Crusty bread

I just love this recipe!!! It takes about a day to make because you must let the dough sit for about 12 hrs, but it's SO easy!
I found this on http://simplysogood.blogspot.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

You'll need a good-sized (6 qt or larger) Dutch oven or cast iron pot with a lid.

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat flour*
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2-2 cups water depends on how dry the dough looks

* Next time I am going to try white unbleached whole wheat flour to see if it changes anything.

Directions

• In a large bowl combine the flour, salt and yeast together. 
• Mix in the water until a shaggy dough forms. 
• Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and set on the counter for 12-18 hours. I like to do it overnight. 
• Heat the oven to 450°. Once it is at temperature, preheat your empty Dutch oven with its lid for 30 min. 
• While the oven and pot are heating up, pour the dough onto a floured surface, and shape it into a ball. Cover it with the plastic again and let it set while the pot heats up. 
• When the pot is heated take it out and set your dough inside. Resist the urge to oil the pot!
• Put the lid on and the whole thing back into the oven for 30 min. 
• After 30 min take the lid off and let it cook for another 15 min. 
• Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack. 
• Let fully cool, then enjoy!

the end result

Cashew cheese

Love, Love, Love this cashew cheese. It's something like a cream cheese and we use it like a spread. It's great on sandwiches, crackers, some fresh crusty bread (recipe to follow), crumbled onto pizza, or on bagels. This recipe is a multi-day process; all said it's going to need 4 days from start to finish, however it is an easy recipe. When going to buy the supplies it is going to cost a bit to get the probiotic but don't let that scare you off. You only use a couple capsules in each batch so the bottle will last you for many batches of cheese.

I got this recipe from the Sunny Raw Kitchen blog. I changed up the flavors and I don't roll mine into balls. I just leave it in a container.

All blended up and ready to be covered up to sit for 12-18 hours

My two favorite flavors of finished cheese: herb (on the left) and "plain" (on the right)

herb on cracker

Ingredients

3 cups raw cashews soaked in water for 12-14 hours

3 capsules probiotics; make sure they are vegan

2/3 cups water

Directions

DAY 1 

• Soak the cashews in water. You want to make sure that the cashews are completely covered. 
• Let soak for 12-14hrs

DAY 2

• Dump out the water that the cashews were sitting in and give them a quick rinse. 
• In a tough high speed blender, like a VitaMix or a food processor, blend the cashews, water and probiotics until smooth.
• Next, you need to set up a way for the water to drain out of the blended mixture. I place a colander in a large bowl and then line the colander with a couple of layers of cheesecloth. 
• Pour the cheese mixture into the cheesecloth and cover it with the excess cheesecloth. 
• Let this sit at room temperature for 12-18 hrs. This will allow the cheese culture to develop.

DAY 3
Here you get to do the fun flavoring. I have found two flavors that I like so I just split my cheese into half and put them into two containers to be flavored. For each below, just mix the additional ingredients in with your cheese and place it in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

Herb cheese ingredients

Half the cheese, about 1 1/2 cups 

1/4 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dry crushed basil

1 tsp. dry thyme

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

"Plain" cheese ingredients

Half the cheese, about 1 1/2 cups

1/4 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

3/4 tsp. garlic powder

DAY 4
After the cheese has been in the fridge for 12 hours, it's ready to use. Enjoy!

Corn Bread Muffins

The family loves these quick cornbread muffins. Goes great with the Three Bean Chili or the kids love to put slices of veggie hotdog in the batter so it cooks into corn dogs.

dry ingredients

wet ingredients

Wet and dry ingredients combined. I actually decided at the last minute to mix everything in my big measuring bowl (with pour spout) and then poured the batter into the muffin tins. This worked really well instead of trying to scoop out the batter.

Finished muffins 

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 heaping cup of apple sauce
1 cup plain nondairy milk of your choice
1/4 cup agave nectar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. 
• In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. 
• Combine the dry and wet mixtures together and mix well.
• Spray a muffin tin very lightly with oil. 
• Fill the muffin tins about 1/2 -3/4 full.
• Place them in the oven to cook for about 20 min.

Three Bean Chili

This is a yummy, easy chili. You just need to set it in the crockpot and let it cook. I like to serve this with cornbread muffins; I'll post that recipe next. But for now here's the chili:

Mix all the ingredients in the crockpot

Set on low and cook for 6 hours

Ingredients

1 can* black beans rinsed and drained

1 can garbanzo beans rinsed and drained

1 can kidney beans rinsed and drained

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes drained

1 package frozen tofu, now thawed

half bag frozen sweet corn about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 cup liquid veggie broth

2 tbs mixed no salt seasoning mix (I get mine from Costco.)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne powder 

1/2 tsp ground paprika

* The cans I'm using are 15oz.

