Mushroom and Barley Soup

This is one of the best soups I have ever made, which is sayin' summat, since I make a lot of soup. It started out as a veganized conflation of two recipes from Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook (Hungarian Mushroom and Mushroom Barley soups, respectively), but evolved into something else: something, if I say so myself, immeasurably better than then sum of its influences. Back in the day, I made quite a bit of use of the first two Moosewood books, and have always liked the Eastern European quality of many of those recipes; one of these days I'm definitely going to veganize the "Whole Wheat Macaroni and Cheese, Russian Style" that was such a staple of my early repertoire. Of course, nowadays I sub olive oil for the often copious quantities of butter, and forget the sour cream entirely (the Tofutti stuff is okay, but really, who needs it?), but the flavor combinations remain compelling. So maybe it's the dill, maybe it's the paprika, maybe it's the cheap red wine, but there's something so comforting and warm about this soup, especially on a day when boiling water for tea steams up the kitchen windows. We are lucky enough to have a fireplace in our drafty, uninsulated 118-year-old house, so we ate it in front a roaring blaze; accompanied by a loaf of crusty bread and the rest of that wine, it made a really cozy dinner on a wintry night. Now, if it would just hurry up and snow, already - if it's going to be cold, it might as well be pretty!

Mushroom and Barley Soup
Ingredients:
~ 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
~ 1 tbsp. Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
~ 2 tbsp. minced garlic
~ 2 cups chopped yellow onions
~ 3/4 cup chopped celery
~ 3/4 cup diced carrots
~ 1 lb. sliced mushrooms (about 6 cups)
~ 3/4 cup pearled barley
~ 1 tbsp. each: dill, sweet paprika
~ 1 tsp. each: kosher salt, thyme
~ Lots of fresh black pepper
~ 3/4 cup dry red wine (cheap is fine; in fact, it's perfect)
~ 7 cups vegetable broth

Directions:
~ In a large, heavy bottomed pot, melt the margarine and oil together over medium heat. Add the onions and saute about 3 minutes.
~ Add the garlic, celery and carrots and cook another 5 minutes.
~ Stir in the seasonings and the barley; saute another minute or two until everything is coated.
~ Pour in the red wine to deglaze the pan, then add the sliced mushrooms. Stir to combine and cook another 10 minutes, adding splashes of broth or water as necessary to prevent sticking.
~ Add the vegetable broth, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about an hour, until the barley is tender and the soup has thickened.
~ Serve with crusty bread and maybe a nice green salad.

Biscuits and Gravy!

You're probably wondering what's up with Scarlett O'Hara and the Twelve Oaks barbecue, aren't you? Well, I just bet that she's eating a big ol' plateful of biscuits and gravy, which are the subject of today's post. Yes ma'am, even with a corset laced to 16 inches and every inbred swain in the county swarming around brandishing a mint julep, Miss Scarlett has her priorities straight. Besides, we all know that she is going to "catch a husband" (several, in fact) even if she does "eat like a field hand and gobble like a hog," or whatever gustatory indiscretion it is that Mammy accuses her of. So bon appetit and fiddle-dee-dee!

One of the funniest (in both the "peculiar" and the "ha-ha" senses) things about being vegan is the way reinterpretations of foods in which you had no interest as an omnivore become strangely appealing. For instance, I seriously doubt that I would have ever ordered, eaten, or indeed even thought about biscuits and gravy in the days when I "could" have them. But a few weeks ago, we were walking down a street in Brooklyn on a cold, rainy, miserable night, and passed a very busy-looking fried chicken and biscuits place, whereupon I chirped, "Ooooh, I'm going to make biscuits and gravy next weekend!"

