Tortilla Pizzas

There aren't very many of you here yet, but I want to thank you for reading, and for encouraging this new little blog project of mine. Some of you have told me that I'm inspiring you to add some healthy vegan meals to you diet, even if you aren't totally vegan (yet!). This makes my heart sing! In the coming year, I plan to bring you lots more great food, and plenty of good reasons to go vegan, one meal at a time. The more you do it, the better you'll feel, and the better off our beloved planet will be. It's all baby steps, and I'm especially proud of those of you who are bravely exploring something so new to you, even though your families might think you're crazy. Keep going! You're doing great!

Let's celebrate with one of the first vegan dishes I came up with when I started my own vegan journey, while living in a travel trailer in Oregon. Pizza!!! Rick and I used to own a pizza shop in Seattle, and we still adore pizza. But going vegan presented the "cheese challenge," and cooking in a trailer made elaborate dishes almost impossible. I came up with this easy version of pizza that can even be done in a big covered frying pan if that's all you have. These days, back at home in Taos, I use my oven. Make this pizza on work nights, for something easy but wonderful. It's also great for parties, because you can keep making them until everyone is full. Tortillas make a nice thin crust, and Daiya cheese comes to the rescue where all other commercial faux cheeses have left me stranded.

I'm trying to keep things gluten free these days, as an experiment for myself, and because so many people seem to be gluten sensitive. I want you all to eat! So I've used rice tortillas in this recipe, but of course you can use any kind you like. Ezekiel makes a terrific sprouted grain tortilla that I also love.

This recipes is as easy as it gets. I've listed the ingredients and toppings I used for these pictures, but of course you can use anything you like. I started with the "sun-dried" tomatoes as inspiration, because I'd just made a test batch in the new little dehydrator a friend gave me for Christmas. They came out great, but the kind on the jar are just as good.

Tortilla Pizzas

Brown Rice Tortillas
Olive Oil
Spaghetti Sauce
Daiya cheese
Sliced Mushrooms
Sliced Black Olives
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Dried Basil

Lightly oil a baking sheet with olive oil. I just got a Misto (because I asked for it, and my husband paid attention), and I love it beyond reason. It sprays a fine mist of oil without weird chemical propellants. Bravo Misto!

Spray or brush a little oil on the tortillas.

Sprinkle a little Daiya on each tortilla. Pop in a few olives, and then top with another tortilla. You'll have sort of a double crust, "glued" together with cheese. Oh so good!

Spray the second tortillas with oil, and spoon some sauce around, almost to the edges. Add a little more Daiya (I find that a little goes a long way with this stuff), then olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms. Top with more Daiya and a sprinkle of basil or other herbs.

Bake at 350º for 12-15 minutes. The Daiya will "melt," but it won't look like regular cheese, so be careful not to overcook your pizzas. Let them cool for a minute or two before slicing.

Here's to a healthy, compassionate, and fabulously delicious 2012! Happy New Year!!!

Middle Eastern Feast

Christmas dinner at our house was unusual this year. I decided to go with a Middle Eastern Feast, since I just took a terrific Middle Eastern cooking class, and given the location of the first Christmas, it seemed fitting. I kept it "simple," because there were only four of us for dinner that night, but it still took me all day to prepare everything. I lose a lot of my kitchen efficiency when there are friends around to distract me, which is just the way I like it, as long as nobody is in a hurry to be fed. I made three "sauces" - Tahina, Baba Gannouj, and Hoummos, a beautiful layered lentil dish called Megadara Koshari, and Arab Salad. And for dessert, my first-ever go at Baklava. It was all...wonderful.

I have permission from Chef Chris Maher, of Cooking Studio Taos, to share the following recipes with you. Please note: all recipes Copyright Chris Maher - Do not reprint or republish without permission. Thanks Chef!

Let's start with the Tahina, which is delightful on its own, and is also the base for the Hoummos and Baba Gannouj.

