On Greek food and falafel

There's a mediterranean kiosk in the food court of the mall near my work called Casablanca, and I checked it out for only the first time today - what the hell was I thinking waiting so long?  Of their 8 meal menu items, two were fit for veggie royalty - one vegetarian (featuring a massive spanakopita), the other vegan - I opted for the vegan plate and, um, YUM.  I'm not sure what kind of dressing they used on their tabouli, but it was honestly the best I've ever had.

In this picture: 3 pieces falafel smothered in tahini, garlic and hot sauce, a healthy serving of hummous, two dolmathes (rice wrapped in grape leaves), tabouli salad on top of a green salad, and pita.  I also had him throw in a few of those delicious pickled turnips they make - SO good.  The cost? Less than $6.  I'm not even kidding.  I had a sandwich from a fancy coffee shop yesterday that cost me $9 and wasn't NEAR as good or filling as this. Screw you fancy coffee shop (cough*TreesonGranville*cough)!

Falafel is one of those things I never tried before I became a vegetarian, and I LOVE it now.  I'm usually pretty particular about where I get it, because it can sometimes be quite dry.  My current favourite local place is Falafel King at 902 Granville - that dude makes it RIGHT and puts the whole wrap in a press to warm it up afterward. Falafel heaven.  I've toyed with the idea of making my own falafel off and on, but all the falafel I've ever had appears to be deep-fried, which concerns me a bit (and I don't own a deep fryer).  I guess I'd be looking for a recipe that calls for baking the falafel balls....Anyone tried making their own falafel? I would LOVE a tried and tested recipe that tastes GOOD :)

Tomorrow is Canada Day and thus a day off work - if you're Canadian or American, enjoy your country's birthday this weekend!

Salad dressings, Sammy J Peppers and Substituting

No new recipes to report, unfortunately, today I have leftover Indian food (I know, I KNOW) and a great homemade pasta salad I made two days ago.  I used a bottled dressing, but I think I may declare this the "Summer of Dressing!" because the one I purchased (feta & oregano), while delicious, really doesn't stand up to the pasta. On lettuce, it's great, on pasta, I had to add far too much extra salt, pepper and herbs to get that tangy flavour.  I've been collecting dressing recipes over the years, but I'll be damned if I've ever tried making one!  That's all going to change :)

This is the one I'm going to try first. It's the recipe of a family friend that keeps getting passed around my hometown - easily a favourite up there!

Poppyseed dressing

1/3 cup of olive oil

1/3 cup apple juice

1/3 cup liquid honey

1/4 cup of Dijon mustard

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 tsp of each, salt and pepper

1-2 tsp of poppy seeds

shake well and store in the refrigerator.

I went shopping with a girlfriend in Burnaby (a suburb of Vancouver) this past weekend to Metrotown - easily the biggest mall in British Columbia.  I'm not too familiar with the restaurants out that way, but we wanted to have lunch somewhere with a patio, and Sammy J Peppers was right across the street with a lovely patio.  Their menu wasn't terribly vegetarian friendly (http://www.sjpeppers.com/), but I was extraordinarily impressed with how helpful our server was with making their menu work for me.  Other than a veggie burger and salads, nothing on the menu was vegetarian.  However, she assured me that the chefs would make any of their flatbread pizzas and any of their "bowls" vegetarian or vegan for me, and every type of burger they had was available using a veggie patty.  Pretty impressive.  In my experience, I'd say this sort of accommodating happens only about 25% of the time I eat out, and it is ALWAYS worth a mention and a shout-out.  Because of that, I will definitely be back.

I ordered one of their flatbread pizzas that normally came with capicolla and chorizo, and substituted basil and fresh tomatoes instead. All in all, it was a LOVELY little lunch - a flatbread covered with mozza, banana peppers, basil, jalapenos, fresh tomatoes, caramelized red onions, feta and a few more things I can't remember.  My lunch companion had more than a few pieces of it :)

On Sandwiches (and catching up!)

Good morning, veg-heads!  Personally, I have a bit of a thick head from consuming beer AND sangria last night with some friends while watching Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals - nothing a ton of water today won't fix.  Besides Vancouver's win (yay!), the best part of the night was the discovery of THEBESTVEGGIE BURGERIHAVEEVERHAD.  And let me me tell you, I've had a veggie burger or two in my life.  I thought about taking a picture of it, but it was too dark in there, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  It was the restaurant's special during Canucks games - Burger and a Beer for $11.95 - any kind of burger you want, including veggie!  It was stuffed with amazing-tasting ingredients and the bun was like this delicious brioche piece of heaven - agh! I want it again! (I'll be back for it) 

In any case, if you ever want to try it, Cats is part of the Brown's group of "social houses", and they have a ton of them all over the lower mainland. The cool thing about the menu is that you can substitute tofu for almost ANY meat dish in the place - in the place of fish, chicken, beef, etc. That, my friends, is super cool. Locations and menu here:
http://brownsrestaurantgroup.com/brownssocialhouse/menu/
http://catssocialhouse.com/

Now then. I've been really into sandwiches lately. We have this awesome sandwich maker/panini press thing at work and I've been all over it.  Lately, my breakfasts have been a cut up morningstar vegetarian sausage (heated), tomato and avocado plus salt and pepper between a pita and placed in the sandwich maker. SO good.  I used to put cheese in this, but am as cheese-free as I can be these days, and really, with avocado, who needs it??

