Resourceful KZ

You know when you sort of hit a wall and you don't know what to make? You have a hundred ideas for pizzas to make, but don't really feel like kneading dough, you're brain isn't exactly ripe for making seitan and you have no bread for sandwiches. You definitely don't want to go out to the store... What to make... for free... Out of what you have on hand...

I mean, that kabocha pumpkin has been staring you down for like at least a week and I know it's fun to pick it up and knock on it whenever you get bored... but it's time has finally come. You have peppers for that seitan pie you never made, scallion for dumplings with the leftover seitan you were supposed to make for the pie, a tomato leftover from taco night, and you always have a stockpile of carrots and celery... Oh and basil-- too cheap and beautiful to turn down at the farmer's market. Might have a few open boxes of small pasta for an occasion like so.. And like, what the hell kind of vegan doesn't have white beans somewhere in their pantry? Oh you don't? I mean... go get some forgodssake. 

Maybe you have some leftover spinach from this week's green smoothies. And you couldn't possibly fit all those veggies into a soup, so half of them need to go into a salad... and half of the pesto that should go into soup can be turned into a vinaigrette for the salad! Oh yeah, what should I make with these two past-their-prime chinese eggplants? Babaganoush them I guess.. Oh snaps, I have leftover pita.. Work it...

And so then you're all like, whoa I made this ballin' soup without going to the store and actually used up all the things I bought. I made a soup, a salad and a side! It also tasted amazing. So that's a plus. Guys I fed my family without going to the store, and without going to McDonalds! You can do it too! Don't be scared, KZ will help. 

Enjoy this instagrammed classic.

Leftover Vegetable Soup with Pesto

1 teaspoon olive oil

3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally

1-2 bell peppers, medium diced

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 ribs celery, diced

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced

1 squash, i used kabocha pumpkin, peeled, diced, and roasted

1 can white beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained

2/3 cup small pasta

2 bouillion cubes

3 1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

3 scallions,sliced, and/or 1 diced tomato to garnish

Pesto:

2 cloves garlic

2 cups fresh basil

1 cup fresh parsley or cilantro

1/2 cup pine nuts

juice of 1/2 a lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

pinch salt and pepper

Prep all the veggies you have or want to use. 

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large soup pot.

Saute the carrots, celery, bell peppers, and jalapeño peppers for about 10 minutes, until all the veggies are nicely softened. 

Add chopped garlic and cook for about 1 minute or until fragrant.

If you haven't roasted your squash, that's okay, you'll just have to cook your soup a lot longer. I roasted mine while I prepped all the other veggies and made the pesto. so.. you could do that too?

Drop in your bouillon cubes and mash them up with your stirring utensil. Stir around with the veggies for a minute or two.

Pour in water, salt, squash and white beans. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer. Let a rip for like 20 minutes while you do everything else.

Bring a sauce pot of water to boil. Drop in your small pasta. It will take about 10 minutes. It takes about 10 minutes to make pesto in a blender too, so combine all the pesto ingredients in your blender and blend until a smooth sauce is achieved. Set sauce aside.

Drain your pasta and ladle your soup into bowls. Divide the noodles or pasta amongst the bowls. Sprinkle each bowl with sliced scallions and tomato. Now using a large soup spoon, dollop a big dollop of pesto into the middle of each bowl. 

Enjoy!

Weddings and Green Cupcakes

So all of a sudden after many wedding-less years, every cousin I ever had got engaged, and tons of my friends got engaged, and one of my engaged friends set the date for her wedding, which she asked me to make cupcakes for! Since she couldn't decide on a flavor, she wanted to taste a bunch of flavors so she can pick which one or ones she likes the best. Since her bridesmaids dresses are going to be green, she wanted the cupcakes to be green too. I racked my brain for green flavors and came up with a bunch to have her and her fiancé taste today. I also note to all you bakers not to ever try to split your recipe by more than half, or heartbreak will surely ensue. On that note, does anyone want to buy any green cupcakes?

Chocolate mint is obviously a classic flavor I've made a million times and know that she will love. The frosting is green, but eating mint frosting alone can be a little brain-freezing, so a chocolate waterfall of ganache was definitely in order. This one is my favorite. Chocolate, duh.

