Falafel Pie

I saw this Buzzfeed article of 30 vegan recipes that take less than 30 minutes. I'll be honest that most of them looked gross. Two got my attention though- falafel pie and cauliflower pizza bites.

The original falafel pie recipe was from theveganstoner.com which, even though I don't smoke pot, pretty accurately describes the way I eat and think about food. For two days- TWO DAYS- afterward I couldn't stop thinking about this awesome falafel pie. It's falafel mix pressed into a pie pan instead of the traditional falafel ball, topped with hummus, cucumber, tomato, kalamata olives and homemade vegan tzitziki sauce. 

I went to SuperTarget and was surprised they didn't have falafel mix. I could have sworn I had purchased it there in the past. I knew they didn't have the unflavored soy yogurt I needed for the tzatziki so I wasn't filled with rage about the ordeal. But I was very certain that Trader Joes would have both. Trader Joes had NEITHER! I couldn't believe it. So I said "F-word this S-word," drove home and improvised. On the way home, premenstrual and exhausted, I heard the Trader Joes sales associate's voice in my head over and over: "have you tried Whole Foods?" Pffft have I tried Whole Foods.

I started thjnking, the main ingredient in falafel is chickpeas. I had a can. I had spices. I could do this. After finding a falafel recipe I could trust, I noticed that the recipe was ACTUALLY a recipe FOR falafel pie, but using a falafel-from-scratch method, unlike the Vegan Stoner. 

I made mine gluten-free so my son Felix could eat it too (I had to add a couple more tablespoons of flour to form the dough into a ball, and I have a feeling that traditional flour would have made the crust crispier, but it was still good), and had two non-vegan friends over for dinner as well. I grilled some veggie kabobs to go with this. The grown-ups loved it and asked for seconds. I used the onions I had on the kabobs as additional falafel pie toppings, so next time I'm definitely throwing some onion on top of the pie before baking.

Believe it or not, the tzitziki sauce thing also pissed me off because I was not about to make it with vanilla flavored soy yogurt but couldn't go without it. Then I remembered that I made vegan ranch dip for my fried veggies a couple days prior. So I used that, finely diced 1/4 cucumber  into it and a little bit of lemon juice. It was perfect. So if you've got Veganaise and soy milk laying around you don't need soy yogurt to make this necessary sauce. 

FALAFEL PIE (recipe from Heat Oven to 350)

1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp baking powder
4 – 5 tablespoons flour
vegetable oil
1 tomato, roughly chopped
1 cucumber, roughly chopped
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
3/4 cup hummus (prepared or homemade)
cucumber sauce/tzatziki for drizzling (suggested recipe below)

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place chickpeas, onion, parsley, cilantro, salt, red pepper flakes, garlic and cumin in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Process until blended but not pureed — texture should be rougher than hummus.
3. Sprinkle in baking powder and 4 tablespoons of flour, and pulse. Add enough flour so dough can be formed into ball.
4. Coat bottom of 9″ pie pan with vegetable oil. Add falafel mix into pie pan and pat it down until flat. Brush top of falafel mix with more oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake just until top appears dry and the falafel is firm to, about 20-23 minutes.
5. Top baked falafel with hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, and olives. Top with cucumber sauce (I spooned it into a ziploc bag and cut the corner of the bag with scissors to squeeze out uniformly) and serve.

More Waffles

Ok so this time I made gluten-free vegan waffles (same recipe but using GF flour... My favorite is King Arthur's), and decided to sandwich them with Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese blended with powdered sugar, a bunch of strawberries and some maple syrup. All was going well and I produced four good (airy, flaky and funnel-cakelike) waffles until I got distracted by something and cooked a waffle too long. 

My waffle iron from 1974 refused to open, even after calling it a "stupid motherf@&$." Luckily a friend was there to help me pry it open. This took multiple tries.

Do not accidentally overcook a waffle.

Also, buy cooking spray. I didn't.

Anyway here's a picture.

Improvise.

Sometimes you find yourself with a kitchen full of stuff that doesn't seem like it would go together. And in those moments, sometimes you throw together something and happen to have all the ingredients. This happened tonight when I made this. It was tasty and warm, and just as I finished making it, it started snowing!

Curried Apple Rice Pilaf

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1/2 cup applesauce 

2 teaspoons curry powder 

1 cinnamon stick

2 cups vegetable stock 

1 cup basmati rice

Handful of cashews, halved

Salt, to taste (optional) 

Heat olive oil in a pot with a cover. Sauté onion and garlic on low heat until soft, then add applesauce, curry powder,and cinnamon stick until blended and warm. Add the vegetable broth, cashews and rice, and heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it steam for five minutes, then stir the ingredients together (the applesauce and spices will rise to the top of the rice).

Pumpkin Bread!

