Everybody Wants Some

Curried Tofu Salad: why did I not think to do this sooner?

2009-11-29T14:36:00.001-08:00

Sometimes an idea comes along that's so simple and amazing you want to punch yourself in the face for not thinking of it sooner. Making tofu "eggless" salad is a pretty standard thing to do, it's easy and keeps well and is a great source of protein and calcium without any of the gross aspects of real egg salad (which smells like fire and brimstone, and always made me want to hurl as a child), and I remember going out for lunch with an illustrator I used to assist in the studio and seeing her get curried egg salad wraps and tea while I quietly ate the one veggie sandwich on the menu and thinking it was a good idea. Then about 5 years later it hit me: why not curried tofu?

It's so simple. I just made a very basic scrambled tofu recipe with a pound of firm tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, and turmeric, cooked to heat it through and make everything golden. I let that cool and added diced red onion, cilantro, vegenaise, a healthy dose of curry powder and a tiny bit of cayenne pepper because I love cayenne pepper in everything. A lot of recipes for traditional (is it traditional? fuck if I know!) curried egg salad I found online also incorporate golden raisins or dried currants which I'm sure would be great as well. The logical next step is to make sandwiches with cucumber and slice them into dainty triangles and have them at a magical picnic in the woods with your favorite tea (in my case: English Breakfast, because Earl Gray makes me unhappy.)

Red Lentil is Red AWESOME

2009-11-29T13:10:00.000-08:00

There's a newish vegetarian and vegan place in Watertown! Red Lentil reminds me of vegetarian places I've been to in California, which is a good thing and a welcome addition to the Boston dining scene which at one point consisted mainly of 4 Asian restaurants and TJ Scallywaggles (RIP?) It's casual, but not divey, and has American style dining with some Indian and Middle Eastern influenced items on the menu and isn't horribly unhealthy or a festival of storebought meat analogs. Let's look at the photos!

The "Banana Wanna Date?" shake, which is the most twee-named thing I have ever ordered from a menu, but delicious nonetheless.

Nachos, ordered without the cheese and sour cream (the staff was totally cool about this, bless them, they very clearly mark the vegan items on the menu and I'm sure many of the other non vegan items could be readily modified as well, though I would love it if they invested in some Daiya or something). There was a weird fennel note in either the salsa or the beans but they were still really good, and we didn't feel like we were going to die after we ate them, something that cannot be said for standard nachos.Tuscan Portabello Sandwich with fantastic sweet potato fries and some kind of balsamic ketchup for dipping.

I would definitely go back in a heartbeat, possibly even shunning the Deluxe Town Diner across the street which has a vegan burger I used to like a lot, emerald green Lime Rickeys, and a charming greasy spoon environment that I always loved. The food is that good. If they joined forces and started serving Red Lentil's food at the Diner, I would likely just don a hairnet and start working there for free.

Before I forget...

2009-11-20T19:59:00.001-08:00

The amazing Hoveringdog has made this bingo card which will surely spread like wildfire through the internet vegan community! Post it on your facebook wall, and tag your friends every time one of them spouts any of these hoary old chestnuts!

I had a birthday

2009-11-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

I turned 29 last week! Obviously I celebrated with food.
First, I took myself on a date to Grezzo in Boston's North End:

This was the Juice of the Day, Cranberry Lemonade.

I also had raw "Gnocchi Carbonara" with pea tendrils and little chips of smoked eggplant standing in for bacon.

After work, I had pretty standard Vietnamese takeout with my husband and family, with the fancy addition of a cake from Patisserie Bleu in Downtown Nashua:

This was a special order, and they did a fantastic job. It was a vanilla cake with a mix of strawberries and vegan whipped cream inside, which was a nice departure from my usual choice of chocolate or chocolate/raspberry or chocolate/espresso. The little gnomes and the "Bonne Fete" topper were my own, from Bake it Pretty.

