Bloody Mary Bruschetta with White Bean Aioli

I really hope everyone remembers their first *good* Bloody Mary like I do. Prior to this revolution, I had only tasted a beverage consisting of purchased tomato "mix" swished around with cheap vodka producing a barely palatable, acidic and flavorless taste. Yet back in 2005 I had a friend who believed in this brunch time hangover cure of a cocktail and insisted on making a believer out of me. She did. The enchantment began by watching the bartender (at the now closed Cafe Montmartre in Madison, WI) muddle horseradish and fresh lemon zest with sugar and pouring in fresh tomato juice with a dash of this and a spritz of that. The final garnish consisted of a few hearty shakes of Tobasco plus the perfect garnishment of pickled asparagus, onions and olives - the spell was cast and I was hooked. She turned to me and said "it's like a salad in a glass that gives you a buzz."

The position of being the same catalyst for my token omnivore's first Bloody Mary experience was incredibly rewarding. Strolling around San Francisco, we passed a small cafe with patrons-a-plenty drinking the salty ruby on the patio. He had always shunned the idea because it was a "savory" cocktail and the idea of tomato juice sounded like something that only belonged in a nursing home. When I made a believer out of him, it was one of the most satisfying moments in our relationship. Now it's his favorite drink which is what prompted my interest in this dish.

When this recipe for Bloody Mary Tomatoes arrived through an email subscription, I obviously had to make them immediately. Not for me, but for my special someone who has come to love not only this dear combination of mildly sweet, salty and scrumptious flavors but also the idea of "bruschetta." He now even pronounces it correctly in the true, Italian phonetic fashion. Broo-SKEH-tah. So many firsts have I been able to witness for him, including a trip to Napa that involved us saving money and running to the grocery store to get the ingredients for whipping up our own bruschetta-esque. I took this recipe and ran with in the same way - plopped it on some bread smeared with a creamy spread.

I shortened up the recipe a bit to make this a readily prepared appetizer. For the aioli, I used those huge marinated white beans that you see in the olive bar at your natural grocer, but you could easily use white beans with an extra touch of olive oil. Or you could just buy some white bean hummus from Trader Joe's and call it a day. Either way, you won't be disappointed with these tomatoes for which I cannot take credit. Credit-schmedit - they are definitely worth sharing.

Bloody Mary Tomatoes
(adapted from Rachel Saunders of the Blue Chair Fruit Company)
Makes 4-6 servings
Cook time:  40 minutes

Ingredients

For the tomatoes
1 T. horseradish
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 1/2 T. finely granulated sugar
8 Roma tomatoes, quartered
2 tsp. vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
Cooking spray

For the Aioli
1/3 c. marinated butter beans (or 1/3 c. canned white beans + 1/2 T. olive oil)
2 T. reduced fat Veganaise (or yogurt)
1 T. capers (optional)
4-6 Kalamata olives, chopped (optional)

For the bruschetta
1 medium baguette or sourdough loaf
Cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 400*F and grease a baking sheet with cooking spray (I highly recommend using aluminum foil over the pan to prevent a mess).

In a medium bowl rub the horseradish, lemon zest, celery salt and cayenne into the sugar with your fingers. Add the tomatoes and Worcestershire. Toss to coat tomatoes in mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Place tomatoes flesh side up on the baking sheet. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat when done and set aside. Keep oven heated to toast bread.

To prepare the aioli: Mash the beans in a small bowl. Add the Veganaise and whip until blended. Stir on the capers and olives, if using. Set aside.

To prepare the bruschetta: Slice the baguette or bread into 1/4 inch thick slices. Coat each side with cooking spray and toast in oven to 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. When done, spread each slice with aioli and top with one tomato quarter. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

Cheers to Bloody Tomatoes and a messy kitchen.

Green Diva Dip

There are a lot of recipes floating around right now for sweet pea guacamole or green pea hummus - both featuring a mush-prone vegetable to put some spring into a dish. Though I don't typically like following blog trends, I do like coming up with quick snacks when I'm low on exciting groceries. In this instance, we were heading poolside and feeling munchy, but I didn't have legumes for hummus or chips for dipping. What I had were crisp vegetables, leafy greens, and frozen peas.

