Cold Dinners For Hot Nights

Lately we haven't been making many heated dishes. We live in an un-air conditioned apartment and when we're feeling over-heated and tired from work, the last thing we want is a warm plate full of heavy foods. So on Saturday, I peered into the fridge and realized we still had two large containers of veggie stock and a bunch of containers collecting more veggie remnants to make yet more stock - what to do when you're over stocked! It's hot out; Yoga Soup is out of the question.

I remembered when I was growing up my mom used to make us vichyssoise (vee-she-swa) in the summer. Many of you are saying, "Vee-she-what-now?!" It's okay - I'll walk you through this one. Vichyssoise, as defined by Wikepedia is "a thick soup made of pureed leeks, onions, potatoes, cream, and chicken stock" and is usually served cold. Apparently there's a debate over its origins - French or American - but Julia Childs calls it an "American invention" and at the very least, this vegan version is! 

I followed the VegWeb Hot Pepper Vichyssoise recipe posted by queen-o-hearts. After roasting the potatoes, leeks, pablano, jalapeno, garlic, and spices, I could have just eaten a bowl of the veggies. They were deliciously spiced and honestly, who doesn't love roasted veggies?! They'd taste great chilled and served over greens.

Roasted veggies

The soup was easy to make and tasted delicious warm and cold. Despite the heaviness of some of the ingredients - potatoes...soy milk - it was actually light and refreshing and had a slight after-kick. As I was making the soup, our furbaby Bob was trying very hard to distract me....

A cat's life is rough, man.

To accompany the soup, I made Spicy Tempeh with Asparagus, Ginger, and Chile from a new blog discovery, A Profound Hatred of Meat. I'm so glad I stumbled across this blog because blogger Carly Sitner has got some fabulous recipes - check it out! I modified the recipe a little using Lalibela Farm's Black Bean Tempeh, ground ginger (sad face, we were out of fresh), and chili flakes because we didn't have any fresh chiles. It came out pretty good, but Justin thinks we should use less rice wine vinegar when marinating the tempeh because it seemed to really take on the vinegary taste. I'll either cut that in half or eliminate it next time I try the recipe. 

Hot Pepper Vichyssoise, Tempeh & Asparagus, and Quinoa/Flax Seed Bread from Whole Foods

All in all it was a great dinner that was not too hot and heavy - perfect for a mid-summer's night! These two recipes are keepers, folks.