by admin on October 17, 2011
When it comes to the Halloween season you do not get much more traditional than pumpkin pie. This vegan recipe will give you a delicious vegan pumpkin pie, for a cruelty-free celebration of one of the most fun holidays.
This simple Vegan Pumpkin Pie Recipe can be made with the kind of pumpkins used for jack-o-lanterns, but the smaller cooking pumpkins will provide a much more tasty treat!
You will need
For the Crust
- 1/2 cup unbleached flour
- 7 Tbs. whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. sugar or granulated sugar cane syrup
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 3 Tbs. canola oil
- 3 Tbs. soymilk plus 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
- 3 to 4 Tbs. water
For the Filling
- 2 cups canned pumpkin or puréed home-cooked fresh pumpkin (see note)
- 1 cup low-fat soymilk or rice milk
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar cane syrup
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 Tbs. dark molasses or to taste
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
Instructions for the Vegan Pumpkin Pie Recipe
In a medium sized bowl combine both the flours, and the salt, sugar and baking powder. In a smaller bowl mix together the oil and Soymilk.
Pour the liquid mixture in to the dry mixture and mix together with a fork. Keep mixing until it hold together in to a ball shape. If the mixture is too dry, keep adding water a teaspoon at a time until ready to use.
Once you have the dough mixture ready wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for one hour.
Once chilled take the dough and roll it on to a dusted surface and roll out until it forms a circle around 11 inches in size. Take the dough and line a 9 inch pie plate, then crimp the edges with a fork to make it look good.
Cover with plastic wrap again and refrigerate until you are ready to use.
Around now you can set the oven to 425 Fahrenheit to preheat!
To make the filling you will need to mix all the remaining ingredients in to a large bowl. Keep mixing until the mixture is smooth and well blended.
Once the mixture is ready, pour it in to the pie crust and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees for a further 50 ish minutes, until the filling is set.
Let cool and then refrigerate overnight, and you will soon be able to enjoy a delicious vegan pumpkin pie!
by Shai77 on July 6, 2011
Vgan Tofu Jerky is a great way to enjoy tofu no matter where you are. These snacks are a great picnic food idea and perfect for a vegan-style picnic theme.
Ingredients
1 lb tofu; extra firm or herbed firm
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup ginger sauce; oil-free OR
1 T fresh ginger; grated
2 T water
1 T brown sugar or agave nectar
Cayenne pepper to taste
Procedure
- Drain tofu by wrapping in a clean washcloth or paper towels and pressing it gently to release excess water, do this for about an hour. ( you can put the tofu in between two chopping board and put canned goods on top)
- When excess water has been released, chop the tofu in rectangular with .20 inch size. Spread it out in a baking sheet.
- In a separate bowl, mix thoroughly soy sauce, water, ginger sauce, agave nectar, water and cayenne pepper.
- Pour over the spread out tofu
- Marinate for an hour or so with occasional flipping of tofu to cover the other side. You can marinate overnight by putting it in the refrigerator but make sure to bring to room temperature first before proceeding.
- Dehydrate
- Oven: Replace tofu in a metal rack on a cookie tray. Use the lowest temperature setting of your oven. Checking occasionally until tofu becomes dry but not brittle
- Dehydrator process: Spread tofu in a dehydrator trays and proceed with 155oF for six hours or until the tofu becomes dry but not too brittle
Tips:
- Mix ingredients according to your taste, add more cayenne if prefer it spicy
- Freeze the tofu with the marinade to make it more jerky chewier
- Excellent as snacks while on-the-go and on picnics
- Tofu jerky can be stir-fried after dehydrating to add more flavors to your picnic foods.
Veganism and Vegan Food Recipes
Veganism is the practice of removing dairy or non-human animal products in the diet. There are two kinds of vegan diet; ethical vegans are those that eliminate the use of any animal products in any form or purpose in their everyday lives, while in strict vegetarians or dietary vegans they just remove the animal products in their food intake.
The co-founder of British Vegan Society begun the “non-dairy vegetarian” or the so-called “vegan”, which is the society opposing the use of eggs to be consumed as foods, last 1944 in England. Its meaning was further elaborated in 1951 giving the vegan word a new meaning, which is “a doctrine that humans should not exploit animals in order to survive”. Moreover, in 1960, the American Vegan Society was born having the same concept that people must avoid violence against other forms of living things.
It was then just a small but fast growing movement against violence. In 1997, 5% in the United States have confirmed that they have not used in any kinds of purpose any animal products for the past two years. Last 2007, 3% in the United Kingdom proudly said that they are 100% vegans. With these surveys, business industry decided to accommodate the needs of vegan societies that is why vegan restaurants begun increasing in numbers.
According to a study made by a food writer Andrew Smith, vegan diet is starting to become a fad in endurance events such as Ironman triathlon and Ultramarathon wherein the top competitors have been proven to practice veganism or raw veganism.
Animal Products
When veganism mentioned animal products, what do they exactly mean? What are those products that they consider not worth consuming as food? Here are some of those animal products:
- Meat
- Seafood
- Poultry and its eggs
- Dairy products like milk
- Honey
- Fur, leather, silk, wool
- Beeswax – wax produced by bees in their bee hives
- bone china – a translucent body part of porcelains derived from animal bone
- bone char – a material that came from charred animal bones
- casein – proteins found in cow’s milk and human milk
- carmine, cochineal – a pigment of red color produced from some scale insects
- gelatin – a tasteless and colorless substance produced by the collagen inside the skin and bone of animals
- isinglass – from bladders of fish
- lard – pig fat
- lanolin – a yellow wax secreted by glands and wool-bearing animals such as sheep
- rennet – usually used in making cheeses, which came from mammalian stomach that digests the milk
- shellac – a resin secreted on trees by a female lac bug
- whey – is milk plasma, which is the remains after the milk has been strained
- tallow - came from mutton or beef fats
- yellow grease – a lower grade of tallow that came from sheep or cow fats
