Cookbook Review: Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner

Well peoples, it is known that vegan cheese is actually tasting fucking awesome these days thanks to Daiya... No more vomit smelling unmelting cheese looking objects need to be used in a vegan kitchen... Shit, if you have been vegan for awhile like myself, you have probably long parted ways with needing cheese in your life (I would leave it out of vegan recipes calling to add vegan cheese cause it would pollute the shit out of a perfectly legit dish)... So anyways, there is this pretty new and amazing DIY vegan cheese cookbook out now called Artisan Vegan Cheese... I enjoy this cookbook and I really think Miyoko has some brilliant ideas on how to form some legit texture (It is like a science experiment!!) but I think another book is due to perfect these genius ideas... I would say all the cheeses I have tried in this book are either ok or pretty good, my favorites have been the Meltables: Muenster in particular I will continue to make and Monterey Jack. I don't think I could convert someone to ditch cheese with this cookbook but it is fun for us vegans to play with :) Daiya Wedges on the other hand are conversion material!

Boursin (Flavored with parsley, nooch, garlic, tarragon, thyme, and marjoram): FUCKING SICK, first try...

My favorite thus far: Meltable Muenster!

Delish on crackers!!! Slices well, great texture :)

Meltable Muenster actually melting on some Yellow Garlic Rice :)

My bff Jessica's fave: Smoke Provolone (I liked the taste and not the texture, would have preferred something firmer), good with crackers but I can only tolerate so much liquid smoke in my life

Incorporated some in some mediocre Mac & Cheeze (I can just blame the whole wheat pasta on this... blech)

Meltable Monterey Jack has a texture that is pretty spot on :) a bit firmer would have been perf (Seemed a lil wet)

Made a veggie sammie with some sliced Monterey Jack (AWESOME)

Made some Quesadillas (EVEN AWESOME-ER)

I also made the Sharp Cheddar and did not enjoy it (Texture) and the Meltable Cheddar which was not right texture wise but tasted fine in quesadillas (Pictured above and in the glass dish below)

Overall great book, amazing ideas, looking forward to her next!

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

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

Cookbook Challenge: Color Me Vegan

The past couple weeks I have been trying to get through all the recipes I picked to make from Color Me Vegan by Coleen Patrick-Goudreau... I was over zealous as usual and picked out way too many recipes and it ended up taking me 2 weeks to get through a supposedly 1 week challenge. This is a challenge I do within a private facebook group comprised of many of my LT vegan homies that I have known since the day I went vegan and googled "Vegan Recipes" and found an amazing vegan community online, we have since moved from that public community to a private FB group :)

Anyways, the book seems like it would appeal to people who desire healthy-whole-foods-plant-based recipes as the book is divided into basically colors of the rainbow so that you learn to cook and eat a wide variety of foods. I quickly picked out and shopped for recipes that sounded delicious. Here is what I ended up making labeled by color:

Quick Curried Swiss Chard (Red) with Coconut Rice (White/Tan) and Eggplant with Sweet Miso Sauce (Purple)

Verdict: The chard was so delicious and so so easy and would be good with even plain rice. As you can see, I mixed the Curried Chard with the Coconut Rice. This was because I accidentally dumped too much salt in the chard so I mixed it in with the rice to balance it out and it turned out perfect. The Eggplant with Sweet Miso Sauce was ummmm FUCKING SICK... I chucked that shit out... Too salty, too seedy, almost like that chia-seed hippie goop that everyone has been eating (Chia pudding and chia kombucha come to mind though I have never tried either, I think the texture alone would make me spew).

South African Yellow Rice (Yellow) with Southern Style Succotash (Rainbow)... Apparently I never got a shot of the rice, must have chucked it too quick, pictured instead, is just a Mexican Themed-Tofu-Garbanzo Bean-Bell Pepper-Onion-Taco Seasoning-Slop-Stirfry ;)

Verdict: Rice was way too liquidy, had to cook it longer and even bake it. After all that hassle the shit was too sweet, if I want desert I will eat ice cream or some shit I don't want sweet rice with my dinner BLECH, NO THANKS... it made a bunch and I choked down a few servings and threw the rest out. Succotash, was just MEH, almost like a pathetic "slop stirfry"... this recipe made TONS so I would halve this... I probably ate through half of it and chucked the rest later in the week. It was just a bunch of frozen and canned veggies barely seasoned, I don't know why I expected something magical.

