Once a rare indulgence, brownies now deserve to be a regular treat!

While the exact numbers vary, a traditional brownie serving contains nearly 400 calories, half of which comes from fat. The recipe usually calls for butter, unsweetened chocolate, white sugar, eggs, and all-purpose flour, all of which add no nutritional value. This recipe is a sugar-free, vegan alternative to traditional brownies, using whole-wheat and maple syrup as the base. It’s a delicious and guilt-free way to get the dense chocolate taste you crave!

The sugar, dairy, and egg-free benefits of this recipe aside, these brownies contain one of the healthiest nuts – walnuts! Walnuts contain healthy omega-3s, which protect arteries and improve brain function. The nut also prevents gallstones, is a rich source of melatonin, which helps you sleep, contributes to bone health, stops weight gain, and helps treat diabetes.

Vegan Brownies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canola oil (or coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Combine the dry ingredients (but only 1/2 cup of the chopped walnuts) in a large bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until evenly combined. The mixture will be thick.

Spread into an ungreased 8×8 glass pan, top with the remaining 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 20-25 minutes. To check if it’s ready, push down on the center with your index finger. If you sense resistance, it’s done.

Serve and enjoy some guilt-free chocolate decadence!

Bon Appetit!

Images: Jeffry W.,  Aylin Erman

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post Nutritional Breakdown: A Vegan Revamp on the Classic Brownie Recipe appeared first on EcoSalon.

Easy substitutions for a plant-based lifestyle. 

One of the nasty pitfalls of becoming vegan or pursuing a more plant-based, healthy lifestyle is the allure of vegan or low-calorie products. These packaged goods mock the “real” thing with often not so forgiving preservatives, colorants, and other additives. That’s why one of the biggest challenges is finding simple, within-hands-reach ways to replace the most common ingredients with their vegan or healthy (and just-as-real) counterparts.

Brighten your kitchen, nourish your heart, and spread the love with these animal-friendly and nutritional kitchen substitutions.

Eggs

If you aren’t eating an egg-centric dish, chances are that a recipe calling for eggs is looking for either a binding or leavening agent. Eggs are viscous and hold ingredients tightly together, which is why they appear in most baked goods, burgers, and creams. They also help to leaven, or “rise” baked dishes. Depending on what you’re making, the replacement will change accordingly.

To replace one egg in a baked recipe, alternatives that have worked for me in include:

• 1 tablespoon a of ground flaxseed mixed in 3 tablespoons of water and allowed to sit until the mixture thickens
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch or potato starch
• 1/2 large banana, mashed, but only for sweet recipes
• 1/4 cup applesauce, but only for sweet recipes

Keep in mind that the replacement should adjust according to the recipe. The flaxseed mixture wouldn’t work in a smooth batter, so opt for another alternative. If the recipe calls for more than two eggs, add some baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon per additional egg – as it will help with the rising effect.

For the pure purpose of binding ingredients in a mixture, the options are wide and varied. Instead of one egg, you could use 1/2 avocado, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons nut butter, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, or 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast. Anything viscous and thick enough to hold things together without changing the taste will work. The dry replacements work best in mixtures with a liquid element.

Milk

This is probably the easiest of the bunch, because there is a hot market for dairy-free “milk” these days. Peruse the health section aisles at your grocery store and choose from the array of rice, almond, hemp, coconut, and soy milks. Avoid brands with too many additives – sugars, flavoring or preservatives.

Whenever I have the ingredients on hand, I like to make my own almond milk. All you need is 1 cup raw almonds, enough water to soak them in overnight, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, and 3 cups water. Soak the almonds in the salt and water overnight. The next day, rinse them and toss into a blender. Blend them with 3 cups of water until thin. Separate the almond milk from its fibers with a cheese cloth. Drink immediately and store in the refrigerator.

Cheese

Dairy cheese can be replaced by any store-bought soy or rice-based cheese, but these often include strange ingredients that are necessary to achieve the same texture, taste, and look of cheese. They are also not much more forgiving in terms of calories and fat.

Luckily, these vegan alternatives make things a bit more interesting and are easy enough to make on the regular:

• white cheese dip
• sweet potato cheese
• basil cashew cheese

Keep in mind that when it comes to cheese, nutritional yeast is your most trusted accomplice. It has a cheesy flavor that, when paired with a creamy base, can mock cheese to the T (or C).

Gelatin

Ever wonder where gelatin comes from? It’s a protein obtained by boiling animal bones, tendons, ligaments, hooves, and skin. Not necessarily the kinds of things you associate with jellied candies, toaster pastries, cereals, and Jell-O.

