Vegan Superbowl II (and the best cupcakes EVER made)

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Geaux Saints!!!

That was a great game and we had some good food, beer and cupcakes!!! We had the standard food: Chips, dip, hummus, trail mix, and chili (I used smart start breakfast sausage in my typical veggie and bean chili. People seemed to like this-just crumble the sausage and crisp it up nicely in a saute pan and add to chili at last minute). The picture below doesn't show one of our treats because frankly by the time they came out of the oven, anyone who cared about taking a picture (me) was two beers and a lot of potato chips in the hole!

Sweet Potato and Spinach Quesadillas:
Makes 18 pieces
2 medium sweet potatoes roasted at 350 for 45min until mushy
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
3 cups baby spinach
1 chipotle pepper in adobo or 2 tsp chipotle hot sauce

Peel sweet potatoes when cool and place flesh in food processor with spices and chipotle. Meanwhile sautee spinach in 1tsp EVOO and crushed garlic until just wilted. Process until smooth. Remove mixture to a bowl and fold in half a can of black beans. Spread filling on half of a tortilla (you can get all different colors/flavors) and fold in half. This should fill 6 tortillas. Spray baking sheet with canola or olive oil spray and bake these for 5-7 min on each side. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes. Slice with a pizza cutter into three pieces and serve with guacamole. The smokey sweetness is great with the cold tangy-ness of the guacamole!

For dessert we had the yogurt pineapple cake from Eat Drink and Be Vegan which was very good with fruit and soy whip cream (this stuff tastes just like Redi-whip so I didn't get any complaints!) and I made some special cupcake pictured below. It is a known fact that I could eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches all day but don't (I can't keep peanut butter in the house anymore because I really will eat a jar every 3 days) so this is my all out tribute to peanut butter plus chocolate. How could anyone NOT like these????

Banana Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cupcake with Peanut Butter Chocolate Mouse Frosting:

Cake:
1 Box Duncan Hines chocolate fudge cake or chocolate devil's food
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
2 ripe bananas (brown almost black)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/3 cup water
Ener-g egg replacer equal to one egg mixed into water
1/2-3/4 cup vegan semi sweet or dark chips
Combine ingredients and bake according to package directions (16-18 minutes)

Frosting: This frosting comes from a peanut butter pie recipe HERE. It is damn good as pie or layered in a martini glass with any of the following: banana slices, chocolate sauce, peanut butter, crushed cookies, and topped with soy whip cream for a fancy looking trifle OR eaten straight out of the Tupperware you put the leftovers in (whatever!)

1 12 oz container firm silken tofu (yes it sounds like a contradiction but it is real I got mine at Whole Foods)
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I use the real stuff and always pour off the initial layer of oil before stirring. I like Trader Joe's organic creamy)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup vegan semi sweet chocolate melted

In food processor process tofu and maple syrup until smooth. Add peanut butter and bleand again, completely scraping down the sides of the bowl until everything is smoothly combined. Then add melted chocolate and process until uniformly creamy and delicious. This makes more than enough to frost the 18 cupcakes I made but weirdly it disappeared by Monday night!

Here's a picture of the peanut butter filling in a pir crust with crushed chocolate covered pretzels. I think it would be prettier topped with soy whip cream and chopped chocolate. I'll make one and update soon =)

Sweet potato chilli and scallion corn cakes

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Chili:
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
2 red or orange peppers
2-3 cups kale leaves torn into bite size pieces
1 can black beans
2 small cans tomatoes and chillies or fire roasted tomatoes and separate can of mild green chillis. (just use whatever combination you want)
2-3 chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli powder

Cut potatoes into small squares. saute in EVOO until soft. Add diced onion, peppers until soft. Add chipotles and spices and cook with veggies for a minute. Add canned tomatoes, chillis and beans and cook for 20-30 minutes until thickened. 15 minutes before serving add kale and make corn cakes. Optional Toppings: hot sauce, guacamole, soy sour cream, cilantro, scallions, black olives

I used the veganomicon corn bread recipe here and added a handful of frozen corn and 4 chopped scallions to the batter and then used the batter like pancake batter to make 8 pancakes to go on top of chilli.

