adventures with daiya

grilled daiya with tomato on sourdough, lime roasted brussel sprots

adventures with daiya: the first in a series of musings on vegan cheese.

The excitement of a new vegan cheese hitting the market cues nondairy lovin' drooling, eyerolls and quite possibly more hype than a red carpet event. I'm usually guilty of all three of these reactions.

I mean, holy crap, this cheese won the VegNews Product of the Year endorsement. If anyone knows vegan products, it's the VegNews staff, right? Totally. Last year, they awarded the title to Dr. Cow's Nut Cheese. It's their duty to be on top of these things and that rules.

I've tried Daiya a handful of times now, and can only say I actually enjoyed it once.

So far.

I think it's super great that it's:

a) a new vegan cheese

b) soy-free

c) um, becoming available everywhere

d) being embraced by the public, including restaurants & chains, faster than any nondairy cheese before (seems like it!)

e) specifically, available for bulk purchase through the Food Fight! store in Portland

f) melty, or something that resembles melting

It's been openly available in the US since Spring '09, and so many East Coast and California vegan bloggers seemed to be loving it. That is, until I noticed one vegan friend mention they didn't like it. I was shocked, even the processed vegan cheese haters seemed to be down. I highly respected this person's culinary opinion, and my anticipation to try it grew into sheer curiosity.

I finally tried Daiya while in Laguna Beach, CA from zpizza, and returned to see it hit Food Fight's fridge. I'll talk more about my zpizza experience as soon as I locate my photos of that pizza - but know this, I despised it. I had to double check it was actually Daiya, and told myself it had to be a fluke.

It reminded me of a stick-to-your-mouth, coat-your-teeth, get-it-away experience I had with rice cheese at Seattle's Pizza Pi a few years ago (under previous, previous management, I'm told). I didn't like the Italian blend melted, and I didn't like it firmed, and the taste...I didn't hate the taste, but I didn't love it. But, I'm not desperate for a soy-free vegan cheese, or a new vegan cheese, I'm just excited and curious.

I'm used to the buttery Follow Your Heart, Teese and Tofutti singles, and Daiya channels something different. Cheddar Daiya really seems to go the Velveeta look and taste route. I was looking forward to the zpizza and falling in love with the best vegan cheese ever, and I didn't. I hyped myself too hard.

Anyway, since then, I've tried it a few more times. I truly enjoyed it from the Savor Soup House cart downtown, pictured below. Nancy knows grilled cheese...

You can see how this one achieves a level of gooey-ness mine did not.

My grilled cheese at the very top didn't achieve this goo, and I suppose I should give it another go with cheddar. I know this is all so ridiculous, but it's an adventure. I think it wanted a little more time to melt, because the one at the top became........fluffy. And I'm not saying that in a delicious way.

Final Thoughts:

• I'm a vegan cheese supporter, and I'm trying to like this one, a second time.
• I think this might be a great vegan cheese for new vegans to try.
• Maeve says I should try it over pasta, so I will.
• I thought the Cheddar was almost vile on nachos.
• Both Native Bowl & Whiffies have had specials involving Daiya, that I've yet to try. I feel left out of a vegan craze.
• Every time I come across a random vegan on the internet stating they dislike it, it makes me feel a little less alone.

I ask you, what's your take on Daiya? What's the tastiest way you've experienced it?

Product Review: Bountiful Vegan Cookies

My quick history of packaged vegan cookies.

By: jess

As an early vegan, I really wanted to like Boston Cookies. They were packaged vegan cookies available in both states I spent time in during my college years, New York and Massachusetts. I was excited to find them in random health stores and ate them, even ate the peanut butter blondie that had a lot of nerve going public. Eventually, I learned to pass on them and to bake my own cookies, because I didn't love Boston Cookies. I loved my own cookies and I was so proud of them! And what's the point of a dessert that's not truly satisfying? Silly, desperate vegan.

Nowadays, there are tons of tastier packaged vegan cookies, I have the options of vegan bakeries in Portland, vegan cookies at vegan-friendly coffee shops, restaurants & carts and homemade cookies. My god, this makes me remember the day I discovered Mint Newman-Os...

But I digress. It's time for a product review.

When Bountiful Vegan offered to send me free samples, I said yes. 1) I like free things. 2) I like sharing free things. 3) I was curious!

I first visited their website, and wondered if it was for real, there's a..how do you say..Cafe Gratitude vibe to it. These cookies are looking to do a little more than feed your sweet tooth, if you get what I mean:

You must state your intention accompanied by a good feeling to attract what you want. Each delicious cookie has a powerful written statement of intent inside the package.

