Monday morning I woke up 2 hours before my alarm went off with a hankering for some cake. My stomach was grumbling and I could not fall back asleep. I had a decision to make. Should I (a) get ready and go to work early or (b) bake a cake? Clearly, I was not about to go to work early. Who even does that? So instead I baked a breakfast cake and watched the sunrise over Lake Michigan from my living room window.

The thought that came to my mind: earl grey paired with refreshing lemon in a moist delicate pound cake. Lately I’ve been enjoying the Teavana Earl Grey Creme tea that my mom gave me for Christmas. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Smooth flavors of vanilla and citrus bergamot. Thoughts of this tea are forever dancing around in my head–probably why I’ve been wanting to bake a cake with earl grey flavors for the past couple of months.

The results of the cake were stunning. The texture of the cake was oh-so-perfect with a practically melt-in-your-mouth crumb. The flavors were a perfect pairing (well duh, it’s not like I came up with that idea… thank you, England). The earl grey tea is the focus of this cake and there is a subtle zesty lemony aftertaste. The cake rose up higher than my loaf pan during baking and had a nice crispy edge on top, just like a cupcake or muffin.

Needless to say, I was really glad I decided to bake this cake in the wee hours of the morning. My afternoon slice of cake at work pretty much made my day. Not to mention it got the roommate stamp of approval: when I got home that night, more than half the cake had been consumed. I snapped a picture of the sunrise on my camera phone. It’s not exactly stellar photography, but I’ll share it with you anyways. Such pretty colors.

Lemon Scented Earl Grey Pound Cake
1 loaf

3/4 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp + 1 tbsp earl grey tea
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1/2 cup or 4 1/2 oz silken tofu, blended smooth
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp lemon zest (to taste)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 cups all purpose flour
3 tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 ºF.
1. Warm the soy milk until hot and add the 1/2 tsp of loose leaf tea to it. Steep for 3-5 minutes then strain out the tea leaves. Meanwhile grind the tbsp of tea in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder.

2. Combine sour cream, tofu, sugar, earth balance, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon zest. Beat with electrical mixer until smooth. Add the steeped soy milk and mix.
2. Add in the flour, ground earl grey, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients. Mix by hand until a thick batter forms. Do not over-mix.
3. Pour into a pre-greased loaf pan and bake for 60-70 minutes until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
4. Remove from oven when done cooking. Cool the cake in the pan for about 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack and allow it to cool completely.

I hear the cake pairs well both with tea (especially earl grey tea–no such thing as too much!) and coffee.

I am about to share one of the most delicious recipes in the world with you.

I went to Hungary 3 summers ago on a backpacking trip with my best friend. It was about three weeks into our trip and we both had just come down with this nasty stuffy cold. After trying to search the pharmacies for a good decongestant (and failing) we spent our time taking short walks, drinking lots of juice and relaxing and rejuvenating in the famous Budapest Széchenyi Baths, and finding ourselves underground in these weird caves under Buda Castle (seriously though, what were those things?!).

I have fond memories of Budapest but food isn’t one of them. Not that I had bad food there, just that it was normal travel food, and I didn’t get to try any veggie versions of the local specialties! A lot of the vegetarian restaurants were closed while we were there and our colds prevented us from going on grand adventures just for a delicious bite to eat.

Three years ago for thanksgiving I came across this recipe of a seitan and mushrooms stew in one of my favorite cookbooks, Professional Vegetarian Cooking, and decided to make it for our giant crowd of almost 30 people. It was one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten. Since then I have re-made it a few times. I’ve served it to almost 50 people over time, both carnivores and vegetarians. Every time I get some of the best feedback I ever get on food.

The stew is richly and simply flavored with the natural vegetable flavors of mushrooms, red bell peppers and onion, of which are deepened by the warm notes of a nice pinot noir. Add some smoothness with cashew cream making all the flavors blend together in a velvety manner and just pop in your mouth.

The seitan in this dish is cooked directly in the broth and wine, resulting in some of the best textured seitan I’ve ever eaten. It also takes on the color of the red wine, giving it an eerily similar look to beef. Not sure how I feel about that, but the flavor the wine imparts on the seitan is delicious, so I’ll take the color.

