Just want to recap the blog posts for April 2009.
You’ve heard the saying, “the right tool for the right job” ? Well, that same goes for sauces! If you’re looking for a versatile sauce that’s quick to make and packed with flavor, a peanut sauce fits the bill.
One of my favorite cookbooks is The Saucy Vegetarian by Joanne Stepaniak. There are pages and pages of “Quick & Healthful, No-Cook, Sauces & Dressings”, including two peanut sauces. We’ve used both, and now our favorite is a hybrid of the two — we make the Peanuti Salad Dressing with the dash of cayenne pepper prescribed in the Spicy Peanut Sauce.
Peanuti Salad Dressing (slight adaptation)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp tamari soy sauce
1 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tsp dark sesame oil
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/4 to 1/2 cup water, more or less as needed
pinch of cayenne pepper (this is the adaptation)
This sauce is easy to make, and incredibly delicious. Some of my favorite suggestions on using this sauce are over pasta (tastes great with broccoli), topping for a baked potato, or a dressing for a green salad.
I particularly enjoy using this sauce over pasta when making food to share with others. It’s always a favorite, and I return home with an empty bowl. The peanut sauce doesn’t particularly photograph well, but don’t let that deceive you. If you take the ratio of how good it tastes to how quick it is to prepare, trust me, this one is off the charts!
This photograph features the organic noodles from Trader Joe’s (16 oz for 0.99) with strips of organic red and yellow peppers and green onions. Note, the recipe calls for creamy peanut butter, but I use whatever is already open in the frig. Sometimes it’s nice to have the extra crunch from the chunky peanut butter.
The Peanut is indeed a mighty friend to have. Thank you Joanne Stepaniak for introducing us to this wonderful recipe, and I highly recommend her vegan cookbook — The Saucy Vegetarian. It’s a wonderful resource when I’m looking for new sauces for my favorite grains, beans and vegetables.
Tags:cookbook, cooking, products, vegan, vegan food
Merit Vegetarian, Sunnyvale, CA
There are 32 vegetarian restaurants in the southern area of the San Francisco Bay Area (aka “South Bay” for locals).
My favorite place to eat veg in the South Bay is Merit Vegetarian in Sunnyvale, one of only 9 restaurants that is vegan/primarily vegan. Merit currently has a couple of drinks with dairy, and also a non-vegan version of its popular vegan flan. However, we’ve heard that it will be removing the non-vegan items from its menu in the near future. (Other vegetarian restaurants following the Supreme Master Ching Hai that have removed non-vegan items in recent years include Vegetarian House in San Jose and New World Vegetarian (renamed to New World Vegan) in Oakland)
Spicy Lemon Grass Tofu, Merit Vegetarian
Merit Vegetarian offers a wide variety of vegan Vietnamese appetizers, soups, a good selection of entrees with faux meats, tofu, or entirely vegetable-based, as well as vegan desserts. It’s a large space, including comfortable booth spaces, big round tables for group dinners with family and friends, and regular tables, with a seating capacity close to 100 people.
During the week, they offer lunch specials between 11 am and 4 pm. You have your choice of a dozen different entrees served with brown rice for $7. It’s a deal, but only available Monday-Friday, excluding holidays. You also have the option, of course, from ordering from their regular dinner menu.
Fresh Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce
On my most recent visit to Merit for a weekday lunch, we picked an appetizer from the regular menu and two of their lunch specials.
Their fresh spring rolls are filled with lettuce, mint leaves, cilantro and seasoned tofu, with a peanut dipping sauce (6 pieces, $5.50). They’re delicious, and could make a nice lunch on their own. (The light setting was a bit off on this photo, sigh)
The lunch specials include: Stir Fried Vegetable, Orange Nuggets, Sweet & Sour Nuggets, Spicy Mongolian Delight, Curry Vegetable, Spicy Lemongrass Beef, Broccoli Beef, Szechuan Pineapple Beef, Cashew Vegetable, Spicy Lemon Grass Tofu, Spicy Garlic Green Bean and Sesame Eggplant Tofu.
On this visit, we selected the Spicy Lemon Grass Tofu and Sesame Eggplant Tofu.
Sesame Eggplant Tofu, Merit Vegetarian
The Spicy Lemon Grass Tofu uses a rich sauce made from lemongrass and chili for its kick, as well as tofu, bell peppers and strips of green onion. Just like it name indicates, it’s mostly a tofu dish with a generous amount of sauce for the accompanying rice. Loving Hut, another chain of restaurants that follows the Supreme Master Ching Hai, too, also has a lemongrass dish. We tried it at their SF location and while it was good, we like the one at Merit Vegetarian much better.
The Sesame Eggplant Tofu contains its namesake three ingredients with mushrooms. They serve the eggplant cooked to perfection, soft and delicious in a basil sauce. Eggplant is one of those vegetables that I rarely at home, but only eat while dining out.
