Saturday Nibbles.

Baked samosas. Recipe from Vegan Planet. I forgot to photograph the insides! Well, to give you an idea it has mashed orange yams, white potatoes, green peas, curry powder and cayenne.


Eggplant and Walnut Dip from The Greek Vegetarian. Served with carrots and pita crisps.

Pad Thai with Tofu

Ok, so I'm Thai and I've never made Pad Thai before! How dare I not? The reason being is that I always thought it was so hard and tricky. At least that is what my mother tells me. But I instilled some confidence in myself and with the help of my vegetarian Thai cookbook "Buddha's Table", I went to work. Yes, it's tricky because you have to move fast and also you want to stirfry it enough so that the noodles soften and cook but no overdo it so that the noodles might overcook. I think I did ok for the first time. But I was moving so fast that I forgot the vinegar as part of the ingredient list. Woops! Tastes good anyway. I will definitely make this again.

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!

Panera-esque Black Bean Soup & Spiced Pita Crisps

I'm so bad about using up the dried beans that like to hang out in my pantry. I usually go for convenience and use canned beans. But this weekend, I decided to put a bag of black beans to good use by making this soup. I've only been to Panera Bread once and had the black bean soup in a bread bowl. My husband wasn't fond of the food there but I really enjoyed my soup. Since he doesn't ever want to go back, I thought I'd re-create the soup at home. Luckily I found a recipe online to guide me. I did a few things different, one obviously being the use of dried beans instead of canned and adding carrots to the mix instead of the red bell pepper. I also added more cumin, threw in some cayenne, lemon pepper and black pepper. It was beautifully thick and perfect with the spiced pita crisps. The crisps recipe is from Veganomicon in which I used whole wheat pita, chili powder, garlic powder and salt.

Note: I cooked the dried beans the day before in the crockpot. 1 lb. dried beans plus 8 cups of water in the crockpot on low for 8-10 hours.

Gluten-Free Mac n Cheese

Sometime last year I went to Big Lots and found this gluten-free corn pasta at about $1.50 a bag. I should have gotten more because this pasta tastes great! It has a similar texture to that of wheat pasta and doesn't taste very "corny" at all, especially if it's covered in a creamy sauce like the one I made. The sauce is just a quick thing I whipped up that has garlic, olive oil, margarine, nutritional yeast, miso paste, water, salt, pepper, mustard powder, lemon and paprika. Duh-licious!

Roasted Veg and Kale Salad

Beautiful roasted potatoes, butternut squash, red peppers, onions, zucchini and carrots with thyme, rosemary, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.


Kale salad with spicy peanut sauce. It's a knock-off of M Cafe's kale salad that I absolutely love. I'll repost my recipe here:

My Interpretation of M Cafe's Kale w/ Spicy Peanut Sauce

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of salt
1 TB or more of red wine vinegar
1 TB or more of agave nectar
1 TB or more of soy sauce
water (to help thin out sauce if too thick)
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne
extra red pepper flakes

Whisk all ingredients together or blend. The measurements for the vinegar, agave, soy sauce etc. are loose because I was basically adding them from the bottle a bit at a time while whisking all together. I also tasted it as I went along until it was just right. You should do the same. It should be creamy, peanutty, slightly tangy and sweet with a spicy kick. The consistency of the dressing should be smooth, creamy and not too thick where you can't pour it.
Blanche a big bunch of kale in boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove kale and submerge immediately in ice water. Squeeze out all the water and pour sauce over the kale. You will probably have a lot more sauce than you need. Use what you want and save the rest for another dish! Toss lightly and add sliced red onions and chopped peanuts. Chill.

Spaghetti w/ Red Wine and Rosemary Marinara

Made dinner with help from my new cookbook 'Vegan Italiano' tonight. Very simple sauce that came together in under 30 minutes. I added lots of fresh basil and zucchini. I topped my portion of pasta with a blob of creamy cashew cheeze sauce that I got from work (sorry can't give you the recipe). The sauce was great when mixed in with the pasta, it made it very creamy and so yummy!