I love this photo of Minnie, our miniature Great Dane, looking longingly at my Vegan Oatmeal Ginger-Ale Pancakes. She’s almost as scrumptious as they are–most of the time.
Yield: 8 pancakes
I’m not a beer drinker, so a partial bottle of Heineken Lite leftover from last night’s beer-battered dill pickle slices was “burning a hole” in our fridge. It crossed my mind while making that batter that I bet the beer would make excellent pancakes. I love the way it fizzes and bubbles.
When I woke up this morning quite late and starved–I couldn’t sleep last night for several hours but finally nodded off at around 5 or so–I remembered the beer and decided to give it a try. Thinking of ginger beer, I decided to add some ground ginger to the batter and delicious “Ginger-Ale” pancakes were born.
Ginger and peaches seem made for each other, but peaches are not yet in season here. However, I did have some peach butter, a gift from my sister-in-law, Tina. So, I spread it between the pancakes and drizzled plain maple syrup over the top. Feeling that they needed just a little color, I crowned them with a small dollop of vegan sour cream and a fresh mint sprig from our garden. I loved the end result, especially for the cooler months. Come summer, I will definitely serve my new “Ginger-Ale” pancakes with diced fresh peaches.
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup self-rising cornmeal mix
1/2 cup oatmeal + 8 teaspoons (optional)
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2-1 teaspoon ground ginger (start with smaller amount and adjust if desired)
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 generous cup “ale” (I used Heineken Lite, but use your favorite)
Vegan butter and/or vegetable oil for frying
Peach Butter (or diced fresh peaches)
Maple Syrup
Garnish: small dollops of vegan sour cream and sprigs of fresh mint
Preheat oven to warm. In a medium mixing bowl, place first 7 dry ingredients, except for the 8 teaspoons of oatmeal. Make a well in the center and pour in ale. Whisk together until well combined. 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. (If desired, while they cook on the first side, sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of oatmeal over the top for a little added texture.) 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 or oil and pancake batter. Spread peach butter between 2 pancakes, drizzle with maple syrup and top each stack with vegan sour cream and mint sprigs if desired. If fresh peaches are in season, you may substitute fresh diced peaches for peach butter and/or spoon over the top after drizzling with maple syrup.
Yield: 12 slices
Do you crave bar menu junk food every so often? I do and tonight was one of those nights.
We were low on fresh produce, but I had some bread & butter dill pickle slices on hand. And I remembered that a week ago, the chef at one of our very favorite restaurants had made me an order of vegan fried dill pickle slices–the thin long ones especially for sandwiches–using flour and soymilk. They were delicious.
I decided, just for a change, to try more of a tempura-style beer batter. So, while about a scant 1/2-inch of canola oil heated, I made a batter of roughly equal parts self-rising flour and lite beer. Then I dipped the slices in more self-rising flour seasoned with a little salt and pepper and next into the batter.
After frying them until they were a golden brown, I sprinkled them with a little paprika and devoured them with BBQ dipping sauce and fresh parsley sprigs. I intended for the latter to be a garnish, but I liked their fresh taste with the crisp fried pickles.
I can imagine these vegan fried dill pickles with all kinds of dipping sauces, maybe even an Asian one since the batter is very similar to tempura. I could also imagine seasoning the flour or batter with spices like curry powder for a whole different taste sensation.
I can’t say that I liked my batter-dipped ones better than the restaurant’s, but I liked them just as much. And as you probably know, dredging and battering are two different things, sort of like comparing apples and oranges, with batter-fried foods a bit more filling. Still, the leavening in the flour plus the beer makes for quite a light batter.
