Posted on
November 01, 2021 by
The VRG Blog Editor
World Vegan Day is celebrated on November 1st
each year! World Vegan Day first occurred on November 1st, 1994 as a way of
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Kingdom Vegan Society and the
term Vegan. Consider treating a non-veggie friend or co-worker to a delicious
vegan meal today. This way you support vegan establishments while showing
others how wonderful vegan food can be.
Imagine a pair of spooky eyes staring up at you from a plate
of pale orange strands (or, could it be hair?), topped with red sauce. Then
picture “bones” to dip into more red sauce (blood?) and you have the makings of
a Halloween dinner.
Vegan Eye Balls (Adapted from Vive le Vegan! By Dreena Burton)
(makes 18
balls)
7 ounces
firm or extra-firm tofu, torn or cut into pieces
1 Tablespoon
cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon
reduced sodium soy sauce
1½ Tablespoons
catsup
1 teaspoon
minced garlic (or to taste)
1 teaspoon
oregano
1 Tablespoon
nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tablespoon
olive oil plus additional oil for baking sheet
Pepper to
taste
1½ cups
breadcrumbs
½ cup
quick-cooking oats (uncooked)
18 pitted olives (pimiento stuffed olives are a nice
touch, but black or green olives would also work)
Preheat oven
to 375 degrees Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drizzle on a little
olive oil. In a food processor, purée tofu until smooth. Add remaining
ingredients except breadcrumbs, oats and olives and process until smooth.
Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in breadcrumbs and oats. Let sit for 5
minutes to firm up. The mixture should hold together – add more breadcrumbs if
necessary. Form mixture into balls about the size of
a golf ball, carefully pressing an olive into each ball, and place on
the baking sheet, olive facing up. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
Spaghetti
Squash
You can
start baking this while you prepare the “eye balls.” Cut a spaghetti squash in
half lengthwise and place cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake
at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until squash is soft. Remove from oven and
let cool enough to handle. Remove seeds. Use a fork to comb through the squash,
separating the strands. Place the strands in a serving bowl.
Top the
spaghetti squash (or you can use regular spaghetti) with pasta sauce (homemade
or your favorite vegan brand) and then add a couple of “eye balls.”
Breadstick “Bones” (Adapted from The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, edited by Louise Hagler)
(makes 15 small breadsticks)
1 teaspoon
vegan sugar
1 Tablespoon
baking yeast
6 Tablespoons
warm water
1 Tablespoon
olive oil
1 cup
all-purpose flour
½ cup wheat
flour
½ teaspoon
salt
2 Tablespoons
nutritional yeast flakes
In a medium
bowl, combine sugar and baking yeast and add warm water. Stir and let proof for
5 minutes. Add olive oil, all-purpose flour, wheat flour, salt, and nutritional
yeast and stir, adding water or flour to make a smooth dough. Knead dough for 5
minutes. Form dough into relatively thin bones shapes (or just make thin
breadsticks), place on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, and let rise for
an hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 9 minutes or until done. Serve
with a small bowl of pasta sauce for dipping.
A perfect easy dessert or brunch dish to share! This simple recipe by Leslie Gray Streeter will come together in a snap and please any crowd. Toss together chopped apples (or pears) with seasonings and an oatmeal crumb topping. Everything goes on one sheet pan and into the oven. For a decadent treat, serve with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream!
The Vegetarian Resource Group maintains an online Guide to
Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants in the USA
and Canada.
Here are some recent vegan restaurant additions. The entire guide can be found
here: http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php
To support the updating of this online
restaurant guide, please donate at: www.vrg.org/donate
Here are some new additions to VRG’s
guide (Note: Due to the COVID-19
pandemic many are doing take-out and/or delivery now):
Blondie’s Food Truck, 411 Pacific St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Situated in a Lowe’s parking lot, this
food truck offers dishes such as a breakfast sandwich, veggie burgers, BBQ
chik’n bowl, tacos, and more.
Freakin’ Vegan, 321 N. 8th St., Prospect Park, NJ 07508
Enjoy a wide variety of empanadas, mac
n cheese dishes, subs/sliders, pizza, and desserts.
GreenPot, 86 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11222
Owned by two sisters, GreenPot serves
up a variety of coffee, pastries, vegan egg salad, sandwiches, and more.
Next Stop Vegan, 1818
Archer St., Bronx, NY 10460 and 1636 St. Nicholas Ave., New York, NY 10040
Enjoy sandwiches, wraps and bowls, and
tostones with many veggie “meat” items at this Latina establishment. Some items
are served in a fried plantain bowl!
