Archive | August, 2011

Hold the cheese–and the cheez

30 Aug

When I first went vegan, I was living in Walla Walla. While a large local population of Seventh-Day Adventists made availability of vegan groceries better than it would have been in many similar towns, I can best describe the offerings of vegan cheese products in Walla Walla in 1995 as grim.

Thus, when I went vegan I went cold-turkey off cheese, which had been such a favorite food that a friend referred to me as “Cheese Girl,” and I’m sure I uttered that now-annoying refrain, “Oh, I could never be vegan. I love cheese too much!”

Vegan cheese has come a long way since the mid-90s, and Seattle probably has as many offerings of different types as you can find anywhere. But a funny thing happens when you go five years or so without eating any type of cheese: you kind of lose interest in it.

I do like pizza with Daiya, Follow Your Heart or Teese, and I love the vegan nachos at Bimbo’s, and an assortment of other uses of cheese-like fake cheese. But sometimes what I like even better is food that serves a similar purpose but doesn’t try to pretend that it’s dairy cheese.

Here are some favorites:

Homemade Parma: 2/3 cup walnuts or cashews, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, 1/8 tsp. salt. Pulse in a mini chopper until the consistency shown. Dump generously on spaghetti as is, or combine one part sprinkle to two parts breadcrumbs for a delicious casserole topping.

Bechamel on pizza (in this case, with sauteed beet greens, caramelized onions and pecans). Be sure to use an unsweetened nondairy milk, and season with nutritional yeast, plenty of garlic and a bit of dry mustard.

And a couple favorite off-the-shelf products: Miso Mayo is fantastic on sandwiches, and gives you the salty/tangy/don’t-skimp-on-the-fat richness that cheese often provides. If you’re working with ingredients that would go well with Swiss or cheddar, give this a try! Similarly, Seattle’s own Karam’s Garlic Sauce (also known in my home as “liquid crack”) is phenomenal on anything Middle Eastern or Latin American, and frankly on most other things, too. It’s actually more like a sour cream than a cheese, but depending on what you want out of a cheese it might be just the thing. Looks like it’s only sold in the western US now, so Canadians will need to grab some while south of the border.

What do you use when you want something not-quite-like cheese?

Breakfast

26 Aug

image

It’s that time of year when you just have to make the most of the glorious fresh fruit available, so this morning breakfast was nectarines, blueberries, and the most beautiful figs I’ve ever seen, from my coworker’s tree (thank you, Carole!).

Dressing was just equal parts lemon juice, agave nectar and flax oil.

Why you really need to go to Tacoma

21 Aug

Yesterday I took my boyfriend (a willing-if-somewhat-skeptical accomplice) for a food-and-sightseeing tour of Tacoma, and we had a blast! After following @veganmoxie’s excellent Twitter reporting on vegan deliciousness in T-Town and taking some tips from a Tacoma-based friend, I pulled together a little Google map to help us get where we wanted to go, including some areas that looked nice to explore while walking off all that food.

The results were better than we’d even hoped! Here’s the low-down on some great spots to eat vegan in Tacoma.

We started at Caffe Dei for lunch, which is full of delicious vegan cooked and raw food (the one non-vegan item on the menu is an option of dairy on the grilled cheese). The space manages to be at once cozy and airy, and the staff is friendly and helpful. I took one more step in my quest to find all the best vegan Reubens in the world, whereas Jud went for the BBQ meatloaf sandwich:

The meatloaf was seasoned with a nice balance of flavors, and the Reuben was right up there with my current favorite Reuben source, Seattle’s Highline Bar. Less greasy and a little sweeter than its northern cousin, it’s a very well-executed sandwich and one I look forward to eating again, which might be a challenge given all the other things I want to try on their menu.

It took plenty of walking out in the sun and around the Washington State History Museum (Did you know they have a mummy?! And that it’s been in Tacoma for well over 100 years?) before we could muster enough appetite to hit our next stop: Corina Bakery. Given our ambitious eating schedule (and the fact that it was already nearly six, and we hadn’t had dinner yet), we passed on the tempting slices of mocha cake, carrot cake, red-velvet cake and Aztec cake (all of which were vegan, and the last of which I’ve had and loved), and instead split this absolutely gorgeous chocolate-peanut-butter cupcake:

It was exactly as delicious as it looks. Perfection. Corina also offers gluten-free (and vegan) items and beautiful custom cakes. No wonder it keeps winning “best-of” awards!

