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Restaurant Review: Kabul

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Whenever a friend visits Madison for the first time, I always take her on the requisite amble up and down the [mostly] pedestrian-only State Street. Its eight blocks  offer something for every dollar-doler or window-browser, from your standard Gaps and American Apparels to smaller shops with kitschy clothes and accessories. I’m a big fan of Tellus Mater, a locally-owned store packed full of eclectic home goods – their selection of fun kitchen items always elicits at least a few outbursts of delight from me. But perhaps the most alluring aspect of State Street for locals (well, for me, at least) is its selection of eateries. Sure, you can eat at boring ol’ Taco Bell and Chipotle and all your typical chains, but more intrepid eaters appreciate State Street’s glut of more diverse eateries. From Nepalese to Japanese to Greek food, there’s a cuisine to tempt nearly any palate.

I recently rounded out a State Street shopping expedition with a dinner at Kabul. It was a cold, blustery, rainy night, and S and I were more than happy to escape the wind and sit at a cozy table together. Kabul offers Afghani and Mediterranean food, with a dedicated (if small) vegetarian section of its menu. Although many of the vegetarian options feature a yogurt sauce, based on their customer service, I’m sure they’d be more than willing to customize a yogurt dish for vegans. After I asked about the veganness of my meal of choice, my server – unasked! – let me know that there’s egg in their house salad dressing, and she offered to bring me oil and a peach balsamic vinegar instead. How thoughtful!

For my meal, I ordered the Tunisian Spinach Stew, described as fresh spinach cooked with a roasted blend of spices, potatoes and carrots, served with seasoned rice. I received this wonderfully large dish of hearty stew:

Stewpendous! (oh god kill me now)

Including spinach in the title of this dish is a bit misleading, as spinach takes a back seat to the potato and carrot. Spinach dearth aside, this is an absolutely delicious meal. My plate was filled with giant chunks of perfectly cooked, fork-tender carrots and potato, with chickpea and spinach friends to round out the flavors. This wasn’t quite a stew, but there was just enough liquid for bread-dipping. The flavor was terrific – spicy, but not overpoweringly so, with an aromatic blend of spices I couldn’t quite identify. Dill was definitely one (I cheated with that, though, because the dish was garnished with a large fresh dill sprig), and I think there were some sweeter spices like cloves. Whatever they were, they made for a complexly flavored, warm dish, perfect for a cold, rainy evening.

S ordered the Vegetarian Ashak, described as scallion-filled steamed dumplings, topped with green beans and yogurt sauce, sprinkled with mint. He enjoyed them, although he thought the dish was a little heavy on the yogurt sauce. We both rounded out our meal with many cups of delicious, hot tea. It was a fantastic meal, perfect for a blustery night!

What’s your favorite style of food? Do you have very diverse restaurants where you live?

Thanksgiving Testing: Apple Caramel Upside-Down Cake

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

Every major holiday, I’m always amazed at my capacity for eating dessert. Even if I shoveled spoonful after spoonful of gravy-saturated mashed potatoes into my greedy trap, even if I ate a plate’s worth of chewy-crunchy stuffing, even if I’ve been at the sauce and never want to see a single cranberry again, all I need is an hour to make room for sweets. My “I’m so fulls!” quickly morph into “Another slice, please!” as I unashamedly fill my plate with as much dessert as I possibly can, being sure to try every vegan-friendly option I can find.

This Thanksgiving promises to be no different. Planning and executing a Thanksgiving dinner is a little daunting to me (my obsessive-compulsive side is begging for a spreadsheet of ingredients, a cooking/timing schedule, and beautifully printed menus, and it will get them soon enough!), but the thought of all the delicious food S and I will serve up keeps me from getting too worried. Even if the dinner lacks luster (which it won’t!), I know we’ll have some kick-ass desserts to fill our guests’ stomachs post-dinner and leave them with full, happy tummies. I’ve already tried a Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake (which, I’ll admit, grew on me since writing that post and might make its way onto my dessert table), and this weekend I made the Gluttonous Vegan’s Apple Caramel Upside-Down Cake.

