Vegan Steel-Cut Oat Soda Bread

Hey y’all! I have a new original recipe to share today!

I’ve been making a lot of soda bread recently (one of my soda bread adventures was chronicled here, in case you missed it). One recipe that I’ve become particularly fond of is this one for Oat Soda Bread at 101 Cookbooks. I like it because it combines the taste and ease of soda bread with the heartiness of oats. But after I made it once, I got to thinking—could I do the same thing with steel-cut oats? Well, after a bit of tinkering (and some guidance from this Bob’s Red Mill recipe), I think I’ve found a good ratio of steel-cut to regular oats, which makes for one wonderfully full and hearty loaf in the end! And if you don’t have steel-cut oats at hand, don’t worry; just use 101 Cookbooks’s original recipe—it’s still really good. Enjoy!

Vegan Steel-Cut Oat Soda Bread

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar / lemon juice
• 1 3/4 cup soy milk (less 2 tbsp, actually)
• 1 cup steel-cut oats
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cup white all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• mixed seeds (I used poppy and black sesame seeds, plus some leftover steel-cut oats)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and prepare a 9×5 inch baking pan, either by greasing the sides well with oil / vegan butter or lining with parchment paper.

2. Put apple cider vinegar / lemon juice in a measuring cup, then fill up to the 1 3/4 cup line with soy milk. Add the steel-cut oats and let soak as you prepare the dry ingredients.

3. Place rolled oats in a food processor and pulse for a while. You don’t have to make them into a flour or anything, just get them broken up as best you can.

4. Place rolled oat mixture in a mixing bowl, and add to it the flours, baking soda, and salt. Mix to combine.

5. Add to this the wet mixture, and mix until it all starts coming together. (When I do this, it tends to stay a very sticky blob instead of forming into a nice, kneadable dough. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a problem.)

6. Scoop the dough into your baking pan.

7. Top with seeds and such (I went a little overboard here, FYI).

8. Bake for about 50 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

9. After it’s cooled, remove loaf from pan, slice up, and enjoy!

Hope you like this one guys! Let me know how it goes for you!

Until we eat again,

Willie

Whatchoo Say? Étouffée!

Hey hey!

Vegan Dad is one of my favorite food bloggers. In the years I’ve been following him, he’s shared recipe after recipe for some of the tastiest things I’ve ever tried (his broccoli risotto, tarka dhal, and pumpkin soup with scones are some examples that jump immediately to mind). And today I want to share with you the latest recipe to enter my Vegan Dad pantheon of vegan goodness: Tofu Étouffée!

What is étouffée, you ask? Well, before I made this recipe, I had no idea either. I had never heard of, much less tried, this dish. Heck, I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce its name (which, incidentally, is not the first time that’s happened to me with a Vegan Dad recipe). So, as this stew was simmering, I did some research.

Apparently (and my Louisianan friend later confirmed this for me), étouffée is a traditional Cajun dish, which, according to tradition, is basically a roux with some crawfish. Vegan Dad’s recipe keeps the roux but replaces the crawfish with some aggressively spiced fried tofu cubes, which is then combined with a fairly standard vegetable broth to make one killer soup. Really, the spices in this are damn near perfect (although they may be a little too spicy for the especially sensitive—but you can always cut back on the paprika or red pepper flakes if need be).

The finished stew is definitely good enough to eat on its own, but Vegan Dad kicks the recipe up several more notches by pairing it with these delicious corn pancakes:

These, too, are good enough to eat on their own, although they really are wonderful when paired with the étouffée (they also keep cut some of its spiciness). Here are some more photos of my finished plate:

This recipe makes for a good amount of étouffée, which I was able to stretch out over the week. And as he says, the flavors do keep developing after cooking, so this tastes even better as leftovers. Honestly, I really couldn’t recommend this recipe more. I hope you try it out yourself—and if you do, let me know how it goes!

Until we eat again,

Willie

P.S. I should add that in French, ‘étouffée’ means ‘suffocated’, which, given how much this recipe makes me want to stuff my face with it, seems appropriate.

Spicy Jalapeño Cashew Cheese Spread

Hey readers!

In the past few months, I’ve really been on a dip/spread kick. On average I’ve been making myself two tubs of hummus or some other kind of delectable spreadable every weekend, and then thoroughly enjoying them throughout the week in salads, or on bread, or with vegetables or fruit. This versatility, combined with the nutritional goodness of these spreads, is what keeps me coming back again and again. Not too long ago I posted some new hummus recipes I came up with, but today I want share something else from my ever expanding spreadable repertoire: cashew cheese.

For those who don’t know, cashew cheese is basically a dip/spread made from cashews put through a food processor along with whatever extras you can think of. I don’t really understand why it’s called cashew “cheese” (its flavor resemblance to actual cheese is marginal in my opinion, and I use it more like hummus than cheese), but that’s the name that everyone’s using at the moment, for better or worse. The important point is not the name, though, but the taste, which is incredible. Absolutely incredible. And one you absolutely must try.

But before I get to my original cashew cheese recipe, first a word of thanks, because I would never have fallen in love (much less tried) cashew cheese if it were not for Choosing Raw, Gena’s mind-numbingly awesome food blog. I am constantly finding amazing recipes and food ideas here, and not too long ago Gena posted two stellar cashew cheese recipes: Zesty Orange Cashew Cheese and Sweet Potato Cashew Cheese. If you’ve never tried cashew cheese before, please try her recipes first! I’m not ashamed to admit that they’re much better than the one posted here.

However, if you’re already a cashew cheese fan and just looking for a new recipe idea, here’s something you may enjoy: a spicy jalapeño cashew cheese! This is basically just your average cashew cheese with some extra heat added in, but I think it’s really enjoyable, and is a nice little twist to the norm. I’ve found that this spread is best with carrots or other vegetables, or as a spread in sandwiches, but I’m sure you could think of plenty of other delicious uses for it. I hope y’all like it!

Spicy Jalapeño Cashew Cheese Spread

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups cashews
• 1 tbsp miso
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 6 tbsps (3/8 cup) nutritional yeast
• 2-3 jalapenos, seeded
• ¼ tsp paprika
• a little less than ½ cup water

Instructions

1. Begin by placing everything except the water in a food processor and pulsing until everything starts getting combined.
2. With the motor running, add the water slowly, stopping frequently to let it mix in and checking the consistency. Once everything looks smooth and to your liking, you’re done! Scoop out and enjoy!

I’m sure I’ll be coming up with more cashew cheese recipes in the months to come, so be sure to keep checking in! For now, happy dipping/spreading/eating!

Until we eat again,

Willie