As you probably know, Amy spent the last three weeks in Philly at an artist residency at the Philadelphia Art Hotel (PAH) (whose most excellent proprietors Krista and Zak are both veg, btw!). You’ve seen the awesome Swedish pancakes they made. We also spent a little time out and about exploring and, of course, eating. After three weeks, Amy had learned the lay of the land and took me on a little tour.

One of our first stops downtown was the Reading Terminal Market–a huge indoor market with assorted shops and restaurants. Being in Philly, our first stop was the pretzel stand (the Pennsylvania Dutch [a bit of a misnomer--they came here as Germans--Deutsch] are known for their pretzels–be sure to ask for these without butter). This gave us just enough fuel to finish wandering and check out the Liberty Bell, which–unbelievably–was free. It’s nice to know there are a few elements of our heritage that have yet to be fully commercialized.

For some reason, I was expecting it to be much bigger.

Before our friend Shelby gave us a tour of the Paula Wilson and Mel Chin (Fundred Dollar Bill) shows at the Fabric Workshop, we headed back to the Terminal Market for a slightly larger meal, this time consisting of a vegan meatball hoagie and Philly cheesesteak sammich from Basic 4 Vegetarian Snack Bar.

The meatball hoagie was pretty good. The cheesesteak sammich was about how it looked: greasy and gross, but tasty. I don’t think we’d normally eat this type of stuff, but since we were in Philly, it seemed like the thing to do. Philly’s not famous for its salads.

Later that night, however, Amy surprised me with the best tapas (and sangria) we’ve ever had at Amada.

While not exclusively veg, they had a really good selection of veg options and the staff was very knowledgeable about what was vegan and/or could be made vegan. We got Ensalada Verde (green chopped salad, with asaparagus, favas, and green beans), Habas a la Catalana (warm fava and lima bean salad), Escalavida (roasted peppers, onions, eggplant, and tomatoes), Garbanzos con Espinacas (a chick pea and spinach curry), and Setas (a variety of AMAZING wild mushrooms). Our meal and service were outstanding.

On our last night in Philly, Amy took me to a local favorite, the Memphis Taproom. They serve a great variety of both local and non-local brews (apparently Pennsylvania, like Michigan, is a big time micro-brewing state). They’re menu featured a bunch of very clearly labeled vegan burgers and sides, all of which looked quite good (word has it that one of the owners is vegan). We went with the Smoked Coconut Club (grilled tofu & coconut bacon [yes, coconut bacon! it was awesome!]) and the Hefeweisen Hummus (with deep fried chick peas). The Club was truly something else. Shaved, smoked coconut as the bacon. Whoever invented that deserves a medal. Awesome. (Amy had this on four separate occasions.) Aside from the great food and beer, the staff were really nice, and Jawbreaker was playing on the stereo when we left.

I didn’t have a chance to check it out, but Amy and crew hit up North Bowl one night. Not only can you drink and bowl, bowl and drink, but you can get vegan buffalo wings! And portobello fries! And tater tots! If you have the time, definitely worth hitting up.

Let freedom ring.

At long last! It’s finally tomato harvesting time! We got tons of lettuce, are still getting kale, and have been getting green beans and cucumbers for a few weeks now, but there’s something momentous about that first big batch of tomatoes. Something that says, “your garden has arrived.” Everything leads up to tomatoes; they’re the climax. The winter squash and fall kale are the denouement, with canning, perhaps, as an additional baby climax.

My friend Simon (fellow vegan, drummer for Ineffable Robot [new tracks up soon!]) was in over the weekend and we ate largely from the garden. The first night, we had Shells al Pomodoro and Cucumber Salad.

Shells al Pomodoro

• 4ish medium-sized tomatoes, gutted and diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 1 fresno chili, seeded and diced (optional)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped
• cooked shells (or noodle of choice)
• salt & pepper, to taste
• olive oil

In a medium-large pan, saute the garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, until it just starts to brown. Toss in the tomatoes and peppers, cooking until tender. Salt and pepper to taste. A minute or two before serving, stir in the basil. Serve over pasta. Easy! Delicious!

