totally vegan #4

Whoa, vegan feast at the house last weekend! In what is now and hopefully will remain a weekly tradition, my friend Veronica and I are teaming up in the kitchen to make vegan food basically with the intention of it being all real food with no weird food-substitutes or fake-meatless-versions-of-meat-food. No BBQ seitan sandwiches here!This weekend we perfected a recipe (basically by being concerned about presentation even the slightest bit--as opposed to last weekend, where we baked flatbreads and kinda just spread some stuff on them) for a savory vegan tart with olive oil crust, spiced lentil puree and a minted cashew creme. Here's how to make it:

for the crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder (totally optional, season it however you like)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 cup soy/almond milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice

Sift together dry ingredients, stir in oil, combine soy or almond milk + lemon juice (to curdle), mix in enough milk to form a slightly wet dough ball, shape into a ball with your hands, let it rest for 20 minutes, cut into 8 pieces, roll each piece out and press into a small fluted tart pan, bake at 350 for 10 minutes, let cool before removing from pan.

for the filling:

1 1/2 cups (approximately? leftovers are good!) lentils

vegetable stock

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

1 tbsp whole coriander seeds

1 leek, roughly chopped

salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

basically you simmer all of these things together until the lentils are done, then puree with an immersion blender or food processor. I think a good ratio of lentils:stock is 1:2, and it takes 20 or 30 minutes for the lentils to be finished cooking. Seasoning with salt/pepper/red pepper is best done after cooking the lentils, and adjusted after pureeing.

for the creme:

1 cup raw cashews soaked in water 20 minutes

1/3-1/2 medium onion

1-2 garlic cloves

fresh mint

This is something that is done completely in a blender, and the proportions of onion/garlic/mint:cashew is totally up to you. Just puree it all together in a blender with water until a creamy consistency, like thick yogurt, is achieved.

We also made white gazpacho, with cucumber, garlic, green onion, lemon juice, veggie stock, and almond milk, as well as a mustard greens salad with sliced pickled beets. Veronica baked vegan chocolate doughnut-cakes and we made this crazy glaze using an obscure citrus fruit, agave nectar, ginger powder, and powdered sugar.

Later that night I played my first show withmy new band, which at that point had only existed for 5 days. And I came home to find that Josie and Sharp had done all the dishes! Incredible.