100th Post! And lolo is McAwesome.

This is another test recipe for lolo at veganyumyum (check out her latest post about her upcoming cookbook!). These are seitan nuggets, also known as almond fried seitan (and yes, to make up for the fried portion of dinner, we had two vegetables). These were so good! I served them with a mustard sauce I like to make, which is equal parts vegan mayonnaise and dijon mustard mixed with a bit of agave nectar and hot sauce. lolo thinks they make a pretty good McNugget substitute and I agree, although you might want to take that with a grain of salt, since I haven't had McDonald's in the past decade. I used the Vegan with a Vengeance seitan recipe for these.

Since we sadly do not own a grill, we roasted the corn in the oven. We found directions online which said to remove the silk, then wrap it in foil and roast at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes. That wasn't nearly long enough! It took more like 30 minutes, and probably could have used a few more minutes. It was very good, though. I love fresh corn. I can't wait to try making it on a grill, but we won't be getting one until we move into a house.

Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk!

Remember all those recipes I've been testing for mrsbadmouth? Well, her zine is done and you can order it here. It's only $2.50 through paypal or $2 through snail mail (plus an extra dollar for shipping if you are outside the U.S. or Canada). I definitely recommend it, if not just for the tempeh wingz alone!

Pictures of the recipes I have tried:

Tempeh Wingz

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Lemonade

Biscuits

Apple Zucchini Muffins

Vegetable Fried Rice

Tempeh Bacon

Tempeh Bacon on a TLT Sandwich

Butter Chik'N and Naan

Both of the dishes we made for dinner last night came from VegWeb recipes. I'd never had butter chicken or naan before, but both recipes looked pretty interesting to me. I used Morningstar Farms chick'n strips in the butter chicken recipe. They were pretty good, but I am still not wild about their texture. It's a little too authentic for me (but I have no idea if it really is authentic or not, since it's been 10 years since I had chicken). I think when (yes, when) I make this again, I will use seitan. Since I didn't want to buy a whole jar of sunflower seed butter, we bought some hulled sunflower seeds and made it into sunflower seed butter in our food processor. It was fun! I also used a few tablespoons of plain soy yogurt in place of the Silk creamer. Does anyone know what red chili powder is supposed to be? I used cayenne in its place, but only used a scant half a teaspoon.

Here is the naan recipe. I really have no idea why it says to let the dough sit for two hours in a warm place, since there is no yeast in the recipe. I let it sit for a little under an hour and it seemed to work just fine. I used Ener-G as the egg substitute and WholeSoy plain soy yogurt. I would really like to try the Wildwood brand of soy yogurt, but I've never seen it around here.

Rainbow Rice and Beans

This is another tester recipe for lolo at VeganYumYum. I know rice and beans sounds like a pretty simple dish, and this was easy to make, but it was also delicious. There is Worcestershire sauce in the recipe and that was also a lolo test recipe (conveniently so, as I had all of the ingredients and was going to put Worcestershire sauce on my grocery list anyway). I should have put peas in this, but I was all out, so I used some green peppers instead to still have something green in there. There is also corn, but it seems to be mostly hiding in that picture. This is a dish that we'll definitely be making more often.

Seitan Edamame Curry

Awhile back, someone on the ppk posted a Chickenish Baked Seitan recipe. I finally got around to trying it last week, but honestly I wasn't too impressed. I didn't love the texture. Maybe I'm just used to the seitan that is simmered on the stovetop, though. Also, this was really hard to flip over halfway through. It's rather large and it's friggin' hot after having been in the oven for an hour, sitting in boiling broth. I made it, though, and I didn't want to waste it. The first night with it we had seitan steaks covered in leftover Pomegranate BBQ sauce. The next night I made this curry. It was really a "use up the leftovers" kind of meal. The couscous was already in the refrigerator. For veggies, I used mushrooms, onion, and edamame. I thought edamame sounded kind of strange in a curry, but I was running low on vegetables. It was actually really good! We need to eat edamame more often. The sauce is a mixture light coconut milk, vegetable broth, and a teaspoon of red curry paste, thickened up with a bit of cornstarch.

