Foods that Nourish: Sweet Potato, Kale, and Brown Rice Bowls with Creamy Savory Cashew Sauce

If you hate reading long, drawn out stories before getting to the actual recipes, well...start scrolling now, because this one? This one's gonna be a doozy.

Tanaka Bowl - Recipes from Plant Fest at Tanaka Farms

This past weekend marked the second Plant Fest at Tanaka Farms. The first one in September of 2017 was so successful, the fine folks over at Tanaka Farms were kind enough to host us again! And...guess what?! This one was even more successful than the first! So, we will definitely be back, in early June, to do it all again! Extra special thanks to the hard-working volunteers from SoCal VegFest for helping to make it all happen! Plant Fest is a project of SoCal VegFest which is a project of the Animal Protection and Rescue League - a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

What Should I Get My Vegan Friends for Christmas? Vegan Cookbooks! Duh!

Read all the way to the bottom of this post where you can enter to win a copy.
I am giving away a copy of each of these books, so just follow the prompts in the widget to enter!

For many of us, the Holidays are no longer about presents, like they were when we were kids. As a grown up I really enjoy the opportunity to meet up with friends and family over a drink, or a meal, and really spend quality time together joyfully in the spirit of the season. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the holidays! The amount of decorations that adorn my 700 square foot home is ridiculous and Christmas music blares from my car stereo as well as my house all month long. It's just the buying of "stuff" for the sake of buying "stuff" that really gets to me.

Vegan Mofo VII, Day 16: Fusion Rice Bowl

Fusion Rice Bowl from Fusion Food in the Vegan Kitchen (page 69)

You guys!  Last night I went to Terry Hope Romero's Authors Worth Celebrating dinner at Mohawk Bend in LA.  So good.  A trio of salads, from her new book Salad Samurai: 100 Cutting-Edge, Ultra-Hearty, Easy-to-Make Salads You Don't Have to Be Vegan to Love, followed by a luscious Ethiopian Spiced Chocolate Flourless cake from Vegan Eats World: 300 International Recipes for Savoring the Planet.

One of the courses was the Polish Summer Soba Salad, which was a fusion of summer flavors.  I don't really like beets, but this salad was probably my favorite dish of the night...even with the beets! I was cracking up when Terry was talking about it and asked if it was still cool to say "fusion."  I hope so, Terry!  I hope so.

So with fusion on the brain, I thought it appropriate to share today's recipe from Fusion Food in the Vegan Kitchen.  This one is a bowl.  Most of my favorite bowls come in bowl form.  And I am giving y'all a few options for the sauce on this one, too.  Technically, you get 5 different recipes from the book in one post. You're welcome.

Deep Dish Pizza Dough and Bread Bowls

Well, hello there! It's been a while, I know. Celine and I have been feverishly working on and testing for 500 Vegan Recipes, and oh boy, are there some awesome foods coming out of our test kitchens! Check out the pictures over on the flickr pool.

I thought I'd share one of those 500 with you guys, after all I haven't posted a new recipe here in almost a month!

This is actually two recipes in one. This dough makes an awesome cast iron deep dish pizza, but more interestingly, it makes virtually indestructible bread bowls for soup! One of the testers stress tested a bread bowl with five bowls of soup and reported absolutely no leakage. I don't necessarily recommend eating five bowls of soup in one sitting, but you can rest assured that you will safely make it through one or two!


Home Made Bread Bowl filled with Rustic Potato Leek Soup


Deep Dish Cast Iron Pizza topped with Bechamel, Basil and Tomatoes

1/4 ounce (1 packet) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
additional olive oil

Mix together yeast, sugar and warm water. Let stand ten minutes. In a mixing bowl, mix together flours and salt. Add in yeast mixture, water and olive oil. Adding more all purpose flour if too wet, more water if too dry, a little bit at a time. Your goal is a soft elastic dough ball that is easy to handle and not sticky. Knead for about 10 minutes. Divide into two, form into a ball. Brush with a light coat of olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for one hour.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Punch down the dough, knead an additional 2-3 minutes and form into a pizza crust. Bake with your favorite toppings for about 10 minutes, or until crust is a nice golden brown.

Yield:2, 10 inch crusts

Note that I made mine in a cast iron skillet and my husband made his on a cookie sheet. They both cooked for the same amount of time, but he pressed his out much thinner so he got about a twelve incher, while mine was only about 9 inches. Both yielded excellent results.

Bread Bowl Variation
I made up a double batch of this dough. With the remaining two pieces, I formed them into balls (skipping the second knead), cut a few slits across the top, baked at 400 for 15 minutes, removed, brushed with nondairy butter, baked an additional 5 minutes…BREAD BOWLS FOR SOUP!