Yummy Pasta Alert! Apple-Sage Sausage, Chard, & Cashew-Pistachio Creamby Randi / July 29, 2014
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Hello my little bunny rabbits! I hope you are doing well and eating well! So it’s summertime, did you know that? I haven’t really been taking advantage of all the fun produce that I should be eating; I really kind of use the same ingredients all the time. I need to get a CSA delivery, huh? Well before I’m able to do some better shopping, tonight I thought hey let’s at least make something more colorful than usual!
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I don’t know about you guys, but in the summer, after we have a spell of 90 or 100 degree days, and then it hits the 70s or really even the 80s, I feel like it’s so cold out! Even now, I’m wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants (not the same color of course; what am I crazy?) but it’s like 80 degrees in Philly. Meaning, I am cold, so I made soup! But carrot ginger soup feels so light and summery, don’t you think? It’s because it is so simple and lovely. Topped with a dollop of whipped avocado cream, it’s the most charming, cheerful looking meal I’ve had in a while! Oh yes, also delicious! And healthy! We are supposed to eat the rainbow, right? Here is orange and green! And for dessert, have some red Twizzlers. (They’re vegan!)
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Carrot Ginger Soup
Ingredients:
Directions:
Whipped Avocado Cream Ingredients:
Directions:
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 IF I COULD TURN BACK TA-OOOOOME  TA-OOOOOME.  If I could find a way  I’d take back those words that hurt you  And you’d stay  If I could reach the stars |
I’d give em all to you! Then you’d LOVE ME LOVE ME LOOOVEEE MEEEE LIKE YOU USED TO DOOOOO
Serving this soup with a salad and a grilled tofu or tempeh dish would be great. Or whatever you want. I wish I made a grilled tempeh to go with this, but I didn’t. I’m not a machine.
What are your favorite colorful meals? For example, I just had a package of Manner and that comes in a pink wrapper. Good choice?
What are your favorite colorful meals? For example, I just had a package of Manner and that comes in a pink wrapper. Good choice?
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“Secret” Vegan Supper Club at The Gate, Marylebone
Man alive do you know how much putting “Marylebone” in the headline is stressing me out?! I NEVER spell that forking fancy pants neighborhood (dammit, it’s so fancy it’s gonna require the ‘u’) neighbourhood correctly so I must be feeling BRAVE to put it in the headline. I think the correct mnemonic is remembering it as Mary Le Bone like it’s a person’s unfortunate name but it still looks wrong. Omg was Mary Le Bone a real person? Is it named after her? Was she chic af? OK that’s a ramble for another time. Suffice it to say Mary’s hood is chic af and we recently (like last night) went there to dine at The Gate, London’s classic vegetarian restaurant. The Gate has been serving up quality boutique vegetarian food in London since 1989, and they’ve remained a constant, dependable, classy, delicious mid-upscale choice for us throughout the quiet veg years and now in this remarkable vegan boom.
Once a month, The Gate in Mary’s the bone hosts a “secret” vegan supper club (which is cute to call it that I guess because you can’t actually find info on their website easily but obvs it’s not secret; they let me in). For £49.50, you get a decadent, beautiful 5-course meal PLUS matching wines. Five wines are included in that pretty decent price! That’s amazing if you drink/are British! I do not and am not, but I was taken care of too (more below). I believe the menu changes for every supper club event – or at least it should, because I’m gonna go every single month as often as I can, because it was wonderful. (I’m really enjoying this strikethrough feature today. I’ll never stop I will stop.)
Out of the 5 courses, 1 was just fine, 2 were good and could easily have been great, 1 was great, and 1 was forking phenomenal, so overall I call that a win, especially because if this was all phenomenal I’d have nothing to say except EEEEE! and you all know how much I like to say things. Let’s get to the food!
