Not a Holiday, Holiday dinner

Here's that "holiday" dinner I promised you..........I made the Vegan Turkey Roast from Everyday Dish. Mine doesn't look as appetizing as Julie's, but it was still tasty. Mairin really liked it, and she doesn't like much!! Rob and I were both pleased with the results. Only, I wish I had an electric slicer so I could make the slices thinner. This was a trial run for our Christmas meal, and while we were all satisfied with the seitan roast, we decided that it's probably not the best thing to feed to our entirely omnivorous family. I know that when I became vegetarian I would not have enjoyed eating seitan, it took a long time for me to come around, so plopping a big seitan roast on the table is probably not the best thing to do for Christmas dinner!!

We had all the fixin's along with the roast; mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, and brussels sprouts. The brussels sprouts were sauteed in olive oil along withe some yellow pearl onions. When they were nicely sauteed I added in about 1 Tbs of Earth Balance and enough bread crumbs to lightly coat. This is by far one of the best ways to eat brussels sprouts.

In other news......two of my sweet readers nominated me for the butterfly award. Thank you to Chessa and Elizabeth. I really appreciate the award and I'm so glad that you still put up with me considering my recent lack of blogging. I promise to reciprocate your generosity, and play along with the butterfly award, just as soon as I have some time!!

"Beef", Pepper and Asparagus Stir Fry

I was intrigued by how much Vegan Dad's beef seitan actually looks like stir fry beef, so I decided to give it a try. It's definitely pepper season at the CSA, so I thought I'd showcase them in this stir-fry along with the "beef". I left it simple, seasoned with a home-made stir fry sauce of tamari, ginger, garlic, chili oil, and scallion. The flavor of the "beef" is very nice, and the texture was good too after the initial fry. However, when I threw it back in the mix to add the sauce the seitan ended up just a bit mushy. It wasn't inedible, just not as firm as I would have preferred.

"The Ultimate" Barbecued Seitan Sandwich

I know it's very un-vegan of me, but I admit, I love The Food Network. It's unfortunate that almost every dish on every show is centered around animal products. None the less, I love food, and I love to watch people cook.

From time to time I'm inspired by something on The Food Network, and come up with a great vegan dish. Take the other day for example, I was watching Tyler's Ultimate, and Tyler Florence was making his Ultimate Barbecued Ribs. There are probably a million different meat analogs I could have used to veganize this recipe, but as soon as I saw Tyler make this barbecue sauce I knew I had to have a barbecued seitan sandwich. Wow, did I ever make a great choice!! This sandwich really is "The Ultimate". Rob, who usually very much dislikes barbecue loved this sandwich so much he ate 2 of them and just couldn't stop raving. And it was another winner with both of the girls!!

For the sandwich I used 1 lb of chicken style seitan. I made the sauce according to Tyler's recipe, only I replaced the bacon with a few dashes of Liquid Smoke. After the sauce had simmered I removed the onion, garlic, and thyme sprigs, then I crumbled in the seitan and let it heat through. I served the barbecue on a bun with some sliced onion. Best barbecue sandwich EVER!!

To go along with the sandwiches I also made Tyler's Ultimate Baked Beans, again replacing the pancetta with liquid smoke. An added bonus of these beans.....I got to use up some of the chipotle pepper I was wondering what to do with a few weeks ago! Again, outstanding dish. The beans had a kick and they were just incredible. Little Stella loved them, heat and all!!

In addition to the sandwiches and beans, we had one of my childhood favorites....cucumbers, green peppers, and onions soaked in white vinegar and salt water. My mom used to make this all of the time in the summer, and I've always loved it. It was perfect for cooling off your mouth after the heat of the beans!!

I can't wait to make this barbecue for my friends and family.......it's definitely the next dish I'll be serving guests.

Chipotle Chicken (style seitan) Burritos

Before he became veg Rob loved a certain pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. He ordered the Chipotle Chicken Pizza nearly every time we went there. Then Q-doba introduced their chipotle chicken burrito, and again, he had a new favorite dish to order. Since becoming veg he's had to order the pizza without chicken, and has had to pass on the burrito altogether.


