VEGAN RANCH DIP!!!!

Happy Friday!!!

I had the day off work today and chose to spend it sitting around watching documentary films (Generation Rx was outstanding and a must must MUST see, especially for parents) and eating snacks on my couch.  In particular, a halo of raw veggies and baked potato chips encircling a bowl of AMAZING VEGAN RANCH DIP!!!!!!!!!

This is good stuff, people.  Real good stuff.  And I whipped it up in under five minutes.  It's not exactly the mayonaisey goop you get in a bottle, it's more like homemade buttermilk-style ranch with lots of dill MMMMMM!!!!  It would be great drizzled on wedges of iceberg lettuce or for dipping pizza crust in or eating with a spoon. . . :)

Vegan Buttermilk-Style Ranch Dip and Dressing

Ingredients:

- 1 pkg soft/silken tofu

- 4 green onions, chopped

- 1 large clove of garlic (or two small), chopped

- 2 tbsp cider vinegar

- 1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp fresh or dried dill

- S&P

Put all ingredients into a blender.  Blend until smooth.  Season with S&P.  DONE!  BAM!  JUST LIKE THAT!  You can eat it now if you like buuuuuut it will be so much yummier if you let it hang out in the fridge for an hour or two. 

Happy weekend and happy snacking!

XOXO

Vivacious Vegan



Tomato Basil Soup with Rainbow Rotini

Hey Babes,


Typical Winnipeg - two days ago it was humid and and sweltering hot and today the wind is howling and the temperature barely makes it into the mid teens.


It's time for V.V. to post     yet    another  soup recipe!


Tomato soup is the easiest thing to make. EVER.


When ATM was home a couple  weeks ago, she found herself a touch under the weather (too many 'welcome home' cocktails the night before, perhaps?) and requested a bowl of tomato soup.  This is what I whipped up - I think it's my new favorite hangover cure ;)

Tomato Basil Soup with Rainbow Rotini
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 6 - 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- pinch chili flakes
- 1 can whole tomatoes
- 2 tomato cans worth of water OR veggie stock
- S&P
- 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
- 2 cups of cooked rainbow rotini
For garlic crostini garnish:
- sliced ciabatta bread
- olive oil
- 1 garlic clove sliced in half
 - S&P


Heat the olive oil in your favorite soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, chili flakes and a pinch of salt and saute until the onions are translucent, try not to brown 'em.

Add the can of tomatoes and two tomato cans full of water or veggie stock and bring the whole thing to a bubbling boil over medium high heat.

Once the soup reaches boiling point, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer it for ten minutes.  Puree the soup with an immersion blender (this method is waaaaay easier than doing it in a blender, go pick up an immersion blender at Superstore for just over ten bucks, it's wooorrrth it) and stir in the basil and rotini.  Season with S&P and simmer for an extra five to fifteen minutes to let all the flavours become bff's.

For the garlic crostini: Heat up your broiler and place the ciabatta slices on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of S&P.  Toast the ciabatta slices under the broiler until they are golden brown and then rub them down with the cut side of the garlic clove.  Serve the crostini afloat your bowl of deelish tomato basil soup :)

How easy was that?

XOXXOXOXOXOXO

V.V.

Reaffirmation

Hello my darlings,

I realized today that I haven't ever really talked a lot about why I feel passionately about a vegetarian lifestyle.  It's a really personal topic, and it can be particularily sensitive to discuss, but I feel that it is time for me to share some of the reasons I went veggie with you, my awesome V.V. readers:

Health was my number one concern when I orginally commited to this way of life.  A few years ago when I was living in Toronto, I reached for a package of *processed food product* and read the ingredients.  I found that there were a bunch that I couldn't identify (let alone pronounce) so I wikipedia'd and googled them and decided that fake, chemical food was not something I wanted to put into my body (ummmm aspartame, anyone?).  White sugar and processed foods were quickly eliminated from my diet and meat soon followed.  I can't even begin to tell you about all of the health problems caused by eating meat and dairy and the advantages of a plant based diet (they write whole books on that stuff ya know ;) ) but you can read more about it here. 

When I heard that it takes roughly 60 lbs of water to produce 1 lb of potatoes and about 12,000 lbs of water to produce just 1 lb of beef, I knew I wasn't doing the environment any favors by contributing to the meat industry.  The cattle industry alone is responsible for emitting 19% of global methane emissions (thats baaaaaaad stuff).  There are a toonnnnn more environmental reasons to go vegetarian, you can read about them here. 

