rolling veggie swag 2011: veg[etari]ans unite and cook the tastiest food imaginable (omnis u shd get in on this, too)

If this isn't the best soup I've ever had in my life, it's easily top 5.

the tal ronnen bisque?

yes. it is God bisque.

i posted your gravy recipe and gave you a shout out, steve ^_^

hey veggies i need to make a fancy v-day dinner for a vegetarian lady, halp

you are a better cook than i, probably by a 1000x, but that tal ronnen youtube for 'chicken' scallopine upthread is fucking delish and also super simple. you can sub out the sake - if you don't have any - for mirin and dry white wine, and you can sub out the udon noodle cake for mashed potato or roasted fingerling potatoes, and you can sub out the pea shoots for just about any green you can sautee.

u are a better cook than i, probably by a 1000x

i doubt this! esp in the world of vegan foods

unlikely that i'll find that gardein stuff at the coop, so i'm gonna make chickpea cutlets from the veganomnomnomicon and then do that recipe. cept i dont have sake or white whine, and probably not enough mirin :-/

thinking: cutlets w/sauce, garlic mash, roast asparagus, ~hot tub~

sounds awesome tbh

dry sherry is a pretty good sub for mirin, in my experience.
xpost

Damn I always forget abt those cutlets, I should make some tonight

they were a real hit

does anyone know where to get vital wheat gluten in the UK? or is it called something else here?

haha they have everything on ebay : )

holland and barret?

i have been wondering if there's a uk equiv of health balance, or if the best option is like sojade or w/e it's called.

For Valentine's Eve, I made sweet potato and black bean quesadillas with cilantro pesto (along with a spicy slaw and a jicama-and-orange salad). The ridiculous amount of garlic I put in the pesto was delicious but perhaps not the best idea for Valentine's Eve.

NB: I put a bit of cheddar cheese in the quesadillas, but the meal was otherwise vegan. (And I think the cheese could easily be omitted since the flavor of the sweet potatoes dominates.)

i have to try making those cutlets again, since i still have a bunch of VWG left - but the first time was sooooo disastrous!

also: i found those marshmallows m bison mentioned and there is a groupon available right now ($7 for $15 of there stuff)

I just realized I ate veggie for the past 3 days without even trying! :O

Also I amxcited to read Justin3's vegan blogg!

GUYS I MASTERED VEGAN BROWNIES, YES!!!

http://images.nitrosell.com/product_images/7/1683/WORLD%20OF%20GIRLS%20BROWNIE%20AWARD.jpg
brownie awards for you

please tell me they don't have applesauce in them

But they do :( do you hate applesauce? Or have an allergy?

i just hate the flavour it gives brownies/anything vegan-chocolate-cakey, it tastes like medicine to me.

the thing is, i LOVE applesauce (but not the kind with cinnamon), just not in chocolate things

Well, the original recipe called for 3/4c unsweetened applesauce, and it was *okay* but not amazing. So the second time I made it I filled up a liquid measuring cup with a little less than 1/2c, and then filled the rest with melted organic Smart Balance til it hit the 3/4 line. Also it's got a cup of chocolate chips, it is SO RICH and good.

you guys have me googling tomato bisque. i have no idea who tal ronnen is.

just popped in to review a couple of mini vegan triumphs, lately:

- moussaka, out of veganomicon, with this weird tofu scramble in place of the kind of white source you'd use in lasagne, etc. someone with veganomicon mentioned the degree of trust you have to put in their weird ingredient combos, which is totally true. cinnamon in the tomato sauce, etc.

& secondly, THIS GUMBO.
would recommend trying to find the okra, which was great in it. i think it's out of season atm?, so i bought some tinned, which is weird because okra is generally a nice, tactile vegetable, and seeing it all slimy and pickled is sorta distressing. i also went kinda easy on the extreme observance of making roux/simmering for at least three days etc, but it still came out real good.

cinnamon in tomato sauce is not just a veganomicon thing, that's how moussaka is, i thought

the tomato bisque recipe is a little further upthread

Britishes who want wheat gluten could do a lot worse than visit their local Chinese supermarket, where mock duck and other pressed gluten comes in cans for about £1-£1.50. If I am entertaining vegetarians, I sautee the mock duck in oil until it gets a little bit crunchy, add a splash of soy sauce, mirin and a squirt of hoisin, cook through and serve as crispy fried mock duck in pancakes with julienned cucumber and spring onions and tons more hoisin.

these look good, but i havent made them yet - http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/19/walnut-black-cherry-cookies-recipe

hey thanks justine, i just caught up. the cashew cream is also. i have basically never had patience to soak anything overnight so this is a new chapter for me.

cinnamon/tomato seemed kinda outre to me, who knew. it was also made w/weird tofu scramble rather than white sauce.