Last weekend, I made this AMAZING vegetarian sandwich with whatever I felt like - this little baby had fresh spinach, red peppers, grated carrot, cheddar cheese, avocado, cucumber and, what I believe to be the key ingredient, lots of fresh basil.  I also used Tofutti cream cheese - herb flavoured. Seriously, this sandwich makes me laugh in the face of meat sandwiches.

Yesterday for lunch I did a good old fashioned pb&j, although I really would have preferred a pb&b (banana).  Man do I love a good pb&b.  I've been getting cravings at work lately for something sweet around 3pm, so I and the pb&js are taking care of cravings business.  Put it in the sandwich maker and voila....molten peanut buttery goodness.

What do all these sandwiches have in common? Protein.  In the form of whole wheat bread (mostly), cheeses, tofu cream cheese, peanut butter, avocado...on and on. Delicious and damn well-rounded.

Sorry for the lack of new recipe posts, folks! I actually decided about three weeks ago that I needed to go back and re-make the recipes I posted at the beginning of the blog so I had pictures to add to them!  If you haven't visited the old recipes for a while, take a look, a lot of them have accompanying pictures now.  I'm making the Balsamic Eggplant Parmesan tonight so will have that picture up tomorrow.

Happy eating!

A Few of My Favourite Things

On the nights when I'm too lazy to cook a big meal, or on days when I just don't have enough ingredients, I have a few go-tos that I always keep handy.

A friend recently asked me for my Tom Yum recipe...uh, yeah.  I use a paste packet (below) that is AWESOME. I add some chopped veg into it towards the end (carrots, broccoli, tomato, cauliflower, fresh cilantro, whatever you like) and it is spicy, healthy and DELICIOUS.

Hearkening back to my childhood, we sometimes ate canned beans on toast or mashed potatoes with a side of green veg. I still love that sometimes :)  I really like this brand, and it's totally veg.

Our friend Billy (Chinese) introduced us to this about two years ago, and thank God for it.  I was never a real fan of tofu before trying this, and it changed my tofu world.  Next time you're in a good Chinese restaurant, ask for their deep-fried spicy tofu.  Honestly, the texture and flavour is FABULOUS.  I don't like soft tofu at all - ever (even in miso soup), and this made me realize that the texture of tofu can be effectively manipulated to suit the eater.  After this, I started frying my tofu in chunks before adding to stir fries, etc.  What a difference.  Anyway. Try this stuff. I LOVE it and crave it at least once a month.  I get it to go with an order of veggie fried rice (hold the egg).

Right underneath our apartment building, a vegan restaurant opened up!  It's not typically very busy, so I hope it makes it.  The first time we ordered from it, we got some delicious "chicken wings", but the majority of the other dishes (stir fries, etc.) were rather bland, so we kind of forgot about it for a while.  Last week, a friend told me about an amazing dish she'd eaten there, so it prompted me to look the place up again on Yelp and see what everyone was saying.  Sounds like the service is hit and miss, but some dishes are AMAZING.  On the suggestions of a few Yelp users, we ordered the "sweet and sour ribs" and they were OMGdelicious.  Seriously. I would defy any meat eater to claim they weren't meat. And who even cares. They were THAT good. New favourite.

Panz Veggie: http://www.panzveggie.com/
Yelp reviews: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/panz-veggie-restaurant-vancouver

***Update May 4, 2011 - I just found out that FRANK BLACK of the freaking PIXIES ate at Panz Veggie last night!!  He was RIGHT UNDERNEATH ME!  Tickets to their concert here in Van have been sold out for ages so I won't be going, but hey, turns out he's a veggie :)

I've also included here two of the brands of vegetarian stock I use when cooking - there are other brands, but these are widely available.  This "beef flavour" is great in a mushroom gravy and in a lentil shepherd's pie (recipes either already posted or coming soon!).  I use the "chicken flavour" in a lot of soups!

Eating Out - Mexican

Thought I should do a post about eating out, and how easy it is to eat veg no matter where you are.  Since I ate my lunch for breakfast today, I needed something for lunch. I'm lucky enough to work near a small mall with a decently-sized food court.  There's a salad bar, Chinese place, Indian curry place, Thai place, Quizno's, soup and sandwich joint, a deli and a Taco del Mar, just off the top of my head.  They have veg options at every one of those places. 

Today I opted for a quesadilla from the Taco del Mar - beans and salsa between a crispy tortilla with a side of hot sauce and guac, all for under $7.  A veg version wasn't on the menu, but when I asked for it, it wasn't a problem. They wanted to make it with cheese and salsa but instead of cheese, I asked for beans - mixture of black and refried. No problem. I've eaten three of the four triangles and I'm STUFFED. High-protein and YUMMY.