Now, this cake does not feature actual!caramel. However, it does feature a top layer of nearly caramelized sugar that’s buttery, sweet and just as delicious as caramel. Paired with tender, sweet apples, it’s a winning combination. The cake itself is surprising in its lack of overt sweetness – it’s a tamer flavor, with hints of cinnamon but not much else. That lack of sweetness surprised me at first, but I soon began to appreciate it – it’s a great contrast with the sticky-sweet top layer. On the whole, this is a sophisticated, adult cake, and I’m looking forward to serving it with my other Thanksgiving desserts. I think it’ll provide a great counterpoint to the more traditional (and more sugary!) desserts I intend to serve, and it’ll pair nicely with a hot cup of post-dinner coffee. When I make it again, though, I’ll likely use some brown sugar in the cake itself and add a bit of nutmeg to enhance the cake’s flavor – it’s just the teeniest bit flat as written.

I’m so sorry for the picture-less post (my first in ages!), but I made this cake on Sunday and neglected to photograph it, and it’s looking really sorry right now – the few remaining pieces feature shriveled apple slices and stale edges. I won’t insult you with a photo of that, so just use your imagination or check out the original recipe post for some pretty pictures.

What dessert should I test out next? Do you always have room for dessert, or is your sweet tooth a little smaller than mine?

Thanksgiving Testing: Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

Oops! I did it again. Every year after MoFo ends, my blog goes silent. Instead of keeping up the blogging momentum gained during a month of steady posting, I put a full stop on my posts and return to my lazy ways. My readers abandon me, I feel ashamed of my slothdom, and it’s bad news all around.

However, I’m going to resist the temptation of not posting for “just one more day…” because, hey, I’ve got stuff to say! I’ll recap my Italy trip soon, but first – cheesecake.

This year, I’m hosting Thanksgiving at my place. This is both exciting and terrifying. S and I will be cooking for our families, and I want to create a delicious meat-free meal that everyone will enjoy. I’m planning my crafty decorations, stocking up on sale-priced Soyatoo, and generally attempting to be the perfect hostess if it kills me! For the past few months I’ve been gathering promising Thanksgiving recipes, with the idea that I’ll try many of them out, weed out the weak ones, and find the stellar ones to serve for dinner. Or, after dinner, in the case of my first trial.

A piece of layered cheesecake on a plate; the bottom layer is white and the top is orange. In the background is another plated slice as well as a pumpkin.

Cheesecakes have layers!

I made Susan‘s Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake, a decidedly non-fat-free recipe on an otherwise fat-free blog. Although I try to keep my diet low in fat because it just makes me feel all-around healthier, I am a firm believer in enjoying myself to the fullest on holidays. So this recipe seemed like an obvious choice, as Susan’s recipes have always turned out really well.

Unfortunately, this one missed the mark a bit for me. There was nothing wrong with the cheesecake, really, but it just lacked a certain oomph that I want from my holiday desserts. The pumpkin flavor got lost somewhere, and it tasted a bit bland overall. That’s not to say that I didn’t eat nearly the entire thing in the course of a week and fully enjoy it. :) But it’s back to my Google Doc as I search for a similar cheesecake-type dessert to serve at Thanksgiving.

What’s your favorite dessert to serve at holidays? What tips do you have for entertaining and prepping a big meal? Have you tried and loved any great pumpkin cheesecake recipes? :)

Peaches & Cream Smoothie (and a giveaway winner!)

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

Orange rectangular banner that says "Vegan MoFo" and "Vegan Month of Food 2011."

I have to admit that I feel a little silly posting a smoothie recipe. But this one is so simple and so delicious that I feel compelled to share, because I don’t want you to miss out on this sweet, creamy, dessert-like drink. I think that, if you try this smoothie, you’ll forgive me for this slightly lazy post. At least, I hope you will!

Smoothies are the darlings of the vegan world. We love to pack our smoothies with kale and spinach and chia seeds and all sorts of healthy things that most people would be horrified to see packed into a blender and pureed into a drinkable concoction. Don’t get me wrong; I love a green smoothie as much as the next girl, but lately I’ve been in a fruit smoothie groove. Normally I go all out with these, adding tons of frozen fruits and blending them into creamy oblivion. But I recently made a simple, five-ingredient smoothie so delicious that it knocked all my fancy-schmancy smoothies right out of the park and won a special place in my heart. It tastes rich and sweet and creamy and wonderful, like something you’d want to sip on a hot summer day. If summer’s done a runner on you, maybe you could just sit in front of a fireplace, close your eyes, and pretend it’s still summer. Personally, I’m loving the return of warm weather here in Madison, so I think this drink is still seasonally appropriate. Either way, you don’t want to miss out on this one!

A small Bell jar filled with a creamy, light orange smoothie.

