Holidays « Low Fat Vegan Cooking

May 1, 2010

Delicata Squash Stuffed with Brown Rice Pilaf

Filed under: Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays, Main Dishes, Middle Eastern Cuisine — admin @ 1:05 am

Delicata Squash with Brown Rice Carrot Celery Onion and Italian Herbs served with Fresh Broccoli

Delicata Squash Stuffed with Brown Rice Pilaf

Last year my good friend Melissa made a vegan version of a Sunset recipe for stuffed squash. It was wonderfully delicious, and i have been meaning to try a lower fat version of it. There were a lot more nuts in her squash, and in reducing them, i needed something else, and I thought rice would be good. When i Googled the word pilaf to see if i could use that for my rice concoction, i read that it was originally a Middle Eastern dish, most likely starting in Iran/Persia. That really tickled me, as i had already found that the cardamom in the cakes i made was also a Middle Eastern ingredient, and i already knew that the hummus i modeled my salad dressing after was Middle Eastern. So i guess I just intuitively put these three things together, that actually all had origins in the same part of the world.

Melissa used acorn meal as part of the nuts. It was great, and if you ever have a chance to use some or even make some acorn meal, by all means try it! Acorns are said to not be hard to process, and they’re free! Acorns are lower in fat than most other nuts, although they are still too high for every day use. The meal is good in baking, too.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay79.html

Any squash would do in this recipe, although Delicata is a nice, mild, sweet squash that is particularly nice. I included this recipe in the category Holidays as i think it would be perfect for a fall/winter holiday such as Thanksgiving, Equinox, or Christmas.

The fresh herbs are better, if you can get a hold of them. You probably can only find fresh marjoram if it is in your garden. I can’t even find the nutritional information for it online. But i had fresh sage in my freezer, and can get most of the Italian herbs year round at our produce market. Any herbs would make this nice, i think, and next time, I want to try it with Middle Eastern spices, like cardamom, cumin, maybe even apricots.

There probably will be more rice than will fit in the squash. I just piled it on my plate after i took the picture. But if you are cooking other starches, as for a big feast, you might want to increase the number of squashes, or reduce the rest of the recipe by about half, so that you just have the stuffed squash on the plates with other dishes.

Delicata Squash with Brown Rice Pilaf

Makes about 4 servings

Preparation about 45 minutes, but you need to start about an hour and a half before you want to eat

Can be made ahead

4 Delicata or small squash

3 c. cooked brown rice

2 large onions

8 medium carrots

10 stalks celery, leaves are okay

¼ c. fresh or 1 T. dry sage

¼ c. fresh or 1 T. dry thyme

¼ c. fresh or 1 T. dry marjoram

½ t. salt (optional)

6 oz. plain soy yogurt

1 T. whole almonds

1 T. walnut halves

1 T. shelled pistachios

It isn’t really necessary to preheat the oven for this, but i like to time things carefully, so i usually do, so i know just how long a dish has been cooking. This saves me checking the oven a few times, but of course it is more expensive not to use every bit of the heat once you turn it on.

Prepare the squash by cutting in half and scooping out the seeds, which some people wash and bake with salt and/or spices. Place the squash halves on a baking sheet and bake about 30-45 minutes, until tender, but not too brown.

Meanwhile, cook the rice, if necessary.

Toast the nuts in the oven, watching carefully, or on the stovetop in a heavy pan like cast iron over medium heat. Stir the nuts frequently, and i never leave the stove or oven when I have nuts toasting, as i have burnt so many – probably half of all i ever have tried to toast! Until i learned that stir constantly means stir constantly – or at least do not leave unattended… they burn so fast! Take the nuts off/away from the heat and out of the pan as soon as they are lightly browned. They will still cook as long as they have heat, so you want to cool them down quickly by putting them on a cutting board.

When the nuts are cool, which doesn’t take long, chop them pretty finely. You don’t chop them until they are toasted, because chopped nuts burn incredibly fast!

Chop the onion, carrots, and celery, and herbs, if necessary, and salt, if using, and cook in about ½ c. water until just tender. You want the water almost all absorbed, but you don’t want the vegetables over-cooked, as they will cook further in the oven.

Stir the soygurt into the cooked vegetables and herbs and set aside until the squash is done.

When the squash is done, fill each half with as much pilaf as you can stuff into it and put the stuffed squashes back on the baking sheet (you may need to wash it first). Bake about 20 additional minutes, until the top is lightly browned. This step isn’t really necessary, but it makes the whole thing a little nicer.