Enchilada Casserole

I know this isn't a good picture by a longshot, but this enchilada casserole tastes good. I promise! It is from Nava Atlas's The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. I like to add mushrooms to the bean mixture (really I like to add mushrooms to any dish that they go well in). The spiciness of this dish depends on the kind of salsa you use (you can use mild green chilis instead, too). This is the recipe that taught me to extend my soy cheese by melting it into some soy milk and thickening the mixture up with a bit of flour. I have used that trick many times, since it is so hard to get soy cheese to melt well in the oven if you aren't cooking at a very high temperature.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Here's another one from Damn Tasty!: peanut butter cookies. These turned out awesome. They are much softer than peanut butter cookies usually are, which is a very good thing to me. My boyfriend's parents were visiting this weekend, so I decided to make a dessert to have around. These were a hit (and I'm the only vegan of the bunch)!

Chickpea Ratatouille

This is the Chickpea Ratatouille from Vive le Vegan, served over whole wheat couscous. I've been meaning to try this for so long and I'm glad I finally did! I've never made more traditional ratatouille (eggplant and zucchini prepared in such a fashion aren't really appealing to me, although I love eggplant in Indian and Chinese food), but I really enjoyed this variation. This was really simple to make, too (minus the fact that I started from dried chickpeas, so the dish took a bit more planning for me...but this time the chickpeas turned out really well in the pressure cooker). Everything is prepared in one large casserole dish and it goes in the oven, only taking it out to stir once during the cooking time.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shells

These are the Chocolate Peanut Butter Shells from The Damn Tasty! Vegan Baking Guide (by Kris, of Squirrel's Vegan Kitchen). Holy yum! These are so rich and tasty. She actually has this recipe up on her website if you'd like to try it out, but her book is fantastic and I highly recommend that you get a copy.

3-Bean TVP Chili

I've been in the mood for chili lately, so despite the hot, humid weather we've been having, I made a pot. Hopefully I'll continue to be in the mood for chili for the next few days, as it seems to be impossible to make just a few servings of chili.

3-Bean TVP Chili
yield: 8 servings

1 1/2 cups TVP, reconstituted in vegetable broth
1 large onion, diced
3/4 lb button mushrooms, sliced
1 TB olive oil
1 15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can of vegetarian baked beans (I used the Whole Foods brand)
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes (crushed would be fine, too)
1 15 oz. can of refried black beans (I used the Whole Foods brand)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
3 TB chili powder
3/4 ts salt
1 ts cumin
1/2 ts cayenne
1 ts garlic powder

1. To reconstitute the TVP, place it in a bowl and pour vegetable broth over it until it is just barely covered. Let sit while you cook the onions and mushrooms.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and mushrooms and cook 7-10 minutes, until onions are translucent.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a slight boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and let cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for 30 minutes.

Cheezy Rice and Broccoli Casserole

This is the cheezy rice and broccoli casserole from Joanne Stepaniak's The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. I tried to make this once before and, due to a momentary lapse in my critical reading skills, totally ruined the recipe. The recipe calls for either umeboshi paste or salt. You aren't supposed to use the same amount of salt as you would umeboshi paste. In fact, it rather clearly says "or salt, to taste." I missed that "to taste" instruction on that ill-fated attempt and had to throw out the incredibly salty mess I had made. This time I followed the directions much better. And the result was tasty. Cheezy enough for me, but I don't know if it would taste cheesy to a non-vegan.

Rich Vegan Brownies

I found this recipe on the vegancooking group on livejournal last year. I really liked it when I made it, but I had a bit of an accident the last time I made it about a year ago. Since the recipe calls for melted soy ice cream and I wanted to make my brownies right then, I put my ice cream in the microwave to melt it. Now, I know better than to put metal in the microwave. I am POSITIVE that I did no such thing, but yet the microwave started sparking on the inside as though I had done just that. I quickly turned it off and unplugged it, but there was this little burnt hole inside it. It was never the same again. When I told my daddy about the incident, he said "there must have been some metal in your ice cream." Well holy crap, I certainly hope not! I had to throw out my microwave. Since I was moving in about a month (by the way, oh friendly neighbors in Richmond...I am a small girl and that microwave was heavy and awkward. Thanks for just watching me struggle with it on my way to the trash cans.), I didn't want to buy another one, so I did without until I moved. I am accustomed to my modern conveniences. It was an annoying month, as exam-time means very little time for cooking.