Luscious!

Peaches & Cream Smoothie
Serves one

1 cold banana (not frozen, just refrigerated for a few hours)
1 C frozen peach slices (this can be tricky to measure, but err on the side of more peaches!)
1/3-1/2 C plain soy creamer, depending on how thick you like your smoothies
1-2 T agave nectar, depending on how sweet you like your smoothies
1/4 t vanilla extract (optional)

Add all ingredients to blender and puree until all ingredients are incorporated and free of lumps. Garnish with a slice of peach and enjoy!

Variation: Use a frozen banana and a food processor to create Peaches & Cream Soft Serve!

The secret ingredient here is soy creamer. When I first made this smoothie, my freezer was a little devoid of fruit, and I despaired – I thought that my smoothie would taste overly banana-like, that the peaches would get lost in the mix, and that it would be an overall boring drink. As I rooted around in my fridge for something else to add, a carton of soy creamer caught my eye; it was on sale on the co-op recently, so I’d purchased it to have on hand. That serendipitous splash of slightly sweetened soy perfectly complemented the peach flavor and created a rich, creamy confection that I just adored.

Close-up of the top of a smoothie in a jar.

Creamy beige.

What’s your favorite smoothie blend? Do you need to remind yourself to keep things simple, or are you naturally inclined towards minimalism?

Finally , the winner of the Cute and/or Delicious giveaway is…

Random number generator - number 34 out of 55 was selected.

Comment #34, Kim, who said “I follow blogs that have enticing photographs and delicious recipes that are easy to make. Thanks for doing such a great giveaway!” Kim, I’ll be e-mailing you soon!

Thanks to everyone who entered. You all left such thoughtful and helpful comments about what makes you return to the blogs you love – I have lots to think about now!

Recipe Showdown: Brownies!

/ Kelly / 22 Comments

Orange rectangular banner that says "Vegan MoFo" and "Vegan Month of Food 2011."

This is the first-ever Recipe Showdown, where I’ll pit three recipes for one food item against one another! Up this week: brownies!

Welcome to the great brownie showdown of 2011! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always on the hunt for the elusive perfect brownie recipe, so I decided to perform a scientifically sound and rigorous test process to find a recipe that is undeniably the best… by which I mean, I pigged out on brownies, shoved them down the throats of everyone around me, and arbitrarily decided if they passed muster. I did have some criteria, however. In my opinion, a perfect brownie must:

  • Have a thin, crackly top layer, like a gift wrapped in chocolaty tissue paper.
  • Have a deep, rich, chocolate flavor, not just a hint of chocolate or a weaksauce milk chocolate flavor.
  • Be fudgy. For the love of tofu, they must be fudgy. Cake-like brownies are the worst. If I want cake, I’ll make some damn cake! I want chewy, dense squares that taste like fudge’s crumbier half-sister.

With those criteria in mind, let’s meet our contenders! First up, we have…

Wolffie’s Moist and Chocolatey Brownies from La Dolce Vegan

I’ll admit that I was dubious about these brownies; I’d tried a Sarah Kramer brownie recipe in the past and found it horribly disappointing; my notes in the cookbook say simply “boring!” What I should’ve done was cross out the titular “brownies” and replace it with “blandies”. But I didn’t want to write off Sarah’s brownie skillz based on one boring recipe, so I gave a second recipe (from a different book!) a shot. The entire package of silken tofu in the ingredient list didn’t exactly assuage my fears, but I gave Sarah the benefit of the doubt and forged ahead.

Photo of a rectangular brownie with chocolate chips on top. It's sitting on a small plate; in the background is a glass of almond milk and more chocolate chips sprinkled around the plate.

In the right corner…

PROS:

  • Definitely moist.
  • Appropriately chocolaty. I cheated and used some Dutch-processed cocoa powder; I couldn’t resist!
  • Not exactly cake-like.

CONS:

  • Not exactly fudgy.
  • Strangely textured – not what I’d expect in a brownie.
  • Chocolate chips just sat on top, unmelted and sad.
  • No crackly skin.

OVERALL GRADE: B

Despite their non-fudgy texture,  these were not bad. My roommate is a cake-like brownie fan, and she thought they hit the mark in that regard. She was also surprised to discover that they contained tofu, so they definitely didn’t have any lingering soy flavor. At first, I found their texture (sort of spongy and dense) a bit off-putting, but it slowly grew on me, and by the time I finished the batch, I’d converted to a grudging fan. I’d consider making these again, but not when I’m craving brownies – just when I want something chocolaty and moist!

