Phebe's Spicy Pumpkin Pie

Filling:
1 small sugar pumpkin, roasted and peeled, or about 2 cups canned pumpkin
1 12 oz package firm silken tofu
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1 tbsp corn or tapioca starch
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp mace
1/2 tsp garum masala

1/2 vodka crust recipe or store bought pie shell

The day before (if you're using fresh pumpkin and home-made crust):
Roast the pumpkin by cutting it in half, scooping the seeds and strings out, inverting each half on a cookie sheet, and baking at 400 degrees for about 1 hour, or until you can pierce the pumpkin through its skin easily with a fork. Let the cooked pumpkin cool, and then peel the outer skin off (should be able to do this with your fingers). Store cooked peeled pumpkin in fridge overnight.

Make the crust recipe. Store wrapped in plastic or in an air tight container in the fridge overnight.

Morning of your dinner:

Put your pumpkin and the tofu, drained, in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher. When it's broken down into small lumps, add the other ingredients. You can modify your spices to taste. Use a hand blender to mix the filling together. Keep scraping down the sides of the bowl and keep blending until there are NO lumps of tofu. It should be completely consistent and creamy in texture when you're done. Tofu lumps in pie are fairly nasty.

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Take your pastry out of the fridge. Roll out your crust, and lay it in pan. Trim to fit. Pour filling into raw crust (can be frozen, if that's what you're using). Bake for about an hour, until the top of the pumpkin filling is set (looks dry on top). The filling will probably also have some cracks through it, and the crust should be golden.

The filling will not be completely set until the pie is cool. That's why it's best to do it in the morning, and let it cool for the rest of the day. You can refrigerate it, but if you put it in the fridge while it's still too warm, condensation will make the crust soggy.

I serve this pie with the tofu whipped cream from Dairy Free and Delicious.

Chinese-style Tofu Vegetable Dumplings

These are a quick and wonderful meal! I know there are many kinds of Chinese dumplings, but I couldn't really tell you what these would be classified as, since they're our own bastardized version.

We bought dumpling/wonton wrappers from our local Asian market, which made it super easy, but you could also make your own if you can't find any, or can't find any that are vegan.

Filling:
1/2 lb tofu cut into large cubes
6-8 large brown mushrooms, quartered
1 inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 green onions, chopped into pieces
1 or 2 carrots, peeled and chopped (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Then, pulverize in a food processor in batches, emptying the food processor out into another large bowl. When all the batches are done, mix all off the mashed up vegetables and tofu together to get an even consistency to your filling. If you have a big food processor you might just be able to skip that step and put all of the ingredients in at once and blend them.

To make the dumplings, wet around the edges of your wrapper with a finger dipped in water. Put 1 tsp of filling in the centre of each wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and then pinch the sides of the wrapper together all the way around to make a semi-circle shape, or pinch each side together in the middle, and then the other opposite sides together in the middle to make little four-pointed dumpling "purses" (pictured above). When they're done, you can freeze them on parchment paper on a flat surface in your freezer, putting them in a ziplock once they're solid (pictured below). Fresh dumplings should be steamed about 15 minutes. Frozen dumplings can be steamed for an extra 3-5 minutes. I use a metal steamer lined with parchment paper. Be sure to space dumplings out because they will stick to each other. You can eat them steamed, or you can fry them until golden in vegetable oil, turning once so each side gets cooked.

I love having these on hand in the freezer when I don't know what to cook! I like to just put soy sauce on them, but you can also use chili sauce, plum sauce or a mixture of sauces for dipping.

This filling recipe made about 20 dumplings.

Vodka Apple Pie

 

I haven't liked many of the pie crust recipes I've tried. For years I made an oil-based crust because I couldn't get any non-hydrogenated shortening where I lived. It tasted good, but it wasn't as flaky as pastry made with solid fat, and it tended to fall apart when it was being rolled out. When I made this apple pie for Easter (yes, this post, like most, is terribly belated) I decided to try to find a flaky pie crust recipe. I ended up using this one because the science behind putting alcohol in the crust seemed sound to me.

And I have to say, I was the richest, flakiest crust I've had. The recipe made way too much dough for my pie pan, though, so I ended up using the rest to make turnovers filled with leftover apple chickpea curry (yum!) and some filled with strawberry rhubarb jam. So good.