How trippy! How curious!

Cooooooooookies

Results

I broke these out at a cocktail party a couple months ago with vegans and omnis, all foodies, actually. The biggest winner was the Chocolate Chip Orange, which sure had an orange ting. Personally, I wasn't a fan of that one and preferred the Pineapple Coconut - it wasn't your everyday cookie. The runner up favorite of the group was the Lemon Snickerdoodle - a tangy take on the sugar coated classic. It was a sturdy cookie-they were all on the firm side, they're travelling cookies, after all. Had it not been a cocktail party, I would have tried dunking into milk or coffee. Again, everyone seemed to dig the three cookies I wasn't into, strange day.

The names are really, really great.

So, would I buy these? As a vegan Portlander, it's not realistic and I have options I prefer all around me. I'm pretty sure I passed two vegan bake sales on my way to work. Even Whole Foods makes freshly baked vegan cookies. I can't resist freshly baked vs. packaged, who can?

That being said, I'm all for these inspired cookies hitting regional cafes and health stores that are missing vegan treats!

Super Quick Product Review: Rice Dream Supreme

Hey, Vanilla.

Hey, Hazelnut.

Hey, Fudge.

Sup?

Just for the fun of it, I wanted to give some love to this Rice Dream Supreme Vanilla Hazelnut Fudge bar I nearly swooned over last weekend.

It was really good! It's coated in dark chocolate, the ice cream is comfortably vanilla with a tint of my favorite nut and is remarkably creamy for a rice based ice cream.

Yeah, yeah, I know this is mostly the girl who tried mint chocolate Rice Dream seven years ago and quickly abandoned that icy pint, talking, and nondairy desserts have consistently improved and impressed over the years. I have friends that seem to swear by Good Karma's Carrot Cake. I thought it was alright, sorry!

The best part of the satisfying bar, though?

It was fifty freaking cents from the Hollywood Grocery Outlet.

It was the highlight of that quirky grocery outing.

Coming Soon:

Another new vegan cart in Portland: Ruby Dragon PDX at the North Mississippi Marketplace

Portland's VegFest

The Exquisite Vegan Dinner at Belly Timber

Vegan Eats in Spokane, WA

...and my site is moving!

Splendid. Iced Coconut Coffee, Hot Ass Day.

Iced Coffee with So Delicious Coconut Milk.

So splendid. So delicious.

Coffee from local roaster K & F.

Unsweetened Coconut milk beverage of the god, by So Delicious.

Escape from my day at work, pull down the shades, cat on your lap, splendid.

I have a full product review in the very beginning stages for their newest product line, look for it later this summer! I should just get this out there - the vanilla = take. my. breath. away.

Thank you Staci for the idea! Next time, I work almond into this.

Dandies Marshmallows + Brownies + Butterscotch Chips =

a birthday greeting for my friend Joanna, the super fly author of Yellow Rose Recipes. It's also the first culmination of my WHAT TO DO WITH A BAG OF DANDIES? post from last week.

Joanna and I met with friends from the PPK at the Bye & Bye last night (omg! Celine, Joni, Kim and Alin are in town!) for cocktails, Floor Punches, grub and conversation - and as Maeve and I were leaving for a Yelp Elite event, in walks Julie Hasson and her husband Jay with two pies!

Julie pretended to force me to take a bite of the banana creme, I did, I could rave about that wonderful dessert for an hour and a half, and what was my original point?

Happy Birthday Joanna!!!!

Smorey Butterscotch Brownies

They are admittedly thin because I used a slightly larger sized pan than the recipe called for. The original recipe is for Espresso Brownies that will be in next year's Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romero.

I added vegan butterscotch chips (from Pandacookie!!), a few halved Dandies vegan marshmallows before baking, and a bunch on top during the last few minutes of oven time. It fluffed up! Then it fluffed down. And then they were nibbled. There was still some of the desired gooeyness on top - yeah, Dandies rule.

Here's the BBQ platter Maeve and I shared at the Bye & Bye, my favorite dish on the menu. It's $1 off during happy hour. FYI, they've gladly swapped the collards for brussels before, if you're into that sort of thing!

Product Review: New Lightlife Tempehtations!

One of the perks of being a blogger is trying new products you may not necessarily pick up at the store. I feel confident that this is part of the reason you registered the domain VeganFoodRulesAlot on wordpress last year.

The Goods:

This was the case for me with Lightlife's Tempehtations. Since moving to Portland (5 years

this September!) and learning my way around a block of tempeh, I hadn't bought any Fakin' Bacon -

Prior to the point in my life where I learned to make sense of what I throw around a kitchen, I had regularly scheduled sandwiches based on this product. It meant so much to me!