Up next, we have…

Rich, Fudgy Vegan Brownies from Food.com

An underdog contestant, this recipe comes from a user named Pollen over at Food.com. I found the recipe by Googling “best vegan brownies,” which led me to this recipe, which had a comment saying “these are pretty good, but the other vegan brownie recipe I have posted is way better!” So I followed the link to the Rich, Fudgy Vegan Brownie recipe and knew I had to try it. They had five stars and purportedly tasted “soooooo good” – what could possibly go wrong?!

Photo of what is allegedly a brownie on a plate but is actually quite obviously cake.

Something is amiss…

PROS:

  • Undeniably chocolaty.
  • Quite tasty.
  • Perfect cakelike crumb. Wait…

CONS:

  • Not brownies.
  • Actually cake.
  • Not fudgy.
  • No crackly skin.
  • Not @%#*$!^ brownies; what else can I say?!

OVERALL GRADE: F-

That picture says it all. This recipe makes a damn fine chocolate cake, but a pan of chocolate cake is NOT THE SAME as a pan of brownies. As soon as I finished mixing the ingredients and saw just how liquidy the batter was, I knew with a sinking feeling that no brownies were going to come out of my oven. It’s partially my fault – for possibly the first time in my life, I read only the first review on the Web site, and didn’t read any subsequent reviews. Had I done so, I would’ve seen a multitude of comments alerting me to the fact that this is a cake recipe, not a brownie recipe. But it’s not all my fault; the recipe poster marketed these as fudgy brownies, which is a bold-faced lie. On no planet (except perhaps Delusionarius Cakeloverus) could these possibly qualify as brownies; even the cake-like brownie-lovers among you can’t deny that. So, for the purposes of my recipe showdown, I just had to give the recipe a failing grade. That said, if you’re looking for an awesome cake recipe, I highly recommend this one – it came out tender and moist, with a perfect crumb. S and I devoured it whilst watching Gosford Park and had a perfectly lovely cake-eating experience.

Finally, I tried…

Joanna Vaught’s All-Time Very Best Vegan Brownie Recipe

That’s quite the title, eh? At this point in my recipe showdown, I was weary of disappointing brownies and wary of overhyped brownie recipes. But then I stumbled across Joanna’s recipe and read her description of her ideal brownie: “When I think of what makes my ideal brownie, two qualities are essential: 1) fudgy, not cakey and 2) that crispy-crunchy top layer. ” Sounds familiar, eh? With renewed enthusiasm, I set out to test Joanna’s bold claim.

A photo of three brownies stacked on a plate; they're obviously fudgy and have a crackly top layer!

Could it be?

PROS:

  • Perfectly fudgy right out of the oven
  • Rich chocolate flavor
  • Crackly top layer

CONS:

  • Slightly too-strong coconut flavor
  • Very crumbly after just one day
  • Difficult to remove from pan

OVERALL GRADE: A

Hallelujah! Finally, a brownie that met all my specifications. Joanna’s boastful title, as it turns out, is a well-deserved one. When I pulled these brownies from the oven, I knew that goodness awaited me beneath their crackly surface. Somehow I restrained myself from prematurely cutting into the pan, but when I did, those first bites were heavenly. I couldn’t resist sneaking piece after piece as I slice them up in preparation for their photo session; they were just so rich and satisfying!

They weren’t perfect, however. I’m generally not opposed to using coconut oil in recipes, but I thought that the coconut undertones were fairly noticeable here, and they detracted slightly from the chocolaty goodness. And they became hard and crumbly quite quickly; maybe I should have wrapped them tightly in foil, but I suspect they’re just meant to be devoured immediately (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Finally, they were quite difficult to remove from the pan; brownie bottom bits kept sticking no matter how delicately I tried to maneuver my spatula beneath them. But this is my fault; I blatantly ignored Joanna’s recommendation to cook them on a layer of aluminum foil for easy removal.

Overall, though, these were the clear winners of this recipe showdown, and their few cons were really minor. So cheers to you, Joanna, for creating such a marvelous recipe!

In other brownie news, the recipe that I tried out here is also pretty solid (probably an A-), so I’d recommend that one along with Joanna’s recipe. And they’re pretty, too!

Photo of three thin, fudgy-looking brownies stacked on a small white plate with decorative brown edges.