Since we've left the antebellum South behind and are now on the subject of Brooklyn, most vegans know that Isa Chandra Moskowitz includes a by-now famous recipe for biscuits with tempeh and white bean sausage gravy in Vegan with a Vengeance, which is the source of my (somewhat adapted, 'tis ever thus) biscuits. I didn't feel like tempeh, and hadn't a single white bean in the house, so for the "sausage" part, I sauteed some onion and mushrooms, into which I crumbled two - YES, SAY IT! - Amy's veggie burgers and a few spices; for the gravy, I started with a pretty standard roux, added equal parts vegetable stock and plain soy milk, salt, pepper, some additional thyme and sage, and a last-minute shot of hot sauce. Ladled over biscuits, this was not a particularly photogenic meal (hence the substitution of Miss O'Hara with her pretty little head in the proverbial feedbag), but it was the kind of weekend brunch that will literally send you back to bed with the dog, the cat, and the Sunday NY Times; it worked for us!

The Biscuits:
Ingredients:
~ 2/3 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk
~ 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
~ 2 cups all-purpose flour
~ 5 tsp. baking powder
~ 1 tsp. salt
~ 1/2 tsp. each thyme, sage
~ A grind or two of black pepper
~ 1/4 cup chilled Earth Balance or other vegan margarine

Directions:
~ Preheat the oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit and grease a large baking sheet.
~ In a bowl or beaker, combine the soy milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside to curdle for a few minutes.
~ In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and seasonings.
~ Add the shortening and mix with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs.
~ Whisk the soy milk/vinegar mixture with a fork, and add it to the mixing bowl. Stir well with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth dough.
~ Turn out onto a floured surface and roll or press until the dough is about 1/2" thick.
~ Use the floured rim of a glass to cut the dough into circles, and place on the oiled baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

The "Sausage":
Ingredients:
~ 1 tbsp. canola oil
~ 1/2 cup chopped onion
~ 1 cup finely chopped mushrooms
~ 2 veggie burgers, crumbled (I used Amy's California burgers, but any vegan burger or ground meat substititute like Gimme Lean would do)
~ 1 tsp. each: salt, thyme, sage
~ Fresh black pepper

Directions:
~ In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onion about 5 minutes.
~ Add the spices and chopped mushrooms; cook another 5 minutes or so.
~ Add the crumbled veggie burgers, raise the heat to high, and cook 5-7 minutes more, stirring often and adding a splash of water if necessary to prevent sticking. Remove from heat and set aside.

The Gravy:
Ingredients:
~ 1 tbsp. canola oil
~ 2-3 tbsp. flour
~ 1 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk
~ 2 cups "no chicken" broth
~  1 tsp. each: thyme, sage, dried parsley
~ 1/2 tsp. salt
~ Lots of fresh black pepper
~ Shot of hot sauce, to taste

Directions:
~ Combine the soy milk and vegetable broth and heat to almost boiling, either on the stove or in the microwave.
~ In a saucepan, warm the oil over medium-low heat and add the flour and the spices, stirring to make a roux.
~ As it begins to thicken, add the broth/soy milk mixture gradually, stirring constantly.
~ Raise the heat to medium and continue cooking 5-10 minutes, until you get the consistency you like (you can always add more liquid if it's too thick, or turn the heat up to reduce it if it's not thick enough).
~ Add the "sausage" mixture and combine thoroughly.
~ Ladle generously over your delicious biscuits for a delicious and filling breakfast. Or lunch. Or whatever. In fact, this was so good that we had the leftovers for dinner the same day!

Saffron and Lemon Risotto with Peas

I go through periods when I'm sort of obsessed with a certain flavor or ingredient. Currently, that ingredient is saffron: I just want to put it in everything. Not only is it subtly exotic, fragrant and delicious, but it turns everything a cheerful, sunshiny yellow! I also love making risotto, because I actually welcome an excuse to slave over a hot stove for half an hour or so, especially if someone will hang out with me, put on some music and make drinks. I made this beautiful, yummy saffron and lemon risotto on a recent evening when the temperature outside was frigid (18 degrees in November: BRRRR!); we had it with a melange of roasted root veggies drizzled with aioli (for which I'll post my recipe once I rationalize the quantities and type it up), and it warmed us right up.

