Vegan Baked Banana French Toast (or is it Bread Pudding?)

     Do you know what is better than Saturday brunch? 

     Sunday Brunch. I say brunch because this is usually a dish I eat with Ryan, but seeing as I'm a morning bird, I've already had my morning coffee and a snack/first breakfast and have started doing homework or typing up a blog post (like this morning) before he wakes up. Anyways, I've got the perfect recipe for your Sunday brunch or breakfast: super easy baked banana french toast or bread pudding (really, it's all the same thing). Seriously, there are only a handful of ingredients and you only need to dirty one mixing bowl and of course whatever you are baking this bad boy in. Seeing as we prefer not to eat eggs here at No Empty Fridge, we make our custard base out of bananas, non-dairy milk and cornstarch. It really is that easy. Since we like to get a little extra protein boost in the A.M., I like to add some toasted walnuts to the mix. Turns out great. This baked french toast casserole is rather firm so that you can serve it with a spatula or a large flat spoon but it's still soft and creamy on the inside. If you like it more custardy, take it out of the oven earlier, or leave it in a smidgen longer if you like it firmer.

Serves: 2-4
Time: 15 min + bake 30 min 

Ingredients

• 4-6 pieces of bread, cut into 1" by 2-3" chunks, or left whole
• 1 large ripe banana
• 1 cup non-dairy milk, I use regular soy milk
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp canola oil
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
• Margarine

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. 
2. Place your walnuts, if using, in your baking dish (see below), and toast uncovered while your oven is getting up to temp. By the time your oven gets up to temp your walnuts should be toasted (depending on how fast your oven heats up), but if they don't yet seem toasted enough, you can toast them for a couple more minutes at 350°F, checking often to make sure they don't burn.
3. In a large mixing bowl mash banana until creamy, if your banana is really ripe you can do this with a whisk, otherwise use a fork.
4. Whisk in soy milk, cornstarch, cinnamon, vanilla extract and canola oil. Mix in chopped walnuts if using.
5. Coat all of the bread in the mixture. The older your bread is, the longer it will need to sit. Let sit for about 5-15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes to make sure all of your bread gets coated in and absorbs the banana custard.
6. While soaking up the banana custard, lightly grease a small baking dish, I use a 7"x7" square or a 9" oval  glass or ceramic baking dish.
7. Mix your bread mixture one last time before pouring into your baking dish. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving with fresh fruit and a strong coffee.

and ready to bake

Have any favourite vegan breakfast or brunch options? Let me know!

Vegan Spinach and Black Bean Enchiladas

   I've made these a couple of times now, and absolutely love them. The first time I made enchiladas, Ryan came home from work, saw them in the baking dish as asked "Mexican manicotti?". Yea, pretty much. A tomato-y sauce, a tortilla instead of the pasta, and a tasty filling. That's pretty much it, right? 

     Enchiladas are extremely versatile and can be packed full of whatever your little heart desires. My personal favourite is a mixture of quinoa with black beans, spinach, corn and green onions. Super tasty, and besides rolling the enchiladas, there is minimal prep. I've included a pretty easy recipe for enchilada sauce, a thin tomato sauce seasoned with smoked and hot spices, along with cumin and coriander. But alternatively, if you want to make this recipe even easier, you can used canned or jarred, pre-made enchilada sauce, normally in the Mexican section of grocery stores next to the taco kits and what-not, though I am not sure if they're vegan (I've just never looked).

Serves: 4-6
Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 8-10 12" Tortilla wraps
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 can black beans, strained and rinsed
• 4 green onions, washed and chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro, washed, stems removed and chopped
• 1 cup spinach, chiffonaded or finely chopped and packed tightly
• 1 1/2 cup frozen corn (thawed)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp coriander

Sauce (optional)

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp each of onion powder, chili powder, smoked chipotle, smoked paprika, cooriander and salt
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp cold water
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Cook quinoa: either follow package instructions or place quinoa in a microwave-safe bowl with 1 1/2 cups water and cook for 8 minutes on 60% power, then 5 minutes at full/100% power. Remove from microwave when all water is absorbed, if any water remains, microwave for additional 1 minute increments at 100% until quinoa has completely absorbed liquid. Let cool.
2. Meanwhile, start the sauce if using. In a medium sauce pan, on medium heat, warm olive oil with garlic until fragrant. Toss in all the spices to quickly toast, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste, and slowly incorporate the broth and water while stirring. Continue to stir the sauce while incorporating the cornstarch and water mixture. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until thickened (will thicken more as it cools). 
3. While your sauce is cooking, mix together all filling ingredients in a large bowl. 
4. Preheat oven to 375°F and coat the bottom of a large rectangular pyrex dish (9x13") with a bit of sauce.
5. Start rolling! Evenly distribute the filling among the tortillas, roll up (you can leave the ends open or closed, it's up to you) and place seam down in the baking dish.
6. Cover enchiladas with the remainder of the sauce and bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes.
7. Serve with a guacamole for a tasty treat!

