I just got out of school recently and just now I’ve been going through some of the recipes that I’ve got sitting around and either have fond memories of, can’t wait to make again, or can’t wait to make the original chef make again. The first thing I’ve come across is a cake and icing recipe given to me by a school administrator. One day she made these cupcakes for a potluck and I feel like I’d been hit in the face with deliciousness. Of course, I need to find a special occasion before I can go out and make them again, but this recipe definitely should’ve been shared ages ago!

I don’t really know where this recipe comes from, but if you recognize it let me know so I can give due credit!

Now, keep in mind that the recipe is actually for cake, but these definitely will always be made as cupcakes as long as I’m involved.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1 cup pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking sode
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 cup maple syrup (this must be why I like them so much)
• 1/2 cup safflower oil
• 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

• 4 cups vegan chocolate chips
• 1 cup vanilla soy milk
• 1 tablespoon brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix dry and wet ingredients separately, then mix together.
3. Pour batter into cupcake pan and bake for 35 minutes or until the “toothpick test” comes out good.
4. Mix icing ingredients in a double boiler until chocolate chips are melted, then let cool, blend, and stick in the fridge for an hour.
5. Ice away and enjoy

I hope you all like this as much as I do!
Image: twid

Now, I love this song, but I don’t recommend it for those faint of heart around explicit lyrics. That said, I think this is the only rap tune I’ve heard to date advocating a healthy life based around vegan eating. Also, this song (“Be Healthy” by Dead Prez) is the reason I went ahead and made this lentil soup, so it deserves a lot of credit for some of the best food I’ve had in a while.Anyway, on to the good stuff! I made a date with the girls in the apartment upstairs to cook this past Thursday, and for lack of time to think of anything special to make we pretty much patched a meal together. Lentil soup was suggested by one of the girls and while at the local co-op we decided to make some chocolate chip cookies and pick up some bread from a local bakery…little did we know it would come out so well!

Here’s the quick-and-dirty of what we ended up making (recipe from about with many adjustments):

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 1 potato, diced
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup dry lentils
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• dash salt
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 3 cloves garlic

Preparation:
Sautee the onions in the vegetable oil until they turn clear (just a few minutes), then add the vegetable broth, lentils, potato, carrot, pepper, thyme, bay leaves, curry powder, garlic and salt. Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until lentils are soft, about 45 minutes. Remove bay leaves before serving.

Nutrition Facts (from about, so may be a bit different with my substitutions):
Calories: 230, Calories from Fat: 27
Total Fat: 3.0g, 5% Saturated Fat: 0.7g, 3%
Cholesterol: 0mg, 0%
Sodium: 852mg, 36%
Total Carbohydrates: 33.0g, 11%
Dietary Fiber: 15.6g, 62%
Sugars: 4.6g
Protein: 18.7g
Vitamin A 37%, Vitamin C 12%, Calcium 5%, Iron 28%, Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Gotta love the protein in lentils. We used green lentils because they are even more protein dense than the average lentil. You may think the garlic and curry powder a bit odd, but it happened on the fly and ended up giving the soup a very strong, interesting flavor. When served up with some fresh potato bread and topped off with some cookies, it made for a great meal and a calming study break.

Hope you all enjoy!

This is what he’d cook when he got hungry and didn’t have much time!

As I type I am preparing myself a very tasty sandwich on my roommate’s George Foreman grill. This tasty sandwich will take less than 10 minutes to prepare and will fulfill a nagging desire to eat at 11PM that only occurs when you don’t get up until after 11AM.

Everyone knows about the lean, mean, fat-reducing, grilling machine by now, I am sure. However, I never really thought about using one until my roommate brought one to college this year. At first I thought eww, most certainly from years of meat-filled infomercials where you could actually see disgusting amounts of fat draining off of that slab of junk you were supposed to be eating.

That image, coupled with the fact that I rarely eat meat substitutes prevented me from using it for a while. However, one day I remembered the vegan barbecue I put on last year and gave me a burning desire to make one of my old favorites, the chicken parm.

Read more after the jump.

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Remember pudding from your non-vegan childhood? I sure do!

Just the other day I received this recipe via email from a reader and it sounds great, so I wanted to go ahead and share it with you all. I hope some of you have the time that I don’t to go out and try it soon! Thanks, Don.

Modified vegan chocolate pudding recipe from the daily green, a great website.

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Have you ever wondered how to find vegan versions of some of the most standard meals?

