More Conscious Cook: My Heart Shaped Timbale

My obsession with The Conscious Cook won't end. I think I'm cooking my way through it, easily. Most cook books will take me years just to make 4-6 things, but not this one. A lot of the recipes are really accessible for me with how I cook, I already have a lot of the ingredients on hand.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a particularly exceptional dish. This, pictured above, is the timbale. It has a longer name, but I can't think of it now. From top to bottom we have: quinoa cooking in veggie broth with jalapenos & cilantro, some chopped avocado, roasted sweet potatoes, raw kale, and some spicy blue corn chips. The sauce is a roasted tomatillo, cilantro, & olive oil dressing. This is freaking amazing. Not only is it probably the most perfect meal you could eat [[3 super foods and the more nutritious grain ever]], but it's flipping delicious. The recipe calls for you to make your own spicy creole chips using a tortilla, but I just bought some from Whole Foods. It also calls for micro-greens, which I've only found at the Clintonville Community Market, so I just used chopped kale. Arugula works really well, too. The great thing about this meal is that after you've made it once, you have left over dressing so you can make it again really easily.

Also, if you want to make this look super fancy, you use a hollowed out cylinder-shaped item to place all the ingredients in a perfectly round shape. Since I don't own that, I just used a heart-shaped cookie cutter. It came out really adorable & perfect for Valentine's Day. :)

Vegan MoFo Day 29: Italian Spinach Salad

Almost every day for lunch, I'll eat something small with a side salad of spinach and shiitake dressing. And that gets boring every day. So the other day for dinner, I decided to make something a little different, but still simple, so I don't get off the spinach bandwagon completely. A little variety to help me keep going strong.

And it's basically this: baby spinach, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted and salted pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh pepper. The cool thing about this side salad is that you could easy eat this as a giant salad for lunch-- the pine nuts give you some protein and the artchokes are rich enough to fill you up. Plus, it's super tasty.

I found marinated artichoke hearts at Kroger-- it's hard to find ones not marinated, but they're really good. They are lightly seasoned with some Italian herbs and sit in a jar of olive oil. They really gush with flavor. Roasted pine nuts are pretty easy to find. I think you can get them in bulk at Whole Foods, or Kroger has little bags of them in their baking section. Anyway, try it out. It's a great salad.

OH! P.S. That top chef challenge was VEGETARIAN, not vegan. I always thought Natalie Portman was vegan!?! Sell out.

I read since then she's become vegan, though.

Tempeh Salad & Fat Girls

Andrew's stunt is under two weeks away. Our venue has changed, due to Liquids' rudeness and incompetence as a host. Or hostess I should say, heh. He'll be indoors, now, in a display window at the Short North's soon to be open [[and veg-friendly]] Travonna Coffee House. I'm going to be paper bagging his meals to and from during the stunt. We're aiming for a "mostly raw" menu to aid him in staying away -- any advice from veteran raw foodists would be appreciated. I'll be there a lot, along with our camera crew. Come visit him. Play some xbox. It'll be fun.

We've also got his promotional poster made by Ohio artist, Ben Chaney. I love scherenschnitte, and I think this poster came out amazingly well. Buy one if you're interested.

The stunt has been keeping me pretty busy. Both mentally and physically. I haven't really made many exciting things lately, which is why I've been on a mini-hiatus. A lot of creole pasta and variations of beans and rice. Delicious, but probably not worthy of posting.

I made this a couple weeks ago and have just neglected to post about it. It's a nod to the classic chicken salad, but with tempeh and a little spice. It's great on a grainy bread with lettuce, tomato, and onion.


[[Tempeh Salad]]

one package tempeh, steamed
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
about 3 tbs vegenaise, more if preferred
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper, more or less depending on heat pref
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 pinch of dill
a dash of salt, white pepper, and thyme

-- Boil about 2 inches of water in a pot with a loose fitting lid. Cut tempeh in half into two squares. Place in boiling water to steam for 5 minutes.
-- Remove and cut into cubes once cooled.
-- Combine all ingredients, and chill for at least one hour.

