Jalapeño-Caramelized Onion-Ricotta Waffle Sandwiches

Awkward naming aside, this is one mutha’uckin’ decadent mess of a sandwich.

I gleaned together various fridge scraps–Veganomicon cashew ricotta, raw kale, homegrown tomatoes, caramelized onions, and lightly sauteed jalapeños–to smush them into submission between Norwegian Potato Waffle halves. The assembly took as long as it takes to quasi-burn frozen waffles in the toaster oven. The frenzied sammich-scarfing, less.

Warning most earnest: include the jalapeños only if you are a seasoned spicephile. My own stomach–the same vessel that once digested Snobby Joes made with 4 accidental tablespoons of pure chile powder–made its jalapeño disapproval clear. California green chiles would be a more stomach-friendly sub.

Vegan Mofo Week 2 yah-yuh!

Tri-Fruit Cardamom Compote

As the first winds of autumn blew my newly-pixied bedhead this morn’, I yawned over the waffle maker while tightening my grip on a sharpened knife. Waffled out I am.

Instead, toppings! I scrounged together a mélange of late-summer/fall fruit–the final adieu of peaches, two apples, a neighbor’s pomegranate stolen while walking my golden–and a few nose-tickling spices to create this compote. The sweet cardamom brightens up the semi-tartness of the fruit while lime juice and fresh ginger keep the flavors compelling. Cinnamon–the vanilla of spices–was added on reflex. Although the fiber-y crunch of the pomegranate arils isn’t ideal in a compote, at the very least they give one the excuse to type that most pleasing of words: aril.

This compote bespeaks perfection on a Roasted Carrot Waffle, perchance you have a few lurking in your freezer. Alternatively, dine Chez Emily and I’ll plate you one of my ten.

Inspired by the Apple, Ginger, & Cardamom Compote at Green Kitchen Stories

Takes 40 minutes
Makes a little more than a cup

2 heaping cups Fuji apple (2 small apples), cored & chopped in 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup pomegranate arils (1 pomegranate)
1 1/4 cup peeled peaches (2 small peaches), roughly chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled & finely minced*
juice of 1/2 lime
2-3 T unrefined sugar, depending on the tartness of your fruit
1/2 cup water
1 T green cardamom pods, freshly ground*
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp ground allspice

1. Add all ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat down to low, and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until all the water is gone. Don’t forget to stir every so often, adjusting sugar, lime juice, and spices to taste.

*A Magic Bullet is your best kitchen buddy here. Measure out 1 T  of cardamom pods first, grind, empty, and then whiz a 1/2 inch nub of ginger. Easy.

Edit: Apparently the FB link was misbehaving (thanks, Kittee!), so if you’d like to see my new pixie cut click away.

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Garlic Basil Waffles with Roasted Tomatoes

Waffle MoFo brainstorming is all giggles and no shits. I eyeball a random foodstuff on my kitchen counter while pondering, “Would a stupid person use this to make waffles?” And if so, I do use that thing. Thus the reason I have garlic breath powerful enough to flavor french bread.

Day 4 means it’s time for some savory fare. While I, Emily, will happily eat sweet foods for consecutive lunches as Blogger Most Dutiful, Stomach gets snarky. As the masticated syrup-’n-waffle pulp slides down my gullet, Stomach belches, “‘Da fuck, Esophagus? Not more of that sugar-fucked flour!” Today’s lunch pleased the fictional potty mouth quite handsomely.

At the Davis farmer’s market yestereve, I basil-faced it. Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like. Nose engulfed in a foliage of aromatic green, I surrendered with a waffle white flag. A waffle founded on the categorical goodness of roasted garlic with accents of peppery basil and olive oil.

Add some roasted cherry tomatoes (last of the season, I eulogize) and you’re practically stewing marinara sauce–garlic, basil, olive oil, tomatoes–here. Would a stupid person eat waffles with a marinara flavor profile? Yes, trumpets this stupid person, yes they would.

Takes 1 1/2 hours
Makes 3 waffles

1 head garlic
4 T olive oil
1 panier cherry tomatoes
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups plus 2 T almond milk
fresh basil: 2 heaping T minced, 2-3 T chiffonade, plus a few leaves reserved for garnish
vegan butter (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Peel away the outer layer of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic. Drizzle 1 tsp of olive oil over the head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Wrap in aluminum foil and place in the oven to roast for 40 minutes or until cloves feel soft when pressed.

2. De-stem the cherry tomatoes and place in a shallow baking dish. Drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil (eyeball it!) over the tomatoes, ensuring even coating with your hands. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover with foil and place in oven ten minutes after the garlic. Roast for 15-20 minutes or until tomatoes are soft.

3. Preheat waffle iron. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Popping the cloves of garlic out of their skins, mash well in a medium mixing bowl. You want the garlic pulp as smooth as possible. Add almond milk & 2 T olive oil to the garlic and whisk extremely well. Add wet ingredients to the dry and combine together gently. Fold in the 2 T minced basil.

4. Pour 3/4 cup batter onto the hot griddle and cook until golden; mine took 5 minutes, but cook according to your waffle iron’s instructions. While waffles are cooking, drain the roasted cherry tomatoes and combine gently with the 2-3 T chiffonade basil. Taste for salt & pepper and serve on waffles with a pat of vegan butter.

VWAV Ginger Pear Waffles

Vegan with a Vengeance (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz) is practically my cookbook paramour, which makes these waffles a comforting gustatory embrace. The zing of ginger, the warmth of cinnamon, the delicate touch of pear. As my waffles merrily cook, spices tingle under nose as if to whisper, “Autumn beckons, can you hear it?” to which I bluntly parry, “Not when it’s 97 degrees in Sacramento.”