Saffron and Lemon Risotto with Peas

Ingredients:
~ 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
~ 1 tbsp. Earth Balance (or other vegan margarine)
~ 2 cups chopped yellow onions
~ 2 tbsp. minced garlic
~ 1 tsp. each salt, tarragon
~ Fresh black pepper to taste
~ 4 cups vegetable broth, heated to almost boiling with 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
~ 1/2 cup white wine
~ 1.5 cups arborio rice
~ Zest and juice of 1 lemon
~ 3/4 cup frozen baby peas

Directions:
~ In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, melt the EB and oil together over medium heat.
~ Add the onions and saute 5 minutes.
~ Add the garlic and seasonings and continue cooking another few minutes before adding the rice.
~ Stir thoroughly to coat the rice with the vegetables and seasonings.
~ Pour in the 1/2 cup white wine and stir to deglaze the pan; cook 2-3 minutes.
~ Begin adding the hot vegetable broth/saffron mixture by 1/2 cupfuls, stirring constantly until all the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
~ With the last addition of broth, add the lemon juice, zest and frozen peas. Once all the liquid is absorbed, remove from heat and allow to stand about 10 minutes before serving.

Banana, Pear, and Almond Muffins

Again with the muffins! But last Friday was a really muffiny sort of day: cold, drizzly and miserable in that special November way. Not only that, I was actually able to justify doing something other than writing a paper, so I made a big pan of baked pumpkin pasta, using a big old butternut squash instead of the pumpkin, and decided to turn the two overripe pears and a two of their buddies in the fruit bowl (equally overripe bananas) into some warm, comforting muffins. With some raisins and slivered almonds thrown in, they definitely turned out better than the sum of their parts, and all that fruit meant that I didn't add any sugar at all, if you care about such things.

Banana, Pear, and Almond Muffins
Ingredients:
~ 2 cups flour
~ 1 tbsp. baking powder
~ 1/2 tsp. each salt, nutmeg, allspice
~ 1 tsp. each cinnamon, ground ginger
~ 1/2 cup slivered almonds
~ 3/4 cup raisins
~ 1 tsp. vanilla extract
~ 6 oz. plain or vanilla soy yogurt
~ 1 tbsp. canola oil
~ 2 very ripe bananas
~ 2 equally ripe pears (apples would work, too), coarsely chopped

Directions:
~ Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
~ In a mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (including the almonds and raisins) and sift thoroughly.
~ Put the bananas, chopped pears, yogurt, oil and vanilla extract in a blender and process until smooth.
~ Pour the blended mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
~ Scoop the batter into greased muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.
~ Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before turning out and eating with EB, jam, peanut butter, or all by their sweet selves. Cozy!

Black-Eyed Peas with Mushroom Polenta

Tonight was the first time in awhile that I've been in the kitchen with an Actual Idea about what I wanted to cook (as opposed to what was available and theoretically edible). Now, don't go imagining that I've been to the grocery store, because I have not. BUT. It is amazing what you can find to make a meal when reduced to bare essentials...I realize that many of my posts lately have had this McGyver/Great Depression subsistence vibe (thanks, Aoife!), but grad school is currently keeping me on the hop, so an afternoon in the kitchen seems like an exciting prospect.

And besides: BARACK OBAMA IS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT! (Sorry, but I'm still pretty buzzed about this whole "feeling optimistic about the future" thing, it's such a strangely disorienting notion after the past 8 years.)

Anyway, there's no substitute for dried beans (how's that for a non sequitur?), if you can just remember to soak them; they really make canned beans look like...well, canned beans. Last night I came home from an all-too-short weekend in Brooklyn/Williamsburg (the brunch! the shops! the galleries! the vegan restaurants! the company!) and knew that A. I had to spend the entirety of today finishing a paper, and B. we would be hungry at dinnertime. 'Tis ever thus. So I heroically put some black-eyed peas in water and went to bed in the full confidence that by 5pm the following day I would have come up with something to do with them. And, after 7--count 'em--hours staring at my laptop, I headed into the kitchen and made...THIS:

