My Vegan Mac and "Cheeze"

Mike and I have been making this pretty much weekly here in Philly. I think we're planning on making a baked version of this for vegan thanksgiving. Sorry about the low quality picture it was taken in photo-booth. Also I ate half of it before I took the picture, my bad. The ginger really adds a good bite to it, I definitely recommend experimenting with a ginger-garlic mixture in your fake cheezes it gives it a cool sharpness. This dish should be enjoyed while listening to this.

Get a pot of salted water going for your pasta. I'm going to trust your ability to cook a bag of pasta without putting it in the recipe. By the time you're done cooking the pasta you're sauce should be done.

Sauce

Add to your food processor in this order:

3/4 cup raw cashews

1/2 block tofu

1/2 cup soymilk

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

water until it's the consistency of ketchup (Hunts not Heinz, it's more watery)

Over low heat simmer:

1 1/2 inches of ginger, minced

4 cloves garlic

1 onion, diced

after 3-4 minutes add:

1 tsp Turmeric

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tbsp soy sauce

3 tomatoes, sliced

1 bunch of kale, chopped finely

cook until the kale cooks down a bit

Dump the food processor mixture in with the rest of the stuff and add Lawry's seasoned salt to taste. Then mix in your completed pasta and squeeze the juice of one or two lemons on top and mix again.

Enjoy!

Curried Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber Relish

So if you guys read Vegan Dad, this will look slightly familiar. This is loosely loosely based off of his recipe. I had to make several adjustments, and the result probably doesn't taste anything like the original recipe. I can't even remember what went in the Vegan Dad's chickpea cakes. These turned out pretty good, and I don't know if you can tell but they turned out a bit like fritters. I used flour in this recipe, creating a real thick batter consistency with the smashed chickpeas. I was a bit uncertain, but it turned out pretty tasty.

Chickpea Cakes

2 cups cooked chickpeas

1 tbl soy sauce

1 tbl chili garlic sauce

1 tsp panang curry powder

1/2 tsp paprika (I am in Hungary after all!)

1 med. shallot, minced

1 large garlic clove, minced

3 tbl flour

enough water to get a THICK batter consistency - so not too much

Cucumber Relish

1/2 cucumber, diced

1/2 small red pepper, diced

1 shallot

2 tsp white vinegar

1-2 tsp sugar (or any sweetener)

The batter is easy, you just want to smash the chickpeas - but not necessarily make them into pulp. Dump all the ingredients in and taste as you go along, adjusting for spice level. Your batter shouldn't get too runny - but hey! Maybe you feel like experimenting. Fry the batter up in a generous amount of cooking oil, and make sure your pan is hot. I made little guys - maybe 1.5 to 2 tbl at a time.

Serve with the relish, which couldn't be easier to make - just mix all the ingredients! Enjoy with good company, preferably not a midterm paper though like I did. What a buzz kill.

Ugh, and apologies about the horrible photo. My camera was running out of battery, that was the best I got.

Sweet and Sour Tofu

Vegan Yum Yum Recipe mildly adapted to my ingredients

Ingredients:

1 Tub Extra Firm Tofu, pressed (If you can, use frozen and thawed Tofu)
2 tsp Ener-g Egg Replacer + 4 tsp water, mixed
1/4 Cup Cornstarch
1/8 Cup Canola Oil & 1/8 cup Olive Oil
Sesame Seeds for garnish

Sauce
3 1/2 Tbs Seasoned Rice Vinegar
1/4 Cup Water
2 Tbs Sugar
1 Tbs Soy Sauce
1 1/2 Tbs Ketchup
1/4 tsp Ginger Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbs Cornstarch

1.Slice the tofu into triangles or small cubes. Smaller is good in this recipe.

2.Gently Toss tofu with the egg replacer/water mixture until coated.

3.Add cornstarch until each piece is well coated.

4.Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet or wok.

5. While oil is heating, mix sauce ingredients except for the cornstarch/water into a small sauce pan and whisk over medium heat until sugar and salt is dissolved. Add cornstarch mixture and whisk until the sauce thickens. Keep an eye on this or it will stick to the bottom of the pan.

6. Fry tofu for about 5 minutes on each side (until golden.)

7.Drain/Dab Tofu of excess oil

8.Toss gently with sauce.

9. Top with sesame seeds and eat pronto.

Voting Time

It's pretty obvious to me that every participant is a winner because everything looked delicious. However, only one person is getting the cash prize, so let's go to the polls.

A few quick rules:

-Don't vote for yourself, that's lame

-Only vote once, c'mon

-Use a coaster, we respect the tables here

Now it's time for one of you to call out October's theme ingredient! Thanks again for everyone's participation.