Vegan French Toast at Meli’s

The making behind Monk’s Meat: Seitan in Brooklyn

I’m a huge fan of seitan and this looks delicious.

Here’s the original post on NYTimes Diner’s Journal

Check out the New York Times article and recipes for the Holiday:

Mana Food Bar

Dined out on the patio after a summer storm in Chicago. Had some great appetizers, but the best thing on the menu has to be their mushroom sliders. I love their small plate menu and simplicity around their dishes. Definitely one of my favorite restaurants.

Just found this spot this week for lunch called S’nice Cafe. They serve all vegan/vegetarian sandwiches and salads at their three locations. I had a tempeh rueben sandwich, which was pretty hearty. It was so nice (s’nice) to find good food at a relaxing place in such a crazy city!

Beyond Meat founders are interested in the potential for providing alternative proteins for vegans and vegetarians as well as getting meat-eaters on a better health track and improve upon our food system’s sustainability. “Being able to change the game in terms of how we deliver protein to the growing human population is probably the single biggest thing anybody could do,” says Amol Deshpande, a partner at the firm.

Curry Hill, NYC

A friend from NYC gave me a few recommendations and one of them was to check out curry hill neighborhood for the food and sent a New York Times article listing out some restaurants.  Although Tiffin Wallah wasn’t listed, it had high Yelp reviews. You could smell the curry as we came closer to Lexington Ave. They are known for their tiffin dinners with different types of traditional thali foods. It was fun to try as well as the uttapam, a rice and lentil flour pancake with mixed vegetables.

(Source: yelp.com)

Blossom NYC

This was only my second visit to NYC and the focus of my itinerary was a merge of many restaurant suggestions by several friends. A friend had forwarded a list of the best vegetarian/vegan restaurants in NYC and one of them happened to be Blossom. This was the first restaurant I went to after landing from the airport. Their sandwiches were filling and saucy. Also recommend their pot pie too. It’s a cute small place with a bakery next door that I’ll have to check out next time!

(Source: blossomnyc.com)

Lunch on a rainy day = buckwheat noodles with mushrooms, cucumbers, tofu, garlic, green onions with sesame seeds and sprinkling of dulse flakes.

Easy Pita Sandwich

Usually there’s lunches that just need to be easy. These are multi-grain pitas toasted and sliced. Stuffed with vegan ham and cucumber slices with vegan mayo and cracked pepper. 

Berry Crepes

I’ve never made crepes before and it always just looked too hard. I figure a weekend morning to try wasn’t going to hurt. I got the recipe from Vegan Yum Yum, who has recipes for different sweet and savory fillings. These crepes turned out to be pretty yummy.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Soy milk or almond milk
• 2/3 c. Water
• 1/4 c. Earth Balance, melted
• 1 c. White flour
• 1/4 tsp. Sea salt
• 1 tbs. Brown sugar (sweet crepes only, optional)
• 2 tsp. Vanilla extract (sweet crepes only, optional)
• 2 tbs. water, to thin if needed

Place all the ingredients in a blender or in a bowl. Blend or whisk until smooth. Transfer to a 2 cup measuring cup (for pouring) and refrigerate for 30 minutes. While the batter is refrigerating, prepare your fillings (frozen or fresh berries with some sugar and vanilla). Sprinkle with some powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Morning Biscuits & Fruit

Straight out of Modern Vegetarian cookbook, this is great as a dessert or morning dish. Fresh biscuits out of the oven with a mixture of berries mixed with a little bit of agave nectar and vanilla.

Homemade Carrot Soup

A bag of carrots and an amazing blender makes carrot soup a very easy to make. I found a recipe and modified it to be veggie friendly and figured the more carrots, the better:

• 1 diced small yellow onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tbs. of olive oil
• 2 cups of chopped organic carrots (5-6 carrots)
• 6 c. of vegetable broth
• 1/2 c. coconut milk
• 1 bay leaf
• parsley for garnish
• 1 tsp. sea salt

Start by sautéing a small chopped onion and a well diced clove of garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped carrots and a pinch of salt. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes mixing them well. Then add the vegetable stock, coconut milk and bay leaf and bring it to a boil. Cook for about 20-25 minutes at a simmer until carrots are tender. Turn the heat off and let the soup cool for a bit. Remove the bay leaf and pour the soup into the blender and purée. Reheat and season to taste and garnish with parsley.

This morning I made banana pancakes and modified a Buckwheat Pancake recipe from Chicago Diner’s Cookbook. I attempted this yesterday on some friends with great reviews that I made them again today!

• 1 c. unbleached organic white flour
• 1/4 c. organic whole wheat flour
• 2 tbs. organic brown sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/4 c. almond or soy milk
• 2 tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2  medium banana sliced

Mix the dry ingredients together, then slowly add in the wet ingredients and mix well. Add in the bananas and fold them in. On a hot griddle or non-stick pan, pour about 1/3 cup batter. Wait until the air bubbles begin to pop and flip. Keep the pancakes warm by placing them in another pan and cover until finished. The first pancake will take longer to cook than the last. Makes about 5-6 pancakes. Serve with real maple syrup, top with some powder sugar and bananas. Enjoy!

Homemade Split Pea Soup

I enjoy making soup on the weekends because it can be a morning, afternoon or evening activity that takes a few hours. Here’s a recipe from Chicago Diner cookbook I used to base on the ingredients that I actually had:

• 2 c. yellow split peas
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 qts. filtered water
• 1 medium potato, diced
• 1 1/2 c. chopped yellow onion
• 3/4 c. chopped celery
• 1 tbs. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper

Combine the peas and bay leaves with the water in a large soup pot, and bring to boil. Cover and simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pot sit for 30 min. to 1 hour. Add the onion, potato and carrots, and cook until tender. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for 30-45 minutes. Let it cool down for 10 minutes and if the consistency is too thick, place in a blender to pulse to even out the soup. Garnish with parsley.