Another fantastic result of a clean-out-the-fridge hodgepodge. With frozen peas and edamame always on hand, I had a good base. I'm also going through a juicing phase and have a lot of greens (chard, beet greens, kale and spinach). While we typically juice greens or use them in salads, why not puree them raw? They are tender and breakdown easily, and it's such an easy way to sneak in an extra nutrient punch. Then I started looking for anything green and delicious in the fridge. Thus arose a beautiful and bright concoction.

We agreed as taste testers that something is only considered a "concoction" until it has a name. "Green Goddess" is an overused title for a green dressing, green smoothies, or green liquid anything. Yet with my token male out of town this weekend, the last 3 days have been jam packed with lady fun. So we came upon this title to embody our energizing female connections over the past few risings and settings of the moon - 2 of which featured this dip.

Cooking note: if you don't have white miso or reduced fat Veganaise (or any kind of Veganaise), this dip will still be delicious. Just add a little more avocado and salt.

Green Diva Dip
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

1 c. frozen peas, thawed
1/2 c. edamame
1/4 avocado
1/4 small lemon, peeled (flesh and all, but no rind)
2 large scallions, white and green parts chopped
1/4 c. parsley
1-2 small garlic cloves, sliced
2 tsp. white miso paste (optional)
1 tsp. dried basil or 1 T. fresh basil
1/4 - 1/3 c. veggie broth
2 c. spinach
1/2 T. Reduced Fat Veganaise (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Sliced vegetables for dipping

Directions

Combine the first 9 ingredients in a food processor and puree. Slowly pour in broth through the chute until the mixture processes smoothly, without chunking up. Once the mixture is well pureed, add spinach and Veganaise (if using). Process for another 3-4 minutes or until smooth.

Serve with slice zucchini, jicama, carrots, radishes, cucumber, or celery.

Teeny Weeny Zucchini Bites

Ok they're not that teeny. And they are definitely note weeny. But they are surely zucchini.

Christmas Eve is usually a big hullabaloo consisting of lots of family, wine, loud chatter, dinner, carols, more wine and too many cookies. That’s Minnesota style holidays on my side of the family. But this year, we were on the Arizona rotation where there isn’t really a Christmas Eve tradition. So we decided to spend it, just me and my other half.

I had a crazy desire to make gnocchi because I thought it would be fun to make together. But it takes foooor-evvvvvv-er. Well it takes a while for the potatoes to bake anyway. Knowing we had a long wait ahead of us before any dinner would manifest, I turned to my favorite taste-tester and said “What would you like to nosh on whilst we await this glorious.

Fabulous idea it was. I had only made these once before and did not use breadcrumbs because of a gluten allergy in the audience of eaters. Well not this time, so I loaded up on the panko and added a pinch of vegan cheese. Oh boy, these suckers are making into the regular rotation for potlucks and entertaining. Simple ingredients, easy to make, and beautifully scrumptious. Not to mention they made a wonderful stand-in for the Christmas tree we did not set up.

Teeny Weeny Zucchiini Bites

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

3 T. plain soy yogurt

3 T. veganaise

¼ tsp. onion powder

2/3 c. panko

2 T. nutritional yeast

½ tsp. garlic salt

1/3 c. Daiya cheese or other vegan cheese

Optional: bac’un bits, crushed red pepper

1-2 small/medium zucchini, sliced into ¼ inch thick rounds

Directions

Preheat oven to 400*F. Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, veganaise and onion powder. Set aside. In another bowl, combine the panko, nutritional yeast and garlic salt and stir until well combine. Have the cheese nearby in another bowl for prep.

Dip each zucchini round in the yogurt mixture followed by the panko mix. Cover completely with crunchy coating and place on the baking sheet. Place a little pinch of Daiya or cheese. Top with a few bac’un bits or a few flakes of crushed red pepper if desired.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until crispy brown.

Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Sliced Strawberries

Day 12 of Vegan Mofo: This recipes makes me giddy. A veganized version of a lovely favorite. I was stumped as to a good birthday dessert for a very Italian co-worker whose 2 favorite desserts are Tiramisu and Lemon Cake. There are a few vegan Tiramisu recipes out there, but I really wasn't feeling up to that challenge considering I was also making a pasta dish for the potluck (sounds like overkill for a work lunch, but I always need to bring a vegan sweet and savory option for the sheer pleasure of demonstrating how feasible vegan eating is). All tangeants aside, I found a great source of inspiration on Epicurious who has a killer Lemon Buttermilk Cake recipe that is very eaily veganizable.

