STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING!
Krystal here. I decided recently to start over with a blog of my own- full of culinary creativity that caters to a compassionate and eco-friendly lifestyle. I’ll also throw in some DIY craft projects from time to time. So, vegan or not, let’s kick ass together. I love to share what I love and I hope you’ll do the same.
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I love you guys!
OKAY, CARRY ON NOW.
Chunky Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cookies
Alright, here’s what’s up: I have the most ridiculous, goddamned sweet tooth lately. I’ve literally baked a few batches of cookies everyday the past 2 weeks, along with vegan peanut butter cups, coconut macaroons, and coffee cakes. I don’t know if it’s something in the air, or if my luna cycle is messing with me, but I’ll just hope some of you out there are on the same boat and can really appreciate this.
This recipe is small- it makes enough cookies for yourself and a couple friends to share in a short evening. Who needs more than that when you’re baking different cookies everyday, right (but, if you’re not attached to your oven at the hip like I am, feel free to double up what it calls for)? But these are, by far, my favorite cookies I’ve come up with. They are so perfect in every way. Share them with anybody you love the hell out of- they deserve the divine.
What you’ll need:
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp chunky peanut butter
1/3 cup vegan baking chocolate, broken into chunks
1/4 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon
What you’ll do:
Preheat the oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffed. Add in the peanut butter, vanilla, and maple syrup, and whisk again. Add all remaining ingredients (sans chocolate chunks), and mix well. Finally, fold in the chocolate delight.
Grease up a baking sheet, and roll up little 1 1/2- 2 inch balls of cookie dough, and spread them about 2 inches apart on the sheet. Press down slightly. Put them in the oven for about 10-12 minutes (maybe a couple minutes less for lower altitudes, so just check on ‘em!). Enjoy them while you can; they won’t last long.
Love each and every one of you.
/k
Flaxseed (or whatever) Banana Bread
I’m trying to compose myself well enough to write a stable and appropriate introduction for banana bread, but all that’s coming to mind is “FUCKING BANANA BREAD SO GOOD.” Sorry, dudes. Deal wit’ it.
What you’ll need:
3-4 overripe bananas, depending on the size
1 1/2 cups all-purpose whole wheat flour
1/3 cup melted Earth Balance
1/4 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup raw sugar (& a little extra for sprinkling on top)
2 tbsp flaxseeds*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of salt
What you’ll do:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Mash your bananas in a large bowl, then add in your melted butter and mix well. Add in sugar, applesauce and vanilla, and again mix well. Baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt? Sure, though that in, too. Why not. Finally, mix in the flour and flaxseeds. That was almost unnervingly easy.
Bust out a 4x8 loaf pan, grease it up, and pour the mixture in. Great! Crap, you are SO talented! Now, sprinkle some sugar over the top, maybe even throw in a sound effect. You are impressive as hell! Go put your masterpiece in the oven and leave it in there for about 35-45 minutes. Just check up on it every now and then, what you want is light brown edges all around and a nicely puffed out, cracked top.
Why don’t I have a boyfriend?
Let it cool for about 15 minutes before removing it from the loaf pan, then top it off with some fruit preserves, coconut oil, or Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.
*Don’t like flaxseeds? Sweet. Try a handful of chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, or even some vegan chocolate chips. Or all of the afore mentioned. Be creative!
Enjoy, Internet!
/k
Stevesie’s Special Sauce
Brief side story;
The most recent time I visited PDX before actually moving here, my best friend of all time demanded that I hang out with an old RA that had moved here a few years prior. That best friend, Mattatat (as I like to call him), gave my phone number to Stevesie without my permission, suggested we cook a dinner together (I devote all my free time to a recipe blog… What the hell else would I do socially?!) and demanded in a very stern (as stern as a text message can be) tone:
“HAVE STEVESIE MAKE YOU HIS SPECIAL SAUCE.”
And so we hung out, he did his thang, and my mouth salivates at the mere memory. I harassed Stevesie via e-mail for a bit before he finally gave his recipe up to me.
In essence, it’s a gravye. But not just any gravye. It will seriously turn any dull thing into the distilled essence of everything great you’ve ever eaten. Don’t know what you do with those veggies? STEVESIE’S SPECIAL SAUCE. Bored with your brown rice and tofu? STEVESIE’S SPECIAL SAUCE. Drench everything you make in it. You won’t regret it.
