Who Says Vegans Can't Eat Steak?

Yep, that's right. We can have our steak and eat it too. Of course, this isn't a recreation of the nasty, bloody butcher shop steak. These are little soy-based Vegan Black Pepper Steak bites from VegeUSA's Vegetarian Plus line:

I was sent a couple of free coupons to review a few of their products. But my Whole Foods currently only carries their Vegan Black Pepper Steak. So I tossed a box in my cart last time I went to the grocery store.

You can really do all sorts of stuff with these little peppery bites. But since this is a frozen food, I figured I'd keep the whole meal convenient by buying a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies to accompany my steak. In less than 10 minutes, this lovely Black Pepper Steak Stir-fry was on my dinner table:

Well, it would have taken much longer if I hadn't prepped my brown rice the night before. But I did, so the meal was easy-peasy.

As for taste, these little yummers are quite delish. They don't taste like cow steak though. In fact, the taste is very similar to other Asian-inspired Vegetarian Plus meats I've tried (like their Kung Pao Chicken). Sort of a gingery, salty-sweet chewy seitan. They're actually soy-based, not gluten-based. But they have that meaty seitan texture.

Here's what's in 'em: Water, Soybean Fiber, Soybean Oil, Soybean Protein, Carrageenan, Food Starch, Raw Cane Sugar, Sea Salt, Caramel Color, Black Pepper Granule, Yeast Peptone Powder, Enoritake Mushroom Essence, Natural Vegan Flavor, Soy Sauce Paste, Paprika.

Not bad. All pronounceable, real foods. My only qualm with the product is the pricetag. Although I was able to review these for free, one box costs nearly $7 at my Whole Foods! And although the package claims to hold four servings, it's really more like two servings ... unless you eat like a bird (which I do not). If you have money to shell out on convenience foods, give these a try. They're delicious. But if you live paycheck to paycheck like I do, you might just wanna eat tofu instead.

Imagine Vegan Cafe Has Faux Shrimp (and Other New Items)!

Memphis' only full-service vegan restaurant, Imagine Vegan Cafe, recently celebrated its first anniversary (check out this post for pics of the out-of-control birthday buffet), so owners Adam and Kristie decided it was time to revamp the menu.

Now, for those who don't live in Memphis, let me explain something about Imagine Vegan Cafe. The original menu was already massive with around 60 savory items (think chicken fried steak, cheesesticks, drumsticks, vegan cheese pizza, Philly cheesesteaks, beef tips & rice) and a rotating array of vegan layer cakes, cupcakes, deep dish pies, brownies, fudge, cookies, and milkshakes. But now the menu is even bigger with 13 more items! They removed a couple of items that didn't sell so well, but for the most part, the original menu is intact.

One of the most impressive selections on the new menu is the Fried Vegan Shrimp Plate:

They use the VegeUSA Vegan Shrimp. They're battered, fried, and served with cocktail sauce. I've never had real shrimp, but my omni boyfriend Paul tried one, and he said they are a dead ringer for the real thing. And they even look like real shrimp on the inside! Just FYI: I never liked seafood when I did eat meat. So I was a little skeptical as to whether or not I'd like these. But they don't taste fishy at all. They just have a fun chewy texture.

With most entrees, you can choose two sides, so I picked my long-time faves: Mac & Cheese (made with Teese!) and Broccoli with Imagine's homemade ranch for dippin'.

Before, the menu was printed on white paper, and a gigantic blown-up version of the menu was taped to the wall by the front counter. But now they've gone all out and had real menus printed and encased in plastic. Adorbs!

Other new items include Fried Calamari, Potato Skins, Vegetable Soup, Cornbread, Double Bacon Cheeseburger, Chicken Bacon Melt, Meatball Sub, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Turkey Cutlets with Gravy, Stuffed Peppers (I had those last week ... so good!), and Chili Cheese Fries. They're also making their own Thousand Island and "Honey" Mustard Dressings in-house as well.

Since I've tried EVERYTHING on their old menu (I eat there every week ... sometimes twice a week!), I'm excited for the challenge of working my way through the new selections. Next up: Double Bacon Cheeseburger. Oh yea.

Brown Rice + Tofu + Toast

As any regular readers have probably figured out by now, I don't often make the same thing twice. I love trying new recipes, so unless something just totally blows me away, I probably will never make it again. And some recipes (okay, LOTS of recipes) do blow me away but still don't get made again because I just never get around to them. I have so many cookbooks and so little time!

