Entries Tagged 'Faux Meats' ↓

After making an Olive Garden-style minestrone, it seemed only natural to make the zuppa toscana as well. Since we had leftover breadsticks, it was another awesome replica. This soup is very much like the Spicy Potato & Kale Soup, but less spicy and much richer. I used a modified version of our tempeh soyrizo, and the leftover fakin crumblins from Tofu MarkMuffins. You’re always stuck with those crumblins, too thrifty to throw them out, but at a loss as to what to do with them. This soup is the answer!

Zuppa Toscana

• 1 large white onion, diced
• 1 package (1/2 lb) tempeh
• 4 tbsp fakin bits
• 3 medium-large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 4 large stalks (half a bunch) of curly kale
• 6 large cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp oregano
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 cups veggie stock
• 4 cups water
• 1.5 cups soy creamer
• salt & pepper, to taste

Soysage

Tear the tempeh into pieces, leaving some larger chunks. In a small-medium-sized bowl, mix the soy sauce, oregano, cumin, 2 cloves of garlic, and crushed red pepper. Put the tempeh into a large bowl, then stir in the mixture, coating all of the tempeh evenly. Let this sit for for 15 minutes or more before using–it lets everything soak in.

In a large pot, saute fakin bits in oil, over medium heat. When they’ve browned and are starting to get crips, add in the onion, tempeh, and garlic. When the onions are soft, add in the potatoes, veggie stock, and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer. When the potatoes are soft, add in the soy creamer and kale, salting and peppering to taste.

Serve with breadsticks!

I’ve been salivating internally ever since I saw Lisa’s Chik’n Club Sammich during Vegan MoFo. Wait. That seems kind of gross. I wasn’t literally salivating nonstop for three months. I would need an IV to maintain that level of salivation. And you might too.

As you’ve probably learned by now, we’re not super into processed stuff, so I’d really been meaning to make a version using all fresh, homemade ingredients. We used our famous chik’n almond bake breaded tofu (thought this would have been superb with breaded seitan strips too). It was after 9pm when we started, so homemade bread wasn’t in the cards for this incarnation, but also would have been awesome (we just toasted some sandwhich bread). What’s worse, I totally forgot Lisa’s coup d’grace: fakin. Fakin’s a little labor intensive, so the fresh homemade route won’t yield a quick sammich in a pinch. We did, however, make homemade baked fries (we cut these into fry shapes and left out the cayenne) to round this out as one of those perfect healthy “unhealthy” meals that we often crave.

Chik’n Tofu Strip Club Sammich

• 1 lb of extra firm tofu, frozen then thawed
• bread
• lettuce
• purple onion
• tomato
• fakin (optional)
• chik’n almond bake
• safflower oil
• Earth Balance ™ or Vegenaise ™

You’ll want to freeze then thaw a pound of extra firm tofu. This makes it a little spongy and more firm–a better texture for chik’n and also nice in some stir fries. We try to keep tofu in both states on hand. It’ll keep for a very long time in the freezer.

Preheat the oven 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Thaw your tofu. When it’s thawed, squeeze all the water out and cut into strips–you’ll probably want them to be about 2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″. The strip size is really a matter of preference though. Coat each strip in safflower oil then in the chik’n almond bake. Place on a baking sheet  and cook for about 15 minutes on one side, flip, then cook for about another 10 minutes–until brown and crispy, but not burnt. They will crisp up a scosh upon cooling.

Toast some bread (or pull some fresh bread from the oven). Slather the sammich spread of your choice on said bread. Place as many tofu strips as will cover a piece of bread on once piece. Then add the fakin (if using), lettuce, tomato, and onion, in that order. Cut in half if it strikes your fancy. Serve with fries. Or not. It’s your meal.

I first made a version of this with my excellent pals Nick and Uncle Nathan for Friend Thanksgiving years and years ago. I don’t know where Uncle Nathan found the recipe, but over the years it’s become Amy’s and my staple Spanksgiving centerpiece. What’s great about this (aside from being delicious) is that it doesn’t attempt to mock a turkey; this means that (a) if you’re giving spanks with omnivores, they might enjoy this too (Amy’s dad ate some at Spanksgiving and had some instead of turkey the next day for leftovers), and (b) you can start a new tradition that doesn’t ape one you don’t support.

