Vegan Gumbo

This weekend I was pretty much laid up on the couch due to some back pain (sciatica, not fun!) so the boy made me gumbo on Sunday night with his mom's recipe (we also had some okra kicking around). They lived in Lousiana for a time and he has some Cajun blood in him. His mom is not Cajun but apparently she made the best roux back then. Roux takes a lot of patience due to the constant stirring and let me tell you, she has the patience of a saint so no wonder why her gumbo rocked. :)

Anyway, It was the first time I'd ever had gumbo and I loved it! He substituted Field Roast "Mexican Chipotle" flavour vegan sausages for the Andouille. We both thought it added just the right amount of heat to to the base. As you can see, I doused mine with a lot more hot sauce.

Gumbo's not the prettiest thing to photograph and I suck at plating and lack the patience, but I had to get a photograph to show his mom (she reads my blog). He did a great job on this. :)

I think next time, I'll try my hand at this. I wonder if I'll have the patience for making a dark roux. Probably not, but it will be fun to try.

Breaded & Fried Seitan (Vegan Tonkatsu)

I'm a seitan junkie so I love trying lots of different ones. The basic seitan recipe is a tester recipe for Joy Tienzo with a few of my own modifications thrown in. Texture was perfect: dense but not rubbery, tender but not spongy.

After cooking (simmering in broth), I let them cool in the fridge and then dredged the pieces in flour, soy milk and panko crumbs, then fried them and topped with tonkatsu sauce. On the side: mushroom rice pilaf and brussel sprouts.

Apricot Glazed Tempeh (variation)

Tester recipe for Joy Tienzo.

The original recipe uses seitan but Joy wanted someone to try this with tempeh.

While still delicious, I think I much prefer it with seitan since the taste and texture of the tempeh tended to overwhelm the flavours of the glaze/sauce.

Hot Basil Eggplant

Thai inspired eggplant dish — tester recipe for Joy Tienzo.

The dish was an excellent balance of sweet, savoury and spicy. I'm definitely making this again!

CSA Haul

We didn't pick up as much as the last few times but we still got quite a lot of yummy produce! Oh, and that's Abigail licking Mr. Marbles in the background. :)

• 2 bags of green beans
• 2 bags of other beans/peas (not really sure what type — sort of a cross between a snow pea and a snap pea)
• 4 asian eggplants
• 1 bunch leek
• small basket of cucumbers
• small basket of tomatoes
• 3 orange/yellow tomatoes
• 2 small heads red cabbage
• 2 bunches swiss chard
• 2 bunches tuscan kale
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 small basket of white onions

Bonus Pics: Shadow & Abigail

Pizza!

I decided to make pizza for lunch today since the boy is also here "working from home." Actually he is doing a bit of work, so...

Store-bought crust (spelt), topped with green pepper, mushrooms and two types of Cheezly (mozzarella and white cheddar).

I think I mentioned that I bought TEN packages of Cheezly on sale a little while ago. I still have 6 packages left in the fridge!

Vegan Alfredo & Broccoli

Lunch at the home office. Note the TV remote top right. :)

Vegan alfredo with broccoli. Inspired by the recipe here.

I didn't end up measuring anything threw this all together to taste: vegan margarine, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, some creamy Sheese, soy milk, nutritional yeast and topped with crumbled Cheezly and hot chili flakes.

Grilled "Cheese"

Vegan grilled "cheese" — two different types.

Top: Creamy Sheese Garlic & Herb
Bottom: Cheezly Mature White Cheddar

The Cheezly was much much better than the Creamy Sheese

Buffalo Tempeh

Tempeh based on the "wingz" recipe here with a few changes along with some homemade vegan ranch dressing.

Fettucine and Panko Breaded Eggplant

Fettucine tossed with olive oil, garlic, oven roasted tomatoes, spinach, basil and hot chili flakes. Eggplant breaded with panko breadcrumbs and shallow fried.

For the oven roasted tomatoes, I cubed Romas but left the yellow/orange cherry tomatoes whole. Then I tossed liberally with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic and some sugar. It went into a 425F oven for about 45 mins.

I know it's summer but I've been doing a lot of oven roasting lately!

Oven Roasted Kale

Tuscan kale tossed with olive oil, dark toasted sesame seed oil, soy sauce, agave nectar and then roasted in the oven at 425F for about 10-15 minutes. Topped with sesame seeds.

I think this is my new favourite way of preparing kale. The kale gets a little crispy in parts and the rest is tender. Next time I'll let it roast a little longer to get crispier.

