Whew, I made the Tuesday MoFo round-up with my gnocchi and cilantro pesto. Rock on.

How else would you know about the vegan Doritos? Huzzah! I found them in the convenience store in my office building, but if you don’t see them at a store near you, you can order them at Vegan Essentials.

or all the vegan Halloween candies?

This dish just sort of happened. I wanted gnocchi, but I kind of wanted something Mexican and needed to use up some cooked pinto beans and some cilantro that was threatening to wilt. Voila gnocchi with cilantro pesto.

Prepackaged gnocchi (I’ll save homemade gnocchi for anther time)

1TBS olive oil

1/2 cup quick sofrito
1 cup cooked pinto beans
1 cup cooked leafy greens
1 cup canned tomatoes with juice

Quick sofrito:
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1 small bunch cilantro

Topping:
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Boil water for gnocchi. Blend together almonds and nutritional yeast and set aside. Blend together sofrito ingredients. Add olive oil and 1/2 cup sofrito to pan and saute a few minutes to soften. Blend together pinto beans, greens (I used kale) and tomatoes. Add blended ingredients to saute pan with sofrito and heat thoroughly. Cook gnocchi and add to sauce pot to coat. Top with almond/nooch topping.

Today’s dish was inspired by two other bloggers. Matt at My Veggie Kitchen created the ultimate chicken flavored broth. Jeni at Heathen Vegan had some stew with dumplings and was discussing what the British and Americans call dumplings vs. biscuits.

“Chicken” and Slippery Dumplings

I tell people I write a vegan cooking blog. Vegan eating blog would be more accurate.

Last night I went to a NYC vegan eat-up event at Blossom to support the Farm Sanctuary. Both Blossom locations were donating 10% of each bill to the sanctuary.

Thanks to all the eat-uppers for snapping shots of their food. I really didn’t eat all this…

Appetizers!I had the black-eyed pea cake. Crispy cake of yukon gold potatoes and black eyed peas, served with chipotle aioli. Yum! This might have been a special, I don’t know what it’s called, but I had a bite and it was tasty. The base was a light pastry and it was topped with mushrooms. Potato leek soup. Wish I got that! It was a cold and stormy night… Cape Cod Cakes. A blend of hiziki seaweed, tofu, potato, herbs and spices, served with a vegan tartar sauce. These are also super yummy, I had them the last time I was here.

Ravioli with Cashew Cream. Spinach, mushroom, and pine nut filling. This is good, too. There’s not a whole lot in the filling, so it’s a good appetizer size.

Entrees! Seitan Scaloppini. Seitan cutlets in a white wine, lemon and caper sauce, served with mashed potatoes and sautéed kale. This is one of Blossom’s signature dishes. I got the Port Wine Seitan. Seitan cutlets pan-seared in a sauce of port wine and mushrooms, accompanied by creamy mashed potatoes, tempura onion and sautéed garlic spinach. This was the perfect warming comfort meal for a fall evening that felt like winter! Vegetable Mezze Plate. Our Chef’s preparation of fresh vegetables accompanied by spiced quinoa. You really can’t beat piles of perfectly roasted vegetables.
Hickory basted tempeh. Looks good! A couple people got this and really enjoyed it.

Fun evening with excellent food and great company to support the farm animals.

Cheers!

I had a lovely birthday dinner last night at Dirt Candy. It’s vegetarian, but they’ll make all the dishes vegan. They even ask if you’re vegan when they seat you!

We started with the Jalapeno Hush Puppies with maple butter. YUM!

Kimchi Doughnuts with watermelon radishes, cilantro and wild arugula

Asparagus Paella with artichokes, morels, saffron tomato broth. The top of the rice was crispy like a rice crispies cake, and when you break it off and it goes snap crackle and pop in the broth!

The ninja had Onion Soup which had cheese, and Crispy Tofu and Broccolini with orange beurre blanc. Yes, the ninja actually chose tofu and he really liked it. The vegetables are great, but the sauces really shine.

Although the desserts at Dirt Candy looked good, there were people waiting for tables and it was super rainy and cold out, so we opted to walk down a few blocks to Lula’s Sweet Apothecary.

I had the cookies & cream.

The ninja had the strawberry cheesecake on a sugar cone.

All in all a very good vegan b’day. Cheers!

So I’m off to visit my 84 year old first cousin once removed* and her 92 year old husband. What to bring for the oldies but goodies…hhmmm…this is tough…cookies! Yes, everyone likes cookies, so let’s go with an everything cookie adapted from the recipe from the canister of walmart oatmeal. I was too lazy to look this up before making them, but here’s the original everything cookie recipe. The everything cookie II

I totally stole the tea box from Isa, but the ancient ones don’t have the interwebs, so they’ll think I’m a total genius that I invented this myself.

