Vegan MoFo Day 28: Scalloped Collards

This most unusual casserole is adapted from the Rosicrucian Fellowship's New Age Vegetarian Cookbook (1968). I've never had collards in this kind of dish, and was surprised by how much I liked them.

Cut the large central stems from a big bunch of collards. Steam or boil these in salted water, briefly, maybe about 10 minutes or less. Drain.

Make a white sauce. You can use your favorite, but I cooked 2 T all purpose flour and 1 T chickpea flour into a roux, and then added 2 c plain almond milk, and cooked until thick. I then added salt and pepper to taste.

Open and drain a 19 oz can of ackees. Toss with 1/4 t black salt.

In a greased casserole dish, layer collards, ackees, white sauce, and vegan cheese to taste. Cover and bake at 400 F until everything is bubbly and melty. Enjoy!

Vegan MoFo Day 26: Rosicrucian Ladies Who Lunch, Part 2

After the success of the prior salad (yesterday's post), we decided to try another "ladies who lunch" concoction from the Rosicrucian Fellowship's salad booklet. Throwing caution to the wind, we went for the Asparagus and Pineapple Salad, which turned out to be really pleasant. The Rosicrucian ladies have been holding their salad secrets behind the veil, but no longer!

2 c. asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

20 oz can pineapple chunks, drained

1/2 c walnuts, chopped

1 c celery, chopped

enough vegan mayo to coat it all

Steam asparagus, drain, and cool. Mix with everything else. I didn't have a lettuce leaf for the photo, but you can visualize it.

Vegan MoFo Day 25: Rosicrucian Ladies Who Lunch

Get your Cosmo-Conception on! At some unknown point, the Rosicrucian Fellowship issued a supplement to their New Age Vegetarian Cookbook, titled Salads and Vegetarian Menus. The 10th printing is dated 1996, but it clearly dates to many years before. The salad recipes are just the sort of thing you would serve when inviting the ladies over for lunch and gossip, if said ladies were vegetarian esotericists!

We tried the Cabbage, Apple, and Ripe Olive Salad:

1 c shredded cabbage (I was generous with this)

2 red apples, chopped

1/4 c chopped black olives

1/4 c French dressing (see below)

Mix together, and artfully arrange on lettuce leaves. For a garnish, stuff whole black olives (I used the canned kind to be true to the period) with soy cream cheeze.

French Dressing:

1/3 c water

1/4 c fresh lemon juice

3 T olive oil

a squirt or two of agave

celery salt to taste

"sufficient catsup to complete the seasoning" (not much)

Combine all dressing ingredients in a mason jar and shake until emulsified.

While this salad seems like an odd combination, it's quite pleasant and I would make it again.

Vegan MoFo Day 14: Barbeque Limas

I've never been a lima hater, but I have had a lot of poorly prepared, mealy, flavorless limas. The Rosicrucian Fellowship's New Age Vegetarian Cookbook (1968) can fix your lima problems. The recipe required only the slightest veganization, and is pictured above with okra patties (recipe coming tomorrow).

Chop one small onion, and fry in 2 T olive oil until it starts to caramelize. (Next time, I'm adding a chopped jalapeno to the pan, too.) Mix with the following:

14 oz frozen limas (right out of the bag - no need to thaw)
8 oz tomato sauce
1 t prepared horseradish
1 t vegan Worcestershire sauce

(Next time, I will probably add 1 t brown sugar - or molasses or sorghum - and a few drops of liquid smoke.)

Pour everything into a casserole, dot the top with bits of vegan margarine (if you want), and bake uncovered at 325 F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until it looks done.

Vegan MoFo Day 3: Turnips & Peas

Today we have another (veganized) recipe from the Rosicrucian Fellowship's New Age Vegetarian Cookbook (1968).

6 small turnips (I used 3 large ones)

2 c cooked peas, cooked as given below

2 T chopped parsley

3/4 c nondairy milk

salt to taste

2 T vegan margarine

paprika

Slice off the tops of the turnips and simmer/steam in the milk for 20 minutes or until they begin to soften. Then, slice them, or hollow them out into cups if you are feeling fancy. Mix everything together (and stuff the cups if doing it that way) and bake at 350 at least 10 minutes. I let it go a little longer in the oven.

For peas: steam 1 lb of frozen peas according to package directions. Then mix with 4 T olive oil, 6 T lemon juice, 2 T agave, and marjoram and thyme to taste. We really liked the peas this way, and will make them again, even if not doing the turnip dish.

