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.

Corned Beef and Cabbage with Horseradish Dijon Cream, BBQ Seitan with Coleslaw

Here is my Iron Chef Battle Brassicaceae entry. I decided to utilize the secret ingredient in numerous ways as you will see in the recipes. You may think that the seitan is the star of this dish but its not, believe me, the cabbage, horseradish, and mustard really steal the show on your palate. After you make this dish you will probably need a good nap because it is as hearty as can be. But I think that is a good thing, especially with the onset of colder weather.



For the seitan I actually just used some recipes as references and they are fairly simple to follow. If you go to www.everydaydish.tv you can find recipes for corned beef seitan and bbq seitan. I tweaked the recipes a bit by incorporating some of the secret ingredient, like mustard seeds in the corned beef and mustardy bits in the bbq sauce. I also roasted some sweet potatoes to compliment the bbq side of the plate, and some roasted fingerling potatoes to go with the corned beef and cabbage.

Smokey Maple Porter BBQ Sauce

About 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or just enough to fry the onions and garlic
1 chopped white onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
12 oz. of Sierra Nevada Porter
1 cup of maple syrup
12 oz. of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons of black pepper

Cook the onions and garlic until caramelized over medium heat. Add a bit of water every several minutes to de-glaze the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients cook for about 15 minutes then let cool and puree.

Creamy Coleslaw with Pickled Red onions

This absolutely is amazing and simple. It is a great cold crunchy and creamy contrast to the spicy hot bbq seitan.

1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
4 Tbsp Vegenaise
1 Tbsp German Mustard
2 Tbsp Agave nectar
splash red wine vinegar
salt + pepper

1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced
2 tsp red wine vinegar
salt

Mix together all the slaw ingredients while you quickly pickle the red onions.

Braised Cabbage with Corned Beef Seitan

1 recipe corned beef seitan
1/2 head green cabbage, large dice
1 white onion, diced
1 clove garlic
2 tsps paprika
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
veg broth

Cook the onions and garlic in a bit of oil and add all the spices. Toss in the cabbage and seitan and add a bit of vegetable broth. Cook for about 20 minutes. Add more veg broth and cook ten minutes more. Serve with roasted fingerling potatoes and horseradish cream.

Horseradish Cream

1/2 block silken tofu
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp prepared horseradish, or more
2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Puree everything and chill. Serve over the corned beef and cabbage for a right good kick in the mouth.