What you’ll need:
1 cup of Earth Balance
3/4 cup of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup of nutritional yeast
2 cups of plain, unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1 3/4 cup hot water
2 tablespoons anchovy-free worcestershire sauce (available at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc.)
Whatever you want to pour your gravye over! I used:
1 cup of brown rice
1 block of tofu, fried
2 small red potatoes, boiled
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1 crown of broccoli
1 cup of spinach
1/2 cup of white button mushrooms, sliced
What you’ll do:
Get your rice cooking, then start working on the gravye. I don’t want to interfere with the recipe flow of that portion, so Stevesie’s directions are as follows:
“Melt ze margarine completely. Stir in the flour and nutritional yeast with just enough heat to maintain bubbling. Whisk it up good. Very gradually add the milk and keep that whiskin a’flowin. You’re almost there. Add soy sauce, water, and worcestershire sauce slowly. Try not to let it get too thin. But if it does, fuck it. It will thicken again.”
Good. Get started on boiling up some potatoes while you chop up your veggies/prepare whatever you’re gonna eat with your gravye. Grease up a pan and fry the tofu on medium-high (you know the deal), then when it’s lightly browned, throw in your veggies (except spinach) and cook until softened. Throw in the spinach at the last minute until it’s wilted, then serve the veggie mixture over rice Top it all off with Stevesie’s Special Sauce and experience pure bliss. Finalize it with fresh rosemary if you wanna feel fancy y’all!
Droooooooool.
Gotta go indulge in more special sauce, smell you later dudes.
/k
Matter Un-Paneer (sort of)
Matter un-paneer is a traditional Indian dish, that means “peas and cheese,” but we ain’t usin’ cheese, kids; we’re using tofu.
Ryan sent me the original recipe (message in a bottle from his pirate ship, PS. he says sup dudes), which I altered because I’m too cheap to use such a ridiculous amount of spices, and it still turned out fantastic. I think the boldness of the spices in the original recipe is meant to be contrasted with the creamy cheese, but since we’re omitting that, it’s still enormously flavorful and fantastic. Let me know if you’d like a crack at Ryan’s extravagant original, though, and I’ll send it your way!
What you’ll need:
1 bag of organic frozen peas
1 block of tofu
1 jalapeño or serrano pepper (depending in desired level of spiciness)
3 medium tomatoes
1 inch piece of ginger
3 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp corriander
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt & pepper to taste
What you’ll do:
Remember what I said about draining that tofu in my tofu scramble recipe? Good. Because we meet this dreaded water again, guys. Destroy it.
Good work. Cube up the tofu and fry it in a pan on medium-high heat until it gets a bit crispy and lightly browned. Set the cooked tofu aside on a plate or somethin’, and if there’s any oil left on the pan, leave it there.
In a food processor, blend the tomatoes, jalapeño, and ginger until it’s a nice purée. Perfect! Now reheat the pan you were just using (regrease it if it needs it), and toss that blend in. Mix the spices in with it, or be a weirdo like me and blend the spices in a bowl separately just so I can admire the palette. Wha- What’s that you say?! You admire the palettes of spices, too?! God, I knew I’d love you the instant you peaked into my blog.
Pwweeeeettttyyyyyy.
Okay, back to business. Toss those spices in, give it a good stir, and let the mix sit for about 8-10 minutes. It’ll thicken up pretty nicely, and that’s basically what you’re looking for.
Once that’s done, you can add in the peas, tofu, and 1/4 cup of water (stir well!) and let that sit for about 6-8 minutes, until the peas are cooked. Put it over some brown rice and top it with some vegan cheese for a most delicioso final meal.
का आनंद, dudes!
Crêpes For Two
It’s summer, guys! The best time to roll out of bed at 1 pm, prance around in your undies, throw the windows open (assuming you live somewhere that isn’t 105 degrees), and make scrumptious, fruity breakfasts before hopping on your bike and chasing the sun. These are a delicious and light way to start the best day ever.
What you’ll need:
For the crêpes:
1/2 cup of almond (or soy) milk
3/4 cup of water
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup melted earth balance
2 tbsp raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
For the filling:
1/2 cup soy yogurt (I use Nancy’s)
about 1 cup of chopped fruit of your choice (I used peaches and bananas)
raw sugar, for sprinkling
What you’ll do:
Start out by blending all the ingredients for the crêpe batter in a large bowl until totally smooth. Try to get out all the bumps that you can! You can even throw the batter into a blender if you prefer.
Transfer the mix into a container with an easy-pour rim, and set it in the fridge for a few minutes to let all the bubbles settle.
