Slowly but surely I’ve been adding my surefire recipes. And yes, they are all vegan-friendly. The latest addition is mock chicken pot pie, with more to come.
- Easy Apple Crisp
- Individual Mock Chicken Pot Pies
- Potato and Leek Soup
- Seitan Stew
- BBQ Tofu
- Lebanese Green Bean Stew
- Saturday Morning Pancake Batter
- Thai Tofu
Enjoy!
Easy Apple Crisp
- 4 large tart apples
- 3/4 cup turbinado sugar or other sweetener
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1-1/2 cups rolled oats
- 1/3 cup vegan margarine
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Peel the apples, then core and thinly slice them. Toss with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, and cinnamon. Spread evenly in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.
Mix the rolled oats with the remaining flour and sugar. Add the margarine and work the mixture until it is uniformly crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit.
Bake for 45 minutes, until lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. My son is particularly fond of it served warm, with some Soyatoo whipped cream on top.
Individual Mock Chicken Pot Pies
This is adapted from someone else’s Tofu Pot Pie recipe. I prefer it with seitan, so it’s more like the comfort food I grew up with. Make it in a regular-sized pie plate or casserole dish, or, for fun, make individual pot pies in a muffin pan.
Preheat oven to 350F. Dice and fry one package of chicken style seitan. I lightly fry it in canola oil, turmeric, paprika, coriander, and a bit of chili powder.
Boil, and save the cooking water from:
- 1 c potatoes (cubed)
- 1 c carrots (sliced)
Have ready:
- 1 bag o’ frozen corn and/or frozen peas
Saute together:
- 1-2 med onions, diced or spring onions (I prefer the latter)
- some garlic
- salt
- oil
When the onions are soft, add the other stuff.
Gravy
Let bubble together for a few minutes:
- 6 T oil
- 6 T flour
- 6 T nutritional yeast flakes
Whisk in:
- 1 1/2 C cooking water that you saved earlier
- 1 1/2 C soy milk
- 1 t salt
- 1 t sage
- 1/2 t thyme
- 1/2 t garlic powder
- 1/2 t black pepper
- 1/2 t paprika
Heat and stir until it’s boiling and thickened. Mix it with the filling and dump into the crust that you prepared (you….did prepare the crust, right?) then cover it with yet more crust, make some holes in the top with a knife or fork or something, and bake for 30-40 minutes or so.
Potato and Leek Soup
In 2008 I got half a share in a CSA for the first time ever, and I’m glad I did. It forced me to try all sorts of produce I never would’ve gotten around to otherwise. And because of that, this soup recipe is one of my new favorites.
Ingredients:
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled (or scrubbed) and cut into small cubes
- 2 or 3 leeks, white and light green parts only, well washed, and sliced into thin rings
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 quart vegetable stock or water (stock is better)
- Fresh parsley, coarsely chopped (for garnish)
- Put the oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 2 or 3 minutes.
- Add the stock and cook until the vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes.
- Adjust seasoning, and add fresh parsley before serving
Variations: Add shredded cabbage or diced carrots for some more color and texture. For more flavor add some garlic or onions when you add the vegetables. If you like your soup a little creamier try adding some plain soy creamer (Silk, Wildwood or Soyatoo). Or try pureeing half, or all of the soup in a blender.
Seitan Stew
Today marked the first snow of the season. Even though the sad dusting was sort of fake-looking and mostly melted right away, I think it still makes it the perfect time to bust out this hearty (read: carb-laden) stew. And the recipe looks more complicated than it really is, I swear.
Ingredients for stew:
- One medium sweet onion
- A couple cloves of minced garlic
- One package White Wave chicken-style seitan
- About six to eight large russet potatoes
- Six large carrots
- Two to three cups of frozen corn and/or peas
- Mustard powder
- Paprika
- Turmeric
- Sugar
- Canola oil
- Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
Once all the ingredients are set out begin by putting on some appropriately dancy/motivational music, like Mates of State or New Order. Now you are prepared for food preparation:
- Peel and cut up potatoes and carrots
- Open and drain seitan package, tearing chunks into bite-sized pieces as needed.
- Dice onion and garlic to your liking.
- Heat large sized kettle/pot with a couple tablespoons of canola oil. Saute onion and garlic until fairly translucent, but not burnt.
