Spicy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, I have now served these to three different audiences (and my husband as well) and everyone loves them.  I’ve made a few different versions of the cookie thus far and think I have the best option figured out.  I promise no one will know that these are vegan.  Remember to just not skimp on the fat (vegan butter) part of this, as that is what helps make the cookies so darn good.

Spicy Cookie Ingredients:

• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
  

  Cookie Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg substitute (I used Ener-G)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 to 1.5 tsp cayenne powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1.5 cups white flour
• 1.5 cups chocolate chips

Optional ingredients:

Cookie close up

• 3/4 cups chopped hazelnuts
• 3/4 cups shredded coconut
• pink Himalayan salt

Cream together the butter and sugars.

Creamed butter and sugars

Add in the egg, milk, and vanilla.  Beat the mixture together well.  If using Ener-G egg replacer, add the 1 1/4 tsp of dry mixture to the milk with an extra two tablespoons of milk.

Liquids together

Add in the baking powder, cayenne, and cinnamon and mix well.  Finally, add in the whole wheat flour and mix.  Then add the white flour a half cup at a time.  Mix slowly.  Add in chocolate chips and any other of the add ins that you want. Refrigerate your dough.  It will make scooping the dough so much easier.

Ready to bake!

Heat the oven to 375 F.  Place the cookies about an inch to an inch and a half apart from each other.  If you cook on a silicone sheet, it will make removing the cookies that much easier.  Cook for 15 minutes.  The cookies won’t brown so much on top, so no worries about that.  Allow the cookies to cool then enjoy!

Coconut AND sea salt options

As for the options, I’ve found that using a full 1.5 tsp of cayenne pepper and chopped hazelnuts are the best option.  If you don’t want to add nuts, I’d suggest using dark chocolate with some Himalayan salt sprinkled on top.  Any way you have it, they will be delicious.  Other options may be to try using some tofu or apple sauce instead of egg or the Ener-G.  Also, try using coconut oil instead of the butter, which may work as well.

Ready to eat!

Granola Recipe

I’ve had an irrational fear of making granola for a long time.  I have no idea why or what it was about, but for some reason the idea of making granola seemed so daunting.  Well, my package for my April foodie pen pal was about to go out and I wanted to make something home made.  I had most of the supplies, so it was a matter of picking up a few things and getting the courage to attempt to make granola for the first time.  I decided to go with a pretty basic recipe and then got fancy at the end with some coconut.  Hopefully the pen pal likes it!

Granola Ingredients:

• 3 cups regular oats (do not use instant)
  

  Ingredients

• 8 oz sliced or slivered almonds
• 8 oz dried cranberries
• 6 oz sweetened coconut
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bag add the oats, almonds, and cranberries.  Add to these the cinnamon and the salt.  Mix the dry ingredients well.

Dry ingredients

Add to the bag the oil, honey, and extract.  Using either your hands or shaking the bag well, make sure everything is WELL coated.  The oil needs to coat the oats to allow them to toast evenly.

Wet ingredients added

Line a baking sheet with either foil or parchment paper and spread the ingredients out evenly.

Ready to be baked

Set the oven for 325 F and cook the granola for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes are up, add the coconut to the mixture and try to bring the stuff on the edges into the middle.

Coconut added

Cook the granola for another 10 minutes before again mixing the granola from the outside in.

Just 10 more minutes….

Turn the oven down to 300 F and cook for one last 10 minutes.  Remove the granola promptly and allow to cool.  Enjoy!

Close up of finished product

Some variations are possible.  I’d probably try other dried fruits the next time.  Dried blueberries would be amazing!  I also think other nuts like pecans and walnuts would work really well.  I’d also want to try this with non-sweetened coconut.  I think that would save a bunch of calories without sacrificing taste.  Also, using coconut oil instead of canola oil or using agave syrup instead of honey would be great substitutions.

