Dairy-free Cream of Mushroom Soup (vegan alternatives)

WINNER of the least photogenic food ever!

Is there anything better than cream of mushroom soup? My mom was a big fan of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Like boxes of cans in the basement before Costco existed, even though everything else she made was made from scratch. Look up "canned cream of mushroom soup with chicken recipes" online. That's just one taste of my childhood.

Seeing as it's mid-April and winter still doesn't want to leave us here in Toronto, I find myself craving cream of mushroom soup. But they don't sell ready-made dairy-free cream of mushroom soup at my usual grocery store. I'm not entirely sure they sell it anywhere. Which means that I'm going to spend the better part of an hour making it. I don't really truly remember what canned chicken soup tastes like exactly, but I know that this version has a stronger mushroom flavour and doesn't have that particular sweetness that real dairy tends to have when cooked. But frankly, that sweetness isn't worth a two-day tummy ache, so here we are.

Ingredients

• About 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 garlic head
• 250g sliced white button mushrooms
• 250g sliced cremini mushrooms
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 cups chicken stock (or veggie stock)
• 3 tbsp butter (or vegan butter)
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1.5 tsp salt, more to taste

Let's do it!

1. Turn on the toaster oven to bake mode and set at 400ºF. Cut the top off the garlic head, drizzle some olive oil over it and wrap up in foil. Throw that in the toaster oven until your kitchen starts smelling super good. About 20 minutes.
2. In a medium sized soup pot, heat up the oil on medium. Add diced onions and sauté until translucent. About 3 minutes.
3. Throw in the mushrooms and stir until the mushrooms have reduced their size by half and let out a good amount of tasty mushroom juice. This took maybe 10 minutes which I mostly spent playing around on my computer and only stirring the mushrooms every couple of minutes. Use your ears, people. If the frying gets louder, that means you're losing liquid. Which means things are going to start burning!
4. Take out half the onions and mushrooms and put them in a blender with the coconut milk. My coconut milk was separated, so the water went into the blender and the cream/fat went into the pot. 
5. Squeeze out the roasted garlic from the skin (careful! It's hot!) and add to the blender. Liquify it all!
6. Add this back to the pot along with half the chicken stock and thyme. Keep this at a low simmer with the lid on.
7. Now to make a roux to thicken the soup up and add some extra rich, fatty flavour. Heat up the butter and flour on medium in a separate small pot. Keep stirring and moving it around so it doesn't burn, breaking it up as it turns into a big ball. Once the mixture turns golden and starts to smell a little toasty, slowly pour in the stock while stirring quickly to break up any clumps.
8. Add this mixture to the soup and bring to a boil for at least a couple of minutes. Add salt to taste.

Pressure Cooker Spicy Oxtail and Chickpea Curry

I just bought a pressure cooker and I LOVE IT. I've gone bonkers, trying out all sorts of recipes and even amending my own to suit it. Basically any recipe I have that requires simmering something for hours can go into the pressure cooker and simmer for 30 minutes.

So. Oxtail curry. This usually takes hours to melt the collagen and get the tough meat meltingly tender. NOT TODAY.

Ingredients

• 0.75 kg ox tail -Try to buy them at 3" diameter or less. If there isn't any, add 15 minutes to the cook time as it takes time to break it all down
• 2 tbsp yellow curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 3/4 cup coconut milk (see Ingredient Notes)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 onion - diced
• 4 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 tbsp scotch bonnet flavoured hot sauce (optional, this WILL GET SPICY)
• 1 can chickpeas - drained and rinsed
• 1.5 tsp fish sauce (add more to taste)
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• Cooking oil

Let's do it!

1. Put your pressure cooker on the stove on high heat. Heat up oil. Brown the oxtails on all sides.
2. Add onions and cook until onions are soft. Stir often to keep everything from burning.
3. Add garlic and spices. Cook for another 3 minutes.
4. Add everything else.
5. Close the pressure cooker and bring it to pressure. Bring heat down to medium-high (150ºC) for 40 minutes. (See note below)
6. After 40 minutes, turn on the quick release and let the tasty smelling steam fill up your kitchen.
7. Check on the dish. If it seems a bit too thin, simmer uncovered for a while until it thickens.
8. Season with more fish sauce or hot sauce to your taste.
9. Serve with rice or bread.