While setting down to come up with my menu for the week it dawned on me that I could probably re-create the burrito at home using seitan. So, I decided to give it a go. I'm happy to report that it was a success. These burritos were so tasty. I can't vouch for how closely they resemble the aforementioned pizza or burrito, as I've never had either, but they were delicious all the same.


The burrito you see in the picture is topped with some home made pico de gallo (chopped roma tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, garlic and cilantro with a little bit of salt added in), and some Cilantro-Green Chile Sour "Cream".




These burritos are filled with a chipotle seitan mixture, black beans, romaine lettuce and avocado. I intended to add some corn kernels, but forgot all about them until we were actually eating the burritos, so, maybe next time.

Chipotle Chicken Style Seitan Burritos

1 lb chicken style seitan, shredded into bite sized pieces (I used White Wave brand)

2 Tbs olive oil

2 tsp dark brown sugar

1 cup diced onion

1/4 cup chipotle in adobo, pluse 1 Tbs adobo sauce (this makes a HOT burrito, if you prefer a milder flavor reduce amount of chipotle pepper to your liking)

1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained

salt and pepper

4 flour tortillas, warmed (12 inch size)

1 can black beans, rinsed

lettuce

1 avocado sliced

Heat the oil. Add the onion and sugar and cook until the sugar has melted and the onions have become golden brown and caramelized. Add the chipotle, adobo sauce, and tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and process until smooth. Return to pan, add seitan, season with salt and pepper and heat through.

Spoon the seitan mixture down the center of the tortilla. Top with black beans, lettuce, avocado (and corn if using). Bring the sides of the tortilla toward the center then fold the bottom up over the filling and continue to roll until the burrito closes. Top with Cilantro-Green Chili Sour "Cream" and pico de gallo and serve.

Cilantro-Green Chile Sour Cream

1/2 cup Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream

1 4oz can green chiles, drained

1 handful of cilantro, chopped very fine

1 1/2 tsp water

In a blender add sour cream, about 2/3 of the chiles, and the water. Blend until smooth. Pour cream into a small bowl and stir in the rest of the chiles and the cilantro.

Fried Chick-un

I learned two things today. The first thing I learned was, despite my previous experience, I LOVE seitan. That is, I love seitan that isn't home made. I've read over and over again how much people like seitan, so I just had to try it again. I mean, I had obviously screwed it up when I tried to make it, because there's no way in hell so many people would be like it if the disgusting mush that I made was actually what it was supposed to be like, right?

I bought the White Wave Chicken Style seitan and decided to make fried chicken with it. I found this recipe from the PETA website, and decided to give it a go. Holy smokes, this stuff is awesome. I absolutely could not believe how good it was. Rob also loved this dinner, and he is not a fan of fried chicken. As a matter of fact, I'd say real fried chicken is probably one of his least favorite things to eat. He's already been asking when we can have this again!!

To go with the "chicken" I made some potatoes mashed with plain rice milk, some sauteed rainbow chard, and some biscuits using this recipe. The biscuits were surprisingly good as well. I also made a mustard sauce for dipping. I didn't actually measure anything when I made the sauce, so I can't give you an exact recipe, but the ingredients were Dijon mustard, olive oil, brown sugar and vegan Worcestershire. I brought the sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then removed it from the heat and let it set while the "chicken" fried.

This "chicken" was truly finger lickin'.

The second thing I learned.......I don't like tempeh. I mentioned in my post about tempeh curry that there was something about the way tempeh felt in my mouth that just didn't do it for me. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like tempeh, I still feel that way.

This morning I made the tempeh bacon from the current issue of Vegetarian Times. The marinade was great, and the flavor was delicious, but the way that the tempeh felt in my mouth just grossed me right out. It's that firm, chewy, nutty thing that just makes my stomach turn. Tempeh will not be making any future appearances on this blog, sorry all you tempeh lovers.