Brownie nomz.

Do you have a go-to brownie recipe? What’re your criteria for excellent brownies?

And don’t forget – today’s the last day to enter my giveaway! You have until 7:00 PM CST.

Easing into Monday with Fruit Medley Muffins

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

Orange rectangular banner that says "Vegan MoFo" and "Vegan Month of Food 2011."

This is the first installment of Muffin Mondays – each Monday during MoFo, I’ll post a brand new muffin recipe. Carb lovers, rejoice!

Sometimes, Sunday night rolls around and the thought of heading back to work the next morning really bums you out. You’ve had a great weekend, taking long walks with your sweet dog and spending quality time with your even sweeter significant other. You just want that blissful state of relaxation to continue, and visions of your desk and the work that awaits just fill you with dread. So you head to the kitchen, sure that a bout of baking will cure your woes. And the result – muffins, in this case – will accompany you to work, giving you something delicious to nibble when it’s time for elevenses (or even second breakfast).

Rooting around in the fridge, you discover remnants and leftovers – half a can of pumpkin puree, a holdover from the time you made pumpkin spice lattes, sits next to a third-full jar of coconut milk, languishing on the shelf ever since you made a sauce that only needed 1/3 cup. And there’s that bag of mixed dried fruit you purchased at the drugstore weeks ago when you were on a road trip and needed a quick energy fix en route to the Renegade craft fair in Chicago. What to do, what to do…

A muffin sits on a small plate alongside a pile of dried apricots.

Fruitlicious.

Fruit Medley Muffins
(makes 6 good-sized muffins)

1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 C white whole wheat flour
1/2 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ginger

1 flax egg (1 T ground flax plus 3 T warm water)
1/2 C coconut milk
1 T oil
2 T agave
1/4 C sugar
1/2 t vanilla
2 T pumpkin

1/4 C chopped Medjool dates
1/4 C chopped apricots
1/4 C chopped prunes

Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly grease a 6-muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flax into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the flax mixture and stir well. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix until just incorporated, then fold in the dried fruit. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 22 – 25 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Substitution notes: For a lower-fat muffin, you could substitute your favorite alt-milk for the coconut milk. If you don’t have pumpkin puree, I’m sure applesauce would work equally well. Finally, feel free to substitute any dried fruits you have in the house. Medjool dates add a really delicious caramel flavor, but any dried date (or no dates at all!) will do.

As long as you don’t forget to pack a few of these hearty snacks in your lunch box, you’ll have a sweet, mostly healthy treat to enjoy with your morning cup of tea or during your mid-afternoon “Is it time to go home yet?” slump. The pumpkin adds a nice smoothness to these muffins, and the dried fruit and flax fills them with fiber to keep your innards clean. Is there a better way to start a week than with clean innards? I didn’t think so.

What’s your favorite muffin recipe? Do you bring homemade treats to work? Do you have suggestions for a muffin I should create?

P.S. Only two more days to enter my giveaway!

Restaurant Review: Lao Laan-Xang

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

Orange rectangular banner that says "Vegan MoFo" and "Vegan Month of Food 2011."

When S and I first started dating, we went out to eat fairly often, once a week or more. As a naturally frugal person (I spent my first six months or so in Madison making only the smallest of purchases), this began to stress me out a bit, so we’ve cut back on our meals out. We enjoy cooking together, and it’s fun to pick recipes and make them throughout the week. But every couple weeks, I definitely do enjoy a Saturday lunch downtown.

Yesterday we joined another couple for lunch at Lao Laan-Xang, self-described as “Madison’s first authentic Laotian restaurant.” S and I ate here months ago, and I was pleased to discover a vegetarian section of the menu with the following header: “Please inform us if you are vegan.” Don’t mind if I do! The first time we ate at LLX, we both had the Khua Curry, a vegetable and tofu curry with a peanut sauce. It was tasty, but nothing amazing. Yesterday, S had fried rice while I tried the Spicy Tofu Peanut Curry (the name on the online menu is slightly different than the paper menu we saw).

Tofu and broccoli in a peanut sauce sits atop a bed of white rice.

Not-so-peanutty tofu.

