Falafels

It seems everyone has a falafel recipe and why wouldn't they their so dame good. I tried many recipes on the net but they didn't have as much favour as when you get them from a resturant. This one does! I think I got the recipe from an old Vegetarian Times magazine. The tahini sauce is from the cookbook Vegan With A Vengence. I'll be honest many times I'm too lazy to make the tahini sauce so I just have it with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of hot sauce on top. This recipe has been doubled because I find making falahels to be time consuming. I just freeze the falahel patties and take them out when needed.

Falafels

4 cups canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
4 tsp garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp coriander
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp chili powder
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp tahini
oil for frying
pita bread


Condiments

hot sauce
lettuce, chopped
tomato, red onion and cucumber, chopped
tahini sauce (recipe below)


Mash chickpeas in batches on a plate using a potato masher. Once all mashed then mix and mash well with all the rest of the ingredients excluding condiments of course.

Wet hands often and shape the mixture into 1 1/2 inch patties. In a large pan heat oil. Test the oil by throwing in a pinch of the batter; if the oil immediately bubbles up rapidly, it is ready. Cook the patties. Remove from pan and transfer onto a flattened paper bag or paper towels to drain.

On one side of a pita spread some tahini sauce, then add hot sauce, some falafel patties, lettuce, tomato, red onion and cucumber. Then fold over.

Tahini Sauce

1 Tbsp oil
1 1/2 tsp garlic, chopped
1/4 cup tahini
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
Juice from 1/4 lemon of a lemon
a dash of fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 cup cold water

Heat the garlic in 2 Tbsp the olive oil in a small sauté pan over very low heat for 2 minutes; just until it’s fragrant (don’t burn the garlic). Place the heated garlic and all the other ingredients in a blender blend until smooth. Refrigerate at least 1/2 hour in an airtight container. You may need to mix in a little extra water once it’s chilled.

Give Peas A Chance

Carrot Cake

It’s not hard to find tons of great vegan dessert recipes on the net but I had a hard time finding ones that were not loaded with oil and sugar. This recipe was sent into Vegetarian Time Magazine by one of their readers, Christina Koah. I did lower the oil and sugar just a little more and changed the flour to almost all whole wheat instead of white.

1 medium ripe banana
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 oil (light tasting)
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
(2 medium carrots)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a (5 x 9 in) bread pan with cooking spray. Mash banana in large bowl. Whisk in sugar, oil and carrots. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture, until no lumps remain. Add raisins and walnuts.

Pour cake batter into prepared bread pan. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Bob Green’s No Cheese Lasagna

I’m often asked what my favorite recipe is. I couldn’t really give an answer because I like so many but I now have 2 recipes that stand out from the pack and I call them my absolute favorites. This recipe is definitely one of them and the second one is my Tex Mex Veggie Chicken Pizza which I will be posting in the future. The only negative is that nuts aren’t cheap so look for those sales and stock up. You can keep your nuts fresh, longer by storing them in your freezer.

You can watch a short video of Bob Green making his lasagna:

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/bob-greenes-no-cheese-vegetable-lasagna/

Below is my version of Bob Green’s recipe …..

Vegetable oil cooking spray
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp garlic, minced
fresh basil leaves, to taste, optional
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
Black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup water
1 cup Hunt’s Tomato Sauce
(the kind with onions, herbs and spices)
4 whole wheat lasagna noodles (cooked till almost tender)
3 cups spinach, washed thoroughly
2 cups fresh tomatoes sliced, then cut into quarters

Preheat oven to 375F. Coat a 9–inch square or a 10 X 8 pan with cooking spray. Combine the almonds, walnuts, onion, garlic, basil, nutmeg, salt, pepper and water in a food processor or blender and process until smooth about 1 minute.

Spread 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce on bottom of the pan. Cover pan with 2 of the noodles, spinach, tomatoes and nut mixture. Repeat the layers again (last layer the nut mixture) and transfer to oven for 20 minutes then pull lasagna out from the oven and brush on some of the remaining tomatoe sauce over the outer layers of the lasagna noodles. Otherwise I find that the edges get dried out. Cook for 20 minutes more or until top gets lightly brown. Before serving reapply more tomatoe sauce around the edges and some over top (according to taste) and add freshly ground pepper on top. Serves 4

* Why I made so many changes to the orginal recipe:

I could not find no cook lasagna noodles so I just used regular ones and cooked them.

I used a smaller amount of onion. I love onions but his amount just sounded like too much.

Not into having too much basil. I think one cup of fresh basil like he uses would over power the whole dish. I did not add the basil instead I used Hunt’s tomato sauce the kind with onion, herbs and spices. It had just enough added herbs for me.

Instead of using 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom and 3 on top I decided to use only 2 lasagna noodles on the bottom and 2 on top so I would have more nut mixture to make a more cheesier lasagna.

Bypass Heart Surgery - Go Vegan Demonstration

Here's a cool video of a demonstration our group did infront of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pzoQRiFQMM

Stroganoff

Or Try Stroganoff Joes

I got my inspiration for this recipe from a Racheal Ray's potatoe stuffed, shepherds pie recipe. It's delicious and quick to make.

1/2 medium onion, sliced
2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
350 Yves veggie ground, regular NOT Italian
2 Tbsp margarine
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup mushroom stock
1 1/2 or 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
cooked pasta or toasted buns

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 1 tsp oil. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic to the pan and cook until veggies are almost tender about 5 minutes. Add the 1 Tbsp oil and veggie ground to the pan and cook for 3 minutes. Push all of the ingredients to the edge of the pan and add the margarine to the skillet. Sprinkle the flour over the melted margarine and cook for 1 minute. Add the stock, mustard, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper flakes some salt and pepper to the skillet and stir to combine. Bring up to a bubble and simmer until thickened, 2-3 minutes. Pour over pasta or toasted buns.

A Taste Of The Mediterranean

Balsamic vinegar mixed with olive oil for dipping bread is delicious. You can add garlic and herbs to it. I like to keep it simple and use a good quality flax seed oil or an omega blend oil instead of olive oil. Always refrigerate these oils. You can also freeze them to extend their shelf life. Flax oil will not freeze solid. Serves 1

5 tsps oil (your choice)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Mix then serve with some nice whole grain bread, my favorite is Dempster's Ancient Grain bread.

Human Meat Tray Demonstration

I thought I would share with you some of my favorite pictures that were taken at my groups first Human Meat Tray demo last month. I'm not a stranger to doing demos while wearing little clothing in the cold winter weather but this was my first time experiencing extreme heat. It was 27 degrees that day while we baked under the sun covered in plastic. I would prefer to bake than freeze but others said they would prefer the cold.