Filling is mixed apples, cinnamon, ginger cloves, garum masala (my mum's secret ingredient in pie) a a tablespoons or two of flour and raw cane sugar.

Pho Soup & Pho Salad

Pho Broth cooking in slowcooker.

This is modified from the Slow Pho recipe, p. 57 in Fresh From the Vegetarian Slowcooker by Robin Robertson, which is one of my favourite cookbooks.

The main change I've made to the recipe is to serve the Pho with tofu crutons instead of fried seitan strips, as I'm not a fan of seitan strips in soup. I've also tweaked the seasonings.



Add the following to a slow cooker or large pot:

1 small onion, peeled and quartered
1 small fresh chili pepper or 1/2 jalapeno pepper
3 slices ginger, about 1/2 cm thick, cut in half

2-3 whole star anise (can use broken ones too!)
1 large or 2 small cinnamon sticks
3 tbsp Braggs or soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp whole peppercorns
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half
1 vegetable bullion cube (omit if using stock)
Enough water and/or stock to nearly fill the pot (about 4-5 cups)

Bring the broth to a simmer. Depending on your slowcooker this might require turning it up to high, and then down to low once it's simmering. It will take an hour or two for it to start simmering on medium. This broth can be cooked up to 6 hours, but should be done in 4. Once you've put the broth on to simmer, you can marinate the tofu by mixing:

3 Tbsp Braggs or soy sauce
3 or 4 drops liquid smoke
1 cm thick slice of ginger, finely chopped or one rounded tsp powdered ginger
1-2 cloves finely chopped garlic or 1 rounded tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 Tbsp olive oil (or a combination of olive & sesame oil)

Cut 1/4 block of tofu per person into 2 cm cubes. The marinade recipe above makes enough for 2 servings worth of tofu. Put tofu in an air-tight container and pour marinade over it. Put it in the fridge to marinate while the broth cooks, periodically shaking the container to redistribute the marinade over the tofu blocks.

When the broth has simmered for about three hours (your house should smell really good), use a slotted spoon or small sieve to fish all the bits/herbs out of the broth. Then add to the broth:

2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp dark miso paste
2 rounded tsp marmite

Cook the broth for another hour.

While the broth finishes cooking, prepare the pho toppings.

To make the tofu crutons, heat up a generous amount of oil, but not enough to deep fry (about 1/2 cm deep) in a cast iron pan on medium heat. Remove the tofu from the marinade with a slotted spoon or fork and into the hot oil, trying to avoid putting the garlic and ginger in the pan, as they will burn before the tofu has cooked. Cook the tofu cubes, turning them occasionally until they are evenly golden brown and crispy all over. Remove the tofu with slotted spoon or fork and put onto a plate lined with paper towel.

In addition to the tofu crutons, prepare any of the following toppings:

- wash fresh bean sprouts
- chop green onions
- cut limes into eights
- wash cilantro and remove leaves from stems

About 10-15 minutes before the pho broth should be finished cooking, prepare noodles according to package directions. I recommend brown rice spaghetti, but have used ramen and other kinds of noodles as well. DO NOT cook the noodles in the broth. Tempting though this is, the starch from the noodles will turn your pho into glue. It's pretty gross. I recommend cooking the noodles, putting individual servings of them into bowls, and then pouring broth on top of them. This avoids mushy noodles and starchy broth, both of which make for yucky pho.

When the noodles are done cooking, drain them and rinse them with cold water in a colander. Assemble soup by putting a small serving of noodles in a bowl, a ladleful or two of broth into the bowl, squeezing a piece of lime into the bowl and then chucking it in there for extra flavour, and throwing some cilantro, green onions, sprouts and tofu crutons on top. Eat soup alternating between chopsticks and spoon. Excellent food if you're sick!

If you have leftover pho ingredients, you can make them into a tasty salad.

Pho Salad

Assemble in a large single-serving bowl or plate:
Fresh washed spinach leaves
Fresh washed mint leaves
Fresh washed parsley and/or cilantro leaves
chopped green onions
fresh washed bean sprouts
Tofu crutons

Dressing:
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
a squirt of Braggs
lots of freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp olive oil

Shake in a container with a tight-fitting lid and pour over salad. Garnish salad with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

Tastes really fresh and delish!