Cucumber Salad

• 2 – 3 cucumbers, cubed
• 1 tomato, gutted and cut into medium-sized pieces
• rooster (Sriracha) sauce (to taste)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil
• toasted pita or tortilla, chopped (optional)
• salt & pepper, to taste

Toss everything together. That’s it.

Be forewarned: this was not one of my best efforts. We had something similar a few weeks ago at an Indian restaurant and I really liked it, so I thought I’d attempt my own version, what with all of those cucumbers to use up. It was a little spicy, because I went overboard with the rooster sauce. I think I also over-soy-sauced it, so add everything little by little. I’ll have to return to this at some point to perfect it. We have a LOT of cucumbers.

The next day, we biked 20 miles (and 20 miles back) to a neighboring town to try out the Red Pepper, a raw vegan restaurant. After the ride there, we were mighty hungry. We got the Italian Pizza and the Raw Tacos, both of which were quite good. The pizza’s crust was probably its standout feature. The tacos were made with a seasoned walnut “meat”. It was pretty amazing. The “shells” were just lettuce, though, so this was a bit more like a salad than tacos. We got some energy shakes for the ride home, which were also good, though I was a little over-full, and thus kinda sluggish for the ride. 40 miles of super hilly terrain is a lot harder than I thought it would be (we biked 25 flat miles two days later, and it was a cinch, comparatively). We were so pooped when we got home that we couldn’t be bothered to cook, so it was vegan pizza time.

We made homemade brats (the best batch ever!) the next night, but that post, friends, is forthcoming.

The next night we rocked this Tempeh & Kale Stew (we’ve also got tons of kale right now):

This stew is very much like the Spicy Potato & Kale Soup, but with carrots, and minus the spicy and parsley. It was pouring out, so this was something of a summer rarity, but very appropriate.

Slimetime’s since hit the road, but I still have lots of maters to use up, so last night I rocked a chili.

There’s no chili better than one made from your heirloom tomatoes, especially if you’re growing multiple varieties. The freshness and variation in flavor really take the flavor in interesting, often inimitable, directions. This particular batch was made with Black Krim (our favorite–dense, not too sweet, not too acidic, very flavorful), Supersonic Orange (a new one this year–very tangy), and Oaxacan Pink (gigantic, fairly sweet). It made for a somewhat sharp, but slightly sweet chili–a perfect chili for crackers. Outstanding!

Once again, Amy has left me for the (always) sunnier climes of Philadelphia for an artist residency at the Philadelphia Art Hotel. I’ve been feeling a little uninspired in the kitchen lately, but for some reason–probably missing her–I felt an overwhelming need to cook it down last night. Strange how sometimes cooking is a burst of creative energy, and others it’s a quiet therapy. Some people use TV to keep them company. I crank up the stereo and cook.

Because (a) any period of extended bachelorhood should start with a giant mess of rice and beans, and (b) the summer makes me crazy for Mexican food, it only made sense to pressure cook a vat of black beans. From there, I made variations on both our Mexican rice and refried beans, coming up with this:

Please forgive the terrible photo! Amy absconded with both the good camera and the great camera (oh, the dictates of art!). So hold on to your seats, the next 3 weeks will be a little bumpy. In the meantime, check in on her blog for great art and great photos.

Pardons aside, what you’re looking at is refried black beans on a toasted tortilla, with avocado and tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and Mexican rice with fresh purple pepper, jalapenos, and tomatoes from our garden.

The refried black beans are made the exact same way as standard refried beans, but subbing black beans for pintos. This version of Mexican rice was made the standard way, but with:

• 2 small purple peppers, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
• 1 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, cut into large-ish pieces (not de-boogered)
• 4 cups of veggie stock
• 2 cups of brown rice

Stay tuned for possible variations on the above!

Last night our good friend Blue stopped in for dinner, and brought a giant picnic basket full of fresh zucchini, summer squash, kale, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes from the local community garden, who he’d been doing some work for (he’s a carpenter/artist). Amy and I had been wracking our brains for something interesting to make and she pointed out that we had a big jar of israeli couscous that we’d yet to try. Putting two and two together…

We used an onion and some garlic as well (of course), and added some black-eyed peas for some protein and to round out the sort of Southern feel the sauteed kale provided. The couscous was really interesting–much more like orzo than standard couscous, like small fluffy noodles. Apparently, it’s also awesome nutritionally.

