Get Baked: Vegan A-Camp Roundup!

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Did you know there is a Vegan Camp? There is! (And it sort of looks like a drag!) That’s not what this post is about because obviously all things A-Camp are awesome.

This A-Camp we will once again be offering a Vegan/Vegetarian Life event hosted by Rachel, Sarah Croce, Stef and me where we will share recipes, answer questions and truth be told who knows what else at that altitude. (Especially if Hanna Hart wanders over!)

And just for kicks, we’re also bringing some of our favorite cookbooks including the classic Moosewood cookbook, all things Isa and my pick the Teany cookbook. What is your fave vegan cookbook? SHARE AND TELL ya’ll.

For this Get Baked! check out a few of our favorite Fall and Camp-esque recipes for you to try at home. On to the recipes!

TEXAS CAVIAR

by Rachel

(from the Yellow Rose Recipes cookbook)


Ingredients:

2 cans black eyed peas
1 can black beans
1 bunch scallions/green onions, sliced
fresh parsley, chopped
cilantro, chopped
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 lime’s worth of juice
1 tsp jalapeño juice from a jar of pickled jalapeños
1/2 tsp honey/agave
1 clove garlic, minced
2 pickled jalapeños, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
dash of cayenne

Directions:

1. Mix beans (drained), scallions, cilantro and parsley in a bowl.

2. In a smaller bowl, mix oil, vinegar, lime, jalapeño juice, honey, garlic, jalapeños, and spices in a smaller bowl. Stir really well.

3. Pour over and stir into beans, and then let sit in the fridge for an hour before serving. Delicious!

Never Fail Vegan Chili

by Stef

I got a vague version of this recipe off the internet a long long time ago and then gradually adapted it to keep adding more delicious things.  Now it’s become a mainstay of my poorest weeks, because it makes so much chili and is so versatile.  You can have it with chips!  You can have it over rice!  You can keep adding spicy stuff to it until your heart explodes!  This is great for feeding a lot of people, or feeding yourself for a very long time.

I suspect this can also be made over a fire or grill situation, for all those times you find yourself camping in the woods with a lot of heavy cans of beans and a block of tofu.

Ingredients:

4 cloves garlic, diced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
handful dried arbol/chipotle peppers (optional)
1 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
1 package of white mushrooms, sliced
1 package extra firm tofu, crumbled
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 tsp cumin
2 tbsp or more chili powder
a whole lot of cayenne powder
14-16 oz plain canned tomato sauce
28 oz diced tomato, with liquid
2 28 oz cans of red kidney beans, drained
14 oz can black or pinto beans, drained

Directions:

1.  Start by heating up the olive oil in your pot on medium high.  Add diced garlic and stir.  When that’s starting to cook, add your dried peppers (if you have a high spice tolerance) and your onion.  As the onions become transluscent, add the mushrooms.  This is a crucial moment for your chili, when the onions and mushrooms are reaching peak deliciousness, so let them cook for a bit.  When they’re softening, crumble in your tofu (the firmer the better), and then finally your diced bell peppers.

2.  Sprinkle in cumin, chili powder and cayenne.  This isn’t really an exact science; all of these things are delicious.

3.  Add canned tomato sauce, diced tomato and finally the beans.

4.  Bring the heat down to low and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring often.  I’m sort of a masochist so I usually add a few drops of this insane hot sauce called Beyond Death Sauce, but maybe you value your stomach lining.

5.  The chili is going to start smelling SO GOOD but really, you should wait 45 minutes and ideally give it time to cool.  Honestly, it’s best the next day when the flavors have had loooots of time to seep into the tofu, but you won’t want to wait.  Serve hot.

Campfire Banana Boat

by Jamie

Apparently this is a campfire classic, but in truth I learned about it last week. I’m super into it and you will probably want to make it as soon as you finish reading this post.

Sorry, there are no pictures of what this treat looks like after it’s been cooked because apparently there is virtually no way to photograph it without it looking like a finger painting project of a two year old.

But it’s delicious! Trust me!

Directions:

Cook temp: 300 degrees

1. Gather your ingredients for the filling of your banana boat. Chocolate pieces, various types of chocolate/carob chips, nuts, peanut butter, Oreos, marshmallows – all delicious options!
2. Cut out the middle of your banana WITHOUT REMOVING THE PEEL.
3. Fill the center of your boat with goodies.
4. Replace the peel over the top of your banana.
5. Wrap banana in foil and place in oven or as the case may be, campfire.

Cook time will vary but will probably be around five to ten minutes. This baby can burn quickly so check after five minutes.

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Jamie J. Hagen

Jamie lives in Boston and is currently a PhD student in Global Governance and Human Security at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a freelance writer and also a team associate for the Boston chapter of Hollaback!.

Jamie has written 76 articles for us.

31 Comments

    • I want to get this cookbook if only because something about the title makes me feel like cooking might be more bearable (mostly I just hate dishes…)

      I love the vegan dessert trilogy and pretty much any of her other cookbooks. Some of them are online at http://www.theppk.com/ (the lentil taco one is the yum!)

      • No lie, this cookbook changed my life. It made cooking dinner so easy. And there was very little cleanup. And it was healthy so I got to feel virtuous and stuff.

        The only bad thing is that most of the recipes I really, really liked involved various combinations of chickpeas and potatoes, which got old for my girlfriend really, really fast.

        But it’s a great book, and she has a website — http://happyherbivore.com/ — so you can check out recipes there first and see if you like them.

