bad photo, great news. Voodoo Yeasted Vegan Donuts.

Portland vegans have been buzzing with anticipation since the start of the new year - word leaked out that Voodoo Doughnuts, Portland's world famous donut shop - where you can get married, learn Swahili, see shows and eat donuts any time of the day, was working on vegan yeasted donuts. Every now and then I'd hear about someone being treated to one of these sweet experiments....alas, they weren't for sale to the public yet.  

They totally do.

With the fall of the brief Rise Up yeasted donuts a couple years ago, us poor, deprived Portland vegans were left with Mighty-O imports (at Whole Foods) and Voodoo's cake donuts.  Voodoo's cake donuts have come a long way since their banana-y inception, and now come in (much lighter) banana and new pumpkin based cake with an utterly fun mix of toppings.  I tried a pumpkin based, vanilla iced, chic-o-stick topped one recently and it was great! As for Mighty-O, they're obviously at their awesomest when eaten fresh at the north Seattle location.  The variety there kicks the ass of the hours old glazed that Whole Foods sells here.  Check out this dozen I picked up last year!  Local favorite and wonder Sweetpea Baking Co. has great yeasted donuts on Saturdays, made with love you can taste.  I'm always excited to see what the special donut offering is, in addition to the classic Boston Creme and Glazed.

Onto the bad photo portion of the post: the yeasted donuts are OFFICIALLY AT BOTH VOODOO LOCATIONS.  The entire top shelf of donuts in the glass displays are vegan.  It was raining and I was hurrying to catch an arriving bus and the last of daylight - my apologies on the rushed photo!

A dozen donuts: mostly yeasted.  $10.

Introductory Verdict: 

These donuts were procured late in the day.  While the experience of eating a vegan maple bar was amazing, my friends and I realized that the donuts were seemingly fried much earlier in the day, understandably.  The actual donut part was admittedly a bit tough and chewy. They reminded me of a day old Vegan Treats donut I had in NYC last winter.  Being topped with wonderful things like chocolate cookies and peanut butter distracted, and I'm hoping to try a fresh one soon and be blown away.  We'll see how these develop!  It can only get better and better, it's Voodoo! Apparently they even have vegan cock and balls donuts! If they bring out a vegan version of the maple bacon subbed with tempeh bacon, I'll tear with vegan friendly pride.

P.S. I was raised with Dunkin' Donuts (my favorites were the Dunkin Q, blueberry muffin donut and powdered cruller) and to me it's DONUT, not doughnut.  Just so you now.

Los Gorditos II: Vegan Taco Truck Action

So this past weekend I was hanging out with a couple local vegan food bloggers, who just happen to be dear friends, and we just happened to go to Los Gorditos II after completing some hard work* at Sweetpea.

Vegan Mulita - layers of corn tortilla and...stuff.

Los Gorditos II is an all-vegan cart that was opened this past fall by the sweet owners of Taqueria Los Gorditos on SE Division. The original has had an ample vegan menu in place for over a year and a half now, tried out vegan Sunday hours and flew with the business and community-wise idea with this new cart. You can get a glimpse of the large, extended menu here. 

They offer burritos, tacos, mulitas, tortas, nachos (ahhh!), enchiladas, bowls and more - and have tofu, Soyrizo, Follow Your Heart cheeze AND vegan sour cream.  You can easily make a vegan cheezy sauce at home any day, but addictively seasoned cheap beans and rice with vegan chorizo over nachos or in a bowl or burrito or tacos and dairy alternatives is too good to pass up.  

If you're veg*n in the Portland area, surely you've been to at least one of these carts.  Now go to both!  Again!  How are you not supporting the vegan taco truck within walking distance to the vegan mini mall??  Is it because their hours are 11am-5pm M-Sat?  Then go to the original, it's open till 8pmish!  What?  I'm a fan.  And it's silly but still fussworthy, because I honestly prefer the simple beans, rice and avocado dish for $4.50, though I'll indulge in the nachos if I'm really, really hungry.

Vegan Enchiladas - note: the soy cheeze doesn't melt on these.

Vegan Quesadilla.  The cheeze does melt in these.  This is what I ordered, it sure was melty. Devestatingly, I couldn't handle the immense soyrzio and fake cheeze heartburn so I'll stick to my beans, rice and avocado in the future.  Plus, I'm a crispy food fanatic so I don't know what I was thinking ordering something soft....

The only true downside was the watery tomatoes, we didn't eat those.  We also took a vegan torta to our friend, which is apparently the-item-to-try, but none of us were feeling toasted bread.

