Easy Pizza Gyozas

Easier than pizza, healthier than pizza, and way more fun than pizza, these baked gyozas are a super hit! They make wonderful vegan appetizers; your carnivorous Super Bowl buddies will love them. No cruelty necessary.

Did you all see how I broke my foot playing soccer? A testament to my skill (or intensity) I should think... buuut considering that it was like my 6th game ever, I think it really means that my dribbling is garbage and needs some serious work. Dribbling, wait, that's basketball. Footwork? Is that what it's called? I have no idea, but you can see my x-ray on Instagram or Facebook. It's no wonder I broke myself.

“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

— Buddha's Little Instruction Book

Like most my meals, these Easy Pizza Gyozas arose from trying to solve a problem. Namely having half a used jar of pizza sauce that was aging in the fridge, fresh mushrooms that I wanted to stay that way before I used them, and a package of leftover gyoza wrappers. I confess, this is not my typical recipe. I'm not a buffalo wings, casserole, or tater-tot-loving type of lady. I didn't grow up that style of food and never really gained a taste for it. However, my homemade, little handheld pizza pocket type things are pretty darn tasty. Enjoy this outlier in my normal cuisine!

I was thrilled when I thought I had a small stroke of genius in creating these wanna-be miniature pizza rolls. The feeling was subsequently crushed moments later when it dawned on me that I was fairly positive this had to have been done before. To my surprise though, not really. Rejoice! For once; something my weird little brain conjured up had in fact not been straight-up popularized. Though, if you google "pizza gyoza" something regarding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes up in the search results... forgive me, but I did not explore it further. I never really got into TMNT. I mean, enough to know the hip acronym, but not enough to know anything about them and their bizarre relationship with pizza gyozas.

These gyozas are really easy to make and I feel like they would be a lot of fun to do with kiddos too. Todd and I don't have any human children, but we do have the four-legged kind. Apparently cooking with dogs (Bailey is my sous chef) is frowned upon by some in our place of residence... I can't imagine why. He's the world's most adorable composter/swiffer sweeper! On that note, I'd actually like to get a couple baby goats. A major bonus would be when random people are always asking if you have kids when they're trying to connect and bond with you, you could finally just say yes and technically it wouldn't be a lie. You know how kids = baby goats but also kids = young humans? *Siri* Add baby goats to my shopping list. 

Easy Pizza Gyozas

Recipe by Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Easier than pizza, healthier than pizza, and way more fun than pizza, these baked gyozas are a super hit! They make wonderful vegan appetizers; your carnivorous Super Bowl buddies will love them. No cruelty necessary.

Yield: 42 gyoza

Ingredients

• 1/2 tbsp olive oil + more for brushing
• 1/2 red onion, diced small
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 cups diced small cremini mushrooms
• 1 link of Field Roast Mexican Chipotle Sausage, minced
• scant 1 cup pizza sauce + more for dipping if you like
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1 package (42) square gyoza wrappers
• 1.5 cups vegan shredded cheese

Cooking Directions

1. In a large cast iron skillet, heat the 1/2 tbsp oil over medium-low. Add the onion and garlic; sauté about 5 minutes until the onion begins to brown. Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms and sausage.
2. Add the mushrooms and sausage to the pan. Sauté over medium-low for about 8-10 minutes until the mushrooms have shrunk and browned and all the water has evaporated from the pan.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the pizza sauce and oregano. Preheat the oven to 375°F and spray two pans with nonstick cooking spray.
4. To assemble the gyoza, pour ¼ cup of water into a small bowl. Place ½ tbsp of the filling into the middle of one gyoza square and top with a pinch of cheese. Wet two adjoining edges of the square with water using your finger and then fold the other two edges over to make a triangle, pressing firmly to seal. Repeat with remaining gyoza and filling.
5. Arrange all the gyoza on the two baking sheets so they aren’t touching. Brush lightly with olive oil and bake for about 12 minute until they are slightly crispy and the edges are golden brown; be sure to keep your eye on them! Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Eat plain or top with vegan parmesan cheese, green onions, and crushed red pepper if you like and/or dip into pizza sauce.

Below is a video that is obviously the best thing ever and makes me laugh out loud every time I hear it. A must watch. I must meet this genius. LOOK AT THAT GOAT! Omg.

P.P.S. - Thanks for your patience while we figure out the lighting situation in our new place. I promise orange tinted, shadowy photos won't be the norm.

The Broad Fork Cookbook Review & Balsamic Farro Salad w/ Dates & Beets

Sweet and savory with salty notes from the miso, this tangy-balsamic farro salad is studded with tender beets, mashed Medjool dates, and fresh herbs. It's a unique and stunningly delicious flavor profile. A perfect side dish and the tastiest way to use up all those beets! Heavily adapted from The Broad Fork cookbook.

I was so thrilled to get this new cookbook, The Broad Fork by Hugh Acheson. It read it's focus is recipes that implement the abundance of fresh produce delivered by a CSA (community supported agriculture). "I get a CSA box!", I excited thought to myself. This will be a terrific cookbook. A solution to the frequent, "What do I do with this?" head-scratching that sometimes accompanies the privilege of subscribing to a CSA. 

Perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high and a wee bit premature. 

The cookbook is divided by season and subcategorized by ingredient which I think is really fun and quite useful. Hugh writes, "This is a vegetable-centric guide to seasonal offerings." I feel I must begrudgingly disagree with him.

Yes, it's no shock that this is not a vegan let alone a vegetarian cookbook (I honestly kind of expected it to be vegetarian...) With a subtitle like, Recipes for the wide world of vegetables and fruits, I think this cookbook is a disappointingly misleading for those of us that are truly vegetable-centric (ie plant-based). Of course all the recipes do have plants (don't most?) but I didn't find the vegetables to the star of the show, as hinted. Doesn't it seem like that should be the point?

Some of Hugh's recipes include a few obscure ingredients (Espelette pepper, Manchego cheese, sorghum molasses, malt vinegar, Hungarian chile). He often doesn't provide any weights (grams or ounces) alongside his measurements (how much is exactly 2 cups of dates?). Many recipes require the home cook to make some little recipe on another page to be incorporated into this recipe. I know this is a common phenomenon, but it also happens to be a personal pet peeve of mine. There is no way I'm going to delve into making the preserved lemon on page blankety-blank to add to the gremolata in the recipe I'm trying to make. It just won't happen. You can't make me. 

In this cookbook, there are many...meat-centric recipes. More than vegetable-focused ones I should think. Pan-roasted pork tenderloin with sorghum and roasted apples / duck breast with indian eggplant pickle, / grilled pork belly with persimmons and spicy soy vinaigrette, turkey, andouille shrimp / collard greens gumbo, just to name a few. The plants definitely seem to take a backseat, no? Good luck substituting tempeh, seitan, and soy in all of those! And don't even get me started on the octopus in this cookbook! I daresay almost heaved the book across the room in sheer fright of the sight; a tangle of purple tentacles occupying an entire photo page.* Seriously what is that?

                                             *footnote: I have a most unusual, not to mention unsound, phobia of octopus tentacles so this would probably be a grave overreaction for most.

Perhaps I'm just jaded from all the wonderful, legitimate plant-based cookbooks I've had the pleasure of reviewing. The Broad Fork wasn't a total letdown (maybe I've been to severe in my review). I did vastly appreciate that half the book wasn't an appreciation of "what's in my pantry" or "here's how to chop a carrot" chapters. I know how to stock my pantry and use a knife, thank you. I don't need a 325 page instructional on what a potato peeler is and how to use it. 

My favorite part of this book is that almost every produce chapter includes a recipe to either make said produce into a long-term storage item or just use up a lot of that fruit or vegetable. As a consequence, there's a lot of pickling recipes...but also apple butter, purees, jams, etc. 

If you're not vegan, this is a pretty neat cookbook that will definitely stretch you outside your comfort zone of creativity in the kitchen. A good thing! However, if you are vegan I recommend passing on this one. There's hidden jewels of unique recipes that can be adapted but I'm not sure if it's worth rifling through the meat and animal-laden recipes to find and salvage them. 

I had to look through the cookbook twice to finally find a meal I could make. Hugh's farro and beet salad. It was honestly one of the only dishes that I wouldn't have had to meddle with too much and yet, there are too many adaptations I made to to even list. Regarding both the ingredients and the recipe flow. Also, my salad looked absolutely nothing like his; this gave me a good chortle for some reason. Leave it to me to take his beautiful masterpiece (I'd hang it on my wall..) and work it into the dreaded burgundy blob you see below! 

However, that burgundy blob is one of the best things I've ever tasted. Enough said. You need to make this syrupy salad.

Balsamic Farro Salad w/ Dates & Beets

Recipe by Kathleen Henry @ Produce On Parade

Sweet and savory with salty notes from the miso, this tangy-balsamic farro salad is studded with tender beets, mashed Medjool dates, and fresh herbs. It's a unique and stunningly delicious flavor profile. A perfect side dish and the tastiest way to use up all those beets! Heavily adapted from The Broad Fork cookbook.

Yield: 6 side dish servings

Ingredients

• 16 (10 oz) pitted medjool dates
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup farro, dry
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, stems discarded
• 4 cups water, divided
• 5 (1 .5 lbs beetroot trimmed) medium beets with their greens, scrubbed clean
• 1 tbsp red miso
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh mint, chopped
• 1/3 cup large-flake nutritional yeast

Cooking Directions

1. Add the dates, salt, crushed red pepper, and vinegar to a small saucepan. Pour in just enough water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat; reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes until the dates are tender. When done, strain out the dates and reduce the vinegar liquid over medium-high heat for about 5-8 minutes until it has reduced by half. Mash the dates with the back of a wooden spoon and set both the dates and the liquid aside.
2. While the dates cook, heat the butter over medium in a large soup pot. Add the onion and sauté for about 3 minutes, until translucent. Add the dry farro and cook an additional 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the thyme leaves and 1 cup of water; cook for 5 minutes. Stir in another 1 cup of water and cook an additional 5 minutes. Scoop out about ¼ cup of the hot water and whisk the miso paste into it. Set aside.
3. While the farro simmers, clean the beets and cut off the greens. Remove the leaves from the stems. Discard the stems and slice the leaves into ribbons. Using a mandolin, slice enough beet to fill ½ cup (about 1 beet). Set aside. Small dice the remaining beets and set aside.
4. Add the diced beets (do not add the shaved beets yet), greens, and the remaining 2 cups of water. Over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, cook the farro for about 20-30 minutes until the water has evaporated and the farro is tender.
5. Stir in the shaved beets, reduced vinegar liquid, mashed dates, and miso, as well as the remaining ingredients. Mix to combine and serve hot!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. Find The Broad Fork on Amazon.com.

*DISCLAIMER*  PRODUCE ON PARADE IS A PERSONAL BLOG WRITTEN AND EDITED BY MYSELF ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. MY REVIEWS ARE COMPLETELY BASED ON MY OWN OPINION OF THE PRODUCT REVIEWED. THESE PRODUCTS WERE SUPPLIED TO ME AS GIFTS TO TEST AND REVIEW. OTHERWISE, IF I MENTION A COMPANY BY NAME AND THERE IS NO DISCLAIMER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST, I AM MERELY WRITING ABOUT SOMETHING I LIKE, PURCHASE AND/OR USE. THE FACT THAT I DO RECEIVE A PRODUCT AS A GIFT TO TEST AND REVIEW, WILL NEVER POSITIVELY INFLUENCE THE CONTENT MADE IN THIS POST.

Street Vegan Cookbook Review + Homemade Potato Pierogies w/ Horseradish Cream

I have a confession. Before becoming vegan I rarely consulted cookbooks and certainly never bought any. What kind of food obsessed person am I? I'm not really sure why but I find that whenever flipping through a cookbook there's only ever a handful of recipes that tickle my fancy. That was not the case with Adam Sobel's new cookbook Street Vegan. He is the owner and chef of the renown Cinnamon Snail food truck that roams the busy streets of New York City, doling out mouth-watering vegan food to the masses. 

Adam's and my tastebuds must have been cut from the same cloth because pretty much everything in this book...I was looking to whip up and scarf down! From his Bourbon Hazelnut Pancakes to the Polenta Sage Cashew Cheese Wedges to Rosemary Hemp Seed-Crusted Tofu and Lavender-Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee. I would happily consume every meal in his cookbook. 

The book is divided into the usual chapters like Breakfast, Beverages, Appetizers, Soups, and Desserts. However, there is also a Sandwiches chapter as well as Cinnamains (main meals), Veggies and Sides, Donuts, and The Saucy Stuff. Yep, you read that right, he has an entire chapter on donuts. Genius. 

Adam discusses, "Some kooky (and not-so-kooky) things in the snail's pantry". Most of the items I think of as staples in a vegan kitchen such as tofu, almond milk, vegan mayonnaise, tempeh, etc. However, there were some ingredients that I have yet to discover in our rural Alaskan grocery stores such as Umeboshi Plum Vinegar, Chestnut Flour, Lucuma, Gochujang, and Asafetida (umm, whaaa?) to name a few. 

Street Vegan is filled beautiful matte photos (not a photo for each recipe, to my great misfortune) and short stories about the Cinnamon Snail's adventures, such as acquiring daily parking tickets and the like. Adam has a unique and very comedic voice that had me giggling and smiling all throughout the book. He has funny lines all throughout the book. Take this one from his Acknowledgments:

“A giant-size set of lips bigger than buildings for the smooches for Kim Ima from the Treats Truck, for all her mentoring and support. You are my food truck mommy.”

Or this one pulled from the introduction to his recipe for Cinnamon Snails. These are actual quotes. 

“...But then a Sasquatch snatched up all the puppies, and we had to save the day by riding on a giant cybernetic snail dousing the bad-guy Sasquatch with cinnamon, until he stopped being mean and did a lot of giggling, and we all ate cupcakes, and yayyyy!”

I really appreciated that the index was ordered by ingredient (which isn't always the case), however, I found the recipes to be a bit cumbersome to follow for a few reasons. 

1. The layout of the recipes are a strange in that they're arranged in long vertical columns as opposed to the usual shorter, horizontal sentences. I found myself losing my place many times while making the recipes.
2. Some of the recipe staging and flow could have been more efficient. For example, in the pierogi recipe he instructs you to make the cream sauce first, but to me it made much more sense to start with putting the pot of water on to boil for the potatoes and make the dough because it needs to rest for 30 minutes. I think it made the entire recipe just take a bit longer than it needed to.
3. Oftentimes, the recipes were quite ambiguous. Adam instructs to "heat the canola oil in a saute pan..." What size saute pan? I was lucky that I used my largest one to saute the onion because later in the recipe, two pounds of mashed potatoes were added! Little things like that sometimes popped up and I found myself scratching my head. 

The only other criticism I have is that many of the recipes were pretty heavy. Perhaps it's a personal preference that I gravitate away from greasy, oil-drenched foods. Also, if you don't prefer to fry your homemade donuts, you're out of luck because there are no baked donut recipes in his entire chapter dedicated to donuts (sad face). This excludes an entire chapter of the book! Also, the spine of the book doesn't lay flat, which is a petty pet peeve of mine.  Okay, now I'm just being nitpicky...

BOTTOM LINE

That being said, this is one of the most unique and personally appealing books I have ever reviewed or had the pleasure to own. It's full of new and inventive recipes that will delight you just as much as his writing. I highly recommend Street Vegan! It's snagged a 4/4 star review on Amazon and is available wherever books are sold in a ebook and paperback format. 

It was hard to pick out a single recipe to test in this book but I finally decided to try my hand at the Truffled Potato and Fried Onion Pierogies with Horseradish Mustard Cream. Todd is from Cleveland and I'm pretty sure it's the pierogi capital of the USA. Correct me if I'm wrong. There must be a lot of Polish influence in Believeland.

I'm somewhat ashamed to divulge that I've never actually had a pierogi before (despite my many adventures in the wonderful West Side Market)! They're absolutely delicious, though I did find them to be a bit heavy for me. Next time I'm in Cleveland I will have to pick some up at the Market to compare.

I did make a few changes to Adam's recipe, notably the "truffled" part. Surprise, our local grocery store does not in fact carry truffle oil, nor (at the time) fresh horseradish; I did manage find the stuff jarred however. I hope you enjoy my adaptation of Adam's recipe! Here's a few things I changed:

• Drastically mixed up the flow of the recipe.
• Left the potatoes unpeeled, as opposed to peeled.
• Extended the boiling time of the potatoes.
• Extended the sauteing time for onions and decreased the cooking time for horseradish.
• Used onion instead of shallots.
• Used coconut milk instead of almond milk.
• Increased the flour by 1 cup.
• Changed the mustard quantity. 
• Used rice wine vinegar instead of brown rice wine vinegar. 
• Doubled the quantity of oil for frying. 

These creamy, potato filled pierogies with a delicious homemade dough and horseradish dipping cream are browned to perfection and sure to wow anybody!

Homemade Potato Pierogies w/ Horseradish Cream

These creamy, potato filled pierogies with a delicious homemade dough and horseradish dipping cream are browned to perfection and sure to wow anybody! Adapted from Adam Sobel's cookbook, Street Vegan.

Yield: 30 pierogies

Ingredients

• Pierogies
• 5 medium russet potatoes (about 2 lbs), unpeeled
• 4 cups all-purpose flour + additional for rolling out the dough
• ¼ cup vegan sour cream
• 1 tsp kosher salt, divided
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup of water
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• ¾ medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp coconut or soy milk
• ½ cup olive oil, divided (for frying)
• Cream
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ¼ medium yellow onion, diced
• ¼ cup jarred, extra-hot horseradish
• 6 drained capers
• 1 tbsp stone-ground or Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 6 oz (half a block) of firm silken tofu

Cooking Directions

1. Scrub the potatoes clean and quarter them. Place them in a large pot and cover completely with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce to a low boil and cook, uncovered, for about 10-13 minutes until fork tender. When done, drain and set aside.
2. While the potatoes boil, make the dough by whisking together the flour, ½ tsp kosher salt, and black pepper in a large electric stand mixing bowl. Stir in the sour cream with a wooden spoon. Then, with the dough hook attachment, drizzle in the water with the mixer on speed 2. Increase to speed 4 and knead for about 5 minutes, until a semi ball of dough has formed. It’s okay if it’s sticking to the bottom of the bowl a bit. This is a somewhat sticky dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a heavily floured surface. Form into a ball and allow to rest for about 20-30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, make the cream by first heating the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium. Sauté the onion for about 4 minutes, until it begins to soften then stir in the horseradish, capers, mustard, agave, and vinegar. Cook another 2 minutes then remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, about 5 minutes, before placing in a blender along with the tofu. Blend on high for 1 minute, until very smooth. Transfer to a medium serving bowl and place in fridge until ready to use.
4. While the dough rests, make the filling by heating the canola oil in a large, cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 8 minutes until it begins to brown. Remove from heat and stir in the olive oil, coconut milk, and ½ tsp kosher salt. Add the boiled potatoes and mash until mostly smooth with a potato masher. Set aside.
5. Once the dough has rested, roll it out into 1/8th inch thickness. Using a small mason jar lid ring or small wine glass (about 2.5 inches in diameter) cut circles. Form the scraps into a ball and roll out again, making more circles until all the dough has been used.
6. Place 1 heaping tbsp of the filling into the middle of each circle and dot the edges of the circle with water. Fold in half, closed, pressing the seams together with the twines of a fork. Be sure to gently smoosh down the filled belly of the pierogi so it’s somewhat flat and can brown easily (I learned this the hard way).
7. Heat the ¼ cup of olive oil in the same large, cast iron skillet. Once the oil is hot, add as many pierogies as you can fit in the pan. Fry for about 3 minutes per side, until they are a golden brown. Place on plate lined with paper towels to remove any excess oil and repeat with remaining pierogies.
8. Serve warm with the chilled cream. Place everything in respected Tupperwares, in a backpack, and run them 2 miles through the woods to your Dad’s house to share like I did (optional).

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

*DISCLAIMER*  PRODUCE ON PARADE IS A PERSONAL BLOG WRITTEN AND EDITED BY MYSELF ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. MY REVIEWS ARE COMPLETELY BASED ON MY OWN OPINION OF THE PRODUCT REVIEWED. THESE PRODUCTS WERE SUPPLIED TO ME AS GIFTS TO TEST AND REVIEW. OTHERWISE, IF I MENTION A COMPANY BY NAME AND THERE IS NO DISCLAIMER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST, I AM MERELY WRITING ABOUT SOMETHING I LIKE, PURCHASE AND/OR USE. THE FACT THAT I DO RECEIVE A PRODUCT AS A GIFT TO TEST AND REVIEW, WILL NEVER POSITIVELY INFLUENCE THE CONTENT MADE IN THIS POST.