Garden Israeli Couscous

• 3 small zucchinis, cut into discs or semi-circles
• 2 small summer squashes, cut into discs or semi-circles
• 1 large bunch of kale, de-boned (optional) and chopped coarsely
• 1 medium-sized white or yellow onion, chopped coarsely
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 4 cups (2 cans) of black-eyed peas
• 2 cups israeli couscous
• 3 cups veggie stock (we used our leftover chik’n seitan broth)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped
• 2 stalks of thyme, de-stemmed
• 1 small handful of fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the veggie stock to a boil, then add the couscous. Cover and remove from heat.

In a large skillet, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. After a few minutes, add in the zucchini and squash. When everything is tender, add in the kale and fresh herbs (and probably more oil), stirring well. Add in the black-eyed peas, also stirring well. Stir in the nutritional yeast, then salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over the couscous. Consider Palestinian couscous tomorrow for a two-plate solution.

As many of you know, about once every two months we get a major fiendin’ for Mexican food. Our local options aren’t great, and among those, the vegan selection is pretty much bean flautas. So. We scratch the Mexican itch by making one of several different feasts, almost all involving guacamole, (homemade) refried beans, and then some variation on tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tostadas, quesadillas, or the infamous taco salad. On a good day, the feast involves Mexican rice. As you’ve learned by studying the Soymilk Flowchart, we’ve been on a crazy okara seitan chik’n kick lately. So we decided to switch things up and make spicy chik’n tacos–with refried beans, guacamole, and Mexican rice!

These things rocked a camel’s ass! Don’t get me wrong–I love a good tempeh taco any day–but these were a really nice change of pace. The beans and rice were probably the best we’ve made as well. This, I think, owes to the more traditional kitchen food chain we employed. Beans are usually made with some sort of fat and or stock and rice is almost always made with chicken stock. We used the leftover stock from our batch of seitan. We cook the seitan in Frontier ™ brand unchicken stock, which (a) gives the seitan a more chicken-y flavor and (b) produces a really nice stock–more robust than the unchicken stock on its own. What started way back with our soymilk is now working its way into the finer flavors of our Mexican feast.

You may already be familiar with our guacamole and refried beans. And you should definitely acquaint yourself with seitan chik’n: ours or Zoa’s okara seitan recipe.

Spicy Chik’n

To make the chik’n, follow one of the recipes above. In a bowl, mix up some taco seasoning. Add about 1/4 cup of water–just enough to make a medium thin paste–like a thin smoothy. Toss the chik’n patties in the mixture–one patty per person (the mixture will cover about 4 patties)–coating well. Store in a sealed container and refrigerate–the longer the better, for deeper marinade penetration (dirty!). When your beans and rice are just about done (or are just finished and on low heat) toss these guys on the grill, cooking until you get delicious grill marks on both sides. They should probably also be cooked thoroughly, but hey, you know what you like. Cut into cubes or strips, as per your preference.

Mexican Rice

We researched a ton of authentic Mexican rice recipes and cobbled this one together out of what seemed to be the common ingredients: rice, onion, garlic, tomato, stock.

• 2 cups long-grain rice (we used brown basmati)
• 4 cups chik’n stock (ideally from seitan)
• 1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1/2 large tomato, de-boogered and chopped coarsely
• salt, to taste
• green onions, cilantro, and/or lime to garnish (optional)

In a medium-sized saucepan, saute the rice in oil over medium heat, until it begins to brown (or turn browner, in the case of brown rice). Add in the onion, garlic, and tomato, then the stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover, cooking until the rice is soft and the stock has cooked in. If the rice finishes before the stock has cooked off completely, you can remove the cover and turn the heat up briefly to evaporate the remaining stock.

We served these in home-baked corn tortillas, with sides of refried beans and Mexican rice, and with a green onions, cilantro, lime, and a Corona ™, to garnish.

While you certainly don’t have to be vegan to garden, and don’t have to garden to be vegan, the two are tightly connected. It’s true that the local farmers at the farmers’ market probably know a lot more and do a lot better at growing food than us. And we aren’t (yet) able to grow enough food in our yard to live off of. BUT. Tending a garden is a great way to get closer to your food. It doesn’t matter if you’re just growing a few herbs to freshen up your meals, or feeding your entire neighborhood–the mere act of growing something you can eat, in some small way, opens up and illuminates the entire process of food production.

