Tag Archives: vegan

Zesty Veggie Hummus #Vegan Pinwheels

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FINALzesty

Veggie Hummus Pinwheels are the perfect choice for a summer party or barbecue.

Hummus is so easy to prepare from scratch that it’s a staple here at Casa de Enchanted Seashells. (Recipe below.)

It’s mostly all prep work. Organizing your ingredients makes it easy. I don’t like onions, but the addition of a thinly sliced red onion would be a wonderful crunchy flavor enhancer.

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I used a handheld mandolin to thinly slice the veggies. Carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms, cucumber, and freshly steamed, chopped spinach. Make sure you squeeze out all of the cooking juice and save for soup stock later in the week.

I had some leftover guacamole and used that too. Organic pea shoots and cilantro (coriander to you all from across the pond) rounded out the healthy deliciousness. Add a squeeze of sweet chili sauce or sriracha (if you can find it!) to make it super zesty.

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**For a really low calorie option, use a large lettuce leaf instead of a carb-filled tortilla.

Simply spread, layer, roll, and cut.

Spread with hummus, guacamole, spinach (this one doesn’t have spinach, but I used a slice of veggie cheddar cheese. The important part is to layer all the veggies on the side of the wrap or tortilla closest to you. Sometimes I heat the tortilla to make it a little more pliable.

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Start rolling, keeping it tight. That’s the secret to a successful roll up. If you’ve ever made sushi, it’s the same principle, without using a bamboo mat. Tah dah! A fat little cigar shaped roll of yumminess.Cut in half with a sharp knife. 

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Keep cutting…eating the ends as you go. Well, at least that’s what I did.
Turn them up so they’re smiling pinwheels, choose a special serving platter, and add a little garnish: here I used cilantro, pea shoots, and thinly sliced LIME.  

FINALzesty

Beautiful, festive, healthy!

BASIC HUMMUS

One 15 oz. can unsalted garbanzo beans (or your own from scratch)
Four garlic cloves
Six tablespoons lemon juice
One-third cup tahini
Salt, pepper, hot pepper sauce

Drain beans, but save juice. Toss it all into a food processor and blend until desired consistency. Add a little juice from the beans as needed. Season to taste.
That’s it! Couldn’t be any easier, right?
Options: Add chopped, drained spinach, jalapeños, roasted red peppers, etc. Use your imagination and experiment. It’s all tasty. Especially if you add a squeeze of lime…

Tofu Snowball Cookies | Vegan Recipe

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Every so often I feel like Emmymade when I try out or tweak a new recipe. (If you don’t know who she is, Emmymade has a YouTube channel with about three million subscribers.)

Aren’t they pretty? Read all the way through…

I searched for ways to incorporate tofu in sweet recipes and I found a bunch of ideas for tofu cookies.

Here’s my version:

Tofu Snowball Cookies
1/2 cup tofu (silken works best but I used what I had)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup oil
2 cups flour

Blend oil and tofu in food processor until smooth.
Add all the other ingredients.
Cover and chill for thirty minutes.


Shape into balls on parchment lined baking sheet.
(The dough felt very rubbery to me as I was forming the balls, very different from other cookie doughs…)
Chill again for thirty minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes until the top looks dry.


Let cool for a couple minutes.
Roll in powdered sugar.
Cool completely.

They tasted absolutely disgusting!

I’m not a fan, ewww.

I had an old Border Collie named Victor who would eat almost anything and I don’t think even he would have eaten these cookies, that’s how bad they are! It would have been hilarious to watch his face as he spit them out or found a place to bury them in the garden. Miss you, Victor!

If you try this recipe, please let me know if your results are more edible than mine.

I think the rubbery Play Doh texture should have been a huge red flag, but it was an experiment. Sometimes my recipes work out and sometimes they don’t!

#epicfail

UPDATE: After a few hours, I tried another one and the wait definitely improved the flavor and texture, so I won’t toss them in the compost.

BEST Crispy Tofu With Spicy Mayo Dipping Sauce

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This recipe is everything, and SO easy. Vegan, of course.

The secret to success is freezing the tofu before cooking. Here’s what to do. Drain the tofu, cut into squares, place on a plastic cutting board, and freeze.

Don’t be worried if the tofu changes color; it’s all good, and the color change means the texture of the tofu will be chewier and even more delicious.

When it’s nice and frozen (took a couple hours for me) place in a bag with some cornstarch and shake.

Add three tablespoons of oil to a pan and heat until shimmering. I like avocado oil.

Be patient and don’t check on the crispy progress too soon. You’ll know the tofu is ready to turn when it releases easily from the pan.

You could also bake in a 350 degree oven or place in an air fryer, but this time I used the cooktop ‘cos it was quicker.

When it’s brown and crispy on both sides, sprinkle with a little cracked pepper, and serve.

