Potato Pancakes

Potato Pancakes


I looove potatoes, as you've probably noticed. after making my pierogies I had a decent amount of left over potatoes (I used 3 large instead of 3 medium; in my recipe I posted I recommended using 3 medium!) and decided to whip up some potato pancakes for dinner.
tips:
- what you need for potato pancakes is mashed potatoes, a little flour, a frying pan, and a little oil or margarine.
- you can make fresh mashed potatoes, but I've always found that leftover, refrigerated mashed potatoes work best.
- you want the potatoes to be on the dry side, or else they won't fry up properly which is where the flour comes in. depending on how moist your potatoes are, I'd start with a tsp of flour and add on from there. thoroughly mix the flour into the potatoes, and if you're able to form a slightly doughy pancake in the palm of your hand that doesn't fall apart too easily, you're set.
- you need to have your frying pan or skillet on medium to high heat before you put the pancakes into the pan. this ensures that they fry quickly and evenly, and don't fall apart.

- fry the pancakes for about a minute on each side, or until they are as brown as you'd like. when they're piping hot they're still a little fragile, so be careful when removing them from the pan. once they cool off they'll be stiffer and a lot easier to handle.

I ate a few of the pancakes with a salad of baby spinach and romaine tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette and some steamed veggies.

Pierogies

last night I took my first stab at making homemade pierogies! and, amazingly enough, they came out much, much better than expected.
basically, to make pierogies you need to make mashed potatoes and dough. you will also need a pot to boil the pierogies, as well as a skillet to sautee the pierogies after they've been boiled.

filling:

• 3 medium potatoes, washed and cut into chunks (I used red potatoes with the skin on)


• 3-4 garlic cloves (I like a lot of garlic, so you can definitely add less)


• 1/4-1/2 cup soy milk (I found that leaving the potatoes a little on the dry side worked best)


• 1 medium onion, minced


• 1-2 tsp margarine


• salt and pepper to taste (I started with 1/2 tsp each)

dough:

• 1 cup flour


• 1/4 cup water


• 1 tsp olive oil

1. fill a large pot with water and turn to high heat
2. wash and cut the potatoes, and dice and mince the onion and garlic
3. boil the potatoes until they are tender, and at the same time sautee the onion and garlic in a skillet
4. once the onion and garlic are done, pour them into a bowl along with the drained potatoes, milk, and margarine. I used a potato masher to combine all the ingredients, but you could also use a hand mixer.

dough:
combine all dough ingredients in a bowl. once fully combined, knead the dough on a cutting board lightly dusted with flour. roll the dough out thin, but not TOO thin. you want it about 1/8-1/4 inch (you want it thin enough that it cooks well and isn't too doughy, but not so thin that it tears when you fill it with potato mixture. using a cookie cutter or the top of a glass, cut out circles. I made mine about 3 inches across, but you can make them whatever size you want. once you have all of your circles cut out, scoop a small amount (depending on the size of your circle, 2 tsp-1tbsp) of the potato mixture onto the center of the circle. fold over, pinch the edges lightly with your fingers, then press down with the tines of a fork for a nice detail.

once all of the pierogies are assembled, the cooking process is SO EASY. add the finished pierogies to the boiling water. they cook very quickly; the rule of thumb is that when they begin to float, they're done. you'll notice that they are now shiny.
remove pierogies from the boiling water and place in a skillet on medium heat with 1 tbsp of margarine. sautee until the pierogies turn golden brown, and serve!



the finished product:

Potato Lentil Soup

Potato Lentil Soup

when you have a craving for something ridiculously easy, surprisingly hearty and full of carbs, this is the soup for you!
while shopping at Trader Joe's one day I saw that they sold pre-cooked vacuum sealed brown lentils in the refrigerated section. I was intrigued by these, and bought a pack. seeing as how they're pre-cooked, they only need to be heated up. I felt that lentil soup (beans alone) souned a little boring, and needing to use up some potatoes, this recipe was born.

what you need:

• 1 package (or can) pre-cooked brown lentils


• 1 container vegetable broth


• 4-5 medium red potatoes; washed and peeled


• 1/2 of a medium white onion, diced


• olive oil


• salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic pepper to taste

1. heat a soup pot. add a small amount of olive oil, and on low heat sautee the onion until transluscent.
2. once the onion is cooked, add the vegetable broth and potatoes (peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks). add seasonings and bring to a boil.
3. once potatoes are almost done (prick with a fork), add the lentils and cook 5 more minutes until lentils are warm.

Rice Noodle Soup

"Pho" (pronounced "fuh") is a Vietnamese noodle soup. I've never had the dish before, but learned of it from my sister a couple of years ago. I'd been told that traditionally Pho is not vegan (or even vegetarian) so I thought I'd never have it. Because I've never had the dish before, this was inspired by the concept of Pho, and is a VERY loose interpretation on a rice noodle soup based dish.