First up to bat was my absolute favorite of the savory dishes, the crispy shiitake wonton: shiitake duxelle (duxelle is a fancy way of saying you prepared mushrooms with onions and garlic and herbs and then mixed it all up into a paste or an almost-paste or just finely chopped), cilantro, lime sauce, alfalfa, enoki mushrooms, and shiso. At first I was like ‘I love me some sprouts but that’s a huge pile of alfalfa’, but it was actually well balanced in the dish on the whole, because the mushroom duxelle was so rich and SO delicious that you needed to even that intensity out with literally nothing threads. I loved the little herb sauce dollops, the random enoki on top, and all the flavors together. This was the dish that was great.
The second dish was avocado, mango, and shimeji ceviche. Shimeji mushrooms are the little cartoon-looking fuckers pictured. I love all kinds of mushrooms (except magic ones) (don’t do drugs (THERE’S NO HOPE WITH DOPE lol remember that episode of Saved by the Bell omg it was the best with Johnny Dakota???? and then actual NBC president Brandon Tartikoff did the actual PSA at the end? HILARIOUS) (also obvs I’m joking do whatever you want just don’t forking drive and DO NOT make me smell it FFS ALL MY NEIGHBORS)). This was a very refreshing, very fresh ‘ceviche’ of our three awesome stars (avocado, mango, cartoon mushrooms) covered in lime juice, chili dressing, soft cashews, and placed in leaves of chicory. As you can see, there are also some edible flowers sprinkled about which is a surefire way to please me. So fun! This was one of the dishes that was good but not great, and that’s because while the flavors were all fresh and nice, it was super limey without having the right amount of salt to bring it out in a nice and not overly sour way.
Next is another of the (very) good dishes that could so easily have been great. I really enjoyed this, but admit that a few tiny tweaks could probably make it incredible. Here we have zucchini rolls (I WILL NEVER SAY COURGETTE) (no I already do), filled with WONDROUS fava bean mousse and topped with sumac. These rolls were super delicious; I would buy tubs of that mousse and eat it instead of my regular hummus rotation for several weeks if I could. It was so mild and pleasant and delicious, and the sumac was an interesting and nice touch. However, the smooth mousse was a little geriatric/soft-food-diet, and one of my dining companions said it needed something in the roll-up that was a little more substantial so he didn’t think ‘nursing home safety.’
As you can see, it’s on a bed of couscous, with mint, pistachios, and pomegranate, which was fine, basic. And then there’s a blob of green garlic yogurt on the side. The yogurt did not do it for me; I left most of it where I found it. I don’t think it was necessary and it was too strong, overpowering the mousse flavor, to be worth it. I think if they adiosed that (maybe replacing with something proteiny since, as usual with vegan tasting menus, that was lacking) plus maybe added a few whole fava beans or crushed nuts or something solid-food to the mousse filling this dish would have been great.
The last of the savory dishes was the one I think was just fine. Don’t get me wrong, it tasted great, as everything did (except that yogurt glob), but it was just so ya basic, the dish vegans have been served since before people knew what vegetarian meant so now just feels uninspired and lackluster: the Mediterranean aubergine. This was a big old (nicely) grilled eggplant with Romanesco cauliflower, pieces of butternut squash, semi-dried tomato pesto (I guess because it’s not sunny enough in the UK to fully dry your maters), radishes, and a very welcome piece of baby artichoke, and some green herby sauces all over. All the components were good, especially the pesto and that artichoke (artichokes rock), but despite everything tasting good, (to paraphrase Husbo’s best restaurant review:) you’re still just an asshole eating yet another roasted pile of root veg.
BUT IT’S OK THEY MADE UP FOR IT WITH DESSERT!
The dessert was the PHUH FORKING NOMENAL dish. I mean. Wow. Guys, I think this has been added to my top five restaurant desserts of all time. OF ALL TIME! This chocolate tulip featured a lovely chocolate shell cup housing the most incredible chocolate mousse like EVER. You can see the mousse cup looks red, so I was concerned that they were trying some funny business of trying to ‘improve’ upon classic chocolate by making it chocolate-raspberry or some bullshit that we don’t need because classic chocolate is perfection, but that’s just a dusting of I’m guessing dried raspberry powder to match the lovely little bits of dried raspberry crunch on top and the real raspberries around the plate. IT WAS SO AMAZING. And even though this was amazing in its own right, that right there in green is a dollop of the MOST INCREDIBLE pistachio Chantilly cream you ever did see. I mean I’m just so grateful. This was THE BEST. You need to try this.