Spanksgiving Faux-Turkey

• 2/3 batch (2 packages if store-bought) of seitan
• 1/2 box of Fillo dough
• buttery spread (I like Earth Balance Whipped Buttery Spread)
• ~6 – 8 pieces of bread
• 1 large (but not huge) white onion, diced
• 1 handful fresh sage, diced (or ~3 tbsp dried sage / 1 tbsp if dried and ground)
• salt
• pepper
• 1 cup veggie stock (I like to use the seitan broth)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

This is all about the stuffing, really.  Either by hand or in a food processor, shred the bread into small pieces and crumblins and dump into a large mixing bowl.  Dice the onion and sage and add to the bread.  Mix the dry ingredients together briefly by hand.  Add the veggie stock incrementally in small pours until the mixture is just moist (you may not use all of the veggie stock–this depends largely on how dense your bread is).  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Tear the seitan into smaller pieces (it will probably come in pieces) and form a mound of seitan 8 – 10 inches around in the center of the cookie sheet.

Pack the stuffing over the mound of seitan, preserving the roundness and shape of the mound.

One by one (or two by two like a damned ark if your fillo dough sheets won’t cover the whole mound) place the fillo dough sheets on the mound and brush with melted buttery spread.

That’s right.  EACH layer gets brushed with butter.  This ensures that your crust will be flakier than Lindsay Lohan.

Keep applying dough until you can’t see through it anymore and it’s a solid brown-white in color (you may later find that you like thinner or thicker crust).

Bake until crust is golden brown.

Though it’s really good by itself, I recommend a little gravy to go with it.

For me, cooking is largely a creative endeavor, like making art–something steeped in inspiration and which doesn’t like being bossed around. For the first few weeks, the MoFo was just a great way to push myself a little harder, a context for creation. But in the last few days, it’s become harder–for better or worse. Maybe now is the most important time–when it’s no longer easy and I have to start making real decisions, instead of being blown by the winds of whimsy.

It was in this state that I approached last night’s meal: Seitan Bread Bake, Roasted Acorn Squash Soup, and Scalloped Potatoes. With the additional caveat: I must not produce any more leftovers that Amy won’t eat (it gets a little old eating pot pie for lunch every day for a week). So, I wanted to craft a meal that catered to all of Amy’s cravings.

(I’m feeling a bit loquacious today–feel free to skip to THE ACTION)

Mulling over how to put all of this together without creating a hodgepodge of crap, I took inspiration from this really attractive meal at The Airy Way. It reminded me of two things that I often really like in a meal: lots of different, small portions and a nice mix of complex recipes with simple ones.

We usually approach a soup as a meal, but every once in a while I get a wild hare to do an appetizer-type soup. We had a few acorn squash to use up, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity for Roasted Acorn (and Garlic!) Soup. Riding out the Autumn trend (which happened to be saddled to the Amy’s-Craving trend), it seemed like a good night to take another stab at Faux Gratin Potatoes. We’ve been a little nooched out of late, so we decided that a simpler, cleaner Scalloped Potato might be a nice change.

The surprise champeen of the dinner, to my surprise, was the Seitan Bread Bake. We had tomatoes and bread to use up and Amy mentioned this sort of tomato and bread bake that a friend’s dad used to make. My interest was piqued. Of course, we also nad seitan to use up (there’s a theme here). The original recipe used basil, but we have a mess of pesto in the freezer right now–this, I firmly believe, was the crucial element. I don’t have words for how awesome this stuff tastes. You could prepare it faster than I could describe it.

In any case, here’s THE ACTION:

Roasted Acorn Squash (and Garlic!) Soup

• 2 small acorn squash, cut in half and degutted
• 1 HEAD of garlic
• 1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced
• 3 cups veggie stock
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice the acorn squash in half, remove the guts, then place on an oiled cooking sheet. Slice off the top of the head of garlic, place in foil, and douse with olive oil. Bake the squash for 45 minutes and the garlic for 30 minutes (i.e. just put garlic in 15 minutes after the squash).

