The recipe I found for currywurst sauce was already vegan so all I had to do was put it over a veggie sausage instead of a pork sausage, but I haven't had German fast food in a while so someone else will have to let me know how authentic the recipe is. I think currywurst usually has worcestershire sauce and there was no way I was about to put in 1/2 a cup of sugar so I doubt it was anything like the real stuff. According to the pictures I've seen, they're supposed to be served with fries on the side but that's just too much grease for me so I made potato salad instead.
This is either Israeli salad with chickpeas, or tabbouleh with chickpeas instead of bulgur (and less parsley). Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, parsley, green onions and chickpeas. Olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar (I use rice vinegar but red wine vinegar probably makes more sense), cumin, sumac, salt and pepper.
Israeli (Palestinian?) salad: cucumbers tomatoes parsley green onions olive oil lemon juice
Tahini sauce: 1/2 cup tahini 1/4 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup hot water
Make the salad and tahini sauce ahead of time and chill.
Mix the spices. Combine the seitan and onion slices in a large bowl and sprinkle the spice mixture over them. Add 3 tbs of the olive oil and mix it all together. Grill the seitan and onions in a little bit of oil until browned. Grill the pita bread to give it grill marks and pile everything on top of it.
I know tofu loaf is one of the things that makes normal people hate vegetarians but this loaf isn't squishy and it doesn't taste like tofu. I wasn't planning on liking this so much, but it really deserves a better name than "tofu loaf" and if you somehow end up with leftovers, it's even better fried the next day.
12 oz firm tofu, pressed 1/2 cup cooked brown rice 1/4 cup chopped parsley 1/4 cup chopped onions 1/4 cup chopped carrots 1/3 cup ketchup 1/2 cup bread crumbs 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp worcestershire sauce 1 tsp dijon mustard 1 tbsp nutritional yeast garlic powder, oregano, salt
Preheat the oven to 350. Saute the onions and carrots in a little bit of olive oil until they're soft. Mash the tofu in a large bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Spoon the mixture into an oiled loaf pan and spread a thin layer of ketchup over the top. Bake for an hour.
I thought this would be good with my leftover barbecue sauce but I actually liked it better with plain old ketchup.
These don't need much adapting from the original to be made vegan. The chocolate topping is VCTOTW's chocolate ganache.
1/2 cup earth balance 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 1/2 cups crumbled graham crackers 1 cup peanut butter 1/2-1 cup chocolate chips 1/4-1/2 cup soymilk 2 tbsp maple syrup
Line a small baking dish with foil. Melt butter in a small saucepan and add the sugar, cracker crumbs, and peanut butter and mix well. Spread it into the dish. Bring soymilk to a boil in the saucepan. Turn off heat and stir in the chocolate chips and syrup until it's smooth. Spread it over the graham cracker mixture. Refrigerate for about an hour. Cut into squares.
My sister got me some fresh peas so I boiled and blended them and it looked like that ^
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 sweet onion, diced 2 small potatoes, diced 2 cups broth 1 cup water 1 cup shelled peas S&P, to taste sliced green onions, for garnish
Heat the oil and add the onion. Let them cook until they're soft. Add the potatoes, broth, and water. Let simmer until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork. Add the peas and cook for about 8 minutes, until soft. Turn off the heat and blend with an immersion blender. Season with s&p.
This is the best barbecue sauce recipe I've found (with a few small changes). It's spicy and smoky (chipotle instead of liquid smoke) and won't be mistaken for cocktail sauce. I made half the recipe and it was just about the right amount for the seitan and veggies.
16 oz seitan, (add some adobo sauce if you make your own) 2 zucchini, cut into big chunks 2 medium red potatoes, cut into big chunks and parboiled 5-6 large mushrooms, quartered 1 sweet onion, cut into big chunks about 2 cups of barbecue sauce
Spread the seitan and veggies out in 2 large baking dishes and cover with the sauce. Cook for about 45 minutes at 450.
I have no idea if this tastes anything like chicken or veal scaloppine (or scallopini) but it does taste like good veggie food and it definitely doesn't have 71 grams of saturated fat like the copy cat Macaroni Grill recipe. The sauce was sweeter than I thought it would be (ok I used unsweetened soymilk this time, wtf?) but maybe it's supposed to be sweet.
1/2 ppk seitan recipe, sliced into thin cutlets a few tablespoon of oil, for sauteing seitan 1/2 cup flour 4 oz veggie ham or bacon, diced 8 oz mushrooms, sliced 1 12oz can artichoke hearts, quartered 1 tbsp capers 3/4 cup broth 1/4 cup soymilk 2 lemons, juiced 2 tbsp earth balance 1/2 lb orzo, cooked chopped parsley
It usually takes me 3 tries to get my bread to turn out right because I'm terrible at baking, but these were easy and came out good the first time. The recipe suggested baking them for 3 minutes or 6-8 minutes for crispy pitas so I let mine bake for about 5-6 minutes and took them out just as they started to brown.
