Creamy Caramelized Onion Soup

This story is about soup, but it begins with a McDonald’s.

For weeks now, the McDonald’s a mile or so away from my apartment had had the same message on its signboard: Try our grilled onion cheddar sandwich - $1. Though McDonald’s holds very little appeal for me (veggie options in India aside!), I had to admit that the grilled onion-cheddar sandwich was intriguing.  It lingered at the back of my mind for weeks, in fact.

And then I bought five or so pounds of onions. And then Daiya cheese was on sale at the co-op, and I felt compelled to try the garlic-jalapeño Havarti-style wedge that everyone raves about. And then I realized that I had all the components for something very like a grilled onion-cheddar sandwich.

Instead of grilling my onions, though, I caramelized them. Caramelized onions are (ahem, were) one of my few real culinary nemeses. It’s not that they always come out burnt or inconsistently cooked (though that’s certainly the case sometimes!), but I have never managed to make them perfect, with that mellow, deep sweetness that’s the sign of a perfectly caramelized onion.

Until this time. Armed with a battery of tips from this handy article and a brand-new non-stick pan that replaced our flaking old one, I can proudly say, without a hint of braggadocio or untruth, that I caramelized the shit out of those onions. They were soft yet crispy, a marvel of kitchen science and patience. And they were pretty damn amazing with melted Daiya on slices of seedy whole-grain bread.  (By the way, that Havarti-style Daiya is THE BEST vegan cheese I’ve ever tasted. It’s the only kind I’d ever consider eating on its own, on crackers or something. It’s a sometimes-food, but I wholly recommend it if you’re interested in actually-good vegan cheese.)

Back to the onions. Now that I’d conquered caramelization, my mind was flooded with a tidal wave of ideas for how to harness the rich flavor of these sweet, tender onions. I began to suspect that they’d make a wonderful flavor base for a rich, creamy soup, and was I ever right. Please – do yourself a favor one chilly winter night and spend a little time at the stove, tending your slowly softening onions and stirring a pot of tender golden potatoes in a simple broth. Then blend them together – my brand-new immersion blender did the trick with ease – and let this hearty soup fill all the crevices of your hungry belly.

Quick soup snap.

Creamy Caramelized Onion-Potato Soup

4 medium-sized onions, sliced into half-moons
3 medium-sized golden potatoes, diced (3/4 inch)
1 T olive oil
1 stalk celery, diced
1 med carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp savory
A dash or two of poultry spice
4 C vegetable broth
1 C unsweetened MimicCreme (or any other unsweetened nut cream, or even your non-dairy milk of choice)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, start caramelizing your onions. I won’t give you directions – use whatever method works for you! You don’t need them to retain their shape for this soup, so it’s okay if they reduce to a bit of a mushy mess – mine did.

After the onions have been caramelizing for about 10 minutes, add the olive oil to a stock pot and heat it on medium. Saute the celery, carrot, and garlic  for about 4 – 5 minutes or until they start softening. Add the spices and give the veggies a good stir to coat them. Add the veg broth and turn up the heat to medium-high. When it starts to boil, add the potatoes and bring the soup to a full boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and keep it on a low boil for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are softened and cooked through. Add salt and pepper and reduce the soup to a simmer.

By now, your onions should be caramelized. If they’re not, just keep the soup simmering. When they’re ready, turn off the heat under your soup and add the cream or non-dairy milk of choice to the sou,p and then add the onions. Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender, in small batches and removing the cover between pulses to release heat), blend the soup to your desired consistency. I liked mine mostly creamy but with a few small chunks of veggies. You can also add more non-dairy milk or cream to reach your desired consistency. Top with freshly ground cracked pepper and enjoy with a slice of crusty bread.

What’s your favorite way to eat caramelized onions?

