Basic Pizza Dough

makes: enough for 2 thin-crust pizzas, 1 deep dish

Ingredients:

- 1 cup warm water

- 1 tsp sugar

- 1 packet of yeast (active rise or quick)

- 2 cups plus one cup of additional ap flour

- a pinch of salt

Directions:

This is all about technique. If you don’t get it “right” the first time, fear not. Pizza is an imperfect art. But lets begin…in a bowl, dissolve the sugar into the warm water. Add the yeast, stir, and let it bloom for around 10 minutes. It should look all weird and puffy. In a large sized mixing bowl, pour in your yeast mixture with one cup of flour, the pinch of salt and stir. Add in one more cup of flour. At this point, the dough should be well, doughy and starting to hold together. Now what you want to do now is flour a flat surface and turn out your dough. Add a handful of flour and start kneading. Keep adding flour until you start getting a smooth, elastic dough. You don’t want it to be too sticky, but you also do not want to add too much flour or your dough will get dry and won’t hold together. You will be kneading for around 10 minutes and adding about a cup of extra kneading flour. In an oiled glass bowl, place your dough ball, cover the bowl with a warm, damp rag and let rise for around an hour, or until doubled in size (it will obviously take a shorter period of time if using quick rise). Now, once it has done its first rise, punch down, give a quick knead, divide in half, and in two (smaller, obviously) glass bowls (oiled), let rise again. Here’s a trick I have – let them rise. For a long time. Like, almost all day. At least one hour works, but the longer you let the dough do the second rise, the better your crust will be. Once you get around to using it, DO NOT PUNCH THE DOUGH DOWN. You want to keep the yeasty puffyness. Gently remove it from the bowl, and let gravity pull down at the dough as you turn it (holding around the edges) as you would a steering wheel. Be mindful not to rip a hole in the dough, which is easy to do. An easy (cheater) way to avoid this is to skip the whole air stretching all together and just kind of flop it onto your pizza pan and stretch it out on there by pulling the dough to fit the pan. When you add your toppings, all you have to do now is bake the pie in an oven preheated to 450F for around 17 minutes. Enjoy!

Here’s another tip – CORNMEAL! Put it on your pan pre-application of the dough. Just do it, mmkay?

And let me be honest…I have never made this as deep dish because I am a die-hard NY style fan. Those casseroles of Chicago style pizzas nauseate me to no end. But if you must make that type, increase your baking time. Try 20 minutes and go from there, especially if you’re super saucy ‘n stuff.

So what to go on top? I stick with two sauces: a white sauce and a marinara. For white sauce I use my béchamel sauce (1/2 a cup) or marinara:

Marinara

makes 3/4 cup (enough for 2 pizzas)

- 1 8oz can tomato sauce

- 1 1/2 tbs braggs liquid aminos

- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar

- 1 tbs ketchup

- a few drips of sriracha (optional but awesome)

- 1/2 tsp (or to taste) garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil, dried oregano, and dried parsley

- 1 packet stevia in the raw or 1 tsp sugar/sweetener of choice

Directions:
Mix and pour onto the unbaked pie crust!

As for toppings? I refer you to my post from back during Vegan MoFo where I discussed the art of pizza.

Kale, onion, and daiya mozzarella pizza

With that having been said, here is something I do enjoy every day. It is a simple mushroom saute inside of a cabbage leaf. I slice up 1.5 oz of mushrooms (lately it’s been either shiitake or oyster mushrooms), saute them until they cook down, add a squirt of braggs, a shake of onion and garlic powder, scoop them into a savoy cabbage leaf, squirt on 1 tsp of ketchup and sriracha to taste , and dig in. It’s simple and delicious. And I don’t feel guilty about eating it – and that is a big deal.