While that’s chillin’, go ahead and prepare your filling! Just chop up the fruits of your choice and make a little medley of it.
Get an ungreased frying pan on medium heat, and begin frying your crêpes. Put just a small circle of batter in the middle, about 3 inches in diameter, and circle the pan around so the batter spreads out as thin as it can. Once the crêpe has a crisp, golden rim, flip it. Take about a tablespoon of soy yogurt and dab it onto one side of the crêpe while it’s still in the pan, throw on a spoonful of your fruit medley, and sprinkle with some raw sugar.
Just like that.
By the time your finished with that, the other side is done cooking (I promise!), and you can just fold the crêpe in half and set it on a plate, and repeat until you’ve gone through all the batter. It makes about 6-8 crêpes, so you can share the deliciousness.
Enjoy your breakfast, & enjoy your day. :)
/k
Tofu Scramble
It seriously amazes me how so many people can struggle with cooking tofu. I hear relentless whines about how it never holds flavor and blah blah blah. No more excuses. I’m about to change your world, dudes. Get ready.
What you’ll need:
1 block of extra firm tofu
1 carrot, grated
1 crown of broccoli, stems removed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup daiya cheddar (I put this on almost everything, FYI)
1 tbsp earth balance
1 tbsp flaxseeds
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp hungarian paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp sage powder
What you’ll do:
Make a slit into the plastic in a corner of the tofu container. Hold the package over the sink, tofu still well-enwrapped, and squeeze out as much of the water as you can. Be mean. Tell that tofu, “to hell with your excess water!” Get it all out. Good work, team.
Now, pull back the plastic wrap and take out the tofu block. Grab one plate, lay a paper towel on it, rest the block of tofu on it, and then stack another plate on top. Again, curse the water in the tofu block and press out as much of it as you can. I believe in you, chef.
Once satisfied, Get a pan on medium-high heat (ungreased or very lightly greased, as the moisture in the tofu will make the oil spark out at you angrily), and dice up the tofu a bit. When the pan is ready, take the tofu cubes and crumble them up a bit, and cook until tofu is browned—then move it to a plate for now.
Lower the heat to medium heat, grease the pan and add in the garlic, allowing to soften for a few minutes. Then add in the spices, broccoli and carrots. Stir frequently for about 5 minutes, just until the broccoli looks well-steamed through, and then add the cooked tofu back in. stir well, and add a little bit more olive oil as needed to make sure everything is getting adequately cooked and spiced.
Drop the heat down to a low setting and top off with the daiya and flaxseed until the daiya melts.
Bon appétit!
Plated with the tofu scramble is Portland’s own Dave’s Killer Bread topped with Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, tomato and fresh basil.
Recipe x 2: BBQ Lentil Burgers + Creamy Garlic Avocado Sauce
Pt. 1- BBQ Lentil Burgers
What you’ll need:
1 bag (16 oz.) dry lentils
2 cups of vegetable broth (optional- I like to do half vegetable broth and half water for cooking the lentils for added flavor)
1 cup of whole wheat bread crumbs
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 can of yellow corn
1 red pepper
1 small sweet onion
1 carrot
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tsp of cumin
1 1/2 tsp of hungarian paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
3 tbsp BBQ sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp hummus of your choice
1/4 cup daiya cheddar
Burger buns
toppings!
Here’s what you’ll do:
Cook the lentils for about 45-60 minutes, using 2 cups of water and 2 cups of vegetable broth for your 2 cups of dry lentil beans. It should require no draining, but will be good and mushy. Mmmm.
Dice up the onion and pepper, keeping them to about a cm in size. Mince the garlic (or, if you’d rather just buy minced garlic, it’s roughly 1 clove=1 tsp), and grate the carrot. Use your olive oil to grease your pan on medium-high heat and throw your vegetable in.
If only you knew how good this smells right now.
Stir frequently, and as the onions and peppers soften up, throw in your spices (now this should smell really freakin’ good), and stir for another minute or two, just making sure all the vegetables are soaking in this awesome flavor. Set the vegetables aside for now, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put your cooked lentils in a large bowl and mash up just well enough to have a good consistency- of course, it’s not a problem if a lot of the lentils stay intact. Mix in the veggies, corn (drained!), bread crumbs, soy sauce, BBQ sauce, daiya, and hummus. Mix in the flour slowly to make sure you don’t over/underdo it. It usually comes out being about 1 cup for me, but the thin or thickness of the lentils ultimately affects that. Just make sure you get the mixture thick enough to mold. Now MASH MASH MASH. Use your hands for best results.
