Fried Egg Bruchetta

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As a dairy-free mostly vegetarian, brunch can be a hard menu to pick from. A few weeks ago I finally found a breakfast joint in my 'hood that had a flavorful dish I could and would eat. The award goes to The Mustard Seed Cafe in Los Feliz for their Eggs Bruchetta. Now the only difference here is that mine has no toast, couldn't be bothered to put on boots to trudge across to the market. I have, however, made this with cornmeal pancakes with scrumptious results.

For the bruchetta, two servings worth, I chopped three organic Roma tomatoes and two cloves of garlic. I mixed it with about 1/4 cup of basil chiffonade, I use scissors for convenience.
Add a few dashes of salt and mix.

I like my eggs over-medium with just a touch of thick yolk to run out. Spoon the bruchetta over the eggs and season with a bit of fresh cracked pepper.

- Posted from the ether

Weeknight Veg Pizza- dairy free

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Last night the roommate and I did our massive grocery trek for the week, Super King for veggies and Trader Joe for all the pantry goods. Passing the refrigerated balls of dough nestled under shelves of micro-ready meals, I dreamt of pizza, a rarely enjoyed food for a lactose intolerant. Whole wheat dough, soyrella and sun-dried tomato tofurkey sausage in hand, finally, I had a meal in mind when I left the TJ check stand. Usually I get home and unload a hodgepodge of mismatched condiments and vegetables, not this time! Victory over the grocery aisle space-out that has sucked hours of my life away.

Ingredients:



Whole wheat dough
Four button mushrooms sliced
1/4 cup thin sliced zucchini
1 Italian sun-dried tomato Tofurkey sausage, sliced
1/4 cup sun- dried tomatoes julienned. I used kitchen shears
1 clove of garlic minced
1 cup marinara
1/4 cup shredded soyrella
4 leaves of basil shredded
4 pitted kalamata olives minced.



This vegetarian dairy-free pizza was downright healthy. Start with whole wheat dough, remove from the plastic and place on cutting board dusted with cornmeal. Let the dough rest and reach room temp. After 20 minutes roll the dough out into a vaguely round shape. If yours looks like a circle then you are way ahead of me on technique. Take a fork and prick the dough a bit all over, I think this keeps it from bubbling up all over but I could be wrong.

Place your battered and pricked pizza blob in the oven on a cookie sheet. Sometimes I drizzle with oil and salt but this time I didn't. Prebake the dough for approximately 8 min or until the dough looks firm but not golden yet.




Now you are ready to dress it up with all the fixins. Paint a layer of marinara and place your toppings in an even layer. Then drizzle a touch more marinara over to help cook the zucchini and mushrooms. Careful with the sauce, a swimming pool of it can make for a soggy crust that flops your toppings off when you try to eat it.

I then grated a dusting of soyrella, sprinkled the basil, and another layer of soyrella.
Word of caution, I only use the soyrella as a web to secure my toppings. It won't taste like mozzarella and can really affect the taste of your pie if overused.



Bake in the oven until the crust is golden and your 'rella is melted.
Let cool a touch, then slice and chow down.

Almost Vegan Lasagna

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This recipe is almost vegan because it only uses a smidge of goat cheese mozzarella. You vegans out there can sub out vegan mozzarella. Easy and quick to assemble, this is great for a group of friends or to pack up for your lunches for the week. I originally made this for Episode 4 but it had eggplant parm in it. Last night I decided to give it another go.

Ingredients:
No Boil Pasta Sheets
2 cans of marinara
1 bunch of basil
3 cloves of garlic chopped
1 package of soft tofu (I only had firm in my fridge and it turned out fine)
1 package of soy crumble
1/4 cup chopped marinated sun-dried tomatoes
2 TBS of olive tapenade
1 white onion chopped
1 package of soy or goat cheese mozzarella
1 lemon

Start out making your "meat." Saute the onion in olive oil, salt and pepper.

When the onions are translucent, add the garlic and soy crumble. Cook for 3 minutes. Then add the sun-dried tomatoes and tapenade. Turn off the heat and set aside.

To make the "ricotta," crumble the package of tofu in your hands or mixer. Add the juice of one lemon and finely chopped basil. To chiffonade your basil: stack the leaves and roll into a cigar, then slice the cigar finely.

Mix the basil, tofu and lemon, adding a pinch of salt.

You are now ready to stack this sucker. In your pan, spread a bit of the tomato sauce to ensure the lasagna doesn't stick. (note: I would use more than you see here. Mine stuck a tad. Maybe use a bit of olive oil as well.)

Cover the bottom with a single layer of pasta sheet, breaking up large sheets to fill gaps when necessary.

Spread sauce over the pasta sheets. Add a 1/3 of the meat, sprinkled evenly. Then add 1/3 of the "ricotta," and sprinkle shredded mozzarella.

Over the mixture add some more sauce and then start the next layer of pasta sheets. Repeat two more times. The key to this is to make sure it's "saucy." Yes that's right, I got to use the word "saucy" with a straight face. Ok, it's not exactly straight.

When you have reached the top layer of pasta sheets, pour over the last of your sauce and finish off with some mozzarella. You may need to add more sauce as mine came out slightly dry.

Bake at 350 for about an hour. Check the cheese for a golden color.