Chia Spiced Rice Pudding with Orange Cardamom Roasted Pears

by Meg R.

Brown Basmati rice was simmered in coconut and almond milk with Chai inspired aromatics of fresh ginger, vanilla bean, star anise, cinnamon, cardamon and orange peel. To accent the warm Indian flavors, I roasted firm but ripe Bosc pears in a mixture of agave syrup, fresh orange juice, orange peel and cardamom pods. The final dish is garnished with chopped pistachios and the candied orange peel from the roasted pears. Not only is this a lovely dessert (or breakfast) on a cold day, but the aroma in the kitchen was filled with heavenly, spicy holiday scents! The roasted pears were soft yet held their shape well, which is why I choose the Bosc variety. The pears also caramelized nicely and had a rich vanilla flavor, a perfect compliment to the warm spices in the rice pudding. This dessert is also a wonderful way for me to highlight the local fruit grown here in our valley.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Raspberries

by Susan P.

This vegan Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Fresh Raspberries is my go to for a couple of reasons. First, it is delicious, moist and flavorful. It's made with just a few simple ingredients that I always have on hand. Olive oil is the fat and the sweetener is maple syrup. The combination makes for a light but very moist cake. Lemon juice, zest and extract pop the lemon flavor and the raspberries are the perfect compliment for the finished cake. I always make this as a bunt cake whether it's individual cakes as shown in the picture, or one larger bunt cake. The raspberries are macerated with a little sugar, then crushed with a fork and added to the plate. I like to top it off with a touch of powdered sugar.

Vegan ChocoBeet Donut

by Yoesi A.

This donut made from all purpose gluten free mix flour ( white sorghum flour, mocaf, banana flour and arrowroot flour), raw cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt for dry ingredient. Ground flaxseed, almond milk, coconut sugar, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and grated red beetroot for wet ingredients. Wet ingredients added to dry ingredients and folded the grated beet. Baked in 175C oven for 15-18 minutes. After cooled completely at the wire cooling rack, coated with melted chocolate chips, sprinkled with popped sorghum and garnished with beet juice + icing sugar mixture in the middle of the donuts. The moist vegan donut ever.

by Susan P.

by Liana M.

Pantry

by Jennifer H.

This is a collage photo of my in-kitchen pantry and my back-up pantry. I keep extra supplies in the back-up pantry of those stock items I don't want to be out of if I decide I want to make something on a whim. Again, I didn't have to do any removal as my kitchen was already re-set to this way of eating before I started the study. I'm simply hoping to learn more cooking techniques to make the meal planning and and preparation process simpler so I don't rely on eating out, even with such a well-stocked pantry.

My favourite chocolate cake

by Luciana U.

I've always been a huge fan of chocolate cakes. When I decided to go vegan, I tried so many recipes searching for "the one" and after some tests trying to create my own recipe, I finally found it. This one is made with whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, sugar cane, apple cider vinegar, baking powder, baking soda, vegetable oil, hazelnut milk and some drops of vanilla extract. The topping is made with 63% cacao chocolate, coconut cream and cane syrup. Just baked in the oven for 30-40min at 390ºF. I also sprinkled bittersweet chocolate granulated around the cake to give extra texture.

Chocolate Pudding

by Daneen A.

My Go-To Dessert is a silken tofu based chocolate pudding. It's my go-to because it's so easy to make and I usually have the ingredients on hand: 1 package extra-firm silken tofu 1 cup chocolate chips, melted 1/4 cup nut milk 2 tbsp maple syrup 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp salt *All these ingredients are blended together to create this decadent dessert. For garnish I shaved dark chocolate and for colour added raspberries.

Classic Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie

by Erika G.

These gluten free chocolate chip cookies are my go-to dessert. Honestly, I make them every week for my 6 & 9 year old (and my chocoholic husband). I use oat and almond flours, flax egg and earth balance to make them both gluten free and vegan. Often I will sub whole oats for half the oat flour or throw in nuts for added nutrition and good fats. These cookies are both crispy and chewy and are a family favorite.

Warm Apple Streusel Pie A La Mode

by Kari R.

Apple Pie A La Mode has always been one of my favorite desserts, and I can't remember the last time I ate it...until now! For the crust, I followed the directions exactly and I think I could have used a touch more water because it seemed to crumble a bit when shaping it in the pie dish. It came out fine, once baked so I guess I need to practice a bit more. For this pie, the crust did not need to be blind baked. I refrigerated it while I made the filling and topping. For the apple filling and streusel topping I used Fran's recipe from her book "More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally". I followed the apple filling recipe exactly, and for the streusel I subbed almond-cashew butter for the oil. I prefer to not use oil whenever possible, so I thought that this would make a good substitution in this case...and it did! I also added oats to the streusel topping because it made me feel like it was a little bit healthier ;). I mounded the apples into the cold crust and pressed the streusel on top of the apple filling. While the pie baked, I made a quick lucuma cashew n'ice cream. I chose this flavor because I wanted something caramel flavored but I did not want to add caramel sauce because i did not want more sugar. To plate the pie, I sprinkled some cinnamon on the plate, placed the pie slice with the n'ice cream on top and sprinkled a little more cinnamon on the n'ice cream (yes I love cinnamon!). This dessert was better than I remember apple pie a la mode tasting. It had the perfect balance of sweetness, cinnamon-spice, crunch from the topping and creaminess from the n'ice cream, as well as the contrast of warm pie and cold n'ice cream. YUMMMM!!!

Hibiscus Tea Agar Gel Cubes with Crystallized Ginger

by Rose D.

These are the Hibiscus Tea gel cubes after they set. I decided to garnish them with a small piece of crystallized ginger to compliment the flavor of the hibiscus. They were delicious and refreshing. In the future, I would steep the hibiscus tea longer to impart a more concentrated flavor. I found that after setting, the flavor of the hibiscus tea became slightly muted. These could be served by themselves as a simple snack. But the next time, I plan on serving them with some grilled peach slices, the crystallized ginger and a dollop of cashew vanilla cream as a simple dessert for the summer.

by Eva A.

by Eva A.

by Sandra M.