Top with a sprinkling of 2 t. of the nut mixture just before serving.

Adapted from a recipe from Melissa, from Nut-stuffed Delicata Squash in Sunset Magazine, October 2008

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per Serving – using acorn squash, as i couldn’t find accurate nutritional information specifically for Delicata squash – 431 calories/12.4 g protein (11.5 %)/8.2 g fat (17.2%)

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March 17, 2010

Colcannon – Mashed Potatoes and Kale

Filed under: Gluten Free, Holidays, Irish Cuisine, Low Calorie Density, Main Dishes — admin @ 1:05 am

Colcannon - Irish Mashed Potatoes and Kale

Colcannon – Irish Mashed Potatoes and Kale

My mother celebrated all the traditional holidays, and some not so traditional, like Japanese Boys Day. When i left home, at first, i didn’t celebrate much of anything for a few years, but then i started celebrating in a small way, and on the major holidays i have at least a special meal. For years, my St. Patrick’s Day meal was a stew with Irish soda bread and apple pie (the true Irish love apple pie, or so i’m told). But this year, in the wonderful Vegan Yum Yum, i read about Colcannon for the first time, and i knew i had to try that. It’s a very simple dish that you could picture on many a country table, but it’s really delicious.

Colcannon

Makes 4 servings

Preparation about 45 minutes

Best served as soon as it’s done, but try reheating it in the oven

Potatoes do not freeze well – they get watery

6 large potatoes

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

2 bunches kale

¼ c fresh or 1 T. dried thyme

1 packet vegan bouillon for 1 c. liquid or Braggs or ½ t. salt

¼ c. nutritional yeast

½ c. vegan milk

As Colcannon is best served as soon as it’s done, it’s best to get the rest of the meal ready before you start – a salad, fruit, the table set, etc. Or you could get everything ready to cook and then do the cooking at about 25 minutes before you plan to eat.

Wash and chop the potatoes, with or without the skins. Cook the potatoes in a pot with water just covering them about 15 minutes or until tender but not mushy. Drain well in a colander.

Chop the onion and cook it and the garlic in ½ c. water until just tender, about 7 minutes. The water should be mostly absorbed, but that’s fine – you don’t need much water to cook the kale, although you might need to add a little if there isn’t a couple of tablespoons.

Meanwhile wash the kale (i usually put it in a big pan or bowl, and swish it around in three changes of water – you do not want any grit in your greens!) Lay the kale leaves one at a time on a cutting board and cut out the center stems. I usually slice down the leaf on either side of the stem and remove it, then slice down each leaf half so you have four long leaves. I then set the leaves aside until i have three or four stacked up, and then i chop the stack up and put it into the pan. Repeat until all the leaves are chopped up, and then put them in the pan with the now cooked onions and garlic. Cook about 3 minutes until bright green and just tender.

Add the bouillon or other salty seasoning, the thyme, and the nutritional yeast, and stir them in. Add the potatoes and about ¼ c. vegan milk, stir, and then mash. You could heat the vegan milk if you want to keep the dish piping hot. I love my potato masher, which makes easy work of the mashing, but a fork will do in a pinch. Add more vegan milk until you have the potatoes more or less mashed. The mashing will help stir the ingredients together, too.

Serve as soon as you can.

Adapted from Colcannon by the very good cook Lauren Ulm.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per serving – 461 calories/20.1 g protein (17.4%)/2.3 g fat (4.5%)

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Irish Soda Bread

Filed under: Breads, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays, Irish Cuisine — admin @ 1:04 am

Whole Wheat Raisin Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

My mom’s been making this as long as i can remember. I made it whole wheat, low fat, and vegan.

Makes about 12 servings

Preparation about 25 minutes

Can be made ahead although it is very good fresh out of the oven

Freezes well

4 c. whole wheat flour

1 ½ t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 ½ t. salt (optional)

1 c. raisins

1 ½ c. vegan milk mixed with:

1 ½ T. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix dry ingredients. Mix in raisins.

Mix vegan milk and lemon juice. You should see it curdle. Mix this in with the rest.

Knead on a floured board about 2 or 3 minutes until smooth and form it into a loaf. Put in on a baking pan or an oiled loaf pan. My mom made a round loaf and cut an X into the top.

