Toasted Cashew Noodles....

This dish came about because I was starving, and craving noodles. I don't normally crave noodles, but I really felt like rice noodles in some kind of Asian style sauce. I didn't feel like Peanut noodles, though I love them, and I suddenly had a simultaneous hankering for Cashews. I didn't really have many fresh veggies on hand, and wanted to keep the dish simple anyway so the preparation would be quick - the faster it's made the faster I eat! - and this is what came about.

Surprisingly this turned out super good, it's got the perfect balance of sweet, salty, spicy, tangy. I also think the cashew butter makes a great stand in for peanut butter, and lends a more mellow, yet complex and nutty flavor to the dish. I also really love the nice bit of crunch in each bite from the red cabbage garnish. I didn't have any cilantro on hand, but I imagine that would make a good garnish too, if you happen to have some. Of course if you want to 'beef' it up, you could also add some cubed baked or fried tofu, or maybe even some tempeh. But I kind of like it exactly as it is, light and easy. Two of my favorite things right now.

Toasted Cashew Noodles

For the Noodles

2 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
3 Carrots Sliced thin
6 Radishes cut into thin half moons
3 Green Onions sliced (White and green parts separated)
2 Garlic cloves sliced thin
1/4 Cup Cashews
12oz Rice Noodles
1/4 C or less of thin sliced Red Cabbage

For the Sauce

1/4 Cup Creamy Cashew Butter
1/3 - 1/2 Cup Coconut Milk (Depending on how thick you want the sauce)
4 Tbsp Tamari
2 Tbsp Mirin
2 Tbsp Lemon or Lime Juice
2 tsp Cane Sugar
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
1/4-1/2 tsp Sriracha or to taste

- Place the noodles in a pot of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until they are tender. Drain and set aside.

- Heat the Sesame Oil in a large frying pan. When it's hot add the carrot, and radish. Cook on high for about 5-7 minutes until the veg becomes soft and starts to brown. Add in the white parts of the onions, and the garlic. Lower the heat and sauté for another 3-4 minutes until everything is cooked to your liking.

- Combine all sauce ingredients in a small pot and stir until smooth. Turn the heat on high, and when it begins to simmer whisk it for about a minute. You just want to heat the sauce through long enough for it to smooth out.

- Add the Cooked Noodles to the pan of veg. Pour the sauce over, and mix to combine.

- Divide into bowls, and top with Green onions, and red cabbage.

- In a dry skillet toast the cashews over high heat for 5-8 minutes until they smell nutty and begin to brown.

- Top each bowl with a handful of cashews and enjoy!

Vegan Mofo #14: Peruvian Corn Puree with Fried Tofu...

Corn is a staple food in Peru, it’s been around since the time of the Inca’s. There are two main varieties, one that grows near the coast that has a slightly bland flavor, and one that grows in the mountains that has a sweeter flavor. Though I don’t typically eat much corn when I’m at home, we did eat quite a bit of it while we were there. It’s cheap, filling and plentiful which makes it such a relied upon crop. Fish too is a staple food in Peru, what with Peru having such a long coastline fish and seafood are abundant. Peruvian cuisine is an interesting blend of South American tradition, Inca influence, Spanish influence, with some Indian and Asian influences due to various waves of immigration over the years.

For this recipe I used tofu in place of fish, and though it doesn’t have an overly fishy taste I think ti works really well here. I kept the tofu a little on the bland side because the corn puree has so much flavor. The planks of tofu make the perfect little scoops for eating up the corn. Though this is a relatively simple dish you’ll be immediately impressed by the powerful flavor punch!

Peruvian Corn Puree with Fried Tofu 

2 tsp Olive Oil (or more as needed)
1 16oz Bag Frozen Yellow Corn thawed
2 ½ Cups Water (or more if needed)
½ Bunch Cilantro
1 Red Onion Diced
2 Vegan Chicken Bouillon Cubes
½ tsp Ground Cumin
½ tsp Smoked Salt
1-2 tsp Sriracha
1 lb Extra Firm Tofu drained and pressed for 1 hour.
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to taste
Kelp or Dulse flakes if desired
Lime Juice and extra Sriracha to serve

- Place the thawed corn in a high-speed blender with 1 cup of water and blend on medium for a few seconds until you have a chunky puree.

- Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute until nice and golden. Add the cumin, smoked salt, bouillon cubes, sriracha and a ½ cup of water. Whisk together and simmer for 2 minutes or until bouillon cubes have dissolved.

- Add the corn puree to the pan with the onions and spices and stir to combine.

- Blend the cilantro and the remaining 1 cup of water together on high, until completely smooth. Add the cilantro mixture to the pan and stir to combine with the corn. Simmer for 10 minutes. Taste for salt and heat and adjust seasoning as needed.

- Divide the corn puree among serving bowls, wipe out the pan and fry your tofu.

- Heat the remaining oil in your pan over medium high heat.

- Slice your slab of Tofu into 3 pieces. Slice each piece into 3 more pieces so you have 9 planks of tofu.

- Place the flour in a shallow bowl and season with sea salt, pepper and either kelp or dulse.

- Dredge each plank of tofu through the flour until it’s coated on all sides.

- Carefully place each plank of tofu into the hot pan and fry until golden brown on each side. About 5-6 minutes a side. Make sure to flip at least once, to prevent burning or sticking.

- Serve each bowl of Corn Puree topped with a few planks of tofu, a drizzle of lime juice, and a bit of extra sriracha if you like things spicy. Enjoy!

Randy's Grilled Shishito Peppers with Sriracha Satay...