Black-eyed peas and veggies
Ingredients:
~ 1 cup black-eyed peas, soaked at least 8 hours, rinsed and drained
~ 1 tbsp. olive oil
~ 3 tbsp. minced garlic
~ 3 cups chopped onions
~ 1 cup diced celery
~ 1/2 cup diced carrots
~ 1 tbsp. tarragon
~ 1 tsp. each salt, thyme, marjoram, basil, 2 bay leaves
~ Fresh black pepper to taste
~ 1 28 oz. can fire-roasted tomatoes, drained
~ 2 cups vegetable broth

Directions:
~ In a large, deep pot, heat the olive oil and add the onions.
~ Cook for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and celery; cook another 3 minutes.
~ Add the carrots, spices and tomatoes; raise the heat to high and bring to a boil.
~ Add the drained black-eyed peas and broth; return to a boil.
~ Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally to make sure it dosen't stick.
~ Turn off the heat and remove the bay leaves.

Mushroom Polenta (with olives and sun-dried tomatoes)
Ingredients:
~ 1 tbsp. olive oil
~ 1 tbsp. minced garlic
~ 1/2 cup chopped black olives
~ 1/4 cup minced sun-dried tomatoes
~ 1 tsp. each salt, thyme
~ 4 cups mushroom broth (ideally made from 1 cup dried mushrooms, steeped in 4 cups boiling water for at least 2 hours and pureed in a blender; but packaged is okay, too)
~ 1.5 cups polenta

Directions:
~ Heat the oil in a 4 qt. saucepan, then add the garlic and saute for a minute or so.
~ Add the chopped olives, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme and salt, and cook another minute or two.
~ Pour in the mushroom broth and bring to a boil.
~ Add the polenta, stir, and reduce the heat to low.
~ Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat.
~ Grease a serving bowl and spoon the polenta into it; allow to stand for 15-20 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.
~ Pile the polenta on plates with the black-eyed peas and (in a perfect world) some garlicky greens and dig in.

We WON!!!!

Okay, this is totally not about food; in fact, I'll come clean and admit straight up that we had veggie burgers and french fries while we watched last night's election. But so what?! History was made, right in front of our eyes, and we were privileged enough to be a part of it. Today, I am happy to say that I'm actually proud to be an American. Three cheers for our brave new world, which we will now toast with cheap pink champagne...nothin' but the best (it's a long story...suffice to say that in our house it's FESTIVE)!

Pissaladiere

FINALLY, it's election day! I think we can all agree that this election season has been nothing short of a trial by ordeal; everyone I know has been describing their mindset as a sort of free-floating, pervasive sense of angst und furcht for the past several months. But I just came home from voting and am feeling ridiculously optimistic: the sun is shining, it's a lovely morning, and all's relatively right with the world, especially since by this time tomorrow we'll have a new president, and I'm cautiously optimistic it will actually be the one for whom I voted (for a change).

Complex times like ours demand complexly yummy foodstuffs, so I give you last night's Election Eve dinner, leftovers from which I'm about to eat for breakfast because it was Just That Good. In Harvard Square is a perfectly charming bistro called Sandrine's, where the signature dish is "tarte flambée," or "flammekueche." It's basically an Alsatian pizza, consisting of flatbread with a variety of toppings; they look and smell delightful, but unfortunately, the toppings usually involve butter, cheese, meat, or that old standby: butter-and-cheese-covered meat.

So when I saw the recipe below in the NY Times Sunday Magazine a few weeks ago, it lodged in my head as a way I might approach this seductive dish, since it's basically a Provencal analogue, hailing from a region where things tend to involve olive oil rather than butter. As is my wont, I made a few adaptations: subbing whole wheat pastry flour for all-purpose, replacing the anchovies in the original with sun-dried tomatoes, and increasing the quantity of onions, olives, and seasonings. The result was so beautiful, so delicious, so somehow, ineffably French, that it's destined to become Company Food. Try it with something like a nice glass of Cotes du Rhone, and let the chill of November election anxiety melt away: tomorrow is a new day!


