VegNews’ most recent newsletter includes two excellent resources for this year’s Global Vegan Waffle Party: The Guide to Vegan Chocolate, and The Guide to Vegan Cheese. They list a lot of options, so now you have no excuses. Only thing I’d add is Love Street Living Foods, a producer of delicious raw organic vegan chocolate from our area.

When I asked for feedback last year regarding other ideas for vegan food celebrations, the great ideas you mentioned included vegan pizza parties. As I noted, our current focus would remain on vegan waffle parties, ’cause there’s still much to do. Thus, I was excited to see that VegNews, vegan blogger Quarrygirl, and Chicago Soydairy have teamed up to promote a new day celebrating a specific vegan food: Vegan Pizza Day (Saturday, January 29).

vegan pizza waffles

What’s great about this event is that it encourages support of restaurants offering vegan options, and it meshes nicely with the already-established Vegan Drinks events.

To honor Vegan Pizza Day a week early, and to help them get the word out, today we ate vegan pizza waffles for lunch. Hopefully this also provides an idea for those of you who don’t have vegan pizza in your area yet.

Yeast-raised vegan waffles, because of their slightly chewier texture, are best for this task. I had planned to bake up a fresh of waffles, but Jen talked me into reheating some frozen ones from a few weeks ago in the toaster. It worked very well. After toasting the waffles slightly, we topped them with spaghetti sauce, chopped vegan sausage, vegan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, black pepper, and cayenne, and microwaved until the cheese was slightly melted. Jen petted LeMew to distract him from the waffles as I snapped a few pictures. (See his “overly curious” look?)

LeMew wants vegan pizza waffles

The Yeast-Powered Vegan Waffles recipe would work well for this, as would the Yeast-Raised Waffles, Yeast-Raised Gluten-Free Buckwheat Waffles, or Caramelized Onion and Garlic Waffles in the GVWC. (The Umami Mama Waffles, I’ve been told, taste like pizza even without any toppings–but it is hard to have too many toppings.)

I won’t reveal which specific brand of vegan cheese we used, although I will say that Chicago Soydairy’s delicious ice cream will be going on my waffles again when the weather gets warmer here. It’s hard to beat the vegan ice cream ‘n’ waffles combo–but vegan pizza waffles certainly satisfy the savory urge.

I hope the first Vegan Pizza Day has a great positive impact!

Sometimes you just know that you were meant to have something. That happened to me recently when we ran a wilderness 10K on the trails of Grand Island, just off Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula.

Dave & Jen with a waffle-worthy bottle of syrup

Due to its location and efforts to minimize ecological impact, the event didn’t have a huge number of runners. Nonetheless, I was still excited to win the award given to the first finisher in each age class: a bottle of real maple syrup from neighboring Wisconsin. A prize just doesn’t get any more fitting than that! We’ve already gone through about a third of the bottle, which I agreed to share with Jen because she completed her first 10K that day.  All right, I may have shared it with her even if she hadn’t run…

While I most regularly use the darker grade B syrup from our Co-op, I have to say that this stuff (from Maas Sugarbush, which appears to have no information on the web) is also pretty darn tootin’ good. I’m not sure of the grade, but it’s a bit darker than some of the grade A amber syrups we’ve had, with nearly the same thickness as the grade B we normally use. It has plenty of maple flavor alongside the sweetness. On a hot day, it’s also great to mix a bit of it with some chilled hazelnut milk and a few ice cubes. If you’re ever in that region of the world, it’s worth taking home a bottle for your vegan waffles or pancakes, even if you don’t feel like running around on an island.

I’ve enjoyed cool, delicious vegan ice cream on waffles a few times this summer. Recently, I made some homemade vegan ice cream for a potluck and it turned out particularly well–in terms of both flavor and appearance.

