Soul Seitan

Those of you who check in from time to time know that we love soul food. Here's our latest helping: Blackeyed Peas, Greens, & Seitan.











This time, Art cooked the greens. They were extra good because the full flavor emerged & wasn't covered up. This is how he prepared it:

1 bunch each: Collard Greens, Purple Kale, Green Kale
1/4 Onion, finely chopped
2 small cloves Garlic
2 tbs. Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Boil Greens in 4 quarts Water. Add Salt after simmering 1 hour. Drain, add 2 cups fresh Water & reboil to steam. Serve with Earth Balance & Sea Salt.



I've been wanting to make this jerk, Seitan, for a while now & was inspired even more by Matt over @ the BakeHouse. Experimenting is fun, so I marinated the seitan (VwaV p. 157) four different ways:
1. BBQ Sauce
2. Sweet & Sour Sauce
3. Soy Vay Teriyaki
4. Jerk Mainade (VwaV p. 159)
We think the seitan tastes best when cut into thin strips and fried.



The seitan took several hours to prepare -- mostly with tasks that don't require a lot of attention like simmering & marinating. So it was a good day to get things done around the house......

Like organizing the tupperware drawer.

Good idea, Abi! :o)






The next day, I whipped up these drop biscuits from The Vegan Family Cookbook. While the biscuits were baking, I cooked some of the bbq seitan. Put them together, & you have a little sandwich. They were so good & cute. They disappeared too quickly for a photo.







We make a lot of muffins around here, but this is my first time making Dreena's 'As-You-Like Muffins' from TEV. I used half whole wheat pasty flour & half unbleached all-purpose. This is a basic muffin recipe, and she offers many variations to make them as you like. This time, I liked mine with dried blueberries & cherries. They were delicious warm with Earth Balance and had a sweet hint of applesauce.

Kale, Lemon Berry Muffins, & Biscuit Casserole Stew

Dinner was kale, plain quinoa with Earth Balance, and Blackeyed Peas with a touch of cayenne.

Vicki's Kale Recipe:

1 bunch kale, spine removed chopped in strips
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 c. olive oil, extra virgin
1/2 c. water
1 tbsp. bragg's
sea salt
3/4 tsp. hoisin sauce

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add kale, water, bragg's & sea salt. cover and cook until the kale is wilted and the water is almost gone. when there's still a little water left, add the hoisin sauce and stir together. Serve warm with lemon. Kale is a house favorite!



This is basically 'Lemon-Poppy Seed Muffins' from VwaV, except I replaced the poppy seeds with blueberries, and also used raspberry soy yogurt instead of plain. Art said, "These are vegan?! Wow, they are great muffins!" I agree, but next time, I will add more than just 2 lemons worth of zest. I like it zesty!







This is left-over collard greens from another meal. I used a recipe from The Vegan Family Cookbook 'Greens with Onions & Garlic', which didn't impress either of us -- hence, the left-overs....we always finish our greens! So I took the left-overs and chopped them up fine to use for a different recipe from from the same cookbook. See below....





'Biscuit Casserole Stew' from The Vegan Family Cookbook was a huge hit! I didn't have carrots for this dish, so I decided to give the collards a second chance in the stew. I made the stew out of new potatoes, collard greens, split pea soup, vegetable broth, and other good things. Then, before it goes in the oven, you drop 15 uncooked biscuit dough balls on top of the stew. This medium scoop from Pampered Chef made the job easy & fun.




Here it is out of the oven. This was a delicious and satisfying meal - one that will go into the regular rotation.

"Weiner Wraps"

Back in April I attempted some weiner wraps and they could have chipped a tooth they were so hard. So I was happy to see a weiner wrap recipe in The Vegan Family Cookbook. The dough is really easy to make, and is actually a "drop biscuit" recipe. I wonder if the book has a typo, because it calls for 3/5 C. Olive Oil ~ none of my measuring cups work with fifths, so I did slightly less than 3/4 and it all worked out fine. Is the 3/5 odd to you? Anyhow, I rolled out the dough, gave some to Liv to roll out too, cut the dough to size, covered the Tofu Pups up, and put them in the oven. Easy.



The dough was light and fluffy, and really perfect! I served the weiner wraps with naturally sweetened applesauce (no high fructose corn syrup), 2 grape eyes, and a celery stick smile ~ and you can see the other smile this meal produced! I really like this new cookbook!

Happy Father's Day!

I'm a proponent of beginning with dessert, and I'm so pleased to begin with 'Coconut Heaven Cupcakes' from Vegan with a Vengeance. These are easily the best cupcakes I've ever made (vegan & non), and possibly the best I've ever eaten. They are dense coconut cupcakes topped off with fluffy coconut icing. I used coconut extract instead of vanilla in the cakes & icing, let's do organic coconut, and topped them with a blueberry for color. The recipe should really come with a warning label for dieters "You can't eat just one". I'm telling ya...these are so delicious, and if you like coconut, you will LOVE these cupcakes.


Olivia painted a picture for Art. She said it had a yellow and a blue sun. She made finger prints all over and fingerpainted a bird. We only had blue, yellow, & red ~ and she mixed to also have orange, green, & purple. Every year, I pick out a new bedtime story and write Happy Father's Day & the year with a Sharpie. This year, I picked up, "What Am I?" It's a really cute animal guessing game book. Speaking of guessing games.....read on.





While she painted, I made 'Banana Bread' from "The Vegan Family Cookbook", which touts that this will be the best banana bread you will ever have! It is really good. Among other ingredients, this recipe call for egg replacer, 2 very ripe bananas, soy milk, & silken tofu. The bread also fills the house with a wonderful aroma, and I think this loaf would have gotten more attention if it weren't for the coconut cupcakes! (the only downside of beginning with dessert)




A guessing game: What vegetable do you think this is? Hints: It has thick skin, golden roots with purple shoulders. They are carrot-sweet and slightly peppery, with a golden flesh that tastes like a cross between a turnip and a yellow-fleshed sweet potato. Here is the mystery vegetable after being peeled, cubed and boiled. Below, you'll see it mashed with soybean margarine & sea salt. Comment on your mystery veggie guess & I'll comment back later with the answer.




I had a lot of fun cooking Art's Father's Day dinner. I began cleaning the collard greens by cutting out the spine, folding the leaf in half, & cutting into strips. I put the collard greens into a large pot, covered with water, added some sea salt, & brought to a boil, reducing the heat for an hour. Then, I changed the water, added some onion & soybean margarine and brought to a boil again. In a skillet, I browned each side of the Veats Bites, then added some Island Teriyaki sauce by Soy Vay along with some fresh green beans and a half can of pineapple ~ & let that simmer together. On the plate you see: a dual bed of mashed mystery vegetable and jasmine rice, topped with collard greens and veats bites & a thick tomato slice. Art called this 'Soul Food' and said it was the best meal I've made him. Wow! Happy Father's Day.