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I’ve decided that mini chocolate chips are pretty much the greatest invention since, um, regular chocolate chips. First of all, they’re a tiny version of something that’s usually large(r), which automatically makes them awesome in my book. My irrational love of tiny things aside, they’re just so darn useful when you want a bit of chocolate, but regular sized chips would add be intrusive or ill-fitting. For example, if I’d put regular ol’ chocolate chips in the raspberry-banana soft serve I made the other day, they would’ve been annoying to eat – y’know how chocolate chips harden in ice cream? Yeah, I hate that; I don’t like crunching while eating ice cream. The mini chips, however, aren’t big enough to necessitate crunching when frozen; you just bite into them, release their chocolaty goodness, and that’s it! Perfect.

Enough about ice cream, though. Mini chocolate chips have another place where they shine – pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes.

Pancake stack!

Like 99% of the food blogosphere, I’ve been putting pumpkin into everything lately. Cookies, coffee, cinnamon rolls, other things that begin with C… they all get pumpkin-ified. So when I was home sick yesterday and wanted to make myself pancakes for breakfast, it was pretty much a given that they’d include pumpkin. And when I realized that I could add mini chocolate chips, well, that’s when things got really crazy. Pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes? Oh yes. They happened. And the mini chips were perfect – they added just the right amount of melty chocolate without overwhelming the pancakes or making them seem too dessert-y. Not that dessert for breakfast is a bad thing, of course.

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients
(makes 10 – 15 smallish pancakes)

1/2 C whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C non-dairy milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Heaping 1/2 C pureed pumpkin
2 T vegetable oil
Scant 2 T vegan cane sugar
1/4 C mini chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, add the vinegar to the non-dairy milk and whisk until it’s frothy. In a large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients except the sugar and mix well. Add remaining wet ingredients and sugar to the vinegar-milk mixture and whisk until it’s well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, add chocolate chips, and stir until just combined – do not overmix! If you have time, put the mixture in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before cooking.

Spray a nonstick pan with a bit of oil and heat on medium. Add batter to the pan in 1/4 cup measurements, or your measurement of choice. If the batter is too thick, add a tablespoon or two of water to the bowl of batter and gently mix until it’s more liquidy. Cook pancakes until they start curling around the edges or bubbling in the middle and then flip. Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes and remove from pan. Continue until you’ve used all the batter.

Note: I like my pancakes on the slightly undercooked end of the spectrum. Cook your pancakes until they’ve reached your preferred level of doneness

Mini chocolate chips, y u so cute?!

These pancakes might not have cured what ailed me (I’ve still got a pesky sore throat), but they sure did brighten my day!

What’s your favorite application for mini chocolate chips?

Pantry Decimation Challenge: Shiitake Mushroom Risotto

Once I found out that I’d have a couple days to move (not just a single night and a couple hours), the Pantry Decimation Challenge I so eagerly started last month became much less of a priority. I wouldn’t be refrigerator-less, so I didn’t think I really needed to clean out my fridge or pantry.

And then I moved, combined my food with S’s food, and realized that, whoa, we’ve got a whole lotta food, and maybe I shouldn’t have abandoned that Pantry Challenge so quickly. At the very least, I should’ve tried to finish off the irritatingly small amounts of various foods that were lurking in my cupboards – the dregs of a bag of soy curls, a barely-filled jar of arborio rice, that sort of thing. But it’s not too late. S and I are trying to use up those random bits of food as we hold off on purchasing pantry staples. So last Saturday night when I was in charge of dinner, I forced myself to use pantry goods only. After poking around in the shelves brimming over with pasta and spices and beans, I concocted what turned out to be a very delicious meal.

A very brown meal.

S heaped praise on this Shiitake Mushroom Risotto, and I didn’t even bother to deny it – it was that good. I don’t have a very precise recipe, because I mostly just threw things together and hoped for the best. If you’re nervous about making risotto, don’t be! It’s actually super easy as long as you’re willing to stand by the stove for about twenty minutes. You don’t even have to stir constantly; you can simultaneously tend to whatever else you’re cooking. You just have to give the rice a good stir every minute or so and keep an eye on it. Anyway, here’s a rough list of what I used and what I did:

Ingredients:

• Dried shiitake mushrooms
• TVP (I had a tiny bit left at the bottom of a bag)
• Herbs (I used a homemade poultry seasoning mix with a dash of extra thyme)
• Arborio rice (I probably used a little over 1/3rd of a cup)
• Mushroom stock (I used maybe 1/3rd of a carton by the end)
• Diced onion (Maybe ¼ cup?)
• Earth Balance

Method:

Put the dried mushrooms and TVP in a bowl and cover them with stock. Set them aside to soak and rehydrate as you prepare the risotto.

