Monday, August 18, 2008

Chickpea Cutlets Take Over the World

If I had to choose my three favorite recipes by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Romano, I'd choose the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World), Hot Glazed Tempeh (Veganomicon), and of course, the ever-popular Chickpea Cutlets (also from VCon).

Isa and Terry

I made a batch for dinner tonight, served with a red wine roux (from VCon), a mess o' turnip greens, and a marinated tomato salad:


It's my second time making the cutlets, and I love them just as much this time around. I baked them again, but instead of topping the cutlets with mushroom gravy (like I did last time), I went for the red wine roux.

I love red wine, and I imagined this would be the best sauce ever. But honestly, it was just okay. I used a pinot noir, and maybe a merlot would have been a better fit. I was also out of celery, so I substituted dried celery flakes. Real celery would have been better. Don't get me wrong. It's a good sauce, but I think the mushroom gravy recipe from VCon is better on the cutlets.

The turnip greens came from the Clarksville Farmer's Market, where I spent the weekend visiting my boyfriend and his parents. I cooked them down about 45 minutes with oil, sugar, and my special ingredient, Liquid Smoke.

I also whipped up a marinated tomato salad using fresh farmer's market produce. This was SO good! Here's what I did:

Marinated Tomato Salad
-----------------------
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 Vidalia onion, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt
black pepper to taste

Mix ingredients and allow to marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours, stirring occasionally.

So fellow vegan foodies, what are your favorite Isa and Terry recipes?

22 comments:

Unknown said...

the chickpea cutlets, no doubt. the PB oatmeal cookies from VWAV. the oatmeal raisin waffles from the same book. and since I'm a rebel who won't stick to only picking three, I'll add the pumpkin ziti. and the tamarind lentils, because you can pretty much sub anything for the lentils. and, and, and. I'll stop here.

Anonymous said...

yum, chickpea cutlets...now I want to make some!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Looks like a great meal!!

I'm obsessed with the Veganomicon baked good recipes, so I love any of those; oh and I love the Snobby Joes recipe from that book as well :0)

The Chubby Vegetarian said...

how freakin' weird. we both made summer salad for dinner last night. we are so southern aren't we?

looks good. keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Eeek... is it bad that I thought Terry was a dude?
I love the pumpkin cake from V'Con. It's been a hit at many-a-potluck.

Anonymous said...

I think my favorite is Curried Mango Tempeh from VWAV. It's strange that that dish is my favorite, because I recently decided that I hate tempeh. There. I said it. It's not so much the tempeh that makes me like that dish, it's the flavors (curry and mango just go so well together). The next time I make it I will likely use tofu.

I hear nothing but good things about those chickpea cutlets. Your tomato salad looks amazingly delicious, too!

Latayy said...

Thanks for stopping in on my blog again. I think I would love this dish so much as chickpeas are great. This is a very healthy meal. Someone gave me some liquid smoke so I hope to do some cool stuff with it. I want to get some vegan cookbooks online what do you suggest. I do not own a vegan cookbook as yet. The vegan cupcake book seems to interest me.

VeganCowGirl said...

God YES, I do love those darn cutlets, I could eat those puppies every day of the week - and I totally love love love them baked. Word.

I am so in love with the rose water and pistach cookies from vcon...ohhh yah.

Alicia said...

yep, great minds think alike ;-). I won't lie to you, the chickpea cutlets are better than my white bean cutlets, but they are at least interesting and something new to try!
Too bad I'm too lazy to make a sauce...

jessy said...

oh man, i'm gonna have to try using a little liquid smoke in my greens! and thanks for the recipe, Bianca! i'm totally gonna try that with some local tomatoes, too! mmmmmmm! your chick pea cutlets look AWESOME! sorry the sauce wasn't super stellar.

hmmm - my favorite recipe - i dunno. i really adore the Leek and Bean Cassoulet! it's great comfort food for me! i just love it!

Anonymous said...

I don't think I have time to type an answer to your question there are SO MANY that I just freaking love!! Seriously, way too many.
I want your dinner- please?

The Vegan Snorkeler said...

Those chickpea cutlets make me want to buy Veganomicon right now! I need to get my hands on some liquid smoke, too. My favorite Isa and Terry recipes are rosewater pistachio cupcakes, basil-tofu ricotta and no-bake black bottom peanut butter silk pie from VWAV.

urban vegan said...

I adore those cutlets. I could eat them daily. I also like the black bean and squash empanadas. They're alot of work, but so worth it.

And then there are the cupcakes....are there any bad Isa-Terry cuppers? I think not.

Jamie the Foodie said...

i too love those cutlets! i tried to convince my husband to make those for dinner last week, he made the roasted eggplant muffaletta (not sure if that is the "official" name), but those were delicious! i swear they tasted so similar to the ones i have had in new orleans...however, it has been a while. but all i know is that if you haven't tried that sandwich, you must! and now, i just have to convince him to cook the cutlets tomorrow night for dinner! (i am working full-time now & he is home during the day!)

Anonymous said...

Isa and Terry sure are vegan geniuses! It's so hard to choose favorites, but I gotta go with Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (VWAV), Raspberry Blackout Cake (VWAV)and Black Bean Burgers (VCON).

Anonymous said...

Oh man, this is hard!

1. Italian Marinated Tofu - I make this ALL THE TIME, including for dinner tonight.

2. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

3. Rosewater Pistachio Cookies

Anonymous said...

I like the tempeh bacon and tempeh reuben from VWAV. But I must make these chickpea cutlets because I have heard so many good things about them.

Terry has a new column in VegNews where she makes this insanely good greek dip.

Turnip greens are my Mom's favorite - she eats them every night!

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

I'm so out of the loop- I haven't tried the cutlets yet! Yours looks mouth watering. My fave recipe is pumpkin ziti from VCON.

Andréa said...

I love the chick pea cutlets as well and I recently made their mushroom and wallnut dip- from Vcon. Delicious.

Anonymous said...

I loooove the chickpea cutlets (baked) too. I normally at least double the recipe and then freeze them (pre-baked)...it works really well! I'm not sure what my favorite recipes are...the fronch toast is good, it really does taste like french toast! Isa doesn't really have bad recipes...

Vegan_Noodle said...

I want your dinner so bad.... and I have to agree with you on the chickpea cutlets being in my top three. To round it out... hmmm, tough choice. But lately I've been loving the moussaka and the smlove pie

Veggie said...

yum, that dinner looks great. I'll have to make your summer salad.

I love all their vegan cupcake recipes (the Margarita cupcakes are still my favourite).

But I still tend to prefer VWAV to Veganomicon.