January 4th, 2012
Cheddar and Potato Pierogies with Cashew Sour Cream
While everyone else started the new year with healthy stuff like black eyed peas and green smoothies, I decided to make pierogies! (Apparently ‘pierogi’ is plural, but that just looks weird to me) Pierogies are one of my all time favorite foods. I think it has something to do with going to a Ukrainian daycare for a few years when I was little.
A couple years ago my mom’s super nice neighbour was cooking up pierogies all day and when she found how much I loved them, she veganized her recipe and made a batch for me. It was my first experience with home made vegan pierogies and after that, I haven’t been able to go back to the frozen ones from the store. She wrote her recipe out for me, but when I tried it my pierogi dough turned out thick and chewy…not very yummy!. So I’ve basically been pierogi-less for the last few years (expect when another amazing Ukrainian friend made a batch of vegan ones for me!) and have been meaning to try making them again.
And since we now have vegan cheese that actually tastes good (thanks Daiya!) I decided to make cheddar and potato pierogies. I used the dough recipe from the PPK but note that I didn’t add anywhere near the additional cup of flour. I only added between ¼ to ½ cup more flour and the dough was already smooth and not sticky.
Vegan Cheddar and Potato Pierogi Filling
1 ½ pound yellow flesh potato
2 tbs vegan butter substitute (I use Earth Balance)
1 small or ½ large onion, diced
½ cup Cheddar Daiya
¼ tsp salt
fresh pepper
Peel and cube the potatoes. Boil in enough water to cover until easily pierced with a fork, this will take around 15 minutes. While potatoes are boiling, melt the butter in a medium saucepan and sautee the onions until soft. Drain the potatoes and mash well. Add the onions (along with all the melted butter from the pan), Daiya, salt and pepper to the potatoes and mix well. Let cool while you make your pierogi dough.
The filling was delicious on it’s own and perfect in the pierogies. I bet it would also make a mean stuffed potato!
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October 31st, 2011
I can’t believe this is the last day of Vegan MoFo! I’m so glad I participated this year. Not only was it a lot of fun to make lots of yummy food and post about it but I discovered so many great new blogs that I will continue to follow!
Now to the pizza rolls. OMG these were so yummy! I was looking for recipe ideas for bite sized pizzas to take to a potluck and found this Vegan Dad recipe. I made them using the pizza dough recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and topped them with pizza sauce, diced red onion and green peppers, spinach and ⅓ cup each Daiya cheddar and mozzarella.
We actually ended up not making it to the potluck so we had to them all ourselves (oh darn!). These were WAY yummier than I was expecting. My track record with anything bread related is pretty bad but the pizza dough worked out great and it wasn’t even that hard to make. I will definitely be making these again.
Pizza Rolls going in the oven
Pizza Rolls!!
Yumm!!
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July 27th, 2011
The picture isn't great, but the cheese is!
I’ve been eying fermented cashew cheese recipes online for a few years now. I’ve creeped a lot of other people’s blog posts on the subject but I’ve always been way too intimated to try it out. I think it’s usually the
rejuvelac that scares me away. I eventually decided that I’m never going to get around to making rejuvelac so I should just try making the cheese without it. It was so freaking easy to make, I couldn’t believe I had waited this long to try it!
I started getting excited at the tangy smell it developed as I patiently waited for it to ferment. When I finally tasted it I was really blown away. I never ate fancy cheese before I went vegan so I don’t really know if this tastes at all like real cheese. But I did serve it to some omnivores and they all really liked it. One of them who is trying to give up dairy said this was just what she needed to finally give up cheese.
After you make the base recipe you can season it any way you like. The variations are limitless! So far I’ve tried a chive and dill combination and an olive and sun dried tomato variety. Both were vary tasty but the dill and chive one was my favorite.
The only ‘weird’ ingredient here is the probiotic capsules. I use these ones. If you don’t have probiotic capsules and don’t want to buy a entire jar, I’ve heard that this will also work with an unpasteurized miso.
Basic Cashew Cheese (inspired by this post)
1 cup cashew
¼ cup water- enough to blend
2 probiotic capsules
scant ¼ tsp salt
Soak the cashews in enough water to cover for anywhere from 1 hour to overnight. When they are done soaking drain and rinse the cashes and place them in your high speed blender or food processor. You want to add just enough water to get them to blend. Start with 2 tbs and add more as needed. You want to process the cashews until they are very smooth and creamy. This will take a few minutes. Remember to scrape down the sides with a spatula regularly. Now open your probiotic capsules and add the powder to the cashew mixture (discard the capsules) and mix briefly to incorporate.
Now you want to line a fine strainer with cheese cloth (I found 2 layers worked) and get a bowl to place under the strainer. Spoon your cashew mixture into the strainer and fold the cheese cloth over it so that the mixture is completely covered.
Now just let is sit on the counter and ferment. I found that 24 hours led to the perfect tangy-ness but start tasting it after 12 hours. Once the base is fermented, add in the salt and any other seasonings that you like. You can make a cheese log by rolling the mixture into a roll with parchment paper. Or make a round by putting the mixture into a one cup measuring cup lined with plastic wrap. Let it firm up in the fridge. I found this lasts at least a week in the fridge and gets even better tasting with age.
For the Chive option, stir in 2 tbs chopped chives and 1 tbs chopped dill.
For the Sun Dried Tomato Olive option, stir in 1tbs chopped kalamata olives, 2 reconstituted and chopped sun dried tomatoes and 1 tbs chopped fresh basil (approximately 15-20 leaves).
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