Tahina Sauce

1 lb jar tahina (Usually called Sesame Tahini. Get the toasted kind.)

fresh garlic, minced - about 1 heaping T

onion, minced - about 1 heaping T

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 lime, juiced

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

salt to taste

water, olive oil to finish

Add onion, garlic, cumin, and cayenne to tahina and mix thoroughly.

Mix in vinegar - the tahina will get very thick, so then add water slowly and continue to mix until desired consistency is achieved. (This part is really fun. Do all the mixing by hand.)

Add lime, salt, and olive oil to taste.

To make Hoummos, place about 1/3 of the Tahina Sauce in the food processor, and blend it with 16 oz cooked or canned garbanzo beans. (I also added lemon juice and olive oil to thin it down a bit.)

To make Baba Gannouj, grill a whole eggplant until soft (and burned on the outside). Place the grilled eggplant in a paper bag to steam for about 20 minutes. When it's cool enough to handle, peel and mash, and mix with 1/3 of the Tahina Sauce, adding more cumin, cayenne, garlic, and salt to taste. (You can also throw it all in the food processor, and let the machine do the mashing.)

(You can "burn" your eggplant directly on a burner of your gas stove if you have one, or on an outdoor grill. I don't have either, so attempted to "grill" my eggplant under the electric broiler. It exploded! And then it took over an hour to soften... Next time I'll just bake it in the oven for an hour or so. We make do with what we have.)

Arab Salad

2 red onions, chopped into very fine pieces by hand (1 onion is enough for me)

1 large tomato, cut into tiny cubes, without seeds if possible (I don't worry about the seeds)

1 English cucumber, chopped fine (I used a regular cucumber, and it was still good)

1 large bunch parsley, chopped fine

romaine lettuce, chopped fine

1 jalapeño, finely minced

vinegar (distilled white, which I learned adds the right acidity without adding a flavor of its own)

lime

olive oil

salt

Mix all ingredients together and dress with a touch of vinegar, a good amount of lime, and add salt and olive oil to taste. After tasting, adjust acid by adding more lime or oil.

Megadara Koshari

1 lb lentils - black or green

1 lb medium grain white rice (I used my favorite brown basmati)

4 medium onions

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup olive oil

1 - 6 oz can tomato paste

6 whole garlic cloves

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 oz butter ( I used Earth Balance)

sea salt

3 T chopped parsley for garnish

3 cups water

1 T brown sugar

1 scant cup distilled vinegar

1. Rinse lentils under cold running water. Place clean lentils in a pot and cover generously with cold water and a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to a vigorous simmer until lentils are soft (not al dente).

2. Caramelize onions: place julienned onions and 1/2 cup of oil on high flame - stir often until they begin to brown. Turn heat down to medium. Stir frequently until all onions are browned.

3. Picant Sauce: In a 2 qt sauce pan, add 1/4 cup oil and thoroughly brown the whole garlic cloves. Add tomato paste and fry it with the oil and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. Add 3 cups water, 1 T brown sugar, and 1 scant cup of distilled vinegar. Let mixture simmer until consistency thickens a bit. (I'll use a little less vinegar next time I make this.)

4. Make rice - 2:1 water to rice, salt and a little butter. Bring water to a boil with salt and butter. Add rice and stir. Once boiling again, stir and turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 18-20 minutes. (Cooking time will be longer for brown rice - about 45-50 minutes here.)

Assembly: On a generous platter, place rice on bottom, lentils over rice, then cover lentils with caramelized onions and dot with Picant Sauce. Serve remaining sauce on the side. Enjoy!

Serve everything with pita bread and plenty of wine. You are going to love this meal. But leave room for dessert...

