Chickpeas might very well be our favorite legume. We love them on salads, in soups, in “monk bowls”, as snacks, as hummus, roasted… well, you get the picture. A real lunchtime crowd-pleaser is my fabulous chickpea salad. This recipe has even had rave reviews from my step-father, who claims to hate chickpeas!

We’ve been more mindful of our diet lately, so I’ve been wanting to find a way to make this for us without all the extra fat and calories that are in the usual way I make it with Vegan mayo. Recently we’ve fallen in love with one of Susan Voisin’s recipes for a tahini dressing, made with chickpeas, and I found it works perfectly in place of the mayo!

Using Vegan mayo adds about 53 calories and 6 grams of fat to each serving. Using Susan’s dressing to replace the mayo makes this a far healthier dish at 112 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving.

The Stuff

• 2 c cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 c small diced onion (preferably sweet, about 1 small onion)
• 1/2 c small diced celery (about 2 medium ribs)
• 1/4 c either Vegan mayo OR Fat-Free Tahini Chickpea Dressing
• 2 T stone-ground mustard (very grainy)
• 1 T yellow mustard
• 2 t dry dill weed (or 4 T fresh — which is extra-tasty)
• 1/4 t dill seed
• 1/4 t celery seed
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 5 sheets (or 1 packet), of snacking nori snipped up into very small bits (optional)
• 3 T dill pickle relish (optional, I recommend Bubbies)

The Making

Pulse chickpeas in a food processor until they are well broken up, but still coarse. Pulse for just 2-3 seconds at a time, stop, check the consistency before pulsing again. Watch carefully, the idea is to have crumbly chickpeas, NOT the start of hummus.

Put chickpeas in a bowl and add all of the remaining ingredients. Mix together well until all ingredients are well incorporated. You can serve immediately or let sit, which lets the dill flavor really come out more.

Serve between two slices of bread, on a bed of greens, or rolled up inside of a collard leaf! We’ve made sandwiches and collard wraps of this salad as food for long airplane trips, and it travels very well.

Makes 6 1/2 cup servings

Snacking nori adds a great salty “sea” flavor we find reminiscent of tuna salad from our pre-vegan days. We like it a lot just by itself for a snack, so I usually have some on hand and often add to the chickpea salad. I’m sure there are lots of taste and mineral benefits to other popular sea veggies in this salad, but I tend to use the snacking nori because it is on hand and ready to go.

Be sure to check ingredients as some snacking nori contains fish, in the form of Bonito extract (usually), or shrimp. When I use it, I snip the little snack sheets into 4-5 long strips, then snip the ends off of those into very small bits directly into the bowl.

Wow, this post is so late in coming…. I blame WordPress. The original one I was working on, which was all ready to publish and disappeared. Since that irritating moment I’ve been in “run” mode getting ready to take a week off to spend with Christie before she starts her new job (which beings with a two week trip down to California for meetings). She’s been off a week already and together we’re doing a serious work sprint to make our respective offices, our bedroom, the living/dining room, and kitchen all more pleasant to be in and functional. So… no blog posts! Enough about life and back to the food!

The second day of VVC was also my 42nd birthday. I’d originally envisioned a big party for this day, but since I was at VVC and with all the Mom Drama that had been going on, I just enjoyed having a quiet day. I didn’t even tell too many people it was my birthday.

Breakfast was the same spread as the day before. I wish there’d been some variation in the breakfast offerings. I feel bad to have any complaints about the food at VVC, since I run events I know how hard it is to deal with catering, but I was mostly disappointed to see the mushroom heavy scramble a second day in a row. I was at least amused to meet other mushroom-hating vegans in the buffet line to share our dismay. However, I enjoyed the biscuits and gravy again. I also left VVC breakfasts intrigued by the raw chia pudding — I loved the tapioca-like texture and although it ends up with a greyish tint, I think it might be fun to make a breakfast parfait with it and lots of fresh fruit.

The best part about my birthday breakfast on the 2nd day of VVC were the absolutely marvelous ladies I shared the table with, several who are real inspirations in my own cooking and how to talk to people about vegan nutrition. I found myself seated with Bryanna Clark Grogan, Ginny Messina, Julie Hasson, and Susan Voisin – Wow! Also at the table was a fabulous vegan chef from L.A. who is just getting into blogging, Chica Vegan – I admire her very smartly writing down names & blogs… since I cannot remember her name at all!

Both breakfasts also gave me the option of trying out new flavors and types of coconut yogurt from So Delicious. I thought the mango I had on Saturday was a good match with the tangy yogurt, but what I really wanted to try out was the Greek-style coconut yogurt they are coming out with soon. I’d been looking for some plain to go with the fresh fruit, but all that was left was raspberry. I was a little dubious, since I am really picky about raspberry flavored things, but I really wanted to try it out.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the tart, fresh raspberry flavor from real berries. I loved the thick, custard-y consistency that stuck to a spoon – something I even demonstrated for the table by holding my spoon upside-down to show that the yogurt was that thick and creamy! I really look forward to this product coming out. As much as the fruity kind might be nice, I’m really intrigued to get my hands on the plain for using in kormas, raita and tzatziki!

Side note: I was really tickled that the whole table appreciated my playing with my yogurt by holding the spoon upside-down. Not every conference can you be that kind of nerd about your food and people get it. Likewise looking around during meals and seeing at least 20 other people taking pictures of their food!

