Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Vegan Patty Melt


This is a super easy recipe I made up and it is so delicious! I made my own pastrami but I think you can buy vegan pastrami if you want to pay for it. You could also use another type of baked seitan. I am going to give the recipe for 1 sandwich so you can easily make it for one serving or several.

Vegan Patty Melt
2 slices French bread or sourdough
2 t vegan butter
5 slices vegan pastrami (silver dollar size)
1 t oil
2 T sliced sauteed onions
2 T sliced sauteed mushrooms
1 1/2 T vegan mayo
1 T ketchup
1 t spicy brown mustard

In a skillet, heat oil and brown pastrami slices. Meanwhile, mix together the mayo, mustard and ketchup and set aside. Spread vegan butter on one side of each bread slice and place in a skillet coated with cooking spray. Cook until lightly browned. Place bread slices, toasted side down, on plate and top with browned pastrami, sauteed mushrooms and onions and spread sauce over the top. Top with second slice of bread. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Sweet Sesame Tofu

I made a super yummy Valentines dinner last night - unfortunately, hubby got stuck at work and got home late so we didn't get to eat as a family. This dish was one of 3 that I made - I also made a veggie lo mein that was thrown together with leftovers of noodles, veg and sauce. It wasn't anything super special so didn't take a pic. Also made Peanut Tofu (recipe can be found under my review of Tofu Xpress to the right on my blog). This was a new recipe and was very yummy. Enjoy


Sweet Sesame Tofu (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens)

Step 1:
Cut 1/2 block of drained, pressed tofu into cubes
Combine 3 T soy sauce, 1 t sesame oil, and 2 t agave. Add tofu to this mixture to marinate. Set aside.

Step 2:
Combine 1 1/2 cups veg broth, 2 T soy sauce, 3 t agave, 4 t cornstarch, 1 T rice vinegar and 1 t chili paste. Set aside.

Step 3:
Cut 1 head of broccoli into small florets. Set aside.


Step 4:
Heat 2 t canola oil in large skillet. Remove tofu with slotted spoon from marinade. Add to skillet along with 1 T fresh grated ginger and 3 cloves minced garlic. Cook until tofu is browned. Add broccoli and sauce from step 2. Cook until sauce thickens and broccoli is crisp tender.

Serve over rice.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

New England Style "Clam" Chowder


This is a recipe I made a couple times and our whole family loved it. It was out of a cookbook I had gotten from the library and after returning the book, I forgot about it and never wrote down the recipe. After a year of trying to search for the cookbook I had found it in, I finally discovered which cookbook I had used and the beloved recipe. This soup is so flavorful and delicious...though it doesn't really taste like clam chowder to me, it is fabulously yum!

New England-Style Chowder (adapted from Vegan Planet)
2 T olive oil
1 large onion chopped
2 celery ribs chopped
5 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups vegetable stock
1 2in piece of kombu
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 T mellow yellow miso dissolved in 2 T water (I actually tried mellow brown rice miso in the batch I made the other night - I would prefer the mellow yellow soy miso as it is milder but the brown rice was still tasty, just a bit stronger)
8 oz mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 t old bay seasoning

Heat stockpot with oil in it. Saute the onions and potatoes until browned. Add the stock, kombu, bay leaf, salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and cook until veggies are soft. Remove kombu and bay leaf. Use food processor to puree half of the soup mixture. Return to pot. Add milk, 1/2 t Old Bay and miso and stir until well combined. In a separate pan, heat 2 t oil and add mushrooms and celery. Cook until tender. Sprinkle with 1/2 t Old Bay and stir until well distributed. Serve soup topped with a spoonful of mushroom mixture.

Ok so I know this isn't a recipe but I had to share this picture of the perfect rainbow of color! Is it even possible to have a fruit salad this beautiful during the winter months? Thankfully a bunch of fruit has been on sale and we have been enjoying it thoroughly!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Breakfast Bagels


Just a simple breakfast sandwich that is super easy and delicious. It could hardly even pass as a recipe! Here are the easy steps!

1. Place slices of smoked tofu on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 15 min. (I use one large slice of tofu per sandwich so use that as your guide to how many slices you want to make)
2. Toast a bagel (one per serving)
3. Whip up some hollandaise sauce (2 T vegan mayo, 1 t lemon juice, 1/2 t mustard per sandwich).
4. Place a slice of tofu on one half of the bagel, pour hollandaise on top and put the bagel top on.
5. Enjoy!

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.