Veganomicon_ The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook - Isa Chandra Moskowitz [57]
1 recipe Savory Wheat or Buckwheat Crepes (page 77)
Softened nonhydrogenated vegan margarine for frying
Filling: ½ pound Yukon gold or other waxy potato (about 2 medium-size potatoes)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 small onion, diced finely
1 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
½ pound mushrooms, any variety, sliced thinly
Plenty of freshly ground pepper
Salt
Optional sauces for garnish: Mushroom Gravy, Mustard Sauce, Dill-Tahini Sauce, all-natural unsweetened apple sauce, store-bought soy sour cream
FIRST, PREPARE the crepes (see page 77). Stack them, one on top the other, on a dinner plate. Cover the plate with plastic wrap and set aside.
Peel and coarsely chop the potatoes. Place them in a medium-size pot, add enough cold water to cover by 1 inch, and boil for 20 to 25 minutes until easily pierced with a fork and tender. Drain, place the potatoes in a large bowl, and mash coarsely.
In a heavy skillet over medium heat, heat the oil and add the onion. Stir and fry the onion until it’s golden-brown and very soft, about 15 minutes. Add the caraway seeds and mushrooms. Sauté until the mushrooms are very tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 7 minutes.
Fold the cooked mushroom mixture into mashed potatoes and season to taste with salt and plenty of ground black pepper.
To assemble each blintz, place 3 to 4 tablespoons of the filling in the center of the crepe. Pat the filling to shape it into an oblong. Fold two opposite sides of the crepe over the filling, then fold the remaining two sides over those. The resulting blintz should be a rectangular little bundle. Stack the assembled blintzes on a plate, seam side down.
Heat a heavy skillet or crepe pan over medium heat. The pan will be ready when a few droplets of water flicked onto its surface sizzle. Using a silicone brush, brush the bottom of skillet with the softened margarine. Place two or three blintzes, seam side down, onto the skillet and cook on each side for 3 to 4 minutes, until their pan-side surface is crisped and browned. Use a small, firm spatula to turn once. Serve the hot blintzes immediately.
Variation: Potato-Spinach Blintzes: Substitute 1 pound of cooked, chopped fresh spinach for the mushrooms.
SALADS AND DRESSINGS
WE HAVE NOTHING personal against salads. Some have suspected that we do, just because they don’t feature prominently in Vegan with a Vengeance. It’s just that, all too often, salads are assumed to be the staple of vegetarians everywhere, and lots of times they end up being just that. It’s because we sympathize with the eleven-year-old vegetarian who ends up eating a sprig of parsley and a slice of limp, pink tomato while the rest of her family chows down on hamburgers that we’ve often paid attention to heartier, cooked fare, rather than a handful of leaves and olive oil.
But salad lovers everywhere can now rejoice that we’ve come to terms with all of those issues. Time well spent on the couch has allowed us to reexperience the subtle joys of arugula, spinach, fresh fruits and herbs, piquant vinegars, and oils. We lean toward substantial salads these days, so you’ll notice lots of tender grains, beans, roasted vegetables, and mushrooms adding plenty of depth and flavor to the medley of traditional leafy greens.
Most of these salads can be served as entrées with a couple of add-ons. Salads deserve to hang out all year round—not just during those steamy summer days—therefore, we proudly present a salad for most any occasion and season. So dust off those salad tongs and rev up the salad spinner. And don’t forget the parsley.
CAESAR SALAD WITH ROASTED GARLIC CROUTONS
SERVES 4 TO 6 AS A SIDE, 2 TO 3 AS A ENTRÉE
TIME: 30 MINUTES, PLUS TIME TO CHILL
Creamy, bold, garlicky—this is the classic salad that eats like a meal. In our version of a Caesar,