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Health & Fitness

Spork Foods Cooks up 'Love and Fuel' for a Very Vegan Valentine's Day

How about whipping up almond crusted tofu this Valentine's for your true love?

There are some new cooks in town and they want to give you a little bit of vegan love – aphrodisiac style. 

Valentine’s Day is almost here and the gourmet gals over at Spork Foods in WeHo are betting that you’ll want to do something a bit on the home-style side to show off your talents in the kitchen, along with that perfectly sculpted muscle tone and well, you know what else (wink).

It certainly won’t hurt to have not only the perfect recipe in hand for the big night.  And while you’re at it, you could just learn how to eat for love, for life.

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But let’s go back to the beginning.

Heather and Jennie, two sisters born and raised in Los Angeles, have actually been in West Hollywood for over a year and a half now teaching residents how to cook gourmet vegan at home. 

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After being a small budding business in Silver Lake with classes, a catering company and a restaurant, they thought it was time to “Go West,” get a bigger space and deliver a whole new inspirational outlook and lifestyle to Angelenos looking for an edgier, more sophisticated take on eating, cooking and living. This year is Spork’s fifth anniversary.

Their main goal is to empower people by teaching them in their own homes to cook vegan for themselves.   

What sounds like an uncomplicated vision is more than a tall order when you consider just how ingrained fast food is in our culture. But Spork Foods keeps it simple and delicious. 

Apart from the intimate home visits, Heather and Jennie give four weekend classes in every food genre, which changes from week to week at the cooking school located on Santa Monica Boulevard right in the heart of Weho. Comfort food, Fresh, Fast Food, Italian and Asian are just some of the recipe categories on the menu and they can accommodate up to 13 people per class.

They want to change people’s lives

Because of their mature vision of new age cuisine, Spork Foods has been approached by plenty of TV producers, but have refrained from making the commitment to a network show, because they have a very definitive way of cooking and presenting food. They are dedicated to keeping the integrity of what they do. "Network" isn’t for them. “We didn’t mesh,” says Heather.

So they came up with their own idea and developed SporkOnline.com, a membership food network site, hosting live online cooking classes and useful food tips like, How to use the Farmer’s Market to save money. There are thousands of subscribers worldwide with viewers from as far away as Bermuda even Germany.  Guests of interest are doctors, lawyers, actors and activists. Recently on the show were Emily and Zoe Deschanel. 

“It is wild and inspiring,” says Heather.

They also published a cookbook last October, Spork Fed, which was recently highlighted in the Los Angeles Times.

In a fun phone interview with Heather and Jennie, I begged them to offer a few sumptuous vegan treats to the readers at Patch. Not only were they delighted, but they came back with the sweetest idea of Love and Fuel.

Aphrodisiac food folklore has always been popular and vegan cuisine is the perfect conduit. Tastes, shapes, tales and genuine nutritives couldn’t be sexier or yummier—all found in the simplest of foods like pine nuts, which are high in zinc and also get the blood pumping; almonds and bananas, which express fertility in their shapes; figs and chocolate are a crazy boost of nutrition; even herbs like basil, said to attract your true love.

“Valentine’s Day is one of our favorite holidays, not because of the boxed chocolates or stuffed teddy bears, but because it’s your chance to cook with foods that are known aphrodisiacs! If Aphrodite had written a cookbook, these recipes would be front-and-center!” 

Almond Crusted Tofu with a Roasted Garlic and Fennel Puree (Spork Foods, 2010)

Roasted Garlic and Fennel Puree Ingredients:

  • 1 bulb garlic, base sliced off
  • 2 bulbs fennel, large dice
  • 2 tablespoons, plus 2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
  • ½ cup un-salted cashews
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup un-sweetened almond milk or soymilk creamer
  • 6 leaves fresh basil, thinly sliced

Almond Crusted Tofu Ingredients:

  • 1 package extra firm organic tofu
  • 2 tablespoons neutral tasting oil, divided (safflower or refined coconut preferred)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
  • 1 teaspoon herbs d’Provence
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
  • 1 cup Almond meal or Almond flour(Bob’s Redmill preferred)
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon herbs d’Provence
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375°.
  2. Place sliced fennel on a baking sheet and coat with 1 tablespoon oil, 2 tablespoons brown rice syrup, ½ teaspoon sea salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Add bulb of garlic to the baking sheet, cut side down. Roast about 30 minutes, or until well browned.
  3. Cut tofu into ½ inch thick slices. Place in large bowl and add 1 tablespoon oil, lemon juice, brown rice syrup, herbs d’Provence, basil, sea salt and pepper. Set aside to marinate, about 15 minutes.
  4. In a large shallow bowl, combine almond meal or flour, sea salt, pepper, herbs d’Provence and garlic powder.  Coat the tofu in the mixture. 
  5. Pre-heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and add remaining oil.  Add each slice of tofu to heated sauté pan. Cook for about three to four minutes on each side until well browned.
  6. To create the puree, transfer the cooked fennel, four to five cloves roasted garlic, additional sea salt and pepper, cashews, vinegar, olive oil and almond milk or soy creamer to a high-powered blender or food processor. Process until smooth and uniform.
  7. To serve, place 1 piece warm almond crusted tofu over a dollop of the puree and top with basil. 

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries with a Whipped Vanilla Bean Cream (Spork Foods, 2008)

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ingredients:

  • 1 pound fresh organic strawberries, washed and dried well
  • 1 cup organic dark chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand preferred)
  • Dash sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground Ceylon cinnamon

Whipped Vanilla Bean Cream Ingredients:

  • 1 can full fat coconut milk (refrigerated overnight)
  • 1 tablespoon maple crystals or organic evaporated cane sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, seeds only
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • Optional - shredded coconut (1/4 cup), chopped nuts (1/4 cup)

Directions:

  1. In a double boiler (or small sauce pot with water, and a heat-proof bowl), melt chocolate.  Add sea salt, and cinnamon.  Whisk until uniform and smooth and turn heat to low. 
  2. If using coconut or nuts, before the strawberries cool and firm up, roll the strawberries in shredded coconut, or chopped nuts for a nice presentation. 
  3. Dip strawberries into the chocolate mixture and transfer them to a baking sheet, lined with parchment or wax paper. 
  4. Let cool for about 10 minutes, and then transfer to the refrigerator for about 20 - 30 minutes to set up before serving. 

Whipped Cream:

  1. Refrigerate the coconut milk can overnight. Open the can carefully and make sure not to shake it. With a spatula or spoon, remove only the cream from the top and discard the coconut water. Place the cream in a standing mixer.
  2. On a cutting board, slice carefully into the vanilla bean lengthwise. Pry open the bean and using the back of your knife, scrape out seeds and place them in the bowl with  coconut cream.
  3. Add the maple crystals or sugar and sea salt to your mixer and blend on high, until the mixture is whipped and thickens up. 
  4. Place whipped cream in the refrigerator until using.  The mixture can keep approximately 4 days. 
  5. To serve, place dipped strawberries on a platter and serve with a small bowl of the vanilla bean whipped cream.

Spork Foods is a Los Angeles-based gourmet vegan food company owned and operated by sisters Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg. They offer live cooking classes in Los Angeles at Spork Foods (www.sporkfoods.com), online vegan cooking classes at www.sporkonline.com, one-on-one in-home healthy pantry makeovers, and recipe development/trainings for chefs, food companies and colleges. Their cookbook, Spork-Fed, is currently in stores, with a foreword by fellow fans and sisters, Emily and Zooey Deschanel.

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