Vegan Crème Brûlée

Say whaaat??

If there was ever a dish that was NOT vegan, crème brûlée is probably it. Full of delicious, full-fat whipping cream and egg yolks, the joy of cracking into a crème brûlée is the creamy, dreamy custard underneath. 95% of the recipe is milk or eggs. So–how to create that same texture using non-dairy ingredients an no eggs? Big challenge.

Enter Mérida Anderson. She became a vegan when she was 16. Her family did not convert. She had no choice but to learn to cook for herself, because her mom basically forced her to. She has no formal training as a chef, but five years ago was on a bike tour in Easter Canada, and ended up in Halifax. She got invited to a secret vegan supper there. This new trend, much like Diner En Blanc, uses people’s homes to create a kind of pop-up restaurant for one night. Mérida came home and started one on Sunday nights, once a month, in her tiny East Van apartment.

The result?

“Communal seating makes a very intimate dining experience,” she says.  “I find it more social and open. Yes, I host the suppers in my home, and most of my diners are strangers before they attend their first event. But it doesn’t take long for everyone to feel right at home. Dinner service lasts about 2 hours and is very relaxed.”

Recently, a collection of her recipes has been published. Vegan Secret Supper is not for the beginning cook. Anderson’s recipes are complex but beautiful, each one often requires 2-3 recipes to create the finished dish. But this is elevated vegan food. The one recipe that people wanted the most? Vegan crème brûlée.

I made this for a small dinner I went to the other night. The reviews were a bit mixed. Taste-wise, it was a huge hit. It’s delicious. There is a slight hit of acid from the lime, that plays very nicely with the vanilla. But texture-wise, it didn’t have quite the same creamy mouth-feel as a regular crème brûlée. It was a little soupy. Part of the problem with the version I made may have been my coconut milk. When I opened the can and dumped it into the food processor, it was badly separated, and there was a lot of coconut water. I might substitute coconut cream for the coconut milk called for, or leave the can in the fridge for a few hours and pour off the coconut water and just use the solid coconut milk.

I’m not sure if this recipe is good enough to make me give up traditional crème brûlée. But I do know that if I were 100% vegan, I would love, love LOVE it.

One last note: you will require a torch for this particular brûlée. With traditional crème brûlée that’s baked in a bain marie, you can maybe get away with using your broiler. But because this is not cooked, you just can’t.

For more information about Vegan Secret Suppers, visit their website.

Sweet Potato Lime Crème Brûlée

From Vegan Secret Supper by Mérida Anderson

Ingredients:

• 2-3 small white-fleshed sweet potatoes (you need 2 cups of cooked potatoes)
• 1 13-oz can of coconut milk or coconut cream
• 2 tbsp lime juice (I’d pull this back just a tad)
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/4 c sugar, for the brûlée

Method:

• Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour in a 375-degree oven, or until soft.
• Unwrap, and allow to cool. Peel. I put mine through a potato ricer, just to get an even finer texture. You need 2 cups of cooked, sweet potato flesh.
• In a food processor or blender, add the sweet potatoes, coconut, lime juice and zest, vanilla and maple syrup. Blend until smooth. Spoon into ramekins, and put in the fridge to set, 6 hours, or overnight.
• When ready to serve, sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the surface of the pudding, and brulee with a torch until the sugar is hard and caramelized.

Check out my recipes for traditional crème brûlée, chai crème brûlée, and Chocolate-coconut (dairy-free) crème brûlée as well.

Fakin’ Bacon

I have always said “I could happily become a vegetarian if it weren’t for bacon.”

Truthfully, I’m not a big fan of meat. Haven’t been for years. But bacon… salty, crispy, delicious goodness… I have given up meat, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still like sometimes crave a BLT or  a slice with weekend brunch.

Also, I live with a small carnivore, and while we’ve had many conversations lately about becoming vegetarians, I don’t feel like it’s right for me to force my beliefs on him. Our compromise is that he is welcome to eat meat when we eat out, and we are going to try more vegetarian meat-like products like bacon or pepperoni.

So, here are the results of our Fakin’ Bacon Taste Test.

It looks like real bacon…

Tofurky’s Smoky Maple Bacon Marinated Tempeh

Price: around $5

Available: most supermarkets, like IGA, Superstore, Save-On, but Donald’s has the best selection

What we thought: Tempeh is a fermented soy, which is supposed to be better for you than plain soy. However, it has a ricey, grainy texture that is very unlike bacon. It also looks more like ground beef that’s been formed into a loaf than like bacon. Michael says “it tastes like your hamburgers, mom.” Which is true, because my “hamburgers” are usually Money’s Mushroom burgers, or the Costco equivalent.

