Vegan Blue Cheez Dressing, Fat-Free Kitchen’s Black Bean Soup, and Quick-Pickled Red Onions

I’ve tried half a dozen vegan blue dressings, but the one I always go back to is the “Blue Cheese Drizzle” from my Plant-Based Foodie: Vancouver cookbook because it’s quick, easy, and delicious. The dressing is part of a Virtuous Pie recipe–the Stranger Wings pizza–but I usually double the recipe and use it as a salad dressing for the next few days. The one ingredient I’m not crazy about including is the vegan mayo, so I thought I’d give the dressing a try with silken tofu in its place.

The dressing is surprisingly rich and creamy!

In addition to switching out the tofu for the mayo, I also increased the tahini by 1/3 (to increase creaminess and richness), added a teaspoon of BTB Vegetable Base, and pulsed in a tablespoon of parsley at the end.

Vegan Blue Cheez Dressing

Blend until smooth and creamy:

1 12-ounce package silken tofu

2 TBS tahini

2 TBS apple cider vinegar

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base

3 TBS water

1 TBS lemon juice

1 heaping TBS nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

Add…

1 TBS dried parsley

…and pulse once or twice.

This recipe makes about 20 ounces of creamy blue cheez dressing at 45 calories per 1/4 cup serving.

The other thing I made today was a big pot of the best vegan black bean soup I’ve ever tasted.

Notice my grandmother’s silver soup spoon–the perfect size for soup–and the gorgeous purple napkin woven by my talented neighbour!

It’s a Fatfreekitchen.com recipe, so I knew it would be good, and Susan Voisin knocked it out of the park once again. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I do not know why she doesn’t have a TV show and a bunch of cookbooks like others who’ve entered the vegan recipe scene much more recently.

I topped my soup with quick-pickled red onion from another great blog–frommybowl.com–created by Caitlin Shoemaker (of quick-crispy-tofu fame!).

As I write this, James is making plum chutney from a big batch of plums Bid and Paul brought over from Hornby Island on Friday–our last Friday Feast of the season.

The last Friday Feast of the season included Paul & Bid’s nephew, Alex, visiting from Waterloo. Vegan pepperoni pizza, grilled Caesar salad, and Bid’s peach cake were on the menu!

He’s also making a batch of fennel-and-sweet-onion relish (and I think I see a pot of sugar shine fermenting away in the corner). His busy-ness in the kitchen is invariably accompanied by his singing of ancient, obscure, and/or arcane songs (known only to him….and likely Leon Redbone). Today, he was belting out a particularly dour version of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” so I insisted on playing him The Beatles’ version of “My Bonnie” from 1962, so THAT, my friends, is our song of the day!