*Just in case anyone is wondering, my first cousin once removed is my mom’s first cousin. The once removed is the generation skip. Her kids are my second cousins, etc.

Here’s one version of veggie broth I make on a regular basis. No, I’m not suggesting any dumpster diving. It’s mainly comprised of vegetables you’ve got sitting around that haven’t quite gone bad, but you aren’t really going to use them in anything before they do go bad. Or the parts of veggies you would otherwise throw away. My theory is that if I’m not making broth once a week, I’m probably not eating enough vegetables.

Obviously, you can use the same perfectly good veggies to make broth. Then you can use the veggies in whatever soup you’re making as well. When I use the freegan version, I really do use just the broth. I drain out all the veggies and toss them.

Onions/shallots-that 1/2 onion you stuck in the fridge and forgot about, or the one at the bottom of the root vegetable bin that has one bad spot, but the rest is good. Cut off and throw away the bad part. Save the skins and the end parts from onions you are using in the freezer.

Carrots-those limp ones hanging around the vegetable drawer or the half bag of baby carrots you keep meaning to take into work for a snack, but they’ve been in there awhile and don’t look so appetising. With fresh, save the green tops and any peelings from carrots you’re using in the freezer.

Celery-same as for carrots. Also when you buy celery get the whole stalk. It’s usually even cheaper than the “hearts” or the cut up ones, and you just take the bottom 3 inches and throw it in the freezer with the other broth parts. From the farmer’s market celery usually has a lot of leaves on top as well. Take care not to use too much celery in the broth unless you’re making celery soup. It does tend to take over.

Leeks/scallion-save for broth most of the tops, and the very bottom and the first few layers of the “good” white part at the bottom.

Potatoes/sweet potatoes/squash-save the peels in the freezer for broth.

Corn cobs-save for broth

Broccoli/Cauliflower-save the leaves and the stems you don’t really want to eat (you know you just want the tops with your dinner.)

Kale, collard greens, any other leafy greens– save the chunky stems

Mushrooms – save the stems or throw in a few dried mushrooms for a stronger mushroom flavor.

Herbs- parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, cilantro. Just keep in mind what kind of soup you plan to make. If you want a basic broth, leave out the herbs until you’re actually making the soup.

There are a few items I don’t use. I try to keep out seeds, so I don’t use the cores of things like peppers. Also I skip the skins from eggplant which can make the broth bitter. Some recipes suggest not using cabbage or asparagus, but I’ve used both and the broth is still fine. They’re just strong flavors. You can use apple peels, but the broth will be extra sweet.

Here’s the vegetables straight from the freezer. Onion, carrot peelings, celery parts, the stems from turnip greens, some summer squash and the peel from a winter squash, and the greens from some leeks.

My two favorite additions for basic broth are kombu (seaweed) and bay leaves. The kombu magically makes the broth taste good without additional salt and the bay leaves give it nice rounded out flavor. Bay leaves you can get at any grocery store (or my mom’s backyard) and you can find kombu in the Asian section of a well stocked grocery store. Kombu is fairly cheap, a $3 bag from the Asian store will last quite awhile.

Cut all the veggie parts into smallish pieces. Usually about bite sized is a good rule of thumb. I break corn cobs in half. Put it all in a big pot and cover with water. Add the kombu and bay leaves and let simmer about an hour. Drain and enjoy plain or in your favorite soup recipe. Freeze any amounts you don’t plan to use within a week. Obviously, to thaw broth for use in recipes, just put it in a pan and heat it up.

All the simmering veggies.

Robin Robertson has a new giant book of vegan recipes. 1,000 Vegan Recipes to be exact.

Tonight I whipped up the soy-tan dream cutlets to add to my leftover mexcellent rice bowl. A mix of tofu and wheat gluten with a little spices, this is a super fast way to get some seitan into a weeknight meal. Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Fast, easy and delicious.

I’m in love with NYC vegan ice cream shop Lula’s Sweet Apothecary. I make special trips the east village just to get some treats. New York Egg Cream! No eggs. No cream. It’s pretty much chocolate soy milk with seltzer, but yum! No unnecessary waste; they use metal straws. I bought some for my smoothies.The ninja got the bubble gum flavor on a cone.

Root beer float! They use an organic root beer which is clear instead of root beer colored. Served with a cool metal straw/spoon.