Rating: Meh

Yves Veggie Bacon Strips or Canadian Back Bacon

Price: $4.50

Available: most supermarkets, like IGA, Superstore, Save-On, but Donald’s has the best selection

What we thought: it comes in two versions: strips or round. Both are the same recipe, though, so it’s your choice as to what shape your prefer. This is also a soy-based product, but it has a smooth texture, and the marbling effect of real bacon. The strips are quite thick, though. It think Yves’ bacon is okay, and I like the idea of supporting a local company. However, my main beef (ha!) with all of their products is that they all kind of taste the same–the pepperoni tastes like the ham slices tastes like the bacon. Michael says “it’s kind of dry.”

Rating: It’ll do

MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips

Price: $6-7

Available: Trader Joe’s, or in Vancouver at Pirate Joe’s, 2349 W 4th

What we thought: thin and crispy, this bacon is the closest thing I’ve tasted to it’s pork namesake. This stuff is delicious. I doubt that it would fool a real meat-eater, but it might come close. The drawback of this one is that it’s the only one that isn’t vegan–it uses egg whites in the recipe. It looks the most like real bacon, as well.

Rating: it’s the bomb.com!

A quick word about cooking veggie bacon:

Start with a smoking hot pan, preferably cast iron. Add about a tablespoon of coconut oil, as it has a really high smoking point, and the bacon won’t really get brown and crispy without it. When the oil is hot, add your bacon, and watch it! Turn after a minute or two. When it’s browned, drain it on paper towels. It crisps up after you take it out of the pan.

Vegan Pot Pie with Herbed Mushroom Gravy

Here in Vancouver, we’re really lucky to have some amazing local vegan chefs, including Dreena Burton, Aaron Ash and Mérida Anderson, all of whom have recently published cookbooks. I have all three, and will be making recipes from each one in the near future, but today’s focus is Dreena Burton’s Let Them Eat Vegan. Dreena did a cooking demo at The Wellness Show in February, and everyone that tasted her Nutty Veggie Burgers raved about them as being the best veggie burgers they’d ever had.

One thing I like about Let Them Eat Vegan, is that, as a mom, she focuses a lot on foods that kids will (hopefully) like. I’m not certain if Michael would eat this particular recipe, as he’s not a huge fan of potatoes, but pot pie as a concept is not something he is unfamiliar with, nor opposed to, so if you have kids, I’d encourage you to try to sell it to them, and see what happens.

I adapted this recipe from Dreena’s Winter Veg Chickpea Potpie. It’s basically her recipe, except I added the mushroom gravy, which I feel adds another layer of meatiness, earthiness, and just overall yumminess. Getting the texture of the gravy just right was something I struggled with. I added additional thickener, but it never really got quite thick enough. But it was really, really delicious. This would make a great family Sunday-dinner type main course.

(adapted from Dreena Burton’s Let Them Eat Vegan!)

Ingredients:

For the filling:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 leek, washed well, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced in rounds
• 10 small new potatoes (I used a variety of yellow, red and purple), quartered
• 1/2 fennel bulb, sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 c fresh green beans, sliced into 1″ pieces
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2-1 tsp each dried herbs: thyme, rosemary, and sage
• salt and pepper to taste

For the gravy:

• 2 tbsps vegan butter
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1-1/2 c mushrooms (crimini, shitake, portobello or a combination), halved and then sliced
• 1/4 c flour
• 2 tbsps chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsps white wine
• 2 cups vegetarian stock
• 1-2 tbsps tamari sauce

For the pastry: one recipe Pie Crust (I used a mix of 50% white and 50% whole wheat flour)

Method:

• In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, leeks, carrots and celery, season, and cook for about five minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and stir.
• Add in the rest of the vegetables, season, add the herbs, and stir well. Partially cover, and allow to cook on low for about 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are mostly soft. Add the beans and chickpeas and stir well.
• While this is cooking you can make the gravy. In a smaller pot, over medium heat, heat the vegan butter and the olive oil together until they are melted. Add the mushrooms, and allow them to cook down for 5-10 minutes. Add in the flour and stir well, until the flour is all absorbed into the fats and the mushroom juice. Deglaze with the wine, then add the stock, the tamari and the rosemary. Continue stirring until the gravy gets thick.
• Add the gravy to the vegetables in the big pot, remove from heat, and allow to cool while you prepare the pastry.
• Place the filling in a deep-dish pie pan or a casserole dish, and top with the pastry. Cut a couple of slits in the pie crust. You may want to brush the crust with some melted vegan butter. Bake 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the insides are bubbly.