I had to invent some flavors, so this was my first time I've ever made the following flavors. I feel like kiwi strawberry is pretty classic, so I rolled with that. Strawberry cake, kiwi puree in the center, kiwi buttercream. Pretty :)

This one is kiwi lime. It's a  kiwi cake with a kiwi puree, and lime buttercream. The fruit garnishes kind of look like butterfly wings. In hindsight I would have quartered them, but you get the spirit of it. Oh, and this one was my second favorite!

Lemon Lime, everyone's favorite soda flavor. Possibly everyone's new favorite cupcake flavor?

Lemon cake, lime buttercream, lime curd filling. I made my lime curd with agar and I had some leftover after I finished and it might be gone now. Someone ate it. Okay I ate it.

Coconut lime is my other favorite. I mean I have a lot of favorites, but this one doesn't count exactly because it's like a default for me. I eat this flavor so much that it's kind of like my "plain" flavor. Also whenever I make anything using this flavor combo I have to eat it all myself because Alex doesn't like coconut or lime, especially the two together and so I eat it all. Then rue the day. Then make something else coconut lime flavored... the cycle continues.

Yay for weddings and green cupcakes!

The Spiciest Jambalaya with Seared Artichokes and Seitan

I've seen jambalaya, watched Bobby Flay make it on throwdown, seen commercials about it, and know of it's cajun origins. I never have eaten it. It usually contains meaty stuff and so I figured it wasn't my style. So unless my vegan fairy godmother were to show up after a long shift at work and whip one up for me while I sat with my feet up watching the food network, I knew if I were ever to taste jambalaya, it would need to have been made by yours truly.

I used all meaty, hearty ingredients in my rice-spice stew, like a homemade cajun-spiced seitan, some large quartered mushrooms and seared artichoke hearts. Brown rice makes this a dish that you can make with a break in the middle. It takes its time soaking up the juices, so you can clean up your kitchen and rest a while before you eat. When you're done, cool the stew a smidge and then stick the whole pot in the fridge. Dinner for the rest of the week-- done.

Jambalaya with seitan and seared artichokes:

1 cup brown rice

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce

4 cups veggie stock

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

3-4 carrots, peeled and diced

2 bell peppers, diced

2 jalapeños, diced, seeded if desired

1 lb cremini mushrooms, quartered

4 ribs celery, diced

1 cutlet seitan, diced

6 artichoke hearts, halved

10 cherry tomatoes, quartered or 1 tomato diced

3 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon seasoning salt of choosing

1 teaspoon ancho chile powder

1 teaspoon pasilla chile powder

2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground black pepper, freshly ground if you do that

1 teaspoon sea salt

fresh cilantro

Heat a soup pot over medium high heat with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil.

Add onion, carrot, and celery to the pot. Cook 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly brown and soft.

 Add bell peppers, garlic, and jalapeños. 

Cook another 4 minutes, until peppers are soft and garlic is fragrant and toasty. Add tomatoes and mushrooms. 

Stir them into the other veggies and cover. 

Let cook for 3 minutes. 

Uncover the pot and add all the spices, herbs, salt and pepper. 

Stir uncovered for 1-2 minutes until spices have clung to all the veggies and the moisture from the veggies has mixed with the spices and created a sort of broth or sauce. 

Now add the tomato sauce, veggie broth, liquid smoke, and brown rice. 

Stir to submerge all the rice grains and mix together. 

Reduce heat to medium and cover. Simmer for about an hour, stirring no more than twice. 

Meanwhile, Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat with 1 teaspoon of the olive oil. 

Once the pan is hot, add the diced seitan and sauté for 3 minutes, until nicely browned. 

Remove from pan.

Add the last teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and then add the artichokes cut-side down and let sear for 1-2 minutes. 

Flip and brown the other side.

Remove from pan and add them to the bowl with the seitan.

Set aside until stew is done.

Uncover pot and stir the stew-- it should be reduced by at least a third.

If the stew towards the bottom is browned or blackened a little, don't worry, it will add to the desired smokey flavor of the stew. 

Taste a spoonful with rice to make sure it is cooked and not crunchy.

Stir in the fresh cilantro.

Add the seitan and artichokes on top of the stew without stirring.

Cover the pot for 2-3 minutes. 