So make these waffles to welcome an ersatz autumn. Or perhaps where you live, the real thing.

Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

Takes 15 minutes
Makes 2 1/2 Belgian waffles

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/2 cup orange juice
3/8 cup (half of 3/4 cup) almond milk
1/6 cup (half of 1/3 cup) applesauce
1 T canola oil
2 T unrefined sugar
1 T  ginger (1/2-inch nub), very finely minced
1/2 pear, grated

1. Preheat and grease waffle iron. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the juice, almond milk, applesauce, oil, and sugar until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and slowly blend until combined. Gently fold in minced ginger and grated pear.

2. Pour 3/4 to 1 cup batter onto the griddle and cook according to your waffle iron’s instructions. Mine cooked in 5 minutes.

Norwegian Potato Waffles

I miss Norway. I daydream of a summer spent foraging for chanterelles, slurping nettle soup with nettle-pricked fingers, and barbequing vegetable skewers over a forest-wood fire. While traditional Norwegian cuisine is not largely vegan, my Oslo host and I–united by a passion for healthy, unprocessed food–multiplied our collective culinary savoir-faire rubbing backs in his kitchen. I’ve never eaten so vegan-well in my life.

Thus, riding a fierce wave of nostalgia I researched Norwegian waffles yesternight until I found this easily veganized recipe for potato waffles. I was titillated by the prospect of mashing potatoes into waffles, as I am vehemently pro-potato in all forms. Potatoes rarely do wrong.

Although I garnished mine with fruit, the slightly sour note from the potatoes would pair better with a tangy vegan cheese, sour cream, or butter. A caution to fellow overeaters: these transform into intestinal rocks with sneaking bravado. Alas, the hamartia of scrumptious spud-filled waffles!

Adapted from My Little Norway

Takes 30 minutes
Makes 8 waffles*

500 g potatoes (4-5 russet potatoes)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 T vegan butter, such as Earth Balance
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp unrefined sugar

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut potatoes into roughly equal pieces to ensure an even cooking time; I halved my russet potatoes. Fill a large pot with cold water an inch above the potatoes. Boil potatoes until a knife easily pierces a potato.

2. Grease** and preheat waffle iron. Mash the potatoes well and mix in flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Lumps in the batter are normal, but mix as well as possible. Mix in melted vegan butter and milk until smooth. Finally, mix in salt and sugar. Drop heaping 1/2 cups of batter onto the center of griddle, spreading slightly, and cook until golden brown. I cooked mine 6 minutes to a nice crispy brown, a minute longer than my usual 5.

*Because of the mashed potatoes in the batter, I highly recommend cooking all 8 waffles and freezing extras. Simply reheat frozen waffles in a toaster oven for a fast breakfast. Alternatively, halve the recipe to make 4 waffles. 

**Be sure to grease the griddle regularly with a oil soaked paper towel as these waffles contain no oil and thus will stick.

Roasted Carrot Waffles

Happy World Vegan Day, which also signifies the first day of the 2012 Vegan Month of Food. This is my fourth year attempting a tally of 20 posts, this time waffle-themed. Why waffles? As author John Green says, “Waffles are just awesome bread.” And as I say, just try to eat a waffle without smiling. When faced with a waffle, you will smirk at the very least.

Itchy with insomnia last night, a bollix of thoughts split me asunder. And between pining for Scandinavia and lingering anxiety over a possible job offer, the idea of roasted carrot waffles stuck.

Every food blogger’s seen a waffle flecked with raw, grated carrot, but my tepid Googling scavenged no roasted carrot waffles inked in internet. That is, until this morning when I made a mess of my kitchen, sundress, and supplicating dog creating these little flour monsters. They’re decadent and appropriately filling. The subtle sweetness of roasted carrot makes for happy waffle times at breakfast, brunch, or brinner.

And you know what else? I got that job. Waffle on, October, waffle on.

Takes approximately 1 1/2 hours including roasting time.
Serves 3-4.

4 medium carrots or 1 cup roasted carrot puree
1 tsp olive oil
3-4 T unsweetened almond milk or water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3-4 T unrefined sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or other unsweetened non-dairy milk)
1/4 cup coconut oil (or canola/vegetable oil)
Grated carrot, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 275 °F (135 °C). Cut carrots in half and halve each section length-wise. Coat in oil and place cut-side down on a baking sheet. Roast for 30-40 minutes, flipping once half-way through. Carrots should be browned and tender when pierced with a fork.

2. In a food processor or Magic Bullet*, puree carrots 3-4 minutes or until no chunks remain. Gradually add the 3-4 tablespoons of almond milk or water for easier blending.

3. Oil and preheat your waffle maker. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the carrot puree, sugar, and almond milk. If your carrot puree is still chunky (as mine was), blend the mixture again in your food processor or Magic Bullet until smooth. Return to the bowl and whisk in the coconut oil well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until combined.

4. Spoon 1/4-1/2 cup batter onto the hot griddle, although this amount will vary based on the size of your waffle iron. Cook according to waffle iron instructions; mine took 5 minutes. Open waffle iron carefully, using a fork to gently pry the waffle off the griddle. Serve hot with Earth Balance, agave nectar, and grated carrot.

*If you use a Magic Bullet, please let your carrots cool 15-2o minutes before blending. Overheating a Bullet is easily done and burnt rubber is a smell uneasily forgotten.