Chewy Baked Tofu and Salsa Verde

Tomatillos are one of those things I always mean to try but never do. I finally saw them in the grocery store [[Kroger, for those in Columbus looking for some]] and I had to try them out. I suppose next time I should try something more creative than a salsa verde but I had to take a stab at it myself. Besides, I was really craving that tangy goodness.

I decided to make a tofu wrap. Whenever I used to make tofu burritos, Andrew's brother would complain that the tofu is too soft and doesn't really work well texture-wise. In a lot of ways, I agree. It's important to contrast textures in a burrito. Mushy tofu with mushy guacamole, while delicious, is too soft. So I baked the tofu and broiled it so it was both crispy and chewy. Topped it with some salsa verde and it was perfect.

I'm starting to think I have a crazy addiction to things in wraps. I've always loved burritos and it's a strange situation when you meet someone who doesn't like avocado/guacamole. I should open a wrap stand, or something.


[[Salsa Verde]]
I don't have a picture of this for one reason. I used a red onion, because I forgot to buy a white one, and it came out looking purple. But if you do it right, it should come out a pretty green. You can see a little purple in the picture above if you look closely.

4 tomatillos
1/2 WHITE onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 chopped cilantro
6-8 pickled jalapenos, chopped
a squirt of lime juice
1/2 tsp raw sugar

-- Remove paper husks from the tomatillos and cut in half. Turn your broiler on high. Place halved tomatillos on a cookie shit lined with tinfoil and roast until skim blisters. See photo aboved.
-- Remove blistered skin from tomatillos. Place those and all ingredients in a blender and blend until fully combined.
-- Chill before serving.

[[Chewy Baked Tofu]]
I don't really have an exact recipe for this. But I'll do my best to explain how to recreate it.

tiny, cubed tofu
nutritional yeast
whole wheat flour
cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle powder, salt, pepper
grapeseed oil

-- Wrap tofu in paper towels or a cheesecloth and cover with a heavy object. Press for about an hour.
-- Preheat the oven to 375 F
-- Lightly dust the cubed tofu with whole wheat flour until fully coated. Then do the same with the nutritional yeast. Obviously you'll be using a little less nutritional yeast since the tofu should already be pretty well coated with flour.
-- Then lightly dust with seasoning. Go light on the salt and pepper. You just want a trickle of flavor on each piece, so try not to over season.
-- Line the bottom of a baking dish with about 2 tbs grapeseed oil. Add tofu and cook in oven about 45 minutes. Half way through cooking, flip the tofu, mix it up a bit, so the other side gets golden. Then for the last minute of cooking, turn the broiler on low.

-- I put the tofu in a whole wheat wrap and topped it with salsa verde, avocado slices, lightly sauteed spinach with red pepper, hot sauce, and a little tofutti sour cream. It was off the chain.

Basil Oven Roasted Tomatoes on a Tofu Wrap

Roma tomatoes before roasting

This is my "I'm sorry, let me bust out the most awesome meal ever" lunch wrap. I got short with Andrew on Friday and I felt bad, so while he was napping I tried to think of the most deliciously decadent wrap ever. This wrap is loaded with great stuff - a basil cream, roasted roma tomatoes, sauteed baby bellas, red onions, and cornmeal fried tofu. The result is a sweet and savory combination of flavors with a hint of garlic and basil.

If you've never roasted tomatoes at home, you should definitely try it. Your house will smell like garlic-y, basil-y goodness. They're also one of the simplest ways to make something instantly beautiful and fancy looking.

[[Basil Roasted Roma Tomatoes]]
This is enough for 2 wraps. You can also serve these as an appetizer. If you wanted to get crazy, when they're done roasting, grate some Follow Your Heart Mozzarella and leave under a low broiler for about 2 minutes.

one roma tomato, in 5 slices
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs dried basil
2-3 gloves of garlic, minced or pressed
a dash of salt

-- Preheat the oven to 300 F
-- Slice roma into 4-5 thin slices and place on a baking sheet
-- Coat each slice with olive oil, front and back
-- Season with garlic, basil, and salt
-- Roast in oven for about 15-20 minutes. They should look slightly withered and be sizzling.

Roma tomatoes after roasting on top of cornmeal tofu. See, doesn't it look fancy?

