Tofu Ricotta

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 206 of Veganomicon.

I've already made this recipe for Tofu Ricotta for this blog before, but couldn't pass up doing it again when I found some vegan manicotti at the Viva la Vegan grocery store in Rancho Cucamonga (southern California). It's a great little store for finding interesting things I never knew existed. They had things like Tofurky pizzas (Tofurky makes pizza?), and the new 'Beyond Meat' which I have been reading about in the news for the last 2 years and is supposed to be a hyper-realistic animal-free faux meat. I keep reading stories about it, but have never seen it, and they had it.

So, they had vegan manicotti, which is something I don't think I've ever seen. It's been difficult for me to find mostly because those big pieces of pasta, like manicotti, lasagna and the big shells, tend to be made with egg. But maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, because this was DaVinci brand pasta, which is fairly common in this area.

I assumed there had to be at least one recipe on my shelf of vegan cookbooks for manicotti, but surprisingly there wasn't. Then I remembered this recipe for vegan ricotta in Veganomicon. It's very fast to put together, especially if you have extra firm tofu with a low water content. Some brands of tofu are firmer than others, even though they may call themselves extra-firm. You have to press it to squeeze out the excess water, and that might take a couple hours, but after that it's a 2-minute recipe.

It's been many years since I've had animal-based ricotta, but it seems to closely imitate that. As I remember it, ricotta never had much of a taste anyway. It got it's flavor from what you put into it, and that is the case here as well. I like this. It's a great general purpose recipe.

For the photo, I topped the manicotti with tomato sauce and a creamy cheese-style sauce made with white beans, lemon juice, nutritional yeast and tahini.

Ingredients: extra firm tofu, lemon juice, garlic, nutritional yeast, olive oil, salt, black pepper, basil.

Seitan Piccata with Olives and Green Beans

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 174 of Veganomicon.

It's been awhile since I've made anything from Veganomicon, so I started to dig through it for something that seemed kind of fancy, and this recipe fit the bill. This recipe for Seitan Piccata was really impressive. It's one of those recipes that makes me feel like I'm a decent cook. Maybe that's because one of the ingredients is white wine. I always feel like I'm a real cook if I get to dump some wine in a dish.

So what you have here is some seitan that is breaded then cooked in oil in a pan. Then you have a sauce that is made from shallots, garlic, white wine, vegetable broth, thyme, capers, olives and lemon juice that is cooked down until it thickens. These are served on a bed of mashed potatoes, along with some green beans. Very elegant. It's like something you'd order in a nice restaurant.

Ingredients: seitan (vital wheat gluten, olive oil, vegetable broth, nutritional yeast, soy sauce), all purpose flour, olive oil, shallots, garlic, white wine, vegetable broth, thyme, black pepper, capers with brine, kalamata olives, lemon juice, fresh parsley, green beans, (served with mashed potatoes).

Smoky Grilled Tempeh

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 130 of Veganomicon.
I haven't made anything from Veganomicon in awhile, and this recipe jumped out at me because I love tempeh. The tempeh is marinated for awhile before cooking. I've never

Elephant Rolls

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 48 of Veganomicon.
I love the taste of these elephant rolls and the different textures are wonderful. It's creamy from

Israeli Couscous with Pistachios and Apricots

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 117 of Veganomicon.
This is an interesting side dish with a lot of different flavors and textures working for it. It is

Tofu Ricotta

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 206 of Veganomicon.
I used this tofu ricotta as a vegan ravioli filling.  I'll tell you how good this recipe is: the first batch didn't make it to table. I put the tofu ricottaall together in the kitchen and it looked quite delicious. Right before I started to make the ravioli dough I thought I would try a little bit to see how it tasted, and it was good. So I tried a little more, and a little more. And then there wasn't enough to make a single ravioli, so I just ate the rest of the tofu ricotta and decided to call it quits for the day, and chalk this up as an occupational hazard of being a food photographer.