The crowd's reaction: "This is seriously vegan? Can I please have this recipe?" Yes and yes. The cupcakes turned out incredibly moist for what I think is probably 2 reasons. The applesauce adds a ton of moisture, and the extra tablespoon of cider vinegar makes the batter a little more wet than the original version. Regardless of the real reason, these are fabulous, light and vibrantly flavorful. The cake itself has a very subtle lemon flavor, but the frosting...oh the frosting. It could be eaten (and maybe was eaten) by itself. Tanti auguri e buon appetito!

Lemon Cupcakes with Sliced Strawberries
Makes: 24 cupcakes
Total prep time: 2 hours with cooling

For the Cupcakes
1 1/2 c. almond or soy milk + 1 T. cider vinegar
1 3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. Earth Balance, room temperature
2 T. grated lemon peel
3/4 c. applesauce
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 c.cake flour (or all purpose)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

For the Frosting
12 oz. Tofutti cream cheese, room temperature
2 T. Earth Balance, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 T. lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon peel

1 pint strawberries, washed and sliced

* For a thicker frosting, use lemonade concentrate (thawed) and decrease the fresh lemon peel.

Directions
For the Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray and flour muffin tins/cupcake pans or spray the lined paper cups.

Whisk vinegar and almond/soy milk together in a small bowl. Set aside to curdle while you prepare the other ingredients. In a separate large bowl, beat the sugar, Earth Balance and lemon peel. Add applesauce and lemon juice and beat until well blended. In a third bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet mixture alternately with curdled milk until batter is smooth.
Divide batter among tins or cups. Bake until tester inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to racks and cool 30-45 minutes.

For the frosting: Beat Tofutti and Earth Balance in large bowl until completely blended. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in lemonade concentrate or lemon juice and lemon peel.

To assemble: Top each cupcake with 1-2 tablespoons of frosting and 2-3 slices of fresh strawberries.

Mustard Coriander Roasted Cauliflower

I have probably professed my love for roasted cauliflower before - I don’t know how I could have not mentioned it somewhere in the past couple of years writing here. There is something about how the edges of those little florets get so crunchy that makes this a very addictive snack, side dish, or salad topper. It hardly even needs to be dressed up to taste incredible, but sometimes a fancy twist is in order just to make things exciting. We all need to shake it up from the routine every now and then, and in this case, an aromatic-earthy combination livened up this Plain Jane veggie just right.

Mustard and coriander is not an uncommon combination, but they do make a very good flavor team. Mustard has that tangy edge and coriander has a bright, vibrant quality that pairs really well with simple foods. However, though not necessarily title worthy, I actually think the tahini is what makes this dish seriously slammin. After some discussion with my sister, my kitchen confidant and bearer of many tricks of the trade, we decided that tahini just has a “je ne sais quoi” that makes it irresistible. How does it turn chickpeas into “hummus” [said with a middle eastern throaty grimace], how does it transform raw garlic into an incredible dipping sauce for french fries? Magic. Je ne sais quoi. It’s a must have on your shelf, right next to the peanut butter, in between the nutritional yeast and pomegranate molasses (ok it’s not that obscure).

So while this recipe is title “cauliflower” - I actually used summer squash as well, as you probably deduced from the photo, you Sherlock you. I think many simple roasting veggies would be terrific in this dressing - broccoli, carrots, turnips, artichokes. Play around with whats in the fridge and if you don’t have tahini, get your booty to the nearest middle eastern market and buy a jar. It deserves staple status in any pantry.

Mustard Coriander Roasted Cauliflower

Makes 4-6 servings

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups cauliflower florets
(or 2 c. cauliflower + 2 c. summer squash)
1 ½ T. olive oil
1 ½ T. stone ground mustard
½ T. ground coriander
2 tsp. tahini
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp. black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450F.

Place cauliflower in a medium mixing bowl and spray evenly with cooking spray (this will help the dressing coat evenly). In a smaller bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk until well blended. Pour dressing over cauliflower and toss. Roast for 15-20 minutes or until cauliflower is tender and golden brown around the edges.