Vegan Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake

     February sixth has come again, which means that Ryan's another year older. I was thinking of making Ryan a lemon poppy seed cake, but he decided that he wanted a chocolate beetroot cake. So here is my recipe! It's light and fudgy and absolutely delicious.

     I tried to look up a vegan recipe online but there weren't really any that suited our needs. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple out there, but there where a couple things I needed to have in this cake, like espresso (Ryan's request), boiled beetroot rather than roasted so that I could use the water for the liquid in the recipe, and a light but fudgy product. So, I used my favourite chocolate cake recipe, and umphed it up with some luscious beet purée and a long shot of espresso... as well as a couple other changes to try and get the right texture and moisture content. 

     This cake turned out wonderfully! Ryan couldn't believe how moist but fluffy this cake was. Moist chocolaty goodness, why not? I've also paired the cake with a poppy seed butter cream, a fun spin off of the usual, but nothing to flavourful so that it doesn't outshine the cake.

Serves: 6-10
Time: 30 minutes prep, 30-45 minutes cook

Ingredients

• 4 medium beets, about 400 g, trimmed, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
• 1 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose-flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1 cup beet water, or water
• 1 long espresso (2-4 Tbsp)
• 1/2 canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Poppy Seed Butter Cream

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered/confectioners sugar
• 2 Tbsp soy milk
• 2 - 3 Tbsp poppy seeds

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Wash, trim and peel beetroot (you might want to wear some gloves). Cut into 2" pieces. Place in a medium pot, rinse once, and then cover with about 2" of water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender (they should be easily pierced with a fork), about 30 minutes. Check water level every ten minutes, and top up with a bit of water if too much boils off.
3. Poor beet water into a glass measuring cup, keep one (1) cup, and discard the rest, or of there is less than a cup, top it up with warm water.
4. Purée beetroots with a food processor or an immersion blender. As much as I love my food processor, beets are a bit messy so I tend to choose the stick blender for this task.
5. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa, leavening agents and salt.
6. While whisking, slowly add in the wet ingredients: beet purée, beet water, espresso, canola oil and vanilla extract. Mix well until smooth.
7. Lightly grease your baking pans, either two 9" round baking pans or a bunt pan, and if possible, also line with parchment paper.
8. If using the two round pans, equally distribute the batter between them. On a flat surface, bang the pans a couple of times, and then swirl or spin so that there is more batter around the edges of the cake pan than the center. This will help you get flatter cakes rather than really rounded cakes.
9. Bake in the oven at 350°F for 30-35 minutes (two pans) or 40-45 minutes (bunt pan).
10. Lick spoon (it's tasty. Seriously).
11. When done baking, you should be able to pierce the center of the cake with a tooth pick or a knife and have it come out clean. 
12. Let cool on a wire rack in the cake pans for 30 minutes, then delicately remove from the cake pans, and let cool an additional 30 minutes, still on wire rack, before icing or glazing.
13. To make the poppy seed butter cream, whisk together the margarine with the vanilla extract, then slowly whisk in the powdered sugar. Then whisk in the soy milk and the poppy seeds, you can use a little or less soy milk to achieve your desired texture. This can be done by hand, or using an electric mixer, your preference.
14. Ice and enjoy.

Green Monster Smoothie

     Smoothie time followers! So this is my first official smoothie post. It wasn't till recently that I started blending up some awesome smoothies....You know, after I got my shiny new high-speed blender for Christmas. I made an exceptional Green monster the other day and thought I would share it with you all.
Perks of this smoothie: 2 servings of fruit, 1 serving of green veg, 1 serving of dairy alternatives and 1 (or 2) servings of deliciousness. And if you want to get a serving of protein in your smoothie too, just add 2 Tbsp nut butter. 

     I used frozen peach in this smoothie instead of my typical frozen banana, and it turned out great! But if you don't have the frozen peach, you can substitute it for a banana. And because of the chia seeds, this is a great on-the-go smoothie because it won't get all watery.

