Mother Vegan Seitan Stroganov

If you've followed me for a while, you're probably familiar with
my complicated relationship with mushrooms. You'll also be glad to
hear that I am still working on it. In fact, I actually had a craving
for a dish with mushrooms. Yeah, weird huh? Craving something that
could potentially trigger me to start gagging.

(If you're not so familiar with my mushroom problem-- for some
reason, ever since I was little, they cause me to gag. Not that
I don't like them, they just trigger me to puke. Yes, a complicated
relationship indeed.)

A few months ago I had a dish of middle eastern vegan stroganoff.
It was pretty good, I guess. But it was one of those dishes that you
sat at a restaurant eating while only thinking about how much better
you could make it. (Why the hell am I paying $12 for this!?)

I've also noticed that I have recently been ordering things that
Monkey-man would be more likely to pick off the menu, I suppose it's
my way of eating outside my comfort zone. It hasn't gone wrong so far!

Yet, since I knew he'd enjoy this Russian comfort food, I had to
make it for dinner. I believe that middle eastern versions usually
contain tomato paste, so mine is more Russian. I'd use a different type
of pasta than the little UFO guys we had here-- or even make it again
with some roasted potatoes, even better!

Mother Vegan Seitan Stroganov



2 tbsp earthbalance
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups white button (or any) mushroom, chopped
1/2 cup cup dry red wine
1 vegetable bouillon cube
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp mustard
1/4 cup water
1 cup seitan, chopped*
1/3-1/2 cup vegan sour cream
salt and pepper
pinch of tarragon

Melt the earth balance and add the onion and garlic, sauteing
for a few minutes until it become translucent and fragrant.

Add the mushrooms, bouillon cube, and wine. Cook the mushrooms
until the start to look a little soft. Add the flour and mustard
and cook for a few minutes more.

Add the water if it looks like it needs a little liquid.
Toss in the seitan, sour cream and seasonings and heat through.
Serve once the mushrooms are tender and it is thoroughly hot.

Made about enough for 4 servings, maybe more depending on what
you serve it with. I used my homemade cracked pepper seitan.
But use whatever works for you, as long as it has a good flavor.

If it is the unflavored seitan maybe add an extra bit of soysauce
and seasonings.



And if you haven't watched it yet, check out our video entry for
the Daiya cheese contest. And please share it too!

Pumpkin Patch Part One: Pumpkin Pasta Sauce

In honor of my favorite time of year I've decided to do a series of
the most famous autumn fare (and my personal favorite): Pumpkin!

I love squash because of the wonderful colours, shapes, variety and
simple versatility. It is amazing in savory and sweet dishes alike.
Therefore, I thought I'd start off with something you might do a
double take at... Pumpkin Pasta Sauce!

Also because I wanted to use the adorable animal shaped pasta I
recently got. I bought it for mac and cheese, but I had a lot leftover.
The shaped pasta like this really captures the sauce well.

We ate it with some sauteed zucchini and some garlic bread--
But now I have a craving for spiced apple cider!

Pumpkin Pasta Sauce



2 cups of cooked pumpkin
1 cup soymilk or cashew cream
1 vegetable bouillon
5 fresh sage leaves, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp salt
black and white pepper to taste
nutmeg to taste

1/2 tvp
1 tsp oil
salt and pepper to taste
vegetable broth

nutritional yeast

Brown the tvp in a pan over medium heat in the oil. Once the tvp
begins to reach a golden brown and start to toast, turn down and
continually add vegetable broth, while cooking. Once the tvp has
plumped up, is no longer dry on the inside and any excess liquid
is cooked off remove it from the heat. Set aside.

Blend or process your cooked pumpkin with the ‘milk’/cream until
smooth. Over medium heat saute the onion in a few tablespoons of
water. After about two minutes, add the garlic and then the sage.
Cook, adding more water if needed, until the onion appears
translucent and tender.

Add the bouillon, pumpkin mix, tvp, 1/4 cup water/broth and
remaining seasonings. Turn down to medium-low heat and cook for
about more 15 minutes.

Serve over your favorite cooked pasta and top with some nutritional
yeast or mix about a 1/4 cup in right before serving.

Makes enough sauce for 3-4 servings.

sweaty summer

No recipes to post today, just a couple shots of stuff that will soon
be going up on my tester blog. I'm going to be getting up early
tomorrow to catch up on some cooking projects. We've been running
all over the place running errands etc, so I've had very little time
to do some serious experimenting.

