Chocolate Horchata

Yesterday, I tried my hand at horchata. Horchata is a traditional beverage typically made of rice. It’s my understanding, though, that it can be made with other things such as almonds, barley or other seeds. The recipe that I used for Horchata came from the beautiful cookbook by Fran Costigan entitled Vegan Chocolate. There are so many recipes that I am planning to try from the book. Some, however, seem a little intimidating.

My horchata process began at the beginning of the week with my soaking some rice and blanching then soaking almonds as well. The blanching process was a new experience for me and actually pretty fun.

If you’ve never done so before, after boiling almonds quickly and then chilling them, the skin of the almonds is easily peeled right off. Anyway…so my rice and almonds were soaking in my refrigerator and last night I was able to quickly blend the final product right together in my VitaMix. I didn’t put as much ice as the recipe called for because I only had a 10 lb ice bag in my freezer and most of the ice was stuck together. I think this made the drink thicker than usual, which was one of my boyfriend’s initial comments. Also, I am very sensitive to almond extract…it is always very noticeable to me in dishes…so the 1/2 teaspoon made me initially not love the beverage. That said, I found myself going back and wanting to sip more. The boyfriend didn’t mind the extract at all. More of his comments at the bottom. I would definitely make the drink again, but I would leave the almond extract out just for my personal preference.

Preparation: Couldn’t be easier. Let rice and almonds soak, then dump a bunch of stuff in a blender and go!

Tastiness: Nice and thick (maybe because I should’ve added more ice, but I liked the consistency). Chocolatey and yummy…something that you sip, put away, but then can’t help going back to.

Likelihood I’d repeat: Definitely. It’s so easy and the boyfriend has already requested that I make more soon.

Non-vegan boyfriend’s thoughts: This drink was also described as bad ass, haha. I was told that I’ve been on a roll this week and that I should make this drink along with the cheesecake for the work potluck next week. He said the drink reminded him of champurrado before slyly asking how long it took to make and then responding with, “good, so you can make some more.” 🙂

UPDATES: The brownies from Vegan Diner have totally mellowed out and I love them. They are moist, chocolatey and have that perfect fudgy top. That said, if I make them again I will definitely still lessen the amount of coffee. I made the non-vegan boyfriend try the brownies again too. He likes them now as well. 🙂

Vegan Italian

Last night, I popped open my copy of Chloe Coscarelli’s Vegan Italian Kitchen. This book has amazing reviews on Amazon and beautiful pictures, so I have a ton of pages marked and am really excited to start cooking through some of the recipes. I wanted to keep it simple though, so I started off with the Garlic Bread Sticks.

I’m not really sure that I know how to knead bread properly – what I feel doesn’t ever match what recipes describe – and I’m not exactly comfortable kneading. Also, I could probably benefit from getting a KitchenAid mixer…I eye them any time I see them, but haven’t committed. Go figure. The dough did a number on my hand mixer.

The Noncommittal. Vegan. Stand mixer process

Also, after shaping my sticks and letting them rest for 45 minutes, they didn’t rise…but man, the end result was beautiful and delicious.

The Noncommittal. Vegan. Garlic Bread Sticks

I had some spaghetti to get rid of as well as some Gardein meatballs, so I simmered the meatballs in some roasted red pepper sauce from Whole Foods. While I did glance at Chloe’s recipe for spaghetti and meatballs, I didn’t make it. I did, however, doctor up my sauce by adding sriracha, almond milk, maple syrup and nutritional yeast.

The Noncommittal. Vegan. Inspiration.

The final result was flavorful. The sauce had a nice kick but the maple syrup soothed each kick of sriracha.

Preparation: I imagine if you know how to knead dough or have more suitable tools, this would be a breeze. My hands hurt a little by the end, but it was more fun than anything else.

Tastiness: Everything was awesome! I felt like a lego movie character…

Likelihood I’d Repeat: Very likely

Non-vegan boyfriend’s thoughts: I packed him a lunch of spaghetti and gardein balls with a breadstick on the side. I got a text about it being the most “bad ass” lunch ever. Then, when I saw him he said, “Did you make those breadsticks? Those breadsticks are bad ass.” His new favorite descriptor, I suppose…I like it. He also later told me that he was craving more of the breadsticks. I’d say another winner!

New York Cheesecake

When I was in high school, I used to bake and sell cheesecakes to my mother’s coworkers. It was great because the process was therapeutic for me, there was a profit, and I definitely ate (more than) my fair share of cheesecake. I know what I like cheesecake to taste like. A few weeks ago, I was dining in Chinatown at Veggie House in Las Vegas and decided to try their cheesecake. It was delicious, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, but I also didn’t want to pay what I paid for the size of the slice that I was given again.

You can imagine my excitement when I saw the cheesecake recipe in Doron Petersan’s Sticky Fingers’ Sweets cookbook.

The Noncommittal. Vegan. Sticky Fingers’ New York Cheesecake

All of the ingredients and steps in the process were what I remembered from my cheesecake making days. This recipe isn’t necessarily great for  those of you who are into mostly unprocessed foods…but this cheesecake is great for you if you ever have enjoyed a cheesecake.

