Vegan comfort food week of unResolution month marches onward.  Why vegan food?  Well, I figure I’m corrupting the omnivore’s and the vegetarian’s diet, I might as well make it equal opportunity (raw foodists, I’m thinking real hard…)  I mean, after all, UnResolution month only works if everyone gets a chance to eat really bad-for-you-food that tastes pretty darned good. Right?

So today, we are going with something quick and easy and familiar to meat eaters and non-meat eaters alike:

Fried Vegan “Chicken Strips”

If you have been following this blog much lately, I have been doing a lot of cooking with Match Foods products.  I’ve done gravy burgers and crab rangoon both made from Match’s meat replacers.  Today, I decided to bring things back a little bit and do something everyone loves: chicken strips, but vegan chicken strips made from Match meat.

This recipe is simple and easy and uses the same tempura skillz I learned from Julia Usher at Sauce Magazine.  However, unlike yesterday’s deep fried sushi recipe, the tempura batter used in this recipe is a lot more open to interpretation.  Normal tempura batter uses plain soda water and minimal spices.  With this recipe, you can use beer if you like or Coca-Cola or whatever.  You can also add more or different spices than those I list.

Feel free to have fun with this one.

Vegan Chicken Strips

Read the rest of this entry »

Consider the following entry into the amazing world of sushi-dom just a taste of things to come.  On a personal level, I am slowly leaving my Chinese phase and am strongly considering a sushi-at-home phase.   Either way, I thought that deep fried sushi would be a perfect entry for unResolution month because sushi, if the rice is kept to a minimum, is a decent health food for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.

So what better way to spend my 10th post of unResolution month than making the dish as remarkably unhealthy as I possibly can?

Deep Fried Vegan Sushi

I hate to say it, but sushi is like anything else…it’s better when its fried.  I can only imagine the army of highly trained sushi chefs who are coming to hunt me down now, but it’s true.  Add batter and fat and it’s enough to make my American heart soar, right before it seizes.

It is important to note when considering this dish that this recipe is vegan (it keeps up with the theme of this week – vegan comfort food that is also bad for you), but if you are not a vegan, you can fill your roll with whatever you like.  This one is just a very easy vegan go-to roll.

Rolling Vegan Sushi And Then Frying It

To get things roll going, you are going to need standard sushi ingredients: nori (toasted seaweed), sushi rice, and fillings, but then we go the extra step and fry it in tempura batter.  So this recipe will be broken up into three sections: making the rice, making the sushi roll itself, and then deep frying it.

Read the rest of this entry »

And the beat rolls on… We’re almost to the mid point our of second week of yummy, soul satisfying and totally embiggening (I didn’t make up that word, the Simpsons did) awesomeness that is unResolution month.  I hope this week has inspired you to reconnect with the ooey, gooey, greasy, and yummy foods that make life great.

Today, we’re going with another favorite with a vegan twist…

Vegan Crab Rangoon

Yes, that’s right… we’re veganizing a food made primarily from cream cheese and crab, neither of which are particularly vegan.  But we’re going into this dish with a plan and an arsenal consisting of vegan crab meat from Match Foods which make living la vida vegan delicious.  (Also, as one of my friends on Twitter pointed it out, it’s also great for those who are allergic to shellfish.)

Making Vegan Crab Rangoon

The key ingredient to making vegan crab rangoon work is the vegan cream cheese, which I have recently started making at home and I am loving it.  I realize I am a bit of a vegan cream cheese novice so it’s probably not up to the pro’s standards, but I find my version quite serviceable for this recipe.  Also, I keep mine pretty flavor neutral so that onions, garlic, and crab can bring their flavor to the party.

Read the rest of this entry »

And now… day 8 of unResolution month.  Hopefully at this point, unResolution month needs no introduction and you are happily eating away.  (And maybe going to the gym. )

Today, I turn the focus of unResolution month from comfort foods (with a minor deviation into cookies) to straight vegetarian/vegan food that also happens to be ridiculously bad for you.  Because, after all I did become veg for the health benefits.

So anyway…

Vegan Soyrizo Taquitos

This is one of my all-time favorite vegan meals.  Taquitos are small tubes of tortilla that have been rolled with flavorful, (usually Mexican-inspired) filling.  Usually it’s beef, but sometimes chicken or chorizo.  Once the rolling is done, the whole thing is tossed into a deep fryer and made extra delicious because everything is better when fried.