Related articles

• A New Take on Homemade Granola: Quinoa Granola with Raisinets (nestleusa.wordpress.com)
• How to Make Homemade Granola (acedarspoon.com)
• cherry coconut granola bars. (frugalfoodiefamily.com)
• Homemade Granola (thisocalledlife.com)
• Lightened Up Summer Granola (ohsheglows.com)

March Foodie Pen Pal

It’s that time of the month again!  Foodie Pen pal reveal day!!!!!  This month I got my box from the lovely Maureen over at the blog Pearls on a Pig.  You should check out her blog for amazing ideas for kids and adults alike.  My box this month was SUPER awesome.  It was FILLED to the brim with lots of new snacks and things to try.  As I got the box just a week or so before Passover, I wanted to wait to taste everything.  Then, reason got the better of me and I opened the candies.  I’ve never had Horehound candies before, so I was pleasantly surprised by the nice herbal taste to them.

Part One

I also got a great selection of popcorns and chips.  I am DYING to try the jalapeno chips.  Here’s hoping they’re REALLY spicy.  The tea smells lovely as does the coffee.  I normally eat the spiced wafers during Halloween, but I was also given a recipe to use the wafers, so I may have to try that with the cookies.  Thanks again to the lovely Maureen.

Part Two

You can see the person I sent to over at HomeMade by TZ.

Now, here’s the info on the Foodie Pen Pal Program:

• On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
• You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
• The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
• You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
• Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
• Foodie Penplas is open to US, Canadian & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

Charoset and more

I realize that posting a charoset recipe AFTER the seders is a bit late, but with all the craziness leading up to my seders I didn’t have a chance to post my recipe and photos.  I started with a traditional charoset then decided to do a bit of a twist in the end.  Traditional charoset is made with usually one type of apples, a sweet red wine, walnuts, and cinnamon.  You can either chop your apples and walnuts by hand or put them in a food processor to pulse mix.  I prefer a chunky charoset so I did mine by hand, but if you prefer more of a “paste”, go with the processor.

Charoset Ingredients:

• 6 apples (I used two each of Gala, Macintosh, and Fuji)
• 1/4 bottle of semi sweet red wine for Passover (cheap is good)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (more or less to taste)
• 3/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts
• Optional ingredients: dried dates, preserved lemon
  

  Basic Ingredients

Spread the walnuts out on a lined baking sheet.  Set the oven to 350 F and put the pan in.  After 10 minutes shake the pan to turn the walnuts.  You will know when they are done as you will smell the nuts toasted.

Toasting Walnuts

Finely chop the apples in a small dice.  You could use your mandoline to either do even slices or julienne the apples then dice them further.  To the apples add the cinnamon and the 1/4 of a bottle of wine.  You want the apples coated, but not drowned in the wine.  When the walnuts have cooled, chop them in a rough chop  and add to the apples.

Apples in wine

If you want to change up your charoset this year, take 5 (or more or less) dried dates and chop them.  Add these to the mixture.  I also used some of my preserved lemon peel to add a punch to the charoset.  I loved the taste, but you could used just some lemon rind instead.  Make this at LEAST 24 hours before you are going to serve it.  This allows the flavors to really meld together.

Optional ingredients

 

Now begs the question as to what to do with the rest of the bottle of wine.  Hopefully you did not purchase a very good bottle.  So, drinking is out of the question.  I used mine for a dessert.  I made poached pears in wine.  It’s an EASY dessert, I promise.  For each person prepare half a pear.  Chop a pear in half and spoon out the seeds.  Place the pears cut side down in a pan and add the rest of the bottle of wine and a few cinnamon sticks.  You can do this in the beginning of the day to let the pears soak up the wine.  After the dinner has cooked put the covered pears in the oven at 350 F.  While you’re eating dinner the pears will cook and be ready.  Place a pear and a bit of wine on a plate.  Top with a bit of honey, whipped cream, or mascarpone.  This can even be served at room temperature, so it’s really a SUPER easy dish with little to prepare and big rewards.

Related articles

• Sephardic Charoset (jewishmothercooking.wordpress.com)
• Poached Pears (Pastry Pal blog)

Vegan Moussaka

Well, Passover is here.  This year I was in charge of the main dish for the vegetarians/vegans the first seder.  I’m off eggs and limit my dairy intake.  But apparently my sister has developed a lactose intolerance and a tree nut allergy.  Plus she doesn’t like mushrooms.  So my ideas for the main dish started to shrink considerably.  I’d had a vegetarian moussaka recently and thought I could recreate it for Passover using a milk substitute that is ok for Passover.  I got my inspiration for the recipe from the Avalon Wine website.   A word of warning.  I mostly keep Passover.  I don’t eat anything that’s specifically prohibited, but the milk I used did not have a kosher for Passover hecksher on it.  Flax has been approved by Star-K as ok for Passover, so I used the “milk” as my base for the bechamel.  If I didn’t have to deal with the tree nut allergy, I would have used almond milk, which you can find with a hecksher or make your own.  Another option would be to use cashew “cheeze” instead of a bechamel sauce.

