We thought you might have an overwhelming urge to make some foods using berries, so this is probably the best day of your life! As always, most of the vegan things can be turned into non-vegan things and vice versa, so don’t let the dairy get you down.

Blackberry Muffins

by Sarah Croce

Ingredients:
2.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cinnamon
8 tbsp butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (from the chickens in my brothers back yard!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 cup blackberries or as many as you can pick while walking your dog
1/2 cup almond milk

Preheat the oven to 375.

In one bowl toss the berries with a small handful of sugar, enough to make them look crystally and beautiful

In another bowl mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon. On a stovetop, melt the butter and add in the sugars and molasses, stir until dissolved and let cool slightly. While cooling mix the eggs into the dry mix with the almond milk. Then pour in the sugar/butter. Stir that stuff up so there are no more lumps but not tooo tooooo much. Then add in the berries and gently mix it all together.

Distribute the mix in either VERY WELL OILED muffin tins or muffin tins with muffin wrappers.

Bake for 25 minutes.

ENJOY AND SHARE

Blueberry Pie Overnight Oats & Blackberry-Lemon Scones

by Rachel

Blueberry Pie Overnight Oats
from Little Girl Big Appetite

Oatmeal is by far my favorite breakfast, because it’s filling and has fiber and if you put peanut butter and bananas in it it tastes like a peanut butter-banana sandwich. But what about in the summer, when heating anything on the stove sounds totally disgusting? Well, you mix it up and put it in the fridge instead, and in the morning you get something just as tasty and filling but without being so hot. Also, this actually really kind of tastes like pie!

Ingredients (halved from the original recipe for one large serving):
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup milk, dairy or non
1/6 -1/4 cup sweetener – maple syrup, honey, etc
3/4-1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Sprinkle of chia or flax seeds if you’re fancy and like being healthy

To make this, seriously all you do is mix it all up and put it in the fridge overnight. You can get really hardcore about it and layer it with more berries (ahem), or you can just eat it straight out of the fridge while you try to find your pants for work. Try substituting other kinds of berries if you want! Add bananas! Go crazy!

Blackberry-Lemon Scones
(adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch)

I love Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s baking recipes, and also all her other recipes, and also I’m moving in a week and have a bag of frozen blackberries, a lemon, and a bunch of flour that we should probably use up. This was a no-brainer. They’re not the prettiest thing you’ll ever eat, but they taste pretty fucking fabulous, and I have had quite a few scones in my day.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 nondairy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
3 cups flour (I used one cup spelt, because I had to use it up too. Oh, moving!)
2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening (doing half margarine might be ok too)
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups frozen blackberries
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 375. Add the vinegar to the nondairy milk and set aside to curdle and turn into “buttermilk.” Mix the dry ingredients together, and then make a well in the center to add the wet, including the milk mixture. Mix this until it’s not quite all incorporated, and then add the berries and lemon zest. Fold them in, but stop as soon as everything is just barely totally mixed, because scones need to be fluffy and light and flaky and this CANNOT happen if you overmix. Use a 1/4 cup (or 1/3 cup, if you like your scones to not fuck around) and scoop them out onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. (This part is highly recommended, because the dough itself isn’t that sweet.) Stick in the oven and bake for 18-22 minutes, sticking with a toothpick or butterknife to test if they’re done. Are they done? Are they! Good! Wait a while for them to cool, but not too long, because what’s better than a warm scone? Nothing, that’s what.

Yogurt Bowl

by Riese

Ingredients:
one single-serving container of yogurt
berries, for example:

raspberries (these are the best kind of berries)
strawberries (sliced into small pieces)
blackberries
blueberries

1-2 handfulls of granola

OPTIONAL:
chocolate chips/chunk
almonds
honey
dried cherries
jam if you’re really desperate ’cause you ran out of strawberries.
Fiber-One

Yogurt Bowl was invented at the University of Michigan by Natalie Raaber in 2001, although variations on yogurt bowl can be found all over the world and country, for example in tiny cups at McDonalds called “Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait” which, sidenote, I also recommend, but because my mother was a McDonalds Manager while pregnant with me and has a degree in Hamburgerology, I cannot reveal trade secrets.

ANYHOW!

1. Put yogurt in a bowl. (I like Stonyfield Farms fat-free yogurt ’cause aspartame hurts my mouth and gives mice cancer and I don’t understand how anyone can eat Light ‘n Fit and not want to jump off a bridge, that shit is nasty. Get a non-fruit-on-the-bottom flavor like lemon, vanilla, “chocolate underground” or etc.)

2. Pick out all of the raspberries and/or other berries from the container that still look good and put them on top of the yogurt.

3. Pour granola onto the yogurt & berries. I once dated someone who preferred almost entirely granola, so it was almost more like “granola bowl with yogurt and berries” than it was “yogurt bowl.” So the portioning here is totally up to you.

4. Mix everything together

5. Decide if you need more of one thing and if you do, put it in there.

6. This is also a good way to eat the rest of that gross super-healthy cereal you’re never gonna finish because it tastes like cardboard — you mix it into yogurt bowl and give it extra flavor while giving yogurt bowl a variety of textures.

