Nutitional Yeast Gravy

As a vegan, vitamin B12 is an issue. B12 deficiencies cause fatigue, paleness, anorexia, mental confusion, delusions, paranoia, weight loss... (Vegetarian Voice, Volume 31 2009). This pesky vitamin does not occur in plants, meaning every vegan should be eating foods fortified with B12 (like nutritional yeast or soy milk!) or be taking a vitamin.
Vitamin pills are not always absorbed by the body, and are expensive! I opt to eat nutritional yeast gravy several times a day. This cheesy gravy is a wholesome food that leaves you feeling warm inside.

For the gravy, you'll need--

• 1 Cup Nutritional Yeast
• 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour (Use whole wheat!)
• 4 Tbsps of Oil
• 2 Cups Warm Water
• 1 Tsps Turmeric
• 2 Tsps Cumin
• 1 Tsp Hing (Onion or Garlic Powder work well, too)
  

Then, you ought to---

1. Heat the oil over medium high heat in a medium size saucepan
2. Add turmeric, cumin, and hing.
3. Slowly add the flour, stirring it carefully to properly mix. If the flour looks too dry, feel free to add more oil. The final consistency should be moist and clumpy.
4. Add the warm water slowly, allowing for the sauce to thicken eat time.
   
5. Cook until the sauce is thick and bubbly.
   
6. Remove from heat. Add the nutritional yeast and stir in. Allow to sit for a minute before serving.
   

Yields: 3 1/2 Cups of Sauce

This gravy is delicious in mexican food, on pizza, with macaroni (like mac and cheese, only mac n' yease), on a baked potato, or as a flavorful substitute in a casserole with gravy. The original recipe is from the New Farm Cookbook.

Enjoy!
Chelsea

Taquitos

Hello! I haven't updated in a while, so I figured I would post my latest concoction. Today, I made taquitos. They're are surprisingly easy, and work pretty well baked instead of fried. They're crunchy with a soft filling, which is all I ever really want in a food. I ate them with nutritional yeast gravy, my personal favorite cheese substitute.

For the taquitos, you'll need--

• Corn Tortillas (about 12)
• 16 0z Can of Vegetarian Refried Pinto Beans
• 1/2 Cup of Baby Bella Mushrooms
  
• 1/2 Cup of Onion
• 2 Tbsps of Olive Oil
• Spray Oil (Pam is the popular brand)
• 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 Tsp Cumin
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
  

Then, you ought to--

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2. Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium high heat and add the spices.
   
3. Dice the onions and chop the mushrooms.
4. Add onions to the oil and cook for several minutes until they begin to brown.
5. Add the mushrooms to the oil. Cook for several minutes. When finished, the mushrooms should have darkened several shades.
   
6. Mix the refried beans, mushrooms, and onions together in a mixing bowl.
   
7. Microwave the tortillas, several at a time, for thirty seconds to soften them.
   
8. Place about three spoonfulls of the bean mixture in each tortilla, and roll into a thin cylinder. Unlike a burrito, the taquitos have open ends.
   
9. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay the finished taquitos on it. Spray them generously with the spray oil.
   
10. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the taquitos are lightly browned.
11. Bon apetite!
    

Taquitos are delicious dipped in vegan sour cream, guacamole, or alone. The filling is flexible; the second time I made them, I put mashed potatoes, carrots, onion, and mushrooms. They should be served with rice, or as a side.
The first time I made these, I left out the olive oil because I prefer to sweat vegetables rather than cook them with oil. Either way works.

Guest Post: Kristin's Quick Tofu Meal

Here is my take on your quick tofu meal: brown rice, bean sprouts, zucchini, peppers, onions, carrots, a little basil and some soy sauce. Oh and don't forget the hot chili sauce! Yum!

~Kristin (Caitlin's sister)

New Feature: Cookbook Spotlight!

Really amazing cookbooks never fail to inspire me. Since I started cooking, my cookbook collection has expanded from a sorry edition of The Joy of Cooking to probably about thirty awesome books with a stunning variety of topics. This Christmas, thanks to my mom, I added about 4 more, all of them wonderful. For the first book in this series, though, I thought I would highlight a delicious little book that focuses on seasonality and locality, two of the most important attributes of foods for their nutritious value, their taste, and their health for the environment.

In Earth to Table, Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann share their experience of starting a restaurant based on CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and working on the farm, attempting to grow their own food. They divide the recipes into the four seasons, highlighting ingredients, farmers, and cooking methods along the way. Aside from the dazzling array of recipes (many of which contain meat, though of course the reader would only use locally-sourced pork, chicken, and beef for fear of risking the integrity of the book), the authors provide entertaining and informative insight into the state of industrial agriculture today and, more importantly, the state of local farms and farmers. They also include a list of in-season ingredients at the beginning of each section. It's all fascinating, really.

