Chickpea Cutlets!

Okay, so I'm in with the "in" crowd now. Like so many other vegan food bloggers before, I've finally made the Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlets. And now I understand what all the buzz is about ... these truly are the best things ever. If you haven't already, go buy the Veganomicon, turn to page 133, and make these right away.

Here's a pic of a cutlet with a mess o'collards on the side:



I baked my cutlets rather than frying them. The recipe allows for either preparation method, and while I love me some deep fried foods, I'm reading up on how olive oil forms free radicals when heated to a certain temp. I want to start using coconut oil, which is supposedly safe, but I haven't gotten any yet. Canola oil is supposed to be okay for heating too, and I did have some of that. But baking seems healthier.

The 'Nomicon describes the baked version of these cutlets as "firm" and "toothsome" (btw "toothsome" is my new favorite word). I had to use a knife and fork to eat this. It felt so carnivorous, but yet so tasty and cruelty-free!



I made the 'Nomicon's Mushroom Gravy as a topping. The creaminess was just what the tasty chickpea cutlet needed. Since I baked them, I was afraid they'd be too dry without some kind of gravy.

On the side are collard greens, steamed Southern-style in a big 'ol pot with some sugar, salt, hot sauce, and a little Liquid Smoke for that bacon grease flavor.

Country Potato Soup

It's cold in Memphis. Right now, it's 38 degrees. That may not seem bad if you come from up North. But down here, our blood is thinner. Thirty-eight degrees means heavy winter coats, scarves, and thick, creamy winter soups.



I veganized a version of Country Potato Soup from a cookbook I borrowed from my mom. The creaminess comes from soymilk mixed with whole wheat flour, and of course the cooked potatoes contribute to the creamy factor as well. I fried up some Smart Bacon (veggie bacon) and crumbled it in for an extra zing.

I'm definitely adding this one to my cookbook (I changed the recipe significantly). The focus of my book is "down home vegan cookin'." And it doesn't get much more down-home that potato soup.

Cinnamon Bun Heaven!

I made whole wheat vegan cinnamon buns tonight for the Monday Night Sansoucci Potluck.



Yum!!! My mom gave me some sourdough starter last weekend. It's water, potato flakes, and sugar (I use evaporated cane juice) and you have to feed it more potato flakes and sugar once a week. You also have to bake bread once a week or throw a cup and a half out. Since the potluck was tonight, I whipped up some cinnamon buns. Yum!

My mom told me how to make them — sourdough starter, flour, a little oil. Mix it together and let rise overnight. Then in the morning (I woke up at 5:45 a.m. for this!), you roll the dough into a rectangle and brush with soy marg and a mixture of cinnamon sugar. Then roll it up, cut into rolls, and let rise for 8 more hours (while I was at work). When I got home, I baked them for 25 minutes and glazed with a soymilk/powdered sugar glaze.



But I did one little thing differently from my mom's recipe. I've been reading Skinny Bitch, a pro-vegan healthy eating book that encourages meat-free, dairy-free diets sans white flour, white sugar, white pasta, Diet Coke, and beer (also coffee, but I'm not giving that up....no way). It's all about getting rid of simple carbs and other crap with no nutritional value.

So I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the white bread flour. They didn't rise as much as my mom's did when she made them. But they were still damn tasty. And except for the powdered sugar, they were guilt-free. Is there a natural powdered sugar substitute?

BTW, expect more posts about Skinny Bitch. I'm totally transforming my diet into a healthy eating for life thing!

Oh yea, there was tons of great food at the potluck tonight: Matt's amazing vegan cheesy sauce pizza, Sarah's Indian-spiced veggies and rice dish, spilt pea soup, apple crisp, and the best strawberries I've ever had in January!

Booze Cupcakes!

My friend Greg turned 28 yesterday! He's a drinker, and he doesn't care for sweets. So I tricked him by spiking his birthday cupcakes with booze!



I got the recipe for Chocolate Cake with Booze Frosting from a vegan blog called Parsnip Parsimony. Her cake recipe came from another blog, run by Kittee Kake. Basically, it was regular vegan chocolate cake, but the frosting consisted of Jello Instant Vanilla Pudding mix (which is accidentally vegan), Earth Balance, soymilk, strawberry jam, and a 1/2 cup of Barcardi 151.

Imagine eating a shot of liquor. That's what the cupcakes tasted like. They really needed a chaser. If you had 3 or 4, you could actually get a little buzz.

On a completely different note, I made Brown Sugar Baked Tofu Ham with Red-Eye Gravy for breakfast today. I marinated the tofu slices in a mixture of things that make it taste like ham (it's going in the cookbook, but I can tell you that brown sugar is involved). Then I baked them for 45 minutes.



