A Seitan Adventure

Greetings! This is my introductory post, and I thought I would start it off with something that encapsulates my vegan experience: NEW. I am new at blogging (relatively), I am new at exercising (after 7 years!), and I am new at veganism, so bear with me as I explore and muddle through to find out what works for me (and maybe you too)!

A weeks or so ago, I figured I would try my hand at Do It Yourself Seitan. I used the Fluffiest, Juiciest Gluten Steaks You've Ever Tasted recipe by Susanne Swisher over at Vegweb.com. Now, at this point, I had no idea if I even liked seitan, or what it was for that matter, I just wanted to explore some protein options. I took LOTS of pictures, because if you are anything like me, visuals help when you are making the unknown from scratch. Here is how it all went down:

I gathered the ingredients for the broth, placed them in a large pot and brought them to a boil.
2 quarts hot water
3 onions, sliced, not chopped
3/4 cup soy sauce or liquid aminos*
1/4 cup brown sugar, molasses or other sweetener of your choice
3 cloves garlic, minced
*I used soy sauce...I know it isn't vegan, but I just went vegan in January, and I am trying to use up the non-vegan stock that is in my cupboard instead of replacing everything all at once. So things like white sugar, white flour, soy sauce and breadcrumbs may sneak their way into my recipes for the time being.

Meanwhile, while the broth was simmering, I gathered the stuff for the gluten steaks: vital gluten flour (I used Bob's Red Mill), water, two bowls - one for the gluten and one for draining, a towel (for wiping my hands on. highly recommended.) and a whisk, which turns out to be completely unnecessary: I found that the gluten clumps up and gathers on the whisk. Just use your hands.
Mix the cup of water and the cup of Gluten until smooth, and then take handfuls and wring out the excess water (this is where the draining bowl came in handy! ..and that towel). Notice my Sunday morning coffee with Coconut creamer. yum.
when all the gluten is wrung out, press the balls together to form a log. shape the log, then slice it into small steaks. I originally thought I would skip this part the next time I made this, because the sliced "steaks" looked so small. I figured I would save myself a step, but it turns out that they e x p a n d, so smaller is better.
Drop the steaks into the broth and simmer for 30-45 minutes. When they were done, I took two of them and made sandwiches with vegetable hash, but you can store them in their broth for a few days.

All in all, I was not super fond of the texture (believe it or not, they were too juicy!), so next time I think I will make them thinner and use them mostly for stir fries and grated into casseroles. I am, however, super fond of the process of making my own gluten steaks. I felt very connected with my food, which is a new experience for me. If you try this out, let us know how it goes here at Vegan Groupthink!

Beer Tofu Redo, with sweet potato wedges

So I had a lot of breading left from the beer tofu...one of my favorite things about vegan cooking is how much cleaner and safer the food prep is. I would have to throw out all the breading I used with chicken, but this stuff, I just scooped the wet part out and tupperwared that business.
Anyway, I loved the flavor of the breading, so I wanted to use it again. I went ahead and followed the same recipe I posted earlier, from vegweb.com, but this time I placed the tofu-nuggets on a lightly oiled 9x13 pan. I would recommend tofu triangles for this, and I think double pressing it would be the way to go. I pressed mine, but cut thick slabs of tofu. I think thinner slices that were briefly pressed again after cutting would get the best texture. This might even be a good thing to try with frozen tofu, which is supposedly chewier. Rumor has it you freeze the tofu in the package, then thaw it, then cook it...that's a lot of planing ahead. So I haven't gone for it, myself... Anyway, I baked those suckers at 350 for about 1/2 an hour. They came out yummy! They didn't have that delicious friend crunch Cass loves so much, but they were good! Like I mentioned earlier, I think they would have been even better with a thinner cut and extra pressing- these were definietely tofu-y in that jiggly way some people fear.
While they were going, I chopped one unpeeled sweet potato into 1/2 inch rounds, discarding the ends. Then I sliced the stacked rounds into quarters. I just toss them with some Bragg's Liquid Aminos and spices- taco seasoning works well, in the picture I just used Bragg's Seasoning, which is perfect. This time I also beer battered and breaded half of them. That tofu recipe calls for waaaay more breading that you need! I baked all of them on my beloved pizza stone for maybe 20 minutes? Stab one with a fork, it should be pretty soft. Turns out the beer battered ones were...fine. Not really worth the trouble, when the easier ones are delicious. These sweet potatoes are so easy and versatile, we have them probably once a week. Mmm....I wanna make ginger soy ones!

