini-based hummus is usually much creamier and nicer tasting than that, and my love for blending white beans into other things.

Ingredients
1 15-oz can white beans (great northern, cannellini, or navy -- I can't tell the difference), drained and rinsed
1 tbs nutritional yeast
zest of one lemon
1 garlic clove
1 tbs Bragg Liquid Aminos (or low-sodium tamari)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbs low-sodium vegetable broth (or as needed)

Directions

1. Put all ingredients except vegetable broth in a food processor and blend.  Add low-sodium vegetable broth as necessary until a creamy, hummus-like consistency is achieved (for me, this took 2 tbs).  Serve on sandwiches or as a dip with crackers, crudites, or pita chips.

Toasted Garlic Buns

This is another Esselstyn recipe from Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  It calls for sprouted grain burger buns from a company called Food for Life, but I don't know where to buy those right now, so I'm just using the whole wheat buns I made yesterday  instead.

Ingredients
4 large elephant garlic cloves, or 2 whole heads garlic
4-6 tablespoons vegetable broth
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
(and presumably some buns for toasting)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Cut top off elephant garlic and peel off outside skin. Wrap garlic in parchment paper, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of broth, tightly seal with foil, and roast for 45 minutes. Cool slightly.

3. Mash garlic in a small bowl. Slowly mix in vegetable broth and chopped parsley until mixture has the consistency of softened butter.

4. Spread on toasted buns or whole-grain bread.  Even better, toast whole-grain bread lightly, spread with garlic mixture, and re-toast!

If you are in a hurry, here is another very garlicky option:
1. Using a garlic press, squeeze garlic cloves into a small dish.
2. Add enough vinegar (any variety), lemon, lime, or other fruit juice or vegetable broth to mix garlic into a paste.
3. Spread garlic on a bun and toast under a broiler until tops are nicely browned.

[Edited 3/2/13: You know what was missing on these?  Butter.  I get that this is a healthy, "safe" recipe and that butter is off-limits, but if I had to leave one ingredient out of the typical garlic toast recipe, it would be garlic rather than butter.  These garlic buns weren't bad, but they just weren't good enough to warrant eating.]