We’ve adopted “Vegan, Green & Delicious” as the theme for Pittsburgh’s 2009 vegan waffle party, to promote awareness of the connections between environmental responsibility and reduction of animal product consumption. Tell us about your May or June party plans so I can email you the Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer, with several vegan waffle cooking tips and recipes not found on this site.

Vegan Waffle Party Host Primer

And if the budget’s tight, see if your event may qualify for assistance through VegFund! While “being green” has dramatically increased in popularity, some very important areas of environmental stewardship remain largely ignored. Among them is the need to reduce our animal product consumption drastically.

When people eat animal flesh, they obtain only a small portion of the plant nutrition, water, and other resources originally consumed by the animal – after all, any living creature needs to use much of its food energy just to sustain itself. By consuming plant-based foods directly, we eliminate the “middleman” (or middlecow) and reduce our impact upon Earth’s resources. By some estimates, it takes five pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water to produce each pound of beef (Kostigen & Rogers, 2007). And this one example is just the beginning – practices such as the use of antibiotics and hormones wreak further havoc upon the environment, and many concentrated animal farming practices increase the likelihood of dangers such as species-jumping viruses.

This year, we’re also striving to make our party greener in other important ways beyond the food itself. We’re not trying to be perfect, but are doing things like borrowing dinnerware from neighbors and friends so we don’t have to use so many disposables.

If you’d like to blaze the trail by hosting a vegan waffle party this year, we’d love to hear about it!

Sources

Kostigen, T. & Rogers, E. (2007). The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time. New York: Three Rivers Press.

This vegan waffle recipe goes well with a modest topping of vanilla soy yogurt or applesauce.

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)

• 1/4 C finely chopped raw pecans
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground or grated nutmeg
• 1 ripe avocado, mashed until smooth (Haas other variety)
• 1/2 cup soymilk or other nondairy milk
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons lime juice

Directions

Chop the pecans and set aside. Combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl and stir with a whisk. Mash the avocado in a medium bowl, and thoroughly mix with the soymilk, sugar, water oil, and lime juice. Pour into the flour mixture and stir just until blended. Fold in the pecans.

Preheat the waffle iron for 3 to 5 minutes and spray both grids with oil. Pour or ladle the batter into the center of the iron, covering no more than two-thirds of the iron’s surface for the first waffle. Adjust the amount as needed for subsequent waffles. Bake each waffle for 4 to 5 minutes, or until it can be removed easily.

A local grocer was recently giving away some starting-to-wilt basil, so I had to find a use for it! Who can turn down fresh basil? I certainly won’t be the one to start that trend!

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.