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.

Take heart fellow vegans, small victories are still possible! This year, for the first time ever, we did away with the traditional mixed Spanksgiving (omni/vegan) “Separate but Equal” dinner in favor of something more communal. You know the meal–an entire vegan feast alongside an entire non-vegan feast, a multitude of dishes that are identical, save soymilk, Earth Balance, and veggie stock in lieu of milk, butter, and turkey stock.

The weekend got off to a great start when we were greeted at the door with vegan oatmeal cookies, which Amy’s omni brother deemed “perfect”. How awesome is Amy’s mom? How awesome is it that Amy’s brother, in a single phrase, eliminated any further necessity to make non-vegan oatmeal cookies?

The vegan bonanza continued through to Spanksgiving too; Amy’s mom typically makes two dressings (you know, stuffing, but not in the turkey)–one with veggie stock and one with turkey/chicken stock. This year, she decided it was too much trouble and that no one would miss the meat stock, which they didn’t. She also traditionally makes both vegan and non-vegan mashed sweet potatoes with candied pecan topping. Though she did decide to make a non-vegan version as well at the last minute, Amy’s brother–our omni-acceptability-barometer–decreed the vegan version just as good, freeing Amy’s mom from any future obligation to make two versions.

Add to this homemade bread and steamed broccoli and cauliflower (there was a cheese sauce for the omnivores), and you have quite a shared meal! The omnivores had turkey and turkey gravy, while Amy and I had Spanksgiving Seitan Faux-Turkey and seitan gravy–though Amy’s dad had some of ours as well.

While it may not always be possible to convince your friends and family of your values, it is possible to achieve acceptance, to build respect, and to erode some of the barriers that keep us from meeting halfway and enjoying a meal together–which, history notwithstanding, is what Spanksgiving is all about.

Spanksgiving Menu:

• Spanksgiving Seitan Faux-Turkey
• Dressing
• Mashed Potatoes
• Steamed Broccoli & Cauliflower
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes w/ Candied Pecan Topping
• Homemade Rolls
• Seitan Gravy
• (Cranberry Sauce – Amy’s fambly ate this)
• (Turkey – Amy’s fambly ate this)

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.

This isn’t the kind of meal I’d want to eat every day, but when I do get that occasional hankerin’, I can’t get it out of my head and I have to make it. This isn’t terribly hard–if you have seitan and cashew cream on hand. Otherwise, it’s a little labor-intensive, but still worth it–very rich and filling.

I adapted this incarnation (the perfect stroganoff is a work-in-progress) from this VegWeb recipe–”The Czar’s Own Stroganoff”. On the whole, the recipe seemed pretty good, but I’m positive the czar would be into pepper. And in a perfect world, he wouldn’t want tomatoes in his stroganoff. Well, he would, but all he would have available is meat and cream, scorched earth, and a hardened soul. But no tomatoes. I subbed cashew cream for the tofu stuff–but go easy on the lemon.  I didn’t, but would, reduce the amount of paprika. The cream already adds some sweetness, so too much paprika just pushes this over the top. Also, since this calls for a “beefy” kinda seitan, I recommend the PPK’s version, not Jennifer’s/Joanna’s (which I used because I had it on hand–just marinade for a few hours in veggie stock and soy sauce). Finally, because I need to get this off my chest: I’m not into cubed seitan. I say that with some reservation, as I’m sure there’s some recipe in which it would perform magnificently. But in general, cubed food seems kind of unnatural to me. I like strips or pieces, and getting different types of bites. Sometimes I even cut my tofu or tempeh irregularly, even though their natural shape is a block. I’m just sayin’ is all.

Seitan Stroganoff

• ~ 3 cups chopped seitan (1 “ball” if you made the PPK recipe)
• 1 medium-large white onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 – 3 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced thick
• 1 cup veggie stock (I like to use the stock from the seitan)
• 3/4 cup cashew cream (but go easy on the lemon! you can add more later)
  
• 1 tbsp tarragon
• 1 tsp paprika (add 1/4 tsp at a time and taste!)
• salt and papper, to taste
• unsweetened milk-like beverage (you may want to thin, esp. if you have leftovers)
• a splash of soy sauce
• noodles of your choice

As you’d expect, sautee the onion, garlic, and mushrooms in oil and a splash of soy sauce in a large skillet over medium heat. Once they’ve started to become tender, add in the seitan and cook until the seitan starts to brown (or get browner, as the case may be). Add in the stock, tarragon, lots of pepper, and cashew cream, stirring well. Salt to taste. Add in 1/4 tsp paprika and taste. If you want your stroganoff a little sweeter with a hint of spice, add another 1/4 tsp. This is truly a matter of personal preference. I don’t like a lot of paprika in my stroganoff. Some people might. Depending on how easy you went with the lemon in the cashew cream, you may find you want to add a squeeze or two now. As with the paprika, do this little by little. You can’t take it back. Reduce heat and let simmer while you’re finishing/starting your noodles.