Serves: 1 large (about 650mL) or 2 small
Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 medium peach, cut and frozen
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 cup spinach, loosely packed
• 1 small chunk of ginger, about 1/4"x1/2" (about 1/2 tsp ginger paste)
• 1 cup soy milk or almond milk
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds
• 3-4 ice cubes
• (optional: 2 Tbsp nut butter)

Preparation

1. Put all ingredients in a high speed blender, blend on high (purée or liquify) for about 2 minutes or until smooth.
2. Serve in a mason jar (because not many people have a cup big enough to fit 650mL, and if it's too much goodness for one sitting you can put the lid on and save it for later)
3. Since there's chia seeds in this smoothie, it stays thick for longer than a normal smoothie and thus can be made in advance. 

Black Quinoa and Cremini Collard Rolls with Tahina Dipping Sauce

     While I was at my parents house over the holidays, I had quite a few opportunities to experiment in the kitchen. I pretty much spent my entire two week vacation in the kitchen, which is exactly what I like to do on my time off. I had been thinking up this recipe for quite some time and knew it would be perfect for hors d'oeuvre for either Christmas eve or New Years eve. More an hors d'oeuvre than an appetizer, these finger sized rolls can be eaten with your fingers with a glass of wine in your other hand while chatting with friends and family. 

     This is a two part recipe, first the rolls and then the dipping sauce. When conceptualizing the rolls, I wanted something that would be fresh but nutty. For the freshness I used lemon. There's lemon everywhere in this dish: in the rolls, on top of the rolls and in the sauce, without being too lemony. As for the nuttyness, I chose a dark quinoa. I chose black quinoa, but any quinoa would work in this dish. Collard greens are a great vessel for these small rolls. Unlike cabbage rolls, collard greens are easy to manipulate when rolling and tend to stick to themselves after they are blanched. All of this results in a sturdy roll that can be dipped in tahina for a tasty treat.

     Tahina (salatit tahina) is a Middle eastern sauce of tahini (sesame seed paste), lemon and water, and sometimes garlic (though not included in my recipe below). If tahini is new to you, you can usually locate it in the ethnic food sections of larger grocery stores and even in the canned goods section of some dollarstores. Tahina complements these rolls perfectly, so don't neglect it. The rolls really aren't the same by themselves. If you take a look at the measurements for the dip below, you'll notice they aren't that exact. Truth behold, every brand of tahini is different, it might be thicker or oilier, and depending on these properties you may need more or less water, and the proportion of salt and lemon juice will need to be adjusted accordingly. Just taste as you go, and once it is a good consistency, adjust to your tastes. This dip is very versatile, and can be further watered down to create a tasty salad dressing.

Serves: 8-12 (2 servings each) to 16-24 (1 serving each)

Ingredients

Quinoa and Cremini Collard Rolls

• 1 medium bunch of collard greens (large leafs) (alternatively, use swiss chard if you cannot find collards)
• 1/2 cup black quinoa, or red if black is not available
• 8 oz cremini or white mushrooms* 
• 1 large white onion
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 juiced, about 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 sliced, put aside for later
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley or 1/2 tbsp fresh parsley
• 1/8 tsp each of salt and pepper

*Try and use as many cremini mushrooms as possibly as they have a more robust flavour than the white button mushrooms, I only used white buttons when I photographed the recipe because we had run out of our creminis.

Tahina Dip (Salatit Tahina)

• 1/3 cup tahini
• ~1/3 cup water
• 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice, or to taste
• ~1/4 tsp salt or to taste
• A quick grind of black pepper to garnish