Now I make my own tempeh bacon based on the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance, but there was a point in my life Fakin Bacon was one of my favorite things to eat. So, right off the bat, I had faith in Lightlife's new tempeh series, and on top of that - they threw in a package of the strips! I passed out when opening it. Thanks, Lightlife!

so.....tempted?

Their new tempeh series is basically this: a block of cubed & flavored tempeh, ready to cook or simply warm, wrapped in plastic, and put in a colorful little box. I've tried the Classic BBQ and Ginger Teriyaki - the Zesty Lemon is conveniently waiting in my freezer for future use, I'm thinking over a salad or pasta. Convenience is key here - no need to marinate overnight or bake for 30+ minutes.

Served with soy dipping sauce, wasabi and garnished with sesame seeds.

The big stand out in my Tempehtations trial was this sushi. I clicked on my rice cooker, prepped the filling, quickly sauteed the Ginger Teriyaki tempeh cubes with some garlic in peanut oil, and when it was all ready to go, filled sushi with the tempeh, shredded carrot and avocado and rolled. The tempeh had a nicely mellow Teriyaki taste and didn't overpower the bites, I could also easily see this flavor grilled kabob-style, drizzled with a spicy sesame dressing.

Ready to be rolled:

The first time I tried the BBQ, I sauteed it and served it in a grain bowl with rice, collards, pink beans and hot sauce. Need I say more besides, classic?

Dinner time BBQ tempeh bowl #1 - a quick meal before a trip out of town

The one thing I felt like my bowl above was missing was sauce, but you don't always need your grains coated in sauce.....but below I totally wanted it. I used extra BBQ sauce from a PPK test recipe and heated the second half of the BBQ tempeh in it for a few minutes, and served with roasted mushrooms and cauliflower over quinoa.

I'll out the classic card for tempeh, BBQ sauce and quinoa again. The Lightlight Tempehtations are not sitting in sauce in their little box, so if you like things saucy, take 1-3 minutes and whip up a simple sauce or pull that bottle of Trader Joe's BBQ sauce you keep in the fridge for dipping emergencies out.

Dinner time BBQ Tempeh bowl #2 - a quick meal returning from a trip!

And lastly, I used the dear tempeh strips for a quick couple quick meals that were not sandwich based. Because if you know me, I rarely have bread at home the past few years. Huh, sandwiches? What are peanut butter and jelly doing together on soft bread?

Collards with Fakin Bacon and Roasted Apple Sage Seitan Sausage

Vegan Brunch Chelsea Waffles with chocolate chips;

more collards and tempeh bacon.

Collards cooked with olive oil, garlic, liquid smoke, tamari, hot sauce, teeny bit of maple syrup, broth/water and apple cider vinegar.

I think these products are a great stepping stone for the tempeh-phobic and those looking to incorporate more vegan proteins in their diet! I have no hesitation to cook my own tempeh these days, in fact, I made baked mango ginger tempeh for dinner last night, but there's no denying this product's consumer friendliness. If it had been around when I was younger, it would have been in my fridge! I would have kept an eye on it being on sale. Don't be scared of tempeh, folks.

Dude! Dandies!

What should I do with this bag of Chicago Soy Dairy Dandies?

The first bag of sweet clouds...I slowly snacked on.

This bag is begging to become something more.

Maybe Smores Brownies?

What say you? Who's coming to my planned yet impromptu brownie potluck I'm making up at this moment?

Dittering Recap of Days 1 and 2: Portland Eats!

The first two days of the inaugural Dittering week are behind me, and the adventure is growing. It's not entirely a vacation from my kitchen, I've been putting together my standard weekly fruit bowl and steamed greens for a quick dinner Monday night, but they were twitter related!, as you'll read below.

Both Monday and Tuesday took Maeve and I to food carts for lunch, and last night we zanily but responsibly hit up two happy hours after work, it was like the new Thursday.

For lunch, we met with Karla of Veganshizzle for Koi Fusion PDX tofu tacos

For dinner, I had a big bowl of steamed lacinato kale with Braggs and new Flameboy Mango Hot Sauce, from Food Fight! This stuff is spicy amazement. I've, um, tweeted a bunch with one of the owners of the hot sauce on twitter, way before I learned about the new product, small city!

Ready to go.

Is kale on twitter? I know I'm a fan on facebook...

For lunch yesterday, I stopped by Savor Soup House for

Tomato Fennel Orange. It was splendid!