The Crust
Ingredients:
~ 1 1/4 oz. active dry yeast (1 little packet)
~ 1 cup lukewarm water
~ 1 tbsp. agave nectar (or sugar)
~ 2.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
~ 1 tsp. salt

Directions:
~ In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and agave/sugar in the lukewarm water. Add 1 cup of the flour and stir to combine. Allow to rest for 15 minutes until the batter looks a bit foamy.
~ Add the salt and the remaining flour bit by bit, until the dough is too stiff to stir.
~ Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until smooth. You may need to add a bit more flour if it's too sticky to handle.
~ Pour a few tablespoons of olive oil into the bowl, then return the dough to it, flipping it over so it's coated.
~ Cover and set aside to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
~ Punch the dough down, replace the cover and allow to rise another hour.
~ Turn it out onto the floured surface again, and roll it out into a rough rectangle that will fit a baking sheet (about 11"x14").
~ Grease the baking sheet and place the dough on it, pressing it into place with your hands and making a ridge of dough around the edges.
~ Set the dough aside to rest for another 15 minutes.

The Topping
Ingredients:
~ 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
~ 2 big yellow onions, sliced into thin crescents (about 5 cups when sliced)
~ 2 tbsp. minced garlic
~ 1 15 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes, drained
~ 1 tsp. each kosher salt, thyme, tarragon, parsley
~ Fresh black pepper
~ 1 cup black olives, pitted and halved (or sliced, if you prefer)
~ 1/2 cup chopped, sun-dried tomatoes
~ Dried basil

Directions:
~ In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil on medium and add the onions.
~ Cook the onions for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic, drained tomatoes and seasonings. Stir well to combine and cook another 5 minutes.
~ Cover the pot, turn the heat to low, and allow to cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally.
~ Remove the lid, raise the heat to high, and cook 5-10 minutes more, until most of the liquid is gone and the onions are caramelized and beauteous. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool a bit.

The Assembly
~ Spread the caramelized onion mixture all over the crust, then top with the olives, sun dried tomatoes and the merest sprinkling of basil.
~ Set aside for 15 minutes while your oven preheats to 450 degrees fahrenheit.
~ Bake for 15-20 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to rest about 15 minutes more (lots of things in this recipe take 15 minutes, go figure) before serving, ideally with lemony roasted asparagus, sauteed mushrooms and/or a nice green salad. Oh, and red wine!

Rice Pilaf

Katie at Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk has been posting an "Iron Chef Challenge" every week lately, and yesterday's was particularly resonant for me. In the interest of brevity (which is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, etc.), I'll quote directly: "The first two days of November are when a lot of people celebrate the Day of the Dead. It’s just a day to take time to remember those who have left us...one of the ways of celebrating is by making a dish that your deceased loved one enjoyed! So that’s the challenge. Make or veganize a favorite dish of someone you’ve lost."

My father, who was a professional chef and an amazingly intuitive cook, passed away in early 2007. His parents emigrated to Chicago from Greece circa 1915, and we never knew how old they actually were, since all their village records were burned when it was sacked by Turks. (No, seriously, it was sacked by Turks; you think I can make this stuff up?!) They both lived to be quite old, and I especially remember my grandmother's braid, which reached to her waist and was iron grey at the top but a rich chestnut at the bottom. She also had all her teeth after giving birth to twelve children - all but the youngest delivered at home - and subsisted on a diet composed largely of greens and her own home-made bread (NB they were poor as well as Greek).

Bearing in mind that my Greek father had fallen in love with and married my English mother, when I was growing up it seemed like we ate a lot of potatoes. Baked, mashed, boiled, and even fried on occasion (O, gladsome day!), potato appearances on our dinner table definitely outnumbered other starches by a pretty wide margin. This lingering impression may be due in equal parts to my mother's admitted love for spuds and my own less-than-wholly trustworthy memory, but my older sister bears me out, since much of the peeling and preparation of these tubers fell to her.