What’s most informative/instructive, however, isn’t the success–what ends up on your plate; it’s the questions and problems that arise in the process:

• Where will you get the water you need?
• Is your soil suitable? If not, what will you use for soil and where will you get it? Will it be vegan?
• What do you do about pests, both insect and animal?
• Is ___________ really worth growing?
• How much zucchini can you really eat?
• How much will all of this cost? And will you actually save any money?

The most fundamental question is probably your soil, which you have little control over. You’ll probably need at least some additional soil/dirt/compost, even if your soil is great–and maybe quite a bit if it isn’t. In the past, we’ve used Mel’s (Bartholemew) Mix, which is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost, and 1/3 peat moss. We found this to be a little too loose and have gone much lighter on the vermiculite, a bit lighter on the peat moss and heavier on the compost (the linked site recommends 1/4, 1/4, 1/2, respectively). You can also supplement this with top soil–but you need to check what’s in it. Also, if you’re buying bagged, it’s probably had to travel a great distance to get you–which brings up an interesting question: How local is local?

The same is true of compost, with the additional caveat that most compost is made from animal waste–which brings up an even more interesting question: How vegan is vegan? Most of the vegetables you eat are grown using animal-based compost/fertilizers, so your garden is one of the few places where you can get truly vegan veggies. In any case, if you’re going with store-bought, look for mushroom compost. You’ll also want to find additional sources of compost, to produce a mix. This makes for healthier, less homogeneous soil. A great place to start–with the added benefit of greatly reducing your waste–is creating your own compost. As a vegan, all of your food waste is compostable (though you may want to avoid some seeds, lest your compost pile turn into a garden itself). Ours is a franken-pile made out of a small plastic deal from Lowe’s, chicken wire, and electrical conduit poles. You can (and probably should) leave out the plastic deal and just go straight for the chicken wire and poles–no plastic, much cheaper, and nicer looking.

In some cities, you can also get compost made from municipal yard waste. This is generally free and helps keep city waste down. Additionally, it keeps your compost even more diverse (though you never know exactly what’s in city compost–it’s supposed to be all plant matter).

You can also often get wood chips made from municipal yard waste (from chipped tree branches and fallen/removed trees). Like the compost, this is usually free (we get ours from the same location). Not only does this save you money, but it also lowers your ecological footprint by:

1. ensuring that your wood chips are local (so no long-distance transport)
2. avoiding the use of plastic bags
3. avoiding the use of toxic chemicals in wood treatment

Here are our recently acquired wood chips, used to mulch around the gardens:

You’ll also notice our good friend the rain barrel, chilling leisurely by the garage. We have 5 home-made rain barrels stashed around the house and garage and have only had to use municipal water twice–both times this last weekend, only in two beds, and on the tail-end of both a heat wave and a short drought. That’s 3 1/2 months of free, renewable water! Importantly, it’s water that didn’t require any additional energy (except the calories we expend in watering) to get to our gardens.

You can buy these commercially, but they’re pretty expensive. You can make your own cheaply and somewhat easily–there are lots of tutorials online (and maybe a someday post here, if there’s demand). Watch Craiglist for 55 gallon drums–but be careful about what was in them. We got ours from a power-washing place, so (a) they’d previously contained non-toxic soap, and (b) they were washed very thoroughly. I think they were $20, though I’ve seen them much cheaper, and occasionally more expensive.

Here’s the rain barrel in front of our house. While you should be proud of your rain barrels, it’s possible that you might not want all of them highly visible. We moved a few plants to mask the rain barrel and gas meter, with a fern in a bright red pot for a little visual distraction.

