Fire and Spice

Posted on May 17, 2010 by jodie

Last month, I finally joined my local Vegan Meet-Up Group. The first meet-up I went to happened to be in Hartford, along with a couple of other vegan meet-up groups from other part of Connecticut. The restaurant was Fire and Spice, and they were mostly doing plates where you get a chance to sample just about everything they have out for the day, as seen here:

fire and spice meal

Very good food, and it looks like they were still adding to to restaurant space. They had desserts, too, and the restaurant is all vegan. Check it out!

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Artichokes

Posted on May 16, 2010 by jodie

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a picky eater. I tried an artichoke years ago and hated it.

I decided that I should give them a second chance though… and I don’t know why I hated them to begin with. I won’t say that I loved it, but I didn’t hate it either. I’m guessing that more practice with the prep will make for a closer to “love-it” status.

stuffed artichoke

Globe artichoke stuffed with Israeli couscous salad.
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Chocolate

Posted on May 14, 2010 by jodie

I had to go into NYC yesterday, so I decided I wanted good vegan food. Something decadent. After all, I recently finished classes and am set to graduate in just a little over a week. I can hardly believe it! There are so many places to choose from, but I settled on Cocoa V. I thought that just epitomized “decadent.”

First I ate real food: their “Whimsical Quiche of the Day,” with some chips and cucumbers (I don’t like olives).

quiche

Then I had dessert. I ordered the chocolate cake, and then the waitperson asked, “would you like that á la mode?” How could I not say yes?

cake

I couldn’t finish, but man, was that good. Then I decided I needed to take some of the beautiful chocolates they had home with me.

chocolates 1
They put a pretty pink ribbon around the box.

chocolates 2
Aren’t they beautiful?
chocolates 3
Just in case you needed a less artsy-shot to see them.

I would highly recommend going there if you haven’t already!

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Raw Cherry Pie

Posted on May 10, 2010 by jodie

Made this the same way I made my last raw pie, with cherries instead. I also threw in a fresh apple, as I didn’t have quite enough cherries. Another good one!

raw cherry pie

Had a bit of a hard time getting a clear photo- but it was still good!
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Lunch at Georgie’s Diner

Posted on May 8, 2010 by jodie

vegan burger at georgie's diner

Veggie burger at Georgie’s Diner in West Haven (be advised, the website is annoying as it automatically plays crappy music. They lose points for that). The burger was awesome. I love that place. As much as I like all-vegan/vegetarian places, it’s nice to have a place like this. You can get something totally vegan, but your omni friends won’t have anything to complain about!
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Fresh Chickpeas

Posted on May 8, 2010 by jodie

fresh chickpeas

Spring vegetables are in abundance! The next few posts will be some of the different ones I’ve been trying recently. These are fresh chickpeas. You’re probably seeing all kinds of posts about them these days. Right now in my neck of the woods, they’re available at Whole Foods, and if you can find them, you should try them. I’ve served them up like edamame here, though prepared a bit differently. I threw these on the grill pan for a few minutes to char them, and then tossed them with lemon juice and salt. Eat them like edamame, by sucking the beans out of the shell. I bought a lot, so I’m going to be trying them a couple of other ways this week, too!
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Pizza in New Haven

Posted on May 5, 2010 by jodie

Every now and then, I check out what search terms being people to this blog. I’ve noticed that a number of people are looking for vegan pizza in New Haven, so I thought I’d share what I know. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated pizza place for vegans around here- for that you’ll need to head up to Peace O’ Pie in Boston or at least Nice Slice in Providence, which has a separate vegan menu. Or take the train down to NYC, where vegan options for everything abound.

