Author: His Bite, Her Bite

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Kale and Gnocchi Soup

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Nora: Dumplings (gnocchi are dumplings, I say), cooked carrots, broth… plus it cooks in 30 minutes. I love a simple soup where you don’t have to pull out the whole spice rack to end up with a delicious meal at the end.

Josh: We had this soup for the first time when my sister and her partner were having us over for dinner. They did it without meat on account of us and served it with bread. It was delicious. We were practically starving at the time though, so we wondered if it would be as good under normal circumstances. I won’t keep you in suspense: it is.

We made a few minor changes before adding it to our repertoire and are very pleased with it. Every time we make it, we verbally remind each other, “Mm, this is good soup.” Good for cold weather, having company over, or just for the love of soup. Cheap to shop for, easy to assemble, and quick to cook. Great, pain-free dinner for when you don’t have much time to cook or don’t want to spend much time to cook.

Kale and Gnocchi Soup
Makes: Dinner for two, lunch leftovers for two (or dinner for four)
Adapted from: budgetbytes
Time: 5 minutes prep, 20 minutes cook
Omnivore Index: People will see this soup doesn’t contain meat but when they try it they won’t miss it.
Ingredients

1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced (or about 10 baby carrots)
A bunch of kale, de-stemmed (we added about two soup bowls’ worth this time)
5 cups chicken-ish broth
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp basil
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
20 cranks cracked black pepper
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained
1 lb gnocchi
1/2 cup milk
Directions

-Saute onion and garlic in oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Add carrots and cook another 3-5 minutes.
-While those cook, pull kale leaves off the thick stems and slice or shred into smaller leaves. Wash.
-Add kale to pot and cook another 3-5 minutes.
-Add broth, spices, pepper, and chickpeas. Bring to a boil.
-Add gnocchi and cook for 3-5 minutes.
-Remove from heat and add milk.
Notes:

-For nondairy milk, we use Silk Protein Nut Milk (plain flavor).
-For broth, we use Better than Bouillon No Chicken base.
-Chickpeas are one of our all-time favorite protein sources when we cook. Way cheaper than buying faux meats, easy to add to a recipe that is lacking for protein, and hearty enough not to mush when you cook them.
-If you really hate kale you could try usimg spinach, just add it in after you finish cooking the gnocchi.
Closing Arguments
Nora: Super good for cold nights but light enough that you don’t have to give it up in the summer.
Josh: If you’re like me, you’ll use every opportunity to eat gnocchi. Mmmm.
Main

Cheeseburger Soup

His Bite, Her Bite3 Comments

Nora: Are there carrots in cheeseburgers? Don’t be ridiculous. But there are carrots in this soup. Why be predictable? Let’s get cooking!

Josh: Let’s get something straight right now. This soup is ridiculously tasty. It is creamy, meaty, and indulgent, though note it is also pretty quick and easy to make. The ingredient list is relatively short for this kind of hearty and satisfying dinner and the specialty ingredient requirement (you know how vegan recipes can be) is relatively low. There is some prep involved – those veggies need dicing – but after that the soup comes together naturally and without much pomp or circumstance.

These leftovers are awesome! This is one of those recipes that starts out great and gets better when it sits overnight to really flavor up. I spend the next couple days being the envy of the office come lunchtime. In winter this soup gives you solace, in summer you don’t care if it’s hot because goddamn is it delicious. This is a great meal to make when you want to eat well without occasion, but also perfect for when you’re entertaining guests because everyone enjoys it and even your avid meat-eaters will be satisfied.

Cheeseburger Soup
Makes: Dinner for two, lunches for two for two days (or leftovers for two for one day… this soup is really good)
Adapted from: Namely Marly
Time: 20 minutes prep, 20 minutes cook
Omnivore Index: Dads don’t know it’s not meat
Ingredients

For the soup:
1 onion, diced
5 large waxy potatoes, diced
8oz mushrooms, diced (optional actually mandatory)
1 cup carrots, diced
1 bay leaf
4 cups vegetable broth
8-10 oz frozen meatless crumbles (we use Simple Truth or Gardein often)
1 cup nondairy cheese (Daiya Pepperjack is a nice touch)
1 tsp salt
Pepper, to taste
Green onions and bac’n bits for serving

For the cream:
1/2 cup plain nondairy milk
1 cup (4.5oz) raw cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder
1 cup water
Directions:

Saute onions until tender.
Add carrots and potatoes, cook for a few minutes.
Next add bay leaf, mushrooms, broth, salt, and pepper. Simmer.