Sandwiches: TLT and Caesar Tempeh Wrap

TLT (Tofu, Lettuce and Tomato) Sandwich

4 slices ripe tomato

4 leaves romaine lettuce

5 pieces tofu bacon

2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted

margarine

vegan mayo

I'm going to assume I don't need to tell you how to make a sandwich.

Tempeh Caesar Wrap

• Fry about 8 pieces of Tofurky brand tempeh bacon, or homemade if you have a recipe you like

• While tempeh bacon is frying, tear up and wash about 1/2 head romaine lettuce, and prepare the dressing by adding the following to a glass jar with a tight fitting lid or to a food processor:

- Juice of one large lemon (2-3 Tbsp)

- 1 or 2 dashes hot sauce (such as Frank's Red or Tabasco)

- 2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic

- 1 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (I use Wizard brand, there are also numerous recipes out there to make your own).

- 1 Tbsp dijon mustard

- 1/4 cup plain soy yogurt or soft tofu (if you use the tofu that comes in a tube - often available in Asian markets - you can squeeze some into the jar. If you're using firmer soft tofu from a box, you will probably want to make the dressing in a food processor or blender to get the tofu to mix in. You don't really need to yogurt/tofu at all, but it makes the dressing creamier).

- 1/2 cup good quality olive oil (I use Zantoun, which is organic and fair trade. So good on bread, too).

• Shake/blend all dressing ingredients until fully mixed.

• Toss the lettuce with the dressing and 3 Tbsps vegan "parmesan" in a big bowl.

• Add in the fried tempeh bacon, and, if desired, croutons (I didn't have any and wasn't going to take the time to make some, so there are none pictured here). Capers are also a tasty addition.

• Warm a whole wheat wrap briefly in the microwave (15 seconds) or in a cast iron frying pan set on the stove on low until warm to the touch.

• Wrap up some salad in the tortilla, or if you prefer, eat the salad on its own, as a meal or side (great with spaghetti dinner!)

Vegan Hot Cross Buns for the Feast of Ēostre!

Vegan Dad beat me to this! He posted a recipe this week, after I'd already planned these. I didn't follow his recipe though, because I wanted to use the bread machine. Instead, I adapted this one.

Put the following ingredients into bread machine:



• 2 tbsp. flax seeds, ground in coffee grinder
• 5 tbsp. warm water
• 3/4 cup warm soy milk (I used freshly made soy milk, so it was warm already!)
• 1/2 cup canola oil (this was by accident - it was supposed to be 1/3 cup, but it turned out fine nonetheless!)
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar
• 3 tbsp. raw cane sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp mace
• pinch of salt
• grated rind of one large lemon

Place carefully on top of liquid in bread machine:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white bread flour
• 1 cup all purpose white flour

Make a tablespoon sized indentation in the flour and put in it:
• 1 tbsp quick rise yeast

Turn bread machine onto dough setting. If your machine has an 'add' feature, add the fruit when the beeper goes off. Mine apparently doesn't (was a hand-me-down and didn't come with a manual, so it doesn't as far as I know) so I just kneaded in the fruit on a lightly floured counter when it was finished its last rise and the beeper went off.

For the fruit, I used:
• 1/2 cup currants
• 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger
• 1/4 cup finely chopped candied cherries

I don't think the last two things are traditional in hot cross buns, but I basically just went to the bulk store and picked things that looked tasty. Use whatever fruit you like.

Divide dough into 18 more or less equal pieces (I just kept dividing pieces in half, or bigger pieces into thirds) and roll them into balls.

Place balls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. (Next time I think I might use parchment cause mine stuck a bit despite grease.) If you want pull-aparts, place the balls closer together so the sides will touch when they expand. Cover the balls with a clean towel and let them rise again, until about double in size (about 1.5 hours, but could be less if your kitchen is warm). Preheat the oven for the last 30 minutes of the rise, at 400 F.

Bake for 9 minutes, or until they sound hollow when tapped, and are firm on the outside.

Let cool a bit, and then make frosting:

• 1/4 cup magarine (I use Becel Vegan)
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• icing sugar enough to make a thick paste

Put into the corner of a ziplock bag, squeezing all of the air out. Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag, and pipe on crosses (I was interested to learn that the crosses on hot cross buns are  not originally a Christian symbol!)

