Vegan Mofo 2012: 10 Minute Soup

Some days you just don't want to spend an hour cooking. This is one of my answers to those days.

It's not really a recipe, since it depends on what I have on hand.

1. Put about 2 cups of water or stock in a saucepan, and heat over medium high.

2. Decide on your seasoning base. You can use bouillon or season later with miso, I usually add a few dashes of shoyu (naturally fermented soy sauce), a smashed clove of garlic, sometimes ginger, herbs, or red pepper flakes, and a few drops of  sesame oil. If you used stock, you can skip this step.

3. Add your veggies. I always keep frozen spinach and peas on hand, so they're usually in this soup, along with fresh onions and carrots. Mushrooms, roasted red pepper, broccoli, leafy greens, green beans and sugar snap peas have also found their way into my pot. Hearty veggies go in first, more delicate veggies go in last.

4. Add protein if you want. This is a perfect place to use leftover seasoned tofu, tempeh, cooked beans, or premade meat analogs. I used Morningstar Farms chick'n strips in this bowl.

5. Add your noodles. The cooking time actually depends on how long your noodles will take to cook. These noodle take less than 5 minutes, but something like penne or fettuccine would take a lot longer. You can also use orzo, leftover pasta, or leftover grains like rice or quinoa. 

6. Garnish! Toasted sesame seeds, shredded nori, and greens onions all make great garnishes, but it depends on what's in your soup and what you have on hand. If your soup is more Italian, fresh basil might be better.

Vegan MoFo Review: Gardein Buffalo Wings

 

I've never had buffalo wings. I became a vegetarian before I started enjoying spicy foods. So, I sort of understood the dynamic of buffalo wings, celery and blue cheese dressing, while still not really getting it. I  mean, rich creamy dressing; hot, tangy wings; crisp, crunchy, but sort of bland celery sticks? I get the concept of all the disparate parts coming together in glorious harmony, but I'm not a huge fan barbeque sauce or Worcestershire, or A1 or siracha, so didn't think I'd be a fan of buffalo sauce and I never liked blue cheese.

When JD and I saw the new line of Gardein products our local Target was carrying, I got excited for two reasons, first, Gardein is awesome, and I like the crispy tenders, which had not previously been available anywhere in my neighborhood, and second, specifically vegan foods items being readily available and easily accessible? THIS IS THE VEGAN REVOLUTION, PEOPLE. My Target also has two kinds of tofu, multiple brands and styles of non dairy milks including Silk's refrigerated soy, almond AND coconut milks, and Earth Balance, which they sell for about a dollar less than any of the health food stores in my area.

So, when I pointed them out to JD, he immediately went for buffalo wings, to my dismay. When I expressed my misgivings, he suggested I get the BBQ wings. Does he even know me?  I explained I wanted the crispy tenders, and, based on his past experience with Gardein, suggested we get all three. We didn't really have that much space in our freezer, and I didn't want to have that much processed (and BBQy) stuff taking up what little space we did have, so we settled for the buffalo and crispy tenders styles.

A few weeks ago we went to Wimberly and found a brewery that had some amazing hefeweizen, of which we promptly bought a growler. We had decided to have a beer and pizza night, so I suggested we add these wings to the menu.

I cooked them up according to the stove top directions, and like most of Gardein's products, they were very simple to prepare. I was a little worried, because the package said to saute and brown each side until crispy, but also warned against burning and mine didn't really seem to get crispy, since they didn't have any breading and weren't coated like the Mandarin Chick'n. I let some of them get crispy, but this made very dark, and I feared they were burnt and therefore ruined. With the heat turned off, and the sauce "setting" on the wings, I cut up some celery into sticks. I took a nibble of one celery stick and wondered if I wouldn't end up liking them more than the wings.

I told JD they were ready, and he replied, "You know the best thing about vegan wings?"

"What?" I asked, thinking to myself, no mechanically separated chicken? No battery cages full of hens?

" No bones or ligaments!" he said. I can get behind that answer, though I remember my first few vegetarian months, when I actually sort of missed the structure bones gave food.

