From The Urban Vegan: Spaghetti Carbonara

Vegan Spaghetti Carbonara

Isn't this a nifty idea? Take a brand new cookbook, decide on a recipe, make it, and post the results! Who knew blogging could be so simple? How MoFo!

This dish is from the brand new, captivating Urban Vegan cookbook. I received it last week to review*, and couldn't put it down this past weekend. I was pouring over the pages, trying to decide on what to make first. I haven't been this enthusiastic over a non-PPK cookbook in a long ass time.

Dude, I'm saying this and there aren't even photos! It just covers so much ground - there are so many vegan dinner parties waiting to be born from this book!

With tempeh bacon still invading my thoughts from the Fakin' Fest, I turned to the Spaghetti Carbonara first. It was indulgent, saucy, smokey, noochy (hello, nutritional yeast!) and buttery (hello, Earth Balance!).

What was I thinking making this for myself? This was definitely a special guests meal, but I was treating myself.... The dry white wine was a sweet touch - I adore how much wine is in this book - for cooking & accompaniment!

I served the dish with fresh parsley, as advised, and a side of roasted rapini with crushed red pepper and coarse sea salt.

Whoa, my goodness.

Next up? Her unique rapini panini!

*like I wouldn't have bought it anyway!! It's well documented that I think Dynise is fabulous. Sorry, the interview is down on the old Herbivore Magazine site, but you get the point.

Everything Fakin'

In celebration, preparation and flavorful hallucination for tomorrow's Fakin' Fest in Portland, OR, I wanted to give some hollas to many of the fakin' entries in my flickr account. As a smokey, salty fanatic, there's a lot.

Cheezy biscuits, potatoes, kale, black beans and homemade tempeh bacon.

Super club with homemade tofu bacon.

Mini grilled cheeze with homemade tempeh bacon and Galaxy rice cheeze.

Their rice varieties are much tastier and meltier than their Vegan ones.

Raw gnocchi with pea shoots and eggplant bacon from Grezzo, in Boston, MA

Chocolate chip waffles, collards & Lightlife Fakin' Bacon

Boring salad greens, with homemade tempeh bacon.

Homemade tempeh bacon, roasted potatoes, avocado and cinnamon dusted apple slices

Super brunch with pancake and homemade tempeh bacon.

Crappy photo, but let's give some love to TLTs on Dave's Killer Bread.

And a side of fresh, local melon? More love.

Vegan Brunch Frittata, homemade tempeh bacon, pita crisp

Vegan Brunch Peanut Butter Waffles, homemade tempeh bacon

Lunch at work! Featuring greens with homemade tofu bacon.

From the last day of Veganopolis' life in PDX - buffet pasta with Fakin Bacon

One of my habitual favorite things to order in PDX: side vegan caeser salad with tempeh bacon from Hungry Tiger Too.

Aka, when it's not brunch or I'm not repeating 'TATOR TOTS' in my head.

Case in Point: The Vegan Club with tots (back when it wasn't yet on the menu!)

from Hungry Tiger Too.

This was also before they made their own tempeh bacon.

Marionberry waffles with homemade tempeh bacon

Cremini sandwich with a side of homemade tempeh bacon. Huh? But I'm sure it was delicious!

And the mandatory plug:

Notes:

If there's light rain, we'll be meeting under the covered gazebo area. We may wait it out or move to a nearby residence, depending on how many people are there.

If there's heavy rain, the event is cancelled and will be rescheduled indoors at a later date.

Since you know, it's fall.

There are prizes (donated by Lightlife!) for Most Creative, Best Dish & Best Gluten Free dish - and Best Fakin' Haiku!

The suggested $5 donation goes entirely to Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary.

Luke lives there!

Fakin' Ideas I've had in my head:

• Alder smoked salt, cocoa and chili grilled tempeh or seitan
• Southern style summer rolls with eggplant bacon, kale, yam and creamy, spicy dipping sauce.
• Eggplant bacon wrapped bundles of smoky greens.
• Tempeh bacon wrapped, battered, mac & cheeze squares. (inspired from the Food Network)
• Fake bacon adorned chocolate chip cookies
• Fakin bacon and dark chocolate cornflake bars
• Mac & Cheeze topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs & fake bacon. Mac & Cheeze is so my potluck regular, though..

Product Review: New Lightlife Tempehtations!