it is kind of a pain but totally worth it! i make big batches of the cream and freeze it into 1/2 c containers.

my favorite thing with cinnamon/tomato is koshary, egyptian food with pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas, tomato sauce and carmelized onions

also this http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/health/nutrition/05recipehealth.html

best flavorz

hey guys how realistic can tofu get? i rarely eat it so when i had some take-out the other day w/ tofu, it seemed just, well, like it might as well have been chicken. the treat of poverty meant i had to finish it but it creeped me out enough to not enjoy it. of course it could and most probably was just tofu and maybe i should just stay away from flesh substitutes if i makes me wig out.

lol most ppl have the opposite problem! that is some pretty good tofu if it tasted/felt like chicken.

never heard of tofu even coming close to approximating meat before....most realistic subs that i've heard of involve gluten

tofu hasn't got those muscle fibres that stick in yr teeth

problem was more the thought i was going back on "no eating chickens" rule.

uncanny tofu valley

my favorite thing with cinnamon/tomato is koshary, egyptian food with pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas, tomato sauce and carmelized onions

aw man yeah, kosheri (there are a million spellings i think) is a staple here. there's a real good ottolenghi recipe, with vermicelli, etc. i think the tomato/rice parts being cooked separately made it a different thing for me. active tomato/cinnamon mingling is new.

i made this ~~~amazing~~~ creamy potato and mushroom bake last night!! i was salivating over a non-vegan recipe made with tons of cream and i decided to veganize it and here is my version!

5 medium potatoes (I used red because that was all I had on hand, but the original recipe recommends russets)
1/2 c of really thick cashew cream
1 1/2 c of soy milk (note: the ratio of cashew cream and soy milk was a result of what I happened to have on hand. I probably would have used more cashew cream if I’d had it)
salt
a cube of faux-chicken stock

a big handful of shiitake mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp of finely sliced green onions/spring onions/chives

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Slice the potatoes about 1/8″ thick. In a large pot, add the soy milk/cashew cream, the crumbled faux-chicken stock and a couple of generous pinches of salt. Add the potatoes and heat till boiling, reduce to medium and cook about 5 mins.

Clean the mushrooms, destem and slice about 1/4″ thick. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan on medium. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt, and cook till the mushrooms start to release their liquid. Add the minced cloves of garlic and the green onion and cook another 30 secs. Remove from the heat. Spoon about half the potato into a decent sized dish. Press the potatoes down with the back of a spoon and the spread the mushroom stuff over top. Add the rest of the potatoes and cream. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 mins., then remove the foil and cook a further 10.

wtf is with those veganomicon chickpea cutlets?? i've made them twice now and they still taste like shit. what am i doing wrong?? last time i didn't knead them enough, this time i got the consistency right but the flavour was so blah.

for harbz:

press out a block of tofu underweight, on paper towels, for 20 mins. bake for 75mins at 175 F. marinate over night in faux-chicken stock (or veg stock w/soy sauce).

lay out tofu on paper towels to drain off excess marinade. dip in egg replacer then in cornstarch. deep fry (i used peanut oil) in pan for 5-7 mins each side, till golden.

in a saucepan: sautee 5 sliced spring onions, some powdered ginger (or fresh) - amount depends on your love on ginger, i probably used a tsp - and 2 tbsp of minced garlic in a little peanut oil. about 3mins. turn up to med-high and add 2tbsp of mirin, stir for a minute. add 2 c of veg broth/stock, 3 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp of rice vinegar, stir. mix 4 tbsp of leftover cornstarch w/ 5tbsp of warm water and stir into sauce to thicken.

serve w/steamed brocc and rice!!

oh, orig recipe used scallions instead of spring onions and added 1/2 tsp of habanero pepper, but i'm a baby when it comes to spice so i left that out entirely.

oh that seems bloody brilliant - slow baking the 'fu, *then* marinating. seems counterintuitive and i've never heard of that but it seems like a revelatory idea mate!

baking it gets out the water - but you have to bake it slow so it doesn't get too dry - and makes room for the marinade, resulting in a much chewier texture. i really like faux-chicken stock, because it gives the tofu a slightly meatier taste, but doesn't clash with any sauce you serve it with.

i tried a alton brown recipe once for tofu that had a marinade of equal parts sherry vinegar and worcestershireshire and a dash of hot sauce (but i'd be afraid to marinate in that for more than a half hour as it's kinda salty and acidic), then into egg then cornstarch and pan fried. even though i pressed the tofu, i thought it still had a little too much moisture.
hence my reaction to your slow baking first step. i like your idea about the faux chicken, too. either way, i know what i'm gonna make tomorrow!

uh, shoulda written: "...reaction to your slow baking second step"