Revamping Leftovers: Black Bean Tostadas

Mmm, looks good doesn't it? The black bean soup from the weekend got very thick overnight in the fridge so I decided to use it for these delicious tostadas. I fried up a couple of corn tortillas, topped them with the beans, added shredded lettuce, chopped red onions, sliced radishes and hot sauce. They were great!

The Quintessential Comfort Food.

Back in my pre-vegan days I used to make a quick chicken pot pie from a store bought chicken, frozen pie crust, frozen vegetables and a can of cream of potato soup. Not anymore. Today's pot pie was a realization of all the fresh vegetables that I had available. It was also a result of last night's french onion soup leftovers. You see, I was already thinking "gravy" while I supped on the rich and delicious soup. What better way to utilize gravy than in a vegetable pot pie recipe? No need for those condensed and canned soups. I was going for a gravy that was rich and creamy with the flavors and aroma of caramelized onions, miso and red wine (ingredients that were in the soup). Something that would give the vegetables intense flavor. I think I succeeded.

What I did was this. I strained the broth from the onion soup and made a roux with Earth Balance margarine and flour. Then I stirred in the broth and whisked and whisked until it thickened. Then I added plain soymilk little by little while I whisked and let it simmer. I chopped some of the caramelized soup onions and put them in there too. A dash of salt and pepper later and I had my gravy. The filling was all about chopping and dicing: potatoes, broccoli, spinach, green beans, carrots, mushrooms and (frozen) corn. I cooked them over heat with a little water to soften the potatoes and then combined the mixture with the gravy. Then I poured it into the pie crust and covered it with a very lazy top pie crust and baked it for 40 minutes. I say lazy because I used an oil based pie crust which I think lacks the butteryness and that something something that traditional pie crusts have. I could have made one with margarine or shortening to get that flavor/texture but like I said, I was too lazy. But no matter, the pie turned out beautiful. Don't you think? No not really. It's a very home made lookin' pie and for what it lacks in beauty, the taste makes up for it all the more.


Inside shot. The gravy was the best gravy I've ever made.


Pie Hole!

VeganMoFo: The best dessert ever and more leftovers revamped.

I am so excited. I went to Thai Town today and shopped at a grocery store where they had freezers full of veggie ham, shrimp, salmon and beef chunks. All were very expensive so I had to pass. I knew that some of them probably had whey or eggs in them and I was too cold to search through it all because their freezers were ICY COLD. I was standing there with the freezer doors open literally shivering in my t-shirt while comtemplating on buying a ham tube. I moved on to the dessert freezer and found this:



Manna from heaven! I remember growing up eating this during my visits in Thailand and I somehow thought it had dairy in it. It is the most delicious ice cream (vegan ice cream!) that you will ever eat. If you don't like coconut or coconut milk, sorry! This totally made my day. Good thing I didn't buy the mock meats because this sucker cost me $15! Ingredients are: coconut milk, jack fruit, coconut, taro, sugar, salt. Five pounds of coconut heaven this.


I couldn't find or taste the taro in this. I think the green things are laht chong which is a dessert noodle flavored with pandan leaves.


My little dessert bowl because I have to control myself.
Edit: I just found a recipe for this ice cream online here. So for those of you with ice cream makers, go nuts!

Do you remember my food the other day, the rice casserole and bean salad? Here they are revamped as a pita sandwich with lettuce and chunks of baked sweet potato and then drizzled with poppyseed dressing.