Shishito Peppers, ever heard of ‘em? Yeah, I hadn’t either until my brother-in-law bought me Randy Clemens “The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook” for Christmas. I flipped through this book with amused interest at the variation of recipes that included Sriracha and then I came across the beautiful photo of grilled Shishito peppers and thought “Oooo, now that looks good!” followed by “Now what the heck are they?” A quick Google search informed me that Shishito peppers are a - generally - sweet, finger sized pepper from Japan. Interesting, I thought. The photo that accompanies the recipe is absolutely mouth watering and the Sriracha Satay Sauce it’s paired with is incredibly drool worthy. I’ve been dying to make this recipe since December, but didn’t think I had a hope in hell of finding Shishito Peppers.

Then last week my husband and I decided to make a spontaneous trip to the Japanese Market - Initially for noodles and miso - and what should I happen to find sitting in the produce department? A huge bag of Shishito Peppers! Wow, I couldn’t believe my luck. Not knowing how I’d like them, I grabbed only one bag with the intention of making Clemens recipe ASAP.

Boy oh boy do I wish I’d bought another bag of these peppers, because they were really fantastic and so unique. To me they weren’t quite as sweet as say a bell pepper, they had a slightly bitter edge - though I can’t be certain if that’s from the pepper flesh, the seeds, or the charring - but nevertheless I liked them. Once I started in on my plate I couldn’t stop until every last pepper had been drenched in Satay and consumed in it’s entirety, and that’s another thing, the Satay!

Look at that beautiful Sriracha Satay!

Now I love me some peanut butter anything, and I sure as hell love me some Satay sauce. In fact, at restaurants when I find a good satay and there isn’t enough food to dip into it I’ve been known to spoon the stuff directly into my mouth.- what? It’s delicious! - So I’ve had a lot of good satay in my time, but Clemens Sriracha Satay is probably one of the best I’ve ever had. It’s creamy, it’s smooth, it’s spicy, it’s garlicky, it’s sweet, it’s fan-freaking-tastic! It’s also not overly peanuty which might be a major plus to any peanut haters out there - my husband, a confirmed peanut hater loved the sauce.

One of the most brilliant things about this satay is that it’s made with coconut milk, that milk gives it an extremely rich, and velvety consistency, and the sriracha packs so much flavor but not an unbearable amount of heat. I also love that this satay is simmered on the stove and served warm, that makes a lot of difference in my opinion, and it’s so good that it would be perfect over any grilled vegetable, tofu, seitan, or tempeh. It would even be good thinned out as a dressing over a grain salad and some steamed broccoli. The Satay made a large batch so I can’t wait to get creative with the leftovers.

If you can find Shishito Peppers in your local Asian market, pick them up, give them a try and let me know what you think!

For The Love of Doughnuts...

Baked Doughnuts with Old Fashion Glaze

Okay, so doughnut pans are the coolest thing ever guys! Seriously! You know, I never really gave all that much thought to doughnuts before, I mean, sure I liked them well enough, and I ate them. - If you grew up in Canada within a stone’s throw of a Tim Hortons, then doughnuts were definitely a part of your cultural experience. - but I was never Homer Simpson crazy for them. They were never my sweet treat of choice.

When I went vegan I stopped eating doughnuts - obviously, since they aren’t vegan, and vegan doughnuts are somewhat hard to come by at least in the Midwest. Although I hear through the vegan grapevine that the West Coast has a couple of awesome vegan doughnut shops. Lucky! Anyway, I gave up these little treats and really never felt all that bad about it. I wouldn’t say I ever missed them. However over the past year the vegan blogging world has been posting more and more of these amazing vegan doughnuts, some store-bought and some home-made, and more and more vegan cook books are coming equipped with a doughnut recipe or two in the dessert chapter.

Every time I would see one of these pictures or recipes I’d feel a fleeting sense of nostalgia, and then a sudden desire to make some doughnuts. For quite some time now I’ve been wanting to get my hands on a couple of doughnut pans, but it wasn’t until last weekend that my wonderful, thoughtful husband brought home three doughnut pans for me. I’d been talking about doughnuts endlessly for a week, and since there are no vegan doughnuts for sale around here, he did the next best thing and bought me the pans to make my own.

I started with a batch of Baked Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate glaze from Chloe Coscarelli’s book “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” - Although I neglected to take a picture of the finished product, sorry. - and my world was changed forever! Baked vegan doughnuts! What a novelty, and so delicious! The recipe made about 18, and even though I gave 8 away, the rest didn’t last long. They were just too good to be true.

Baked Maple Sriracha Doughnuts 

So now I’m in something of a doughnut baking frenzy, it's so much easier then I initially thought it would be and now I wish I hadn't waited so long to get some doughnut pans! I seriously want to make every doughnut recipe I can get my hands on now, and so today I decided to try another batch of doughnuts from Chloe, these ones were the Baked Doughnuts from “Chloe’s Kitchen” and are topped with Old Fashioned Glaze. Personally I thought there was a little too much nutmeg in the doughnut itself, and I thought the glaze tasted too much like powdered sugar, but my husband liked them, and that’s all that really matters.

Then I decided to do something crazy. I decided to bake a batch of maple Sriracha doughnuts. I know exactly what you’re thinking, you’re thinking ew! But I’m telling you, as skeptical as I was at the start I am a total convert to using Sriracha in sweet confections. These were probably some of the best doughnuts I’ve ever had. The balance between spicy and sweet was perfect. The doughnut batter itself is rather plane, all the goodness comes in the glaze. Powdered sugar, maple syrup, almond milk, and Sriracha - doughnut heaven! This recipe comes from a little book called “The Veggie Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook” by Randy Clemens, a totally cute book that I can’t wait to get more use out of.

So the moral of the story is, get your hands on some doughnut pans, because they’re loads of fun, and you're gonna love it!