Mushroom Cabbage Wrap

Tamarind BBQ Tempeh and Sweet Potatoes, Cool Slaw, Soft Broccoli Polenta, with homemade bread and smart balance margarine

Other than making recipes from books, I have not been doing much recipe creating. You know…it’s getting to be summer. I want fresh and simply prepared food. So, soon do wait and see a post about how I like to prepare some yummy fresh food. Lately I’ve been on a mushroom kick. Oyster mushrooms. I love them sauteed with a little braggs, onions and garlic, mixed with a little ketchup and sriracha and ate inside of a cabbage leaf. What is your favourite way to eat a mushroom? For that matter…what’s your ‘shroom of choice?

Chickpea Cutlets

Chick'n sandwich, cool slaw, and leftover hash

Since the coffee cake got fully consumed from the other night, I decided to whip up another dessert – the vanilla yogurt pound cake from VCON. I have to say, it wasn’t my favourite. For the amount of sugar in the recipe, it wasn’t all that sweet, and it was really dense but not in they way a pound cake is supposed to be. I don’t know…the texture was just off for me. Disappointing :\

Vanilla Yogurt Pound Cake

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Next up in the baked goods department was the Apple Spice Coffee Cake from Vegan Diner. I was iffy about a fruit filled coffee cake, but man was it good! When  you let it cool, everything tastes just so good together in the cake, and the texture is perfection. My dad ate like almost half of it himself.

Apple Spice Coffee Cake

The “entree” was supposed to consist of Tempeh Bacon and “Perfect” Pancakes. And while the pancakes were perfect, the “bacon” was anything but. Oh, they tasted just great, but they fell apart like crazy! So what I decided to do was salvage the remaining tempeh after frying up a batch and whipped up a quick hash.

Perfect Pancakes (Vegan Brunch)

Tempeh Bacon

But here would be my recipe for hash:

Throw Together Hash

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

-2 cloves of minced garlic

-1 medium, chopped

-two small/medium sized cooled (leftover) baked potatoes, chopped

-1/2 to 1 block of tempeh, crumbled

-a heavy pinch of dried parsely

-a squirt of braggs or a pinch of salt

-pepper to taste

 Directions:

This is pretty free form. In a sprayed skillet over medium heat, saute your onion and garlic for a minute or two. Add your potatoes and tempeh. When I made this, I used the marinade for the Tempeh Bacon from Vegan Brunch. You can use whatever marinade you want, or none for all that matter! Anyways…add in your seasonings, spices/herbs. Make sure everything is well heated through, and enjoy!

 Note: If you don’t have pre-baked potatoes, boil up some for 15 minutes rather than going through the trouble of baking and cooling. Add whatever vegetables and seasonings you want! Hash is so adaptable.

Hash

Super Homemade-y Lasagna

Makes 1 8×8 pan

Ingredients:

Pasta:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup water, more or less

Sauce:

• 1 5.5 oz can tomato paste
• around 1 cup water/broth
• 1/2 tsp each onion and garlic powder
• 1/4-1/2 tsp each dried basil, dried oregano, dried parsley
• 1 packet of stevia or 1 tsp sugar
• a generous pinch of salt
• a few drops of sriracha (optional)
• 1/2 tbs balsamic vinegar

Tofu-Kale Ricotta:

• 1 12.3 oz package firm silken tofu (mori-nu) (I use lite firm silken)
• 2 1/2-3 tbs lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• salt
• 1 generous handful of steamed kale, rough chopped

Topping:

• 1/2 cup shredded vegan mozzarella (daiya is great here) OR 1/2 cup béchamel sauce

Directions:

Start with the pasta…I would like to start by saying, I do not have a pasta roller. I made mine with a good ol’ rolling pin and some elbow grease. But to being, on a flat surface, scoop on your two cups into a flour into a mountain-like shape. Make a well in the flour. Slowly (VERY slowly) add water to the center, slowly bringing the flour together with the water with either a fork or your fingers, until it comes together into a dough ball. It may look craggily and like a mess, but fear not. Everything will come together when you start kneading the dough…there you’ll pick up any stray pieces of dough and flour. Kneed until smooth and elastic, around 10 minutes. Now let the dough rest of a half an hour under a moist rag.