Meanwhile combine cream ingredients in a high speed blender. (If you don’t have a high speed blender, simmer the cashews in the 1 cup of water about 5 minutes and then add cashews AND remaining water to food processor with garlic powder and nootch.)

Once carrots and potatoes are tender, remove bay leaf, turn off the heat, and add cream, meatless crumbles, and cheese. Stir to combine.

Serve with bacon bits (check your local grocery store brand, many brands are vegan) and diced green onion.
Even obligate carnivores love Cheeseburger Soup!
Closing Arguments
Nora: You won’t miss the bun!
Josh: Finally, a burger as it was always meant to be eaten – with a spoon.
Main · Soup

Winter Stew with Dumplings

His Bite, Her Bite1 Comment

Nora: Michigan seems poised to finally get some crappy winter weather so here’s a lovely rich stew to warm you up. I have always loved drop dumplings so I was delighted to get to enjoy some tonight. My mom didn’t like to make them for us when she did chicken and dumplings because drop dumplings disappear too quickly when you’re feeding five. Rolled-flat dumplings are still good… but… I digress. If you find these dumplings go too quickly for your family (or your own appetite for dumplings) it would be quite easy to throw another batch of dumplings in the pot while you reheat the leftovers. You might be able to get away with pulling out all the dumplings and cooking a second batch immediately. Either way, you MUST pull the floaters out and store them separately from the rest of the stew unless you want your leftovers to transform into winter vegetable mush.

Don’t be alarmed by the apple juice in this recipe. You’ll add salt to taste and I promise it won’t turn out too sweet. Someday we might try swapping the juice for more broth and cutting up an apple to cook with the veggies. Also, my brain wants to add a little curry powder to this to make it into mulligatawny, but that’s another post.

Josh: This is a fantastic stew recipe that is easy to make and satisfying to eat. There is some initial prep involved, chopping up veggies mostly, but after that you basically let it cook and do your own thing for a while. The flavors of the stew turned out fantastic, and the complementary but somewhat contrasting flavors of the dumplings provided really wonderful spikes of flavor that added so much value to the meal.

This recipe is cat approved by Easley, our hellspawn.

When we make this, it frees us up from the obligation to cook, the panic about not eating, and the obligation to eat for just long enough in the evening to decompress while it cooks. I don’t know about you, but we work full time jobs that aren’t blog related. When we get home from work, there is a lot that needs to get done including some mental relaxation. In my case, I also work freelance, so my evenings often involve the Batman job as well as what home things need doing. This recipe is amazing because I can get other things done while knowing dinner is on the way. And dinner is super yum.

Winter Stew with Dumplings
Makes: Two bowls for dinner and two bowls for lunch
Adapted from Rabbit and Wolves
Time: 15 mins prep, 45 mins cooking
Omnivore Index: nobody will miss the meat
Ingredients:
For the stew:
– 1 Tbsp oil
– 6 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 onion, chopped
– 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
– 2 large russet potatoes, diced
– 12 ounces mushrooms, sliced
– 8oz baby carrots, chopped
– 1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
– 4c (32oz) vegetable (“beef”) broth
– 1c good apple cider or juice (we used Simply Apple from the refrigerated section)
– 2 Tbsp liquid aminos or soy sauce
– 2 bay leaves
– 1/2 tsp oregano, dried
– 1/4 tsp thyme, dried
– pinch red pepper flakes
– lots of salt and pepper to taste

For the dumplings:
– 1 1/3c all purpose flour
– 2 tsp baking powder
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
– 1 tsp spice blend (we used 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe’s)
– 2/3c nut milk
– 1 Tbsp oil
Directions:
1. In a large pot, heat the oil on medium high. Add the garlic and onion. Saute the for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft and starts to brown.
2. Add the apple cider vinegar, and stir to deglaze.
3. Add the cut potatoes, mushrooms, carrots and parsnips. Liberally season with salt and pepper. Saute the veggies for a couple minutes. 
4. Add the broth, apple cider/juice, liquid aminos and spices.
5. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until the veggies are cooked through. 
6. When the stew is nearly done, mix together dry dumpling ingredients. Test the stew, and when the spuds are soft and the carrots just slightly firm (or however you like your veggies), add the milk and oil. Stir batter briefly to combine.
7. Taste the stew for seasoning and remove the bay leaves. Stir well. Keeping the stew at a simmer, drop golf ball sized dough blobs into the pot. Plop dumplings in different areas of the pot to keep them from sticking together. You should get about a dozen dumplings.
8. Cover, simmer 10 minutes or until dumplings are done. A toothpick inserted into a dumpling should come out clean.