*hard work is obviously a mixture of school work, conversation and blogging.

Blood Orange + Roasted Brussel Sprouts + Garlic

This past weekend I had some time on my hands and wanted home cooking.  I've been so busy that I haven't been cooking as much as I like to, which is on a very regular basis.  On Friday night I made a spicy bbq sauce, threw in some Cast Iron seitan with its broth to marinate, and got to work on Sunday making a great late lunch.

Blood Orange and Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Mac and Cheeze, 

BBQ Grilled Seitan

The seitan is was cooked on my cast iron grill pan and basted with additional sauce.  The mac and cheeze is the Lower Fat New Farm take, made with gluten free noodles since I like them better in baked mac, but the sauce was not gluten free - I'm out of tamari!   Some of the grill lines are scary, but trust me, it was killer.  In a seitanic way.

The brussel sprouts were the true showstopper of my culinary day. I've conferred with my sister, and we don't remember ever eating brussel sprouts growing up.  Our mom loved green vegetables, but I'm guessing she had been subjected to poorly made brussel sprouts herself or simply heard the rumors, and didn't see the point in passing that on.

Organic brussel sprouts

$1.49/lb from New Seasons Market

I've only had them since living in Portland these past 4.5 years, because you know, I'm a farmer's market devotee so how could I not try them?  I'll eat them steamed now and then, like at the Bye & Bye and hanging out with bbq or peanut sauce, but I prefer them roasted with garlic.  I first roasted them at the end of 2006, and to amuse myself, let me reference my post from late 2006 post - Balsamic, Orange and Garlic Roasted Brussel Sprouts.

Ready to roast - tossed in a lightly oiled pan with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and whole cloves of garlic.

Citrus Star.

After roasting 12-15 minutes at 400F, I tossed the the 20 or so halved sprouts with the freshly squeezed juice of one small blood orange, coarse sea salt and black pepper.  

Roast an additional 5 minutes, and you're done.

Here's an Eastern Bowl I ordered at the Bye & Bye last month...

Easy and Peanutty Seitan.

Sauteed seitan and veggies with peanut sauce over red quinoa

A couple weeks ago, I found myself making this meal two days in a row.  I live alone, so when I make a grain in my rice cooker it always lasts another meal or two or three; so the red quinoa was all set.  The seitan is the locally made Cast Iron Seitan I’ve previously glorified.  It’s the quickly-thrown-together type of meal I almost feel guilty about sitting down with, like I’m just eating nachos for dinner.  In reality, protein-rich seitan, fresh vegetables and the ridiculously, stupidly easy peanut sauce over quinoa all make for a more than decent meal.  Again, I know, I made it two days in a row.

I’d feel even more ridiculous if I tried to claim this as a recipe, and that would require thinking about it even more, so don’t get your hopes up.  I quickly sautéed the seitan with in peanut oil($2.99 from Grocery Outlet)  for a few minutes over medium  heat, turning the slices over once, added minced garlic and chopped vegetables – I used kale, celery, cabbage and carrots - and cooked a few more minutes on lower heat.  Once the vegetables were barely cooked, I added a couple spoonfuls of natural chunky peanut butter, 1/3-1/2 cup of vegetable broth, Sambal Oelek chili sauce, seasoned rice vinegar, tamari and white pepper…aka most things you throw into peanut sauce…and I was out of fresh ginger. 

Simmered, stirred and served over quinoa.  

More from the Vita-Mix: Peach Soy Ice Cream & Hazelnut Chocolate Smoothie

A couple months ago a brand new Vita-Mix came into my life, and things have never been......................................smoother.  My comical Magic Bullet definitely still comes in handy when it comes to pureeing small portions and chopping a lot of garlic, but the Vita-Mix blends and purees and grinds more quickly and smoother than I anticipated.  Clearly I didn't have enough faith in this holy appliance.  I've been pureeing soups, puddings and making marinara without a bit of graininess to it.  

Peach Soy Ice Cream

During my recent bout with the classic cold, I reached for the last of the chopped frozen peaches I'd picked on my birthday in September, and made the recipe for Peach Soy Ice Cream from the Vita-Mix website.  I used plain soy milk, Madagascar Vanilla Powder (I got this from Julie Hasson and it's fantastic, no surprise) and a bit less (organic) sugar.  My awful sore throat and tired-self was thrilled with this!  As recommended, spoon some into your mouth pronto.

Once frozen again, it does lose the creamy texture, but you can blend it with more liquid and ice for a smoothie.

