Indian food in the skyway (vegan MoFo)

Another day on the go.  This is from an Indian place in the skyway system of Minneapolis.  They are pretty great at accommodating vegans - they will even make some fresh naan with no butter. 

What's the skyway?  It's what happens when your city is an icy tundra for five to six months out of the year.  A network of enclosed pedestrian bridges throughout downtown Minneapolis.  There is also a system in Saint Paul, though not as large.  It enables people to get from one area of the city to another without having to go outside. Very fitting for today since it started out raining and is now snowing.  None of it will stick around, mind you.

Still...winter is coming. (Doesn't get old for me.)

Pad Prik On with Mock Duck (vegan MoFo)

Delicious mock duck with Anaheim peppers, onion, basil, and other herbs from On's Thai Kitchen. 

Also pictured: fresh spring rolls with mock duck and tofu. 

Another blogging on the go post.  Doing my best to keep up, but I have missed several days now.  Ah, well. 

Breakfast vegan chocolate coconut muffin with soy latte (vegan MoFo)

Another busy busy day for me and most likely no time to edit a photo and post from a computer, so mobile blogging to the rescue again!
This morning I am at Bordertown coffee, a local non-profit coffee shop with vegan baked goods, soups and sandwiches.  And of course, coffee.

Blogging on the Go (vegan MoFo)

Here's a quick snap of food offerings at a training I am participating in.  Veggie sandwich with avocado, Sun Chips,and a soda.  I became super busy and missed another day of MoFo (yesterday) but even being on the go will not prevent me from participating in MoFo!!!!

Tomatillo Salsa + Refried Bean Dip [Vegan Mofo]

Day 14 of Vegan Month of Food! So far, so good. I have missed one day posting this month so far, and we are nearly halfway through the month. I do not have a set goal in mind, just to do as much as I possibly can.

I have almost reached Day 7 of my green theme and will recap with one more post of green food tomorrow. Today, I present my first tomatillo salsa attempt! I made this in the past week or so with tomatillos from the CSA. I didn't get as nice of a roasty taste to the tomatillos, but I would really like to try this again with a ton more tomatillos. I served this with a refried bean dip that I quickly whipped up.

For the salsa: I sliced tomatillos in half after removing the wrappers and rinsing. I placed on a cookie sheet lined with foil and roasted for 10-15 mins in the oven. Because I had so few tomatillos I was worried and took them out early because their juices were all over the pan and I wanted to be sure to have enough to make salsa. I blended the tomatillos with 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 of a small onion, and some spicy chili peppers.

For the bean dip: I heated up 1 can of black refried beans in a small sauce pan, adding garlic, cumin, salt, and chili peppers. That was it. Cheap and easy. I was feeling lazy. The dip was ok, it could have been better with more effort.

CSA Green Pasta Bowl [Vegan Mofo]

Day 13 of Vegan Month of Food!

CSA Green! We are nearing the end of 7 days of green theme. This dish was delicious: penne pasta tossed/sauteed with asparagus, fresh oregano, olive oil, spinach, garlic scapes, onion and garlic. I am pretty sure the vegetables, garlic, onion, and oregano were all from the CSA, though the spinach could have been purchased at the grocery store.

CSA Stir-Fried Snap Peas [Vegan Mofo]

Day 12 of Vegan MoFo!

Green theme continues this week. Today, a pic of some snap peas stir-fried with soy sauce, hoisin, and toasted sesame oil. Simple and delicious! I went through a lot of green beans, snap peas and other beans/peas this summer from the CSA. I generally made them like these peas - sometimes with hot peppers and garlic added to the dish.

CSA Green Machine Bowl [Vegan Mofo]

Day Eleven of Vegan Month of Food!!! The green theme continues this week with another bowl of delicious vegetables from my CSA. This bowl includes sugar peas, garlic scapes and some greens. GREEN! Not the best photo, but it's Thursday and I am exhausted.

Lots more green to come!