Remove dumplings before storing leftovers.
Closing Arguments
Nora: other than the chopping, this recipe is super simple and hands off. Great for reading on the couch while dinner cooks. The dumplings are sublime, so light and fluffy!
Josh: The dumplings are worth killing for. Be prepared to make extra because they are so fucking good with this stew.
Main

Baked Seitan Ribs

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Nora: Ribs were one of my absolute favorite restaurant splurge meals. Since I’m new to the veggie lifestyle I still have deeply-ingrained taste preferences for certain foods and these meatless Ribs totally hit the spot for me. (Veggie crumbles as taco meat is another Craving Buster, but that’s another post.) This recipe is insanely delicious and even has the fun “pull apart” quality meat ribs have. I was honestly shocked at how good these are and other than the lack of bones, they are completely realistic feeling/tasting. We’ve made these three times in three weeks.

Don’t be alarmed by the word seitan. It’s just wheat meat. You probably don’t have to go to the fancy grocery store since our Kroger carries it alongside all the Bob’s Red Mill fancy grain flours. If you are familiar with seitan, you’ll be happy to know this recipe does not require the long kneading and boiling/steaming/baking which usually produces seitan. Yes, this is weeknight friendly wheat meat! Rejoice!!! Also, this recipe PERFECTLY bakes half a bag of freezer fries simultaneously. This is the kind of high quality vegan content we have all been searching for!

The only negative to this recipe is it only makes two slabs (enough for two hungry people or maybe four with lots of sides). If you need more or want leftovers (you do) you will need to prepare this in two pans. The key to the meaty texture is contact with the pan edges and larger slabs will have mushy middles. We don’t have two small pans the same size, so currently we are doomed to eat all our ribs in one sitting.

Josh: Ribs are a weird thing to eat when you stop and think about it. Like… ribs, though? I digress. I never had ribs as a real boy, we didn’t have money for splurges like that and the idea of seeking ribs out was not on my radar. Then I joined the dark side of the force and began growing my incredible vegan super powers, so there was no going back. I would have never come up with the idea of eating ribs, would have never bothered with it. But Nora gets this idea to make ribs and so we cobble this together.

Wow. Just wow. We’ve made these ribs three times in less than a month. They’re ridiculously good. Firm and tough, tangy, sticky, actual finger licking good. The recipe is really easy to make thanks to our kitchen aid mixer. Mostly the recipe is waiting for the cook time to expire, which is useful when you have other things to accomplish in the evening but know you’re just going to hit the sofa after dinner no matter what.

In addition to being quick and easy and tasty, these ribs are affordable. Buy yourself some vital wheat gluten (seriously, if you don’t have this already GET IT TOGETHER because homemade seitan is delicious, versatile, and easy), some soy sauce, some nooch (read: nutritional yeast – we read the Thug Kitchen cookbook once and can’t think of Nooch any other way), and you’re already most of the way to cooking countless meaty vegan meals without breaking the bank. If nothing else, do it just to make these ribs. They’re spectacular.

Baked Seitan Ribs
Makes: Two slabs of ribs
Slightly adapted from Fat Free Vegan
Time: 5 minutes prep, 45 minutes to cook
Omnivore Index: slap it on a bun and Ronald McDonald himself would call it a McRib
Ingredients:
– 1c vital wheat gluten
– 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
– 2 tsp paprika
– 2 tsp onion powder
– 1 tsp garlic powder
– 3/4c water
– 2 Tbsp almond butter
– 1 Tbsp soy sauce
– 1 tsp liquid smoke
– 1c (ish) BBQ sauce (we use Sweet Baby Ray’s)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Spray grease a 9×9 metal pan.
2. Mix all ingredients except BBQ sauce and knead 60 seconds. I do it in the stand mixer but it wouldn’t be hard by hand.
3. Spread into the prepared pan, using the “kitty paws” technique with your fingertips as needed.
4. Using a small, sharp knife, cut dough down the middle. Turn pan 90 degrees and cut across 8 times to make 16 “riblets.”
5. Bake 25 minutes. Pull out of oven, baste with half the BBQ sauce. Using a spatula, flip each quarter of the ribs, taking care to flip “corner to corner,” with the crispy outer corners all swapped to the center of the pan and the soft inner edges all against the sides of the pan.
6. Baste with the other half of the BBQ sauce and bake 15-25 more minutes or until sauce is starting to caramelize and ribs are firm.
Closing Arguments
Nora: Make these ribs and eat them. Soon.
Josh: Holy shit these ribs are good. Sinfully good. They’ll make you think you accidentally broke vegan edge.
Desserts

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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Nora: Every month, a group of like-minded friends get together for indie board games and a giant potluck. Like all potlucks without a Marnie, the menu is always eclectic and occasionally completely unbalanced. More than once we have had all sweets and no substance or fourteen bags of chips and eight bottles of soda. This weekend our hosts sent out the Bat Signal because nobody had said they were bringing dessert. Obviously, I was not going to let that happen. I went on a rabid search for a quick and easy recipe that would have mass appeal and would also be good enough that I’d happily eat the leftovers myself (Josh’s sweet tooth is quite atrophied after 10+ years of solo veganity) on the off chance that I was not the only person to bring last-minute sweets (I was not). These cookies didn’t end up exactly what I was looking for, but they were a hit at the party so there is definite potential here. Extensive notes after the recipe for people (mainly Beth) who want to make them exactly as they were at the party.