Of course, if this weren’t unResolution month I would say roll them, stick them with a toothpick and bake them with a light coating of olive oil.  But this is unResolution month and you must fry!!!

Oh, and if you are wondering what Soyrizo is…it’s a soy based chorizo meat alternative.  I actually like it better than a lot of real chorizo that I have had because it is not nearly as oily.  Still, it’s kind of grainy, so it works best hidden a dish.

Making the Soyrizo Taquitos

Taquito construction is very simple and this recipe is no different.

Read the rest of this entry »

One week…seven recipes…boo yeah!  Hopefully the first week of unResolution month has been “full filling” for you and that I am making you as hungry as I am making me.  Speaking of me, today’s recipe is near and dear to my heart … insofar as it tried to clog it up with lots of grease and butter and yummy mayonnaise … because the following meal is what I ate after I the last final of my last semester of college.  It was:

Jumbo Hamburgers with Mayonnaise, Ketchup, Gravy, French Fries, and Grilled Buns with Butter and Beer on the Side

I went to a place called J.B. Stout’s after that final not really looking to eat poorly.  Rather, I was in search of beer.  However, J.B. Stout’s was semi-famous because they sold “Stout burgers” which were these unimaginably huge hamburgers which I had never ordered.  Even though I was not veg at the time, I was not a huge eater of red meat.

And while I had considered trying to consume the awesomeness of the Stout burger, I never could convince myself to order one.  However, on that day so many years ago, I was consumed with a giddy feeling  of possibility and rebellion!  I was done with school and what better way to celebrate than eating a metric ton of grease?!

The best part about all of this, though, is that it just started out as a thick hamburger with heavily buttered buns to which I added a “celebration sized” glob of ketchup.  But I was also drinking beer and I had a buddy there…

So next came the mayonnaise which was put on the bun and the fries.  But that wasn’t good enough.  Then I needed gravy to dip the fries into (thanks Swiss Chalet!) and then I needed more beer to keep my blood thin enough to avoid a severe coronary.  Sometimes I think I ordered onion rings, too, but I can’t be sure.

It was a great day, a memorable meal, and I’m sure it will become a classic in your household (if by classi,c I mean a meal you’ll eat it once and ALWAYS wonder why…)

Oh, and to make things better for my vegan eaters, this recipe is written as all vegan.  The key will be finding a good, greasy vegan gravy to go on top.  Bon appetite!

Jumbo Hamburgers aka Gravy Burgers

So obviously the original burgers weren’t vegan, but you should still give a burger made from Match Foods a try!

Read the rest of this entry »

Today hereby inaugurates my Thirty-One Days of Junk Food.  My New Year’s Resolution this year is to make sure as many of my readers broke theirs as possible!  (Just kidding, but not really.)  I think I’m off to a good start!

(BTW, this post is dedicated to Kelly Olexa, who ironically enough, is one of the best fitness vloggers out there.  She’s also one of my favorite people to Twitter at…)

Vegan Gnocchi in Cheesy Bechamel with White Truffle Oil

This recipe starts vegan with the gnocchi, but ends up being vegetarian with the yummy 5 cheese bechamel.  However, vegans, please do not go away.  You can remove the bechamel and replace it with some Elegant Marinara or a sage-brown vegan margarine sauce.

Either way, the party ends with a delicious garrnish of white truffle oil and a little basil for green and flavor.

Vegan Gnocchi

My challenge to myself in making this dish was making the gnocchi vegan.  Gnocchi recipes abound and are not terribly difficult, like this one at 101 Cookbooks I really liked.   Most recipes call for around 2 pounds of potatoes, 4 eggs, and some flour, salt, and nutmeg to add flavor to the party, but I wanted to eat some, too so I had to veganize it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and then something comes along and tells me that vegetarians and vegans still have a long way to go.

Friday night was date night for me and my wife and she REALLY wanted to see Twilight. We compromised for our date night. First, we went to go to Spin (which I like) and then we went to see Twilight (which she liked.)

While I could talk about Twilight for a while, BlogWellDone.com is not a movie review site. Thus, I shall spare you my feelings about the movie as a piece of cinema. However, there was one part I found particularly disheartening. Not irritating and it did not make me mad, just disappointed.

Twilight and Vegetarianism

The main character of the movie, Bella (the lovely damsel), is vegetarian (yay!!) and the vampires who drink only animal blood are called vegetarian (which is, a little perverse since to qualify for vegetarian status they have to eat animals as if humans aren’t animals…) I could let that slide, though. Who am I to lecture a vampire about terminology? They have supernatural strength. And fangs. And a unique sense of style that just doesn’t look good on me.