At some point, you will have wanted to start your noodles. If your sauce gets too thick, add in a but of unsweetened milk-like-product (we like almond milk for this).

As anticipated, serve stroganoff over noodles. Invite the czar. We had this with brussels sprouts, which the czar also loves.

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…)

It seems like a lot of us MoFos are on the same page; winter’s setting in and it’s time for soups and taters. We made Chik’n Breaded Seitan Steaks, boiled potatoes (fresh from our garden!), and steamed and lightly sauteed brussel sprouts. ’twas a downhome meal that Jennifer would have been proud of.

We’ve already posted the Seitan Steaks, so I’ll just leave you with a few notes on the potatoes and brussel sprouts.

Boiling potatoes is awesome/easy. Larger potatoes take longer to cook, as do brown potatoes. So. Bring water to boiling and pop in the largest brown potatoes. Add the largest red potatoes shortly thereafter. The largest brown potatoes pictured above required about 15 minutes. The smallest, probably only 6 or 7.

Brussel sprouts are slightly less easy–but totally worth it. Cut off the hard base, like you would a mushroom. Remove any loose leaves. Anything an inch or larger, we usually cut in half–but it’s your call. You’re going to sautee these, so the more surface area, the more buttery deliciousness. Steam these for 5 -8 minutes (depends on how much you’re making), until they’re brighter green and easily pierced with a fork (but not mushy!). When they’re done, sautee them in ~2tbsp Earth Balance(tm) in a frying pan over medium heat. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. Don’t overcook–you’re just adding a little flavor.

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.

Occasionally you have to scratch the unhealthy itch. Today, that itch was Egg McMuffins(tm). Well, my 10-year old conception of what an Egg McMuffin might be like. I guess, the itch was the word “McMuffin”. Because I wanted to use the word “MarkMuffin”.

Now, this is a fairly easy itch to scratch–if you don’t mind using store-bought processed fakin. However: Amy found an awesome recipe on VegWeb for tofu fakin, so today was the day to rock it.

The Fakin Part

• 1 lb extra firm tofu
• soy sauce/tamari/shoyu/braggs
• my new best friend (aka Liquid Smoke(tm))
• maple syrup (optional)
• nutrional yeast

Cut the tofu down to about an inch thick (or as thick as your peeler will allow). Shave it into thin slices with a vegetable peeler. This is the magic step. You cannot substitute or change this step in any way. Unless you want terrible fakin. In a large, flat container of some sort, pour enough soy sauce to cover the bottom. If the pan is about 6″ x 9″, you’ll want to then add about 1.5 tsp of Liquid Smoke, 1 tbsp of nu yeast, and 1 tsp of maple syrup (I think I prefer it without this, but some folks like a tinge of sweetness in their fakin). The amounts will all go up if you’re using a larger container, obviously.

Toss as many slices of fakin as will cover the bottom of the pan. Swish the marinade over the top. Let these sit for at least 10 minutes, then fry them in a small amount of oil over low medium heat. This will depend on your pan, but if you cook at too high a heat, you’ll get crisp edges but slightly soft fakin–and most people want this crisp. Cook until it’s crisp.

Rinse, wash, repeat. Lather.

You can do this with several containers or use a lot more liquid if you want to speed the process up.

The “Egg” Part

• 1 slice of tofu, about 1/4″ thick, and 2 – 3 inches square
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• nu yeast
• salt
• pepper

Fry up the tofu in a bit of oil in a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle on sundry powders/granules. When the tofu starts to brown on the bottom, flip and sprinkle the other side with powdery sundries. When the part that was the top but is now the bottom starts to brown, it’s done.

The Preparation

Toast an english muffin (ideally Rudy’s) and slather with Earth Balance. Pop on the “egg,” then the fakin, then the top muffin. Outstanding!