- Add seitan to pan and stir in. Season with 2-3 tsp mustard powder, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp turmeric, some salt & pepper and stir until seitan and onions are evenly coated.
- After the seitan and onions seem fairly coated with seasoning add 8 cups of water, 3 Tbsp of worcestershire sauce, and 1 tsp of sugar.
- Put lid on pot and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, add potatoes and carrots. Replace lid and simmer on medium-high for 30-35 minutes, but set timer for about 20 minutes. At that point add the frozen corn and/or peas and stir. Then get your dumpling batter ready.
Mix ingredients for American style dumplings. In medium sized bowl add:
- 1 1/2 cups of flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
Whisk together thoroughly then add:
- 3/4 cup soy milk
- 2 Tbsp canola oil
Mix until batter is wettened, but don’t overstir. When the stew’s 30-35 minutes are up remove lid and poke potatoes and carrots with fork to make sure they are well cooked. If they are go ahead and drop the dumpling batter in by spoonfuls. Replace the lid and steam for 15 more minutes. Check that the dumplings have expanded and look appropriately puffy before turning the burner off et voila, soup’s on!
“Best BBQ Tofu Ever”
Recipe originally taken from an old zine called Bark&Grass (only two issues were put out).
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs firm tofu, frozen overnight then thawed
- 1 cup peanut butter, preferably crunchy
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 tsp. paprika
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- Annie’s BBQ sauce
Preparation:
- Mix all ingredients, ‘cept for the tofu, together.
- Squeeze the water out of the tofu, cube it and cover it in mixture. Let sit for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly oil baking pan/casserole dish. Dump tofu in and spread it around as evenly and thinly as possible.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Take tofu out, turn it over, and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Take tofu out and pour one bottle of Annie’s BBQ sauce over tofu. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Serve with rice, corn bread, corn on the cob, or whatever strikes your fancy.
Lebanese Green Bean Stew (aka Lubeeyah)
This is a recipe that’s been around in my family for a long time, and it even found its way into a cookbook many years ago, contributed by an aunt of mine.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups fresh string beans
- 1 medium onion
- 4 small potatoes
- 1/4 cup cooking oil (or enough to coat bottom of skillet)
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- pinch of pepper
- 1 tsp. sugar
- pinch of red pepper
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 2 cups of tomato sauce
Preparation:
- Wash the string beans. Snip off the ends and break the beans in half. Allow to dry thoroughly on a clean cloth or paper towel.
- Chop the onion. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters.
- In a heavy dutch-oven type kettle, place a small amount of oil. Add the string beans and onions. Stir fry for 5 minutes, turning often.
- After 5 minutes, add the potatoes. Continue cooking the string beans, onions and potatoes — stirring often. While they are frying, add salt, pepper, sugar, red pepper, and ground cumin.
- Add the tomato sauce to the Lubeeyah after it has cooked for 25 minutes. Stir well.
- Cover and allow the stew to simmer for another 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
- Remove from heat and either serve immediately or refrigerate overnight and use as a cold salad.
Saturday Morning Pancake Batter
Oh how I love the weekends. We usually make pancakes at least once.
J’s recipe:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 T sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. egg replacer
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 cup soy milk
- 2 T vegetable/canola oil
- 1/2 cup fruit (optional)
Thai Tofu
J claims that there are no good recipes on the internet, but I think he had a few too many bad experiences in the early days. This recipe is one I originally found on VegWeb, but then modified until it went from ok, to something that I love and has been a big hit at many a potluck.
Ingredients for the sauce:
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 tbsp canola or sesame oil
- 3 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp turbinado sugar/sugar in the raw
- dash of curry powder
- ginger puree
- crushed garlic
- crushed red pepper
Everything else:
- a few carrots, cut into sticks
- head of broccoli, chopped
- baked tofu, cubed
- white rice or rice noodles
Preparation:
- Start making some rice. Or noodles. Whichever you prefer.
- Combine the first set of ingredients to make the sauce. Spice to taste.
- Steam veggies until they can be poked with a fork. Mushy vegetables are bad. Broccoli should be bright green.
- Cube the tofu.
- Toss the veggies, tofu, and sauce in a bowl while the veggies are still hot.
- Serve over rice and/or noodles.