Lunch it up!

This is super easy to lunch up. When cooled, I took all the meat off the bones and packed the stew in a lunch container with the rice on top, so that it wouldn't soak up the stew during the day and get all soggy. Heat it all up in the microwave and ruin all your coworker's day with your incredibly fragrant lunch, while they're all eating sad sandwiches or packaged salads.


Note on the pressure cooker: I use a combo of my induction cooktop and pressure cooker. The induction cooktop gives me say more control over the temperature than my electric stove, which goes on and off in order to keep the heat. If I tell the induction cooktop to do 150ºC, IT STAYS THERE. Induction cooktops are amazing, they boil water way faster than an electric range, making them my go-to for pasta.

Laksa - seafood noodle soup

Sometimes my cravings get so overwhelming that I end up spending way too much time and effort on satisfying them. Enter laksa, a deliciously fishy, rich and spicy noodle soup I first tried in an Asian food court in Markham, ON (First Markham Place, if you're wondering). I wanted it BAD, but not bad enough to drive 30 minutes to get it. Plus, the noodles they use have dairy in them and give me a tummy ache.

The laksa paste I made was based on a recipe I found online and adjusted for my own taste and the ingredients I had in the house. The laksa paste was the hard part, everything else about this recipe is dead easy.


The key to this paste is having a large and very rough mortar and pestle. You can definitely use a food processor, but I find that you won't get as smooth as a paste. That means the result will be a soup with small bits of galangal, shallots and other stuff, which is UNACCEPTABLE. I found this bad boy at Winners. It's ridges are super rough, and make short work of both dry and wet ingredients. It's about six inches wide and two inches deep. I would have preferred a bigger, deeper one, as it would be even better at keeping all the ingredients in the thing, but I couldn't find one and counter space is at a premium in my house. When you buy one, go for the granite variety and make sure it's super rough. I used to use a smoother marble one, which was great for dry spices, but terrible with grinding things like garlic. Instead of grinding it, it would just smoosh it up the sides. Very frustrating. Just spend the $40 and invest in a valuable kitchen tool that will last forever.

Laksa Paste Ingredients

• 6 dried long red chillies
• 1 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 shallots
• 2 lemongrass stalks (the softer white parts, hard outer leaves removed)
• 1 inch galangal, peeled
• 1 tbsp peanuts
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tsp shrimp paste
• 4 dried anchovies (see note on ingredients below)
• 1 tbsp peanut oil

Let's do it!

1. Boil some water and soak the chillies in a bowl until soft. Drain the water and chop.
2. Toast the dried spices and peanuts in a hot pan. Let cool. Add to the mortar and pestle with the anchovies and grind into dust.
3. Chop the shallots, lemongrass, galangal and garlic.
4. Put everything except the peanut oil into the mortar and pestle. Pound and grind until you have a uniform paste. 
5. Mix in peanut oil.
6. At this point, I push everything into a silicone ice cube tray and freeze it. When frozen, I pop them out and put them in a freezer safe zipper bag for easy use later. This will make about 6-10 servings, depending on how strong you like your soup flavoured.

Yes, I realize you can see chunks of chilli pepper despite my rant about mortar and pestles above. Also, this is the leftover paste after I made the soup below.

Okay, let's put this all together.

Laksa Noodle Soup Ingredients

• 4 servings udon noodles (or whatever Asian noodles you prefer. I buy mine in the freezer area of the Asian grocery store)
• 1L chicken stock
• 200mL coconut milk, more if you like coconut milk a ton (see note on ingredients below)
• 2 tbsp laksa paste (or more, if you like a stronger flavour)
• 1 tilapia filet
• Peanut oil
• 1 cup of frozen, assorted seafood, rinsed well
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• Sriracha

Let's do it!

