Vegan Hushpuppies!!

You read it right: Vegan Hushpuppies! One of those foods I never thought I would eat again after going vegan...thank goodness I was wrong! I kind of just winged this recipe, and it turned out awesome; it is very similar to a cornbread batter, but with slight differences for frying. They are dense yet light, chewy yet crispy, sweet yet savory and salty. Pretty much the perfect food! They go really well with tartar sauce or ketchup, too! Vegan Hushpuppies (makes ~25 puppies)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups soymilk, unsweetened
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs sugar
2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1 Tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1 cup corn kernels (from about 2 ears fresh corn)
Optional add-ins: 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, hot sauce to taste, 1 minced jalapeno, or 1/4 cup diced bell pepper

Heat oil in deep fryer or on stove top in a heavy-bottomed pan. Heat to approx. 350 F.
Whisk together flaxseed and water in a large bowl. Whisk in the rest of the wet ingredients, stirring vigorously to combine. Gently add in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the corn kernels and other optional add-ins.
After testing oil for temperature, drop batter by 1 Tablespoon amounts into heated oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, flip and cook 2-3 more minutes, until crisped and golden brown. Set on paper towel or newspaper to absorb excess oil, and serve hot. Be careful not to overcrowd the fryer to prevent improper cooking; try to only fry 2 or 3 at a time for best results.

*haha you can also use a Corn Baller machine to make these, too :)

Pure Comfort: Vegan Country "Ham" and Beans

Nothing says comfort on a chilly, rainy night like a big bowl of this Vegan Country "Ham" and Beans. Tender white beans, chewy seitan ham, veggies, and a creamy sauce all poured over fluffy cornbread...mmmm, I feel all warm and cozy already
For the "ham," I used a homemade seitan ham, but plain seitan, smoked tofu, or even tempeh chunks would work as well! Vegan Country"Ham" and Beans (serves 6-8)
1 lb dried white beans, soaked at least 8 hours
1 qt water
1 bay leaf

1/2 cup celery, small diced
1 cup carrots, small diced
2 cups white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups seitan "ham" or plain seitan
2 cups vegetable broth
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp dry sage
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup soymilk
2 Tbs whole wheat flour

In a large pot, bring soaked beans, water, and bay leaf to a boil. Cook for approx. 1 hour, until the beans are tender and softened. Drain and set aside.
While the beans are cooking, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the celery, carrots, onion, and garlic for about 8-10 minutes, until softened and beginning to caramelize. Add in the spices, except for the salt, and saute for 2 more minutes. Add the diced ham, vegetables, and broth to the cooked beans. Cook for 20 minutes over low heat. In a small bowl, whisk together the soymilk and flour to make a slurry. Add into bean pot and stir well. Stir in the salt. Allow to cook and thicken for 5 more minutes, until smooth and creamy.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve over cornbread or biscuits, and enjoy!!

Keeping it on the DL...KC Vegan Crawl!!

This past Sunday commemorated something very special and pretty DL...I started an underground restaurant out of my apartment!! I still need a name, but it is every Sunday from 11 am to 8 pm, and I will be serving one big meal and an awesome dessert, all for under $8! I have been working on the concept and details for about 3 months or more, and it was wonderful to see my hard work come to fruition last weekend. It was crazy to open VegNews this month and there was an article about the exact thing I had been planning for months! Vegans be workin' so harrrrrd! Turnout was pretty small, but I am hoping it will get bigger every week. This all relies on word of mouth, people! If you are in Kansas City or the Missouri/Kansas area, come by! Send me a message and I can give you the details.

For the first week, I made one of my absolute FAVORITE meals: BBQ seitan with all the fixin's. BBQ Seitan (with homemade seitan and homemade bbq sauce), Organic Baked Beans, Whole Grain Cornbread, and Sauteed Local Greens with Garlic (and Hot Sauce!). Soooo comforting and delicious!! Everyone loved it, of course!


And for dessert, I made Oatmeal Butterscotch Pecan Cookies! I made a modified version of my recipe I posted a few months ago....and they were even better than I remembered! Perfection.And just to show you how awesome and veg-friendly Kansas City is...my friend, Dane, is also doing a vegan dinner out of his house every Sunday night, currently called "Sustainability Sundays"! His starts after mine, so it is all friendly between us :) His angle is sustainability in growing, purchasing, and preparing foods, all with vegan ethics in mind. So great! I just had to use this blog to give him vegan props!