This dish is great for dinner parties. We’ve had it at a couple of thanksgivings, and I’ve made it for some mixed-crowd dinner parties I’ve had. I have to admit, I don’t even really like mushrooms. They’re okay. I can eat them if they’re prepared well, but I find something about the texture just weirds me out. I actually enjoy them pretty well in this dish. Enough to have made this dish several times even. It’s a satisfying stew that can hold it’s own on any table and in any crowd (well with the exception of those with gluten intolerances, sorry guys…).

The recipe may seem complicated, but if you start with the seitan and then while it is simmering for 45 minutes make the mushrooms it shouldn’t take too long. I’ll usually just make it earlier on in the day and then it re-heats nicely right before serving. You don’t need to eat anything with this stew but crusty bread would pair very well with it.

Hungarian Goulash
8-10 servings
Adapted from Professional Vegetarian Cooking

1 raw seitan recipe (below)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups red wine, such as pinot noir
4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 bay leaves
1 recipe Hungarian braised mushrooms, below
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Cut the raw gluten into a large dice, a little smaller than bite-sized as they will expand while cooking. Tip: this raw gluten is somewhat sticky and self-healing so I separate the pieces as I cut them up to prevent this from happening.

2. Toss the cut seitan in the olive oil, salt and pepper. I usually add the seitan and oil in parts so that the seitan dough doesn’t stick to itself.

3. In a large pot, sauté over medium heat for a few minutes until browned. Add the wine, vegetable broth, soy sauce and bay leaves. Partially cover, bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until the seitan is tender and cooked through. Meanwhile, make the Hungarian braised mushrooms.
4. When the seitan is done cooking, mix it into the Hungarian-braised mushrooms and serve hot.

Basic Seitan

2 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/4 cup vegetable broth
several dashes of liquid smoke

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients together separately. Pour the wet into the dry and knead briefly until combined. Set aside and let rest for 15 minutes before using it in the recipe above.

Hungarian Braised Mushrooms

1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
3 quarts button mushrooms, whole or cut in half or quarters for large bite sized pieces
1 tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup tomato paste
4 cups vegetable stock
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup cashews
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:
1. In a very large stock pot, sauté the onions in olive oil for 5 minutes or until soft.
2. Add the garlic and red peppers and sauté an additional 3 minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes.
4. Mix in the paprika, cayenne, flour, and tomato paste. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
5. In a blender, blend the cashews and water until smooth.
6. Stir in the cashew cream and apple cider vinegar to the mushrooms. Set aside until ready to use.

I never really watch sports on TV. While I enjoy going to the occasional game it’s never really been one of my bigger interests. I will make the exception on occasion and did so a couple of months back and went to a friend’s place for a game. I actually think I ended up leaving before the beginning of the game, but before I left I ate some of the most delectable vegan spinach and artichoke dip.

I knew I had to have this dip recipe for myself. So I did. And I’ve made it several times tweaking a little here and there (it always comes out delicious). Once I even made it for a party and then “forgot” to bring it so I could save most of it for myself.

I made it again for the super bowl on Sunday. This recipe makes quite a bit of dip, but it was basically all gone by the end of the game. And that’s probably only because I didn’t put out the last quarter cup or so of what was left (shh)…

This is seriously the best spinach and artichoke dip ever. I’ve always liked artichoke and spinach dips at restaurants. But they’re often overly heavy to the point where the flavor almost seems dull. Or the cheesy flavor overpowers the flavors of the vegetables in it. Even so, I was always a fan. But this dip outshines all other spinach artichoke dips of my past. I don’t know if it’s that vegan mayo is superior to the traditional egg-based mayo or if it’s the tangy sun-dried tomatoes or what. But you have to make this. Enough said.

Seriously amazing dip.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip 
~5 cups dip

8 oz vegan cream cheese
1 cup vegan mayonnaise, such as vegenaise
3 garlic cloves
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
10 oz chopped spinach, fresh or frozen, partially thawed if frozen
3/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped, I used the kind packed in oil but you can rehydrate dried sun dried tomatoes in hot water and use that too
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
pinch of rosemary
1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
pinch of salt, or to taste (I find it doesn’t really need salt)
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 ºF
1. Mix the cream cheese and mayonnaise together until pretty smooth (might take a little bit of elbow grease). Combine all other ingredients and mix together. Put in an oven safe bowl. I just use a pyrex dish.
2. Bake for 30 minutes until hot and browned on top.
Serve with sliced baguette or with tortilla chips

Hello there. It’s been awhile. Many months in fact since our last post. What have I been up to? Well I went to Colombia, got salmonella, was sick in bed for about 6 weeks, then scrambled to get caught up with work and other things.

