Mission: Vegan » Tofu & Other Meat Subs

BBQ Tofu Wrap

maida — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:52:22 +0000

This would be another menu item if I owned a cafe. This is really easy to make and one of my favorites. It’s also only about 350 calories!

The trick is the tofu– you have to buy the firmest you can find that’s not packed in water. It comes in the vacuum sealed packs and has a much better texture than the kind packed in water. It also doesn’t require and pressing. Take two slices off the brick of tofu and put in a preheated skillet over medium heat. Brown on both sides. Reduce heat to low and add enough BBQ sauce to generously coat both sides of the tofu. Cook for another few minutes, then slice.

While that’s cooking, prepare your bread/tortilla/whatever. Warm it a little, spread a little Vegenaise and BBQ sauce on it, top with tofu slices, and add any produce you like. I used baby spinach here, but have used salad mix, cabbage, cole slaw mix, and broccoli slaw in the past. Anything works.

Father’s Day Kabobs

maida — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:26:18 +0000

We spent Father’s Day with my family in Sacramento and I made these yummy kabobs, which were sort of a take on the eggplant/basil/tofu Thai dish Eggplant Kee Mao (my absolute favorite Thai dish. Ever.). For these, I skewered some firm tofu with some chopped eggplant, basil leaves, red onion, zucchini and cremini mushrooms. I marinated them for a day in a mixture of tamari, veggie broth, chopped basil, chopped green onions, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, toasted sesame oil and red chili flakes.

My dad was very thoughtful with his grill: he preheated it to like 5 million degrees to singe off any meat remnants for me. Then he was so nice to let me grill them myself– a job that I thoroughly enjoyed and am now putting a gas BBQ on the top of my wish list. I loved it and it made all the difference with these babies. If you don’t have a BBQ, you can still make these. Just preheat your broiler and cook them under it until they are charred in some spots and cooked through. These are definitely a crowd pleaser and not that expensive to make either. I think the most expensive component was the tofu at $3.50 for the pack. I’ll definitely be making these again.

Tofurky Roast

maida — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:32:36 +0000

I remember so vividly the day I went vegetarian. It was just a couple of days before Thanksgiving after having sat through one of my college classes where we were discussing the book Diet for a New America. Want to know where your “food” comes from and have a good cry all at the same time? Read that book and change your life forever. I vowed that day to never eat meat again and haven’t regretted the decision one bit. That was 8 years ago and in these last 8 years, I’ve never had a Tofurky for Thanksgiving. Truthfully, I don’t really enjoy traditional Thanksgiving foods that much and I was always fine with eating whatever vegetarian side dishes were offered. Now that Thanksgiving is almost upon us, I was considering picking up a Tofurky roast this year for a couple of reasons:

1. We usually spend the holiday with family, making stops at both my and Matt’s family feasts, but this year we’re staying put. We live about 80 miles away from our families, a drive that has taken us up to 5 hours with all of the holiday traffic. Seriously, traffic on Thanksgiving is worse than any other holiday, at least in the direction we are traveling. And besides all that, there is a slight possibility that Matt may end up having to work some or all of the holiday weekend and we need to be close to work in case he can’t do what he needs to remotely.

2. I would like to enjoy a family meal, something that we don’t get to do very often at all anymore, but I don’t have the time to prepare anything super complicated. My days are jam packed with baby feeding, butt wiping, and chauffeuring, so my time in the kitchen is pretty nonexistent.

Tofurky and I have had a love affair that has lasted since I first went vegetarian. I really like the Hickory Smoked Deli Slices and am in love with their new-ish line of frozen pizzas. Really, anything from them that I’ve tried has been good so I thought why not? Why not, indeed, since I was offered a coupon for a free sample: a Tofurky feast that includes a roast, gravy and stuffing that’s boxed with some organic chocolate cake from Amy’s Kitchen. You’ve got your main dish and your dessert all in one, saving you tons of time come Thanksgiving (or Christmas) day. Whip up a couple of side dishes and you’re all set to spend time with your loved ones instead of slaving away in the kitchen.

Because I was so excited to try it and because I wanted to get this post up before Thanksgiving so that you all can run out and get your own Tofurky, we enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast a week early. Preparation instructions are really simple: all you gotta do is prepare a simple basting broth and wrap it up in foil. It bakes at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours. That’s it! While that was doing it’s thing in the oven, I prepared a few simple side dishes: mashed potatoes with chives, homemade cranberry sauce and roasted Brussels sprouts. Then I heated the gravy that came with the roast.