Preparation

1. Put a large pot of water on the stove top, cover, and bring to a boil. While its heating up, wash your collards. Once the water is boiling, put the collard greens (stem still in) in the boiling water, and blanch for about 3 minutes or until the leaves are a rich green. 
2. Meanwhile, prepare a large metal or plastic mixing bowl with cold water, you can add ice to make it colder if you can't get the temperature down enough. After 3 minutes remove the collards and submerge in the ice bath to cool them down so that they are cool enough to handle. Lay out the leaves in a single layer between two tea towels to dry.
3. In a large microwaveable soup bowl combine 1/2 cup quinoa with 1 cup of water. Seal closed the bowl with plastic wrap and then microwave at 60% for 8 minutes, then stir, then microwave for another 5 minutes, this time at 100%. Remove from the microwave, if any water remains, microwave for additional minutes, one at a time at 100%, until all the water is absorbed. Alternatively you can cook your quinoa on the stove top as per manufacturers instructions. Let cool.
4. While your quinoa is in the microwave, wash you mushrooms with a damp cloth. Cut the stems off your mushrooms and discard the waste from your onion. The mushrooms and onion can then be given a fine chop, or rough mince. You can do this by hand or you can do this in a food processor (so much easier, I love my food processor), on a medium speed in pulses. 
5. Heat up a large pan with olive oil and sauté the onion and mushrooms, until the water has been released and evaporated, about 10-15 minutes.
6. Mix quinoa, mushroom and onion mixture, lemon juice, and spices. This will be your filling. 
7. Cut the vein out of the collard greens, cutting the large leaves in half so that you have two leaf-segments to use for the collard rolls.
8. Place one heaping tablespoon in the center of the leaf, fold in the two sides and roll like a burrito, making sure to keep it all tight.
9. Place the rolls in a 9" x 9" pyrex dish, pack tightly, seam down so that the rolls don't unroll, until they are cooked (they are still a bit fragile).
10. Place the sliced lemons on top of the rolls (if you are refrigerating, wait till you are about to put the dish in the oven to put the lemons on) and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 25 minutes or until the rolls are hot and steamy. 
11. Meanwhile prepare the tahina, by shaking (or whisking vigorously) together the tahini and the water, start with only 1/4 cup water and add more as you go. If your tahini is loose, you may not need to add all the water. Mix in the lemon and salt, add more to your liking. 
12. Serve the rolls warm next to a bowl of tahina and enjoy with friends or family.

Vegan Cabbage Rolls and a Holiday Review

        It seems that the minute I got back in Toronto I haven't stopped. I know what you're thinking: school has just begun, how can you already be swamped? Well let me assure you, it isn't difficult. As much as I always look forward to going back to school, there is something ominous about the first week back. Teachers read out the syllabi, and you feverishly write down everything you have to do in your agenda. Well the first week has come to a close, and I feel that I am already behind, mind you I've been working my butt off. 

     So, for a break, I bring to you my delicious cabbage rolls and a review of my holidays in the Bay. I'll start with the cabbage rolls, which I served at New Year's Day dinner. Vegan cabbage rolls are a great dish to bring to pot lucks because they can easily be made ahead and they please veg-heads and meat-eater alike. After eating a couple servings of these bad boys, one of my cousins told me that she had no idea what was in them — knowing that it couldn't be meat if the Boileau's brought them — but that they were delicious. My mother and I then went on to explain TVP to the whole family (there was just under 30 of us at the dinner table).

     TVP or textured vegetable protein is a soy product used in simulated meat products and as a substitute for ground meat for vegetarians. TVP is made by removing the fat from soy flour, and the byproduct of soybean oil extraction. It comes in small granules in its classic form but can also be bought at health food stores or in the natural food isle as soy chunks. Because TVP is a dry protect, it absorbs the flavour of anything you throw at it, which makes it a very versatile ingredient. 

     Shown above is the results of a double batch, which can be accomplished with one large head of cabbage. This recipe freezes well, so go ahead and double up on all the other ingredients if you want to make enough to last a while and use up the whole cabbage.

Serves: 8-12

Ingredients

• 1 large cabbage, frozen and defrosted
• 2/3 cup dry long or medium grain white rice and 1 1/3 cup water (or 2 cups prepared rice)
• 3/4 cup dry TVP
• 3/4 cup low sodium vegetable broth

Sauce:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/8 tsp red chili flakes, or to taste
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 2 18oz cans of tomatoes 
• 3/4 cup vegetable stock

