Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

I had about a cup of chickpeas sitting in my fridge and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. Over the years I’ve seen tons of people making chickpea salad and chickpea salad sandwiches. Only, most of the time I’ve seen people using (vegan) mayo. I hate mayo, so I always thought I wouldn’t be able to make chickpea salad.

I recently discovered that tahini can be used as a substitute for mayo. I love tahini, so I decided to try chickpea salad sandwiches with tahini. Instead of looking online for a recipe I decided to wing it and see how things came out. So here’s a rough recipe of my winging it.

I really enjoy how versatile this can be. I think in the future I might add a bit of hot sauce or some other veggies that I have hanging out in my fridge (I could really see spring onions working well with this). Fresh herbs would also be nice, but I didn’t have any at home. Or maybe a bit of curry powder and sone cumin would be nice.

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

  • 1 Cup Prepared Chickpeas
  • 1 Medium Carrot Peeled and Diced Small
  • 3/4 Cup Tahini
  • Juice of One Lemon
  • 1 tsp Rice Vinegar
  • 1 Heaping TBS Dijon Mustard
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tsp Onion Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Dried Parsley
  • A few TBS Water
  • A Pinch of Salt
  • Fresh Ground Black Pepper to Taste
  • Bread (I used some harvest bread)
  • Sandwich fixings of your choosing (I used lettuce and some sliced tomatoes)

In a large bowl mash the chickpeas and add in the carrot.

In a smaller bowl mix the other ingredients, except water. If things aren’t loose enough for your liking add some water a tablespoon at a time to reach desired consistency.

Add the dressing to the chickpeas and place in fridge for at least an hour to let the flavors meld.

Scoop salad onto bread and add whatever sandwich fixings you like.

Impossible Tacos

When we went grocery shopping we managed to find some impossible meat substitute. Usually, I’m not a fan of fake meat. I often prefer tofu, tempeh, and veggies. However, my partner wanted to try some, so we picked up a package.

When in doubt we taco it! So we made Impossible Tacos.

We seasoned the “meat” with taco seasoning, 1/2 an onion, some garlic, taco seasoning, a few shakes of Tajin (low sodium), a few squeezes of chipotle paste, and some fresh ground black pepper. I didn’t really keep track of the amounts I added. I tasted it once the “meat” was cooked and added stuff accordingly.

We served in hard taco shells with some spicy black beans (not pictured here), shredded lettuce, and tomatoes.

Over all they tasted like the cheap, comforting tacos of youth. Are they the best tacos I’ve ever made? No. Are the good tacos? Sure. Would I buy Impossible “hamburger” to experiment with again? Sure.

New Year Yumminess

Growing up in the South we always had black eyed peas for dinner on New Year’s Day. My family always had mashed potatoes too. It was just tradition. The New Year’s dinner was always one of my favorite holiday meals. Maybe it’s because mashed potatoes are one of my favorite foods and I love any chance to eat them.

Being vegan I still love the traditional New Years food. I’ve added the traditional cornbread and greens to the mix though.

The feast for 2021 included chickpea cutlets (the color is a bit deeper of a red because I used mushroom soy sauce in the mix) from Veganomicon, skillet corn bread also from Veganomicon, hottie black-eyed peas and greens from Appetite for Reduction (with extra hot sauce), and mashed potatoes.

Cranberry Orange Pancakes

Pancakes are one of my go to breakfast foods for a special breakfast. They’re fairly easy to make and taste good. They’re also a great excuse to eat maple syrup.

I love cranberries. They’re one of my favorite holiday flavors. I had a bag of cranberries and a couple of oranges and decided to make Cranberry Orange Pancakes. The recipe is adapted from the pancakes for dinner recipe in Chloe’s Kitchen.

Cranberry Orange Pancakes

  • 1 Cup Flour
  • 1 TBS Baking Powder
  • 1/8 tsp Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
  • 1/4 Cup Orange Juice
  • 1/2 Cup Almond Milk
  • 3 TBS Maple Syrup, and More for Serving
  • Zest of One Orange
  • 1 Cup Chopped Cranberries (I pulsed them in the food processor a few times)
  • Cooking Spray for Greasing Pan

In a large mixing bowl combine wet ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg). Whisk together.

In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (orange juice, almond milk, maple syrup, and orange zest) until combined.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined, being careful not to over mix. Some lumps are totally fine. Fold in the cranberries.

Lightly grease a non-stick skillet and heat on low (or maybe low/medium) heat. Once warmed up, ladle batter into pan to form pancakes. Once the edges have firmed up flip the pancakes (a thin and flexible spatula works best). Cook for 30 seconds-1 minute more until lightly browned.