After baking, I sliced it up pretty thin. It’s pretty impressive how much stuffing there is inside there (it’s a wild rice type stuffing, by the way, not a bread one).

My potatoes turned out really yummy. I had an open container of plain coconut milk yogurt and I added a few heaping spoonfuls to my potatoes as I was mashing. It made them super creamy. I don’t particularly care for Brussels sprouts (the hubby loves them!), but the recipe I followed– linked above– was really good. I enjoyed them quite a bit. The Tofurky wasn’t bad. Please note that I am not a fan at all of seitan and, as I said above, I don’t really like traditional Thanksgiving foods, but I did think it was okay. It’s not something I would ever have a craving for, but I would eat it if it were served to me. I have a lot of it leftover and have a few ideas in mind of some creative ways to use it up. The best part of the entire meal was the gravy. It was the best vegan gravy I’ve ever had. Yum!

And the best part of any meal: the dessert. As you might have guessed, I’m a bit of a cake snob. For a store bought, frozen cake, it was actually really good. I whipped up a super simple espresso glaze to top it with (because cake isn’t cake unless it has some kind of frosting on it, right? Isn’t a cupcake without frosting just a muffin?). The cake is really moist and very flavorful and that espresso glaze tastes just like melted coffee ice cream. Even though I liked it so much, I only had one piece. I’m pretty proud of myself for that.

If you’re interested in picking up a Tofurky feast for your family, you can find them at pretty much any store that sells Tofurky products. I got mine at Whole Foods in the freezer section. Price-wise, you’re looking at $20 for the feast box (the roast, gravy and cake), which serves 6.

Oh! Funny story– the feast box also comes with some Tofurky jurky “wishstix.” When I opened the box, I was like what the hell is this for? and I tossed it aside. I seriously couldn’t figure out what it was and then it donned on me: it’s the vegan version of a wishbone! LOL! It’s been so long since I’ve feasted on turkey carcass that I had forgotten all about that tradition of making a wish and pulling apart the wishbone.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m curious, what do you look forward to most at Thanksgiving time? Is it the food? Time with the family? All the awesome deals on Black Friday?

This year, I’m most looking forward to spending a relaxing long weekend with my husband and kids. We don’t have any plans aside from enjoying each other and maybe seeing Tangled. (Yep, when you’ve got kids, you look forward to seeing the newest Disney film in the theater. How times have changed!) Everyday I’m so very thankful to be surrounded by unconditional love. I have the best life!

Tandoori Kebabs

maida — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:18:08 +0000

Every week at the farmer’s market, I find myself picking up a head of cauliflower and a head of broccoli. The stand that I like to visit often has a “3 for $5″ deal going by the end of the market, which is about the time I generally get there. Not wanting to pass up the deal, I snag the same things every week. So after grabbing the broccoli and cauliflower again this week (I go on Saturdays and Wednesdays, so I always seem to have broccoli and cauliflower!), I asked Google what I should do with it.

I came across this recipe for Tandoori Kebabs and thought I could very easily make it vegan. Also, I don’t have a grill and I liked that the recipe said I could broil these instead of grilling. And these turned out so good that there were no leftovers! My husband really liked them– although, I’m not so sure if he really liked them or if he was just really hungry. The next time I make these, I will probably double the amounts for the spices. These were extremely mild in terms of both heat and spice and I may even add some cayenne pepper next time. I did make a couple of changes this time around:

I omitted the tomatoes and used those on a side green salad instead.
I added super firm tofu cubes to the kebab for some extra protein.
Instead of dairy yogurt, I used plain coconut milk yogurt.
I also forgot to put salt in the marinade… I definitely do not recommend skipping that step!

Like I said above, we had ours with a side salad and a little bit of basmati rice. I would have preferred brown basmati rice, but was all out.

Individual Lasagne

maida — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:24:53 +0000

While watching the Food Network the other day, I was inspired by one of the dishes that Giada was making. She made these individual lasagne and I thought I could do the same, but make them vegan. The dish was a surprising success! Also, you could prepare these ahead of time, like over the weekend, and throw them in the oven for a quick weeknight meal. Just be sure to let them come to room temperature before baking. Putting a cold ramekin into a hot oven probably isn’t a good idea.