[[Crispy Cornmeal Tofu]]
This also serves 2 people. I've been using chickpea flour a lot lately when I batter and fry things. I have to say, it works amazingly well. Before, I would just dip it in the bread crumbs or whatever I was breading with and it would fall apart in the pan and burn. Even white flour and water mixtures didn't seem to work well. This is by far my best experience I've had with battering.

1/2 block of tofu
chickpea/water slurry

• 2-3 tbs chickpea flour
• 4-5 tbs water

cornmeal mixture

• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 1/2 tbs cholula seasoning, or any Mexican spice medley
• a dash or two of chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

vegetable oil for frying

-- Wrap tofu in a cheese cloth or in paper towels and place something heavy on top. Press for about an hour to remove excess moisture and to ensure a nice, firm texture. It will fry a lot better if you do this, but it's not necessary.
-- If you're making the whole wrap, start this while your tomatoes are roasting. Cut tofu into 2 inch rectangular cubes.
-- Create a batter station, with the chickpea flour slurry and cornmeal mixture. Heat the vegetable oil on medium high heat.
-- Dip tofu is slurry then cornmeal mixture, then fry on eat side about 1-2 minutes.


For the wrap, I just chopped some raw red onions and sauteed a handful of chopped mushrooms in olive oil. Then I mixed some tofutti sour cream with lemon juice, basil, and parsley to make an Italian-y cream sauce. I wrapped it all in a whole wheat tortilla. Add a little romaine lettuce for some texture contrast and it's perfect.

Buffalo Chicken-Style Seitan Wraps

Andrew would always talk about these amazing wraps he used to make. So I tried to recreate them. A little hot wing sauce, a little seitan, some spinach,vegan ranch and my addition -- guacamole [[don't worry, it worked]].

We used Karen's Hot Wing Sauce. I can't find a link to it online, otherwise I'd show you. It's pretty freaking hot though. If you're not a big spicy eater, I'd recommend using one you're more familiar with or checking out some milder hot wing sauces. Or even just doing a barbecue seitan wrap.

We also used Organicville Non-dairy ranch for the first time, and it worked very well. The next day we used left over seitan to make a buffalo spinach salad and topped it with this ranch. It's a little runnier than your standard ranch, but it tasted great and is extremely healthy [[surprisingly]]. It's mostly tofu and soy milk and a measely 90 calories a serving.

[[Californian Buffalo Chicken-Style Seitan Wraps]]
I added the 'Californian' because well... what makes something Californian? Avocado.

Karen's hot wing sauce [[or whatever you'll use]]
1 tbs olive oil
1 container chicken style seitan [[in Columbus, I've only found it at Clintonville Comm. Market]]
2 whole wheat tortillas
spinach
guacamole: fresh cilantro, cholula seasoning, salt, pepper, lime.

Stove Top Version:
--Heat olive oil on low to medium heat. Once hot, add the slightly chopped chicken-style seitan [[you want bite size pieces, some are really big]]. Cool it until it's browned and cripsy, about 10 minutes.
-- Add the hot wing sauce. Just add it until it's completely coated the seitan. Cook about 5 minutes, remove from heat.
-- Pile it all in a warmed tortilla.

Microwave version:
-- Microwave seitan in a microwave-safe bowl for about 2-3 minutes until completely warmed.
-- Remove from microwave and toss with hot wing sauce.
-- Assemble in a microwaved tortilla with all the fixings.

Simple Salads

I love a good cilantro lime vinaigrette. If you've never had one, Bodega Cafe in the Short North has a good spinach salad with a cilantro lime vinaigrette. Try it out some time. It's vegan if you ask for no cheese.

I was craving an CLV, but thoroughly lacking the ambition to make one, so I made this impromptu lime-y, cilantro-y concoction.

Take some spinach. Top with shredded carrots and chopped red onions. Add however much extra virgin olive oil you like. Some people like soggy -- I like a light dressing. Squirt a little bit of lime on it. Not too much, it'll make it very sour. For that sized salad, do like a teaspoon. Top with about 1/4 tsp. minced garlic [[I have a jar of it, it's very handy.]] and about 1 tbs. dried cilantro [[or fresh if you're luckier than me]].

And there's your janky vinaigrette. Not quite a vinaigrette, but really good still.