Cookbook Review: American Vegan Kitchen by my friend Tamasin Noyes

Tamasin Noyes is a doll, always there to answer questions quickly and always supplying my tummy with yummy vegan food. Last week, I made it a point to cook from her book American Vegan Kitchen (AVK) because I have been lazy in general with my cookbook usage and quest to try to recipes. I enjoyed EVERY DISH I MADE... That is not typical for me AT ALL so obviously Tam's knows wassup.

I made both of her Seitan recipes, Savory Seitan (Beef-y) and Seitan Light (Chicken-y), and was pleasantly surprised with both! I enjoyed the new technique I hadn't tried: Baking the seitan in broth, it was very easy! Pictured above is the Savory Seitan. I made a stirfry with it by thinly slicing the seitan, shaking it in a bag with a little corn starch to coat it, fried it up, added a little TJ's Soyaki Sauce and some sliced bell peppers and onions. PERF AS USUAL :)

Above is the Seitan Light.. Looks like chicken breasts! Thankfully it is not!

The Seitan Light I made to incorporate into her Seitan Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce (OMG DELISH!!!!) This is pictured above and I can't wait to use the other half of the Seitan Light batch to make this again! The seitan was coated with panko crumbs and fried up, then served along with some Asian style slaw and topped with homemade Tonkatsu Sauce. A must try in this book!

I also made her Breakfast Sausages to use in her Country Skillet recipe. They reminded me of pepperoni almost! These used the steaming method to cook seitan, which has been my favorite method for awhile now. 

The Breakfast Sausages went into Tam's Country Skillet recipe. I really liked her idea for cubing the tofu in the skillet, instead of all crushed up in a typical scramble. I actually prefer this way now and think I will be using cubed tofu in my tofu "scrambles" going forward :)

With a few of the Breakfast Sausage Links I "slopped" together a sausage and peppers type dish; just heated everything up in a little veggie broth until the ingredients were cooked to my liking and seasoned with a little s&p.

In conclusion this is an AWESOME cookbook. Please support my homegirl Tamasin and buy her books!!! Apparently she has a few cookbooks in the works that I can't wait to get my greedy little hands on... Here is her blog Vegan Appetite in case you are not paying attention to it already! She is extremely generous with the amount of recipes she shares for free on her blog!

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

This past few weeks I've made...

Last week I made some of my favorite rice, Viva Vegan's Yellow Garlic Rice, I swear this never gets old... I dolloped it with some guac.

VegWeb's "They Won't Believe it's Vegan Lasagna"

I also made VegWeb's "Roasted Breakfast Potatoes", these make quick addition to my typical Homemade Refried Bean burrito filling.

I used the Garlic Rice and some Homemade Refried Beans plus shredded romaine lettuce, diced red onion, tofutti sour cream, guac, and a drizzle of ketchup for a quick dinner of tostadas.

VWAV's Chipotle, Corn, and Black Bean Stew, another tried and true recipe.

Sweet & Spicy Fried Rice with brown rice to sell some to a more health conscience customer, fillings include frozen mixed veggies, pickled daikon, onions, and edamame.

I made Vegan Sushi twice, the first batch was carrot, cucumber, Baked Teriyaki Tofu, avocado, and pickled daikon.

The second batch was carrot, cucumber, Baked Teriyaki Tofu, avocado, and pickled daikon, and steamed asparagus.

AVK's "No-Tuna" with some shredded carrot and green onion added to make her "No-Tuna Melt Panini's"...

Love this "Tuna" sammie :)

7 Layer Bean Dip using Homemade Refried Beans, Vegan Sour Cream mixed with taco seasoning, guac, TVP cooked in taco seasoning for the ground "Beef", salsa, black olives, and green onions.

