Author: betsy

by betsy

Vegan Orange Date-Nut Pancakes

Yield: 8 pancakes

I haven’t been on a pancake bender in a while.   But I ate very lightly yesterday, and it’s gray and wintry here, so I woke up with pancakes on my mind.

A package of chopped dried dates and some already chopped and toasted nuts in the pantry, plus a fresh orange in the fridge, gave rise to to this delectable rendition.  If it’s too late for you to enjoy them this morning, we still have a few winter weekends ahead or, if you live in the U.S. and have tomorrow off for President’s Day, sleep in and enjoy them for a late brunch.  George Washington would approve, as his favorite recipe made by wife, Marta, was Hoe Cakes!

1/2 cup chopped dried dates
1/4 cup cream sherry (don’t worry–it’s non-dairy), brandy, etc.  (I use cream sherry, but you may use fresh orange juice or even water keeping in mind that the flavor will be different than the original)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (white whole wheat or all-purpose flour would also work fine)
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup natural sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch ground mace or nutmeg
1 to 1 1/2 cups unsweetened soymilk (plain or vanilla soy milk would also be good–regular or lite; you may require the larger amount if using whole wheat flour, as it seems to absorb more moisture)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, preferably dry-toasted for about 3 minutes in a small skillet over medium-high heat (pecans, almonds or cashews would also be good)
Zest of one medium-large naval orange (reserve a small amount of garnishing if desired)
Vegan butter and/or vegetable oil for frying
Maple Syrup
Optional Garnishes: orange zest, a few chopped nuts, and/or a very light sprinkling of powdered sugar

Preheat oven to warm. Place dates in a microwave-safe small bowl or cup, pour sherry or brandy over, and microwave for 20-30 seconds.  Let sit while you prepare the pancake batter.  In a medium mixing bowl, place both flours, sugar, baking powder, soda and nutmeg.  Make a well in the center and pour in soymilk. Whisk together until well combined. Then stir in dates, nuts, and orange zest with a spoon or fork.

In a large cast iron skillet or griddle over medium-high heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the vegan butter, oil or a combination. (I like a combination: the oil reduces chances of burning while the butter contributes flavor.) Using a 1/4 cup measure, make pancakes, two at a time. Cook two-three minutes on the first side until you get a nice rise, a few bubbles appear, and the edges appear set. Gently flip and cook another couple of minutes on the reverse. Add butter and/or oil to keep skillet greased as needed. If pancakes are cooking too quickly, lower heat to medium, especially for second side. When cooked through, remove pancakes to plates or a serving platter, keep warm, and repeat with remaining butter and pancake batter.

Serve warm drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with optional reserved orange zest, chopped nuts, and/or powdered sugar.

For 150+ other seasonal specialties, please have a look at The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes.

by betsy

Not Your Mama’s Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup with Orange-Scented Kale and Pepita Pesto

My Mam-ma was an excellent country cook, but this soul-satisfying vegan soup rivals her chicken-n-dumplings.  Plus, while it hasn’t forgotten where it came from, it’s gone a bit uptown.

Not Your Mama’s Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup is a healthy and simple version of the chicken noodle soup you may remember from childhood.  But, not only is it vegan, it’s a bit more grown-up and “gourmet” courtesy of the orecchiette and, especially, the pesto.    The latter celebrates some of winter’s finest ingredients: oranges and kale.  A dollop of it is optional, but I highly recommend it for a delicious burst of contrasting flavor, texture and temperature atop a mug of the warm soup.

With chilly rain in our forecast starting this evening and continuing through tomorrow, and the fridge is nearly barren of leftovers, I think this soup may be in order to warm up the weekend….but, trust me, t’s just as good when the sun is shining!

Not Your Mama’s Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup

Yield: 6 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup yellow onion cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup celery cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/2 cup carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1 teaspoon powdered thyme

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

8 cups faux chicken or vegetable stock (I purchase extra large faux chicken bouillon cubes and use 4 with 8 cups of water, as I think the seasoning lends more of a “pot pie” flavor than vegetable stock does)

2 bay leaves

4 ounces dried Orecchiette (ear-shaped pasta rarely made with egg, but check to be sure)

8 ounces chicken-flavored seitan (I use MorningStar Farms® Meal Starters® Chik’n Strips which have plenty of salt and pepper for my palate)

1/2 cup unsweetened soymilk

Sea salt to taste, if needed

Freshly ground black pepper to taste, if needed

Optional accompaniment (but very good!) : a little “glug” of sherry in each bowl or mug

