Recipe: Vegan Quinoa Sushi Salad

Like all of the best ones, this recipe came about completely by accident. It has since become one of my go-to recipes for weekday lunches. It's chock-full of protein, omega fats, and vitamin B12 - all that good stuff that vegans love!

Over the summer, I made these vegan sushi rolls for a friend's birthday picnic. It took a few practice rolls to get the process right. I tossed those practice rolls into a container and later had it as a snack. Turned out those sloppy, falling-apart rolls became an awesome salad. I decided to play around with the ingredients a little and came up with this recipe.

For my salad, I used a Florida avocado instead of the more common California avocado. Florida avocados are bigger and are sometimes labeled as "Lite" avocados or "Slimcados." They have fewer calories and fat per ounce than a California or Hass avocado. They're not as creamy, but the flavor of the Florida avocado is perfect and delicious in this salad.

There are a variety of packaged seaweed products available, but I found that the sushi-style nori sheets tasted best for this recipe. It really made the salad taste more like sushi. Seaweed is one of the few vegetarian sources of vitamin B12, which is often lacking in vegan and vegetarian diets.

The ingredient that really put this recipe over the top was the vegan "caviar." I'd been wanting to try it for a while so when I saw the Carviart on sale on Vegan Cuts, I was all over it! I had tried making my own vegan caviar or "roe" in the past using amaranth seed and beet juice (recipe here.) It lacked the salty flavor of the real thing. The Caviart comes a lot closer to the real deal.

You can sign up for a Vegan Cuts account if you want to try some for yourself. For more information about Caviart, check out this page.

Vegan Quinoa Sushi Salad

Quinoa Sushi Salad

Dressing:

• 4 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

- Combine ingredients at set aside.

Salad:

• 1 cup of quinoa - rinsed well
• 2 cups water
• 1 Florida avocado, sliced
• 1 cucumber, sliced
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 sheets of nori sushi, broken/chopped into 1" pieces
• vegan caviar

1. Cook the quinoa by combining it with the water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until quinoa is translucent. About 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
2. Add dressing to quinoa along with seaweed, and sesame seeds. Toss to combine.
3. Top with avocado, cucumber, and caviar.

Further reading
http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/difference-between-california-and-florida-avocados.aspx
http://www.livestrong.com/article/18578-health-benefits-eating-seaweed/
http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/plant#seaweeds
http://thebroccolihut.com/florida-vs-california-battle-of-the-avocado/

Recipe: Macaroni with Creamy Turnip & Leek Sauce

While my CSA share has kept me eating fresh local produce all season, it sometimes throws me for a loop. Occasionally I'll get a vegetable that I've never actually cooked with. That's when I have to get creative!

This week, it was turnips. They seem like a common enough vegetable. I've worked with potatoes and even parsnips, and I adore beets. But turnips were not yet a part of my cooking repertoire. Luckily, I love culinary experimentation! So I took a quick inventory of what I had on hand and came up with a game plan.

I had a box of whole wheat pasta, some veggie broth from a soup I'd made earlier in the week, and the turnips, leeks, and broccoli left from this week's CSA bag. I was out of almond milk, but I'd like to try this recipe with a non-dairy milk in place of the broth to make the sauce a little creamier. I discovered that the leeks were really what made the difference in this recipe, and I almost wish there'd been more of them. They were really what gave the sauce the depth of flavor I was hoping for. I used broccoli because that was what I had, and because it's super easy to cook with pasta, but I think any kind of veggies would be great in this dish.

Creamy leek sauce in the food processor

Macaroni with creamy turnip and leek sauce.

Macaroni with Creamy Turnip & Leek Sauce

• 6 medium sized turnips, peeled and quartered
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 2 leeks, chopped (white and light green parts)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 lb pasta (I used whole wheat elbows)

1. Cook the pasta according to directions. Add the broccoli to cook with the pasta for the last 2 minutes of cook time. Strain pasta and broccoli, and set aside.
2. Boil a large pot of water (I started boiling while I peeled & cut the turnips)
3. Add turnips to boiling water, cook for 25 minutes (until soft)
4. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add leeks and cook to soften.
5. Add turnips and leeks to food processor (or blender) along with thyme, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of broth, and blend until smooth, adding more broth as needed to desired consistency.
6. Toss pasta and broccoli with the turnip leek sauce and serve.
7. YUM!

Beet Risotto Stuffed Squash

Now that fall is here, I've got more squash than I know what to do with, courtesy of my fabulous CSA share from Porter Farms. My kitchen is overflowing with spaghetti squash, butternut squash, and acorn squash. I can't eat it fast enough!

