Chickpea Cutlets, finally!!

I finally did it.....I made V-con's Chickpea Cutlets!! For months now I've read rave reviews on nearly every vegetarian and vegan blog I frequent, as well as on Mothering.com. People can't seem to get enough of these cutlets, so I finally decided to find out what all the fuss was about. I still don't own this book, but I found the recipe on Chow.com. The only change I made was to leave out the soy sauce so that Stella could eat them as well.

You'll recall that I made ED&BV's Chickpea Sensation Patties awhile back. And, you'll recall that we all really liked them, even Mairin. Well, I'll have to say, V-con's cutlets may well have been better than ED&BV's (although, Mairin disagrees....she didn't eat any of these). I really like the addition of the vital wheat gluten to these cutlets. They make such a wonderfully textured patty. And, contrary to my previous experience, these patties came together in less time than Dreena's version (I usually find that Dreena's recipes come together very quick and easy, and not so with Isa). We will definitely be putting these into our rotation of frequent repeats.

I decided, at the advice of a fellow mothering.com mom, to bake the patties first and then fry them. When I took them out of the oven they seemed like they were going to be a bit dry, so while they were frying up I made a quick little mustard sauce to go over them. For the sauce I added about 1/4 cup Dijon mustard to 1/4 cup olive oil and whisked it together. To that I added about 1 Tbs of light brown sugar, and a pinch of salt and pepper, then gently heated it over low heat. It turns out the cutlets weren't dry at all, but the sauce was still a great addition. With the cutlets I served some yukon gold potatoes mashed with original Rice Dream. I also steamed up the last bit of broccoli and carrots I had in the fridge.

Last night we went to Buca di Beppo for my baby brother's 18th birthday. I am happy to report that they were very nice and accommodating to my requests of no animal products. I was able to eat their bruschetta and the penne campofiore (both of which they were happy to serve without cheese).