Vietnamese Pho – Vegetarian Style!

I was directed to this great recipe on the Veg News website by my co-worker’s girlfriend.  At work one day he commented on how she had made this great vegetarian Pho, so I was delighted when the link showed up in my inbox a few months later.

I have never had real authentic Pho with beef, so I can’t say if the soup tastes like it should or not. Regardless, it is a great soup and both EPC and I slurped it all up for dinner tonight.

No leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I wasn’t sure if the soup would be as good as the name  – Faux Pho.  Needless to say I spent a lot of time this weekend mentioning to my husband that I would be making Faux Pho, or was that (ahem) Pho Faux, for dinner on Sunday. I guess the soup was pretty stellar, because any annoyance he might have felt at my play on words over the course of weekend was remedied as he finished up his second bowl.

The soy sauce, Chinese five spice powder and of course the seitan make this into one meaty soup quite unlike anything I have had before, except maybe at Padmanadi.  And what do you know, it looks like Padmanadi is having an all you can eat vegetarian buffet this Feb 3 and 4 in celebration of Chinese New Year!

The Vietnamese Faux Pho was quick, easy and delicious, so we will definitely be having it again.

FYI:  I subbed one heaping cup of coarsely grated carrots for the mung bean sprouts, used Green Cuisine plain seitan (available at Planet Organic) and upped the amount of fresh lime juice considerably

Click here for the recipe

Sunday Night Success: Vegetable and Grain Croquettes, Beet Gratin, and Oven-Roasted Potatoes and Yams

I love making dinner on Sundays.

I am sure the same is true for everyone.  The weekend allows us  time to cook something that might take a little more time and effort than can be afforded on a weeknight. Some Sundays I make more of an  effort than others and since I had been stuck inside for a few weeks because of the inclement weather, I certainly had time to try out a new recipe.

In addition, EPC and I decided that we needed to invite our good friend over for dinner before she departs to Iceland for 3 months (she leaves on the 29th of this month!).  When I asked her  if she had any dinner requests she replied:

“Something with lots of vegetables.”

She is a vegetarian too, so I thought her comment was a bit funny.  Regardless I made vegetables the focus of the meal.

I had been wanting to try the Vegetable and Grain Croquettes from Peter Berley’s The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen.  The combination of millet, quinoa and lentils intrigued me AND I had never made croquettes before!

By the way, this cookbook is one my favourites and seems to be regarded quite highly by everyone else, since it won the James Beard Foundation Book Award and the IACP Cookbook Awards.   If you are in the market for a new cookbook I recommend that you take a look at it.

Since this dish was new to me (and slightly fiddly during the final moments of preparation), I decided to make oven-roasted root vegetables as well as a beet gratin topped with goat cheese and bread crumbs to round out the meal.  These two dishes would up the vegetable quotient without giving me much more work during the crucial point when I would be frying up the croquettes.

The meal was fabulous and left our friend commenting that she wished she could marry me and eat like this all the time.

*blush*

Anyway, I am sure she will have a marvelous time in Iceland and we will have to her over again when she returns to hear all the great stories about her time abroad.

Vegetable and Grain Croquettes
adapted from Peter Berley’s The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen

1/4 cup millet
1/4 cup quinoa
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup short grain brown rice, soaked for 4 hours and drained
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
3 cups water
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup of sweet potato, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely diced
1/4 cup onion or shallots, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
Freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup arrowroot powder
Peanut oil for frying

• Rinse the millet, quinoa, lentils, rice and sesame seeds in a fine strainer, drain, and place into a medium pot.
• Add 3 cups of water and bring to boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low and cover simmering for 35 minutes.
• In a medium frypan heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  Add the sweet potato, celery, onion, garlic, and ginger.  Saute for 5-10 minutes until lightly browned.  Add 2 tablespoons of water, cover, and cook on low heat until tender about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and put into a mixing bowl.
• When the grains and lentils are done add to the mixing bowl of vegetables.  Mix together and add the parsley and pepper.
• Spread the arrowroot powder on a plate
• Now, form the croquettes!  Moisten your hands and form into a small patty and dredge in the arrowroot powder. Reserve patties on a platter until you are ready to fry them up.
• Add 1/4-1/2 inch of oil to the bottom of a heavy skillet (I used my cast iron pan) and heat over medium high heat.  Adjust the heat according to the pan used.  When the oil in hot panfry the croquettes, about 3 or 4 at a time, for 3 minutes per side.
• Place cooked croquettes on a paper towel lined baking sheet.

I topped with an easy yogurt sauce based on Peter Berley’s slightly more fussy one.

