This Week in My Kitchen: Pho, Potato Leek Soup, Falafel Plate with Roasted Veggies, Carrot Cake, Chocolate Cupcakes

Pho
I love pho, but I just don't trust that vegetarian pho in restaurants is actually vegetarian, so I learned how to make it myself using this recipe. The secret to the broth is the star anise, which fills the house with that pungent, beautiful licorice smell that 's the hallmark of so many pho houses. For add-ons we had tofu marinaded in veggie broth and Chinese 5-spice, fresh basil, bell pepper, jalapeno slices, sprouts, lime juice and sri racha hot sauce. Usually I have fresh limes and scallions, but I forgot to pick them up at the market. Mmm... I want pho right now!

Potato Leek Soup

Potato soup is one of my favourite things to make, so potato leek soup has to be that much better, right? Right! I used the Basic Potato Leek Soup recipe in How it All Vegan as a jumping off point, but I used less oil for frying the leeks and added some soy milk and margarine at the end of cooking for some creaminess. I pureed everything with my hand blender, but I think next time I'll reserve some of the leeks and leave them whole.

Falafel Plate with White Bean Hummous and Roasted Veggies

One day this week I was at a loss as to what to make for dinner. I cooked up some dried white beans and stared at them for a while. Then I remembered some fantastic white bean hummous I'd had once at Locus, so I set about trying to recreate it. The result was pretty good - nice and bright, lemony and not too garlicy. I roasted some zucchini, orange bell peppers and fennel (a big hit with Kirk), fried up some falafel balls and served it all with some Stoned Wheat Thins (since we didn't have any flatbread on hand).

Carrot Cake

One of my favourite cookbooks is Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld. It's full of rich, delicious recipes organized into menus. It's great for impressing your friends at dinner parties. This week I was craving carrot cake, so I broke out Voluptuous Vegan and used her recipe. I substituted pecans for walnuts, but otherwise stayed true to the recipe. The result was fabulous, rich and moist, more a spice cake with a bit of carrots. I only wish I'd had some coconut milk to make the accompanying coconut cardamom sauce. Next time!

Chocolate Cupcakes

So much for weaning myself off of sweets! You know when you really need some chocolate? This week I solved that with the Basic Chocolate Cupcakes recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (such an amazing book!). I iced them with a simple chocolate glaze, and my chocolate craving was satisfied!

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This Week in My Kitchen, Part 1: Spanakopita, Polenta with Root Vegetable Ragout, Mango Curry Potato Dosa, Creamy Vegan Potato Soup

This is a long overdue post, which should be more accurately titled "This Month in My Kitchen". December, of course, is prime cooking and baking season, and it was no different in my kitchen this year. I got to bake cookies with some girlfriends, finally successfully tackle polenta, make a vegan pecan pie for the first time, and probably gain 5 pounds!

Spanakopita
Kirk's favourite food of all time is spinach pie, so I attempted to make him some this month. It was a partially successful attempt, but I don't have much experience with phyllo pastry (in fact, I spelled it "filo" on my grocery list), and I went a little to light on the layers. Next time will better. I used two packages of frozen chopped spinach, one bag of fresh spinach, lots of garlic, some tofu (cubed really small) and a few other seasonings for the filling, and it was fantastic! I served it with home made hummous, greek salad and some multigrain flax pitas. Yum!

Polenta with Root Vegetable Ragout

My one attempt at making polenta several years ago was a failure (wrong consistency, wrong texture, next-to-no flavour). I avoided another attempt for years, afraid again of dismal failure, but after a fantastic meal at Locus recently, I was spurred on to try again. This time I did my research, reading recipes, blog posts and diatribes about polenta, grits, and all things cornmeal. People are very passionate about polenta, it seems. I like a semi-firm polenta, and I ended up choosing this recipe to try. It came out great! Creamy but firm, lots of savoury flavour, perfect. I made a quick root vegetable ragout to serve with it, and Kirk and I both enjoyed it for dinner and for lunch the next day. I will be making polenta more often.

Mango Curry Potato Dosa

Kirk and I had Indian take out last week, and we ordered a potato masala dosa, something neither of us had ever eaten before. I loved it! It was like a big bready crepe filled with curried potatoes - what's not to love? I thought I should learn to make this myself - it's can't be that hard. Ha! I found this recipe, and learned that it takes two days just to prepare the batter, which is made from a very particular kind of lentil. Luckily, Famous Foods, a fantastic little grocery a few blocks from my house, carries the lentils, so I made my attempt. Not so great. Edible, but not nearly so yummy as the one from the take out. At least I tried. Maybe I'll just stick with crepes for now. On the bright side, the filling (potatoes and veggies with mango curry sauce), was really good.

Creamy Vegan Potato Soup

As many of you know, I am a big lover of soup. I could eat soup every day and be happy. So when we bought a ten pound bag of russet potatoes on sale this week, I saw the perfect opportunity to make creamy potato soup. I sweated an onion and some garlic, then I sliced up six potatoes with my mandolin slicer and boiled them in salted water with the onion and garlic and some rubbed sage in just enough water to cover. Once they were soft I drained a bit of the water and pureed it with my hand blender. I added a bit of soy milk and margarine and went to town. Heavenly!