1. Heat up the chicken stock, coconut milk and laksa paste in a pot and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the flavours meld.
2. Heat up a frying pan to high and add peanut oil. I used the same pan that I toasted the spices and peanuts in, which gave some added flavour. Fry up the tilapia until the outside is cooked. I do this to cook some of the water out of it, since I use frozen tilapia, which is super watery.
3. Chop up the tilapia into 1 inch squares.
4. Put the fish and other seafood into the broth and simmer until cooked, maybe another 5-10 minutes.
5. Cook the noodles in a separate pot according to package directions.
6. Put the noodles into bowls, pour soup and seafood over and top with cilantro and Sriracha to taste.
7. If you're lunching this up, pack the soup and noodles separately, as the noodles will soak up the broth and you'll get a thick, gummy mess.

A note on ingredients

Dried anchovies

I buy these at the Asian grocery store, in the dried goods section. They come in a bag. I find that these are super great for adding a seafoody, umami flavour to food without adding to the saltiness of the dish. 

I've actually made a umami powder by grinding up dried anchovies, dried seaweed and dried mushrooms. I've given it as gifts and people really enjoy it. I add it to Asian dishes that are tasting a little bland, but don't need any more salt.

Coconut milk

I've found that coconut milk comes in a variety of price points. The ones I buy are generally more expensive, and will be mostly just coconut milk and water. The cheaper ones have all sorts of preservatives and mystery ingredients in them. I can't confirm that the purer ones taste better, but why add any unneccesary ingredients?

Sautéed Rapini with Balsamic Reduction

I was inspired by a side dish at DeSoto's, a very good neighbourhood restaurant. I love rapini and this is quick and very, very tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch rapini, washed, bottom 1/2" of ends cut. I also separated the larger branches from the main stem for easier eating
• 6 garlic cloves, minced finely (less if you don't love garlic)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup white wine (optional)

Let's do it!

1. In a small saucepan, heat the balsamic vinegar and wine uncovered until it becomes syrupy. If it becomes TOO thick, add water to thin.
2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan that has a lid.
3. Add garlic and stir until it starts to turn golden.
4. Add rapini and salt. Toss with kitchen tongs to coat every piece in oil and garlic. There was a ton of rapini so I did this in stages, the rapini will wilt and reduce in size as it cooks.
5. Add a splash of water to the pan and cover for about 5 minutes or longer, depending on how al dente you like your veggies. 
6. Once the rapini is cooked to your liking and the balsamic reduction is ready, toss it all together with the second tablespoon of olive oil. 

That's it! It's a super tasty way to get your greens in!

Vegan Kimchi Fries

Please excuse the crappy cell phone photo

Every year my friends put together a vegan thanksgiving meal. Most of the people who attend aren't vegan, but we all love the challenge of making something delicious and vegan. My contribution this year was vegan kimchi fries. I had a non-vegan version at a Japanese restaurant last year and it sort of stuck with me.

This isn't a lunch thing you would take to work, but man, it was tasty.

Ingredients

• 2/3 package No Name Shoestring Fries (1kg)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup vegan kimchi, roughly chopped
• 1 package Sol Cuisine Tangy Korean BBQ Meatless Chicken, sliced thinly, not sauced
• 3 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
• Sriracha to taste
• 4 stalks green onions, chopped

Let's Do It!

1. Heat a sauté pan on medium-high and add oil. Sauté the kimchi for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the meatless chicken and stir until heated through.
3. Add the sauce from the meatless chicken package and stir for about 5 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside to let the flavours permeate.
4. Cook the shoestring fries according to the package and put on a nice platter.
5. Reheat the kimchi/chicken mix on the stove, cover the fries.
6. Mix the vegan mayonnaise and and Sriracha to your preferred level of spiciness and flavour. Put in a ziplock bag. Cut off a small corner of the ziplock bag and drizzle over the dish.
7. Sprinkle with green onions.

This dish was a big hit. I can't wait to make it again with non-vegan options.

