Vegan Vanilla Maple Cake with Strawberries

I just made this cake today (see pics in previous post) and it is ridiculously quick and easy.   If you are vegan or being careful with what you eat, you will love it.  It isn’t a typical cake flavor, not sickenly sweet like most cakes.  I would think of it as a sort of short bread cake, less sweet, but still delicious.  It has the consistency of cake and smells delectable while baking.

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tsps cider vinegar
1 Tbs vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350F.   Prepare one round cake pan or pie plate by lightly oiling it and dusting with flour.

Mix the first five (dry) ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Combine the remaining (wet) ingredients in a separate bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and whisk in half the wet mixture.  Once that is well-combined, pour the remaining wet mixture in and stir until it is a batter.  Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 30 – 35 minutes, being sure not to undercook.  Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake.  Cake is done when toothpick is clean.  This cake is gooey in the middle if not well baked (and not a good gooey).

Once removed from oven, let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then top with fruit of your choice.  I used strawberry halves and dusted the entire top with raw sugar.

This recipe is adapted from the Maple Syrup World website.

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Kamut Ditalini with Beans and Peppers

I’VE TRIED A FEW DIFFERENT whole grain pastas lately.  My two favorites have been a thin spaghetti whole wheat pasta by Archer Farms and this Kamut Ditalini by Eden Organic.   I received a sample of this in the mail, and I have to say I really do like it.  I find, as many people do, that the whole grain pastas can be . . . well . . . grainy.   And by that I mean they are grainy to the tongue — rough where we are used to feeling smooth from our white flour pastas.  So the thinner long noodles or  short cut noodles like this ditalini are better at blending in with the food and not calling attention to themselves.   You feel like you are eating a whole dish, not just a grainy pasta with some other stuff around it. 

I prepared this dish by sauteing white onion, green and red bell peppers, and a clove of garlic in some olive oil.  Once all those were softened, I added a can of kidney beans and a can of diced onions.  In the meantime I had the pasta boiling (has to boil for 10 minutes), and then after draining the pasta, I topped it with the veggies and beans.  I’m going to try this pasta again in some other recipes, but for a first try on a thrown-together quicky meal, I have to say I do like it.

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Soups for Next Sunday

I AM GOING TO TRY TO cook all of these in the next two weeks:

Lentil Soup 

Barley Veg Soup 

I love barley in soup!

Both recipes above are from the About.com Vegetarian Food page.

A crockpot soup recipe:

Cuban Black Bean Soup  

Wow, this soup looks good!

Jamaican Red Bean Stew

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