Bake 50 – 60 minutes for a loaf of the whole recipe, about 25 minutes for half a loaf. It is done when it sounds hollow if you knock on it, the bottom is brown and the sides light brown. You can also insert a toothpick and see if it comes out clean.

I cut the loaf into fourths and then each fourth into at least three pieces.

Thanks Mom.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per serving – 228 calories/6.5 g protein (13.8%)/1.2 g fat (5.9%)

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February 27, 2010

Vegetable Pizza

Filed under: Breads, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays, Italian Cuisine, Main Dishes — admin @ 1:05 am

Pizza with Red Pepper, Broccoli, Zucchini, And Portabella Mushrooms on a Whole Wheat Herb Crust

Vegetable Pizza

It is possible to make a totally low fat pizza. If the crust is good, you hardly need a cheeze substitute. However, i offer one if you want it. You might want to mix in some crumbled tofu to make it even cheezier.

Mushroom Cheeze Sauce

Almost any veggie combination is good for pizza. For this one, i choose something green (broccoli), plus red peppers, zucchini (which after all is an Italian vegetable, at least in name), and onions (in this case portabella), and mushrooms. In my vegetarian days, we usually ordered a mushroom and black olive pizza.

I sliced my veggies to make them look pretty, but they are easier to eat if they are chopped. I sautéed the mushrooms and onions for about 4 minutes in ¼ c. water, then added the rest all at the same time and cooked another about 4 minutes. You definitely don’t want your veggies soggy, and they will cook more in the oven. In fact, you don’t need to put them in the oven, but i like the browned taste, especially without sauce on top.

A few olives make this pizza festive. They dry in the oven, so put them on just 5 minutes before you take the pizza out of the oven, just to warm them.

The tomato sauce is here, but cooked a little longer to make it thicker. And yes, i put mushrooms both in the sauce and on top of the pizza. But you don’t need to. I usually make more tomato sauce for a recipe than i need and freeze some. It takes no noticeably longer amount of time to do this, and then you have homemade (cheap) tomato sauce ready to go. If you have tomato sauce made for pasta, you can cook it about 45 minutes longer when you take it out of the freezer, or a little longer if it is still frozen when you start. Stir it frequently at the end, when the sauce starts getting as thick as you want.

I tried a slice of pizza without the tomato sauce, which you may know by now is not my most favorite food. I liked it quite a bit.

Yeast-free Pizza Crust

Makes 4 large servings

Preparation about 15 minutes

Can be made ahead

Freezes well

3 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1 t. baking powder

6 t. mixed dried or ¼ c. fresh Italian herbs (sage, oregano, marjoram, basil, and/or thyme)

½ t. salt (optional)

1 T. Ener-G egg replacer or other egg replacer such as ground flax seed to equal 2 eggs

1 c. vegan milk

2 – 8 T. water

Preheat the oven to 425°. It is important to have it hot when you put the pizza dough in. Line a large baking sheet (or two for a thinner crust) with parchment paper.

Mix the dry ingredients together. I just mix the egg replacer in with the flour, but you get a slightly different consistency if you mix the egg replacer with 2 T. of the water until frothy, and add with the wet ingredients.

Add the milk, and stir. Add a little more water at a time until the dough can be gathered into a ball and is not too sticky.

Roll out on a lightly floured board. I have just patted the dough onto the pan, but i like the smoother surface of the rolled dough.

Bake 10 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. You can poke the center with a toothpick to be sure it is not doughy.

At this point, you can add the topping(s) and eat, or bake now or later for about 20 minutes, also at 425°.

Pizza is to my mind also good cold or room temperature.

I also use this dough to make a vegetable pie with a creamy sauce for Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday September 22^nd.

A salad with an Italian vinegary dressing goes well with pizza.

Adapted from La Dolce Vegan by the cook whose recipes most closely resemble my own combinations of flavors, Sarah Kramer.

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February 20, 2010

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cordial

Filed under: Desserts, Gluten Free, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays — admin @ 1:01 am

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cordial

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Cordial

When i was shopping for the meals i intended to make for Valentine’s Day, the stores were filled with red and white displays with every kind of disastrous goodie and treat that could be thought of. I skirted around them and got my vegan low fat food and got out of there. On Valentine’s Day i realized that i had always had one of the many vegan chocolate bars, and i didn’t think it would be Valentine’s Day without some kind of chocolate, so i set out to make a relatively low fat chocolate using some of the frozen cherries i had gotten for another dish, cherry almond cookies, which as of this writing i still haven’t concocted. (When i say relatively low in fat, i just mean they don’t have margarine or oil in them. Chocolate is high in fat all by itself, and these cordials are 41% fat.)