Vegan, Gluten-Free Mexican Quinoa Bake

This week is a perfect storm of busyness.

First of all, The Wellness Show is happening next weekend (Feb 15-17 at the Convention Centre East, you know where I’ll be all weekend), so I’ve been buried in a flurry of emails, phone calls, press requests for interviews and setting up TV spots.

As well, I’m launching my new book on February 15. In order to get it finished in time, I’ve retreated to a Gulf Island.

What do these two things share in common, besides their opening date?

Well, my friend that I’m staying with on Gabriola is a vegan, and Daiya is one of our exhibitors at The Wellness Show. So I thought I’d try out Daiya’s product and make something to bring with me on the weekend.

Daiya has quite a few recipes on their site, but many of them were very simple: grilled cheese, quesadillas, etc. I wanted to make something that was a bit more complicated. This turned out to be just the ticket, because, unbeknownst to me, Darien’s favorite food is lasagne, and this is a kind of Mexican lasagne.

Because he’s a vegan, Darien’s pretty familiar with Daiya already. And, as he says, “it looks like cheese, and it walks like cheese, and talks like cheese.” It’s kind of amazing, actually, and is soy, dairy, and gluten-free.

Mexican Quinoa Bake

(inspired by this recipe)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 to 1  cup quinoa
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp chipotle spice
• 1/2 a medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 15 oz can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
• 1 cup Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds (or you could use Pepperjack)

Method:

• In a dry frying pan over low-medium heat, toast the quinoa until it is popping and golden.
• Add the quinoa to a saucepan with 1 1/2-2 cups of boiling water. Turn the heat down to a simmer, and allow most of the water to be absorbed, about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, and cover for 5 minutes.
• Mix the salsa in with the quinoa, and set aside.
• In a frying pan over medium heat, heat 1-2 tbsps of oil. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper, and saute about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add the garlic and saute another couple of minutes. Now add the cumin and chipotle. Finally, add the beans. Mix everything up well, and then mash the beans in the pan with a potato masher or a fork. Lastly, mix in the corn, and cook just until it’s not frozen anymore.
• Now you’re ready to assemble. Grease a casserole dish with oil. Here are the layers:
  • 1/2 of the quinoa
  • bean layer
  • Daiya cheese
  • spinach
  • Daiya cheese
  • other 1/2 of the quinoa
  • Daiya cheese
• Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about a half and hour.

Curried-Coconut Vegetable Soup

Whoa! Where did January go??

Well, I don’t know about you, but mine was stuffed. Teaching twice as many classes as usual, preparing for The Wellness Show, oh, and some personal business as well. Somehow the month just slipped by, and me no posty.

But now it’s February, and that’s all about to change. I got back into the kitchen again in a big way this weekend. Tomorrow’s the SuperBowl, that means miniature brownies. Might not be manly enough for the Superbowl, but I made this recipe for this crowd at Christmas, and they disapeared. Besides, you can never go wrong with chocolate.

Let’s see… what else? The Wellness Show is two weeks away, so I’ll be doing some product testing leading up to that. As well, I’m less than two weeks away from the launch of my new book. That means one last writing editing retreat, this time to Gabriola Island. I’ve never been, but my friend Darien has agreed to host me. Darien is a vegan, so I’m cooking up a vegan storm before I go. I’m paying him back for his hospitality via home cookin’!

One of the things I’ll be toting over to Gabriola with me next weekend is this soup. It’s February, you want something that’s going to warm you up from the inside out. This soup is exactly the ticket. Creamy and smooth, and with just a hit of heat from the curry and the ginger as it slides past your tongue. I made a huge vat.

