Perfect snack:Onion Naan & Hummus
Strictly speaking, these aren’t supposed to go together, but yesterday when arriving home hungry with little time to spare and a nearly empty fridge, this combo was the best I could do. And it wasn’t a bad idea either. Granted, the onion naan and the garlicy hummus did leave me with some awesome breath afterward, but it was well worth it. Both of these recipes were from the Native Foods cookbook. This is one of those cookbooks that has really great recipes in it but I tend to steer clear of because many of them can be overly complicated and impractical. On the other hand, these two recipes were super simple.
The onion naan was pretty much perfect. We ate it all and nearly spoiled dinner. I could still eat more if there were some left. It was soft and flavorful, chewy and had those nice little burnt bubbly bits. The only thing that didn’t quite work with the recipe is how small each piece was. Although I’m a fan of individual servings, it just took WAY too long to cook this way. You’re supposed to cook each piece in the center of a skillet 3-4 minutes on each side…now multiply that times the 16 pieces of dough. Yeah, like I said, way too long. I recommend going with larger pieces of naan just to save time. Unless of course you have a huge grill where you can cook more pieces at a time, then go for it. Also, definitely don’t roll out the pieces as thin as it says. I mean you could, but they are way better when they’re a little doughy, rather than crackery.
I wasn’t as excited about the hummus, although it was a nice compliment for the naan. It was a bit too tangy for my taste, and not quite thick enough. I added tahini to my recipe but the lemon and garlic were both very distinct. This isn’t necessarily bad, but just not my thing I guess. Mostly I think it should have been thicker. Perhaps next time, less lemon juice and more chickpeas. I’m still interested in trying a hummus recipe using chickpea flour. This seems strange and yet logical at the same time.
In any case, you could probably whip these up and have something to eat in less than half an hour (although you probably won’t be done cooking all of the naan, but some anyway). It was also a good reminder for me that I should not abandon the poor Native Foods cookbook that has some great easy treats in it just because the entrees are way too involved.
Onion pie and vegan cat food
Let me start off by saying that I don’t like onions. I understand that they provide a good deal of flavor to certain dishes but if given the option, I would more often than not go without them. I really wanted to make a savory pie though and even though this was nothing like the recipe I envisioned, I came across this recipe and decided to try it.The end result was delicious. It was something like eating sweet onions on a cheezy biscuit crust. I even had seconds. It’s not necessarily something you would want to have for dinner all the time and could probably have used some greens to go along with it but was insanely good. Check out the recipe below.
Onion Pie
Recipe adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess.
topping:
2 very large yellow onions
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp Earth Balance
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 oz soy cheddar cheeze, finely shredded
salt and pepper to taste
crust:
1 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp egg replacer
2 Tbsp water
1/2 cup soy milk including 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, left to curdle
1 tsp dijon mustard
3 Tbsp Earth Balance, melted
1/2 cup soy cheddar cheeze, finely shredded
For topping: Cut onions into large pieces. Heat olive oil and Earth Balance over medium heat. Add onions and saute for about 30 minutes, covered and stirring occasionally. When the onions being to soften, add the salt, pepper and thyme. Continue to cook until the onions are quite soft and browned on the edges.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9″ pie dish with Earth Balance.
Put the onions into the pie dish, sprinkle with soy cheeze and set aside.
For the crust: Mix the soy cheese, flour, baking powder, nutritional yeast and salt in a bowl. In a separate dish, beat the egg replacer and water together until frothy. Combine the soymilk/vinegar mixture, egg replacer, melted Earth Balance and mustard. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir. The dough will be fairly sticky. Remove from the bowl and stretch out as if you were making a pizza crust about the size of the pie, being careful not to tear holes in it. Lay on top of onions in pie dish and seal edges.
Bake for 15 mins then turn down heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 mins or until the crust is golden brown. Let sit for a few minutes after removing from oven then place a large plate on top and flip the pie upside down. Slice and enjoy!
And on to the cats…When I decided to adopt cats, one of the big concerns in our household was what to feed them. Being vegan, it didn’t seem right to feed them non-vegan food, but being that they are naturally carnivores, it was important to give them proper nutrition. So far their diet is a bit of an experiment and a combination of vegan and non-vegan cat foods.
The vegan option that seemed the most promising was some supplements made by Hoana that you make into your own cat food. It comes with a bunch of recipes from kibble to rice and tofu mix. I went with the recipe for seitan as seen below.
kittie seitanI tore up about 3 cups of the seitan into even smaller pieces and mixed them a sauce made of 4 tsp VegeKit, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, 1 Tbsp olive oil and a bit of soy sauce.
The verdict? They really like the stuff! I was surprised after hearing quite a few people say their cats wouldn’t eat vegan cat food. I can understand where this general misconception would come from since a lot of people wouldn’t take the time to make food for their cats. For example, they really don’t like the canned vegan cat food I ordered and won’t eat it unless it’s mixed with something they do like.Since the seitan chunks are a bit more chewy than just plain cat food, Mochi (the grey one) has taken to batting them around on the floor while she eats. Personally I’m fine with this. If a cat were going to eat a live mouse, they would probably play with their food just the same. Meeme on the other hand likes to lick most of the ‘sauce’ off the seitan before she eats it. Every time I have fed them this, it is all gone by the morning. I’ll definitely have to try some of the other recipes but this is a total success.