My daughter and son-in-law make wonderful chocolates, being very careful of tempering and so on, and using high-quality chocolate, but this was not to be so time consuming or careful. I melted some chocolate chips and made a thick icing with cherry juice and stuck a cherry in the middle of a more or less ball of the icing. Then i poured the chocolate over them. They were tasty and satisfied my sudden chocolate desire.

You can buy vegan chocolates. They are very pretty and very expensive. These cherry cordials feature fresh cherries and you can only make a couple so you don’t eat too many, unless you think that any chocolates are too many. They last at least a couple of days in the refrigerator.

If you use fresh cherries, you could put about 6 in a small pan over low heat, maybe with a teaspoon or two of sugar, to get the juice, or squeeze or press them. If the cherries are frozen, there should be plenty of juice after they thaw. You can hurry the thawing along by putting them on the stove for a minute, and stirring them, but you don’t want them to actually cook.

The “cor” part of the word cordial means heart, so cherry cordials are hearts of cherry.

Chocolate Cherry Cordials

Makes 6 cordials

Preparation about 20 minutes

Refrigerate if you don’t eat them right away

Probably freezes well

1 c. vegan chocolate chips or a bar of plain vegan chocolate

6 cherries and juice

½ c. powdered sugar

½ t. vanilla extract

Optional: 1 T. almond or other nut butter

Prepare the icing first. Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl. Mix in the almond or other nut butter, if you are using it. Add 1 t. cherry juice and vanilla. Stir well and add more juice is needed. The icing should be very thick though. Add more powdered sugar if it is too thin. Set aside.

Melt chocolate in a small pan, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes. Ideally, you should heat them over boiling water in a double boiler. But if you want them fast and watch the chocolate, it should be okay.

When the chocolate is melted, pour 6 small discs on a plate or other smooth surface. Working quickly, form two half circles of icing with your fingers. You will find that the icing doesn’t stick to the cherries. Press a half circle of icing on either side of a cherry as best you can and lay the result on one of the chocolate discs, which will be cooling and so not too soft. It doesn’t matter if the cherry is completely covered by the icing.

Repeat with the other six cherries. Pour a little chocolate on top of each cherry and smooth the edges as necessary to cover the cherry and icing. You probably want to be conservative with the chocolate so that each cherry is more or less covered, and then go back and finish the cordials with the remaining chocolate.

Wait a few minutes for the chocolate to harden. You can stick the whole thing in the freezer if you’re in a hurry. Scrape the finished cordial off the plate with a steel spatula and eat or store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

By the way, there is about 20 mg. of caffeine in each cordial, which is about as much caffeine as a cup of green tea.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:

Per serving without the nut butter – 232 calories/2.6 g protein (4.5%)/10.6 g fat (41.1%)

Per serving with the nut butter – 248 calories/3.3 g protein (5.3%)/12 g fat (43.5%)

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February 15, 2010

Valentine’s Breakfast

Filed under: Breakfast, Feasts, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays — admin @ 9:28 am

Strawberry Scones, Strawberry Smoothie, and Strawberry Tea

Here’s what i had for Valentine’s Day breakfast:

Strawberry Scones with my Mom’s Strawberry Jam and Soy Yogurt
Strawberry Smoothie with Banana and Soymilk
Strawberries, Banana, and Clementines
Tropic of Strawberry Tea by Celestial Sseasonings

Hope you had a good day!
Raven

Strawberry Scones 2/15/10

Makes about 15 medium scones, depending on the cooky cutter

Preparation about 40 minutes

Can be made ahead, but best fresh out of the oven

Freezes well for about two months

1 ¾ c. whole wheat flour

3 T. – ½ c. vegan sugar

2 ½ t. baking powder

½ t. salt (optional)

3 T. – 1/3 c. cashew or almond butter

1 ½ c. strawberries, chopped

4 – 6 T. vegan milk

Toppings:

Strawberry jam

6 – 12 ounces soy yogurt – plain, vanilla, or strawberry

1 – 2 T. sugar to sweeten the soygurt if plain

Mix dry ingredients. Incorporate the nut butter – an electric mixer makes this easy. Add the vegan milk until you can gather the mixture into a ball. Mix in the strawberries carefully so as not to crush them, not that this affects the flavor.