The Baklava was a combination of recipes I found online. I didn't want to make a sugar syrup, and found their instructions overly complicated, so I did it my way... Basically, you thaw a package of phyllo dough, and mix a bunch of chopped nuts (I used walnuts and some almond pulp from our last batch of nut milk) with lots of cinnamon and a little bit of cloves. Melt a stick of Earth Balance butter, and have some agave syrup handy. Unfold the phyllo and cut it in half for easier fitting in the pan. Brush some melted butter on the bottom of the pan, and layer 6-8 sheets of phyllo, with a bit of butter brushed on each. Sprinkle some of the nut and spice mixture on the dough, and drizzle with agave syrup. Add three or four more layers of dough/butter, and then more nut/spice/agave. Keep layering in this way until you have a final 6-8 sheets of phyllo left. Place these on top, with butter between each sheet. Score the top layer in little triangles for easier cutting later. Drizzle on remaining butter and some more agave. Bake at 300º for and hour or more, until it's golden brown on top. Everyone loved this, and while it wasn't as "juicy" as some baklava I've had, it was voted "even better" than most by my family. This version is rich, but not so rich that you can't eat a little in the morning with your coffee.

I hope you'll give some of these recipes a try. Don't be scared. They're all really easy, and so worth the effort, especially if you have someone else to clean up for you! I'm finding that most people are more than happy to wash dishes in trade for a meal at my table. This is nice!

I cooked all day, wore a silly hat, and never got around to putting makeup on. No complaints! I got to eat too!
And notice my eager taste-tester, Lucy, just waiting for... anything she can get.

Date Balls

This is a recipe my mom got from Aunt Camy back in the 50's, and made every year at Christmas. It's still a family favorite, and if I don't make these in December, I'm in big trouble. It was easy to veganize this recipe, and honestly, nobody can tell the difference.

Here's the original recipe. I love this tattered, sticky card, which still resides in the ancient, banged up metal recipe box I got as a stocking stuffer a long time ago.

Here's the vegan, lower fat version...

Vegan Date Balls

2 cups chopped dates
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup silken tofu
2 T tapioca flour (this isn't all that necessary, so just leave it out if you don't have it)
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 stick Earth Balance "butter," melted

Bake in an oiled square baking pan at 325º for 25-30 minutes, or until it's nicely browned. The toothpick test doesn't work with this. (I usually double the recipe and bake it for a little over an hour.) Pull the molten goo away from the edges of the pan with a spatula or knife, and let it cool off for a while so you can handle it. Roll into small balls, and roll those in organic powdered sugar.

Sagey-Nut Paté

This one came to me in my sleep, and it must be good because when I had Rick and a friend sample it last night, they both got this dreamy little look on their faces. My original thought was to stuff ravioli with this, but I don't have the equipment (or patience) for that, so I stuffed some mushrooms instead. What a great little appie for your holiday get-togethers. I can also see it schmeared on bread and popped under the broiler, or used in a sandwich with grilled veggies or even faux lunch meat and some crisp lettuce. You might thin it with some nut milk and make a lovely, rich sauce for pasta, or serve it as a dip with a plate of raw vegetables. It's especially good with celery. There are loads of possibilities for this stuff, but let's start with the paté itself, and stuff a few baby portobellos.

Sagey-Nut Paté

Soak 1 cup of raw cashews in cold water for 20-30 minutes. Longer is fine, but 20 minutes is the minimum.

In a dry food processor, chop 1/2 cup of walnuts, and place in a large mixing bowl.

Drain and rinse the soaked cashews, and place in the food processor, along with:
3 T olive oil
2 T water
2 tsp ground sage (the herb, not the brush that grows all over here)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4-1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

Process until you have a smooth, thick paste.
Stir this into the mixing bowl by hand, with the walnuts and one small can of chopped black olives.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

I used baby portobellos as the "vehicle" to eat this with. Pull out the stems, and gently wipe the outside of the mushrooms with a damp paper towel or soft cloth. Run your finger around the inside edge to widen the opening, making room for lots of stuffing. Spoon a generous mound of the paté into each mushroom, and place them on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Make enough to share with some special friends, and enjoy with a nice glass of wine by the fire.

