Cashew-chatel Cheese

2 cups raw cashew pieces
1/3 cup large flake nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons of miso paste
juice of half a lemon
1/2 - 1 cup water (to desired consistency)

Add all ingredients to Blendtec. Based on the recipe for Peanut Butter in the Blendtec Recipes Book, cycle blender up to Cycle 1, and allow to finish cycle. (It may appear as though nothing is happening.) Then cycle up to Cycle 5 and allow to run full cycle. Between cycles, scrape mixtures towards the blades. You will notice that the mixture near the blades gets creamier and smoother with time. Repeat process until mixture reaches desired consistency. Adding water may speed the process but will make it thinner. I added about half a cup of water and my "cheese" was spreadable, but a little thinner than your average nut butter right out of the blender. A day later we discovered it had firmed up closer to a cream cheese consistency (see picture above).

This turned out well, and went great on a freshly homemade bagel---"cheesy," thanks to the nooch, with a nice texture. The sweetness of the cashews really still comes through, more miso probably wouldn't hurt. You could also replace some of the cashews with cooked white beans, but I would recommend making your nut "butter" first, and adding the other ingredients later, as it can be a challenge to get the nuts thoroughly ground up. Soaking the nuts overnight might also ease the process.

Jalapeno Mojito Hot Sauce

roughly a pound and a half of jalapenos, trimmed but not de-seeded
the juice of about 12 limes
salt to taste
a few sprigs of mint, about 1/8th of a cup
a quarter of a medium yellow onion, peeled

Simmer the jalapenos in water for about 5-10 minutes--if you like heat, consider setting some aside and adding a couple raw at the end. Drain and add to Blendtec, followed by remaining ingredients. Pulse to desired consistency, then store in clean jars or bottles and refrigerate. Let rest for a day before serving.

This came out really hot. Next time I might cook the jalapenos longer (when I made it, I cooked all the jalapenos except half of one which was left over from something else). But it's still good, very thick with a lot of jalapeno flavor, not just heat. I will probably use it sparingly as a garnish and also perhaps try cooking with it.

Best Anniversary Gift Ever

Yes, he built a "Blender Muffle" from foam and cardboard. It's perfect for my morning green smoothie; I can hit the pre-set cycle button, slip the muffle over the Blendtec and let it run the 50-second, loud, grinding "Whole Juice" cycle course.



The photo doesn't do the craftsmanship justice, but my eardrums (and my roommates' sleep patterns) will benefit greatly.

Hot Sauce

just under a pound of peppers, I used some very spicy banana peppers
juice of one lime
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon coarse salt
7 cloves of garlic, peeled
two small tomatoes
couple tablespoons of chili powder (mostly for color)

Trim and chop up peppers and tomatoes. Big pieces are fine. I didn't bother seeding the peppers because I like heat, and also, it reduced the chances of hurting myself on the juice. Add all ingredients to Blendtec, liquids last. Pulse for about 10 or 15 seconds, until well-pureed. It will be frothy. Transfer to deep saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 or 15 minutes. Transfer to clean glass jars or bottles and refrigerate.

Hot Salsa

6 vine tomatoes, quartered
2 medium jalapenos, 2 scotch bonnet or habanero peppers, split and seeded
1 medium to small onion, quartered
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried ground coriander
1 tsp salt
the juice of three limes

Add all ingredients to the Blendtec jar, juice and spices last. Pulse five times. Chill over night.

Sorry, meant to get a picture later but then we ate it all. Turned out quite nice!

Gadget giveaway!

Wing It Vegan is giving away another interesting-looking kitchen contraption, a 4-in-1 appliance which steams, cooks rice, dehydrates and makes yogurt. Check it out. Just leave a comment before July 8th to enter the give-away.

Coconut Lime Sorbet

several limes, peeled, halved and frozen (about 4 cups)
one 14 oz can light coconut milk
1/2 cup raw sugar (or to taste)

Add all ingredients to blender (Blendtec recommends adding liquid ingredients first.) Run on Ice Cream cycle. Serve immediately.

Raw Applesauce

Borrowed from Swell Vegan.

