What we've been eating...

Walnut-mushroom loaf with mustard greens and sweet potato fries
Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Another week of dirt under the nails. At this time of year I become more obsessed with what to plant than what to eat. Quite a few times in recent posts I've described the mutant invasives that have in the past covered our house in vines, and our battles against them. The vines looked nice but were so aggressive I was afraid that one day I would wake up and have to hack my way out of the house. :) They peeled off the paint and shredded the window screens.


Tofu scramble from "Vegan Brunch" made by my son
Andrea's easy vegan cooking

In order to remove them, we also had to remove all the plants that were tangled with their roots, so we were left with a lot of bare ground around the perimeter of the house. The strips along both sides of the house are now more or less planted, and the area behind the house is more than half completed. My back hurts and I'm tired. Most of the plants came from my terrace gardens that are about to be bulldozed by the city so they can replace the sewer pipes. There's a bulldozer thingy parked on the terrace, and pipes scattered about. If they don't wreck the gardens, I'm not sure what I'll do, since I plundered them freely to harvest plants for other spaces, and they now look pretty bad. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.


Samosa mashed potato pancakes from "Vegan Brunch"
Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Cooking is still happening, and I will describe some of the foods we tried from "Vegan Brunch," and other stuff we've eaten lately. Tonight, with my husband in Chicago, my son at work and the dog not in the mood to cook, I took the leftover aloo gobi and rice from last night and added tamarind paste and red pepper flakes. The tamarind turned it a brownish color that didn't look especially photogenic, so I just ate it without taking a picture. It was ok but I probably won't do that again. The curry pictured below is from earlier in the week.

Both "Vegan Brunch" dishes were made by my son. He added tomato and zucchini to the basic scramble, but I believe he made the samosa cakes by the book. He can really eat a lot, but this recipe is meant to serve many people at a brunch, and although I told him to cut it at least in half, he made the whole thing. Let me tell you, it makes a lot! He had some difficulty with the mixture being too soft, even though he added extra flour. If anything, it seemed even softer and harder to fry the next day. But it sure tasted good.


Random potato and pea curry
Andrea's easy vegan cooking

The loaf pictured at the top of the page was made with quinoa as suggested by Happy Herbivore in her post about "hippi loaf." It tasted really good but I like my loaves a little firmer so will probably go back to using rice or breadcrumbs. The next day we formed the leftovers into burgers, fried them in a little oil and put them on buns with lettuce and tomato.

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Here are a couple of shots from our veggie garden. First is the Thai basil looking all cozy in its mulch nest.


Andrea's easy vegan cooking

And here is a cherry tomato called "Tumbling Tom." It's supposed to be ready 45 days after setting out the plant! I have visions of it climbing up its trellis and cascading over the sides of the pot. We'll see. So far it doesn't seem to be doing much. Has anyone planted this tomato?


Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Note: Just googled this plant and the person I got it from must have been confused because all the information I found says it matures in 65–70 days. Darn.

Andrea's easy vegan cooking

I Scream Ice Cream: mango-banana-ginger-chocolate chips

©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

I've been seeing lots of ice cream posts lately, so naturally, I wanted ice cream, too. The post that finally sent me over the edge was this one at eat'n veg'n. After I saw it all I could think about (other than gardening) was making ice cream. It's also been at the back of my mind that Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream is releasing an ice cream cookbook ("Vegan Scoop") in June and is going to do a virtual book tour on lots of blogs. The blog you are reading right now will be hosting Wheeler's virtual tour on July 7, and they've sent me an exclusive recipe to try out and share. But this isn't the recipe. I thought I'd wait until closer to the date of the tour before I posted that recipe. You're probably wondering how a virtual book tour works, and so am I. Guess we'll find out together.

The ice cream I saw on Diann's blog was made with cashews and fruit, and although I've made cashew ice cream before, I've never done it quite this way. She made hers with peaches and strawberries but mine is made with banana and mango. I used frozen mango so I could eliminate the "chill in the refrigerator for several hours" part because I am impatient that way. And I happened to have a bag of frozen mango from Trader Joe's that I've been adding to smoothies. And I wouldn't have to touch the mango skin.


©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

I used to love mangoes, especially the champagne mangoes I used to find three for $2 at Whole Foods. They were fabulous, and I ate them whenever I could. Then one day I must have gotten a little too enthusiastic and was kind of gnawing the inside of the mango skin to get every last drop of fruit. The next thing I knew my lips and the whole area around my mouth were red and swollen and covered in nasty, itchy, burning bumps and welts. I was horrified because for one thing it was ghastly looking and extremely painful, and for another, I did not want to be allergic to mangoes! I didn't eat mangoes for about two years.

My friend Lorraine said I was likely just allergic to the mango skin, but that I could probably still eat the fruit if I didn't touch the skin. She wears rubber gloves to peel the fruit and never touches the mango skin with her bare skin or she gets that horrible rash. I was too afraid to try until recently, when I was missing mangoes so much I bought the bag of frozen fruit. I added a few pieces to a smoothie and told my family that if I stopped breathing they should call 911. So far so good. I've consumed almost the entire bag without incident. However, from what I've learned about mango allergy, you can be allergic just to the skin, or to the whole fruit. So if this has happened to you, make sure you have access to medical help before you experiment with eating the fruit! Allergic reactions can be fatal.


©Andrea's easy vegan cooking

Mango-banana ice cream

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1 cup rice milk (or other non-dairy milk like coconut or soy)
  
• 1 banana (at least 1 cup of slices)
• 2 cups frozen mango chunks
• 2 large strawberries
• 1 to 2 teaspoons grated fresh gingerroot
• 1/2 cup agave syrup
• 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional but highly recommended because the bitter chocolate contrasts beautifully with the sweet mango flavor)
  

1. In a blender, grind the cashews to a powder. Scrape down the sides to make sure all is ground.
2. Add the rice milk and blend on high speed until very creamy. Check to make sure all graininess is gone.
3. Add banana, agave and ginger, and blend.
4. Add mango and strawberries and blend until mango is puréed.
5. Freeze in an ice cream freezer. When almost frozen, add the chocolate chips, if using.
   

This was the creamiest and best ice cream I've ever made. It was fabulous. In fact, it was better than any of the commercial non-dairy ice creams we've bought. For my taste, it was a little too sweet (my husband didn't think so) and I'll reduce the sweetener next time. I used 1 teaspoon of gingerroot and will probably use 2 next time because I love ginger.

Read more about ice cream makers here. There's also a recipe for chocolate ice cream.

©Andrea's easy vegan cooking