Katie Kleopatra

Adventures in the Urban Prairie

Easy Basic Vegan Pancakes with Blueberries

These are your simple, standard pancakes that strike a good balance between fluffiness and thinness. They feature enhanced nutrition in the form of whole wheat flour and your choice of oat bran, wheat bran or wheat germ. Feel free to mix 1 cup of chopped fruit or berries into the batter before pouring. Top them with maple syrup, Agave Maple Syrup and/or a dollop of almond butter.

2 ¼ cups non-dairy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon golden flax meal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup oat bran, wheat bran or wheat germ
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger

1/3 cup canola oil

¾ cup chopped walnuts, chopped
 
1)
In a medium bowl, whisk together the non-dairy milk, apple cider vinegar, golden flax meal and vanilla extract.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes so the non-dairy milk curdles.

2)
In a large bowl whisk together the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, oat bran, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

3)
Whisk the canola oil into the non-dairy milk and apple cider vinegar from Step 1 then whisk the mixture into the large bowl containing the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the chopped walnuts.

4)
Grease a griddle or a large iron skillet with canola oil. If you're using a non-stick surface forego the greasing process. The surface is ready for pancakes when water flicked on it sizzles. Using a ladle, drop about 1/3 cup of batter to form a pancake. When small bubbles appear, flip the pancake with a spatula. A thin steel spatula with a large surface area works well. Let the pancakes cook for at least another 2 minutes on the other side or until golden. Do not press down on pancakes with the spatula.

Pancakes keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge and can be easily heated in a toaster. 
Makes about 12 pancakes.

Grandmommy's Pesto with Tomatoes and Fresh Thyme Popovers

Pesto Genovese- "As you know, this is a favorite of the whole family.  I pass it on to you lovingly." from Grandmommy.
 
For 2 lbs pasta
Mix in blender:
3 cups fresh basil, leaves & tender stems. Can use fresh parsley or arugala for part.
2 cloves garlic                         1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts, or walnuts  1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan or asiago cheese
1/4 tsp salt,  a few fresh oregano leves if you wish.
 
1.Wash basil & pat dry.
2. Put all ingredients in blender and blend until pureed,
    stirring down nwith rubber spatula.  blend 2 - 3 minutes.
3.  If using right away, cook pasta and add about 1/2 cup
     pasta water to pesto before mixing it with drained pasta.
4.  To keep for up to 2 weeks, put in airtight container & refrigerate.
5.  To freeze, put in freezer containers.  I sometimes divide pesto into
     2 or more containers so that I can defrost smaller amounts at a time.
 
Fresh Thyme Popovers
Popover cups are tall and narrow so the batter "pops over" the top as it bakes; you can find a popover pan at any kitchenware shop. Muffin cups will also do (with five minutes less time in the oven), though they won't puff quite as dramatically.

Yield: 8 servings
 
Ingredients
4.5  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
2  teaspoons  minced fresh thyme
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1  cup  1% low-fat milk
2  large eggs
1  tablespoon  butter, melted
Cooking spray
1  tablespoon  finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, thyme, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Combine milk and eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until blended; let stand 30 minutes. Gradually add flour mixture to milk mixture, stirring well with a whisk. Stir in melted butter.
3. Coat 8 popover cups with cooking spray; sprinkle cheese evenly among cups. Place cups in oven at 375° for 5 minutes. Divide batter evenly among prepared cups. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until golden. Serve immediately
 
 

Apple Raisin and Chocolate Peanut Butter Granolas

 
Apple Granola - Makes about 8 cups of granola
 
1 cup chopped apples (about 1 ½ apples)

¾ cup sugar
¾ cup apple sauce, chunky
½ cup canola oil
½ cup cashew butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon salt

5 cups rolled oats (aka old fashioned)
1 cup oat bran
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup chopped pecans

½ cup raisins

1.Preheat the oven to 300F (149C).  Chop enough apples to make 1 cup and set them aside.  
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, apple sauce, canola oil, cashew butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt.  
3. Stir in the rolled oats, followed by the oat bran, followed by the nuts.  Stir in the chopped apples.  
4. Place the mixture on a baking tray and spread it out flat.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until the granola starts to dry.  If using two baking sheets, switch racks halfway in between baking  time.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  
5. Break up the bunches of granola into smaller pieces, transfer to a large bowl and stir in raisins.  Transfer to a covered container.