In New Haven, there is a Papa John’s, which is a chain that has vegan-friendly cheese-less pizzas, but it’s not all that exciting. New Haven is a city known for its pizzas. I haven’t really gone to any pizza shops and asked if the crusts are vegan, and I’ve always figured that getting a cheese-less pizza at one of the two famous pizza places in New Haven would be problematic because of how busy they are (Sally’s and Pepe’s are the two biggies). However…
Edge of the Woods, who only makes pizza on Thursdays, will have Kosher Vegan Pizza soon! They’re waiting for Daiya, who recently finished building their new dedicated production facility, which will allow them to have Kosher certification. Edge of the Woods will start using it as soon as they’re able to get the completely Kosher variety of Daiya. As soon as I see vegan pizzas from them, I’ll keep you all posted!
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Stuffed Smoked Poblanos

Posted on May 2, 2010 by jodie

stuffed roasted poblanos

This is one that I made last summer, and completely forgot to post. I only remembered it while I was going through my Flickr stream. It’s a poblano pepper, smoked, stuffed with smoked corn, rice, onions, and Teese. They were baked after smoking/stuffing. There’s probably spices and such in there, but it’s been a long time, so I don’t quite remember. 🙂 I do remember that it was delicious, and I froze some of them and ate them at a later time, with good result. Better to share late than never, right?
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Yellow Split Pea Soup with Smokey Tempeh Bacon

Posted on April 30, 2010 by jodie

yellow split pea soup

Yum! The goal of this soup ended up being using up odds and ends, but here it is. It’s basically legume + veggies + spices…. you can make it however you want!

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Smokey Tempeh Bacon

1 Cup of Yellow Split Peas, washed and picked over (it could be green peas, red lentils… just a legume that will get mushy when cooked and then blended)
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch ginger root, grated
4 cups veggie or vegan chicken broth
1/2 bunch swiss chard, washed; leaves removed, sliced and set aside; stems chopped
1 tsp garam massala
salt to taste (you may not need it!)
1-2 cups water, as needed
Smokey tempeh bacon (see note at bottom), parsley, scallions to garnish

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions, saute a few minutes, then add carrots, continue to saute, and last, add ginger and garlic. Saute until all are soft.
2. Add split peas, broth, chard stems (not leaves) and garam massala. Cover, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from heat. Transfer soup to blender (in batches), blend until smooth and return to soup pot.
4. Add water to thin soup as needed.
5. Add swiss chard leaves and simmer for 3 minutes. Taste and add salt if needed.
6. Serve with 1/2 piece of smokey tempeh bacon crumbled on top, along with parsley and scallions, if desired.
Note: You can use a commercial brand, like Fakin Bacon, or make your own. There’s a number of tempeh bacon recipes out there, but they generally involved sliced tempeh, marinated in soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, a little garlic, and maybe some maple syrup. Most also use liquid smoke to make it smokey, but I left that out and cooked mine in my Stovetop Smoker.

Can’t beat that for a smokey taste!

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Raw Pie

Posted on April 25, 2010 by jodie

I’m not ready to post everything I’ve been taking pictures of for the last couple of months, but here’s something I made the other day, based on a post my friend Raw Bart made some time ago. I altered the recipe a little bit, to make the crust thinner. My crust is not as well held together as it should be, but that’s only because I was running out of Medjool dates. 🙂

The whole pie:

raw pie

By the slice:

raw pie slice

Here’s my recipe.

Raw Blueberry-Strawberry Pie

Crust
1 Cup raw nuts, such as walnuts or almonds
1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates
pinch of salt
Add the nuts to the food processor, and process it into crumbs. Add your dates and salt, and continue to process. You’ll end up with a pile of sticky crumbs. Press the crumbs into a thin layer in a pie plate, and then stick the crust in the freezer for 15 minutes to help firm it up.

Filling
4 Cups frozen strawberries
2 cups frozen blueberries
1 cup pitted Medjool dates

Take the strawberries and blueberries out to thaw. While still on the frozen side, slice about half of the strawberries (just easier to do before they defrost). Set aside the sliced strawberries and blueberries. Once everything is thawed, take the whole strawberries and the dates, and add them to your Vita-Mix or high speed blender (it will work in a regular blender too, but that might leave pieces of the dates). Process the liquid until smooth. Add the blueberries and sliced strawberries to the pie crust, and then pour the liquid over.

Now comes where I did things a little differently- mostly because I didn’t have any plastic wrap. You need to put the pie in the fridge for a while, so it will firm up. Normally, people cover such things, but without plastic wrap, I didn’t (there’s not much in my fridge, so I wasn’t worried about contamination or bad smells or anything). I left it in overnight uncovered, and it turns out it firmed up really nicely this way, so I recommend doing that if you can.

Slice and enjoy!
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