I got this recipe from The Tolerant Vegan. These were great – like a fancy chocolate chip cookie, but a bar. I made them for our Saturday “picnic” brunch.

Recipe reprinted here for your benefit:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread, softened, plus more for the pan
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup soy creamer
8 ounces vegan semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Line a baking pan with wax paper, and then coat the paper and the sides of the pan with Earth Balance and flour.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and sea salt.
In a separate bowl, mix together the Earth Balance, brown sugar, apple sauce and vanilla extract on low-medium speed until combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick can be inserted and removed cleanly.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
In a small pan, bring the soy creamer to a boil.
As soon as it begins to boil, remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips, stirring until all the chips are melted.
Let the ganache sit for 30 minutes so it can thicken.
Remove the brown sugar cake from the pan and cut in half.
Spread the ganache on one half of the cake, stopping about 1/4″ from the edges
Place the other half on top, making a ganache sandwich
Place your yummy creation in the refrigerator for two hours so the ganache can set.
Remove, cut into pieces, and you’re all done!

I had never made pierogies before and gracefully accepted the challenge of making them. If I might say so, they were a hit for brunch so here is the recipe. I hope you make to many so that you will have to freeze them and have a stockpile for when you desperately need some flavour in your face.

Here’s a basic pierogie dough recipe that I found off of the interwebs! Click on the link to see the proper making instructions with pictures!

2 C White Flour

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/4 C Soy Margarine

3 Tbsp Water

For the method, check http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/?p=768 – they’ve got pictures! But just in case that site goes down, here are the steps:

To prepare the dough, sift together the flour and salt.

Cut in the margarine with a pastry blender or two knives. Add water and mix well. If more water is needed, add a tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a ball. You don’t want it to be too wet.

Dust a clean surface with flour, and knead dough for 10 minutes. Place in an oiled, covered bowl in refrigerator for half an hour.

Prepare your filling.

Remove dough from refrigerator; divide into thirds. Roll each section into a ball. On a lightly-floured surface, roll one ball of dough out until it’s about 1/8? thick.

With a round cookie cutter or a glass, cut into 2½-3? circles of dough. (Keep the scraps–you can roll them out again later.)

Place a walnut-sized amount of filling in the center of each circle. Using your fingers and a small bowl of water, dampen the edges of the dough and fold dough in half, enclosing the filling.

Pinch edges with your fingers or a fork to seal.

Here’s the filling that I constructed to go inside of my pierogies

6 small yukon gold potatoes (about 4 cups diced)

2 cloves garlic minced

1 green onion finely sliced into rings

1 tsp Paprika

1/4 C Daiya (white or yellow)

2 Tbs Soy Margarine

1/2 C Nutritional Yeast

- Dice and boil the potatoes until they are soft enough to mash.

- Mash the potatoes together with all of the rest of the ingredients.

- Add about 1 Tbsp of filling to each pierogie.

When your pierogies have been completely folded and assembled make sure to let them cool in the fridge or freezer. After about an hour of cooling you must steam each pierogie in a medium saucepan or steamer for approximately 3 minutes. After this step I choose to pan-fry them in very hot oil to get a crispy crust on the outside.

For our End of the World brunch (held on the same day that Harold Camping predicted the Rapture would take good Christians to Heaven while the rest of us suffered rolling earthquakes, the plagues of the Apocalypse, and then death as the world ended after five months of literal Hell-on-Earth), we wanted to make deeply decadent foods befitting of transdimensional spiritual passengers leaving their earthly bodies behind. When our friend George suggested chocolate cake French toast, I was just blown away… what an idea! (Pun intended.)

In order to make it a touch healthier, I made chocolate zucchini loaves – but we still topped them with a sweet strawberry coulis, sweetened browned Earth Balance, and icing sugar.

I actually used this awesome VegWeb recipe submitted by user jessesmum. I screwed it up a bit by adding a bit more baking powder than I was supposed to, but it turned out beautifully. It was flavourful, moist, and cut well into slices. I altered her recipe, below, as I did when I prepared it.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaves – Makes 2 loaves

5 tablespoons ground flax + 10 tablespoons water
3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cane sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups zucchini, grated
1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 9×5″ loaf pans. For flax eggs, microwave flax meal and water for 30 seconds, stir, microwave, 30 more seconds, and stir again. (Or use hot water, stir, and let sit til gummy.)