But there's one simple breakfast that I've been coming back to over and over — Bernard's Brown Rice Breakfast from The Garden of Vegan:

Sarah Kramer and Tonya Bernard's (the recipe's namesake) The Garden of Vegan was my first vegan cookbook, and I've been making this since at least 2004 or 2005, right after going vegan. It looks kinda crazy, but it's oh-so-delicious. I blogged about my love for this tasty morning meal back in 2009 too.

Toast is topped with plain, heated tofu mixed with brown rice. Yes, it's unseasoned. But that's okay because you spray the tofu and rice-covered toast with Bragg's (or soy sauce) and then drizzle it all with flax oil and ketchup. Morning's don't really get better than this.

Do you ever make the same thing twice?

Memorial Day Vegan BBQ

Our Memphis vegetarian group — Food Awareness — celebrated Memorial Day with a vegan BBQ potluck at my friend Vaughan's house. Check out Vaughan's weirdly cute (and grammatically incorrect) homemade sign:

Vaughan fired up the grill, and I tossed on some Veggie Tofu Kabobs that I made using the Basic Broiled Tofu recipe from Appetite for Reduction:

We also grilled Tofurky Beer Brats, but I forgot to take a picture of those. You all know what they look like, right?

Greg brought his famous Tofu Chicken Nuggets. These keep getting better and better every time. They really taste like chicken!

Vaughan made Mustard Buckwheat, which sounds really weird and hippie-ish. But it was actually quite tasty:

And Vaughan also steamed some Mustard Greens, which we ate with Hart's homemade Ghost Pepper Sauce. Man, that stuff was H-O-T! But delicious! That stuff will put hair on your chest, for reals.

There were a few more dishes that I failed to photograph, like Andy's Pasta Salad with Tofu Feta (so proud that my non-veg friend used tofu in place of feta!!) and John's Baked Beans.

For dessert, I made Blondies using the Bella Brownie Maker machine that Greg got me for Christmas. Have y'all seen these Bella machines? Target and Amazon sell them. They're little plug-in machines (like wafflemakers) that cook brownies in eight minutes. This was the first time I've used it, and I was blown away by these brownies. They were the chewy, soft kind ... like a big ole cookie bar! I used the blondie recipe in the booklet that came with the machine, substituting Ener-G egg replacer powder for the eggs called for in the recipe.

Shay made a tasty Berry Cobbler:

Rita brought a bowl full of cherries! I love fresh cherry season!

Lara brought her mind-blowing Peanut Butter Truffles:

But Shannon wins the award for most creative grilled dessert — Banana Boats! She made a slit in a banana and stuffed them with carob chips. And then we melted them, with the skin still on, on the grill:

To eat these, we just opened the peel a little more and dug out the melty carob banana with a spoon. Fun!!

Tacos!

Every month, I make the featured recipe in the 2012 Happy Herbivore calendar. So far, all the recipes have been low-fat (that's the HH's schtick) and delicious. So far, I've made strawberry cupcakes, hot cocoa, green pea hummus, and colcannon, But May's selection is my favorite by far — Lentil Tacos!!

The recipe is so simple, and I'm sorta pissed that I've never thought to use lentils in place of taco meat before. But now I'm making up for all that lost time. Lentils make the best taco meat, y'all! Dried lentils are cooked with chili powder, onion powder, and lots of other spices to create a tasty taco meat. The recipe calls for optional chickpeas, so I used those as well.

The rest of my taco is topped with Galaxy Vegan Mexican Shreds, Follow Your Heart Non-Dairy Sour Cream, tomatoes, and my new friend arugala. Yes, I'm giving arugala a second chance, and I think we've reconciled our differences. Also on the plate is a heapin' helpin' of my Dirty South Rice (the recipe will be in my cookbook, but it's basically a Spanish-influenced dirty rice).

What do you put in your taco? (And yes, I'm aware that sounds dirty).

Asian Soul Food Fusion

When I moved to Memphis 10 years ago, this city really didn't have much going for it. We had a new-ish NBA team that kinda sucked. We had a lot of crime and a lot of pig barbecue.

We still have all those things (except our NBA team — the Memphis Grizzlies — has had some shining moments). But now we have so much more — bike lanes all over the city, three dog parks, a skateboard park, more farmers markets than I can count, a vegan restaurant, an organic and raw vegan juice bar, four places to get vegan cheese pizza, and a handful of enterprising young chefs willing to go the vegan mile. We have people like Kevin Sullivan and his vegan-friendly food business, Ki Kitchen.