Cilantro Pesto on Toast [Vegan Mofo]

Day 10 of Vegan MoFo! Woohoo!

As promised, I have a theme of sorts for the next few days: green. Specifically, green veggies & herbs from my CSA this year.

Today? Cilantro pesto. I was skeptical at first when making cilantro pesto, but I had a cilantro overload this summer and had to figure out how to consume it all. It's delicious and works just as well as basil. My pesto includes walnuts (unsalted), lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and sea salt.

I decided that instead of just pasta or vegetables, I'd try it on toast. I loved it, like an interesting garlic bread. It would have been even better on some crusty french bread, but it was a great snack all the same.

The cilantro was from the CSA. Here's a close look at the GREEN!

CSA Pesto - Pasta and Vegetables [Vegan Mofo]

Day 9 of Vegan Month of Food and I am still going strong!

I look forward to this week - I have a slew of green-themed photos for the next several days. First up: pesto. This summer I have been swimming in pesto thanks to the CSA. I even tried making cilantro pesto (fantastic).

I am not sure if this a basil or cilantro-based pesto in the photo. I usually make my pesto with whatever greens (basil, cilantro, parsley - or a combo of all three), lots of garlic, walnuts and olive oil. I also use a little lemon juice and salt to finish it off. I made most of my pesto this summer in the Magic Bullet, a device I use several times a week and sometimes several times per day. I served this pesto with penne pasta mixed with zucchini and broccoli.

The broccoli, cilantro or basil, and zucchini were all from the CSA.

GF Fried Tofu [Vegan Mofo]

Day 8 of Vegan Month of Food!!!! I took yesterday off, but I feel ok since I've had multiple days of double-posts.

I am not gluten-free, but for some reason my mom will see gluten-free items and buy them for me, conflating gluten-free and veganism. Whatever, her heart is in the right place. So that's how I wound up with a box of gluten-free pancake/waffle mix. The mis sat in my pantry for weeks & months, until I finally figured out a decent experiment to use it for: fried tofu.

This turned out ok. It was a bit too sweet, and burned easily due to the sugar content.

Bonus! Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache [Vegan Mofo]

Another post for Day 6 of Vegan Month of Food! And it's dessert again!

These were freaking delicious...because they are cupcakes, duh! Basically from VCTOW, with some help from this recipe on the PPK.

One more photo:

Veganomicon Cafe-Style Lemon Bars [Vegan Mofo]

Welcome to Day 6 of Vegan MoFo!

These were really interesting and nerve-wracking to make. It was the first time I worked with agar agar. These were really delicious, and the recipe comes from the excellent Veganomicon cookbook.

They turned out great & held together really well. They were gobbled down by Mr. Coconut as well as co-workers.

Here's the whole pan:

Curry Chickpea Stuffed Squash [Vegan Mofo]

Welcome to Day 5 of Vegan Month of Food!!!!

I made this two nights ago. I've always wanted to do a stuffed squash type of dish and now I have! The two types of squash I used: acorn and delicata. I must say that after this experience I am a huge fan of delicata squash. Light, very sweet, cooks up fast and gets nice and caramelized while roasting due to the high sugar content. I sliced both of the squash in half, scooped out the seeds, and lightly rubbed olive oil all over them. Then I placed insides facing-down on a pan (does that makes sense?)and roasted for 25-45 minutes around 350 degrees F. I flipped the delicata squash every 10-15 minutes, it was done way faster than the acorn squash.

The stuffing/filling: I sauteed some thinly sliced onions and added chickpeas & curry powder. Next was some cabbage, beet greens, then wild rice and brown rice and veggie broth. I added garlic near the end along with some fresh parsley. Then I scooped into the cooked squash halves.

While all of this was cooking, I also was roasting up some beets, both regular beets and beautiful Chiogga Beets. Sliced up and served on the side of the stuffed squash.

The squash, parsley, beets, beet greens, cabbage and onion were all from the CSA.