    • Have you had any issues with the texture (too oily/ too dense) of Isa’s cupcakes from that book? I love most of her recipes with all my heart, but the several cupcakes I’ve tried have been so disappointing I just don’t even know.

      • I’ve made I’d say 95% of the cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World without any issues….do you live in a particularly cold or warm climate? Maybe get new baking soda/baking powder? Good luck!

        • I’ve definitely tried getting new baking soda and baking powder without much luck. And I do live in a warm climate. Anyway, I’m glad it’s just me then.

        • Also, were you a recipe tester for VCTOtW as well as Veganomicon? If so, that’s really exciting! The cupcakes I had issues with were the lemon macadamia, crimson velveteen, banana split, gingerbread, and the s’mores cupcakes. Maybe it’s altitude and I should adjust for less oil…

      • Hmm, I’ve had ok experiences with the cupcakes (all of my attempts at vanilla come out really dry, but the awesomeness of the chocolate more than makes up for it); the frosting’s actually been more an issue (getting Earth Balance to the place where I can turn it into awesome fluffy frosting has been a real challenge for me). It might be a temperature thing – getting a oven thermometer helped a bit for me!

        Give the muffins in “Vegan Brunch” a try – I’ve loved every one I’ve tried from there, and never had any problems with their texture.

        • I’ve tried around six or seven vegan vanilla cupcake recipes, and I still haven’t found a particularly moist one. Somehow chocolate just makes the baking magic work 500 times better. Her muffins are great! So are her cookies. The cupcakes are literally the only thing of hers I’ve EVER had flop.

  2. Stef, I love vegan chili, and I like your speckled pot.

    Also, I had something to say about the Vegan Cupcakes book, but someone just unexpectedly knocked on my door and it freaked me out and I forgot what I had to say. I ran into my bedroom and pretended not to be home, which was okay at age 5, home alone in NYC, but maybe a bit bizarre behavior now… Also, I didn’t have any pants on, as usual.

  3. I LOVE the idea of vegan and then I realised I would have to give up my main food group (cheese) and I was sad.

    • Have you ever tried Daiya?? it is seriously the best cheese substitute ever. I’ve made heavenly mac N cheese & grilled cheese sandwiches with it! yummm.

        • Please do! Tell us how it goes. And you certainly don’t have to go entirely vegan to start enjoying vegan recipes today.

      • Daiya wins if you can’t have dairy. It melts fairly well (not perfectly) but NO TUMMY ISSUES. My roommate and I love it.

      • I’m totally a Daiya hater (I think it melts like snot), but, I can handle it sparingly on pizza.

        That being said, I think avocado is the best win if you’re cutting cheese out of sandwiches and tacos and whatnot.

        I am partial to Follow Your Heart but that’s probably because it’s mellow and I’ve been eating it for so long. I recently got a copy of Vegan Artisan Cheese, a new cookbook, and I’m on my way to slow-aging homemade cheeses. The Uncheese cookbook is fun, though very nutritional yeasty, too.

        I’m always a sucker for a great vegan mac & cheese, though! (which coincidentally, I can also handle Daiya in a little, ha)

        I love the new farm mac: http://getsconedpdx.com/2010/11/05/glutenfreemacandcheese/

    • +1 daiya BUT also (and you don’t have to believe me because I wouldn’t believe me if I had told me this a year ago) within a month or two of eating vegan I just stopped wanting former staples of mine, (like cheese). I found that foods I loved, like grilled cheese sandwiches, taste just about as good with hummus instead (cause it’s really about the fried bread). Once or twice I tried eating things with cheese or milk to figure out if veganism was really what I wanted, and found them really unfulfilling.

      tl;dr, but the point is, if you’re interested in veganism you should try it for a little while! you might be surprised, I was. :)

  5. I like Ann Gentry’s book ‘Vegan Family Meals’, because the recipes use real ingredients rather that weird manufactured vegan substitutions. I highly recommend the vegan chocolate cupcakes…

  7. VEGANOMICON is the vegan bible of amazing. I love seeing all these vegan dykes who give a hoot about animal rights! We are very much unicorn status in cowboi Colorado.

    • I get so excited about queer people who believe in animal rights too, because being vegan and being feminist and being queer are so intertwined for me.

    • I usually have to spice things a bit more, but that is because I keep spices for years and mine are all stale. EVERY SINGLE RECIPE I have tried out of there (plus, yeah for learning how to cook a bean) has been a knockout!

      • awesome!

        also, if your spices are shabby, try toasting them? but yeah, I hear ya, I love fresh herbs and buy new spices a lot…

  9. !This banana chocolate situation sounds so much more complex than my version. We tend to just slice down the middle and shove them full of chocolate buttons til bursting point. No delicate carving banana troughes here :)

    Also, the best thing you will ever barbecue: chuck a whole pineapple on the embers til it’s getting all charred, then delicately hack off the skin, put it back on the grill and pour rum all over it like eyebrows are going out of fashion. Once that’s done its business cover the whole shebang in brown sugar and return to grill until you reach caramelised heaven.

    Who said vegans can’t barbecue?

  10. This is super exciting!!! I’m sad I couldn’t be in the same physical space as vegan A-camp happenings, but this post definitely makes me feel better about it!

  11. For those with baking issues: I’ve had pretty good success with the recipes in both Babycakes cookbooks (vegan and in many instances food allergy-safe or customizable to be so).

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