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.

best ever seitan stew, mashed peas, and homemade crusty bread

This is honestly the best seitan stew ever. I don't know what it is but everything just kind of blends together so that you get the perfect combination of flavors in every bite. This is adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe available on his website. His method was used as a template for this recipe except the obvious substitutions (no meat in this house!). So good! (and vegan of course). 

best ever seitan stew

olive oil

a knob of vegan butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
a handful of fresh sage leaves
2 cups dark seitan, cut into 1 or 2 inch pieces
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
flour, to dust
2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, peeled and halved
½ a butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced
optional: a handful of Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved
1lb yukon gold small potatoes
2 tablespoons tomato purée
½ a bottle of red wine
2 cups vegetable stock
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
a handful of rosemary, leaves picked
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped


Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Put a little oil and your knob of butter into an appropriately sized pot or casserole pan. I used my cast iron dutch oven. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 or 4 minutes. Toss the seitan in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the pan with all the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and gently stir together. Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and just a little salt. Bring to the boil, place a lid on top, then cook in the preheated oven until the all the veggies are fully cooked and the sauce has thickened and reduced. Sometimes this takes an hour or less. Once it’s cooked, you can turn the oven down to about 200°F and just hold it there until you’re ready to eat.

The best way to serve this is by ladling big spoonfuls into bowls, accompanied by a glass of French red wine and some really fresh, warmed bread, preferably homemade. Mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together and sprinkle over the stew before eating. Just the smallest amount will make a world of difference – as soon as it hits the hot stew it will release an amazing fragrance. Most of these words are not mine so i cannot take the credit for this incredibly easy adaptation of a carnivorous (cruel) meal. 

dank (seitan) nugg(et)s

Tonight I decided I wanted to have some good old seitan nuggets. I have been experimenting with using combinations of grains and beans in my seitan lately and have found some really good combinations. This one in particular is great.

dank (seitan) nugg(et)s

2 cups cooked quinoa
2 cups dried TVP rehydrated with 2 cups no chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 cups vital wheat gluten flour
1 to 1.5 cups vegan no chicken broth or vegetable broth
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp salt
ground black pepper
4 tbsps olive oil, plus more to coat the pan
dried herbs if you want.

Mix all the ingredients together so you get a semi sticky and crumbly dough. Press into a medium sized cookie sheet pan (with edges about 1 inch high) that has been liberally oiled up. Place in a preheated 350F oven with a tray of water in the bottom to keep the oven air moist and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool then cut into bit size nuggets. If you wish you could bread these then fry them, but i just eat them after the first cooking process. Serve with some bbq and ranch, vegan of course.

Baked Potato Risotto, Sauteed Shiitakes, Breaded Tofu, Broccoli Puree, Roasted Endive

Baked Potato Risotto, Sauteed Shiitakes, Breaded Tofu, Broccoli Puree, Roasted Endive

A bountiful shopping trip led to this meal. The idea was to create a risotto with small diced potatoes in place of the arborio rice and flavor it with all the traditional baked potato toppings. The shiitakes were flavored with liquid smoke to emulate crispy bacon (preferably you would smoke the mushrooms yourself, but who am i kidding, thats not as simple as splashing some liquid smoke deliciousness all over the fried mushrooms). The roasted endive was sort of an afterthought but it turned out to be super delicious.

Baked Potato Risotto

1 small sweet onion, fine dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
splash of white wine
salt
4 starchy potatoes, cut into small dice (a bit bigger than rice)
vegetable stock
cashew cream ( 1/2 cup raw cashews pureed with 1 cup water)
green onions
chives
lemon juice
pepper

Saute the onions in garlic in a few glugs of olive oil over medium heat. After about 5 minutes deglaze the pan with the white wine, reduce for a few minutes, then add the potatoes. Season generously with salt. Then add just enough vegetable stock to cover but have some of the potatoes sticking out. Then let the potatoes cook until they absorb most of the broth, then add more broth and do the same again. Repeat until the potatoes are cooked through and a creamy sauce begins to form. Before serving, add the cashew cream, chives and green onions. Season with pepper and add a bit of lemon juice to cut the richness. Serve with smoky sauteed mushrooms.

Enjoy!