Vegtastic!

Poquitos on Capitol Hill has wonderful ambiance (love the over-the-top wrought iron decor), great drinks, and killer guacamole.

Their vegan selection isn’t amazing, but the kitchen produces some mighty fine yam tacos. However, yam and tortilla isn’t super filling — you need some protein.

Seitan works well with corn tortillas — there’s so much wheat in seitan that you need to pair it with a contrasting grain.

I’ve made seitacos before, but generally have mixed feelings about homemade seitan –it always seems a little squishy to me, and I prefer a firmer bite.

However, reader Sarah mentioned that simmering seitan instead of boiling it will improve the texture. Isa says:

The biggest mistake made by young, aspiring seitan makers is boiling instead of simmering. Boiling is great if you’re trying to create fake brains, but for all other purposes, a gentle simmer will create the tender chunks of seitan that are perfect for slicing and sauteeing.

So, here is a new and improved, winter-friendly seitaco recipe.

Don’t forget the avocado, for a little added creaminess.

Seitan, yam, and caramelized onion tacos

Makes 6 tacos — 2 each for 2 people for dinner, and lunch the next day for 1 person

Ingredients

• 1 batch seitan (below)
• 1 large (10 oz) yam
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• a sprinkling of sugar
• olive oil
• 2 TBS Chohula sauce (or to taste)
• lime, cilantro, vegan sour cream, and avocado
• 12 small corn tortillas

Instructions

1. Cut the yam into small cubes and place in a bowl. Coat with olive oil, add salt (to taste — 1/4 tsp or so) and roast at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until yam is soft and starting to caramelize.
2. Heat a TBS or so of olive oil in a frying pan; when it’s hot, add onion and saute until onion softens and browns. Sprinkle with a few dashes of granulated sugar, and remove from pan.
3. Add more oil or cooking spray to the pan and saute cubed seitan for 5 minutes. Coat with Chohula sauce, then add yams and saute for another minute. Remove from heat.
4. To make a taco, place filling in two corn tortillas, squirt a slice of lime over it, and top with cilantro, vegan sour cream, and slices of avocado.

Seitan

“My” seitan recipe is really just the PPK’s seitan recipe, halved, with a few tweaks to accommodate for what I didn’t have around the house. I’m sure that the original is better.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
• 1/4 + 1 TBS cup cold vegetable broth
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

To simmer:

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup soy sauce

Instructions — see the original recipe.

Ever had disappointment turn into opportunity?

That’s probably a wee bit dramatic, considering this tale is just about eating in a restaurant, but bear with me.

My friends Tanya and Alex visit Seattle every year around Christmastime; Alex grew up here, and his folks are still in the area.

I’ve been meaning to introduce them to Pan Africa for a few years now, not because Tanya is from Africa (Mauritius, to be exact) but because they love fun, spicy food, and Pan Africa does this well.

Pan Africa’s menu has changed in the three years I’ve been dining there. The focus (I think) used to be more on Ethiopian cuisine (East), and it now offers veggie samplers from four regions: North, South, East, and West. I still typically go for East.

When we went for dinner on Thursday, the kitchen was out of nearly every East African dish we ordered, including injera and sambusas. (“We should come back when they’re open,” Alex quipped.)

We opted for the menu’s Western dishes instead: black eyed pea fritters, groundnut (peanut) stew and collard greens. All world-rockingly delicious, and none of which I would have tried had their Eastern counterparts been available.

See? Disappointment = opportunity.

The timing of this meal couldn’t be more perfect. Tomorrow is New Year’s day, and in the southern part of this country, it’s customary to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s with collard greens: the beans represent coins, and the greens represent the Benjamins. Money.

So, I present to you a recreation of a fortuitous bummer. Pan Africa fries their black eyed pea fritters; I baked mine, since the peanut sauce adds tons of richness.

It’s not quite a finalized collection of recipes yet (I’ve noted updates to make next time with the recipe), but a toothsome start.

May the new year bring you love, money (if you’re into that sort of thing), and deliciousness.

Ye’abesha Gomen (African Collard Greens)

double for output to be consistent with other recipes.

Peanut Sauce

adapted (well, basically taken verbatim, though I have a modification below) from The Congo Cookbook

Ingredients:

• oil, for sauteing
• 1/4 onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup vegetable broth*
• red pepper flakes, to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a skillet. Fry onions until brown.
2. Add peanut butter, broth, and red pepper flakes, to taste. Stir until smooth and simmer over low heat for ten to fifteen minutes.

