Veganfest 2011

Thursday night, we decided to make dinner at my place instead of going out. My friend brought a vegan cookbook with her called Appetite for Reduction(love the Guns n’ Roses reference) so we picked a couple recipes out of the book. This cookbook had all vegan recipes, but it also focused on those recipes being healthy and lower in calories. Sort of like a vegan “diet” book, if you will.

We picked BBQ mango beans, mashed yuca with cilantro and lime juice, and sweet potato biscuits. I thought these dishes sincerely sounded good. I liked that they didn’t have any “fake” proteins in them, they were just straight up clean foods. We were also making this for Tracie’s brother and Cliff so I didn’t want to scare them away with words like seitan, tempeh, or tofu.

We started the beans first since they took the longest.

BBQ Mango Beans (I’ll have to check with her on the exact amount of the ingredients. I can’t remember all of it..)

• 2 cans of kidney beans
• 1 mango chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 2 cans of tomato sauce
• salt and pepper
• red pepper flakes
• ground coriander
• liquid smoke
• honey

First, we cooked the onion and garlic with a little canola oil in a stock pot.

We cooked the onion until it was translucent. Then we added the rest of the ingredients, except the honey and liquid smoke (I think, I’ll double check).

We cooked the mixture until it started boiling, then brought it down to a simmer. We let it simmer with the lid partially on for about 45 minutes. Pretty easy!

Next, we started on the mashed yuca. But first we drank some wine! Sauvignon Blanc to be a exact. I love Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand…they are the best! If you drink wine and like citrusy flavors, I highly recommend the wines from New Zealand. South Africa and Australia are pretty good too.

I’ve never cooked yuca before. I’ve really only eaten it twice (both at the same restaurant…same meal). We bought one yuca at Whole Foods and it was about 1 1/2 pounds. Here are the ingredients for the mashed yuca:

Mashed Yuca

• 1 yuca (1 1/2 pounds)
• dash of lime juice
• cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper

It has a pretty thick, waxy outer layer that you just need to cut off. I don’t think any peeler would work on it it’s like tree bark.

We cut it into pieces and then boiled it. Basically the same preparation for mashed potatoes.

We boiled the yuca until it was soft then mashed it with a potato masher. Then, we added the rest of the ingredients and it was done! Another easy dish!

Finally, it was time to make the sweet potato biscuits! I thought these sounded so yummy. Here are the ingredients:

Sweet Potato Biscuits

• 1 sweet potato, mashed
• maple syrup
• baking powder
• whole wheat flour
• nutmeg
• couple tbsp of water

I microwaved the sweet potato for about 6 minutes then emptied out the contents into a mixing bowl. I mashed the potatoes up then added the rest of the ingredients and kneaded.

I shaped the dough into balls and cooked them for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees.

Dinner was served! Although I’m not sure the boys were hungry after snacking on chips and salsa and veggies and hummus while we slaved away in the kitchen.

We just piled everything into one bowl.

Everyone thought this meal turned out great! The beans were a little spicy but the mango added the perfect amount of sweetness to it. The yuca was very interesting to me. The combination of it with the lime juice was good, but definitely different. The biscuits were delicious, like I thought! I didn’t think we could go wrong on that one. It was a great, vegan meal. I think Cliff was surprised that he actually liked a vegan dinner.

Our eating didn’t stop there though! We had to make dessert, obviously. I found a great looking recipe on Loves Veggies and Yoga‘s website. It was for raw vegan chocolate mousse. I mad a slight change to the recipe but it still turned out delicious.

Chocolate Mousse (Vegan?)

• 3 avocados
• little over a 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup honey (that’s why I have the vegan? I think technically honey is an animal product, no?) The original recipe uses Agave nectar but I didn’t have any…

I just threw everything into the food processor and then chilled it in the fridge for a little.

I know this looks really bizarre. Avocado and chocolate…seriously? Yes, seriously. It really works! This turned out great. It was pretty rich, and the texture was perfectly pudding like. I definitely recommend trying this out!!

Luckily, we have a little leftover!

I had the boys try this first before telling them what was in it. They obviously had no idea it was mostly made of avocados. They both said (I swear!) they liked it but after we told them it was avocados, they seemed a little weirded out.

Tracie and I both thought it was great though. I would definitely make it again.

We had a great weekend filled with fun, food, drinks, and shopping (livin’ the dream). She left this morning so it’s back to the “real world” now AKA work tonight and tomorrow. We go to Thailand in a week , I can’t wait!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!