Super Easy Vegan Beer Bread

I think we've perfected this bread. Easy and yummy. Moist on the inside with a delightfully hard crust. Perfect with soup (like this one). 

For one loaf, you'll need:

• 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 2 t salt
• 2 T sugar
• 1/3 c olive oil
• 1 bottle of beer (I used an amber I don't like - this is a good opportunity to use up beer your guests have brought over that you don't care for)
• 1 T sesame seeds
• 1 T flax seeds
• 2 t melted vegan margarine

The steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl
3. Add oil and beer and mix until just barely combined.
4. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan
5. Melt margarine and spread over top the loaf 
6. Sprinkle seeds on top. You can use any sort of seeds that sound good to you.
7. Bake on the center rack for about 50 minutes, or until the loaf starts to brown and pull away from the edges of the pan

Served it with my potato, turnip, rutabaga soup and it was super delicious. Enjoy

Creamy Vegan Potato, Turnip, and Rutabaga Soup

Here is one of those recipes you can make when you have a lot of vegetables from your CSA that you don't know what to do with. Specifically, rutabaga and turnips. This actually turned out very good and will likely make a reappearance whenever I have a lot of these veggies. An added celery root, I think, would make this soup absolutely perfect.

For 4 servings, you'll need:

• ~2lbs bag of potatoes (I had Yukon Gold from the CSA)
• 1 bunch of sweet white turnips 
• 1 softball sized rutabaga
• 1 medium onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 T nutritional yeast
• 3-4 T vegan margarine
• 2 T apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 - 3/4 c plain almond milk
• salt to taste (a few teaspoons)
• pepper to taste
• 2-3 t garam masala
• 2-3 t all purpose seasoning (I've become hooked on 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's but any well-balanced seasoning blend would work fine)

The steps:

• Peel potatoes, turnips, and rutabaga and chop into roughly 1 inch cubes.
• Roughly chop onion
• Place potatoes, turnips, rutabaga, and onion in a medium-large pot and cover with water. Boil 20-30min until fork tender
• When done, drain veggies in a colander. In batches, blend cooked veggies in your food processor until smooth. You should also add garlic and nutritional yeast to this mixture while you are pureeing.
• Return puree to your pot and add margarine, vinegar, and almond milk. Stir to combine, or until margarine has melted.
• Season, taste, and season again (if needed)

And that's it! I served this with some beer bread and it made for a rich, filling meal. Enjoy!