Seitan Fajitas

Marinade:
1/2 lemon, juice
1 lime, juiced
olive oil
1 garlic clove
1-2 chipotles in adobo sauce, minced
a few tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
S&P

1/2 recipe of PPK Seitan, cooled. I added a little bit of cumin, lime juice, and a drop of adobo sauce added to the wet ingredients

1 pepper, sliced
1 onion, sliced
6 flour tortillas
homemade guacamole
tomatillo salsa, recipe follows
cilantro-jalapeno Sauce, recipe follows


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.



original recipe

Tortilla Soup

Rumor has it that tortilla soup is supposed to have shredded chicken in it so I was trying to think of the best veggie protein for shredding and the closest I could come up with was frozen tofu. Turns out it can't really be shredded, but it can be torn and it totally works in this tortilla soup recipe. The tofu recipe is from Tofu Cookery, the world's best tofu cookbook.

1 lb tofu, frozen, thawed*
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp cumin

3 corn tortillas, cut into strips
oil for frying

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic (I leave it whole and just use it to flavor the oil but you can mince it and leave it in)
1/2 small jalapeño, chopped
4 cups veg broth
14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes

avocado, cheese, and cilantro for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350.
Whisk together the soy sauce, peanut butter, and cumin until smooth. Tear the thawed tofu into small bite-size pieces and toss with the peanut butter mixture. Spread out the tofu pieces in 1 layer on an oiled baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until crispy. Set aside and try not to snack on them.

Cover the bottom of a frying pan with oil. Fry tortilla strips in a single layer until crispy. Drain on paper towels, set aside and try not to snack on them.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion, garlic and jalapeno in oil for a few minutes until soft. Remove garlic if you left it whole. Stir in broth and tomatoes and bring it to a boil. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Take it off the heat and blend with an immersion blender. Add tofu and heat until the tofu is hot again. Garnish with cilantro, avocado, tortilla strips and shredded cheese.

Here it is with my new favorite recipe, Seitan Fajitas.

*To freeze tofu, cut firm (non-silken) tofu into 4 equal squares (or more if you want it to freeze faster) and wrap each square separately in foil. It's best to let it freeze over night but smaller pieces shouldn't take more than a few hours. You know they're ready when they've turned into yellow tofu bricks. To thaw, put bricks into bowls of hot water, replacing the water every few minutes until you get tofu sponges. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the tofu sponges.

Candied Citrus Peels

I'm not really into gift-giving (or Christmas) so I usually bake cookies or cupcakes for the in-laws instead of buying gifts. This year I went with a candied orange peels recipe from the whole foods website. The recipe doesn't mention how long they take to make but it took me about 7 hours and that's before the 3-5 hours of drying on cooling racks (mine only dried for 30 minutes because Martha Stewart said it was ok). I used 3 oranges, 4 lemons, 4 limes, and 2 grapefruits.

Peeling the fruit and removing the pith took about 3 hours.

But it's so worth it.

Rice Salad with Pine Nuts and Cranberries

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

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp honey
2 tsp sesame oil
S&P

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.

Adapted from here

Latkes & Cookies

This year, my sister and I made latkes by ourselves for the first time for her Hanukkah party. We somehow pulled it off and they turned out almost as good as my mom's latkes. The recipe looks simple but the frying is messy and time consuming and pretty easy to mess up. It's hard to keep the potato mixture from falling apart when it goes in the oil, the oil needs to be just the right temperature, and they burn pretty easily so you have to flip them at just the right time.

I don't think we've tried making these vegan but egg replacer powder should work instead of the eggs.

6 russet potatoes
1 onion
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp salt, optional
canola oil for frying (you'll need like half a bottle)

Grate the potatoes and onion in a food processor and place each batch of grated potatoes in cold water until they're all grated. Drain them and squeeze as much liquid as possible out of the potatoes and onion. Mix the grated potatoes and onions with the flour and eggs (and salt) in a large bowl. Pour about 1/4 cup of oil in a large skillet (or 2) over medium-high heat until it's hot but not smoking. Spoon in about 2 tablespoons of potato mixture and flatten into a pancake (but not too thin). Brown on both sides, about 5 minutes on each side. Drain them on baking sheets lined with paper towels and then keep them warm in the oven at around 250F. Serve with applesauce and sour cream or yogurt.

My sister's lucky guests were also treated to some of these delicious cookies that we helped my cousin make the night before the party. I think this was the recipe we used.

Stuffed Shells

This is pretty much just my lasagna casserole recipe stuffed into shells. They looked really pretty right after being stuffed with the tofu-spinach mixture (and they were still vegan at that point) but I forgot to take a picture.

a few mushrooms, sliced
1/4 onion, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 28-oz can of spaghetti sauce
6 oz jumbo pasta shells (about 18 shells)
5 oz fresh spinach
3/4 lb tofu
s&p
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 oz grated mozzarella

Partially cook the pasta shells in a large pot of boiling salted water until slightly tender but still firm, about 6 minutes. Drain pasta shells and place on baking sheet, spreading them out so that they don't stick together and allow to cool.

Saute the mushrooms and onions and zucchini over medium heat in the oil until tender. Remove from heat and add the spaghetti sauce.

Heat the oil in a small pot and add the spinach until it wilts. When the spinach cools, squeeze out the water and chop it. Mash the tofu with the spinach and spices.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Spread a large spoonful of the sauce in the bottom of a big baking dish. Lay out the pasta shells on the sauce and stuff each one with about 2 tbs of the tofu-spinach mixture. Spread the sauce over the shells and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese starts to brown.

Southwestern Pasta Salad

New Year's resolution #1: No more backlogged recipes. But it's still 2008 so here's another one from a few weeks ago that I forgot to post. I can't remember exactly how much of everything I put in this so you're better off going by the original.


1/2 pound pasta, cooked
1/4 red onion, minced
corn kernels from 1 roasted ear (or thawed frozen corn)
1/2 canned chipotle pepper
2 frozen meatless Italian sausages

Dressing:
1/4 cup mayonaise
1/2 lemon, juiced
a few drops of adobo sauce
2 tbs red wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy milk
green onion, minced
s&p

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Combine the lemon juice and soy milk and let it sit until you're ready to prepare the dressing. Follow the instructions for cooking the sausages but slice them before sauteing in the oil and brown them on both sides.
Combine the dressing ingredients and whisk until smooth.
Put the pasta in a bowl and add the veggies. Toss it with the dressing and add cilantro.