Salt & Pepper Tofu (White/Tan)

Verdict: Very easy and pretty darn good, will be adding this to my collection of go-to recipes! All it consists of is green onions, garlic, olive oil, turmeric, smoked paprika, and s&p I believe.

 

Blackberry Breakfast Bars (Purple)

Verdict: DELICIOUS AND EASY... My friends were raving about them all throughout the challenge week, I made a double batch and subbed a frozen mix of blue/ras/ and blackberries and rolled oats in place of quick (Googled the difference and they are basically the same thing). Also tried this recipe on an omni who loved it and asked for a copy of the recipe :)

Overall, these recipes seem like a hit or miss, healthy and simple but sometimes lacking taste. Glad I made use of this cookbook though, which is exactly why I got this challenge going.

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

Cooking From Cookbooks: Spork Fed

A goal of mine for 2013 is to go through my 20-something vegan cookbooks and use them all. Spork Fed is the cookbook I chose for this post. I received the book as a gift from a longtime vegan friend of mine, Don, who didn't find much use for the book so shipped it to me :) (Along with 3 other cookbooks he hadn't even mentioned he would send) Vegans are such generous and kind people it baffles me sometimes.

I went through the book and chose to make Spicy Seitan Buffalo Wings (Made with the books recipe for Chicken-Style Seitan) & Southwest Black Bean and Corn Mini Burgers (With Smokey Paprika Cashew Cheese which I skipped). I also planned on making a few other dishes that never panned out because I was too busy and the ingredients ended up going bad :(

The Spicy Seitan Buffalo Wings were good. I loved the fact that the recipe included an additional recipe for Buffalo Wing Sauce so that I didn't have to resort to bottled crap with all of it's weird chemicals and colorings (Yes I use this shit, but I am trying to get away from using anything processed and containing chemicals for ingredients... Baby Steps).

The recipe in this book for Chicken-Style Seitan was also good, but I have made better versions of seitan. The method used here was boiling which resulted in a bit of a rubbery texture. I prefer steaming seitan or baking it. I also used the entire batch of Seitan (The recipe says to use a little over half) and still had extra breading and Buffalo Sauce. Here is the Chicken-Style Seitan before I used it in the Wings recipe:

To summarize my experience: I would say that the Spicy Seitan Buffalo Wings recipe is perfectly legit to serve to vegans that are down with seitan. I didn't mind the rubbery-ness of the seitan because it was breaded and saucey, plus I paired it with my homemade vegan ranch and some mashed potatoes. The Buffalo Sauce was great and I will probably use it as a replacement for bottled crap... It is thicker but still very good and I have some leftover that I plan on using to make some Buffalo Tofu Sammies this week!

Next up was the Southwest Black Bean and Corn Mini Burgers. These were okay. I know the authors said you really need to make the Smokey Paprika Cashew Cheese to make this recipe a hit and I did skip it and replaced it with Daiya. The burgers held together fine with some extra breadcrumbs added. I got through eating them all throughout the week but these aren't something I would bother making again... Still looking for a veggie burger recipe that tastes better than just plain old store bought stuff so that I feel like all the effort is worth it.

Overall, Spork Fed is a mediocre vegan cookbook... A lot of fancy stuff which would probably be good if I had the time and energy to find all the ingredients and construct the recipe... I have met the authors in person and they are both very lovely ladies and I am more than positive that if I had more time, I would have more fun with the book.

Next up with cookbook reviews is Color Me Vegan =)

Peace.Love.Vegan

Amy

The Post-A-Thon... 2011 Week 43 and 44

I have been eating and I have been taking pictures amongst all the drama and craziness in my life... Time to get back to normalcy and lay low... Let's get real

Let's start off with polishing off some leftovers... Spicy Eggplant with Tofu and some fried rice... I have really started to dig Japanese eggplant if you can't tell by now.

