Month: May 2011

by betsy

Vegan Grilled Asparagus with Spring Onion-Radish Butter

Yield: 4 servings (you’ll have a bit of extra butter)

A gift of garden fresh asparagus from my husband’s colleague, Freddie Stant, inspired this dish.  Be prepared for a new late spring favorite!

I knew I wanted to grill the asparagus and I knew I wanted something special on top, but that special something eluded me until I thought of the simplest and most elegant appetizer:  radishes spread with fresh creamy butter and a garnish of sea salt.  Perfect!

I simply mashed the vegan butter with the back of a fork and folded in finely diced radish and thinly sliced spring onion.  Because the butter I use is already salted, I went easy on the sea salt.  Then I dolloped the butter-vegetable mixture on the warm asparagus, allowing it to just barely start to melt.

Oh my goodness, this dish is amazing!

Vegan Spring Onion-Radish Butter:

1/4 cup vegan butter (I like Earth Balance), if too firm to mash, allow to warm slightly at room temperature

1/4 cup thinly sliced spring onion

1/3 cup thinly sliced and then diced radish (about 3)

Grilled Asparagus:

1 pound of asparagus, rinsed, drained and trimmed

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Sea salt (consider hand-grated pink Himalayan salt for the garnish)

Optional veggie garnish: 1 plump radish

In a medium-size bowl, mash butter with the back of a fork and gently fold in onion and radish until well combined.  Set aside.  Spray a seasoned grill pan with non-stick spray–or brush with olive oil–and preheat over medium-high.  In a large bowl or shallow pan, toss asparagus with olive oil and season lightly with sea salt.  Grill asparagus in one layer for approximately 8 minutes on each side or until lightly charred and crisp-tender.  Grill in two batches, if necessary, keeping first batch warm in the oven until second batch is finished cooking.  Place asparagus on a serving platter, top with butter mixture, sprinkle lightly with sea salt (hand-grated pink Himalayan salt would be fabulous!), top with optional whole radish, and serve immediately.  Store any leftover butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Note: this brand new recipe isn’t in my just-published cookbook, but there are 150+ similarly fresh, beautiful, and seasonal dishes you and yours will love.

by betsy

Vegan Spiced Double Chocolate-Lime Cookies

“Boss’s Week” came and went last week, but other priorities prevented me from acknowledging it in any way, except to have one of my talented students create a “Happy Boss’s Week” poster, by special request, featuring caricatures of each one of our administrators.  It was adorable and well-received, but I wanted to give our incredibly supportive principal and assistant principals something homemade.

I decided that a favorite chewy chocolate cookie would be perfect.  But I had just come home from the Asian market, so I decided to spice them up with a little lime zest.  (I remember, when I was a child, someone in our family was under the weather and a neighbor brought us a delectable chocolate-lime pie, a flavor combination I’ve rarely had since.)  When I tasted the dough, though–one of the beauties of eggless cooking!–it cried out for cinnamon and, especially, ginger to complement the sweet-tart lime and the pleasantly, but strongly flavored molasses and cane syrup (I used a combination).  Voila!  Vegan Spiced Double Chocolate-Lime Cookies were born.  Then, my husband suggested I attach the recipe plus three more, one for each season, from my brand new cookbook.  What a bloomin’ inspired idea!

Enjoy at your Memorial Day BBQ or any time…perhaps with  little lime sorbet?

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

1 cup vegan butter, room temperature (I like Earth Balance)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cups natural sugar plus 1 cup for coating
1 cup light-flavored molasses, pure cane syrup or, if you dare, dark corn syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (or to taste)
Zest of 1 fresh lime
8-9 ounces vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips

Line two cookie sheets with Silpats or parchment paper and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, place butter, oil, and 1 1/3 cup natural sugar.  Reserve remaining 1 cup sugar. At medium to medium-high speed, cream mixture until well-combined and fluffy. Add cane syrup and vanilla and beat just a few more seconds to combine, scraping bowl, as needed. Mixture may look slightly curdled, but don’t worry. Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips, and beat on low speed, scraping bowl as needed, just until combined. Taste and add more cinnamon and ginger, if desired.  Add chips and beat on low just a few seconds to distribute.

Cover dough well and chill for half an hour, but no longer. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a small scoop with a release lever, scoop out balls of dough about 1 1/2-inches in diameter. Roll in reserved 1 cup of sugar and place a generous 2” apart on baking sheets. Bake one sheet at a time for 4 minutes, open oven door and, using a spatula, quickly flatten each cookie slightly to 1/2-inch thick. Close the oven door and continue baking for 6 more minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Cookies should be ever-so-slightly cracked, look a little moist and soft in the center, and be more set around the edges. Leave cookies on baking sheet and set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Then, using a spatula, transfer cookies to the racks and cool to room temperature. Repeat with remaining baking sheet.  Store in an airtight container.

by betsy

Vegan Late Spring Thai Quinoa Salad

This salad began its life Friday night as my intended contribution to a pre-Memorial Day block party on Saturday to which my good friend, Sharon Clohessy, invited me.   However, I ended up needing to work yesterday, which required an hour drive each way to and from Newport News.  A little weary of sitting in the car, I ended up deciding not to drive another half hour through resort strip traffic to get to the residential  “North End” of our beach where Sharon lives.