As the obnoxious picky youngest child, however, I greatly preferred rice, so I was psyched whenever my father made his amazing rice pilaf. Looking back at a lot of the things my father liked to cook for himself, they were not only pretty healthy but largely veg-friendly: sauteed greens (spinach, chard, dandelions, collards) with olive oil and lemon juice, stewed green beans with tomatoes and garlic, and these incredible spicy baked beans that I have yet to replicate. Of course, he also made a mean Fettuccine Alfredo, but that's another post. Rice pilaf would invariably appear on holidays, especially at Easter, but he'd occasionally make it for ordinary meals, too. So delicious was this rice that my own youngest child, who as a toddler was so picky (what goes around, etc.) that we used to call him, "Little Bobby Sands" and beg to know under what conditions he would agree to eat something, anything, would put away several platefuls at a time. Of course, Dad's pilaf used meat stock and about a ton of butter, and my adult taste buds and sensibilities prefer brown rice and whole wheat orzo to their paler analogues, but this reinterpretation hits damn close to the mark!

Rice Pilaf
Ingredients:
~ 1 tbsp. Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
~ 1 tbsp. olive oil
~ 1 cup chopped yellow onions
~ 1 cup diced celery
~ 1 tsp each: salt, dill, marjoram
~ 1/2 tsp. each: sage, ground rosemary
~ Fresh black pepper to taste
~ 3 tbsp. tomato paste
~ 1 1/4 cup long grain rice (I like basmati)
~ 3.5 cups "no chicken" broth
~ 3/4 cup whole wheat orzo
~ 2 tbsp. chopped, fresh parsley

Directions:
~ In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the oil, then add the onions and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
~ Add the celery, the seasonings and the tomato paste; continue cooking another 3 minutes or so.
~ Add the rice, raise the heat to high, and cook for a minute or two until the rice is thoroughly coated with the seasonings.
~ Pour in the vegetable stock, cover, and bring to a boil.
~ Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
~ Add the orzo and stir to combine; replace the lid and cook another 10 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed but the mixture is still fluffy.
~ Remove from heat, stir in the fresh parsley, and serve to the picky eater in your family.

Happy World Vegan Day...with Pancakes!

Yes, in addition to being All Saints Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Day), it's the 14th annual World Vegan Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Vegan_Day). Since I couldn't allow so an illustrious an occasion to pass unmarked, I made some really good pancakes for breakfast. They were basically an adaptation of the peach and walnut pancakes I made a few weeks ago, but using apples, pears and more autumnal spices; they made a good start (at 11am!) to what by all rights should be a very busy day...we'll see how that goes, shall we?

Apple, Pear and Walnut Pancakes

Ingredients:
~ 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
~ 1 tbsp. baking powder
~ 1 tsp. each cinnamon, vanilla extract
~ 1/2 tsp. each nutmeg, allspice, salt
~ 1/4 ground cloves
~ 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
~ 1/2 cup raisins
~ 3 cups ripe, chopped pears, apples, or (optimally) a combination
~ 1 cup soy milk
~ 2 tbsp. canola oil
~ 2 tbsp. maple syrup
~ 1 tbsp. freshly grated ginger

Directions:
~ Preheat the oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.
~ Combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly in a mixing bowl; add the raisins and walnuts last, tossing them in the flour mixture until coated.
~ In a blender or food processor, combine the chopped fruit, soy milk, oil, syrup and ginger. Blend until liquified.
~ Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir thoroughly to make a smooth batter.
~ Lightly coat a skillet with oil or cooking spray, and place over medium heat.
~ Add the batter by large spoonfuls, about 2 at a time, and cook about 4 minutes before flipping and cooking another 2-3 minutes; they should be firm enough to remove from the pan without falling apart. Again, a sacrifice to the Pancake God may be necessary; just consider it a part of your World Vegan Day observances.
~ As the pancakes are cooked, transfer them to a cookie sheet in the oven to keep warm.
~ Serve with maple syrup, Earth Balance, and extra sliced fruit on the side. Or tempeh bacon. Or both!