In a small pot, add the rice and stock. For the stock, you probably want to start with 1.5 the amount of rice – so, if you use ½ cup of rice, add ¾ cup of stock. (I don’t bother to measure the liquids for risotto, though – the goal is to keep adding stock as the rice soaks it up.) Bring the liquid to a boil and then turn it down to medium-low – keep it simmering, but not boiling. Stir it frequently to ensure that no rice sticks to the bottom, and add more stock as necessary.

After you’ve got a good handle on your risotto (about when you’ve first turned it down to medium-low), heat some Earth Balance (or olive oil) in a small saucepan on medium and add the diced onion. Sauté the onions until they’re translucent, giving them the occasional stir in the pan. In the meantime, don’t forget your risotto!

Check your TVP and mushrooms. When they’re hydrated and the onions are translucent and fragrant, add the mushroom and TVP mixture (broth and all) to the saucepan with the onions. Depending on how thick your mushrooms are cut, they might take a little longer to hydrate. I added mine when they were soft to the touch. Add your spices, too.

Keep stirring that risotto and adding broth as you sauté the onions, mushrooms, and TVP. After you’ve been cooking the risotto for about 20 minutes, give it a taste – the rice should be soft and creamy, not terribly chewy. Test your mushrooms as well – you want them to be soft too.

Remove the risotto from the heat when it’s done. Add the onions, mushrooms, and TVP when they’re ready and stir everything to combine. Taste and add salt or freshly ground black pepper if necessary. Enjoy!

What’s your risotto-making technique? What’s your favorite use of dried mushrooms (we’ve got a ton!)?

Pantry Decimation Challenge 2012: Espresso-White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve had the dregs of a bag of vegan white chocolate chips languishing in my pantry since Christmas, when I made S a big ol’ batch of chocolate peppermint bark. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of white chocolate. First of all, it’s terribly named – white chocolate contains no cocoa, therefore it is not chocolate. Second, it doesn’t taste like anything except generic sweetness. Do not want.

However, I will admit that white chocolate chips have their place…  and that place is in cookies where they can play second fiddle to their more legitimately named cousin – actual chocolate.

They also offer a nice color contrast!

Okay, okay – I might be showing my bias by saying that they play second fiddle, because the white chocolate chips in these cookies are really a perfect complement to the other flavors going on here – namely, espresso and actual chocolate. The chips are a creamy, sweet – dare I say perfectly fitting? – addition to a complexly flavored cookie. I suppose that in this orchestra of ingredients, they can share the first fiddle seat with the cocoa powder in this recipe. Hmph.

Perhaps you, too, share my general distaste for white chocolate and find yourself with leftover white chocolate chips waiting for their chance to shine. If so, might I suggest making a batch of these cookies? They’re really tasty, despite the white chocolate. Okay, okay – because of the white chocolate. Hmph.

Espresso-White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes nine good-sized cookies

Ingredients

1 C spelt flour (all-purpose would work fine)
1/3 C high-quality cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 C brown sugar
2 T vegan sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
3 T nondairy milk
1 T instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp blackstrap or regular molasses (optional)
1/3 C white chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350˚ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (spelt flour through sea salt) and stir them a couple of times. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, add the sugars, molasses, and oil and mix until the sugars are moistened. Add the remaining ingredients except for the white chocolate chips and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and incorporate. The dough will be a bit sandy and might seem resistant to coming together, but work at it for a bit until you get a large ball. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Form dough into balls of about two tablespoons and flatten them slightly when your hands. Keep them an inch or so apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, until they just yield to the touch. Remove from oven, let them cool for a minute or two, and then transfer to baking rack (or just slide the parchment paper onto the counter if you’re lazy like me!). Enjoy!

Helllooooo, cookies.

