Packed with great recipes for the best kinds of comfort food as well as fantastic photos of old-fashioned eateries, Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson is a perfect holiday gift for anyone—vegan or not—who loves cozy and mouthwatering home-style cooking.
Julie is sort of a cook’s cook; you’ll find her name mentioned frequently in other vegan cookbooks. As the producer of the online cooking show Everyday Dish, and owner of Portland, Oregon food cart Native Bowl, she brings a wealth of experience to her culinary creations, earning the respect of professional cooks as well as the appreciation of those who are new to vegan cuisine.
The food photography in Vegan Diner, contributed by Steve Legato, is stunning and the cover --featuring a burger in a red plastic basket, tall creamy milkshake, and paper cone of sweet potato fries-- gives a hint of what the book offers. That’s classic, all-American food that you’d find in any diner or maybe your grandmother’s kitchen. Except that it’s all vegan. There are recipes for Diner Donuts, Cinnamon Orange Rolls, Smoky Seitan Roast, Philly Sliders, Rockin’ Reubens, Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding, and plenty of scrambles, muffins, and desserts. (And yes, there are instructions for creating a Blue Plate Special.)
The recipes are easy to follow and, in my experience with making a number of them, pretty much foolproof. A handful of ingredients may send you to a natural foods market, but most are readily available in grocery stores. This is a book with a unique spirit—one that celebrates good comfort food and proves that it’s compatible with compassionate eating.
Here are recipes from Vegan Diner for Brown Rice Hazelnut Burgers, Cheezy Mac, and Lemon Blueberry Cake.
Brown Rice Hazelnut Burgers Recipe
This is an Oregon-inspired recipe, since hazelnuts, nutty rice, and earthy mushrooms are prevalent in dishes of this region.
1 cup TVP or TSP granules
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil, or as needed
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
½ cup diced yellow onion
3 large cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
1 cup cooked short-grain brown rice
¾ cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts, skinned and lightly toasted
¼ cup vital wheat gluten
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup freshly minced parsley
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Hamburger buns
Lettuce or salad greens
Sliced tomato
Sliced onion
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with greased parchment paper or a silicone mat.
In a small saucepan, bring ¾ cup water to a boil. Remove from the heat, stir in the TVP and cover with a lid. Set aside for 10 minutes, or until the TVP has absorbed all of the water. Set the rehydrated TVP aside to cool completely.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes, or until soft. Set aside to cool completely.
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, add the onion, garlic, and cooled mushrooms and pulse until finely chopped. Add the cooled and drained TVP mixture, along with the cooked rice and hazelnuts, and pulse again until finely chopped. Don’t purée the mixture.
Remove the mixture to a large mixing bowl, and add the vital wheat gluten, flour, parsley, chickpea flour, and salt and pepper, mixing until completely combined. You may want to use your hands, but don’t overwork. Form into 7 balls and flatten each one in 3 ½ to 4 inch burgers. Place the burgers on the prepared sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Flip the burgers over and bake for another 15 minutes. Serve on a bun with the lettuce, tomato and onion.
Cheezy Mac Recipe
This is Julie’s kid-approved, cheese-less version of creamy mac-and-cheese. She suggests customizing it according to your family’s tastes by sprinkling the top with smoked paprika or spicing it up with some finely diced jalapenos. It’s a variation of the very popular mac-and-cheese that she serves at her food cart, Native Bowl.
10 ounces dried macaroni
½ cup raw cashews
6 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
1 ¼ teaspoons fine sea salt
½ teaspoon sweet or regular paprika
1 tablespoon non-hydrogenated vegan margarine
In a large pot of lightly salted boiling water, add the pasta shells and cook according to package directions until ad dente, about 10 minutes. Drain the pasta well, return to the pot, and cover with a lid to keep warm.
In the jar of a blender, combine 2 ½ cups water and cashews. Blend the mixture at high speed until completely smooth and no bits of nuts remain. Add 5 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, plus the cornstarch, flour, garlic, onion, smoked paprika, salt, and paprika, blending until very smooth.
Transfer the mixture to a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring sauce to a simmer, whisking continuously. Once mixture comes to a simmer, reduce heat slightly and cook, whisking continuously until thickened, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Pour the cheesy sauce over the cooked pasta shells, mixing until the pasta is coated. Add the margarine and remaining 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes, stirring until mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Blueberry Loaf Cake with Lemon Glaze
Julie says that no one would ever guess that this cake is vegan. And it’s also wonderful as a plain lemon loaf cake if you prefer to omit the blueberries.
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons soy flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup soymilk, divided
1/3 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Finely grated lemon zest from 1 ½ lemons
¾ teaspoons pure lemon oil or 1 ¼ teaspoons pure lemon extract
1 cup fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries
Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 ½ to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or as needed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 5-inch metal loaf pan with parchment paper and grease really well with vegetable shortening.
In a medium blow, combine the flour, soy flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing well.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, half of the soymilk, canola oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon oil until smooth. Add the flour mixture and the remaining soymilk and lemon zest, whisking just until mixed. Stir in the blueberries.
Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until top of cake is puffed with a crack down the center, and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and remove to a rack to cool to room temperature.
While the cake is cooling, in a medium bowl combine the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. With a whisk or an electric mixer, beat the glaze until smooth. If mixture is too thick, add another teaspoon or two of lemon juice as needed. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cooled cake to serve.
Virginia Messina is a dietitian specializing in vegan nutrition. Her new book is Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-based Diet. Learn more about vegan nutrition by reading her blog TheVeganRD, or by following her on twitter.
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