*Next time, I’ll add another 1/2 or whole cup of the broth and chop my onions finer: this turned out to be very thick and a little chunky, not ideal for drizzling over rice or black eyed pea fritters, though very, very tasty.

Baked Black Eyed Pea Fritters

adapted from The Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 small to medium onion, finely diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced
• oil, for sauteing
• 1 (15 oz) can black eyed peas
• 1 1/2 tsp Ener-G mixed with 2 TBS water
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• panko bread crumbs (these may not be necessary — I thought they would add extra crunch in lieu of frying)
• cooking spray or oil

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Fry onions and jalapeno until brown and fragrant. Might want to turn on the stove fan for this — the spicy steam will make you cough.
3. Mash beans in a medium bowl; add all other ingredients except for bread crumbs and cooking spray.
4. Form mixture into 4-6 patties and coat with bread crumbs.
5. Place patties on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Spritz with a bit more cooking spray.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake for 5 more.

Serve over rice and collard greens topped with peanut sauce; top patties with additional peanut sauce.

—-

I’ll end my last post of 2011 with my (and possibly yours too — nearly 30 millions viewers can’t be wrong) favorite song of 2011:

My coworker Josh made an incredible sweet potato chili for our company’s Halloween potluck. It simmered all morning in a crockpot, and filled the entire office with its Southwest-inspired aroma. We were salivating by lunchtime.

After much begging, pleading, and some threats on my part, Josh gave me the recipe. Which isn’t true at all — he very obligingly shared it. He’s a nice guy.

The recipe is actually his girlfriend Clara’s (she’s a very talented photographer), who got it from her mom, who got it from a friend, who may have thought it up herself or may have found it somewhere else. Like a tall tale, no one really knows the origins. Actually, the friend of the mother of the girlfriend of the coworker might — you’ll have to ask her.

My version is mostly the same, though because I thought I knew exactly what I was doing and recreated it from memory, what I present to you today differs slightly from the original crockpot-based recipe (doc) in a few ingredients and in that I made mine on the stove. You have options.

May I present to you Helen’s take on Josh’s girlfriend’s mom’s friend’s Sweet Potato Chili. The bonus of my version is that it’s super-duper rainbow colorful.

Fun sweet potato fact: both the sweet potatoes and yams sold on the American market are actually sweet potatoes. So, buy the white (like Josh and I did) or buy the yellow — it’s all good.

Sweet Potato Chili

Ingredients

• 1 medium chopped onion
• 1 each red and green bell pepper
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• olive oil, to saute onion and garlic
• 1 can (28 oz) undrained diced tomatoes
• 1 cup mild or medium green salsa
• 2 medium peeled cubed sweet potatoes
• 2 small or 1 large purple potato, peeled and diced
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1 can black beans
• 1 (11 oz) can corn, drained
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 TBS molasses (secret ingredient)

Instructions

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until brown and fragrant.
2. Add all other ingredients and simmer until vegetables are cooked, about an hour.
3. Serve with cashew cream and chips.

If Sandra Lee were vegan, this is what she would make for dinner: a casserole of Leahey Gardens’ mac & cheese, Daiya and broccoli.

It’s super easy and seriously tasty.

This is totally inspired by a post-Vida Vegan Con conversation with Brittany — she would probably say to add nooch, and I’d probably say that’s not a bad idea at all.

Semi-homemade vegan mac and cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 package Leahey Gardens’ mac and cheese + whatever other ingredients the package tells you that you need
• 1 head broccoli, chopped and steamed or microwaved
• 1/2 cup Daiya (your choice which flavor), or more to taste
• nooch to taste (optional)
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs

Instructions:

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions; drain.
2. In the same pot, combine cheese powder, whatever water/soy milk the directions tell you, and additional nooch to your taste (if using) until combined. Stir in pasta, cooked broccoli and Daiya.
3. Pour into a greased 9″ x 9″ pan and cover with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-10 minutes or until crumbs are browned and sauce is bubbly.

Mom and Dad have never let me live down the time I took them to the vegan Chinese joint in my hometown. I genuinely enjoyed our meal, but them — not so much. We’ll leave it at that.

Thus, I’ve since been wary of serving omnivores faux meat, but took a risk making a curry for David and myself with Sophie’s vegan shrimp — Sophie’s products were all the rage at VegFest back in March, and Madison Market recently started carrying them.

