October | 2013 | Vibrantly Vegan

So – how about a great brunch idea for a holiday weekend? I know there is a lot of controvesry over even having a holiday named after Columbus, but all that aside, who isn’t happy for a day off and another excuse to have brunch? I love brunch – it’s my favorite meal! And I always loved omelettes with all the fixings and oozing with cheese. Think vegans can’t have that? Think again! Enter the chickpea omelette. There are lots of recipes online for chickpea omelettes and they are all wonderful! I tweaked them and came up with this recipe that incorporates all of my son’s favorite things. Since he was home from college for the weekend, I decided to make his idea of a perfect omelette. You can put anything in the omelette that you like. Mushrooms, peppers, tomato, capers, spinach – anything really! While tofu scramble may technically taste more like eggs, because this is so reminiscent of the look and shape and texture of an omelette, it is amazing and it tastes great as well! It is also so easy and quick to make!!

1/3 cup chickpea flour
1/4 t turmeric
1/2 T nutritional yeast
1/4 t baking powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup + 2 T water
2 t oil for cooking
2 T chopped onions
2 T chopped tempeh bac’n
3 T shredded vegan cheddar, such as daiya

Combine first six ingredients in a small bowl.

Heat oil over medium high heat in an 8″ non-stick pan.

Pour batter into pan. Sprinkle onions, bac’n, and cheese on top.

Cook 5 minutes.

Fold in half and cook another 2 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Serves 1

Making raw desserts is so much fun and making raw candy is particularly satisfying! When I first made raw peanut butter cups I was blown away at how incredibly delicious they were. I have to give a shout out to the wonderful person behind the www.glutenfreevegangirl site – because her recipe is perfection! It was also the inspiration for these chocolate cherry cups which I simply adore. I have noticed that for some reason, there is only about one month per year when I can get frozen organic cherries. I know this because I start missing the fresh ones that were around over the summer and I stock up on the frozen ones. But one month from now, they will be hard to find. So, I make lots of delicious desserts with cherries until I can no longer find them at all and have to wait for summer to come around again. These candy cups are easy and fun to make and they taste great! I like to keep them in the freezer because they defrost quite quickly. I have been known, however, to be impatient and eat them frozen as well!

Chocolate layer:

2 cups pitted dates
1/2 cup plus 2 T cacao powder
1 cup raw cashews
2 pinches salt
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 T water

Cherry filling:

1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup coconut milk – not low fat
1 T maple syrup
1 t coconut oil
1 t vanilla
3/4 cup frozen cherries
2 small pinches salt

In a food processor, process the walnuts and the water until it is the consistency of peanut butter. Add the remaining chocolate layer ingredients to the walnut butter. Process until it comes together.