Alternatives include carrageenan, agar-agar, fruit pectin, and locust bean gum.

Butter

In sweet recipes, you can replace up to 3/4 cup butter with applesauce. Replace the rest with a vegan butter substitution, such as Earth Balance. In cooking, where butter is scant, use a vegan substitution.

Oil

Oil has little benefit when it is cooked, literally, to death. Oil biochemically changes when it is heated, and it loses many of its nutritional benefits. Opt to enjoy oils in their raw, extra-virgin states. The healthiest raw oils include olive oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, walnut oil, sesame oil, flaxseed oil, and peanut oil. When cooking, use coconut oil – it has a high burning temperature and can withstand heat.

Buttermilk

To replace buttermilk, simply combine 1 tablespoon of white vinegar with 1 cup of vegan milk, such as almond, soy, coconut or rice milk.

Sugar

In baked goods, marinades, and sauces, maple syrup is a great replacement for sugar. In fact, I find that it gives the dish a deeper, more complex flavor, making it more unique and enjoyable to eat. You can replace every 1 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of maple syrup. This requires that you reduce the dominant liquid in the recipe by 2-4 tablespoons, for consistency’s sake. Pick and choose with the liquids – you don’t want to sacrifice an important taste, so don’t reduce the oil or vinegar measurements when you have 2 or 3 cups of milk to take from. To offset maple syrup’s slight acidity, you may choose to add 1/4-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda. If the recipe calls for sour cream, buttermilk, or sour milk, skip the baking soda.

In tea and coffee, there is no need to reach for sugar anymore. Stevia is the only sweetener out there that has a zero-glycemic level and zero calories – to say nothing of its a-little-goes-a-long-way poster child status. Stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar and if you find a brand that fits your tastes – I am a NuNaturals fan – you won’t be able to leave the house without it! I prefer liquid stevia, because it’s seamless to use and easy to carry around in my purse. A few drops later, and my beverages taste like liquid gold. One 2-ounce bottle tends to last me 3-4 months.

Some manufacturers have come out with powdered versions that can replace sugar in recipes. There are also sugar and powdered stevia mixes that aim to reduce sugar, but not completely nix it.

ALSO CHECK OUT: 

Vegan Chocolate Mousse with Sea Salt

Make Your Own Vegan Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Recipe: Vegan Avocado Alfredo Sauce

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Images: Furry Scaly, Robert S. Donovan, Tétine, Jeffrey W, MRBECK, Aylin Erman

The post 8 Substitutions for the Most Common Kitchen Ingredients appeared first on EcoSalon.

Ketchup can get healthier, and under 5 minutes!

Ketchup is the mother of all condiments. It’s sweet and salty and pairs with just about anything,  even when the combo seems intuitively odd. I, for instance, have long praised the healing powers of ketchup and white rice, and a friend of mine can’t bear to eat scrambled eggs without it. Ketchup has carved an indelible spot in our food psyches – it’s a classic that some estimates claim can be found in 97% of U.S. households.

Tracing its origins to China, Ketchup was first introduced in the U.S. in 1837. By 1900, ketchup was sold by more than 100 manufacturers. In 1872, HJ Heinz introduced his version of the condiment at the Philadelphia Fair, and to this day, the recipe has remained unchanged. Over the years, first for sanitary reasons and later for marketing’s sake, the FDA has developed strict guidelines concerning the consistency of ketchup and ingredients in it.

Behind the classic lies not so uplifting stats. Ingredients in Heinz Ketchup include tomato concentrate, distilled vinegar, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spice, onion powder, and natural flavoring. While the list is relatively simple, high-fructose corn syrup is a known culprit, so much to the point that many are beginning to backfire, claiming it is “unfairly maligned.” Truth is, it deserves the flack!

In a 2010 Princeton University study, researchers found that high-fructose corn syrup leads to considerable weight gain, at a rate higher than other sweeteners. According to the study, which was administered on rats, those fed high-fructose corn syrup gained much more weight than those fed table sugar, even with the same caloric intake. The lab animals on a long-term high-fructose corn syrup diet experience abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the belly. Researchers noted that even rats on a high-fat diet don’t gain weight to that extent.

In 1 tablespoon of Heinz Ketchup, there are 20 calories, 160 milligrams of sodium, 6 grams carbohydrates, and 4 grams of sugar. The benefits deriving from the plum tomatoes are outweighed by the compounding calorie, sodium, and sugar dosages. Whoever just stops at 1 tablespoon? A few tablespoons in, and you’ve got yourself a condiment that threatens meal-status.

