Whole Wheat Bread

At one time, I made bread fairly often, but I fell out of the habit the last couple of years. I got a stand mixer for Christmas and have been baking bread again.

I have a tendency to rush the dough-making process and end up with less than spectacular results. Lately, in an effort to slow myself down, I've been starting with a sponge, using all of the water and yeast, and about a third of the total flour. It's working spectacularly. Every loaf has risen well and the flavor has been awesome. I think the bread even keeps better now.

This was my simplest bread yet and so, so good.


Whole Wheat Bread

3-3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1-3/4 cups warm water (about 105 F)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons molasses
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Measure flour and vital wheat gluten into a medium bowl and whisk together with a fork. Add water and yeast to a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with dough hooks. Scoop up about a cup and a half of the flour mixture and add it to the water and yeast. Combine well with a fork, cover the mixture, and let stand for 45 minutes to an hour. This sponge will bubble up and expand.

Add the olive oil, molasses and salt to the sponge and whisk in with a fork. Begin adding the remaining flour a cup at a time. If you plan to knead by hand, use a large wooden spoon to work the flour into the dough. Then, turn the dough out into a large cutting board and knead for 10 minutes. If you are kneading with a stand mixer, start the mixer now, and let it run while you add the flour. You may need to stop the machine once or twice and work some of the flour into the dough with a spoon. Once the flour is incorporated, let the machine knead the dough for 5 minutes. You will probably need to knead the dough by hand in the bowl for a minute to form it into a smooth ball.

Place the dough into an oiled, medium bowl. (This can be the bowl that you measured the flour and wheat gluten into earlier.) Cover and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for an hour, until doubled in size.

Oil a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Shape dough to fit the pan. Cover and allow to rise again until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Heat oven to 350 F, and bake bread for about 30 minutes.

To test your bread for doneness, turn the loaf out of the pan and rap sharply on the bottom with your knuckes; your loaf should sound hollow. If it doesn't make a sound, bake a little longer.

Dirty Brown Rice

Dirty Brown Rice is another old family favorite. I created this after someone asked about a vegan dirty rice recipe on a message board. The only recipes anyone could provide were going to taste nothing like an original recipe. They had ingredients in them like black beans, corn, cumin, and curry powder. Curry powder! I didn't have a recipe to suggest either, so I set out to make this one. I read a half-dozen dirty rice recipes and then replaced chicken livers and gizzards with lentils and textured vegetable protein (TVP), used brown rice instead of white, and increased the quantity of vegetables.

I posted the recipe on VegPeople and it was a big hit. Several people tried it, but didn't have TVP on hand, so they used bulgar or extra lentils. Last night I didn't have TVP either, so I used chopped seitan. I've written this up how I made it last night, but at the end, I've suggested some alternatives.

A great side for this is baked sweet potatoes, and possibly a salad. Put Tabasco sauce on the table for people who like it really hot.

Dirty Brown Rice

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion or ½ of a large one, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
¾ cup brown rice
¼ cup green lentils
2 cups water
1 large or 2 small vegetable bouillon cubes
1/2 teaspoon thyme (see notes)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ teaspoon liquid smoke
3/4 cup chopped seitan (see notes)
1 green onion, green part, sliced

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic, celery, onion, and green pepper and cook until onion is translucent, 5-7 minutes. Stir in brown rice and lentils and cook 1 minute. Add water, bouillon cube(s), thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne and black pepper, bay leaf, soy sauce and liquid smoke.

Bring to a low boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes. At about the 1/2 way point, throw the seitan into the pot, but don't stir it in. Remove cover and stir in green onion. If rice is a little soupy, turn heat off burner and leave rice on burner uncovered for a few minutes.

Serves 4-5

Note: You can replace the thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne and black pepper with 2 teaspoons salt-free Cajun seasoning, or use salted Cajun seasoning to taste and omit the soy sauce.

The seitan can be replaced with any veggie protein you have on hand, such as chopped up sausage or burger crumbles. You can also throw one of the following into the pot with the water and seasonings: 1/2 cup TVP + 1/2 cup additional water, 1/2 cup bulgar wheat+ 1/2 cup additional water, or 1/4 additional lentils + 3/4 cup additional water.

