Vegan chili

Hello and welcome, winter!

Let's celebrate winter with hearty recipes :)

Below is an adaptation of a vegan chili: simple to make and delicious! It's great as a main meal served with rice. Since it's a recipe that relies mainly on beans, it's also an excellent source of iron and protein.

Ingredients:

-Red beans, black beans, chickpeas, or all of them together. Pre-cook beans before! This can be done with a pressure-cooker.
-A can of peeled tomatoes
-Corn
-Chopped celery
-Chopped carrot
-Chopped bell pepper
-Chopped chili pepper or chili powder
-1 small onion
-1 clove of garlic
-Salt and oregano

All you have to do really is heat oil in a large pot, lightly combine the onion, garlic, pepper, carrot, celery until they're coated with oil, and then add the corn, tomatoes, and beans. Add salt, chili pepper, and oregano. Stir until thick. Enjoy!

Vegan pizza with mushroom topping!

A couple weeks ago, I showed you guys how to cheat by making pizzas in 3 minutes. 

Here's the real thing. You can top your vegan pizza in many, many ways. I chose to start off simple, with only three ingredients: onions, mushrooms, and broccoli stem. You can also use spinach instead of broccoli stem, or chopped bell pepper. As there's no sauce involved, this pizza topping makes a dry pizza- it's good for a light snack.

To start with, you'll need pizza dough. Click here for instructions. Once that's done,

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
2. Chop the broccoli in thin strips, dice your onion, and cut your mushroom in thin slices. They should look like this:

3. Heat oil in a skillet. Grill the broccoli stems, then add the other ingredients until mushrooms are browned and onions are transparent. Let cool for a little bit.

4. Spread your pizza dough on a pizza pan, oil it, and spread your topping over it.

Before going in the oven. . .

5. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes.

How to make pizza dough

Here are simple instructions on how to make a basic pizza dough. You'll need:

-A packet of yeast
-1 cup warm water (it needs to be warm to activate the yeast. Ideal temperature is when it's warm enough to touch but not hot enough to burn)
-1 teaspoon sugar
-3 cups flour
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water and add the sugar. Mix gently and let rest for 5 minutes.
2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and add yeast mixture and oil in the hole.
3. Gently mix the flour in the water, mixing so that there are no clumps. Mix until it is homogeneous.
4. Knead your dough for 10 minutes on a surface with flour, until dough is elastic and soft.
5. Oil a bowl and put your dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen cloth, then let rest for 1-2 hours.

Dough after 1 hour

All done! You can refrigerate any unused dough for up to 3 days.

Questions I get asked: What if you were stranded on an island and you had to eat meat to survive?

So what if you were stranded on an island and you had to eat meat to survive?

Well, let me explain. There are limits, and then there is stupidity.

It is reasonable to boycott meat in a society where vegetable protein is largely available and can suit everybody’s needs. Killing animals is not justified when you can get your protein from perfectly peaceful sources.

It is not reasonable, however, to boycott meat when you are stranded on an island and your only chance of survival is by eating crab meat. If this ever happens to you, then, by all means, eat crab meat.

It is not reasonable either to refuse meat when you are on a peace mission in a Native American tribe in Bolivia and they offer you llama meat. Take it. It’s not worth a clan war to explain why you prefer to eat vegetables.

It is not reasonable to refuse meat when you’re a journalist sent to cover a story in Nigeria and a family offers to house you and feed you with meat, when there’s scarcely enough to go around. Don’t try explaining why you, rich person, would prefer not to eat meat. They won’t understand.

If I’m ever caught in one of these situations, I would probably eat meat.

But so far, I’ve never been in one of these situations. I live in the part of the world where food is aplenty. I can choose what I eat, and I choose not to kill for my food.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: don’t you kill lettuce when you eat it?

Aha, got you covered. Check out my answer to this question. 

Questions I get asked: Don’t you kill lettuce when you eat it?

Answer: Yes, lettuce dies when we pluck it from the soil and stuff ourselves with it.

But what shocks you more? The death of a lettuce head or the death of a mother cow?

I won’t post the videos here – YouTube has plenty of them. Let’s get back to the point: killing lettuce.

I personally believe that lettuce is a living being, but much less evolved being than a cow. I prefer to kill lettuce than to kill cows based on that belief. I believe there is a huge difference between the two of them. Namely, cows are capable of walking, mooing, licking their babies, dancing-

Yes, dancing. Check out this video. It’s friendly, I promise.

