Rachel's Vegan Garden Party~Vegan Potato Salad

Enjoying a double scoop of mint chip ice cream from Raw Ice Cream Co.

Last Saturday, my dear friend Rachel had a Garden Party in her charming Sunset Park home. It was a good time with good people, and I left so stuffed!
The guests (including myself) supplied a plethora of stuff to eat and drink, and the grill was a-fired up! Some things people brought included summer rolls, chickpea pesto salad from Earthmatters, fruit-lots of fruit!, smart dogs, tofurkey kielbasas, boca crumbles in a lettuce wrap-with sriracha!,  guacamole and chips, mango salsa, grilled zucchini and baby bella mushrooms, bananas with a chocolate hazelnut spread, a huge tub of raw mint chip ice cream from Raw Ice Cream Co. (leftover from Veggie Prom)...you get the idea! PLUS a potato salad made by yours truly!

The scene-with lovely host Rachel Kay "trying not to" put her hand in the bag of tortilla chips!

Other host and roomie Rob grillin' it up!

Summer Rolls with Mango Jalapeno Sauce

Made by Jessica of Sundrops Organics, a delivery service offering natural products, food and juices. Cool, right?

www.SundropsOrganics.com

The night before the party, I made a vegan potato salad to bring to the event. It was, to my delight, very well received by the host and guests! It's a recipe I've made many times, and I've forgotten how good it is! The red wine vinegar adds a great tangy flavor.

So, I leave you with this recipe for a killer Summery Vegan Potato Salad:

Ingredients:

3 lbs red potatoes

1/2 cup chopped parlsey

1 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 heaping cup vegenaise

1/2 red onion, diced

1 celery stalk, chopped

freshly cracked black pepper (optional)

Note: Vegenaise is a vegan substitute for mayonnaise that makes you not miss traditional mayonnaise at all. Trust me. And if you don't, try it for yourself and see! I usually use the Original one in this recipe, but this time I used their Grapeseed one and it was also fantastic.

Instructions:

- Boil potatoes until they are soft. 

(Better too soft than too hard, but you'll want a little firmness to them. You can poke them with a fork before boiling, and poke them periodically to check on them.)

-Chop potatoes into quarters.

(I like to vary the size of the pieces, but leave most of them on the larger side.)

-Let potatoes cool more before gently mixing in the vegenaise, vinegar, onion, parsley and celery.

Note: The portion of vegenaise, parsley and vinegar can be more or less than the recipe suggests for your taste. I like my potato salad tangy!

Hope you are all having a delicious and fun summer!

xo,

Ellie

Housewarming BBQ Party~Massaged Kale with Miso Sesame Dressing~Lentil Burgers with Red Onions

 Smart Dog, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Mushrooms, Polenta and Quinoa Cakes slathered with BBQ sauce, and  Black Bean and Corn Salad I brought over from

The Brooklyn Standard with hummus chips.

Last Sunday my vegan friend Shoshana (a real sweetie!) invited me over to her housewarming party in her Brooklyn backyard. Along with the great spread she had for us (pictured above), I brought over some delicious fare from my trusty neighborhood store Brooklyn Standard.

My friend Michelle was also there, and brought dessert! Some gluten-free Banana Walnut and Coffee Crumble Donuts from  Babycakes NYC...

And Shoshana made these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles. They were amazing- and luckily for all of us, a recipe is available!!

This treat was actually created by the famous chef Chloe Coscarelli. The recipe calls for a chocolate coating. Shoshana didn't get to putting on the top layer, and she made them with carob instead of chocolate, but it was still incredible! I recommend trying it yourself sometime.

Check it out here: http://chefchloe.com/sweets/vegan-cookie-dough-truffles.html

 Home Cooking Projects

Unfortunately, Michelle and I weren't able to stay very long at Shoshana's. Michelle had to work a shift at Candle 79, and I had an open mike to go to.  After singing, I stopped in my local store and bought some items to embark on some cooking projects of my own. I decided to make some dishes from some of my favorite food blogs. The first thing I made (with some beautiful kale I'd bought previously at a farmer's market) was...

