Three Bean Salad

This is another test recipe for my friend's new book. I love making her recipes - easy, fresh, and she has a special talent for combining fun flavors in new ways!

This salad called for a can of mixed beans - black, pinto and another one I forget. I've never seen these in my life! Apparently upstate NY lacks mixed beans. Or I need to look harder.

Beans are a great salad addition, especially if you dress them in something tasty. These have lime as a dominant flavor and are awesome after soaking in the fridge for a couple days. This mix is garbanzo beans, black beans, and edamame.

Mustardy Tofu with Quinoa and Kale

Another round of recipe testing. This time, a mustardy dressing that I decided to slather on some tofu. Looks cute, no?

Also tried my hand at the quinoa again, adding a lot more garlic. *drool* Good stuff!

The last bit here is my "go to" kale recipe. DR doesn't like kale but she'll eat it if I make it this way. Steam the kale and then drizzle with a touch each roasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Toss well and chow down!

Simple Split Pea Soup

I've been neglectful of the blog for quit a while it seems. I don't even know what I've been doing to take up my time but I do know what I wasn't doing -- a lot of interesting cooking! The semester kicked my butt. On the bright side, I got the next dissertation chapter DONE and discovered that teaching 4 classes won't kill me.

So now that it is a break period, what is a little vegan to do? How about cook and eat and test some sweet recipes for my friend's new cookbook that will be coming out soon. I'm not sure if I can introduce you to these recipes yet, but I will tell you about this split pea soup I made. YUM. So simple. As you can see, you see carrots and celery. There are also peas in there. I ate a bowl and went back for another and realized I was stuffed!

Oven Glazed Tofu with Garlic Quinoa

YUM! Another test recipe for my friend's new cookbook. I've only tried a handful of recipes so far but this book will be a winner just like her first book, Radiant Health, Inner Wealth. You can actually order this book online or check out her blog for some of the recipes from this book.

This is a simple baked tofu with an amazing quinoa under it--it has like half a head of garlic in it but is made in a fun way so you don't kill any vampires. I want to make more with twice the garlic but need to get more quinoa first. :D

Cajun Tofu Wrap

This wrap is too good for words. I'll stop typing now.

Actually, making this for the test kitchen reminded me of how YUMMY tofu is in a wrap. Yummy and easy. My mind was blown.

Matar Paneer Indian Peas and "Cheese"

I was having something short of a panic attack when I found this recipe to make for dinner. I went to the dentist today to get a filling redone (the first fell out!) and so I was trying to find something I could eat with 2/3 of my mouth numb. Anyways, I have been pretty bad about updating this blog because I've been mega busy. The semester ended, but my work never seems to! I got my grades in and I've been working on the big tasks for the summer: dissertation, course preps (two new, one repeat), and preparing to go back on the job market in the fall. And I got jury duty. BOO.

Drunken Thai Rice

This recipe is a hybrid disaster from the Test Kitchen. I made the shitake mushroom sauce (now removed from the book) and was going to make the dish that used it, drunken thai noodles, but the store didn't have rice noodles! So I mixed it up using some long grain brown rice. It was pretty good! It has tofu, cilantro, basil, and green onions. There was something magical going on in that dish, because it really made me feel good eating it. I think it was the basil-cilantro mix.

To-fish with Tartar Sauce

(Yet) another Test Kitchen recipe, this time for a tofu-fish. I wasn't looking forward to the to-fish as much as I was the tartar sauce--yum! One thing I liked in my prevegan days was french fries with tartar sauce. I wasn't a big fan of the tofu (too greasy and savory for me!) but the tartar sauce was good with my potato wedges!

Green Thai Curry

Another test kitchen recipe. Green Thai Curry!

Tempura Asparagus Nori Rolls

If you were looking for something very special and very good, look no further than these tempura asparagus nori rolls. They are like sushi, but the asparagus is battered, fried, rolled up, and served with a salty-sweet sesame sauce. I just about burned the house down (again--I need to reinvest in a deep fryer) trying to fry these on the stove but the danger and efforts were well worth it.

Crusted Tempeh with Avocado-Mango Salsa

Another recipe from the "secret test kitchen." Looking at all the good recipes on the test list, you might be seeing a whole lot of them over the next week! I will have to post a link to the cookbook when it is out, since you'll be wanting to buy it when it comes out. Actually, the author is featured last month over at vegcooking. Ha, checking it out, you can see the recipe at the bottom of her page, along with lots of other yummy ones!

I decided to try this because I had all the ingredients in the fridge--wow! The tempeh is seasoned and fried and then topped with a savory avocado-mango salsa flavored with coconut, lime, and other things (how much can I say? It's a secret test kitchen!). My camera died while I was taking pictures, so boo--the picture is the best of the bad. I also made some giant avocado rolls for DR, since she had to work late and has been waiting for the avocados to be ready for a couple days. She is always in "sushi mode"!