This week when I found out (via Porter Farms' Facebook page) that we'd be getting beets and acorn squash, I immediately came up with a plan of action. I'd come across this recipe for beet risotto on Pinterest, and knew right away that it would be perfect stuffed into a squash. Good news: I was right!

I'm lucky to have a local goat cheese producer here in Western New York. I visited the First Light Farm & Creamery stand at the Elmwood-Bidwell farmers market here in Buffalo this weekend, and decided that the honey-chipotle chevre would be a good match for the recipe. If they hadn't been out of the garlic-thyme, I may have chosen that flavor instead, but this was perfect! Of course if you aren't lucky enough to have fresh, local goat cheese available to you, a good chevre from your grocery store would be fine. And if you prefer to keep the recipe vegan, you can just leave the goat cheese out entirely.

Beet Risotto Stuffed Squash with Honey Chipotle Goat Cheese

Ingredients

• 3 small acorn squash (or other small squash)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 beets, chopped
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• ½ cups chevre goat cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place the squash cut side up on a baking sheet, bake about 30 minutes until squash is tender. (You can rub the squash with oil before baking, but I didn't and it turned out fine.)

While the squash is baking -
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the beets and onion, cook until soft (about 10 minutes.) Add the rice and toss to coat. Add broth and vinegar and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer, add thyme, and cover.
Simmer, stirring occasionally, until rice is cooked and risotto is creamy (15-20 minutes.)
Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Remove the squash from the oven, stuff with risotto, and sprinkle with the goat cheese.
Enjoy!


Yield: 6 servings


Nutritional Analysis of one squash half stuffed with the risotto including the goat cheese:
Calories per serving: 349 Calories from fat: 102 Total Fat: 11.4g Saturated Fat: 4.8g Cholesterol: 10mg Sodium: 237mg Total Carbohydrates: 56.7g Dietary Fiber: 6.1g Sugars: 5.6g Protein: 9.4g

Vegan Kugel for Yom Kippur

G'mar Hatimah Tovah!

Today is Yom Kippur. It is a day of self-reflection, and the holiest day of the year in Judaism. Though I don't consider myself Jewish, my father was raised Jewish and our family celebrates the High Holidays by having dinner together. My favorite Jewish dish has always been the noodle kugel that my aunt makes on Yom Kippur. I may not be fasting, but I'm still very much looking forward to indulging in that meal tonight! I've experimented with a few vegan versions of noodle kugel and though this one doesn't taste exactly like the real thing, it's pretty good!


Vegan Lokshen Kugel

• 1 pound wide noodles **
• 1/3 cup vegan "butter" such as Earth Balance
• 1 (6 ounce) container of plain nondairy yogurt
• 1 (8 ounce) tub of vegan cream cheese such as Tofutti
• 1 (12 ounce) tub of vegan sour cream such as Tofutti
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of cinnamon

** I've always used the Manischewitz brand of wide egg noodles, but they are of course not vegan. There are some vegan kosher noodles available, such as the Gefen brand. If you can't find them you can certainly use regular old linguine or fettucini.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 F.
2. Grease a 9x12 casserole dish
3. Cook pasta according to package directions, and drain.
4. In a large bowl, toss the hot pasta with the butter, yogurt, sour cream, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla until combined.
5. Pour noodle mixture into prepared casserole dish.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Strawberry Sauce

• 1 pint of fresh strawberries
• 1/3 cup sugar

1. Combine the strawberries with the sugar and simmer until mixture thickens and reduces by about 1/3.
2. Pour the strawberries over the slices of kugel and enjoy!!!

 Yield: 12 servings


Remember, vegan doesn't mean good for you! Here is a nutritional analysis of the kugel without the strawberry sauce.
Calories per serving: 440 Calories from fat: 227 Total Fat: 25.2g Saturated Fat: 8g Cholesterol: 43mg Sodium: 385mg Total Carbohydrates: 44.9g Dietary Fiber: 1.5g Sugars: 10.2g Protein: 7.4g

Small Ones Surround Us Every Day

"Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day."  -Sally Koch

Welcome to Small Ones Surround Us. I'm here to share small steps I'm taking, and steps I hope readers will take, to make every day a little bit better for people, animals, and the planet. That means seeking out responsible fashion, buying and cooking food that's better for us and the planet, and teaching others about how they can make small changes of their own.

Sometimes small changes locally can have an impact on big changes globally, so occasionally my posts will be specific to my hometown of Buffalo, but everything I share is about making small changes that affect the big picture. I'm slowly making adjustments to my lifestyle that I hope are making every day better for our planet, our fellow man, and our animal friends.