Vegan Valentine: Strawberry Cream Cheese French Toast (Spork Foods)

by Ashley Morgan  

I posted a very short review of this recipe when I did the post about the Spork-Fed cookbook, which I still love. While going through some photos in my camera (which I still haven’t cleaned out entirely), I happened upon the photos I took when I first tried this recipe and knew it would make a great Vegan Valentine’s Day brunch. A word of caution: this is a gooey, messy recipe to make. But the end results are decadent and perfect for a lovely breakfast in bed with that special someone.

Photo by: Ashley Morgan, Veg On The Run

Recipe courtesy of  Spork Foods

Thanksgiving Cheer in a Bowl: Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Dip

by Ashley Morgan

The holiday season is rapidly approaching and what better gourd than the almighty pumpkin to represent your holiday spirit. Unexpected visitors pop up constantly this time of year. Instead of stressing, keep these two ingredients in your cupboard to ensure a great time no matter when they drop by: pre-mixed pumpkin pie filling and vegan cream cheese. Both are great by themselves, however mixed 25/75 (25% cream cheese and 75% pumpkin pie filling), they are absolutely divine.

The dip can be paired with ginger snaps, crackers or even lentil chips (as I have done). Forgo the holiday stress and enjoy your friendly visits with a dip good enough to impress your mother-in-law. Just don’t tell her how simple it was to make!

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Dip

¼ cup vegan cream cheese

¾ cup pre-mixed pumpkin pie filling

Mix by hand or with mixer until fully incorporated. Serve chilled.

Vegan Friday: Semi-Homemade Italian Basil and Garlic Polenta with Braised Baby Carrots and Red Onions

By Ashley Morgan

I think the meatless Monday idea is a great way to encourage the masses to eat healthier and more consciously. It’s also a great way to show omnivores that a meal does not need to revolve around animal protein to be delicious and filling. So along those lines, we’ve decided to startup a “Vegan Friday” campaign, encouraging vegetarians to try eating vegan meals and also some adventurous omnivores who’d like to join in on the fun. Monday was already taken, but even more than that, Friday is a day for celebration. It’s the first day of the weekend and sets a tone to how you’ll spend your days off. What better way than with a healthy, yet indulgent, meal that is not only good for your body, but also good for the world?

 

To kick off our Vegan Friday extravaganza, I made a dish that is a staple in my home: polenta with vegetables. It’s filling, easy (especially when using the short-cut I’ll show you below), and a great dish for easing non-vegans into vegan cuisine. I do make polenta at home normally, but 1) I was lazy this week and 2) I wanted to show busy moms and professionals how to make this dish in a flash.

 

Semi-Homemade Italian Basil and Garlic Polenta with Braised Baby Carrots and Red Onions

1 pkg pre-made Italian Polenta (Basil and Garlic variety)

1 cup organic mushroom broth

1 cup peeled red pearl onions

2 cups rainbow baby carrots (peeled with tops trimmed)

2 tbsp peeled whole garlic cloves

4 tbsp walnut oil (divided)

5 leaves of culantro (different from cilantro, these are long, flat leaves)

Kosher salt to taste

In a large saucepan with a lid, heat two tablespoons of walnut oil over medium heat. Add garlic and red pearl onions, sautéing gently for about 30 seconds. Add one cup of mushroom broth, five culantro leaves, two teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste) and two cups rainbow baby carrots, bring broth to a simmer, lower heat and cover. Allow broth to reduce to half before removing from heat, approximately fifteen minutes.

 

While the broth is reducing, add two tablespoons walnut oil to a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. Cut the polenta into ½ inch-thick sections, and once the oil is hot (check by adding a tiny drop of water to see if it sizzles immediately) add the polenta to the pan. Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste. Turn once to brown on both sides.

 

Serves four.

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Does Latin and Vegan sound like an oxymoron? It isn’t with Jackfruit Tamales!

My beloved jackfruit, for which I drove 50 miles south of my home to buy and three hours of my time to cut, also became a wonderfully fresh, Latin meal when combined with simple ingredients. (Read more about the jackfruit itself here)

Tamales are traditionally made with either corn or yucca flour, stuffed with beef or pork, and wrapped in a plantain leaf or corn husk. My version is the quick-fix method, when you don’t have much time. Making tamales the traditional way is a time consuming and painstaking process, however does indeed yield much tastier results. I have used brand names in my ingredients list as it makes a difference in flavor if using other brands.

To make the jackfruit filling:

 

2 cups peeled green jackfruit, fresh

1 small onion, diced

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 pkg Goya achiote seasoning

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp Goya recaito (cilantro cooking base)

Oil spray for coating pan

 

Mix ingredients well in a medium bowl, cover and let marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature. Heat a large skillet to medium heat and spray with oil spray to prevent sticking. Sauté marinated jackfruit and onion over medium heat until translucent and browned. Cover and set aside.

 

To make the tamales:

 

2 cups pre-cooked Harina PAN Masarepa (yellow cornmeal)

2 ½ cups hot water (almost boiling)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp Earth Balance Original

4 plantain leaves or 6 corn husks, soaked in warm water so they are pliable

Kitchen string

 

In a large bowl, add the almost-boiling water, salt and Earth Balance. Slowly add the cornmeal, stirring constantly until a soft dough is formed. Carefully knead the dough to evenly distribute water, salt and Earth Balance. Assemble the tamales by adding a tablespoon or two of dough onto a plantain leaf or corn husk. Flatten the mixture, add a little of the jackfruit and cover with another tablespoon of dough. Wrap the tamal like a package in the leaf or husk, carefully tying with kitchen string. Continue until you have made the desired amount of tamales or you run out of ingredients (will be about 4-6 tamales).