Meanwhile, sautee the onion in oil or Earth Balance in a medium-sized pot over medium heat, untill soft. When the squash and garlic are done, remove them from the oven and give them at least 10 minutes to cool. Spoon and knife the squash and garlic, respectively, into the pot with the onion. Add in the stock, stir well, then blend with an immersion blender. If you’re using a standard blender, you can put all the ingredients directly in the blender, then transfer to the pot. Blend until very smooth. Add the cumin, then salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with a swirl of Rooster Sauce.

Scalloped Potatoes

• 4 medium – large potatoes, cut into thin disks (peel, if using brown taters)
• 1/2 medium-sized white onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/2 cup cooked white beans, drained
• 1/2 cup ground cashews
• 1/2 cup milk-like product
• tsp ground mustard seed
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp Earth Balance
• salt and pepper, to taste
• bread crumbs (optional)

This is very much like the Al-Faux-Do sauce, but with white beans and a bit more lemon. It’s a bit thicker and, despite the lemon, a tinch less sharp (and even less so after baking).

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the potatoes. Sautee the onion and garlic in the Earth Balance over medium heat. Once they’re soft, add them to the blender along with the other ingredients (except the potatoes) and blend until smooth.

Put the potatoes in an oven-safe casserole dish and pour the the sauce over them, mixing very thoroughly. The more shallow you stack the potatoes, the faster they’ll and the more bread crumbs you can fit on top. Your call.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and add bread crumbs (if you’re using them). Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Check the potatoes with a fork–if they’re nice and soft, you’re done. Otherwise, cook for an additional 5 minutes and check again. Repeat as necessary.

Seitan Bread Bake

• 2 thick pieces of bread, cut into large cubes (we used our homemade bread; use 3 pieces if using sandwich bread)
• 1 large seitan cutlet (or two smaller ones), cut into large cubes
• 3 small tomatoes (or 1 large tomato–use your judgment), cut into pieces
• 3 cubes frozen pesto (~1/2 cup) OR fresh garlic and basil, minced
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Place the bread, seitan, and tomatoes in an oiled oven-safe casserole dish or cooking sheet with a little depth (there will be a fair amount of oil and tomato juice–so you don’t want a totally flat sheet). Mix them up, so everything is fairly evenly distributed. Douse generously with olive oil, then spread pesto on top (if you’re thawing, you’ll probably need a little olive oil to the pest when warming). Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil, stir everything thoroughly, and bake for another 15 minutes, until bread and seitan are somewhat firm. Prepare your tastebuds. Fantastic!

Wait. Fake chickens have fake fingers?

Amy was skeptical at first, but after she tried one, she had to admit they were pretty awesome. It was her genius idea, though, to gussy up what could have been a fairly plain meal with roasted cauliflower and smashed potatoes with a fancy roasted-garlic, wine, and carmelized-onion reduction.

We made the Chik’n Fingers from the seitan we made the other night from Jennifer’s version of Joanna’s recipe, cut into thin strips (about an inch wide), battered in Chik’n Almond Bake, and baked 15 minutes to a side at 425 degrees. Super simple and kind of a nice change of pace.

These would also work nicely on that amazing looking club sammich over at Lisa’s Thoughts, for those of you looking to avoid processed faux meats (just cook them at 10 minutes to a side instead).

We nabbed the roasted cauliflower recipe from our ol’ stalwart companion, VegWeb.

The smashed potatoes were the usual deal (well, almost…we used unpeeled purple potatoes). The reduction is as follows:

Fancy Garlic-Onion-Wine Reduction

• 1/2 large purple onion, diced
• 1 HEAD of garlic, roasted
• ~ 1/2 cup white wine (or sub red, for a something a bit heavier/richer)
  
• 3 tbsp (aka 1/4 cup) Earth Balance

In a carmelizing-able pan (nonstick pans usually won’t carmelize), begin carmelizing the onion in the Earth Balance over medium heat. After about 5 minutes, once the onions havae begun to soften, add in half the wine. When the onions have carmelized, remove the cloves of roasted garlic with a butter knife and add to the onions. With the mashing implement of your choice, mash the onions and garlic together thoroughly. Add in the remaining wine (or more, for desired consistency) and cook for another few minutes.