2 medium apples, cored and chopped into medium pieces (I used Granny Smith)
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 cup water

Speed up to 8 and let run until desired consistency is reached. Surprisingly tasty. Flax seed lends a nice nuttiness, and no sugar is needed.

Derby Day Hummus

Horses like carrots, right? I'm headed to a Derby party this afternoon, and decided to riff off of Fatfree Vegan's carrot hummus. I came into a great deal of cheap eggplants recently, and was roasting one to make my favorite eggplant dip, so decided to try roasting the carrots along with it, instead of steaming or boiling them.

2 medium carrots, halved
1/4 cup water or chickpea broth
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
juice of one lime
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

Roast carrots at 450 degrees until fork-tender, about 30 minutes. Add all ingredients to Blendtec; set on speed 1 and allow to run full cycle. Then speed up to 5 and run until smooth. This hummus was still a bit chunky, but I liked it that way. Cutting the carrots into smaller pieces before roasting would probably make them roast faster, and maybe blend more smoothly. I don't usually like cooked carrots, but the flavor of this dip was awesome. My only regret is I should have doubled the recipe.

In honor of Derby Day, and the horse theme of this blog, here is a picture I almost tried to incorporate into the masthead (I think it was the first thing that came up when I did a google image search for vegan horse):



Yep, they eat pretty much what I eat.

Avocado Lime Cilantro Dressing

1 ripe avocado, halved and pitted
juice of 5 limes
1 small bunch of fresh cilantro, about 1 oz
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup water

Place all ingredients in Blendtec. (Of course, scoop the avocado out and discard the skin. But leave the stems on the cilantro.) Hold pulse button down until smooth. The resulting dressing is very thick, like smoother, creamier guacamole. Thin with water or olive oil if desired.

Note, this is a good use for overripe avocados that have begun to brown. The addition of cilantro and lime juice guarantees a beautiful, bright vibrant green color.

Reduced for Quick Sale Meets Farmer's Market Smoothie

If I have one weakness as a shopper, it's reduced for quick sale produce. I have no qualms about eating a bruised and even slimy pear, a slightly wrinkled bell pepper, and I love eating overripe bananas out of hand. The vast majority of the produce I purchase comes from the farmer's market or the local co-op, and I aim for in season and local as much as possible. But the reduced for quick sale produce rack at the local grocery store sometimes offers foods I can't resist. In this case it was a lumpy cantalope and a couple bunches of small red bananas.

half a medium cantalope, cubed
1/4 pound of green leaf lettuce
1/4 pound of cos lettuce
one medium navel orange, peeled and segments separated
3 ripe small red bananas (or one large regular banana)

Blend until smooth.

I'm not a huge fan of the cantalope flavor, so I tossed in an orange to balance it. After a taste I decided it could use something else, and tossed in a few baby bananas. Sweet and creamy.

Red Walnut and Banana Bean Bars

1 can kidney beans (15 oz), rinsed and drained
1/4 cup organic sugar
1 very ripe medium banana
1/4 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup brown rice
2 tablespoons flax seed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
a generous pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 and oil a 8 by 8 baking dish, or Pyrex pan of similar size.

In a very dry Blendtec, place brown rice and flax seed. Press the speed up button until the level reaches 9; allow Blendtec to run full 50 second cycle. Add the remaining ingredients to resultant flour, but first stir the contents of the jar, taking care to get the flour out of the corners of the jar where it may have collected. Speed up again to level 9 and allow to run until smooth and well-blended. Scrape contents of jar into pan, smoothing with the spoon or spatula as necessary. Bake for 26 minutes. Allow to cool on counter and then refrigerate for a few hours before enjoying.

