Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Vegan Lasagna and Black Bean Enchiladas



I have been craving lasagna and the recipes I kept coming across just didn't look like what I wanted. So, I decided to create my own version and the finished product was quite tasty. The only thing I would change would be to either double the sauce recipe or make an additional sauce (such as fresh marinara) to top the lasagna with - mine was a bit dry, especially since the sauce is fairly thick. I used some of my seitan sausage (recipe in previous post) and crumbled it to resemble bulk sausage - it turned out much better than eating a patty of seitan sausage. All in all, this dish was filling, tasty and fulfilled my craving for Italian comfort food! And to top it all off, my 4 yr old liked it - definite plus!!

Vegan Lasagna
(this sauce recipe is a twist on Vegan Yum Yum's Creamy Tomato Pasta sauce)
1/2 cup fire roasted diced tomatoes
1/2 cup cashew cream
1 T tomato paste
2 T olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Heat olive oil in a skillet and add garlic, cooking until golden. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Pour sauce into garlic skillet and cook for 5 min to blend flavors. Set aside.
10 cooked lasagna noodles
1 cup seitan sausage, crumbled
1 chopped onion
1 1/2 T olive oil
In a skillet over medium high heat, heat oil. Add onion and sausage and cook until onions are translucent and sausage is browned.
Layer noodles, sausage/onion mixture, and sauce in a baking dish. Bake for 20 min in 400 degree oven.

I am always in the mood for Mexican food...well almost - and I have found several enchilada recipes that look good. I must admit that I am a bit skeptical about enchiladas sans cheese however! When I came across the recipe for Averie's "Spicy Doritos" Cheezy Dip (Amber@AlmostVegan), I decided to make up my own ensemble of ingredients. The result was pretty spicy and I don't think the cheesy sauce tastes a bit like Dorito flavoring but it was still pretty good!


Spicy Black Bean Enchiladas with Cheesy Sauce
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup water
1 T chili powder
2 t cumin
1 t garlic powder
2 t fine sea salt
2 t minced dried onions
3/4 cup spicy vegan sausage (I used Field Roast Chipotle), crumbled and browned
10 corn tortillas
1 recipe Spicy Doritos Dip (see below)
Combine beans, water and spices in a saucepan and heat until bubbly. Remove from heat and mash until most beans are smooth. You can leave a few whole for added texture. Stir sausage into beans and set aside. Heat tortillas on griddle to increase pliability. Fill each tortilla with a scoop of the bean mixture. Roll up and place in an 8x8 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Pour sauce over enchiladas. Bake at 375 degrees until bubbly and tortillas are tender - about 15-20 min.

My adapted version of Averie's "Spicy Doritos" Cheezy Dip
1/2 C cashew cream
1/4 cup vegan sour cream
1/4 nutritional yeast
1/2 of a Red Pepper
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 Tsp Salt (or to taste)
1 1/2 Tsp Chili Powder (add more to taste if desired)
1/8 Tsp Cayenne (add more to taste if desired)

Combine All Ingredients and Blend until Smooth

2 comments:

  1. Ooh, that lasagna sauce sounds great, what with the FR tomatoes and cashew cream.

    I probably don't have an accurate recollection of what nacho Doritos tasted like, haha, but the dip is still awesome! Glad you liked it, and I love the idea of using it on/in enchiladas.

    Amber Shea

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Amber! Thank you so much for the idea! I wanted to try your kale chips today but discovered I was out of cashews!Bummer!! I made Crispy Sesame Kale instead out of Vegan Yum Yum. Quite tasty but your recipe looks so fabulous! I will need to make a grocery run for some cashews!

    ReplyDelete

Crispy Herbed Potato Stack

Crispy Herbed Potato Stack
I was going to try a recipe for herbed scalloped potatoes and at last minute decided to do something fast and easy. I made up the recipe and it was yummola! I layered sliced russet potatoes in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, and then sprinkled with coarse sea salt, fresh ground pepper, basil, rosemary, paprika, and garlic powder. Then I baked them at 425 fr about 45 minutes. They were crisp and very flavorful!

My thrown-together salad today - after discovering I had no leftovers for lunch!