One of the perks of being a blogger is trying new products you may not necessarily pick up at the store. I feel confident that this is part of the reason you registered the domain VeganFoodRulesAlot on wordpress last year.

The Goods:

This was the case for me with Lightlife's Tempehtations. Since moving to Portland (5 years

this September!) and learning my way around a block of tempeh, I hadn't bought any Fakin' Bacon -

Prior to the point in my life where I learned to make sense of what I throw around a kitchen, I had regularly scheduled sandwiches based on this product. It meant so much to me!

Now I make my own tempeh bacon based on the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance, but there was a point in my life Fakin Bacon was one of my favorite things to eat. So, right off the bat, I had faith in Lightlife's new tempeh series, and on top of that - they threw in a package of the strips! I passed out when opening it. Thanks, Lightlife!

so.....tempted?

Their new tempeh series is basically this: a block of cubed & flavored tempeh, ready to cook or simply warm, wrapped in plastic, and put in a colorful little box. I've tried the Classic BBQ and Ginger Teriyaki - the Zesty Lemon is conveniently waiting in my freezer for future use, I'm thinking over a salad or pasta. Convenience is key here - no need to marinate overnight or bake for 30+ minutes.

Served with soy dipping sauce, wasabi and garnished with sesame seeds.

The big stand out in my Tempehtations trial was this sushi. I clicked on my rice cooker, prepped the filling, quickly sauteed the Ginger Teriyaki tempeh cubes with some garlic in peanut oil, and when it was all ready to go, filled sushi with the tempeh, shredded carrot and avocado and rolled. The tempeh had a nicely mellow Teriyaki taste and didn't overpower the bites, I could also easily see this flavor grilled kabob-style, drizzled with a spicy sesame dressing.

Ready to be rolled:

The first time I tried the BBQ, I sauteed it and served it in a grain bowl with rice, collards, pink beans and hot sauce. Need I say more besides, classic?

Dinner time BBQ tempeh bowl #1 - a quick meal before a trip out of town

The one thing I felt like my bowl above was missing was sauce, but you don't always need your grains coated in sauce.....but below I totally wanted it. I used extra BBQ sauce from a PPK test recipe and heated the second half of the BBQ tempeh in it for a few minutes, and served with roasted mushrooms and cauliflower over quinoa.

I'll out the classic card for tempeh, BBQ sauce and quinoa again. The Lightlight Tempehtations are not sitting in sauce in their little box, so if you like things saucy, take 1-3 minutes and whip up a simple sauce or pull that bottle of Trader Joe's BBQ sauce you keep in the fridge for dipping emergencies out.

Dinner time BBQ Tempeh bowl #2 - a quick meal returning from a trip!

And lastly, I used the dear tempeh strips for a quick couple quick meals that were not sandwich based. Because if you know me, I rarely have bread at home the past few years. Huh, sandwiches? What are peanut butter and jelly doing together on soft bread?

Collards with Fakin Bacon and Roasted Apple Sage Seitan Sausage

Vegan Brunch Chelsea Waffles with chocolate chips;

more collards and tempeh bacon.

Collards cooked with olive oil, garlic, liquid smoke, tamari, hot sauce, teeny bit of maple syrup, broth/water and apple cider vinegar.

I think these products are a great stepping stone for the tempeh-phobic and those looking to incorporate more vegan proteins in their diet! I have no hesitation to cook my own tempeh these days, in fact, I made baked mango ginger tempeh for dinner last night, but there's no denying this product's consumer friendliness. If it had been around when I was younger, it would have been in my fridge! I would have kept an eye on it being on sale. Don't be scared of tempeh, folks.

Sesame Beer Grilled Fiddleheads

I brought fiddlehead ferns home from the farmers market to play.

Hello, I live in Portland, so I've tried them before, but had yet to cook with them.  We know they're a hip piece of produce, and I finally picked some up last week at the downtown farmers market and was told to make sure I cook them well! 

So, they were marinated briefly in organic Deschutes Green Lake Ale ale and tamari, tossed onto my grill pan, tossed some more, tossed with coarse sea salt, black pepper and sesame seeds, and then tossed onto my plate, forked into my mouth, etc.  I'm always a fan of the burnt tamari (I mean, cooked) taste, and I dig how these came out.  Beer grilled asparagus just may be in my future.