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Add vegetable oil, and use a fork to stir. It will be dry but stir as well as possible. Then add the flax mixture. Continue to mix.

Add milk and vanilla, and stir until well blended. Add zucchini and chocolate chips and blend them in. The mixture should be nice and smooth and moist looking.

Spoon into prepared loaf pans. Bake 55-60 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and it will keep for days (if your family doesn’t gobble it up).

These are the easiest thing EVER. My friend Satjeet made cauliflower ones for the Indian brunch we had, and I was amazed by how easy they were. Parathas are stuffed Indian flatbreads – like roti, but with vegetables and spices and yumminess. Inspired by Satjeet, I made some of my own. I used Manjula’s video to help with the process, so maybe you want to, too!

This is a really unglamourous photo, but I was drinking wine while I made them, so I hope you will forgive me. My whole world was blurry, in fact, not just this photo.

Spinach Parathas

1 cup flour (white, whole wheat, or a mix)
1/2 cup water

For the filling:
1 bunch fresh spinach
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
1/2 white onion, sliced into thin rounds
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt, to taste

Oil, for brushing

Mix the flour and water together until it forms a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly oiled or floured surface; oil your hands so the dough doesn’t stick. Knead it until it’s soft and pliable – a few minutes. Return to the bowl and cover with a cloth; let it rest for ten minutes.

Shred the spinach and cilantro, and mix with the rest of the filling ingredients. You can get creative here – add whatever you want – or keep it simple. You could add mashed potato, cauliflower, ginger, whatever. Be liberal with your salt. Throw it all in a frying pan on medium-low heat; your goal is to cook as much of the water out of the spinach as possible. Wilt it and let it steam a bit, then remove it into a metal strainer or colander with small holes and use the back of a wooden spoon to press all the liquid out. Be merciless! The more water you press out of the filling, the better your parathas will be.

Now, you should have roughly similar volumes of dough and filling. Split the dough into 6 evenly sized balls; it works best to split it in half, then in three. Roll each chunk of dough into a ball on a floured surface.

Now, flouring your surface as you go, take one of the dough balls and roll it out so it’s a bit bigger than the palm of your hand (assuming you have average-sized hands). Spoon about a sixth of the filling in – again, it should be roughly the same volume as your dough ball. Pull the sides of the dough up and pinch it closed like a dumpling, or, like, a handkerchief in which you have enclosed marbles. Make sure it’s sealed and set aside.

Repeat for all 6 dough balls. It’s best if the balls sit for a few minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan up on medium-high. You want the pan to be hot before you use it. Roll one of the filled balls out until it’s as flat as you are prepared to make it – if filling spills out the edges, it was probably a bit wet, but no loss. Dry-fry it until the edges start to change colour, then flip it. Brush the cooked side with oil, and when the bottom is done, flip again, let it cook a bit with the oil on, then remove to a plate covered in paper towel or non-paper towel.

Repeat this with all 6 parathas. You can roll the next one out while the first one is cooking, and so on. It’s a very fast process once you get going.

These are best eaten hot, spread with Earth Balance or dipped in chutney or homous. We used them as “buns” for some masala veggie burgers we got at TJ’s in San Francisco – super delicious.

Ever since we were little our dad has had a garden. When the squash and corn would be ready to be harvested my dad would always make calabcitas. His recipe included bacon and topped with cheese.  I decided to make this traditional new mexican side dish  healthier ,vegan, add a potato and have it for breakfast.

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Strangely enough yesterday was the first time I had ever ventured into the Tenderloin. I had heard fables and tall tales abut how awful and scary the Tenderloin is, equivalent to Vancouver’s Surrey. In fact, the Tenderloin is a gem and only those daring enough to adventure into it’s decrepit belly are going to experience an important part of San Francisco history.  My friend from Albuquerque (Kayla) just so  happens to live in the Tenderloin so she invited me to her neck of the woods for brunch on Sunday morning.