VWAV's Black Bean, Mushroom, and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers topped with some a vegan mayo and chipotle chili sauce mixture

Costco now sells these really yummy vegan pizzas...Served with Homemade Vegan Ranch

Lastly, was a spin on VegWeb's "Wonton Asparagus Ravioli"... I stuffed wonton wrappers with a mixture of finely chopped mushrooms, asparagus, and TVP chunks, that I cooked in TJ's Soyaki Sauce... Then fried them in some olive oil... Legit

Peace, Love, and Veganism <3

Garbanzo Salad Sandwiches, Veggie Pizza, and Teriyaki Tofu Stirfry

Today I made Garbanzo Bean Salad Sandwiches, veggies incorporated into the salad this time were green onions and bell peppers... I toasted some bread, slathered one side with AVK's Cheezy Mayo, slathered the other side with vegan mayo, topped with the Garbanzo Bean Salad, seaweed seasoning, romaine, and tomato.

Next up was some leftover pizza from this weekend served up with some Vegan Ranch. The pizza toppings included Tofurkey Italian Sausages, red onion, spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, and a few slices of tomato. I used TJ's refrigerated pizza sauce and TJ's refrigerated whole wheat pizza dough... Shit's bomb!

Lastly, I cooked up a Cornstarch Coated Teriyaki Tofu and Broccoli Stirfry for a coworkers lunch tomorrow ($5) and some leftovers for me to indulge in.

Recipe Reviews, Baked Teriyaki Tofu Recipe, and Enchiladas

This week I made quite a few things, some turned out disastrous since either I am semi-retarded when it comes to subbing brown for white rice or the recipe was a bunk one.

I had a head of cauliflower that need to be used up and saw this recipe for Spicy Black Bean and Cauliflower Salad on vegweb.com so I decided to give it a go. Well, this wasn't anything amazing to me, in fact I couldn't eat much of it cause I felt like it was too boring to eat alone and ended up throwing it into enchiladas.

I also had some of AVK's "tuna salad" to use up and made more "panini's" (mine are obviously not, hence the english muffins)... These No-Tuna Panini's are truly bomb!

Her recipe for the Cheezy Mayo that goes in these panini's is to die for, seriously, I loaded so much of it on I ran out and had to make another batch! I seriously lick the tupperware clean and you can make it in less than a 5 minutes!

I also made some vegan sushi again finally! Fillings included bell pepper, green onion, pickled daikon, spicy daikon, avocado, baked teriyaki tofu, shredded carrots, and english cucumber.

Baked Teriyaki Tofu Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 block extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and cut width-wise into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slabs
1/2 cup Soy Vay Teriyaki Sauce or Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce

Directions:
- Add the Teriyaki Sauce to the tofu and marinate overnight in a tupperware, flipping the tupperware a few times.
- Preheat the oven to 400F, spray a glass baking dish and layout the tofu slabs, drizzle any additional marinade that hasn't absorbed into the tofu.
- Bake the tofu for 40 minutes flipping half way.
- Place cooled baked tofu in the fridge till ready to use.

I like to store my sushi rolls as pictured, with saran wrap, it keeps the avocado from browning to quickly, and the rice from hardening up right away... These rolls need to be eaten within 24 hours or they just aren't that good.

I used AVK's Seitan mixture that was leftover from the Tex-Mex Taco Salad as well as the Spicy Black Bean and Cauliflower recipe leftovers and made two different types of enchiladas. I made a batch of Tex-Mex Taco Salad Seitan + canned refried beans and another batch of Spicy Black Bean and Cauliflower + refried beans, both casseroles were topped with Vcon's Roasted Chile Sauce (From the Potato and Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chili Sauce recipe) and AVK's Tex-Mex Taco Salad chipotle dressing that I thined out with additional soy milk for easier drizzling. The seitan stuffed enchiladas were especially good, not that photogenic though.

Lastly, I made Vcon's Hot and Sour Soup with Wood Ears and Nappa Cabbage... I did not enjoy the texture of wood ear mushrooms in this soup, it was kind of like chewing on rubber and I added more broth to the recipe cause this wasn't soupy enough for me. Next time, I think I will just sub crimini mushrooms instead.