Soupy Sunday: Autumn Root Vegetable Dumpling Stew

This past week I hit a bit of a breaking point. I suddenly felt so incredibly burnt out. I've been spending so much time working - for a paycheck, on personal projects, on my social life - that I've neglected something I've always believed to be of great importance. Relaxation. So I've spent some time recharging my batteries and today inspiration finally returned.

At IKEA of all places.

I was buying some furniture with my mother and wondered around the little food mart near the store's exit. There is actually a surprising amount of vegan foodstuffs for sale at IKEA. I picked up a few things I'll be using later on but, somewhere between the lingonberry jam and mashed potatoes, I was struck by the desire to make a Swedish inspired stew for this week's Soup Sunday.

The only problem was, however, that most Swedish dishes are heavy on the animal products. Heavy to the point of being terribly difficult to veganize. As a result I present to you a Southern-Swedish fusion masterpiece: Autumn Root Vegetable Dumpling Stew. (Root vegetable soups and stew are fairly common in Scandinavian cuisine and dumplings are, well, pretty darn southern.)

Autumn Root Vegetable Dumpling Stew

Makes 6 Servings

Ingredients

For the Stew

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 carrots, sliced

2 parsnips, sliced

1 small beet, cubed

1/2 celery root, cubed

2 cloves garlic, finely diced or pressed

8 cups vegetable broth

2 tbsp arrowroot starch, dissolved in 1/3 cup cold water

2 tbsp ground flax

1/3 cup each fresh thyme, rosemary and chives, very finely diced

For the Dumplings

2 cups chick pea flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsweetened soy milk*

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine dry dumpling ingredients. Add milk and mix until a dough forms. Set aside.

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions until they begin to become soft and are aromatic. Add carrots, parsnips, beets and celery root. Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Add garlic to the vegetable mixture for the last 5 minutes of it's cook time. Add broth and bring to a full boil. Spoon bite-sized balls of dough into the boiling stew**. Turn heat to low, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add dissolved arrowroot and flax. Stir stew until it thickens, ensuring it does not burn***. Once stew is thick, remove from head and add herbs.

* Or rice milk. Or almond milk. Or which ever milk you prefer.

** As the dumplings begin to cook, your stew will get all kinds of foamy and strange looking. If it doesn't, you're doing something wrong.

*** I once burned a stew by adding some flour and then walking away instead of stirring continuously. It wound up tasting like a pot of pureed cigarette butts, which wasn't exactly what I was going for...

Soupy Sunday: Barley Soup for the Sick

I had said I was taking a break this weekend because I haven't been feeling well. But, then I wanted some soup and I figured if I was going to make some I might as well blog it. This is the kind of thing I like to eat when I'm all stuffy and headachy - hot, gingery, hearty yet fresh.

Barley Soup for the Sick

Makes 6 Servings

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 tbsp ginger

2 tbsp Italian spice blend*

2 cloves garlic, finely diced or pressed

8 cups vegetable broth

1 cup barley

3 medium carrots, chopped into 1/4'' disks

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 package Yves Chicken Veggie Strips

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions and sauté until soft, roughly 10 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and Italian spices and sauté 1 minute more. Add broth, turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, add barley and simmer for 20 minutes, until barley is al dente. Add celery and carrots and simmer 10 minutes more. Serve hot with toast and tea.

* My go to Italian spice blend is basil, oregano, marjoram and thyme. You can buy it pre-mixed or, mix up your own and store it in a nice looking glass jar. I really like storing things in pretty glass jars.

Niagara-on-the-Lake 2011: The Prince of Wales Hotel

My partner's mother said she wanted to stay in the nicest place in town... and so we did. The Prince of Wales Hotel sits on Main Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake's historic district. A few years ago it was completely renovated, to the tune of something outrageous like $30million, or so I heard a bellboy tell another guest.

If you ever have the chance to stay at The Prince of Wales, don't pass it up, it's ten notches above what you expect or hope it to be. Everything was made of polished marble, hardwood and brass. The swimming pool was filled with salt water, which was great because I have sensitive eyes and they weren't bothered at all. At the spa we all had fantastic massages and my masseuse was a particularly hilarious lady.