After work, I briefly popped into Candy in the Pearl (and thought, am I in Portland?) for the first time, and moved along to the Tube for a $2 greyhound and a quick bite - my favorite little fake ham and cheeze sandwich in town.

A couple hours later, we met up with our friend Susie at Hot Lips and I had a couple bites of this slice of vegan foccacia, saving room for the special last stop of Dittering day 2 afterwards.

You don't know it, but this is what you're here for. The last Dittering stop of the day was to try the brand new Chocolate Creme pie from the Whiffies fried pie cart. Maeve and I split this, because, you know.

It was like eating a chocolate pudding snack pack from heaven, that just happens to be wrapped in a wonderfully flaky fried pie.

To balance things out, I had a salad for lunch, I swear! More updates to come. I promise next week I can hold off on mentioning twitter at all.

Chicken Seitan Parmigiana with Roasted Broccoli

The week before I made this meal, I had been busy after work and missed dining at home. Not just cooking, but the practice of changing out of my officey clothes, feeding my two cats and winding down in the kitchen. Weekend hit and it was time to lose myself in my kitchen for a couple hours, while entertaining side projects like cleaning and petting cats while things simmered and roasted.  

I recall channeling my Italian parents and after successfully making boiled seitan (which is actually simmered) for the first time in years and thinking about the mozzerella teese in the fridge, I set out to make Chicken Seitan Parmigiana.  In the same afternoon, of course.

Mangia!

The boiled seitan was made with vegetarian chicken style bouillon cubes and based on the recipe from Veganomicon.  I used fresh thyme, rosemary, dried bay leaf, extra pepper, garlic and nutritional yeast.  After it was done simmering I put aside some in the broth, froze a tray of broth ice cubes and cut off a section for the parmagiana cutlets.  

Here they are, freshly...pan-fried in extra virgin olive oil:

I can't say that I'm a fan of kneading bread dough, but I don't really mind seitan.  It's more forgiving, for sure.  Savoury productivity.

After simmering:

The breading station:

The fundamentals of vegan Italian breading go as follows - dip in flour, dip in a water or soymilk cornstarch slurry, dip in pulverized breadcrumb mixture.  

My third mixture was of homemade breadcrumbs, various herbs, black pepper, sea salt and nutritional yeast.  Doing this takes me back to making real animal cutlets and dipping them in egg and flour as a little one....and I say that fondly.

Ready to pan-fry:

Pan-friend, and served with homemade red marinara over multigrain and flax penne, roasted broccoli with olive oil, garlic and sea salt and mozzerella teese, ready for melting.  Using teese really made the meal memorable was was the best faux cheeze I've tried for the job.

Melted, sliced and shortly, devoured.

Truly no need for dessert following this.

Review and Indian Dinner: WK Pacs

Chola Curry, Peas & Potato Sabji, Coconut Rice

When I crave Indian food, I usually go to a cheap food cart downtown.  I'm talking SW 12th and Yamhill.  There's a lot of murmur recently about the new management of the original India Chaat and the curiously opened Bombay Chaat House next door, which an old owner opened - but I'll save that for another time.

Indian food hasn't made it into my regular cooking repertoire.  I've made curry and samosas at home before but it's a special occasion thing when I do.  When the folks at Waverly Kitchens offered to send me some Indian meal spice packets that promised quick, authentic meals with the addition of a few fresh ingredients, I was intrigued and made two of the three packets they sent on Friday night - the Curry and Sabji you see above.  The coconut rice is based on the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.  I also received a packet for Pineapple Raita to make with soy yogurt.

TIME TIME TIME

When it comes to dinner time, I don't mind putting in an hour's worth of work into most meals, it helps me relax and focus on my own life after a day at the office, ha!   While I rarely find myself eating packaged dinners other than the few times a year I pick up Trader Joe's craptastic Soy Nuggets, I don't mind the notion of using pre-mixed quality spices in my own cooking, which this basically was.  I buy cajun and chili spices in bulk.  The WK pacs don't contain scary preservatives - what they do have is authentic spices, simple instructions and a shopping list on one side of the packet with the few vegetables you need for dinner for two.  

For example - for the Sabji I needed a bag of frozen peas, two potatoes, lemon juice and cilantro. Yeah, I skipped the cilantro because I'm a hater.  I can handle it very well mingled into salsa and Indian food, but I gleefully left it out here since it just garnishes the dish.  On Friday night I started the coconut rice in my rice cooker, dropped the first set of spices in canola oil for the curry, and within 30 minutes, all three dishes were done. 

