Get Blissful Tonight at Busboys & Poets

Posted by on Mar 12, 2012 in Cooking, Events, News | 0 comments

Join Busboys and Poets on 5th and K for a free event with Christy Morgan, the author of Blissful Bites.  Watch a cooking demo, taste samples from the book, and chat with the author about health and wellness.

In Blissful Bites, Christy Morgan shows readers how to make healthy, delicious meals—without animal products and without a lot of effort.  Blissful Bites has 175 of Christy’s inventive recipes that work with seasonal produce and multiple diets (including raw and gluten-free).  She contributes to MeatlessMonday.com, One Green Planet and other websites and has been seen in VegNews Magazine, on Martha Stewart Living Radio and Good Day Fox 4.  She teaches regular vegan cooking classes showing both amateurs and seasoned veterans how to make meals that nourish mind, body, and spirit.

Busboys & Poets
1025 5th Street NW
6:30 pm – 8 pm
FREE

Please RSVP to this event.

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Vegan MoFo: Veganizing Your Favorites – Chik’n & Cashews

Posted by on Oct 10, 2011 in Cooking, Food, VeganMOFO | 0 comments

This a guest blog post from our fellow DC Vegan reader Esther and blogger at A, B, C, Vegan:

This post is very near to my heart.  My father cooked dinner pretty often in our family, and he had taken a Chinese cooking class earlier in his life, so we often had 2 dishes that hung around from that class – beef and snow peas, and chicken and cashews.  Chicken and cashews became one of my absolute favorite favorite dishes, and what I would always request for my birthday meal.  My brother came to always request it too.  My dad passed away before I became vegan, but we’ve continued the tradition of having this dish for my brother’s birthday, using my dad’s recipe, so for the past few years I’ve been trying to figure out how on earth to veganize it successfully.

An important lesson for today – don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t be afraid to try again if the first 1, 2, or 3 times don’t really quite work out.  If you want to make something, if you keep trying, you will eventually be able to figure it out.  :)   As I did with this!  I cannot put into words how absolutely excited I was to finally successfully recreate chicken and cashews.  I could not stop talking about it the entire night; I’m sure I drove my family crazy.  Every other sentence out of my mouth was something along the lines of “Oh my gosh this is good!  I’m so excited!  It finally worked!  So happy!”  :)   I would even venture to say it’s actually better than the original.  Somehow it’s just bolder, more flavorful, richer.

The secret ingredient – seitan.  Tried it with tofu – failure.  But seitan… seitan worked amazingly.  If you’ve never had it, or heard of it, I liked this page for an explanation of what it is, and its history.  It basically is a meat made from the protein portion of wheat, and has been traditionally used in Asian cooking for a long time.  This was one of my first forays into using it, and it was an absolute success.

Chik’n and Cashews
1 package unflavored seitan
1 T hoisin sauce
2 T light soy sauce
2 tsp sherry
2 tsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp pepper
3 T peanut oil
2 scallions
1 C cashews
salt to taste
1. Mix seitan with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sherry, cornstarch, and pepper.
2. Using only the white part, cut scallion into 1/4 inch pieces.
3. Heat peanut oil in wok (if you have one, otherwise any saute pan will do).
4. Stirfry scallion until slightly brown.
5. Add seitan and sauce mixture, stirfry constantly over medium heat for about 2 minutes.
6. Add cashews, mix well.
7. Add salt to taste.
Serve hot over rice. Share with your loved ones and give them a hug for me.  :)
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Vegan MoFo: Veggie Burger & Mac n’ Cheeze

Posted by on Oct 7, 2011 in Cooking, Food, VeganMOFO | 1 comment

Today I’m posting two delicious vegan recipes, that go quite nicely together for a home-cooked meal:

  • Grilled bean burgers - so good! Check out the link to the recipe, which includes beans and veggies. These are great to freeze if you make a large batch and keep a few on hand in the freezer to pull out when you’re not in the mood to cook. Another tip is to make salsa from scratch or pick up  organic salsa at your local farmer’s market as a replacement instead of ketchup. Absolutely amazing.
  • Creamy macaroni and cashew cheese recipe from the 30-Day Vegan Challenge baked with panko bread crumbs – yum! Although my favorite vegan mac n’ cheeze recipe still remains to be Vegan Yum Yum’s Mac n’ Cheeze. The secret? One tablespoon of tomato paste.

And people think vegans only eat lettuce and raw veggies – ha!

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Vegan MoFo, yo!

Posted by on Sep 21, 2011 in Cooking, Events, Food, News, Nutrition, VeganMOFO | 0 comments

Ladies and gentlemen: start your stove-tops, rev your ovens… DC Vegan blog spot has entered Vegan MoFo and we need your help!

Vegan MoFo = Vegan Month of Food; an international vegan get together via the blog-o-sphere through mouth-watering vegan recipe posts all throughout the month of October. Last year, more than 800 blogs entered and shared all things vegan.This year, we’re joining the mix and would love for our DC Vegan readers to join us because cooking delicious homemade vegan soul food, baked goods, raw eats and traditional meals is something that we all do and enjoy sharing. So swing by the grocery store, pick up a six pack of pumpkin ale and stay home a few nights this month to show us your vegan culinary talents in the kitchen. Not only will we showcase your vegan masterpiece on our site (that will ultimately be featured on Vegan MoFo) but we’ll also be giving away fun prizes at the end of each week to the best entry!

Here are the rules to participate and enter to win prizes during our weekly giveaways:
  • Whip up a vegan masterpiece with your own spin and send us your recipe and 2-3 photos to kristen@dcvegan.org
  • Register on our website
  • “Like” us on Facebook at DC Vegan and tag us in a post: “I just submitted a vegan recipe at DC Vegan for Vegan Mofo. Check out my recipe at dcvegan.org!”
  • Follow us @DCVegan and RT: “I just submitted a #vegan recipe at @dcvegan blog spot for @veganmofo. Check out my recipe: dcvegan.org”

For further testimonial on why should should participate, check out the Vegan MoFo Flickr page for inspiration. And most of all, have fun! What better excuse to host a vegan potluck between you and your friends? Five people = five recipes = one week’s worth of content and chance to split the prize between you and your buddies.

Get cooking, and let us know what recipes you’re experimenting with along the way: in our comments section, on Facebook and Twitter! We look forward to seeing your entries!

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Vegan cooking with Irene

Posted by on Aug 27, 2011 in Events, Food, News | 10 comments

Well, with the looming hurricane I am sure most of you will be inside this weekend with a lot of free time on your hands. Probably watch some movies, have a few beers, play some board games, and maybe do some cooking…if you have power. Better get creative, your gonna need to get rid of that food before it spoils anyway…right? Perfect time to make that raw dish you’ve been wanting to make. Well, if you have power and our website is still up because we haven’t lost power, then we would love see some of your hurricane dishes. Or just share anything with us…we are just going to be hangin out like you are!

Oh and tell us what you think the next apocalyptic event will be to hit the mid-atlantic…

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