Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Veganizing Better Homes & Gardens

A few weeks ago, I picked up a very retro-looking copy of Better Homes & Gardens Meatless Main Dishes from the Kitchen Witch new and used bookstore in New Orleans. Though it's a vegetarian cookbook, it was printed in 1981 and almost every recipe is LOADED with dairy or eggs. I purchased the book for the challenge of veganizing a few of the recipes.

I chose to start with this Mediterranean Stroganoff:

A rich, cream sauce with fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and olives tops healthy quinoa pasta. Of course the recipe didn't call for quinoa pasta, but that's what I had on hand ... so that's what I used. Probably healthier that way anyway. Honestly though, the recipe tastes perfectly sinful. I used a ton of vegan dairy substitutes, including my new favorite thing — MimicCreme! I picked up several cartons at a health food co-op in Jackson, Mississippi (about 3 hours south of Memphis) since it isn't sold here.

I don't typically share recipes from other people's cookbooks, but I heavily adapted this one. It called for heavy cream, sour cream, ricotta cheese, and parmesan. So, um, I made some serious changes. I'll share this one, and hopefully, Better Homes & Gardens won't hate me.

Veganized Mediterranean Stroganoff
(adapted from Better Homes & Gardens Meatless Main Dishes)


2 cups cauliflower, chopped
2 cups broccoli, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 Tbsp. Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
3 cups button mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups MimicCreme Non-Dairy Cream Substitute or soymilk
1 vegetable bouillon cube, crumbled
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1/2 pound firm tofu, drained
3/4 cup Tofutti sour cream
1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese
12 ounces quinoa pasta (or other pasta)


Steam the cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots in a steamer basket until tender. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package directions.

In another saucepan, melt the margarine. Add onions and saute 2 to 3 minutes or until soft. Add sliced mushrooms and cook for about 7 minutes or until the mushrooms shrink down a bit. Add garlic and saute one more minute.

Quickly stir in flour and then add MimicCreme or soymilk. Crumble in bouillon cube. Stir until thick and bubbly. Carefully fold in steamed vegetables and black olives. Turn off heat.

In a separate bowl, mush tofu with your hands for about three minutes or until it achieves a ricotta-like consistency. Add sour cream and vegan parm and stir to combine. Slowly add the tofu ricotta/sour cream mixture to the cream sauce in the saucepan. Return to a low heat and cook several minutes or until heated through, but not boiling. Serve over hot pasta.

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In other news, the awesome Zel Allen (author of Nut Gourmet) has posted the recipe for Nutty Oatcakes (which I posted about on Monday night) on her blog. Check it out here!

19 comments:

The Voracious Vegan said...

WOW! That is one awesome looking bowl of food! So much creamy, cheezy deliciousness. You are pure genius for veganizing such a great dish, I want some!

nora said...

I admire your veganizing abilities! I have so many vegan cookbooks, I never really try to veganize stuff...

Caroline said...

It drives me crazy the way older vegetarian cookbooks are packed with dairy products. I sometimes veganise them, but normally I don't get much fancier then following milk = soy milk, soft cheese = strained soy yoghurt or tofu.

The weird thing is, I've got more recipes from older omni cook books where I just replace meat with beans or leave it out in some cases.

jessy said...

hooray for a bookstore score! so awesome that you veganized this recipe with such tasty success, Bianca - and thanks so much for sharing your adaptation of the recipe. i've never heard of mimiccream, but i need to check it out if i can find it. that's one glorious bowl of pasta, and any recipe that combines mushies, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions with so much rock'n cheezy goodness has gotta be most fantastical!

thanks for the link to the nutty oatcake recipe, too. wahooooo!

Gina said...

Looks great Bianca! Way to go on the veganizing of that recipe. So excited for the oatcake and apricot cashew butter recipe :)

Sheridan said...

This looks awesome! Not sure if I have access to mimiccream here either. I'll have to check. But, I may just try this with soymilk for dinner tonight!

Leslie Richman said...

Yay! I love Kitchen Witch!

miss v said...

ha! i just made stroganoff about a week ago - with the leftover tempeh from testing your bbq sammies. i'll be posting the recipe soon. :)

dreaminitvegan said...

This is a great way to use alot of veggies in a creamy cheezy sauce. Nice work!

Happy Older Hippie Woman! said...

Oh my Goddess, hope wonderful!

Cyn said...

That looks so yummy! And sometimes there's nothing better than veganizing something with a ton o' fake dairy products. Yum!

Rabbit Food said...

YUM! This looks so tasty and inventive. I need to give mimiccreme a try.

P.S. Thanks Bianca for always commenting on my posts. It means a lot. You too sweet.

Mike K said...

I have a couple of older veggie cookbooks, and they do load on the eggs and cheese, with a few veggies thrown in. At least their intentions were good, mostly. This looks rich and yummy, and it's amazing what you can do with good dairy alternatives.

Sarah S. said...

There are so many vegan dairy substitutes I've been wanting to try. This recipe sounds like a great one to sample quite a few with. love it!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Damn, that's a whole lotta dairy subs!

Sarah H said...

Goodness Gracious,your gorgeous picture is making us all hungry! It's time for breakfast in my neck of the woods, but I just want to blow off work and spend the morning making this.

Jenna said...

I just saw MimiCreme at the store last week and was so curious about it. I didn't get any because it was pretty expensive... now I must try it!!

Mary said...

God, you're making me hungry.

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