Remove lid  and ladle stew into bowls, making sure to get some seitan and artichokes in each serving.

Black Like The Sea Tea Cake

In a perfect world, we'd eat cake for breakfast every day and still be as skinny as Chloe Coscarelli, the sun would shine rainbow light onto vegan pixie fairies and the trees would bear vegan soft pretzels and the quick-checks at the end of your street would sell earth balance cheeze puffs and dunwell donuts. Alas, we dont' live in my vegan utopian society. My kitchen is close though, right?

Say you did eat cake for breakfast. Every day. Maybe you'd feel a little more wholesome about it if some normal breakfast staples were tucked into the cake, thus deeming it appropriate for breakfast consumption? Maybe not. But for us cakeaters, we make the cake work to fit our needs, morning, noon and night.

When I first began the tea-cake-making saga, I pictured a black tea cake. I pictured it in my wavey bundtcake pan. Then I pictured an old man's face with a sailor's hat on and a cigar jammed in between his teeth and hanging out the side of his mouth saying, "Black like the Seaaa" in a sort of creepy pirate voice. I guess I have a weird imagination.

I tried to make it as black as possible, using the blackest ingredients I had. This recipe calls for black cocoa, but you don't have any of that, so just use regular. It's definitely a breakfast cake, sweetened with fruit and maple syrup, and just a little brown sugar. I can't exactly handle darjeeling tea on it's own-- and I'm a black coffee kind of girl. I like the bitter notes and depth of flavor. But damn. I can't do this one without a little sugar. 

It looks more black if I hold it like this...

Black Like the Sea Tea Cake

1/3 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup pitted dates

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 cups brewed darjeeling tea

2 tablespoons chocolate soymilk

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons black cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Spray a bundtcake pan with some nonstick cooking spray

In a blender, blend the pitted dates, blueberries, maple syrup and brewed tea. Blend until very smooth and pour into a mixing bowl. Mix in the brown sugar and oil. Sift in flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix together, and once combined, stir in the soy milk. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool on the counter before flipping it out of the pan. To flip, place a cake plate on top of the cake. Put one hand on top of the plate and 1 on the bottom of the cake pan. Now quickly but carefully flip so that the cake plate is now on the bottom. Place on a counter and carefully slide the cake pan off. Phew. 

Smokey Rolls Down Chickpea Mountatin

 When my boyfriend and I first became vegetarian, we could count on one hand how many dishes were in our repertoire. It included, chili, stir-fries, spaghetti, pesto, and tomato soup. Now a days, I do pretty much all the cooking, and have expanded my horizons to include all the things on this blog and beyond. He, on the other hand.. can't even make spaghetti anymore.
Tomato soup was our old standby. A great dish to make for 2 or a crowd, we would make this at least every 2 weeks. Obviously now, since my culinary horizons have expanded, I make a lot of other things instead of the same 5 things over and over. But I found myself making tomato soup tonight for the first time in years.

I mean, I can't just make plain old tomato soup, the way I used to. I've got to mix things up when I'm re-doing them. I was heavily influenced by the weather, which, right now can't decide what season it's going to be. It's very warm when the sun comes out, but the sun isn't really coming out that much. So it's actually still pretty goddamn cold. I craved a little smokiness, the type of cooking warm weather tends to bring with it. I also craved soup. I crave soup when it is freezing. Most people do that, right?

And so this soup was born with some crispy chickpeas in its mouth. Or on it's head. Okay I'm done personifying the soup. It's hot and smokey, but still creamy and comforting. It's in-between-seasonal. Some crispy chickpeas never hurt any soup either.

Smokey tomato soup with chickpea croutons

1 28 oz can tomatoes

2 cups red cherry tomatoes or 5 ripe tomatoes

2 cups vegetable stock

1 large red onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, chopped fine

4-5 ribs celery, sliced

4 carrots, peeled and sliced into half moons

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes, more to taste

1 teaspoon seasoning salt of your choice, i chose adobo, optional

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 cup cashews

3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk

1/4 cup nooch

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1 14 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika

1 tablespoon soy sauce,

2-3 tablespoons canola oil

Preheat the broiler.