The Rosicrucians indicate that this should be served with a white sauce or hollandaise, but it's quite good as is. I think the sauce would be overkill, but follow your own inner direction in these matters!

Vegan MoFo Day 2: Yeasted Oatmeal Muffins

Some years ago, I visited friends in Oceanside, California. While there, they took me on a visit to the headquarters of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. This esoteric group runs (or, at least, ran at the time) a lovely vegetarian cafeteria, staffed mostly by elderly ladies who were as friendly as they were hard of hearing. I have two cookbooks from this community. The older one, the New Age Vegetarian Cookbook, dates from 1968. Here is a veganized version of their oatmeal muffin recipe.

2 c unbleached flour

1/2 c rolled oats

3 T brown sugar

2 t vegan shortening

1 t salt

2 1/4 t dry yeast

1 c nondairy milk

Scald the milk. Pour over oats, sugar, shortening, and salt. Stir together and cool to lukwarm. Add yeast and flour. If it is too dry, add more liquid. You want this to be a little more moist than typical bread dough. Spoon into greased muffin cups. They should be half full. Cover and let rise until the cups are full. My kitchen was cold on the day I made these, and it took about 45 minutes for them to rise. Bake approximately 20 minutes at 440 F.

Vegan MoFo Day 10: Theosophical Society Appreciation Post

The Vegan Month of Food continues. As people seemed to like the SDA post, here's another chapter of the veg story:

The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky and her associates. The story of the TS is a long and interesting one, but for our purposes, it may be enough to know that this society played a crucially important role in increasing awareness of Asian religions (especially Hinduism and Buddhism) into the West, and that it is the great-grandparent of many of the new religious movements of our day. The TS and its spin-offs have also made a significant contribution in promoting veg*nism.

From its beginning, the TS has advocated but not required vegetarianism. This was a radical position in the late 19th century. A close associate of Blavatsky, Countess Constance Wachtmeister (photo above) composed a cookbook called Practical Vegetarian Cookery to help members make the dietary transition. From the recipes posted on-line, it appears the Countess relied rather heavily on eggs and dairy. Ah well. Theosophical vegetarian cooking continues today. I have had wonderful vegan meals in the cafeterias of the Olcott Center in Wheaton, Illinois (the national center of the TS in the United States) and the Melbourne Theosophical Society in Australia. In Sydney, Australia, the local TS lodge is next door to (and in some way associated with) a great cafe called the Bar Adyar, where I had a lovely spinach-pumpkin salad for lunch. If you are near a branch of the TS, check them out. Their bookstores almost always have veg*n cookbooks as well as works on spiritual vegetarianism, and you might find a hidden cafeteria. It was a delight to discover the Melbourne cafeteria, which is open to the public, but tucked away on an upper floor of the TS building on Russell Street.

Like all organzations, the TS has had its splits over the years. One of the most important schisms was the exit of Rudolf Steiner and a large part of the German Section in 1913. Steiner and his students then founded the Anthroposophical Society. Steiner is perhaps best known for his central role in the origins of Waldorf education and Biodynamic agriculture. Much like Blavatsky, he often recommended vegetarianism to his students, but did not require it. (See his lectures collected as Nutrition and Stimulants, Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Assoc., 1991) Steiner gave some interesting indications to bakers which are included in the Nutrition and Stimulants volume. You can find a (veganizable) bread recipe worked out from Steiner's guidance here. The Waldorf and Biodynamic movements have produced a number of books on food and cooking, few of which are strictly vegetarian, but most of which are veg-friendly. The books of Wendy Cook are a good example, and one might note the forthcoming lacto-vegetarian cookbook by Hermann Spindler.

To give only one more example, travelers to southern California may have encountered the Rosicrucian Fellowship's beautiful headquarters in Oceanside (between San Diego and Los Angeles), complete with a vegetarian cafe. This organization was founded in 1909 by a former Theosophist named Max Heindel, who also had connections to Rudolf Steiner. Heindel's organization promotes vegetarianism and publishes a couple of veg cookbooks.

The world of late 19th / early 20th century occultism can be a strange one indeed, especially to the newcomer. Regardless of one's evaluation of these organizations and their teachings, we owe them a debt of gratitude for promoting a veg*n diet for ethical and spiritual reasons, long before it became fashionable.

I am headed to Asheville later today. If I can get internet access, I'll post from there. Otherwise, MoFo posting will return on Monday.