Recipe Round-Up: The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook (A Year In Review Part 1)

Last year, I set myself the challenge of cooking a recipe for every holiday from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook, the latest offering from Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Because of my work schedule, I wasn't always able to make something on the actual day, but I tried to make it within a week either side. Because there are a lot of chapters in this book, I'm going to break this post up into two parts.

Hoppin' John Bowl (New Year): My first dinner of the new year is always something with black-eyed peas and greens, so this was a natural choice. As well as the hoppin' john itself, it also had a fresh tomato and parsley salad, and a 'red hot tahini' dressing. I know you know that I made mine a 'very slightly warm tahini dressing' by decreasing the amount of hot sauce a lot, and making it up with some extra water. For the tomato salad, I left out the scallion as raw onion doesn't sit well with me, and for the stew I used extra celery in place of capsicum. We can't get collards here, so I had planned to use kale, but half of it was bad so I had to use a mix of kale and baby spinach. Served over rice, made four serves.
Rating: :)



Cincinatti Spaghetti (Super Bowl): It's all sportsball to me. We don't do the superbowl here (though sometimes they do screen it), but I don't watch anything ball sporty. But the food seems fun, and I like Cincinnati Spaghetti. Unlike previous recipes that I have made, this one uses avocado on top instead of a cheese sauce. It was nice, but I kind of missed the cheesy sauce, so I added some nooch on top. The spaghetti is mixed through with a kidney bean and lentil chilli (very mild on the chili powder, of course).
Rating: :)



Cold Sesame Noodle Bundles (Chinese New Year): These look super cute, right? Confession time, I just made these two as bundles, and just ate the rest as a yummy cold noodle salad. I used about 8oz of udon noodles instead of 12oz, and this is one case where the sauce really does make enough for the full amount. Mine was so saucy, but the sauce is so yummy so it doesn't matter. I decreased the sesame oil in the sauce to 1TBs instead of 1/3 cup, and made the rest up with water (though if using the smaller amount of noodles I wouldn't bother), and used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. It is very fun to eat in the bundles!
Rating: :)



Broccoli Strata (Valentine's Day): Strata is always a bit strange to me, but I am intrigued by it. I made a half recipe of this as I didn't think it would keep well as leftovers, and I got two serves. Though they were fairly light serves, so this would be good with some extra sides, or make the full amount and have big servings. The custard is based on soft tofu, and it has plenty of broccoli in it as well.
Rating: :)



Blackened Scrambled Tofu and Garlicky Polenta Grits (Mardi Gras): I got three serves of tofu from this recipe (it uses a 375g block). I was glad that I halved the amount of polenta, as otherwise my preferred polenta:tofu ratio would have been off. I only needed to cook my polenta for half the time, and I started cooking it once the tofu was already sizzling away. The spice blend was lovely, of course I left out the optional cayenne. The scramble also includes some onion and tomatoes, which added a nice sweetness.
Rating: :)



Pesto Chickpea Salad Bruschetta (Oscar's Party): I don't watch the Oscars (it goes on forever and I don't watch many movies), but this chapter is still full of fun little appetizers. The bruschetta was a pesto mix of basil, coriander and mayo (also olive oil, but I cut back on that), that is mixed chickpeas and celery. It has miso in it, so is quite salty. It was nice on the toasted garlic bread slices, but I actually preferred it on some cucumber slices.
Rating: :)



Herbed Couscous and Kale Salad with Green Apple (St Patrick's Day): Another holiday I don't observe, but this lovely and refreshing salad is great for any time. The dressing includes parsley, chives, basil and thyme, and is beautiful and green. I cut down on the amount of oil in it, using some water with a bit of guar gum for the remainder. I had just over 1 cup of dried couscous left in my pantry, so I didn't quite get to the four cups of couscous the recipe called for, but it ended up being the perfect grain to dressing ratio. Baby kale is hard to find here, so I used baby spinach and also served it over some greens. The apple is a really nice, sweet contrast.
Rating: :)



Sweet & Smoky Glazed Tofu Ham (Easter): I'd had my eye on this recipe since the moment I got the book, it looks so great! I wanted to make sure that the flavour got right into the tofu, so I pressed it and poked it all over with skewers, then left it to soak in the marinade for about 28 hours. For the glaze, I didn't want to use whiskey so I just added an equivalent amount of the marinade. The tofu has an initial bake, then a second bake after the glaze is added. I only baked for about 20 minutes for the second bake, as the oranges started to burn a bit. It turned out perfect though, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and smoky all the way through. I served this with mashed potatoes and roasted green beans.
Rating: :D





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Check out this handsome fellow. He is a huge Maine Coon, but he managed to squeeze himself into a little tiny cubby hole.