A condiment should never derail a diet, but many of us don’t know when to stop dipping, because serving sizes are never that clean cut. That’s why I’ve put together this simple homemade ketchup that you can whip up without laboring over the stove, risking your fries going frigid.

Using the same elements – tomatoes, sweetener, and vinegar – I’ve upped the ante on their health benefits. Maple syrup is one of the healthiest sweeteners on the market, with a lower glycemic index than other mainstream sugars. Apple cider vinegar, especially one that is indicated as “raw,” is full of vitamins, minerals, pectin, and beta-carotene. It also boasts many benefits – treats sunburn, helps weight loss, removes teeth stains, cures severe acne, treats digestive ailments, fights allergies, and reduces cholesterol.

Enjoy!

2-minute Homemade Ketchup

Makes just over 1 cup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup tomato paste
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (or agave)
• 1/4 tsp mustard
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix until smooth. No cooking required!

Add lukewarm water by the teaspoon to reach the consistency you crave.

Serve aside sweet potato French fries or lather on top of a vegan chickpea burger!

Bon Appetit!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Images: Overthinking Me, Aylin Erman

The post Nutritional Breakdown: Revamping America’s Favorite Condiment: Ketchup [Recipe] appeared first on EcoSalon.

Cake for breakfast? Of course.

It’s a shame that so many cake recipes call for eggs, cream, and loads of sugar, when the same texture – fluffy, moist, flaky, and rich – can be matched sans the heavy ingredients and dangerous boost in blood sugar levels. Sure, there’s room for those kinds of desserts too, but if you’re anything like me and need dessert everyday – that is, require for basal human function –  then it helps to have an arsenal of silhouette-forgiving, vegan dessert recipes on hand.

This vanilla cake recipe is a simple, foundational recipe that can be altered according to your tastes. Like chocolate? Add cocoa powder. Like more texture? Add dried fruit and nuts. Like things bigger? Buy more pans for layering. But what I’ve written here is a mild, flaky cake that is a lot like a soft, light, and slightly sweet bread to be complemented with tea, coffee or almond milk.

I added a personal touch to the cake by baking it over pineapple slices, which add moisture and make for a great presentation. I chose pineapple for its taste, but the diamond-under-the-rough fruit is also packed with immune-boosting vitamin C, promotes healthy gums and teeth, sharpens vision, improves digestion, and alleviates arthritis symptoms.

Pineapple also contains the enzyme bromelain, which helps to break down protein. This knowledge comes in handy after you’ve eaten a hefty meal – chewing on a bit of pineapple can help to make room for dessert, because foregoing dessert is seldom an option. And lucky for you, this recipe cuts to the chase and adorns the top of a vanilla cake with brown-sugar glazed pineapple slices, so you make more room for dessert whilst eating dessert. Pure logic, my friends.

Note: If you want a caramelized effect, use a metal spring-form pan and the brown sugar is a must, since it helps to caramelize the pineapples. I personally like my pineapples to tenderize without becoming too sweet, since I treat this dish more as a “S’pose-I’ll –just-have-this-here-cake-for-breakfast-since-it’s-so-clean-and-healthy” item than a dessert item. For this reason, I use a glass pan and sometimes forego the brown sugar. When I do want the cake for dessert, I warm it up and drizzle with honey for that extra sweetness.

Pineapple Bread Cake

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons vegan butter + 1/2 tablespoon for coating baking dish
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup almond milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat the bottom and sides of baking dish with 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle brown sugar on top, evenly across the area of the dish. Skin a pineapple and cut along its width as thin as possible, making 4-6 discs. Place pineapple on the bottom of the baking dish.

In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Using your hands, cut the vegan butter (I like to use Earth Balance) into the dry mixture, using your fingers to create a meal-like texture.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients, except for the almond milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until pasty. Add the almond milk a little at a time until the mixture reaches a thick, but easily spreadable texture.

Carefully spread batter over the pineapple slices in the glass baking dish.

Bake in the oven for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

After you remove the cake from the oven, loosen the edges with a knife and let cool down. When cool enough to handle with your bare hands, use a cutting board to help flip the dish over so that the pineapples are exposed.

The result is a light but comforting bread-like cake that has just the right touch of pineapple to keep things interesting. Cut a piece and serve warm with almond milk for dipping or enjoy aside a morning coffee.

Enjoy!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post Recipe: Vegan Pineapple Vanilla Bread Cake appeared first on EcoSalon.

You can still have your chocolate and peanut butter and eat it too.