Grandma's Yorkshire Pudding, Veganized & Toad in the Hole

There are several different dishes which are referred to as toad in the hole. The one I grew up with is sausage encased in Yorkshire pudding. That's the version I've veganized here. It's pretty delicious. Even my partner Jon (a guest blogger here!) likes it, and he's not partial to 'bland' English foods. It's definitely in my top 5 comfort foods.

Yorkshire Pudding:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

• Blend 1/2 cup soft tofu in blender with
1 cup soy milk.
• Put tofu mix in bowl and mix in 1 c. all purpose unbleached white flour and 1/2 tsp salt.

Put a small pat of margarine (1-2 tsp) in the bottom of each of a dozen muffin cups. Put the muffin tin in the oven long enough to melt the margarine (1-2 minutes).

Fill muffin cups with melted margarine in them about 1/2-3/4 full of the batter.

If you want to make toad in the hole, put a piece or two of vegan breakfast sausage into each cup, pressing it down into the batter. (We like using Yves, we were not fond of the Tofurky ones we tried). The sausages, unlike the pork sausage my mum used to use, don't need to be pre-cooked, cause they're made out of plants!

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot with margarine or gravy.

These vegan ones, I must admit, are not quite as fluffy and flavourful on their own as my grandma's, made with egg (and originally with roast drippings, too, though of late she makes them with margarine) but once the gravy's on them, they're just as good.

The Yorkshire pictured here are served with my mushroom miso gravy and butternut squash baked with olive oil, garlic and maple syrup. Yum!

On Gluten Free Baking

So, I have no problem digesting gluten, at least not in the amounts contained in breads and other baked goods. My problem is digesting lactose, or large servings of protein at a go. But I happen to have several friends who can't eat gluten, so I've recently started experimenting with gluten free baking. Lots of the information I've found on-line seems confusing, and many of the recipes use hard-to-find or expensive ingredients. Not really appealing to someone who just wants to bake gluten free now and again.

So I'm going to share with you a few of the things I've learned about easy gluten-free baking.

• Gluten free baking tends to be dry, so recipes that are moist to begin with - such as those that contain pureed fruits or vegetables - tend to convert best. Alternately, it's good to add a little extra liquid (a few tablespoons) when adapting recipes.

• Gluten, among other things, helps baked goods rise. Non-gluten baking doesn't rise as high in the pan, so you need to fill the pan or muffin cups pretty much to the top instead of 3/4 of the way if you want a regular sized cake/cupcake/muffin.

• Using a blend of several different gluten free flours in combination works much better than using one. I'd say use at least three types.

• Most gluten free flours are pretty expensive, at least around here. A cheaper option is to make your own flours using a coffee grinder. If you are going to use the flour in something you don't want to taste like coffee (ie. most things) buy a seperate coffee grinder to use for flour-making. (I got one at Canadian Tire for $10 that works fine. I have also seen them at yard sales, and they'd probably be fine if cleaned out). So far, I have successfully made rice and quinoa flour in mine. I will update when I try making my own bean flours. All you have to do to make flour is fill the grinder 3/4 of the way, and grind until you have a fine powder (ie. something that looks like flour!) It might take you more than one round of grinding to make enough flour, but not necessarily, since you might only be using 1/4 cup of each flour!

•Tapioca flour, aka tapioca starch, is reasonably priced, so I buy that. (Plus, I don't have a source of dry cassava root...)

• You can also use the coffee grinder to grind flax seeds, which I've found to be the best egg replacer in gluten-free baking (many gluten free recipes I've seen call for several eggs or egg whites, probably to lend the fluffiness gluten-free goods lack. As such, I've found it best to just adapt tried and true recipes using egg and wheat replacements). 3 tbsp water + 1 tbsp ground flax seed = 1 egg.

• Most gluten free baking batters taste horrible. So, if you lick the bowl after putting the cake in the oven and think "yuck," don't worry, it'll taste fine when it's cooked. Bean flour in particular has a pungent flavour when raw, and, though it adds nice texture, it is strongly flavoured even when cooked, so I recommend using a smaller proportion of bean flour in recipes.

Gluten Free Dinner Muffins

The dinner muffin is posted on the left. On the right is President's Choice Blue Menu Dark Chocolate Bran Muffin, made with a banana in place of the egg whites the package calls for (not gluten free). I don't normally like baking mixes, but I enjoy the blue menu stuff in a pinch.

