Seitan Piccata with Olives and Green Beans

This recipe is from the cookbook Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe: see page 174 of Veganomicon.

It's been awhile since I've made anything from Veganomicon, so I started to dig through it for something that seemed kind of fancy, and this recipe fit the bill. This recipe for Seitan Piccata was really impressive. It's one of those recipes that makes me feel like I'm a decent cook. Maybe that's because one of the ingredients is white wine. I always feel like I'm a real cook if I get to dump some wine in a dish.

So what you have here is some seitan that is breaded then cooked in oil in a pan. Then you have a sauce that is made from shallots, garlic, white wine, vegetable broth, thyme, capers, olives and lemon juice that is cooked down until it thickens. These are served on a bed of mashed potatoes, along with some green beans. Very elegant. It's like something you'd order in a nice restaurant.

Ingredients: seitan (vital wheat gluten, olive oil, vegetable broth, nutritional yeast, soy sauce), all purpose flour, olive oil, shallots, garlic, white wine, vegetable broth, thyme, black pepper, capers with brine, kalamata olives, lemon juice, fresh parsley, green beans, (served with mashed potatoes).

Beet-n-Barley Burgers

This recipe is from Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day by Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen.

Recipe: see page 110 of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day.

This is only the second time in my life I've made a recipe with beets. Or even  eaten beets. The first time was right after I became vegan 6 years ago, and it did not turn out well. But there was a photo of this recipe in the book and it looked quite appetizing so I decided to give it try, and guess what? Beets are my new favorite food!

I wasn't expecting much, but these are outstanding. I've made this three times, and the first two times they were really outstanding. The third time I tried doubling the recipe so I could freeze the extras, and I botched the measuring, and then underestimated the extra time I needed during the first cooking step. They were still okay, but not as good as the earlier efforts. Note to self: always... follow... the... instructions.

The taste is sweet and smoky from the barbeque sauce and liquid smoke. There is a strong barbeque flavor, and the texture is interesting. It's chewy from the barley, but also a little crunchy from the carrots. The patties are sticky, but all of them have been a little crumbly after cooking. I have also been enjoying the burgers without the buns; just frying them up and putting them on a plate.

This burger recipe doesn't try to fool anyone into thinking it is meat. It's just a very tasty, authentic veggie burger, made with real vegetables.

Ingredients:
pearl barley, onion, raw beets, green bell pepper, carrot, garlic, black-eyed peas, smoked paprika, cumin, thyme, barbecue sauce, Dijon mustard, liquid smoke, ume plum vinegar, salt, black pepper, quick oats, canola oil, burger buns, Vegan mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles, olive oil.

Skillet Lasagne

This recipe is from the cookbook Quick-Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson.

Recipe: see page 78 of Quick-Fix Vegan.

I think I might have tried making lasagne (lasagne is the traditional spelling, lasagna is the American way of spelling it) only a half dozen times in my entire life, so making it in a skillet on the stove top seemed a little unusual to me. I wasn't sure it would work, but this recipe came out quite nice. Really, it's not much different from baking in the stove, except it's faster. I like that I didn't have to turn on the oven and wait for it to preheat. It was just a matter of assembling everything in the skillet.

There are only two layers of lasagne noodles (make sure you get the kind without egg, since most of them seem to include that). Sandwiched between them is the 'ricotta cheese' layer, which is a mixure of crumbled firm tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and spices. The crumbled tofu gives it the texture of ricotta, and the nutritional yeast and lemon juice give it a mild cheesy flavor.

There is an option to use vegan mozzarella or Parmesan on top. I'm not a fan of the faux cheeses so I went with some homemade Parmesan-style cheese, which consists of sesame seeds, nutritional yeast and salt milled together in a handheld electric coffee grinder.

Total prep time was only about 10 minutes, so this was definitely was a quick recipe, and the taste was pretty good too. I think this would be a good stand-by recipe too, for those times when you are rushed and don''t have time to plan dinner. Keep a box of lasagne noodles and a jar of marinara on hand, and then you are only a block of tofu and 10 minutes away from having dinner on the stove.

Ingredients: lasagne noodles, firm tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano, black pepper, fresh parsley, kalamata olives (optional), vegan marinara sauce, vegan Parmesan (milled sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, salt used here).

Unfishwich - Vegan 'Fish' Sandwich

This recipe is from Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day by Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen.

Recipe: see page 104 of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day.

Here's how I know when a particular recipe is a little intimidating to me. I will set the ingredients out on the kitchen counter, and they will sit there for days while I try to get myself psyched up to make it. And I will find all sorts of other things I feel I need to do before I can get into trying the recipe. I'll wax the floor, clean out the fridge, tidy up my desk, wash clothes.... You get the idea. If my loft is clean, you know it is because I have been procrastinating on something else.

