Tuesday, October 13th

Last night was October’s vegan night, and I decided to reprise some recipes from a previous night that I had not yet reviewed. Or better stated, I reused two recipes from before and added two others, all from a corny but fairly good cookbook called “Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes”. And it turned out to be a decent night with one doozy and the other three better than average. In any case, here are the reviews:

Chickpea Soup—Leonardo da Vinci is in the news for a newly discovered masterpiece today. I’m sorry to say that it was for a painting and not for this dish. At first when I tasted this soup, I thought, ‘this is interesting’. Then as I ate more, I just thought, ‘this is bad’. So I’m sorry that I substituted this soup recipe on a cold and rainy day. Didn’t make the blues go away, and you should not cook this at home. Because it was interesting in the first bite, I give it a score of 1.5 bucks.

Walnut Rissoles—this is one of the repeat recipes and I think that it’s a solid one. It’s got a lot of good stuff all clumped together, kind of like vegan meatballs, chock full of protein. We baked them instead of deep-frying and they were still good that way. I think that the way to make these really good would be to serve them with some gravy or even a raspberry sauce, something gourmet and California cuisine-ish like that. But as is, I give it a score of 5.5 bucks.

Vegetable Korma—this seemed to be the real winner of the bunch, both because it had good flavor and because the vegetables were cooked perfectly. And because it was one of Gandhi’s all-time faves. What’s nice about this recipe is that it has a vegan/veg ingredient choice, and it’s one where I think either one would be just fine. Not an easy dish, but it’s worth the work. I give it a score of 6.5 bucks.

Apple Fritters—these were not actual apple fritters, which happen to be some of my favorite things in a donut shop, but more like dough-dipped apple spears. Strange thing is that they were not sweet enough for me and they were too much about the apple and not enough about the greasy dough. For most, I’m sure that this was a plus, but I think that I would have liked the doughnut shop version, and I think we could have pulled it off. I got to taste the fritters as they came out of the fryer, and they were certainly not bad, but they didn’t age quite as well. I’ll have to make a note that deep-fried desserts don’t work out so well within the Frugal Foodies format, but deep-frying is almost always good, so I give it a score of 5 bucks.

Overall—again, not a bad meal, and the overall score will suffer since we had a small group and only made four dishes. With this said, the meal scored 18.5 bucks, and that’s more than twice what the people paid. They did have to cook their food and then clean up afterwards—and what a lovely clean-up job they did—so who knows if they really got what they paid for. But as soon as they start making that korma again and again, the night will be one they will not soon forget. Anyways, here are the recipes…


Chickpea Soup (Leonardo da Vinci)

Adapted from Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes, by Rynn Berry

Ingredients
45 oz canned chickpeas
2 T flour
1 t olive oil
20 grains of crushed peppercorn
1 t cinnamon
3 pints water
2 t sage
2 t rosemary
2 t parsley, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Drain garbanzo beans, retaining the juice, and put beans into a soup pot. Heat vigorously over medium-high heat with flour.
2. Once flour has browned slightly, add oil, peppercorn, cinnamon and water. Bring to a boil. Season with herbs and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add in garbanzo juices if desired. Serve warm or hot.


Serves 6-8



Walnut Rissoles (Henry Salt)

Adapted from Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes, by Rynn Berry

Ingredients
2 oz margarine or oil
1 small spring onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
2 t marjoram and thyme
1 T all-purpose flour
½ c apple juice
½ lb grated walnuts
1 t nutritional yeast
4 oz whole-wheat bread crumbs
Corn flakes, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Melt the margarine in a saucepan. Add the onion, celery, marjoram and thyme, and fry gently. Stir in the flour, and then add the juice, yeast, walnuts, and bread crumbs. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring constantly, and then remove from heat.
2. Once the mixture has cooled, form into round shapes and roll in crushed corn flakes.
3. Bake in oven at 350 degrees or fry gently in a frying pan.


Serves 4



Vegetable Korma (Mahatma Gandhi)

Adapted from Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes, by Rynn Berry

Ingredients
1 c unroasted cashew nuts
½ c mashed tofu or yogurt
1 c grated coconut
¼ c water
1 c cauliflower, separated into flowerets
1 c peas, hulled
1 c string beans, cut into half inch lengths
1 c carrots, diced
1 c potatoes, peeled and diced
6 t peanut oil
6 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
4 cardamom seeds
2 c large white onions, chopped
1 t turmeric
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
2 c unpeeled tomatoes, cut into ½ inch cubes
2 t salt
Cilantro, chopped

Instructions
1. Using a blender, masher, or mortar and pestle, combine the first four ingredients into a smooth paste.
2. Place all the vegetables in a heavy stockpot and barely cover with water and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Remove from heat and strain.
3. Heat the oil in the pot and sauté the spices until they start to sizzle. Add the onions and sauté until they are brown. Add the tomatoes and cook for five more minutes. Add the cashew paste, vegetables, and half of the fresh cilantro. Mix well until all the vegetables are well-coated, and heat for five minutes.
4. Remove from heat and serve with remaining cilantro.


Serves 6-8



Apple Fritters (Henry Salt)

Adapted from Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes, by Rynn Berry

Ingredients
4 medium cooking apples
4 oz all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t cream of tartar
½ C apple juice
1 t vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for deep-frying

Instructions
4. Peel and core the apples and cut them into wedges about one half inch thick. Set aside.
5. In a bowl, combine the flour with the baking powder and cream of tartar. Add the apple juice and stir vigorously with a spatula. Once thoroughly mixed, add the vegetable oil.
6. Dip the apple wedges into the batter and deep-fry them until golden brown.


Serves 4


Alternately, cut the apples into smaller chunks and combine with more batter to make larger fritters.