My last VWAV Stuffed Bell Pepper topped with vegan sour cream and paired with Homemade Refried Beans garnished with fresh tomatoes, cilantro, and green cabbage.

Viva Vegan's Potato and Kale Soup... Never bother with making the vegan chorizo anymore cause it's like an extra hour or so of effort and I like the soup as is.

I love me some brussels and these are the rest of the Maple Brussels I made... I ate them for breakfast cause I'm weird like that... Dipped in barbecue sauce... Don't judge

I love that vegan food doesn't go bad fast! Seriously, leftovers can sit in my fridge for practically 2 weeks for the most part without getting gross... That's awesome!

I made a batch of Crock Pot Seitan a few weekends ago and finally did something with it!

I sliced half the batch of seitan into strips, shook the strips in a ziplock with some cornstarch, fried the coated strips in oil, once they were nice and golden I turned off the heat and added some barbecue sauce and stirred to evenly coat... Served these puppies up with some Japanese eggplant that I fried in oil and coated with sweet chili sauce and some kale salad.

Here is the Kale Salad (Before I slopped some of the end of it onto the dish above) in all it's glory. Recipe HERE (Scroll down halfway to Tess Challis)... Lemme get that Kale Salad!

I found a tube of Soy Chorizo AT THE 99 CENTS STORE! I fried it up with some chopped green bells, onion, and garlic and made my skinny ass some tacos. Here they are topped with Homemade Refried Beans, vegan sour cream, green cabbage, and cilantro.

Here they are again with sliced shrooms, vegan sour cream, green cabbage, and cilantro.

I also made some brown mexican inspired fried rice colored with Viva Vegan's Annatto Infused Oil, cumin, oregano, S&P, onions, garlic, and cilantro... Topped with some chunky homemade guac.

I made VWAV's Hummus again... Legit, though my tahini was kinda whack and I could tell this was much lower in fat and creaminess because of it... I don't mind though since it was for my next creation...

VegWeb's Fresh Folds with Balsamic Reduced Caramelized Onions... Oh my! Delicious <3

Folded in all it's sloppy glory <3

Peace, Love, Vegan <3

Sorry I've Been MIA...

I have a lot, I mean A LOT of catching up to do... It's Friday night and I have an appointment tomorrow in the AM so I will break my massive amounts of vegan food porn up into a few separate posts to keep you peeps (who are still paying attention to my blog) some stuffs to look at...

Easter (Yes, I know like a month ago) was quite a vegan success... I had a Tofurkey in the freezer and this was the last time I ever planned on making the damn thing again since, I felt it wasn't that "drool worthy"... Well holy crap, my Tofurkey turned out bomb on Easter... I did the soy sauce and herb mixture on the back of the package this time and probably doubled it... Perfection

I also made a vegan cheesecake from my friends blog Vegan Machine and oh my, did this cheesecake taste delicious! I boiled down some frozen berries with sugar for the cheesecake topping, my family scarfed it down!

I have also been doing tons of cooking out of my favorite cookbook, Viva Vegan... Here is some food porn to enjoy... Above is Gallo Pinto served with some vegan sour cream, tostadas, and random garnishes... It is also pictured below with some creamy chipotle sauce made out of vegan mayo blended with soy milk and canned chipotles in adobo (plus more random garnishes), with a side of homemade jalapeno refried beans.

I also made Viva Vegan's Peruvian Seitan Skewers and Yellow Garlic Rice and served them up with some Easy Elotes (canned corn, vegan mayo, and pico de gallo seasoning sprinkled on top).

Here is Viva Vegan's Quick Red Posole with Beans. I wasn't impressed with this dish unfortunately and will not be making this again...

I made 3 batches of seitan as well a few weekends ago: Red, White, and Chorizo Seitan... All turned out magical as usual as Viva Vegan's Seitan recipes never disappoint!

I used the Chorizo Seitan Sausages to make my new favorite soup: Potato-Kale Soup with Sizzling Chorizo!

Finally, I had some Classic Roasted Tomatillo Sauce in the freezer that I thawed and used to whip up some Potato-Chickpea Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce (Sans the nasty Cashew Crema)

That's all for this post! Stay tuned homies!

Peace, Love, Vegan <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.