Online Recipe Review With Links!!! (Don't Wet Yourself in Glee)

Why hello there people who read my blog...

I have a crap ton of Vegan Food Porn sitting on my computer that needs to be discussed and I find this to be an appropriate forum for such a discussion. LET US NOT WASTE TIME...

Seitan O Greatness

(Mods are 2 t of garlic powder in place of cloves and 1/4 cup approx extra water/ homemade veggie broth)  

This lovely log of seitan goodness is great for vegan sammies :) This recipe was all the hype a few years ago, if you have been vegan awhile like myself you should have an adequate spice collection to make this (Give or take a few items).  It is also magical in quesadillas with green onions and homemade Jack Cheese from Artisan Vegan Kitchen!

I got the flu this year INTENSELY for a day and was craving soup when I could eat again. My friend Tanya recommended her recipe for Slow Cooker Comfort Soup that was really easy to make via a crock pot, I enjoyed it :)

If you know my blog at all by now, you know I have a slight addiction to this thing called Melty Cheese on VegWeb... Honestly, Daiya is great but kind of overpowering when you have adjusted to a life free of cheese... The only thing I missed about cheese was its ability to hold toppings on pizza or like cover and hold together lasagna... I got over that pretty quickly... I enjoy vegan nutritional yeast sauces over cheese or even vegan cheese just about every time... END RANT! I am kinda obsessed with nachos, here is my din din Wednesday night... Nachos with Melty Cheese, homemade guac, Tofutti sour cream, and homemade refried beans that were mixed with some canned diced tomatoes with green peppers :)

Black Bean and Salsa Soup

(Mods were Tofutti SC, an extra 1/2 cup homemade veggie broth and half a chipotle chile in adobo sauce)

Next time I might add some corn, more spice, prehaps blend half of the beans... Def some sauteed onions and garlic... AMAZING BASE RECIPE HERE PEOPLES!! Thankfully my amazing friend, Janet, alerted me of this!!!

Lastly, you need some liquid to help get all this awesomeness down... Well how about HOMEMADE HORCHATA that is BEYOND CHEAP AND EASY so get on it already.

Peace.Love.Vegan.Until.I.Die

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

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

My Favorite Recipe: Viva Vegan's Peruvian Seitan Skewers

Viva Vegan's Peruvian Seitan Skewers are the bomb, seriously! Especially served up with some fresh homemade guacamole. I tend to leave out potatoes when I make these now because I always have bell peppers and onions on hand but potatoes I rarely buy at the moment. I've made them probably about 5 times now and these skewers never get old... You must buy this cookbook it is worth its weight in gold!

VegWeb's Creamy Sundried Tomato Dip and Some Leftovers

 I had an extra tub of Tofutti Vegan Cream Cheese and a bit of sundried tomatoes in oil that needed to be used up so I decided to make VegWeb's Creamy Sundried Tomato Dip. I am pretty broke and didn't have the chives or even green onions on hand so I subbed 3 tablespoons minced yellow onion and also added 2 extra cloves of garlic. I used about a half a cup of sundried tomatoes (Mine came julienned and I wasn't sure how much to use so I just finished the bottle). The dip came out fantastic and tasted heavenly dipped with wheat thins!

Leftovers for last nights dinner were awesome courtesy of Viva Vegan. I had leftover Drunken Beans with Seitan Chorizo and Latin Baked Tofu, heaven on Earth my friends.

Viva Vegan's Latin Baked Tofu and Drunken Beans with Seitan Chorizo

Wow! Viva Vegan almost never fails in the recipe department! Tonight I made Latin Baked Tofu and the marinade was killer... Red wine, red wine vinegar, olive oil (I omitted this), tomato paste, soy sauce, garlic, cumin and oregano.

The Drunken Beans with Seitan Chorizo was awesome as well! Home-cooked pinto beans with onions, roasted serranos, some of her amazing Chorizo Seitan Sausages, oregano, chili powder, cumin, diced tomatoes, Mexican beer (I used a can of Bud), and tequila... Garnished with onions, cilantro, lime juice, and pickled jalapenos.... OMG yum... But it did take 3 hours to make so I was really hungry by the time I got my little vegan hands on the goods!

Viva Vegan's Chorizo Seitan Sausages and some Latin Inspired Quinoa (Take 2)

 Viva Vegan's Chorizo Seitan Sausages are way yum, loaded with many spices and a wonderful addition to some Latin Inspired Quinoa I made tonight. 3 Sausage recipe makes 6 sausages (I got 7) and I used 3 in this recipe.

