To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the image above to watch the panel.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2017
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the image above to watch the video.
OK – I am not a fan of cranberry sauce but I always serve some at dinners during the holidays. Experience has proven that my homemade efforts are never as popular as that ring-marked canned gelatin shit so, for years now, I have just given in & served that crap up & nobody has ever complained.
Then, this Thanksgiving, I was at a friend’s house & when dinner was served, this gorgeous stuff was among the selections. I could not resist taking a small dollop of this scarlet creation. See it there with my other vegetarian delights?
And it was SO DELICIOUS that I had to ask my friend BJ, who made it, for the recipe. She obliged & I am now sharing it with you here. If you own a blender or food processor – this takes less than 5 minutes. Are you ready?
Awesomely Easy 3-Ingredient Fresh Cranberry Sauce
1 package fresh cranberries (I tend to freeze the cranberries ahead of time but this is not necessary).
1 navel orange – cut into segments. I remove the pith but use the rest of the orange including the rind. (You might see some pith in the image below. I suggest removing all that white stuff as it is the bitter part.)
¾ – 1 cup sugar, to taste
24 hours prior to use in a food processor combine cranberries, orange segments and sugar. I break it up into 3 batches as you want the orange and cranberry to be finely chopped.
Put in a non-reactive bowl overnight in the fridge. I stir in the morning and taste for tartness. If necessary add some more sugar, stir and place back in the frig. Approx one hour prior to serving remove from fridge.
See? No cooking required!
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2016
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or just print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
This lasagna is delicious & 100% vegan. I made three kinds of vegan “cheese” for this. You can make the cheeses yourself (they are all very easy) or buy vegan pre-made varieties. I used three kinds of sauce, a cup of leftover homemade, the remnants of a jar of Rao’s marinara & a little more than a cup of Rao’s Arrabbiata – my favorite jarred sauce. You can use all homemade or all from a jar – or mix it up – as I did.
I used red chard, kale & spinach. You can use any combination of greens that you prefer. I used cheddar cauliflower, because I had it, but regular cauliflower is just as good (it just has less vitamin A). I used the sort of lasagna that needs to be cooked in advance – mainly because I noticed the no-cook kind had egg in them. You can use your favorite vegan lasagna noodles.
I am going to post the three cheeses first. You can choose to make any or all of them.
Best Fast & Easy Vegan Mozzarella (above) – for Melting & Grating – recipe is HERE.
Vegan Herbed Tofu “Ricotta”
INGREDIENTS
1 lb extra firm tofu
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1-3 TBS mixed chopped fresh herbs (I used thyme & sage)
1 tsp each salt & pepper
1 TBS dry parsley
DIRECTIONS
Crumble the tofu & mix in the other ingredients. Set aside.
Vegan “Parmesan”
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used panko)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (pepita) – I used roasted & salted because I could not find raw – but raw will work, too
2 TBS nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry thyme
DIRECTIONS
I think it would be ideal to grind these ingredients together in a spice mill – but I don’t have one. You might get a finer result. I used my food processor & ran it a few minutes. The pumpkin seeds were not totally ground – but I went with it anyway.
Vegan Three “Cheese” & Alfredo Lasagna with Power Greens (Kale, Chard & Spinach)
Makes a standard lasagna
INGREDIENTS
1 lb lasagna noodles – cooked as directed
3 cups pasta sauce of your choice
2+ cups vegan mozzarella – grated
for the power greens
1 head kale – ribs removed & chopped
1 head chard – ribs removed & chopped
2 cups spinach
1 cup fresh basil
4 garlic cloves – minced
1/4 onion – diced
1/4 cup vegan Parmesan
Olive oil
for the alfredo
1 head cauliflower – cut into florets
1 cup vegetable stock or water
2 TBS vegan butter
5 garlic cloves – minced
3/4 cup vegan Parmesan
GARNISH – chopped basil or arugula leaves or parsley
DIRECTIONS
Cook the pasta & drain.
for the alfredo
Boil the cauliflower (maybe even boil it in vegetable stock) until very soft. Drain (I reserved 1 cup of the water I boiled the cauliflower in).
Melt the butter & saute the garlic for one minute.
In a blender or food processor – blend the cauliflower, stock (or water) butter & garlic, vegan Parmesan & a bit of S&P until very smooth. Set aside.
for the power greens
Heat a TBS or 2 in a large saute pan & heat the onion until soft. Add the garlic & kale, chard & spinach & heat just until the greens wilt.
In a food processor (not a necessary step – but it prevents large & hard to bite pieces of greens in your lasagna that can flop, hot, out of a bite you are taking & burn you – or just make a mess) – pulse the hot greens, the basil, and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan. Set aside.
for the lasagna
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a large lasagna pan, put about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom & then layer noodles. The rest of the layering can be random & at your discretion – but here is the order I used. I topped the noodles with half the “ricotta,” half the “alfredo,” then noodles, then all the greens, noodles, remaining “ricotta,” cup or more of sauce, noodles, remaining “alfredo,” noodles, remaining sauce & mozzarella.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until well heated. I would say “or until cheese melts,” but many vegan cheeses do not truly melt. So – just eyeball it until you think it seems done.
I stacked two pieces on top of each other for photos & you could do this, too, for an impressive presentation. Or not. Your call. Garnish with basil or arugula or parsley. Devour!
