This Week in My Kitchen: Local Food Products

I'm dog/cat-sitting for my mom this month, and she lives near a fancy gourmet grocery store called Meinhardt Fine Foods. Tonight I decided to treat myself to dinner from there. I don't have a lot of time to cook since I have to get Odin to bed around 6:30, so it had to be something fast and easy. I found some great foods from local Vancouver companies to make a quick, healthy, yummy dinner. Here's what I had:

Happy Planet Thai Coconut Soup with Sunrise Firm Tofu
I've wanted to try Happy Planet soups for a while, but they aren't cheap and I usually end up passing them by for something cheaper, if less healthy and delicious. The Thai Coconut Soup was SO worth it! I love red coconut curry, and this had just the right amount of hot and sweet. I added some local tofu for a filling, balanced meal and even after dessert I'm already thinking about seconds.

Rico n' Lalo Frozen Fruit Bars
I noticed these fruit bars because of the fantastic packaging, then saw that they are local and all natural. The fact that they're low-calorie is a bonus! I chose lime flavour as a perfect ending for the red curry soup. It was so good! Sweet and tart and refreshing! I'm excited that there are three bars left in the package...

Vegan Mofo Day 9: Portland 4

So who among you, my American readers, wants to sponsor me to come live in the States, because I want to move to Portland!

My newest interesting Portland discovery is NE Alberta Street (aka Alberta Arts District), a funky, artsy neighbourhood with myriad cafes, art supply stores, bookstores, boutiques... and Tin Shed Garden Cafe. We had breakfast there, and despite the long wait for a table and super-slow service, it was fantastic!

The Tin Shed is at 1438 NE Alberta Street. You can't miss it - it's covered in corrugated tin and there's probably always a line up outside. We got there at 8:15 on Sunday morning and there was already a 20 minute wait for a table!

They have a serve-yourself coffee bar with their own Tin Shed blend and decaf for us wussies, which you're welcome to use even when you're waiting for a table. That makes the wait a little more bearable, although it also means if you want a refill after you're seated, chances are you're going to have to get up and get it yourself.

 An okay selection of condiments on the table, and a super-cool drink menu with hand-decorated wooden covers. Each one was unique.

I had the "Tim Curry" and this photo absolutely does not do it justice! It was tofu, yam, zucchini, mushroom & onion in a coconut-curry sauce, served over a bed of spinach & topped with roasted peanuts & avocado, with potato patties on the side. It also comes with raisins, but I had it without. It was sooo delicious!

Mum had a half order of the "Belly Pleaser" - rice pudding made with jasmine rice, coconut milk, ginger & vanilla and topped with fresh mango & cinnamon - and a fruit salad. Although the fruit salad was good, she wishes she got the full order of "Belly Pleaser", as it was heavenly. She has a lower tolerance for slow service than I do, and even she thought it was worth the wait!

All in all, NE Alberta Street is a cool neighbourhood, and Tin Shed is a great place to eat. Check it out next time you're in Portland.

Vegan Mofo Day 8: Portland 3

Before going to Powell's, which is the marathon of book shopping experiences, we decided to grab some lunch at Noodles & Company, a nice, inexpensive little noodles place which is apparently a chain, but I've never seen another location. It's right around the corner from Powell's and has quite a few vegan options.

 They post what local ingredients they're using that week, which is unassailably cool.

Pretty well any place that has Sriracha on the table is alright by me!

I had the Bangkok Curry with organic tofu. It was great, and kept me going for the whole afternoon of shopping.

This Week in My Kitchen: Polenta with Tofu & Veggies, Amazing Greek Salad, Lettuce Rolls, Curried Chickpea Soup

After Christmas I didn't do a lot of cooking since we had so many leftovers to eat. But the leftovers eventually dwindled, and I got back in the kitchen. After the glut of sweets over the holidays, I've been focusing on fresh, healthy, savoury dishes. I need to wean myself off of the sugar again!

Polenta with Tofu and Veggies
Exactly how it sounds. For my second foray into polenta of late I chose to add a half cup of water more than I did last time and set it in a loaf pan rather than free-form. I liked the loaf-shape (which served to keep me from breaking pieces off the edges and snacking on them), but the texture was a bit too wet for my liking. I marinaded the tofu in cider vinegar, veggie broth and some spices. I sauteed the tofu, carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, bell pepper and spinach, then added veggie broth thickened with arrowroot and served it over a slice of polenta. Yum!

I used the polenta to press the tofu

Amazing Greek Salad
Craving fresh veggies late one evening, I decided to make myself a quick Greek-type salad. I chopped cucmber, bell pepper, grape tomatoes and green onions (because I didn't have a red onion) and dressed it with red wine vinegar, Bragg's Sea Kelp Seasoning (because I'm out of oregano) and mustard seeds and topped it with kalamata olives. It was heavenly!

I'm hungry again just looking at this photo!

Lettuce Rolls - A Five-Minute Dinner
Last time I was in Nanaimo, my friend Carmen made these wonderful lettuce rolls, and this week I recreated them from memory. I used Asian style Yves Ground Round (you could use TVP and add your own flavourings) and sauteed it with diced onion and bell pepper. I think Carmen's sauce was made with peanut butter, but peanut butter is my mortal enemy, so I made mine by adding coconut milk to almond butter (cashew butter would be good too) and microwaving it until it was soft and soupy. I assembled the rolls by putting a scoop of the ground round mixture into the middle of a piece of iceberg lettuce, adding some sauce, and rolling it up. A cheap, healthy dinner prepared in five minutes. Thanks Carmen!

Curried Chickpea Soup

As part of my new life with a budget, I've been focusing on preparing hearty meals for very little money. I had a bag of dried chickpeas in my pantry, so I used a recipe from the ReBar Modern Food Cookbook to make curried chickpea soup. ReBar is a great little restaurant in Victoria that was one of my favourite places for breakfast. I added chopped fresh spinach, since I had some in the fridge that I had to use, and the leftover sauce from the lettuce rolls, which added a nice subtle nutty flavour.

I definitely recommend this recipe.

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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!