Perfect Oven French Fries

Oven Baked FriesI love french fries, truly love them. The crispy outside, the soft, almost creamy inside, salty, and ohh so satisfying. I think most french fries are good, and the good ones are awesome. These are awesome. I finally figured out how to make oven fries crispy every time. This is not so much a recipe as a guideline. Use with caution as they are very addictive, and easy, and delicious. I don’t tell you how many potatoes to use as it depends on how many fries you want. I usually just cut potatoes until I feel there are enough fries. If you want to limit the amount of olive oil, but still over your fries, put the fries in a Ziploc bag, pour a few tablespoons of olive oil in the bag and mush everything around until the fries are evenly coated. The important part is to use enough pans so that the fries are in one layer. If they are stacked on each other they will steam instead of roast and will be soggy. No one ones wants soggy fries, no one.

Perfect Oven French Fries

Ingredients

  • Potatoes, cut into fries
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400.
  2. Spread cut fries onto a baking sheet in a single layer and pour enough olive oil over them to make them glisten, mixing to completely coat all fries.
  3. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes or so until crispy and delicious, about 30-45 minutes.
  4. Salt to taste and serve hot.
Perfect French Fries
Perfect French Fries

 

Vegan Pesto Patty Pizza Quesadilla

Vegan Pesto Patty Pizza Quesadilla
Vegan Pest Patty Pizza Quesadilla

Ok, this has a long name, but it is descriptive. This takes a tortilla, adds pizza sauce and vegan cheese, then the pesto patty, fold it up and it is a little pizza, a little quesadilla, and some good protein and yum from the pesto patty. This is of course a way to use up the pesto patties you made last night since you have already consumed any leftover roasted eggplant. You can’t resist cold leftover eggplant can you? Me either. But that is not what this post is about. This post is about a meted cheesy, soul satisfying, delicious, vegan treat.

Vegan Pest Patty Pizza Quesadilla

Ingredients

  • Leftover pesto patty
  • 1 tortilla
  • 3 TBL or so Pizza sauce
  • 1/2 cup or so Vegan mozzarella cheese (I only use Daiya brand)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Put tortilla on a baking sheet, spread pizza sauce evenly over tortilla, sprinkle with desired amount of cheese.
  3. Place the leftover pesto patty next to the tortilla pizza on the pan and cook everything in the preheated oven until the tortilla starts to brown and the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes.
  4. Remove everything from the oven.
  5. Break the pesto patty into pieces over half the tortilla pizza, fold tortilla in half over the patty and eat while reveling in the glory of a melty, satisfying, cheesy, pizza-like goodness that is still practically a health food.

Vegan Pesto Patties With Roasted Eggplant and Quinoa

Vegan Pesto Patty
Vegan Pesto Patty

Mmmm, pesto. I love the stuff. I had a batch in the refrigerator after hosting a pasta party with other popular sauces. I wanted to make something with the flavor of pesto, other than pasta or hummus, my two go-to recipes for pesto. We make a lot of patties in our house with a combination of whatever leftovers are in the fridge. This seemed like a yummy place to use my pesto. These come together quickly and are very little work. In the picture they are served with roasted eggplant slices, pesto quinoa, and marinara sauce. They would be good in many ways, so experiment. The one caution is to make sure you do not over-process these or the patties will be mushy. They will still taste good, the texture just won’t be super awesome.

Pesto Patties 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked garbanzo beans, or one 15 oz can, drained
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup prepared pesto
  • 1/4 cup walnuts
  • 1 tsp salt.
  • Olive oil for frying patties

Instructions

  1. Place oats in food processor and process until ground to a flour.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until the mixture is starting to hold together, but there are still chunks of walnuts and garbanzo beans.
  3. Heat oil over medium high heat in a cast iron skillet.
  4. Shape mixture into patties and fry in batches, about 4 minutes on each side. This made 6 large patties for me.

Optional additions

Roasted eggplant:

  1. Preheat oven to 400.
  2. Slice eggplant in 1/8″ slices.
  3. lightly oil a baking pan with olive oil.
  4. Arrange eggplant slices in a single layer in the pan, and brush more olive oil over the tops.
  5. Cook about 30 minutes, flipping eggplant halfway through.
  6. Salt lightly before serving.  

Quinoa:

  1. Rinse 1 cup quinoa in a fine mesh strainer under cold water until the water runs clear.
  2. Place quinoa in a saucepan with 2 cups vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook about 15 minutes until broth is absorbed.
  3. Remove quinoa from heat and stir in 2 TBL prepared pesto if desired.