I actually decided to make this dish one day while walking through my neighborhood and happening upon a small asian grocer on 15th and tasker. since I'm always looking for new places that are closer to my apartment to buy groceries, I decided to take a gander. while I will admit there were many things I did not recognize, the store did have some great staples. while there I picked up some green onions, pho rice noodles, cabbage, and peeled garlic.





what you need:
1 container vegetable broth
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 head of medium to large cabbage, washed and rough cut
4-5 whole green onions (green and white parts), chopped
1-2 tsp Braggs liquid aminos
salt, pepper, sesame oil, and creole seasoning to taste
olive oil for sauteeing onions and garlic
rice noodles

1. sautee the garlic and onions in olive oil (enough to lightly coat soup pot; 1-2 tsp)


2. once garlic and onion are done, add the cabbage and sautee for about 30 seconds. make sure you rapidly stir the ingredients to keep them from sticking.


3. add a small amount of the vegetable broth and the salt and pepper. keep stirring and cook until the cabbage is mostly done.

4. pour in the remaining vegetable broth, and creole seasoning, sesame oil, and Braggs to taste.

5. boil for 5-10 minutes to allow all flavors to combine.

6. prepare your bowl of noodles (add as many of the dry noodles as you'd like to a bowl)


7. when ready to serve, turn off the soup base and immediately ladle OVER the noodles that were set aside in the bowl. the heat from the soup base will instantly cook the noodles in the bowl.


and, I served this with a hot cup of green tea!


enjoy!

Restaurant Review

Mi Lah Vegetarian
218 S. 16th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102

A few weeks ago a new vegetarian restaurant opened up RIGHT around the corner from where I work. I had been anticipating their opening for months, and I gave them a visit their opening week. The restaurant's name is Mi Lah Vegetarian, and I was really scared that it would be ANOTHER vegetarian Chinese restaurant (because we have so many of those here!!). I was pleasantly surprised when I checked out both the lunch and dinner menus. While many of the items have Asian influences, there is still a great deal of diversity.
On my first visit I tried the barbeque tofu and eggplant pizza, which is a grilled flat bread crust covered in seasoned tofu, eggplant, bbq sauce, and fennel. The portion size was very large, and it tasted AMAZING. I had ordered it to go, and when I got back to work to eat it I was only able to eat half and I saved the rest for dinner.
As far as the ambiance, the restaurant is very clean and has a small seating area (both tables and a bar) on the first floor, and additional seating upstairs. The kitchen is an open kitchen behind the bar, so you can see the chef preparing your food. The menu states that "Most items are available vegan and most are available without onions or garlic", so I will be sure to ask if what I want can be made vegan when I return.
As for pricing, the lunch menu ranges from $6 (for soup) to $12 (for entrees). I still haven't gone for dinner, but the entrees range from $14-$17 and the appetizers $6-$8. Some dishes on the dinner menu I would love to try are "cumin roasted fingerling potatoes with spinach, tempeh, black beans, and avocado corn salsa" and "organic red curry polenta cake with braised spinach and lime coconut cilantro cream sauce". mmm!

Mi Lah is open monday-saturday from 11am-3pm for lunch, and from 5pm-10pm for dinner.

Thanksgiving

this thanksgiving I wanted to be more proactive in the menu selection so that I would have more to eat than corn (my mom usually does all of the cooking). we had thanksgiving in my sister's small apartment in manhattan, and it was a bit of a challenge because of the small kitchen and her lack of food/basic ingredients! the night before I left for NY I baked a pumpkin cheesecake. Well, I baked two- one as a test, and because it came out so good, another to bring to NY. this was my first time baking a vegan cheesecake PERIOD so I was pretty skeptical, but absolutely blown away by the results.


recipe here

for me, it's just not thanksgiving without green bean casserole. however, being that the traditional "homemade" version (ie the kind that utilizes canned cream of mushroom soup) is not vegan, I hadn't had it in a few years. then I stumbled upon this recipe, and again was skeptical, but my whole family loved it. I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms so I diced them into tiny chunks.
I did make a couple of adjustments to the recipe because I forgot to bring a couple of items with me to NY. one was the cayenne pepper, but my sister's roommate had a bottle of siracha hot sauce so I used a few drops of that. also, I used canned green beans (2 cans) instead of fresh and omitted the bread because again, I didn't bring any!
recipe here

since my father and I are the only two who like sweet potatoes, I just baked two whole sweet potatoes, sliced them open lenthwise, and smothered the insides with margarine, brown and white sugar, and cinnamon, and baked for another 5-10 minutes.