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-2 inch knub of ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 1-2 tbsps curry (madras if you want it hotter)
• 1-2 tbsps garam masala
• 1 large yam or sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 squash, peeled and cut into chunks (I used the pumpkin I’d cooked and pureed in the fall)
• 1 green apple, peeled and cut into chunks
• 8-12 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 can coconut milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• In a large soup pot over medium-low heat, drizzle a couple tablespoons of vegetable, olive, or coconut oil. Add the onion. Allow to cook for 5-10 minutes until soft. Add the ginger and garlic and saute a few minutes more, until fragrant. Season with salt.
• Add the spices, stir well, and allow to cook for another minute or two. Add the yam and squash, stir. Finally, add the apple, and stir some more. Season with salt.
• Add the stock, and increase the heat to bring it to the boil. Once at a boil, turn down the heat so that it is at a simmer. Allow to simmer until the vegetables are very soft.
• Drain the soup, reserving the stock. Puree the vegetables until smooth, then add them back into the pot with the reserved stock. Mix until all is incorporated, and bring back up to a simmer. Add the coconut milk and stir well. Adjust seasoning and serve! I garnished mine with a little drizzle of maple syrup.
• You could also make this in the slow cooker.

Vegan, Gluten-Free “Pulled Pork” Tacos

Okay. So, we can have a whole debate about whether or not vegetarian folks are interested in eating food that looks like meat. We can even debate whether or not we should try to convince meat-eaters that vegetarian food is just as yum as meat by tricking them.

But let’s not. I don’t have that much time.

This recipe came to be because I had a birthday party a few weeks back. For it, among other things, I made my world-famous (not really, but I do have to brag that it’s gotten me a couple of marriage proposals) slow-cooker pulled pork. Not to discriminate against my vegan pals, I began doing internet research on vegan pulled pork, and well, here it is.

This recipe is a wonder. Seriously, it looks like pulled pork. It tastes sweet and spicy and yummy. And it’s jackfruit. What the what?? Yeah, that’s right, jackfruit. I’d never heard of it either….

Jackfruit comes from South Asia and Africa, and it is a big, big fruit. The thing that I think it most resembles is pineapple–prickly on the outside, with a tough core, surrounded by a softer, more fibrous outer layer. But you don’t have to worry about trying to find one fresh. Just buy it in cans. You should find it at your local Asian supermarket (I got mine at T & T: $1.49), and buy more than you think you’ll need, because by the time you’re done cleaning it, you’ll throw about half away.

(original source: Clean. Green. Simple.)

Ingredients:

• 2 cans young green Jackfruit in brine (NOT syrup)
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 corn tortillas
• Slaw (I made two different kinds: Apple/Fennel and a more traditional cabbage slaw with cilantro and an Asian dressing–recipe below)
• Bar-b-Que sauce–recipe below
• Dry spice rub–I like Guilty Kitchen’s, but anything that involves paprika, garlic, and some chili will do

Method:

Drain the Jackfruit in a colander and rinse to get the brine off. To prepare the Jackfruit, you need to cut off the tough inner core pieces, leaving just the fleshy part behind. There are also pod-like bits for seeds that I discard as well.

Once you have your Jackfruit prepared, toss it with the dry rub until all the pieces are coated. Allow to sit while you saute the onions.

Mince your onion fairly fine, and drizzle some oil into a warm frying pan. You don’t want it to be too hot–low to medium. Add the onions and let them cook slowly for 10 minutes or so. When they are soft and fragrant, add the garlic, and then the jackfruit. Allow to cook for another 10 minutes or so, stirring often, and adding water if the pan gets too dry. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

While it’s cooling, make the BBQ sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil and then 1/3 c. onion, finely chopped, 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, 1/2 c ketchup, 1/3 c vinegar (cider vinegar if you have it, it’s slightly sweeter–although there is debate about whether or not it’s GF), 1/4 c brown sugar, 1 tbsp mustard or mustard powder, 1 tbsp Tamari, 2 tbsp blackstrap molasses, salt and pepper to taste. Allow this all to marry and bubble and come together and thicken.

Now that the jackfruit has cooled a little, you can begin to “pull” it. Using two forks, begin to separate the strands, pulling them apart. Once the Jackfruit is all “pulled,” put it back on the burner on low, and add a little BBQ sauce. Keep adding BBQ sauce, a little at a time, until you get it to the consistency you like. The remaining BBQ sauce put in a bottle to serve alongside.

Warm the tortillas on a griddle individually, or wrap all 12 in a wet cloth napkin and put them inside a casserole dish (with the lid on) in a 200 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.

