rise and shine vegan style

It’s a riot the similarities my husband and our three-year-old grandson share. Top of the list might be their wariness for trying new foods. They both tend to crinkle their noses at the unfamiliar. It’s only after certain coaxing that they’ll grudgingly give something new a try. Once they do, they’ll subtly smack their lips to carefully take in the novel taste. If its favorable their eyes will widen with the realization that what’s different can be delightful. And once that happens the new food might just become a happy favorite.

One major difference between grandpa and grandson is that our three-year-old along with his parents are vegan. Which means they abstain from eating meat or animal products, including dairy, eggs, and gelatin. The elder is most certainly a mainstream carnivore. When I learned that they were coming to our home in Chicago for a long weekend I was excited to dive headfirst to make their visit entirely vegan. As you can imagine, my sweet husband was a bit skeptical.

Occasionally doing something out of your wheelhouse and comfort zone is good for all of us. And I am so glad I did because I discovered many incredible dishes and techniques in serving up an array of plant-based foods. 

One of the most interesting and tasty was carrot lox (another awesome recipe from the Love and Lemons website). We have an excellent old-school bagel place around the corner. Bagels are inherently vegan, so I purchased some vegan cream cheese along with some old-time Philly (for my husband) and made a batch of carrot lox to accompany gravlax.

For the vegan carrot lox you begin by roasting carrots in kosher salt. Don’t worry you won’t be consuming any of this salt in the final product

Roast at 425 degrees until tender which depending on the size and freshness of your carrots might take anywhere from 40-90 minutes.

Meanwhile make a marinade of olive oil, rice vinegar, paprika, lemon juice, and several grinds of freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl.

Remove the carrots from the oven and let cool. With your hands, rub off any excess salt. Use a knife to slice a thin strip off one side of the salty skin. Then with a peeler, peel the carrot into ribbons. If the peeler gets snagged on the soft carrot, slice pieces thinly with a sharp knife. 

Place the strips in the marinade and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate and marinate for fifteen to thirty minutes. The carrot lox can be refrigerated in the marinade for up to four days.

Serve with bagels, vegan cream cheese, cucumber slices, radishes, and sliced onion. 

Or if you have a mixed household, offer traditional and vegan side by side.

Another hit were the vegan breakfast tacos. This time I served the whole clan this plant-based breakfast. I made a tofu scramble by whisking together almond milk, nutritional yeast, minced garlic, mustard, turmeric, cumin, and a little salt. Set aside. Then I heated some olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. I added half a chopped onion and sautés for five minutes. Then I stirred in 14 ounces extra-firm tofu, that I had patted dry and crumbled, and cooked it for three to five minutes, until the tofu was thoroughly heated. I then reduced the heat to low and stirred in the almond milk mixture and cooked for an additional for three minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile I sprinkled the flour tortillas with vegan shredded cheese and broiled until it melted slightly. Note that vegan cheese doesn’t really melt like regular dairy cheese. I warmed refried beans in a saucepan.

I topped each cheese covered tortilla with some refried beans, then the tofu scramble, avocado slices, and chopped cilantro, and served salsa and hot sauce on the side.

About a week later I overheard my husband saying that those breakfast tacos were really good!