For Christmas Katie got me my first entirely-vegan cookbook: Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It has a large section on brunch, which thrills me. Breakfast and brunch can be one of the most delicious and exciting meals, but going out to eat as a vegan can be disappointing. As Moskowitz says and I have often found to be true, most restaurants (Old Town Cafe being one of my favorite exceptions) offer only oatmeal as a vegan option.
On Monday, my gentleman friend Chris and I made Moskowitz's recipe for lemon corn waffles with blueberry sauce. They are luscious. The waffles are creamy and taste subtley of lemon; the corn meal gives them a pleasant texture; the blueberry sauce tastes delightfully of vanilla. For the savory counterpart to the meal, we tried marinated tempeh strips called Fakin' Bacon. Chris is a meat-eater, and said the "bacon" wasn't fooling anyone, but it was tasty and worth the money he spent on it. I wouldn't want the tempeh to be too meaty anyway, and I enjoyed the smoky flavor.
Lemon Corn Waffles
Ingredients
1 1/4 c. plus 3 tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c. cornmeal
1/4 corn oil (vegetable and canola work too)
2 c. soy milk
1/4 c. soy yogurt
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1/4 sugar (or Sucanat)
1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. Mix the dry ingredients (minus sugar) in one bowl, and whisk wet ingredients (plus sugar) in another bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in. Mix until just combined. I've heard overmixing makes waffles and pancakes less fluffy.
3. Cook waffles. If you're not familiar with waffle irons: I check how close the waffles are to done by watching the steam. The more steam that comes out of the waffles iron, the less done they are. The less steam, the more done they are. I don't know if this is try for all irons and waffles.
Blueberry Sauce
Ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 lb frozen blueberries, partially thawed
1/2 c. maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1. In a small saucepan, mix the arrowroot with the blueberries until the arrowroot is mostly dissolved.
Dissolving arrowroot in blueberries
2. Cook over medium heat until blueberries are warm. Add syrup and vanilla. Cook until sauce thickens.
Pour sauce over waffles and dig in!
Needing more comments here, I am thinking. I love blueberries! I am glad you have a gentleman friend that is willing to try out your recipes. Otherwise he may not give you a gentlemanly response if he does not like it.