For your slaw, you want to use a grater or a mandolin, and use green and purple cabbage, as well as carrots. Grate everything into a bowl, and then add a nice handful of chopped cilantro. For the dressing, in a mason jar, add 1 tbsp of tahini, 1 tbsp of sesame oil, and 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar, along with maple syrup and salt and pepper to taste. Shake it up and toss the slaw with the dressing.

To assemble: place a warm tortilla on a plate, then top with the “pulled pork.” Next, top with your choice of slaw, and extra BBQ sauce and salsa, if desired. Roll and enjoy!

With the “alternative” slaw.

It’s My Birthday, and I’ll Cook if I want To

There are few things in life that give me more pleasure than cooking for people. Sure, I’ll cook for myself, but it’s not the same. I want to share. Food is love, and spreading the love makes me happy. Maybe I was an Italian Nona in a past life?

It was my birthday last week, and it had been a while since I’d had a proper birthday party. So I decided to throw myself one. The building in which I live has a beautiful, and deeply underutilized, rooftop garden overlooking Coal Harbour, and my friend Jenn generously offered to bake me a cake, so what more did I need than that and a bunch of my closest friends? Okay, maybe some wine…

The challenge with cooking for my friends is that they have all kinds of dietary restrictions–gluten-free, vegan, no pork, you name it. So I had to create a menu with a little something for everyone.

Here it is:

• Pulled Pork Tacos with homemade BBQ Sauce and Asian Slaw
• Vegan Pulled Pork Tacos (yep, vegan pulled pork–a huge success–recipe to come)
• Cold Minted Pea and Cucumber Soup with Herb Drizzle (based on this recipe)
• Chips with Lili’s Salsa Fresca
• Cruidetes (okay, raw vegetables, cut up) with Vegan Green Goddess Dip
• Chocolate-Chip cookies
• Lemon-lavender shortbread (inspired by some I had at the Penticton Farmer’s Market)
• Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
• Apricot Oat Bars (this recipe, made with a jar of the Apricot-Date preserves I recently made)
• AND Birthday Cake!!

It’s a testament to how much fun I was having that I did not take one photo. Not  a single one. These are cobbled together from the Facebook/Flickr/Instagram streams of various friends.

Cold, minted pea and cucumber soup with herb drizzle. The only photo of the food!

The Cake!! Vegan and gluten-free, made by the amazing Jenn Maclean-Angus of Memento Cakes. Image by Geoffrey Ian Daniel.

 

The Birthday girl with the amazing Cake-maker. Photo by Marta Mikolajczyk.

….and the beautiful girl herself! Geoff took this one.

Thanks for coming, everyone! Next year??

Geoff’s blog post: Bex’ Birthday

Memento Cakes

 

Chocolate Coconut “Ice Cream”

I am blessed with a proliferation of friends who all are on restrictive diets. I have vegans, gluten-frees, pescatarians, and paleos. Oh, my!

I love them all. And I love the challenge of cooking for them. The bonus with this recipe: I get to bust out my ice cream maker, which, let’s face it, I don’t get to use all that often.

Allrighty then! Three ingredients, vegan, and YUM. Has that fatty mouth-feel to it that you crave with ice cream, yet has zero dairy, making it okay for vegans and lactose-intolerant alike.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of coconut milk (NOT the light kind–ice cream deserves full fat)
• 2 tbsp of cocoa powder (for the love of Pete, please use something good! Dutch cocoa powder if you have it–I just picked up a box of Blooker Cacao especially for this purpose at The Old Country Market in Coombs)
• 1/3 cup sweetener (agave, sugar, whatever you can eat)

Method:

• Open your can of coconut milk and dump it into your blender with the cocoa and whatever sweetener you’re using. Blitz the whole thing good and proper until it’s all uniform. It’ll look like thick chocolate milk.
  Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. This won’t work unless it’s all nice and cold.
• Turn on your ice-cream machine and pour the chocolate-coconut mixture in. Leave it to churn for about 20 minutes.
• Your ‘ice cream’ will be about the consistency of soft-serve. If you like it at this point, take it out and serve it. If you like a more set-up ice cream, put it in the freezer for a few hours to firm up.
• If you leave it for a longer time, like overnight (as if there will be any leftovers!!), give it 5-10 minutes on the counter top to warm up to scooping consistency.
• This would also be awesome poured into Popsicle molds.

NOTE: in my local Asian supermarket yesterday, I noticed cans of “Coconut Cream.” More experimentation is needed….

Roasted Cauliflower, Kale and Quinoa Salad

This recipe was born out of necessity and what was in my fridge, but it has quickly become a staple in my kitchen.