Cashew-based peanut butter fudge vegan ice cream

It’s based upon the cashew-based chocolate ice cream recipe from Jeff Rogers’ Vice Cream: Gourmet Vegan Desserts. Before getting Vice Cream, I never would have considered making ice cream from cashews. Talk about decadent! For this dish, I basically made the recipe slightly less sweet and more chocolatey, and swirled in some natural peanut butter and dark chocolate fudge sauce (any chocolate sauce would work) just before putting it in the freezer to ripen.What makes this ice cream stand apart from others I’ve made is the presentation. I usually store and serve ice cream in a deeper and narrower container; this is the first

A cool, refreshing topping for vegan waffles

time I’ve put it into a relatively wide and shallow container. I think it makes it look a bit fancier if you’ve got colorful swirls or other types of toppings in it. It almost gives it the feel of a frozen cake. Perhaps this will inspire others to serve their homemade vegan ice cream in an even fancier way!

I also give my sister, Sherry, credit for inspiration on this. On one of her visits a few years ago, I asked what flavor of homemade ice cream she’d like. The clear answer was peanut butter fudge. I discovered how fun it was to make it however peanut buttery and deep chocolately I wanted, and this remains one of my favorite flavor combinations as well.

It’s a very warm summer day here in the ‘Burgh, as I know it is in many other parts of the world. To be honest, I’m slightly less enthusiastic about hot foods in July and August than I am other times of the year. Hence, my fewer postings during the summer months. Lately, cereal with some nice cold soymilk and some fresh fruit have been a common breakfast food. However, another Pittsburgh Vegan Meetup member recently requested ideas for cold breakfast foods, triggering a few neurons.

While waffles themselves aren’t generally good when they’re cold, they can go very well with cold toppings. Here are a few easy suggestions for making your vegan waffles a cool and refreshing dairy-free summer treat.

• When making waffles in the summer, make them in larger batches and freeze them. Next time you’re craving a waffle, you don’t have to spend much time in the kitchen near the hot iron. Just pop them into the toaster. If your iron makes round waffles, just don’t forget to break them into quarters before freezing so they fit into the toaster.
• If you’re craving a waffle with fruit, don’t bake the fruit into the waffle or cook it into the syrup. Keep it cool and fresh. Make a big bowl of fruit salad, and chill it to make a delicious waffle topping. This is particularly great to do this time of year, when fresh fruit is in abundance in many more locations–and local usually means fresher and tastier. The fresh blueberries from our local CSA farm share have been excellent this year!
• Use soy ice cream or sorbet, if you want it to be a little healthier, cold soy yogurt on top of the waffles. What I really enjoy is a “waffle ice cream sandwich”–two waffle quarters with some vegan ice cream in between. This is particularly good with some of the dessert waffles on this site.
• If you like chilled avocado, guacamole, or hummus, those can also add a cool twist to a waffle.
• The other day I even had the crazy idea of making waffle-shaped ice cubes or frozen orange juice-sicles! Yeah, I know I think about waffles a bit too much sometimes. However, none of our waffle makers have removable grids, and we don’t have one of those old-fashioned waffle makers that you use over a gas flame or campfire. The latter probably wouldn’t fit into our freezer with the long handle anyway. Oh, well… If you’re feeling adventurous and give this a try, let me know!

I recently asked fellow Pittsburgher and vegan cookbook author Jo Stepaniak if she had any quick thoughts for possible pairings between Saucy Vegetarian topping recipes and Waffle Party waffle recipes. Even though several of the vegan cookbooks on our shelf offer excellent possibilities, I haven’t had the time to try many of them yet!

While she hasn’t had time to do a “taste bud confirmation” of any of the pairings either, Jo kindly suggested a number of possibilities. If you also own (or buy) a copy of Saucy and try any of these out before I do, please leave your comments and let me know how they worked for you.

