Veggie Pâté

Happy New Year everyone!

After a super rejuvenating visit home, I’m back in Calgary for my first winter out west. I truly had a wonderful Christmas holiday visiting friends and family, and although it was busy as heck, I feel extremely thankful for having such fun and caring people in my life. Being in a new city is exciting, but sometimes I miss having the familiarity and history that I have with people and places back home. The visit was just what I needed to start off the new year.

Since I’ve been back from my trip, it has taken a while to get back into the kitchen routine. Let’s be honest; eating plant-based can require a lot more prep time than the standard American diet (SAD). Especially if you want to eat on the cheap, making your own beans, hummus, pâtés, nut milks, nut cheeses, etc, can take up a good chunk of your regular routine (although if money allows, you can usually buy these items). Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of cooking I feel like I have to do in the week to make whole foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And, sometimes I feel as though a lot of vegan bloggers and writers don’t address how much more work it can be.

On the other hand, I was recently watching an interview with Canadian plant-based cookbook author Dreena Burton, and she brought up a good point that eating home-cooked foods, whether or not it is plant-based, takes more time than to just reheat a pre-made meal. Eating healthy, no matter what, takes a bit of elbow grease. I believe that the extra time I am investing in home-cooked wholesome food is an investment in my long-term health. And, that is what I want to remind myself during the times I feel overwhelmed by the prep work.

And that’s all I will say about that. I just wanted to address this issue that I believe many vegan writers don’t. The recipes I write about here do take time and prep, but they are cheap and worth the effort if you can find the time to make them.

Today I want to write about a recipe for veggie pâté, which is a delicious vegan food that I honestly cannot get enough of. When I was living in Quebec, veggie pâté was available at any grocery store, but this is not the case in Ontario or Alberta. So, like many other vegans out there, making it myself is a good alternative, and it freezes well (hello pâté sandwiches for weeks!). You can put this stuff in salads, wraps, sandwiches, and crackers. Here’s my recipe, inspired by many different recipes from all around.

Ingredients
1 cup toasted sunflower seeds (baked from raw at 350*F until golden and smelling, around 10 minutes)
1 small sweet potato or regular potato, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp sage
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

I started by preheating the oven to 350*F. In a food processor I pulsed the sweet potato, carrot, and onion until it was almost a puree. I transferred the mixture to a bowl and stirred in the flour, nutritional yeast, sage, oregano, paprika, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, and pepper. I transferred the mixture back into the food processor and added half the sunflower seeds. I blended the mixture until it was a uniform consistency. I transferred the mixture back into the bowl and stirred in the rest of the sunflower seeds. The mixture was baked in a lined and greased loaf pan for 45 minutes, but it could take up to one hour. The pâté is done when it feels firm on the top and the edges are golden. Keep an eye on the pâté at around 40 minutes, as the edges can over-cook, and you may need to add some tin foil for the last bit of cooking.

My favourite way to eat veggie pâté is on toast with hummus as a base and avocado and sprouts on top. I had no sprouts, but you get the idea in the picture below. Best breakfast, lunch, or snack EVER.

Dehydrated Goodies: Powdered Veggie Stock and Date-Nut Chewies

Merry Christmas!

December can be such a busy month! I’ve been juggling two jobs while squeezing in time for getting into the holiday spirit and getting my Christmas shopping done. This year I bought my gifts with a theme in mind: hand-made and local. I bought lots of gifts at Market Collective, which is a fun event in Calgary that hosts local artists selling their creations. I also decided to make a couple things in my dehydrator, and I’d like to share them with you today.

I got these recipes from a book called Dry It – You’ll Like it! by Gen Macmaniman. I received it for Christmas one year, and it is a great guide for drying fruits, veggies, and herbs, and includes instructions for building your own dehydrator.

Dehydrating is fun, and a great way to save produce that is in season, or that may go bad before you have a chance to use it fresh. At Thanksgiving I dehydrated all the extra fresh herbs I had: sage, parsley, and thyme. I also made cran-apple fruit leather, and go absolutely cuckoo for dehydrated apples and bananas. In my opinion, having a dehydrator is perfect for anybody who likes experimenting in the kitchen, and who is looking to incorporate more raw foods in their diet. Check out this recipe for rosemary seed crackers from a previous post.

Please note that if you are considering buying a dehydrator, look at product reviews before purchasing, as the first one I had lasted only a month past the warranty date, and it looks like I’m not the only one that happened to. It’s also great to buy a dehydrator that you can control the temperature.

So, back to my little Christmas project. I made soup stock and date-nut chewies to include in my gifts to my family. Here is what I did:

Veggie Soup Stock
Yields around 20 tablespoons of powder, or 20 cups of stock (when added to 1 cup of boiling water per 1 tablespoons of stock)

Ingredients
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
4 celery stalks, cut into sticks (I also dehydrated the leaves)
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 large carrots, sliced into rounds
1/2 cup spinach

Note: You may use a wide variety of vegetables. The book suggests cabbage, carrots, celery, garlic, green beans, horseradish, mushrooms, mustard greens, onions, peppers, spinach, tomato, or watercress. I chose what I thought would go together nicely.

Directions
I placed all the vegetables in one layer on dehydrator sheets. I have four sheets, and all these veggies took two rounds of dehydrating to complete. They were dehydrated at 135*F for about 6 hours. Time may vary depending on how thick the vegetables are, how crowded the trays are, and how juicy the vegetables were to begin with. I removed the vegetables that felt completely dry, and continued to dehydrate the ones that were still damp. You can add more vegetables once there is room on the trays. To check the vegetables, remove the heat source and let the veggies cool down first. If it feels dry, it probably is.

