Thanks, Cornelius!

Please tell us about your party plans via the brief registration form, so I can email you the Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer. (It has several vegan waffle tips and recipes not found on this site.) If the budget is tight and your event adheres to their guidelines, VegFund may even be able to help you cover many of your party costs! The first multi-city vegan waffle party was a lot of fun!

Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer

Waffle parties consist of serving vegan waffles for anywhere from 2 to 100 people. You can have each guest bring a creative vegan topping, or you can provide your own. A number of free recipes and topping ideas are on this site – you might even create a special theme for your party, like all Indian or Mexican toppings, or chocolate. You can throw one for breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner; and you can invite guests with a range of dietary/lifestyle preferences if you wish – as long as all the food is vegan.

You can throw a free party, or you can suggest contributions at the door as a fundraiser for the charity of your choice.  For example, we plan to raise some funds for Pittsburgh’s new Three Rivers Vegan Society with our party. If you wish to stretch the boundaries a bit, you could even host a vegan waffle bake sale, and also register your event with the cool folks who are catalyzing the first worldwide vegan bake sale this year. (If you throw a waffle-related event during the June 20-28 timeline on their site, we’d still love to post a link to your site here!)

If you wish to host a vegan waffle party, please let us know via the brief registration form.

Last year Waffle Party began to grow, with hosts in several cities serving up delicious vegan waffles. Thanks to sites including Godairyfree, PETA, Soystache, Veganhacker, Vegan Recipes at Blogspot, Vegan World Network, and the Vegan Society for helping to get out the word last year. This year, we hope to shift it toward “above underground” status, with several dozen adventurous hosts spreading the joy of vegan food – will this include you?

Our event is on Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S., which we again feel is fitting given the likely connection between different types of violence. Memorial Day is a time of reflection regarding the myriad people who have suffered and lost their lives in human conflict, along with the families who have sacrificed alongside them. Waffle parties are partially about removing some of the unnecessary violence from the human lifestyle, i.e., our current means of relating to other sentient beings. Because suppressing our recognition of one type of violence may make it easier to suppress others, adjusting the way in which we relate to non-human animals may be a key step toward establishing more harmonious human relations. Waffle parties help us to celebrate the possibilities for a more sustainable, healthy and peaceful future, while also generating awareness.

Have fun, and please help to spread the word!

For now these are a special treat just for signing up for the news/updates list – because you have an extra-special place in my heart.   Look for it in the text of the automated final confirmation email, and enjoy the recipes already on this site.

If you’re already on the list and want a copy, send a quick message stating “I want my Hot Chocolate Molasses Waffles!” and I will get right on it.

By the way, we hope that in the future, the timid groundhog may experience kinder treatment on this day, quietly hibernating in his/her habitat as nature intended rather than facing noisy crowds and cameras.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 C brown rice flour
• 1/2 C tapioca flour
• 1/4 C whole grain teff (not ground into flour)
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 t xanthan gum powder
• 1/2 t cinnamon (optional)
• 1 1/4 t salt
• 2 C soymilk
• 1/4 C canola oil
• 3 T brown sugar
• 3 T maple syrup
• 2 t vanilla

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, teff, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl, mix the soymilk, canola oil, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just until the dry ingredients are saturated. Bake in a generously oiled iron for about a minute longer than the iron manufacturer’s recommended average cooking time.

I’d love to hear how they worked for you!

Coincidentally, one of our neighbors is hosting a potluck this weekend, so I plan to bake some vegan waffles in honor of Cornelius. (If only they had known that eggs and dairy aren’t necessary for waffles back in 1869…) Regardless of where you live, I’d love to hear if you do the same! And should they come out exceptionally well, express your excitement with the “Woot!” of the waffle world: “Wout!”

You can read more about Mr. Swartwout’s important contribution at the Swarthout Family pages. (From what I can tell, the spelling of the last name has taken on different versions over the years.)

If you live in a country with a much longer waffle maker heritage, and have any information on the history, feel free to comment and share with us what you know!

May you have a crispy, fluffy vegan Våffeldagen!

I decided it would be fun to have a “recipe for two” because the avocados and pecans seem somewhat decadent. Perhaps you could even hold a romantic candlelit waffle dinner. Also, because it doesn’t use the cheapest ingredients, it’s probably best to try a small batch first to make sure you like them as well as we do! And even if you don’t have a date, you can always make up a big batch of them for your friends on St. Patty’s day alongside some of the Vegan Orange Basil Cornmeal Waffles. Can’t pinch these waffles!

These were inspired by a homemade crafts and food fair where a local vegan bakery offered avocado cupcakes. While somewhat hesitant at first, I bought one and found it pleasantly taste-bud-popping. Just like any average person, I then thought, “Hey, avocados would be great in a waffle!” After exploring which ingredients had been combined with the mighty green avocado in various other recipes, I settled on pecans, cinnamon and fresh nutmeg. They seem to complement one another quite well.

Although I often utilize healthier whole grain flour, I used plain old white all purpose flour for these so that the more subtle flavors would come through, and so the waffles wouldn’t be too dense given the avocado. However, I still used some whole wheat flour because I find waffles “cardboardy” if they don’t have a little bit of texture. If you try other flours, I’d love to hear how it worked for you!

Ingredients (for two round belgian-style waffles)

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat bread flour
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 C finely chopped pecans
• 1 avocado (I used the common Hass variety, yielding roughly 1/2 C when mashed)
• 1/2 C soymilk (or rice milk or nut milk)
• 1/4 C + 3 T water
• 1 1/2 T canola oil
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 1/2 to 2 T raw sugar or other sweetener

Directions

Finely chop the pecans if necessary. Sift or whisk together the other dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in the pecans. Spoon out the avocado and mash it well in a second bowl. Whisk together the wet ingredients including sugar with the mashed avocado. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix just until blended. Cook on a generously oiled waffle iron. Enjoy!

This waffle is about subtle style. The orange and the basil aren’t excessively pronounced, but they blend with the cornmeal, spelt flour and toasted overtones in perfect harmony.

These are inspired by a few sources: Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s delicious Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Waffles from Vegan with a Vengeance, a vegan orange pecan cornmeal waffle recipe at Bryanna Clark Grogan’s blog, and this vegan basil ice cream recipe courtesy of the Vivacious Vegan. The latter led me to concoct orange basil ice cream, which led to the idea of applying the flavor to the waffle…

These came very close to remaining stuck to the iron, but a very generous spraying of canola oil resolved the issue. If you try it with a higher-gluten flour like whole wheat, or with a tsp. of Ener-g egg replacer to increase binding, I’d love to hear how that worked for you. Increasing the oil content in the batter from 3 T to 1/4 C is another possibility. One or more of these adjustments may be necessary for a waffle iron under 1,000 watts.

You’ll want to cook these soon after mixing the batter, as the orange juice/baking soda reaction really puffs up the batter initially, and it soon looses some of this added puffiness. They’ll still come out great, just not quite as fluffy.

Orange zest, orange extract or increased basil are other possibilities. As always, your comments and suggestions are much appreciated!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C whole grain spelt flour
• 3/4 C cornmeal
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 C plain soymilk
• 1 C orange juice
• 1/4 C vanilla or plain soy yogurt
• 3 T canola oil
• 2 T sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/4 C packed finely chopped fresh basil

Sift together the dry ingredients in one bowl, and whisk together the wet ingredients (including sugar) in another. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix just until blended. Cook on a very generously oiled waffle iron.

Jen and I enjoyed these with a dollop of the remaining vanilla soy yogurt on top!

These would also make great waffles for St. Patrick’s day, with the green flecks of basil in them.