Sesame Cookies

Have you ever entered a blog contest you didn't know you were entering? I did, when I sent this Asian Broccoli Slaw to the Sweet and Savory Challenge in October. Soon, I was the proud and somewhat befuddled owner of a pound of sesame seeds. What do you do with a pound of sesame seeds?

I needed a cookie recipe to take to a party last weekend and looked around for a recipe to use my seeds. I found a delicious-looking recipe on Andrea's easy vegan cooking blog. When I read a little further, I found that she had also sent her recipe to the same event. It's a small world.

Andrea made icing for her cookies, but I needed to travel with mine easily, so I left the icing off. Instead, I ramped up the flavor with the additions of some walnut oil, Frangelico hazelnut liqueur and cinnamon. These are rich and crunchy without being too sweet. In fact, they have that addictive sweet-salty vibe that you don't encounter often with cookies. I also doubled the recipe so that I could have some for the party, some neighbors, and us. Crunch!

Sesame Cookies

1 cup sesame seeds
6 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons walnut oil [1]
6 tablespoons vanilla soymilk
2 tablespoons Frangelico liqueur [2]
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

[1] If you don't want to use walnut oil, use an additional 2 tablespoons of canola oil for a total of 1/2 cup.
[2] If you don't want to use Frangelico or another liqueur, use an additional 2 tablespoons of soymilk for a total of 1/2 cup.

Toast sesame seeds in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant and golden. Set aside. Preheat oven to 325 F.

Cream together oils, soymilk and liqueur, if using. In a small bowl, use a fork to mix the all purpose and whole wheat flours with the baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Beat on low with the oil and soymilk mixture until just blended. Stir in the sesame seeds.

Drop by spoonfuls on a well-oiled baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. Oil the bottom of a drinking glass and use it to flatten the cookies. Bake for 18-25 minutes, being careful not to overbake, as these get super-crispy in a hurry. Remove from baking sheets to a cooling rack while cookies are still warm, or they'll stick.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Mafalde with Creamy Spinach Sauce

I wasn't going to post this recipe yet. Yeah, I was going to hold out on y'all. I have promised Ruth I'd host a Presto Pasta Nights in January, and I wanted to have something creative to offer to the event myself that week. However, this was just too good not to share right away.

At the grocery store I've been walking past packages of an adorable pasta called mafalde and dreaming of the perfect sauce for it. As you can see, it's shaped like skinny lasagna noodles. The skinniness means more edges and thus more delicious ruffles to hold the sauce. This is a pasta that holds up to a thick, chunky sauce well. Browsing a recipe website for something new I came across a spinach and ricotta sauce for spaghetti and I knew just what to make for my mafalde creation.

I started with the cashew ricotta from Veganomicon. Then I reduced the tofu and added spinach. Finally, I changed up the spices and added more garlic, because I think spinach is good with lots of garlic.

This looks like a hot mess on a plate, but then it rolls up beautifully and tastes like a lasagna you spent hours on. Tyler (he of the hand holding the fork in the top  photo) said it tastes like it's really unhealthy. I'm going to take that as a compliment.

This week, Presto Pasta Nights is being hosted by Kirsten of From Kirsten's Kitchen To Yours. Be sure to check over there on Friday to see what pasta dishes everyone came up with this week. 

Update 12/16/2010: I just read over this and realized I forgot the instructions. They've now been added. I guess I was pretty excited to post this!

Mafalde with Creamy Spinach Sauce

1 10-ounce box frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/2 cup raw cashews
10 ounces tofu - 1 1/2 cups crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice - from 2-3 lemons
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon thyme
12 ounces mafalde, cooked according to package directions, about 8 minutes

Grind cashews in food processor. Add tofu, olive oil, garlic, salt and spices to cashews and puree. 

Combine cashew-tofu mixture with spinach in a medium saucepan and heat over low while pasta cooks. Drain pasta and stir in sauce.

Serves 4

Samosa-style Twice-baked Potatoes

These samosa-style twice baked potatoes based on the ones in Veganomicon are a brilliant idea and I wish I had thought of them myself. They're a samosa filling stuffed back into the potato skins instead of being wrapped in pastry. They're a little bit of effort, but not nearly as much as samosas, and they're lower in fat. I say they're "based on" the ones in Veganomicon, because while I cut the vegetables in half, I didn't cut the spices down and I tweaked the ingredients a bit according to my taste and what I had on hand.

We had these with curried lentil soup. 

I am linking these up to the Hearth 'n' Soul blog hop. 

Samosa-style Twice-baked Potatoes

You can bake these potatoes in the oven at 400 F for 50 minutes to an hour, or in the microwave for 6 to 8 minutes.

3 medium yukon gold potatoes - about 1 pound, baked
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 carrot, peeled and diced, about 1/3 cup
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 jalapeños, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon amchoor powder or 1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup frozen shelled edamame or green peas (no need to thaw)

Preheat oven to 400 F.  

Cut potatoes in half length-wise. Scoop out the potato from the skins, leaving about 1/4-inch around the edges to keep the skins in one piece. Set the skins and scooped out potato aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Sauté onion and carrot on medium until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Turn heat down to low and continue cooking until onion is very soft, about 7 more minutes. Turn heat back up to medium, add the garlic, jalapeños and ginger and cook for about a minute. add mustard seeds, coriander, cumin, and salt and cook for another minute. Add amchoor powder or lemon juice.

Add potato to the pan and mash well with a potato masher. Add edamame or peas and stir the peas and potato into the onion-spice mixture. Cook, stirring over medium, until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Spoon potato mixture into the skins, heaping above the skins slightly as necessary. Smooth the tops with a spoon. Place potato halves in a baking pan and bake until lightly crispy on top, about 20 minutes.