Vegan Tappas

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I've talked about my friend Sarah before, she's the one with the awesome guacamole that I never have the patience to make. Sarah moved to Chicago about a year ago and I really miss cooking with her, but she came into town last month and I knew we should throw an awesome party!
Grapefruit Confetti Salad
Use a food processor to grate two raw peeled beets, and three large carrots (or just but the pre-grated carrots like I did). Supreme one large grapefruit and reserve the juice in a bowl and set sections aside. Add 1TBS EVOO to grapefruit juice as well as 1tsp cumin and chopped cilantro. Whisk together and pour over the shredded vegetables. Let sit for a couple hours and then scoop veggies into endive leaves. Place a grapefruit section on top of each one.
Zucchini Fritters and Red Pepper Aioli
Rinse off that food processor and grate two white potatoes, 1 large zucchini, 1 small sweet onion. Place mixture in bowl and coat lightly with cornstarch (a little less than a 1/4 cup), salt and pepper liberally. About 20 min before you want to serve add about 1/4 cup water and 1/4 flour to make a pste/dough consistency. Scoop a couple of TBS of mixture into a hot skillet with evoo. Fry about 4 at a time and drain on a paper bag or paper towels.
Serve with Red Pepper Aioli:
2 Roasted red peppers (from a jar or do it yourself)
1 Clove garlic
3 TBS fresh parsley
1-2 TBS vegan mayonnaise (optional-I've tried it both ways and both are good)
Green Olive Crostini
Combine 1 cup pitted green olives (not in a jar), 1 clove garlic, a large handful of parseley, 1-2 TBS EVOO, and zest of one lemon. Pulse in a food processor and spread on slices of baguette. Bake for 15 min in a 350 oven. Top with half a cherry tomato and serve.
Sweet Potato Quesadillas
These were the hit of that party from what I heard so make A LOT! This recipe was enough for 27 pieces and I'm sure if I had give my friends more they would have eaten them. Bake 3 LARGE sweet potatoes or four regular ones in the oven for 1 hour until they are tender. Peel off skin, and put in food processor ith 1/4 cup cilantro and 2 chipotle peppers in adobo. Blend until smooth and fold in 1 can black beans. Spread mixture on 1 half of a flour tortilla and fold over. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with non stick spray and bake at 350 for 15 min flipping halfway through. Cut each tortilla into 3 pieces and serve with guacamole.
Chocolate Truffles
10oz dark chocolate chopped finely (we used the food processor)
3/4 cup coconut milk (not light)
2 TBS cointreau or vanilla depending on which truffle you want to make

Heat coconut milk until very hot but not boiling. Pour milk over chocolate in a glass or stainless bowl. Stir in the extract or liquor and then let chocolate set and cool in fridge. Scoop with a melon baller then roll into balls with hand. Then roll in topping of your choice. We made a double batch and made three kinds of truffles.

Vanilla rolled in toasted chopped almonds
Vanilla rolled in coconut
Cointreau rolled in cocoa

The party was a great success and we all enjoyed seeing Sarah. She also took these great photos! Thanks Sarah and we miss you!

Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Oven Fries

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This is probably one of my favorite meals because I LOVE burger and fries. Honestly the ketchup and fries make it so good you can use pre-made veggie burgers if you want but this is worth the trouble. I recommend Amy's Texas burgers if you want to use a frozen burger. Below I included two recipes for black bean burgers. The first is from Veganomicon is a little "bready" so i made an open face sandwich and the second is inspired by my fried Sarah (of Sarah and John's famous guacamole).

Burgers:
1 can organic black beans
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten*
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin and coriander
1/4 cup water*
1 table spoon tomato paste
1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 red onion finely chopped

Mash beans with a fork and then add other ingredients. Combine until you can form four patties. Spray a non stick skillet with Pam and cook 5-10 min each side. Serve with guacamole, tomato, lettuce and onion or ketchup mustard and pickles!

To make Sarah's version omit * items. The burgers will be softer so be gentle turning them.

Fries:
Set oven to 375. Cut two sweet potatoes into fry shapes. Toss in EVOO and spread out on a baking sheet. Lightly dust them with cumin, salt, and chili pepper. Bake for 20 min, flip and bake another 20-30min until crispy.

Make dipping sauce by combining ketchup, one clove fresh crushed garlic, Tabasco sauce, and minced cilantro. This is also great on burgers!