I’ve been to a lot of coffee shops and cafés in my day, all of which have either be part of the homogenous blob of capitalism or unique to their own neighbourhood. Little Bird is a perfect example of a small café that keep true to the vibrance of their neighbourhood by keeping there menu simple, but versatile and having the walls  be a stage for Tenderloin art and artists.

I had no idea what to expect when I visited this gem in the heart of the Tenderloin. Upon entering I immediately realized that almost every item on there menu was veganizable. Hell yeah! Their options for sandwich fillings were also incredible, house roasted tomatoes, hummus, avocados, garlic, vegan pesto, daiya. Amazing!!

After I ordered, the woman making my sandwich came and sat down next to me to inform me she was out of tofu scramble for the sandwich, but would make me a sandwich with avocado, daiya, hummus and roasted tomatoes. It was $4, panini pressed, delicious! I couldn’t be more happy in my surroundings with the service and with the food. Next time I go back I’m going to be prepared to try everything I can on the menu, especially this thing they call a kombuchosa, locally-made kombucha mixed with oj!

Thank you little bird for putting faith back into small cafés for me. Vancouver take note!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/little-bird-coffeehouse-san-francisco

0.5 cup cooked or canned beans, drained (I used pinto because I had them)
1 cup vegetable or mushroom broth
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce (I only had 2 tsp Braggs, but wish I could have used 2 tbsp soy sauce)
1 tsp liquid smoke (optional)
2 cloves garlic, pressed, minced, or grated
1.25 cups vital wheat gluten
0.25 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed with a knife – some whole, some crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground celery seed
Freshly grated pepper
1/4 cup diced green apple

I would recommend playing with the spices… I wasn’t totally sure what to do here. It’s good but could probably be more mindblowing!

I followed the technique for the Cherry Sage Sausage recipe from Vegan Brunch. Get ready to steam – get your water boiling. I usually steam with a metal strainer (or more recently, a drop-in metal steamer) set into a big pot with a lid. Also, have four pieces of tinfoil ready.

In a large bowl, mash the beans until no whole ones are left. Toss the rest of the ingredients in and then mix it all together with a fork. Separate into four even portions, then roll each one in tin foil – as a tube. Twist the ends to make sure your tin foil tubes are sealed.

Steam the tin foil tubes for 40 minutes.

After steaming.

Texture.

After I finished steaming them, I put 3 in the fridge and opened the fourth. I cut it into slices and fried it up with my tofu scramble. One sausage was so much more than I needed that I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself. Groan, I guess.

I was reluctant to let this recipe go, but as any good cook knows, it isn’t the recipe that makes a good cook. It’s the passion and creativity that goes into the creation of each element. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do, it’s the best pancake recipe I’ve come across, hands down.

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I love southern food and I love whiskey. Two loves come together to bring you this week’s southern style brunch menu.

MENU

BENEDICT
Moist, southern-style cornbread topped with barbecue tempeh, tomato, caramelized onion, and a fresh shaved fennel and cabbage slaw. Served with scalloped potatoes.

PANCAKES
Rice and buckwheat flour gluten-free pancakes flavoured with orange and currants. Served with a decadent whiskey butter sauce and fresh fruit. This option is gluten-free.

SOUTHERN BREAKFAST
Creamy baked beans and maple-soaked greens with homemade fennel and apple sausage. Served with potatoes, coleslaw, and a piece of cornbread. This option is soy- and gluten-free.

Last Saturday (January 29th) we hosted our fourth Vegan Mischief brunch, but the first that was entirely managed by Kaylie and I. It went swimmingly! I was really impressed with everything – we had a great group of friends and strangers come out to eat, and everyone loved their food. It went well enough that we’re going to do it again this weekend – and good thing, too, because we had reservations piling up for February 5th before last weekend’s brunch was even on the table!

I was way too busy to be taking photos, but luckily my lovely friend Jocelynn grabbed the camera and shot a few pictures of our first seating at 10:30am. I’ve also included some photos I took with my phone.