While my three omnivorous (they really enjoyed this!) dining companions enjoyed all the wine, I got to choose whatever soft drinks I wanted to accompany my dishes, for no added charge. I was a bit dismayed at first that the ‘soft pairing option’ they confirmed they had in the email wasn’t pre-planned, but it was nice to be able to choose my own drinks off their regular menu. I got a carrot, ginger, beet, and celery juice first, and then a ginger spritz (ginger, lemon, soda) mocktail next. They made it clear I could order more, but they brought me full-size versions so I was so full from liquid so fast, especially considering I’d gone through 3 liter carafes of water before long! And we had 5 courses to go through!
This supper club was a truly lovely experience and I was glad to be reminded of how great The Gate’s food is. Their next one is August 22, so book in now.
The Gate, “Secret” Vegan Supper Club, Marylebone, London, UK
Water speed: They brought carafes of water pretty regularly! It was good! I was so full of liquid!
Service: Very good. As usual with these sorts of events, with everyone in the room finishing at the same time, it’s a little difficult and stressful to pay at the end since everyone is trying to, and it was frustrating that the servers seemed to be cleaning up instead of seeing that we wanted to pay, but that’s my small quibble. Overall good!
Bathrooms: Three stalls in the women’s room with internal sinks, which always make me mad because when there’s a line you’re like ‘why don’t they just put the sinks outside the stalls so the line moves faster’ but this wasn’t the theatre, there was no line. So it was fine. And clean.
Food: Delicious! Overall it was really nice, and even the things that weren’t interesting were still well made and tasted great.
Bonus: I love a good supper club! I felt this was a great value for money, especially with all those drinks included. AND THAT DESSERT!
Happy Thanksgiving! Vegan Recipes and a Full How-To Guide…Sort of
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Even though my last name rhymes with Pilgrim, Thanksgiving was never my favorite holiday. I hate how people focus on the actual turkey, on all the death and suffering masquerading as the central food and important ‘tradition’, rather than making it just about being with people you love. (Or despise.) But I loved being with my family and playing games and laughing a lot. And of course sneaking vegan sides and desserts into the mix! This year, I’m not with my family. I’m not even in America for chrissakes! But we’re still celebrating Thanksgiving. I miss not having lots of people around, but I do get to have my first entirely vegan Thanksgiving dinner! Yay!!
Even though my last name rhymes with Pilgrim, Thanksgiving was never my favorite holiday. I hate how people focus on the actual turkey, on all the death and suffering masquerading as the central food and important ‘tradition’, rather than making it just about being with people you love. (Or despise.) But I loved being with my family and playing games and laughing a lot. And of course sneaking vegan sides and desserts into the mix! This year, I’m not with my family. I’m not even in America for chrissakes! But we’re still celebrating Thanksgiving. I miss not having lots of people around, but I do get to have my first entirely vegan Thanksgiving dinner! Yay!!
Apparently the Brits are willing to make me smile today, because not only are the Thanksgiving episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” playing on TV, but the commercials they just ran during them showed Philly City Hall AND the American show “Paternity Court”! The caption said “You’re the father” and the guy just FAINTED flat out! It was the best thing.
Anyway, I made tons of food over the past few days, mostly things I’ve never made before. Thanksgiving is about tradition and making the same stuff every year? F that! This is your chance to be a vegan chef all-star and show off. Okay you can do that with the same old favorites I guess. I’m sorry, ‘favourites’.
First, the most important thing to decide is what you’ll be having for dessert. Then work up the rest of the meal from there! It’s like how people choose their shoes first and then plan the rest of their outfit. (Does anybody actually do that?) You’ll have to make it to the end of this post to see our treasure treats.