In a cast-iron skillet, arrange the cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes work best because they blacken quickly, evenly and easily. If you only have large tomatoes, cut them in quarters and arrange the wedges in the pan. Put pan under the broiler for 7-8 minutes. Turn tomatoes to evenly blacken, and return to broiler for 3-4 more minutes. Remove and let cool.

Meanwhile, preheat a large soup pot over medium high heat with the teaspoon of olive oil. Sauté the onion until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the carrot and celery, and let them soften and lightly brown, about 5 more minutes. Add the bell pepper and cook about 3 minutes until veggies are soft and turning brown. If dark brown spots are forming on the surface of the pan, pour some water in there, about 1/4 cup to "deglaze" it. While you pour it in, take your wooden spoon or stick or spatula or joy stick or whatever you're stirring with and scrape the brown bits off the bottom. Add the garlic and stir around the middle of the pan for 30 seconds or so, until you can smell the garlic. Now add the dried herbs, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, red chili flakes, seasoning salt, ground cumin, salt and pepper and stir. Toast the spices and veggies about 1 minute, then add canned tomatoes and fire roasted cherry tomatoes. Stir and smush up the tomatoes in the soup. Add liquid smoke and veggie broth. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a blender, combine cashews, nooch and soy milk. Blend until a creamy sauce is achieved, and cashews are totally blended up with no graininess whatsoever. This step is optional, and for a lower fat soup, leave it out. The creamy sauce makes this soup very luxurious, reminiscent of a restaurant-style creamy tomato soup. Anyways, pour your creamy sauce into the soup pot and stir well. Taste for flavors. I like the textures of a little something chunky in my soup, but if you prefer a perfectly smooth soup, blend it up in your blender. If you can't decide, blend half of it and mix it back in with the chunky half.

To make the crispy chickpeas, Pour canola oil into a cast-iron skillet. Heat over medium-high. Stir together the drained chickpeas, soy sauce, chili powder and hot smoked paprika. Once oil is hot, pour in the spiced chickpeas and stir until lightly charred and crispy, 6-7 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before serving soup. Top soup with a handful of crispy chickpeas and some fresh chopped parsley.

Irish Cookie Sandwiches

Cookie sandwiches are kind of amazing. Especially mini-cookie sandwiches. I think cookie sandwiches that are too big are just that-- too big. They always leave me dizzy with a form of sugar-high that makes me want to eat nothing but steamed broccoli for the rest of my life. Teeny-tiny cookie bites are cute and easy to decide after only one if you want two or 22, a kind of select-a-size dessert.

So I was talking to my mom about my cupcake endeavors, and she informed me that cupcakes are in fact going out of style and I should try focusing on a different dessert vessel so that I can jump-start a new market. She suggested whoopie pies. I have never made a whoopie pie.

I tried a mixture of cookie batter and brownie batter, thinking that would give me the right consistency for a whoopie pie. That should do it, right? Wrong. I got chocolate cookies. Cookie sandwiches it is! I mean, that's what I meant to make. 

These are for some reason alcohol-free, but feel free to booze up the frosting with creme de menthe or any Irish whiskey. Any of your favorite liqueurs should do nicely. Just don't put like.. a wine cooler in there. That might be weird.

 I just got a Klean Kanteen today! It's amazing for many reasons. The first reason is that it is insulated, so that it doesn't sweat on the outside, making it good for bringing along in your bag. It keeps water cold for 24 hours, and hot for 6. You can buy it 3 sizes, I bought it in the largest, because, why not? You can spring for the cafe and loop-cap-combo, but I just bought the regular loop cap because thats what amazon had. P.S. you should buy one on amazon instead of the klean kanteen website because they charge you a minimum of $10 shipping. For one bottle. So I bought it on amazon for 5 dollars less and free shipping. Sorry. This thing is gonna last forever. And ever. And....

Also, I GOT A VITAMIX. Just in time for Smoothie Season!!

You're jealous. It's okay. You'll get one someday.

Irish Cookie Sandwiches

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup almond milk

1/2 cup pureed silken tofu

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup vegan cream cheese or earth balance

1/4 cup spectrum organic shortening

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon mint extract

1/2 teaspoon or 4 drops green food color

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

To make cookies, whisk together oil, pureed tofu, almond milk, vanilla and sugar. Sift or stir in cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well and line 2 baking trays with parchment. Roll 1 tablespoon-sized balls out of the dough, wetting hands to prevent sticking, and place down on the cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. These cookies don't spread too much. Push down a smidge on each cookie to flatten slightly, Bake for about 15 minutes or until cookies are slightly firm to the touch. Remove from oven and carefully move to wire racks to cool. 