Lemon-Dill Dressing: on Pan-Fried Tofu and a CSA Salad [Vegan Mofo]

Happy Vegan MoFo Day 4!

So many great ideas on the giant 2012 blogroll of MoFo-ers! It's fantastic to read through what others are doing this fun-filled month.

So I made this dish a while back, when I was up to my ears in dill and did not know what to do with it all! After a Google search of something along the lines of "what do I do with all this dill!?" I came across a few interesting recipes and stumbled upon this Lemon-Dill Tofu from Oh She Glows.

I had everything except the tahini, but it still turned out great and was a fantastic addition to some pan-fried tofu triangles.



My sides for this meal include some homemade simple cabbage and carrot coleslaw with a light vinegar/oil dressing and some steamed broccoli with sesame seeds. The coleslaw and dill were from the CSA. The broccoli was frozen.

I loved the dill dressing! I used it on a salad made from greens, carrots and tomatoes from the csa and topped with some flax seeds. Delicious!

Agedashi Tofu from Sakura [Vegan Mofo]

It's Day #3 ofVegan MoFo!

Today, I bring you an awesome dish: agedashi tofu. These particular photos are from Sakura Restaurant in St. Paul, but agedashi tofu is a popular appetizer at many/most Japanese restaurants. In my opinion, Sakura has the best agedashi tofu in town.

Perfectly crispy tofu with soft, creamy insides, topped with scallions as well as shredded ginger and daikon radish.

It's important to note that I order this appetizer with no dashi (fish broth) and no bonito flakes (fish flakes).

Another photo:

Papa John's Kicked-Up Veggie Pizza [Vegan Mofo]

Day Two continues with Vegan MoFo! I'm on a roll now and hope to keep it up. Day two, post two.

Dinner tonight - a one topping (pineapple) Papa John's pizza that I got for free (or nearly free). I sliced up a bunch of my CSA vegetables that I had as well as some other items to create a massive vegetable pizza. Green peppers,
Hungarian wax peppers, onion were from the CSA. Mushrooms and green olives in the pantry. (Note: only part of this pizza has olives and mushrooms since they are not Mr. Coconut's favorite toppings. More for me.)

Behold the sea of vegetables:

Fruit and Granola [Vegan MoFo]

I am at a conference this morning, and it's always great when there are healthy choices.  Banana, Clementine, and Granola.  (And, of course, coffee.)

Caprese Salad with Daiya [Vegan Mofo - Bonus!]

That's right, a bonus second post for Vegan Month of Food Day One!
A beautiful caprese salad, made with slices ofjalapeno garlic havarti Daiya wedge.
Yeah, Daiya made a "hard" cheese. The wedges come in cheddar, jack, and the above-mentioned jalapeno garlic havarti flavors. The havarti tastes what I remember pepper jack cow cheese tasting like -- and that was one of my faves to eat on crackers or plain. So it was delightful to make the caprese salad with Daiya.

The tomatoes and basil are from the aforementioned CSA. I also drizzled a tiny bit of olive oil over the salad as well as fresh sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I loved it, Mr. Coconut did not care for it. ("Too cheesy" was the complaint. Pfft.)

What is a CSA? Well, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it involves getting a weekly supply of produce from a local farm. I did a lot of research and chose a farm that had a drop-off site near me. It's been fantastic getting fresh, organic produce every week since June 8th. (The season of my farm goes through most of, maybe all of, October.) I'll be talking more about CSAs and specific details of my experience with it. (Spoiler alert: I'd like to do it again next year.)

One more photo:

Zucchini Noodles with Spaghetti [Vegan Mofo]

Happy Vegan Month of Food!

It's the first day of Vegan Mofo VI, and my second year participating. (But it's my first year signed up on the official blog roll!)

Even though at the end of October last year I was pumped and wanted to come up with a theme, I do not really have a plan for this year. I will be focusing a LOT on all the photos I've been taking of dishes using ingredients from my CSA from Featherstone Farm. That means a lot of fresh produce will be featured, like the dish pictured above (and below).

