Roll-Your-Own Vegetarian Brown Rice Sushi

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Welcome the Virtual Vegan Potluck!  I’m happy to be joining so many other cooks today in serving up a bountiful vegan feast.  Warm thanks to An Unrefined Vegan for planning our party.  At the bottom of this post you will find links to take you forward and backward through the offerings, or you can start at the beginning and see all your choices right here.

If this is your first time visiting emmycooks, welcome!  Pull up a chair, or do as I do and haul your computer into the kitchen and perch it up out of harm’s way as you cook along.  You can browse the recipes via the sidebar links, or visit some of my recent favorites right here.  If you like what you see, you can subscribe via RSS or follow emmycooks on FaceBook or Twitter.

If you’ve been here before, you won’t be surprised to find that this recipe is full of shortcuts to make it easy to cook a dish that might seem daunting at first.  For starters, this is unabashedly a cheater’s sushi rice: you just cook a pot of short-grain brown rice and stir in rice vinegar, sugar and salt.  It isn’t the rice that sushi masters spend years perfecting, but it tastes great and suits our needs nicely.  Second, don’t worry for a moment about how to roll your sushi.  You’re not going to impress anyone here–you’re just going to pile nori, rice, and assorted toppings on the table and let your dining companions impress you instead.  J & I used to throw parties where we’d roll and slice a gajillion sushi rolls–so much work!  And then we were guests in a home in Japan where everyone selected their own fillings and rolled their own sushi at the table.  We’ve never looked back, and neither will you. Continue reading Vegetarian Brown Rice Sushi (click for recipe)

Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes (Vegan)

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Let’s just get something out of the way: I am not posting this recipe because these pancakes are the easiest-to-flip pancakes in the world.  (They’re not.)  I’m posting it because they’re some of the more delicious pancakes I’ve ever eaten.  (They are.)  And with Mothers Day coming up on Sunday, you just might want a special pancake recipe up your sleeve.  Sweet with juicy blueberries, a bit of crunch from the cornmeal and crispy edge, lemon zest singing the high note.  You can make them even if you’re not brunching with your mom, you know.

A word about vegan pancakes, and vegan baking in general, really: I used to always think in terms of how to “replace” the eggs in recipes, but Isa Chandra Moskowitz & her Post Punk Kitchen empire have changed that for me.  I don’t get the science, I just follow the recipes, but hey, they work.  (Have you baked out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World?)  This recipe is from her book Veganomicon.

Back to the pancakes.  Give them room, people.  The batter is thin, and it spreads quite a bit. If I had a nonstick pan, I would have used it here, but I don’t.  Instead, I oiled my seasoned cast iron griddle well and waited until the pancakes were well-browned and released (more) easily with the help of a thin metal spatula.  It’s a fine line between well-browned and burnt, however, so keep a close eye as that pivotal moment approaches.  And if a pancake buckles as you scoop it up, just flip it and smooth it back out on the other side.

Continue reading Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes (click for recipe)

Buckwheat Soba Salad with Spicy Almond Sauce

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What kind of dinner party do you like to throw? What is your ideal number of guests? Do you have a few go-to dinner party dishes?

I like a big, casual potluck, myself.  (Or a casual dinner for a few close friends.  Notice the theme here?  Casual.)  We don’t throw nearly enough big parties these days, but I’d like to change that. The beauty of a summer potluck is the ease: clear off the counters, park a big bucket of ice or a keg in the back yard, ask a few neighbors to contribute lawn chairs.  I’m ready.  All we need now are some warm, sunny evenings.

I’m happy to announce that I’m gearing up for my real-life party plans by attending a Virtual Vegan Potluck this Saturday.  Tune in for my contribution (we’ll be rolling brown rice sushi, speaking of fun dinner party ideas), then hop around the table to see what else is cooking.  I can promise that we will all come away with enough recipe inspiration to get us through a summer’s worth of potlucks.