Pure Vegan Café, 716 Slash Pine Dr., Cary, NC 27519 and 8369 Creedmoor Rd., Raleigh, NC 27613
Inspired by both a loved one’s illness
and Ayurvedic principles, the café’s founder aims to bring healthy (and tasty)
options to her community. Although probably best known for its fresh juices and
acai bowls, Pure Vegan Café offers something for everyone. Both locations offer
the extensive menu, complete with breakfast items such as gluten-free waffles
and avocado toast; burgers and fries; chick’n sandwiches; and, of course,
juices, shots & elixirs, smoothies, and acai bowls. There is even a kids’ menu.
Whether you keep coming back for your favorite item or you want to sample all
the offerings over time, Pure Vegan Café will likely become a regular stop on
your restaurant rotation.
Sea Salt and Cinnamon, 100 S. Walnut St., Muncie, IN 47305
This vegan bakery offers both sweet and
savory items. A variety of sweet items are available including macarons,
cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, and pies. Classic flavors are available such as mint
chocolate chip brownies and pumpkin pie, but the restaurant creates special
dishes for any event. Custom cakes can also be designed for weddings,
birthdays, and other events. In addition to their storefront, the restaurant
sells items at farmer’s markets and partner locations.
Sharks Cove, 3612 SE 82nd Ave., Portland, OR 97266
Bringing tropical vibes from Hawaii,
Sharks Cove food truck serves up education about shark conservation (especially
on their Instagram @sharkscove_pdx) alongside a rich array of flavors. Options
in their regular menu —all served with vibrantly colored flowers,
mini-umbrellas etc. — include jackfruit nachos with tropical fruits and
veggies; vegan coconut shrimp; beer battered fishless sandwiches; and, for
dessert, island raspberry cheesecake made by local favorites Muse. They also
have sample platters available and special weekend brunch menus. Many clearly
marked gluten free options.
The Hardcore Hippie, Wilmington, NC (location varies)
Often found at local breweries and
festivals, The Hardcore Hippie takes over the non-vegan NachoFalt’s truck once
a week (carefully cleaning and using separate knives etc. to avoid
cross-contamination), to serve up, healthy food at affordable prices.
Constantly experimenting with their menu, check social media to see their
latest creations. Options on a given day might include the likes of hummus and
chickpea shawarma wraps; curries; Quinoa salad; or sandwiches with coconut
bacon, arugula, tomato and garlic cashew cream.
Perhaps you’ve heard about Aquafaba. The liquid you’ve been draining from
your beans all these years is actually surprisingly similar to raw egg whites
and can be used for baking in much the same way. The liquid can be baked,
whipped to make meringue, turned into marshmallows, or used to create uncanny
cheese substitutes.
Laura McGuiness shares her experience baking with aquafaba in a previous
issue of Vegetarian Journal. She
explains, “Aquafaba is still largely a mystery, even to scientists. The
proteins and starches in the bean juice appear to mimic the proteins in egg
whites, but the exact science leaves something to be desired. What we do know
from an analysis by The Norwegian Food Research Institute is that aquafaba is
mainly composed of starch and proteins. Because of the high starch content,
aquafaba is able to form stable gels, which may aid in its ability to emulate
egg whites.”
You’ll find the following recipes in this article along with photos of some
of the baked items:
Basic Meringue Cookies
Baked Alaska
Lemon Apocalypse Pie
Chocolate Mousse
Walnut Fudge
Lemon Dacquoise
– New Vegan Videos from The Vegetarian Resource Group
– Recipe shared for Banana Soft-Serve
– Vegan Children’s Books
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids is intended to be a
group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for
vegan kids around the world. We envision it as a place to get advice about a
wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween,
non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use
it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear.
The goal is to offer support.
Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive,
or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so
respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity,
religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not
be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles.
The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban
any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation,
SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.
Please share this information
with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.
For many years, if you wanted to know how much sugar was
added to a food, you could look at the ingredient list on the product’s label
and look at the Nutrition Facts label which would tell you the total amount of
sugar in the food. This was problematic for several reasons. Some food
manufacturers would use lots of different sources of sugar in a product – for
example, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, molasses, and brown sugar all might be
listed as ingredients. Since ingredients are listed in descending order of how
much of each is in a product, if there are lots of sources of sugar, none of
them might make it to the top of the list of ingredients. You might think the
product mainly contains peanuts but if you added up all the sugar sources,
total sugar might really be the most prominent ingredient. Secondly, back when
the label only listed total sugar, a product that had unsweetened dried fruit
would look like it had lots of sugar when really, that sugar was there
naturally in the form of fruit.
The new Nutrition Facts Label, required on all foods as of
January 2021, tells the amount of added sugars that are in products. As the Food
and Drug Administration says, “Added sugars include sugars that are
added during the processing of foods (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods
packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and
sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. They do not include
naturally occurring sugars that are found in [cow’s] milk, fruits, and
vegetables.”