So now that your gardens have healthy soil, plenty of water, and attractive mulch, everything is going great, right? Maybe. We’ve had problems with a variety of critters, both animal and insect. A few years ago, we noticed that something was happily munching on our kale and lettuce. We first assumed it must be a local freegan, but this person would have been given away by their tiny, rodent-like mouth. After nearly a month of half-assed vigils, we eventually caught a glimpse of a ground hog. With our setup, building fences wasn’t ideal, and we certainly weren’t interested in harming or trapping the ravenous little guy. We eventually settled on what might seem a strange choice: coyote urine. This simulates the presence of a natural predator. It is animal-derived, so I have mixed feelings about using it, but most companies are fairly transparent about their collection methods–which almost universally seem to be drains in the floor at legitimate conservation operations (it’s how they help subsidize the cost of maintaining the animals). While this seems like the most humane method to all involved, I’m open to better suggestions.

If you notice that your leaves are being eaten from the inside, you’ve got bug problem. For us, those bugs are mostly slugs. We tried a variety of deterrents–stuff like cayenne, for instance–to no avail. We’ve only found two good solutions, both deadly. One is saucers of beer. Yes. Beer. If I had to choose a way to go, drowning in a drunken haze wouldn’t be worst. The other is iron phosphate (Sluggo ™, by brand). This is a tough choice for many vegans. We’re the type of vegans who capture bugs and bring them outside, so we don’t take the decision to kill slugs lightly. But, if they’re eating all of our greens, then we have to get our greens from the farmer’s market. Do those farmers kill bugs and predators? We buy organic, but that only ensures that no genetically modified crops or inorganic pesticides were used. Everything about your diet can get really complicated, really fast.

You start to understand how a farmer could be convinced that buying genetically modified seeds to produce pest-resistant or pesticide resistant crops is the way to go. If we’re struggling with just a handful of kale and lettuce plants, what’s it like to worry about a whole field?

To further complicate matters, each type of plant has its own special needs and problems. So you have to become an expert on each one. You start to understand why some farmers give in to monocropping. Since you’re probably doing this in your spare time, and as a supplement to your diet, there are limitations to your efforts. You’ll decide that some crops aren’t worth the effort for a small crop (growing one singular broccoli plant was pretty dumb, in retrospect) and that others are a mainstay (there’s nothing better than walking outside and harvesting a salad or canning your own tomatoes). You might also find that you’d prefer to get awesome at growing tomatoes, and that your neighbor likes doing greens–you could start a local cooperative (this would probably work fantastically in an apartment complex with shared garden space, or even in community gardens with a little planning).

While we’re not totally up to the Food Not Lawns standard yet, we have been trying to increase the amount of food that we grow. Here, we’ve converted a flower bed into a tomato and basil garden:

That being said, we like to have flowers in the house, but don’t like getting our flowers flown in on planes from South America. So having an assortment of (mostly) perennials is a free, sustainable way to keep things fresh indoors and out. If friends or neighbors are growing different species/varieties, you can trade to spice things up.

Of course, we’re relative newbies at gardening ourselves, and still have a lot to learn. We recently attended a permaculture workshop which was both exciting and humbling. Got ideas? We’d love to hear them!

And finally, here’s a small gallery of garden photos, for your viewing pleasure (sorry about the repeats!):

A couple years ago, after eating a delicious dinner with our friends Bei Li and Blue, Blue treated us to a fantastic frozen, creamy, berry-laden dessert. It was a lot like ice cream, but subtly different. Blue challenged us to figure out what was in it. Title of this post notwithstanding, what would you make of something like this:

Or perhaps this:

Most of the way through finishing this delicious treat, we established that the secret ingredient was bananas; Blue used frozen bananas in his juicer to make a frozen dessert.

For those of you lucky enough to have a juicer (we have the Omega 8005), this is a deceptively easy treat, and a great way to use up those bananas that are about to go bad. When your bananas are just starting to brown, peel them and put them in a sealed container or bag in the freezer. On a hot summer morning, run the bananas through your juicer–with its non-juicing/grinding attachment–in thirds. Drop a strawberry and/or a couple of blueberries/raspberries/small-edible-berries-of-some-sort into the juicer before each piece of banana. Freeze the berries ahead of time (and be sure to cut the stems off the strawberries!) for a smoother, cooler yumyum.

Alternatively, on a hot summer night, this makes a great dessert. Try the same method as above, subbing almonds or peanuts, along with some chocolate chips, for the berries. Again, this will be smoother if you freeze all of the ingredients ahead of time. This is perfect if you want to steer clear of store-bought ice cream and don’t have the time make your own or are eating raw.