Moussaka Ingredients:

• 1 medium eggplant
  

  Moussaka Ingredients

• 2 medium/large potatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 2-4 garlic cloves
• 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Using a mandoline cut the eggplant and the potatoes into even slices.  Place the eggplant in a collandar with salt to draw out some of the bitterness.  If you cut the potatoes at the same time as the eggplant, you can put the potatoes in a bowl of water to prevent the potatoes from browning.

In a saucepan, heat up the olive oil then add the chopped onion and the garlic cloves.  Heat until the onions are transluscent.  Add the salt, peppers, oregano, and cinnamon to the pan then the tomatoes.  Cook for about 10 more minutes.

Grease a pan and add a layer of the potatoes, the sauce, then the eggplant (that you’ve since rinsed off and patted dry).  Then add more sauce, potatoes, then eggplant.  Finish with the last of the sauce.  Cover the dish and put at 375 F for one and a half hours.  While that is baking, make the bechamel.

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Vegan Bechamel

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3.5 tbsp matzo meal (I used whole wheat)
• 2 cups milk of choice

In a saucepan heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add the matzo meal and whisk together.  The mixture should clump together.  Slowly add the milk to the pan and whisk well.  Lower the heat to medium low and allow  the mixture to thicken.  You will know the bechamel is  complete when it sticks to the back of a spoon.  It will thicken up more as it sits, so if need be, add more milk to thin out the sauce.

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When the vegetables are completed spoon the bechamel on to the veggies and cook for another 20 to 30 minutes and allow the bechamel to brown more.

Bechamel added

If you have used whole wheat matzo meal (or maybe whole wheat flour) the color will not be the appealing light brown.  It’s more of a brownish-grey in the end.  It’s not a really pretty dish.  But, it is good.  Like we had non-vegans at the seder who work at a restaurant and had seconds.  I’d say that was a hit .

Finished product

Preserved Meyer Lemons

It’s winter (almost spring!) and I’m slowly making my way through the jars of veggies I preserved this summer.  I still have some pickles, carrots, and tomatoes, but my hot peppers are long gone.  It’s a cue I guess for next year.  But in the mean time I had an itch to do SOMETHING in the kitchen.  So, I knew a bit ago that it was Meyer Lemon season and I’d never made preserved lemons before.  It seemed easy enough, so I gave it a try.

Salt Preserved Meyer Lemons

• Meyer Lemons (about 4-5)
• Kosher salt (non-iodine kind)
• Sterile quart jar

The process is pretty simple.  Quarter the lemons, but DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH.  Put about a tablespoon or two of salt in the bottom of the jar.  Pour more salt into the cuts of the lemons so that the flesh gets covered.  Pack the jar with the cut lemons and then squish the lemons down.  REALLY pack them down and get the juices running.  If you have extra lemons that won’t fit in, you can juice them into the jar.  That’s all.  About every two days shake up the jar to make sure the lemons are covered with juice.  After three weeks the lemons should be ready.  Store in the fridge for up to a year.

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I cannot WAIT to make this recipe.  I have been making my own salad dressing lately, so this would work GREAT!

 

Related articles

• Roasted eggplant with tahini and meyer lemon dressing (saffronandhoney.com)
• Jaime Oliver’s Salted Preserved Lemons
• Preserved Lemon Citrus Chicken with Chervil Gremolata (Serious Eats)
• Tabbouleh Wrapped in Romaine Leaves

Falafel Pie

Do you like falafel?  But do you hate to have to make the little balls and possibly frying them?  I know I do.  I do really love enjoy eating falafel.  My favorite was in Israel on the street with fries in the pita (and lots of harissa!).  I made this recipe a few weeks ago for a potluck and I think it went over well.  This recipe is actually a two-fer as I’ll give a recipe for tzatziki sauce as well.  I got the recipe from a blog called The Vegan Stoner.  It’s actually a really great recipe site.  All the recipes are super quick and easy.

