Vegan Taco Night

Happy Monday ya'll!  I have an amazing taco-filling recipe for you today, as well as lots of tales of kitchen fails.  Cooking (especially vegan cooking) is a learning process... one that I'm obviously still going through.

Last week Jana and DeAnna came over for dinner and I was excited to use one of my vegan cookbooks to put together a fun meal.  I chose a Mexican theme because for some reason I think Mexican food always sounds delicious when it's this hot.  Maybe I just think margaritas sound delicious when it's this hot.

All of my dinner recipes came from Veganomicon, which I could just sit and read for hours.  This is actually the first time I've prepared anything though.  For the taco filling, I prepared their recipe for Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce.  It was a very easy recipe... if you actually followed the recipe.

I skimmed through and only after I'd added an entire chopped onion to my saucepan with all of my black beans and water did I read the line that said "Remove the onion before serving."  What???  How am I supposed to remove an entire chopped onion from a pan of beans??? 

Oh.  I wasn't supposed to chop the onion.  My bad.

So I ended up rushing to Hen House for more black beans and another onion.  One which I would not chop.  The thing is... Hen House has the dumbest set up in the entire world of grocery stores.  I hate going there because it doesn't make sense!!!  I searched all over that GD store and finally found the black beans... and they weren't even the kind I like.  I do not like you Hen House. 

Anyways... despite the set back, I was able to serve up some tasty black bean tacos with a side of Mexican Millet.  Fun fact:  millet is a grain that is often used for bird seed.  But people like it too.

Black Bean Tacos & Meximillet.

Our fiesta dinner also included home-made salsa and white sangria.  Que yum!

Ole!

That's a vegan with a happy plate.

How do you say "nom nom nom" in Spanish?

However successful dinner was, dessert was the opposite.  The authors of Veganomicon also have a sweet little book called Vegan Pie in the Sky which is loaded with yummy looking recipes and encouraging words about how easy vegan baking is. 

The book is a liar.

Vegan pie slop.

I went for the key lime pie because earlier this year I tried out a non-vegan key lime pie on these ladies because I wanted to test it out for class.  I figured I owed them a vegan version. 

Vegan Pie Essentials.

Traditional key lime pie is made using gelatin AKA pig cartilage.  Not very vegan friendly.  Vegan pie subs in agar-agar powder, which is made from seaweed and {supposedly} has similar gelling properties. 

You have to go to an Asian market to purchase it.  Let's all take a minute to visualize how much fun Drew had when I dragged him into the Asian market.
 

Gel-icious.

So, I don't really know where I went wrong, but the pie did not set up.  Like, it was straight key-lime soup.  Jana was super sweet and told me to call it deconstructed key lime pie.  So I will.

Deconstructed pie.  I totally did this on purpose.

The girls were also nice enough to eat the pie soup in bowls with spoons.  D even said that if it had worked it might be the best key lime pie she'd ever had.  The smirk on her face makes me think she's lying.

No really... it's good!  I swear!

Mmm... soup!

Well... besides the pie soup, I'd like to think the night was successful.  It's pretty hard to screw up a night with the three of us and a pitcher of sangria!

If you're looking for a yummy alternative to the stand-by ground beef taco filling, give these black beans a try.  Just make sure you read the whole recipe or you may end up ripping your hair out at Hen House.  FYI: they keep their black beans on the bottom shelf of the Mexican section, away from all the other beans.  Makes perfect sense.

Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce

Ingredients for the beans:

• 2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups cold water
• 1 large onion, peeled & halved {DO NOT CHOP}
• Salt & Pepper

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced
• 2 Tablespoons adobo sauce from the chipotles

Method:

1. Combine the beans, onion {DO NOT CHOP}, bay leaf, and water in a large sauce pan.  Bring to a boil for 1 minute. 
2. Lower heat to medium and simmer, uncovered for 40 minutes.
3. Remove the onion and bay leaf before serving.
4. Prepare the sauce while the beans are cooking.  In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil about 10 minutes.  Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce and cook for 30 seconds.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Empty the sauce into a food processor bowl* and briefly pulse until a chunky sauce forms.
6. Mix sauce into beans and serve with taco shells and all the fixin's.  Enjoy!

Happy {meatless} Monday!

*How did I ever survive without a food processor?!?

Vegan Peach Pie

About a week ago, I got a hankering to make pie.  No specific pie... I just really wanted to make pie.  I was at my mom's house and she had Food Network on.  I always have Food Network on too.  Maybe this is hereditary?  The Neelys caught my eye when I saw they were making a Peach Crumb Pie.  Now tell me that doesn't sound fantastic.

The Vegan and the Coach's Wife came over for dinner this week, so I thought it would be the perfect time to make pie.  Come on, we know if I made a pie with no company coming over I'd eat that whole dang thing myself... minus the one piece Drew would eat.  The only thing I had to do now was veganize the pie. 

This turned out to be super easy because the only animal product called for in the recipe was butter.  I just subbed Earth Balance and called it a day.  The Neelys used a store-bought pie crust, but I made my own vegan version.

Peach pie a la mode vegan.

It wasn't the best peach pie ever made.  My peaches weren't super ripe and the crust was a bit crunchy.  Plus, I'm totally a pie novice.  But for a vegan dessert, I think it turned out pretty nice.

I ♥ Pie.

Drew's response was "meh."  But these girls seemed to enjoy the pie... although it may have been due to the large quantities of sangria already consumed.

Cheers!  Pie!

I made a comment about how I thought pie crust was kind of an art, and Jana smacked me down by saying, "My eigth graders can make it."  Noted.  Now I know when Jana talks about her eigth grade cooking skills that those are some pretty advanced eigth graders.  At least in my book.

Vegan Peach Crumb Pie

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 5 large, ripe but firm peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced (3 pounds)
• 3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Topping:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• Pinch salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter Earth Balance, cut into small cubes
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds

Pie:

• 1 roll store-bought pie dough 1 Recipe No Fail Vegan Pie Crust
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter Earth Balance, thinly sliced (It doesn't really slice)

Method:

• Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• To make the filling: In a large bowl, combine the peaches, sugar, and cinnamon. Add the cornstarch to a small bowl and whisk in the lemon juice so no lumps remain (I used the juice of a whole lemon and then still needed to add some cold water to thin out the cornstarch). Pour the cornstarch mixture over the peaches and toss. Let the peaches sit for 15 minutes while you roll out the pie dough and make the streusel topping.
• To make the topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a large bowl. Blend the butter Earth Balance into the mixture with your fingers until it forms pea-size lumps and looks crumbly (the Earth Balance totally melted and the mixture was more of a paste, but it still baked up crumbly). Stir in the almonds.
• To assemble: Roll out the dough an extra inch on a lightly-floured surface. Place the dough in the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan. Crimp edges as desired.
• Pour the pie filling into the pie shell and sprinkle the streusel topping over the pie. Dot the top with sliced butter Earth Balance. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.

You're sure to make lots of vegan friends with this pie!  But don't expect your husband to jump for joy.