I had plans to make gluten-free cornmeal muffins for a recent potluck, but after already starting the recipe I realized I had no cornmeal. I must have imagined or dreamed about buying some at the Bulk Barn recently...

But, I improvised a non-cornmeal muffin, and the result was tasty enough to share. These are inspired by the Whole Wheat Muffin recipe in Jean Paré's Company's Coming: Muffins and More p. 37 - an old standby of mine, and a very forgiving & easily retooled recipe.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Mix together:
• 1/2 cup garfava bean flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 tbsp flax seed, ground in coffee grinder (not the one you use for coffee!)

Add to this dry mixture:
• 1 cup + 3 tbsp soy milk
• 1 tbsp liquid sweetner (I used agave)
• 1/4 cup canola oil.

Stir thoroughly. Fill greased muffin cups to the top. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm. Good with chili.


Makes 8-10 muffins.

Phebe's Famous Chocolate Cake - My most requested recipe!

Here it is, at long last. I think pretty much anyone who's ever eaten this cake has asked me for the recipe, and many people have told me it's the best chocolate cake they've had. It is incredibly moist and not too sweet. I got the original version from a Sunrise Tofu Cookbook ages and ages ago (I don't even have the original book anymore) and have tweaked it since.

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix together:
• 1 c. cocoa powder
• 1 & 1/2 c. flour (see note)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• a dash of salt

In a separate bowl beat together:
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup sugar (see note)
• egg replacer equal to 3 eggs (see note)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Add to wet ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, top and end removed, with skin, finely grated.


In a blender or food processor, puree:
• 1 300 gram package of soft, silken or dessert tofu (see note)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Add pureed tofu mixture alternately with dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

Line one 9 x 13 rectangular pan or 2 smaller (8-10 inch?) cake pans (if you want a layer cake) with waxed paper. Fill the pan/each pan to about 1 or 3/4 inch from the top.

Cake is done when inserted toothpick comes out clean (40-45 minutes).

Don't remove the cake from pan until it has at least partly cooled. It will fall apart.

Frost when completely cool.

I've used lots of different kinds of frosting on this cake. The most basic one is:

• 1/2 c. softened non-hydrogenated vegan shortening
• 1/2 cup softened non-hydrogenated vegan margarine
• 1 tsp pure vanilla or other  flavouring (adding a tsp of instant coffee granules is very tasty).
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder (can use more or less depending on how chocolatey you want it)
• 3-4 cups icing/confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk (soy, almond, coconut)

Blend the fats and flavouring with a whisk or electric mixer. Add in just enough sugar till the frosting texture is a bit dry and clumpy. Then add in the "milk." Add in more sugar if needed to bring frosting to a spreadable consistency.

 Notes:
• Typically, I use either unbleached white flour or whole wheat pastry flour. For a gluten free cake (the one you see here that says "congrats Dr. Dilia" is gluten free) I use 1/4 cup bean flour, 1/4 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup quinoa flour and 1/2 cup tapioca flour. These measurements are approximate, since I basically just spooned the different flours into two measuring cups until they were full. I don't think the ratios are as important as having a mix of flours. When I make a gluten free cake, I use flax as my egg replacer. See more gluten-free baking tips.
• I typically use granulated raw cane sugar but I have made this recipe successfully with white sugar or a combo of brown sugar and white sugar
• I have used several different things in place of eggs with success. I have used soft or dessert tofu, if I have a bigger package than the recipe calls for (3 Tbsp pureed tofu = one egg). I have also used ground flax seeds (1 Tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 Tbsp water =  1 egg). I have also used corn starch or pre-mixed starched-based egg replacer  (1 tbsp + 4 tbsp water for each egg). This is really a very forgiving recipe in terms of what binder you use, because the tofu, and possibly the zucchini as well, already provide some binding capacity.
• The exact amount of tofu isn't really that important, as long as you get it in the ballpark. I have used slightly smaller packages and slightly larger packages than the recipe calls for with success. And, as I noted above, if the package is a bit too big, you can use the extra as the egg replacer. If it's, say, a 500 gram package, just estimate a little less than half, scoop that our of the package and toss it in the blender. I've never had this cake fail on me, and I mess around with the proportions all the time.