Blog - Tuxedo Cat

September 11, 2013

Roasted Tomato Soup & Daiya Grilled Cheese

Tuxedo Cat 2013, Convenience foods, Dinner, Lunch, Vegan MoFo basil, chiffonade, CSA, Daiya, tomato soup, Vegan MoFO 2013, Vegan Urbanite

One of the great things about Vegan Mofo is seeing all of the creative themes and delicious recipes from bloggers around the world. I recently stumbled upon a simple recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup from Vegan Urbanite, a vegan who currently lives in South Korea but is from New Zealand. I still had a few beefsteak and heirloom tomatoes left over from my CSA share and wanted an easy way to prepare them. Never fear, the solution is here!

I followed most of her directions, except I kept the tomatoes cooking on the stovetop for another 20 minutes or so versus taking them off the heat and letting them just absorb the flavor. I used my immersion blender to puree the soup in the pot and garnished with basil strips (aka chiffonade for all the fancy chefs out there).

This soup was perfect! The tomatoes were sweet after all of the roasting and the light seasonings and other ingredients really rounded out the entree. I skipped adding coconut milk as I wanted to try it in its purest form. No regrets here! Even Mr. Tuxedo Cat, who is not a fan of tomato soup, really enjoyed this meal.

What tomato soup would be complete without a nice grilled cheese sandwich to accompany it? I quickly put together some Daiya Cheddar Shreds on whole wheat bread, sprayed with a little olive oil for frying, and voila!

It’s great for dipping too.

Overall, we’d rate the soup 4 out of 5 carrots on the veganlicious scale!

September 10, 2013

Vegan Treats

Tuxedo Cat 2013, Convenience foods, Desserts, Restaurant Reviews, Vegan MoFo bakery, Bethlehem, doughnuts, Entenmann's, ice cream, PA, peanut butter, Tandy Kakes, Tastykakes, Vegan Treats, veganmofo, VegNews Magazine

Being vegan can be a challenge for dessert lovers when traveling, at family functions, or birthday parties. It’s not very common that people are making cakes that happen to be vegan or that you can find vegan soft serve or doughnuts as easily as their non-vegan counterparts. However, once you step into the world of Vegan Treats that all fades away.

Vegan Treats is well known by many vegans in the Northeast. Their decadent desserts can be found in establishments and restaurants in the PA/NJ/NY area. If one gets the chance to make the pilgrimage to the storefront in Bethlehem, PA, it will be everything one can do to not buy everything in the place. There are adorable mini cakes, perfect for one person that make the sampling so much more fun and dangerous for your sweet tooth! They have many baked doughnut varieties and I swear their chocolate covered doughnut is reminiscent of Entenmann’s Rich Frosted Donuts. Ah, it brings back childhood memories!

Since finding vegan doughnuts is such a rare treat, I couldn’t stop with just the chocolate. I indulged myself with their cookies and cream filled doughnut and a sugar vanilla doughnut (not sure of the proper name, as I just kept pointing to what looked good when I ordered)!

I’m also in love with their soy-based vegan soft serve. They have two varieties at a time which allows you to indulge in a twist, if that’s your thing. One of the highlights of my most recent trip was their chocolate and cake batter twist. There was a slight salty flavor to the cake batter, which made it a perfect complement to the chocolate.

Labor Day 1 — Chocolate & Cake Batter Swirl

Since we were on our way to a family birthday party, I had to bring a cake to share. Just looking at their Peanut Butter Tandy cake (a throwback to Tastykake’s Kandy/Tandy Cakes), I knew I had to have it. It was described by my relatives as a cake unlike any other they’ve ever had. It was easily one of the best cakes I have ever eaten, probably in part, because of my own love of Tandy Kakes growing up. The layering of chocolate cake, peanut butter, and everything in between made it heavenly.

Our trip to Vegan Treats was topped off with a most pleasant surprise. We were asked at checkout if we wanted to fill out a short survey from VegNews Magazine, with Vegan Treats as a contender to win Best Vegan Bakery. As a lover of VegNews and food-related surveys, I agreed to take it. To thank me at the end, they gave me this rare chocolate dipped Speculoos filled cookie. For those who aren’t familiar with Speculoos, it’s a yummy, European based spiced shortbread biscuit, made even more popular by their spreads. On a family vacation last year to France, I had the pleasure of finally trying this amazing, already vegan delight! Highly recommended.

Ah, Vegan Treats, you had me at Speculoos! I am eagerly awaiting my next trip to your chocolate-peanut butter filled arms.

If you are ever anywhere within a 2-3 hour radius of Bethlehem, PA, do not stop, do not collect $200, go directly to Vegan Treats.

Vegan Treats gets the highest ranking on my veganlicious scale, 5 out of 5 carrots!

