Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Rice and Bean Sliders...Seitan Sausage...another one of Keith's creations!

A couple months ago I made some lentil rice burgers from the Candle Cafe cookbook. They weren't overly exciting but they were pretty good. I froze some of the mixture as the recipe made quite a few burgers. I am glad I did because they made an easy meal for us yesterday! I doctored them quite a bit and made some pretty tasty sliders. I have copied the recipe for the burgers so you don't have to find the previous post. This recipe will make quite a few burgers. I have adapted the toppings to reflect making the entirety of the burgers (rather than the small amount I made with my leftover burgers). I served the slider with a simple coleslaw and some baked tortilla chips and guacamole. Yum!

Brown Rice and Lentil Burgers (adapted from Candle Cafe Cookbook)
1/2 cup lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup brown rice
2 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced
1 chopped onion
1 t sea salt
1 t chipotle chili powder
small buns for serving
In saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to boil. Add lentils, reduce heat, cook until soft. About 15 min. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, bring 2 cups water to boil, add rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice is tender. About 40 min. Set aside. In a saute pan, heat olive oil and saute garlic and onion until browned. Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine rice, lentils, onion mixture, salt and chipotle powder. Mash slightly to help hold mixture together. Make slider-sized patties and place them on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake 15 min.

Toppings:

BBQ Mayo
1/3 cup vegan mayo
2 T bbq sauce
1/8 cup chopped cilantro
Mix all ingredients and spread over buns.

Baked Onions
Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Cut up 1 large onion and place slices on baking sheet. Bake at 405 until onions are browned and crispy. Toss with hot sauce of choice (I used a chipotle hot sauce).

Assembly:
Take small bun and spread 2 t bbq mayo over both halves. Place a lentil burger on top and top with a mound of onions. Serve.

Baked Tortilla Chips
Spray 10 corn tortillas with cooking spray. Cut into wedges. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 10 min or until crispy. Serve with guacamole.

I really wanted to make breakfast burritos yesterday morning but didn't have any wheat gluten to make seitan bacon crumbles, no tofu for scrambled tofu, no peppers - I was out of so much!!I did, however, have some boiled seitan in the fridge. So I got creative and was so pleased with the results. I think this is the best sausage I have made.

Seitan Sausage
3/4 cup boiled seitan, pulsed in food processor until resembles coarse crumbs/burger-like consistency (this is hard to measure unless it is cut up so just estimate)
1 t canola or olive oil
1/2 t dried sage
1/2 t fennel seed
1 1/2 t ketchup
1 t liquid smoke

Heat skillet and add oil. When oil is hot, add seitan and cook until browned - 5-7 min. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well combined and heated throughout.

My creative Keith-boy asks to make a creation every time I enter the kitchen. Though I love his budding creativity and love for cooking, it can become a bit exhausting! I did, however, let him come up with his own lunch yesterday. His creation consisted of a crushed tortilla that was baked and sprinkled on a small bun. He then cooked a vegan hot dog with some mayo, mustard, ketchup, and bbq sauce and put that on his bun. Pretty funny! He ate it all and his little brother had a few bite too :-)

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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.