Gypsy Soup!

I do not know about you, but come the Winter, I am all about homemade soup. I am content to eat soup morning, day and night...as long as it is accompanied by some crusty bread and/or crackers. One of my top ten soups is Gypsy soup. The reason being; no matter what you have in way of veggies and spices, as long as you have chickpeas(staple ingredient, otherwise you cannot refer to it as Gypsy soup. I did not make the rules) the end result will be fantastic. The other night I was feeling uninspired to cook, but then remembered I had a can of chickpeas, and ended up whipping up this incredible soup. I threw together some sweet peppers, parsnips, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, chickpeas, corn and then added a sprinkle of chili peppers, garam masala, herbs de provence, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper and a dash of sea salt and voila! Unfortunately I was out of sweet potatoes, otherwise I would have thrown those in as well. A very hearty soup. In our house, there is always some variety of soup in the fridge. Another favourite of mine is Miso soup. I generally add 4 cups of water, 3 tablespoons or so of brown rice miso paste and then throw in some carrots(optional), green onions, shitake mushrooms, cubed tofu, and either seaweed or bok choy and a dash of pepper. My dream is to accompany the miso soup with some homemade sushi, but have yet to try my hand at sushi. Now my thoughts have turned to sweet potato sushi. If you haven't tried it, you really ought to.

Tempeh galore

When first introduced to tempeh, I was initially weary of it. The smell put me off, and I found tempeh by itself to have barely, if any flavour. Generally speaking, if I was to incorporate it into a dish, I would have to douse it in copious amounts of something or other to disguise its blandness. Even still, I never truly enjoyed or appreciated tempeh until Karen(from Little City Farm), served us glazed maple tempeh strips, with a hint of cayenne. We had booked a night at their B&B for our anniversary, and our breakfast was comprised of all locally grown ingredients(mostly from their garden), and fell within our 100 mile diet that we were partaking in during the early Summer. We had such a lovely time getting to know Karen and Greg better(and Maya), and it was truly inspiring being in their home and seeing how they lived. Plus, I left their home with a new found appreciation of tempeh! So, when I came upon the spicy tempeh/broccoli dish in my Veganomicon, I was excited to see what the outcome would be. Let's just say, tempeh is working its way up my most favoured ingredient list. Unfortunately, I have nothing exciting on the menu for tomorrow's supper, as I am sure to be wiped out from my afternoon spent supervising 14 children. This is where I am grateful that I plan ahead, and have a multitude of dishes to choose from; tucked away in the freezer for occasions such as these.

A culinary success

I made the Red lentil/cauliflower/curry dish tonight, and to my delight, it turned out beautifully. I am really loving this new cookbook! What I love best, is the fact that the recipes are drawn from everyday ingredients; ingredients already tucked away in your pantry. There is nothing more annoying than opening a cookbook, and after scanning a few recipes, you realize that half of the ingredients you have never even heard of...and may have to travel far distances to acquire. I am of the firm belief, that you do not need a slew of obscure and/or expensive ingredients to make a delicious recipe. Most of the meals I make require very little in the way of ingredients, but are full of flavour and are recipes that you can easily alter if you discover you are missing an ingredient. I prefer to make things from scratch, and for those of you who are rushed diners; my recipes are not for you. On average, I spend an hour+ making dinner, and if I know I am going to be short on time during the week, then I will spend a few hours on the weekend preparing dishes that can be put away in tupperware and dished out throughout the week. Like soup. I love how one batch of homemade soup can last a week or two. Usually we freeze a few containers full, and keep one or two in the fridge for easy access. Honestly, people who say Vegans are limited as to what they can eat, have never been Vegan. My diet is the most diverse it has ever been, and my taste buds are continuously being stimulated in ways they had never been before. The only food that I miss, and will always crave, is certain cheeses. The Dubliner being on the top of that list. I tend to prefer smoky, yet sweet cheese(s), and will certainly miss the added flavour of an aged Etorki, or chunk of Dubliner on my sandwich. Nevertheless, I have found new ways to compensate. For example; as any Vegan/Vegetarian knows, Hummus is a god send. I simply adore Hummus in its many varieties, and could not survive without it. For lunch, I made a Dill tofu sandwich topped off with hummus, sliced beets, asparagus sprouts and a dab of old fashioned mustard. I strongly believe that variety is the spice of life, and therefore use most food sources in moderation, and try not to rely heavily on just one food ie. soy. On the menu for tomorrow is a spicy tempeh dish with broccoli and whole wheat rotelle!

Welcome to my kitchen!

Introductions first: My home consists of 1 Francophone Omnivore(Vivien), 1 Anglo Herbivore(me), and 1 Bilingual Omnivore kitten(Keats), and since I do most of the cooking, the human Omnivore of the household is mostly on a Herbivore diet. I am by no means a learned chef, but I am on a quest to become a better cook; specifically speaking, a better Vegan cook. I decided the best way to do so, would be to keep a daily log of all the comings and goings in my kitchen. Most importantly, I want to keep tally of all the recipes that result in being dubbed 'keepers' and the recipes that I need to tweak, and re-tweak, so that they too eventually garner a spot in my esteemed recipe collection. I recently purchased the cookbook Veganomicon, and on Thursday night I selected a Cashew/Pineapple/Quinoa recipe to try my hand at...the end result being: Vivien was a HUGE fan, and ate 3/4 of the meal, whereas I will certainly be tweaking the recipe the next time around, as I felt it required more pineapple juice and therefore did not deem it a culinary success. The main obstacles obstructing my goal of becoming an esteemed cook are(and not necessarily in this order): 1. My perfectionist attitude, which often results in my sulking over an otherwise satisfactory meal and 2. Vivien's critical nature in the kitchen, as he is extremely anal retentive to how meals should be prepared, and ultimately is a bummer when I am attempting to create a masterpiece in our kitchen. As well, he is a true Gourmand, and a glutton(I am never going to hear the end of this if he actually reads this), and is rarely sated as his stomach is a bottomless pit that continuously cries out for gourmet spreads. Nonetheless, we tend to spend most of our quality time in the kitchen together, harvesting our love/hate relationship for one another, as we delve into new culinary territories. This morning, we awoke rather late, and decided it was appropriate to make a brunch. Our table was laden with a stack of blueberry pancakes, a shared grapefruit, a cheese platter(Vivien) and a pot of green ginger tea. The blueberries are from the Summer, which we froze and brought with us to Ottawa when we moved in the Fall. The thing about Vivien and I, is that we love food, and ultimately, we love good food. Quality over quantity is my motto. Vivien demands both quality and quantity. So, although our income is limited, we refuse to cut corners in regards to our grocery bill, and instead cut corners in other areas. Tonight we are having Portobello mushroom burgers with sweet potato fries(due to time constraints), but tomorrow I am whipping up a red lentil/cauliflower/coconut curry dish and will be rushing out this afternoon to purchase the called for ingredients. Nothing makes me happier than shopping for food and/or cooking appliances!