I can't remember if I've posted the recipe for my favorite dip/dressing but I'm pretty sure I haven't because I always forget to write it down. This might be it:
Tofu Tahini Dill Dip
Blend together:
4 oz silken tofu 1/4 - 1/2 cup tahini 1/4 cup peeled and diced cucumber juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp balsamic vinegar 1 tbs olive oil 2 tbs chopped parsley fresh dill s&p
Slice the seitan into long strips and mix it with the marinade. Set aside.
Fry the pepper and onions with olive oil in a grill pan until brown.
Remove the seitan strips from the marinade and grill them in oil in a grill pan until they start to brown. It might just be me but this part can be painful (must've been the chipotle) so turn on a fan, open a window, and stand back.
Combine everything in a tortilla and stick it on a grill (pan) until it gets those pretty grill marks.
Cilantro-Jalapeno Sauce
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped 1/2 small jalapeno 1/2 lb silken tofu 1 lime, juiced 1 tbsp oil 1/2 tsp salt
Blend it all together until creamy.
Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa
5 tomatillos, halved 1 clove garlic 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped 1 lime, juiced 1/2 chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped
Fry the tomatillos and garlic with olive oil on a grill pan until brown. Remove the garlic clove but save the oil. Chop up the tomatillo and blend it with the rest of the ingredients and the garlicky oil.
1 cup long grain rice, cooked and set aside to cool
1/2 cup black rice, cooked and set aside to cool
4 stalks celery, chopped
8 green onions, greens parts chopped
1 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
3/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
Whisk together the oil, vinegars, lemon juice, honey, sesame oil, and salt and pepper.
In a large bowl combine the cooled cooked rice, celery, green onions, peas, dried cranberries, pine nuts, and dressing. Let it chill for a few hours before serving.
I have a weird car wreck relationship with Paula Deen's show. I mostly watch it just so I can collect creepy Paula quotes ("I can't wait to wrap my lips around it!" "Come on over here and stick your head in this oven, y'all!") and to prove that her disgustingly fatty and meaty recipes can be made veggie and less fatty.
Her Jacket Potato with Bacon, Mushroom, and Peppercorn Sauce recipe worked out pretty well except for the peppercorns. I had a feeling replacing green peppercorns with black ones wouldn't be a good idea, but I wasn't about to go out and get new peppercorns when I already had perfectly good ones. Apparently peppercorns are green when they haven't started to ripen yet so they're more mild than the black ones. The black peppercorns weren't completely inedible but they were sorta crunchy and way too strong for me. The sauce was a bit thin because I used soy milk instead of heavy cream (is it just me or did there used to be a soy cream that wasn't sweetened so it was more like heavy cream than creamer?) but I don't mind thin sauce. I replaced the bacon with Yves Canadian Bacon and used Earth Balance instead of butter but other than that I pretty much just followed the recipe.
Oh, and the most important part: flambeing. I was all ready for a huge flame so I took all necessary safety precautions and poured the brandy into a measuring cup first, took the pan off the stove before pouring it in, lit the fumes at the edge of the pan with a long match and had a big pot lid on hand in case the flame got too big. But the flame ended up being tiny and only lasting for a few seconds... see for yourself
They're just normal size individual pot pies but I usually make one big pot pie casserole so they're babies to me. The recipe made enough for about 8 pies but half the crust recipe only made enough for 7 (top crust only). I'm still trying to decide if these are worth all the effort of trying to make the crusts fit the tins perfectly just for the convenience and cuteness of eating out of a little tin. I'll let you know when I figure it out.
I'm a big fan of pretty much all the vegetables that kids really hate. Brussels sprouts probably aren't that great when they're boiled to a bland mush, but I can't really imagine anyone hating them when they're cooked right.
2 lbs brussels sprouts
2 shallots, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs maple syrup
salt and pepper
1/2 cup pine nuts
Preheat oven to 425. Trim the brussels sprouts and get rid of any ugly outer leaves. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil and add the brussels sprouts. Cook until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and drop them in a bowl full of ice water. Drain again. Cut the sprouts in half.
Put the sprouts in a bowl and mix with the shallots, olive oil, vinegar, maple syrup and salt and pepper. Pour them onto a baking sheet and roast for about 20-25 minutes, stirring once or twice. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan for 3-5 minutes over low heat just until light brown. Sprinkle over the brussels sprouts and serve.
I wasn't really sure what to call this but I figured it wouldn't make sense to call it Chinese Chicken Salad since it doesn't have any chicken and it doesn't seem very Chinese to me, so I went with Wonton Salad, even though those crunchy things on top are made from gyoza skins instead of wonton skins.
I used this recipe but left out the chicken and added some cilantro, green onions, and toasted sesame seeds.
I've heard this takes a long time to make, but when you're not worried about authenticity and you use prepared flat bread instead of making the crust from scratch, packaged veggie ground round for the meat, and canned tomatoes, it takes about 30 minutes.
