Feed Your Friends Well
This month’s recipes are dedicated to the most amazing Cindy and Tom of Granite Falls, WA. They made the following recipes while I was visiting last week. Incredibly gracious and generous hosts, I mention them here for BAV because they often host meat-eaters and use food as veg-conversion tools.
Cindy and Tom set the standard for effective advocacy. They are positive and fun, active and glowing with health, and oh my can they cook. They make it hard for meat-eaters to not like veganism! They spend a lot of time and money feeding their non-veg acquaintances mouth-watering meals, and they’re just as generous when a hungry activist comes knocking.
When I first got to their house, they made fresh veg BLT’s and orange creamsicle drinks. The BLT’s you can imagine—just use vegan mayo and your favorite faux bacon. The drink deserves a recipe, and I have it here, but keep in mind these measurements are only guidelines. Please taste and adjust to your own taste buds.
Orange Creamsicle Drinks
Plain sparkling water
Orange juice
Vanilla syrup (like they use for coffee drinks)
Soy or rice milk (soy really works better for this).
For each serving:
2 cups sparking water
1 cup orange
1 squirt vanilla syrup
½ cup soymilk.
Taste, stir, serve over ice. Perfect with the BLT’s on a hot day! When they pulled a platter of fresh Mighty-O vegan donuts out for dessert I thought that was that. Life couldn’t get any better, sitting out by their beautiful organic garden, eating this yummy food, surrounded by their sweet rescued animals.
But then dinner came along (after a good hike to get hungry again). Cindy made the following recipe from Veganomicon, the new cookbook that I keep hearing buzz about. I wish they had given it a name that was pronounceable and spell-able, if only to make it more accessible to people looking for it on the web, but the recipes sure seem to be winners!
If I had seen this recipe I would have skipped right over it. It sounds a bit heavy, a bit “blah.” I’m glad Cindy made it because it was absolutely delicious. She served it with brown rice, an amazing kale salad, and good bread.
As if that wasn’t enough, she also served Field Roast meat loaf (AMAZING!) with mashed potatoes and gravy. Dessert was chocolate cream pie with raspberry sauce (and wonderful conversation with 2 brilliant and dedicated vegan veterinarians as well as Cindy and Tom). Sweet!
Braised Seitan with Brussels, Kale and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
From: Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook
2 Tbs olive oil
6 shallots, sliced thinly
2 C seitan sliced into bite size pieces
1/2 lb Brussels sprouts, quartered (2+ cups)
4 cloves garlic, minced (Cindy added extra of all the garlic, herbs and spices)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp sea salt
Several pinches of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 (or more) C sun-dried tomatoes chopped into bite size pieces
2 C vegetable broth
1/4 C red wine (Cindy skipped this and increased the veggie broth)
4 C chopped kale
Preheat a large skillet. Sauté the shallots and seitan in olive oil for 7 minutes. Add Brussels sprouts and sauté for 3 more minutes. (add more oil if needed) Add garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and sauté for another minute. Mix in the sun-dried tomatoes.
Add vegetable broth and wine. Once boiling, add the chopped kale. Stir until kale is wilted.
Cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Taste, adjust salt and serve.
Very good served over brown rice or mashed potatoes.