Comments
I made this recipe without the apples and also using peanut butter instead of cashew, but still very very good and easy!

After making this batch and the chocolate batch realize that their are endless possibilities for modifying granola recipe. I have been looking at ingredients for other granola's for ideas. The other day I added some sunflower seeds and was really good.
In times of total desperation I have eaten this granola topped with water and not soymilk, it sounds weird but it actually works.
 
Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola- Ok but not great
¾ cup sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup non-dairy milk
½ cup canola oil
½ cup peanut butter
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

5 cups rolled oats (aka old fashioned)
½ cup oat bran
1 cup chopped walnuts

1.Preheat the oven to 300F (149C).  In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, non-dairy milk, canola oil, peanut butter, salt and vanilla extract. 

2. Stir in the rolled oats, followed by the oat bran, followed by the walnuts. 

3. Place the mixture on a baking tray and spread it out flat.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the granola starts to dry.  If using two baking sheets, switch racks halfway in between baking  time.  Remove from the oven and let cool. 

4. Break up the bunches of granola into smaller pieces and transfer to a large bowl.  Transfer to a covered container.
Makes about 8 cups of granola.

 
Comments
Tried out this granola variation and it turned out OK but I think I may have burned it. I ended up mixing the remainder with another batch of apple granola which was ok. I would not try this recipe again if only because as a breakfast food I think granola should hold more fruit/healthy nut type ingredients and not just cocoa powder!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Hummus is so easy to make that it doesn't even need a recipe. What it does need is a blender or food processor and the following ingredients
 
Tahini
Lemon Juice
Garlic
 
Add all thoughtfully and logically to blended chickpeas, to taste. (plus s and p)
 
To spice it up I added some mini hot peppers and roasted a red pepper over the flame of the stove till blackened, peeled off black skin and blended with hummus.
 
This is v. v. good.

Goya Pumpkin-Chickpea Dish

This is one of my favorite dishes from my young-years that my dad used to make and one of the few times I would ever eat meat, in the form of chorizo.
And...what better way to honor this fond culinary memory than to basterdize it considerably and unabashedly?

The real recipe requires the following ingredients;
chick peas,
calabaza pumpkin,
Goya-Sazon seasoning,
mini-can of Goya tomato sauce
chorizo.

This mixture is then meant to be served on top of blindingly white rice. The inclusion of Goya products is not just part of a Goya-marketing ploy, although this is actually a Goya recipe, their products actually taste a certain way that is best for this dish, how? its a mystery.

The ingredients that I had were:
dry chick peas (requiring soaking),
butternut squash,
Goya Cilantro-Tomato seasoning,
Hommade tomato sauce from my canning class
Veggie kielbasa.
  • Using dry chickpeas means you need to begin soaking the beans a day in advance. This is ok for me because I like planning, a lot, but for some its too hard to handle. This was my first time making dried chickpeas so I didn't know what to expect. You must salt them considerably for them to be anywhere near their canned cousins however other than that there is no difference I can tell, just a lot healthier/cheaper.  
  • The butternut squash/pumpkin is steamed seperately.
  • Once you have these ingredients prepared you can begin assembling dish. Now, I'm no purist, so I don't fuss about order of ingredients, but logically I would do it like this, cook veggie kielbasa with oil in pan, add chickpeas and pumpkin, add seasoning mix and toss around for a few seconds then add some sort of tomato sauce and let it simmer-covered.
  • Serve over something rice-ish
Thoughts
The dish was a success for several reasons. For one, despite all my adjustments/substitutions I was still able to retain the 'essence' of the meal, however when I told my dad about using veggie kielbasa instead of chorizo he almost spit out his coffee!
Second, is that Ryan who claims to not like chickpeas said he really liked it. A chickpea convert?? Only time will tell.

