Bulghur Salad with Walnuts

I have a vast cookbook collection, and as so often happens, some tend to just sit on the shelf.

I set a goal to make a dish from every cookbook I own - guess that will justify my habit!

This simple dish came from a Mediterranean Cooking CB (Claudia Roden)

3/4 Cup fine or med. ground Bulghur

6 medium tomatoes, peeled and pureed in a food processor (or use canned)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 teas. tomato paste

3-4 T. Olive Oil

Salt

Chili flakes or Chili Powder to taste

1 small mild onion or 5 scallions, finely chopped

2/3 cup walnuts or pistachios.

Mix the bulghur with the tomatoes, lemon juice and tomato paste and set aside for 1 hour (it took mine 2 hours) or until the grain has absorbed the juice and become tender. Add oil, salt and chili flakes to taste. Just before serving, add the onion and walnuts.

Hot Vegan German Potato Salad

Chef Patrick made this delicious potato salad and I can't wait to try it out tonight. He did all the hard work, I just have to heat it up!!

Indian

Chef Patrick gave me the recipe for this dish. I used Eggplant, Potato and Peas. Another version would be Cauliflower instead of Eggplant.

Chef Patrick's Veggie Torte

Patrick made this incredible Torte from farm co-op veggies - looks too beautiful to eat.

Just replace topping with Soy Butter and Parm. for vegan version.

Banana Bread

Recipe submitted by whirledpeaz, 01/21/09

Beautiful Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 bananas

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (depending on how much you like cinnamon)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas well with a fork or potato masher. Add applesauce, maple syrup, sugar and flax seeds and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and mix thoroughly. (Or you don't have to do this step if you don't feel like it, it works just as well to just dump all the dry ingredients into the wet without mixing first.)

Add the dry to the wet and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Add nuts if you're using them.

Pour into a regular sized loaf pan sprayed with non-stick spray and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. (Or until the loaf starts to turn golden brown and the toothpick test is successful. Just keep an eye on it.)

Remove loaf pan from oven and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer loaf to wire rack and let cool completely, or as long as you can wait.

Chillin & Grillin

Grilled BBQ Tempeh & Veggies.

Chocolate Bundt Cake (Veganomicon Cookbook)

Veganomicon cookbook (Isa Chandra & Terry Hope Romero)

I made this for Mother's day. My parents requested Enchiladas which I made with refried beans and seasoned Tempeh - it's their favorite. Only had a picture of the dessert. Isn't that the most important part of the meal anyway? A little soy ice cream on the side never hurts!

Lower-Fat Deep Chocolate Bundt Cake: Veganomicon CB (Isa Chandra & Terry Romero)

1 3/4 cups fresh brewed coffee

2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (I used less and it was still sweet)

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup applesauce

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 t. vanilla extract

1 t. almond extract

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose white flour

1 t. baking soda

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

2 t. confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 or 10 inch Bundt pan.

Bring the coffee to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Once it is simmering, turn down the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until it has dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside to bring to room temp.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, canola oil, applesauce, and cornstarch until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved, about 2 min. Mix in the extracts. Once the chocolate has ooled a bit, mix that in as well.

Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. beat until relatively smooth, about 1 minute with a hand mixer or 2 min. with a whisk.

Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for about 45 min, until a toothpick or butter knife inserted through it's center comes out clean. If your pan is on the smaller side, it could take up to 55 min.

Remove from oven and let cool for approx. 20 min, then invert onto a serving plate to cool completely. Once cool, sift confectioners' sugar over the top.