Lahmajoon 6 small flat breads 12 oz veggie ground round olive oil for sauteing 1 onion, chopped 1.5 cups crushed tomatoes garlic powder, sweet paprika, red chili flakes, salt n pepper 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley lemon juice
Saute the onions in the oil until soft and add the ground round. When the ground round starts to brown, add the tomatoes and spices and cook for a few more minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool down.When it has cooled, add the finely chopped parsley and mix.
Preheat the oven to 400. Spread the meat mixture in a thin layer on each of the crusts. Drizzle with olive oil and heat in the oven until the crust is crunchy, about 10 minutes. Squeeze lemon juice over the top and serve.
1/3 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup sake 2 tbs sugar 2 scallions, minced 2 small chunks of fresh ginger, smashed 1 shallot, minced 1/2 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sesame oil sesame seeds 2 cups seitan, sliced
1/2 head napa cabbage, shredded 1 red pepper, sliced 1/2 small cucumber, sliced 1/2 small red onion, sliced 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped 2 green onions, chopped sesame seeds
In a saucepan, combine the soy sauce, sake, sugar, scallions, ginger, shallots, salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil. Bring to a boil over moderate heat and cook until reduced, 8 to 10 minutes. Strain the sauce into a small bowl. Saute seitan in 1 tbs oil until brown on all sides. Spoon over a few tbs of the sauce and cook until the seitan soaks it up. Combine the salad ingredients and put the seitan on top. Use the remaining sauce as dressing for the salad.
Having fly-infested barley makes barley tabbouleh kind of unappetizing so I got some bulgur to try to make it traditional and flyless. The package told me to get Bulgur #1 for tabbouleh (I wonder what kind of Mediterranean dish #18 Bulgar is used for) and I trust packages of bulgur so I did.
Tabbouleh 1/2 cup bulgur #1
1 cup hot water
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 small shallot
1/2 hothouse cucumber, diced
1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped
a few leaves fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 lemons, juiced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Put the bulgur in a large bowl and pour in the hot water. Cover with a dish or plastic wrap and let stand for about 30 to 45 minutes to rehydrate. Drain if necessary.
In a mixing bowl, combine the tomatoes, shallots, cucumber, parsley, and mint. Season with salt and pepper. Add the bulgur, lemon juice and olive oil. Fold everything together. Refrigerate for a while before serving.
Red Pepper Hummus 1 red pepper
olive oil for sauteing
1 can chickpeas, drained
1/4 cup tahini
3 lemons, juice
salt and pepper
garlic powder
1/8-/1/4 cup olive oil
chopped parsley
Saute the red peppers. Combine all the ingredients except the parsley in a food processor. Adjust seasonings and fold in parsley. Serve with baked pita triangles.
Stuffed Grape Leaves 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup long-grain rice
1 cup broth
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoons finely chopped dill leaves
1/8 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
15-20 grape leaves
1 lemon, juiced
To make the filling, coat a large saute pan with 1/8 cup of the oil and place over medium heat. Add the onion and lemon zest and stir until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the rice, saute for 2 minutes, stirring to coat. Pour in just 1/2 cup of the broth. Simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 20 minutes, adding more broth if necessary. Add the lemon juice and tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Scrape the parboiled rice mixture into a bowl and add the dill and parsley; season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool. While it's cooling, drain the grape leaves and carefully pull them apart. Put them into a bowl and cover them with cold water. Let them soak until you are ready to roll.
To assemble, lay a grape leaf on a work surface, shiny-side down. Put 1-2 tablespoons of the rice filling near the stem end of the leaf. Fold the stem end over the filling, then fold both sides toward the middle, and roll up. Squeeze lightly in the palm of your hand to secure the roll. Repeat with remaining grape leaves and filling.
Place the dolmades in a wide deep skillet, seam-side down in a single layer. Pour the remaining 1/2 cup of broth, remaining olive oil, and the lemon juice over the stuffed grape leaves. The liquid should reach halfway up the rolls.
add some water if necessary. Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes until almost all of the liquid is absorbed. Serve at room temperature or cool.
I was hoping this would be a pretty light green like my Cucumber Radish Soup, but I guess that wouldn't really make sense with so much broccoli and yellowish broth. The taste of the broccoli kind of overpowered the cauliflower too so I'll have to try some cauliflower soup without the broccoli next time. I forgot to add the lemon juice to the soymilk when I made my soup but I'm pretty sure that would make it even better.
1 cup plain soy milk juice of half a lemon 1 tbs olive oil 1/2 onion, chopped 1 small head of broccoli 1 small head of cauliflower 2-3 cups veggie broth 2 tbs (vegan) butter 2 tbs flour salt and pepper green onions for garnish
Add the lemon juice to the soymilk and set aside. In a large pot, saute the onion in the oil until softened. Add the cauliflower and let it steam for a few minutes. Add broccoli and vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Simmer on low heat until veggies are soft enough to blend. Turn off the heat and blend the soup with an immersion blender. In a small saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of margarine over medium heat until melted. Add the flour and whisk until combined. Gradually add the soy milk and whisk constantly until thickened and smooth. Add the soymilk mixture to the pot and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper and reheat until hot. Garnish with green onions.