Red-Eye Gravy is a Southern thing. It's traditionally made with the fat left in the pan after frying ham, black coffee, oil, and salt. I used a little tofu ham marinade, black coffee, olive oil, and salt. It's not a thick gravy, more like an au jus sauce. You just spoon it over the ham for extra flavor. It's called Red-Eye Gravy because the separation of the oil and coffee make little circles, like eyes.

Praise Seitan!

All hail the holy wheat meat! I love chewy, meaty chunks of homemade seitan. I usually use the old-fashioned wheat flour and water, knead for a million hours method. But I finally decided to check out vital gluten flour. I figure if I'm writing a cookbook, I should make things a little easier on people.

I made Seitan "Beef" using a secret recipe broth (to be printed in my cookbook), and then I veganized a recipe for Beef Tips and Rice from one of my mom's Southern cookbooks.



It's beef-flavored seitan, red bell pepper, mushrooms, cooking sherry, and brown rice. Super good. The sherry really brought out an amazing flavor. I'll be including this dish in the cookbook as well.

I really enjoyed the texture of the vital gluten seitan. And it was so easy to make — only 5 minutes of kneading and none of that running water until all the starch is out stuff that you get with whole wheat flour seitan. Although, I gotta say I think I'm partial to the texture of the whole wheat flour version. It's a little more tender. Either way though, seitan is god!

How to make seitan:

The Easy Way:

1 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
1 cup water

Mix wheat gluten and water in a large bowl until it becomes doughy. Knead for about five minutes and allow to rest for five more minutes.

Tear seitan into small chunks and simmer in a broth (see other recipes in this section for ideas) for one hour or until absorbed.

Note: Seitan expands as it cooks, so start with very small chunks if you desire medium-sized pieces. Or if you’d rather have seitan cutlets, use medium-sized chunks.

The Cheaper, Time-Consuming Method:

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cup water


Mix flours and water well and knead for about one minute. Then cover with a cloth and let it sit in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

Next, put the dough in a bowl and cover with warm water. Knead it under water. The water will turn white and milky. Pour it out, and run more water. Then repeat. Do this until the water becomes clear.

You'll have to run about 10 to 15 bowls of warm water, and in the middle of doing all this, your dough ball will look like it's falling apart. Never fear. Just try and hold it together. Eventually, it will become cohesive again and kind of stretchy. It might look a little like brains. The water will become less and less milky with every bowl.

Once you have the water starts to get pretty clear, run a bowl of cold water and another time. Pour that out and run warm water. Knead a final time, and dump all the water out.

Tear seitan into small chunks and simmer in a broth (see other recipes in this section for ideas) for one hour or until absorbed.

You Scream, I Scream!

So my best friend Sheridan spent the weekend with me. She just moved back to Jonesboro, Arkansas (our hometown). We've been best friends since 8th grade, but in recent years, Sher's been touring the country with various theater troupes. Now, she's got a teaching job at our old college, Arkansas State. And Jonesboro's only an hour from Memphis.

Sheridan went veg two years ago after reading Skinny Bitch. She called me crying after reading the chapter about factory farming. The next day, she was a vegetarian.

Sher spent the night on Saturday. We made soy cream sundaes with hot chocolate syrup, soy whip, and sprinkles!!



Then we met some friends at Raiford's Hollywood Disco and spent the night dancing to ABBA, the Bee Gees, and Michael Jackson.



Today, we met up with my veggie society, Food Awareness, for Sunday Buffet at India Palace, my favorite Indian restaurant.

This is my second plate. It's filled with basmati rice, veggie samosa, dhal soup, and some kind of chili vegetable dish. I had chana masala on the first trip to the buffet. Yum!!!

Hail Caesar!

Another yummy dinner courtesy of the Veganomicon. This is Creamy Caesar Salad with Roasted Garlic Croutons:



I haven't had a caesar salad since, well, I can't even remember. When I discovered the dressing contained anchovies, I was already well into my vegetarianism. Probably some time around age 17 or 18 (I went veg at age 14). Now I'm 27, so it's definately been a good while since I've tasted lettuce slathered in that creamy kinda ranch-y, tangy dressing. When I noticed a recipe for vegan caesar in the Nomicon, I was thrilled.

The dressing uses soft tofu, olive oil, lemon juice, and the key ingredient — capers. Interestingly, this was my first experience with capers. I've always been afraid of them. But I learned while prepping the dressing for tonight's salad that capers are surprisingly olive-like. And I do love me some olives!

I used romaine lettuce mixed with a little spring mix for the salad. But my fave were the croutons, baked fresh using stale French bread, roasted garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice!



Though it was probably loaded with fat, it was the good kind — unsaturated fats from oils. Which made me feel better about pigging out at lunch today at Pho Hoa Binh, Midtown's only Vietnamese tofu buffet. For $5.19, one can easily gorge down a pound or more of fried tofu. So much for watching portion sizes.