September 9, 2013

Spicy Chickpea & Sauerkraut Salad

Tuxedo Cat 2013, Dinner, Gluten-free, Lunch, Vegan MoFo chickpeas, Culture Shock, hot sauce, Ithaca, Marian Flaxman, salad, sauerkraut, The Gates, Vegan MoFO 2013

One upon a time, there was this bar/salad joint/froyo/kombucha place in Ithaca called Culture Shock. It specialized in fermented and gluten-free foods and tasty beverages. The salads, vegan frozen yogurt, and kombucha selections were awesome and creative.

My latest salad creation was inspired by the now defunct restaurant. But never fear, Marian Flaxman, the former owner of Culture Shock has recently opened The Gates with a new menu and is very vegan and gluten-free savvy! We are even having our next Ithaca Vegan Drinks meetup there because the vegan options sound so tasty.

Back to the recipe at hand.

Even though I was always a lover of sauerkraut, I never dreamed I would have it on a salad and would enjoy it so much. I also never considered putting hot sauce on a salad prior to Culture Shock either. Salad will never be the same after this. You are going to want this in your mouth.

Spicy Chickpea & Sauerkraut Salad
Serves 2-3

4 cups mixed greens
1 cucumber, sliced thin
1 to 1 1/2 cups chickpeas
1/2 cup sauerkraut
Frank’s Hot Sauce (to taste)
Balsamic vinaigrette, optional
Vegetarian bacon bits, optional

Layer all ingredients in a large bowl, in order starting from top to bottom. Serve immediately and enjoy!

September 7, 2013

Pizza Brain

Tuxedo Cat 2013, Convenience foods, Restaurant Reviews, Vegan MoFo Best of Philly, Little Baby's Ice Cream, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Magazine, pizza, Pizza Brain, tomato pie

One of the best things about originally being from New Jersey and having lived in Philadelphia as well, is knowing good pizza. The Philly/NJ/NYC area has many great Italian restaurants and pizzerias that I deeply miss when I’m in any other part of the country.

So whenever we are back in NJ or Philly visiting loved ones, we hit up places where I can get a good slice. Since going vegan many years ago, I’ve developed a penchant for tomato pie. The classic version is a sicilian-style, thick rectangular crust with tomato sauce, garlic on occasion, and no cheese. I’ll take other varieties (i.e. thinner crusts, an occasional veggie topping, etc.), as long as there is no cheese of any kind (plant-based or animal’s milk).

This past Labor Day weekend, we were in our home state and I picked up a copy of Philadelphia Magazine which was featuring the Best of Philly. I saw Pizza Brain, new to the Fishtown/Kensington area of Philadelphia (and featuring the world’s first museum of pizza culture) mentioned a few times as it was voted best pizza. We made sure to hit up Pizza Brain on our way back to upstate New York and we were not disappointed.

Pizza Brain carries the renowned Daiya vegan cheese, but we wanted straight up, old school tomato pie. Many people outside of the Philly metro area may think you’re crazy when you ask for pizza without the cheese, but true tomato heads know what’s up. A good slice of tomato pie is pizza in its purest form. Luckily, the proprietors of Pizza Brain must know this as well. The first pie on their menu is called the Tom and features a robust tomato sauce and fresh basil (yes, you can get Daiya cheese for $5 more, but it really isn’t necessary).
Some may scoff at $12 for a pizza, but this sucker was huge! We shared it amongst four of us, which breaks down to $1.50 a slice and it really is a steal. The crust was the perfect thickness, not too thin (although I love thinner crust too) and not too thick. The edges were chewy and filling. The sauce was amazing and rich, no skimping here. The flecks of fresh basil set it off as well and really completed the flavor profile.
The other wonderful thing about Pizza Brain’s location is that they are right next to Little Baby’s Ice Cream and even share a door connecting the two establishments. So right after you’ve had the best pizza ever, you can have a fantastic cone. They have many flavors of coconut based vegan ice cream that are phenomenal, but I’ll save those details for another post.

If you are in the Philly area and have the chance to go to Pizza Brain, I highly recommend it.

Overall, I’d rate this pizza 5 out of 5 carrots on the veganlicious scale!

September 5, 2013

Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta

Tuxedo Cat 2013, Dinner, Lunch, Vegan MoFo avocado, bruschetta, chimichurri, Natural Kitchen Cooking School, veganmofo

One of the many perks about being in the Natural Kitchen Cooking School was the healthy and delicious snacks the staff would have out for us to munch on in between doing food prep or listening to a nutrition lecture. We always had delicious herbal teas, some of my favorites being genmaicha (brown rice) tea or Japanese twig tea, along with some amazing dips, hummus, corn chips, etc. to delight in.

One day, one of the cooking assistants brought in this amazing guacamole (but much chunkier, thus the bruschetta label) that her daughter had made. It disappeared quickly as we dipped corn tortillas in it. The recipe was listed in Vegetarian Times and it is simply amazing! Guacamole with a super kick! The only change I’d make in the future is to reduce the amount of olive oil the recipe calls for. Other than that, it’s all systems go!

Overall, I’d rate this recipe a 4 1/2 out of 5 carrots on the veganlicious scale!