We had water and oranges in our room every morning and a long stem rose left on our pillow every night at turn-down. We extra loved the portrait that hung on the wall opposite the bed so that the Prince and his dog could always keep an eye on us. Oh, and, we had to deal with a king sized bed with a huge pillow top spread over the mattress. 

So what does this have to do with anything vegan? Well, I ate breakfast at the hotel twice, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day... or something like that. I'm actually not really a big breakfast person, probably because I'm not really into the idea of waking up during breakfast hours. I had a lot of hash browns and a HUGE bowl of oatmeal each morning. The oatmeal was the real stuff, too, not a quick cook grain in sight. It came with fresh fruit both times, and I stirred in various jams that came in the cutest little jars. My server seemed confused when I asked if anyone could make me a London Fog, so I made one myself with concentrated earl grey, hot soy milk and sugar.

We had dinner at Escabèche, the uber-fancy restaurant at The Prince of Wales but, that post will come tomorrow when it faces DeLuca's Wine Country Restaurant in an epic vegan dinner battle. And you know you want to check back to read that.

Niagara-on-the-Lake 2011: Frogpond Farm

My partner and his mother and I took a long-weekend vacation this past Labour Day and I'm gonna tell y'all ALL about it. Just not all at once. Let's start with the first winery we toured, the winery I was most excited to visit because it's all organic and better still, all vegan!

There are lots of people who don't realize that wine isn't always vegan, or even vegetarian, for that matter. As someone on a wine tour put it, "What animal died for this?!" [insert smug laughter here]. I took a breath and, as calmly as I could, explained that wines (and beers and liquors) can contain animal products either as an ingredient, or more likely, in the finings. (Finings are products used as filters, read more here!) Some common finings are: egg whites, milk, gelatin, isinglass, and even blood. Yes. Blood.

But Frogpond Farm uses (almost) only vegan friendly methods to make their wines. (Their 2001 Riesling used isinglass, everything else is vegan!)* You can read more about them on their website: frogpondfarm.ca. All tours at the farm are self-guided, which is actually pretty awesome. You can walk around with a glass of wine, sample the grapes right off the vine and chat with their sheep. I most enjoyed the 2008 cabernet-merlot, so much so I took a bottle home for myself and another for a gift.

(Check out the LCBO website for availability near you. Also, if you're in Toronto, Fresh restaurants serve Frogpond.)

*Source: Barnivore, which was last updated two years ago, however, I was informed over Labour Day weekend that their wines are still vegan.

A Farewell to Summer

A few weekends ago we went to visit my dad and his partner at their trailer. I was really excited to have some down time consider how hectic the last few months have been. It was relaxing if only for a day or two. We played Apples to Apples and cuddled with Chevy, their very majestic kitten. My manthing and I took a beautiful bike ride down some country lanes and through the little main strip in town. We didn't get to check out any of the shops or restaurants. There's always next time, though.

We stayed one night and both meals we ate were great. The afternoon we got there dinner was some modified confetti salad and kebabs. Lunch the following day was a really great stir-fry made by my dad's ladyfriend. She used a lot of the leftover veg we had in the fridge - mushrooms, zucchini, kale, carrots, green onions, probably some other stuff - and served it on white arborio rice. There was a side salad of avocados, cucumbers and tomatoes with lemon juice and olive oil. And of course it wouldn't be summer if there weren't some BBQ grilled corn on the cob.

Wild Mushroom Risotto

As a kid I absolutely hated mushrooms. There was something about the texture I found icky. Young me was prissy couldn't get past the idea that I was eating fungus. (I thought of fungus as poisonous, hairy, foul tasting and smelling stuff. Not at all appetizing.) So, I'm not really sure when I started to like my fungal friends but, now I love them. Raw, grilled, baked, sautéd, on their own or in stuff, I just love em.

(I apologize for this picture. I was making 1 million other dishes and left this pic until way too late. I lost all of my good light and the risotto cooled enough to lose its fluidity. I'm going to replace this photo the next time I make this recipe.)