Friday night when I went to bed, the salad was a little lacking, but with the addition of Thai basil,  super sweet and juicy-firm grape tomatoes, and a little more lime juice, it turned out just right.  If you wanted to kick it up just a smidge, a tiny bit of seeded and minced hot pepper would do the trick.

The “Late Spring” of the title refers to fresh ingredients that span the cusp of spring and summer in Hampton Roads where we live.  (In our area, cilantro burns out once summer is in full swing.)  But please enjoy this burst of brightness whenever these ingredients are at their peak in your area.  I think this dish is best if allowed to chill several hours before serving.

I would have loved to have shared at the block party what turned out to be an utterly delicious and refreshing combination of some of my favorite flavors and crunchy-chewy textures.  However, friends invited me to the beach this afternoon, so I think I’ll take them a healthy portion.

But, while I’m enjoying delicious food with friends in an idyllic setting, I will be thinking with gratitude of those, past and present, whose sacrifices made this lifestyle possible.

Have a relaxing and reflective Memorial Day.

Salad:

2 cups water or vegetable stock

1 cup quinoa

Sea salt

2 cups fresh baby spinach, packed medium-firm, coarsely chopped

1 large yellow or orange bell pepper, halved, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 large spring onion, thinly sliced (approximately 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise

1/2 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts, chopped coarse-fine

1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, chopped coarse-fine

1/4 cup loosely packed thai basil leaves (about 16 leaves), chiffonade (leaves stacked, tightly rolled, and very thinly sliced

Dressing:

1 tablespoon canola oil, sesame oil, or 1 1/2 teaspoon of each

1/4 cup vegan fish sauce

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (or to taste–I like a fairly pronounced lime flavor)

1 tablespoon agave nectar or natural sugar

2 cloves garlic, minced

Sea Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

In a 1-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, bring water or stock to a simmer.  Add quinoa and a pinch of salt, stir, cover loosely, and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the water has mostly evaporated; quinoa will be tender and slightly.   Alternatively, cook, covered, in the microwave on high power for 4 minutes, stir, and then repeat for two additional 2-minute intervals.

Empty the cooked quinoa into a non-reactive bowl or container with a lid.  When quinoa is no longer steaming, but is still quite warm, add remaining salad ingredients and set aside.  In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.  Pour the dressing over salad ingredients, and toss gently to coat.  Adjust salt and pepper if necessary.  Refrigerate several hours or over night for best flavor.

Note: though this recipe is too new to be in The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes, which was just published, it does include more than 150 similarly fresh and flavorful ones that  you’re sure to love.

by betsy

Vegan Cookbook Author Loves Eco-Friendly Bamboo Cooking Utensils

The truth is that I actually loved my wooden spoons and cooked with them almost exclusively.  That is, until Minnie, the miniature Great Dane destroyed them. 

I came home one afternoon to find splintered wood in a small pile in our den.  There was one piece that puzzled me: it was perfectly cylindrical and smooth as could be.  I didn’t figure out what it was until I went looking for my wooden spoon and it was nowhere to be found.  That one belonged to my late paternal grandmother.  Irreplaceable.  My mother had tied it onto the top of a Christmas package years ago and I treasured it. 

When I told Mama what happened, she gave me one of hers.  But I didn’t learn;  Minnie destroyed that one too.  She apparently retrieved them off the dish drainer where, I suppose, though washed, they still had a residual aroma and taste of something delectable to her, though her palate isn’t very discriminating.

Incidentally, yesterday I heard a strange sound, like something had fallen, but I couldn’t find whatever it was until this morning when I encountered another splintered mini-pile of wood.  Years ago in a sculpture class, I made a wall relief piece out of tea boxes.  Our power has gone out several times this week due to storms and perhaps the humidity caused the two boxes to come apart sending them plummeting to the floor.  Once again, I suppose they still gave off a residual aroma or taste.  See the photos at the bottom of this post for the before and after.  Have I mentioned that Minnie is a brat?  Loveable, but a brat just the same.

So, alas, I was in T. J. Maxx yesterday and snagged a very inexpensive bag of bamboo untensils ($3.99 for five) which I “test drove” last night.  I love the way they “handled,” and I LOVE that they are made from a sustainable plant.  If yours ever need replacing, I highly recommend bamboo!