As it happens, a cold soba noodle salad is one of the dishes I like to take to potlucks now and then.  It’s easy to make, you can toss in whatever veggies you have handy, and the pasta easily stretches it to feed a crowd.  Maybe you toss in some tofu, maybe not.  I haven’t had a go-to dressing for my salad, though; sometimes I just did rice vinegar and sesame oil, other times a so-so peanut sauce.  That all changed this week.I love An Unrefined Vegan’s spicy almond sauce, and I hereby declare it the dressing that shall adorn my soba salads all summer long.  It was great to start with, but I doubled the almond butter and the spice because I am decadent like that, and the resulting dressing is even more creamy, spicy, and rich.  You won’t be sorry if you invite me to your potluck this summer.  Feel free to request this dish; I’ll be making it a lot, it keeps and travels well, and it’s as good cold as it is warm.  Continue reading Buckwheat Soba Salad with Spicy Almond Sauce (click for recipe)

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

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You know how I roll: it’s 10 p.m. and crap, I forgot to make the cookies I promised the PTA I’d bring tomorrow for Teacher Appreciation Week or some such made up holiday.  (Not that I don’t appreciate teachers, because I DO.  Bless them.  Thank you, teachers everywhere.  But do I really have to make cookies at 10 p.m.?) (Don’t answer that.)

This has become my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.  It’s barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen, a site that I like because I feel confident that Deb cares just as much as I do about food being very, very delicious.  And these cookies fit the bill: they’re classic, chock-full of chocolate, and chewy with a crispy edge.  What more can you ask of a cookie?  Well, I’ll tell you the final way in which they’re perfect: they’re made with melted butter.  If you, like me, never plan ahead to have softened butter waiting on your counter to make cookies, this will mean something to you.  And if it means nothing to you, lucky you, just go ahead and love these cookies for their other charms.

Continue reading Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (click for recipe)

Butternut Squash Tacos with Chipotle and Feta

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In a different life, I used to live in LA.  I mean, it was this life, but it was a long time ago.  After more than a decade, those LA years have receded into a happy, ephemeral recollection of palm trees, of 72-and-sunny, of riding my bike to the beach and farmers market.  (I think I was supposed to be have been studying.)  They were lovely years.

Now I live in evergreens, in 50s-and-drizzling, in walking at a snail’s pace with three beautiful children who cannot be hurried as they collect sticks and rocks.  These are lovely years as well.

Not much endures in my life from that time in LA, except for the most important thing: a few good friendships.  I had the good fortune of spending last weekend with some of those old friends.  It was so nice to see them, to catch up, to laugh really hard and spend the day together.  And, just as nice, to cook together.

We made tacos, of course.  You can take the girl out of California, but you can’t take California out of the girl…is that how it goes?  What a silly saying.  These tacos make no claim to authenticity of any kind, anyway.  They come from the opposite of California, the New York Times (specifically the Recipes for Health series).  They’re good.  Serve them alone or as part of a taco spread (with fish tacos, maybe, or tempeh or black bean tacos, or even breakfast tacos).  A side of seasoned black beans wouldn’t be amiss, either. Continue reading Butternut Squash Tacos with Chipotle and Feta (click for recipe)

Roasted Broccoli Pizza with Feta Cheese and Eggs

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It’s been much too long since we’ve had a pizza recipe on this site.  Weeks!  I hope that you’ve been carrying on with your weekly homemade pizza night–do you have one of those?  If not, do you have another special meal that you serve on a regular basis?

Whether homemade pizza is an occasional or regular indulgence for you, here’s a recent favorite of mine.  Roasty-toasty broccoli, creamy-salty feta, perfect saucy egg on top.  You might have to work on the timing to get your egg cooked perfectly to your liking, but in my setup (long-preheated 550 oven, hot pizza stone, thin homemade crust) the egg is still just perfectly runny at the moment that my crust crisps up, after about 5 minutes in the oven.  Now that’s good fast food.

Sunnyside-up pizza not your thing?  Have you noticed that pizza has its whole own category over there on the sidebar menu?  Click it for more pizza inspiration! 

Continue reading Roasted Broccoli Pizza with Feta Cheese and Eggs (click for recipe)

Make-it-a- Meal Hearty Miso Soup with Ginger, Corn, and Tofu

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This recipe was featured in an Eating Well Magazine piece about how to layer on the umami flavors in vegetarian cooking.  Which is never a bad idea.  Did you know that corn is considered a source of umami flavor?  I didn’t, but I can attest that the sweet kernels were welcome in this dish.  Miso, soy sauce, tofu, and eggs also play into the deep flavor, and you might even consider adding some thinly-sliced shiitake mushrooms if you come across them.