For mine, I used some spinach lasagna noodles that my cousin-in-law brought back for me from Argentina. These noodles are wider and shorter than normal lasagna noodles, so I cut them in half to give me two longer, skinnier pieces. Also, my noodles are the “no boil” type, but since they need to be soft for this dish, I soaked them for a few minutes in some hot water. I bet you could take a similar approach with regular “no boil” noodles or use the boil type and cook per package directions.

The tofu ricotta that I used in mine are based on this recipe, but I changed the recipe just a tad. Here’s how I made mine:

Tofu Basil Ricotta

1/2 lb tofu, packed in water (use the kind that comes in those twin packs and just use one side)

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

2 TB nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp. salt

15 large basil leaves

Pat the tofu dry and add it and the rest of the ingredients to your food processor. Process until completely smooth.

Step 1: Begin by preheating the oven to 425 degrees. Liberally grease your ramekin dishes and place them on a baking sheet. Take one noodle and layer it in the bottom of the dish so that the edges of the noodle hang over the edge of the dish (again, since my noodles were wider and shorter than normal noodles, I overlapped the two pieces at the bottom):

Step 2: Place another noodle in the bottom of the dish, but the in opposite direction to form a “X” in the bottom of the dish. Top with a generous amount of tofu ricotta (recipe above– I put mine in a piping bag to make it easier to dispense into each dish):

Step 3: Put a generous amount of marinara sauce on top of the tofu ricotta. I used about 3 TB. Top that with a layer of sliced zucchini (or other vegetable of your choice– eggplant slices or spinach leaves would be yumy).

Step 4: Fold over one set of the noodle edges.

Step 5: Top with a little bit more tofu ricotta (not as much as used in Step 2; maybe half that amount). Top with about 1 more TB of marinara and more zucchini slices.

Step 6: Fold over last set of noodle edges. Top with another TB of marinara and vegan mozzarella of your choosing. I used Diaya, which I had been keeping in my freezer (just to explain why it looks a little funny in the photo).

Step 7: Bake uncovered at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the sauce is bubbly.

Step 8: Allow to cool for a few minutes, then use a large spoon to scoop it out of the ramekin and place onto a plate.

Easy Peasy Creamy Pasta Salad

maida — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:24:01 +0000

Yes! A new recipe!!!!

I made this for dinner last night and it was SO EASY to make and was also really flavorful (and my kid ate it with minimal complaining). Feel free to add whatever veggies and fruit you like or have on hand. It’s a great use-up for those that may be on their way to the compost bin, if ya know what I mean. Grapes or nectarines would be a really yummy addition.

Easy Peasy Creamy Pasta Salad

2 cups dry pasta, any shape

1 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup peas, frozen

1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and diced

Dressing:

1/3 cup vegan mayo of your choosing (I use Vegenaise)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)

S&P to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil. When boiling, salt the water and add the pasta. I used penne, which took about 9 minutes to cook through. When your pasta has about 3-4 minutes left on it’s cooking time, add the carrots to the boiling water. When it has about 2 minutes left, add the peas. Cook until the pasta is tender, then drain and rinse with cold water.

While your pasta is cooking, whisk together the dressing ingredients in the bottom of a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and the pasta/carrot/pea mixture once it has been drained and rinsed. Toss to coat with the dressing and refrigerate until ready to eat. If the dressing made just enough to cover everything, you may want to consider making a little extra since the pasta will absorb it and your leftovers may be a tad dry the next day.

To go with our pasta salad, I made Tofu Fish Sticks from Vegan Lunch Box. These are so simple to make and are really good. While the texture isn’t quite the same as I remember real fish sticks being, the taste is spot on. I made a quick tartar sauce to dip them in by mixing some Vegenaise with sweet pickle relish. Really, could our meal have been any simpler to prepare?! I love easy (and relatively inexpensive) meals like this one.

The pasta salad could even stand alone as a meal itself, if paired with a simple green salad or something. It’s got good protein in there from the beans and peas (yep, peas are pretty high in protein), as well as a good mix of veggies. Like I mentioned above, the addition of some fruit would be really good. When my mom made pasta salad when I was a kid, she always added grapes or nectarines and it was so good. Seriously, you have to try it!

Teriyaki Glazed Tofu and Green Beans

maida — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:01:17 +0000

What’s this? A new recipe??! Wow!

I actually cooked something last night… from scratch! I know, shocking! Ever since I started baking a ton, I haven’t been cooking too often. Yesterday was my munchkin’s 4th birthday and for her special birthday dinner, she requested tofu (plain), rice and artichokes. She got her wish, but I felt I needed to jazz it up a bit for my husband and I. We also had steamed artichokes and rice, but I decided to glaze our tofu with teriyaki sauce. It turned out really good… and because I didn’t have any bottled teriyaki sauce, I had to make my own. It’s so easy too! I don’t think I’ll ever buy a bottle of it ever again.