Cafe Indigo/Pear and Onion Flatbread

2009-10-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Above: Cafe Indigo's Seitan Reuben with Lemon-Rosemary Potatoes

I am pretty grateful that my family is so accommodating and open minded about my (and my husband's) veganism. They've had a lot of time to get used to it, as my sister and I stopped eating meat at the same time when we were in high school. There have been some hiccups along the way, but they're totally pros now (they also went vegetarian themselves for an entire week as part of a puja when my sister got married 3 years ago, which is a story for another day). Dining out with my family is never a trial. No one asks where we get our protein, or what we eat, or makes faces or acts condescending. These people are seasoned. My dad has gone from "I can't believe you two spend my money on all this stuff that looks like meat and tastes like shit" to happily eating with us at vegan restaurants and praising the all vegan Christmas dinner my sister and I made last year. My mom bakes vegan cupcakes all the time and instinctively keeps her fridge stocked with vanilla soy yogurt to replace the eggs. My brother eats like a Viking, and housed a plate of tofu scramble yesterday at brunch like he was Morrissey. They are the best.

Below: Jason's French Toast resting in the sunlight like a happy kitty cat!

In addition to having a pretty rad brunch twice a month and making amazing desserts that are sold all over New England, Cafe Indigo has a small retail area in the front that sells dry mixes, cakes to go, and most exciting to me, Cheezly. I've been eyeballing it for months and yesterday I picked up a few packages because you literally cannot find this stuff anywhere else that I know of around here. (hey Heather Mills! I heard you own this company now. Please start making it widely available in the United States and I will immediately rescind any negative thoughts I may have silently had about you or that vest of yours.)

My first impressions? Very, very positive. I used the Cheezly with "bacon-style pieces" (bacon is so hot right now, the internet carnivores all have a major wide-on for it, though a backlash is surely imminent because the internet is a fickle mistress) to make a flatbread (If I call my fancy pizzas "flatbreads" it will make me seem that much less obsessed with pizza, right?) and the results were fantastic:

It looks a little monochrome here but trust me, this was very, very good. I mixed the Cheezly with FYH mozzarella and topped it with sliced pear, sauteed onions, pine nuts, and additional Cheezly and it was AMAZING. Walnuts and Arugula would have been worthy additions too, or just about any fruit/nut combo you can dream up. I'm guessing if you wanted to replicate this at home but don't have access to Cheezly (get on that, Heather Mills!) you could use imitation bacon bits (I'm not too proud to admit my love of cheap bacon bits) or Bacon Salt with similar results. I have been eating leftovers all day while working on my Halloween costume and they are equally good.

Cafe Indigo Tomorrow!

2009-10-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

I'm making rice cooker saffron rice right now, but what I'm really looking forward to is brunch at Cafe Indigo tomorrow with my family! Above are the seitan rancheros I had last time! WHAT KIND OF MIRACLE WILL BE ON MY PLATE TOMORROW?

Indian-Style Pizza with Cilantro Mint Chutney

2009-10-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Let's start this shit off with some Indian influenced pizza. This is based off of a recipe in a book I ordered from Amazon that has all kinds of crazy awesome pizza ideas that I plan on working through and veganizing one by one, so watch this space!

I took a bag of Trader Joe's pizza dough and stretched it out to fit a 14" pizza screen (like this one) that I covered in parchment paper (the parchment paper is a must to keep the pizza screen and the dough from melding into one and ruining your pizza, trust me.) I brushed the dough with 2 tablespoons of mild olive oil (not extra virgin) into which I had added one clove of pressed garlic, one tsp each of garam masala and cumin, and 1/2 tsp of sugar. On top of this I spread chutney made by blending fresh mint and cilantro leaves with half a diced yellow onion, 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, and a small jalapeno pepper, seeded, destemmed and roughly diced. I topped it off with grated Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese (if a vegan cheese you like better is available where you live, by all means use that) that I lightly pressed down into the chutney prior to baking for 10 minutes at 475F. Garnish with cilantro, eat with some mango juice or Kingfisher and listen to some Asha Bhosle.