Josh: So, I have a major character flaw: I’m not that into sweets. I’ve been vegan long enough that my formative years were spent in a barren landscape devoid of desserts. My idea of a sweet treat was being around the smell of nonvegan baked goods. But Nora loves sweet treats, and she is playing the long-game in rebuilding my taste for them. These days it is easy to make yummy desserts that are inclusive, so no one has to go without. Stocking your kitchen or pantry appropriately is all it takes. A good mixer helps.

I say all that to say this: these cookies are good! I was supremely weirded out by the use of mayo as a binder but I also wasn’t going to run to the store to do anything about it. I tasted the dough and was pleasantly surprised. I even tasted the dough a second time. (You know, for quality control.) They baked up quickly and were delicious. Very much like a real cookie, great smell, good texture, yummy flavor, though admittedly a little greasy. There’s a hint of coconut from the oil (probably because we buy the cheap shit) that wasn’t intended but worked really well with the dominant chocolate taste. These have proven to be a big hit across dietary lines. I even had one for lunch dessert at work the other day. Me of all people. You want to talk about weird?

Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes: 16 big cookies
Adapted from: Baker by Nature
Time: 30 mins to prep and bake + 20 to cool
Omnivore Index: “Why didn’t you just make Tollhouse?”
Ingredients:
– 1/2c (112 grams) COLD coconut oil, completely solid
– 1 1/4c (240 grams) dark brown sugar
– 2 tsp vanilla extract
– 1/4c nut milk (we use Silk’s Protein Nut Milk)
– 3 Tbsp (42 grams) vegan mayo (we use Just Mayo)
– 2 1/4c (270 grams) all purpose flour
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1.5c (240 grams) various chocolate bars, chunks and chips you find in your pantry (mostly 60-70% dark chocolate). Check the label for surprise dairy!
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375F.
2. Slap your stand mixer’s bowl on your scale, hit “tare” and measure in the coconut oil, brown sugar and vanilla. Mix well with the whisk until no chunks of coconut oil remain. Your Kitchenaid will not sound happy. I’m sorry if you have to do this by hand.
3. Add the milk and mayo, mix until combined.
3. In another bowl (or the mixer’s bowl so Josh has fewer dishes to wash) measure out the flour, baking soda and salt. Use the scale if possible to avoid using measuring spoons.
4. Add the dry to the wet and swap to the paddle attachment. The batter will be very thick. Fold in almost all the chocolate rubble, setting aside a handful.
5. Scoop with a large ice cream scoop (about 3Tbsp) and roll them quickly in your hands to make smooth balls. Any thin spots will feather out while baking and crisp unattractively. Place 8 each onto two lined cookie sheets.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set all the way through. Press remaining chocolate chips into the top for extra “wow” factor (or munch while waiting).
7. CRITICAL: Let the cookies sit at least 15 minutes to cool or they will self-destruct when you try to remove them from the pan.

Closing Arguments
Nora: It’s a chewy cookie that tastes like an Almond Joy and it’s vegan. What do you want from me?
Josh: I suffer for my art so you can eat these cookies. Oh well, guess I better go suffer them some more…
  • Notes:
  • Yes, I agree it is weird that there is mayo in these cookies but we didn’t have any applesauce and the internet said it was a good substitute. I think the extra fat from the mayo made these cookies a little greasy so next time I will use 3Tbsp aquafaba (canned chickpea water) instead.
  • Our oven runs a little cold so I actually baked them at 385F.
  • I made a double batch which nearly overcame my Kitchenaid and topped out my kitchen scale.
  • The first round of two pans took 10 minutes and came out far prettier. We only have two cookie sheets so the next batch was placed on hot pans– not good. I only cooked them 8 minutes but the melting coconut oil had caused them to spread a lot more. I suggest keeping the dough in the fridge while making batches if your kitchen is very hot.
  • The coconut oil we use is from Aldi and is minimally processed so these had a mild coconutty flavor. If you used refined coconut oil they would not taste like coconut.