For now, some balsamic grilled asparagus 

Smoky Collard greens and Lightlife tempeh bacon 

(Lightlife tempeh review, coming soon!)

This means I'm only a week behind!  

Last week's haul from the Wednesday downtown farmers market: cucumber, fiddleheads, asparagus and strawberries.  Earlier today I  picked up lettuce, strawberries, my love: garlic scapes, orange cherry tomatoes and a couple beefstake tomatoes. Holy friction, tomato and berry season is approaching!

P.S. Check out the new Stumptown Vegans Podcast here!  

It's with Chad Miller and Josh Hooten, two founders of the Let Live Conference, later this month in Portland.

Ode to VEGAN BRUNCH Testing

Excuse me, Vegan Brunch is out!!!!

 Tofu Florentine with Bechamel

Once again, I had the honor of testing for an Isa Chandra Moskowtiz cookbook, and once again, I cannot stop raving about her recipes.   I tested twentysomething this time around, and many of them quickly made it into regular rotation in my kitchen, like the Swiss Chard Frittata and Chorizo Sausages.  There are also those, like the Tomato Rosemary Scones and East Coast Coffeecake, that I kick myself for not making more often.  Testing for Post Punk Kitchen books is always a fantastic ongoing project that has me trying things I wouldn't normally, and really thinking about what I can see myself making again.

If you've been to my apartment, or my flickr, you know I have a steamed sausage drawer in my fridge.  Everything I tested was awesome, no hype here - I mean, this is the author who gave the world tempeh bacon, the first recipe I ever made from Vegan with a Vengeance, and it's dear to my heart.  She fucking knows brunch.  Follow that with perfect, reliable and at many, many points - innovative, recipes for pancakes, waffles, morning greens, scrambles of the cubed and smushed variety (hell yeah, to throwing in cubes!), east coast style coffeecake, omelets and scones, and well, she gives anyone interested in vegan cooking another guide to impressing and feeding their friends and family any time of day.  

In fact, just last night I picked up my copy, and utilized the leftover olives from a party I threw, jar of capers I've had for a while (admittedly since Veganomicon Caeser testing!), and a block of bulk tofu from People's Coop and made the Puttanesca Scramble for dinner.

Let's embark on my Vegan Brunch test kitchen photo tour... (there were actually a few recipes I tested I didn't photograph, liked the Jeff-endorsed Chesapeake Tempeh cakes - shocking, I know, blame the winter lighting)

The Tofu Florentine with Bechamel

 served with steamed chard

The Puttanesca Scramble

What you and Zelda came for. Vegan Omelets.

With a spicy black beans and greens filling

To my dear Tofu Frittatas...

This one had shiitakes, spinach, rosemary and thyme

Asparagus

Swiss Chard, plated

Shiitake Dill (with creminis)

OMG, Sausages  - 

I made so many variations of Isa's Italian, Chorizo and Cherry Sage, I could never begin to name them all

You may know how it is....

Sausages and Greens 

Pan-fried

Cherry Sage - a couple weeks ago I made a 

Roasted Apple, Maple and Sage variation!

Spicy, spicy, spicy

Plated with extra mini-omelets

Poppy seed Pull-apart Rolls

Lemon Pepper Tofu

Scones! Chocolate Chip and Raisin something.  

These are actually rejects from a photo shoot for the book.  The recipes are all Isa's, but the sweet scones, Tomato Rosemary, coffeecake and mocha chip muffins seen in Vegan Brunch came from my little kitchen.  cough cough.

Tomato Rosemary scones (first test) and Smoky Shiitakes (and creminis)

Sesame Yam Tofu Scramble

White bean gravy

Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs

East Coast Coffeecake, with jam swirl

How to Swirl!  

Very East Coast meets Portland, with this Oregon Black Raspberry Jam

Peanut Butter Waffles AND Tempeh Bacon

Mom's Breakfast Casserole - (uncooked)

potatoes, tofu, tempeh sauce - which you then smother in a cheezy sauce or shredded cheeze.

Chelsea Waffles - 

which I finally made once I had the book in my hands!

I'm honored to share the 'all dishes taste better with the texture of cat hair' rule with Isa and Kirby.

So go out. Brunch. Enjoy!  

Thank you, Isa!

Please note that Isa is bribing me with a year of warm vegan omelets, whenever I want one, in exchange for writing this.