I couldn’t eat these fake shrimp — the soft, squeaky texture slid past my teeth with little resistance and a kiss of slight fishiness, the type of flavor you’d find too strong in actual seafood.

Uh oh — I thought, biting into one — David’s going to hate this!

Pretty — yes. Palatable? Maybe.

David enjoyed Sophie’s shrimp, surprisingly, and happily added mine to his bowl.

Whew.

So, if you’re curious about Sophie and her mock crustacean flesh, give ‘em a try and decide for yourself.

When I make this dish again, I’ll use tofu instead — every other component was delightful: coconut milk, green curry paste, potato, Thai basil, bamboo shoots, and Japanese eggplant.

This particular Japanese eggplant and I really developed a connection. Its curves fit so naturally in my hand, like a handle, that I felt guilty about eating it. That’s how vegan I am — I bond with vegetables.

R.I.P., my sweet aubergine

VeganMoFo makes you do strange things.

Green curry

adapted from the back of the Thai Kitchen coconut milk can

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.5 oz) can coconut milk
• 2 tbs green curry paste
• 1 large Japanese eggplant, chopped
• 1 potato, skinned and chopped
• 1 (8 oz) can bamboo shoots
• 1 (0.75 oz) package basil leaves, chopped
• 1 package Sophie’s vegan shrimp, thawed
• Diced hot pepper, cayanne powder, or Sriracha sauce to taste, if you want a spicier curry

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer until potatoes and eggplant are cooked through. Serve over rice.

Fall is the best season for produce in Western Washington State.

Think about it.

Butternut squash. Kale. Fractal broccoli. Honey-f@%*ing-crisp apples.

Fall calls for warm, hearty fare, and this stew calls for all of the above. Except for apples — that would be weird. But you can eat apples for dessert after stew… yeah.

Yesterday, I wrote about rainbows — this stew is also a rainbow. Red tomatoes. Yellow squash. Orange carrots. Green kale. Purple potatoes. Other colors of other stuff.

Only (unlike the cupcakes of yesterday’s post) this stew is an all-natural rainbow, the kind of oil-free, soy-free, gluten-free rainbow that makes you want to hug your fellow man in a display of universal brotherhood while gently swaying and singing Kumbaya.

I don’t really have a real recipe for it, but since it’s day 20 of VeganMoFo and I am running out of VeganMojo, here goes.

Kumbaya veggie stew

Ingredients

• 1 small head romanesco broccoli, chopped
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 bunch kale, chopped
• 1 eggplant, peeled and chopped
• 1 bunch baby carrots, chopped
• A couple purple potatoes, diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup-1 cup tomato juice
• 1 small onion, chopped
• a couple cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 (1/2″) piece ginger, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeño, chopped (or more — Sriracha sauce is good too)
• 1 can garbanzo beans
• juice of one lemon
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients except for lentils in a large pot over a medium heat.
2. In a separate pot, boil lentils and water until lentils are soft, about 20 minutes of boiling; drain and add to veggies.
3. Cook until all vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes.
4. Serve over rice, quinoa, barley, etc.

Another Portland-inspired post.

The Portland Hawthorne hostel, where I slept and showered and did very little else during Vida Vegan Con, is dangerously close to Sweet Hereafter, an all-vegan bar with a small but solid menu and killer drinks.

You should go there, if you haven’t been. Hop a plane, if you need to.

Having heard of the wonders of soy curls (but never tried them), I ordered the buffalo sub — tangy, sauce-smothered soy curls paired with chive miso cheese and ranch dressing topped with lettuce and tomato on a large baguette. I’ve written about this sandwich before.

And thus commenced my obsession with buffalo soy curls.

Ms. Jess Scone of Get Sconed! wrote about Sweet Hereafter’s Buffalo Sub last month, which proved very helpful when recreating the flavors.

Jess says that soy curls are soooo three or four years ago (maybe to you, Portlanders!), though to many of us, they’re pretty recent additions to our vegan lives. Sure, I’ve had an unopened bag in my pantry for nearly two years, but I haven’t seen them much around town (other than finally realizing that the chiggun strips at Highline are soy curls) and have been strangely intimidated by them up until this point.

Soy curls are actually insanely simple to prepare, meaning they’ll be making future appearances on this blog.