Vegan Orange Basil Cornmeal Waffles: Orange-Tahini Dressing, Creamy Orange-Sesame Dressing, Miso-Citrus Sauce, Basil Red Pepper Sauce, Fennel, Orange & Walnut Sauce, Orange Aioli

Cheddar Cheesy Vegan Waffles Recipe: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Cheese Sauce, Simple Cilantro Sauce, Red Pepper & Pignolia Sauce, Sun-Dried Tomato & Spinach Pesto, Cucumber-Dill Dressing

Mexican Refried Bean & Cornmeal Vegan Waffles: Simple Cilantro Sauce, Yellow Ocher Vinaigrette, Del Sol Dressing, Chili Bean Sauce, Spicy Red Bean Sauce, Peppercorn Ranch Dressing

Yeast-Powered Vegan Waffles: Creamy Tarragon Dressing, Tahini Tarragon Dressing, Hummus Sauce, Gee Whiz Sauce, Green Olive & Nori Dressing, Creamy Pesto Sauce

For some of the vegan waffle toppings below below, see the lists of weblinks for vegetarian/vegan recipe websites and vegetarian/vegan cookbooks on this site.

• Homemade vegan ice cream makes an excellent waffle topping! A few sources for this include Agnes L.’s vegan ice cream recipe blog , and Jeff Rogers’ exciting Vice Cream vegan ice cream cookbook . We picked up a small ice cream maker from a neighborhood moving sale, and went to town. Even though we have 5 ice cream shops within a mile of our house, I prefer to make the cashew-based ice creams–the 2008 waffle party will likely feature a dark chocolate/peanut butter combo.

• Vegan cheese alternatives, as found in The Uncheese Cookbook–my favorites there include the relatively easy-to-make “Parmezano” powder as well as the more complex but excellent-tasting “crock cheeze.”.

• Homemade vegan whipped cream alternatives

• Homemade chocolate syrups (I use a recipe that combines cocoa powder, sugar, soymilk, Earth Balance, and vanilla, and sometimes add amaretto, mint, or other flavorings)

• Bean-based dishes

• Homemade hummus (there are a ton of recipes on the internet for this–it’s fairly easy to make in a blender) and other bean-based dips

Many of the following make great vegan waffle toppings just as they are:

• Any type of nut butter (e.g., peanut, almond, cashew), purchased pre-made or make-your-own by simply putting in the food processor

• Most types of fruit, both fresh and dried (don’t forget things like dried coconut)

• Soy yogurt (can be mixed with fruit)

• Granola

• Chocolate chips (may be melted to make a sauce; many but not all semisweet chocolate chips are dairy-free)

• Vegan cream cheese alternatives, such as Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (the unhydrogenated version, w/o trans fats)–this also goes well with fruits such as pineapple, strawberries and pears

• Soy ice cream (e.g., we like Turtle Mountain’s Soy Delicious Purely Decadent varieties and Temptation vegan ice cream)

• Store-bought vegan whipped cream alternatives

• Sweeteners, including agave nectar, powdered sugar (may be mixed with cinnamon and/or cocoa) and turbinado sugar)

• Store-bought meat substitutes, such as Smart Ground ground beef subsitute made from soy, or seitan (meat substitute with a wheat gluten base). You can simply sautee them in olive oil and/or soy sauce and add your preferred combination of spices, onion, etc., or you can sautee them in a pre-made vegan cooking sauce (many Indian and Asian varieties are available–just check the label). Additionally, many vegan meat substitutes come pre-seasoned, so all you have to do is sautee them. You can also simply buy a package of vegan veggie burgers and crumble them up before sauteeing them for the same effect.

• Store-bought hummus

• Beans with spices–for example, you might heat some chickpeas in a pre-made indian spice blend, or add cumin, cilantro and other spices to refried beans (note that many refried bean mixes incorporate animal fat and lard, so check the label to make sure it’s actually free of animal products)

• Vegan chilis (many are simply-bean based, and many also incorporate textured vegetable protein to emulate beef)

• Rice with spices, or incorporated into a pre-made vegan cooking sauce–there are many interesting varieties of rice available with different textures and colors, including red, wehani, and wild rice. If you have a rice cooker, such a dish will be minimal effort.