I’m not alone when I say that Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are among my favorite dessert snacks. They’re just delicious – end of story. However, when it comes to watching your waistline, the last thing you should do is reach for the packaged variation. Instead, take 10 minutes and create your own refined-sugar-free version of this American favorite.

In one serving of Reese’s Peanut Cups, we’re looking at 210 calories, 110 of which come from fat. The 2-piece serving also carries with it 24 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 5 grams of protein, and 5 milligrams of cholesterol. Considering that one serving fulfills 20% of your daily allowance of fat and a whopping 21 grams of simple sugar, the treat is artery-clogging and contributes to spikes in blood sugar levels.

Ingredients include the likes of peanuts, sugar, dextrose, salt, stabilizer tertiary butyl hydroquinone, cocoa butter, chocolate, non-fat milk, milk fat, lactose, soy lecithin and PGPR. I can’t quite pronounce tertiary butyl hydroquinone, but it sure packs a toxic punch. The chemical preservative is rendered to be deadly when 5 grams or more are consumed. The overly processed milk used in Reese’s negatively affects digestion, hormones, and acne.

The wonderful part about Reese’s is that it is easy to change without compromising taste. This recipe revamp uses all-natural, unsalted peanut butter, low-glycemic maple syrup, and coconut butter. Not all fats are the same, and coconut butter brings with it 3 grams of dietary fiber in just 1 tablespoon. And no simple sugars here! Cocoa powder is paired with maple syrup to give you the sweetness without the sugar rush. Enjoy!

Homemade Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

Makes 6

Ingredients:

Chocolate Shell:

1/2 cup coconut butter, mixed well

3 tablespoons maple syrup

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

Dash of sea salt

Filling:

3 heaping teaspoons unsalted peanut butter

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1/8 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of sea salt

Directions:

In a small saucepan, melt the coconut butter and mix in the remainder of the chocolate shell ingredients. Mix until thoroughly combined and remove from heat.

In a separate bowl, combine all the filling ingredients and mix until smooth.

Line 6 muffin tins with baking cups.

On the bottom of each cup, place about 1 teaspoon of the chocolate mixture. Spread so it evenly covers the base. In the center of the chocolate foundation, add 1/2 teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture.

Conceal the peanut butter layer with another teaspoon of the chocolate mixture. Spread so the top is flat.

After you’ve done all six, pop into the freezer and allow the peanut butter cups to harden. Remove the paper baking cups and enjoy!

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post Nutritional Breakdown: Revamping a Reese’s appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnDeep in the woods of Quebec, the realities of sirop d’érable.

A year ago I came home to a package outside of my apartment door. In it was a can of maple syrup, marked in both English and French, indicating its bilingual Canadian roots. “This is liquid gold,” read the card from my friend Amy. On the phone later I was told not to mention the fact that she had sent me a valuable can from the family stash, “don’t tell my husband.”

I felt like I was stashing a tin can of valuable drugs in my pantry. Not daring to waste the stuff, the beautifully decorated can remained un-opened. Loaded with such valeur, I was afraid to use it, and instead it became a nice daily reminder of Amy’s generosity and the fact that eventually, I was going to have to experience this maple syrup madness for myself.

That time came last week, on a mother-daughter adventure to the northern woods of Maine and the farmland of Southeastern Quebec, in which I was assured I would get the ultimate “cabane à sucre” experience. Known as “sugar houses” or “sugar shacks” in English, these are cabins and buildings where sap collected from maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. Nowadays, not only do they produce maple syrup, but they have big dining halls which serve up a traditional menu, much of it made with or incorporating maple syrup.

“She’s a food writer,” Amy told her Quebecois family.

Her aunt and our host Jacqui turned to me, “Ah, tu es intéressée par la nourriture?”

“Oui,” I responded, glad that the question wasn’t more complex as no matter how good your French is, it’s never going to make Quebecois easy to understand.

When someone asks you if you’re interested in food and you say yes, you know what’s going to come next. Out come the family cookbooks, you’re inundated with “have you ever tasted [insert name of crazy local dish]?” and every meal from there on out is peppered with, “so, what do you think?”

Such was the case in Quebec, where I not only had a worn 1950s version of La Cuisine Canadienne sitting in front of me, but I was also busy scribbling down Jacqui’s recipe for Sugar Pie in my notebook. We hadn’t even tried the French Canadian classic dessert yet and here I was writing down the ingredients. Sugar, milk, butter, maple syrup… wait, there’s sugar and maple syrup in this? It appeared we couldn’t talk about one food without maple syrup somehow making its way into the mix.