Don’t be tempted to try dill pickle spears. I tried a few with the leftover flour and batter, but felt they were too much of a good thing. Stick with the thinner sandwich slices for a superior product, including their pickle to batter ratio.
scant 1/2-inch canola oil in large cast iron skillet
approximately 1/3 cup self-rising flour
pinch salt
a few grinds of fresh black pepper
an additional approximate 1/2 cup self-rising flour
approximately 1/2 cup light beer
pinch garlic powder
pinch onion powder
12 sandwich-style bread & butter pickle slices
Optional garnish: a sprinkling of paprika and fresh parsley sprigs
Heat oil over medium-high until a drop of water sizzles and sputters. Meanwhile, drain pickles between paper towels. Place first 1/3 cup self-rising flour and a pinch of salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, whisk together the 1/2 cup self-rising flour and next 3 ingredients. Add more self-rising flour or beer if needed to achieve a pancake batter or slightly thinner consistency. Dredge pickle slices in seasoned flour and then dip in batter before carefully lowering into hot oil. Fry six at a time for a couple of minutes on first side or until golden brown, carefully flip and fry a couple more minutes on second side until the color matches the first. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Serve hot with the sauce of your choice optionally garnished with paprika and sprigs of fresh parsley.
My dear, dear friend, Beth Camper, a National Board Certified English teacher at our school, feted me for my birthday today in a way to rival my mother! She emailed me to say she needed to “see me” and asked when she could come down. I was in a planning block, so I told her to come ahead. A very few minutes later, she appeared in my door with a bakery box full of perfect vegan German chocolate cupcakes and a copy of Bryant Terry’s celebrated new cookbook, Vegan Soul Kitchen!
The filling I used to stuff the peppers in my Creamy Spaghetti Squash and Veggie Potpourri is also delicious simply served hot or gently reheated in a ramekin sans peppers.
Yield: 6 pancakes
These sunny pancakes were inspired by a favorite childhood breakfast treat: those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with orange frosting.
My plan was to make cinnamon-orange pancakes, which I did, with an orange powdered sugar glaze, which I didn’t. It turns out that I was out of powdered sugar (almost unheard of in our house). So, instead I made something that is quite possibly better: orange-maple syrup with an orange-brown sugar-butter pecan topknot (which I inadvertently almost concealed with those enormous pecan halves).
Garnished with an orange slice and pecan halves, I’d say these pancakes were about perfect. Hope you agree.
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup self-rising cornmeal mix
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsweetened soymilk (plain or vanilla soy milk would also be good–regular or lite)
1 generous teaspoon orange zest
Vegan butter and/or vegetable oil for frying
Vegan Orange-Maple Syrup (recipe follows)
Vegan Orange-Brown Sugar-Pecan Butterball Topknot (recipe follows)
Garnish: orange slices and pecan halves
Preheat oven to warm. In a medium mixing bowl, place first 6 dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and pour in soymilk and orange zest. Whisk together until well combined. 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 around the edges, and the edges appear set. (These tend to bubble only on the edges.) 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 or oil and pancake batter. Serve topped with Vegan Orange-Maple Syrup, Vegan Orange-Brown Sugar-Butter Pecan Topknots and a garnish of orange slices and pecan halves.
Vegan Orange-Maple Syrup
4 tablespoons maple syrup
2 generous teaspoons orange zest
Mix together and heat for a few seconds in the microwave. Recipe halves or doubles easily.
Vegan Orange-Brown Sugar-Butter Pecan Topknot
4 tablespoons softened vegan butter (I like Earth Balance)
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons broken or chopped pecan pieces
2 teaspoons orange zest
Mix together with fingers until well combined. Refrigerate until serving time. I like to use a small scoop to make a true butterball as the topknot.
Yield: 6 generous servings
This beautiful meal-in-one dish is the result of wanting to rescue a restaurant meal. This restaurant, one of our Top 5 in the area, always has a couple of vegan dishes on its seasonal menus, but this spring’s choices are virtually devoid of protein. However, they happened to have some chicken-flavored vegan strips last night so I asked the chef to just surprise me. He is very young, very nice, very interested in learning more about vegan cooking and very accommodating. For instance, he also had some soy milk leftover from a special brunch and made me a custom order of fried dill pickle strips–to die for! I haven’t had those in years.
The meal however, missed the mark in that the individual ingredients didn’t come together as one dish. Essentially, he just piled the vegan chicken strips, flavored with a hint of chili sauce, and some nice sauteed veggies into lightly roasted bell pepper halves over a bed of cous-cous. After the dill pickles–oh, and their addicting bread–I only had room for one of the FOUR stuffed pepper halves, bringing the rest home with me.
