This was a very busy food day. I overdid it, being only 3.5 weeks pp. But the food was good and I have leftovers. Besides what was shown, I also made some more kimpura gobo.
Vegan omelette
Hashbrowns
Vegan Omelette for One (from the fat free vegan kitchen)
6 oz (1/2 package) lite silken tofu
1 TB soymilk (I found it needed just a big more, maybe 1 TB, to thin it)
1 TB nutritional yeast
1 TB potato starch or cornstarch
1 tsp tahini (I used peanut butter, I was out of tahini 
)
1/8 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp turmeric
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch chipotle pepepr or paprika (optional)
Also needed:
Omelette filling of choice**
Blend together all ingredients until smooth. (I doubled this recipe to make sure it would blend well).
Spray a large skillet with olive oil and heat on medium-high until very hot. Pour the batter into the center of the skillet. Let cook until the edges start to curl a little. Flip the omelette over (it should be fairly brown/toasted on the cooked side) and put the toppings on it. Let cook another minute and then fold over in half. Use your spatula to lightly press down on the folded omelette.
Serve with ketchup, salsa, vegan sour cream or refried beans.
**for filling, I used tomatoes, onions, spinach, olives and mushrooms
The hashbrowns are easy to make, didn't turn out QUITE like I hoped, a little more mushed together, but tasty.
Method for making hashbrowns
Shred potatoes (amount depends on how many you're feeding, I would do one large russet potato per person). Soak in cold water and rinse several times (these can be soaked overnight in the fridge). Drain well. Heat skillet to high and spray or add just a small amount of olive or other oil. I would not recommend trying to make these without oil, they stick like CRAZY. Once the skillet's hot, toss the potatoes into the pan and let them sit for a few minutes until they look like they're becoming a light tan. Add a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Flip several times as they brown. Serve hot.
Chinese broccoli/beef
Tofu cakes
I'm craving Chinese food right now REAL bad. When I lived in Lincoln, there was an incredible Chinese food place that made vegetarian dishes with gluten "meat". They made peanut chicken, beef and broccoli, orange beef, anything you could buy with real meat in it was offered in a vegetarian option. I have long tried to duplicate the "meat", but the only way I knew how to make gluten is to boil it in broth. I just stumbled through Bryanna Clark Grogan's Chinese food book and found that you can also bake the gluten or deep fry it. I tried it both ways. The deep frying is obviously WAY too much fat, but the baking was PERFECT for what I was looking for. Here's the recipe for the gluten meat.
Gluten Dough
2 1/2 cups pure gluten powder (vital wheat gluten)
2 cups cold water
Mix both together with a spoon until it becomes rubbery. Wet your hands and knead it well until it's tough. Use kitchen shears to cut into slices about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Place slices on a sprayed baking sheet and place in oven heated to 350 for a total of 20 minutes flipping them over at the half-way point. They will become puffy, but as soon as you take them out, they shrink down in size.
For the broccoli, I just cut up two large chunks of broccoli into small florets. I also added onion, cut into wedges. Here's a basic recipe for the sauce. I didn't pay attention to how much of each ingredient I used.
Basic Chinese Sauce (in order of amounts, largest to smallest)
Beef-flavored vegan broth
Soy Sauce
Rice Wine Vinegar
White sugar or honey
Grated Ginger
Small amount of cold water mixed with 1-2 TB cornstarch added after all the ingredients are in the pan cooking.
I soaked the "meat" in the sauce juice for a while as I was cooking the broccoli in a small amount of water with the lid on. After the broccoli had started to soften, I added the sauce and mixed everything together. I let it heat up to where the liquid was boiling and then added the corn starch/water and mixed it in well. As the liquid starts to thicken, lower the heat until you're ready to serve.
Serve over brown rice.
On the right side of the picture, I made some japanese style patties from tofu and kombu. It consists of carrots, burdock, kombu, water-packed tofu, shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce and honey with some flour to keep it together. It keeps falling apart. The one I had at Briar Patch had egg in it, but in going the vegan route, I haven't gotten it quite the way I want. I'm not going to put a recipe together for it as it's not complete yet. The taste is superb, but the texture isn't quite right yet.
Peach Crisp
We got peaches for REALLY cheap a few days ago. I froze a bunch of them (cut up and in a gallon bag), but decided to make some peach crisp with 3 lbs of them. Here's the recipe I used with some modifications for myself.
I served it with peach vegan gelato.
3 lbs peaches cut into chunks (I didn't bother to peel, I hate peeling)
Drizzle of lemon juice
1.5 cup all-purpose flour
1.5 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup light-bake prune puree (in place of margarine)
Spray a casserole dish and preheat oven to 375.
Put peaches in the casserole dish and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Depending on the sweetness of the peaches, sprinkle with a little sugar
Mix together remaining ingredients in a seperate bowl until the mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over peaches.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is golden brown.
**I found that without the margarine, this didn't crisp up all that well. I want to figure out how to make it crispier without adding fat.
Enjoy!
Jen D.
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