Roll out about ½ inch thick on a lightly floured board and cut with any cooky cutter(s) you like. Or you can pat the scones into shape or drop them by the tablespoon onto a parchment lined cooky sheet. If you use a cooky cutter, the scones will rise more.

Bake about 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the scones, until lightly browned. They will brown first on the bottom, so you might want to check there at about 8 minutes and then again every 2 minutes.

Theoretically, smaller scones should cook faster, but with such a fast baking time, i didn’t have any trouble with different sized scones on the same baking sheet. I would watch if you have different sized scones though to be sure the smaller ones don’t get overly brown.

You may wish to top with strawberry jam and sweetened soy yogurt (1 T. sugar in a 6 ounce container of plain soygurt, or you can use vanilla or even strawberry soygurt).

You can use practically any fruit in scones, and they are also good just plain. You might try: blueberry, peach, banana, banana-strawberry, pineapple, kiwi, orange (use orange zest too and top with marmalade), lemon, blackberry, or raspberry, or a combination of these.

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December 28, 2009

Stollen – Cherry Whole Wheat Sweet Bread

Filed under: Breads, Breakfast, Feasts, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays — admin @ 1:01 am

Stollen - Cherry Whole Wheat Sweet Bread

My friend Heidi was thinking about having Stollen for New Year’s Day, so i decided to post this, even though to me Stollen is a Christmas bread, and i was planning to post this in early December of next year. So Heidi, this is for you, and i hope it will start a new tradition of New Year’s Stollen. Or… how about spring Stollen?

My mother has made Stollen for Christmas morning as far back as i can remember. She made it with candied cherries, and later, i made it with candied cherries and dried apricots. This year i thought i would try it with less sugar, and made it with thawed frozen sugarless cherries. It was great!

As a friend reminded me, kneading is hard when you haven’t done it before. It gets easier, and then you, or at least i forget that it was ever hard. But you have to knead bread regularly before you develop the right muscles. Don’t let this deter you. The bread will be worth it. I used to make bread about every week, but now i only make it about once a month, but i can still knead it, although not as easily as when I did it all the time.

My mother says:

“For many years, I have kneaded bread on the floor — on a bread
board, placed on towels. I started doing this when my children were
small so they could watch and participate. I would give the child a
small piece of dough to knead, but periodically I would switch the
child’s piece with a new piece broken off of the big mass I was
kneading and work the child’s old one into the big mass, so it ended
being well kneaded. In later years I continued kneading on the floor
so I could kneel over the board and put my whole weight behind the
kneading. Now I think I would get too tired, or not knead it with
the “force” necessary, if it wasn’t on the floor for me to bend over it!

I actually did many other cooking procedures on the floor so the
young child could easily watch and participate.”

I decorated the stollen with raspberries and basil leaves. The bread inside is a brownish red, like Georgia’s soil.

Stollen

Makes about 12 servings
Preparation about 25 minutes
Freezes okay
Best served the day it’s made, but it can be made ahead – you might want to decorate it just before serving

½ c. warm water – 108 degrees
1 package active yeast
¾ c. vegan milk
½ c. sugar
½ t. salt
1 c. fresh or frozen cherries
4 c. whole wheat pastry flour

Be sure to have the flour at room temperature, if you refrigerate your flours. Warm the water and the vegan milk. On my stove, this takes about 1 ½ minutes. If you get either too hot, measure out half of it and mix with cold water or vegan milk, depending on which you are cooling. Warm the cherries, too, if they are cold. Stir the yeast into the warm water and let bubble about 10 minutes.

Mix the sugar and salt into the yeast mixture. Add the cherries. Add the flour and mix well. I usually use my Kitchen Aid mixer to mix bread instead of kneading it. If you are going to knead the bread, put it on a floured board. Knead about 10 minutes.

My mother told me that at this point you can refrigerate the dough over night, so you can have fresh bread for breakfast. I haven’t tried it, but she is always right. Take it out when you first get up, and put it on or in a pan, as directed below, and let it rise – probably about an hour and a half, since it was cold.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, and form the bread into a loaf, and cover it with a damp cloth. Or you could use a loaf pan, but then you need to oil it. Put the bread dough in a warm place. I put it next to the stove, if i’m using it, or the heater, in the winter. In the summer i put it outside or in a room where the insulation isn’t as good, and it gets hot. Bread will rise if it is cooler, but it rises slowly. In a 70 degree room, it usually rises in an hour to double.