For my yummy Dipping Sauce, mix 1/3 cup vegan mayo with a tablespoon of Sriracha. Add a little chopped cilantro. This sauce is very similar in taste to the Japanese mayo at sushi restaurants.

It’s seriously SO full of flavor, I could almost eat an entire block of tofu. Not kidding.

World Vegan Day | November 1

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“Every time we eat, we have the power to radically transform the world we live in.” Ed Winters

 From the amazing and dedicated Earthling Ed:

“Happy #WorldVeganDay everyone. I hope that you can take five minutes today to tune into my new short film which will be live on my YouTube at 6pm (GMT).

It would mean the world to me if you watched the film and shared it with someone in your life who still consumes dairy products. World Vegan Day would be a wonderful day for them to make the change.

Thank you so much for your support as always, I’m so proud of this project and incredibly honoured to have worked with so many kind and talented people on it.”

Earthling Ed (Ed Winters) is a vegan educator, best-selling author, public speaker, and content creator, widely known for his viral debates, speeches, and video essays.

In 2018 Ed announced the opening of Unity Diner, a non-profit vegan restaurant in London where all of the profits go directly back into helping animals.

He was a guest lecturer at Harvard University in 2019 and 2020.

In 2020, Ed founded Surge Sanctuary, a forever home to abused and unwanted animals on an 18 acre site in England. The sanctuary is currently home to more than one hundred rescued animals.
Learn more about him and being vegan at https://earthlinged.org/

Happy Halloween!

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This is the time when the veil is thin…

What is the Thinning Veil?

Between our world and the spirit world, there is something known as liminal space. The word liminal stems from the Latin “limen,” meaning “threshold.” Liminal space denotes a time and space between the physical world and the spirit world. This is what we call the Veil, and from the end of October through the beginning of November, the days surrounding Halloween and Samhain, (pronounced ‘sow-en’) that veil is at its thinnest, making it the most natural time to connect with Spirit.

Veils are also thinnest in places where ecosystems and elements (Earth, Water, Air, or Fire) meet. This includes sites like waterfalls (Earth and Water) and volcanoes (inner Fire and outer Earth). There are places in the world where the veil is perpetually thin, making it easier to connect with the spirit world year-round. Generally speaking, the larger the space, the thinner the veil can be, but not always. Larger areas where the veil is lifted or even non-existent are known as vortices. Some of these places may sound familiar – Sedona in Arizona, Ayers Rock in Australia, and Stonehenge in England – just to name a few. Also, where ley lines (a grid of the planet’s magnetic fields) cross, it seems to denote places on earth where the veil is thinnest, Stonehenge being one of them.

To the ancient Celts, Samhain signified the last harvest and the beginning of a New Year. It is the space in time between summer and winter, the time of the harvest. Although we celebrate both Halloween and Samhain in the days between October and November, you may start to feel the veil thinning as early as September. After all, September is Virgo season, the sign of the Harvest Maiden.

This is the optimal time to connect with spirit, to speak to our ancestors, and those that have crossed over.

There are not only places but spaces in time where your own personal veil is lifted, allowing you to connect with the spirit world: when alone or having a quiet moment, when you’re in your own element (near Fire, Water, etc.), and for some, while running, swimming, or even in the moments between awake and asleep or vice versa.

The time of day can also help you feel a lifted veil – dawn and/or dusk – the lineal space between night and day. At all of these moments, your intuition can be heightened, and your connections will come easier.

Have a happy #vegan Halloween and Samhain!

(Curated from California Psychics blog/photo credit to http://www.facebook.com/PermanentlyVegan/)

Vegan Sweet Potato Brownies

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Even if you’re not #vegan, don’t skip this recipe. I bet you’ll find it’s worth a try, especially if you love chocolate as much as I do.

It was so good, I’ve made it twice. The first time I used only five ingredients:

*Sweet potato, one cup cooked and mashed
*Nut butter (I used almond), 1/2 cup
*Maple syrup, 1/3 cup
*Vanilla, one teaspoon
*Cocoa, 1/3 cup

Blend all ingredients by hand or in a food processor. Spread in a pie plate or small square baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes. Let sit until completely cool. If you have the time, the flavors get even better if it’s refrigerated or even frozen. I cut them into bite-sized pieces ‘cos it’s really rich.

You don’t actually NEED frosting, but who ever said no to more chocolate? Here’s my best baking hack for that…https://enchantedseashells.com/2014/09/17/best-baking-hack-ever/

The results were a bit dense, so the next time, I added 1/2 cup flour, and that made all the difference. I used regular white flour, but it would be so easy to blend some oats for oat flour, so that’s definitely an option.

YUM. Delicious AND healthy!

P.S. This recipe isn’t overly sweet, so if you want to add more maple syrup or even a LITTLE sugar, go ahead. I thought it was perfect without any additional sweetener, but I’m a choco-holic.