Tomorrow I will also be going to the Lemon Lily Festival in town,
so I should be able to catch some awesome photos!

Here are my tester dishes for the book...


Van Helsing's Alfredo


Holiday Citrus Green Beans

Cool Summer Pasta

When it is hot, it takes a lot to get cooking. Sometimes you
don't even want to eat, but you can get all the veggies you
need by keeping it cool. I certainly needed a break from all
the bread I've been baking, but I still wanted my carbs.

I whipped up some simple summer pasta for a warm day that
really hit the spot. You can even shred some raw squash instead
of pasta. I briefly sautéed some zucchini and yellow squash just
enough to get rid of that raw flavor and add a little bit of
moisture. Other than that, all I had to do was cook some spaghetti.

Throwing in some chopped green beans, asparagus or even some
tofu-feta would be a nice touch too.

By adding some red chili you can get a little bit of a sweat
going, which is perfect for a hot day. Getting your body to
sweat will tell your body to cool down. Plus the dish itself is
chilled, so you get the meal to cool your mind too.

Chilled Summer Pasta



1 package of spaghetti or angel hair
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 zucchinis, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
1/2 can artichoke hearts
1 1/2 cups garbanzo beans
3 cloves garlic, minced
a few green olives sliced
3 tbsp olive oil
juice from half a lemon
1 tsp salt
Red Chili Flakes to taste
black pepper

Cook the squash and zucchini over medium heat with a few
tablespoons of water for only a couple of minutes. Toss
together everything and chill for about an hour before
cooking (opt).

Vegan Fettucini Alfredo

The summer I spent living with two of my best friends, our
cheap college fare was extremely bizarre and fatty. Granted
we did eat our fair share of potatoes and the vegetarian ramen,
there were three main things I learned to cook during that time
span. I learned how to make crepes from my neighbor, mochi from a
classmate and alfredo from my roomie.

I wrote before how we used to eat a crap ton of crepe...
But I have no idea why we started making alfredo. It was
originally what me started back on a path to attempting to
reincorporate mushrooms into my diet. Ultimately that was
foiled by my strange gag reflex triggered by them.
However, we used porcini mushrooms nonetheless in hopes that
someday I could stomach them.

Since those days I continued making alfredo, but very rarely or
when I was desperate to make something my mom would eat.

I learned to make it with fresh parmesan and heavy cream and
since been trying to make a vegan version with nutritional
yeast and soymilk.

*Enter 'The Urban Vegan'

I really dig this cookbook. Unlike most of the vegan books that
get churned out, it doesn't contain a lot of asian dishes or
bizarre expensive ingredients. I have a very european palate I
must admit.

So finally I shoveled out the earthbalance and made Balcavage's
Vegan Alfredo. I made a couple adjustments...

First, I added garlic. Sorry, but I don't know what alfredo without
garlic would be like... Oh yeah. Boring.

Second, I cut down on the earthbalance and upped the nutritional
yeast. Theory was to make a roux out of the oil and yeast. Well,
to make a proper roux you need equal portions of the fat and X--
typically flour.

Third, having a proper roux you don't need the kudzu root that is
called for.



Vegan Fettucini Alfredo~ Adapted

Ingredients

3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup earthbalance
1/4 cup heaping nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup soy milk
black pepper

In a medium pan over medium heat, saute garlic in melting
earthbalance. Once the garlic becomes fragrant, add the
nutritional yeast to form your roux.

Continue to cook for about for a few minutes to cook roux.
Whisk in soymilk a little at a time. Add salt and turn to
low. Allow to simmer until it thickens up.

Toss with fettucini or other desired pasta.
I made about 2/3 of a package for this much sauce and served
it with some dark leafy greens.

To add some extra protein try tossing in some vegan chic like
gardein.

Even without the mushrooms, the memories hit me and I tasted
them anyway. Amusingly enough, Monkey-man said later that if
we hadn't had it with greens he wouldn't have been able to
stomach it either because he kept 'memory-tasting' shrimp.
Go figure! So, yes. This alfredo is so authentic tasting it
will blow your mind!

Unidentified Filled Object: Vegan Ravioli

The idea of making your own pasta does appear to be very daunting.
I'm hear to tell you not to fear, fresh delicious, egg-free pasta
very near. You don't need a pasta roller or a ravioli cutter to
make awesome ravioli. Although, if you have them on hand it would
cut your prep time in half at least.

