Wellness Show + Sunflower Lentil Pie

(Update: Please note the change of time in my cooking demo - it's been pushed back a half-hour now to 2:00.)
Any of you attending The Wellness Show? I'll be doing a cooking demo (well, baking really!) on Sunday, Feb 8th at 2:00. So, if you're at the show on Sunday, stop by and say 'hi' after! Here's the full schedule of presenters on the different stages, if you'd like more info.

Now, on to food! I've been posting a lot about new recipes lately, but today I have an oldie but goodie from my second cookbook, Vive le Vegan. Here is my Sunflower Lentil Pie with Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce. Both recipes are easy to make, though it does make for lighter work in one meal to prepare the tahini sauce a day in advance.

To make the pie, you first cook the lentils until tender (with some onion), and then process that mixture with the seasoning, quick oats, and sunflower seeds. The lot gets transferred to a lightly oiled pie dish, as shown here before baking. Then bake, wait... and serve! Tahini sauce is particularly good with this pie, but you could also drizzle with a balsamic-oil slurry or a vegan gravy.

I like LOTS of the tahini sauce. I'm on a tahini kick right now anyhow. But, a note to you newbie vegans... I must tell you that when I first tasted tahini I thought it was repulsive! I couldn't imagine how people could find it marginally palatable! But, tahini has its place in cooking, and can be spectacularly delicious in sauce when combined with some choice ingredients that help balance its natural bitterness. So, give your palate a chance to develop with the flavors of new ingredients, and try a few recipes to help the process. Speaking of which, this Sesame Mustard Tahini Sauce can be found here (scroll down to the second recipe).

Back to the pie. We often have a few slices of this leftover, and it makes a delicious and satisfying sandwich filling... or, can be used as a pate or sliced and reheated and layered in a wrap, or as a 'veggie burger' replacement. Mostly we use the leftovers as sandwich filling, it's substantial and tasty. If you have Vive, give this one a try!

Black and Blue Pancakes

It's Sunday, and as many of you know, that's Pancake Day in our house.

This one is a simple recipe to throw together, and that's a very (very) good thing... because these new Black and Blue Pancakes are a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Well, they're healthy enough, made with whole-grain spelt flour, blueberries, very little oil, and also including non-dairy milk
(I like Living Harvest hemp milk)...

but then, we add the chocolate chips! Like having bites of dessert for breakfast - YES!

There's something incredibly satisfying and sublime to me about the combination of chocolate and blueberries in baked goods. I think they were meant to be together. Kind of like black and blue in a bruise, but in a way that's good. You know what I mean. Chocolate and blueberries should be together more often... make it so in your kitchen!

Alive Magazine - Vegan Cooking Article

Just realized I should have let you all know that if you can get your hands on the January issue of Alive Magazine, I have a vegan cooking feature on page 130. The January copies may only be on your hfs shelves for another few days, so grab a copy if you can!

The article is Comfort Cuisine: Vegan Winter Stews, and I have included two hearty lentil soups, the first is Sweet Potato Lentil Chili...

and you will also find my Mellow Lentil "Sniffle" Soup...

If you are excited to see these vegan recipes in Alive, drop them a quick e-mail and let them know... can only help encourage more of the same!

Go warm up now with your bowl of soup. :)

Vegan Welsh Cakes

This recipe I first tinkered with a few months back. Our daughter was having an event at school and part of it involved a 'feast' with Medieval foods. Several items were on their menu, and one was Welsh Cakes. The cakes weren't vegan, so I decided to come up with my own version that our daughter could bring to her feast.
I created two versions of these cakes, one with regular unbleached flour (to be very traditional), and the other with spelt flour. When making these, the batter very much resembled "tea buns" that we used to eat growing up. Those tea buns were like thick, dense scones that were very neutral in flavor other than containing butter and currants.

I also infused more flavor in the cakes with some light spices. Also, these Welsh Cakes are prepared more like pancakes, kept rather flat and also small in size. Here you see the batter rolled out ready to be cut out in circles.
Next, the circles are cooked in a pan for several minutes and then the hot cakes are coated in sugar and cooled slightly. They are rather dainty in presentation, and are traditionally eaten on their own, or spread with preserves.

