Thanksgiving 2010

Tempeh and Wild Mushroom Fricassee 
This is from an article the New York Times ran this year, but I'm having trouble finding the exact link. This is pretty much the recipe. It's super easy and so delicious and healthy and something like 320 calories in a whole cup sized serving. Not that anyone I know cares about that.
12 oz (1.5 packages) of tempeh
2 c. button mushrooms, chopped
2 c. crimini mushrooms, chopped
2 c. shitake mushrooms, chopped
2 portobella caps, degilled and chopped
2 large leeks, chopped finely
20 cloves of garlic, minced (seriously 20)
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. flour
1/4 c. white wine
12 oz (1 can) veg broth
salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley to taste
2 T. oil

It helps if you chop up all the veggies first, because things get moving pretty fast once you start cooking stuff, and it helps to have everything ready to add all at once. Chop the tempeh into small cubes and cook in the oil in a dutch oven until browned evenly. Medium-high heat is desirable. Once the tempeh is browned, pour in the white wine and the soy sauce and stir it up with the tempeh til everything boils off. Remove tempeh from pan and set aside. Put the sliced leeks, all the mushrooms, and the garlic in the dutch oven and simmer for a little, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour, then the seasonings, and finally the veg broth. Cover and let everything simmer in there for a little while, when it's nearly done, add back in the tempeh and simmer for about 5 minutes uncovered until some of the liquid evaporates/thickens. Make it the night before and reheat it about 20 minutes before it's time to eat.


Family Recipe Vegan Stuffing
1/2 a log of the "gimme lean" fake sausage, cooked and chopped up small
1/2 a loaf of stale white store brand bread, ripped into pieces
1/2 c. celery, sliced very thin
2 small yellow onions, sliced thin
2-3 T. earth balance stick
1 c. veg broth
salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley to taste

Sautee the onion in the butter on medium heat until translucent. Add in the celery and sautee for 5 more minutes. Add in the fake sausage, the bread and the seasonings. Slowly stir in the veg broth, using more or less based on the staleness of the bread. This is best as a "drier" stuffing. Reduce heat to low, so nothing burns to the bottoms and cook for about 10 minutes stirring frequently/constantly.

Creamed Spinach
1/2 a package of frozen chopped spinach
1/3 a tub of tofutti better than creame cheese
1 T. earth balance
1-2 T. plain unflavored almond milk
salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper to taste

Thaw the spinach in a skillet with the earth balance over low-medium heat. Use a plate to cover the skillet so it defrosts more quickly.  Add the cream cheese and the seasonings. Slowly add the milk until the desired consistency is reached. I love the kick the cayenne gives it.

I also made my "usual" roasted garlic mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, both can be found in the way beginning of this blog with the tvp meatloaf. I also made a pecan pie which turned out really soupy and not that good, so I'm not posting it here. But thanksgiving was awesome this year.

Hungarian goulash

While I suspect my mother’s Hungarian Goulash’ is more Midwestern than Eastern European, it’s something I’ve been wanting to make for awhile. It was one of my favorite foods as a kid and it is incredibly easy to make. Perfect for fall when you are sick of all your normal soups and stews.

-12oz seitan—I use Ray’s wheat meat, which I believe is PA-local… any seitan will do
-one small yellow onion, chopped finely
-garlic to taste, finely chopped (I used 3 cloves)
-1.5 c. water
-3/4 c catsup
-2T Worchestire Sauces (I use Wizard’s, but there is a recipe for a vegan kind here in case you can’t find Wizard’s… recipe courtesy of Jenny Lewis)
-1T brown sugar
-1t salt
-2t paprika
-2 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in 4-6 oz of cold water.
-pasta (cooked) my mom always served it with the wide, flat egg noodles, so get a pasta shaped sort of like that. I use the mushroom-cap shaped guys at Whole Foods

In a skillet sauté the onions, garlic and seitan in some oil until the onions are translucent. Add sautéed mixture to a pot and then add the rest of the ingredients (except the cornstarch and pasta). Simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch water to thicken and heat for 1-2 more minutes. Serve over pasta.

Steve's Biscuits and Gravy

My coworker and friend Steve made this for his b-day party and it was awesome. It fed a lot of people (i'm sure he doubled it), it's easy, cheap, and most of the ingredients are things you already have. Because I'm midwestern, this is the kind of stuff I love.

Gravy
Toast 1 cup flour
Add 1 cup nut yeast - whisk while adding 1/4 cup est canola oil
Separately simmer 1 cup mushrooms and small onion chopped finely
Add together along w 2 cups veg broth
Add unsweetened soy/almond milk until correct consistency
Add lots of black pepper along w soy sauce, basil, cayenne, garlic
powder and I usually use lots of spike. Add all that stuff to taste
and stir and simmer for a good while

Biscuits-
Sift 2 cups flour w 1tsp salt and 3 tsp baking powder
Add 1/4 cup veg shortening and 1 cup soy/almond milk until just mixed-
you will prob need more non-dairy milk
Scoop or roll into desired shape and size and bake at 450 degrees for 12
min or so on oiled baking sheet

Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Gravy

Midwestern. I got this from a nonfat cooking recipe site awhile ago, and I've never been able to find the website again. I'd site the site if I knew it.

TVP Meatloaf
-2 cups prepared veg broth
-1/2 cup ketchup
-2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari (I use Braggs Amino Acids soy sauce)
-2 cups TVP
-1 cup quick oats (or bread crumbs)
-1/4 cup flaxseed
-1 tbsp nutritional yeast
-2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves of minced garlic)
-1 tsp onion powder
-2 tsp oregano
-2 tsp basil
-any other seasonings you like (i used hot sauce)

in a medium bowl, mix the broth, ketchup and TVP and let it set for 10 min until all the liquid is absorbed. Then, mix together everything else. Form it into a loaf on a cookie sheet, bake at 375 for 40-45. In the last 20 minutes of cooking, put more ketchup on the top.

my mushroom gravy: the rest of the veg broth that came in the carton (about 2 cups), 2 tbsp earth balance butter, chopped up portabellas, a squirt of Braggs. I simmered that, and then thickened it with corn starch.

I make my mashed potatoes with almond milk, roasted garlic, and earth balance and they are amazing. No idea what the ratios are. Normal Mashed Potato Ratios.

I doubled this recipe and it served 10 adults comfortably at my birthday party, but I also filled them up on snacks beforehand...