I sliced up a few zucchini with my mandoline v-slicer so they were shredded into long thin noodles. I tossed the zucchini noodles in a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and added to a pan of cooked spaghetti noodles that was mixed with sauteed onion and garlic. I tossed the whole thing until well-mixed. This is a great way to "hide" vegetables - the pasta noodles and zucchini noodles blend together really well, texture-wise. If you add red sauce, you can't taste them at all. I enjoy the taste of vegetables, so it's a non-issue for me.

Here's one more picture:

Chana Masala with Kale

So this is another test to see how blogging goes straight from my smartphone. Tonight, I have a cold. So my cure is to cook warm, comforting slightly spicy foods.
I have been thinking about making chana masala for a while and tonight I had everything I needed.
The recipe was cobbled from a few different googled "easy chana masala" recipes I found. Basically, I sauteed onion in olive oil until it got soft, added cumin seeds, cumin powder, curry powder, cinnamon. Added minced jalapeno & garlic and one 15oz can of chickpeas.
I added 2-4 diced tomatoes, stirred everything up and added about 1/2 cup of water or so and let everything simmer until it reached the consistency I liked and at the very end I added 1.5-2.5 cups of kale. I served with quinoa. i

Black Bean Soup (or dip)

black bean soup & dip 1
Originally uploaded by thesaucycoconut

While I have been pretty quiet this summer, I am fully intending on once again participating in Vegan MoFo aka The Vegan Month of Food. Kickoff is October 1st and I am excited. Pictured above is a black bean soup I made, garnished with jalapenos and hot sauce. I ate it with tortilla chips, hence the soup or dip. This is also my first post with the mobile blogger app, just to test it out and see if it might work to get posts up faster and easier.

Tempeh Bac'n BLT

Whoa! Way too long with no posts!

Today I bring you a Tempeh Bac'n BLT: new-ish Earth Balance vegan mayo, Tofurky Maple Tempeh Bac'n, tomatoes, red onion, and spinach.

I enjoyed the EB mayo, pretty decent stuff. It is sold at a price that is way more expensive than Vegenaise in my area, so I just picked it up to try it out. I might get it in the future once in a while if it's on sale and ends up being cheaper than Vegenaise.

I've got a lot of pics stored up, just need to resize and upload to Flickr. I am also planning some pretty big new food adventures in the coming months, including some theme months and before you know it, Vegan Mofo will be here again!

I am trying to streamline my photo to blog system, and hopefully I will be able to get it down to a science so it doesn't take up too much time and I can focus on cooking and writing rather than the technical side of things.

My favorite go-to free online photo editing site shut down so it's been hard to get my groove back. I am playing with a couple of programs to see what is easiest and fastest for me.

So far I have enjoyed PicMonkey.

Stay tuned for more!

Pasta-O's with TVP "meat" sauce

As per usual, a straightforward recipe.  I boiled some veggie broth with fennel for some added flavor to soak/hydrate the TVP in.  I was going for a sausage flavor.  I then sauteed up onion and garlic, added the TVP and some tomato paste and water.  Made up this recipe since I did not have canned or fresh tomatoes and did not have canned sauce.  The pasta is <a target="blank_" href="http://www.barillaus.com/content/prodottobarilla/ditalini">Barilla Ditalini</a>  which are fat, short little tubes of pasta.  Delicious!

Mock Duck in Yellow Coconut Curry

Yum yum yum.  Just another easy-peasy curry.  One 15 oz can of coconut milk.  Some curry powder, veg broth = sauce done.

Mock duck fried up in a pan with soy sauce, garlic, hoisin, ginger, onion.  Broccoli and pineapple added, served over brown rice.

It only seems complicated because there are a few different parts to it, but really it's one of those simple "cook while watching TV" type of dishes that just satisfies and can leave leftovers for lunch tomorrow!  (Or breakfast.)