Long ingredient lists freak me out.  I think that was the issue on this one. I looked at the list and read the instructions and it felt like making these sandwiches was going to be a 3 hour ordeal. Then really, it wasn't anywhere near that bad. Not counting the time for marinading or baking, it was about 30 minutes to prep the batch of 3 sandwiches.

The idea on this recipe is that you are creating a vegan version of fish sticks. You've got tempeh and cut it into sticks then let it marinate for awhile, before rolling them around in arrowroot powder and bread crumbs and baking.

I used Trader Joe's Organic 3-Grain Tempeh, and I say this every time, but it just doesn't soak up any kind of marinade, ever. Especially this one, which was a little thick. That was a pointless hour of waiting that I will skip in the future. But the marinade did make a good batter that stuck to the outside of the sticks.

There is a little bit of kelp powder in the batter, and that gives the sticks a very mild 'taste of the sea'. If you don't like fishy-taste, I don't think you would mind these. Or just don't add the kelp powder. These are more like breaded tempeh sticks.

The real star of the recipe is the sauce. It seems like I have said that on every sauce from this book. They have all been outstanding. It's tangy, and lemony and just a little hot. I am tempted to make up a bunch and keep it in the fridge for general use.

Good sandwich! I just remembered I have another one in the fridge so I'm going to have that now for breakfast. Woo-hoo.


Ingredients:
(tartar sauce): lemon juice, minced capers, Dijon mustard, shallot, hot sauce, miso dressing (recipe on page 107: silken tofu, white miso, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, black pepper, garlic)

('fish' sticks): tempeh, lemon juice, unsweetened nondairy milk (Trader Joe's Unsweetened Soy Milk used here), kelp powder, onion powder, garlic, paprika, salt, dillweed, arrowroot powder, Old Bay seasoning, bread crumbs, nondairy butter (Earth Balance used here), cayenne powder

(sandwiches): sandwich rolls, cucumber, tomato

Indonesian Satay Sandwiches with Peanut Sauce

This recipe is from the cookbook Quick-Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson.

Recipe: see page 119 of Quick-Fix Vegan.

This is another really good recipe in Quick-Fix Vegan that is fast to prepare. Satay is a traditional Indonesian meal consisting of skewered meat, kind of like a kebab. In this vegan version, chicken-flavored seitan (I used Trader Joe's Chicken-Less Strips) is cooked in a frying pan then covered in a  sweet and spicy peanut sauce. The sauce thickens up and becomes very sticky. The seitan is then served on a pita or flatbread along with shredded carrot, cabbage and tomato.

That peanut sauce is outstanding and really makes this dish.  The sweetness makes the seitan taste like candy.

Ingredients: pitas (or flatbread, flour tortilla, lavash), seitan, cabbage, carrot, tomato, garlic, creamy peanut butter, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, light brown sugar, Sriracha sauce, vegetable broth, vegetable oil, black pepper.

Vegan "Steak" Sandwich

This recipe is from Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day by Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen.

Recipe: see page 99 of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day.

This is the second seitan recipe I've made from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day, and again I was worried about the outcome since my track record with seitan is awful. So I was pleasantly surprised this turned out so well.

This is actually two recipes from the book: the Moo-Free Seitan on page 180, and the Pittsburgh Steak Sandwich on page 99. There is a two-step process to making this seitan before you even get to assembling the sandwich, so the time-factor can be a little intimidating. First, the loaf of seitan is cooked in the oven or slow-cooker for a few hours, then it is cooled and sliced and the slices are baked in a broth.

During that second step the seitan absorbs the flavors of the broth, and a lot of the liquid evaporates. What's left are sandwich slices with intense flavors. I don't know if I would say it tastes like what I remember of steak, but it certainly has a meaty flavor. By itself, the slices were pretty good, though fairly salty. But it tastes much better in the sandwich where there are the additional flavors of the ciabbata rolls, tomato, lettuce, avocado and vegan mayonnaise.

It seems like a lot of work, but it tastes good, and the recipe makes 4 jumbo sandwiches.

In the book, there is a sidebar on this recipe that notes these can be a little messy, and I found that to be true. I've made this recipe twice and the ciabatta rolls fell apart on every sandwich.


Ingredients:
(for seitan and cooking broth) vital wheat gluten, soy flour, nutritional yeast, onion powder, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, vegetable broth, tamari, ketchup, liquid smoke, garlic, onion.

(for baking broth) vegetable broth, vegan red wine, balsamic vinegar, tamari, vegan Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper

(for sandwiches) vegan mayonnaise, garlic, pepper, ciabatta rolls, lettuce, tomato, avocado