smokey spinach salad

this salad is inspired by an amazing salad i had at maitrea vegetarian restaurant in prague. really easy and really delicious.

Salad

spinach (or other greens)
sun-dried tomatoes in oil (cut into bite-size pieces)
smoked tofu (cut into bite-size pieces)
optional: avocado, pine-nuts, thinly sliced onion

Dressing

olive oil (from the sun-dried tomatoes, perhaps)
balsamic vinegar reduction
agave nectar (or a light sprinkle of something else sweet--honey, sugar, etc)
salt & pepper

Toss the ingredients together.. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic reduction, a tiny bit of agave nectar for sweetness.. and then salt & pepper to taste.

nectarine and almond crumble pie

strange, it seems nectarines are not popular for pies, as i found it really difficult to find a good nectarine pie recipe online.. i get the impression people are far more fond of peach pie recipes, though this one was a hit at the dinner i served it at!

this recipe is adapted from:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/nectarine-pie-almond-topping.html#

Crust

Dough for 1 single-crust pie crust

Filling

4 cups pitted and sliced ripe nectarines, unpeeled (about six nectarines)
1/3 cup sugar (more or less depending on how ripe the nectarines are)
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Almond Crumb Topping

1/2 cup whole or slivered almonds

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons margarine butter, cut into pieces

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Spread the pie crust into the pie tin.

In a large bowl, combine the nectarines, 1/3 cup of the sugar, lemon juice and almond extract. Stir in the corn starch. Fill the pie crust will the fruit. Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the topping. Combine the almonds and the sugar in a food processor, pulsing in short bursts to chop the almonds well. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt and pulse briefly to mix. Scatter the margarine over the dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Dump the crumbs into a large bowl and rub between your fingers to make large, chunky crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Remove the pie from the oven and reduce the temperature to 375F. Carefully spread the almond crumb topping over the pie. Continue to bake until the juices bubble thickly around the edge, 30 to 40 minutes.

vegan cupcakes *have* taken over the world!

we already knew that vegan cupcakes are the best :-).. seems the rest of the world is just catching up on the news:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/tasty-vegan-food-cupcakes-show-it-can-be-done/?ref=health

aminata's favorite raisin bread

(a recipe for the bread machine)

add the following ingredients (in this order) into your bread machine.

• 275 ml water
• 30 g margarine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 T sugar, maple syrup (more if you want it sweeter)
• 500g flour (i usually use a mixture of 400g white flour, 100g whole wheat flour)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 3/4 packet dry yeast
• handful of raisins
  

bake on RAPID (~2 hours) setting. this will produce a 0.9kg loaf of delicious cinnamon raisin bread :-)

welcome!

welcome to the vegfriends blog.. a place for vegetarian friends and friends of vegetarians to get together and exchange recipe ideas!