In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil until shimmering.  Add onion and saute, stirring frequently, until translucent and softened, about 3 minutes.  Add garlic and saute, stirring, for 30 seconds.  Avoid over-browning.  Add celery and carrot and saute, stirring frequently until both are slightly softened, or about another 3 minutes.  Add sage, tarragon, thyme, flour and nutritional yeast, and stir to distribute evenly.  Stir in stock and bay leaves and heat to a simmer.  Add pasta and simmer until al dente, about 7-8  minutes.  Stir in chicken-flavored seitan and heat through, followed by the soy milk.  Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot  in bowls or mugs topped with my optional, but recommended, Vegan Orange-Scented Kale and Pumpkin Seed Pesto.  I also LOVE this soup with a little “glug” of sherry added to each serving.

 

Vegan Orange-Scented Kale and Pumpkin Seed Pesto

4 cups stemmed, roughly chopped or torn, and lightly packed fresh kale

1 cup roasted and lightly salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) (I purchase Trader Joe’s Brand)

1/4 cup olive oil or to taste

Zest of one medium naval orange

2 teaspoons fresh orange juice

Sea salt to taste, if needed

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place kale and pepitas in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.  With the motor running, drizzle in the oil, and turn off the machine as soon as the last drop of oil has fallen in.  Remove the lid and add zest, juice and salt and pepper to taste.  Pulse a couple more times and then chill, tightly covered, before serving.

For 150+ additional inspired seasonal recipes, I invite you to peruse The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes.

 

by betsy

The Blooming Platter Now Offers a New Print Friendly Feature for Each Recipe

Printing any recipe from The Blooming Platter just got ridiculously easy!

I am excited to direct your attention to this brand new feature in case it has escaped your attention.  Just look for the green “Print Friendly” button at the bottom of every recipe.

It’s simple to use, looks great, prints great, and gives you some nifty options as you can see in the photo: creating a pdf, emailing it to a friend, choosing a point size for the text, and printing without the photos to save ink.  Plus, “The Blooming Platter” name and the recipe’s url are both included at the top so you can remember where you found it.

I hope you’ll enjoy using this new convenience ad much as I enjoyed making it available.

by betsy

Trio of Vegan Valentine’s Treats: 1 Savory and 2 Sweets

Since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow(!), I wanted to direct you to three oldies-but-goodies that I created in years past to celebrate the national day of love.  Just click on the title to be taken right to the post with that recipe.  Happy Valentine’s Day from the Blooming Platter!

Savory Vegan Sausage and Red Bell Pepper Heart Tarts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vegan Chocolate Truffles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vegan Peppermint and Chocolate Patties

 

by betsy

Heart Healthy Valentine’s Treats: Vegan Chocolate-Dipped Dried Apricots with Crunchy Coating and an Uncle Sam Cereal Product Review

Well, if our dog, Huff’s, national Superbowl celebrity hadn’t overshadowed almost all else, I would have made these for our Superbowl party last Sunday and posted the recipe as part of my “Crash the SuperBowl Snack Recipe” countdown during the week leading up to the big event.

But alas, I didn’t make them until Monday night to take to my AP art students’ critique on Tuesday. We call them Critique Treats.  However, I also had Valentine’s Day in mind.

These confections are as nutritious and delicious as they are beautiful.  And though each one looks like a precious gem, they are super-simple to make.  Another of  their best features is their texture contrasts: plump chewy dried apricots, silken dark chocolate and crunchy wheat berry flake and flaxseed cereal coating.

This recipe–which is more of a procedure than a true recipe–was inspired by a gift of Uncle Sam Toasted “Original” Whole Wheat Berry Flakes and Flaxseed Cereal from Alisa Fleming, founder of GoDairyFree, who also does some online marketing for Attune Foods.  When she asked if I’d be interested in reviewing a couple of cereals, and invited me to choose which ones I wanted, she happened to mention that my choices were good “recipe cereals.”  So that got me thinking in terms of what I could do with the cereal besides eat it.

Though eat it I did.  I put a little in my mouth and closed my eyes to try to get in “tune” with its distinctive flavor.  I thought I detected the pleasantly subtle taste of barley malt, checked the box and, sure enough, there it was in the very short list of wholesome ingredients.  Otherwise, Uncle Sam is deeply nutty in flavor.  It just tastes wholesome, with pleasant texture contrasts.