Buffalo sauce is also easy to make (just hot sauce and buttah), and pretty disgusting, as it turns out — a lot of oil goes into it. A lot. But it’s ohhhh soooo good. Somehow, all of that grease tempers the spiciness of the hot sauce into silky, still-pretty-spicy deliciousness.

So, these elements, along with generous amount of a chive-y homemade ranch dressing (since there’s no way I’m even going to attempt the chive miso cheese of the original), make for an almost perfect (but not quite) recreation of the Sweet Hereafter buffalo sub.

Pair with corn chips and an under-absinthed Sazerac for the full Sweet Hereafter effect.

Buffalo Sub

makes 1

Ingredients:

• 1 demi baguette or bahn-mi roll
• 1/2 cup dry soy curls
• Buffalo sauce
• pinch salt
• chive-y ranch dip
• chopped romaine (2 leaves)
• chopped tomato

Instructions:

1. Soak soy curls in hot water for 10 minutes; drain and squeeze out excess water — you want to open up room for sauce.
2. Heat soy curls in a small pan with 3 tbs – 1/4 cup buffalo sauce and a pinch or two of salt until warm.
3. Flay demi baguette lengthwise, making sure halves remain attached. In center crease, add soy curls, dripping extra sauce over, and top with a couple dollaps of chive-y ranch dip, a bed of lettuce, and some chopped tomatoes. I did it in reverse in my picture to highlight the beauty of buffalo soy curls.
4. Eat. Finish it. Act surprised about finishing it. Lapse into food coma.

Chive-y Ranch Dip

Adapted from Meet the Shannons’ ranch dressing, with a hat tip to the Pioneer Woman Cooks on the chives.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup reduced-fat Vegenaise
• 1/2 cup Vegan Sour Cream
• 1 tsp dried parsley (or fresh — I just can’t stand fresh parsley.)
• 1 1/2 TBS chopped chives
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• a few dashes celery seed
• a few dashes of dill
• a few dashes black pepper

Instructions:

• Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Dunk things in it. Spread it on stuff.

Buffalo sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 stick Earth Balance
• 1 cup hot sauce*

Instructions:

1. Melt Earth Balance and hot sauce together in a saucepan. Pour over everything. Try not to think about how much oil is in it.

*Frank’s and Crystal (I used the latter) are the Internetz’ recommended brands, though I had this crazy idea while eating pho the other day to maybe use Sriracha next time.

Stop eating your pinko commie hippie sprouts and chia seeds — it’s time for something all-American: Veganomicon’s chickpea cutlets topped with Blissful Bites‘ mushroom gravy, brussels sprouts sauteed with shallots and fancy mushrooms, and garlic mashed purple potatoes.

All-American with a hippie vegan twist, I suppose.

+

This meal tastes like what your grandma would have eaten, were she vegan. Maybe your grandma was/is vegan. Maybe I’m making judgements.

In full transparency, this post is a copycat of homage to what a couple of other vegan food bloggers have already done: Dawn of Vegan Moxie paired Veganomicon’s chickpea cutlets with brussels sprouts and mashed (sweet) potatoes (virtual kick in the pants to try recipe taken!), and Marti, aka “Tofu Mom,” is doing a mofo of gravy.

The chickpea cutlets and mushroom gravy are brothers from different mothers: hearty, savory and rich, though also pretty healthy. I baked my cutlets for extra health points, and I didn’t notice the lack of fried after smothering them in sauce. They were chewy and dense, in the greatest way possible.

And the gravy. If I suddenly became part of that fringe subculture that entire episodes of popular crime shows are based upon, where skinny people feed chubby people gravy to fulfill sexual gratifications until someone ends up mysteriously murdered (I watched a lot of CSI a few years back), this is the gravy I would demand someone lick off me (or lick off someone), though because there’s hardly any oil in this, they’d need to lick a lot of gravy to really fatten up.

If you haven’t already, you should go over and visit Dawn and Marti’s blogs. Since I have nothing further to say on the subjects of chickpea cutlets, brussels sprouts and gravy that they haven’t already, here is a picture of some dahlias from yesterday’s farmers market.

So much happy.

Bow Down to Washington,
Bow Down to Washington.
Mighty are the men who wear the Purple and the Gold,
Joyfully we welcome them within the Victor’s fold.
We will carve our name in the Hall of Fame,
To preserve the memory of our Devotion.

College football season is upon us. My one coworker has promised to wear his Oregon ducks T-shirt every Friday, while my dad is excited that the inclusion of Colorado in the Pac 12 opens up new opportunities for sibling rivalry.

