Vegan Food Swap #2

Last month, a few of my friends and I held our first Vegan Food Swap, in which we all made a dish and split it up four ways so we'd each have plenty of leftovers for the coming weekend. We held the second installment of Vegan Food Swap last Thursday at my house with only three of the original participants.

Stephanie (of Poopie Bitch) made these awesome BBQ Seitan Sandwiches with Coleslaw and Homemade Buns:

Since it was a swap and not a potluck, we weren't eating right away. Steph packaged two buns for each participant, and we stored seitan and coleslaw in separate containers. Steph's buns were so freakin' amazing! I'd never tried fresh baked buns before, but these may convince me to start making my own.

Nic brought Vegan Tortiere:

This was stuffed with all sorts of deliciousness - Gimme Lean sausage, black olives, celery, peppers, onions, potatoes (I think). And the crust is really biscuity and light. I still have a few servings of this left and I can't wait to dig in.

I made my Tofu Manicotti with Raid the Garden Marinara:

It's a recipe I'm considering adding to my cookbook, though it's not really a Southern dish so maybe I shouldn't. But it's basically manicotti stuffed with ricotta-like herbed tofu. The sauce is made with whole tomatoes and it's super chunky and vegetable-y (yes, I invented that word). I served this with a salad of fresh farmer's market lettuce!

Bandito Burrito

Remember that song "Banditos" by the Refreshments from like 1990-something? It was all: "So just how far down do you wanna go/We could talk it out over a cup of joe/And you could look deep into my eyes/Like I was a supermodel/Uh-huh."

Anyway, this meal — the Bandito Burrito from Vegan Bites — got that song stuck in my head for days:

I don't usually follow recipes for burritos. I just shove some seasoned beans and rice and veggies in a tortilla and stuff it in my face. But I've been wanting to make more recipes from Vegan Bites, a book designed for vegan singles. All the recipes only make a couple servings. This one made for two burritos, filled with pintos, red bell pepper, corn, jalepeno, and onion. I topped my filling with melted Nacho Teese. Yum!

Check out that sexy kale on the side:

I picked up a huge batch from one of my favorite farming couples — Keith and Jill Forrester of Whitton Flowers & Produce — at the Memphis Farmers Market. I sauteed it with a little oil, garlic, and plenty of sriracha. Nothing beats fresh greens from the farmer's market.

Sausage 'n' Biscuits

Since I'm on a bit of an Uncheese Cookbook kick, I couldn't resist making a batch of the Chedda Biscuits for breakfast this week:

These are unlike any biscuits I've ever made. For one thing, they're drop biscuits so they don't have the smooth look of my homemade rolled-out biscuits. That explains the funky shape.

I also load my homemade biscuits down with non-hydrogenated shortening and soy margarine because I believe those things are necessary to create a fluffy, flaky biscuit. But Joanne Stepaniak's uncheese recipes tend to be on the low-fat side, so this recipe didn't call for any fat.

The result? A much drier biscuit than I would have liked. However, these little guys — flavored with nooch and dill — had a savory kick that would be perfect for dipping in a creamy bowl of soup.

I served my mornin' biscuits with Tempeh Breakfast Sausage from Judy Brown's Guide to Natural Foods Cooking, an old vegan hippie cookbook I found at a thift store:

These were tasty! They're made with crumbled tempeh and flavored with miso, sage, garlic, and cayenne. The patties don't hold together very well, but they were perfect stuffed in between heavily Earth Balanced biscuits (hey, I had to add some fat in there!).

Hey testers! My Mint Julep brownie recipe is up on the tester blog....just so ya know.

