Vegan MoFo Day 1: Saturday means soup day…and s’mores!

Happy World Vegetarian Day! And happy inaugural Vegan MoFo day! Since the first day of the MoFo happened upon a Saturday, I decided to make my favourite thing…soup! And although I’ve been into my Not Chick’n Masala Soup lately, I decided to whip up something a little different today. Something warming. Hence my new soup…Garam Soup! For those of you out there who don’t know…garam is “warm” in Hindi. And this soup certainly warms you up!

Garam Soup

 

Yields 6 cups

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1 small onion, thinly sliced into half moons
• 3 cups chopped cauliflower
• 3 cups chopped winter squash
• 3 cups water
• 1/8 cup masoor dal (split red lentils)
• 1 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tbs besan (chickpea flour) mixed w/ 1 tbs water

 

Directions:

 

In a large soup pot sprayed with a little nonstick cooking spray, saute your onion over medium heat. Add in your chopped vegetables, water, and dal. Bring to a boil. Once your ingredients have come to a boil, reduce to a simmer, add in your aminos, garlic, garam masala, coriander, turmeric, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Make a slurry out of the besan and water – add this in after 15 minutes, and cook over a low flame for about another 5 minutes, uncovered, stirring a few times. It should thicken the “broth” a tad, but not a lot. Now taste for spice, and enjoy!

[Wellness Weekend Recipe]

But I didn’t just want to make soup for the first day of MoFo. So I decided to make a variation on the Vegetarian Time’s Deep Chocolate Vegan Cake recipe…and I guess a bit of a spin on my mini s’mores cake as well!

S’mores Cake (Variation from Vegetarian Times’ Deep Chocolate Vegan Cake)

 

Serves: 8-12

 

Ingredients:

 

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tbs black cocoa powder (or dutch processed, or normal cocoa powder)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup brown sugar (or white, or a mixture of both)
• 1/4 cup soy yohgurt
• 3 tbs canola oil
• 1 cup cold coffee
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp chocolate extract
• 2 tbs red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup ricemellow creme
• 2 graham crackers, crushed into a powder

 

Directions:

 

Preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare a 9″ round pan with nonstick cooking spray.

 

In a mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, cocoa powder (s), soda, salt and sugar. Add in your yohgurt, oil, coffee, extracts, and vinegar. Pour half of your cake batter into the pan. In a microwave safe dish, microwave the ricemellow creme for 15 second. Make sure it doesn’t explode all over you microwave, though (it does that…so keep watch). Spoon that on top of your cake batter and swirl around with a knife.

Sprinkle your powdered graham crackers on top of this…

…and then pour on the rest of your batter.

Bake your cake for about 27-30 minutes, or until a fork inserted comes out clean.

It would probably be good dusted with icing sugar. If you’re feeling rather indulgent, go ahead and frost it with your favourite icing, or even some more ricemellow creme!

So what are you fellow MoFo-ers doing for this month? Starting Monday, I am going to base why I cook off of Tim Burton films…a different one each week! First up is going to be a week based off of my personal favourite film, The Nightmare Before Christmas! Hmm…I’m thinking snake and spider stew? Perhaps, but we shall see!