Ready to blend-

And you have something like soy ice cream.

I also made homemade hazelnut butter this past weekend in the Vita-Mix, with the help of a little peanut oil.  Hazelnuts are my favorite nut and happen to be the state nut of Oregon.

Roasted & Ready to Butterize.

No picture of the finished product, but I will share that I had the brilliant/lazy idea to make a smoothie in the blender instead of just cleaning it, after making the hazelnut butter.  I blended bittersweet chocolate (without melting! behold the power!), soymilk, a dab of hazelnut liquor, vanilla powder and a pinch of brown sugar.

Vegan Nutella-ish smoothie in a Pabst glass, anyone?

Sick Days Sustenance

Watching it sorta snow and rain inside of Sweetpea Bakery...

I voluntarily fell victim to the cold bug my friends have been passing around and snotted my way through the past few days, mostly gloriously lying on my couch and watching DVDs.  I 

took off of work, drank tea and did a minimal amount of cooking.

I had my fix of tea and fresh vegetables and beans at Sweetpea yesterday afternoon, on a break with Evan from Bjorked Off! from my lazy, snotty homestay.  Sweetpea is now serving Porland-based looseleaf Townshend Tea, and I had the pleasant Strawberry Sencha.  

Happy Bowl

Foodwise,  after reading with my tea for a while I opted for one of their newish savoury offerings, the Happy Bowl.  You can't go wrong with a bowl of well cooked grains - in this case brown rice, wholesome beans, fresh kale and housemade sauce.  I went with the recommended half BBQ and half aioli.  I go for similar very vegan arrangements at the Whole Bowl, Chaos Cafe and Blossoming Lotus (Incan bowl with half of each sauce, plus tempeh) and the beans and sauce helpings in this bowl are commendable.  Next time I'll try just the tangy BBQ sauce.  There's nooch on the coffee fixings table and you can ask for your choice of hot sauce.

Dessert, which I honestly nibbled on with my tea before lunch.  

Sugar Cookie. Appropriately pink and sweet.  Photo by Evan, smudge likely by me.

Me and my sick germs even got together to make some cookies this weekend - 

Hazelnut Linzertort testers 

from Isa and Terry's upcoming Vegan Cookie Book.

Some are filled with my favorite, local black raspberry jam, and the rest are with Trader Joe's Reduced Sugar Strawbery Preserves. 

 I fed some to a non-sick friend and I hear she's still alive.....

Birthday Cake

Mocha Layer Cake

Photo by Karla of Veganshizzle.

This cake was an instant classic, in terms of flavor and the dear film quote.  As usual, it was made by Sweetpea Bakery for a friend's surprise birthday party. 

Sliced, and enjoyed.

A real blog post coming soon enough....cake = good.....

Signs of Veganism in SE Portland

Literally, this post is about signs regarding vegan options in SE Portland.  Noticed a pattern in my flickr stream from this past weekend....

First up, posted a couple blocks away from Junior's Cafe on SE 12th:

I think seeing this touched my heart.  I haven't been to Junior's in months and am planning on changing that awful truth pronto.  Their Superhero Scramble is possibly my favorite* in town, and their Vegan Potatoes plate with creamy tofu sauce and fresh sage sorta rocks my mouth with yum.  Add sauteed tofu to that and you won't be sorry.

SE 12th and Hawthorne Food Carts

Snowpocalypse, December 2008 

Moving north on on SE 12th, you come to a food cart dominated parking lot at SE Hawthorne. Home to Potato Champion and vegan poutine, a vegan-friendly pasta cart and where I truly wished Gorditos II had opened (but it's okay, I can easily go to the original or vegan Ankeny location).

Looks like El Brasero Mexican cart has clearly gotten wind that vegan-friendliness can = increased business in this town.  Anyone been?

The vegan options are written at the bottom of this board.  I can't say a $6.50 vegan burrito has much pull for me, I just love Gorditos' so much, but I'm sure I'll stop by at some point and give it a go and support this vegan effort.  Let me know if you do and if there's something great!

I noticed these menu updates at Q BBQ a couple months ago - Tofu Nuggets and a Veggie Dog. Haven't stopped by when they're open or heard if they're actually vegan, but here's hoping (and that they don't taste like bbq chicken in a bad way).

These are simply some signs I photographed this past weekend.  I am well aware of many, possibly most?, of the ever-expanding actual instances of vegan-friendliness in SE Portland.

*included as one of the Top Ten Best Things the Stumptown Vegans have eaten for 2007 in the Travel Edition of Herbivore Magazine.