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• Falafel mix
• Hummus
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• 10 oz soft silken tofu
• lemon juice (from half a lemon)
• dill
• salt, pepper
• optional: avocado, olives

Directions for Falafel Pie:

Mix falafel mix with prescribed amount of water and allow to sit for ten minutes.

Falafel mixed up

In a greased pan, spread the falafel mix.  Bake at 425 F for 15 to 25 minutes (depending on your oven).

Falafel out of the oven

Bring the falafel out and allow to cool for  15ish minutes (until you can handle the pan).  Spread hummus in an even layer on to the falafel.

Hummus on top

Top with you cut up veggies, such that you form circles (if you want to make it pretty).  Lastly, top with the tzatziki sauce.

Veggies added

Directions for Tzatziki Sauce:

Tzatziki sauce

In a blender (a magic bullet works GREAT), add the silken tofu, lemon juice, salt, and dill.  Blend for two minutes or until the mixture is smooth.  Add more lemon juice if need be.  Add some chopped cucumber to the tzatziki.

Finished pie

Happy Pi Day!

Related articles

• Baked Sweet Potato Falafels with Yogurt Tahini Sauce (inthelivingwell.com)
• Homemade Falafel (tastetheheights.wordpress.com)
• Middle Eastern treat: How to make the ultimate falafel (metro.co.uk)

Chinese New Year Dinner

My mom has organized a Chinese New Year dinner in Philadelphia for the past few years.  I haven’t been able to go for some reason or another, but this year my mother-in-law decided to treat my husband and I to it for our birthdays.  I must say that it was a great present.  First of all, the food is absolutely amazing.  I found every course to be wonderful, but some items were more amazing than others.  Secondly, the chef accommodated my food restrictions.  I was able to have a mostly vegan meal with only a bit of dairy in the mango puree.  Thirdly, the place is a BYOB AND there is no corkage fees!  I brought bourbon with ginger beer to drink with my meal, but there was wine, a drink called Cinnamon Toast Crunch (tastes like the milk leftover from the cereal sitting in it), margaritas, and plenty of other stuff.  Lastly, the place may not be the fanciest of places, but the chef was so personable that it made up for it.  A million times over for sure.

Here’s the list of the courses and food:

• Appetizers:  Vegetable spring roll, salt crusted tofu, fruit salad (the one on the plate had mayo, which was switched out for one that did not), eggplant “hamburger”, and tofu sushi with fries
• Intermezzo: Mango puree with ice and an envelope with a dollar for good luck
• Main Course: Tofu! in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce, rice with lettuce and corn and jicama, a “kebab” of fried tofu balls, pineapple, eggplant in a spicy sauce
• Sides: pasta with veggies (jicama, snow peas, green beans, carrots, lotus root), veggies for all (green beans, black mushrooms, corn, and sun-dried tomatoes)
• Dessert: fruit salad and a candy

A special thanks to Chef Joseph Poon for his hospitality and wonderful personality.  He does walking tours of Philly’s Chinatown along with teaching cooking classes and hosting dinners.

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Lasagna Soup

Well, it’s official.  It’s cold.  Like REALLY cold.  So, most nights I really just want something warm and hearty to eat.  Lasagna would totally fit that bill. Unfortunately I find making lasagna a little more tedious than what I would normally have on a weeknight.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE lasagna.  I think I asked my mom to make lasagna for my birthday dinner for YEARS!  So, when I saw this recipe for lasagna soup, I knew I had to make it, with a few tweaks.  I stayed pretty true to the original recipe, but I will make some suggestions at the end to make the soup a little different each time.

Lasagna Soup Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 medium chopped onion
• 3-4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 3 Tofurky sausages
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1-2 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 2 14oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
• 6 cups veggie stock
• 8 oz lasagna noodles or fusilli
• 8 oz ricotta cheese
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat the olive oil over medium to medium high heat.  Add the onion and sweat for a minute or two.  Add the garlic and cook another few minutes until the onion is translucent.   Add two of the sausages that are cut up in slices.  With the third, crumble before adding to the pot.  Cook another minute or two.  Add tomato paste and the oregano, basil, and red pepper flakes.  Stir to combine and allow to cook until the paste turns darker in color.  