These Vegan Welsh Cakes disappeared very quickly... our girls loved munching on them, as they were not only delicious but perfect kidlet 'finger food'! The recipe will be in my new, upcoming cookbook (still untitled...any ideas, btw?).

I never would have guessed that elementary school would provide recipe inspiration...

Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole (with some changes!)

Before the holidays, I made a version of my Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole from Vive, so I thought I'd show you how I changed it up!
This is a one-pot dish, and you basically chuck all the needed ingredients into a large baking dish, stir through... cover up, and bake until done (okay, you stire once or twice during baking, but that's all the additional work from you)! You can then relax, sip champagne and sample decadent truffles while having a pedicure. Wait, that's what I like to pretend I'm doing after prepping... really, I'm tidying/doing laundry/cleaning dishes/vacuuming, etc... you know the score, you're doing it too! :)

So, when I made this dish, I had some black beans in the pantry as well as chickpeas, so I did a combination of both types of beans. Instead of yellow-flesh sweet potato, I used orange-fleshed sweet potato, since I didn't have the yellow tubers on hand. I decided to reduce the onions to make the dish a touch more kid-friendly, and also increased the amount of diced apple. I had a handful of fresh green beans in the fridge needing attention, so I trimmed and chopped those cuties and mixed them in as well. The other change I made were using curry powder instead of curry paste (um, my curry paste had been sitting in the fridge a little tooooo long, and I didn't want to chance using it)! Here you see the mix of ingredients, and I really liked how the black beans and orange taters gave such vibrant color!...

While it cooked, I put on a pot of brown basmati rice and let that do it's thing. Don't you love the smell of brown basmati rice??... gives a sweet, nutty, popcorn aroma through the house! To serve, simply scoop up a serving of that delicious rice on one side of a bowl, and then a hefty ladling of the casserole on the other side of the bowl (sprinkled with some fresh parsley - or cilantro, if you're a fan!), and dig in! Oh, I should mention that a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice on each serving sort of livens up all the flavors and makes it that much more delicious!

New Salba Winner - December

Okay, I've drawn another winner for the December contest, and it is...

Carla! (comment #4)

Carla, please e-mail me within 4 days at dreena@everydayvegan.com, and we'll arrange for you Salba package to be mailed to you!

Christmas Trifle Goes Vegan

(Note: Salba contest winner Tricia - I still haven't received an e-mail from you - please be in touch within the next day or another winner will have to be selected.)

Anyone remember having trifle in their pre-vegan days? I sure do, it was a Christmas dessert tradition in our house, and so this year I recreated the tradition for our family, vegan style!
The trifle was far easier than I had anticipated. Once the elements for the layers were prepared (which could be done a day or two in advance), then it was merely a matter of layering... and then the hardest part - waiting!

I will formalize this recipe, but here's the basic rundown of what I did:

Made the cake layers (used the All-Purpose Vanilla Cake recipe from ed&bv), custard, pineapple sauce, strawberry sauce, and Celestial Cream (also from ed&bv) ahead of time, and refrigerated everything until cool.

I assembled the trifle on Christmas Eve, but next time I'll assemble the morning before serving (if serving for afternoon or evening). A day in advance made the layers soak into one another more than I had wanted, though it tasted terrific nonetheless.

I started with a layer of custard on the bottom of a large glass bowl. Then, added slices of the cake, as you see here...

This was followed by another layer of custard and cake, and then a layer of the pineapple sauce...

Then, more cake/custard, and a grating of white chocolate. I used an Organica White Chocolate Bar and really liked its flavor, and also appreciated that it is made with great ingredients including organic fair-trade cocoa butter, fair trade organic raw cane sugar, and organic rice syrup.

A little more cake, then a layer of fresh strawberry sauce...

More cake (here you see my elves helping out), and then finally the layers were topped off with the Celestial Cream, and shavings of more of the white chocolate.

All of these layers made for one monstrously delicious trifle...

For serving, it was as easy as spooning into a bowl or parfait glass (and in my case, scooping out extra bits of custard or celestial cream until just right!)

Salba Winner for December!

Time to announce the Salba contest winner for December...

Congratulations Tricia (comment #14)!

Please e-mail me within 4 days at dreena@everydayvegan.com so we can arrange for you to claim your prize. (if I don't hear from you within 4 days, another winner will be randomly selected)

Back soon with that Christmas dessert...