So, next I poured a little unsweetened soymilk over it and tasted it before doctoring it up in any way.  I decided that–and this admittedly sounds odd–it would be tasty with a sprinkling of both nutritional yeast and natural sugar to create the same sort of savory-sweet appeal of Kettle Corn.  I loved it.   Be advised, though, that, even without the nutritional yeast and sugar, Uncle Sam’s is calorie dense. I recommend measuring out the cereal so as not too meat too much.  Because it is so healthy and tasty–10 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein with less than 1 gram of sugar per serving–it would be very easy to go overboard.

Not being much of a cereal eater–I get a little carried away with it in the house and don’t know when to stop eating–I opted for making the treats mentioned above.  Still thinking in terms of dried apricots and nuts from my morning hiking in Back Bay Wildlife Refuge/False Cape described in a previous post, and with a bag of vegan chocolate morsels in the pantry, I decided to dip the apricots halfway into the melted chocolate and then roll them in the cereal.  The resulting color contrast of shimmering translucent orange and dark ebony brown chocolate studded with lighter brown flecks was just beautiful.

I can scarcely think of a more appealing nor unique box of Valentine’s treats than these combined with my Peanut Butter Brown Rice Cereal Treats with a Dried Apricot-Almond Surprise.

Vegan Chocolate -Dipped Dried Apricots with Crunchy Coating

Yield: 24 confections

24 plump dried apricots

12 ounces vegan dark chocolate (you won’t need this much, but I like the melted chocolate to be deep so that dipping is easy)

approximately 1/2 cup Uncle Sam’s cereal

Line a baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper and set aside.  in a small microwave safe mixing bowl or a 1 quart saucepan set over a double boiler, gently melt chocolate.  While chocolate is melting, pour cereal into a small bowl.  Holding each apricot between your thumb and forefinger, dip halfway up in the melted chocolate, gently roll in the cereal, and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Store in the refrigerator between layers of waxed or parchment paper in an airtight container, but allow to come to room temperature before serving.

For 150+ more recipes for holidays and every day, please check out The Blooming Platter Cookbook: A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes.

by betsy

The Bloomin’ Best Red Velvet Pancakes

If you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day this weekend, you’ll want to wake up your sweetie tomorrow with these not-too-sweet, but almost-too-good-to-be-true Red Velvet Pancakes.

The recipe isn’t in The Blooming Platter Cookbook (though 150+ mouthwatering recipes for special and not-so-special occasions are!), so just click here to go to the original post for the short back story and complete list of ingredients and instructions.

Ever since childhood, I have loved to have the occasional breakfast for dinner, especially in the winter.  So, since Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday this year, and since–if you’re like me–breakfast during the week is a soy-something-or-other from Starbucks, why not enjoy these beauties for dinner with a side of fruit and a glass of soymilk?

I plan to post retro-recipes from my blog for other Valentines favorites along with a brand new creation, but I encourage you to search “Valentine” to see what goodies pop up that might grab your interest.

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Blooming Platter!

by betsy

Just When You Think It Can’t Get Any Better…Vegan Cookbook Author Bryanna Clark Grogan Claims “Betsy DiJulio Saved the Day”

Photo Credit: Bryanna Clark Grogan

While my husband and I are still riding high on our dog, Huff’s, meteoric rise to fame as the co-star of a locally-produced commercial that garnered it’s director and our friend ONE MILLION CLAMS by virtue of being chosen by USA Today’s Ad Meter Poll as the No. 1 ad on the Superbowl, beloved vegan cookbook author, Bryanna Clark Grogan, writes this in her Superbowl post on her website:

“…Betsy, author of The Blooming Platter Cookbook, is one of my favorite vegan cookbook authors (see my review here to find out why!)…”

Follow this link for her entire post.

Wow.  Just when you think it can’t get any better!

Thank you, Bryanna; I bow in your direction.

Note: You can learn all about the big win in the Doritos “Crash the Superbowl” Commercial Competition here.  Thank you WAVY TV 10 for this great story.

by betsy

Crash the SuperBowl Snack Recipe #7: Vegan Peanut Butter and Rice Cereal Balls with a Dried Apricot-Almond Surprise and Erewhon Product Review

Yield: 12 “stuffed” balls or 24 unstuffed (easily doubles)

In this recipe, a childhood favorite grows up…just a little.  And, because these treats are portable and can sit out indefinitely, they lend themselves to Superbowl noshing, as well as brown bag lunches, backpack snacks, and travel.