More than one billion people on this planet are starving.  STARVING!  It just doesn't make sense to me that we use vast amounts of farm land to grow food. . .for our food.  When it could be grown for people.  And after we grow crops to feed our meat, the meat is consumed by less than one third of the planet's population.  That's no fair. 

Then there are the animals.  I think we as a society have completely lost the connection between animals and meat.  Animals are meat.  They feel joy and pain just as we do.  There is absolutely no beating around the bush - when you eat meat, you are eating the flesh of a dead animal.  I think that there are few people, who when faced with the task of killing their own 'meat', could actually go through it.  I realize that this issue can be particularily sensitive for some people.  But I urge you to please, watch this video and consider what you see. 

Many of you (my wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL V.V. readers) are not vegetarian.  That's OKAY!!!  You are still wonderful, wonderful WONDERFUL!  In the end, you have to do what you feel is best for you.  But I do urge you to question the status quo, step out of your comfort zone, and and least consider reducing your meat consumption.  You would be doing so, so, so, so many favours to animals, humanity, Mother Nature and yourself (and all will thank you!).

Big hugs and kisses,
V.V.

Southern Fried Tofu Sandwich

Baby come back,
you can blame it all on me.  I was wrong (for taking such a long hiatus), and I just can't be without you (my wonderful V.V. Blog readers).


It is a beautiful, sweltering hot August day and V.V. is ready to blog from her NEW APARTMENT (equipped with a/c, thank gaaawwwwd AND the most GORGEOUS KITCHEN) which she is sharing with her beeeeeeloved ATM (who returns home on Thursday from a month at work in Nunavut EEEE!!!!). 


I discovered my new faaaaave way to prepare good ol' tofu and I'm ADDICTED!  I slice it thin, marinate it for an hour and then coat it in nutritional yeast (don't be afraid of nutritional yeast!!!!) and frrrryyyy it up!  OMG OMG OMG vegan honey dill and some oven baked french fries would be amazing with the dreamy little slabs!  For this blog, I've stuffed the num num slices into a baguette with a red cabbage romaine slaw. 


ATM has decided to try vegetarianism on for size (woo!) and has been raving about the tofu sandwiches they serve at work, so, my dear ATM, this one's for YOU (and my wonderful V.V. readers, too!).

Southern Fried Tofu Sandwich

Ingredients:

-1 block of extra firm tofu

-lots of nutritional yeast (for coating the slabs)

-sunflower oil for frying

-baguette or crusty roll (toasted, if you like)

Marinade:

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-1/4 cup Japanese soy sauce

-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

-1 tbsp nutritional yeast

-1/4 cup water

-lots of fresh ground peppa

Slaw:

-1/2 head of thinly sliced red cabbage

-1 chopped heart of romaine

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

- juice of 1/2 a lemon

-1 tsp Japanese soy sauce

-1 tsp nutritional yeast

-toasted sunflower seeds

-peppa!

Cut the tofu as if it were a loaf of bread into 1/4" slices.  Cut each slice on a diagonal to form two triangles and lay the triangles in a large baking dish.  Whisk all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and pour it over the tofu.  Marinate for an hour.

Meanwhile you can whisk all the slaw ingredients minus the cabbage, romaine and sunflower seeds in a bowl and let it  hang out in the fridge while the tofu marinates.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes onto a plate.  Dip each side of the marinated tofu triangles and coat them WELL with the nute-yeast.  Add more yeast to the plate as you run out.

Toss the thinly sliced cabbage, romaine and sunflower seeds with the slaw dressing and set aside. 

Heat 3 tbsp sunflower oil in a pan over medium high heat and fry the tofu triangles on each side until they are golden brown (this wont take long at alllll so watch 'em!). 

Slice the baguette in half and lay the fried tofu triangles on it, each slice overlapping slightly.  Top with the slaw.  EAT!

This would be EXTRA NUMMY topped with sliced avocado or BBQ sauce or vegenaise or sliced pickles or whatever your little heart desires :) 

XOXO

V.V.



Vegan Black Metal Chef

Hey Babes!

I came across this amaaaazzzing video by Vegan Black Metal Chef for 'pad thai'.  I am not much of a metal head myself, but cannot get enough of this video and the chef's growling instructions ("Cruuuuuush the peanuts, shooow them no mercy!!!") and hillarious (and creepy) kitchen knife collection.

