Throw Out the Pot

Whether in books, film, art, I've always appreciated creative types who love to experiment. Even if the finished product isn't perfect, I still prefer it to something created by someone who always plays it safe. But when it comes to food, I've been hesitant to push things too far. Food has a different kind of purpose though, and the possibility that I might have to throw out a whole pot of something terrifies me. So, this past week involved a bit of food, both safe and unsafe.

BBQ Pomegranate Tofu with spinach and coconut-wasabi mashed potatoes. When I first noticed this recipe in Vegan With a Vengeance, I was all over it. Then I noticed the tomato paste. I decided to attack this recipe anyway since pomegranate is quickly becoming my favorite fruit. I subbed out about 1/4 c. of soaked, pureed chipotle peppers. Oh, my. While very tasty, it was incredibly spicy. Next time I think I have to add 1/2 cup of pureed roasted red peppers. And a note on the mashed potatoes -- I am to much of a baby to use full fat (and usually, even light) coconut milk. So I usually cheat and add coconut extract to soy milk.


Ancho Lentil Gravy with Flax Hemp Biscuits and Steamed Broccoli. I'm always on the lookout for a great lentil soup. The last one that really moved me was in Shape or Self magazine years ago. It's winning addition -- mustard and balsamic vinegar. So when I saw Isa's Ancho Lentil Soup, I had to try it. Not only is it a fantastic soup (the pineapple is genious), when I was down to the last little bit I was able to convert it into a great gravy with the addition of a little soy milk and nutritional yeast.


Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (from Vegan with a Vengeance). Yes, there are other things on the plate, but the real star is the gravy. My disclaimer: I love gravy. I'm always on the lookout for good gravy. This stuff is the real deal. It lasted just over a day as I felt compelled to pour it on everything I ate. I will certainly be making this again. Soon. In a larger vat-like quantity.


Lemon-tarragon stuffed tofu with yukon potatoes, hijiki, asparagus and hazelnut picada. This was an experiment that didn't quite turn out as I initially imagined. Originally, I had wanted to boil the tofu in dulse flakes which, go figure, I couldn't find anywhere. So I dumped a package of hijiki and a few pieces of kombu in the water and let it simmer for an hour or so and then, due to a surprise visitor, ended up letting it sit in the liquid for 24 hours before baking. It turned the tofu a gorgeous bluish-purple color on the outside but the sea taste I was going for was subtle, to say the least. Despite that it wasn't what I was expecting, it was still pretty good. I tossed the thinly sliced potatoes on the bottom of a glass dish. Quickly breaded and pan fried the tofu, split it and stuffed it thinly sliced lemons and tarragon. Added lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt to the potatoes, covered them with the hijiki that had been soaking with the tofu and then placed the tofu on top. Covered the whole thing with aluminum foil and let it bake. The hazelnut picada topping came from a New York Times seafood recipe, but in typical NYT fashion, it appears to already be gone from their site. It was particularly wonderful, even though I used leftover gluten-free biscuits that had a shade too much baking powder.


Chickpeas and potatoes with chapati croutons and collard greens in a coconut-peanut sauce. The deli around the corner from me carries these little spice packages called simmer sauces. As I was feeling it was a lazy Friday evening, I decided to see how they worked up. The sauce package I used for the chickpea-potato dish contained amchoor, which I've only found at one hfs and in that case, it was made by one of the raw companies and was, I suspect, much more expensive than it would be at one of the Indian spice places. I had it with, ahem, chapati croutons. The recipe from the Food Allergy Survival Guide contains a nice bit of coconut oil for the fat, which I never have around because I'm iffy on adding that much coconut oil to my food. Usually, I bind them with olive oil which makes them tasty, if not puffy like the originals. Since I had bought some shortening to make cupcakes, I decided to make an attempt at using the palm oil-based shortening (no, I'm not real big on palm oil, either) in the chapatis, figuring it would be closest to coconut oil. When the first one broke into pieces in the pan, you think I would have learned my leason. These chapati croutons are from a second, independent attempt at subbing the shortening. Good, but yeah . . .
Brown basmati rice with fruits, veggies and cashews, tzatziki sauce and mint-cilantro chutney. The basmati rice also had the addition of a different simmer sauce packet. I bought mostly because it had rose petals in it. This was spicy, but the dried apricot and cashews in the rice and tzatziki sauce helped to balance it out.


Nachos: Because sometimes you're good and sometimes you're not. Does the fact that there's broccoli, spinach and red and yellow peppers tucked in here excuse the fact that these are nachos? I used the Follow Your Heart cheddar. I find this stuff odd. Microwave it and the "cheese" is all melty in 40 seconds or less. But put it in the oven . . . I even drizzled extra oil over top because I've heard that can help. Meh. I put some on my plate and popped it in the microwave. Perfection. I think in the future, though, I might just skip the FYH. It's expensive, has never done for me what it's supposed to do best, and I'm just as happy with the miscellaneous uncheese nacho sauces out there. It's just that the FYH lets you feel like you are being bad.