Meanwhile, make your sauce by mixing everything together in a bowl, and setting aside. Next, in a slightly larger bowl, mash up your tofu. Add in your lemon juice, onion and garlic powders, and salt. Make sure you taste your ricotta while making it to make sure it is flavoured to your liking – you are really making it to taste…my measurements are only suggestions. Once it is flavoured to your liking, stir in your kale and set aside.

Now back to the pasta. Once it has rested, divide the dough in two, roll each dough ball into a very thin rectangle, and cut into six lasagna-noodle-looking strips. So in all, you’ll have 12 noodles. In a pot of salted, boiling water, boil noodles (I do 3 at a time) for ONE MINUTE. They will float to the top when done. Preheat your oven to 400F.

Once you have your pasta boiled, it’s time to assemble to lasagna. In an 8×8 sprayed with cooking spray, ladle in enough sauce to coat the bottom. Layer on 3 or 4 noodles. On the noodles, layer in 1/2 of the tofu-kale ricotta, a little bit of sauce, and then 3 or 4 more noodles. Repeat with the rest of the ricotta, a little bit of sauce, and then 3 or 4 more noodles. Pour on the rest of your sauce, spreading it all over the top. Sprinkle with the mozzarella if using, or drizzle on the béchamel if you’re doing that. Bake for 30 minutes, let sit for about 5 (or dig in right away!) and enjoy!

It’s super delish, and went great with some caesar salad and garlic bread. But will I use this recipe every time I make lasagna? Um, hell no! But at least this is now in my recipe arsenal.

Lasagna, Caesar Salad, and Garlic Bread

But really. I am very much concerned. I was half-heartedly watching the Food Network this afternoon when a show entitled “Dessert First” came on. Scary enough already? Well, it gets worse. The episode centered around desserts that come in bar form. And the host, who just so happens to appear to need to lose a few lbs, was encouraging the (staged) neighbour children to create the most decadent combinations of this freakish hot chocolate drink. She was basically feeding these kids pure sugar and fat! Eww! The drink alone, if made vegan and made with low calorie almond milk would come to around 390 calories a cup! And that would be made with ALMOND MILK!!! And then she paired it with all of these disgustingly unhealthy sweet bars that she made. Granted, this is a show about desserts so it is inherently unhealthy, but still. It doesn’t mean something of this nature should be on the air. Something needs to be done about what is being aired, and what is thought of as acceptable to eat. Instead of encouraging people, children especially, to eat fatty sweets try something like this to stave off your sweet tooth. It’s healthy and delicious…

Fruit Salad (Melon Mango)

Fruit Salad

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

-3 cups cubed cantaloupe

-3 cups cubed honeydew melon

-2 cups cubed mango

-1/2 cup plain soy yogurt

-2 packets stevia in the raw or 2 tsp sweetener of choice

-1/4 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Directions:

Once you get everything all cubed up, put it in a bowl, mix together the yogurt, sweetener and optional spice, coat the fruit, chill, and enjoy! Simple and delicious.

 Variations:

Tropical Fruit Salad: Add or replace 2 cups cubed pineapple, and add 1/4 cup desiccated coconut. If you want, use coconut milk yogurt, or add some coconut extract to your yogurt.

Blueberry Mango: Use 3 cups cubed mango, 1 cup banana slices, 2 cups blueberries, and use 1/4 tsp ground ginger in the yogurt.

Or use your fruits and spices of choice in any combination!

To go with, to offset the spice, I made the light and fresh tasting Cucumber and Chili Salad with Peanuts. I didn’t peel the cucumber, nor did I add the cilantro, and I used dried mint rather than fresh. So good. The vinaigrette is very tasty and subtile. My veggie hating little sister even ate some, which shocked me. Although it makes a pretty big batch, it got eaten up pretty quickly.

So that’s that.