Enjoy :) . . .Or elllssseeeeeeee raaaaaaaaaaaawwwwrrrr!! 

XOXO

V.V.

Vegan Potato Salad

Hey Baaaaaaabes,

Today I am posting my recipe for potato salad! It's definitely not your traditional mayonnaise covered, hard boiled egg and chopped pickle laden pile of mush.  I use baby red and yellow potatoes, boil them until tender and then toss them in a tangy vinegrette of wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and fresh dill.  SOOO tasty and such a nice change from the goop you are used to seeing at back yard BBQ's (my apologies to those who like the tradish variety, you can always add 1/2 cup vegenaise to the dressing instead of the olive oil and maybe a chopped pickle or two if you mussssst).

Potato Salad a la Vinegrette
Ingredients:
-1 bag baby yellow fleshed potatoes
-1 bag baby red skinned creamer potatoes
-1/4 cup red wine vinegar
-1/2 cup olive oil
-3 heaping tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 red onion, finely diced
-6 scallions, chopped
-1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
-S&P

Put the taters in a large pot and fill it with water up to 1 inch above the taters.  Bring to a boil and cook until you can eaaaaasily poke a tater with a butter knife and it comes out eaaaaaaasily too.  Drain the taters.  At this point, I like to halve most of the potatoes and keep some whole for variety in texture.

In a large serving bowl, whisk the wine vinegar, olive oil, Dijon mustard, minced garlic and a bit of S&P together until it had an even consistency.  Add the hot taters and combine weeeelllll.  The potaties will soak up the vinegrette and be soooo happy :)

Chill the potato salad for about an hour in the refrigerator and then add the red onion, scallion and dill.  Season with S&P and serrrrrrve it up!!

XOXO

Vivacious Vegan <3

Vegan Ceasar Salad

Good Day To All You Sweeties,

Every time I go to a restaurant and ceasar salad on the menu, I cry a little inside.  Ceasar salad is one of my faaaaaaavorite salads EVER and I know I am not alone since ceasar salad seems to be on every gosh darn menu ANYWHERE!  Even Rotten Ronnie's (McD's) has friggin ceasar salad!  Even a large portion of Chinese restaurants in Winnipeg have ceasar salad on the menu!!!  So why do I weep over such a readily available salad?  Why, you ask?  Because while the majority of the classic Ceasar Cardini (creator of the ceasar salad if you didn't already guess that) dressing ingredients are vegan (olive oil, lemon juice, wine vinegar, garlic, S&P, and of course romaine lettuce) the EGG YOLKS that give the dressing its body, the WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE that gives the dressing its delicate ANCHOVY flavour and the PARMESEAN CHEESE are not not not not vegan at all.  And don't get me started on bottled salad dressings and store-bought croutons, TOO easy to make from scratch and soooo much better homemade!

There is hope for vegans who love this salad!  While you may not be able to order it at resto's, you can easily make a deeeeeeeeeelish vegan version of the salad at home that will impress all your friends who are vegans and friends who are devotees to the bottled variety (shudder!) alike! 

Vegan Ceasar Salad
Ingredients:
croutons:
-1 loaf of French bread, cubed
-1/4 cup veg oil
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 tsp thyme
salad:
-2 heads of romaine lettuce, washed and dried THOROUGHLY, quartered lengthwise and chopped crosswise into bite sized pieces
-2 cloves garlic, chopped
-juice of 1 lemon
-2 tbsp grainy djon mustard
-2 tbsp nutritional yeast
-1 tbsp soy sauce
-1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
-1/4 cup red wine vinegar
-1/2 cup olive oil
-a few tbsp water depending  on how thick/thin you like it
-S&P

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees celcius.  Toss the bread cubes with the veg oil, garlic powder, thyme and season with S&P.  Spread the cubes onto a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10-15 min, tossing them or twice.  Let them cooooool, man.

Put your romaine into a large salad bowl.  Put all other ingredients other than olive oil into your trusty blender and blend until smooth.  Slowly add olive oil in a continuous stream while the blender is running.  Add a few tsp of water if it's too thick.  Season with S&P.

Add the croutons to the lettuce and a few tbsp at a time, drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss, adding more dressing until you have the desired amount of creamy, garlicky goodness coatin the greens. 

YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

V.V.