Serve as just a light drizzle; this is not a gravy! (some things, you have to learn the hard way…)

I adapted this recipe for TVP & Tofu soyrizo to use tempeh. I don’t really like working with TVP and it’s awesome with tempeh. So.

• 1 package of tempeh, minced into minuscule crumblins
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar (or mix of cooking sherry & red wine)
• 1/8 cup soy sauce/tamari/shoyu/Bragg’s(tm)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin

In a small-medium-sized bowl, mix all of the ingredients except the tempeh. Pour the tempeh in to a large bowl, then stir in the mixture, coating all of the tempeh evenly. Let this sit for for about 15 minutes before using–it lets everything soak in and allows the vinegar to mellow a little bit.

As you have recently learned (you have been following along, right?) from making black bean burgers: The secret to vegan grilling is pre-baking or pre-steaming.

Whilst unearthing this fantastic culinary nugget, it occurred to me, strangely, for the first time: hey, I could make a grrrrrillable chick patty. Why this never occurred to me before, I can’t tell you. It’s too sad.

But occur it did. Like a Mack truck.

When I first grilled one of these and saw the perfect charred-in lines, I might have actually giggled. But deeply. Like Barry White thinking of something funny he saw on TV.  Behold:

Grillable Chick Patties

• 2 cups (1 can) cooked chick peas
• 1/4 grated/microplaned/finely diced carrots
• 2 sprigs fresh / 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup ground oats
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed, mixed with 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 batch chik’n almond bake

Preheat oven to 375. Place a pan of water on a low rack. This will keep things moist.

Prepare the flax seed and water–this needs to sit for about 10 minutes, until it becomes sort of gelatinous. This is the equivalent of 1 egg and can be used as a binder in lots of other recipes.

Rinse and drain the chick peas thoroughly. It’s important that you think of them as “chick peas” and not “garbanzo beans,” as that would ruin the play on “chick.” In general, “garbanzo” people are not to be trusted.

Add in the carrots. Mash. Mash it up.

Add in the ground oats and spices and mix/mash thoroughly.

Oil a baking sheet. Form the mix into patties–this will make 3 decent-sized burgers or 4 smallish guys. I recommend going with 3. Actually, I recommend making a double, triple, or quadruple batch–since it doesn’t really take much more work and these can be refrigerated or frozen. Pop the patties on the cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes to a side.

They can be grilled immediately or refrigerated or frozen.

Serve on a lightly toasted (right on the grill) bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and either Earth Balance ™ or Vegenaise ™.

We had this with smashed potatoes and mushroom gravy.

Behold, dear readers! I hath wrought a miracle! A grillable black bean burger!

Actually, it’s quite simple. I can sum it up in a word: pre-baking. Yup, that’s it. You bake these puppies before you grill them.

I stumbled on this secret making VeganDad’s recipe (adapted from Isa’s) for brats. Their secret is steaming the brats for 40 minutes. So they’re already cooked, more or less, when you toss them on the grill. And these things grill like true champeens. So applied this same brilliantly obvious logic to black bean burgers. I’m embarrassed to admit that I tried this literally the first, using wheat gluten as a binder and steaming the burgers. Ugh. More mess than firmness. Like an aging hooker.

But last night I went with one of my traditional recipes, but baking them in advance. They too grilled like true champeens.

Grrrrrrillable Black Bean Burgers

• 2 cups (1 can) cooked black beans
• 1/4 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 onion, diced
• 1 serrano pepper, minced (halapeno or fresno will work too)
• 3 sprigs fresh / 1.5 tsp dry oregano
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1/4 cup ground oats
• 2 tbsp corn meal
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 375. Place a pan of water on a low rack. This will keep things moist–you don’t want these puppies to dry out.

Prepare the flax seed and water–this needs to sit for about 10 minutes, until it becomes sort of gelatinous. This is the equivalent of 1 egg and can be used as a binder in lots of other recipes.