Then we had the holidays, I tried a juice fast for 2 days, which was killed one meal-time early with an unpalatable kale juice… I was finally rejuvenated on a family vacation in Maui for a week and now it’s the near year, crisp, bright, and fresh. And I’ve started cooking interesting food again. Homemade linguine with a creamy tomato vodka sauce, chickpea cutlets with ratatouille, and weekend brunch of poffertjes–an adorable little dutch yeasted pancake made of buckwheat.

Last year around christmas I was gifted an aebleskiver pan by some Danish friends. I’ve been making aebleskiver regularly ever since as they are some of the cutest most delicious things ever. I’d describe them as a cross between a doughnut hole and a pancake.Last week I learned about the wonderful cousin of the aebleskiver: poffertjes. I loved the idea of combining a yeasted pancake batter with buckwheat. Because I own an aebleskiver pan I made the pancakes in that little puff shape, but you could also definitely make these as traditional pancakes and the flavors would be the same. You can even make them small–simply put a dollop of 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp batter on the pan and flip as it starts to bubble and cook through.

Poffertjes or Yeasted Buckwheat Pancakes ~28 poffertjes

2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp warm soy milk
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil
1 Ener-G egg prepared (1 1/2 tsp powder in 2 tbsp water)
2 cups soy milk, plus extra if needed
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a small bowl dissolve the yeast in the 2 tbsp of warm soy milk and let sit for a few minutes while gathering all other ingredients.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients, including the dissolved yeast mixture and mix together. The batter should be a little thicker than the consistency of molasses. Set aside for 1 hour. Alternatively, make the night before, and set aside for about a half hour then put it in the fridge until the following morning when you are ready to make the pancakes.
3. After 1 hour heat your pan over medium heat. I’m going to give instructions for making it in an aebleskiver or poffertjes pan. If you make it as a normal pan then follow these flipping instructions via the Food Network. When the pan is hot enough that water sizzles upon contact pour batter into the cups of the pan so that it is about 3/4 full.

After a few minutes you’ll notice that the batter is starting to solidify and bubble slightly on top. Because these are thicker than pancakes you will not get the same bubbled surface you expect in a pancake. This is okay. Using a small fork or two, or a pair of chopsticks, you can gently pry the pancake from the side of the pan. If it is nicely browned on the bottom side then flip (more like rotate gently) using the two forks or the chopsticks. You’ll get the technique down after a couple tries. Just go gently and slowly.

Let cook for a few more minutes on the other side, once it has browned nicely on the opposite side it should be cooked through.
4. Eat while still hot. Traditionally served with powdered sugar and butter. Less traditionally can be eaten with maple syrup. Either way, yum!

Last week, I made these mini-deep dish pizzas for a chicago-themed dinner party. In the chicago deep dish tradition, these little guys were stuffed with cheese and filling and topped with a layer of tomato sauce. They were a huge hit, with people trying to take more than their share, getting into epic battles over the last ones… Okay, I exaggerate, but they really were popular! And I can see why. We had stuffed them with a homemade giardiniera, which is a very popular condiment in Chicago.

These were super easy to make, though I guess a little more work than just making one large pizza, but as an added bonus, they are extremely cute! They make perfect appetizers, side dishes, or snacks. The mini pizzas were so tasty that I had to share them (that is to say, they were so good I had to make them again immediately).

For the filling, I definitely recommend making the giardiniera, because it is so easy to make, lasts for a month or so, you can control the ingredients going into it, and you can put  it in your sandwiches, quesadillas, etc. until it’s all gone–at which point you will probably make more. If pickled foods aren’t your thing, or you don’t want to wait 3 days to make the pizzas, go ahead and fill these with whatever you want. I think they’d be delicious with any pizza stuffing including spinach, broccoli, onion, and tomatoes–just chop it up small!