Tamale Fixings

Tamale Fixings
Plain pintos (for Keith), pintos, corn and onions; corn, jalepenos and Daiya; mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, and chard

Making these was a bit time-consuming but kinda fun! They didn't turn out as good as I had hoped - the outer tamale part (not the filling) just wasn't as flavorful as tamales I have had in restaurants. I have another recipe I will try for the dough next time. Tamales are one of my favorite foods so I won't give up on this one!

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes
I modified one of my favorite pancake recipes to make it vegan and then I added blueberries. Turned out quite yummy. Soymilk sours and thickens well - very similar to buttermilk. I have been really impressed with it's ability to substitute for real buttermilk.

"Buttermilk" Blueberry Pancakes

Egg replacement for 1 egg
1 1/4 cups soured soy milk (put 2 T vinegar into a 2 cup glass measuring cup. Add enough soy milk to equal 1 1/4 cups)
2 T canola oil
1 cup flour (I wouldn't recommend whole wheat or whole wheat pastry - it really takes away from the fluffiness of these pancakes)
1 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Blueberries, optional

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Heat griddle pour about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Sprinkle blueberries on pancakes after ladling onto griddle. Cook just until golden on both sides.

Veggie and Seitan Lo Mein

Veggie and Seitan Lo Mein
Overall, this was fabulous! However, I don't think the seitan added much so I would just leave it out next time. The lo mein also needed about double the sauce so I would simply do that next time for added flavor. This was especially spicy and yummy with some Sriracha drizzled on top. I made our favorite veg egg rolls to go with this and it was truly a Chinese treat!!

Veggie Seitan Lo Mein

I really did my own thing for this recipe so I am just going to outline the instructions and include the sauce recipe. I heated oil in a large skillet and added 3 minced cloves of garlic and about 1 cup of half-moon cut onions (I was out of green onions but next time I would use green onions as I like them a lot in Chinese food) and about 1 cup matchstick-cut carrots. After about 5-6 minutes, I added about 1/4 lb of whole green beans. I cooked these veggies until tender. Meanwhile, I cooked a 16oz package of chow mein noodles. Once the veggie mixture was cooked, I poured the sauce on the veggies, heated through and tossed with the noodles. Next time I would double the amount of sauce and have adjusted amounts below to reflect double recipe.

Sauce (Source:Adaptable Feast)
3 T soy sauce
3 T rice wine (I used 3 T rice vinegar and 1 t sugar as I didn't have any rice wine)
3 t sugar
4 T black bean garlic sauce
Mix all ingredients and toss with above mixture.





Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth

Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth
Pretty yummy. I found that steaming the wontons worked much better than the recipe suggestion to boil them. The broth was very mild and a bit too mellow for us. Still pretty yummy though. I added extra veggies to the wontons and scallion to the broth. The seasoning in the wonton filling was quite tasty!

Chinese Broccoli Wontons in Ginger Soy Broth (Source: Vegan Yum Yum)

(As usual, I modified several things so it's not exactly the recipe in Vegan Yum Yum!)

1 cup chopped broccoli
3/4 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 T oil
1 t fresh ginger, minced
1 clove fresh minced garlic
1/2 t hot chili sauce (such as Sriracha)
1 t hot Chinese mustard
2 T plus 1 t soy sauce
4 cups water ( I think this might have been more flavorful had I used vegetable broth or faux chicken broth???)
6 slices fresh ginger
1 T mirin (I used a splash of cooking wine as I didn't have mirin)
1 1/2 t sugar
2 t rice vinegar
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup chopped scallions
16 wonton skins

For filling: Heat oil in skillet and add broccoli, ginger, garlic, carrot, onion and cook until veggies are crisp tender. Add chili sauce, mustard, 1 t soy sauce and stir to combine. Remove from heat and set aside.

To make wontons, take one skin and place in diamond shape. Fill with 1-2 t filling. Fold in half to make a triangle and moisten edges with water and pinch sides to seal. Set triangle in front of you with point up and take the 2 side points and bring them together in front to cross. Set aside and prepare remaining wontons. When finished, place wontons in a steamer basket and steam over pot of boiling water until translucent.

Meanwhile, in a pot, combine remaining ingredients (except wontons) and simmer 10-15 min.

Place 3-4 wontons in bowl and ladle broth over wontons. Serve.