But lettuce is a simpler organism, biologically speaking. So that is why I prefer to kill lettuces than cows. It’s my choice to kill who or what I want. In fact, in my mind, cow is a ‘who’ and lettuce is a ‘what’.

If you think there isn’t a difference between the two, I suggest you go to a petting zoo and meet some baby cows up front. 

Video on how to make popcorn

Hey guys! Here is my very first video log, inspired by a neighbor who asked me to show how to make popcorn after I'd written about it.

So check it out! The popcorn made was amazing by the way :)


Click here to watch video on youtube.

Hearty winter soup with 3 vegetables

Hey folks! So winter's on it's way and we all love soup in the winter. Especially if we're at home with a case of the sniffles.

So here's a basic, hearty recipe that will keep you on your toes throughout winter.

The three ingredients are:

1. Potatoes

Keep the skin for extra vitamins and taste.

2. Pumpkin, or other types of squash:

Puts the 'heart' in 'hearty'

3. Leeks:

Gives the soup a unique taste and complements the potatoes.

In addition to the three basic ingredients, you'll have to add salt/pepper for taste or a cube of vegetable broth. I added a handful of rice and since I ran out of vegetable broth, I added a packet of miso soup.


If you're feeling particulary inventive, you might want to add celery, onions, garlic, turnip, beans, corn. . . the list goes on!

For one person, you'll need:
-1 chopped potato
-About the same amount in chopped pumpkin
-Half a leek, chopped
-A handful of rice
-A cube of vegetable broth
-Olive oil


The how to:

#1. Heat olive oil in a pot. Gently sauté all the vegetables together for a minute. Then, add enough water so that all the vegetables are covered.

#2. Add vegetable broth, or salt and pepper. If you're going to add a packet of miso soup, wait until the vegetables are completely cooked.
#3. If you're adding rice, wait 10 minutes, and then add rice.
#4. Cook until the pumpkin and potatoes are starting to dissolve.

This is what miso soup looks like, in case you were wondering. You can find packets like these in oriental-food stores. The packets are a mixture of fermented soja, rice, and algae. They're pretty salty on their own, so if you use one of these, don't add extra salt.

Happy winter!

How to make tasty broccoli that you will love

Recently I was discussing broccoli with a friend. She mentioned that she had hated broccoli as a kid, but now as a grown-up, she learned to eat it. But she still wasn't in love with it. I exclaimed: But how can you not love it? She then answered that it was its watery, slimy taste that she didn't like.

Then I understood. Yes, even I'm not partial to broccoli when it’s simply boiled. It loses its taste and crunchiness. So here’s a sure-fire way to cook and enjoy broccoli.

1^st step: Wash the broccoli. If you buy super fresh broccoli, there might be little critters in it. So soaking the entire head of broccoli in water with vinegar is the best way to go.

2^nd step: Cut the broccoli in little florets, or ‘trees’ as I once explained to a little kid. I keep the stem and chop it also because I don’t like food going to waste.

3^rd step: Cook the broccoli by vapor. If you don’t have one of these, you might want to invest in one. They’re cheap and cooking vegetables this way is the best way to conserve their vitamins. And plus, they keep their crunchiness, different from boiling them.

What you do is you place a little water in a pot, place this metal collector on top with the broccoli inside, cover with a lid and boil the water. The water vapor will rise and cook the broccoli without immerging the broccoli in water.

The broccoli will be done when it’s dark green and soft.

4th step:  Sauté the broccolis with your favorite condiments! I like heating olive oil in a skillet and adding chopped garlic. In the picture, I added grated ginger root to give an extra flavor. You can also experiment with herbes de provence, chopped onion & soy sauce, tomato sauce, etc.

Chopped garlic and ginger

Note: It is possible to skip step 3 and directly sauté the broccoli. It will take longer, the broccoli will be crispier, and it will need more oil. The extra heat also takes away some of the precious vitamins. In the end, the florets may be more to your taste but it’s generally a less healthy option. I recommend doing the main cooking by vapor instead of frying.

All done! Now here are some quick facts about broccoli and why I love them so much:

-It has lots of iron, like other dark-green vegetables.

-It also has important quantities of beta-carotene.

-It’s high in Vitamin C

All in all, broccoli is a cheap super food. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving special: sweet potatoes!

Back on track for the Thanksgiving and Christmas specials. Here's a very easy dish that can be served on the side: sweet potatoes!