I’ll be adding this meal to our dinner rotation as we lighten up our cooking for spring.  It’s full of flavor, quick to make, and can easily be adapted to accommodate the contents of your fridge.  It’s also kid-friendly, which is no small consideration around here.  In fact, this “Tofu and Vegetable Stew,” as it was stodgily named in my magazine, is really just a beefed-up (well, tofu’d-up) miso soup with a nice kick of ginger.  We made a meal of it by serving it over rice. Continue Reading Hearty Miso Soup with Ginger, Corn, and Tofu (click for recipe)

Hazelnut Baked Pears

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A ripe pear is a beautiful thing.  You can’t really improve on the experience of just eating the luscious thing with a napkin handy.  We all know that.

But sometimes, maybe once a year, you might want to try something different.  I’m not saying better, although I truly love this recipe–but different.  I try to reserve a few perfect pears each year to bake, always stuffed with this sweet hazelnut butter.

The recipe comes from Deborah Madison’s Seasonal Fruit Desserts, not to be confused with Rustic Fruit Desserts, which I was lauding last week when I made my favorite Rhubarb Cake with Crystallized Ginger.  (And I also have the fruit-heavy Chez Panisse Desserts book.  This may be an unreasonable collection given that, in the end, my heart belongs to chocolate.  But I digress.)  I never have the hazelnut oil that the recipe calls for so I used walnut oil this time, and I didn’t have Frangelico so I used water.  And even so, they were perfect: sweet and nutty, soft and crunchy, maybe even as good as a ripe pear alone.

One word of warning: wait for your pears to ripen before you bake them.  They will be so much better.  And this recipe is not the place to jettison your overripe pears, either; when your pears are past their prime, make this instead.  Continue reading Hazelnut Baked Pears (click for recipe)

Leek Fritters with Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

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In the way that one is apt to crave things that are unattainable, I fall in love with the idea of Yotam Ottolenghi’s London cafes all over again every time I hear about them.  And I have heard of them frequently in recent years, as Ottolenghi is something of a sensation in the culinary world, especially among vegetarians in search of fresh flavors and ideas.  His innovative cooking relies heavily on vegetables and combines bright, lively flavors from around the world.  He has published two cookbooks (Ottolenghi and Plenty) and has a third on the way.

All this is to say that it’s Ottolenghi’s deli case that I dream about when I fantasize about having a ready-stocked supply of amazing salads in my kitchen at all times.  So I was disappointed when the first recipe I tried from his vegetarian book Plenty turned out to be a dud in my kitchen (it was a saute of brussels sprouts and tofu that Dana Treat loved, so who knows where I went wrong).  This recipe, though, reminded me what all the hype is about.

The fritters themselves are delicious–well-spiced with a hint of an exotic flavor from the turmeric, which you could spin by using Mark Bittman’s adaptation containing cardamom instead as Hannah did when she inspired me to go dig out this cookbook.  The thing that made this recipe for me, though, was the yogurt dipping sauce, the leftover bowl of which I considered eating for breakfast this morning.  It wouldn’t make a bad meal by itself.

Continue reading Leek Fritters with Cilantro Yogurt Sauce (click for recipe)

Herbed Goat Cheese and Butter Spread with Dill, Chives, and Shallots

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I wrote yesterday about how a homemade bread can jazz up any other humble dishes to make a meal.  Well, whether or not you made your bread from scratch, I hope you have some handy.  Because you’re going to be wanting some as an excuse to eat this spread.

Heidi Swanson describes it as “Dill Butter” in her Super Natural Every Day cookbook, but I like to increase the ratio of goat cheese to butter to play up the tangy creaminess (and so that I feel like I can spread it a little more thickly).  This recipe makes a good amount, and although you’ll be happy to have it in the fridge all week long, you might want to halve it if you’re not making it for a party.

You can also play around with the herbs, of course.  As made, the dill flavor predominates deliciously, but a wander through the garden might inspire you to take this combination in a different but equally alluring direction.

Continue reading Herbed Goat Cheese and Butter Spread with Dill, Chives, and Shallots (click for recipe)