If you don’t look like this, you’re doing it wrong.
Now, take the mixture and make little balls of it, about the size of a tennis ball, and arrange them onto a greased (I use earth balance) baking sheet, and flatten. It should look like:
… and you should have about 12 of these.
Put them in your pre-heated oven (You didn’t forget to preheat, right?! Because I always do) and bake them for about a half hour, mostly to solidify the burgers and dry out any excessive moisture that could make them fall apart.
Once baked, you can cook them whatever way you like. I am a personal fan of the outdoor grill, while my mother swears by her George Foreman. But for the sake of this recipe, I used what I know all of you out there have: the mighty frying pan.
Since they’re already cook, they just need a couple minutes on each side to finalize it.
I like to consider myself simplistic (aka. poor), so I go light on toppings. Personally, I think these burgers are perfect with just some grated carrots, avocados, and barbecue sauce. Voila!
But, for an extra kick, I made up a creamy garlic avocado sauce to pair well with it, and that it does. So, here you go!
Recipe pt. 2: Creamy Garlic Avocado Sauce
What you’ll need:
1 avocado
2 tbsp vegenaise
1 clove of garlic
juice of half a lime
1/2 tsp chili powder
salt, to taste
Here’s what you’ll do:
We will start out by admiring one of the most delectable of all of mother earth’s gifts: the avocado.
Cue the choir, please.
Scoop the avocado out of its skin and mix it in a bowl with the vegenaise until it’s creamified (yes, I made that up). Mmmm. Mince the garlic and add in, along with the lime, chili powder and salt, and mix well. That easy! And it’s insanely good, I promise.
Go! Cook! Enjoy!
/k.
Allow Us to Reintroduce Ourselves:
It’s been 8 freakin’ months?! Crap.
I’ve been travelling space and must’ve gotten a bit behind on Earth time. Sorry y’all, life can do that. My space ship landed me in Portland (west coast=best coast, am I right, or am I right?), while Ryan is off galavanting in the Bahamas being a pirate and such. We’re just normal people, we promise.
And now we’re back, more ready than ever to remind you how fantastic and fulfilling our lives can be when we can sustain ourselves without neglecting compassion, health, and overall well-being.
Now, let’s get back to cooking.
Love,
Krystallica
Recipe x 2: mojo y queso de soja empanizado!
or, “(insert some weird english pronunciation of “mojo.” “mo-joe,” yeah?) and breaded tofu.”
Here’s a brief cultural lesson for all you unknowing white butts: mojo (pronounced “mo-ho”) is a common hispanic marinade with a tangy, zesty flavor used mostly for chicken, fish, and steak—most notably, bistec empanizado, or breaded steak. Obviously, we don’t do that shit, which brings us to our conjoined recipe: breaded tofu.
Here’s what you need for the mojo:
16 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice
8 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp peppercorn, grounded
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp orange zest
some container to put it all in?
Here’s how:
Mash, blend, dice, do whatever the hell you want to get the garlic nice and minced. Perfect. Blend in all the ingredients, sans orange juice (and container).
You should have this, right?
Perrrrrfect.
Now, get out that container and fill it with the orange juice, then add in that garlic mash up and shake it up. You now have mojo.
Now, go reward yourself with a cervesa.
Here’s what you need for the breaded tofu:
1 block firm tofu
about 1/2 cup bread crumbs
that awesome mojo you just made
Cool. Now here’s what you’ll do:
Drain out as much of the water from the tofu as possible. Put weights on it, towel dry it, whatever. Just try to make it so it has as little water as possible. Then, slice the tofu block thinly—slices should not be thicker than 1/2 an inch—and leave on a plate, drenched in as much of that mojo as needed to cover those guys. Seriously, do not be conservative. You can rebottle whatever is leftover, so no need to hold back.
Good work, Captain.
Leave this marinading for as long as you have the patience for. Ideally, an hour and a half to two hours, as this allows for the tofu to really absorb the flavor.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Next, get a plate and put an even layer of the bread crumbs on it. Take each marinaded slice of tofu and cover them completely in bread crumbs. Lightly grease a baking pan and arrange the breaded slices on it.
Awesome.
Cook those guys for about 15-20 minutes, until golden and crispy. Top them with some fresh lime juice for an extra amazing flavor of amazingness.
Enjoy!
/k