Make icing by beating all ingredients in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. You can scoop this into a piping bag fitted with a circle tip to pie cute neat swirls onto the cookies, but a spoon works too. Once cookies are cool, line them up so that each cookie has a partner and flip one partner cookie upside down. Pipe 1 tablespoon of icing onto the upside down cookies. Now cover the icing with the partner cookie, pressing only slightly. You guys can figure out the concept of the cookie-pie-whoopie-sandwich right? 

March Madness

Last night I went to a charity event for a chocolate and cupcake tasting party to benefit Lend-A-Hand India, a great charity offering aid to thousands in need in India. I was a cupcake vendor there, among many others with great displays and tasty desserts. I was the only vegan vendor, proudly representing with some of my most popular flavors! Everyone seemed to really like them, usually even before finding out their veganhood. 

These are my Irish Barfight Cupcakes, seemingly the biggest hit of the night! They are a vanilla cake filled with a whiskey butterscotch and topped with a vanilla buttercream and strawberry dip-top and mini chips! Try reciting that about 50 times in 3 hours.

My table! The event was at Pranna, a fancy lounge on Madison Ave, and they gave me these sweet platters to put my cupcakes on. This amateur was prepared to serve them out of my boxes. To be fair my boxes are like, really cute.

About mid-way through the night, the promoter came by and sprinkled a million fake rose petals all over my table. The mood quickly changed from good-hearted-charitable event to sexy post-Valentines-chocolate-and-strawberry-champagne-adults-only after that. The mood lighting made everyone want a bubble bath. We made all the children cover their virgin eyes and eat their cupcakes blindfolded. Just kidding... kind of.

Top row are the infamous chocolate stout cupcakes, my personal favorite, and below are raspberry champagne. I may have accidentally let a 3-year-old grab one off my table and shove in into her face. It all happened so fast. I mean there's not that much champagne in there... She'll be fine... Kid's gotta grow up someday... Right?

See? I told you my boxes were cute!

A faithful remaining few...

Okay, so I had to take the subway into the city, you know, because I'm a normal person and not a rich young professional with their own personal limo driver or fist-fulls of cash ready to stuff under a cab driver's hat to take me through the traffic-ridden-and-dreadful Holland Tunnel and into midtown Manhattan and deliver me and my cupcakes entirely intact. So my lovely friend Matthew and I ever-so-carefully carried these on the subway and the few blocks through the snow to the event. They were almost all fine... Except the red velvet ones. At one point during the commute the liner slipped up and across  and swiftly decapitated my cupcakes from their frosted heads. We did our best to fix them. But as you can see, it wasn't exactly pretty. We sort of slipped some towards the back of our platters as the evening drew on, hoping no one would notice. Thankfully, no one did, and every last ugly cupcake was devoured!

Certainly not my most fabulous shot, but you all get the spirit of it...

Also, earlier this week I made some cupcakes for a friend who's boyfriend was coming home from a long trip abroad and she wanted to surprise him with "welcome home cupcakes." How cute is that! We decided on an off-menu flavor that came out totally amazing and beautiful-- Chocolate Covered Strawberry! I'll make them a fixture on the menu soon.

It's a chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache topped with a chocolate buttercream, a halved fresh organic strawberry and chocolate coconut drizzle!

I also am here to share the 2nd installment of the macaroni pie series! This is my American Chop Suey Pie! It's a lentil bolognese sauce and elbow noodles packed in a pie with a roasted zucchini crust topped with breadcrumbs! Plus when you slice it, it looks pretty cool.

Now that is some pasta pie. Ahuh, pretty cool, I know. Alas, this post is too long to include the recipe. Stay tuned for the 3rd installment of the pasta-pie-saga, and one last St. Patrick's Day recipe! 

Also someone at the event told me I should let you all know to follow me on Instagram @kzcakes! I'm not much of a social media person, but dozens of pictures of cupcakes and vegan food never hurt anyone. I'll leave you with that solid truth.

Until next time, KZ out.