For undergrad, I attended a division III school voted by its own alumni as the 6th worst football program in the nation.

Therefore, I’ve adopted Washington as my NCAA preference. I got my master’s there, David has his BA from there, and four of my aunts and uncles and one cousin also hold at least one UW degree.

I could personally care less about football, though I like it when my team wins — it’s a fantastic way to arbitrarily feel good about one’s life decisions.

Nothing says “Husky pride*” more than a dish made from Washington-grown produce, especially when said produce happens to match school colors: purple majestic potatoes and butternut squash turned into gnocchi.

Gnocchi are a little tricky. You want to make sure that you have exactly the right measurements and tools or yours will turn out soft and uneven — sort of like mine did. Lumpy mashed potatoes are usually the best (how else can you tell that they’re homemade?), but mashed potatoes for gnocchi need to be perfectly smooth — most recipes call for a ricer or vegetable mill for this.

I used Food.com’s vegan potato gnocchi (with just salt and garlic powder for flavor) and sort of winged the butternut squash version: 2 lbs squash, steamed and mashed, mixed with 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg. It was a little soft and sticky still, so next time I’ll follow a real recipe or add more flour.

Regardless, my gnocchi were still very tasty sauteed in chopped shallots, sage and Earth Balance.

Go huskies!

*This color combination will also work for LSU, the Minnesota Vikings, the L.A. Lakers, or any other purple and gold team. Or a unicorn-themed birthday party or something.

I’ve been making these enchiladas frequently, almost to the point where I’m sick of them — but not quite.

A long time ago, when I first went vegetarian, a friend’s mom served enchiladas filled with eggplant and almonds, and the brilliance of this combination made quite an impression upon me.

This version is super simple, and utilizes seasonal produce — the only ingredients that you can’t get at a Western Washington farmers market this time of the year are tempeh, tortillas, lime, Daiya, cilantro and spices. That actually is a good chunk of the recipe, but… whatever.

Almonds give the enchilada innards some needed crunch, and the tomatillo/lime/cilantro combination adds a lovely freshness, perfect for chilly autumn days when all one wants is just one more taste of summer.

I recommend making the sauce the night before, since it’s best to dip your tortillas in a bit of the stuff before adding filling, and you don’t want to scald your hands. Seriously, I always forget this step and then play hot potato. Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch…

If you’re looking for another tasty enchilada recipe, Vegenista made squash enchiladas with tomatillo sauce for VeganMoFo, and they look positively divine — an intriguing use for butternut squash!

These measurements are very rough — you’ll probably have some filling left over, and you’ll probably want to eat it out of a bowl sprinkled with extra Daiya while the actual enchiladas are cooking.

Eggplant, potato, tempeh and almond green enchiladas

Ingredients:

sauce:

• 1 lb tomatillos, outer skins removed
• 1 hot pepper, spiciness of your choosing, stem removed
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 4 small cloves of garlic or 2 big ones
• 2 cups water
• juice of 1 lime
• half a bunch of cilantro

filling:

• 1 small European eggplant or half of one large European eggplant, skinned and diced into small (3/4″) cubes
• 3/4 lb potatoes (2 small), peeled, cooked and diced (I just microwave them in hot water for 5 minutes)
• 8 oz. tempeh, diced
• oil, for sauteing
• 1 tsp ground chili powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne
• 1/4 tsp ground chipotle powder
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Other stuff:

• 6 (6″) corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup shredded vegan mozzarella cheese (or more, to taste)

Instructions:

1. In a small pot, bring tomatillos, onion, garlic and pepper to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Gently scoop tomatillos, onion, garlic and pepper into a blender (or let them cool, refrigerate overnight, and do this the following day). Add lime juice and cilantro and blend.
3. In a frying pan, add 1 tbs or more of oil and saute eggplant with salt, to taste, until soft. Add potato, tempeh, and spices. Cook until tempeh is heated, then set aside to cool a bit.
4. Microwave tortillas, covered in a damp paper towel, for 30 seconds to soften.
5. Pour a bit of sauce into a 9″ x 9″ pan. Pour a bit more sauce onto a large plate and moisten both sides of tortilla with sauce. Fill with eggplant mixture, and sprinkle with almonds before wrapping and placing in the pan. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
6. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until sauce bubbles and cheese melts — about 20 minutes.