You can also see some grains of rice hiding under the kale.

Christmas in July

Okay, not really but I decided I wanted a big dinner tonight so I made a Tofurkey roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans and homemade mushroom gravy.

It totally heated up my entire house with the oven on but it was worth it!

CSA Haul

Our CSA haul this week includes*:

- 2 little baskets of tomatoes
- 3 cucumbers
- 4 white onions
- 1 melon
- 2 heads of broccoli
- 2 bunches of tuscan kale
- 2 kohlrabi
- 2 eggplant
- 2 green peppers
- 1 small green cabbage

* Nosy cat Annabel not included.

Seitan Roast with Agave Apples (Take Two!)

Made this again with a few alterations. Delicious! Oven roasted cauliflower on the side and apple slices (kind of hard to see) at the top right.

The original entry is located here.

Macaroni Salad (and bonus pics)

Macaroni salad made with various beans, chickpeas and vegetables in a vegenaise/italian herb dressing with a touch of dill, dijon and agave nectar.

And bonus pics: Shadow and Smuckers!

No food but keep reading!

I don't talk much about animal rights issues on this blog (though I might start an AR blog as well if I have time) but I wanted to take the time to mention two things.

First, one of the gripes that a lot of vegan activists have had for quite some time is that we were lacking good leaflets/pamphlets that had a consistent message. Recently, two friends of mine have put together an excellent vegan abolitionist pamphlet in both English and French which can be downloaded as a PDF for free here. So print out tons of copies and start handing them out!

Secondly, Gary Francione just released his new book, Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation:

A prominent and respected philosopher of animal rights law and ethical theory, Gary L. Francione is known for his criticism of animal welfare laws and regulations, his abolitionist theory of animal rights, and his promotion of veganism and nonviolence as the baseline principles of the abolitionist movement. In this collection, Francione advances the most radical theory of animal rights to date. Unlike Peter Singer, Francione maintains that we cannot morally justify using animals under any circumstances, and unlike Tom Regan, Francione's theory applies to all sentient beings, not only to those who have more sophisticated cognitive abilities.

If you order from this page on Columbia University Press' website, it's 50% off until August 1st, so go buy it!

Kimchi!

More kimchi fermenting.

3 jars of cabbage/radish kimchi and one small jar of radish kimchi. I need better jars because it's a pain in the ass to jam it into narrow mouthed jars!

Seitan Roast with Agave Apples

Tester recipe for Joy Tienzo. On the side are some simple roasted potatoes.

This dish was delicious!

Holy Trinity Mac & "Cheese"

As vegans, we're lacking good vegan cheeses but out of all of them, the "holy trinity" are Cheezly, Sheese and Teese. I like all three of them and thought, "hey, I should make macaroni with them all in it!" So I did and it is awesome. It is really the closest thing to the death* counterpart I've ever had.

This is not the healthiest recipe and it's not cheap (unless you found a great deal on the "cheese") but I think it's worth it to make once in a blue moon.

Oh, and I get all three of them online from Pangea.

Holy Trinity Mac & "Cheese"

Serves 4 to 6.

1 lb macaroni - uncooked
1 - 3 tbsp yellow mustard (enough to lightly coat pasta)
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp paprika
1/2 - 1 tsp black pepper
3.5 cups unsweetened plain soy milk
1 package Cheezly Mature White Cheddar - grated
1/2 package Cheezly Mozzarella - grated
1/2 package of Sheese Smoked Cheddar - grated
1/2 package of Teese - grated
1 tsp salt (optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce / tamari (optional)
breadcrumbs and/or nutritional yeast (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil or "butter" a large casserole dish/pan.

2. Cook macaroni until al dente. Rinse under cold water, drain, coat lightly with yellow mustard and set aside.

3. Melt margarine over medium heat and whisk in flour, paprika, parsley and black pepper. Let it bubble for a minute or so and slowly whisk in the soy milk until well incorporated. Continue whisking constantly and heating until the sauce thickens a bit.

4. Add the grated "cheeses" and allow to melt while stirring (don't let it burn!). Taste and add in optional salt and tamari to taste.

5. When the sauce is smooth and everything is melted, turn off heat, mix in the macaroni and put it all in your prepared dish/pan.

6. Top with breadcrumbs or a light coating of nutritional yeast and bake for 30 mins.


* For any non-vegans reading, dairy cows are not only kept pregnant to produce milk, their male calves are taken away for "veal" and they are also slaughtered when their "production" levels fall. So yes, dairy = death. Propaganda, you say? The two sites linked are from the USDA.