I find it strange that the majority of pasta you buy is egg-free,
but 98% of pasta recipes you find call for at least two eggs.

I'm now at the stage of experimenting with different flours and
colours with spinach and tomato, but this you will find is a
great place to start with either unbleached all-purpose dough
or semolina flour.

Basic Basic Vegan Pasta Dough

1 cup flour
1/4-1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Slowly incorporate the water into the flour by adding only a 1/4
of a cup at first. Only add a few drops at a time after that
as you go or else you dough will get sticky fast. What you want
is a nice dense brick. It may seem too dry, but just keep working
it before adding more water.

I keep a bowl of water on hand though to seal any cracks that
may occur later.

After mixing everything together, knead for about 5 minutes.
Let rest for 10 minutes and knead and rest again. Its easy to get
frustrated if making the dough by hand, but all that you need to
do is be sure to let your dough rest often. Allowing your dough
to rest will allow the gluten to relax and activate, yielding
a smooth texture.

On a very lightly floured surface begin to roll out your dough.
Whenever it seems like its getting too tough, just let it rest
a moment and try again. I don't know exactly what thickness to
say you should roll it out too, but I would say that of a
regular piece of denim if you were to hold it between your
fingers.

Plop your prepared filling onto the dough and wet the dough
with your fingers around the area so it will seal when the top
layer is pressed down. The filling should be spaced about
and inch apart on half the the rolled-out dough. With a
sharp knife cut off half of the dough and place it over the side
with the filling. Press down and cut out the squares.

For some reason I had a bizarre compulsion to make them round,
so I used a glass to trace the size and ended up sealing
them one at a time.

By the time you're pressing the edges individually, it may start
to dry out. So, you may have to gently wipe it with damp fingers
to continue sealing them or shaping if you are making plain pasta.
Drop the ravioli into boiling water and cook until al dente,
anywhere from 3-7 minutes. They will start to look soft and
slightly more translucent.





Here is my little tester...


Then the whole shabang....


Topped with a cheesy sauce next to a nice salad...


Pumpkin and sage...


Red pepper and tofu ricotta!


You can also save these and freeze before the boiling stage
for later. And you can fill them with practically anything-
I'm already thinking of a four vegan cheese ravioli!

Vegan Mac and Cheese revisited: Blast to the past

I will not lie, when I was growing up we ate a CRAPLOAD of
kraft mac and cheese. My Mom was a decent cook, but she hated
it. My Dad was a cook for a long time, but he worked alot!
So the last thing he really wanted to do after 12 hours in a
kitchen all day was come home and cook. Cooking is not all
love and glamor. Far from it. That is why I am admitting
my childhood staple was the ole neon orange noodle in a box.

About 4 or 5 months ago I posted this recipe for mac and cheese.
Well, I've made it pretty often since the Monkey-man is an
ex-cheese nut. But I don't just use it on pasta for mac and
cheese. We use it on pizza sometimes, calzones, puff pastries,
on veggies, chili and fries, etc etc etc

But I've departed from what I originally posted and simplified
it quite a bit, losing none of the flavour.
I would compare this to the Annie's version of mac and cheese,
as the nutritional yeast gives it the aged taste.



To be honest, I never liked the idea of adding a thickener.
It seemed unnecessary, so I just took out the water from
the original recipe. That was also the only reason you needed
to boil it- which I've discovered kills the vit B-12 in the
nutritional yeast- yowzers! So sometimes, I just whisk it right
up without cooking it, unless you're making a hot dish and
then I only heat it up to as low as I can keep it.

The original:
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup plain soymilk
1 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon salt
1-2 cloves garlic pureed
1/2 small onion, minced as finely as you can
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1-2 teaspoon turmeric
pinch cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon mellow white miso
black pepper to taste

The New

1 cups soymilk and then some to thin as much as you need
1 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons pureed onion or 1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp mustard
1 tablespoon nut butter
1 tablespoon miso or more salt

The spices? totally opt in my opinion.
They are mostly for color.

I really like my mac and cheese with apples for some reason.
And we steamed up some broccoli.




Here are a couple shots of our unbaked pizza. Monkey-man makes
the best pizzas ever! I think this was his rosemary
crust... sorry for the grainy pics, they were taken impromptu
with an iphone in bad light.

