Eggless Frittata

I've been loving faux eggy dishes lately — omelettes, tofu "egg" salad, quiche, and frittata. When I stumbled onto the Frittata recipe in The Uncheese Cookbook, I knew I had to give it a try. Here's the finished product, a tofu-based pie baked with potatoes, green bell peppers, onions, and pureed tomatoes:

It set quite well while baking, but I couldn't wait the suggested 10 minutes afterward to dig in. Due to my impatience, it didn't plate well, but it tasted amazing in between bites of buttered sprouted grain toast:

At opening day of the farmer's market (yea!!!), I picked up a mystery green labeled Baby Jean:

The seller told me Baby Jean were the young shoots of fresh greens (she didn't say what kind of greens and I didn't think to ask). When she informed me that it tasted a lot like broccoli rabe, I knew I had to give it a try.

I found simple instructions for sauteeing broccoli rabe on the Internet....simply saute with a little oil and minced garlic and toss with salt:

The result — Delicious! I wish I'd bought more than one small package. It tasted like broccoli and collard greens got together and had a baby. Maybe that's why they call it Baby Jean.

The Chickpea's Southern Sista

I needed to juice up my cookbook's appetizer section (which is currently lacking in content), and I'd been wondering how black-eyed peas would taste in hummus. The answer? Oh my god, awesome! As evidenced by this Black Eyed Pea Garlic Hummus:

It may not look super hot in my shabby Tupperware, but I spooned it in and drizzled it with olive oil and paprika before remembering that I needed to shoot it first. Oh well. I promise it tasted amazing on toasted whole wheat pita triangles.

The recipe is pretty basic. I was going to get all fancy and add stuff like sundried tomatoes or roasted red peppers, but I wanted to sample it plain before adding to it. I was so pleased with the result of the plain garlicky black-eyed pea hummus that I decided to leave it alone. Sometimes simple is better. And to be honest, I liked it better than any chickpea hummus I've ever made.

I served the hummus pita toasts with a large side salad of mixed greens, carrots, cucumbers, tomato, snow pea pods, roasted sunflower seeds, soy nuts, and vegan ranch dressing:

Nachos = Best Thing Ever

Oh nachos, how do I love thee? Lemme count the ways. Or lemme just show you this picture of today's lunch — Black Bean Teesy Nachos:

Probably the best meal I've had all year so far. Seriously. I love nachos more than anyone could ever understand.

These are made with a base of crunchy Guiltless Gourmet Yellow Corn Chips (baked, not fried) and topped with black beans, Nacho Teese sauce, homemade guacamole, Roma tomato, black olives, and a few Trappy's jalepeno peppers.

The Nacho Teese (which my dad ordered for me last month from Vegan Essentials) is absolutely amazing. It's softer than the regular Teese, but it still comes in a tube. Nuke it in the microwave for 30 seconds and it turns into a spicy sauce for all your nacho needs.

As for the guac, I mashed half an avocado and stirred in a clove of garlic, a tablespoon or so of red onion, diced tomato, the juice of one lime, and plenty of salt and pepper. I can't wait to eat more of these for lunch again tomorrow!!!!

Sippin' On Some Sorghum Syrup

Ya'll know Three Six Mafia? They're this awesome Memphis crunk rap group that sings "Sippin' On Some Syrup" (but it's pronounced sis-urp). Anyway, they inspired this post's title, which involves a magical breakfast syrup made from sorghum and baking soda.

I made the sorghum syrup for my Sorghum Molasses French Toast:

It's another cookbook recipe. The French toast is a simple vegan version with a hint of cinnamon sweetness. For this batch, I used my go-to bread — Ezekieal 4:9 sprouted grain bread. The real beauty, however, lies in that foamy syrup drizzled over the toast.

When you heat sorghum on low heat with a pinch of baking soda, it gets all foamy and fluffy and delicious. Sorghum isn't available in all parts of the country, but molasses makes a great substitute.

What's the difference? Sorghum is made from a certain type of grass and it's a tad bit lighter in color and milder in flavor than it's darker cousin molasses. Molasses is a byproduct of sugarcane or sugar beet production. Both are high in nutrients (like calcium, potassium, and iron). Southerners often mistakenly refer to both products as "sorghum molasses," but they're a tad bit different. Even so, both make delicious syrup when heated with a little baking soda.