Sweet potatoes look like this:

All you do is peel it. . .

Chop it . . .

Boil it, and that's it. No salt, folks. Potatoes are done when you can spear them easily with a fork.

It's easy, full of vitamins, and gives a little sweetness to your meal.

Questions I get asked- Isn't being vegetarian more expensive?

Today I'm going to answer this one as briefly as possible.

If you adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, the answer is NO. You will basically substitute meat protein for beans/lentils protein. As beans/lentils are cheaper than meat, you will find out that being a vegetarian means a cheaper lifestyle. Just go ask the people in India.

If you adopt a vegan lifestyle, the answer is YES. You'll end up substituting the calcium found in milk and cheese with vegan products such as soy milk, almond milk, nuts, dried fruit. These are more expensive than animal products.

But the difference isn't that much - see how much fish and red meat cost these days.

And also, I find that buying almonds, dried figs and humus makes me happier than buying ham and cheese. Maybe that's just me. But they sure are good :)

Gâteau américain à la banane et aux noix

Je vous présent l'une de mes recettes américaines préférées: le gâteau à la banane!

En fait, son nom en anglais est 'banana nut bread'. Comme son nom l'indique, il s'agit d'un pain- un pain sucré qu'on a pas besoin de pétrir.

Penser à ajouter des noix, mais il est délicieux juste avec les bananes!

Cette recette est bien végétalienne, c'est-à-dire qu'elle n'ajoute pas d’œufs.

Pour le faire, vous aurez besoin de:

-4 ou 5 bananes très mûres, voire même noircies.
-2 verres de farine de blé
-1/2 verre de cassonade (choisir une cassonade qui est vraiment brune)
-3/4 verre de sucre
-3/4 cuillère à café de bicarbonate de sodium
-3/4 cuillère à café de cannelle
-3/4 cuillère à café de sel
-1/2 verre de lait végétal au choix (j'ai utilisé du lait d'avoine, mon préféré)
-1 cuillère à café de vinaigre de cidre
-1/4 verre d'huile (j'ai utilisé huile de colza)
-1 cuillère à café d’essence de vanille
-Des noix en morceaux

Instructions:

1. Mélangez bien les ingrédients secs. Préchauffez le four à 180°C.
2. Écrasez les bananes avec une fourchette dans un saladier séparé.  Ajoutez le lait, le vinaigre, l'huile et l'essence de vanille.
3. Mélangez les ingrédients secs avec la mixture de bananes. Mais pas trop! Il faut que ça soit homogène, mais pas trop mélangé. Il faut qu'il y ait encore de morceaux de bananes.
4. Ajoutez les noix.
5. Mettez la pâte dans une moule à pain. Enfournez pour environ 40 minutes. Le gâteau sera prêt avec le test de fourchette!

Vegan Thanksgiving : Spaghetti Squash!

Hey guys! :)

I grew up celebrating Thanksgiving with my family in the United States. As I grew up, though, I started to question my turkey-beliefs and eventually I gave up Turkey-day all together. Mostly because celebrating Thanksgiving doesn't feel right when you know it's about how the pilgrims invaded North America and killed off the natives. But today, Thanksgiving is about gathering the entire family together for a good meal, being thankful for everything in your life. For that, I still hang on to some Thanksgiving values.

Minus the turkey, of course.

This year I made three vegan Thanksgiving recipes. Check them out!

Spaghetti Squash with tomato sauce

You will need:

A spaghetti squash
Tomato sauce, or make your own with a couple of tomatoes, garlic, onion, and basil!
A friend to help scoop the seeds out and to share your meal with

#1. Preheat your oven to 220°C. While your oven is heating, make several large cuts in your squash. This is IMPORTANT. The squash might explode if you don't do this. Even if you make a lot of cuts, there might be a time when the squash starts to hiss like a pressure cooker. Don't worry. It's the air escaping.

#2. Cut the squash in half length-wise and scoop the seeds out. Save the seeds to bake for a tasty salty snack later, or throw them out.

#3. Take a fork and shred the squash with it. You'll start to see the spaghetti strands. Scoop that out into a bowl.

#4. When you're done, top with tomato sauce!



 Enjoy the wintery goodness for squash.

How to make mini pizzas in 3 minutes

Got one hour between one class and another and you have to eat? But you really, really don't want to eat insta-noodles again, do you?

No worries!! There are healthier alternatives!

