Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Potato Pancakes and Chickpea Veggie Scramble Recipe

For years and years after my grandma passed away I have been trying recreate some of her recipes. Most of the recipes died with her and it's a shame because her cooking was out of this world. I have some recipes that compare to hers, but none are the same. These potato cakes are very close to her recipe.

Now these original recipes come from here, I only had to make a few small changes to bump up the flavor. The original recipe called for a chickpea omelet, but I made it into a scramble just for the simple fact as it's way more simpler to make.

After you shred your taters and onions, it's very important to place both in a colander and press out any extra water this will help the cakes stay together better.






Ingredients for the Potato Pancakes
  • 2 1/2 pounds white potatoes, peeled, grated into enough cold water to cover
  • 1 large white onion, grated
  • 3/4 cup of green
  • 4 tablespoons of dried cilantro
  • 1/2 cup chick-pea flour
  • 2 egg replacements (I used Bob Red Mills 2 tablespoons + 6 tablespoons warm water)
  • 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons (or more) olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

Preparation

Place grated potatoes and onion in large colander and drain well. Using hands, squeeze mixture to extract as much liquid as possible. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Mix in green onion and next 8 ingredients.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add cumin seeds and turmeric and stir 30 seconds. Stir into potato mixture. Cover and let stand 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
Preheat oven to 250°F. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in same skillet over medium heat. Add scant 3 tablespoons potato mixture to skillet for each pancake; using spatula, flatten to about 4-inch rounds. Cook until golden, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer pancakes to ovenproof dish; keep warm in oven. Repeat with remaining potato mixture, adding more oil to skillet as necessary. Serve warm.






























Ingredients for Chickpea Omelette or Scramble (1 serving below, I doubled this for two people)

1/3 cup chickpea flour (1/3 cup = 2 "eggs")
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 tsp baking powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of tumeric
1/2 tsp of cumin
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp coconut oil (for cooking)


For your scramble you can choose any veggies that you want just make sure that they are washed and dice the same size for even cooking. I went with:
Mushrooms
Onions
Carrots 
Green Peppers
Spinach 
Grape tomatoes
(But you can put in what ever you like even some vegan meat. )


Start by sautéing the veggies on medium heat with coconut oil. Once cooked through, combine rest of ingredients and stir until a batter forms. Pour batter into pan, cook for 5 minutes or so, (you can even add some more nutritional yeast flakes on top before folding for a cheesier centre) then fold "omelette" in half and continue cooking for another minute or until cooked through. You want it to be slightly soft in the middle though, so don't cook it too much! Makes 1 omelette.


















Have fun and enjoy!


Saturday, November 16, 2013

Vegan Molasses Cookies - These are SO soft and YUMMY!


 


While on vacation the wife grabbed a bag of Uncle Eddie's Vegan Molasses Cookies man were they good. Just like everything else I find on vacation I come home and remake them trying to improve on the flavor of the store bought stuff.  After trolling around the net I found this recipe and I made it vegan. It still blows my mind how good recipes are easily made vegan with only the changing a couple of ingredients, we are on the path to veganizing the whole world.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Evolution Fast Food San Diego Ca. Review



This was the first stop in San Diego, I mean straight from the rent a car pickup to here. Man-o-man I was hungry, we left the house in Pa. at 2:30 am and here we were at 12:30 pm Cali. time. This place is very easy to spot with a large colorful sign on the side of the building. This location is real close to Balboa Park with off street parking and a drive up window to all the folks that are in a hurry.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Vegan Snickerdoodles





If you have not figured it out yet, I am a sucker for pretty much any form of junk food especially cookies. These cookies are so full of flavor and bring so many memory's of my grand-ma making these for the holidays. I could go on on about the recipes that where in my childhood but I don't want anyone to fall asleep on the keyboard. 
We found this recipe at Vegan Yum Yum and only a couple minor add ins to recipe to make it perfect. Just remember to line up your ingredients and put them away when done so no doubling up on anything. 

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Raw Vegan Veggie Patties



After reading more of the Mimi Kirk book I find myself wanting to go more to a raw lifestyle. A 100% raw lifestyle truly is a mountain to climb, but with great recipes like this one it can make a mountain into a mole hill very quickly. Now I did not follow the recipe to the letter due to what I have on hand. The pulp that I use was a mixture of romaine lettuce, carrot, green apple, celery, spinach, and a small piece of ginger root, which is a awesome green juice combo. Now I found that this recipe works with any pulp it will just keep changing the flavor so you will not get bored with the patties. I have a dehydrator which I used to keep these patties raw but if you ain't got one I will tell you how to make them in an un-raw version. Now the recipe that it is based on is on page 183 from Mimi Kirk's book Live Raw.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Vegan Chili with Jalapeño Cornbread




Here is the low down on chili it is almost as unique as your fingerprint, yours is yours.  Most will tell that theirs is some old family recipe handed down from years past, but I am here to tell you that mine is STOLEN. Stolen from all the awesome chili's that I have eaten through the years that I have combined into my own recipe. The only thing that has changed from my non-vegan days is that I swapped the meat for TVP.  Bob's Red Mill TVP is out of this world good, once it is re-hydrated it is just like having ground meat in your dish with out all the nasty stuff. It is only ingredient is "defatted soy flour" what ever that is I give a thumbs up and you will to.