Edamame hummus

Several weeks ago we attended a fabulous vegan dinner as part of our Madison vegetarian meet-up group. (Although this is a vegetarian, not vegan, group, all the food served is vegan so that everyone in the group can eat it.) It was catered by local chef Jen Gaber, owner of Nutshell Catering. I still remember when Jen, as chef at The Ivy Inn, created a series of Sunday vegetarian brunch buffets, each featuring food from a different region of the world. We spent many happy Sundays lingering over a wonderful meal, pretending it was normal to find fabulous vegan food in Madison. The Ivy Inn is long gone, but Jen is still here, cooking great food.

I knew what the menu included when I signed up for the dinner, but by the time I attended I had no idea what we were having - my memory can be like that sometimes. It was a four course meal and the appetizers were out when we arrived. One of the appetizers was a bowl of green dip that I assumed was made with avocado, surrounded by toasted pita points. When I tasted it, it was kind of hummus-like, but better than regular hummus. It was edamame hummus, and it was delicious. I couldn't quite figure out what was in it, but when I got home, I wrote out a recipe I thought would make a similar dip. A friend visited after work today for a glass of wine and an appetizer, and I finally got to try out my version of edamame hummus — maybe not as great as Jen's, but not bad.

Edamame hummus

• 2 cups shelled edamame, cooked (I used frozen)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/4 cup tahini
• juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon dried, ground coriander
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. Sauté the onion for a minute or two until translucent. Add the garlic and cook about 3o seconds.
2. Place edamame, onion, garlic, tahini and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until well- combined. It doesn't have to be completely smooth. Add coriander and salt. Pulse to mix. (Taste before adding all the salt as you might not need it all.) Grind pepper over the bowl and pulse to mix.
3. Serve with veggies, chips, pita or crackers.

Notes:
1. My tahini was kind of weird and thin so everything blended up easily. You may need to add a tablespoon of water if your mix is too thick to process.
2. If you live in the Madison area and need a caterer, you should call Jen Gaber!

Fresh garden broccoli stir-fry over quinoa pasta

It seems like just yesterday I bought teeny tiny broccoli plugs for 25 cents each from a farmers market vendor. They looked so small and helpless I couldn't believe they'd survive the rabbits and other predators of tender young plants. The first week I bought four plants, and they did so well in the garden that the next week I bought four more. All have survived and grown huge and one has just yielded a large head of broccoli. It may be just a broccoli plant to you, but to me it was a gardening milestone. The broccoli got planted. The broccoli survived. The broccoli will be eaten by me and not the rabbits! I was practically hysterical with glee. I couldn't decide if I should do something simple or fancy with this ultra-fresh vegetable but decided I really wanted to focus on tasting, not disguising, the broccoli. I made a simple but delicious stir fry with artichoke hearts and lemon zest adding a special punch. Since I have lemon thyme and chives growing in the garden, I added some of those herbs, too.

The Ancient Harvest quinoa spaghetti that we used is gluten-free, and although we're not intolerant of gluten, this noodle has become a favorite of ours. The noodles are bright yellow and have a very good texture and taste. I think the only thing in the dish that wasn't gluten-free was my husband's home-made seitan sausage, and that could easily be substituted with cashews, mushrooms or beans.

 Ingredient list

• broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
• garlic, minced fine
• vegan sausage or substitute a gluten-free item
• artichoke hearts
• shredded carrot
• Quinoa pasta
• lemon zest
• lemon thyme
• chives
• fresh ground black pepper
• crushed red pepper

First, I steamed the broccoli gently in a covered wok until almost tender. Then I removed the cover and added some oil to the wok, and added finely minced garlic to cook for a minute. Thin slices of homemade seitan sausage were stir-fried in, then artichoke hearts, shredded carrot, lemon zest and lemon thyme. The cooked veggies were placed on top of quinoa spaghetti, and crushed red pepper, fresh ground black pepper and chives were added.

Garden tour (of our garden) on July 20.

Dill © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Basil  © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

This has been eaten. © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Three kinds of lettuce.  © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

One of the tomato plants. © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Tumbling Tom.  © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Swiss chard. © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Asian lily. © 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Á La Mode e-cookbook review

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

In my greedy little hands I have a copy of Hannah Kaminsky's newest ebook, "Á La Mode: Vegan Desserts That Will Keep You Churning All Year Round." This little gem, sent to me for review by Alisa Fleming, author of "Go Dairy Free," contains a selection of beguiling recipes for very unusual ice cream treats. These are not high-speed versions of cool confections, but require a bit of time and patience in exchange for highly unusual and scrumptious frozen delights. I was magnetically attracted to Birthday Cake Ice Cream, Buttered Popcorn Ice Cream and Chai Latte Ice Cream, but settled on the homey-sounding Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream, because I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand, and who could refuse an oatmeal raisin cookie?

© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Hannah gives us permission to tweak the recipes, and I did tweak a little to suit my lazy-cook ways. For example, after I ground the oats in the food processor, I went ahead and emulsified the rest of the ingredients (except the raisins, of course) in the processor rather than whisking in the pot. I didn't pre-melt the margarine (sorry, Hannah) and I added an extra cup of soymilk and an extra teaspoon of vanilla. I also added some chocolate chips just before the ice cream was finished freezing because I like my oatmeal cookies with said chips.

So how did it turn out? Well, if you like oatmeal cookies and you like ice cream, you will love this. I agree with Hannah that it would go well in an ice cream sandwich, but really, it sparkles all by itself. It's luxuriantly rich and creamy (even after spending time in the freezer) as well as pleasantly crunchy from the praline and chips. If you like to experiment with unusual and intensely flavored ice cream - anyone for Peanut Butter Bomb Shell? - you should buy this book. It's gorgeously illustrated with Hannah's photos, and a bargain at only $5. Available here. There are provisions in the recipes for non-soy and gluten-free ingredients.

Notes for this recipe:

1. Although I ground the oats as fine as I possibly could, when I took the chilled mix from the fridge, it resembled tapioca, a mass of teeny bumps. Plus, it had a thick skin. (Was it from one of my shortcuts?) I put it back into the food processor and blended it until it was perfectly creamy, figuring that it couldn't hurt to buzz in as much air as possible anyway. The only problem with doing this was the raisins got puréed along with everything else.
2. I don't own a microwave so I cooked the syrup for the praline on the stove and it worked out fine. To save myself from cleaning two sticky containers instead of one, I added the toasted oats to the syrup instead of vice versa as in the recipe.
3. Here's a David Lebovitz post about how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.
4. I was so anxious to eat my ice cream that I just couldn't wait for it to firm up in the freezer, hence its less than photogenic shape in the photo. Really, you should let it firm up a bit, but it's just so good that it's hard to be patient!
© 2009 Andrea's easy vegan cooking