Easter!!

We invited friends who are transitioning to veganism to Easter dinner at my mother-in-law's, which of course focuses on a huge ham. Because my daughter has been dairy-free for medical reasons, my mother-in-law already made many traditional foods without the even more traditional butter.

I made a vegan sesame drizzle for the cooked broccoli, my honeyed corn dish that would be vegan if it didn't have local raw honey, and gluten-free falafel.

My mother-in-law made all her own Easter chocolate, a cheese pie and a blueberry pie (the crust was vegan but I bet the crumbs had butter in them. I didn't think to ask). Oh, and a molasses cake and a coffee cake. My sister-in-law made some weird cake with chocolate and tea biscuits.


My mother-in-law made dandelion greens with hot bacon dressing (dandelions from my brother-in-law's yard), mashed potatoes, gravy, harvard beets, carrots (plain), cranberry relish, fruit bread, eggs, ham, candied sweet potatoes and an olive/pickle tray.

 My falafel and tahini sauce are improving with every attempt. My going-vegan friends took the leftovers home, so that was a compliment. I based the recipe on a previous attempt and my friend Allison's falafel, details of both can be found here:
Vegan Gluten-Free Falafel

In my food processor, my daughter and I mixed:

• 30 ounces [canned] chick peas, drained
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon stoneground yellow corn meal
• juice of one small lemon
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

* now normally I include 4 tablespoons chopped chives from my garden, but I'm out and this year's crop is not ready for harvest. So I skipped it.

* I also included about 1/3 cup leftover three seed hummus (see recipe here: Three Seed Hummus) just to use it up, not to add anything

The feast

Now to cook it, I made golfballs instead of patties this time. They were very wet, a little looser and stickier than play dough but not as wet and sticky as a wet batch of bread dough. They held together better than my previous version. I baked for 15 minutes at 350 and then rolled them over and baked 15 minutes more. You can heat some oil and fry them lightly after they've baked if you want that fried, crispy outside. I didn't. I fear they'd fall apart on me.

For dressing, I used a variation of Allison's tahini-miso sauce. I don't have miso. But here's her sauce:
Baked Falafel with Tahini Miso Sauce.

Here's mine, which I do in the blender because I'm too lazy to wash the food processor after the falafel.

• about 1.5 tablespoons cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• about 2 teaspoons minced garlic (or was it one?)
• 1/2 cup tahini
• about 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• juice of one small lemon
• 1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1 cup water

Now for my broccoli drizzle, I did a variation of this experiment: Sesame Buttery Sauce
I whisked in a small bowl about a tablespoon each of

• sesame oil
• walnut oil
• olive oil (?) 
• water

And I very carefully drizzled a drop here and there over the cooked broccoli while stirring and then sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds.

And finally, the corn:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2011/04/almost-vegan-honeyed-corn.html