Anyway, I made tons of food over the past few days, mostly things I’ve never made before. Thanksgiving is about tradition and making the same stuff every year? F that! This is your chance to be a vegan chef all-star and show off. Okay you can do that with the same old favorites I guess. I’m sorry, ‘favourites’.
First, the most important thing to decide is what you’ll be having for dessert. Then work up the rest of the meal from there! It’s like how people choose their shoes first and then plan the rest of their outfit. (Does anybody actually do that?) You’ll have to make it to the end of this post to see our treasure treats.
Or I guess I’ll just share the picture now.
Next, you want to check off the important sides. Do you want mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing? All three? I would have made all three if it wasn’t going to just be my husband and me for dinner. I decided on mashed potatoes, garlicked.
Do you want to eat greens this year? I did, so I roasted some Brussels sprouts in olive oil and pink salt. The best is that there were literally 8 sprouts in the package I bought. It’s like the most paltry showing of vegetables at any meal ever.
Good evening, TWO Brussels sprouts
Which gravy will you make? Is it a mushroom-based gravy? Is it from a recipe or something you wing? For me, it’s the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from “Vegan with a Vengeance”, with extra soy and nooch, and with butterbeans because the chickpeas in England DO NOT MASH. I tried mashing chickpeas here and the little f-ers evaded the pressure Every. Single. Time. Then I tried just squeezing them to death with my hands and they POPPED OUT ACROSS THE ROOM. And I am pretty strong. I just…the chickpeas here are possessed.
More sides more sides! If I had my druthers I would probably say druthers more and then have made some kind of kale thing. But luckily, Husband requested the green bean casserole of his younger days. Now, I realize that so many of you have had green bean casserole at every single Thanksgiving dinner with your families. It’s like a huge thing right? I never even heard of it until Isa posted a recipe on the PPK a few years ago. I know! But Husband’s family always had it so I had to make it even though green beans roasted in mushroom soup sounds revolting. I planned on using Isa’s recipe but couldn’t find vegan mushroom soup for the life of me, so my friend Elli (who is too cool for blogging) helped me out. Recipe below!! And guess what….it’s freaking AMAZING. Convert over here.
Then, what’s your main?! Will you make the famous chickpea cutlets? (Yes.) Or did you buy a Tofurky roast in America where it costs like $8 and not like here where the high street Whole Foods sells them for THIRTY FREAKING POUNDS?? (That is about $100 dollars.) Even if you gave me the money for that, I could not stomach buying it for that price. Even if Donald Trump himself was like, I’m kind of an ass, but here’s a million dollars; you must spend it on overpriced Tofurky. Okay maybe then I would. Unless the money smelled like cheese.
And then make cranberry sauce. No one eats it, right, but if it’s not there it pisses off Santa or something. Also, making it from scratch makes all your pots and stirrer majiggies a beautiful deep pink through the next few uses.
OH OH and biscuits!! You can make pumpkin biscuits if you want. I guess that would make sense. But this year I veganized Alton Brown’s perfect regular southern biscuit recipe and they are delicious. Recipe below!
So if you followed my instructions? guidelines? stream-of-consciousness blogging style that we all have learned to love/deal with? you now have a killer menu that would impress even the pickiest omnivore on this oh so special American day! This was my menu. I made all of it from scratch!! So proud!
- Perfect Southern biscuits (recipe below!)
- Roasted Brussels sprouts
- Cranberry sauce (recipe below!)
- Punk Rock chickpea gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance
- Isa’s chickpea seitan cutlets
- Traditional green bean casserole (recipe below!)
- Mashed potatoes (recipe below!)
- Pumpkin cheesecake from Vegan Pie In The Sky
- Brownie bottom peanut butter fudge pie (I’ll share a recipe another day if people ask for it)
GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
I had no idea about this so-called traditional Thanks day dish until after I went vegan! Crazy! I was going to make the PPK version, but I couldn’t find vegan cream of mushroom soup. So my vegan food guru Elli (@catsxdogs on instagram) told me how to make a delicious version without store-bought soup! Yay!