I created this recipe based on a definitely un-vegan risotto I once saw made on TV. The biggest thing I learned was to whip in a fat and a goo into the dish right at the end. the technique as some sort of fancy Italian name that I can't remember but, all that matters is that it brings the dish together by providing a little bit of structure without causing it to lose its loose consistency. And plus it's fun to really aggressively whip something around in a pan.

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

1 cup dried porcini mushrooms

Extra-virgin olive oil

4 cups wild mushrooms, your choice, chopped*

2 cloves garlic, finely diced or pressed

1½ cups onion, finely diced 

2 cups Arborio rice

2 cups white wine**

6-8 cups vegetable stock

1 tbsp Earth Balance

1 tbsp ground flax

Salt to taste

Soak dried porcinis in 2-3 cups of hot water. Once mushrooms are soft, scoop them out of the liquid and puree them down to a paste. If needed, use a tablespoon or two of the soaking liquid to help puree. Separately set aside porcini paste and liquid.

Coat the bottom of a large, heavy bottomed pan with olive oil and heat over medium-high. Add chopped wild mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms release their liquid. Remove mushrooms and their liquid from the pan and set aside.

Once again, coat the bottom of the pan with oil. When the oil is hot, add onions and sauté until they are soft and aromatic. Add garlic and cook for 1 additional minute, be careful not to burn. Add rice and stir often – rice should become coated in oil – until the grains become translucent***. Add wine and stir often until it has been fully absorbed.

Ladle the porcini soaking liquid over the rice mixture to cover. Stir often until all of the liquid has been absorbed. Repeat this step using vegetable broth until rice is al dente. You want it to be fully cooked but, for it to have some bite still to it. During the last addition of broth, add sautéd mushrooms, 3-4 tbsp of porcini paste and check for seasoning. 

When the rice has reached the desired consistency, remove the pan from the heat. Add Earth Balance and flax. Mix vigorously for 30 seconds, you will notice the consistency of the risotto change as it pulls together more cohesively. Garnish with chives and serve hot.

* Mushrooms shrink considerably when cooked. Therefore, I recommend chopping them into pieces that are twice as large as you'd like to eat.

** Making sure your wine is vegan can be tricky. White wine especially is often filtered with bone char. Barnivore.com is a great website with an extensive listing of vegan wines, beers, and spirits.

*** Some grains will become fully translucent, others only around the edges. This is fine, your risotto will not be ruined, and nothing horrible will happen.

Savoury Sage Stuffing

Stuffing is crucial to a traditional holiday meal. It plays so many critical rolls: soaking up random gravy and other goos, accompanying other foods into your mouth for great flavour combinations, requiring little to no chewing so that you might continue to eat even though you're so stuffed (ha) with food that your comatose brain can't direct your jaw to properly open and close.

I've never been opposed to store-bought boxed stuffing. In fact, sometimes I whip some up and eat it just cause. If you mix it with mac and cheese it's pretty mind blowing but, this is all beside the point, which is that I have created for all of you a most magical, homemade stuffing. I've made a version of this recipe quite a few times but I made an addition recently that, I think, really makes a difference. It went from good to party-in-your-mouth status.

Savoury Sage Stuffing
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
12 cups fresh bread chunks*
1 cup Earth Balance
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh sage, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
1 cup vegetable broth, plus extra just in case
1 cup walnut creme**

Spread bread chunks evenly on one or two baking sheets. Toast at 350° for 10-15 minutes - until moisture is gone but, don't burn. Remove from oven and transfer to a large, rectangular baking dish. Leave oven at 350°.

Over medium heat, melt Earth Balance in a large frying pan. Sauté onions until soft and translucent. Add celery and sauté 5 minutes more. In a large bowl, combine vegetable mixture with parsley, sage, salt, pepper, flax, broth and walnut creme. Pour mixture over bread chunks and toss to evenly coat. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes more.

* I slice a fresh loaf and then cut one inch cubes. You don't have to make your bread chunks this big. You can even pulse your bread down to a coarse crumb.
** Take 1 cup of walnuts, put them in a container and just cover with water. Allow to soak for 30 minutes to overnight. Blend water and walnuts. Voila! Perfect walnut creme, every time!