Borscht Again!

This blog has been woefully inactive! I will change this. Because I am so, so psyched about this invention of mine!

Before those without a food processor. If you choose to use a chand grater, I salute your spunk. That sounds really dirty.

Almost-Raw Borscht

One bunch 3-5 small/medium beets (including greens)
One carrot
One cup chopped cabbage (aprox)
One small, sweet-ish onion
One Clove garlic
Two cups vegetable broth
1 tsp vinegar (I used apple cider)
1 tsp sugar or other sweetener
1 tsp salt
Dashes of black pepper
Two cups water
about a half of another onion, diced
Fresh Dill

Wash, peel and puree beets and greens, carrot, first onion and garlic in food processor, in batches if necessary. Transfer to blender, adding broth, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Blend til well incorporated. Transfer to large bowl or storage container. Stir in water, diced onion and however much fresh dill you have and/or want. Chill at least one hour before serving. Serve plain or how I prefer, over a boiled potato and topped with sour cream.

NOTE: This is an outline. Go ahead and futz with it. Adjust the amount of liquid to your preferred consistency, season to taste, throw some olive oil in the blender, sautee the onion and garlic before adding, use leftover boiled cabbage, eliminate the suger (uncooked beets are pretty sweet)...I really make this a little differently each time.

Vegan Baked Ziti

Hi this is Constintina. I am so honored to have been invited to post to this magnificent blog!

I made this:


It was really f-ing good.

• 1 box (1 lb) ziti
• 1 big Jar + (30 oz?) of tomato Sauce (I made a version of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's pizza sauce from Vegan with a Vengeance, use whatever you like)
• 1/2 cup Cheese sauce of your choice (I used Joanne Stepaniak's melty white cheese recipe fromThe Uncheese Cookbook, but use whatever you want. shredded fake cheese would work here too.)
• 1 lb ricotta substitute (I used Joanne Stepaniak's tofu ricotta recipe from The Uncheese Cookbook, again, whatevs)
• at least 8 oz melty Cheese substitute of your choice (I used half a block of Vegan Gormet Mozarella and I WOULD HAVE USED MORE IF I’D HAD IT...and god damn it, if anyone knows of a recipe for anything equivalent, send it my way. That stuff is way too expensive, and it's FAR AND AWAY the best mozarella substitute I've found for any and all purposes, and it actually melts. Not like how Veganrella "melts", it melts. But you could use a variety of things from TUC
• Fake Parmesean (I used J Stepaniaks Parmezzano sprinkles, ibid.)
  

Preheat oven to 350.
Cook ziti according to package directions and drain.
Put it back in the empty pot, add the Cheese sauce & tomato sauce and mix.
Spoon half the ziti and sauce into your pan/casserole dish. Spoon the ricotta over it.
Spoon on the remainder of the pasta and sauce and top with the melty cheese substitute of your choice, followed by a sprinkling of Parmesean.
Cover with foil and bake in hot oven for 25 min or until it looks done and is very hot. If you’re using vegan gourmet, I recommend you now turn your oven up very high and either stick the pan in the broiler for a minute or leave it in the oven uncovered, checking every couple minutes until it’s really bubbly and melted. It has a higher melting point than real cheese, but it willl do what you want it to. See photographic evidence above.