Here's how to transform whatever you have in your refrigerator into a delicious lunch.

#1. First, gather up all the ingredients that you have in your refrigerator.  I used a tomato, tomato sauce, tofu, and the rest of my whole wheat bread. But you can use an onion, bell peppers, zucchini, etc. Any  veggie will work.

Start by cutting your bread and placing the sauce on top (or olive oil, if you don't have sauce).

#2. Decorate your "pizzas" with the veggies that you have. Season with oregano, basil, olive oil and salt.

#3. Bake until your veggies are cooked. Voilà! Enjoy your meal!

How to make popcorn

Ah, popcorn! My favorite low-budget student snack! Who has never chomped nervously on popcorn while figuring out a tough integral or while stressed to finish a report on time?

Needless to say, I have jars and jars of popcorn kernels in my closet.

But how do you pop them without burning them?

#1. Cover the bottom of a pot with oil. Yes, cover it completely in oil. You can substitute the oil with melted butter or margarine, but be careful. Too little and the popcorn will be hard and tasteless.

#2. Let the oil heat up on its own for a minute.

#3. Place enough popcorn kernels to cover the bottom of the pot in one layer. That's the trick to making just enough popcorn. If your kernels start to over lap, you might have put in too much.

#4. Let the popcorn fry without a lid until the kernels turn yellowish. This is the real secret. I'm not sure why this works so well, but I found it a couple years ago online and it's been working magic for me ever since.

#5. Cover the pot with a lid. Keep listening.

#6. Once there are a good number of popped kernels, shake the pot to make sure that the unpopped kernels are still on the bottom.

#7. Keep listening. Stick to the 2 second rule: If you can count to 2 in Mississippis without any popcorn popping, that means that your popcorn is done.

#8. Take the pot off the heat, but with the lid still on. Unpopped kernels might still pop.

Salt away and eat! Go back to studying, you!


But if you want to make your popcorn special, you can season it! This is my favorite family recipe : 4 season popcorn. The four seasons are : salt, black pepper, red pepper (or Tabasco), and lemon juice. Season with taste!

Vegan picnic #2

More ideas for vegan picnic :

High in calories, sugar, and energy.

Apples keep well inside backpacks and during long stays. 

Eggplant, lettuce + tahini on wholewheat bread

Lasagna from Provence

Greetings from Provence!

Provence is known for its lovely lavender fields, olive-rich scented airs, and bouquets of sunflowers decorating the dining room table. From this sun-kissed region you also get recipes using its main produce : tomatoes, eggplants, and zucchini. Since it's an ecological crime to buy these beauties in winter (they're stricltly summer-friendly produce) I'm using them as much as I can before winter hits.

One of these fabulous recipes with three simple main ingredients can be transformed into a lasagna. Mmm!

You'll need:

• Lasagna pasta
• A lot of tomatoes to make sauce from scratch (about 8) or you can do half from scratch, half with supermarket bought sauce like I did.
• An eggplant
• A zucchini
• An onion
• Garlic
• Herbes de Provence (optional)

Here's how to assemble the Provence Lasagna:

1) Preheat oven. Chop the eggplant and zucchini into round slices, not very thick. The thickness depends on whether you the razor-thin touch or leaning towards the chunky side. I went for chunky.

2) Lay the eggplant slices on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes. This will get rid of the bitter aftertase.

3) Dice onion, garlic and tomatoes. Sauté the onions and garlic in a pot with olive oil. When onions are transparent and garlic is golden, add tomatoes. Keep stirring until the tomatoes dissolve. Add salt and herbes de Provence.

Note: Again, I like my sauce chunky. I cut into realtively large pieces of tomatoes and I didn't skin them. If you want perfect, puree-like sause, skin the tomatoes and remove the seeds.

If you cheated and got supermarket tomato sauce, now is the time to add it to the onions and garlic. Add Herbes de Provence anyways and salt if needed.

4) Once sauce is done, lay it on the table next to the lasagna baking dish. Start assembling lasagna like this: first, cover the bottom in sauce so that lasagna won't burn. Lay a layer of lasagna pasta on top. Cover with sauce again. Make a layer of eggplant. Cover with sauce and pasta. On top of that, zucchini. Repeat until ingredients are gone. Make sure that you have enough sauce before laying down another layer of lasagna pasta - you don't want to leave it uncovered or it won't cook.

5) Bake in oven for about half an hour or until it starts to smell really good.

Enjoy!