This time I was patient and just measured out the soy ice cream and waited for it to melt on its own. I used Purely Decadent Cookie Avalanche. This time I doubled the recipe. What can I say? We like our chocolate. These are good. Not cakey at all. I'm sorry, but brownies should not be cakey. Here's the doubled (and slightly modified) recipe:

1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 c cocoa
2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
1 c melted soy ice cream (the flavor is up to you)
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 ts vanilla extract
1/4 c chocolate soy milk (vanilla would work, too--you might need a little more, depending on the consistency of your batter)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 11x13" baking pan (or line with parchment paper).

Mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add in the wet ingredients and stir until just-blended. If your batter is too thick (read: difficult to work with), add in a bit more soy milk. The batter will be a little thicker than most non-vegan brownie batters. Spread into 11x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

BBQ Pomegranate Tofu and Mellow Millet Quinoa Pilaf

I finally got to try the BBQ Pomegranate Tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance. I'm SO glad I did. Yum! I have leftover BBQ sauce from it, so I'll definitely be making some more. I would like to try it with some seitan or maybe with frozen tofu. Vegan with a Vengeance recommends serving this with coconut rice, but I decided to try out the Mellow Millet Quinoa Pilaf recipe from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan. We bought some millet at the health food store awhile ago because I was wanting to experiment with some new grains, but it's just been hanging out in the pantry ever since. I'm glad I finally found a use for it! The pilaf wasn't quite as umm....pilaf-y as I was expecting. Because millet is sticky, the pilaf had a little more of a creamy consistency. Had I realized that, I probably would have served the broccoli and cauliflower separately. Next time I make this, I'll probably spice it up a bit more, but I'm glad to have found a new recipe that uses whole grains (well, quinoa is a grass and not actually a grain, but close enough for me!).

Pizza and Blueberry-Oatmeal Muffins

I know you've probably seen vegan pizza on just about every vegan food blog, but I felt like taking a picture of our dinner last night. Stores here have started getting in Vidalia onions, so along with green peppers and mushrooms, this pizza has caramelized Vidalia onions on it (and, since those were my pieces you see in the picture, red pepper flakes). Yum!

Last weekend my boyfriend's momma shared her blueberry-oatmeal muffin recipe with me. She made it for breakfast while I was there, but since she didn't really have anything on-hand to use as an egg substitute, we just left them out. They were a little crumbly, but still very good. This morning I decided to try out the recipe replacing the eggs with flax seeds. It worked really well.

Blueberry-Oatmeal Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins

4 TB ground flax seed whisked with 6 TB water
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup plain soymilk
2/3 cup sugar
2 ts vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or 1/4 cup veg. oil and 1/4 cup applesauce...I was just out of applesauce when I made these)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 1/4 ts baking powder
1 ts cinnamon
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease muffin tins.
Stir together oats and soymilk. Add sugar, vanilla, flax mixture, and vegetable oil. Combine flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Add to oatmeal mixture. Stir in blueberries. Divide batter into the muffin tins. Bake 20 minutes. Let cool in pan for a few minutes, then transfer muffins to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Tempeh Bacon and My Haul from the Nashville Farmer's Market

This is a tester tempeh bacon recipe for mrsbadmouth. I have never had pork (or turkey, or any other animal) bacon, so I don't really have anything to compare this to, but this is GOOD. I heart liquid smoke.
I had the tempeh bacon on a TLT (tempeh bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich for lunch. I don't make sandwiches for myself very often, but I really enjoyed this.

On Sunday morning we went to the Nashville Farmers' Market. There was an international market in the interior part of the market. Check out my haul! I got tamarind paste, pomegranate molasses, tahini, and chickpea (besan) flour. I'll be using the pomegranate molasses in the BBQ pomegranate tofu recipe from VWAV. I've been wanting to try it for quite awhile now, but had never found pomegranate molasses before. I also got tomatoes (from FL...it's a bit too early for Tennessee tomatoes yet) and red and green peppers from the farmers' market, but I didn't take a picture of those, except for the tomato slices on my sandwich.

Chana Masala with Seitan and Muffins That Don't Really Taste Like Donuts

We are going to Nashville for the weekend and I like to bring some food with me, just in case. My boyfriend's momma is good about making food I can eat, but I like to bring stuff with me, too, as I really don't like being a bother. I had some seitan to use up, and remembered that I had a box of chana masala spice mixture hanging out in the pantry. Hence this Chana masala with seitan thing-a-ma-jig that I came up with.