Veggie Tomato-y Tofu Soup #Vegan

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Perfect for this cooler autumn weather…

Last weekend was my monthly refrigerator cleaning project and I thought I’d toss everything I could into a pot and create some sort of soup.

The good news is I have a scrumptious pot of healthy soup to last a few days; the bad news is that now empty refrigerator and a need to hit the grocery store.

Here’s what I found to work with:
-Mushrooms
-Red Pepper
-Carrots
-Celery
-Onion
-Broccoli
-Fresh chard and garden herbs
-Tofu

I first cubed and marinated the tofu in a little olive oil and Italian herbs with spicy dried red peppers.

I didn’t have any Better Than Bouillon  (vegan) which is too bad as it’s amazing, and I didn’t have homemade stock, so I pan roasted the veggies in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for a long time to develop fond on the bottom of the pan.

FYI: Fond are the brown particles found at the bottom of pans after browning vegetables. It adds flavor and moisture to a dish.

When I saw all those yummy little brown bits, I added a bit of water to make it easy to scrape up, then I added the marinated tofu, along with one large can of San Marzano tomatoes and one can of water.

FYI: I like to use the best Italian tomatoes because I think it really makes a flavor difference, especially when they’re the star of the show.

I added one scant teaspoon sugar and sea salt/pepper to taste along with these garden herbs:

Thyme, bay leaves, sage, oregano, and a lot of basil, saving some to sprinkle on just before serving.

Such vibrant colors! Simmered for about 45 minutes, pulled out the stems of the herbs as the leaves had fallen away as it cooked.

Before serving, I used my immersion blender to make the texture velvety and creamy.

YUM!

Options: Add cooked beans, lentils, pasta. croutons

Serve with fresh basil and vegan parmesan shreds.

EASY Three-Ingredient Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream

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The Angel Kids always request my homemade ice cream when they visit but that usually involves ingredients I personally don’t like to use or eat, although I do it for them.

Feeling sorry for the chunk of body part that was chopped off a couple days ago, I thought that a bowl of chocolate ice cream would make me feel much better.

I didn’t want to go to the store and buy vegan ice cream loaded with all kinds of chemicals and other ingredients that help it replicate dairy ice cream and I’m allergic to coconut which is the mainstay for most vegan ice cream, so I decided to make my own.

I had an unopened container of almond milk from the kids’ recent visit and decided to do a little experimenting.

The result was SO satisfying. It actually tastes very similar to a fudgesicle and that’s not a bad thing.

It’s not super creamy but it’s very chocolate-y and yummy. Substituting one cup of full fat coconut milk for one cup of almond milk or a little corn syrup would provide a much smoother texture but all I really cared about was the chocolate. If I make it again, I will add a couple tablespoons of maple syrup, but this is a quick and easy recipe.

I think this is a great recipe to use for homemade popsicle molds. I didn’t, but you could add mini chocolate chips or berries and that would be yummy, too.

It’s fun to experiment and I’m never sorry if I fail because I’ll try something different next time, but this was a success.

PS If you’re counting, I don’t consider vanilla to be an ingredient!

Happy Valentine’s Day | For Chocolate Lovers | Vegan Lentil Brownies

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I’ve had a bit of success with Black Bean & Beet Brownies and Lentil Cookies but I’ve never tried simply Lentil Brownies, so I baked some this morning before it got too hot to have the oven on.

They look good, right? But the real question is how do they taste?

If you’ve ever had Black Bean Brownies, you might have detected a slightly weird beany texture, so I hoped this lentil version would eliminate that.

These brownies are TRULY surprisingly yummy! They’re very moist and chocolate-y. I can’t tell they contain lentils, which IS a wonderful source of protein, so this is also a healthy snack.

Tips:
1. Really cook the lentils until they’re mushy.
2. Refrigerate the pan for at least a couple hours after frosting before cutting and eating.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Healthy Super Bowl Recipe! Easy Veggie Burgers

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These veggie burgers would be great for the Super Bowl along with guacamole and a gigantic pitcher of margaritas.

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Add vegan mayo and/or ketchup and it’s so delicious, trust me!

I continually experiment with different ingredients to try and provide as much nutrition as possible and still taste good.

This is a complete meal for lunch or dinner or even on the go and it’s super easy because this time I used canned beans. Of course, you can always start with dried beans, but I used what I had on hand.

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TIPS:
*Quantities can be adjusted for your specific needs; I like to make a lot so I can freeze some.
*They can be ovenbaked or in a pan on the stove.
*Use whatever veggies you like.
*I like to cook them until they’re crispy and crunchy on the outside for texture and because they hold together better, also because it makes them easier to pack and freeze.
*They’re delicious hot or cold; perfect for a hike or beach day.