And with that photo, I’ll take my leave.

PANTRY DECIMATION TALLY:

• Spelt flour: The majority of a bag (just a few tablespoons left!)
• Cocoa: Finished a container (though I still have separate from the co-op…)
• White chocolate chips: Finished the bag!
• Frozen broccoli: Finished the bag (not in this recipe!)
• Long-grain brown rice: Decimated my stash (same comment!)
• Short-grain brown rice: Decimated my stash (same comment!)

Do you enjoy white chocolate? What’s your favorite cookie combination?

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili: Delicious and easy, except when I forget to buy key ingredients

Howdy, y’all! I’m posting today about a meal I made on Tuesday but photographed on Wednesday – this early sun-setting business really puts a cramp in my blogging. By the time I finished making my dinner, the light was pale and weak, so I had to wait until the next day to photograph it.

The early sun-setting was problematic, but it didn’t help that I had a little hiccup in my meal-making, either. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a few ingredients, but I forgot one: limes! I realized my mistake about halfway through the cooking process and after a quick internal debate, decided to walk to the grocery store (which is only five minutes away) and pick some up. Because my roommate was out of town and couldn’t keep an eye on my food, I had to turn my stove off and halt my dinner-making. I’m just too paranoid to leave my appliances running when I’m gone! Luckily, I think some of the residual heat from the burner kept the cooking process going.

So, what was I making that desperately required limes? Why, chili, of course! Specifically, this Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili, which was thoughtfully recommended to me by my best friend’s sister. Thanks, Margaret!

Chili-licious.

Now, you might be thinking, “But Kelly, surely you could have just omitted the limes and had a perfectly tasty chili!” And… maybe that’s true. But in the spirit of giving recipes a fair shot at impressing me, I’ve been trying to stay true[r than usual] to ingredient lists during MoFo. And four whole teaspoons of lime juice is quite a lot to omit, you know? I think I made the right decision, too – I could actually taste the sour lime-y tang in my chili, and it was a fantastic counterpoint to the smoky beans and the sweet potatoes. Overall, I really enjoyed this recipe – it was pretty painless to make (excluding my own folly, of course), and resulted in a hearty chili that’s different than most chilis I usually make. I’ll definitely try this again, probably in a few months’ time when it’s cold and snowy and I just need something warm.

What do you do when you realize you don’t have all your ingredients mid-cooking? How often do you follow a recipe to the letter?

Note: This is a scheduled post, because I’m currently in Italy. Apologies for any weirdness with auto-publishing!

Muffin Monday: Banana-Chocolate Chip

I hope you don’t judge me too harshly for this unoriginal installment of Muffin Mondays. Everyone and their mom’s dentist has a banana muffin recipe, so who am I to add one to the collection? I have no compelling answer to that question, so I’m going to show you a picture and hope that it’ll distract you from judging my boringness too harshly.

Sliced.

These are pretty simple, but they’re tasty. Brown rice syrup gives them a sophisticated sweetness, and a smattering of chocolate chips makes them a little more playful than your standard banana muffin affair.

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins
(makes six)

1/2 T ground flax + 1 1/2 T warm water

3/4 white whole wheat flour (Note: I found that WWWF made my muffins a bit grainy. Next time, I’ll use whole wheat pastry flour.)
1/2 all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/4 t cinnamon

1 large very ripe banana
1/4 C dark brown sugar
2 T coconut oil
2 T almond milk
1 heaping T brown rice syrup
1/2 t vanilla extract

1/3 C chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly grease a 6-muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flax into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Add the wet ingredients and the brown sugar to the flax mixture and stir well, making sure all wet ingredients are mixed. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in the dried coconut and the pineapple. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin – it’ll come up to the top of each well. Bake for 20 or so minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Bowl o' muffins.

I’m sorry for posting these so late – I usually draft my posts at night and then edit and publish them when I get into work in the morning, but I hadn’t added the recipe to this post last night, and it was saved on my home computer. Alas! So I had to wait until I got home from work to add it and publish. But here they are!

What’s your favorite banana muffin (or bread!) recipe?