I knew that I would let the dish spoil in the refrigerator if I didn’t do something with it, as there just wasn’t much that was compelling about it. So, after I walked the dogs, I set about on a Restaurant Redux. I simply cooked a spaghetti squash, made one of my favorite white vegan “cheese” sauces, and stirred both together with the chicken strips, veggies and cous-cous. The portions at this restaurant are enormous, so I had some broccolini and sweet potato cubes from a meal there a few days earlier and I stirred them in too, measuring it all carefully so that I could reproduce the recipe. I ended up with enough filling to refill the remaining 3 pepper halves plus 3 more. But, it seemed to need just a little spice to make it extra-special. Some paprika did the trick.
The filling is so creamy, scrumptious and satisfying that you will have to keep reminding yourself that it is a gloriously healthy melange of all the protein, vitamins and micro-nutrients that anyone could want in a single meal.
3 large bell peppers, any color or a combination, halved, stemmed, seeded and lightly blackened under the broiler (they should still hold their shape nicely)
Creamy White Vegan “Cheese” Sauce (recipe follows)
1 spaghetti squash, halved, seeds and pulp removed, and microwaved flesh side down in 1/4 cup salted water in a baking dish covered with plastic wrap for 10 minutes (I cook each half separately; you may bake if you prefer)
1 cup homemade chicken-flavored seitan or other chicken flavored strips like Meal Starters
2 cups cooked mixed veggies, seasoned according to your taste, cut in bite-size pieces (mine were from two restaurant meals and included squash, eggplant, a little onion and spinach, sweet potato cubes and broccolini)
3/4 cup cooked cous-cous (quinoa or another small grain or pasta like pastina or orzo would be nice too)
1/2 teaspoon sweet or smoky paprika (or to taste)
coarse sea or kosher salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
garnish: optional balsamic reduction (I really liked a little drizzle on my version) plus sprigs of fresh herbs (cilantro from our garden tasted nice with mine) and/or lightly toasted pine nuts or bread/cracker crumbs
Place roasted pepper halves in a lightly oiled microwave- or oven-safe baking dish. Combine vegan “cheese” sauce with remaining ingredients, mixing gently but thoroughly. Spoon into pepper halves, mounding the top. Reheat in microwave if necessary or keep warm in a preheated oven until serving time. Garnish as desired with balsamic reduction, herbs, pine nuts or crumbs.
Creamy White Vegan “Cheese” Sauce
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup flour, any kind (I used whole wheat)
or 1/4-1/2 cup roasted and lightly salted cashews
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons cornstarch or kuzu
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons light miso
1 teaspoon onion powder or to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder or to taste
coarse sea or kosher salt
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan and heat gently over medium-high heat for approximately 4 minutes, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens and flour no longer tastes raw.
Source for Vegan “Cheese” Sauce: Slightly adapted from Jo Stepaniak’s The Uncheese Cookbook.
My aforementioned “fantastically talented” ballroom dance teacher, Brent Dunn, told me at this week’s lesson that he’d found vegan ballroom shoes online. Amazing because vegan street shoes are pretty darn hard to find, at least vegan shoes advertised as such that I’d actually wear and could afford. If you’ve been bitten by the ballroom bug, check out just one of several vegan shoe options here. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. But save your pennies; the pros ain’t givin’ away the goods!
My fantastically talented ballroom dance teacher, Brent Dunn (owner of Shall We Dance, for those of you in the Hampton Roads area), saw this car in a local parking lot and was sweet enough to snap it and email it to me. Love the “Powered by Tofu” sticker.
Much to my complete surprise and delight, I was contacted by Cindi Saadi of FARM (there is also a link under “Important Platters” in my sidebar) for permission to feature recipes from The Blooming Platter in their Meatout Mondays e-newsletter. As you can imagine, my answer to her generous request was a resounding “YES!” First up, my
I encourage you to visit their site and read about/support their good work. I hope you’ll also follow the link to their Meatout Mondays newsletter and subscribe as I just did.
Best wishes Cindi and FARM!
