torta de seitan y frijoles negros con aguacate y queso

This is awesome. A Mexican sandwich with all the fix-ins.

torta de seitan y frijoles con aguacate y queso
good sandwich bread, preferably a baguette
black beans, heated and seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 cup of seitan, sliced thinly
a few slices of vegan cheese (FYH monterrey jack)
1 avocado, sliced
lime juice
a couple tomatoes, sliced
olive slices
shredded lettuce


This is really easy to put together. Just start by caramelizing your onions in some olive oil and garlic then after a bit add some salt and pepper. Then add your seitan. Get that nice and crispy. Season with some cumin and paprika. Once that is ready take your bread and hollow it out a bit so it can hold all the fillings. Add the seitan and beans and cover with slices of cheese. Broil until the cheese is melted and the bread is a bit crisp. Top with the rest of the junk and enjoy it.

the fix-ins

ready for stuffing

broiled

filled

then it was eaten.and that was that.

potato leek soup with fried shallots and whole wheat baguettes

Tonight I made this delicious soup with some russet potatoes, leeks, onions and garlic. The wonderful thing about this soup is that it is so easy and quick to put together. It goes perfect with some delicious French baguettes from the BreadBaker's Apprentice. 

potato leek soup

3 russet potatoes, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 leeks, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups soymilk, almond milk, or cashew cream
salt 
pepper
olive oil or vegan butter
chives


Saute the onions, leeks, and garlic in a large soup pot. Season with salt an pepper. Cook until the veggies are soft then add the vegetable stock and potatoes. Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are really soft. Add the cream and puree off the heat. Season with salt and pepper and chives. Heat through for another 5 or 10 minutes. Top with fried shallots. Serve with some delicious crusty bread and vegan butter.

For the fried shallots just chop up some shallots so that you have rings. Dust with flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Heat some oil in a fry pan and shallow fry them. Cook until golden brown.

gnocchi with seitan, lima beans, and lemon brown butter sauce

This meal was thought up on how to use some leftover mashed potatoes. Typically gnocchi is not made with mashed potatoes that have had butter added to them, but I figured this couldn't hurt all that much. I mean c'mon it will just taste buttery and delicious. So this is what I did and they came out fantastic. Heres the recipe.

leftover mashed potato gnocchi

2 cups mashed potatoes, warm them then pass them through a ricer to make them fine and airy

1 cup white whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 flax egg, 2 tsps ground flax mixed with 4 tsps warm water

1 cup thinly sliced seitan

1 cup cooked lima beans

1 clove garlic minced

olive oil

Set 6 quarts of water to boil in a large spaghetti pot. Set up ice bath with 6 cups ice and 6 cups water near boiling water.

Make well in center of potatoes and sprinkle all over with flour, using all the flour. Place the flax egg and salt in center of well and using a fork, stir into flour and potatoes, just like making normal pasta. Once everything is mixed in, bring dough together, kneading gently until a ball is formed. Knead gently another 4 minutes until ball is dry to touch. Add more flour if needed. 

Roll baseball-sized ball of dough into 3/4-inch diameter dowels and cut dowels into 1-inch long pieces. Flick pieces off of fork. Drop these pieces into boiling water and cook until they float (about 1 minute). Meanwhile, continue with remaining dough, forming dowels, cutting into 1-inch pieces and flicking off of fork. As gnocchi float to top of boiling water, remove them to ice bath. Continue until all have been cooled off. Let sit several minutes in bath and drain from ice and water. Toss with 1/2 cup canola oil and store covered in refrigerator up to 48 hours until ready to serve.

Get a pan hot, add the seitan, garlic and cooked lima beans. Add the gnocchis and let them crisp up. Meanwhile, get your vegan butter on medium heat let it cook for a bit until it sizzles. Add the lemon. 

Serve the gnocchi covered with the sauce. Enjoy. 

"aged" cashew brazil cheese

This is a recipe for a distinct flavored cheese made from nuts of your choice. I used cashews and brazil nuts in this recipe but feel free to substitute others. I found that these make the best taste and texture combination in the end product. It gets a little microbiological in the discussion of the recipe (not really) but its really simple to make.

cashew brazil cheese


1 cup raw cashews
1 cup raw brazil nuts
2 cups filtered water
4 vegan acidophilus capsules


salt
lemon juice
nutrional yeast or miso (optional for a more cheddary flavor)


1. Soak the cashews and brazil nuts for at least 4 hours in the filtered water.
2. Drain. Reserve 4 tablespoons of the water. Puree the soaked nuts in a food processor with the reserved water. Once it starts to get creamy add the acidophilus by opening the gel caps and sprinkling the powder into the cheese. Puree even more until super smooth. you may need to add a bit more water to make it work.
3. Next line a colander with cheesecloth. Spoon the nut puree into it and fold over the loose ends to cover. Place a plate on top of the cheese and some sort of weight on top of the plate to act as a press.  Place over another bowl to catch the water that comes out.
4. Let sit at room temperature for about 16 hours. Over this process the acidophilus should have begun to flavor the cheese making it slightly tart. If not let rest another 4 hours.
5. Then puree the cheese again, or just stir in some salt and the other optional ingredients. Wrap in wax paper or place in tupperware and refrigerate.
6. Alternatively you can form the cheese into a log and bake at 300F for a couple hours to dry it out and firm it up a bit more. You could also roll the cheese in fresh herbs. You do with your cheese what you wish, but all I ask is that you just enjoy it.