Serves 2-3. 

Curried Lentil Soup

The weather is taking us on a roller coaster ride here lately. We've had a high of 83 F one day and a low of 33 F the next. So I made soup to warm us up, and then made it spicy to cool us down. It hits all the right spots.

This is my favorite dal recipe, made into soup with more water, carrots, canned tomatoes, and a tweak of the spices.

I'm sending this to My Legume Love Affair, hosted this month by Priya of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes.

Curried Lentil Soup

1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion, minced - about 1 cup
1/2 carrot, peeled and diced - about 1/3 cup
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 sprig curry leaves, minced - about 9 fresh or 12 frozen (optional)
3/4 cup split red lentils
5-1/2 cups water
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted
1 teaspoon salt
fresh cilantro for garnish

Heat oil in a soup pot. Sauté onion until tender and starting to become golden, 5-7 minutes. Add carrot and sauté for another 3 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala, cayenne pepper and curry leaves if using. Sauté for about a minute, or until the spices are fragrant.

Add lentils and water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until lentils are tender. Uncover and add tomatoes and salt. Heat through. Taste and adjust spices and salt. Garnish with cilantro.

Serves 4

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit: Vegan Chocolate Liqueur

It can be hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 80 degrees F outside. Living just barely in the northern hemisphere, we really don't get proper winter weather. The heat's nice when you want to put up Christmas lights, though. 

Here's a fun weather related thing to do: Look up your location on a world map, then find out what other major cities are on your latitude. Or, you could find your location on this list of cities by latitude on Wikipedia. We are just south of Cairo, Egypt, and Marrakech, Morocco, and just north of New Delhi, India and Kathmandu, Nepal. No wonder I'm a little overheated right now.

The lovely ladies of No Croutons Required requested this month, instead of a soup or a salad, everyone's best festive photographs. I may not be able to conjure a dreamy snowy scene like last year's winner (sigh), but I have Savannah holly to set the mood. And Christmas lights! We often forget to look for inspiration in our own yards. Thanks, Jacqueline and Lisa!

Savannah holly

Sun goes down, lights come on.

led lightsystem

Another great way to get in the Christmas spirit besides putting up lights is to make cookies and other food fit for a celebration. Last year, I made vegan Irish cream for the first time. It was so good, I wanted to explore other homemade liqueurs, and soon after I posted it, I found this chocolate liqueur recipe and bookmarked it to try this year. 

I had the idea to use soy creamer and coconut milk in place of the heavy cream and milk in the original recipe, but I wanted to know whether just one or the other would work, and what would be tastiest. So, I made a small amount of this - a quarter of the recipe - with just soy creamer, and another quarter of the recipe with just coconut milk plus a bit of water. Then I mixed some 50-50, and we had a taste test of the three versions. My theory was that with the coconut milk version the alcohol taste would be the mildest because of the fat content, while the soy creamer version would taste the most neutral - I suspected that you would be able to taste the coconut milk in that version.

The coconut milk version was a lot thicker than the soy creamer version, as I expected, but we were surprised by the flavors. The alcohol taste was stronger in both the pure recipes than the mix. Also, you could taste the soy milk in the creamer version, but not the coconut milk in that one (you don't taste either in the mix). We both thought the best was the mix, but the coconut milk version edged out the soy creamer one. However, if you can't tolerate or can't find one of the two ingredients, a pure version is pretty darn tasty. And if you want to make it with dairy (hi Susan!), my educated guess would be to use a pint of half-and-half for the soy creamer but keep the coconut milk.  

Hit me.

Vegan Chocolate Liqueur

UPDATE: When I originally converted this recipe from metric quantities, I doubled the rum by mistake. It's been corrected.

1 13.6 ounce can coconut milk (full fat, not lite)
about 1/4 cup water
1 pint soy creamer
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 - 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
2 cups dark rum

Pour coconut milk in a two-cup glass measure and top off with water to make two cups.

In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk-water mixture with soy creamer, chocolate and cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla bean plus its seeds. Heat, stirring constantly, until mixture just begins to boil. Remove from heat and cool completely. Stir in rum. Refrigerate in jars with lids and shake before serving.

If you want to give this as gifts, sterilize the jars first. This will keep for a month, per the original recipe.

Makes 6 cups. 

And then there were five.

Tempeh Sloppy Joes

Tempeh, made from fermented soybeans and other grains, is very healthy, but it's a bit of an acquired taste. This recipe, adapted from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons, is a great way to learn to love it. Crumbled like this, the texture mimics well-cooked lean hamburger meat, and who doesn't love sloppy joes?

This recipe is incredibly versatile. The first time I made it, I forgot the bell pepper, so I threw in some carrot slices instead. It was delicious. Instead of Pickapeppa sauce, you could use vegetarian Worchestershire or Hoisin sauce. Try adding some smoked paprika if you have it, or use some minced chipotles in adobo sauce instead of hot sauce. It's all good.

I'm sending this over to My Legume Love Affair, hosted this month by Priya of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes.

Tempeh Sloppy Joes

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely diced onion
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 8 ounce package tempeh
1 15-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon Pickapeppa sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce or to taste
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons minced cilantro, optional

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté onion, bell pepper and garlic until onion is tender, 3-5 minutes. Crumble tempeh with your fingers into the skillet. Add tomatoes, chili powder, ketchup and Pickapeppa sauce. Stir in a half cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low. Add hot sauce, salt and pepper. Simmer until mixture is "unsloppy" enough to serve on buns, about 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro.

Makes 4-6 servings. Freezes well.