With the 4th of July right around the corner, the summer grilling season’s about to hit its peak. The 4th may very well be the actual peak for lots of people.

For vegans and vegetarians fortunate enough to have a largely veg friend group, or a veg party/event to attend, this is always a great time. For those of us with a more “diverse” social group, this can sometimes be a source of stress or anxiety. Amy and I are lucky enough to have a really supportive group of friends, who not only respect our lifestyle, not only cater to our lifestyle when they have parties, but many of whom are happy to eat vegan themselves some or most of the time.

Still, any time you’re in the minority and your beliefs are openly available to public scrutiny–in this case eating–there’s bound to be some conflict, question, or exchange. Over the years, I’ve noticed one really good way to keep this positive is to bring something homemade to grill. Here’s why:

• People are far less likely to criticize something that you made yourself. They may not agree with your beliefs, but they’re your friends, and it’s a bold move to call bullshit on something someone made. It’s a like a personal attack. Invariably, of course, someone will tell you that your homemade brats look like poop. To which you should reply: “That’s funny. So funny that the first time I heard it, I fell off my dinosaur I laughed so hard.”
• In my experience, folks are more curious about homemade grillables. On many occasions they’re even tried our homemade burgers, brats, and patties.
• If you can name all the ingredients in something, it’s not so mysterious. People often ask, “What’s in that?” If you can tell them, it becomes less foreign, more acceptable.
• If you’ve used local, organic ingredients, it’s almost ethically unassailable. The conversation doesn’t always have to be about animal rights. It can be about supporting the local economy, reducing environmental impact, not eating stuff that’s processed, avoiding packaging, steering clear of hormones, food safety, etc. They’re your friends, right? So they’re probably awesome and smart. They like to talk about these things. Any discussion that raises or brings to focus our awareness of the food that we eat is a good discussion. You’re also bound to pick up a few advocates along the way. There are plenty of meat eaters who support local and organic.
• You can vary how “meaty” your burgers/brats/patties are. This ranges from, say, a black bean burger at one end (most people are omnivores, so they do eat beans)–which makes no pretense of being meat–to a seitan brat or barbecued seitan on the other. In the middle, you’ve got stuff like breaded chick(pea) patties, which have a aspire to something chicken-y, but do so in the form of a pretty familiar bean. Generally, the less your grillable aspires to be meat, the less others are likely to criticize and the more likely they are to try one themselves. Small victories, right?

Of course, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t get pumped about grilling veggies and such (in fact, you probably should have some veggies)–asparagus, squash, zucchini, shish-ka-bobs, portabellas, etc–just that there’s something kind of nostalgic and satisfying about having a “traditional” grillable. So why not kick it the fresh, homemade, vegan way?

Some of our favorites are:

Black Bean Burgers

Chick Patties

Vegan Dad’s version of Isa’s Seitan Brats

Memphis BBQ Seitan

Seitan Chik’n Cutlet

Happy grilling!

Having slogged my way through those first two funky batches of soymilk, it was time to try again, this time using the proper measurements. It turns out that one SoyQuick cup = 1/2 actual cup. Of course! Does anyone else see this as a disaster waiting to happen? That being said, the first batch wasn’t a total disaster–many recipes actually call for “2 cups” of soybeans (i.e. 1 actual cup, which is what I used). For this most recent batch, I followed Julie Hasson’s recipe pretty closely, but used Zoa’s filtration method, to compare against the previous batch. Though still a tad beany, it was much smoother and tastier than the first round. I would actually dunk a cookie in this batch, did in fact enjoy it on a bowl of cereal. Observe:

To get a sense of the taste, and where I might want to go with it, I didn’t add anything to the soymilk initially. Though not as beany as the first batches, it was still just outside the drinkable-on-its-own range. As per Julie’s recipe, I added in 4 tbsp malt extract powder (make sure it’s extract powder, not just powder; and don’t use syrup; you can find it at shops that sell home-brewing supplies). This gives the soymilk a richer taste, and sweetens it just a hair–not enough for it to be “sweet”, but enough to cut any bitter edge and cut down on the beany flavor. If I were going to use this as my unsweetened batch, I would have stopped there. But I wanted a drinkable version that I could put on my cereal, so I added 1 tbsp of sugar. It’s still not sweet, per se, but was awesome on my cereal.