When the bread is almost doubled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it and is browner than the dough was.

When cool ice with:

2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 T. vegan milk
Green or red food coloring for Christmas, if desired

Decorate with cherries, or raspberries, holly leaves or basil leaves, or flowers, or whatever your heart dictates.

Keeps a couple of days, but is best the first day, or frozen until a couple of hours before serving – depending on how large the loaf is, or whether it is sliced.

Nutritional information- not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 259 calories/6.3 g protein (9.7%)/1.1 g fat (3.8%)

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December 20, 2009

Springerlies

Filed under: Cookies, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays — admin @ 1:01 am

Springerlies Cookies

Although very sweet, these cookies are very low in fat, with no added fat. I’ve also seen them spelled springerle.

My Great Grandmother made these cookies. As a young wife, German recipes were very popular, and she made several. (See also Leibkuken 12/5/09). My Great Grandmother’s recipe called for “butter the size of an egg,” which I interpreted to be 1/3 c., while my mother thought it was a more modest ¼ c. My mother took over making the cookies by the time I was 7, and my Great Grandmother died. So they are a real traditional part of my Christmas.

Springerlies are made with a special board that you press on the dough to make a picture on the cooky. I’ve also seen ceramic cooky stamps that would work on the dough. They probably would be good just rolled out and cut into squares, or cut with cooky cutters. My mother’s old board is wood, about 8 x 6 inches. My first board was 3 x 6 inches, but with about the same size squares to cut for the individual cookies. About two years ago, i decided to get a bigger board, and found one at Sur la Table for about $100. It is made of resin, although it has a wood grain, and makes bigger cookies. The pictures vary, but include flowers, animals, and buildings. My favorite pictures are a pine cone, a bunch of cherries, a duck, a rabbit, and an oak tree. Sur la Table has an online site, but I can’t get into it because I don’t have all the required programs to see it. Ideal would be if you knew anyone living or visiting Germany, especially around Christmas time when they have wonderful street fairs with cookies, gifts, crafts, and food.

I keep my Springerlie boards hanging on my kitchen wall year round.

Springerlies Boards

Every cook has his or her own way of pressing the cookies. I used to dust the board with powdered sugar, but I found with no added fat in the cooky, the dough just peels off without needing any drying agent. I learned from my mother and Great Grand Mother to roll the dough in powdered sugar and press the board on top of the rolled dough. But what works best for me is to take a cooky sized piece of dough and smooth it into a flat cooky roughly the size of the finished cooky. I press it into one or two of the squares on the board, then slowly pull it off. I lay the pressed cooky on a cutting board and cut the edges along the lines of the pressed cooky, and put it on a board or baking sheet to dry. You can put them close together while they dry, so it’s best not to put them on the baking sheet you plan to bake them on, where they need to be farther apart, as they rise while baking.

To replace the butter in the original recipe, i used a fruit puree. I thought apricot would be good for a Christmas cooky, and I happened to have some in the freezer, so I used that. Cherry would also be good with the anise. You could also use dried apricots or cherries, and cook them with an equal amount of water about 10 minutes. Frozen cherries or mangos are usually available. In a pinch, you could try canned fruit, although that would add more sugar, unless you could find some canned in juice. Be careful with dried cherries not to get ones with oil.

You need to puree the fruit. Drain it and see if you can get it smooth without adding any juice from cooking dried fruit, or water. This makes the smoothest puree. I need to use about 2 T. juice with my blender. You may find, as i do, that you need to use more fruit than the recipe calls for to get it smooth in the blender. (It needs to reach over the blades.) Just measure out 1/3 c. of the pureed fruit and proceed. You can just freeze the rest for the next recipe or use it on your oatmeal. Note how much juice or water you used so you know how much more to add, or measure the ½ c. water called for in the recipe, and pour what you need into the blender, and then add the rest to the dough when it comes time to do that.

In my family, we dry the pressed cookies overnight or 8 to 12 hours. The picture is clearer and the cooky is chewier.

I sometimes make Springerlies a couple of weeks before Christmas and freeze them. My Great Grandmother made them for the family and mailed them, which probably took at least a week, and then some of them had to last till Christmas. My mother said they were rather dry, but still edible. They are good at room temperature for a few days, kept in a covered container, but i like them kept really fresh in the freezer until the day I plan to eat them. They thaw in less than an hour, if separated on a plate.