Look no further than this book: Vegan Planet. I was given this book a while ago and I haven’t even scratched the surface. Not only are the recipes good, but there are so many of them that this book can hardly be considered anything but a standard for any vegan chef.

The book begins with your standard guide to vegan nutrition and eating, and then moves on with chapter titles like “Love at First Bite,” “Veggies in the Middle,” and “Dessert Heaven.” Opening the book at random and prodding around for a recipe you’ll come up with something delicious sounding like this: Strawberry-Topped “Cheesecake”

A great recipe and some more about the book after the jump.

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Moist is an important quality in scones, I feel. The most common complaint about one of my most favorite foods is that they are dry and crumbly, and people just don’t like that. I can appreciate a good, dry scone every so often, but I much prefer something moist when I pick up a scone. This recipe has been one of my favorites since I began cooking, and I’ve adapted it from the non-vegan source (something my mom has made for a while, I don’t know where the original comes from).

These scones are the perfect food for almost any occasion where pastries are called for, and because they only take about 15 minutes to prepare, I often make them if I have to bake for something last minute (or just want a snack). I hope you enjoy them!

More after the break.
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I have an interesting relationship with Indian food. I’d never really eaten any for much of my life. Last summer I found myself in Japan with a friend, traveling around and needing to eat out. The most difficult thing about eating out in Japan isn’t explaining that you’re a vegan, it’s that they don’t tend so listen to you even if you are incredibly specific. So for that reason, I decided we’d spend our week of travel eating in Indian place (which there are many of in Japan).

So there my love affair with Indian food began. But as I grew to love it, the relationship became complicated. With love of food, for me, comes desire to cook it. Something about Indian food always scared me, even when I did it will. I don’t know if it’s the spices I don’t understand or the apparent ease that puts me on edge, but I’m always a bit nervous when I try a new Indian dish.

However, that all changed when I first made Aloo Gobi with a non-vegan friend. Neither of us was particularly experienced with Indian food, but somehow we managed to make an amazing dish. It was extremely easy, and I recommend for any social cooking or potluck occasion (it makes a lot of food).

I adapted this recipe from the amazingness of wikibooks cookbooks. Find the original here.

More after the break.
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After my last post about the recipe exchange, I thought it would be fun to share with you all the same recipe I shared with my recipe exchangers.

This recipe holds a special place in my heart because of a few things:

• it was my first real attempt at social cooking (and it worked fantastically)

• one of the dining facilities on campus has adapted the recipe and every so often I get to see my name in front of some tasty cookies

• I get asked all the time for this recipe by non-vegans, so I know I’m doing something right

I originally found this recipe somewhere on the web, but it has changed a bit since then, so I will give you all my version as well as some notes on some of the variations that I’ve tried in the dozens of batches I’ve made.

These cookies are really good, and have a really interesting flavor. They’re not oatmeal like in the sense that you’ve probably had oatmeal raisin cookies, but there is a distinct oatmeal taste and texture. Be sure to give a bunch away when you make them, you’ll make some new friends, *wink*.
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Recently I received one of the most interesting and delightful emails I’d gotten in a while. Flatteringly enough, it came from two friends nearly simultaneously; it was an invitation to participate in a holiday recipe exchange. It looked something like this:

Hey there! Happy holidays, blah blah blah.

1. My super friend
my.super.friend@dartmouth.edu
2. Oh my gosh it’s me
oh.my.gosh.its.me@dartmouth.edu

I’d like to invite you to participate in a holiday recipe exchange. So get your mind going and pick out your favorite recipe (as long as it isn’t too complicated).

To do this, address and email to the first person on this list, copy this message with my name in the first slot and yours in the second, and send it to 15 friends. You won’t be getting recipes back from your friends, but rather from friends of friends and many people you might not have met.

Thus far I have sent out my recipes and my 30 feelers to my most culinary of friends. I knew neither of the people I sent recipes to, and was overjoyed to share my favorite recipe for Ben and Colleen’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Banana Cookies to two new people. Hopefully I’ll get some really interesting recipes back I can try out over the next term on campus.

This exchange will work best among close communities like schools, offices, and families where you will still feel some sort of connection to the people you’re receiving recipes from. However, if you’re the really adventurous type, you could do this with just about anyone and meet a few new friends. This is a great social cooking opportunity!

If anyone’s participated in an exchange like this or does in the future, please let me know how it goes!