Marinara:

  1. Heat a jar of your favorite marinara.
  2. Serve with pesto patties.

Savory Oatmeal with Kale and Walnuts

Savory Oatmeal with Kale and Walnuts
Savory Oatmeal with Kale and Walnuts

As strange as this meal sounds, it is quite delicious. Wolfie is sensitive to something and I have been on a major elimination diet to try and figure it out. One of the things I have been eating a lot of for breakfast during this time is oatmeal. Well I’m just plain sick of sweet oatmeal and I needed something savory for breakfast. This has been my go-to breakfast for the last few weeks. It would also work for a dinner if you called it oat risotto or something fancy like that. I was hesitant to try a savory oatmeal, but I needed the salt. Ohh, do I love salt. I am now looking forward to breakfast again. Anyway, here is a wonderful entry to the world of savory oatmeal, and one of the healthiest breakfasts you can find. This combination is one that actually keeps me full for several hours unlike most anything I eat in the morning. This is also gluten free if you make sure to use gluten free oats. I hope you enjoy it.

Savory Oatmeal with Kale and Walnuts 

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups chopped kale
  • 1 TBL olive oil, or 1/4 cup water
  • 2/3 cup vegetable broth
  • 1/3 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup chopped nuts or seeds (toasted if you desire)
  • 1 TBL nutritional yeast
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat large skillet over medium heat.
  2. Add oil or water and kale, sauteing until tender, 7-10 minutes. -If you cook the kale in oil it will get a bit crispy and yummy bitter like kale chips. If you want your kale more tender as if steamed use water.
  3. While kale is cooking, heat vegetable broth in a small saucepan to a boil.
  4. Once vegetable broth is boiling, add rolled oats and cook, stirring occasionally until water is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
  5. Once oatmeal is cooked remove from heat and stir in nutritional yeast.
  6. Add salt to kale to taste, then place kale on a plate, top with cooked oatmeal and nuts.
  7. Serve immediately.

Vegan Red Lentil Coconut Curry Soup

Vegan Red Lentil Coconut Curry Soup
Vegan Red Lentil Coconut Curry Soup

This was a quick throw together soup I made to take to a friend’s house when I invited myself over during lunch time. I made this during two minute increments while I had a needy baby, so it passes the easy test. I think the hardest part is chopping the kale, but I had bought pre-chopped (don’t tell anyone) and it was quick. I was surprised at how good it was because it was so easy. When my husband tried the few leftover bites he requested I make it again soon. I did, (once again on a needy baby day) with a different kind of curry paste, and it was still delicious. So, when you are looking for a quick, easy, delicious, satisfying meal to eat during a snow storm, or on a low-motivation/needy baby day, this will be the perfect thing.

Red Lentil Coconut Curry Soup

 

Ingredients

  • 1 TBL coconut oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 1/2 cups water
  • 1 TBL vegetable broth powder or one bullion cube
  • 1 medium sweet potato, cubed
  • 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 2-3 TBL curry paste, red or yellow
  • 2 cups chopped kale
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. In medium saucepan heat coconut oil over medium heat until melted.
  2. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add sweet potatoes, lentils, water, and broth powder, bring to a simmer, then cook until sweet potatoes are almost tender, about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the coconut milk, curry paste, and kale cooking until the kale is tender, and lentils are cooked through, 5-10 more minutes.
  5. Taste and add salt as desired.

Vegan Lentil and Roasted Vegetable Pasta

Vegan roasted vegetable and lentil pasta
Vegan roasted vegetable and lentil pasta

It’s winter. We just got a huge storm, which is totally fine with me. We are warm and toasty inside and it is beautiful to look at. I even got a little exercise shoveling this morning. Anyway, winter… In the winter I roast a lot of vegetables. I love roasted vegetables and they come in handy for tons of things as leftovers. Also vegetable that are good for roasting are pretty much the only thing at the farmer’s market in Maine in the winter. Pretty much every week I end up roasting a big batch, then using them throughout the week. I have also been making a big batch of lentils and using them as well. I cook the lentils in vegetable broth and the saltiness of the lentils pared with the sweet carmelization of the vegetables is something I crave on a regular basis. This recipe combines the two with some leftover pasta with amazing results. My husband stared at it before eating with a skeptical look, then went back for seconds saying “I just don’t get it, it is so good.” Gluten-free pasta works just perfectly here. I have use a brown rice-quinoa pasta that is a great texture for this. I have also use wheat pasta, so whatever your pleasure.

If you don’t know how to roast vegetables it is pretty much the easiest thing you can do. Some people are a little more picky than I am on cooking times, but I choose vegetables that I like to cook about the same length of time and everything is wonderful. Simply chop vegetables into a uniform size, toss with olive oil and bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, stirring every now and again, until everything is browning and carmelized. Done. The house is warm and you have a delicious and healthy treat for the week.

The trick to this pasta is cooking everything until the pasta gets a little crispy which makes it ohh so yummy, and something you can’t make fresh. You need the cold leftover pasta to get the crispiness.