This is a delicious non-dairy cheese. Fast and easy to prepare. Very low fat. There is only a little bit of olive oil drizzled into the mix. This would be a good cheese substitute in lasagna, stuffed manicotti, cannelloni, etc.

If you are interested in the recipe and instructions for the ravioli dough, I used this recipe from the Vegalicious Recipes blog.

Ingredients: extra firm tofu, fresh basil (optional), olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, nutritional yeast flakes, black pepper, salt.

Tomato Couscous with Capers

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 117 of Veganomicon.
Couscous is one of my favorite sides because it is so fast and easy to prepare, but the taste can be very plain. I like this recipe because

Herb-Scalloped Potatoes

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 108 of Veganomicon.
This dish produces a wonderful aroma during the last few minutes in the oven when the rosemary and thyme release their oils. I liked the taste on

Cornmeal-Masala Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 107 of Veganomicon.
The taste on these was outstanding. If you can't stand Brussels sprouts and are looking forone recipe to change your mind, this might be it. It has a very exotic taste from the Indian spices that is accented by the tartness of the lemon juice. The Brussels sprouts are roasted and become so soft they fall apart in your mouth, and that contrasts very nicely with the coarse texture of the cornmeal.

Ingredients: Brussels sprouts, peanut oil, cornmeal, chickpea flour, garam masala, ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, lemon wedges.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 239 of Veganomicon.
I rarely make cookies. The last time was at least 5 years ago, but this recipe looked interesting

Carmelized Onion-Butternut Roast with Chestnuts

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 152 of Veganomicon.
I've had this one bookmarked awhile and have been waiting for the chestnuts at Trader Joe's to

Thousand Island Dressing (Vegan)

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see Veganomicon, page 93
Traditional Thousand Island dressing is based around mayonnaise, which isn't vegan because mayonnaise uses eggs. This is a really great copycat recipe that veganizes this classic. It's been five years since I've had Thousand Island, but this is exactly how I remember the better versions of it. And even better since it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup as a major ingredient (most bottled versions of Thousand Island do). I can't stand that weird aftertaste of foods with high fructose corn syrup.

I've made this a few times, and the recipe seems rather flexible. The photo depicts the recipe as written in the book. Personally, I like to cut back on the agave nectar, salt and grapeseed oil to reduce the calories and sodium. That doesn't seem to adversely affect the taste. And I like to use a firm tofu rather than silken. It makes the dressing thicker, and reminds me of the type that some restaurants serve... you know, that big thick heavy Thousand Island... rather than the runny diluted stuff that comes in bottles at the store.

This dressing is only going to survive 3-4 days in the fridge before it starts to turn, so plan on eating lots of salad when you make up a batch, or make a half batch. Great recipe.

Ingredients: silken tofu, ketchup, pickle relish, white vinegar, grapeseed oil, agave nectar, mustard powder, white pepper, salt.

Roasted Portobellos

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 112 of Veganomicon.
The marinade makes this smell amazing while it is cooking. It tastes kind of like a pot roast, except

Pasta e Fagioli

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 194 of Veganomicon.
Pasta e Fagioli means pasta and beans. I read the positive reviews for this Veganomicon dish

Almesan (Vegan Parmesan)

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 27 of Veganomicon.
I like the texture, and it certainly looks like Parmesan cheese, but it tasted like lemon flavored

Spaghetti and Beanballs

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 189 of Veganomicon.
The spaghetti and sauce were good, but the beanballs were mushy and started to fall apart after

Black Beans in Chipolte Adobo Sauce

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 122 of Veganomicon.
This ended up being more of a paste than a sauce. The recipe called for the sauce to be 'drizzled'

Parsnip Chips

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 183 of Veganomicon.
I love roasted parsnips, and this recipe especially since it calls for peanut oil, which makes them

Spicy Tempeh Nori Rolls

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 47 of Veganomicon.
This recipe took a few tries before I finally got it right. I ended up doing a search on YouTube to

Udon with Shiitake Mushrooms and Kale in Miso Broth

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 201 of Veganomicon.
Good soup. Not much broth in there though.