This makes a lot of cookies, depending on how thick you roll them. I usually cut the recipe in half and still have some to give to friends.

You can make the cookies anywhere from 1/4th to 1/16th inch thick. I prefer the thicker ones, which of course take long to bake, and make less. The calculations are for ¼ inch cookies.

Springerlies

Makes about 32 cookies
Preparation about 80 minutes, plus about 20 minutes to put them on and off the baking sheets the next day
Freezes well
Can be made ahead

4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. anise seed
1/3 c. fruit puree (see note above)
½ c. water
4 c. whole wheat flour
2 T. Ener-G egg replacer
1 t. baking powder

Mix powdered sugar and anise. Add the fruit puree. With my mixer, you need to scrape the sides as this mixture tends to stick and not incorporate into the flour.

Sift the flour, egg replacer, and baking powder into the mixing bowl. Mix well.

Roll out or press individual pieces onto Springerlie board (see note above). Use powdered sugar to keep dough from sticking, as necessary.

Set 8 – 12 hours, uncovered.

Bake on parchment lined baking sheets in a 350 degree oven 6 – 8 minutes, until lightly brown. Cool, and store.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per cooky (1 of 32 per batch) – 85 calories/2.2 g protein (10.2%)/ .3 g fat (3.6%)

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December 9, 2009

Cocoa Spice Tea

Filed under: Gluten Free, Holidays, Teas — admin @ 12:57 pm

Cocoa Spice Tea

Another favorite tea that i have a lot is Yogi Tea’s Mayan Cocoa Spice Tea. It is good black, hot or cold, and also with soymilk and sugar, for a special treat. Try it for the Christmas holidays, and also in summer with fresh fruit.

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December 6, 2009

A Christmas Dinner

Filed under: Breads, Feasts, Higher Calorie Density, Holidays, Main Dishes, Salads, Side Dishes — admin @ 1:10 am

A Christmas Dinner

We had our traditional Christmas dinner for Thanksgiving, in the hope that this post would be early enough for anyone looking for ideas for Christmas dinner on Christmas this year. After an exciting Christmas morning, you might not want to spend all day cooking. Here’s a dinner that can largely be made ahead, if you can find the time during the busy pre-Christmas rush.

Christmas Dinner Menu

Sun-dried Tomato Bread
Nut Cheeze Ball
Seitan Roast
Roasted Vegetables with Sweet and White Potatoes
Spinach with Pinenuts
Cranberry Relish
Fruit and Nut Cake

You might want to start with a appetizer earlier in the day to have a little space while you make the final preparations, and to keep your family from getting a sugar high from Christmas cookies…

Nut Cheeze Ball

Nut Cheeze Ball

1 c. slivered almonds
1/4 c. pinenuts
1/2 t. salt
1 t. sugar
4 ounces extra firm or firm tofu
1 t. red wine vinegar
1 t. lemon juice
1 t. onion powder
2 scallions, minced
1/4 c. walnuts, chopped

Process the walnuts in a food processor briefly to make small walnut crumbs. You still want them to look like walnuts. Put on a plate or bowl and set aside. You don’t need to clean the processor bowl.

Process almonds and pinenuts with salt and sugar. Process about 2 minutes until it is a paste.

Drain tofu and press out water. Add to nut paste with vinegar, lemon juice, and onion powder. Blend another two minutes until mixture resembles hummus. Add chives and process briefly, so there are still flecks of green in the mix. Form into a ball or two and roll in chopped walnuts. Refrigerate until 1 hour before serving, then let the balls come to room temperature.

Serve with crackers, bread, or a mix of raw vegetables.

Adapted from Vegan Cheese Ball in My Vegan Cookbook.

Nutritional information- not guaranteed to be accurate:
per serving 150 calories/6.3 g protein (16%)/13 g fat (78%)

Creamy Cucumber Salad

Creamy Cucumber Salad

2 medium cucumbers
12 ounces silken tofu
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. rice or red wine vinegar
1/2 t. salt
6 T. minced mint leaves

Chop or slice cucumber. Set aside. Put in a blender the tofu, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and mint leaves, and blend until smooth and creamy. Mix with the cucumber and refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve, or you can take it out and bring it to room temperature for an hour before serving.

