In order to make this soup, check your cabinets and fruit baskets and go to your local market and grab:

• 1 small onion (dice it)
• 3-4 garlic cloves (dice it)
• 2 T vegan butter
• 28 oz can of peeled tomatoes (don’t drain them-keep that juice!)
• 1/2 c cashews
• 1/2 c vegetable broth
• 1/3 c nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper to taste

In your food processor you want to combine the cashews and broth until smooth, transfer to another container and set aside. Your next step is to cook the onions in a medium size sauce pan on medium heat (in the butter of course) for about 3 minutes. Then add your garlic, cook until the onions are translucent, stirring the whole time so your garlic doesn’t burn. Add your giant can-o-tomatoes (tomatoes, liquid and all) reduce heat to a simmer and let sit for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes is finished, remove the pan from the heat and sit aside to cool down for a little bit.

I used this down time to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Can I say that havarti cheese is glorious? I made two different sandwiches. One on whole wheat sourdough with marble colby, horseradish mustard, spinach and tomato. Another on artisan multi grain bread with spicy mustard, garden herb havarti, spinach and tomato.

Back to the soup! Grab your sauce pan with your tomatoes and onions and put the contents in the food processor and blend until smooth. Add your nutritional yeast (you can opt to use less than 1/3 cup depending on how much you like n.y.) and pulse a couple times. Now add your cashew/broth mixture and blend until creamy. Season with salt and pepper and pulse a few more times until complete.

I put my soup back on the stove to reheat after the pulsing and blending was finished. Garnish with fresh tomatoes, black pepper, and greek yogurt if you’re nasty.

*Note to reader: tabasco and sriracha go extremely well in this soup.

Hi boys and gals! Hope you’ve been enjoying this lovely fall weather we’re having. It’s finally cooled down in Georgia, much to the delight of my household, and I feel confident stating that bike riding has never been more fun. My boyfriend and I rode bikes to Garlic, a sushi/Thai place in the Decatur Square, yesterday for dinner. Every night of the week they have $1 sushi from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Sushi is good, sake is great but I haven’t tried the Thai yet. The bad part about going out for $1 sushi on your bikes is the ride home. At least, for my sake, the burps started after I pulled into my driveway. Afterward we had a nice quiet evening at the From Exile show. Anyone that knows From Exile knows that my last statement is opposite day.

I recently completed the Arden’s Garden’s 2 day juice cleanse. I hadn’t done a juice cleanse in two years and I will say it was quite difficult the first day. The second day was easier but because I had a big day the following day I allowed myself a salad before bed. I’m a big believer in easing into food after a cleanse/fast to avoid any digestion problems and introducing the system to food once again. The 2 day cleanse isn’t as major as a longer, let’s say 10 day cleanse, but I still think it’s a good idea to treat all cleanses seriously. Your body is doing major cleaning and you want to do everything you can not to shock your system after days without food.

I’ve been making a lot of the normal dishes lately: salads, pasta, soup, pizza, hummus and guac. Shown in this post is a noodle dish I made that has whole wheat noodles tossed in vegan butter, fresh ground black pepper, vegan parmesan cheeze and topped with a spinach, sun dried tomato, garlic, red pepper sautee. It’s my version of pasta cacio e pepe.

A new (but old) thing I’m into right now is nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is something I’ve always used when making vegan versions of cheese but never on it’s own. Lately I’ve been sprinkling it on salads, pasta, tempeh, kale chips, anything that I think could use that “cheese” flavor. The photo below is it sprinkled on top of a tempeh salad.

I hope you folks enjoy your fall weather and upcoming Holiday! Halloween is my favorite! Coming up next is a fun costume post.

Hizzah! Caesar salads are the bee’s knees and one of the things I always wanted but never ate due to regular caesar dressing’s nasty ingredients. I made an incredible vegan caesar salad last night for dinner and am totally excited to be able to share it with you.

