Category Archives: Savory Recipes

May 2, 2013

Vegan Ceviche

Phew, let me tell you, it is so weird to be home again. But, definitely a relief. After a month of working my butt off in the windy, hot desert that is Coachella Valley, and not blogging at all, it is nice to be sitting comfortably at my desk and hanging out with my pups. I won’t lie, though, being forced to have a break from the internet was actually a good thing and eventually I just had to live with the fact that I would have no time to blog, etc. Before April, I was already having a hard enough time juggling my work with my personal life, and now I have to really re-access what my priorities are, but still reach my goals. Such is life!

Here are a few photos from my trip!

Pre-Coachella Show Day

Dust Storm Hellish-ness Weekend 1

About to watch Local Natives

Messin’ around in the Boutique Photo Booth

Some of our Inventory team on the last day!

One of the recipes that I made before I left, is something that I’m really excited about; especially since Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner! I had ceviche a few times in my life before I went vegan, and only once after that. The vegan version that I had was weird and involved fake shrimp which always gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I decided that I would make my own recipe!

This dish is more of a side, but may just steal the spotlight with how refreshing it is and its great flavors. Plus, it is REALLY easy to make. Once of the sneaky ingredients in it are oyster mushrooms, they have a slightly fishy scent/taste which makes this a well-rounded vegan ceviche. You can bring it to a party, serve it with a meal, make it whenever! I prefer to eat it with some salted tortilla chips and a beer. ;)

I can’t forget to mention that my mom loved this so much that she brought it to a get together with some of her quilting friends; and they all enjoyed it, too!

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April 18, 2013

Grilled Buffalo Tempeh Mozzarella Sandwich

Let me start off by saying that I miss the “real” world! I’ve been out here in Indio for two weeks and am so insanely busy. I have more and more posts saved up for you, but no time to get them up! And, cooking is out of the question, so I have almost 2 more weeks until I’m back in my kitchen at home and cooking up awesome dishes.

For those of you that didn’t hear, I’m on the inventory team in the merch tent for Coachella/Stagecoach, so I’m pretty much stuck in the desert for an entire month. What IS a relief is that I have some really great vegan options when it comes to show-day eats. Right now, there’s a Brazilian vegan booth with some great combo plates (including plantains!), a vegan Indian booth with lentil dahl, savory chutney and saffron rice, plus a RAW VEGAN booth! Pretty incredible to see veganism grow to change your typical food court booths, and even better to see it being a popular choice; even with Ruth’s Chris’ booth only a couple of stops over.

You may have heard that National Grilled Cheese day was this past Friday, and this here sandwich is my contribution to all of the great posts from that day. I tried out a new, vegan cheese substitute with this one and loved how it turned out. Plus, I absolutely adore buffalo anything, as long as it’s vegan; so this ended up being a magical combination. To make it slightly healthier I added some kale to the sautéed tempeh, which also adds great color and texture contrast. Don’t you love it when food looks as good as it tastes?

This recipe really comes together in almost no time at all, save for the sauteing of the tempeh. It’s pretty flexible as well; you can switch out the kale for almost any other green, and adding some diced red onion may just take this sandwich to another level! Maybe you prefer sourdough over seedy wheat breads, which sounds so good, or adding some tomato and avocado. Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my keyboard.

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March 22, 2013

Asparagus Portabella Risotto

Spring has begun, at least on the calendar, as I know many of you are still stuck in cold weather and snow. But, it also seems as though new things are popping up everywhere, and I’m not talking about plants. I’ll start with a little background on me, I went to school for product design and graduated with a BS in Industrial Design (no, that’s not designing factories). I worked in the field for a few years, until a quit my job a year and a half ago; that is when I started to seriously put work into my blog, freelance photography projects and basically doing whatever odd-jobs that I could to get by.

So far, that list has included doing vegan food tours for a couple of months, lots of merch gigs, writing articles and the occasional garage sale. ;) And for a few months, last year, I applied to many, MANY design jobs; nearly landing one, but it just didn’t work out. Lately, I’ve been wondering if I’d ever return to the industry in which I get my creativity from, feeling a loss. Then, yesterday, I get a call from one of my old co-workers and to keep it short, I’ll just say there is a good possibility of me returning to a full-time design position.

Oddly enough, the timing is not that great, seeing as how I’ll be gone nearly the entire month of April, doing work out in Indio for Coachella and Stagecoach. Lots of work and lots of heat, plus not a lot of computer time. But, I’m getting everything organized before I go so that you can have some awesome recipes to drool over. Now, I’m feeling more overwhelmed than ever, but feel as though everything will line up eventually, or I hope, at least. Ha!

I’ll keep you updated on that, but now, I have this delicious and satisfying risotto to show you! It’s creamy, yet still light enough to showcase some serious Spring flavors. Risotto used to intimidate me, for some reason, until I made my first one in the fall and it turned out great. So, don’t be intimidated by this rice dish with a fancy name. 

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March 13, 2013

Spring Soba Stir Fry

Wow, what a weekend! I realize it’s Tuesday, just kidding, it’s Wednesday. See, how messed up my schedule is? Either way, Expo West ended up being a lot of fun. I met some amazing bloggers, tasted some great products and overall had a good time checking everything out. But, right now I’m going through VYA Post-Expo syndrome; meaning, after eating samples all day for three or four days, cooking has become “inconvenient”. Ridiculous, right?

This means, that I’m gettin’ back into the groove of things this week; starting with this super easy recipe that uses Spring produce and great Asian flavors. I always recommend stir fries and sautes to people who are just getting into (vegan) cooking. It’s really easy to go by taste and looks with these types of dishes because there’s not a lot of chemistry involved, unlike baking.

In this case, we have some crunchy snap peas, fresh asparagus and a salty-sweet Hoisin sauce; combine that with only a couple more ingredients and BAM! You have dinner. Don’t you love it, when food is that easy?

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