Leaves & Roots Lemongrass Soup

In my first post of MoFo 2011, I talked about tatsoi, a new-to-me green. It was delicious and photogenic:

Green leaves.

I enjoyed half my bundle of tatsoi in a simple dish of sauteed greens with marinated tofu, but I wanted to do something different with the remaining half. Many of the comments you all left on that post included your thoughts on how to use this pretty green, but Andrea‘s comment was especially appealing:

What a gorgeous bunch of greens! I like tatsoi in stir-fries and in soup, especially Asian-inspired soups.

Soup – I can’t believe I didn’t think of that! I don’t know about you, but I feel immensely healthy and happy when I eat a giant bowl of soup filled with leafy greens and other veggies. Because you boil the greens right in the broth, you know that any nutrients that seep out during cooking remain in the broth itself, providing you with a slurpable bowl of goodness.

With dreams of soup in my head, I went back to the co-op in search of inspiration. I returned with a big bag of groceries, including the following rustic-looking bounty:

Roots and leaves.

I was so pleased to find burdock root - I’ve eaten it once before in a soup, and I loved its earthy flavor and unique texture. I also picked up ginger root and lemongrass. All these yummy ingredients met the last of my tatsoi for a swim in my big ol’ Le Creuset stock pot, and out came this pretty, colorful soup:

Green soup.

Leaves & Roots Lemongrass Soup
Serves four (or three, if you’re a piggy-pig-pig like me!)

1 T reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 T agave nectar
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t garlic powder
1.5 C extra firm tofu, chopped into cubes

1 T olive oil
1 burdock root (about 7” long), well peeled and thinly sliced (yields about 1/2 cup)
2 T reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
1 large carrot, sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1 T freshly minced ginger
1 piece star anise
6 C vegetable broth
1 stalk lemongrass (bottom cut in half and then quartered; sliced into 1-inch pieces and gently bruised with side of knife)
3 C tightly packed chopped tatsoi (or other green)
1 bundle mung bean vermicelli noodles
1/2 lime (optional)
Toasted sesame oil (optional)

In a small bowl, whisk the first four ingredients until they’re well incorporated. Add the tofu cubes and give them a little shake so all their sides are covered in the marinade. Set aside.

Add olive oil to a large stock pot and heat on medium-high. When oil is hot, add the burdock root. Saute 5 – 7 minutes or until the burdock root begins to soften; depending on how thinly you’ve sliced the burdock, it might take more or less time. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, and spices and saute for 30 more seconds. Add the broth and turn up the heat. When the broth is boiling, add lemongrass and boil for 5 more minutes or until the lemongrass is somewhat tender. Add greens, noodles, tofu, and remaining tofu marinade and reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for seven to ten minutes. If using bean threads, remember that you might need to use kitchen shears to cut them once they soften – they often come in a big intertwined ball.

When the greens are soft and the noodles are ready, drizzle the soup with the juice of 1/2 a lime and a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Ladle into bowls and top with diced scallions and fresh basil leaves, if desired. Enjoy!

I really liked this soup – it had a unique blend of flavors, ones I don’t usually cook with. I did find the lemongrass a little tough, so you might need to cook it for longer (or even saute it with the burdock root). It still hit the spot, though, filling my tummy and making me feel super healthy and satiated.

Have you cooked with burdock root? Do you have any secrets for making lemongrass more palatable?

Muffin Mondays: Never Let Go [of Summer] Muffins

This is the second installment of Muffin Mondays – each Monday during MoFo, I’m posting a brand new muffin recipe. Carb lovers, rejoice!

Last week’s first installment of Muffin Mondays featured Fruit Medley Muffins, a hearty, wholesome, fiber-packed morsel to help you ease into another week of work on a crisp autumn morning. But what if you happen to live in a region that’s experiencing a return to summer, with temperatures in the upper 70s, clear blue skies, and nothin’ but sun? Then I suggest you celebrate pseudo-summer by baking up a batch of tropical-inspired muffins.

Bowl full o' sunshine.