Of course, any meal made up of local ingredients is going to taste fantastic. Local ingredients are just so much better than anything you can find in the grocery store. They taste real. If you have never been to your local farmer's market and sampled an apple or taken home some kale to saute on the stove, you are seriously missing out. There's no time like the present to try it. And for those of you who have, you will understand why I so appreciate this book that focuses on preserving and utilizing the natural flavors of the ingredients. So simple, so delicious.

What I want to make now: (okay, let's face it, I want to make everything)
Winter: Salt-Baked Arctic Char, Roasted Root Vegetables, Apple Cider Muffins, Oatmeal Molasses Bread
Spring: Gnudi with Ramps, Morels and Fiddleheads, Maple Shoofly Pie, Milk and Honey Bread
Summer: Heirloom Tomato Salad with Buffalo Mozzarella, Zucchini and Eggplant Carpaccio, Shortcakes with Chantilly Cream and Macerated Strawberries, Cherry Clafoutis
Fall: Heirloom Beet Salad with Feta and Pumpkin Seeds, Potato and Rosemary Pizza, Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Sweet Mediterranean Pizza (with honey!)

Website: www.earthtotable.ca/

~Caitlin

Hummus Salad Dressing

I don't know how many of you are familiar with DC restaurants, but one
of my favorite places (possibly ever) is Sweetgreen, a minuscule salad bar with the best tart frozen yogurt I have ever tasted. Lucky for me, and my tastebuds, this fine establishment is a mere three blocks from my house in Georgetown, so needless to say I go there often.

My favorite salad from Sweetgreen, the Chic P, comes with a fantastic hummus dressing that I have yet to find in any salad bar in DC or New York. Experimenting with my lunch yesterday to prevent myself from spending $9 on another salad, I fooled around with some ingredients and came pretty darn close to replicating the dressing. It was close enough for me.

I used chili powder and red pepper flakes to flavor the dressing, but I suppose you could use herbs like thyme instead to give it a different flavor. The heat worked for this particular salad, which I also based on the Sweetgreen version. This a very rough recipe, so really you can change the proportions to your own taste. The amount of lemon juice needed also depends on the consistency of the dressing.

Hummus Dressing:

2 tbs or 1/4 cup hummus (I use Trader Joe's Original Tahini-Free)
A splash of white balsamic vinegar (about a tbs, you can experiment with different vinegars)
Chili powder
A few red pepper flakes
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste
Pinch of salt
A hefty pinch of ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients except salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk or use a fork to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chic P Salad Ingredients
(Use any combination of these, whatever you have available)

Romaine lettuce, mixed lettuce, or baby spinach
Roasted red peppers
Cucumbers
Chickpeas or black beans
Sun-dried tomatoes
Avocado
Feta cheese
Crushed pita chips

Enjoy!

~Caitlin

UPDATE:

I just tried this again for dinner but I used about a tsp of cumin instead. It was AMAZING! SO much closer to the chic p original. I omitted the red pepper flakes and chili powder.

Spring Rolls

These were surprisingly simple (after conquering the difficulties posed by the sticky rice paper).
Ingredients:
Rice Paper Wrappers
Carrots
Spinach
Cabbage
Scallion
(or whatever veggies you might like)

Start by shredding the cabbage and carrots. Then slice the scallions and spinach into small pieces. Toss all the vegetables together in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Follow instructions on rice paper package to soften the wraps. For the wraps we used, it required that the wraps be emerged in boiling water for twenty seconds and dried on a towel. Be VERY careful to hold the wraps so that they will not stick to themselves.
Lay out the wraps on a clean surface (we used a cutting board). Put about a half a cup of filling in the wrapper by the edge, then careful roll it forward once. Fold the sides over the roll, and finish rolling forward (it's wrapped much in the way that a burrito is wrapped).
Bon appetite! We dipped ours in mango chutney and sweet chili sauce from Trader Joe's!

-Chelsea

Not your average cookie

These may look like a regular double chocolate cookie--don't be deceived! These are the "Chocolate Agave Trailmixers" from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. We used walnuts for the nut, raisins, and chocolate chips in a dough with cocoa and agave nectar (instead of sugar) for a wholesome and delicious cookie. We highly recommend this recipe, but especially the cookbook!

The Watermelon Radish

So, this is a lovely shot of the little watermelon radish that we had today. As you can see, this radish gets its name from the color inside. We ate the radish sliced with hummus. They're crunchy and a little bitter, and really quite delicious (as you can see from Caitlin's delighted smile). We love these radishes so much that we named our blog for them!

Tofu stir-fry! Just a quick lunch that I livened up with brown rice and a sweet-and-sour sauce found on thekitchn.

-Caitlin

Hello World!

It's Caitlin and Chelsea here. We are two Columbia freshmen dedicated to the culinary arts. Alas, trapped within the walls of an ivy league institution, ignoring our dreams of culinary school and cut off from any decent kitchen, we must make do with our lone wok and aspirations of creating amazing food. Thus, we will document our culinary endeavors with this blog.