Ingredients (Mostly Approximations):

- 3 Viva Vegan Chorizo Seitan Sausages, you could sub a few Field Roast Chipotle Vegan Sausages, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 teaspoon olive oil and veggie broth as needed (You can use more oil, I'm trying to get away from using it)
- 1/4 a large white onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 mini sweet bell peppers, cut into thin rings
- 1/2 cup black beans
- 1/2 cup corn
- 1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup black olives, sliced
- 1/2 to 1 cup diced tomatoes (I used canned so probably only used 1/2 cup)
- Cilantro to taste (I only had a few tablespoons left)
- 1.5 cups leftover quinoa
- 1 teaspoon each chili powder, oregano, and cumin
- Mexican hot sauce to taste

Directions:

- Fry your sausages in a little oil until they begin to brown.
- Add onions, garlic, and bell peppers and a little veggie broth and cook until onions are translucent, adding more veggie broth if needed to prevent sticking.
- Add ALL the remaining ingredients and mix around until everything is heated through.
- Serve with avocado slices or a dollop of vegan sour cream.

VWAV's Jerk Seitan and More Stuffed Peppers!

VWAV's seitan recipes are more of an acquired taste for people not used to eating seitan. My bro loved all the seitan recipes from Viva Vegan but VWAV, not so much, so I have lots of leftovers in the fridge right now. Oh well, more for me! Jerk Seitan is flavored with onions, ginger, lime, soy sauce (I used Braggs), olive oil (I left it out), maple syrup, thyme, allspice, cinnamon, cayenne, and nutmeg... It tasted pretty darn amazing! I didn't marinate the seitan because I forgot to read the directions before I started, dang it. I also didn't follow her cooking directions as I browned the seitan first, then added half the sauce along with the bell peppers and onions (I don't like mine overly cooked), then dumped the rest of the sauce in about 5 minutes later.

I also made VWAV's Black Bean, Mushroom, and Quinoa- Stuffed Peppers again so I could give it to a friend as a bday gift (I got to save 4 for myself, score!) and they were amazing as usual. I will definitely be making this recipe again and again!

Viva Vegan's Tofu Chicharrones and Mojo Oven-Roasted Seitan

Viva Vegan's Tofu Chicharrones was alright, nothing amazing as far as the flavor goes. The marinade was pretty basic and consisted of soy sauce, liquid smoke, garlic, red wine vinegar, and agave syrup. I cheated and made this on the Forman so that I didn't have to fry it up in a bunch of oil. Any tofu I cook on the Forman I let cool and firm up a bit before chowing down, it just tastes better that way.

I made Mojo Oven-Roasted Seitan again since I found some oranges growing on some trees near my house along a bike trail. I really like the citrus-y marinade used in this dish, yum!

Lots of leftovers left to eat, hopefully I will get around to cooking more soon :)

VWAV's Homemade Seitan + Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers

 VWAV is a pretty amazing cookbook though Viva Vegan still has my heart. One thing I enjoy is trying different recipes for making seitan, for us seitan makers out there, we know each batch of seitan has a life of its own and is a bit different even with the same recipe! So this time around I figured I would use VWAV's recipe for Homemade Seitan and I thought it turned out pretty standard as far as seitan goes... Nothing insanely amazing like the seitan recipes out of Viva Vegan.

So I made the seitan to use in VWAV's Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers recipe. The recipe looked like it wanted me to use the entire batch of Homemade Seitan but that seemed like way too much seitan (And definitely more than 4 cups) so used half the Homemade Seitan recipe and it came out perfect. I really liked this dish! The seitan is flavored with serranos (I left the seeds in), ginger, garlic, cumin, cardamom (Didn't have), turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, and red wine. The seitan turned out really "meaty" and moist, quite heavenly.

Taco Style Seitan and Creamy Refried Beans

Tonight I wanted a quick and easy dinner and had a big batch of Refried Beans sitting in the fridge. I needed something "Mexican-y" to go along with the beans so Taco Style Seitan was the plan.

Taco Style Seitan:

- 4 cups seitan cut into small chunks, (I used 2 loaves of Red Seitan from Viva Vegan)
- 2 small or 1 large bell pepper, cut into small chunks
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, cut into small chunks
- 6 crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup cilantro, minced
- A drizzle of olive oil for frying

Directions:
- Fry up the seitan chunks in oil over medium high heat until they blacken a bit.
- Add the bell peppers and onions and fry for a few more minutes until they soften to your liking (I prefer mine not to be overly cooked).
- Add the criminis, taco seasoning, and water. Cook until the criminis begin to soften.
- Add the cilantro and stir everything around to get it coated evenly.

Creamy Refried Beans:

- 1 pound dried pinto beans, soaked overnight, then rinsed
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 to 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- A few jalapenos, chopped (optional)

- 1 onion, chopped

Directions:

- Place all ingredients into a big pot and cover with about 1.5 inches of water.
- Bring everything to a boil, then cover and everything simmer for 2 hours.
- Drain your beans in a metal colander and pick out the bay leaves.
- Place your cooked bean and onion mixture into a food processor and let it do its magic for a minute or two.
- Taste and see if additional salt is needed and don't ruin your beans by over-salting them!

See you don't need oil or lard to make creamy refried beans, just use a food processor!