Not-Just Red Pepper Soup

My husband and I recently took a trip to Italy where I tasted this incredible soup in a restaurant called Roscioli in Rome. It was dairy free, but incredibly creamy and had a real complexity to the flavours. The soup at the restaurant had little shrimp and chunks of salami in it (it tastes better than it sounds), which I haven't done for this recipe. Honestly, I don't know how close this is, I just know that it's tasty.

Cooking time: 1-1.5 hours altogether
Working time: 30 minutes
Servings: 6-8

Ingredients

• 2 Red bell peppers, seeded and chopped into 1" sections
• 1.5 shallots, peeled and chopped into 1" sections
• 5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 can whole tomatoes
• 2 cups homemade turkey stock
• 1 tbsp salt (or more to taste)
• 1/2 tsp shrimp paste
• Olive oil to coat veggies and 1 tbsp for soup

Let's do it!

1. Toss the veggies in some olive oil and roast in the toaster oven on the toast setting until everything gets soft and you start to see a bit of charring. Remove garlic peels once cool enough to touch
2. Meanwhile, deseed the tomatoes. How I do this is I pour the entire can into a large bowl and open each tomato with my hands and scrape out the seeds, then shake the tomato out in the can liquid until the seeds dislodge. I put the cleaned tomato into the soup pot. After doing this with all the tomatoes, I pour the can water through a sieve and use a wooden spoon to moosh any leftover tomato bits through, while keeping the seeds out. It's labour intensive, but it's worth it.
3. Add everything into the soup pot and blend using an immersion blender BEFORE TURNING ON THE STOVE. Unless you want to splash molten soup all over yourself.
4. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the flavours are blended to your liking.
5. If you're not too picky, the soup is more or less good to go. If you're going for the the smoothest soup in the world, push the soup through a super-fine drum sieve, which will take about 10-15 minutes of active stirring, but will result in a velvety, bright texture. 
6. At this point, I added some water to thin it out a bit and to dilute the soup, since it was very strong in flavour.

There it is, a very bright, tasty soup that will have guests asking "what... what exactly is in this?", but in a good way!

Spinach and Potato Curry Roti

Potato in curry is one of my favourite things in the world. So the first time I had spinach and potato curry roti, my mind was absolutely blown.

Anyway, this is a great spicy lunch for a super cold day.

Seriously, Toronto?

I added in peas for some protein, to round out the meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 medium yellow flesh potatoes, peeled and chopped into roughly 1" cubes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons or so Jamaican-style curry powder (I use Irie brand)
• 1 can coconut milk (buy the one with the highest percentage of actual coconut in it)
• 1 package frozen spinach (300g), defrosted and drained
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• Salt and/or fish sauce to taste
• Hot peppers to taste
• Flour tortillas. The big ones, not the 6-inch ones

Let's do it!

1. In a medium sized soup pot, heat up the coconut oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onions and curry powder and stir for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the potatoes and let them fry on the bottom of the pan. Stirring once in a while, maybe cook for 4 more minutes.
4. Add garlic and fry for 1 minute.
5. Add the coconut milk and stir. Bring this to simmer and cover.
6. I like my potatoes really soft, so I simmered this for about half an hour.
7. When the potatoes are cooked through, add the frozen spinach and stir to combine.
8. Once that's all nice and simmering again, add salt or fish sauce to taste. Personally, I think fish sauce and curry are a winning combination, but not all of us like fish sauce. So you may have salt.
9. Add more curry powder if you think it needs it. I love a ton of spice.
10. At this point, I also added about 1/2 teaspoon of my homemade "hot sauce", which is actually just fresh red chilli peppers, garlic, salt and vinegar blended. It's crazy hot and doesn't really change the flavour of anything. It just adds heat.
11. Add the frozen peas, stir to combine. Turn off the stove and cover. Nothing worse than overcooked peas.

Lunch it up! 

You can assemble this at home, or you can bring the tortilla and curry separately. I like to keep things separate (therefore, less soggy). Put the big tortilla on a big plate, spoon some curry into the middle, then roll up into a neat little package. Microwave and you're done.