What you will need for your dressing:

• 1/3 cup almonds
• 3/4 cup tofu (i’ve made this dressing with both firm and soft and it turned out fine)
• 4 garlic cloves (cut into pieces)
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 T fresh lemon juice
• 1.5 T capers
• 4 t caper brine
• 1 t sugar
• 1/2 t dry mustard powder
• dash of sea salt, dash of fresh ground pepper

To start your dressing, first chop your almonds in your food processor until they’re in small peices. Next add your tofu, garlic and olive oil and mix until creamy. Add the rest of your ingredients and mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Take a taste test and see if it needs anything else. This dressing is thick–if you want thinner dressing use a little less tofu or try adding water.

Transfer your dressing into a bowl, cover and store in your refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors combine and get magical together.

I made my usual vegan parmesan cheese for the salad. Instead of using romaine, I used spinach because I love it so. My dressing didn’t really coat the salad like it normally does but I think thats because I used spinach. Romaine holds water whereas spinach doesn’t. The water in and on the romaine helps spread the dressing more.

My croutons were made by using extra virgin olive oil (about 1/4 cup maybe a little more), fresh garlic (diced) and dried rosemary tossed together with some sprouted bread (3 slices) that I cut into small pieces. Cook your croutons in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes (tossing around after the first 5) and then turn the temp down to 350 for another 2-3 minutes. The croutons are going to start to burn if they’re left in the 400 degree oven for much longer but you still want to cook some of the oil off of them. I encourage you to try different temperatures to make the perfect crouton. Mine were a little over done but I like burned toast so there ya go.

Once I plated my salads, tossed in dressing, I added tempeh (cooked in vegetable stock, soy sauce and dried garlic) and grilled red onions (cooked in oil with rosemary).

Meg and Omar. Omar and Meg. Those crazies kids are about to tie the knot on the beach in Florida. As we get closer and closer to the big day, more and more prep work is getting done for the reception dinner. We’re cooking sauces, fillings and raw vegan foods now before we leave, freezing them and then reheating and making the final meals in the McMansion on the day of the big event.

One item we’re making is vegan and vegetarian butternut squash lasagnas.  The difference in the two recipes is in the cream sauce and the cheese used. Our vegan lasagna will be made using Daiya mozzerella cheese, and a coconut milk cream sauce while the vegetarian one will have plain ole cream sauce and cow mozzerella.

You start this dish by cooking 1 large diced onion in a skillet until translucent (about 10 minutes). Then you add 3 pounds of butternut squash (peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces), 2 cloves of garlic (diced), 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon of white ground pepper and stir occasionally until it cooks down (about 15 minutes). When it’s done, remove the mixture from the heat and stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of sage, 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, and 1 cup of hazelnuts. Let this mixture cool while you prepare the cream sauce.

To start the sauce, chop up 2 garlic cloves into small pieces and cook them on medium low heat in 3 tablespoons of oil, stirring often for 1 minute. Then whisk in 5 tablespoons of flour to create a roux, whisking, for 3 minutes.  Whisk in 5 cups of coconut milk, in a stream, then add a bay leaf. Bring the liquid to a boil, whisking constantly, then reduce the heat, whisking occasionally, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Whisk in 1 teaspoon of sea salt and 1/8 teaspoon of white pepper and remove from heat. Take out that pesky bay leaf and cover your liquid with parchment paper if you’re not using it immediately. If you are ready to assemble your lasagna, continue to step 3.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Layer your lasagna as follows: light sauce on the bottom, layer of noodles, sauce, squash filling, cheese and continue. You want to cover the top layer of noodles completely with sauce and then cover that with cheese and some more sage/parsley. Cover your lasagna with foil and bake for 30 minutes, uncover and then cook for another 10-15 minutes (depending on how bubbly you want your cheese).

If you are vegetarian and not vegan, you can replace the oil in the recipe for butter and use milk instead of coconut milk for the sauce. You can also use vegan butter instead of oil depending on what you have around.