So it bakes up fine, just stays pretty creamy.


I recently discovered what exactly it needed to get that
kraft 'cheese' taste. Butter, or rather earth balance in this case.

I found this one stressed out day, doing a huge pile
of homework and policy data analysis, with no time to cook.
I had some plain left over pasta, was out of olive oil and
thought to myself... oh I'll just use some earth balance and
do a quick garlic-butter sauce. Half way there, after I had
already tossed a little earth balance with the pasta I remembered
I had some left over cheese sauce in the fridge. Well, I
thought what the heck and tossed it in there too. I'll be
damned if it wasn't more like the kraft stuff than you can
imagine. So take that new recipe and just toss in a tablespoon
or two of earthbalance and see what you think...

But let me just say the ultimate thing to go with mac and
cheese is something else from my childhood... a classic
80s flick. In this case it was Monkey-mans first time
(pss he's a 90s kid) to see Farris Bueller's Day Out.

Not a Nut Sunflower Stew

No peanut butter for me from now on folks!

Well, at least not for a while. November 1st was international Vegan

Day. We went over to Burbank for a Vegan Roller Skating Party, which

was a blast. There were tons of vegan food vendors, a silent auction,

raffles, goodie bags, and lots of roller skating vegans.

So I left with a huge bruise on my tail bone and the winning bid for a

huge basket of sunflower seed butter (5 jars and a bunch of other stuff).

Sunbutter is pretty darn tasty-- and if you have a peanut allergy, its the

butter for you. My basket and goodie bag came with a bunch of their

little sample packs too, which I guess will be good for school lunches

but I don't like all that extra packaging that cannot be recycled.

Since I love peanut thai dishes, I absolutely had to try this out.

All the flavour and love of a traditional thai dish without the hidden

nastiness of the fish sauce. (That is something to remember kids,

whenever you eat out ANYWHERE-- thai dishes [curry, etc] will

ALWAYS have fish sauce or flakes init-- even if it is on the vegetarian

portion of a menu). You know how, even after you tell people that you

don't eat meat they still think you eat fish because some how fish

doesn't qualify as an animal (??!).

Anyway, enjoy my come back boys and girls (and monkeys)

Thai Sunbutter Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 roma tomatoes, diced

1 large bell pepper, diced

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

some vegetable broth or water

1 package of firm or extra firm tofu

1 sample pack or about 2 tablespoons of sunbutter

3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

(1 tablespoon fresh lime juice- opt)

1 tablespoon (or more) of soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and add onions.

Cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent. Add garlic

and cook for one minute more. Add tomatoes, pepper, ginger and

some water or vegetable broth to assist in cooking and prevent

sticking. Cook for a few minutes more until peppers just start

to get tender. Add sunbutter, chili sauce, juice and seasoning. Stir until

all mixed and add tofu. Continue to cook until tofu is heated through

and peppers are thoroughly cooked. Serve over jasmine rice or a

super thin pasta like I did.

The pasta I used is similar to a thin angel hair, but it is packaged

in almost cake like packs at mexican markets. Super good and

satisfies every peanut craving.

Feel free to add a hot chili pepper to this recipe to add an extra

kick, I would have if I had had one...

Back in the Saddle with Mac and 'Cheese'

I really have no excuses... BUT!!

I just moved states. I left behind warm, rainy Hawaii for evil

hot California. Back to where I was a kid. I'm going to do my graduate

work down in Southern California, while cooking on the side.

Before I left I promised to post a Vegan Mac and Cheese recipe.

What I've found when trying out cheese and dairy replacements is to

not think of it as cheese or dairy. Don't try to stuff a block of vegan

cheese in your face expecting tillamook, ok? And don't try this recipe

expecting it to taste exactly like kraft. You'll be a lot happier that way.

But I really like this adaptation because there is no added fat and it

doesn't involve blending tofu. The nutritional yeast gives the cheese

sauce a nice aged flavour... strangely enough the more salt you add the

more it tastes like kraft.

Last time I made this I poured it over linguini and steamed kale and

topped it all with black sesame seeds. I can't wait to try it over broccoli!

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup plain soymilk
1 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon salt
1-2 cloves garlic pureed
1/2 small onion, minced as finely as you can
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1-2 teaspoon turmeric
pinch cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon mellow white miso
black pepper to taste

Dissolve cornstarch in soymilk to avoid clumping. Combine all ingredients

and cook over low-medium heat until it boils and begins to thicken.