Vegan Roasted Vegetable and Lentil Pasta Using Leftovers

Ingredients

  • *4 cups cooked pasta (gluten free works beautifully)
  • 2 cups roasted vegetables (mixture of butternut squash, onions, turnips, broccoli, and parsnips shown)
  • 1 cup cooked lentils
  • salt to taste
  • olive oil to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Add pasta, vegetables, and lentils cooking until parts of the pasta start to become crispy, 5-8 minutes.
  3. Taste and add more salt and olive oil as desired.

Vegan Corn and Potato Chowder

Vegan Corn and Potato Chowder
Vegan Corn and Potato Chowder

I recently had a baby (reason 1 why I have been so terrible and posting for the last year) and often need quick and yummy food. We are also gearing up for a winter storm here in Maine, which means I need something warm and comforting. This chowder fills all the need with its creamy, comforting, delicious, savoriness. It is what I crave when it is cold and rainy or snowy. It is also one of the easiest things to make. When I have 10 minutes and a crazy day I will throw this together in the slow cooker and let it do its thing. I don’t know how to describe this other than as a comfort food. You can feel yourself relaxing while eating a bowl, and warming from the inside out. I served this to a group of very non-vegan friends and they all loved it and asked for the recipe. No one could believe it was made without dairy. Score one for vegan chowder! I’m sorry for no picture. I blame the baby.

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups cubed potatoes (I like russet potatoes for this one)
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 cup corn kernels (I use frozen)
  • 1 15oz can full fat coconut milk
  • 1 cup water (or vegetable broth)
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 TBL vegetable broth powder (omit if using vegetable broth)
  • 3 TBL nutritional yeast
  • 2 TBL vegan cream cheese (optional)
  • 2 TBL dry white wine (optional. Use more veggie broth, water or milk)

Instructions

  1. Place all ingredients In a pot or slow cooker.
  2. Cook over low heat until potatoes are tender, stirring g occasionally if cooking on the stove, about 30 minutes.
  3. If using a slow cooker cook 6 hours on low.
  4. Serve hot with fresh bread

Vegan Pumpkin Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Vegan pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sage sauce
Vegan pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sage sauce

This recipe has a long title and a lot of steps, but it is totally worth it. This could be a perfect main dish for your vegan Thanksgiving, or a perfect addition to take to Thanksgiving at a friends. You can eat this as a entree and be happy, and others will eat it as a side and be amazed at your cooking abilities. This is a luscious, rich, and satisfying vegan holiday meal.

You can make the ravioli ahead of time and freeze them to cook on the day of whatever event you are celebrating, even if it is just a Wednesday evening at home. The sauce should be made fresh and don’t skimp on the Earth Balance. Now is not the time for diets.

Vegan Pumpkin Ravioli 

The filling

Ingredients

  • 2 TBL olive oil
  • 1/2 medium onion, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 block firm tofu, mashed
  • 1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
  • 2 TBL nutritional yeast
  • 1 TBL minced fresh sage
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Dash cinnamon
  • Pinch nutmeg
  • 1 cup pureed pumpkin or squash

Instructions

  1. Heat olive oil in heavy skillet over medium heat.
  2. Saute onion until translucent, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add garlic and tofu cooking until any water has evaporated from the pan.
  4. Add the vegan cream cheese, nutritional yeast, sage, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg stirring together until the cream cheese has melted.
  5. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use.

The pasta

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup semolina flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 TBL olive oil
  • 1/2 cup water
  • extra water for brushing

Instructions

  1. In bowl of stand mixer mix flours, salt, oil and water with paddle attachment until combined.
  2. Switch to the dough hook and mix about 2 minutes on speed 2 to knead. The dough should form a ball, if it is crumbly add more water, if it is sticking to the sides of the bowl add more semolina flour.
  3. Cut the dough into 4 sections and run through your pasta roller according to its directions until it is the thickness recommended for ravioli, a 5 on my machine.
  4. Lay out rolled pasta on a lightly floured surface.
  5. Brush the side of the pasta facing up with water using a pastry brush.
  6. Place pumpkin mixture on pasta dough by heaping tablespoon. The mixture should be about 1/2″ away from one edge of the pasta, and about 1″ between each spoonful.
  7. Fold over the half of pasta dough that does not have pumpkin mixture on it pressing the dough between each heap of pumpkin to seal.
  8. Once dough has sealed to itself cut the ravioli to leave one heap of pumpkin in each ravioli.
  9. Dust ravioli with more semolina flour and place in one layer on a semolina dusted plate until ready to cook. You can also freeze them at this point.
  10. When ready to cook bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
  11. Once water boils cook ravioli 3 minutes and remove to pan with sauce to finish cooking.