Dinner was at the very-new (just over a week, if I’m reading their Facebook page right) AmeRAWcan Bistro, which is mostly vegan and raw, but with a little build-your-own-sandwich menu that includes cheese and meat options. While it did seem that they were still getting their bearings, the service was very friendly and helpful, and the food was excellent. Not exactly ravenous after our earlier dining, we kept things on the light side. Jud had the cream of vegetable soup, which was tasty if a little nondescript, and some Brazil-nut-stuffed cremini, which we both really enjoyed. The star of the meal, though, was the plate of nachos I ordered:

See those three colors of sauce drizzled under the perfectly ripe avocado? When Executive Chef Francisco Hernandez came by our table to ask how things were, I asked what each sauce was. There’s a cashew nacho cheese, cashew sour cream, and a sun-dried-tomato-molé sauce. All of that on a variety of colorful flax chips with an expertly seasoned walnut paté, which took the place of ground meat. We decided that neither of us had had better nachos, traditional or otherwise, anywhere. You’ll find them on the sides/starters menu, but don’t let that stop you from making them your entrée, and don’t wait too long before finding your way there and ordering them. The one thing that puzzled us a bit was the fact the nachos were the same price as the stuffed mushrooms ($9.95), for a lot more food and something that seemed far more complex and laborious to produce. Perhaps the price of Brazil nuts is unusually high right now?

It was late enough at that point that we decided to save 1022 South for next time (though the place looked hoppin’ when we drove by), and we also didn’t make it to Quickie Too, which had been low on the list only because we have three Howell-family restaurants up here in Seattle and wanted to focus on things new to us.

And just in case any of my fellow dwellers in larger cities are still harboring doubts as to whether a visit to Tacoma would be enjoyable enough to make even these treats worthwhile, rest assured: we had a great time checking out some of Tacoma’s non-culinary offerings, too. Museum Row is worth wandering, both for its exhibits and its architecture; you may stumble across cool public art or beautiful public stairways; if you luck out with the weather you can get some wonderful close-up views of Mt. Rainier; and you can visit wonderful parks, like Wright Park (which is over 100 years old and really has something for everyone) and Point Defiance Park (visited on an earlier trip, which can offer even better views of Rainier).

Tacoma fans, where else should we eat or visit next time?

Linguine with Fresh Tomatoes and Basil

18 Aug

On Saturday, the folks staffing the Alm Hill stand at the University District Farmers Market knew just how to draw in summer-starved Seattle shoppers, and they put this table right out front:

With tomatoes so vexingly hard to grow in this climate, there was no shortage of people hovering around that table–grabbing up the glowing, red rarities–and of course I was one of them.

Tonight I turned those tomatoes and basil into a simple, quick topping for linguine.

Ingredients per serving:

1 large clove garlic, minced or sliced
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
a dash or several hot chili flakes (optional)
2 baseball-sized ripe tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
pinch salt
2-3 large Italian basil leaves, cut in slivers

Linguine or other pasta

Start by boiling the water for the pasta, and make the sauce while the pasta cooks.

Heat oil in a skillet (at least 10″) over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and pepper flakes, if using, and sauté briefly until the garlic just starts to turn golden. Add the tomatoes and salt, and cook 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are softened about halfway, and the juice is cooking down just a bit with the garlic and oil. Toss in the basil and stir to combine. Serve hot over the pasta, or serve with crostini instead.

Seattle’s Cortona Cafe keeps getting more awesome.

18 Aug

It’s been nearly a year since I learned, via Anika at Seattle Vegan Score, that Cortona Cafe in the Central Area makes vegan waffles, and awesome ones at that. This spring, I finally got down there myself to experience the joy of vegan waffles I didn’t make, and indeed, a joy it was:

Look at those beauties! And the café is just about the coziest spot you can imagine, with lovely light coming in to highlight the wonderful architecture of the two-level space.

Not in the market for waffles? They also have vegan (and non-vegan) pastries, espresso, beer and wine. As of July, they also have black-eyed pea hummus, which I will be needing to try.

And then today, I spotted this piece, by another Seattle Times colleague, talking about STARTS (Students Taking Agriculture ‘Round The Streets), an internship program started by one of the owners of Cortona, which teaches teens from the neighborhood about the food business, all the way from growing and harvesting food to kitchen skills and market research on what recipes customers prefer. The program sounds fun and extremely useful to participants, and the icing on the cake is that the interns have been developing pizza recipes to be used at Cortona Cafe, one of which will be vegan and gluten-free. I, for one, will be watching @CortonaCafe for the launch of that new pizza.

Nancy Leson talks tofu

16 Aug

I can’t believe my Seattle Times colleague (and devoted omnivore) Nancy Leson beat me to a post all about tofu and the many options for delicious, fresh tofu in and around Seattle, but she did. And did a damn fine round-up, too:

To live in and around Seattle, and to ignore the tantalizing textures and downright deliciosity that is tofu, is a mistake you should not make.

All You Can Eat: Call me a tofu convert

Tempeh bacon

16 Aug

Frequent recent breakfasts at The Highline and Wayward Cafe have reminded me how much I love tempeh bacon. Since I can’t eat at those places as often as I’d like, I decided it was time to perfect my own recipe.

Here’s what you’ll need:

8 oz. tempeh, sliced very thin (I like Turtle Island’s 5-grain tempeh, but any kind that’s nice and firm will work.)

Marinade:

3 Tbsp. soy sauce (I use a low-sodium, wheat-free tamari, which makes this bacon gluten free)
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. liquid smoke

Canola oil for frying

Combine all marinade ingredients, and then pour over the tempeh in a small, shallow dish.

Shown is a 3-cup Pyrex, which is just right for a batch. Marinate for one hour or more, tipping the dish several times to make sure the marinade is well distributed throughout the tempeh. You could also do this in a Ziploc bag, being careful not to break the tempeh strips.

Heat a skillet over medium-low heat, and add a generous amount of oil. Fry the tempeh strips for several minutes on each side, until crisp and medium-brown.

Watch them carefully since the sugars in the marinade will burn easily, and don’t be shy about adding more oil as you go (this is bacon, after all–not a health food!). Drain on brown paper or paper towels and serve with breakfast, on sandwiches, with dinner, or all by itself.

Vegan for Life (read this book!)

13 Aug

My beach reading for this week was Vegan for Life, from Jack Norris and Virginia Messina. It’s a quick, easy, informative read.

I’ve been following Messina (@TheVeganRD) for a while now and have appreciated her informed, articulate takes on various issues related to vegan nutrition. As I’d hoped, this book is a well-organized collection of just that sort of information, identifying and correcting misinformation popular among those advocating omnivorous or vegan diets, and offering context and well-researched data for the authors’ conclusions.

How much of which nutrients are important to include in your diet and why? And how can one best include them in the diet or with supplements? When is too much of a good thing a problem? How do dietary needs change in different phases of life or types of activity? What about soy? Should I listen to the people critical of soy in one form or another? Is tofu bad for me after all?

It’s all in there. As I got toward the end, I wished I’d been taking notes as I went through the book, keeping track of tweaks to how I eat and what supplements I take, but it’s so put together in such a straightforward way that it will be easy to flip back through and write up a little list for myself.

There are only a couple things that I would have liked to see a little different: the information on calcium was very helpful, but since I fall into the group of people who probably don’t get quite enough from diet alone, I would have appreciated more help in choosing a supplement. There are so many types of calcium supplements on the market, often mixed with other nutrients, that a little guidance would have been helpful (even if it was simply “it doesn’t matter–buy whatever you can swallow!”).

Also, at the end of the book there are some basic instructions for cooking beans, grains and vegetables. I was equally puzzled and amused there to learn that I cannot prepare greens by steaming them, and that I should instead boil them and drain off all the nutrient-rich cooking water. Indeed, the book even mentions “steamed kale” earlier, so I’m not sure what that’s about. I will continue to saute and steam (and dehydrate raw) my greens.

All in all, though, it’s a great book and a very worthwhile read, whether you’re looking into a vegan diet or have been vegan for years.

Bouteloua: Seattle’s new adorable, delicious vegan bakery

10 Aug

Seattleites, I hope you’ve already been to Ballard’s new gem, Bouteloua Bakery. If I didn’t live a loooong bus ride away I would be there…I dunno, daily? I love this place. If you haven’t been, or if you’re planning a trip to Seattle, I strongly encourage pushing this little shop high on your list.

Consider my first visit:

See how they don’t overdo the frosting and instead go for a nice, smooth ganache? See how perfect that vanilla sugar cookie is that got even this chocolate fiend to love it? And the chocolate-chip cookies hiding underneath are just the right soft chewiness.

The only cheesecake I consistently like is the raw variety, which tastes nothing like traditional cheesecake, which is why I like it. But my partner in crime is a big fan of traditional cheesecake (and is not vegan) and declared the berry-covered slice you see in the background to be excellent.

My second visit was squeezed in on a very busy day because I couldn’t wait any longer to have some of their pain au chocolat, made with Seattle’s own Theo chocolate:

I will be back for more of that as well. It may look a little skimpy on the chocolate, but Theo’s so intense it really doesn’t need more than that. The croissant is just what it should be–flaky and tender and fresh–and makes me eager to try one of their savory ones.

Bouteloua also caters to gluten-free folks, and though I have not yet tried any of their gluten-free offerings, my friend who also does her own gluten-free baking raved about what they make. And today, Seattle Weekly blogger Rose Tosti posted an enthusiastic review from a non-vegan, gluten-free perspective. I got a kick out of the author’s frustration about the common confusion about gluten-free diets and vegan ones, since I get asked all the time if I can eat “flour.”

The staff is friendly and helpful, the atmosphere is charming (and they have sidewalk seating for good weather), and the food is so good you should share it with your non-vegan friends and colleagues to forever banish that “vegan baked goods are made of bark” taunt.

Bouteloua posts regularly on Facebook and less often on Twitter.

Stumptown Vegans!

10 Aug

You Portland folks probably already have the Stumptown Vegans site bookmarked and even memorized, but it’s brand new to me. What an amazing resource, including an incredibly comprehensive map of Portland eateries.

Go check it out, and go eat (and shop) your way around Portland as soon as you can.

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