Vegan Blueberry Mystery Brownies

The 'mysetery' is that they are really good, and I don't know why.
from chowvegan.com       makes 16 brownies

1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium mixing bowl, combine applesauce, sugar and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, white flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and add wet ingredients; mix until just combined. Gently fold in walnuts and blueberries. Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until center is firm and not sticky. Let cool completely before slicing.
Thoughts
The blogger (he/she?) at Chowvegan.com swears by these brownies. This initially really confused me because I have no interest in the combination of brownies and blueberries, nor the combination of brownies and applesauce, although I really like all these things seperately...?
It turns out that not only was I wrong about the apparent incompatibility of these ingredients, but I would go so far as to add more blueberries next time! WTF. I can't describe it, something just works.
Being vegan brownies they tend to look a little different and not bind as properly/timely. For me they came out super dark and moist, almost black. I also didn't have the patience to wait till they cooled, this is actually a really important step if you desire a mainstream rectangle final product, but if you don't mind oddly-shaped brownie bits then it doesn't matter.

Simply Recipes and Butternut Squash Pasta

My new favorite recipe website is Simplyrecipes.com

Simplyrecipes is a professional blog-ish type site produced by a woman named Elise who is not a 'professional' chef but might as well be. The blog started as a database to record and manage her family recipes but by now I believe it has grown quite bigger than that. Every recipe has been created or modified by her.
This website is not "vegetarian" nor are any of the recipe's particularly health-nutty but I fell in love with it because of its 'vegetables' section.
Under this tab she lists many very appealing veggie recipes. The best part though is that they are organized according to the main vegetable ingredient. This is really helpful if your letting f. markets and the season determine what you buy and eat.
In addition to this she also has a couple very well photographed 'how-tos' for confusing vegetable matters. For instance, "how to cook an artichoke", "how to roast garlic" and particularly useful for this recipe I'm about to share, "how to cut a butternut squash".

Here is whole recipe from simplyrecipes however this dish can be made using sight and taste cooking alone (no measurements) 

Pasta with Butternut Parmesan Sauce
Recipe from Simplyrecipes.com and slightly abridged by Kt

Ingredients

  • 1 butternut squash weighing about 2 1/2 pounds
  • 8 ounces of bow-tie pasta
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1/3 cup of chopped shallots
  • 1/2 cup of packed, freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup of heavy cream
  • 1/8 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
  • 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Water as needed to thin the sauce

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the butternut squash lengthwise in half* and scoop out the guts and seeds and discard them (or save the seeds and toast them). Pour 1/4 cup of water into a pyrex or ceramic baking dish and place the butternut squash halves cut side down. Bake for 40 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the squash. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Scoop out the squash flesh from the skins and purée with a blender (work in batches or place in a bowl and use a hand blender). Discard the skins.

2 Fill a pot with water and salt (1 tablespoon of salt for every 2 quarts of water). Set over high heat to bring to a hard boil. Add the pasta and cook at a hard boil, uncovered until al dente.

3 While the pasta is cooking, pour the olive oil into a wide skillet on medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the butternut squash purée and cook for about a minute, mixing it in with the shallots. Add the cream, a tablespoon at a time, slowly stirring it in to incorporate and to avoid lumps. Stir in the Parmesan. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add water (or chicken stock) to thin to the consistency you want. Take off heat and add the parsley and lemon juice. Cover the pan to keep warm.