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
I’m not gonna lie – I haven’t posted in a while because I have been living – almost exclusively – on my Easy Crispy Oven Baked French Fries – seen above. They are crispy & yummy & nearly guiltless. Still – I had to bring some vegan food to a BBQ this weekend so I made a fuckton of vegan chili – THIS chili – 3 Meat, 3 Bean & 3 Pepper Vegan Chili for the Slow Cooker. It makes enough to fill a 7-quart Crockpot – which can feed a LOT of people (ten or more). I brought some to the BBQ & used some for work lunches & froze some. The ingredients are actually pretty random & very forgiving so – feel free to reduce the overall recipe or to tweak the ingredients.
I used Beyond Meat Feisty crumbles,
Tofurky Chick’n & Apple sausages (which my meat-eating friend kept plucking out of the recipe & eating – shocked at how good it was),
and whatever brand of soyrizo (meatless chorizo) they had at my supermarket. Trader Joe’s usually carries soyrizo. You can use whatever combo sounds good to you.
My bean to bean to bean ratio is simply the result of what I had around. Dividing the quantities more evenly might be nice but once it is chili – a bean is a bean is a bean. No?
My peppers were both red & green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers & chipotle peppers. You can mix this up or change it to suit your tolerance for heat.
I also topped mine with this new brand of vegan cheese I found. It melts into the chili nicely & tastes great.
3 Meat, 3 Bean & 3 Pepper Vegan Chili for the Slow Cooker
Feeds a small community
INGREDIENTS
1 lb dry white beans (soaked overnight or quick-soaked)
1 (15 oz) can of black beans – drained or not – doesn’t really matter
2 (15 oz) cans of pinto beans – drained or not – doesn’t really matter
2 (9 oz) bags of Beyond Meat beefless crumbles
2 Tofurky (or other brand) sausages – flavor of your choice – cut into bite-sized pieces
2 soyrizo sausages – squeezed out of their casings
1 (4 oz) can of green chilies
1 (10 oz) can Rotel (or other diced tomato)
1 red bell pepper (seeded & chopped)
1 green bell pepper (seeded & chopped)
1-4 chipotle peppers (I used 4) in adobo – chopped
1 small onion – chopped
3 Roma (or other small) tomatoes – chopped
1-3 jalapeno peppers (I used 3) – seeded (or not – if you like heat) and diced
4 garlic cloves – minced
1/2 cup cilantro – chopped
1/3 cup your favorite BBQ sauce
2 TBS vegan Worcestershire sauce (optional)
3 cups (or more) vegetable stock
2 TBS fresh oregano (chopped) or 2 TBS dry oregano
1 TBS cumin
S&P
GARNISH OPTIONS – scallions, vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, cilantro, onions, hot sauce, sliced avocado, cooked rice
DIRECTIONS
I seared the sausage just to give it grill marks. Totally unnecessary.
Basically – put everything into the slow cooker & leave it on high for 4 or more hours. If – it is looking too watery, take the lid off & cook on high until it gets to where you want it. If it gets too thin – add some vegetable stock or water. I like to let mine sit on low all day (after 4 hours of being on high), warm overnight & then high the next day to heat it for eating but this is totally not necessary. Four hours on high & this shit should be good to go. Season to taste & serve with the garnish of your choice!
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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I must admit – some dishes are harder to make look pretty than others & my troubles are compounded by a full-time job that means I can only photograph things early, before work, or late – after work. I am certainly not going to make a pizza at 8am & – honestly – the light at 8pm sucks. So – many of my photos lately have been a tad underwhelming & I find that very depressing. But – I do not have the luxury of a blog that earns me any money so – this is just a reality I am having to deal with – the fact that I am in a challenging food photography world for a while.
It is especially disappointing when the dish is as outrageously delicious at this pizza was. I like to go light on cheeses so this pizza looks sorta dark & not as pretty as others I have made but – if you like mushrooms – you are in for a treat. As one of my three mushrooms – I used this jarred sauce here:
I have to say – I am not a fan of jarred sauces (Rao’s Arrabbiata as a notable exception) but this stuff here is a revelation! It is heavily saturated with the flavor of porcini mushrooms. I recommend it highly.
My second mushroom element was a last minute drizzle of truffle oil – after the pizza came out of the oven.
My third mushroom element was just a handful of sliced mushrooms sauted in olive oil with some thinly sliced zucchini.
I used a new recipe for the pizza dough. It came from How Sweet It is – and is intended expressly for a very thin crust. It is an easy no–rise dough & I found it wonderful. The recipe is HERE.
I used two kinds of cheese simply because I had them. If you don’t like blue cheese – skip it.
Fried sage rounded out the flavors & gave this pizza an autumnal flavor. Sage is a perfect companion for mushrooms so – if you haven’t tried it – you must.
3-Mushroom, Zucchini & Fried Sage Pizza with Blue Cheese and Fresh Mozzarella
(quantities of each are up to you – to suit your taste)
INGREDIENTS
Pizza dough of your choice (I used THIS)
Mushroom pasta sauce
Truffle oil
Sliced mushrooms
Sliced zucchini
Fresh sage
Olive oil
Crumbled blue cheese
Fresh mozzarella – sliced
S&P
Crushed red pepper (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 500 degrees.
Prepare the dough & roll out some to a pizza of shape & size that you determine.
With a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a pan – fry the sage a few minutes – being careful not to burn it. Drain on a paper towel.
Add the mushrooms & zucchini to the pan with a few pinches of S&P. Saute on high until soft.
Put your dough on a cooking sheet (covered with parchment paper – highly recommended – or greased). Top with sauce, vegetables, sage and cheeses.
Cook for about 10-15 minutes – depending on your oven & how done you like your crust & cheese. When it looks read – take it out & drizzle with truffle oil. Add some crushed red pepper – if you like – and eat the whole fucking thing alone. I did!
Delightful-Delicious-Delovely 