Easy Yogurt Sauce

1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste
1 tablespoon lime juice, freshly squeezed
salt to taste
dash of maple syrup
1 cup of plain yogurt, not low fat!

Add the spices, lime juice and maple syrup to the yogurt.  Stir well and enjoy.

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Better late than never: the best recipes of 2010

After reading a post on Only Here For the Food about how The Polenta Pie that I featured back in November did not go over so well, I decided to take a look at all the recipes that I have posted over the past year and make an “ in-no-particular-order-best-of-list”.

I figure that this list will make choosing a recipe for dinner even easier.  I will preface this by saying that not everything I cook gets posted on Cookbook Cooks, not by a long shot, so a considerable amount of pre-screening does go on.  As a result, EPC and I think everything that has made its way onto the blog is yummy, even The Polenta Pie.  

However, we would both agree that some recipes rate higher on the “yumminess” scale than others.  So, with a person’s individual taste aside, the recipes that made the best of  list are guaranteed meals that EPC and I cook repeatedly and/or that guests have thoroughly enjoyed (none of which are particularly difficult to prepare either!)

1. Dhansak
2. Katchoomber Salad
3. Vegetarian Shepard’s Pie
4. Vegetarian Black Bean Enchilada Bake
5. Tex-Mex  Vegetarian Chili
6. Ethiopian Lentil Stew
7. Nigerian Kidney Bean Stew with Peanut Sauce
8. Three Sister’s Stew with Corn Dumplings
9. Easy Vegetarian Mulligatawny Soup
10. Greek Lentil Soup
11. Fire Roasted Tomato and Black Bean Soup
12. Spicy Coconut Sweet Potato Soup with Spinach
13. Easy Chipotle Mac and Cheese
14. Thai Noodles
15. Black Bean Skillet Casserole with Cornbread Topping
16. Gluten Free Spanakopita
17. Quick and Easy Veggie Burgers

If you give any of these recipes a try, let me know.  Should they have made the cut or not?

Nut Free (or not) Fruit-Sweetened Granola Bars

My friend asked me about 4 months ago if I knew any recipes for nut-free granola bars.  Since I am so remiss in getting around to whipping some up, I decided to post two delicious nut-free recipes.  In this case, the granola part of the bars needs to be made first as it provides the base for the fruit-sweetened bars.

Which means breakfast time and snack time are both covered!

I do not have much to say about these bars (aside from the fact that they are delicious!) other than they can be nut-free or not.  I did decide to add almonds for EPC and I, but a mix of pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds would work just as well.

They are chewy, reminiscent of a Lara Bar, but with less structural integrity.  In response, I wrapped each bar separately and stored them in the fridge.

Oh yeah, they can also be made to suit vegans and Celiacs alike!

Seed and Dried Fruit Granola
adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

6 cups of rolled oats (not quick oats) (for gluten-free use Only Oats rolled oats)
3/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds
2/3 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup of sesame seeds
1/4 cup of poppy seeds
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup of honey (substitute maple syrup for vegan granola)
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1/4 cup oil
1 cup of  dried fruit, such as raisins, chopped apricots, and tart cherries

• Preheat the oven to 300°F
• Heat a large pot over medium low heat.  Add the oats and stir until fragrant, about 5 minutes
• Add the seed mixture and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Pour the roasted oats and seeds into a large (9X13) casserole dish and add the cinnamon, oil, honey and maple syrup.  Stir well to mix
• Take 1/3 of the mixture and spread out on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (this step is optional, but it produces a more crunchy and darker granola which offers a nice contrast to the lighter cooked granola in the casserole)
• Put the casserole dish and the cookie sheet into the oven and bake for 20 minutes stirring halfway through.
• Remove from the oven and stir in the fruit.

This makes about 7 cups of granola.  When cool, store in an airtight container.

Fruit-Sweetened Granola Bars
adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

1 1/2 cup of mixed dried fruit.  I used about equal amounts of raisins, apricots, and apples
1/4 cup of oil
1/2 cup water
2 cups of Seed and Dried Fruit Granola
1 cups of seeds or nuts of your choice. I used almonds.

• Add granola and seeds or nuts to a large bowl
• Put the dried fruit mixture, oil and water into a food processor and blend until smooth.
• Scrape the fruit mixture in a small pot and warm on the stove top.   When hot pour over the granola mixture and stir well to coat.
• Line a 8 x 8 square pan with cling wrap and press the mixture into the pan.
• Cool in the fridge for 1-2 hours until firm and slice into 12-16 bars.

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