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 400g green beans (That’s just what it said on the package! I don’t even know what 400g translates to in America talk! I’ve been here too long already! Okay I googled it and it’s like 14 oz. That doesn’t help me at all. Use like a pound.)
- olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound basic white mushrooms, sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- fresh ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup white flour
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 2 very strong bouillon cubes (I used one liquidy pot kind and one organic powdery kind. Diversity!)
- 2 cups plain unsweetened almond milk
- 2 cups crispy fried onions (storebought, don’t make these yourself you crazy animal)
Directions:
- Clean, trim, and chop your green beans.
- Boil them in salted water for 7 minutes. Drain and leave in colander for some minutes.
- In a large saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil for about 6 minutes over medium heat.
- Add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper, and cook down. Stir to avoid burning.
- Add the flour and butter and cook for another minute.
- Add the bouillon cubes and plain almond milk and stir stir stir!
- Cook, stirring, until thickened.
- Remove from heat and mix in green beans.
- Mix one cup of your fried onions into the whole shebang.
- *NB: If you are making this ahead of time, stop here, cover with tin foil, and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Spread the whole mix into a casserole pan at least 1 inch deep.
- Spread the rest of your fried onions over the top of the casserole.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Cover lightly with tin foil if you fear your onions will burn.
- Say ta dah!
MASHED POTATOES
Not so much a recipe as a reminder. You prob know what to do but here’s what I did!
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds small potatoes (not like ‘hey that’s just small potatoes’, but actual small potatoes.)
- 1/3 cup vegan butter (you may say that’s a lot but I’m a dreamer/it’s Thanksgiving!)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened plain soy milk
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
Directions:
- Boil the potatoes in a big pot of salted water. I let them go for about 20 minutes just to be sure.
- Drain but keep the potatoes in the pot.
- Add the rest of the ingredients.
- Mash it with a masher until desired consistency. I used a masher for the first time today and it was SO fun. Much better than using an immersion blender.
- Say ta dah!
CRANBERRY SAUCE
so fancy
I could only find frozen cranberries, so if you are using fresh, you probably have to add a bit more water to adjust for the ice melt. Or, if you are in America, your cranberry bag probably has a/this recipe!
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 1 pound cranberries
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup water
Directions:
- Mix the water and sugar in a big pot.
- Add the cranberries.
- Boil!
- Boil and stir!
- Are the cranberries popping open?
- Keep stirring as it boils!
- Is it getting thick?
- Do this for like 10 minutes then let it sit for 15 or till cool.
PERFECT SOUTHERN BISCUITS
Biscuits, man! Ughhh so good!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup vegan butter (boy I wish they sold Earth Balance here)
- 1 cup unsweetened plain soy milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Add the milk and vinegar in a measuring cup. Put it in the fridge!
- Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Add the butter with your fingers or a pastry cutter. I have a pastry cutter and I thought it was the bee’s knees but lately I’ve been using my fingers. Weird.
- Get the curdly milk out from the fridge and pour it in the bowl.
- Mix ever so gently, super gently, to get all the flour mixed in.
- Don’t overwork the dough. The Alton directions say to knead and roll out and cut into circles, but this was the stickiest dough I’ve ever come across, so I made drop biscuits.
- Drop ½ cup size spoonfuls on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 16 minutes.
- Say ta dah!
Finish it off with at least one pie per person and you are a golden vegan!
Definitely make the Pumpkin Cheesecake. It’s so good, especially with a Speculoos cookie crust! Here is the recipe. I never do the pecan topping because who needs it? Also, I like seeing the swirl!
Definitely make the Pumpkin Cheesecake. It’s so good, especially with a Speculoos cookie crust! Here is the recipe. I never do the pecan topping because who needs it? Also, I like seeing the swirl!
I also made a Brownie Bottom Peanut Butter Fudge pie!
I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful! It’s so nice to have a completely vegan holiday. I can’t wait until the next one! I guess that’s Christmas. I guess I have to make two pies per person for that one. Because of Jesus.
We barely made a dent, haha. Come over for leftovers! Also husband got me flowers! So nice!
