Christmas Goes Vegan

I have not gone completely Vegan myself, but I have several friends who have. So as the holiday season rolled around I began to search for a decent vegan version of my holiday favorite - Gingerbread.

I looked through some books and recipe sites but finally decided to try to convert my favorite non-vegan gingerbread recipe. The problem was my favorite recipe owes its richness to real butter, real eggs and real buttermilk. What to do?

My first trial used vegan butter sub, rice milk and applesauce in place of eggs. It was OK, but the texture was off. The rice milk was too thin and it didn't have the tang to it that buttermilk has. Trial number 2 used soy milk with some lemon juice to replace the buttermilk and I still used applesauce. The texture was much better and it tasted good, but the applesauce added too much of a fruity flavor. For trial number 3 I tried out an egg sub made of potato starch and tapioca. It worked a lot better. I consider this one a success. It is still just a bit spongy, but the taste is great.

Kate's Vegan Gingerbread
12 tablespoons vegan butter substitute (I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Stick)
1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 cup soy milk, regular flavor (I prefer Silk brand. It is a bit thicker) mixed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice
4 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer whipped together with 6 tablespoons warm water
3 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 3 regular loaf pans by greasing well (I use olive oil spray). Melt the butter substitute. In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted butter substitute, the molasses and the brown sugar. Add in the egg replacer and the soy milk with lemon juice. Mix on medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Sift together the dry ingredients and stir into the molasses mixture until just combined. The mixture will be somewhat lumpy. Divide the batter into the loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out with a moist crumb. Makes 3 loaves.

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

No, I don't mean peppers stuffed with vegetarians, although that is an interesting idea. The meat should be nice and lean ...

Anyway, I was playing in the kitchen tonight and ended up throwing together a bunch of veggies I had sitting in the crisper. It turned out WAY better than I expected so I hastily (but carefully) wrote it down so I can duplicate it later. Since I know quite a few people who are vegetarians or just plain eat a lot of veggies, I thought I'd share.

Veggie Stuffed Peppers
3 bell peppers. I used green, but red or yellow would be really yummy
3 medium carrots, washed and grated
1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
2 Morningstar Vegatarian Sausage Patties, thawed and cut up in little pieces. (a Boca Burger or the Boca Crumbles would work, too)
1 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
salt, to taste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise and clean out the seeds. Chop one of the halves into small pieces. Set the other five halves open-side up in a greased baking pan. Put the chopped pepper, grated carrots and chopped tomato in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 3 to 4 minutes or until the carrots start to get soft and the water starts to come out of the tomatoes. Stir in the chopped sausage and seasonings. Spoon carefully into the pepper halves. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until the peppers are soft. Serve hot. Top with grated Jack cheese or Soy Jack cheese if desired. Serves 2 to 5, depending on how hungry they are.

I'm thinking these would be delicious with sweet potatoes instead of the carrots as well. It would be a bit sweeter. Potatoes would work, too. Hmmmm ... I need to experiment some more.