"Order" Tea Box Wall Relief by Betsy DiJulio
"Order" Tea Box Art after Minnie "Reordered" It
by betsy

Vegan Rosemary-Shallot Red Wine Reduction

The only thing that might possibly be tastier than my Vegan Cheddar “Cheese” Spread, is my Vegan Cheddar “Cheese” Spread with a drizzle of my Vegan Rosemary-Shallot Red Wine Reduction.

This shimmering sophisticated sauce with it’s beautiful body, mouth feel and tangy-sweet savoriness is a lovely counterpoint to rich golden swirls of creamy “cheese.”

I use a red table wine in the recipe, but experiment with different wines for either slightly or dramatically different flavors to suite your palate.

Vegan Rosemary-Shallot Red Wine Reduction

Yield: 1/2 cup

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 shallots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cups red wine

2-3 tablespoons agave nectar

1 bay leaf, halved

2-5 to 6 inch sprigs rosemary

1 tablespoon vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)

In a large skillet over medium high, heat olive oil to shimmering.  Add shallot and saute, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper and garlic and saute, stirring, for another minute.  Add remaining ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/2 cup.  Remove rosemary sprigs if they start to come apart, as you don’t necessarily want rosemary needles in your reduction.  Swirl in vegan butter and remove from heat.  Mixture will thicken as it cools.  Serve drizzled over Melba toasts or crostini spread with whatever you like.  I think my Vegan Cheddar “Cheese” Spread is a particularly good accompaniment.  Garnish with sprigs of rosemary.  Store any leftover reduction in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

by betsy

Eat Your Vegan Leafy Greens for Healthy Eyes

This week, I had an annual check-up with my opthamologist, the dynamic Dr. Dunn of Beach Eye Care in VA Beach, VA.

In the exam room, he popped my retinal scan image up on his computer alongside an image of the unhealthy eye of a diabetes patient about my age who refuses to eat “anything green.” After pointing out the differences,  he said, “You can tell everyone that your vegan diet is responsible for your healthy eyes.”

According to him, though “leafy greens” were discounted by his professors in medical school a number of years ago, they are now credited with being a key “ingredient” in eye health.

So, to keep your peepers in the “pink” of good health, I am pleased to offer you this tantalizingly tangy and ravishing red chard dish from my new cookbook, The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes:

red chard with toasted hazelnuts
Yield: 4 servings

Maple syrup and raspberry vinegar lend a delicate flavor to fresh Spring chard. This dish is beautiful as an accompaniment to sauteed tempeh or tofu.

1 bunch red chard, rinsed and well dried
2 tablespoons walnut oil or olive oil, divided
2 large cloves garlic, minced
Sea salt
2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar or
apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped toasted hazlenuts

1. Remove and discard the tough stem ends of the chard. Cut off the remaining stems and coarsely chop. Set aside. Roll up each chard leaf lengthwise, jellyroll style, and cut through the resulting cylinder into 1/2-inch slices.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the walnut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir continuously until it begins to turn golden. Add the sliced chard stems and a pinch of salt and increase heat to medium-high. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and stir well.

3. Add the sliced chard leaves, gently packing them into the skillet and cook them, undisturbed, for 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs, turn the leaves so that the cooked side is up and saute for 2 minutes longer. Add the vinegar, maple syrup and black pepper to taste, and cook for 1 minute or until the chard is tender, but not mushy, and a bright-dark green.

4. Quickly transfer the chard to a serving bowl to stop cooking, making sure to include all of the juice and bits of garlic. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with hazelnuts. Serve hot.

by betsy

The Blooming Platter (Vegan) Cookbook Launch Party a Blooming Success!

Betsy, Sheila & Sebastian at the Signing Table + a Sliver of the Crowd

Recipe for a Smashing Launch Party:

1 generous and visionary gallery owner and her sales associate son (Sheila Giolitti and Sebastian Stant)

1 industrial-chic gallery space (Mayer Fine Art Gallery, Norfolk)

20+ gifted artists

A large handful of members of the press (Hampton Roads Magazine,Virginian-Pilot, VEER and more)

An”SRO” crowd of beautiful, vibrant and generous guests (and a signing line out the door!)

28 dozen vegan cookies (courtesy of several good friends + me), 4 dozen pieces of vegan Coconut-Cream Almond Fudge, 3 lbs. of vegan spicy-rosemary cashews, a fruit bouquet, crackers, and plenty of wine

1 beautiful “blooming” arrangement (courtesy The New Leaf, Norfolk)

1 talented “indy” publishing company (Vegan Heritage Press)

1 brand new cookbook (see below)

1 very grateful and joyfully overwhelmed cookbook author (that’s me!)

Combine all ingredients, blending well, and you have “Incredible Edibles,” the fabulous launch party, book signing, and food-in-art exhibition for my brand new cookbook, The Blooming Platter: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes.