Filling:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced roughly 
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 5.5 oz can of tomato paste
• 1/8 cup red wine
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley, or 1 Tbsp dry
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Prepare your rice as per package directions, either in a pot on the stove or in a ice cooker.
2. Hydrate TVP with equal amounts of boiling low-sodium vegetable broth (alternatively, can use half broth, half water). Just pour the broth on top of the TVP in a medium bowl, mix quickly with a fork, then cover with plastic wrap and let steam.
3. Start preparing the sauce by warming a medium sauce pot over medium heat with olive oil. Sauté garlic and herbs until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the wine to the sauce, and let simmer for a couple of minutes to burn off the alcohol before adding the tomatoes and the vegetable stock. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes before removing from heat. The end sauce should be waterier than a typical pasta sauce to keep the cabbage rolls moist in the oven. No one likes dry rolls.
5. In your largest stock pot, or whichever pot fits your cabbage, fill with water until the water covers the cabbage (if possible, you may need to roll your cabbage in the water later if your pot isn't big enough) then remove the cabbage and set aside, bring cabbage-less water to a boil.
6. Start the cabbage roll filling: in a large sauté pan or wok on medium heat, heat up some olive oil, and sauté onions and garlic for 5 minutes, or until onions are translucent. 
7. Whisk in the tomato paste, red wine, soy sauce, parsley, coriander and cumin, along with 1/2 cup of the prepared sauce. 
8. Into the base of the filling, fold in the rice and TVP. Mix well and remove from heat.
9. With a paring knife, remove the hard core of the cabbage. place the cabbage in the boiling water and let boil for a couple minutes, or until the leaves start falling off a bit. As the leaves loosen up, remove from the head with a pair of tongues and set aside. Repeat this step until you feel that you have enough leaves, at least 12 but it's better to cook a few extra or leave the water on until all the rolls are rolled.
10. Meanwhile, prepare your 9x13" (or larger) baking dish by ladling in a couple spoonfuls of the sauce, enough so that there is a thin layer of sauce coating the bottom of the pan to prevent the cabbage rolls from sticking.
11. When enough cabbage leaves have been harvested and are cool enough to handle, remove any large veins or hard chunks. (These can be used in a soup of for a vegetable stock.) As you get to the center of the cabbage, more and more of the leaf will be hard, so you may want to overlap a couple of leaves if need be, or adjust the amount of filling accordingly.
12. When you are ready to roll, layout the cabbage leaf with the space where the vein used to be facing you. Overlap the two sides of the leaves so that there is no hole where you are about to spoon on the filling.
13. Spoon on about 1/3-1/2 cup of the filling into the middle of the cabbage leaves, making sure not to overfill the leaves to avoid spillage. Roll the filling up like a burrito: fold in the ends and hold with your outer fingers while you use your thumbs and inner fingers to fold the side closest you over the filling and roll tightly away from you to close. Place the cabbage rolls, seam face down, in the sauced baking dish.
14. Continue to roll your cabbage rolls until all the filling is used up and pack tightly in the baking dish so that your rolls stay together.
15. Poor the remainder of the tomato sauce over your beautiful cabbage rolls.
16. You can now refrigerated your cabbage rolls  for up to 3 days until you are ready to bake them or bake them immediately in a preheated 350°F oven for one (1) hour covered with aluminum foil.
17. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Our Holidays

     I always love going home for the holidays. What's not to love: food, drink, family and sleep? I'm a fan of it all!

Christmas Brunch at the Boileau's

Christmas Dinner with Ryan's Family

Boxing Dinner at the Boileau's

New Year's Eve Games

New Year's Day Dinner 

Toasted Walnut and Beet Salad

     Beets are one of those vegetables that I don't often get to cook at home (mostly because I'm too lazy to clean them) but that I commonly eat when I am visiting my parents'. I've been in North Bay for just over a week and I think that we've had beetroots five times. So needless to say, we all love beets. 

     Beets are a carb-loaded winter vegetable that can be enjoyed boiled or roasted, hot or cold, plain or dressed. This salad isn't too sweet, and has a lot of zing! and crunch, walnuts are great for crunch.This salad can be made with roasted or boiled beets, it's completely up to you. If you are making a big batch of beets, you can also use plain leftover beets to make this salad.

Serves: 4-8

Ingredients

• 6-8 medium beets, stems and ends removed
• 3/4-1 cup (3 oz) walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 3 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard, coarse or smooth
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Cook beetroot; while cooking you can prepare steps 3 and 5.
• Roasted: wrap in tinfoil and bake at 400°F for about 60 minutes or until tender.
• Boiled: cook beets in boiling water for about 60 minutes.
2. Let the beets cool, then peel and cut into thick slices.
3. Toast walnuts in the oven at 400°F for about 8 minutes on a baking sheet (or in a pan on low heat for 5 minutes).
4. Slice onions and place in a small bowl to marinate for 10 minutes in the 3 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar.
5. To prepare the dressing, whisk together all other ingredients in a small bowl. 
6. When all ingredients are prepared, mixed together the beets, walnuts, onions (you can also add the leftover vinegar), and the dressing. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
7. Serve cool or at room temperature along side your favourite main, I served mine with veggie pot pie.