Edamame-Pineapple-Cashew Salad

While I was in New Orleans, my friend Krista made this amazing and yummy salad for lunch one day. It combines a lot of foods I love, and not long after my return to Charm City, I found myself craving this. I didn't have a recipe, because I think Krista also just sort of made it up, so here's my best "just wing it" attempt to make a recipe.

- 2 C cooked quinoa (although I used couscous because I was out of quinoa [!!])
- 1/2 C diced pineapple (fresh or canned, I prefer fresh)
- 1/2 C frozen edamame
- 1 medium red pepper, diced
- 1/4 C nuts (peanut or cashew; I prefer cashew, but only had peanuts on hand)
- dash of soy sauce
- olive oil

1. Prepare quinoa.
2. In large skillet, heat olive oil. Add red pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add edamame. Cook for another 3-4 minutes until edamame is cooked.
3. Stir in pineapple and quinoa. Add soy sauce to taste.
4. Stir in nuts.

This is so easy to make, and makes a great lunch. You can easily adjust it to suit your tastes. Krista added fresh mint and basil to this salad when she made it, and that was yummy, too! If you make any tweaks to this recipe, I'd love to hear what you tried and liked!

Charm City Vegan goes to New Orleans, LA

I'm back from New Orleans, and since then, life has kind of been a whirlwind. New Orleans was fabulous, though, and I can't wait to go back.

To my pleasant surprise, finding yummy vegan food wasn't hard. I tried a few different places while I was there, so if you're ever in the Big Easy, check them out!

Juan's Flying Burrito

This is a neat little punky place that serves Meixcan inspired food. The menu offered a couple of different vegan options so long as you request no cheese. It was hard to choose between a burrito with regular potatoes and a potato with sweet potatoes, but I ended up choosing the gutter punk (regular potatoes) and I was not disappointed. The food was good and the prices were reasonable, and with two locations, there's pretty much no reason to not try it.

Satsuma

Named after a native Louisiana fruit, I ended up at Satsuma, located in Bywater, for breakfast one day. Though tiny with limited seating, especially during brunch, this place is really neat. They try to use as many local and organic ingredients as possible. I was a bit disappointed that the only vegan breakfast option was a bagel (hello, I can get a bagel in Baltimore) and a cup of fresh fruit. I will say, however, that was hands down the best bagel I've ever had. Satsuma also offers a variety of fresh juice drinks that combine fruit and veggies for an awesome morning pick me up. And had I been there for lunch or dinner, it would have been fabulous because the salad and sandwich menu has several delicious sounding options.

Bennachin

This restaurant is located on the edge of the French Quarter, and serves amazing African food. Online reviews of the place suggest otherwise in terms of authenticity, but I've never been to Africa, so I can't speak to that. The food was fantastic, though. My friend and I split the black eyed pea fritters for an appetizer, which were great. I can't remember the name of my meal, but it included fried plantains, coconut rice, and spinach. The wait time for your food is a bit longer than other restaurants, but that's because everything is made from scratch. And the wait is totally worth it. This restaurant, too, is small, and you may have to wait for seating during busy hours, but you won't be disappointed!

Gumbo Shop

Located in the French Quarter near Jackson Square, this place serves traditional Creole food. While most of the food is not suitable for vegans, their menu includes a daily, rotating vegetarian dish, which often times is also vegan. I called ahead of time to see what they offered, and they had a beans and rice veggie option, free of meat and dairy. Score! The food was really yummy and filling, too. It was a neat place to go, because it's much more traditionally New Orleans than some of the other places I ate at while there. 


A variety of foods and cultures to sample while in NOLA, but when you think about the city, I guess that isn't too surprising, is it? New Orleans gets the CCV Seal of Approval, just because I loved it so much.

Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Wedges

I'm on spring break, and I've been a real lazy body. I've basically spent my days thus far sleeping and counting down the days until I leave for New Orleans (tomorrow!). I did, however, get around to making real food over the weekend.