Massaged Kale Salad with Gena Hamshaw's Outstanding Miso Sesame Dressing

Gena Hamshaw has this fantastic blog called Choosing Raw, full of useful info and inventive recipes involving creative food combos. Her writings are also very thoughtful. I'm such a fan!

You can find her website here: http://www.choosingraw.com/

And you can find the recipe to this salad and dressing here:

http://www.choosingraw.com/outstanding-miso-sesame-dressing/

Her recipe calls for mellow white miso, but the store didn't have any (damn you, Khim's!). So, I used the barley miso I had at home. Barley miso is stronger in flavor than white miso, so I used less than the recipe said to. Also, I used less agave, and it still turned out great! This dressing is a delicious  combo of salty and sweet! Mmmm...The dressing recipe leaves a lot leftover, so you could use more of it on salads during the week.



Along with the salad, I used another great blog called Lisa's Project:Vegan, and made these...

Lentil Burgers with Red Onions

They broke up a little bit, oops!

In the post, the burgers are served on a bun with vegan Russian dressing (which sounds amazing!), but I opted to go without for a simpler and healthier meal.

I ended up eating all the burgers I made and a lot more kale, but this was the first serving...

Lisa's blog is great because it has tons of creative,  delicious-looking recipes. You can tell this lady really enjoys cooking and is passionate about food, yet so playful!

You can find her recipe for the burgers here:
http://lisaprojectvegan.blogspot.com/2012/06/lentil-burgers-with-red-onions-russian.html



Hope you'll try some of these recipes-and check out these fantastic blogs!
Will post again soon.
xo,
Ellie

Fourth of July Vegan BBQ

Ahhh! So much to post about! Where do I start? I guess I'll begin at the 4th of July and work my way as quickly as possible to my latest happenings. Expect a string of updates real soon!

Ok. Ok. So...My friend Michelle works at Candle 79. If you don't know what it is, I'm glad to fill you in! It's one of the best vegan restaurants in NY. Hands down. It's where you wanna go for your birthday or that special date. Trust me. Michelle's friend and co-worker Dianne de la Veaux, bartender at Candle, was kind enough to have me over for her rooftop barbecue at her lovely place in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn! Dianne was really sweet; a great hostess and an awesome cook! Actually, she is aiming to have her own restaurant in the near future. After trying her lovely spread of vegan eats, I think she has a real chance of success! You may wanna remember her name!

So, okay. Let's get to the food! Here is what we had:

Marinated Portobello Mushroom Caps

Tempeh-Vegetable Kebabs

Grilled Romaine Salad and Creamy Cashew-Roasted Garlic Dressing,

 topped with Shiitake Bacon

Gazpacho

 Michelle brought over some corn on the cob and cherries from the farmer's market...

and this yummy Chickpea Pesto Salad from Earthmatters in the Lower East Side.

I brought over some Smoked Apple Sage Field Roast Sausages and this Beet Salad, tossed with white truffle oil, parsley, red onion, olive oil and garlic from the Brooklyn Standard Deli. This place is super vegan-friendly, and don't even get me started about their Cali Bagels!!! Will have to post about that sometime soon...I also brought over a  delicious Truffled White Bean Pate from Brooklyn Standard, but lost pictures (sob!).

Here's a pic of my first plate (among a few!).

Dianne also made a delicious Blueberry Ginger Kombucha!

I tried to get Michelle to look at me in the pic. Ah well!

Dianne also made an awesome Blueberry Nectarine Crumble

and an Apple Walnut Crumble

I know I'm a humid, summery mess but rather than look at me, look at this beautiful crumble!

Yum!

With Michelle and Dianne before (or after?) the fireworks.

I had such a great time!

Till the next post-which shall be very soon.

 Be well!

xoxo,

Ellie