I am completely “plattered” by the community embrace of this occasion.  Many stars glittered that night and I am so honored to have been among them.  A heartfelt, but completely inadequate, thanks to all.

For lots of photos that will give you the “flavor” of the event, see The Blooming Platter Cookbook Signing Party photo album on my Facebook page and visit Mayer Fine Art also on FB.

by betsy

The Blooming Platter Cookbook Featured Again by Veggie Girl

Back Cover, The Blooming Platter Cookbook

Dianne “Veggie Girl” confesses on her blog that, although she usually doesn’t feature the same cookbook twice in her “Cookbook Project” series, my vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese-Orange Sauce inspired her to break with tradition and feature The Blooming Platter Cookbook for Project 19 and 20.  Thank you, Diane!

I commend her substitution of Spelt flour for the whole wheat.  I do that myself sometimes and am a fan!

This week, she chose to prepare a total of four recipes from The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes.  I trust it will always give me a thrill to see my recipes prepared by someone else!

In fact, I would have loved to have eaten at Dianne’s house this week as this was such a busy one for me that my dinner one night was my Vegan Cheddar “Cheese” Spread on Melba toast and nothing at all last night!

This week included, in addition to a two hour appointment after work on Tuesday to have my braces removed and a beautiful closing exhibition reception for my students and their artwork at Old Dominion University’s Virginia Beach Higher Ed Center on Thursday, lots of cooking for the “Incredible Edibles” cookbook launch party that is tonight (so excited!).

So while I practiced poor nutritional habits, at least at night, Veggie Girl, in addition to my carrot cake pancakes, whipped up a batch of my Zucchini-Stuffed Shells with Blooming Marinara Sauce, my Caramelized Onion and Spinach Quesadillas (with White Bean Cheese) and my “White Cheese” Pizza with Kale and Sun-Dried Tomatoes.

Her addition of a pinwheel garnish of avocado slices on the quesadilla was gorgeous (but, sadly, I’m allergic to them).  And her addition of Shitake mushrooms and red onion to the pizza  looked like the delicious confetti that I’m sure it was.

It’s barely 5:25 a.m. and my mouth is watering for Italian and Southwestern food!

by betsy

Vegan Baking for All Seasons: Vegan Italian Chocolate-Nut Thumbprint Cookies

I am a seasonal cooking devotee as you can see from The Blooming Platter Cookbook.  But I love perennial ingredients like chocolate year-round.

In this photo from the current issue of VEER Magazine, I’m holding one of my newest sweet treats: Vegan Italian Chocolate-Nut Thumbprint Cookies.  We wanted to include a photo showing that vegans don’t only eat vegetables, so we shot some of me with this cookie.

The inspiration for the recipe is bittersweet, as it came from a tray of cookies that was delivered to my sister-in-law’s house on the occasion of my mother-in-law, Terry’s, passing.  (People were so generous: you have never seen so much food in your life!)  I had to sample this particular non-vegan cookie for research.  It looked beautiful and I needed to know what it tasted like so that I could try to hit the mark….sorry!

The first batch went down the disposal, literally.  I hated to be wasteful, but they were a disaster.  My next riff wasa big hit at the Vegan Virginia Beach Bake Sale (as was everything that members brought, especially various cupcakes!).  So I made them again recently for our wonderful administrative assistants at Princess Anne High School.  I put 2 or 3 in tiny Chinese carry-out containers as gifts for all of them during “Administrative Assistants Week.”

One of the women, Susan Barnes, even asked for the recipe to share around.  She likes the cookies crumbled up in her yogurt(!).  But she made me promise that there was no tofu in them.  We have a running joke about tofu; it’s not her favorite.

I plan to make a batch of these cookies for the “Incredible Edibles” book-signing and launch party on Saturday night.  If you’re in the local area, come taste test!  If not, whip up a batch for yourself and be prepared to have a new favorite!

Yield: 36 Cookies

Cookies:

1 cup vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)

1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

2 tablespoon natural sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Pinch sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4-1/2  teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon water

2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 cups finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line1 or 2 baking sheets with Silpat.  In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and both sugars.  Beat in cocoa powder, salt, both extracts, and water.  Beat in flour, one-half cup of flour at a time, beating only enough to incorporate.  Avoid over- beating.  With the mixer on low speed, blend in nuts.  Scoop by 1 tablespoon of  dough onto prepared baking sheets.  Flatten into a disk with the bottom of a glass.  Press your thumb into the center of each cookie twice, side by side, slightly overlapping, to make a fairly large depression.  Bake about 16 minutes.  If using two baking sheets on two racks, switch after 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool completely on wire racks as soon as they are firm enough to handle.

Frosting:

1/2 cup vegan butter (I like Earth Balance

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup + 3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream all ingredients together until well-combined and fluffy.  Using a small spoon, divide the frosting evenly among the cookies, filling the depression.  Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

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