Adapted from Cucumber Raita in The Voluptuous Vegan: More Than 200 Sinfully Delicious Recipes for Meatless, Eggless, and Dairy-Free Meals by Myra Kornfeld, George Minot, and Sheila Hamanaka.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
per serving – 66 calories/6.7 g protein/2.7 g fat

Seitan Roast and Roasted Vegetables with Sweet and White Potatoes

Seitan is a recent discovery, not something I grew up with. It comes from Japanese and Chinese cuisine, hence the unfortunate name for the west. I like the packaged seitan i buy at the health food store, and I like every recipe i’ve tried to make it myself… it’s amazingly easy, and less expensive than the already made seitan. I’m still trying different things to make it better, and this was one experiment that was quite tasty, though I think it can still be improved… This roast is quite moist, which makes it easier to cut with a fork.

Seitan is not something i cook very often, so i just make notes and when I’m ready to make it again, i read them, and all the Google articles I can stand, and then make the latest version. Lately i’ve been trying baking options, but you can also boil it. This roast combines a little of both techniques.

You need wheat gluten, which, ironically, i find in the gluten-free section of the health food store, with all the special flours. Basically, you just mix the gluten with an equal amount of liquid, knead for a couple of minutes, and cook. But you can add a lot of flavor in both the mixing and the cooking stage.

Seitan Roast

Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 45 minutes
Freezes well
Can be made ahead, but it’s better if you just make the roast and refrigerate it in the broth, then take it out bake it and immediately serve it

1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 1/2 c. vegetable stock or water
2 T. tamari
2 t. vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 t. Liquid Smoke
¼ c. nutritional yeast
¼ or more t. ground black pepper
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried sage
1 c. wheat gluten
3 T. whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the onion and garlic in a medium pan with ½ c. of the water, and sauté. When they are tender, and the water is about half absorbed, put it in a food processor and process. This is going into the actual roast as well as the cooking broth, so it needs to be fairly smooth.
Mix in the rest of the water, tamari, Worcestershire sauce, and Liquid Smoke. Set aside.

Mix the wheat gluten, flour, nutritional yeast, pepper, and herbs. Add 1 ¼ cup of the broth mixture and stir until it is absorbed or mostly absorbed. Knead about 2 minutes or 120 times.

Put the roast in a casserole and pour the rest of the broth over it. Bake about 1 hour, or until the broth is absorbed.

You can bring the roast to the table on a platter and slice it there, or slice it in the kitchen before you serve it.

Adapted from a recipe from Mountain Rose Herbs, and from Faux Ham in La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 182 calories/27.9 g protein (61%)/.8 g fat (4%)

Roasted Vegetables with Sweet and White Potatoes

Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 30 minutes
Doesn’t freeze well
Can be made ahead as far as slicing the vegetables and putting them in the broth in the refrigerator until ready to bake

1 large potato
1 medium sweet potato
2 carrots
1 onion
2 zucchini
1 red pepper
1 t. dried thyme
1 t. dried rosemary
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 packets low fat vegan bouillon such as Savory Choice
1 c. water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

You want this to look nice for a festive occasion, so slice the veggies attractively. Cut the potato in half and then into fairly thin slices. You can cut the sweet potato the same way or vary it by cutting it into chunks, but not too thick so the veggies will all be done at the same time. Slice the onion thinly. Slice the zucchini into ¼ inch slices. Cut the top off the red pepper and pull the green stem off, then pull out the seeds and membrane in the rest of the pepper. Slice the pepper into ¼ inch slices.

Place all the vegetables in a large baking pan or casserole. Sprinkle with the herbs. Mix the bouillon and garlic into the water and pour over the vegetables and stir. Be sure they are well coated.

Bake 45 to 60 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes, until veggies can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain the broth and reserve for soup.

Adapted from Roasted Root Vegetables in La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer.

Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 196 calories/4.6 g protein (11.7%)/.6 g fat (3 %)

Spinach with Toasted Pinenuts

4 servings
preparation 10 minutes

2 bunches spinach, well washed, or 6 c. frozen (1 lb.)
1/4 c. pinenuts

Cook spinach in a little water and drain. Toast pinenuts in a dry skillet over a medium flame about 3 minutes, until browned but not burnt, watching carefully. Sprinly over spinach and serve immediately.

Nutritional information for the whole meal – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per serving – 1284 calories/60.2 g protein (18.7%)/30.2 g fat (21.1%)

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