Probably not very authentic Chana Masala with Seitan

2 tsp Earth Balance Whipped (could use regular EB or olive oil)
1 small onion, diced
2 cups seitan, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz. can of chickpeas
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
3 tsp chana masala spice mix (mine was by a brand called Roni...I found it at the health food store)
1 tsp chili powder

1. Melt Earth Balance Whipped in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add diced onions and cook until translucent.
2. Add chopped seitan and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown. Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant (only takes 30 seconds or so).
3. Stir in the chana masla spice mix and chili powder. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Serve over rice.

This rather odd-looking picture is a Muffin That Taste Like Donuts from Vegan Vittles. These aren't bad, but by no means do I think that they taste like donuts. I really don't get the comparison. With the small amount of sugar in the recipe (2 TB sugar and 1 TB of maple syrup per 6 muffins), I don't see how they could possibly wind up tasting like donuts. I will finish these, but I'm not sure I'd make the recipe again. I'm a blueberry muffin kind of girl.

More Test Recipes

This non-traditional fried rice is a test recipe for mrsbadmouth. I don't recall if I've ever had traditional fried rice, but I really liked this one. The vegetables you include are really up to you. I used mushrooms, onion, green pepper, carrots, broccoli, and garlic. I was supposed to make this with brown rice, but I was all out, so I used the white rice I had in the pantry. I definitely won't mind making it again so that I can try it with the brown rice I should have used.

This is strawberry and vanilla bean haupia, which is a test recipe for lolo over at VeganYumYum. Haupia is a Hawaiian dessert and is a sort of coconut pudding (it's thicker than pudding, though). This was good, but is probably not something I will make often simply because vanilla beans are so expensive. I did really like the texture and flavor of this, though. If I make it again, I will probably serve the sliced strawberries separately, but that's mainly because my boyfriend is weird and doesn't like strawberries (he says it's a texture thing, as he didn't mind the strawberry sauce....yet he doesn't understand my dislike of raw bananas).

Not Your Mama's Meatloaf

Yes, I know that's not how I normally spell "momma," but that's how Joanne Stepaniak spells it in Vegan Vittles. This is the first recipe I have tried from that cookbook, which I just checked out of the library (it's the older version). I will definitely be trying more recipes, as this one was a hit. It turned out SO much better than the last time I made a meatloaf. This one actually held together when I took it out of the pan! The main ingredient in this recipe is ground seitan. I already had some seitan on-hand that I made a few days ago (the Vegan With a Vengeance recipe), so I used that rather than trying out the recommended recipe from Vegan Vittles. The green beans are, once again, from my boyfriend's parents' garden. We stock up when we go visit them (which we'll be doing this weekend). They are so much better than the canned stuff from the grocery store. Growing up I never thought I liked green beans. It turns out that I just don't care for the French Style green beans from a can (or frozen).

BBQ Ribz

We went to Nashville last weekend and I got a new bottle of barbeque sauce from Wild Oats. When I saw Susanv's post on barbecued seitan ribz, I knew just what to do with the sauce. These were good. I've tried the Gardenburger Riblets before and didn't really care for them, but I liked these and I'm looking forward to the leftovers. I followed the baking instructions on the recipe that Susanv linked to, since I don't have a grill (or a cast iron grill pan....yet). I served the ribz with mrsbadmouth's cornbread test recipe (I only made half the recipe, since I wanted to try making it in my cast iron skillet and my skillet is small) and some green beans from my boyfriend's parents' garden.

Check out my new sponges! I found them at Big Lots the other day. They were the same price as the regular ones, so of course I had to get these.

Calzones

Last Friday I made stuffed shells to take with me to a Shabbat dinner. I had extra filling and didn't want to just throw it out, so I used it to fill some calzones. The dough is my usual pizza dough recipe, divided into four pieces and rolled out. I filled these with a mixture of the leftover stuffed shells filling (one container of water-packed extra firm tofu, one box of Mori-Nu firm silken tofu, a couple of tablespoons of vegan mayo, a splash of lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, basil, and oregano, 1 teaspoon of onion powder and salt and pepper to taste) and some shredded mozzarella soy cheese. I would have also added sauteed mushrooms, but I was all out. The stuffed shells filling was enough for 18 shells and 4 calzones. After filling and closing up the calzones, I cut a few slits in the top. I baked these on a pizza stone in a 450 degree oven for 9 minutes. The last time I made calzones I put some sauce inside them, too. This time I didn't and I liked them better that way--they were much less messy.