Never Let Go [of Summer] Muffins
(Makes 6 good-sized muffins)

1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 T baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground nutmeg
scant 1/4 t salt
dash cinnamon

1/2 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 1.5 T warm water)
1/2 C coconut + almond
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 T freshly grated ginger (optional but recommended)
3/4 t vanilla
1/4 C + 2 t sugar
1 T maple syrup
2 T freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup coconut flakes
Heaping 1/2 C diced pineapple (I used frozen pineapple chunks cut into smaller pieces; you could use fresh or even try canned – just be sure not to add excess liquid)

Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly grease a 6-muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flax into the warm water and set aside. In a large bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the flax mixture and stir well, making sure all wet ingredients are mixed. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix until just incorporated. If the batter seems extremely liquidy, add a tablespoon or two of all-purpose flour. When it’s wet but not liquidy, fold in the dried coconut and the pineapple. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin – it’ll cup up to the top of each well. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Sweetness.

Each of these cheery muffins is filled with bright flavors; pineapple and ginger take a star role while coconut and lime provide subtle background notes. Feel free to play with the proportions; you could reduce the amount of ginger and add extra coconut, or include lime zest to up your citrus quotient. Whatever way you go, these muffins are a summer-inspired treat to keep you smiling on a sunny Monday morning. I’ll never let go, Jack! of summer!

Do you embrace seasonal changes? What’s your favorite muffin? What should I make next?

Brekkie for Din-Din: A Pancake Recipe!

Based on this post’s title, you might assume that I am a British four-year-old. Add 20 years to that age and replace “British” with “American” and you’re correct! Heh heh. But let’s be real – whether you’re four or 24*, breakfast for dinner is equally awesome. Last night I indulged in that time-honored excuse for eating sweet foods for dinner as a method for curing a mild case of the blues.

Stacked!

These are Whole Wheat Ginger-Apple Pancakes and Hell Yeah It’s Vegan‘s Chocolate Chia Pudding (barely visible in the background). During my post-work dinner-making, I put together the pudding first and let it gel in the fridge while I mixed the pancake batter. Then, while I cleaned up around the kitchen, I let my pancake batter sit in the fridge for fifteen minutes or so. Vegan with a Vengeance taught me that pancake batter does best when the gluten has a chance to rest. Once the gluten was relaxed, so was I, and I took the batter to its stovetop demise.

Nakie pancakes!

The act of chowing down on pancakes and trying my first-ever chia pudding (!) helped pull me out of the dumps, but the real restorative was the simple process of meal-making. I’m sure many of you can relate to the relaxing, cathartic nature of baking (and, often, cooking). Focusing my energies on mixing and measuring and mincing calms me down and quiets my mind. Following recipes gives my brain the chance to focus on a specific task, one with a set beginning and end (and a delicious result). And simply waiting for the disparate components of a recipe to cohere into a unified result is an exercise in patience, one I often need at the end of a busy or stressful day. In short, the kitchen can be a haven for me, as long as I’m mindfully making my meals instead of zipping through the steps, distracted and unfocused.

Food musing aside, let’s return to these pancakes. Would you like the recipe for them? Regardless of your answer, I’m going to share it with you.

Whole Wheat Ginger-Apple Pancakes
(Serves two)

1/2 T ground flax + 1.5 T warm water

3/4 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 T baking powder
1.5 T vegan cane sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t ground ginger
Dash salt

3/4 C almond milk
1 T ginger syrup (optional; maple syrup is a fine substitution)
Scant 1 t very finely minced fresh ginger

1-2 T almond milk (as necessary)
1/2 medium-sized apple, peeled and diced

In a small bowl, mix together the flax and water and set aside. In a larger bowl, add all the dry ingredients and thoroughly mix. Add the remaining wet ingredients (except for the 1-2 T almond milk and the apple) to the flax mixture and stir until all the wet ingredients are incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. If the batter seems a bit dry, add the remaining almond milk as necessary. If possible, let your batter sit in the fridge for ten or more minutes.
When you’re ready to make the pancakes, heat a nonstick pan on medium heat and fold the diced apple into the batter. Turn the heat down a bit (to medium-lowish). Pour half-cup spoonfuls onto the pan and cook until bubbles form on the upper side, then flip them. When you can easily slide a thin, nonstick spatula beneath them, they’re probably ready. Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!