"Ki" means "soul" in Japanese, so it's an appropriate name for Sullivan's unique style of cooking which blends Southern soul food with Asian cuisine. Sullivan works at Tsunami, a local seafood restaurant. But on the side, he creates to-go vegan dishes brimming with originality (and tastiness). Sullivan stopped by the Memphis Flyer office a few weeks ago to let us sample his goods.

My co-worker/Flyer food writer Hannah Sayle wrote about Sullivan and Ki Kitchen this week, so check out her story on how Sullivan went from a part-time high school bus boy to an awesome vegan-friendly chef. Sullivan isn't vegan, and not everything Ki Kitchen creates is meat-free. But many of his dishes are!

His Black-Eyed Pea Hummus is my personal Ki Kitchen favorite. It's creamy and hummus-y, but it has that Southern flair thanks to his use of black-eyed peas:

The sweet 'n' savory Tomato Jam is just amazing too. I've been enjoying this on bagels spread with Galaxy Chive & Garlic Vegan Cream Cheese:

Perhaps his most unique dish is the Collard Green Kimchi. Now, I love me some kimchi (when I can find a vegan version), but collards trump cabbage in my book every time. This tangy-sweet dish is loaded with tender leaves, carrots, onions, and a hint of ginger:

Sullivan also makes some scrumptious and tangy Chow Chow (that's relish for all you Yankees) for serving with your fried taters or hot dogs and such:

If you're lucky enough to live in this bordering-on-awesome city, you can order any of Sullivan's dishes for $4 to $5. Check out his Facebook page for a menu.

Mike's Secret Chex Mix Recipe

My friend Mike makes the best Chex Mix! He brings a batch to every potluck and party, which in my circle of friends, occurs on way regular basis. When Mike brings the Chex Mix, he always separates me out a bag to take home because he knows how much I love the stuff. And I always take the mix to work to snack on at my desk. And then my co-worker Hannah always helps herself to as much as she wants. It happens every time.

So about a month ago, Hannah decided to replace the Chex Mix she'd eaten. We requested Mike's recipe, and he passed it along. Hannah made a big ole double batch, but we inhaled it. And then on Tuesday morning, we came to the sad, sad realization that there was no more Chex Mix. And that meant it was my turn to bring the Chex Mix.

So I used Mike's recipe, with a couple of tweaks of my own, to make a double batch. Now we're stocked with Chex Mix again. Yea! I'm guessing Hannah and I will go back and forth, taking turns keeping the Chex Mix stockpiled on my desk (I'm the Keeper of All Snacks because Hannah has less willpower).

Without Mike's permission (because I forgot to ask), I'm sharing his secret recipe. I'm pretty sure he won't care. And if he does, so what. Is he gonna sue me? Doubt it.

Mike's Fabulous Chex Mix (in his own words, stolen from a Facebook message)
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In one bowl ...
2 cups of rice chex
2 cups of corn chex
2 cups of wheat chex
1 cup of cheerios
sometimes I throw in something else. These last couple of times it was about half a cup or so of sesame sticks.
1 can of DELUXE mixed nuts
1 jar of macadamia nuts

Actually I put it in a giant roasting pan.

Other bowl ...
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (Bianca's note: I only used 1/2 cup of oil)
2 tbs of vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs of Dale's Seasoning (it's in a bottle, looks kind of like soy sauce with tons of spices in it)
1 tsp of garlic salt
1 tsp of onion salt
1 tsp of Tony Chachere's Cajun Spice (they have a regular and a hotter one)
1/2 tsp paprika

Then is when you get creative.
If I'm making it hotter for y'all,
I add hot sauce, cayenne pepper, stuff like that.
If you want to make it really hot, you have to add more than you'd think though. The olive oil seems to negate some of the kick it gives.

I usually just whisk the bowl with all the spices and oil long enough to get it mixed thoroughly. Some people put it on a pot and heat it up first.

Pour it all over the bowl with all the cereal and nuts and stir it around to coat it all. You'll see the oil at the bottom of the container.

Put in the oven at 250
Cook it for an hour, and you stir it every 15 minutes


Note: I've heard from a fellow blogger that the vitamin D in Chex is derived from sheep's wool, but I use the generic kind. I'm not totally sure of its vegan-ness, but it appears okay. I'm not that picky. I'm sure the Vegan Police will come after me for saying that, but whatevs.