Dinner on a day off

Saturday was a much needed day off. I did not accomplish much other then a nice dinner for Jamie and I. I followed a recipe exactly! This may be the first time in my life. I also used some heavy inspiration from another recipe. Tal Ronnen is a genius! I really like many of the recipe ideas in his book, The Conscious Cook. For me, some of them will be left as inspirational but others, like the tapioca pudding I made, will be used again exactly as written. I am really getting interested in vegan fine dinning, it is a shame that there is no real option here in Atlanta. There is some really nice fine dinning here that is more than happy to accommodate, which is nice.

Saturday night dinner included seitan steaks, red cabbage with apples, tahini salad, stuffed fingerling potatoes, and for dessert, we had tropical tapioca pudding. It was a nice meal with many complimenting flavors.


Tahini Balsamic Dressing

1 clove of garlic
1/3 cups of olive oil
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoon of red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons of tahini
1 teaspoon of lemon

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. The texture will be rather thick and should be a nice cashew color.


I made this salad with some very simple ingredients that were nice and bold but made the dressing shine. Ii used spinach as the main leaf but added some great red kale. Carrots and peeled granny smith apple and pistachio nuts got added with a dusting of whole flax seeds. The salad was a quiet highlight to a rich and heave meal.

The stuffed fingerling potatoes were slightly altered but mainly, straight out of Tal's book. They looked great but tasted even better. The stuffing was fantastic! This is an easy and wonderful side dish. It made the meal a ton of fun and really felt very elegant.

Granted, it has been years since I have had pudding however, I do not thing that this set up as much as it should have. Regardless, it was an outstanding way to top off our meal while relaxing in the living room. It was sweet without being overbearing and had enough flavor to not simply taste like coconut milk. It was quite a treat and I will use this recipe again. I chose to add mango and kiwi fruit which contributed an even balance to the strong coconut flavor.

I made a few picture updates to the seitan steaks recipe page. I felt that people may want to see more pictures of the process and added them in. The actual recipe is the same. What do "they" say? New package, same great taste!

There was another treat for me beyond the pudding. Jamie brought Tato to visit! He got to sit in my chair while she and I visited. He was running all around and seemed to enjoy his evening. It was great to have him here.