According to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, Quebec alone accounts for 71% of the world’s maple syrup production, and visits to one of the numerous cabanes à sucre that dot the countryside is a must for any visitor.

We drove straight into the woods, not far from the house where we were staying, to find a large wooden building with a bright red roof. We were led through the machinery, and in a crazy blend of Quebecois and English I learned about the maple syrup making process. Collect the sap, boil it down, filter it out, package it up and then put it in and pour it over every single dish you can think of.

I exaggerate of course. Only slightly.

“Un oeuf dans le sirop d’érable?” I was asked as I made my way through the cafeteria style line inside the cabane à sucre‘s dining hall. I looked down at a huge pan of eggs boiled in maple syrup. Like a poached egg but on sugar-infused steroids.

“Euh, pourquoi pas?” Why not. When in Quebec…

And this policy was how I ended up with a plate covered with everything from the classic cabane à sucre menu: baked beans made in maple syrup, small sausages in maple syrup, an oven baked omelette, sweet pickles, and of course, les oreilles de crisse.

Les oreilles de what?

Jacqui had tried to explain them to me the night before, and I had established that it had something to do with fried pig that ended up looking like an ear. Hence the name “les oreilles de crisse,” loosely translated: Christ’s Ears. In other words, fried pork rinds.

Oh yeah, Christ’s Ears. Again, when in Quebec…

A plate of maple syrup doused food and two Christ’s Ears later (they’re like super crispy, salty bacon if you happen to be wondering) and I felt like the sugar shack was turning into sugar shock. But just when you think it’s over, out come the grand-pères, dough dumplings cooked in – wait for it – maple syrup.

My normally low sugar, gluten-free self was on system overload. I drank two cups of black coffee for the sake of revival.

“I might die,” said Amy. It wasn’t an overstatement. With that level of sugar coursing through your veins you feel like you could either pass out or go run a marathon, except for those Christ’s Ears whose salty flavor is still lingering. Solution? Take a short walk and eat more maple syrup.

We were greeted outside by a man pouring maple syrup onto a bed of snow in a trough-like structure.

“Maple syrup candy!” he exclaimed handing me a popsicle stick.

“Do it Brones,” Amy tempted me. My mother raised her eyebrows.

If there’s one thing I won’t do, it’s turn down a local food experience, and despite my body cursing my decision to eat an entire plate of syrupy meat products – file this one under times I sort of wish I was vegan – I could do nothing but put the popsicle stick at one end of the strip of maple syrup, now hardened by the cold snow, and twist it into a sort of a lollipop.

It reminded me of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books I grew up reading as a child, and their maple syrup taffy making sessions, but living in the Pacific Northwest, I never really had the luxury of heavy winter snow, or local maple syrup to pour on it. There’s always a first for everything, even if that first means you’re on the verge of passing out.

“Alors, c’était bien ta première fois à la cabane à sucre” asked Jacqui energetically. How this woman, with a tiny frame and good build and who had just eaten as much as I had still had the energy to happily ask me if my first trip to a cabane a sucre was a success was beyond me, but I forced a nod.

“Prépare-toi pour la tarte au sucre ce soir!” she exclaimed. (Translated: Prepare yourself for the sugar cake tonight!)

Oh no, the sugar cake.

And so the Quebecois stint ended, not with a last supper, but with a last sugar cake and me dreaming of kale smoothies.

And that can of maple syrup at home? I could of course do something crazy like turn it into cocktails or make a fancy maple fondue with cardamom, but I am afraid that it might just remain on the shelf. Just another tin can with a pretty picture and French writing. I think we’ll all be better off if it stays there.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to independent markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: A Near Death By Maple Syrup appeared first on EcoSalon.

Every 10 years, the United States Global Change Research Program is required to report on how climate change is affecting the United States.

The latest Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States report, released this week, is a comprehensive 188-page document written with the assistance of 13 federal agencies and John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor.

Dealing only in cold, hard facts, the report outlines the many detrimental effects that global warming is already having on activities, industries, wildlife, the landscape and even health around the country.

This latest report highlights everything from the fact that the core of the domestic maple syrup industry has shifted from the U.S. to Canada to the fact that nation’s $7.6 billion winter sports industry is on the decline with opportunities to ice fish, ski, and snowmobile being reduced due to increased temperatures causing less snow.

It makes for fairly sober reading.

Read the full report here or check out the two-page regional factsheets for your area.

The post Climate Change Hurts Winter Sports, Maple Syrup & Fishing Industries (to Name a Few) appeared first on EcoSalon.