VegInDC

This recipe comes courtesy of a family friend who passed it onto my mom years ago. The trick (secret?) is to use prepared potato latke mix instead of fresh potatoes. The dried potatoes soak up the liquid really well and the end result is a delicious Passover kugel.

It's hard to believe, but this is my fourth year doing VegInDC Thanksgiving post. Time flies!  You can see my previous Thanksgiving posts here: 2014 , 2013 , and 2012 . This year, I am planning on making the Tofurkey in the slow cooker which I did last year. It frees up the oven, and comes out really well. Besides that, I think I will be sticking to some of my standard Thanksgiving recipes. As I have said before, Thanksgiving is a time to meld tradition with adaptation, and I am so excited to share with you what I am truly thankful for: awesome vegan eats. Enjoy!

Anne loves this Piccata sauce. She said she would eat it over anything, but I think it goes especially well over this tofu with some mashed potatoes or gluten free pasta on the side.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite, if not my very favorite holiday. ​ Thanksgiving 2014 will be the third Thanksgiving cataloged on VegInDC. As I said last year , I think people who cook love this holiday because it allows you to meld tradition alongside adaptation. For me, that adaptation means turning a meal that is linked with turkey into a compassionate (and mostly gluten free) gathering. 

It has been terribly cold this winter. We have had a lot of soup, but I wanted something a bit different tonight. I had previously made this Herb Roasted Chicken from "Betty Goes Vegan" to a good degree of success. I had all of the ingredients except the lemon, and I wasn't about to trek out to the store on this cold night, so I adapted and was pretty pleased with the results!

I feel a little silly writing a mashed potato recipe, after all it is pretty easy to make them. However, most people rely on milk, chicken stock or butter, so a veganized recipe is good to have. Plus, I promised to make a recipe out of the entire Thanksgiving menu, so here goes!

One of my many memories of cooking with my mother included her advice to always have things mise en place (put in place). She would get everything ready in small bowls, dishes, and then when she was ready for that ingredient, things would be there. This recipe definitely is one that benefits from such a setup. It was cold and rainy last week, so it was perfect weather for a stew. We definitely needed something warming and this sounded like it would hit the spot. This recipe is easy and takes about 30-40 minutes to cook, non-inclusive of the chopping and prep time.

We had a little celebration for Anne's birthday recently, and I was on the lookout for recipes that would be finger friendly. In looking through a wedding gift we got, "Party Vegan,"  I saw that I had all of the ingredients on hand so thought I'd give these a go. They were a hit for sure!

I don't think its hyperbolic to say that vegan mac and cheese is the elusive holy grail for vegan chefs (well, maybe a little). So many attempts, some valiant, others not so much, and many a legend of good recipes. (Don't believe me? Just Google "vegan mac and cheese") Sure, we can always enjoy Sticky Fingers awesome mac variation; as well as Everlasting Life Cafe, but I wanted to make this at home! For the past month or so, I have been attempting to create a version that was worthy of you, my dear VegInDC readers. After three or four attempts, I think I have found a recipe that I would like to submit to you. I adapted this from this recipe that Anne ever so subtly placed on my Facebook wall. (Note that we made this GF, but it is just as easy to make it "gluten full"--just use regular wheat pasta and breadcrumbs.)

It's hard to believe, but this is my third Chanukah with Anne. That means I have become pretty adept at making vegan latkes. Traditional latke recipes almost always include egg as a binder. Getting around that took some advanced Googling and testing, but I now have a tried and true method to share with you. This year I also made the latkes gluten free (no matzo meal or wheat flour). I used brown rice flour, but any gluten free variety would be fine (oat flour, garbanzo bean flour etc).

Anne wasn't feeling too well today, so we decided soup was the best course of action for healing. Luckily I picked up a slow cooker/crockpot for only $10 at a Black Friday sale at Macy's. This recipe is courtesy of Savvy Vegetarian.  If you don't have a slow cooker, check out the link above for a version of this recipe that uses a pot on the stove. If you do have a slow cooker, much of the preparation time is spent in the beginning of this recipe.

Continuing my recent Italian theme, I decided that Tofu Marsala would be a delicious take on an old classic. I Googled around and found some basic recipes--mine most closely resembles this one from eatingwell.com . I doubled the recipe here because we were having four other people over for dinner and that doubling it turned out pretty well. A dish with a great sauce like this pairs perfectly with a starch to soak up the gravy. I made Garlicky Mashed Potatoes which were delicious and easy.

This is the time of year for BBQ and grilling. I had a hankering for some BBQ Tofu, so I made a delicious Shabbat dinner with tofu, potatoes, and some steamed broccoli. We finished off the night with some awesome rice crispy treats. The recipe for BBQ Tofu is very simple and is totally a template. What makes this dish special is the BBQ sauce. So buy/make whatever one you like. The potatoes are also really easy too and pair well with the tofu. They use nutritional yeast to give them an awesome savory flavor. Rice would also go well with the tofu if you don't have as much time to roast the potatoes.