Aside from using too many beans and not filtering enough the first time, I think I also made a few mistakes with sweeteners. I used agave in one and brown rice syrup in the other–and then re-filtered the soymilk after adding the syrups. This caused the second jug of the first batch to separate horribly.  I should have been much more scientific in my approach, but I can’t recall which jug had which sweetener. Using the powers of inductive reasoning, I’ve concluded that it was the brown rice syrup batch that separated, as that was supposed to be the “unsweetened” batch, and it was the unsweetened batch that separated. So. Agave would appear to be safe. Additionally, I don’t know if it was the brown rice syrup, the second filtration, or the combination of the two that was truly at fault. I think as a general rule of thumb, stick with powders over syrups. Syrups separate. The best bet for sweetening is probably to follow Zoa’s lead and just add raw dates to the soymilk maker up front.

With a new batch of soymilk on the way, I also had a new batch of okara on the way–meaning I needed to use up my previous store. I didn’t do anything to dry my okara out, beyond mashing it with a spoon into the filters during the filtration process. So, my okara is “wet”. Before I explore the intricacies of wringing out the okara a little, I thought I’d explore the limits of laziness and establish some uses for a wetter okara.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I made Zoa’s Okara Seitan Chik’n. Aside from the salad and bowties, I made a veggie & chik’n couscous–using not only the okara seitan, but also cooking the couscous in the broth from the seitan. Everything in its place.

The next night, Joe treated me to his famous Spicy Ramen (recipe forthcoming!), a true delicacy. Made, not surprisingly, with seitan chik’n.

As you may have noticed, asparagus is no longer in season, and broccoli now is. Farewell asparagus! Welcome broccoli!

Even after making the okara seitan, I still had 2 full cups (actual cups, not SoyQuick cups!) of okara leftover. What to do with it? Then it hit me–broccoli & rice bake-em-up! I replaced the tofu with the 2 cups of wet okara and the 2 cups of faux milk with 1.5 cups of water. Also, since the farmer’s market was the next morning and I’d run out of broccoli, I used kale from our garden, subbing 2 cups of chopped kale for the broccoli. It turned out perfectly!

As is true of the standard version of this recipe, you will end up with too much sauce. Save out 1 – 1.5 cups, and you should be left with just the right amount. You can use the leftover sauce for Okara Chik’n Al-faux-do–for a double dose of okara action!

And what better time? Summer squash is popping up everywhere at the farmer’s market. But maybe this is too much? I’ve gone off the okara/soymilk deep end?

Perhaps, perhaps. Of course, this is just the sort of challenge I appreciate–and just the sort of challenge you’ve come to know and love during my occasional bachelorhoods: how can we use everything up without wasting anything? In general, we should train ourselves to see reducing waste and getting the most out of the resources that we use as a fun challenge, rather than an oppressive burden. In centuries past, this is how people had to cook–something that we’ve moved away from with advent of better preservation and, ultimately, processed, packaged, single-serving meals.

Consider it: making one batch of soymilk has shaped, in many ways, two weeks of cooking. Not quite the same as buying a carton of soymilk. And what happens to all of the waste produced during the commercial soymilk-making process?

[A]s a significant byproduct of soy milk and tofu manufacturing, okara is commonly used as animal feed since its production usually exceeds demands for human consumption. For this reason, it is not uncommon for tofu and soymilk factories to be located close to animal farms in many Asian countries. In Western countries, okara is used almost exclusively for the production of pig and cattle feed, although it does appear as an ingredient for vegetarian burger patties. – Wikipedia entry on Okara (food)

So, chances are that if you’re consuming commercial soymilk, you’re contributing (very) indirectly to factory farming. I say this uncritically, as we’re all enmeshed in the tangled system and can only extricate ourselves one bit at a time. The focus here is not on why you want to avoid commercial soymilks, but why you might want to make your own–as a way to be closer to your food and its production; to reduce physical waste; to eat more locally; and to understand your diet holistically, to see your food choices not in the context of a single meal, but rather as a week of meals, a month, a season.