With my friends Omar and Meg’s upcoming nuptials, I’ve been finding myself more involved with wedding fever than I ever thought possible. We’ve been doing a lot of the food prep in advance and freezing it before we travel down to Florida for the ceremony. In this post I will discuss just one of the many fun vegetarian and vegan foods we are creating for the special occasion.

Raw vegan kraut is an easy and delicious recipe. All you need are your kraut ingredients (whatever you want depending on the kind you’re making), a glass container with a top and sea salt. It is very important that no metal objects or utensils come near this dish while you’re creating it. I recommend using glass storage jars and wooden spoons to make your kraut.

We made one jar with just cabbage and a few cardamon seeds and another with cabbage, carrots, onion, hot red pepper (from the garden) and fresh ginger.  To start our kraut, we cut 22 pounds of cabbage into thin strips and set them in glass bowls. You want 3 tablespoons of sea salt for every 5 pounds of cabbage. You may want to use a kitchen scale; if you do not have a kitchen scale, do like we did and remember how much cabbage you purchased and then measure out your sea salt separately and use accordingly. For every thin layer of cabbage you put down in the jar, sprinkle some sea salt and mix well using your wooden spoon. Then put down another layer of cabbage and repeat until all your cabbage is used or your jar is full. The cabbage will work itself down in a matter of minutes during and after the process is completed.  The sea salt works all of the water out of the cabbage creating a natural brine.  You are going to let your cabbage sit for about 2 weeks in the jar and trust me, it gets better every single day it sits in that jar. You are going to want to try it and I encourage that! It’s interesting to see the way the flavor changes over time.

We did the second jar with more ingredients the same way. We put a little of each ingredient in, sprinkled the salt and stirred. It’s fun to try different flavors with different ingredients. I think this kraut will be a hit at our night before the wedding BBQ.

Ah marriage; our world’s oldest ritual besides doin it. My friends, Omar and Meg, are getting hitched next weekend in Destin, Florida. The trip plans to be memorable with several McMansions reserved near the beach for the guests to stay in and party while eating tons of veggie friendly food made by your’s truly. We’ve started preparing the reception dinner meal as well as the night before’s BBQ items. The meat eaters joining us will have several things to chose from but so will the vegetarian and vegan guests (that’s where I come in). The menu for the BBQ consists of the usual things meat eaters enjoy but I am also planning on a selection of vegetables with tortillas as well as a raw vegan sauerkraut we made 2 weeks ago.

The reception dinner will be red sauce vegetarian and vegan lasagnas as well as vegan and vegetarian butternut squash lasagnas served with vegan caesar salad and garlic bread.

Wedding cake will be served as usual but I’m also making vegan chocolate cupcakes as an alternative. The food choices alone promise to be a good time but that’s not even the best part. Omar has been brewing his own beer for the event and Meg made wine. I can’t wait to help my friends celebrate their love by eating and drinking home made, organic food.

Meatballs! I’m really excited that I got to make meatballs for the first time in years. The recipe is super simple and I was in heaven eating my spaghetti and meatballs.

I used Gimme Lean Sausage for my meatballs. I researched other vegan meatballs recipes online and found that when people used Gimme Lean they also used Morningstar Farms or Boca meat crumbles as well. I chose not to mix because its not necessary nor did I want to add more fake processed meat to the recipe either.

In a medium size mixing bowl I mixed the package of Gimme Lean Sausage, fresh italian parsley, fresh basil, garlic, dash of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, diced sweet onion, a dash of Italian seasoning and a piece of toast that I cut into very small pieces. The Gimme Lean Sausage is really sticky so the bread helped to cut some of that stickiness. I rolled the mixture into 11 big meatballs and seared them in a skillet with extra virgin olive oil. Keep them cooking until all sides are browned. I made my sauce after the meatballs so while the sauce was cooking I put them in a pan (covered in foil) in the oven at 200 degrees to keep them warm without over cooking them. Once the sauce was finished, I added the meatballs, covered them in sauce and let the flavors combine for about 5 minutes.