Vegan Dad's Deli Meat, Round 1

This was my first attempt at Vegan Dad's Veggie Lunch Meat. It was pretty good! I just kept it in tube form and sliced throughout the week. Mr. Coconut liked it a lot, I hope to add more flavor in the future. Mine did not turn out nearly as great looking as Vegan Dad's, but I was pretty proud for a first try. By the end of the tube, it reminded me of leftover turkey because I could no loner slice like thin deli meat, but more rough angles and whatnot.
I love lots of the sliced "meat" like Tofurky and Light Life - but it is SO EXPENSIVE. Plus, those are loaded with random, unknown ingredients. It was great to know every single thing that went into this dish. This made me feel very accomplished. My steamer rig was also interesting - an amalgamation of toaster oven parts and other parts to create the best setup possible.

Curry Tofu Spinach in Tortila

This is my first take on Amy's Indian Spinach Tofu Wrap -- which I am obsessed with. However, at $2+ I can't afford to eat it everyday, particularly when thinking about how cheap the ingredients are. This was made pretty simply -- drained tofu (firm or extra firm) sauteed with onion and garlic and curry powder. Add in spinach until doneto my liking, placed in an Ezekial 4:9 Sprouted Tortilla and enjoyed - many times! It was perfect with sriracha and a coriander chutney I like to get. I can hardly wait to try my hand at more of a saag approach to this once I am getting more spinach on a weekly basis.

Vegan Spaghetti & Meatballs

I made these a while back, but it's worth it to share.

I cheated and used Gimme Lean. Even though the sausage is pretty well seasoned on it's own, I added a lot of panko breadcrumbs, paprika, parsley and garlic to punch it up more. I rolled them into little balls and baked them with a little olive oil, turning them every so often until they got a nice brown to them. Next time I think I'd make them even smaller. The sauce is just Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara with cashew cheese, starchy pasta water and garlic added to it.

Okra & Legumes with Berbere Spice Mix

I'm back! As all times when I have long absences from the old food blog, I hope to post more often. I signed up for a CSA recently so I look forward to summer when I will get tons of fresh veggies and lots of inspiration for cooking!

So about that food pictured above...Berbere is an Ethiopian spice mixture that is made of things like fenugreek, chili peppers, clove, paprika, coriander, cardamom, etc. Some folks make the blend themselves. I'm lucky enough to have African markets near where I live, so I just picked up a small container of the spice mix the other day.

I am a huge fan of
Ethiopian food, so I was excited to use the flavors in other dishes.

I decided to make some lentils (or split peas? I can't remember which these were) and cook them in a bunch of berbere. I started with onion, garlic, ginger, oil, salt, and added berbere and dry legumes. Added water and a small can of seasoned tomatoes, brought everything to a boil and then simmered until the legumes were at a tenderness I liked. I added some frozen okra and cooked until it was done.

While this was cooking, I made some quinoa: 2 parts veggie broth to one part quinoa. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 15-20 mins.

Gardein Beefless Burger Open-Faced Sandwich

I know, another product from Gardein? Yes! I really like Gardein products. These burgers were great! I did have these in a "traditional" hamburger way as well as this open-faced sandwich way.

For this dish, I sauteed a bunch of onion and mushrooms together, and made a sort of gravy sauce. I toasted some bread, pan-fried the burger, and put it all together with some peas on the side.

Gardein Buffalo Chik'n Wings

Another Gardein
product. As usual, I enjoyed these quite a bit. Very saucy, and actually spicy! I served these with agave for dipping sauce, but it would be really cool to make a ranch or bleu cheese sauce for these.

Curried Split Pea Soup with Dumplings

I essentially made the curried split pea soup from
VWAV. (I make that soup regularly because it's so easy and cheap.) I added in frozen carrot slices and some whole wheat dumplings.

I had no idea how to make dumplings. I was making drop biscuits and had a lot of dough left over so I made tiny little balls and plopped them into the soup to cook. They turned out dumpling-like and tasted fine.

Another shot: