Holiday-Friendly Recipes + Umeshu-kan (Japanese vegan jello shot)

Just thought I’d round up some holiday-friendly recipes before the Thanksgiving whirlwind (recipes from this blog and tasty-looking recipes from other bloggers).
Note – The holidays are probably not the time you want to experiment with recipes you haven’t mastered, but it can be nice to try out new things!
make ahead dishes, for the day or [...]

My Mom’s Kohi Kanten – Coffee Pudding (Vegan – and about $.10 per serving!)

Kanten…so many reasons I love it:

it’s a naturally ZERO calorie food. That’s right. I said, ZERO!
it’s filling and yet not wiggly-jiggly (unlike gelatin);
even the laziest prep yields yummilicious results; and
I grew up eating it!

Below is a picture of agar agar in stick form.

At any Asian market you can find premixed packets of almond kanten for [...]

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Only for people who want a high fiber, high protein, insanely delicious and cheap snack. Or if you want to get major props. Because people will like them. They will disappear like nobody’s business. And they are way more exciting than popcorn! Since I have that 2kg bag of dried chickpeas, I thought I [...]

Subversive Peanut Butter Cinnamon Chickpea Fudge (under $.03 per serving)

Sssssh. I have a secret. Dessert can be nutritious. And, in the old countries, it frequently is. Recipes for yōkan, burfi, and halva routinely use beans, sesame seeds, and even carrots to establish foundations for sweets. They are dense dessert formats, just like fudge.
And what if such a dessert were to be made of chickpeas? [...]

Chana Masala (less than $0.50 per serving)

Everytime I go to the supermarket, I see MDH’s Chana Masala powder mix. Now, I’ve used it before…but not for its intended purpose. I see the happy picture on the box and I wonder if chickpeas can really be that glamorous? I bought the box and decided to take the plunge.

After watching the culinary superawesomeness [...]