Jon also visited me in K-town, so obviously I had to welcome him with some good food after a long gross trip – I made the chickpea noodle soup because you can’t go wrong with that, and for dessert the peanut butter silk pie from Vegan with a Vengeance which was amazing, but you don’t want to know what was in it (okay: a ton of peanut butter and coconut milk). It was a no-bake pie, and it was the first time I’ve ever used agar powder. It was really neat, you just boil it and stir for about 10 minutes until it all dissolves and it turns into gelatin-type stuff! It held the pie together very nicely… I guess you can also made vegan jello (shooters) with it by adding fruit juice but that always seems like a lot of effort.
Jon and I of course did quite a bit of cooking together. I just got Vive le Vegan! (I don’t know how I was so behind on that one) and so far everything has been awesome. For the New Year’s Eve festivities we made panko stuffed mushrooms from Veganomicon (unfortunately we forgot to take photos). We couldn’t find panko, which was probably pretty important, but we used breadcrumbs instead. We also made spring rolls from Vive le Vegan, which were great with ginger dipping sauce:
- 1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
- 4-5 tbsp maple syrup
- 3 tbsp tamari
- 1 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
We also made the chickpea ratatouille which was amazingly delicious and easy – it was basically chickpeas, onion, diced tomatoes and peppers thrown together with a bunch of seasonings and baked. There weren’t even a lot of ingredients so I was afraid it would be boring, but the spices were perfect and it turned out to be one of those yummy comforting meals you want to eat on a cold day. It would be a great recipe to make and then have a bunch of leftovers for the rest of the week because I imagine it would only get better sitting in the fridge letting the flavours mingle. Jon also had this red thai rice which tasted just like regular rice but is so much more fun, because its red.
I made the ratatouille again and it blew my mind all over again! It’s so simple and delicious it’s hard to comprehend… Jen suggested a couscous paring and that was a great idea, I’ve never known greater satisfaction! This is one of the most comforting foods I’ve ever made, it’s entering regular rotation in my kitchen.
Also pour nutritional yeast on top, you won’t regret it.
[...] also blogged about this dish, and offered some explanation of the name. This dish reminds me of the chickpea ratatouille from Dreena’s other fabulous cookbook, Vive la Vegan, they are both wholesome and healthy [...]