Add the tomatoes with their juices and the veggie stock.  Turn down the heat and cover the pot and allow the soup to simmer.  While the soup is cooking, heat water in a separate pan to cook the noodles in.  Salt the cooking water well.  Break up the noodles if using lasagna before cooking.  Drain the noodles and rinse them off.

Cooked noodles

While the soup is simmering and the noodles are cooking, make the ricotta topping.  In a bowl mix the ricotta cheese, nutritional yeast, and the salt and pepper.  Mix well and set aside.

Ricotta mixture

After the soup has simmered for at least a half hour, ladle into bowls for serving.  Add some noodles to each bowl then top with a dollop of the ricotta mixture and some shredded cheese.  If you have any fresh basil you can add  some ribbons to each bowl or top it off with a few more shakes of red pepper flakes.

Soup simmering away

There are a few changes that I’d make the next time I cook this soup.  The first is that I’d probably add some spinach to the soup.  It wouldn’t add too much to the soup to take away from the flavor and would add so much more in the way of nutrition.  I may also add other veggies like zucchini and squash when they are in season (or if I’d preserved any for next winter).  If you wanted to make this vegan, use Daiya shredds instead of the mozzarella.  To sub for the ricotta, use firm tofu that you can either process in a food processor or with a fork and smash to little chunks.  Flavor this with some salt and spices and maybe a touch of lemon juice to use as ricotta in the recipe.

Enjoy!

Composed soup

Late Season Preserves (Spiced Cranberry Pear Jam)

I can’t believe it’s already December.  I feel like I was JUST celebrating the holidays from LAST year.  And yet, here we are again.  I’ve been slowly making my way through some of the canned items I made this year.  I used up a quart of tomatoes, I gave away a few pints of sriracha daikons, and have thoroughly enjoyed the spicy green beans.  I am making TONS of those next year.  So delicious!

So, imagine my surprise when I thought I was done creating new projects.  It’s December!  Nothing’s in season…  Except maybe cranberries…  While the cranberries were probably not harvested yesterday, they are still in season currently.  If you didn’t try making your own cranberry sauce, you should FOR SURE make this.  It’s a very easy recipe with big rewards at the end.  You end up with a mostly tart and VERY pretty jam.  And the nice thing is that you only really need four ingredients.  The rest is up to you.  The recipe has been adapted from this one at the Food in Jars site.

Ingredients

• 4 cups chopped pears (I used d’anjou)
  

  Pear Cranberry Ingredients

• 4 cups cleaned cranberries
• 1.5 cups white sugar
• 1.5 cups brown sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3-4 cardamom pods
• 2-3 cloves
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup water

Diced Pears

Core and chop the pears into a fairly even dice.  This will allow your pears to cook more evenly.  Put the pears, cranberries, and sugar in the pan to let it marinade for about 10 minutes.  Add the spices and the water to the fruit and put the pan on high.

Everything in

Bring the pot to a boil, then turn down the heat.  You want the mixture to bubble occasionally, but not a roaring boil.  You will need to stir your mixture every few minutes to keep the mixture from scorching on the bottom and being watery on the top.  Cook the mixture for about 20 to 25 minutes or until most of the liquid has cooked off then add in the lemon juice.

Jam cooking down

Take out the cardamom and cloves (if you can find them) and store the jam.  I decided to not can the jam and instead kept one cup in the fridge and put the other two in the freezer.  Not everything needs to be canned.  You can preserve your “bounty” by freezing.

The jam looks really pretty, so it would make a GREAT holiday gift for friends or family.  You really can’t mess this recipe up.  I added in the lemon juice at the very beginning.  I also didn’t exactly let the fruit sit before I started cooking it down.  Try experimenting with the spices.

Finished Jam

Related articles

• Spiced Cranberry Sauce With Pears And Cherries (minnesota.cbslocal.com)
• Spicy Peach Jam (my blog)
• It’s a Pear-Palooza! (cynthia-david.com)