These autumnal pancakes hit all the right notes for me; they pack a great gingery wallop and they made for an excellent relaxed Friday-night dinner. I was glad to use some of the organic ginger syrup I purchased a while back; it’s a great product but I always forget to use it!

I also loved the chia pudding – I’ve seen it around the blogosphere for years now, but I’ve been hesitant to try it. After buying a big ol’ bag of chia seeds at Costco recently, I knew I had to give it a chance. And I’m so glad I did, even if it’s not the most beautiful of foods.

Ch-ch-ch-chocolate chia!

Although having crunchy seeds in a pudding does take some getting used to, the consistency is really fun, and the chocolaty flavor in this particular recipe was amazing. I could only eat a few bites, though, so I saved the rest for this morning. Maybe I’ll follow breakfast for dinner with dessert for breakfast.

What do you make with chia seeds? What’s your stance on breakfast for dinner? Is cooking a stressor or a de-stressor for you?

* Help, I can’t stop writing using the Microsoft Manual of Style!

Peaches & Cream Smoothie (and a giveaway winner!)

I have to admit that I feel a little silly posting a smoothie recipe. But this one is so simple and so delicious that I feel compelled to share, because I don’t want you to miss out on this sweet, creamy, dessert-like drink. I think that, if you try this smoothie, you’ll forgive me for this slightly lazy post. At least, I hope you will!

Smoothies are the darlings of the vegan world. We love to pack our smoothies with kale and spinach and chia seeds and all sorts of healthy things that most people would be horrified to see packed into a blender and pureed into a drinkable concoction. Don’t get me wrong; I love a green smoothie as much as the next girl, but lately I’ve been in a fruit smoothie groove. Normally I go all out with these, adding tons of frozen fruits and blending them into creamy oblivion. But I recently made a simple, five-ingredient smoothie so delicious that it knocked all my fancy-schmancy smoothies right out of the park and won a special place in my heart. It tastes rich and sweet and creamy and wonderful, like something you’d want to sip on a hot summer day. If summer’s done a runner on you, maybe you could just sit in front of a fireplace, close your eyes, and pretend it’s still summer. Personally, I’m loving the return of warm weather here in Madison, so I think this drink is still seasonally appropriate. Either way, you don’t want to miss out on this one!

Luscious!

Peaches & Cream Smoothie
Serves one

1 cold banana (not frozen, just refrigerated for a few hours)
1 C frozen peach slices (this can be tricky to measure, but err on the side of more peaches!)
1/3-1/2 C plain soy creamer, depending on how thick you like your smoothies
1-2 T agave nectar, depending on how sweet you like your smoothies
1/4 t vanilla extract (optional)

Add all ingredients to blender and puree until all ingredients are incorporated and free of lumps. Garnish with a slice of peach and enjoy!

Variation: Use a frozen banana and a food processor to create Peaches & Cream Soft Serve!

The secret ingredient here is soy creamer. When I first made this smoothie, my freezer was a little devoid of fruit, and I despaired – I thought that my smoothie would taste overly banana-like, that the peaches would get lost in the mix, and that it would be an overall boring drink. As I rooted around in my fridge for something else to add, a carton of soy creamer caught my eye; it was on sale on the co-op recently, so I’d purchased it to have on hand. That serendipitous splash of slightly sweetened soy perfectly complemented the peach flavor and created a rich, creamy confection that I just adored.

Creamy beige.

What’s your favorite smoothie blend? Do you need to remind yourself to keep things simple, or are you naturally inclined towards minimalism?

Finally , the winner of the Cute and/or Delicious giveaway is…

Comment #34, Kim, who said “I follow blogs that have enticing photographs and delicious recipes that are easy to make. Thanks for doing such a great giveaway!” Kim, I’ll be e-mailing you soon!

Thanks to everyone who entered. You all left such thoughtful and helpful comments about what makes you return to the blogs you love – I have lots to think about now!