Later last week! ‘Twas my mum’s birthday! Being the incredibly amazing daughter that I am (hah), I made her dinner and cake! Still on my Asian kick, I made Szechuan Tempeh and Veggies and Tibetan Dumplings (Momos) from Taste of the East. And ooooh my god. I have to say, when I move into my apartment, THIS is going to be one of my top books in use. Anyways, AMAZING. The tempeh and veggies were spicy, but not overly so, and sauce was awesomesauce, and it was so satisfying. And the Momos were so cute and easy to make (and eat…). Good cold too. I would love to play around with the fillings considering how easy they are.

Tibetan Dumplings (Momos)

Szechuan Tempeh and Veggies

Tempeh, Veggies, Dumplings with Plum Sauce

To go along with this, I was nice and made two cakes. One was the Tres Leches cake from Viva Vegan (a book that gets little use). I had an open can of coconut milk that was begging to be used, so…this came to be! It was good. Sweet…very sweet. Not as good as one that I’ve had in the past in my pre-vegan days, but it was good enough. The cake part was a little dense, and I wasn’t too big on the topping, especially with the agar in it. Weird texture. But the taste was good despite the sweetness.

Tres Leches Cake

The other cake was one that I may have reviewed before was theDeep Chocolate Cake from Vegetarian Times. It’s essentially a wacky cake. I made mine low fat by subbing half of the oil with vegan yogurt. That way it was like a combination of a wacky cake and a mayo cake. I also didn’t use that icing either…I just melted 3/4 cup chocolate chips with 1/4 cup of almond milk to make a ganache, poured it over the cake and cooled it in the fridge for a while to let the ganache set. Very good.

Deep Chocolate Cake

Everyone really enjoyed everything. Fast forward to later in the week and what you’ll see is…more Chinese! I made a half batch of the Mu-Shu Veggies from Taste of the East alongside some homemade mu-shu wrappers. Again…so good! The flavours were amazing and it was so easy to prepare. I used thinly sliced cauliflower and carrots as my add in vegetables, and criminis as the mushrooms. It made a HUGE HUGE HUGE batch. Even with just half the recipe. But I loved it.

Mu-Shu Vegetables with mu-shu wrappers

Want the recipe for the infamous wrapper? Well it’s simple…it’s essentially a tortilla! Isn’t it funny how all cultures have their own flatbreads? But here’s the recipe:

Mu-Shu Wrappers

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups ap flour
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tbs toasted sesame oil

Mu Shu Wrappers

Chocolate Chip Skillet Pie

Chocolate Chip Skillet Pie: This essentially is a giant chocolate chip cookie! Made in a skillet ideally, but I made mine in a 9″ pie dish, which worked out fine other than the fact that it stuck a little to the bottom of the dish. The flavour is spot on…the only trouble for me is the calorie count! Practice portion control and more importantly, self control with these babies! Be mindful of the fact that you wouldn’t make only 8 cookies in a whole batch, so don’t just slice the pie into 8! Just sayin’.

Ooey Gooey Brownies: Made these twice, once with the ganache topping once without. These are tied as my favourite brownie recipe (alongside the Deluxe Cocoa Brownies from VCIYCJ). They are so, so simple to make…almost too simple (hmmm…dangerous…). What makes them doubly dangerous is when you DO top with the ganache. They are a little less guilty tasting (note: a LITTLE) without, but delicious either way. Again, high in calories, especially with the ganache. But totally make them if you need a dessert to take somewhere. Everyone will love you.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies: More like just chewy chocolate chip cookies. Not soft at all (or is it my fault?), not that it’s a bad thing. They are such a tasty cookie! I love how low in fat they are (3 tbs of oil is all!). But I recommend using 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar rather than 3/4 cup all brown sugar. It just seems better to me that way. But that’s just me. Do what you want

Biscuits and Creamy Sage Gravy: Um yeah, b.p. biscuits were obviously good. That’s a given. But the gravy! Oh, can you say um…divine? It tasted even a little bit chicken-y (was is supposed to? Perhaps it was the sage.), and a lotta-bit delicious. Creamy. Satisfying. Leftovers made a wicked pasta sauce. And the omni father liked it.

