Saturday, October 28, 2006

Vegan Sweet Potato/Yam Waffle with Toasted Pecan

Fall weather is here: cold in the morning and night, warm 77 F during the day, a typical Southern California fall weather. This kind of weather makes me want to eat pumpkin something. I just received the new Vegan Feast newsletter from Bryanna and saw her recipe of Vegan Pumpkin Tunnel Cake. Looks yummy! I really wanted to make it but my body was not up to it. I just came back from a business trip to Las Vegas for 3 days and didn't have time to go to the market to buy all the ingredients for it. I thought I had enough pumpkin in the freezer (left over from making pumpkin something in the past) but it turned out that it was not enough to make the cake.

This morning I thought about making Pumpkin Waffle to use that little bit pumpkin I defrosted. I made this waffle from a recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance cookbook before and it was really good. It turned out that the recipe asked for a whole can (15 oz.) pureed pumpkin. Yaik! No pumpkin waffle either. What to do? What to do? Then, I saw my kitchen basket full of sweet potatoes/yam (you know, the orange kind). This will do! I saw Rachel Ray's $40 A Day show last night and she was eating Sweet Potato Pancake with Toasted Pecan butter in Charleston. I surely could make waffles out of those potatoes I thought.

I microwaved 3 small sweet potatoes (about 15 oz) until they were soft (pierce with forks first otherwise they may explode). I changed the Pumpkin Waffle recipe (less oil and use whole wheat pastry flour, etc.) ...and.... Voila! Sweet potato Waffle was born. DH was surprised that I didn't make Pumpkin Tunnel Cake as I said, nor Pumpkin Waffle as planned, and was served Sweet Potato Waffles. He will never know what he is going to get, will he?

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No pumpkin after all but this waffle turned out to be very very good. It was spiced with pumpkin pie spices (I love those spices) and sweetened a little bit with brown sugar. My kitchen smelled wonderful and spicy while the waffle was cooking and the smell lasted the whole day (didn't need to light a pumpkin spice candle). I also prepared the Toasted Pecan 'Butter' (Earth Balance) and served the waffle with this yummy 'butter', pure maple syrup and Soyatoo! (from last blog). It was soooo good I had 2 large waffles (a no no according my WW leader), I couldn't help it. :-)

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Vegan Sweet Potato/Yam Waffle with Toasted Pecans
Makes 6 large waffles (my waffle maker is the 7-inches Villaware, round)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour or unbleached flour
Note: you may use 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour instead of part pastry flour and part all purpose
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cup soy milk (depending how thick your pureed sweet potatoes)
15 oz pureed cooked sweet potato/yam or 3 small sweet potato (about 15 oz)
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
15 pecan halves

1/4 cup Earth Balance

Pure maple syrup


  1. If using fresh sweet potatoes: Pierce potatoes with a fork, microwave for 6-7 minutes or until soft. Let it cool. Peel and puree with a potato masher. Otherwise, the easy way is open the can.
  2. Toast pecan halves on a dry frying pan, turning them and watch them until they are very toasty and brown. Chop them with a knife. Mix 2 tablespoons of chopped pecan with the 1/4 cup Earth Balance.
  3. Preheat your electric waffle maker.
  4. Measure and sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Add the remaining chopped pecan to the dry ingredients and mix well.
  5. Mix 2 cups soy milk, mashed sweet potatoes or canned sweet potatoes, oil, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Use an immersion blender or a hand mixer, beat or mix the liquid ingredients and mashed potato until smooth.
  6. Combine the liquid mixture and dry ingredients together until well mix. The batter should be thick like muffin butter. If it is too thick add more soy milk.
  7. Spray the hot waffle iron with canola oil spray bottle, Pour about 2/3 cup of waffle batter and set a timer for 6 minutes for each waffle or following the instructions of your waffle maker. You may need to use the oil spray for each waffle. For a very crispy waflle set the timer to 8 minutes. Serve it warm with toasted pecan 'butter' and pure maple syrup. Top with Soyatoo, if desired.
Enjoy!

Note to Gaia:

About Soyatoo!, I didn't have a problem with the can as you said. Did you turn the can totally upside down when using it? DH told me that if using the can in an angle it may not work as properly as if it is vertically upside down.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Soyatoo! and Gimme Lean 'Sausage' Roll

I updated this blog with an easy solution for the Soyatoo can. I have been having problem trying to work the Soyatoo cans. Lots of time, the whipped soya cream will not come out. Anonymous posted a solution on one of the comments below. Thanks so much! This is very helpful.....

"Anonymous said...
Anyone having issues with Soyatoo, here's a quick fix:I once bought it and it stopped working half way, this was because I put it back in the fridge and when I took it back out (then left it for 10 minutes as suggested) it still didn't work and all that came out was the propellant. I found the solution a few days ago, the Soyatoo needs either a very long time to soften from being in the fridge or (if you're impatient like me :P) run it under hot water.It really works wonders within seconds. You can tell if it worked by shaking it, if the cream is loose inside, it worked. I haven't found it to ever need more than a few seconds under the water though."


I haven’t blogged for a while due to ‘cooking laziness’…he he…. Yes, I have suffered this disease for a few weeks. After I enjoyed my vegan birthday and someone else’s cooking, we have been eating out a lot. We live in the city so it is easy to find vegetarian or vegan restaurants around us. At home, we have been eating a lot of sandwiches and soups and store-bought vegan stuff.

Talking about store-bought vegan stuff, see what I just bought: Soyatoo! the vegan soy whip in a can.

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I have heard about this product months ago from Bryanna’s Newsletter Subscribers’ forum and have been waiting for it to appear at the Whole Foods near me. I finally saw it at this store and bought it. Amazing, soy whipped cream? Yes, I can squirt it out like regular whip cream out of a can. It has lighter texture than regular whip cream. I was satisfied with that and liked the taste. The only thing is that the whipped soy cream doesn’t stay up as long as the regular whip cream. After a few minutes, it sort of became a melty looking cream although it is still creamy. Pictured is a blackberry shortcake I made, topped with Soyatoo whipped soy cream.

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This coming Thanksgiving, vegans are able to enjoy vegan pumpkin pie with Soyatoo whipped soy cream on top. Dreamy!

The second item I enjoyed lately is the Gimme Lean from LightLife. Inspired by Albion Cooks’s blog entry: Vegetarian English Sausage Roll (September 13, 2006), I bought Gimme Lean ‘Ground Beef’ style and made a vegan sausage with it. I should have bought the ‘Sausage’ style but I could not find it. So I decided to add my own ‘sausage’ flavoring to the ‘Ground Beef’ style. I rarely use this product and in the beginning I didn’t like it. But somehow, I think, this product was improved and now I like it. I bought Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry or Aussie Puff Pastry (which is vegan) and filled it with the gimme lean sausage. The result was very good. It was really easy to make and enjoyable as snacks with spicy mustard.

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Vegan Sausage Rolls
Makes 24 2-inches rolls
Printable Recipe

1 Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style
½ to ¾ cup fresh breadcrumbs
½ cup soy milk
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp dried crumbled sage
¼ tsp rosemary
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp salt

1 pkg Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry or Aussie Puff Pastry
Preheat oven to 400 F.

Soak breadcrumbs in soymilk for a few minutes. Then, add all sausage ingredients to mix them well with your hands. Form little sausages (about 2 inches long) and roll them with your hands.

Prepare puff pastry according to the manufacturer’s directions. Roll each sausage in puff pastry sheet with a little overlap, cut sheet, and seal the overlap with your fingers.
Lightly coat baking sheets with olive or canola oil (use spray if you like). Bake the wrapped sausages in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.