Recommendations call for limiting added sugar to 10% or less
of total calories per day. That’s because these added sugars don’t much if
anything for us nutritionally – they mainly supply calories. If you need 1600
calories a day, 160 calories or less should be from added sugar. Since sugars
have 4 calories a gram, that means 40 grams or less of added sugar per day for
someone who needs around 1600 calories a day. There is no requirement for added sugars; the
10% of calories is an upper limit.
I was recently looking at some popular vegan ice creams and
noted that they had 30 grams or more of added sugar in a serving. Knowing which
foods have a lot of added sugar and having a perspective on what is a
reasonable amount of added sugar for you can help you choose foods and decide
how much of these foods you want to eat.
Nothing
says fall like biting into a gingery pumpkin cookie. Stuffing it with soft,
fluffy vegan marshmallows only makes the experience better. Try this recipe
with Dandies seasonal pumpkin mini marshmallows or their regular vegan
mini-marshmallows. Testers agreed these cookies were especially comforting warm
from the oven, served with hot tea or cocoa!
Dry
Ingredients
2-3/4 cups flour, plus more for rolling
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch ground cloves (optional)
Pinch ground allspice (optional)
Wet
Ingredients
1 cup vegan margarine, softened but not liquid (tested with
Earth Balance and Country Crock Almond Plant Butter)
1 cup packed organic brown sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (plain, not pie filling)
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon plain, unsweetened vegan milk
1 Tablespoons ground psyllium husk seeds
One 5-ounce bag pumpkin Dandies mini-marshmallows
(plain mini Dandies work too)
2 Tablespoons decorative sugar (optional)
In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients and set aside. In
a large bowl, mix vegan margarine, brown sugar, pumpkin, molasses, and vanilla
with an electric mixer or by hand until well blended. Add in dry ingredients in
three portions, mixing well each time. Quickly add in vegan milk
and ground psyllium husk seeds. This is the binder and psyllium sets
up very fast, so several fast strokes or a few circles in the bowl with an
electric mixer will do the job. Dough will be soft but not too sticky.
Wrap in parchment paper or plastic
wrap and chill in the fridge for at least one hour or up to overnight.
When ready to bake cookies, preheat
the oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or
silicone baking sheets.
On a clean flat surface, spread
some flour and rub flour on a rolling pin (a large jar or glass bottle will
work if you don’t have a rolling pin). Working with half the dough, roll it
flat until it’s about 1/8-inch thick. Add more flour as needed to prevent
sticking. Using a standard (not wide mouth) 12 oz. Ball jar, cut out circles
and place on the cookie sheets. Repeat until all dough is used and there are
about 40 “bottoms.” Top each dough circle with 2-3 Dandies, until all are used
up from the 5-ounce bag.
Repeat rolling second half of
cookie dough and cutting circles. Place a dough circle on each Dandies-topped
cookie and press edges lightly to keep the melty marshmallow inside during
baking. If desired, top cookies with a sprinkle of decorative sugar.
Bake 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees
until cookies are lightly browned on the bottom and Dandies are melted. Some
marshmallows will squish out the sides. Allow to cool on the pan 5 minutes
before serving. Store in a sealed container on the counter up to 3 days or
longer in the fridge (if they last that long!).
Zel Allen serves up a wide variety of vegan comfort food recipes in a
previous issue of Vegetarian Journal.
Make your own Giant German Pretzels (see photo) and dip them into either a
Smoky Cheezy Sauce or a Mustard Sauce. Also enjoy Southern Cornbread or Vegan
Buttermilk Pancakes with Buttery Apples. Move on to recipes for Cream of
Mushroom Soup, Asparagus on Toast with Almond Sauce, Smothered Tomato and
Mushroom Pasta with Herbs, Smoky Cheezy Stuffed Potatoes, Chocolate Brownie
Pudding, and Old Fashioned Apple Crisp. Your family and friends will love these
recipes!
In addition to The Vegetarian Resource Group’s quarterly
vegan magazine (Vegetarian Journal),
VRG publishes a national email newsletter called VRG-News each month. Vegan
news is so vast these days that we saw the need to publish more than can fit in
our quarterly magazine.
Sign up for our national email newsletter here: https://lists.vrg.org/mailman/listinfo/vrg-news_lists.vrg.org
The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on veganism and the interrelated issues of health, nutrition, ecology, ethics, and world hunger. We have been helping health professionals, food services, businesses, educators, students, vegans, and vegetarians since 1982. In addition to publishing the Vegan Journal, VRG produces and sells a number of books.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive recipes, ingredient information, reviews of new products, announcements of new books, free samples of products, and other VRG materials.