Preparation: This is just like preparing any other cheesecake. The most annoying part is the springform pan and making sure that you have secured it to prevent leaks from the water bath. For the first time ever, unfortunately, I’m fairly certain that my water bath leaked a little…but whatever. My mistake.

Tastiness: This cheesecake is delicious! Thank goodness I have self-control, otherwise I could finish the entire thing right now. It makes me feel very nostalgic and happy. I love it and I’m looking forward to playing around with some of Doron Petersan’s flavored cheesecakes now…also the cheesecake cupcakes sound appetizing.

Likelihood I’d Repeat: Not a question of if I’ll repeat…the real question is when…

Non-vegan boyfriend’s thoughts: He mentioned how good it tastes to not have any milk in it. To quote him directly, “I could eat the whole thing by myself.” Also, several hours later while planning when we’d meet up, he requested that I bring him some cheesecake. I’d say it’s a winner.

The Noncommittal. Vegan. Sticky Fingers’ New York Cheesecake

Later,

The Noncommittal. Vegan.

Cooking up a storm…

So, I have officially started cooking through my cookbooks. I am not going through one book at a time. I will randomly select recipes from the many books that I have on my shelf. Also, I will not go through every single recipe in every single book. The goal, however, is to cook at least 10 recipes from each book to begin and see where this journey takes me. I started yesterday and have already made things from Samurai Salad, Vegan Diner, Sticky Finger’s Sweets, and am prepping something from Vegan Chocolate. I’ll go in order of what I have prepared and do a few short posts.

To begin, a few of my coworkers are planning on bringing a potluck lunch to work next Friday, February 13th. I have committed to bring a dessert. While I have my tried and true favorites, I want to bring something new. Initially, I was going to attempt to make the s’mores brownies from Stick Finger’s Sweets, but I don’t have a pastry torch …I suppose my broiler may suffice.

Anyway, I was flipping through my Vegan Diner cookbook by Julie Hasson and was called by the layer of chocolate resting on top of the brownie in the image for her Ooey-Gooey Brownies. So I prepared and made them.

The Noncommittal. Vegan. Ooey-gooey brownies from Vegan Diner

Preparation: This was very easy to prepare. Like most baked goods, it required separate bowls for wet and dry ingredients, mixing the contents of the two bowls and then baking. The chocolate fudge on top was also really easy – it can be prepped in under 90 seconds in the microwave with some mixing in between the time.

Tastiness: The recipe calls for 1 tbsp of finely ground coffee. I thought this was a lot. Upon tasting the brownies after they had cooled for about an hour, the coffee flavor was way too strong. I actually couldn’t really taste the chocolate. 24 hours later, however, they taste more like a brownie. Maybe the flavors needed to settle a bit.

Likelihood I’d Repeat: I love the fudgy topping, but I wouldn’t make these brownies again because of the overpowering coffee, or if I did, I would definitely at least half the amount requested.

Non-vegan boyfriend’s thoughts: Took one bite and didn’t want anymore. He actually suggested that I give them out at work.

More posts coming (very) soon! I’m having a great time so far.

The Noncommittal. Vegan.

Coming soon…

It may seem like after my initial posting, I have already quit before beginning. I have not! I have simply been on the prowl for the perfect camera for my vegan cookbook cooking venture. My old Canon has a heat spot on it, which doesn’t really affect the images, but for some reason it’s annoying enough to prevent me from using it. That said, I knew I wanted a Canon again that had the color accent feature. Necessary…not even a little bit. But hey, I want what I want 😉

The camera that I ordered arrives in two days, so I anticipate that I’ll be posting here my first food dish within the next week. I’m excited. I am no food photographer, however, but I would prefer to put pictures up that weren’t taken on my iPhone.

I will be providing my opinion on how easy/challenging it was to prepare each dish, the tastiness of the dish, the likelihood of me making the dish again, and what my very non-vegan boyfriend has to say about each dish. This should be interesting…

Sooner than later,

The Noncommittal. Vegan.

What This Is…

The Noncommittal Vegan. In reading those words together, I’d assume one would believe that I am not committed to veganism. That is not true. Those are merely two separate words that describe who I am and what this blog will be about. I am noncommital (quite frequently unfortunately). I am vegan (all the time).

Committing to veganism is not an issue for me. I have been faithfully vegan for the last five years and was vegetarian for quite a while before that…the title of the blog is misleading. My issue is committing to other things…I start things off excitedly and gradually that excitement fades until I’m left with a collection of unfinished business and underdeveloped ideas. This blog is my attempt to hold myself accountable. I want to document the adventures that I begin in hopes that maybe I will complete them.

I include vegan in the title of the blog because I’m also a foodie. One of my goals is to finally put all of the cookbooks that have been collecting dust on my bookcase to use. I’m kind of obsessed with vegan cookbooks (I literally just ordered 3 on Amazon before I opened this blog)…I look at the pictures, read the titles of recipes, salivate a little and then go about my business. Welp…I want to cook my way through a few of my cookbooks. And document it here.

I’m excited for what this may become…but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it fades after a few weeks. Here’s to hoping that I can keep this up!

Peace and blessings,
The Noncommital. Vegan.