4 Check pasta. When ready (al dente) drain and plate. Pour the sauce over the pasta. Garnish with a little extra parsley and Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Thoughts

I made this recipe on a total whim. Remembering the precise and illustrated instructions on "how to cut a butternut squash" from simplyrecipes I went on the site. Because I was looking at something with b-nut squash all related recipes appeared on the bottom and something called "Pasta with Butternut Parmesan Sauce" caught my eye. Since b-nut actually yields quite a bit of squash I decided to steam it all, use half and save half.

I already had all the ingredients, except the parsley, which was not a huge loss. Since I was working with less squash than the recipe called for I pretty much had to throw the measurements out the window. This is ok though, because it is a sauce and is really hard to mess up. I followed the order of instructions nontheless. Since i had steamed the squash I obviously did not have to bake it and I don't believe I lost anything significant without this step. Steaming is just easier than baking to me.
Everything else I followed exactly. When it came to adding cream I added vanilla soymilk instead and did it by sight, adding just a little bit at a time. As recipe calls for I added parmesean and S and P. The last step is to add water or stock. Since I had a lot less squash and it was already thinning out I only used a splash of water, I did however add some fake chick'n stock paste to the water beforehand, very helpful for flavor. Lastly, I had no pasta! but I did have orzo and it worked perfect.
 It is truly one of the best things I've ever created.

Vegan English Muffins, yeasting in action

English_muffins

Vegan English Muffins, veganbaking.net

¼ oz active dry yeast (1 packet)
1 cup very warm water (but not hot)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400F (204C).  In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the very warm water and the yeast for about a minute.  Temperature is important because if the water is too hot, the yeast will die and if the water is too cool, the yeast won’t get activated. 

In a large mixing bowl, add the flour and whisk it for a few seconds to aerate. 

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, lemon juice, canola oil and salt.  Quickly whisk this into the yeast water mixture, and add the contents of the bowl to the bowl containing the dry ingredients.  Mix with a wooden spoon until just incorporated, then use your hands to knead the dough for no less than 5 minutes.  It may be necessary to add a couple sprinkles of flour if the dough is too wet or a splash of water if the dough is too dry but be extremely careful to not add too much.  If your bowl is big enough you can knead the dough inside the bowl.  If your bowl is too small, knead the dough on a clean, lightly floured surface.

Place the dough ball back inside the large mixing bowl, cover with a plastic grocery bag, and let it sit on top of the oven for 45 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.  After the dough doubles in size, place it on a clean, lightly floured surface and pat the dough into a ½ inch thick circle.  Use a 3 inch biscuit cutter or a mug to cut the dough into english muffins.  Place the muffins on a non-stick or lightly oiled baking sheet.  Depress the center of each muffin with your thumb so they will not dome when baking.  Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes about 10.

Thoughts
I am very proud because this was my first baking experience with yeast and It came out ok. This is even more respectable as the recipe's first step is annoyingly vague. It says to mix the yeast with water that is "very warm but not hot" but this is totally subjective! I mean at least give me the degrees!

The response to these muffins: Manolo said, they were "really chewy but in a good way". Ryan said they were "as good as any other muffin".

baba ghanouj over-complication

Got the cutest baby eggplants from the farmer's market. And they were so cheap!!

Then I realized I know next to nothing about how to cook eggplants. I became very intimidated by them sitting in my fridge, slowly expiring day by day.
 
In my eggplant recipe research I realized that everything having to do with eggplants is overly complicated. Every single person cooks them differently and is very fear-mongering about it. Seriously, researching this vegetable alone produced a lot of cooking anxiety in me. I decided to do something I thought would be simple like baba ghanouj. Well although baba ghanouj is essentially simple there is nothing simple about figuring out how to simply make baba ghanouj. Everyone disagrees in method of cooking, amount of garlic, amount of lemon, juice and when to add the olive oil. It is really pretty ridiculous. Finally on Saturday night at eleven o'clock I broke down and decided I had to just make it and figure it out myself.
 