The sauce

Ingredients

  • 6 TBL Earth Balance
  • 3 TBL fresh sage, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup walnuts, minced
  • 1/2 cup vegetable broth
  • 1/4 cup white wine or more vegetable broth

Instructions

  1. Heat Earth Balance in a large skillet over medium heat until starting to brown, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add sage, garlic, and walnuts cooking until garlic is tender and sage starts to brown, about 3 minutes.
  3. Add the vegetable broth and wine cooking until reduced, 5-7 minutes more.
  4. Add the cooked ravioli directly from the water and toss in the sauce to finish cooking, about 1 minute.
  5. Serve hot.

Vegan Chocolate Bourbon Caramel Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Vegan Chocolate Bourbon Caramel Cake
Vegan Chocolate Bourbon Caramel Cake

So this cake is a little silly it is so good. It is so rich and filled with awesomeness even I was little skeptical about how rich it could be. Somehow it all works out. The layers are cut and drenched in caramel keeping the cake incredibly moist. Everything is then topped with the chocolate ganache. There is no way anyone could tell this is a vegan cake unless you told them. Trust me. You will be the hero of the holiday party if this is your offering. The cake and ganache are from “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World”, the Bourbon Caramel is adapted from the Minimalist Baker website. There are a few steps to this recipe with the instructions for putting it all together at the bottom. Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Cake 

Ingredients

  • 1  cup non-dairy milk
  • 1  tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 3/4  cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. almond extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease, flour and use parchment paper to prepare two 8″ round cake pans.
  2. Briefly stir non-dairy milk and vinegar in a large bowl and set aside to curdle.
  3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
  4. Once the milk and vinegar has curdled add the sugar, oil and vanilla and almond extracts.
  5. Beat together until foamy.
  6. Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until combined.
  7. Pour batter into prepared cake pans, distributing batter equally.
  8. Bake for 10-15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake out clean.
  9. Remove cake from pans and allow to cool on cooling rack.

Bourbon Caramel 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup non-dairy milk
  • 2 Tbsp bourbon
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Heat sugar and water on medium heat to a simmer. Swirl pan, but do NOT stirring for about 15 minutes or until a deep amber color is reached. Watch carefully as this will burn easily.
  2. Once desired color is reached, remove from heat and slowly add non-dairy milk while stirring.
  3. Add salt and bourbon and cook over low heat for another minute while stirring.
  4. set aside until ready to use.
  5. If there is extra you can store in a glass bottle in the refrigerator and re-heat when ready to use.

Chocolate Ganache 

  • 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
  • 1/4 cup Amaretto (or more non-dairy milk)
  • 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
  • 2 TBL pure maple syrup

Instructions

  1. In a small sauce pan bring non-dairy milk and Amaretto to a gentle boil.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and maple syrup mixing until smooth.
  3. Set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

Putting it all together 

1. Once the cake is cool cut each cake in half to make four layers total.

2. Place the bottom layer on a cake plate. Pour caramel sauce over cake spreading until it has soaked into the cake.

3. Repeat with remaining layers using as much caramel as the cake will hold.

4. Once cake is stacked carefully spread the chocolate ganache over top and sides of the cake.

5. Serve in small slices saving plenty for your breakfast the next morning.

Dinner Hash

Vegan Dinner Hash
Vegan Dinner Hash

Here is another meal that is totally delicious, easy to make, and uses up what you have. It was the end of the week and we just had odds and ends. A few things from the garden, a few things from the farmers market, but nothing that was saying “meal” to me. I decided to just throw them all together and make a hash. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. The recipe I’m including has what I had on hand, but feel free to substitute what you have. The potatoes are important for bulk, but if you had more of a hearty vegetable that would be fine as well. I happened to have the vegan “chicken” in my fridge, but you could also use tofu, tempeh, or beans for a little protein.

Vegan Dinner Hash

Ingredients

  • 2 TBL olive oil
  • 2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes
  • 1 very large onion, chopped
  • 4 mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 head of cauliflower, chopped
  • few florets of broccoli, chopped
  • 3 ears corn, kernels removed
  • 1 small zucchini, cut into small cubes
  • vegan “chicken”, chopped
  • 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • pepper
  • 1 TBL dried rosemary, crushed
  • 1 TBL minced fresh sage
  • 1/2 vegetable broth

Instructions

  1. Heat oil in a very large skillet over medium/high heat. I used my huge cast iron for this.
  2. Add potatoes and cook until brown and crispy, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the onion, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, and corn. Cook until tender, about 5 more minutes.
  4. Add zucchini, chicken, garlic, and spices cooking until zucchini is just tender.
  5. Add vegetable brother and stir to absorb.
  6. Taste and adjust spices to your preference.
  7. Serve hot.