VTK report for Dec. 6 meeting

We had a good turnout for our holiday vegan meal on Dec. 6. Several dishes used recipes from Nora Taylor at noracooks.com. This is a good website if you want vegan recipes that put taste first, but let me point out that Nora isn’t concerned about nutrition. She uses a lot of sugar and white flour. If you want perfect nutrition, then Dr. Greger is for you. He doesn’t even use oil or salt. I am aiming for a middle ground with recipes that are nutritious enough to eat every day without requiring extreme deprivation. I plan to not publish any more recipes at our website that have white flour or sugar, but members can bring whatever vegan dish they want to meetings.

Ben brought latkes fresh from the oven. They disappeared fast. Scott and Lisa brought a bundt coffee cake with pecans. Robin brought carrot halwa made with sweetened condensed coconut milk, and tofu cinnamon rolls. Sarah and Zoe brought a sheet pan Thanksgiving dinner consisting of turkey-flavored tofu, green beans, and stuffing; you can find the recipe at

https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-sheet-pan-thanksgiving-dinner/

Susanne brought a quinoa loaf with mushrooms, walnuts, and oats; the recipe was from a cooking class she took.

I made two recipes from Nora’s website. One was apple crisp; I had made too much of it for a different potluck and froze the leftovers. It’s a good recipe but not appropriate for those who want to avoid sugar. I also made Nora’s omelette, which consists of soft tofu, seasonings, and thickening agents. I thought the recipe had promise, but the flavor and texture were a little off. I would be grateful for help improving this recipe if anyone is interested -- Mary? The third dish I brought was a beet salad that is a standard at our house.

Caroline made another attempt at making her vegan sausage balls, which were terrific the first time she made them but haven’t reached that level since. She adapted a recipe of Nora’s this time. She also made a deep dish vegan GF pizza. The crust was excellent considering it was gluten free. At my request, she made a broccoli salad from Nora’s website, adapting it to my taste by leaving out the vinegary ingredients. I liked it, but Ari thought it was much better after they added mayonnaise and mustard as Nora intended. Caroline also brought a vegan cheesecake from a NYT recipe. It had a tofu base. I thought the flavor and texture could have been better. I recommend at least 50% tofutti cream cheese if you must make a vegan cheesecake (Mary’s discovery).

Jeffrey was unwell and couldn’t make it to the meeting, but came by the next day to pick up leftovers. We hope you liked the food, Jeffrey!

We decided that our next meeting will be on Saturday Feb. 7 at 3 PM at my house. We will revisit a past theme of breakfast food, but as always, the theme is only a suggestion and participants can feel free to bring anything they are interested in working on. 

Regards to all,

Ann