Rinse and drain the blackbeans thoroughly. Add in the onion, bell pepper, and hot pepper. Now mashmashmash!

Add in the ground oats, cornmeal, and spices and mix/mash thoroughly.

Mix the corn in last, because you want whole kernels. Unless you’re into cream corn, in which case all bets are off.

Oil a baking sheet. Form the mix into patties–this will make 3 decent-sized burgers or 4 smallish guys. I recommend going with 3. Actually, I recommend making a double, triple, or quadruple batch–since it doesn’t really take much more work and these can be refrigerated or frozen. Pop the patties on the cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes to a side.

They can be grilled immediately or refrigerated or frozen.

Serve on a lightly toasted (right on the grill) bun, garnished with fresh avocado slices, lettuce, and salsa. Or enjoy “traditional” style with lettuce, tomato, onion and the burger-y condiments of your choice.

Excelsior!

In a sense, this should be a no-brainer. You know how to make a damned sandwich, right?

But do you know why you’ll never go hungry in the desert?

Because of all the sand which is (sandwiches) there. So think about that.

But I jest. Sometimes, it’s just nice to be reminded to make a sandwich, to remember how awesome a sandwich can be. While there are any number of variations, this is our “go-to sandwich”.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 pieces of bread (we like whole wheat or multi grain)
• 1 – 2 pieces of lettuce
• 1/8 small purple onion
• 1/2 small tomato or 1/4 large tomato (beefsteak, ironically, is very nice for this)
• vegenaise ™ / earth balance ™
• homemade seitan, sliced / almond chik’n bake / smoked tofu
• Miracle Blend Seasoning ™, or salt and pepper

Butter each piece of bread. Alternately, if your tastebuds are broken and you like vegan mayo, use that. It’s probably the more appropriate condiment for this type of sandwich…if you believe what The Man’s been telling you.

Now, thinly slice the tomato. Ideally, you will have an atom smasher for this. If not, a very sharp knife will do. A tomato is your worst enemy if you don’t have an atom smasher or very sharp knife. Put the tomato slices on the bread.

Next, you’ll want to slice the onion even thinner than the tomato. It doesn’t seem possible, I know, but have faith. You have to see a thinner onion in your mind’s eye. Put these on top of the tomatoes.

Now the lettuce on top of that.

And finally your homemade meat-like substance and sprinkle Miracle Blend ™ or salt and pepper on the top piece of bread.

Pop the top piece of bread on and cut the sandwich in half diagonally. Do not skip this step! You’re enjoyment of this sandwich will be increased by magnitudes.

Finally, eat! You won’t regret it.

We were making a salad, Amy and I, one with almond slivers. As I opened the jar, I experienced the unmistakable smell of chicken. Was I having a stroke? So it would seem…

A stroke of genius! And you’ll have a stroke too this is so awesome.

I’m serious. I would eat a shoe coated in this.

While this will work on any ol’ seitan, or even tempeh (depending on your tastes), I used the Post Punk Kitchen’s quality recipe. Or a shoe.

Chik’n Almond Bake

• 3/4 cup ground almonds
• 1.5 tbsp nu yeast
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 pkg uncut seitan/tempeh
• cooking oil, preferably safflower (olive oil has too distinct of a taste)

Preheat oven to 425. Cut the seitan/tempeh into quarter inch slices–use your judgment about size. I use the homemade seitan, so I usually end up with a roundish piece, about 2.5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches thick. This wil make 6 -8 slices, generally.

Since you probably don’t have access to ground almonds, you’ll want to grind some almond slivers or whole almonds (for some strange reason, I like the taste of the slivers better–less of the amaretto flavor). I use a coffee grinder for this.

In a medium sized bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.

Now. Pour some oil in a shallow bowl. Dip the seitan/tempeh/etc into the oil–lightly coating both sides. Next. Dip the seitan/tempeh/etc/shoe in the chik’n almond bake, thoroughly coating both sides.

Pop those sumbitches on a cooking sheet and pop in the oven, cooking 10 minutes to a side. Cook for 15 minutes on the second side if you plan to eat right away.

Magnficent!