Homestyle Tofu (家常豆腐)

The black stuff is soy sauce. The white stuff is sugar. You don't need all the water shown, a quarter cup should do. Served here with stir fried noodles and potatoes.

Music: Make It Happen
by Ensane with That Purple Bastard

Awesome Blog; Vegan Guinea Pig

Cookbook recommendations, delicious recipes (maple bbq beans, yeah!) and product reviews from author Alicia C. Simpson at Vegan Guinea Pig
I don't even care that she stole my blog title for her book.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Collard Greens

Something to bring to Thanksgiving?

Roasted the squash in the oven for about forty minutes with margarine slathered over it. Pulled it out, peeled it and chopped it. Meanwhile cooked some chopped onion, threw in the greens and cooked squash. More margarine, some Italian seasoning and you're good to go.

Sauce for your Tofu

The awesomeness of your tofu depends a lot on your saucing. Here's one to try, shown here cooked with onions, carrots and bell pepper.

1/2 cup bbq sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
a few heathly shakes of basil
1 clove of garlic
dash of white vinegar
a wee bit of Sriracha sauce

Fry the garlic in veggie oil. Toss in bbq sauce and syrup, let it cook for just a minute or two and then add all the other ingredients.

Indian Night!

Always been intimidated by cooking Indian food, but took a stab at it. The key is the spices; tumeric, cumin, coriander. Easier than expected. And delicious.
On the menu: Daal, saag paneer vegan style, chana masala.

Tofu Satay

Tofu satay was one of those things I thought I had to wait to get in a restaurant. This came out pretty good though. Started with firm tofu, wrapped it in a paper towel and then pressed it with a plate and a few heavy books. House of Leaves works well and is a great read afterwards too. I started doing something else and got distracted and realized I had left the tofu pressing for more than half an hour. It really forces out all that water and leaves you with firmer tofu to work with. For the batter, just flour, a dash or two of cayenne, salt and pepper. Lots of oil in the pan, tossed the tofu (in cubish chunks) when it was good and hot and cooked it for longer than I normally do. A little patient really gets rewarded. If you take the tofu out too soon, it's fine, but leaving it in there almost to the point of burning gives you some awesome texture. Try it yourself.
Served in the picture with some pineapple, rice, peanut sauce and cucumber salad.

Vegan Horseshoe

The horseshoe is a Springfield, Mass specialty. It's an open face sandwich with Texas toast, some kind of meat (often hamburger), fries and cheese. I saw this wonderful concoction on tv and decided to try to make a vegan version. For the Texas toast, just baked some thin slices of french bread with margarine on 'em. For the meat, fried a veggie burger. Cooked up some frozen fries for this but a more motivated person might make their own. For the cheese, I made a cheesy sauce which is basically this one here.
Very delicious and pretty quick. Better serve this with a salad though, this sucka has no vegetables!

Tacos Aren't Just Full of Beans Anymore

Tacos are easy and pretty dang awesome. But sometimes they same old stuff can get boring. Beans and rice, beans and potatoes. Zzzz. Zzzz. What else pray tell can you put in your tacos and still be rocking it vegan style? Ideas follow.

In the picture we have roasted poblano peppers, corn, avocado, and in the beans themselves chayote squash, onions and tomatoes.

Other ideas: nopales, mushrooms, spanish/mexican rice (like in the pic), tofu, guacamole, bell peppers.

Jollof Rice

Jollof Rice is West African deliciousness. Usually served with chicken and beef you can just eat it as is, with some lentils or maybe some seitan or tvp chunks. I took this recipe off the internet and veganed it.



Salt and pepper, to taste
Vegetable oil
2 cups rice
2 1/2 cups veggie stock
1/2 chili pepper chopped (more or less depending on your spice wussiness)
half an onion, finely choped
a clove or two of peeled and chopped garlic
2 large tomatoes, blanched and mashed
2 tbl. tomato paste
1/4 cup of chopped carrots (could also add green beans,
mushrooms and/or bell peppers to veggie it up)


Fry the onions, garlic and chili pepper. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, half the combined vegetables and 1/2 cup of stock. Stir well, adjust seasoning and simmer on low heat for 5-7 minutes. Finally, stir in the uncooked, long-grain rice. Cover and simmer slowly on low heat for about 15 minutes.

Arrange the remaining vegetables on top of the rice and continue to simmer until the rice absorbs all the stock, softens and cooks. It may be necessary to sprinkle additional water mix to help the rice cook. If so use small amounts at a time.

Product Push: Purely Decadent

Miss ice cream? This stuff is awesome! Cherry Nirvana and Chocolate Almond Brownie are personal favorites.

Fake Tuna

A nice protein alternative, a tuna-like tasty food can be made from mashed chickpeas.