Baked Apple Empanadas

This is just a little something I whipped up this past weekend. Actually, these were big somethings, almost big enough for a meal. The filling is from this recipe, while the dough is adapted from this recipe.

Baked Apple Empanadas

Make the dough first, as it needs to rest before you roll it out.

Dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon margarine
1/4 - 1/3 cup water

Filling:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup brandy, rum or apple juice
5 cups diced apples, 1/4-inch size (I used 3 huge Honeycrisp apples)
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon margarine
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
scant 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

To make the dough:
Whisk together flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Melt coconut oil and margarine together and add to flour. Blend well with a fork. Add a couple of tablespoons of water, then continue blending in water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is no longer crumbly. (Once my dough was just holding together in a solid ball, I added 2 more tablespoons of water.) Knead the dough for about five minutes until it is smooth.

Cover the dough and allow it to rest at room temperature for about an hour. (You can also refrigerate the dough overnight.)

To make the filling:
Soak the raisins in the brandy or other liquid while you prepare the rest of the filling. Toss diced apples with lemon juice and zest to keep the them from browning.

Melt the margarine in a large skillet. Add the apples and stir to coat. Cook on medium, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, including the raisins and brandy, and cook until mixture thickens slightly. Set aside to cool.

To put the empanadas together:
Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Divide the dough into 8 balls. With a rolling pin, roll out a dough ball to about 6 inches in diameter. If the edges of your disk are uneven, trim them, add them back to the center of your disk, and roll out again.

Put about 1/8 of the filling in the center and fold the dough in half. A pastry scraper will make this easier. Crimp the edges together with a fork. Continue with the remaining dough and filling.

Place empanadas on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until dough is lightly golden.

Cookbook Challenge: Veganomicon - The Beginning and The End

Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, has been on my cookbook shelf for over two years but until recently, I had only made one or two recipes from it. I'm not sure why, but when I realized that the cookbook had been languishing, I issued myself a challenge to make a load of new recipes from it. I started with the Cheater Baked Beans and finished with the Jicama-Avocado-Watercress Salad with Spicy Citrus Vinaigrette. Every single recipe I made was terrific. This has since become the first cookbook I pull from the bookshelf when I need a new idea.

The cheater baked beans were easy and so much more interesting than the overly-sweet baked beans from a can. It had been years since I had made sushi nori, so I used the recipe for spicy tempeh nori rolls as a guide. I used different fillings, but the cookbook's proportions were perfect and the instructions were easy to follow, something rare in sushi recipes. The spicy peanut and eggplant soup was amazing. This would make a great recipe for company. The Vietnamese seitan baguette with savory broth dip was like a cross between banh mi and a French dip sandwich, and we all loved it. The southwestern corn pudding reminding me of corn casseroles from my childhood, and I'll definitely be making it again, maybe with leftover grilled corn in the summer. The seitanic red and white bean jambalaya was perfectly spiced, and very filling when made with brown rice. It survived the freezer nicely too. The chickpea cutlets came together quickly and proved to be very versatile. The silken mayo dressing tasted almost like ranch dressing and made the best chipotle mayonnaise ever. After I was through stuffing pasta shells with cashew ricotta (and artichokes) I couldn't stop myself cleaning the bowl and licking the remainder off my fingers. It was that good. I've already told you how much I liked these cookies, which were a variation on the chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies. Finally, the jicama-avocado-watercress salad with spicy citrus vinaigrette really hit the spot alongside some tomato soup.

Jicama Avocado Salad

By the time I got around to making this, my watercress was turning yellow, so I used green leaf lettuce instead. I also made about half the recipe and winged it with the ingredients I had on hand for the dressing. For the "official" version, you'll need the book!

Whisk together the dressing ingredients:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

For the salad:
1 small jicama, peeled and diced, about 3 cups
1 small avocado, peeled and diced
2-3 cups torn lettuce leaves (or watercress)
1/3 cup diced red onion
cilantro for garnish

Toss the dressing with the salad just before serving.

Serves 3.

Mushroom and Sausage Sloppies

This sandwich came about when I was trying to use up some bits of things I had in the refrigerator and freezer. It turned out to be one of our all-time favorite sandwiches. For sausage, you can use homemade ones, like these from Vegan Dad, or Tofurkey Italian sausages or Brats. I imagine these would be good with a cup of cooked beans or lentils in place of the sausage. In that case, I'd probably add some chili powder.