Food and Beads

In my world, Food and Beads are inextricably linked. Both are creative outlets, and each supports the other. Although I've tried, I can't eliminate either of them. They are Soul Mates who thrive in each other's company, and wilt when left on their own. I get it now. Took me long enough.

I woke from a dream about food this morning. It's kind of vague - sort of a nutty, sagey spread or filling or sauce that might go inside of mushrooms or ravioli or... it's not clear yet. I'll make notes right away, before it fades, and then I'll get to work on it over the weekend. Of course you know I'll share it with you when it's ready!

Meanwhile, there's a bead project to finish up. I'm wrapping up my December Bead Giveaway this evening, after I get home from another volunteer day at Taos Feeds Taos, yet another thing that feeds me, inspires me, makes me grateful for all I have, and always puts me in the mood for Christmas.

Have you entered the bead drawing yet? Well, I hope you will! It's free, and if you only know me through my cooking blog, you can meet the Cook's Evil Twin, the Beadmaker, who plays with fire and melts stuff for a living. The beads make the cooking possible, and feed my artist's soul in some ways. The food feeds me in other softer, more nurturing ways, and it feeds my friends too. Visit TakingTheLongWayHome to meet the Other Kim, and to enter the drawing. I'll see you back here next week, with something good to eat!

Feed Somebody

Today I'm going to volunteer at Taos Feeds Taos. It's not a vegan operation, but sometimes you just have to do the best you can. People need to be fed! I have to rush off, but I want to encourage everyone to get out there and put in a little volunteer time. You'll help more than you'll know, and you'll get more than you'll give!

Vegetable Fried Rice with Tofu

This is one of the first things I learned to cook back in my earliest vegan days. I wanted restaurant-tasting fried rice, but I also wanted it to have some serious veggies in it. The measurements are approximate. The idea is to have at least as much "stuff" as rice, which is kind of backwards from how restaurants tend to make fried rice. This is fast and simple to fix, and because it's easy to change it up, we still eat it at least a couple of times a week.

You'll need:

A nice big skillet or wok, preferably with a lid. I use my big cast iron "chicken fryer" from Lodge for just about everything... except chickens.

Brown rice. Never eat white food when brown food is available! Leftover rice is fine, or cook up a fresh batch if you need to. About 2-3 cups of cooked rice with all the veggies will feed 2-4 people, depending on if you serve this as a side dish or the whole meal, which we usually do.

1/2 a block of extra firm tofu (organic! always!)
coconut oil
1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
red pepper flakes (optional)
1-2 cups chopped cabbage
1-2 cups chopped kale
tamari

While a generous amount of coconut oil is heating in the pan, place the tofu in a dish towel and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. This makes the tofu brown much faster.

Carefully add the tofu to the hot (but not smoking) oil. It will still sputter and splatter, so keep the little kids out of the way for this step. Cook and gently stir the tofu for a few minutes, until it browns a little bit.

Add the onion and celery. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the rice and red pepper flakes to taste. This is also a good time to add fresh ginger and/or garlic if you have them. Cook for a few minutes, until the onions and celery soften.
Add the carrots and cook 2-3 minutes.

Add cabbage and kale, gently stirring them in until they wilt.

Add a generous slosh of tamari (don't stir it in yet), cover, and turn off the heat, leaving everything to steam for about 5 minutes.

Stir the tamari in and serve.

(If you don't have a lid, just stir in the tamari and cook everything for a few extra minutes before serving.)

We also like this with frozen corn and peas added before the cabbage and kale. To do this, move all the frying rice and veggies to the edges of the pan, leaving a hole in the center. Add the frozen veggies to the hole, and defrost them there for a minute before stirring them in. This keeps them from making the rice soggy. Also feel free to use broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, and other vegetables you like. Don't like tofu? Leave it out. Love cashews or almonds? Add them in. Cooking is art. Get creative with it, and change recipes to suit you and your family. This can be a really different dish every time you make it. We find it a comforting, nutritious staple to throw together quickly. Enjoy!