The days are getting warmer and longer, which means one thing: summer is on the way! Even though my summer will be jammed pack with grad classes and attempting to make some money some how (with the "how" part yet undetermined...), I love summer! I love making various vegan burgers, and lately, I've been craving black bean burgers.

I've tried a few different recipes for black bean burgers, and this is by far my favorite. Other recipes throw things like carrots, corn, and green peppers into the patties. And while I don't dislike these things - in fact, I love corn and carrots - they just don't belong in my burger! Instead of lots of veggies, this recipe features wheat gluten to give it a slightly chewy texture (much like these chickpea cutlets) and I love it!

You can top these with whatever you like, but sometimes I like just ketchup and mustard. I paired these with some simple sweet potato wedges and I could almost taste summer...

The recipe can be found here, and you can substitute the paste with ketchup.

That's it for the week, because tomorrow I'm bound for the Big Easy!

Lemony-Garlic Tofu with Roasted Asparagus and Brown Rice

I wanted a light (and also inexpensive) dinner, and had a hankerin' for something lemony and garlicky. I thought tofu might best absorb the flavors I was craving, so I Googled "lemon-garlic tofu" to see what results I'd get. I found this recipe on PETA's website. My feelings about PETA aside (read: I'm not a fan), this turned out pretty well.

I made some brown rice and threw some asparagus in the oven with a bit of olive oil, and there you go. Pretty easy and really yummy. And I think tofu and I are becoming friends again.

Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry Cookies

A friend of mine hosted a game night this weekend, so I thought making these cookies for game night would be a reasonable way to satisfy my craving for a chocolate cookie and also avoid the temptation of eating them all myself.

I love the combination of raspberry and chocolate, and these cookies have a different sort of texture. Someone said they had a texture similar to brownies, and so these were dubbed "crownies" and also "brookies." Either way, they're rich and delicious.

These come from Veganomicon, and the recipe can be found here. Just be sure to not overcook these, as doing so even just a bit can turn them into chocolate rocks.

Veggie and Hummus Pizza

This concoction was largely inspired by a post over at This is Vegan.

I decided to buy sun-dried tomato and basil hummus because I love sun-dried tomato and basil, so I thought this would be a nice change of pace for my lunches, which include hummus and raw veggies several days a week. The hummus itself was okay, but it really didn't go with baby carrots or celery. As in not at all.

To avoid wasting it, I decided to make some veggie pizzas. These were really simple to put together, and made a great light lunch. You could also easily cut these into smaller bites and serve as a finger food. This poor excuse of a recipe can easily be modified to suit your tastes.

You'll need:
- a pizza crust
- hummus
- veggies (I used cucumber, green pepper, and onions)

1. Cook pizza crust per its directions. Cool completely.
2. Spread humus over crust. Add veggies.

Yeah, I'm a culinary genius.

Chunky Chili

Hi, I'm not dead. I've just been sick for about forever (I very rarely get sick since going vegan, but wow the last month or so has been bad!), and after recently receiving an acceptance letter to grad school (yay!) I've been absorbed with getting everything set up to start classes in May. My apologies for neglecting you!

I've had chili on the brain for a while lately, so when the obnoxious question "What should I make for dinner?" arose, the answer was obvious. For once.

I didn't really follow a recipe, which is rare for me because I don't really trust my culinary instincts. I can follow a recipe like no one's business, but don't ask me to make up something. This was pretty much exactly what I wanted.

To make something similar, you'll need:

1 sweet onion
2 bell peppers
3 15 oz cans of beans (I used black and kidney)
28 oz diced tomatoes, with juice (I think it's 28 oz; I know it's the big can)
1 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
dash of sea salt
dash of cayenne pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes

1. Cut fresh veggies. (You can cut these however big or small you like them. I like mine kind of chunky.) Saute in 1 tbsp olive oil. After three or four minutes, add the spices.
2. When the veggies start to soften, add tomatoes and beans. Simmer until heated through.

Yeah. It was that easy. Not super fancy or elaborate, but yummy enough! Feel free to adjust veggies and/or spices and/or beans to your liking! This can easily be served over brown rice, too!