 

Boil water in a large pot. Add the tamales and boil until they float, or about 15 minutes. Serve fresh.

 

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Spiny, spiky, oozy – fruit? And as a vegan meat replacement?

by Ashley Morgan

Is it an alligator? It is a lizard? A dinosaur??

No, it’s a jackfruit! The largest tree-born, and arguably most delicious, edible fruit in the world. And when I say large, I mean it. The jackfruit can grow up to a whopping 80 pounds. That’s over 36 kilos of heavy, sweet fruit. While I have seen the jackfruit for much of my life in Florida and throughout the Caribbean, I only recently found out about its use as a meat replacement. And since I really can’t stand many “fake” meats, I knew that I needed to make a dish to see how it tastes.

Ripe, the jackfruit’s texture and flavor is like a banana, mango and pineapple all mixed together. Super sweet and perfect without any dressing. But, unbeknownst to me, the younger, green fruit has a very mild taste, meaning it will absorb flavors almost as well as tofu. What I found out after taking these photos (and making a couple recipes that you will see posted soon) is that, unlike when eating the ripe fruit, the younger fruit can be cut up in its entirety. Just peel off the skin, cut it, marinate it and eat. The ripe fruit you actually peel out the individual pockets of fruit, which are good for eating raw. Don’t try eating the green jackfruit raw, though. It doesn’t taste good and can possibly give you a major stomachache.

I bought my jackfruit from a locally-grown farm here in South Florida. I didn’t want anything too extravagant (and consequently ridiculously expensive) but rather a modest fruit. Well, apparently a modest jackfruit is 9.8 pounds, the smallest they had available. After paying $18 for one fruit, I brought it home and began examining it. I had eaten ripe jackfruit before, but never had the delight of cutting and peeling it myself. Even before peeling the stem began oozing its white liquid on everything, which consequently is actually used as caulking in some Asian countries (yes – it is that sticky and thick). So be prepared for a sticky, messy endeavor if you are trying this yourself. To counteract the stickiness, have a small bowl of oil at the ready for coating hands, cutting boards and your knife.

Cutting the jackfruit is easy, as long as you have a large enough knife. Remember this while purchasing, you’ll need to have a pretty big knife to go through some of the larger jackfruit. It’s possible without, but it creates a lot more work. If you’re eating it ripe, just cut the fruit in fourths, peel away the hard tethers, pull out the seeds and eat the soft fruit. If you’re making a recipe with green jackfruit, I’ve now learned all you need to do is peel off the outer skin and cut. You will still need to take out the seeds, however. In either scenario, the seeds shouldn’t be discarded. Keep them and roast, they have lots of health benefits and are great when added to a trail mix (which, by the way, I have a great recipe for that I’ll be posting soon).

There are a multitude of recipes out there for jackfruit, Asian and otherwise. I’ll be posting a few of mine over the next few days, which include a couple Latin recipes that are completely unique. If you have any questions about the jackfruit, or are looking for a place to purchase in South Florida, please let me know and I’d be glad to help.

 

 

Healthy Detox Snack: Roasted Brussels Sprouts

by Ashley Morgan

Day 2 and 3 of our Detox Diet (click here to see our Detox Confessions page) have so far been super easy with the help of advance planning and some creative snack ideas. Yesterday I decided that I needed some veggies to snack on, but I didn’t want the normal carrot sticks or celery, I wanted something with more taste and nutrition. So I picked up a few bags of Brussels sprouts and decided I would roast them, and then keep them around in the refrigerator for snacks.

The recipe is super simple, fresh and healthy.

Ingredients

1 lb Brussels sprouts

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp garlic powder

Olive oil spray, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and move the top rack to the highest position.  Spray to coat a baking sheet with olive oil spray, set aside. In a large bowl mix the sprouts, salt, garlic powder and a little olive oil spray until the sprouts are evenly coated. Pour onto the baking sheet and place on top rack in the oven. Bake 10-15 minutes, shaking the rack every five minutes to evenly roast. They are done once evenly browned.

Serves 4-6.

These are great as snacks or a side dish. For the past two days, I’ve kept a freezer bag full of them next to me for munching on my allotted snack times. While they are certainly best fresh from the oven, they are still good the next day.

Enjoy!

Delicious, Delightful and Sinful Plantain Tortas

by Ashley Morgan

I am in love with the Global Table Adventure blog. I am addicted to her recipes, her rich writing and her adorable daughter. Yesterday I saw her recipe for sweet plantain tortas and I just knew I needed to make them, the sooner the better.

I left work and went straight to the market, picking up the ingredients and rushing home to start making my little masterpieces. I am no stranger to empanadas, I’ve probably made at least a few thousand in my lifetime, between home cooking and working in several restaurants. But I’d never heard of making dough out of plantains for empanadas, or tortas, as they are called in some countries. So I gathered up my ingredients, setup my laptop in the kitchen on Global Table’s website and got to cooking.

I followed the directions religiously, taking time and care in every little step to ensure they came out perfect. And perfect they were. My boyfriend came home and devoured quite a few, and the next morning my coworkers and I enjoyed the rest. They are gooey, greasy goodness to the last bite. Are they vegetarian? Yes. Are they vegan? They certainly can be, just substitute Earth Balance for the butter and your favorite vegan cheese for the filling. Or you can try filling with vegetables, which would also be tasty.

Thank you, Global Table Adventure, for your amazing blog. I am your number one fan!

For the recipe, visit http://globaltableadventure.com/2011/06/16/recipe-plantain-cheese-turnovers-tortas-de-platano/