On a scale of five, I’d give Merit Vegetarian a five out of five. The food is excellent, with many different choices, affordably priced, with good-sized servings. Next time I’ll have to plan my trip to Merit to include a cooler with ice so I can order extra to take home in my own non-Tupperware plastic containers 
Oven Fries
There are some really tasty russet potatoes becoming available in stores. I noticed that recently when I made oven fries, and they tasted so good just plain (no salt or ketchup needed). If you enjoy potatoes, you’ve got to try what is a classic British sandwich — a “chip butty”, translation = french fry sandwich.
Here’s how I made mine:
1) Layer of Oven Fries
I sliced 3 russet potatoes into thin strips, because I also wanted to have more fries on the side. Love my carbs Then put all the potato slices in a bowl, added 1 tbsp of olive oil, used my fingers to make sure oil coated all the fires; baked at about 400 for ~20 minutes. (Our oven is really old and not sure if the temp gauge is really correct)
Chip Butty Sandwich with Roasted Onion
2) Two slices of Rudy’s Organic Wheat and Oat bread
3) Slices of roasted organic red onion (for a mild, slightly sweet onion addition). (I cooked these separately and for about 10 minutes.)
4) Nayonaise and Ketchup
Tags:cooking, vegan, vegan food
New Leaf Tofu Breakfast Burrito
Tofu scramble is one of my favorite weekend breakfast foods. And, oh, okay, I admit, we’ve even made it for dinner.
Sweet Earth Natural Foods has a Roasted Red Pepper Breakfast Burrito that’s sold at natural food stores here in the SF Bay Area (maybe beyond, but I wouldn’t know that for sure). Made with potatoes, tofu and seitan, it was one of my favorite choices for a grab-and-go vegan food item.
My current favorite choice is the Half Moon Bay New Leaf’s Tofu Breakfast Burrito. It’s a hearty tofu scramble with kale, potatoes, and tomatoes wrapped in a wheat-based tortilla. They’re delicious eaten cold, or served heated. They freeze and re-heat well, too. And, it’s only $3.99, for 8 oz. It’s made in-house at New Leaf, and sold with their packaged foods in the deli area. Hint - because they’re made by hand, sometimes you can find them larger than 8 oz ( if you get there before me!). I usually have a few in the freezer at all times.
Tags:half moon bay, products, review, vegan, vegan food
Heirloom Tomatoes
The best place for eating vegan in Half Moon Bay or the surrounding mid-Peninsula coastside is New Leaf Community Market. This large natural foods store carries a wonderful selection of fresh, organic produce and other necessary staples to create your own vegan delights, as well as ready-made vegan foods in their freezer cases to foods prepared fresh and sold in their deli.
In fact, we’re at New Leaf Community Market nearly every week. Over the past several months, our average cost ranges between $25 – $50 for each bag of groceries. If we’re buying primarily unprocessed or whole foods like fresh produce, bulk grains, beans, canned tomatoes, tempeh, etc., that’s closer to $25/bag while while adding in more processed vegan food choices, like Uncle Eddie’s peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, Black China Bakery mocha cake or cupcakes, Mudslinger’s Tarmac ice cream or the fresh-baked Whole Wholesome pies, tend to pile on the cost and the caloric content.
For ready-to-eat foods, New Leaf has a salad bar, hot foods area, and deli case that include vegan and vegetarian selections priced by the pound. In the enclosed deli case, typically half the foods are vegetarian and vegan. Today’s vegan choices include Millet Yam Patty, Coastal Kale Salad, Harvest Salad with Organic Greens, Edamame Succotash, Tempeh Noodle Salad, Red Cabbage Salad with Pineapple Coconut Vinaigrette. There’s also 4 hot soups made daily, and there’s usually 1 or 2 that are vegan, although occasionally there have been 3 that are vegan or none at all. A refrigerated section includes other premade foods that you’d expect to see (wraps, Indian food, falafel, raw choices, etc).
$6 Vegan Dinner, New Leaf, Half Moon Bay
Last month, I picked out 3 items to go from the New Leaf deli for my Sunday dinner — Coastal Kale Salad ($7.99/lb), Harvest Salad with Organic Greens ($6.99/lb), and the Millet Yam Patty ($4.99/lb). The seemingly misnamed Harvest Salad was a rice-based salad with tofu, red cabbage, carrots, and braised greens. Made primarily with organic ingredients, no tax, and no tip necessary, the whopping grand total was $6.
Surprisingly, I really liked the kale salad. I’m not usually a fan of raw foods, but this primarily kale leaf salad made with pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds as well as sunflower greens and red onion seasoned with Bragg’s Amino Acids, lemon juice and olive oil was yummy. So much, in fact, we’ve been looking for this salad on our last several trips to New Leaf. We discovered it nearly always sells out by early afternoon, so New Leaf was the first stop on this weekends trip to Half Moon Bay.