Okay. I’m getting off my soapbox now and heating up some leftovers!

So you probably know by now that we here at Irreverent Vegan aren’t down with the container action. We’ve made great inroads over the last few years toward ditching a lot of the packaging and buying more stuff fresh and/or in bulk. At this point, our worst offenders are probably soy/rice/almond milk/creamer and orange juice (which, yes, comes from Florida…so it’s really kind of an eco-no-no anyway…what’s next our bananas?!). So, after getting a soymilk maker for Christmas (the SoyQuick 930p), I figured that–6 months later–it was high time to make our own soymilk.

Observe, a glass of delicious, frothy, homemade soymilk (with a cookie from like a month ago–why won’t it go bad?!):

I figured right now–in the throes of pseudo-bachelorhood–would be an ideal time to experiment; Amy’s in Reykjavik, so I alone am left to deal with the disastrous-or-delicious consequences of home soymilk production. My hope is that by the time Amy returns, I will have perfected homemade soymilk, deftly replacing our pre-packaged soymilk with my own, like a ninja in the night. Instead of just making one batch to start with, like a normal person, I decided that I must make two batches, one sweetened, one unsweetened, duplicated poor results be damned! While this is an idea that I will someday return to, once I’ve perfected my recipe, I don’t recommend it for the first batch. Here’s why, numbered for your convenience:

1. I somehow lost the instruction book and some of the parts [this is unusual; SoyQuick was prompt with their PDF instruction book email]
2. One of these parts was a cup. But it’s not actually a cup, as in “1 cup”.
3. The recipe called for 2 cups of soy beans. But not 2 cups as in “2 cups,” but rather 2 cups as in 2 of the included cups.
4. Whoops.
5. I decided to go with recipe on the SoyQuick site, for reference, when I really knew that Zoa over at the Airy Way was the true expert.
6. As Zoa points out, Julie’s recipe (on the SQ site) conveniently edits out the entire filtration part of making soymilk, which, truth be told, is 90% of the work. There’s no way you can filter everything with a gold coffee filter. Go with Zoa’s process–multi-step filtration.
7. It was a bit bean-y. I now understand that this is a result of using like 30% more beans than I should have.
8. Next time, Gadget.

All of that being said, for a first batch, this was pretty darn good soymilk. I’ve been using it every day in my breakfast shake, to savory and creamy result. I’m not sure if I would actually dunk a cookie in it, as I grossly lead you to believe in the above photo. But I can imagine a point when that will be the case. And that’s what matters. It’s not what you made, but what you will make.

While I knew about okara (repeat after me: okara is not okra, okara is not okra) from the Airy Way, I was a little overwhelmed by it at first. It’s like a soybean mashed potato. This stuff just had to be awesome…but what to do with it? Zoa uses it in her version of our version of Joanna Vaught’s Seitan Chik’n. Where else to go with this amazing stuff? On this, dear readers, I will have to get back to you.

In this grand knowledge’s stead, however, I give you The Soy Flowchart!

Despite my mixed success with batches 1 & 2 of soymilk, the enterprise in general has been great: soymilk for my breakfast shakes and okara to make seitan, which in turn has contributed to 3 outstanding meals thus far (part of the Cooking For One regimen).

Meal 1: Chik’n Caesar Salad

You might remember this one.

Meal 2: Rosemary Chik’n Bowties

This was an offshoot of the pasta from the other night, this time including okara seitan and mushrooms. Additionally, I used bowtie noodles and sliced the garlic into thin slivers instead of dicing it. Lastly, instead of a variety of herbs, I decided to focus on just fresh rosemary. Good choice.

Meal 3: Summer Solstice Salad

Okay, so I’m a couple days late; the summer solstice just passed. But. The pertinent fact remains that it’s this particular time of year that you can get lettuce, asparagus, and the first inklings of tomatoes from your garden and/or the local farmer’s market. There’s a very small window when you can get both a local tomato and local asparagus. When you can, you should. Toss in a little okara seitan, some toasted almonds, and douse lightly with olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.

This is probably one my top salads. I almost felt guilty eating this by myself, it was so awesome.

Stay tuned for:

Soy Beans vs IV: Round 2

and/or

How many things can Mark make with okara seitan?!