Tomato Soup!

Lately, I have wanted to eat tomato soup ALL THE TIME. Probably because it's freezing and snowy! So I have been making my own, and it's easy, cheap, and makes me feel like a real country mountain mama! Except Stella won't eat it...but I still offered!
It's a little different every time I make it, but essentially I chop an onion, mince a looooot of garlic, and throw that on to sauté. I use water to do this, instead of oil, because it's fat free and tastes fine!
As that cook, I think about what else I might want to taste today! Sometimes I will throw in some bell peppers...especially good when I use the jarred roasted red peppers. Maybe tons of rosemary...whatever embellishments you're into, throw 'em in. Staples are:
Can of salt free diced or crushed tomatoes (basil, onion, garlic, whatever flavor is fine)
Some sodium free veggie bullion ( i use half a cube and some water- however much feels right)
whatever cut up veggies I have on hand
tons of italian type spices (marjoram, oregano, sometimes sage or thyme, sometimes just italian herb blend)

Lately I have been throwing it in the blender- you have to be careful and let the steam out pretty often, and I do let the soup cool a little before doing this. The steamy hot pic at the top is pre-blender. Here's the finished product.
I like to keep it pretty hearty, but you could add water to thin it out. If I eat this with a few of those ridiculously healthy Wasa crackers, it's a filling meal! If you ate it with a non vegan awesome grilled cheese...you'd be in heaven. Next time I'm adding chipotle (obsessed...)

My Vegan Cooking, As of Late

Hey y'all! Lala in the hizzy! hehehe.

Anyway, the main reason why I haven't contributed to this blog yet is because I'm not actually vegan. I am certainly a vegetarian, and I love cooking and eating vegan when I can, but I'm just not ready to give up cheese. I can see it happening sometime down the road though.

Today, I made two vegan things, neither of them my own recipe (another reason why I haven't posted yet, I feel weird posting about copyrighted recipes). First up was the famous Scrumdiddlyumptious Broccoli, aka The Best Broccoli of Your Life. Of course, to make it vegan, I left out the cheese in my portion. This is what is left for my sister after my bro-in-law and I attacked it. There is cheese on L's portion here, but it's not like you can tell because the picture is so crappy.


Next up, I made the Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance. If I modified the recipe, can I post it? Here's what I did:

4 tbsp turbinado or demerrara sugar (regular sugar will work as well but coarse is best) I went with Sugar in the Raw
2 cups all-purpose flour I was short on all-purpose, so I used parts whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2.5 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup molasses I used more! But then I ended up having to add approx 1/2 cup more whole wheat flour to make it more doughy.
1/4 cup soy milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350*F. Lightly grease two cookie sheets. Place the turbinado sugar in a small bowl.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, molasses, soy milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and combine well. Roll into 1-inch balls [as I mentioned, I had to add a lot more flour to make it possible to even consider picking up a chunk of dough], flatten into a 1.5 inch diameter disk, press the cookie tops into the turbinado sugar and place 1 inch apart sugar side up on a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, let cool on cookie sheets for 3-5 minutes, transfer to cooling rack.

Here are my Sparkled Ginger Cookies with a glass of soymilk:



(I did some preliminary research on posting copyrighted recipes and I think as long as I credit the authors I'm okay? Please someone correct me if I'm wrong and I will remove the recipe right away.)

Roasted Cauliflower, Beer Battered Tofu, and Thyme Tomatoes

Last night, I was snowed in and bored. I checked out www.vegansaurus.com, which is awesome, and I saw they were having a best of survey for www.vegweb.com, which is the GIANTEST compendium of veggie recipes EVER.
So I tried a few things that had at least made it to the survey. Pictured above is the marinade for Oven Roasted Cauliflower.
Ugly link: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=31174.0 This marinade smells and looks amazing. It's super garlicky. It also rocks because it's so simple to prepare- I mixed up the marinade and cut up the cauliflower (with scissors! you can just snip those florets out easy peasy), and stuck it in a tupperware in the fridge for a few hours. Then, at serious cooking time, I just dumped the whole mess onto a baking sheet and popped it in the oven.
Since I was roasting, I decided to use up my last two plum tomatoes. I think I saw a recipe for these things in Real Simple or Martha Stewart....but I can't remember!
These are super simple. Right after I prepared the cauliflower, I sliced the romas lengthwise, and put them in a lightly oiled baking dish. Then I Mistoed the top of them- do you know about the Misto? It's a refillable olive oil mister, and it kicks ass. Seriously. You can use so much less oil with this sucker. I just ran it across the tops of the tomatoes a few times, and then sprinkled them with dried thyme. I like to crumble the thyme as I do this, but only cause it makes me feel chef-i-er. Then a little sea salt and freshly ground pepper....pop 'em in the oven at 200 for 2 hours...then crank it up to 400 for 15 more minutes. Yum.


