Category Archives: Quickbread

Dec 16 2012
58 Comments
Book Review, Bread, Giveaway, Quickbread

Happy Herbivore Abroad Blog Tour & Giveaway

31 Days of GiveawaysBack when I was doing a lot of international traveling, I was still eating meat and dairy.  I never gave a thought to what I would eat!  Well, except when using my rudimentary foreign language skills to order.  Boy, I had a good time and I ate a lot.  Thick slices of sharp cheeses at breakfast in Turkey, hearty meat stews in Hungary, gelato in Italy, creamy sweets of every kind in Austria, savory, buttery pasties in England, sausages and spaetzle in Germany.  Looking back, I can’t help but feel that I would go quite hungry now.  But maybe I just ignored the plant-based offerings since animal products were still the focus of my diet.  So I was really curious to find out how difficult (or not) it was for Lindsay Nixon – aka The Happy Herbivore – to eat animal-free while abroad.

Lindsay was nice enough to answer a few of my questions about that very topic and her answers are below.  At the end of this post, you’ll be treated to a couple of photos from recipes I made from the book and you’ll also have an opportunity to enter a giveaway for a chance to win a copy of her newest cookbook, Happy Herbivore Abroad.  My giveaway starts today and ends on December 20, but Lindsay is giving away one cookbook a day until December 31 so you can blog hop and enter to win at the other participating blogs.  (Sorry, the giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian entrants, only.)  A big thanks to Lindsay Nixon and BenBella Books for including me in the Happy Herbivore Abroad month of giveaways.

Happy Herbivore Abroad CoverI’m wondering how challenging it has been for you to eat vegan while traveling abroad.  Some places are more veg-centric than others.  Is there a foreign city/country that stands out as being particularly easy in which to get a good plant-based meal?

I don’t find traveling internationally any more challenging than traveling within the U.S.  It takes a bit of patience, and creativity at times, but nothing that I don’t experience in my own city or when traveling for work. Like in the U.S., bigger cities tend to be more accommodating than smaller towns and villages. 

From my travel experience, I’ve gathered that every culture feels that they put more importance on food than any other culture – food made with love, shared with family and friends, handing cherished recipes down, etc.  Do you think it’s different here in America because of our fast food obsession?  Is it more about eating to live rather than living to eat?

I lived abroad for a year (in addition to all my travel) and the first cultural difference I realized is that Europeans do one thing at a time. When they drive they drive. When they eat they eat.  They aren’t desktop or dashboard dinners. When they’re eating a sandwich, they’re eating a sandwich. They stop to eat and enjoy that sandwich. I’ve tried to weave that into my life. 

I think we have a go-go-go-more-more-more mentality in America that forces us to multitask. That’s also a recent development. When I was growing up (not too long ago) most families I knew came together for dinner, and meals were cooked with love — from recipes handed down. 

When I travel domestically I still find that I need to plan ahead and bring a great proportion of my meals with me.  Sometimes it’s very frustrating to feel like the “problem child” at the table.  Do you think that the plant-based way of eating – maybe because of increased awareness about how food affects health – will become more mainstream or will it retain its sort of fad or cult image?

 I dare say it’s already mainstream.

It’s clear from your cookbooks that preparing and eating plant-based foods can be easy, quick and delicious, but for most omnivores the idea of cooking without meat seems daunting.  There’s the idea that vegan cooking requires all kinds of strange ingredients and takes gobs of time.  How do you persuade meat-eaters that vegan cooking can be as simple or as complicated as one wants to make it?  

I show them my cookbooks :)

And maybe this is the toughest question of the bunch: do you have a favorite comfort food that you go to again and again?

I love mashed potatoes. 

And now for a sampling of the food:

morir sonando

Morir Sonando

Vinegar Potatoes

Salt & Vinegar Potatoes

Cuban Black Bean Soup

Cuban Black Bean Soup

Cranberry Bread

Cranberry Bread

Click here to enter to win a copy of Happy Herbivore Abroad!

One year ago today: Pumpkin-Carrot Spice Cake

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Apr 30 2012
48 Comments
Bread, Quickbread

Oat Quickbread with Sunflower Seeds and Flax

Slice of Bread with JamOne night not too long ago as I was contemplating dinner, I realized that I had no bread.  Bread with dinner is nearly a must in our household – probably a holdover from when I was a kid and mom always had a loaf to go along with dinner (with luck, a crusty Italian one from Alesci’s).  Even the freezer was bare.  Luckily I remembered a quick and delicious recipe for oat quickbread and within 15 minutes, a batch was baking in the oven.  I messed with the original recipe, of course, and now can’t remember from which cookbook the recipe came.  I replaced whole oats with slightly ground oats (it’s a texture thing), used whole wheat flour for white, veganized and de-sugared.

Oat Quickbread with Sunflower Seeds and Flax
Serves 8

Two Slices2 cups quick-cooking oats (or lightly grind regular oats)
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. flaxseed meal
2 cups soy milk
4 oz. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 450F and lightly oil a loaf pan – or use an oversized pie plate as I did.  (It looks prettier, I think, and bakes faster.)

In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the soy milk and applesauce.  Stir this mixture into the oat mixture and add the sunflower seeds.  Stir just enough to make sure there are no dry spots.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-45 minutes (depending on which type of pan you use).  Bottom of loaf should sound hollow when tapped.  Let cool a bit before cutting and serving.

(I think this would also be tasty with the addition of dried cranberries and/or toasted walnuts.  Add a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup if you like a sweeter bread.)

Loaf in White Pan

Pan with Slices Missing

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Feb 22 2012
12 Comments
Bread, Quickbread

Maple, Bran & Date Quickbread

Slice of Maple Bran Date BreadThe Early Spring issue of The Baking Sheet came in the mail recently and – as usual – it had me primed to tie on the apron and let the flour fly.  But this issue has even more recipes that I absolutely need to try, so dear reader, you will be seeing quite a few here on these “pages.”  I get a real kick out of veganizing KAF recipes.  They are, after all, the masters and I just a humble, bumbling home baker.  They would be appalled, probably, at how I substitute whole grain flours, nix sugars and halve fats.  But it is so much fun and for the most part, the results are delicious.

This particular issue is also filled with maple-flavored recipes.  I can’t resist maple.  This quickbread promised to be very mapley – but not too sweet – and the loaf lived up to that promise.  This is a wonderful tea bread, but would also be scrumptious lightly toasted and spread sparingly with jam or peanut butter for breakfast.

Maple, Bran & Date Quickbread
12-15 slices, one 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf

Photo of Original Recipe w/ Notes2/3 cup soy milk
1 cup oat bran
1 tbsp. egg replacer + 3 tbsp. water (whisk together until foamy, then let set for a minute)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp. pure maple extract
1/4 cup vegan “butter”
1/4 cup prune puree
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup dates, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly spray a 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan with cooking oil.

In a large bowl, pour the soy milk over the oat bran.  In a small bowl, whisk together the egg replacer mixture, maple syrup and maple flavoring.  Stir in the melted “butter,” and then stir this mixture into the oat bran/soy milk.

Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and dates.  Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is firm, brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then invert and let the loaf cool completely on a wire rack.

Maple Bran Date Loaf from Above(Instead of a loaf pan, use muffin tins, if you like.  For this recipe, I halved the amount of butter and added prune puree – because I thought it would work well with the dates – to make up for the “missing” fat.  Egg replacer and soy milk, of course – and instead of “bran flakes,” I used oat bran which adds very nicely to the bread’s texture – and boosts the nutritional content as well.  I completely omitted the addition of 3 tbsp. sugar – so not needed.  Finally, I replaced the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour.)

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