I made incisions in the eggplant first, this is an undisputed eggplant cooking rule because they will explode otherwise.
Then I put in my pyrex dish with some oil and broiled them.
You are supposed to know the eggplants are done when they collapse in on themselves but mine never did that. However they did get kind of shriveled and wrinkly after about 30 minutes. I was able to poke into the eggplants in the slices I had cut and they seemed done so I took them out.
Once you cut them in half it is easy to tell if they are done cause they will be all goopy. I scooped all the insides out into a bowl. 
It is really kind of a joke how much eggplant this actually yielded it was probably less than a cup. 
 
The rest of the ingredients for the dip are: tahini, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. It can also be seasoned with sumac, cayenne, paprika or parsley, according to all the different recipes. 
 
That stuff is all easy and self explanatory. I just added things little by little to taste. 
 
What I did do that made it a little more exciting is roasted the garlic. I remembered that some of the recipes did call for this.  I stumbled upon a very very good explanation of how to roast garlic on the simplyrecipes website, my new obsession. http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_garlic/
 
She suggests roasting the head of garlic in a muffin tin and I just so happen to have one of those.
Basically you take the whole head of garlic with all the cloves still attached.
Take off the outer most layer of the peel while keeping intact the individual clove peels.
Then you cut off the point top of the whole head. The other side is what holds all the garlic cloves in place so don't cut that. 
Place the head in the muffin tin, cut side up, and drizzle with olive oil. Put a little tin foil top on the whole thing, shaping it around the top of garlic head. 
Bake this at 400 degrees for 30 mins.
 
I think this is a really nice addition to a baba ghanouj recipe because it removes the spiciness that comes along when using plain old raw garlic.
 
My final product came out really good and I basically did all the ingredients by sight and taste! 
 
 
 

Coconut Pancakes with Bananas

The response to these vegan pancakes I made on Friday morning was "Why would anyone ever eat regular pancakes?". Yep, they are that good. I will go so far as to say that these are actually better than real pancakes. Another gem from veganbaking.net!

The little trick to these pancakes is that they use coconut milk from a can as the dairy replacement. I know coconut milk is not super healthy in terms of fat but coconut is a good fat and I'm sure they are still healthier than their real egg-laden ancestor.

The recipe I found from vegan baking is actually for coconut mango pancakes. I'm sure this would be delish however I wasn't really in the mood to buy a mango. I mean that is not very local, neither is coconut for that matter. Regardless, I substituted the mango with banana which is actually not local either, unless you know of any native New York banana crop I'm not aware of.

Here it is

Coconut Mango (Banana) Pancakes - A little slice of heaven

13.5 fluid ounces coconut milk (1 can regular, not light coconut milk)
¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup mango pieces, chopped to ½ inch - I used Banana

1)
In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, water and vanilla extract.

2)
In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, white flour, shredded coconut, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3)
Add the coconut milk vanilla extract mixture from Step 1 into the large bowl containing the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the mango pieces.

4)
Grease a griddle or a large iron skillet with canola oil. If you're using a non-stick surface forego the greasing process. The surface is ready for pancakes when water flicked on it sizzles. Using a ladle, drop about 1/3 cup of batter to form a pancake. When small bubbles appear, flip the pancake with a spatula. A thin steel spatula with a large surface area works well. Let the pancakes cook for at least another 2 minutes on the other side or until golden. Do not press down on pancakes with the spatula.

Pancakes keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge, but don't expect to have these last long because they are sooo good. Serve with syrup or honey or plain!!

The success of this recipe led me to wonder if pancakes can be saved by freezing? It'd be nice to have some of these on hand in the freezer Aunt Jemima-style.
What I have gathered from my research is that pancakes can be frozen. You must flash-freeze them which means once cooled you place the pancakes in the freezer lying in single layer on baking sheet or on wax paper. Once they have frozen, not sure how long that takes, you pack them up together in freezer safe paraphernalia and keep till use.
I will definitely be trying this out next time. Results to come.