I also made mashed potatoes for the rest of the fam:

6-8 medium sized red potatoes (washed, peeled and quartered)
2 tbsp margarine
1 tbsp garlic hummus
plain soy milk
vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste

1. boil potatoes until soft when stuck with a fork
2. drain and transfer to a bowl and mash
3. add margarine, hummus, salt and pepper, and keep adding soymilk as needed until potatoes reach the consistency you like

we also had corn and cranberry sauce, but those aren't too exciting :)

Restaurant Review

Teany
90 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 475-9190

Last Tuesday I was in New York and my sister took me to a vegetarian cafe called Teany. She had told me a lot about it previously, so I was very interested in trying their food!
When we entered the cafe I immediately loved the atmosphere. While it is very small and the tables were spaced very close together, I liked the simple yet funky decor and the kitschy tea-inspired knick knacks. After seating ourselves we were given menus and water, and shortly after asked if we were ready to order. As we were still looking over the menus, we asked for a couple more minutes. However, it seemed as though the waiter completely forgot about us (and they only had a few other patrons), and my sister had to flag him down.
We both ordered the lentil chili; hers with cheddar cheese and mine with vegan cheddar. We both ordered smalls, but the soup came served in a good sized coffee mug. However, upon first taste we noticed the soup wasn't even hot-- maybe lukewarm. Even though we felt terrible doing so, we brought the waiter over and told him our soup was cold, and he took it back and microwaved it and added more cheese. I really shouldn't have ordered mine with cheese, because the vegan cheddar wouldn't melt (as most vegan cheeses don't melt), and I was stuck with grainy orange chunks in my soup. As far as the lentils, they seemed a little over- or maybe under- cooked. I've made lentil soup many times, and these lentils were a little hard. The spices were spot on, however.
We also ordered sandwiches. Raquel got grilled cheese, and I got an edamame hummus sandwich that consisted of wheat bread, hummus made from edamame, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, and tomato. The bread was fresh and soft, however I was not a fan of the edamame hummus. I had never had it before so I'm not sure if this is a fault of theirs or not, but it was very grainy and had little to no flavor. I understand that they used edamame instead of garbanzo beans, but I thought they would add some spices to the hummus (like garlic). Instead it was just very bland. Sprouts and tomatoes have very light flavors too, so in general it was a very bland sandwich. I ate half of it and took the other half home (and the picture above is from the leftovers).
We also ordered a drink that was some type of sparkling cranberry juice which was very good. I was not very impressed by the food that I ordered, but Teany does have a good number of items that can be made vegan so I would like to give them a second try. Also, they have a separate tea menu that consists of 98 different teas, so I would again love to go back to try a few of those!

Pancakes

a couple of weeks ago I treated myself to pancakes. I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, and added the optional cinnamon, which I had never done before, and it greatly improved the taste and color of the pancakes. I topped them with a heaping scoop of Earth Balance, organic maple syrup, and some strawberries. The strawberries were frozen organic strawberries from Trader Joe's that I thawed in a pot on the stove and added a teaspoon of sugar to create a little strawberry sauce. this breakfast was to die for!!
I don't feel like posting the recipe, since it's not mine and I didn't alter it, but if you don't have the book and would like to see the recipe, let me know :)

Sandwich and Smoothie Night

I'm trying to eat healthier. As a vegan I don't think I really eat that badly, but I have a problem with eating complete meals. I eat a little here and there but never full meals. After work yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and bought some of my favorite food items -- a bag of ripened avocados, extra garlic hummus, herbed focaccia bread, and some frozen fruit (mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries). When I got home, this is what I made:

Avocado and Hummus Sandwich

• 2 slices focaccia bread (or any bread you have)


• 1 small avocado, cut into small chunks


• 3 tbsp hummus


• a couple pinches of mung bean sprouts

The herbed focaccia bread from Trader Joe's isn't sliced, so the first step was to slice the bread! Then I cut open the avocado, pitted it, and cut it into small chunks. I then slathered the bread with hummus, and topped it with the avocado and mung bean sprouts.

Strawberry Mango Smoothie

• 1 to 1 1/2 cup frozen chopped mango


• 1 cup frozen strawberries


• 1 scoop soy protein powder (I use Trader Joe's brand)


• 1/2 to 1 cup soy vanilla ice cream


• vanilla almond milk

add all ingredients to your blender. add almond milk as needed to keep the blades moving and until the smoothie reaches the right consistency. if it ends up too watery, add more fruit and blend again.

I finished the meal with a package of raw almonds (I accidentally bought a bag of TJ's raw almonds that were in individual packages... next time I'll make sure I just buy one large bag to cut down on plastic waste!)

Product Review

This week's product is yet another makeup product. I'm sorry, but looking my best also helps make me feel my best, and I absolutely love it when I find a vegan makeup product that does its job.
Last week I stumbled into Origins at the Bellevue (on Broad st. and Walnut st.) I'd actually never been in there, but seeing as how I work a block away I would always walk past and read their advertisements. I decided it couldn't help to take a gander, and I LOVED what I found!
I had always heard that Origins was a cruelty-free company (they do not test on animals) but I was unsure whether or not they had vegan products. When I walked in I saw a makeup counter and began asking the associate whether or not the items were vegan, and she didn't know but she pulled the packaging from the drawer and let me read the ingredients. Some of the products, including the mascara, said "contains no animal products or byproducts". Since I was in desperate need of a new mascara (the one I picked up at Whole Foods was not cutting it!), I bought the Full Story mascara in black. I immediately tried it when I got home, and I LOVE IT. I will never again buy cheap mascara from Whole Foods or Beauty Without Cruelty!



And, it only costs $13.50!