ROASTED CORN POLENTA WITH BLUEBERRY SALSA

by Laneia

So I was going to use a cornbread mix to make roasted corn pancakes with green chiles, but because Someone is vegan and gluten-free and I didn’t feel like using an egg replacer, I swapped that for polenta! Polenta is really stupidly easy to make and can serve a variety of purposes, like “the thing under my spaghetti sauce” and “the thing under my grated cheese” and “the thing under my chili.” It’s a superfantastic gluten-free base for all kinds of dining shenanigans. If you and the people you feed aren’t vegan or gf, maybe you’d like to make corn pancakes and tell me how good they are?

You’ll want to make the salsa first so it has plenty of time to chill in the fridge.

Ingredients:
pint of blueberries
handful of some type of cherry tomatoes (I used yellow pear tomatoes for color contrast)
small shallot
jalepeno
lime juice
cilantro
tiny drop of balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

1. Chop or mince all the things. The blueberries will take forever and seem insane because who chops blueberries? The amount of lime juice and cilantro is up to you, but I’d start small and taste it as you go. You’re adding the balsamic vinegar to help balance the sweetness of the blueberries — if you like your salsa sweet, feel free to omit it. Let this sit in the fridge for like, half an hour.

A cautionary note about handling peppers: If you plan on engaging in digital girlsex sometime in the next few days, do yourself and your partner a favor by wearing gloves when chopping the pepper.

This polenta recipe is an adaptation of the Broccoli Polenta from Veganomicon.

Ingredients:
1 cup polenta
3 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup frozen roasted corn

1. Bring the water and salt to a boil in a larger-than-small saucepan. Gradually stir in the polenta and oil. When that’s all mixed up, add the roasted corn. I got the corn from Trader Joe’s and honestly I don’t even know if it’s available at other grocery stores. If it’s not, you could probably either skip that ingredient altogether or use regular frozen corn or really anything you want — it’s your disco.

2. Cover and simmer on low for around 15 minutes, stirring often, then remove it from the heat and let it set for an additional 10 minutes.

This is where our polenta tale becomes a choose-your-adventure story. Decide which statement suits you best and follow the steps below it.

I do not want to take risks and I want to eat this immediately.
1. Spoon the polenta into a bowl or onto a plate.
2. Top with small chunks of vegan cream cheese and the blueberry salsa.

I want to take small risks and I want to eat this sooner rather than later.
1. Form the polenta into small patties.
2. Pan fry the polenta patties in a little bit of oil on medium high, turning once.
3. Spread on a layer of vegan cream cheese and top with salsa.

I want to take risks and I want to eat this later.
1. Spread the polenta into an oiled 9×13″ pan, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
2. Slice the polenta into slice-sized slices.
3. Pan fry the slices in a little bit of oil on medium high, turning once.
4. Spread on a layer of vegan cream cheese and top with salsa.

Because you’ve added the roasted corn (and you’re glad you did, because it’s delicious), the polenta is more likely to fall apart in the frying process. That’s the risk you’re taking. I went with option two, due to a gnarly history with option three. After cooking one pattie, I got impatient and just made a giant pattie-type thing that was sort of the shape of South America, pan fried the monstrosity, and continued on as if completing option one. Maybe you’re better at this? If so, you should follow your heart and your talents and shine on.

BERRY PEACH CRUMBLE

by Sarah Facepalmer

Crumbles are my favorite pie-like food to make because they are mindlessly easy. You can mess up measurements in this recipe all over the place and it will still be delicious. The peaches help balance out the berry flavor and make this the perfect summer combination.

Filling:
4 to 6 peaches
Zest of half a lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar (you’ll probably use less)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (you’ll probably use less)
1 cup blueberries
1 cup blackberries

How much fruit you use will depend on the size of the pie plate and the ratio of peaches to berries that you prefer.

For the crumble:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Preheat the oven to 375.

First, you have to blanch the peaches. Drop them two or three at a time into boiling water for 45 seconds to a minute. Then immediately transfer them to a bowl of cold water. This makes them easier to peel. Once they’re cool, you should be able to run a knife over the skin and easily peel it off in large sections. After the peaches are peeled, cut them into large sections. Place them in a bowl with the blueberries and blackberries. Two cups of berries might be too much, so judge it based on the pie plate you have.

Then add the zest, lemon juice, sugar and flour to the fruit. These are not exact measurements! I only used about 2/3 each of the sugar and flour. Just drop some in, mix it around, see how it looks, and add more until you think it’s right. You can’t really mess it up. Once you’re done, put the fruit into the pie plate.

Now for the topping. This recipe makes quite a bit more than I wanted. So feel free to reduce the flour to 2/3 of a cup. Mix the flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Then take the stick of butter out of the refrigerator and cut it up into pieces and add it to the flour mixture. If you have a stand mixer, you can combine everything using that. If not, I suggest using either a fork or preferably a pastry blender (seriously go buy one, they’re awesome). Mix until the butter is in pieces the size of peas.

Then clump the mixture together in your hands a bit evenly the cover the top of the fruit with the crumble. You don’t have to use all of it, just cover the top so you can’t see the fruit anymore.

Put the pie plate on a cookie sheet to catch any filling that bubbles over. Place that in the oven and let it cook for 40 to 45 minutes. The fruit filling should be bubbling and the crumble should be golden brown. Serve it with ice cream if you feel adventurous.

Share your favorite berry recipes in the comments!

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