This was inspired by Celine's recipe on Have Cake, Will Travel several weeks ago. I have long been infatuated with the Black Bean Brownie recipe that started this all and have been keen on trying some kind of baked good where I could grind the grain myself and then mix it all at one go---Celine's ingredients included stuff like brown rice flour and nut butter that one can make in the Blendtec. I wanted to use fresh fruit, though, instead of preserves, so various experiments ensued. I was always surprised at how thick and sticky the batter seemed and Celine recommended replacing some of the flax with more flour; on a whim I decided to switch the amounts of flax versus brown rice flour entirely. I think it did help, but feel free to tinker with it yourself. The kidney beans were kind of a whim also; I had a super ripe banana that needed using and thought I would give this one more try and kidney beans were the only cooked beans on hand. I loved the flavor, especially the cinnamon that came through.

Vegan Chip Shop Curry Gravy

1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 a medium yellow onion, chopped
1 medium apple, quartered and cored
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon miso
1 tablespoon wet tamarind (optional)
1 cup water
1 generous teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Cook onion and tomato on the stove-top til soft. Place all other ingredients in Blendtec, onion and tomato last. Run Whole Juice cycle once.

I took this sauce to a St. Patrick's Day themed potluck, along with some homemade seitan sausages. I was inspired by the curry sauce often served with fries at Irish pubs. It's actually based off of a sauce I created for the Spring Onion Pancakes I am trying to perfect (I think try number four is coming up---the recipe itself is ridiculously simple but the cooking method is the tricky part), the tomato, onion and spices are what made it a British 'gravy.' The tamarind adds a great tang but is admittedly a little obscure. Asian or Indian markets sometimes sell it. It's a dense block of tamarind pulp. Typically you would add water and mush out the stray seed pods and fiber to create a tamarind juice to add to recipes, but the Blendtec obviates this step.

This made a tasty, healthy dip for fake sausages, but could be great on steamed vegetables, crepes, as a salad dressing. There are numerous possibilities.

Orange is the New Green Smoothie

I just happened upon this delicious combination. Maybe using the Whole Juice cycle is what makes it so silky, but truly I think the pith of the orange has something to do with it.

My New Favorite Smoothie

2 large seedless navel oranges, peeled and separated into quarters
1 medium carrot, cut into three inch pieces
5-6 lettuce leaves, leaf, romaine or cos lettuce

Place all ingredients in Blendtec. Run Whole Juice cycle. Serve.

The Whole Baba Ghanouj

1 medium eggplant (approximately one pound)
1 tablespoon capers
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
juice of 1 small lemon
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Trim the stem and quarter your eggplant. Brush the largest cut sides with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Prick numerous times with fork or knife. Bake about 45 minutes, or until very soft.

When eggplant is cool enough to handle briefly, toss it into the blender with the capers, garlic and lemon juice. Leave the peel on. Run on Sauces/Dip cycle. Serve immediately, while still warm, garnished with pepper, or chill for later.

I love baba ghanouj, but I always thought scraping out the eggplant pulp and discarding the skin was sort of tragic. I liked this dip. If you like a creamier dip, you can add the traditional tahini or olive oil. You could also roast your garlic with the eggplant, for a sweeter, mellower flavor.

Mistakes

This is what happens when you attempt to make scallion pancakes -- those delicious, crispy appetizers commonly found in Korean and Chinese restaurants -- but add the scallions at the wrong step. I was going for big visible pieces and got a nice tasting but uniformly green batter. There were other things that needed tweaking, but I'll be giving it another try, so look for the recipe soon.

Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 medium carrot, trimmed and cut into 3-inch long pieces
1 large seedless navel orange, peeled and quartered
1 cup cooked great northern white beans
1/2 teaspoon of alcohol free vanilla
1/3 of 1/4 teaspoon of powdered stevia extract (that's 0.083 teaspoons)



Method:

Place orange and carrot in Blendtec jar, run Whole Juice cycle. Add remaining ingredients. Of course, if you lack stevia you can use your sweetener of choice. Similarly, if you can't find alcohol-free vanilla, you could try a non-dairy vanilla-flavored milk or yogurt, keeping in mind this will add sweetness as well as change the consistency. Run on Smoothie cycle. Serve.



This is a thick smoothie. I liked it. My roommate tasted it and wasn't as pleased with the consistency. We agreed that another orange or an apple added at the Whole Juice cycle would probably improve it in both flavor and texture. Be careful with the stevia; you could even go less and you definitely don't want to go more.