Don’t worry, that wasn’t my entire portion – our server delivered a giant steaming bowl of curry, and I started with a small serving. I loved that the curry was bursting with broccoli, and not the pitiful, overcooked, limp broccoli you often find in such dishes. Instead it was vibrantly green and crisp. The tofu was equally well cooked, but unfortunately the sauce itself was a bit lackluster – it really didn’t have much of a peanut taste at all, and I think it was a little heavy on the coconut milk. Some curry sauces turn me off a bit when they have a sort of buttery sweetness to them, a taste that gets into my nostrils and makes me feel vaguely ill. This one toed the line with that sensation, but ultimately it was okay. Just okay, though – again, nothing amazing. But S said his fried rice was really good, and our dining partners enjoyed their dishes, so maybe I just chose unwisely.

If you’re in Madison and want something a little different, Lao Laan-Xang is definitely worth trying. I’ve only eaten at the Atwood Ave location, but there’s one on Willy Street as well. The Atwood location is colorful and cozy, and it’s right by Monty’s Blue Plate Diner, another veg-friendly establishment. In fact, we’d originally been planning to go to Monty’s yesterday but ended up walking across the street to LLX when Monty’s had a 30-minute wait. LLX had just a few patrons, so we didn’t have to wait at all. I’m sure we’ll be back, and maybe I’ll discover something more than okay on my third visit!

Have you ever had Laotian food? Do you dine out often?

Inaugural MoFo Post: Fun with Tatsoi!

/ Kelly / 13 Comments

Orange rectangular banner that says "Vegan MoFo" and "Vegan Month of Food 2011."

Let the food lovin’ begin – Vegan MoFo is here!

I don’t know about you all, but I’m extremely excited for a month of food blogs bursting at the proverbial seams with recipes, reviews, giveaways, photos, and general vegan awesomeness. Like the last two years I participated, I’m going full steam ahead and planning to post every day. I’ve got some great posts planned, like Recipe Showdowns  (where I’ll pit three recipes against one another), Muffin Mondays (a new muffin recipe every Monday!), and all sorts of other fun things. Heck, I might even finally use some of the awesome (yet overly ambitious) ideas I came up with last MoFo!

But I’m going to kick off MoFo with something much simpler than a big compendium of recipes or an ambitious multi-stage cooking experiment. Today I’m going to talk about tatsoi.

Close-up of the middle of a huge bunch of tatsoi.

Greenery!

This is tatsoi. Like its other leafy green cousins, it packs a nutritional punch, a wallop of vitamins, calcium, and beta carotenes. My co-op offered locally grown, organic tatsoi on sale for $1.79, and I couldn’t resist its beautiful green hue and leafy abundance. To give you a sense of how truly mammoth this head of tatsoi is, here’s a photo of Moria sitting next to it:

Photo of a small dog sitting next to a head of tatsoi, which is propped up against a balcony railing. The tatsoi reaches the dog's neck.

Moria and the Giant Tatsoi (a Roald Dahl knock-off novel?)

All that goodness for less than $2.00! Having never eaten tatsoi before, I decided to saute it with some mushrooms and garlic and serve it with tofu. First, I soaked about half the bundle in cold water, then gave it a vigorous spin in my salad spinner. After spinning, the leaves looked irresistibly verdant:

A large bowl of tatsoi leaves, shot from above.

After a spin cycle.

Before spinning my tatsoi, I’d marinated a few thick slabs of extra-firm tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, agave nectar, powdered ginger, and granulated garlic. As I prepped my tatsoi, I sauteed the tofu slices until they were just barely blackened on each side. I [very] loosely followed this recipe for the tatsoi, adding mushrooms and substituting sambal oelek for the curry paste. I also omitted the vegetable broth and soy sauce, because my greens didn’t need extra liquid. I sprinkled my cooked greens with sesame seeds, plated them with some raw tatsoi leaves, topped them with tofu, and ended up with this pretty plate:

Plate of sauteed greens topped with two thick slices of tofu and surrounded by a circle of raw leaves. A pair of chopsticks sits off to the side of the plate.

Tatsoi - it's what's for dinner.

This was really, really good. I wanted the tatsoi to play the star role in this one-time-only performance of “The Sun is Setting; Crap, Let Me Take a Quick Photo on My Balcony,” but I must admit that the tofu stole the show – it was perfectly cooked, a little chewy on the outside and creamy on the inside, with a fantastic subtle flavor. It complemented the tatsoi nicely; my greens were simple and tasty, and they gave a solid performance of their own. I loved that the raw leaves had just the tiniest bite to them, like a tamer version of mustard greens.

I can’t wait to use up the remaining half of my tatsoi! Have you had tatsoi before? How did you (or would you) prepare it?