So, onto the most important thing, how did they taste? I liked them! The texture was maybe a little too soft or not chewy enough for me, but I liked the sauce more than I thought I would. The sauce was a bit hot, but with the crisp, fresh, cook celery, and the bright, bubbly beer, it worked. And even though it seemed like there was not enough sauce included, and the wings didn't seem coated enough, I actually preferred, and found myself seeking out the wings that had less sauce. I also found myself looking for the crispiest wings. I still remember Morningstar Farms' Spicy Chick'n wings, which contain egg, and I used to love in my ovo lacto days, but these are good for fun, easy, fast finger food. If I watched football, these would be perfect football food.

JD liked them, and would eat them again, but said he'd doctor the sauce, since, while it had heat, it was not tangy or Tabasco-y enough to really compare to buffalo sauce. "It was more like spicy barbecue sauce."

Iron Chef Challenge #3: Portabello Mushrooms and Chipotle Peppers

I was really excited about the ingredients for this week's Iron Chef challenge, unfortunately I worked all weekend, and didn't have time to experiment.

I ended up doing a variation of a dish I used to make quite often, veggie fajitas, with portabello mushrooms as the main ingredient.

I also used the idea of almond ricotta as the basis for the almond chipotle créma, but I used slightly different ingredients.

I ended up with Portabella Poblano Fajitas with Almond Chipotle Créme.



Basically, I just sautéed the portabellos in olive oil with a little shoyu, then, once they were cooked through, I added garlic, sliced onion, and sliced poblanos. You could use bell peppers instead of, or in addition to, poblanos, but the poblanos give a nice a nice mild bite, and I just enjoy the flavor and brilliant emerald green of poblanos.

I skinned 1/2 cup of almonds, then soaked them overnight, then blended them with ume vinegar, a pinch of smoked sea salt, three chipotles canned in adobo sauce, a teaspoon of agave nectar and just enough water to give me a light, but creamy texture.


I served the fajita mixture in warm corn tortillas with a dollop of chipotle creme and a few slices of avocado. Some scallions or cilantro would have been nice as a garnish, but I was in a big rush, trying to take pics, eat and post before work. My computer was slow, so I (obviously) didn't make it, but I'm still glad I did this challenge.

The fajitas were really good, and I will definitely start making them again. I had originally stopped because JD doesn't like mushrooms, and I usually cook with his tastes in mind, but these are too good and easy to take for granted. I will also add the chipotle créme to my repertoire, because it's a good balance of smoky, salty, spicy and creamy. Yum.

Quick Chickpea Pasta

This was just a quick lunch I whipped together. This is the kind of one pot meal I often eat, although I usually add more vegetables. I don't usually post about this kind of thing, because it seems pretty basic, but it's a great, easy meal to put together.

I was cooking for JD and I both, so I couldn't add asparagus, spinach, mushrooms, or broccoli and the kale and carrots both had to be really well cooked and small. I had some leftover penne, and I made a big pot of chickpeas the other day, so I would be able to throw stuff together easily this week, so they were the foundation of this one pot meal.


First, I sautéed the chickpeas so they'd be a bit more tender, and added the seasonings; garlic* nutritional yeast, crushed red pepper flakes, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a tiny dash of Old Bay. While that was simmering, I washed and cut the kale and carrots. I know it doesn't look like it, but that's a whole bunch of kale, and only half a package of penne; all of the kale is just hiding out below. After the greens were tender, I added the penne and cooked until it was warm, and the liquid had all evaporated. I wanted dry pasta with a "fried" texture today, but it would equally good with a bit of unsweetened soymilk to make it saucier. Or with any of the vegetables I mentioned above, or even diced onion, zucchini, or roasted red pepper. Yum.


*The garlic I've been getting lately has been really aggravating! It looks like a regular head of garlic, but when you go to peel one clove, it falls apart into 6 unpeeled cloves, then when you try to peel one of those really small cloves, they fall apart into 3 microscopic cloves! It gets really frustrating, really quickly. How anyone else come across this?