What you need:

1 cup soy or rice milk

4 black teabags

1/4 cup veggie oil

1/2 cup plain or vanilla soy yogurt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups flour

1/4 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 t ground cinnamon

1 t ground cardamom

1/2 t ground ginger

1/4 t ground cloves

pinch of white or black pepper

Note:  for the cupcake topping, you can choose any cupcake frosting.  We have a great recipe for vegan cream cheese frosting, available here.  It works great for these cupcakes!

Ok, so lets make some cupcakes:

Heat the oven to 375 F and line your cupcake pan with liners.  Spray the liners with some baking spray…it works well.

In a small saucepan, heat the soymilk until simmering, add the tea bags, cover and take away from the heat.  Allow the mixture to sit for 10 minutes and when ready to use, squeeze the tea bags to ensure that you get as much of the tea as possible in the milk mixture.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, and tea/milk mixture until all the lumps disappear.  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and pepper into wet ingredients.  Mix until large lumps disappear.

Fill the cupcake cups about 2/3 of the way and bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into a cupcake.

Make sure they are totally cooled off before icing them.

What you need:

1 big ass glass casserole dish or cake pan

2 boxes frozen phyllo dough – thawed

2 cups vegan sugar (I use 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup reg sugar)

2 cups ground pistachio nuts

3 T  combo of cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, and clove – mostly cinnamon and cardamom, though.   Mix this with the nuts in a big ziploc baggie.

1 1/2 cups vegan butter, melted, with 1 t vanilla extract stirred in

First, melt the sugar in a saucepan with just enough water to melt the sugar and turn it into a paste.   Continue adding water and cooking until you have a sugar syrup.  DO NOT LET IT BECOME CARAMEL.

Pour 2 – 3 T of the melted butter into the bottom of your pan and spread.  Put down 8 layers of phyllo.  Sprinkle a layer of the nut and spice mixture and then drizzle the sugar syrup over that.  Finish it off with a little of the melted butter and add 4 more layers of phyllo.  Continue doing this until you reach the end of your phyllo, ending with 6 layers instead of 4.  Drizzle the top with the remaining vegan butter.

Score the baklava (cutting the top but not all the way to the bottom, just to give yourself a template for cutting it once its been baked thoroughly).  Make 4 cuts from top to bottom, making 4 even rows lengthwise.  Then cut crosswise all the way down, making a triangle at the top and bottom and the rest should be diamonds.

Bake at 300 for about an hour, maybe an extra 15 or 20 minutes.  It should be golden brown on top and puffy.  Allow to cool for several hours or even overnight, then cut the pieces where you scored them.

Pull the pieces out and place on a serving platter.  Now you’ve got some damn good baklava!

What you need:

12 oz.  chickpeas, soaked overnight

1 small dried red chilli

1/2 t  cumin seeds or ground cumin

salt and fresh black pepper

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 1/2 T tahini

4 T olive oil

lemon juice to taste – approx 1 1/2 tablespoons

Rinse the soaked chickpeas and cover with water and cook for 1 1/2 hours or until tender, skimming when necessary.  Drain, saving a little of the cooking water.

In a blender or food processor, blend the chilli and cumin with a teaspoon of salt.  Add the garlic, then the chickpeas, and tahini and pulse until smooth.  Add the salt and pepper, oil and lemon juice to taste.  If you prefer your hummus to be thinner, add a few drops of the cooking water until you are satisfied with the consistency.  Enjoy!

What you need:

1/4 gallon  roughly chopped zucchini

1 c  raw tahini

1/2 c  fresh lemon juice

1/2 – 1 C  extra virgin olive oil

10 cloves fresh garlic

1/2 T  cumin

1/2 T  chili powder

1/4 t  cayenne pepper

1/2 T  celtic sea salt

Now for the easy part.  Just combine all of these ingredients in your food processor, blender, or blend with a hand mixer until you have reached hummus consistency.  You might want to add a little extra tahini depending on the taste.  Enjoy with flax seed crackers or carrot sticks!