For the main course, I tried another Vegweb recipe: Beer Tofu. I thought I put a fancy link in here, but it isn't showing up, so here's the ugly one:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8462.0
This was yummy, but no Misto action is gonna cut it for a dish like this. Only attempt it if you're down with the kind of thing that has to drain on paper towels. I tried using only a tiny bit of oil, and it just was NOT happening. Once I caved and poured some more in, the tofu became little crusty nuggets of heaven. Mmmm. I switched up the spices, which is my favorite part of cooking...so I included a little of Paula Dean's Lady and Sons Salt Mix. Oh dear lord, if you haven't tried this, you probably shouldn't, because it has MORE SODIUM THAN SALT. I don't know how. It also probably has dehydrated butter mixed in with it because it is YUM-O, if I may mix up my food network starz a little. Also, BAM! That's some good stuff. I only used a little, but you could taste the deliciousness. Anyway, yes...even tofu-phobic Stella ate it happily. So you know it ain't too healthy!

Chipotle Review

Yum! This turned out wonderfully. It smells like heaven.

A little soupy, so next time I would sub a can of low sodium tomato paste or some tomato sauce for some of the water. This was the perfect amount of spiciness, though. And even more delicious for lunch today. I sprinkled some nutritional yeast last night, but today the flavors had settled in so well, I didn't even need it. Just scooped it onto some wasa crackers and chowed down. Hearty and warm..and enough to get us through this snowstorm. It's pouring down, but we still have power. and I think I might have this for the third time in 24 hours. Awesome.

Chipotle Chili in the Crockpot

Oh, god, I love my new crockpot. I love it's removable, dishwasher safe dish, I love it's stainless steel finish. I love my mother-in-law, who always gives good presents.
So today I just made up some chili, mostly because I want something to eat with this half an avacado I have left over from ladies' sushi night. And beacuse I am so in love with Nueva Cus=cina Chipotle Taco Seasoning. My friend Becky introduced me to it, and I think it's pretty easy to find. I can get it at Ingles, but not BiLo, and I heard it's at Earth Fare,too. I think I should give you the heads up that it has raisins in it...trust. You will love it! Unless you can't do spicy at all- this stuff is on the edge of mild and medium in the spiciness department. I'm pretty wussy, and it's perfect with a cold beer to chase it.
It's cooking now, so here's hoping it's good! I apologize for posting before I've eaten it...but I had some coffee this morning, and I felt productive. Who knows how I'll feel later? I'll pop back in and review it, I promise!
Ingredients:
In crockpot order, bottom to top:
Olive Oil ( I just used my Misto refillable mister, because I'm trying to keep it low fat up in here, but you do what feels right)
1 chopped onion
a few cloves minced garlic (I used 1 regular and one elephant)
1 chopped red pepper
1 thing of beef substitute ( I used Morningstar Farms frozen veggie crumbles, but whatever you want, baby)
1 can of beans (I used kidney- I'm trying to stop thinking that kidney beans look like tiny bodily organs. I'M TRYING.)
**Now, you could use dry beans, if you soaked them first, but be aware that there's some whack junk that can happen with dry kidney beans in the crockpot. Dangerous. Google that business.**
Some frozen corn...what feels right to you? I only want a little corn in my chili, so I used about a 1/2 cup or so.
2 14.5 oz cans of diced/crushed tomatoes (whatever kind floats your boat)
1 package of the AWESOME Nueva Cucina Chipotle Taco Seasoning packet, mixed into one tomato can of water, stirred, poured over all of it.
One can of low sodium V8 juice poured into the same can, topped off with water, stirred to get all the spices.

The liquid should cover all of the ingredients. There will be a few floaty raisins, but that's alright. They puff up and join the party. I put it on low for 8 hours, we'll see how it goes! I think it could easily be done before that. I threw in some steamed sweet potato, too, because I had some left over from sushi night. I dropped it in with the corn. You could add chopped raw sweet potato alongside the onion, if you wanted it to be sweet potato-y-er.