Tags:half moon bay, products, review, vegan, vegan food
Vegan Citrus Sparerib Cutlets
For every veg*n who enjoys eating the faux or synthetic meats, there’s another who rejects it as being too close for comfort to eating our animal friends.
Interestingly, much as there are meat-eaters whose every meal is just a big chunk of animal flesh, with no veggies, now veg*ns have that same option with many of the faux meat products available at natural food stores and even regular grocery stores. (The Raley’s in Vacaville had a really impressive selection of frozen veg foods.)
Vegan Kung Pao Chicken
Featured here are two products made by Vegetarian Plus. Please note that the photos featured on the packages are “Serving Suggestions”. Translation = I enjoyed eating a big plate of fake meat over brown rice (hmm, does that make me less of a vegan?)
To achieve the serving suggestions, you’ll need to add veggies. And, of course, there are excellent possibilities for frozen vegetables. Broccoli is one of my staple veggies, and I always have several bags of the organic and petite florets from Safeway’s O Organics line.
I enjoyed both of them, with my preference being the citrus cutlets.
Tags:products, review, veganIf you take two people, and give them the same information, what makes one person become vegan while the other stays a meat-eater? Similarly, if you give two vegans the same information, what makes one become an activist while the other isn’t? Those are two questions that every activist ponders.
For me, I’ve been vegan since late 1989. The Animals Voice Magazine, and two landmark book, Diet for a New America by John Robbins and Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, contributed to my evolution to veganism.
Soon after, in early 1990, PETA hosted an “AR 101″ which made a lasting impression on me. At this day-long conference, four PETA staffers gave the conference at a university lecture hall (I think it was UC Berkeley). This was the days before email was widely used, so cleverly they seated us by zipcode so we could connect with others near us. The topics included the basics of animal rights, advocacy, and an awesome vegan lunch.
I remember it to this day. It was a vegan lasagna (from Tofu Cookery) and Joan’s Grandmother’s Cake (in PETA’s first cookbook, Compassionate Cooks). After that lunch, I finally knew how good vegan food could be, and I knew about advocacy. I was living in Concord at that time, and through the conference, connected with others who were aware of and working for the animals in Contra Costa. I subsequently attended an animal rights conference organized by a student group at SFSU, and that’s where I met Paula.
This was 1990, and Earth Day was having a rebirth and communities across the nation were hosting them. Paula already had a PETA tabling starter kit and proposed that we do a booth at the Concord Earth Day at Todos Santos Park to promote veg*nism. It would be Paula, Sally, Karla, Mike and myself.
At that time, I had a PC at home that I used for word processing, no email or Internet access. Our signs were hand-lettered on poster board using magic markers; the table for the banner was printed on a dot matrix paper (remember, the paper with the holes running down the side to feed the paper through the printer) .
We most likely had a sign-up sheet at that first tabling event, and I remember Sally hosting the first vegan potluck at her home in Pittsburg, CA. Then the potluck series evolved into what is today the Contra Costa Vegetarians (still active today and hosting monthly vegan potlucks in Contra Costa).
And for me, that was how it all vegan …
Tags:advocacy, peta, vegan
Pets Welcome
The weather has been just beautiful in recent weeks, and I’ve been taking full advantage of it and enjoying the local fauna, flora, and signage that my local neighborhood offers.
If animals could create signs, I think this is one they would have created:
“PETS WELCOME: CHILDREN MUST BE LEASHED”
Tags:signs
Sukhi's Samosa & Chutney
Having Udupi Palace in San Francisco has rekindled my appreciation for Indian food. Sometimes, however, I like to enjoy the taste of Indian food without the drive to the city. And, now that the mid-Peninsula coastside boasts a wonderful natural foods store like New Leaf Community Market, my food horizons have expanded to include Sukhi’s Samosa & Chutney.
These samosas are delicious, and every bit as tasty, maybe even a tad more, than eating them at Udupi Palace. They are exactly as described, “crispy vegan handcrafted wraps with potatoes and peas”.
Sold frozen, they are $6.99 for 10 samosas with a cilantro chutney included. The ingredients are simple and easily identifiable as vegan. For the samosas, it’s potato, unbleached flour, canola oil, green peas, salt, coriander powder, cumin powder and spices, while cilantro, lemon juice, vinegar, peanuts, garlic, serrano chili, ginger, salt & evaporated cane juice comprise the chutney.
Another bonus point for Sukhi’s: I really appreciate products that are vegan, especially when they prominently label the product as vegan.
In my book, Sukhi’s is well worth the money to bring this delightful taste of India to my home, especially when I have those hungry moments where the upper boundary of my cooking energy is turning on the oven.
Tags:cooking, frozen, products, review