"beer" battered "burger"

Going along with the below recipes, Sam and I have continued our deep-frying spree. I have balanced this spree with 4 miles a day of running, and eating Kashi Go Lean instead of other unhealthy food... because the amount of frying we've been doing could lead to obesity. Anyhow, VegNews ran a decent recipe this issue for beer battered tempeh fish, that we modified and made last night.

1 c. quinoa flour
1 T. baking powder
1.5 t. salt
1 t. cayenne pepper
0.5 t. garlic powder
0.5 t. black pepper
12 oz. something carbonated like beer(truth be told, we don't ever drink beer so we used lime seltzer...)
0.25 c. vinegar
1 T. agave
A dusting of cornstarch for the tempeh (0.25 c.?)
tempeh patties or strips- one package
hot sauce (optional)
oil for frying

Mix together flour, baking powder, seasoning with beer/carbonated beverage. It should be pancake batter consistency. Steam the tempeh for 5-10 minutes until it is thoroughly warmed. Combine agave and vinegar in a shallow dish. Wash over steamed tempeh. Warm oil over medium heat. Dust tempeh in cornstarch, dip in batter and fry until golden brown. This batter is awesome because it puffs up (as you can see in the picture... our patties were regular veggie-burger thickness).

Serve with hot sauce. A bunch of it.

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.

Roasted Red Pepper and Asparagus Pasta Salad

I start my new job tomorrow, so I am making food to bring to eat all week. And it's spring. So I'm making pasta salad. I posted a pasta salad/bbq vegetables recipe awhile ago, and this is similar to that, but with less ingredients, and faster.

First, roast some red peppers.

This was initially intimidating to me and I was all like "omg, how do you do this, it must be so hard. i must google this and read 20 different websites to make sure i'm doing it right". you actually just put peppers under the broiler til the skins are black. It's about as difficult as making toast (if you are a toasterless hobo such as myself). So yea. First, do that to one pepper. After you broil them, put them in a freezer bag til they cool (the bag lets the flavors ruminate) for like 20 minutes.

The skins should peel off easily at this point. If they don't, whatever, skins are full of fiber and good for your bowel movements.

Here are the ingredients:
-bunch of asparagus, the skinnier the better
-half a sweet onion, sliced
-pasta
-1 roasted red pepper
-4 oz (1/2 a package) of tempeh
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper
-garlic or garlic powder
-crush red pepper (optional)
-the juice of a lime
-balsamic vinegar
-dried or fresh basil to taste

Sautee the onion in olive oil until translucent. Dump it into a bowl. Add some more oil, and sautee the asparagus until tender, with salt and pepper, dump into the bowl. Cut up the tempeh, add some more oil, crushed red pepper (optional) and some salt, sautee the tempeh until browned (i like all the burned crap that is on the pan at this point to give the tempeh a little extra flavor, but if that grosses you out, wash it off in between). Dump that in the bowl too. While you are doing this, you should've been boiling some pasta. I don't know how much because I like my vegetable to pasta ratio to be mostly vegetables, while some prefer mostly pasta. Once the pasta is done, drain it well and let it cool. mix everything together, add balsamic vinegar, a splash of oil, probably some more salt. Fresh basil is really good (home depot has the plants for like $1.99 and my mom has been out of town for 2 weeks and i managed not to murder her plant, so they are easy to take care of). Refrigerate until cool, taste it once more before you serve it and add more oil/vineger/salt/whatever before serving. I find the tempeh really sucks up a lot of moisture.

Stew

Haven't tried this yet, but I'm posting it to remind myself to try it. Looks delicious.

fat free vegan's winter stew

Holy Crap I Just Made The Most Delicious Sandwich Ever

So I don't usually post my "clean out the fridge night" made up stuff because a) it's usually difficult to recreate and, b) they usually take a billion ingredients, but this one was SO GOOD, I wanted to share. I think most people have this stuff lying around... half used packages of tempeh and ground meat, half used onions, cans of breadcrumbs, etc, etc but if you don't... don't bother with this recipe. If you do, enjoy. I've broken it into several parts, so I apologize that the ingredients list is scattered. All I bought for this was the baguette, the mushrooms, and the eggplant.

Meatball/Eggplant Marinara Sandwich
-baguette
-fresh spinach (or whatever lettuce-like thing you have)
-breaded eggplant (see below)
-sauce/protein slop (see below)

Step one, breaded eggplant:

-one eggplant
-plain almond milk (or soy/hemp/whatever)
-bread crumbs
-basil
-oregano
-pepper
-oil

Preheat the oven to 350. Slice the eggplant as thin as you can, and then dunk it in the milk. Season the breadcrumbs with the seasonings, and using small portions at a time, coat each eggplant slice in the breadcrumbs. The bread crumbs won't stick once the plate gets wet, which is why i advise doing the breadcrumbs in small batches. Put them on a cookie sheet greased with some olive oil and cook them at 350 til cripsy and brown. No need to use the entire eggplant. Save a portion of it for later. I used about 3 slices per sandwich (makes 3 sandwiches) and then ate some while I was waiting for everything else to cook, so maybe slice like 12 slices to bread and bake.

While that's baking... make the slop.

-olive oil
-half an onion, chopped
-some sliced portabellas
-half a package of Yves Ground "meat"
-1/2 a package of tempeh (I like the flax one)
-1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce of choice
-chopped garlic (or garlic powder)

Sautee the onion and garlic in the oil, add the mushrooms and sautee a little longer. Then add the tempeh. At this point you might need a bit more oil. Add the spaghetti sauce (about half a jar) and then the ground "meat" and simmer that for a little. Taste it and add more garlic/basil/oregano/pepper/salt as needed. You can add other italian-friendly veggies here like diced tomatoes, green pepper, etc. Whatever you have.

While that's simmering, take a baguette (I use the Whole Foods one sliced into thirds) and make sandwich sized cuts. Then cut it open almost completely (like they do at Subway) leaving one part attached like a hinge. At this point I scoop out most of the bread because I like to be wasteful, but it's up to you. Throw some lettuce (or fresh spinach like I did) on, followed by some eggplant slices, and then pile on the slop.

SHIT THAT'S GOOD.

I didn't think to take a picture until it was halfway devoured and it looks totally gross and unappetizing in the picture, but...

om nom nom nom.