Old Fashioned Hamburger Buns and Chicken Style Seitan Roast

Old Fashioned Hamburger Buns: Quick. Easy. A little high in calories. Great for someone who has never made bread before. Also a great dinner roll. I really like these. Just a note: NOTHING LIKE THOSE SMOOSHY, DISGUSTING COMMERCIAL ROLLS. That is all

Chicken Style Seitan Roast: My new favourite steamed seitan. It tastes JUS T LIKE ROASTED CHICKEN. No exaggeration. Everyone in my family liked it. My very carnivorous father even ate a sandwich filled with it. And really, truly liked it. Plus, it’s pretty low-cal. Next up is going to be the pastrami style…reubens anyone?

Old Fashioned Tomato Soup: Yum! I love how easy this is. Pretty much blend the ingredients and heat. It’s awesome how it gets a little bit creamy from the soaked raw cashews, and the fresh basil adds a layer of awesome.

Cinnamon Sugar Bread

Cinnamon Sugar Bread: This gives Cinnabon the finger. Never, ever, ever buy commercial cinnamon swirl bread when you can make this. Tender, delicious, and amazing.

So, as I mentioned before, I am finally finished with this (now past) semester at college (4.0!!). And this fall, I’m transferring to another University as a philosophy major! I’m rather excited, especially considering I will be living in a student apartment. Dorms are Hell on Earth. Literally. So I’m thankful for that. Plus I get a wicked awesome kitchen area! I’ve been working on things with this a lot lately which has also taken up time from blogging. But now that that is taken care of, I can concentrate on my cooking and newfound interest in Shambhala and Buddhism. Not quite two weeks ago, I attended my first level of Shambhala training, which was amazingly insightful. It follows so well with a vegan lifestyle. I encourage anyone to take up this practice – it cannot hurt to at least begin to learn about it. And there is not even a need to become Buddhist to practice the Shambhala teachings, which (basically) is the realization that everyone posses basic goodness by means of mindfulness meditation.

And that’s that…now for the recipe that I neglected to photograph!

Pasta with Broccoli, Chickpeas, and Artichoke Hearts

Serves: around 8

Ingredients:

• 2 cups coarsely chopped broccoli
• 1 cup uncooked pasta (any short variety will do – I used elbows)
• 1 medium onions, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 15 oz can whole artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and quartered
• 1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1-2 tbs braggs
• 1 heaping tsp vegan chicken broth powder (I use frontier brand)
• 1 tbs nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp vegemite/marmite
• black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Okay, just to warn you, the directions may seem a bit wordy and confusing, but this recipe is really easy and comes together rather quickly. So to begin with, in a large stock pot, set up a steaming apparatus and steam your broccoli for 3 minutes. Set your steamed veggies aside, and use the water from your steaming set up to boil your pasta until al-dente **if you do not just use a steamer basket in a stockpot for your steaming set up, just go ahead and boil your pasta…I’m just trying to save you water ** Drain your pasta, keeping aside one cup of the water for later use. In a rather large skillet (enough to hold like…8 cups or more of food) sprayed with cooking spray, saute your sliced onion until translucent. Add your garlic and more spray if necessary, and cook until fragrant. In the meantime, drain and rinse your artichoke hearts and chickpeas. Quarter your hearts if you got a can of whole ones. When your garlic and onions are nice and cooked, add in your set aside pasta and broccoli, as well as your hearts and chickpeas. Give everything a nice stir. Add in your braggs, broth powder, nooch, and vegemite along with your one cup of reserved pasta water. Use a fork to make sure the vegemite breaks up and dissolves in the “broth.” Let everything get nice and warmed through, add your pepper to taste and enjoy!