The potatoes in the picture are the same ones I made on New Year's Eve, but with the spices from this roasted cauliflower (quadruple these spices for 2 pounds of potates.)

I discoved this evening that one of our kittens likes spicy food, too.

Mushroom and Sausage Sloppies

2 or 3 big portobello mushrooms (about 8 ounces, weighed with the stems on)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 ounces veggie sausage, chopped
about 1/3 cup BBQ sauce
3 or 4 hamburger buns

Remove stems from mushrooms and slice into short, thin strips. Heat oil in a large skillet to medium hot. Saute mushrooms, stirring frequently, until tender and dark, about 10 minutes. Add sausage and enough BBQ sauce to coat everything well. Heat through. Serve on hamburger buns.

Serves 3


Hey, where'd the food go? It was just here!


I knew you'd drop one of those potatoes.

Two! Two lentil spinach soup recipes

I've been on a lentil soup kick lately. A couple of weeks ago, I carefully crafted a soup with Italian flavors to go with some pesto potatoes. It was delicious, but I never took a picture of it. We were too hungry, I guess.

This morning I was digging around in my vegetable bins for veggies that I needed to use up, and I realized I had what I needed to make soup again. This time, I winged it, using nearly all the contents of the vegetable drawer, plus some of my meager pantry staples. Then I pulled out a recipe for Harira, a Moroccan chickpea soup, and used it as an inspiration for the spices.

I'm not sure which soup I like better.

Italian-spiced Lentil Spinach Soup

I love the way the celery seed and marjoram in the Italian seasoning play off one another in this soup. The sum becomes greater than the parts. If you don't keep Italian seasoning on hand, you can put together your own from marjoram, basil, oregano and thyme. Be generous with the marjoram and basil but careful with the thyme, as it can overwhelm a dish if you use too much.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine (I used cabernet sauvignon)
3/4 cup green lentils
1 can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
4 cups vegetable broth or water
1 bayleaf
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/8 teaspoon celery seeds
3 cups tightly packed fresh spinach, chopped (about 6 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Sauté onion, celery, carrot and fennel until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté another minute or two. Add red wine and lentils and simmer until wine is reduced somewhat, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, vegetable broth or water, bayleaf, Italian seasoning, and celery seeds. Cover and simmer soup for about 45 minutes or until lentils are tender. Add spinach and salt. Cook for 5 minutes or until spinach wilts. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serves 4

Moroccan-spiced Lentil Spinach Soup

I used Smoked paprika and saffron in this, which was a mistake. Saffron is expensive, and the smoky flavor of the paprika dominated. If I make this again, I'll use saffron + sweet paprika, or turmeric (for color, mostly) + smoked paprika. The total of the lentils and split peas was 3/4 cup, as in the recipe above.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 jalapeños, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 6-ounce package fresh baby spinach, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 10-3/4-ounce can Rotel tomatoes with chilies
4 cups water
2 tablespoons split green peas
4 tablespoons green lentils
6 tablespoons red lentils
1 tablespoon paprika, sweet or smoked
1/2 teaspoon saffron or turmeric
1-1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste, about 3/4 teaspoon
juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Sauté onion, celery, carrot and bell pepper until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add jalapeños and garlic and sauté another minute or two. Stir spinach into vegetables and cook until it wilts, 2 or 3 minutes. Add fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes with chilies, water, peas and lentils. Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Add paprika, saffron or turmeric, coriander, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, pepper and salts. Cover pot and cook about 40 minutes.

Add lemon juice and cilantro just before serving.

Serves 4

Simple Black-eyed Pea Salad

I love the tradition of eating black-eyed peas and greens on New Year's Day or soon after. These are wonderful, simple foods to help recover from the excesses of the holidays. We had this with some light, Mexican-style tomato soup and corn muffins.

Simple Black-eyed Pea Salad

This gets better if made ahead and refrigerated for several hours. It's even better the next day.

1 15-ounce can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 red bell pepper, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 jalapeño, diced
1/4 red onion, diced (about 1/3 cup)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon lime juice (from about 1/2 a lime)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive serving bowl.

Serves 3.