Anyhow, the part of the movie which actually got my to talk back to the screen (a habit I normally reserve for watching Jayhawk football and basketball games) was when Edward (our handsome hero) told Bella that being a vampire vegetarian was like eating tofu. “Sure”, he said. “You can life on tofu your entire life, but you won’t be satisfied.”

Grrrrrrr!

Twilight Could Have Promoted a Healthy (Vegetarian) Diet

A million things popped into my head about the relative amounts of saturated fat in meat vs. tofu, the differing amounts of unnatural hormones in tofu and meat, etc. It was also obvious that Edward had not read my blog, which was, of course, really disheartening.

Still, it really did bother me that a movie that has grossed as much as Twilight and has attracted as many young teenage girls as it has is going around insulting a vegetarian diet. In an age of teenage obesity and eating disorders, where girls are maturing much faster due to hormones in their food, why take a shot at a vegetarian staple? Why not encourage healthy eating habits?

So, there’s my soapbox. Thanks! Next up, a recipe. I promise!

Image courtesy of StephanieMeyer.com.

PS…to be fair, I have NOT read the book.  The book may be more veg*n friendly.

One of my Tweeps, Felicia Slattery, responded to one of my pleas for inspiration with the suggestion of talking about what you can do with pumpkin other than make pie.  Since the appearance of pumpkin en masse in grocery stores, I’ve taken an interest in this myself (see my recipe for Pumpkin Baingan Bharta) and  I have fallen in love with pumpkin as a savory ingredient.

Recipe: Pumpkin Risotto

For some reason, there is just something right about combining creamy risotto with pumpkin.  I think it has to do with the fact that even though I have been cooking with pumpkin a lot recently, in my head, pumpkin is still synonymous with pumpkin puree, which is creamy itself, especially when combined with eggs, butter, and sugar.

How to Cook Pumpkin

However, before we get into the recipe, let’s take a minute to talk about cooking with pumpkin.  It’ll be painless I promise.

There are a number of ways to cook pumpkin: boiling, steaming, and stir frying.  However, the method that always works well for me is roasting it in the oven.  Every time it produces well-cooked, juicy, and delicious pumpkin.  Roasting is also easy, but it is time consuming.

To roast all you need to do is cut your pumpkin in half, clean out the seeds, cover in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and bake in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes.

How to Pick a Pumpkin

One other note.  Then recipe, I promise.

When you are looking to eat pumpkin, look for sugar pie pumpkin or organic pumpkin from a quality grocery store like a Whole Foods.  Most of the pumpkins that you find in a pumpkin patch or in a lot of grocery stores were bred to be hardy and stay together as scary faces are cut into them.  This makes for tough, stringy pumpkin and not good for eating.

Pumpkin Risotto

Phew!

Okay, now without further ado…Pumpkin Risotto.

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup cooked pumpkin (1/5-1/8 of a cook sugar pie pumpkin) finely diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 4-6 cups of veggie or chicken broth
• 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese (optional for non-vegans)
• 4 tablespoons of butter (optional for non-vegans)
• Nutmeg for garnish

Put a high sided skillet or sauce pan over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Wait until the olive oil is hot and add the garlic.  Saute for 30 seconds and add the pumpkin and a good pinch of salt.   Saute for about three minutes and set aside.

Add the remaining olive oil and wait until it is hot.  Add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent, 4-5 minutes.  Then add the arborio rice.  Stir well, making sure the onions and rice are covered in oil.  Toast the rice for another 3 minutes.

Bring the heat down to medium.  Using a soup ladel or measuring cup, add about two ladels (somewhere between a half cup and a cup) of broth into the rice.  Give the rice a stir.

The broth should start to boil and will soon be absorbed into rice.  When the rice is dry, ladel in more broth.  Repeat until the rice is no longer able to absorb any more liquid.  (It’s better to over do it, in my opinion, than under do it so don’t worry about adding too much.  If the risotto is too runny, just cook the risotto a little longer.)

When the rice is at capacity, let it cook for another minute, then stir in the cheese and butter.  Once the cheese has been incorporated, add the cooked pumpkin/garlic mixture and stir well.

Serve immediately with some nice crusty bread and side salad.

Enjoy!