I was so hungry for lunch that I didn’t take a picture of it on the second day, I just got eating it all up! Soy Curl fajitas, beans, rice, a raw zucchini hummus, and raw tacos in big lettuce leaves with a walnut meat filling and fresh pico de gallo. There was also Daiya cheese and yummy D.A.M. salsa. It was absolutely delicious and over lunch one of my awesome dining companions told me how easy it easy to make the raw walnut filling (raw walnuts, “taco seasonings”, sun dried tomatoes in the food processor with some liquid – either water or lime juice).

After lunch I finally was able to meet Christy Morgan in person. I’ve been testing some recipes for her for a SE Asian cookbook, so it was a treat to really meet in person. I also got her cookbook, Blissful Bites, from her (extra-special since she also got to sign it) and Christie’s already been picking out things she wants to try.

I enjoyed the panels on ethics & product reviews and publishing I went to. I spent one block of time just hanging out talking to people. Picked up a box of herbal tea out on the registration table – haven’t tried it yet. I left right after the publishing panel and apparently missed out on the wine given to presenters as well as a closing talk by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (bummer).

After all of that I hung out with Christie, Devon and Jax for some very mellow birthday celebrating. They all had lunch from Homegrown Smoker (I had bites of Christie’s “MacNoCheese” – of course) and then a little birthday shopping for me at Art Media (gel medium, gesso, a fantastic brush cleaning jar, and a tiny easel for ease in photographing ATCs). Then on to Back to Eden for some birthday cake followed by a cocktail at The Bye and Bye (I was highly disappointed to not get carded, but the bartender reminded me that he recognizes me).

A quick cookbook round-up – in addition to Blissful Bites, I was given two cookbooks for being a presenter: The 30-Day Vegan Challenge as well as Peas and Thank You. All attendees received a copy of My Sweet Vegan which Christie had been wanting to purchase so it was a perfectly timed bit of swag.

Earlier this week Christie made the baked mac & cheese from The 30-Day Vegan Challenge and it was really delicious. It was really inspiring to hear Colleen Patrick-Goudreau speak about compassion during VVC. We’re excited to read some of her other books and start downloading her podcast!

What is not to love about Bánh mì? These sandwiches are a tasty import from Vietnam served on crusty baguette. How can you go wrong with that?

If you haven’t found them yet, either get on it and find, or better yet make your own at home.

The Stuff

• 8 Grilled tofu slices
• 1 mini baguette
• 16 grilled daikon slices (or just some fresh, shredded daikon)
• Your favorite vegan sandwich spread (check out: Vegenaise or MindfulMayo)
• Dill relish
• Grainy mustard
• fresh coriander leaves

The Making

Slice your baguette into 4 pieces, then slice in half lengthwise. You can try to be tricky and slice only part way through (like a hot dog bun), but you don’t need to.

Spread a little sandwich spread and grainy mustard on one side, some dill relish on the other. Layer on 4 slices of grilled daikon and 2 slices of grilled tofu. Top with a few fresh coriander leaves.

Done. Try not to offend anyone with moans of pleasure while you eat.

A note about the grilled daikon. I sliced a daikon into 1/2 – 3/4″ rounds. Grilled while I did the tofu, so about 5-7 minutes on each side. Glaze and flip again, each side. Since these were pretty darn thick slices I sliced them in half again before putting on the sandwich.

Yes, one more gratuitous shot of the sammie

Also filed under the category of “Too Simple for a Recipe” is a very basic miso and citrus glaze I use a lot. Well, in interest of not assuming that this stuff is obvious to everyone, here’s a very quick recipe.

The Stuff

• 1/3 c. freshly squeezed citrus juice (lemon, orange, lime, grapefruit…)
• 2 T miso
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/2 t freshly ground ginger, optional
• drizzle of sesame oil, optional

The Making

Whisk together all ingredients in a small dish. Use as a glaze for grilling or a sauce for stir-fries. Also makes a nice dipping sauce.

Yep, that’s as hard as it gets. Get whisking!

A note about miso… red miso will give this a darker, savory note. White or chickpea miso will make this very light, salty and slightly sweet. Go crazy, experiment!

I’ve been wanting to try making a sweeter vinaigrette for some time now. I’m fond of ones like the Annie’s raspberry and mango salad dressings, but they use added sugar and I thought it would be great to replace it with some soaked dates instead. This evening I finally tried it out!

Disclaimer: This is NOT a fully tested recipe yet. I am guessing on measurements of liquid ingredients. I ended up with roughly 2 cups of dressing when this was finished.

The Stuff

• 2 Medjool dates soaked in 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 c strawberries (frozen is fine, in fact that’s what I used)
• 1/3 c water
• 1/4 c brown rice vinegar
• 1/3 c apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 – 1/2 t sea salt (to taste)
• 2 T lemon infused olive oil (optional, skip or use tahini if you’d prefer)
• 1/2 t xantham gum
• 1/4 – 1 t red pepper flakes (optional)

The Making

Process everything except the xantham gum in a blender until everything is blended smooth. While blender is still running slowly add in xantham gum. Keep blending until dressing thickens nicely.

Yes, you can skip the xantham gum, but this is a fairly easy-to-find, not-scary additive that really gives salad dressing a thick, stick-to-your-veggies consistency. In this case there’s a little bit of oil added and the xantham gum further helps by keeping the oil emulsified with the vinegars and fruit.

Pour into bottle and store in fridge. Use up over the next few days.

Cherry Blossom Pink