As a kid, my mom, sister and I used to make Peanut Butter and Rice Krispie Treats.  So when Alisa Fleming of Go Dairy Free, who also does some online marketing, offered to send me a couple of varieties of cereal from Attune Foods to review and mentioned that Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal was a good “recipe cereal,” I knew what I would make as soon as the package arrived on my doorstep

But, being one who likes to play with her food–that is, adapt original recipes–I started brainstorming about what I could do to make them extra-special.  I’m not a big cereal eater, as most are so carb- and calorie-dense and fail to make me fill satisfied, but I do like the idea of cereals with fruit and nuts.   And my good pal, Katherine Jackson and I had recently gone on a 7+ mile hike in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and False Cape State Park with dried apricots and almonds in tow.  So, it occurred to me that I could form the mixture into balls around a piece of dried apricot and tuck a roasted almond into the top.  Delicious, nutritious, and cute to boot. (Note: Katherine authored the book, Walking Virginia Beach.)

Eureka!  These are so good that the only danger is eating too many.  Though reasonably healthy albeit pretty heavy in the sweetener department, they are far from low-calorie.  So, make them for your Superbowl or any other gathering–or to give as gifts (they pack and travel well)–and limit yourself to just one…or two.  Wouldn’t they be cute as Valentine’s “candy”?

First, before the recipe, the cereal “review”:  I loved Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal.  It is almost identical to Rice Krispies, but it is made with the whole grains of organic brown rice.  And I found Erewhon’s particular crunch to be pleasantly dense, not as light and airy as the Kellogg version.  Erewhon is vegan, of course, gluten free, all organic, kosher, low fat, very lightly sweetened with brown rice syrup, and contains no artificial anything.  You can buy it at

Vegan Peanut Butter and Rice Cereal Balls with Dried Apricot-Almond Surprise
1/2 cup agave nectar (I used the light colored variety as a substitute for corn syrup–works beautifully)
1/2 cup natural sugar
1/2 cup organic, unsweetened, creamy peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Approximately 2 3/4 cups crispy rice cereal (like Rice Krispies, but I used Erewhon)
3 plump dried apricots, cut into quarters
12 whole roasted almonds
Line a carton or tin with waxed paper or mini muffin/candy liners.  In a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, bring agave nectar and sugar to a simmer, stirring frequently.  Book gently, stirring, for one minute.  Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter until melted.  Then stir in the vanilla extract, followed by the cereal, combining well.  When the mixture is cool enough to handle and easily hold its shape, divide it into 12 portions.  Form each into a ball around one-quarter of an apricot and insert a whole almond into the top.  Place the balls as you shape them into a prepared container.  Store tightly covered at room temperature.  Note: if you choose not to stuff them, you can make them half the size and end up with 24 or twice as many.
by betsy

Crash the Superbowl Snack Recipe #6: Fresh Pear and Dried Cranberry Chutney with Vegan Cheddar Cheese Spread

I did it again: missed a day yesterday in my “Crash the Superbowl Snack Recipe.”  Darn it.  It was a really busy day, but that’s no excuse.  So, I owe you two today.

Let’s start with one of the recipes I intended to post a while back when I mentioned having been invited to present a program, complete with samples, on The Blooming Platter Cookbook for Alpha Rho, the educational sorority to which I belong.

I love this combination of rich cashew cheese (featuring my secret “cheesy” ingredient!) and tangy sweet-and-savory chutney.  The pairing is perfect perched on a cracker but, after the meeting and some errands, I was starved, so I came home and made a grilled cheese-and-chutney sandwich on super-thin Danish rye bread.  Oh, my…

My recommendation is to make the Vegan Cheddar Cheese Spread first so that it can be chilling while you make the chutney.

Next, make the chutney.

Fresh Pear and Dried Cranberry Chutney

Yield: 4-5 cups

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 of a red onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice

2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced

3 Asian pears, stemmed, cored, and coarsely chopped in a food processor (I’ve only every seen Asian pears in one size and that’s large!  About the size of a small grapefruit.)

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup natural sugar

1/4 cup catsup

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1 1/3 cups dried cranberries

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary or to taste

In a large cast iron skillet over medium-high, heat olive oil.  Add onion and saute, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes or until softened.  Add garlic and continue to saute and stir for about 30 seconds.  Add pears and saute, stirring frequently, for another 5 minutes or so, or until pears release juices and begin to cook down.  Add all remaining ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes or until the mixture has reached the desired consistency.  Stir in rosemary and cook and stir for another minute.  Remove the skillet from the heat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  Serve chilled or at room temperature with crackers or crostini.

Note: To make a Grilled Cheese-and-Chutney Sandwich, melt about 1 tablespoon of vegan butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  While butter melts, spread one piece of bread first with the cheese and then with a layer of chutney.  Cover with a second piece of bread and grill for a minute or two on each side or until golden brown.

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