When I stored my leftover meatballs, I put them in the same dish as the leftover sauce.  Big mistake. They turn into gooey mush when stored with the sauce. I’d suggest storing them in their own container to see if that helps with the gooeyness. I haven’t reheated them yet but I when I do I plan to cook them in a skillet to see if I can’t get the same seared outside as I had before.

Hello friends! Last night I decided I would make some black bean burgers using the recipe I had in my head from my past black bean burger venture. Turns out, my brain recipe was totes wrong. See? It IS a good thing I didn’t post a black bean burger recipe all willy-nilly!

Let’s start this post with a little bit of background information first. I don’t buy canned beans anymore. This is a recent development in my life and I thought I’d do you guys a solid and let you in on a little bean secret: buy them dry, soak them overnight, drain the water and rinse the beans, put them in your crock pot with some spice and cook during the day while you’re at work. Boom. Awesome tasting beans ready for you when you get home. Black beans cook faster than chickpeas so keep that in mind when you’re planning your cook time. Try it first on your day off and get your temperature and cook time right. Depending on how much time I have before I plan on using the beans, I’ll shift the temperature on the crock pot from high 6 hours to low 8 hours.

Onto the recipe! I made a lot of black beans yesterday….a lot. I drained most of the spiced bean liquid out of the crock pot (reserving some for the burgers themselves). In a bowl I mixed diced onion, diced green and red pepper, black beans, juice of 1 lime, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. I used a hand masher to create a semi bean paste but leaving some beans whole so it looked nice. After, I added sun dried tomatoes, a little bit of flax meal and couscous and stirred it all together. I made the couscous last minute because I had put too much liquid into the recipe and needed something to soak it up and also keep the beans together (flax meal helped with this too). The amount of spices and vegetables you use depends on how many beans you’re using. I made enough to feed a freaking army. Guess who’s eating black beans burgers for dinner again tonight? I’m not even mad about it either–they’re delicious. Anywho, I formed the mixture into giant patties with my hands and cooked them in a spray oiled pre heated skillet. I flipped them about 3 times making sure to let the outsides sear in the pan.

Loren and I built our burgers on sprouted wheat bread with rice cheese, red onions, banana peppers, avocado, salsa, greek yogurt and pickles. If we weren’t going out of town for the weekend I would have also added spinach, jalapeno and lots of tomato, but alas, we are and who wants food sitting in your fridge while you’re not home? These ingredients are an end of the line kind of deal, ya dig?

My crust is my flax cracker recipe (flax seed, sun dried tomato, red pepper, yellow onion, garlic, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, splash of water, fresh ground black pepper, dash of sea salt) spread out into a circle on a ParaFlexx sheet. I dehydrate it at 115 degrees for 24 hours (flipping it over after the first 5).

The sauce was made from sun dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, garlic, the juice from 1/2 a lemon, broccoli, sweet onion, green pepper, fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes and a dash of sea salt all processed in a food processor (process the fresh tomatoes last so they remain in tact). I don’t keep exact measurements for this. When you’re eating raw, the foods you’re making are still meant to resemble their cooked brethren. The reason I use sun dried tomatoes and broccoli in my sauce recipe is to add texture and thickness to it; the other ingredients are for flavor. Use as many or as few of these ingredients as you’d like, just keep it thick so the flax crust doesn’t absorb a bunch of liquid and turn to mush.

My cheese was my macadamia nut ricotta recipe. I added fresh rosemary and the jucie of 1/2 a lemon to it to keep everything taste aligned.

I used a soft spatula to spread the sauce and the cheese onto the flax crust and then I put it back into the dehydrator for another 15-20 minutes at 115 degrees. You can keep it in longer or not at all if you’re starving.

For our side, Loren went out into the garden and grabbed a bowl of leafy greens.