Next, I placed all the dehydrated vegetables in a high-speed blender and blended until the vegetables were a powder. This took a couple minutes of blending. Be sure to let the blender rest before opening it, as the powder is very fine and smokes into the air.

I divided the stock into two plastic baggies of 10 tbsp each, and added the keep-dry packets that come with sushi and other dry foods. I didn’t want the stock powder to be exposed to any moisture.

I wrote the following instructions on each baggie: “Mix 1-2 tbsp of stock with 1 cup of boiling water and let rest for about a minute. Add ground flaxseed to thicken, if desired. Use in soups, stews, and gravy.”

Voila! Home-made powdered vegetable stock! Because it’s dry, it’ll last for a long time. Store it away from sunlight and moisture.

Date-Nut Chewies
Ingredients
3/4 cup oil (I used canola oil)
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 Macintosh apples (or another kind of apple), cut into pieces, skin on
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
2 cups pitted dates
1 cup raw almonds (recipe called for walnuts)

In my high-speed blender I mixed the oil, maple syrup, apples, and vanilla extract until smooth. Then, I added the rest of the ingredients and blended until smooth. The original recipe indicates that you should use ground oats and sunflower seeds, but I did not do this because of how powerful my blender is. Plus, I thought some chunks would be OK.

Next, I spread the mixture out on two dehydrator sheets, making them pretty thick (about 1/2 inch). I dehydrated them for around 6 hours, then cut them into small squares, separated them from each other, and continued to dry them for another 8 hours.

These chewies are a great snack that resembles an energy ball. I was expecting it to be more candy-like or cookie-like, but it definitely tastes like a healthy snack. The first one I tried, in all honesty, I wasn’t sure if I should give them as gifts, but after having a few more, the taste grew on me. This recipe made a lot, so I’m glad they turned out!

Rosemary Seed Crackers

After a fun and relaxing holiday I am buckling down to finish the last semester of my Master’s degree in psychotherapy. Just like last semester I am trying to ensure that I am eating well during these busy weeks. It is so tempting to buy food at the cafeteria, but it is important to me to make my own healthy snacks at home and bring them to school. My favourite snacks include trail mixes with nuts and seeds (almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins, dried cranberries, figs, dates, popcorn, and occasionally chocolate chips are my go-tos), fruit, home-made granola bars, home-made cookies (such as blackbean or hemp-seed based cookies), home-made muffins, feaux peanut butter with banana or apple (I love adding cinnamon), hummus with veggies or crackers, and avocado and nutritional yeast on crackers. My ultimate favourite add-ons to any savoury snack or salad is veggie pâté and home-grown sprouts.

A lot of these snacks are pretty simple, and I’m sure a lot of them are not new to any of you, but my goal in listing my favourite snacks is to inspire some new creativity among anyone who reads this. If you have any other vegan go-tos, let me know!! I’m always looking to be inspired with food.

Moving along to the recipe at hand.

Crackers are a tricky food because many of the store-bought ones contain many unpronounceable ingredients. Not only that, but a lot of crackers have a great deal of sodium in them. I’m not saying I never eat things with excess salt or that have been processed, but I try to keep these foods to a minimum. And, that is why one of my new years resolutions is to make my own crackers. Here is a recipe I tried last weekend. It is good with hummus, veggie pâté, or just on its own. It has protein and veggies in it, which is what I look for in snacks. This recipe was inspired by “The Complete Book of Raw Food 2nd edition” edited by Julie Rodwell.

Ingredients
1 cup flaxmeal (the recipe calls for flaxseed, but I did no have it)
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1/4 cup leek, finely chopped
1/4 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/8 cup fresh rosemary
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
pinch cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

I soaked the flaxmeal and sunflower seeds in three cups of water for 6 hours. I then blended everything in a food processor until smooth. The batter was spread about 1/4 inch thick onto three dehydrator trays that I lined with parchment paper. The crackers were dehydrated for 16 hours at 110*F. About six hours in I scored the trays to define how big the crackers were going to be.

The crackers turned out really well, and I am looking forward to experimenting with different kinds of raw crackers. I made some a couple years ago, so go here to check out the beginning of my dehydrating adventure

Cheesy Kale Chips

With crunch time upon us students in the fast approaching end of the term, I find myself procrastinating by writing about the delicious snack I made yesterday with some kale that was about to go bad. It amazes me how often I check my email and facebook in attempts to escape the gruelling task of writing term papers. I know that nothing interesting has happened in the past 20 minutes, but I insist on taking that micro study break, while sabotaging the time I could be spending doing something more fun.  Anyway, here is the recipe I made for cheesy kale chips, inspired by a recipe in Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I feel as though I have been posting way too many of her recipes, so I modified this one enough to be quite different. She just has so many brilliant recipes! I made healthy fudgey brownies last week that were excellent, and a mango coconut quinoa breakfast cereal that was scrumptious. No joke, get this cookbook, right now.

Ingredients for the cheesy-ness
3/4 cup sunflower seeds, soaked for 4-5 hours
lemon juice from 1/4 of a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (I didn’t put this in this time, but oh my glob it would make them even better)

Ingredients for the chips
A bunch of kale

In a food processor I pureed the cheesy ingredients. I de-stemmed the kale (very important: the stem is quite bitter) and chopped it into chip-sized bits. I covered the kale leaves in the cheesy-goodness, then baked the chips at around 200 degrees Farenheit for an hour. It is important not to burn the chips, so keep an eye on them, and you also want them to be crispy and not wilted. The time and temperature may vary, but that was generally what I did. Also, I did not add all the cheese, so depending on how cheesy you like the chips, it may take longer to bake. I will add more cheese the next time I make these.

They were gone within 24 hours.