Directions 

• The tofu needs to be frozen the day before. I like to put a small slit in the container top and drain the water out before freezing. 
• To thaw the tofu, you can set it on the counter and let it thaw all day; or take it out of its packaging and put it in a pot with some water and boil it; or take it out of the packaging, put it in a microwave safe container, and place it in the microwave for a few minutes. 
• Once the tofu is thawed, squeeze the water out of it. WARNING: If you put it in the microwave or boiled it, the water inside will be super hot, so you'll want to run it under cold water and gently squeeze it several times. 
• Crumble up the tofu into small pieces (smaller than bite-sized). 
• Place all the ingredients in the crockpot and mix it around.  
• Set it on low and cook for about 6 hours.

Pecan Pancakes

We love pancakes. I tried a few recipes, but we were a little disappointed. One day we went to our local restaurant "Kerbey Lane Cafe" which featured a cinnamon pecan vegan pancake. It was pretty good, I was inspired. So I went home and flipped through some books but nobody had any. I found a recipe that seemed somewhat close to a basic pancake in the cook book "Happy Herbivore". I got to work playing around and altering the recipes until I came up with this winner!

Mix the dry ingredients 

Combine the liquid ingredients

Chop the pecans

Mix it all together and let it set while you heat the pan; it then gets all light and fluffy

Cook, flip, cook

Enjoy

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tbs baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs brown sugar (not packed)
2 cups plain non dairy milk (I like almond or soy)
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecans (pre chopped)

Directions

• In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour-sugar).
• In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients (milk-vanilla).
• Chop the pecans.
• Add the pecans and the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together. 
• Let the pancakes set while you heat your pan. 
• Once heated, cook the pancakes on medium heat and flip once as needed.

Crockpot Seitan

This is one my family's all time favorite foods. You can do lots with the seitan once it's cooked. One of our favorites is to cut it up, put it in a pan and let it get a little crispy on the edges, and then pour gravy over it and serve it up with some potatoes, broccoli, and corn.  You could also use it on sandwiches, in stir-fry, etc.

First mix the dry ingredients

Then add your wet ingredients. You will end up needing to knead it with your hands.

Kneed it into a nice ball, then let it sit while you mix up the broth to cook it in.

Cut the dough into chunks to put into the crockpot.

Place the seitan into the crockpot full of broth. Set it on high and let it cook for 4 hrs.

After 4 hours you have several nice chunks of seitan that you can use. You can freeze some for a later date.
Save the broth to make a nice gravy, that recipe to come later.

Ingredients 

Seitan dough

2 cups vital wheat gluten

1 tsp onion powder/granules 

1 tsp garlic powder/granules

1 tsp oregano 

1 tsp basil

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp mixed spice (I get mine from Costco and it has no salt added. If you don't have this you can make your other spices a little heavier.)

1 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 tbs liquid amino acid (or soy sauce)

1 1/2 cup liquid veggie broth (low sodium)

Broth
2 cups liquid veggie broth

4 cups water

2 tbs veggie broth powder (or extra spices)

5 tbs liquid amino acid (or soy sauce)

1 tbs vegan worcestershire sauce

Gravy
a few tbs cornstarch to achieve desired thickness
a few cups of plain nondairy milk of your choice to taste

Directions

Seitan

• Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. 
• In a separate bowl or measuring glass, mix the wet ingredients together then add these to the dry ingredients. 
• Stir and knead a few times until it is all combined. 
• Mix all the broth ingredients in your crockpot.
• Cut your ball of dough into several pieces, then place them in your crockpot of broth and cover. 
• Set the crockpot to high and let it cook for 4 hours.
• Once it is done you can remove your seitan and prepare it how you like for whatever you like.
• Save the cooked broth. You'll use it to make an awesome fat-free gravy that goes well with the seitan.

Gravy

• Mix the broth of the seitan with a few tbs cornstarch and a few cups of plain non-dairy milk of your choice. 
• Pour all the ingredients into a pan and place it on the stove on medium heat. 
• Stir constantly until the gravy thickens.

Some ideas for using your seitan:

I like to make a big batch of seitan and then save it in the fridge along with its broth or gravy. Then I can use it for several different things before needing a new batch.

One of our family's favorite meals is gravy and seitan over mashed potatoes with broccoli and corn. To prepare the seitan for this I cut it into small bite-sized chunks, then just heat it up in a dry pan which tends to brown-crisp the edges. Just be careful not to burn it.

You might also slice up the seitan for use on sandwiches, something like a cold-cut or a meatloaf might be used. 

You can bake the seitan into any kind of savory dish like a casserole, or chunk it up with a savory sauce (like its own gravy, above) over pasta.