Cook for a short time whisking or stirring constantly. Pour over cooked

elbow pasta and serve. Amount of sauce= 1lb pasta.

As a child, my favorite way to have mac and cheese was with

fuji apples and hard pretzels!

Cranky Papa Palooza

As I've been busy packing and more packing my Dad has been

doing a lot of the dinner cooking. If theres something Cranky

Papa makes best its stews, curries, and chili! Take a look...

Coney Island Chili with Soy Parmesean

Potato and Cauliflower Stew

Oh yeah, I did make some Bombdiggity Baked Beans

Green Olive Pasta

It is so sad, my refrigerator is so desolate right now.

I haven't gone shopping in ages, so the extent of my veggie

stockpile is potatoes and cabbage.

Since I wasn't feeling significantly irish enough today

to make a family stew or bake my gran's soda bread I

reached for the canned tomatoes.

We had been out at the beach all day and needed some

carbs asap. So whole wheat pasta it was, yet where is

the twist?

Green Olive Whole Wheat Pasta

Ingredients

1 can of tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp mince

fresh parsley

1/3 cup chopped

green olives

1 diced chili

or 2 tbsp chili flakes

1 tsp salt

1 pack ww pasta

Cook the minced garlic in the olive oil over a medium

heat, until fragrant. Add tomatoes (including liquid),

parsley and chili. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add

green olives and cook until most of liquid is cooked off.

In the meantime cook your pasta until al dente.

When draining reserve about 1 cup of water. Add sauce

to pasta pot and add in water. Combine well and season

with sea salt to taste. Serve topped with fresh minced

parsley or vegan parmesan!

On a side note here is a big friend we made out in the

ocean today.

Playdough Pasta!?

I've been craving gnocchi for a while and finally I broke down

and made some. Alright, when am I ever known to follow the

original instructions or recipes &c &c &c.

I had tried to make some sweet potato gnocchi a long long

time ago and it came out terrible. However, that was most

likely due to the fact that I tried to use yellow Okinawa

potatoes, which are much more dry than the typical sweet

potatoes that you and I eat at thanksgiving.

It was also one of the first times I made gnocchi from

scratch, so I worked and worked and finally conquered the

basic gnocchi magic. Now I felt ready to experiment again.

Hey, we're just adding a root vegetable right? Potatoes?

Well why not try another lovely root.

Beets certainly got me through my lunches at school this

past semester. I was always making my purple root salad.

Ah, the best. I think I may have to make some more soon!

Anyway, beets were the choice and here were the results...

Playdough Pasta

1 1/3 cup pastry flour

1 cup of beet puree

a pinch of each salt and pepper

Combine just short of all the

flour with beets and salt and

pepper in a food processor or

a large bowl. Process or mix

with a knife until dough is formed.

Add the remaining bit of flour

and a little more if needed.

Toss it out on to a floured counter

top and knead it until it appears

smooth.

This is the best part and totally surprised me.

The dough looks like a giant lump of bright pink

playdough! Ha ha, I was giggling the whole time

I was kneading away. Who says we can't play

with our food! I demand to know!

Now, let it rest. Seriously, allowing the dough to

rest at this point will yield a smoother pasta in the

end, but if you're in a big freakin hurry than don't

worry about it. But if you are, you probably

shouldn't be trying to make pasta from scratch.

Now here is the tricky part. Making gnocchi

is a kind of art. Split up the dough into however many sections. Roll those pieces out into

1/2-1 inch ropes. Cut ropes in to little pieces about 3/4" thick. Take a fork and roll the little pieces against the fork to make ridges that will hold in some of the sauce. Keep practicing it

took me forever to get the hang of it, but now its a piece of cake...

Now gnocchi is just the shape that I chose. You may follow

any pasta making technique you want and turn this into some

beet linguini or angel hair, whatever!

While this is all going on, have a large

pot of salted water boiling on the stove.

When your gnocchi is prepped go ahead

and drop them in. Give them a little stir

to make sure they don't stick to the bottom

or each other.

Keep it boiling and cook the little guys until

they are tender the whole way through. They

will rise to the top when they are pretty much done.

Remove and place in a baking pan in a warm oven until all are cooked. Toss with your

favorite sauce. Here I used Lindsey Wagner's Orange-Apple Tomato Sauce from

High Road to Health. Absolutely delish.