So at some urging from Judy, here is my recipe for fried artichokes, which  was heavily inspired by the same dish at La Bodega in Kansas City, MO.  It is the perfect combination of salt from the “ham” and sweet from the garlic vegannaise.

Fried Artichokes

• 8 large artichokes
• 3 tablespoons corn starch
• 4 slices of tofurkey lunch meat (if you’re not veg, you can substitute ham), halved
• 6 tablespoons of egg replacer
• 2 tablespoons of soy milk
• 1 cup of All Purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• Canola oil for frying

To make the dipping sauce:

• 8 tablespoons of vegannaise
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder (or roasted garlic)
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of sriracha hot sauce

Process the artichokes.  I’m going to defer to eHow until I can get some pictures up.  (I know, I know.)

Dredge the artichokes in corn starch and shake off the excess.  Then wrap the artichoke in half of a slice of the lunch “meat”.  Trim any extra meat so that it wraps around perfectly.   Stick a toothpick through the artichoke so that the lunch meat stays closed.  Let the artichokes sit for 10 minutes to let the cornstarch set.

While the artichokes are resting, mix the egg replacer and soy milk (or eggs and regular milk if you are not vegan) together in one bowl and the flour, garlic, and salt and pepper in another bowl.

After ten minutes, dip the artichokes into the egg mixture and then the flour.  Shake off the excess flour and put on a plate to set.

Bring the frier to temperature while the crust is forming on the artichokes.  Fry the artichokes until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.

To make the dipping sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

And so it comes to an end…

In Part 0 of How to Make Tofu That Doesn’t Suck, we looked at all the things you can do to prep your tofu before cooking.  Part 1 covered baking it, Part 2 deep frying it.  Part 3 examined how to stir fry tofu.  Part 4 was a list of sauces that go well with toful.

And now we are ready for the conclusion.  The grand finale…it’s Ma Po Tofu.

Ma po tofu (which is Chinese for so good you smack your mother POW! Okay, not really, it’s probably named after a Chinese street vendor named Ma who was probably fictious) is a traditional Sichuan dish that is made with tofu, ground pork, and a lot of chilis, including the infamous Sichuan peppercorns.

However, for me, this dish will always be special because it was the first Chinese meal I ate after becoming vegetarian.  It was so good and yet it didn’t have any meat…

So, I pretty much decided I had to learn how to cook it.  Instead of pork, I decided to go with seitan which has lead to this…

Ma Po Tofu

• 1 block of extra firm tofu
• 1 tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
• 4 Sichuan chilies
• 2 tablespoons of peanut oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon of ginger, minced
• 4 spring onions, whites sliced and the greens cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 package of seitan, minced
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of broth
• 1 tablespoon of Sichuan hot bean paste
• 2 tablespoons of corn starch

Okay, let’s start with a couple of notes.  First, yes the recipe is correct.  Use extra firm tofu.  Traditionally it is made with soft tofu, but I think by now you know what I think of soft tofu.

Secondly, substitutions.  If you do not have Sichuan peppercorns (available at Dean & Deluca and Whole Foods, but not at my local Asian market (?!)), omit.  Regular peppercorns are not the same.  Secondly, if you do not have Sichuan bean paste…go to the Asian market.  It is pretty much the key to this dish tasting right.

Okay, back to the recipe:

Press the tofu, cut it into 1/2 inch cubes, and prepare using your favorite method.  If you are in a hurry, you do not even need to press it, but of course, it makes the tofu taste better.

In a wok, roast the peppercorns until they become fragrant (about 1 minute) and remove from the wok.  Grind.  Dry roast the chilies until they turn brown and remove.  Smash in a food processor.

Add the peanut oil to the wok and let it get very hot.  Add the sliced spring onion whites, garlic and ginger to the wok.  Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the seitan and stir fry for another 2 minutes.

Add the soy sauce, broth, Sichuan hot bean paste, androasted chilies, and bring to a boil.  Add the tofu into the wok and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix the corn starch with the corn starch to create a slurry.   Add that to the wok and stir until the sauce becomes thick.

Garnish with spring onion greens and Sichuan peppercorns.

Enjoy!

And this concludes my five (really six part series) on how to make tofu not suck.  I am going to be taking these posts, adding some pictures, and adding a few more recipes.   Who knows, I might even proofread.  Then I’ll turn all that into a PDF and put on the site for print and download.  More on that later!  Until then, start making tofu that doesn’t suck!