This week, he made Local Fruit Pasta with Tomato-Peach Marinara, with local Ciabatta Bread. Not pictured was a Spinach and Berry Salad and Strawberry-Apricot Oatmeal Cookies. He uses basically 99% local ingredients, except stuff like some spices and oil, which is just fantastic! Dane even distributes some literature on sustainable living each week! yay!

So last weekend was the first KC Vegan Crawl, with my place open 11-8 and Dane's 8-11. How could you beat that?! So cheap, so local, so vegan, so good! GO KC!!

Seitan Chik'n and Dumplins and Some Other Good Stuff!

I finally got around to making the next tester recipe for Bianca's Cookin' Crunk cookbook, which was the Seitan Chik'n and Dumplins! I had to wait til I went to the store to buy some more gluten, and I am so glad I did! This dish is absolutely perfect! It has all the elements of a great meal: comforting and warm, chewy dumplings, creamy base, tender vegetables, hearty seitan. Steven and I both thought this was a winner for sure, and it was even better the next day as leftovers! Score!

A few other random things I have put off posting, but should be mentioned:

The Garden Burrito from Main Squeeze here in Columbia (my place of work!)....

Whole wheat tortilla, brown rice, refried beans, avocado, lettuce, beets, carrots, sprouts, homemade organic salsa. Seems like a strange combination with the burrito stuff and the veggie stuff, but it totally works and is one of my favorite menu items! This burrito always leaves you full from all the fiber and protein, yet refreshed from the crunchy cool veggies. Perfection.

Breakfast at Ingredient, a new restaurant here in Columbia. The original location is in Lawrence, Kansas, so this isn't really a chain, just a second location of a local KS eatery. And they have breakfast, which is the best meal of the day...yay!

I had the Breakfast Burrito (always my favorite), and you get to choose your fillings, so mine had tofu, vegan mozzarella, housemade pico de gallo, and roasted red peppers in a spinach tortilla, served with a side of "skillet potatoes." This was pretty good...the potatoes were really paprika-y and delicious, and the burrito was not amazing, but tasty overall. I was a little skimped on the tofu, but I don't think they had made it that way before or something. Who knows. Either way, I would eat it again!
Steven had their Steel Cut Oatmeal Bowl (which was ENORMOUS!!). You get to choose your oatmeal fixings, so he picked fresh blueberries and bananas, toasted pecans, and brown sugar. It was really good!! Steel cut oats kick rolled oats' butt, btw. There is something special about the blueberry-banana combination that I don't understand, but it is just delicious.


On to my new discovery: Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter from Target's Archer Farms brand!!! I suppose you could call this the generic version of the PB&Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter, but there is nothing generic-tasting about this treat! It is so creamy and fudgy, and really tastes like a vegan version of Nutella, so I was in heaven when I had my first taste. It goes really well on toast (especially the local Kansas City bakery Farm to Market Grains Galore bread, which is just awesome and nutty. period.) with some raspberry jam. If you have a Target store near you, run...don't walk...to it and pick some of this up!!

Archer Farms Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter and Raspberry Fruit Spread, on Farm to Market Grains Galore Bread...mmmmmm....

I think that's all I have today. And p.s. if you aren't excited about Bianca's (of Vegan Crunk) upcoming cookbook full of Southern delights, then please do so! Every recipe I've tested so far has been mouthwatering and amazing...so get your bibs ready for drooling and your bellies ready for filling! :)

Crunk Country Soup...mmmmm....

I am so lucky and so happy to be a tester for Bianca's (Vegan Crunk) cookbook!!! Tonight was absolutely freezing here in Missouri, so I was really excited that she posted a tester recipe for a nice, hearty soup to warm my bones. Country Potato Soup, that is! I typically don't like soup all that much...it tastes good and all, but I am more of a knife-and-fork-meal kind of girl! Anyway, this creamy and filling potato soup really hit the spot. The addition of tempeh bacon was perfect, too, and this really reminded my of my grandma's potato soup I used to eat when I was little! And that's saying a lot!

Country Potato Soup

I served this creamy delight with homemade rolls. Steven's mother makes these amazing yeast rolls, so I had her mail me the recipe so I could make them myself! This Old Fashioned Sweet Roll recipe come from a super-antique and super-cute (also quite sexist. darn.) Betty Crocker cookbook from the fifties. I just tweaked it to be vegan and whole wheat, and voila! Delish! Old Fashioned Sweet Rolls