I’ll leave you with an outtake from my balcony photo shoot – here’s Moria’s introduction to tatsoi:

In the foreground is a big bunch of tatsoi. Moria (a small brussels griffon/shih tzu mix) sniffs at them in the background.

Curious dog is curious.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

The Cute and/or Delicious Giveaway

/ Kelly / 55 Comments

It’s that time of year again! Not back-to-school time or autumn-is-upon-us time… it’s Vegan MoFo time! After switching to November last year, MoFo is returning to October for its fifth season (!). I’m not slacking off this year; I’m planning a bunch of themed posts and topics. And I want y’all to read them! To shamelessly win your loyalty, I’m hosting another giveaway! Last October I offered up autumnal-themed goods, but this year’s gifts are more varied. However, they all fall into one of two (if not both!) categories: cute and/or delicious. (No affiliation with the similarly titled (and delightful-to-read!) Cute and Delicious blog.) Up for grabs is the following collection o’ swag:

Photograph of a set of recipe cards, an organic, fair-trade orange dark chocolate bar, a small pin with an elephant holding an umbrella that says "Herbivore," three Larabars, and four Cocomels.

One lucky winner will receive:

  • A set of cute, anthropomorphic-veggie-featurin’ recipe cards made by the wonderfully talented Michelle of My Zoetrope, who creates eye-poppingly bright and cheerful artwork. These are so darn cute that it hurts me to give them away.
  • All four delicious flavors of J.J.’s Cocomels. Words cannot describe how ecstatic I was when I discovered that my beloved co-op carries Cocomels. They’re strategically placed right by the register, ensuring that I nearly always fall into the spontaneous-purchase trap and impulsively buy one (or more…) of these sweet, sticky, melt-in-your-mouth-amazing morsels of chewy deliciousness when I do my weekly shopping. My favorite flavor is Fleur de Sel, but you’ll also get to taste Original, Vanilla, and Java.
  • A delicious and cutely packaged organic, fair-trade dark chocolate bar. I can’t speak to this specific flavor, but rarely does the combination of dark chocolate and orange disappoint.
  • Three undeniably delicious Larabars. As a nod to last year’s giveaway, these are vaguely autumn-themed – I’m including Ginger Snap, Apple Pie, and Chocolate Coconut Chew. Okay, maybe the last one is more of a salute to the end of summer than the beginning of autumn.
  • One cute little vegan-themed pin from Herbivore. This one features a sweet little elephant using her trunk to hold up an umbrella.

Sweet selection, right? Well, I’m gonna make you do a little thinking if you want a chance to win. As I said before, I want to keep you reading my little old blog, so I’d like to know what makes you return to the blogs you love best. Is it witty writing? Photographs that make you drool on your keyboard? Recipes that inspire you to run to the kitchen immediately? Tips for vegan living? Product reviews? An indefinable je ne sais quoi?

So, to be considered for the giveaway, leave a comment letting me know what keeps you invested in the blogs you love best. For extra entries, feel free to do one or both of the following (and leave another comment letting me know you did!):

  • Tweet about the giveaway
  • Mention it on your blog
Anyone can enter; just be sure to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you. I’ll choose a winner on Wednesday, 6th October, around 7:00 PM CST. Good luck, dear readers!

Welcoming Autumn (without photos of leaves, apples, or pumpkins!)

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

Happy autumn, my Northern Hemisphere friends! Happy spring to any Southern Hemisphere folks. :]

Time-lapse photograph showing the path of the sun and stars. A house or other building is nestled in rolling, verdant hills, but most of the photograph shows the sky, with streaks of white representing the movement of various celestial bodies.

Equinox.

Isn’t this a great photograph? It’s by Juan Carlos Casado, and it’s a really fantastic time-lapse photo from last year’s equinox:

This unusual time-lapse image shows the rotation of the Earth from the vantage point of Ecuador on the day of the Equinox in 2010. As the Sun passed directly overhead then sank into the west it burned a bright path across the middle of the sky in the long-exposure image. Then, as the sky darkened, the stars became visible, the Earth’s spin making them trace their own circular paths about the north and south celestial poles. This picture combines daytime and night-time photography and uses the equatorial location to show both northern and southern hemispheres of the sky together.

Pretty cool, right? Check out more gorgeous astronomy photographs here.

What are you doing to welcome autumn? I plan on baking cinnamon buns this weekend… :)