Additionally you can really use any cheese. Mozzarella would be the traditional choice, but I happened to have some of the new daiya pepperjack cheese lying around so I tried that also and it was a great combination! I also suggest these pizzas with chèvre. I don’t know if you can buy vegan chèvre, but I know there are some recipes floating out there for it.

Mini Deep Dish Pizzas
~24 mini pizzas, depending on how thin you roll out your dough

1 1/2 – 2 cups giardinera (recipe below)
~1 1/2 cups vegan cheese
1 recipe tomato sauce (recipe below)
1 recipe pizza crust (recipe below)

Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 450 °F.
1. On a floured surface, roll out pizza dough as thin as you can manage, and cut out about 6-inch circles. Place the dough in the muffin tins. You will probably have to re-roll the dough several times to get all the circles. You may find it easier to just rip off pieces of dough, about the size of a small fist, and roll those out and cut them down to size. Because the dough expands when it bakes, I found it looks a little better after baking if the dough doesn’t go over the sides of the tin, but is easier to make if you cut the dough a little big and let it rest on the edges of the muffin tin as it has a tendency to shrink as it sits before baking.

2. Fill the dough lined muffin tins half way with the giardiniera, or whatever stuffing you are using, about 1 tbsp. Fill the other half with the vegan cheese of your choice, again about 1 tbsp. I suggest using Daiya brand mozzarella or pepperjack, but any vegan shredded cheese will work. Spoon some sauce over the toppings.

3. Place the prepared mini-pizzas in the preheated oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust turns golden.

Giardiniera
makes ~3 cups

2 red bell peppers, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1/2 head cauliflower, in small florets
6 jalapeños, thinly sliced
1/2 cup salt
water
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped green olives (i used ones marinated in garlic)
3 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp celery seeds
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Tip: You can change the vegetables you use, I’ve provided a pretty traditional combination of vegetables, but if you aren’t a fan one of them then don’t include it and add a little extra of something else.

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the bell peppers, celery, carrot, onion, jalapeños, and 1/2 cup of salt. Cover with cold water, cover and refrigerate for about 12 hours.
2. After soaking, drain and rinse the vegetables and set aside in the large mixing bowl. In a medium mixing bowl or large measuring cup, add the garlic, olives, oregano, red pepper flakes, celery seeds, and black pepper. Whisk in the cup of apple cider vinegar and olive oil.
3. Pour the dressing over the vegetable mixture, toss, cover and set in refrigerator for at least 48 hours. This will last for several weeks in the fridge.

Everybody should make their own pizza dough. It is super simple and tastes way better than store bought pizza dough! That being said, it’s okay if you want to just buy some pre-made dough from the pizza counter at your grocery store or your local pizza joint.

Deep Dish Style Pizza Dough
makes enough for ~24 mini pizzas

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cup water

Directions:
1. Mix dry ingredients together. Add the water and olive oil. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Add more flour if the dough is too wet and sticky–it should not stick to your hands. Let the dough rest for about a half hour on the counter.
2. Divide the dough into 2 (for the deep dish pizzas) or 3 sections (if you are going to make full sized pizzas). Spray with some oil, wrap in plastic wrap and place in a bag in the fridge, if you do not need to use it immediately. It is best to make pizza dough about 3 days before you are going to use it (when you make the giardiniera, for example!), and the dough will last about 7 days in the fridge. I’ve even gone up to 10.
3. When it comes time to make your pizza, take your dough out of the fridge as soon as you start pre-heating your oven and prepping your pizza so that it has at least 30 minutes to rest before using it.

Note: I use my bread machine on the pizza dough setting to make my dough, additionally you could also use the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer to knead. If you use either of these, after kneading on the stand mixer or after the dough cycle is complete on the bread machine continue with step 2.

Like pizza dough, homemade pizza sauce is definitely superior to the store-bought canned varieties! It is also very simple to make. Again, I promise I’ll still be nice if you buy some sauce.

Pizza Sauce

16oz. can of whole canned tomatoes, ideally san marzano
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Drain the whole tomatoes, setting the juice aside for a different recipe. Place tomatoes in food processor. Add the herbs and garlic to the food processor. Process until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Adjust herbs if desired. Note: can be made a few days in advance.