Eggplant II

In September, we're posting one cartoon per day as part of Vegan MoFo. Our theme, *Vegan Faux Show*, showcases various methods for creating vegan versions of classic foods like bacon, eggs, and cheese.

Vegan bacon is defined by salty, smokey flavors and chewy-but-crispy textures. Eggplant lends itself perfectly to the aforementioned bacon flavor and texture requirements. Shae Cantrell at The Vedge offers both a dehydrator and oven options for preparing her fabulous Raw Eggplant Bacon recipe. 

Parmesan Cheese

GOOD NEWS! You can expect lots of cartoons next month (30 to be exact) because we're participating in Vegan MoFo starting Monday, September 1. Our theme, *Vegan Faux Show*, will showcase various methods for creating vegan versions of classic foods like bacon, eggs, and cheese. Stay tuned!

Initially we predicted that Vegan MoFo would fall out in August this year so we prepared 31 cartoons. We were wrong so today's cartoon was intended for our Day 31 post.

As illustrated above, dairy-free parmesan cheese tends to consist of a nut or seed plus nutritional yeast and salt.  These 10 recipes below are quite forgiving so feel free to mix and match ingredients depending on your mood, budget, and/or dietary needs:

1. Almond Parmesan by Kathy Hester at Healthy Slow Cooking     
2. Cashew Parmesan by Megan at The Detoxinista   
3. Hemp Parmesan by Ricki Heller 
4. Macadamia Parmesan by Kimi Harris at The Nourishing Gourmet    
5. Nut-free (Seed) Parmesan by Leanne Vogel at Healthful Pursuit   
6. Pecan Parmesan by Kristy Turner at Keepin' It Kind   
7. Pepita Parmesan by Richa Hingle-Garg at Vegan Richa  
8. Pine Nut Parmesan by Mattie at Vegan Baking   
9. Sesame Seed Parmesan by Cyndi at Reduce Footprints  
10. Walnut Parmesan by Lisa at Je suis alimentageuse     

Spaghetti Squash

After riding into the sunset, what should a heroic cowboy eat for dinner? We recommend this Southwest Baked Spaghetti Squash recipe by Danielle at The Lean Clean Eating Machine.

Zucchini

We are well into August and that means that many of us have a bounty of zucchini on our hands. A popular solution to such a conundrum is zucchini pasta. While the texture and taste of zucchini pasta is quite different from traditional pasta, zucchini pasta is a fun alternative and way to eat more veggies.

Check out Gina's Zucchini Pasta with Avocado Cream Sauce recipe at Running to the Kitchen if you would like to try out zucchini linguine in raw form.

On the other hand, if you prefer your zucchini linguine heated up, check out Rhea's Zucchini Linguine Aglio-Olio recipe at The "V" Word.

Cauliflower III

Cauliflower is back again with another clever form of reinvention.  Lately, the Paleo, gluten-free, and carb-watching communities, as well as many adventurous cooks have been having fun with cauliflower pizza crust.

Many of the earliest cauliflower pizza crust recipes relied on cheese and egg as binders. Fortunately some brave souls, like Kim and Hector at Our Fresh Kitchen, have cracked the vegan cauliflower pizza crust code with their Vegan Gluten Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust.

Hummus

Hummus just cartoon-bombed the Plant Plate!

Here at Kale Crusaders, we try to keep up with the latest food trends and movements. We've been late to one party, though: the "Hummus is a Food Group" phenomenon has been gaining momentum for quite some time now.  There are already t-shirts and hash tags devoted to this dietary movement.

Thanks to Jess from Cupcakes and Kale for bringing us up to speed!

Here's a a little disclaimer for the hummus purists out there.  "Hummus" means "chickpea" in both Arabic and Hebrew, and many folks from the Middle East insist that that hummus is, in its purest form, a smooth spread made from chickpeas and tahini.  Hummus lovers outside of the Middle East, on the other hand, sometimes refer to any smooth bean spread (throw in other ingredients! with or without tahini!) as hummus.

Heart of Palm

Our brains nearly exploded when we first came across this 2-Ingredient Vegan Cheese recipe by Kristy Turner at Keepin' It Kind. Spoiler alert: the two ingredients are heart of palm and nutritional yeast! 

We recently whipped up this recipe in the Kale Crusaders Test Kitchen, stuffed the cheese into quesadillas, and we were mighty pleased with the results. Kristy, you continue to amaze us with your brilliant recipes!

Disclaimer: We have no affiliation with the Follow Your Heart brand of vegan products and we doubt that they are even aware of our little corner of the internet.

Pomegranate

This biblical fruit has been hyped up for quite a while as a juice and prominent juice flavor.  Let's not forget that Pomegranate seeds are quite delicious on their own or as a cool, crunchy salad component!

For some inspiration, check out this Purslane and Beet Salad by Joumana Accad at Taste of Beirut and Delicata, Pomegranate & Avocado Kale Salad by Gina Eykemans of So...Let's Hang Out.

Avocado II + Kale II

 

Here is a short story about cartoon collaboration. A few weeks ago Cadry Nelson of Cadry's Kitchen posted her brilliant Guac-Kale-Mole recipe and the following creative exchange occurred:

 

As you can see, things got dark (apologies) and overloaded with puns very quickly (no apologies). The moral of this story is here is to have faith in power of the generous vegan blogging community, kale, avocados, and tortilla chips. 

Garlic Scape II

Heads up! Garlic Scape season is upon us once again! Hurry up before it is too late! Exclamation points!!!

Besides roasting, and sauteing, and pulverizing into pesto, Garlic Scapes are a fine addition to Fresh Summer Mango Salsa by Angela McKee at Canned Time and Turnip Green Garlic Scape Chickpea Pancakes by Shannon at Yup, it's Vegan.