It has been a while. I have actually accidentally veered into vegan, gluten-free foods. It's really easy in fall time: baking vegan and gluten-free is so much easier when you can use pumpkin and applesauce to keep breads, cakes and other baked goods moist. 

I'm a single mom now. Thinking that two years ago I cooked like this almost every day, it's a wonder I have quite lost a bit of weight! I miss walking into my kitchen in the morning and smelling the yummy things I baked or cooked the night before. I'm starting to get back into the groove and it feels great! 

Last night I took a traditional pumpkin bread recipe, substituted some ingredients so it would be GF and vegan, and it turned out yummy! I want to make it again and add raisins or frost it with a sweetened vegan cream cheese. I wasn't fully aware that the recipe made three whole loaves, so after the kids and I were done baking we brought some up to the other three tenants in our 4-plex. 

Side-note: even though there was clearly no smoke or fire, my fire alarm did not like this pumpkin bread. It completely flipped out. I couldn't disable it because it was wired to the wall. I pulled it out. I think it was possessed because it kept beeping even afterward. As you know, there is never a "hey, you may want to check the oven" setting on a fire alarm. It's always a horribly loud "HOLY SHIT YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE GET OUT NOW BEFORE YOU DIE" setting. So I threw it in my car. Don't worry... I have another one.

Vegan gluten-free Pumpkin Bread

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin purée

1 cup applesauce 

1 stick Earth Balance buttery spread 

2/3 cup water 

3 cups white sugar 

3 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour 

6 teaspoons baking powder 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 

1/2 teaspoon ginger 

Grease 3 loaf pans. Heat oven to 350. Mix wet ingredients and sugar in a mixer. Blend together the dry ingredients separately and slowly add until well-blended.  Divide mix into the three pans and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean. 

You gotta have cute bag clips... 

When Life Gives You Lemons...

A fitting title for my latest blog after a hiatus of a decent length, wouldn't you agree? I'm finally back at making some food and not just microwaving Amy's frozen dinners. It's been a long few months!

I don't know what got into me but I wanted dessert, and bad. Felix is gluten-free and I wanted him to be able to have some of whatever it was I was making. Vegan and gluten-free doesn't always sound good especially when you're talking desserts.

Enter: sugar, vegan butter, some GF carbs and a whole crapload of lemons.

All of those things are pretty good. So together they made a good treat. I got the recipe from Cheap and Simple Vegan, you can find it here:

http://www.cheapandsimpleveganrecipes.com/gluten-free-vegan-lemon-bars/

Here are some pictures! It was pretty easy to make, just wicked messy. It felt good to bust out my beautiful cherry red KitchenAid mixer again.

Heres one before baking- bake the crust for about 20 minutes first, then pour on a decadent lemon sauce that you bake for about 20 minutes more.

And after... Dusted with a little powdered sugar!

GF Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

Today was a day of discovery for me. I rifled through my entire Pinterest account and re-pinned my own pins into categories called "Veganize This." I made four- Breakfast, Lunch/Dinner, Dessert and Snacks. While doing this I found a great resource for some fun vegan recipes. I got lost in it!

http://foodgawker.com/tag/vegan/page/2/#1

Of all the things I can cook, my Achilles' heel was always eggplant. I'm not sure why but I always messed it up. Today I tried again and the results turned out pretty good!

I did a little research and discovered that peeling eggplant helps smooth out the texture, and soaking it in salt water for a few minutes gets it pliable. I did this before I started.

Funny thing is that I went to all these extra lengths to make this recipe gluten-free, even though I was pretty sure he would hate the texture. Autistic kids almost always have texture issues and my son is no exception. He is very picky and didn't care for this, but ironically my middle son who inquired and subsequently scoffed the eggplant LOVED it. Kids... What are you gonna do?

Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium eggplant (peeled, sliced 1/4 inch thick, soaked in salt water and patted dry)

2 slices Udi's gluten-free bread (you can use regular bread too)

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 cup almond milk

1 cup shredded or sliced vegan cheese

3 cups pasta sauce (I know it's not very foodie but my very favorite sauce of all time is Prego)

2 Tbsp Vegan Parmesan

1 box quinoa pasta, any type

Place the eggplant on a baking sheet and brush with olive oil. Broil until the eggplant is browned on both sides.

Toast the Udi's bread and pulse it in a food processor with the Italian seasoning. Place in a shallow bowl.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Set the oven to bake at 350 degrees. Boil the water and cook the quinoa pasta.

Dip each slice of eggplant into the almond milk and dredge them one by one into the bread crumb mixture. Return them to the baking sheet and sprinkle them with shredded vegan cheese (or top each one with thinly-sliced vegan block cheese). Pour pasta sauce evenly over the top of the eggplant and bake until the pasta is al dente, drained and rinsed, and cheese is melted.

To serve, plate the pasta and top with the eggplant, then scoop the sauce over the top. Generously sprinkle with vegan Parmesan or nutritional yeast.