There are two sets of spices in the one packet for each meal that I made - the top half has the spices that cook first:

After a couple minutes, you move onto the next step.  Easy.  Add garlic (and onion or onion powder) for the Curry:

White garlic from the farmer's market

A can of chickpeas and spices from the bottom of the the packet-

.....and you've got nothing left to do but simmer.  The Sabji didn't require any sauteing, just two diced, peeled potatoes and frozen peas that I've had in my freezer waiting for a day to shine. The final products were impressively flavorful for meals not only made quickly, but a type of cuisine I enjoy but don't bother to cook at home.  Two thumbs up!  I have to give the packets street cred for not ripping, or at least canvas bag cred, because I carried them around with me for a few days so I wouldn't forget to make them.  

I was curious which type of oil to use and opted for canola, and my only criticism is that I wish I had two paks of the curry, in particular!

They have starter kits available on their website here and they are all vegetarian, and can be made vegan with nondairy substitutions.  Definitely keep an eye out for these, I was really happy with my dinner.  

teese'd pizza with fake sausage.

Pizza night.

Right before I left on a business trip to sunny, warm Phoenix (please note that these are climate related adjectives that do not describe a fun time for me) I made pizza.  Teese'd pizza, to be exact.  I hadn't bought teese in months and couldn't freaking resist picking up one of the new small logs of mozzarella for sale at Food Fight!  They were cute, I'd recently made marinara and had a batch of steamed Italian sausages at home.  It was meant to be.  I'll talk more about my Phoenix eats soon, which were sadly slim because I didn't have a ton of free time or a car but I worked one actually delicious meal in.

Speaking of Chicago Soy Dairy products, I'm expecting a bag of their new Dandies Vegan Marshmallows soon!  Anyone have them yet?  They seem to be the next big thing.

Let's continue on to the vegan pizza porn overloading....

Organic New Seasons pizza dough, Italian sausage, cremini mushrooms, broccoli, chard, red wine marinara, teese, dried oregano and sesame seeds.

From my Food Fight! stop.

Portland area folks - check out teese'd slices at It's a Beautiful Pizza.  

Available by the slice and pie.  Sometimes their sauce is herb-tastic and sometimes it's bland, what are you gonna do?  They wear tie dye shirts, for pete's sake.  I'll be eating great vegan thin crust slices in NYC next month on my annual pilgrimage to the home state.

Behind the scenes of the sausage.  

I based the sausage recipe on Isa's Spicy Pinto Sausages from the PPK, which are in turn based on Julie Hasson's.  I utilized fresh thyme and frozen pesto, among other things.

I like mixing the wed ingredients in my magic bullet blender.

After I'm done steaming, I literally toss the sausages into the steamed sausage drawer in my fridge.  It's their home.  Until I eat them.

More sausage, chard and creminis.

Sweet; Grilling

Sweet.  

Irish Whiskey Creme Kisses.  

Another Post Punk KitchenVegan Cookie Book tester.

The second Vegan Cookie book tester of the day - 

I made both of these to take to a fancy vegan dinner party last weekend.  

It was Indian themed and fabulous.

Espresso Fudge Brownies

Grilling.

I live in an apartment with no immediate place to grill outside, so I contently do all of my grilling in a  cast iron grill pan on the stove top.  I bought it almost 2 years ago for less than $15 at Ross and it's consistently fun to use.  I have a foreman grill stored somewhere but those lines and flavor do not compare. 

Sadly my handy and environmentally wise oil mister died so I've resorted to packaged olive oil spray again lately, but that's a poor excuse and I'm aiming to get a new one soon.  Briefly marinate some tofu or seitan, toss some veggies in oil/herbs/salt or dressing and bam, you have dinner to grill and eat alone, over pasta, grains or in a sandwich.  

On Sunday, I grilled the following for my lunch at work:

Grilled Golden Balsamic and Braggy Tofu, 

Asparagus with olive oil, coarse sea salt and pepper

Grilled Eggplant slices with olive oil and coarse sea salt.

Sandwiched withVegenaise, flavorless tomato that I picked out &  field greens on a french baguette.  Enough for two meals!

more...Sweet.

Nature's Path AgavePlus Granola.  

Their newest addition to the cereal game - with sunflower seeds and oats!  I received two boxes from the company and as Evan from Bjorked Off! knows, I rarely buy or eat cereal - but this stuff is great.  Not too sweet at all.  Personally I'll take agave over honey any day, ethics and flavor-wise.  I thought the sunflower seeds would annoy me, 

because they're just annoying, but they didn't~