Smash one can of chickpeas (drained) in bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup red onion, 1/4 cup pickle, salt, pepper, a few splashes of pickle juice, at least 2 tbs of vegan mayo (I prefer Nayonaise). Add any optional add-ins that would put in regular tuna; celery, cayenne, mustard, etc.
Now you have a good sandwich filler or pasta casserole ingredient.
Thought I made this up but I then found it in many internet locations like here.

Hail Seitan!

Eating tofu all the time can get a little tiresome. And they're only so many beans you can have. Seitan (pronounced say-tan)is a tasty protein alternative also known as wheat gluten. When you describe what it is, washed wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as an elastic mass, it doesn't sound real awesome, but it is. It's got a nice chewy texture and soaks up sauces well like tofu. You can buy it pre-marinated at Whole Foods and similar stores or in cans from Asian markets.

Acorn Squash Tostadas

Had a lot of tostada shells left over and came up with this. I cut the squash in half and roasted it in the oven with margarine for about forty minutes. The refried beans are out of a can but I threw in some adobo sauced chipotle peppers. Guacamole and cilantro on top and you're ready to go.

Please Don't Feed the Bears

Please Don't Feed The Bears is a collection of the feisty vegan zine filled to the brim with recipes for sauces, noodles, watermelon slushies and the like but also kick-ass drawings. Recommends music for each meal too. And it's only eight bucks!

Vegan Sports: Bryan Danielson

I know Bryan Danielson aka Daniel Bryan aka The American Dragon doesn't look like a wrestler, more like a dude you might go hiking with, but he is. And he's vegan!

Peanut Butter Pasta

Created this (a simpler version) when I was studying abroad in Beijing and my Chinese hosts requested some authentic American food. My American friend's mom had just him peanut butter and pasta. My Chinese friends had soy sauce and MSG in their house. Hopefully your kitchen is better stocked.

1/2 pound cooked pasta (I like to use penne)
half a green bell pepper
1 cup broccoli
1/2 an onion
1/2 cup corn

For sauce:
about 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 soy sauce
1/4 veggie broth
handful of basil
Sriracha sauce (just a squirt or two)

Sauce: Mix liquids into PB slowly, stirring and stirring until it thins out.

Fry onion in pan with oil. Throw in other veggies and sauce until it is all hot and gooey. Toss with pasta. Not a hard one, but hearty and awesome.

Strawberry Dressing

Inspired by my buddy, Andrea, I made a strawberry salad dressing. Filled a jar with equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar, added a few tablespoons of sugar and tossed in pecans and strawberries until I couldn’t fit anymore. Sweet!

Kale Salad

half an apple
two stalks of celery
one small tomato
a bunch of kale
Italian dressing


Steam kale until dark green. Chop it real small. Dice the raw veggies and toss them with the kale with your favorite Italian dressing (homemade or otherwise). Done!

Biscuits

3 tsp baking powder
sprinkle of salt
1/4 cup margarine
1 cup soy milk
2 cups flour
small handful of sugar

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add margarine and milk and mix. Roll out on flour-dusted counter, a little extra flour patted on the dough ball. When it's flat, use the mouth of a glass to cut out circles in the dough. Put these little puppies on a greased pan, put in oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes (flipping once about half way)

This is basically the How it All Vegan recipe, but I like the sweetness of the added sugar and an extra greasy pan really turns the biscuits nice and golden.

Very Green Fried Rice

2 cups rice

half green bell pepper

small avocado

one block of tofu

a cup or so of bok choy

green leaf lettuce

half an onion

Cook the rice with half coconut milk, half water. (It gives it some creaminess and makes it a touch sweeter)

Meanwhile, fry up the onion and tofu in a pan, throwing in soy sauce in the pan as the tofu cooks. Next add the bell pepper and when everything is done, mix the rice and veggies along with the avocado and lay that baby on a bed of lettuce.

Veggie Burger Recipe

Found this recipe on vegweb.
Easy and tasty. This came out small for me. I’d double it.

How it All Vegan

Biscuits and pancakes, awesome. Great sauces and creative combos. There's also some random stuff like how to make your own massage oil and dog biscuits. A keeper.

Black Bean Tostadas with Fried Plantains

Black Bean Tostadas with Fried Plantains1 can of refried beans (I used refried black here)

1 avocado

half a carrot or a whole small one

two or three very ripe plantains

lettuce

tostada shells

Valentina sauce

Not a real hard one, but it looks nice. You can buy tostada shells at a lot of stores especially the Fiesta types. I heated them up in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Heat up the beans in a sauce pan then spread a dollop of ‘em on the shell. Pile some torn lettuce, strips of carrot, and avocado slices on top. A splash of Valentina pretties it up.

Slice the peeled plantain at a bit of an angle and fry them in hot oil. If they look a little too done, then you’re doing it right. Sprinkle a little salt if you like.