You might have to add a little extra cooking spray to the pan between batches to prevent pancakes from sticking.

French Toast

This blog is about documenting my adventures with vegan food. As a kid, I used to love French Toast. My dad would make it on holidays and the occasional Saturday morning. I haven’t had much of it since going vegan.

I had some Just Egg in the fridge and some fancy bread, so I decided to try making French Toast. It wasn’t perfect. The bread was yummy, but not the best texture for French Toast. The “egg” mixture could have been better, but I was winging it and things turned out pretty alright. Making French toast is kind of a pain in the butt with soaking it flipping it. I actually found flipping French toast to be a bigger challenge than flipping pancakes.

Quesadilla

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. But I figured I would share my humble quesadilla. Before going vegan I would make quesadillas as an easy meal. However, finding a vegan cheese that melts well and tastes good was a challenge. However, Follow Your Heart gets the job done.

This quesadilla was made with follow your heart cheddar shreds, some left over black bean and zucchini taco filling, and a bit of salsa. I used a habanero lime flour tortilla from Trader Joe’s. It’s my favorite flour tortilla and I think it worked perfectly for a quesadilla.

Humble Bee Bake Shoppe

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about my favorite local bakery, the Humble Bee. While not 100% vegan, they have the best vegan goodies in town.

Prior to the Covid situation I would go there about once a month for goodies. During Covid they are currently providing curb-side service for online orders once a week. I haven’t seen anything on the menu that excited me enough to leave my house (I have plenty of time to bake whatever excites me), until this weekend. They had vegan macarons on the menu. I had to order, finding vegan macarons is such a challenge.

The flavors were chocolate, raspberry, and cookie butter. They’re all delicious.

Zucchini Overload

My partner was given several large zucchini. I couldn’t let it go to waste and I got to try some fun ways to cook it. As always, I seemed to gravitate to baking (I have a sweet tooth and stress baking is something I often do).

I made some of my old standards (including tacos), but these were the new things I tried and that’s what this post is going to focus on.

Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

I used the recipe from Isa Does It.  I borrowed the heart shaped bundt cake pan from my mom. It came out tasty and pretty.

 

Zucchini Bread

I used this recipe. I added some extra spices. The bread was a nice mix of summer flavor and comforting spice.

 

Zucchini Boats 

I’ve seen a bunch of recipes for zucchini boats. This was my first attempt and it came out pretty good. I spooned out the zucchini guts and diced the bits up. I mixed those with some chickpeas, garlic (3 cloves), some halved grape tomatoes, a couple shakes of Italian seasoning, olive oil, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I should have added red pepper flakes. I cooked it in the oven for a about 30 minutes at 400.

 

Pantry Vodka Pasta

I’ve been wanting to try the penne vodka recipe from I Can Cook Vegan for a while. I never got around to it. I was craving pasta and something easy to cook. I didn’t have everything that the recipe called for on hand, so I made a few adjustments to use what I had on hand. Below is the adjusted recipe.

A few notes:Most of the vodka sauce recipes I’ve seen call for penne. I had rigatoni on hand and I think it came out okay. Just use 1lb of pasta. 

If you don’t have a can of crushed tomatoes with basil you could add some dried basil or follow the book’s recipe and use 1/2 cup of fresh basil (sliced). No basil, maybe try some dried oregano or some extra  Italian seasoning. 

I have a Vitamix, if you don’t have a high speed blender soak your cashews for a few hours and drain before blending. 

Pantry Vodka Pasta

  • 1/2 Cup Veggie Broth
  • 1/2 Cup Cashews
  • 2 1/2 TBS Olive Oil
  • 1/2 Cup Onion, Diced Small
  • 4 Cloves Garlic, Minced
  • 1 24 oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes with Basil
  • 1 tsp Italian Seasoning Blend
  • Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 Cup Vodka
  • 1 lb. Pasta

 

In a blender blend cashews and broth until smooth. Make sure you scrape the edges of the blender to get everything smooth.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package directions. When it’s done drain and set aside.

While you’re waiting on the water to boil you can start cooking the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they’re translucent, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds to a minute, you don’t want it to burn. Add the crushed tomatoes and the herbs/seasoning. Now pour the vodka in. Let it simmer and cook down for about 10 minutes. Add the cashew cream and mix it in.

Put the past in the pan with the sauce and coat the pasta with sauce. Put pasta in serving dishes and enjoy.