Baked Seitan Enchiladas

This recipe is from the cookbook Vegan Fire and Spice by Robin Robertson.

Recipe: see page 30 of Vegan Fire and Spice.

This vegan enchilada recipe came together quickly, which was a relief. I haven't had much time lately to try new recipes from my cookbooks.

The ingredients for the filling were grilled for a bit before being rolled in flour tortillas and placed in a baking dish. The taste was fairly mild, so I kept a bottle of Sriracha on hand to spice things up. The only thing I didn't like is that the tortillas became very mushy after I pulled the dish out of the oven.

It kind of reminded me of the chewiness of steamed wontons. I think that came from all the moisture in the salsa and sour cream. It cooked out in the oven and soaked into the tortillas. If I make these again I may try leaving out them out as ingredients in the filling, and just use them as a condiment served at the table.

Ingredients: red onion, green bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, mild tomato salsa, vegan sour cream, seitan, flour tortillas, canola oil.

Whole Grain Burger Buns

This recipe is from the cookbook Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

Recipe: see page 92 of Whole Grain Vegan Baking.

This was a fairly easy recipe to make. It was the first time I've ever made yeast bread by hand and not used a bread machine to do the kneading. The recipe calls for molasses or barley malt syrup as the sugar. I couldn't find barley malt syrup, so I went with the molasses, which gave the burger buns a strong aroma and flavor. It made the kitchen smell like gingerbread cookies.

I don't know if the tomato, pickles and Morningstar Grillers Vegan burger I put on the bun were a good match with the molasses flavor. That flavor was especially strong while the buns were still warm from the oven. I saved some for the following day, and the flavor seemed more muted. I liked that much more.

Good recipe. I'll definitely make it again.

Ingredients: whole spelt flour, whole wheat flour, molasses, water, active dry yeast, salt, oil.

Wholesome Vanilla Pound Cake

This recipe is from the cookbook Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

Recipe: see page 149 of Whole Grain Vegan Baking.

Traditional pound cake gets its name from the fact that it takes a pound each of the ingredients of butter, flour, sugar and eggs. Of course, vegans don't eat butter or eggs, so I thought this would be an interesting recipe to try. It worked out well and was very tasty. It was sweet and dense, and smelled like lemon, vanilla and coconut.

Ingredients: vanilla-flavored vegan yogurt (So Delicious used here), maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla extract, cornstarch, whole wheat pastry flour, cooking spray, salt, baking powder, lemon zest.