A few months back, I was on a cleanse, and always scouting for yum things I could make that didn’t involve gluten, dairy or meat. I opened my fridge and found kale and cauliflower, and was inspired by Najib’s Special, which is one of my favorite things to eat at Nuba. If you’ve never had it, really, do yourself a favor and get your butt down there.

So… it may have been born out of necessity and what was in my fridge, but I’ve made it multiple times over the last few months. I am blessed with an abundance of friends who have specific dietary restrictions: a couple of new friends are vegan, many of my old friends have converted to gluten-free, and well, no matter what kind of diet you stick to, this is just plain tasty.

So, thanks Darien, Johanna, Chris and Jenn for all the opportunities for improvement.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Quinoa
• 1 cup + a bit water
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 head of cauliflower
• 4-5 ribs kale
• olive oil
• Cumin
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 3-4 tbs of sesame seeds

For the dressing:

• 1/4 c tahini
• 1/4 c lemon juice
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• salt & pepper to taste

Garnish options:

• roasted, chopped almonds
• crumbled feta or goat cheese
• roasted, whole cumin seeds

Method:

1. Start by dry-roasting the quinoa in a frying pan over medium heat. Watch it very carefully and shake the pan often so it doesn’t burn. The quinoa will pop a bit like popcorn, and turn a lovely light brown.

2. In a medium saucepan, heat the water with a pinch of salt. When it’s at a boil, add the roasted quinoa, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until nearly all the water is absorbed. Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for an additional 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, wash and chunk up your cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Peel the onion and cut into bite-sized chunks as well. Toss in a tablespoon or so of olive oil, salt and pepper and sprinkling of cumin. Place on a cookie sheet and roast in a hot oven (400-450 degrees) for about 10 minutes, or until the cauliflower is nicely caramelized and roasty.

4. Make kale chips.

5. Assemble all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl.

6. Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small mason jar, and shake to combine. Taste to see that the seasoning is correct, or that the dressing is not too acidic.

7. Dress the salad and mix well. Garnish with whatever option you choose and enjoy! This tastes great warm, or you can eat it cold.

Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free, Vegan Date Squares

Whew! That’s quite the handle, hey?

My last post, the Jungle Monkey Love Cake? I made that for a dessert when I went over to have dinner with some friends a couple of weeks ago. Well, unbeknownst to me, my friend had some pretty serious dietary restrictions. She is both a diabetic and a celiac, so she didn’t get to eat said cake, but her partner sure did enjoy it.

But I felt bad. I don’t like my friends to have to go dessert-less. And I do love a challenge. Throw dietary restrictions at me, and dare me to come up with something tasty, and I will do it.

Enter the humble date square. Simple ingredients, simple prep, but oh so sweet and tasty. This recipe is adapted from a couple that I found, both raw. I chose to cook mine, but you don’t need to. I like the kiss of golden brown on the crumble topping.

Here are the links to the original recipes: My New Roots (h/t @juliaaustine) and Oh She Glows.

Ingredients:

Crust/topping:

• 2 cups walnuts
• 2 cups oats (gluten-free if you are making these for someone with celiac)
• 1/2 cup vegan butter (like Earth Balance) or coconut oil. If you’re not vegan, use butter.
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Filling:

• two packages of dates (375 g each)
• one orange
• 1/4-1/2 cup water

Method:

Base:

• Put the walnuts and oats in a food processor, and slowly turn up the volume until you are processing them on high. You don’t need it to be a fine flour, but you want it to be fairly crumb-like. Add in the cinnamon.
• Turn the motor to slow, and add the maple syrup. Melt the butter, and add slowly through the feeding chute.
• The mixture should be clinging together. Divide into thirds, two thirds will be you bottom crust.
• Line an 8″x8″ square pan with parchment, and press the mixture into the bottom of the pan.

Filling:

• Unwrap the dates and cut them into chunks in a medium sauce pan. Zest the orange and add it to the dates, then cut it in half and add the juice to the mixture as well. Add a 1/4 c of water, and turn the pan on low to medium heat. Let the whole mixture melt together, adding more water if necessary. I usually employ a potato masher to get everything good and squished up and working together. Your final result should be a thickish paste.
• Spread the filling layer on top of your base, and top with the leftover base, but don’t pack it down as hard as the bottom layer.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

UPDATE: from the gluten-free diabetic: “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! They are most delicious!”