Teriyaki Glazed Tofu and Green Beans

1 lb. tofu (or other plant protein of your choice), cubed

2 cups green beans, either fresh or frozen

1 recipe teriyaki sauce (you will have some leftover)

Toasted sesame seeds for garnish, optional

In a large skillet, preheat a few tablespoons of canola, vegetable or peanut oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the tofu making sure it is completely dry before adding to the hot oil. Cook on one or two sides until golden brown then remove from pan. If there is a lot of oil leftover from cooking the tofu, wash out your pan. Add the green beans and a few tablespoons of water. Cover and let them steam for a few minutes. When cooked, drain any remaining water and add the tofu back to the pan. Glaze with the teriyaki and cook a minute or so longer. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

Vegan Meatloaf

maida — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:58:45 +0000

Doesn’t it look so tasty? I got this yummy recipe in my inbox the other day from the VegNews Magazine recipe club e-newsletter. Even though I have yet to try any of their recipes, they all look and sound so good. I’ve been trying to concoct my own vegan meatloaf, but have not have much luck in getting it to stick together like a loaf and not crumble into itty bitty bits. To be honest, I’ve only given it one try. This recipe, though, sounds like a winner (and it’s soy-free if you use soy-free margarine!!). I’m definitely going to try this recipe the next time I get a craving for a loaf, although I may sub cooked quinoa for the brown rice. What a great dish to serve on Thanksgiving!

Serves 4

What You Need:

1/2 cup tomato paste
3 tablespoons tamari, divided
1 tablespoon dark agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons garlic, minced and divided
4 tablespoons non-hydrogenated margarine, divided
1 cup onion, chopped and divided
1 cup portabello mushrooms, diced into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup carrot, finely diced
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup cooked brown rice
2 cups cooked French lentils
1-1/2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, minced
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a small loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste, 2 tablespoons tamari, agave, liquid smoke, and 1 tablespoon garlic. Set aside.

2. In a large skillet over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons margarine and 1/2 cup onions. Sauté 5 minutes. Add the portabello mushrooms, and sauté for 7 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl. Add remaining 2 tablespoons margarine to the skillet and sauté celery, carrot, remaining 2 teaspoons garlic, salt, and pepper over low heat. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. In a food processor, pulse rice and lentils 10 times, then transfer to a large bowl. In the food processor, pulse cooked vegetables, Worcestershire sauce, remaining tamari, mustard, parsley, arrowroot, and 1/3 cup of the tomato topping 10 times, then add vegetable mixture to rice and lentils. Fold in reserved sautéed onions and mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and the 1/2 cup chopped onion.

4. Press half of the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and spread the top with half of the tomato topping. Then, press the rest of the mixture into the pan, and coat with the remaining tomato topping. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes until top is browned. Remove from oven, and cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Vegan Sausages

maida — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:11:52 +0000

We celebrated my friend, Brianne’s, birthday this last weekend. She had been craving Underdog for quite some time, so she picked some up for us to make at her new place. Here’s Underdog in a nutshell:

UNDERDOG – “The Organic Sausage Joint” is exactly just that. we are a restaurant that serves grilled organic meat and vegetarian sausages on lightly toasted gourmet organic buns. you can dress your sausage anyway you like at our self-serve organic condiment stand. we also offer organic salads, desserts, sodas, juices, drinks, chips, snacks, and candies. Everything we sell is made with natural and organic ingredients. We will never sell anything that contains gmo’s, artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, transfats, or high fructose corn syrup. We conduct business in ways that make the least negative impact on our planet by trying to always use packaging, supplies, and disposables made from either recycled paper and/or biodegradable products made from renewable and sustainable resources like corn, potatoes, bamboo, or sugar cane. We recycle as much as we can and encourage you to do the same. We try to always only use non-toxic and biodegradable cleaners. We donate a portion of our profits to local charities. We are the UNDERDOG!

While I’ve never been to the shop, I can highly recommend them based on Brianne’s recommendation and based on trying them at her house this weekend. They were awesome! Underdog is located at :

1634 Irving Street San Francisco, CA. 94122
(Between 17th and 18th Avenue, Inner Sunset)

: Veggie Italian piled high with horseradish mustard and sauerkraut

I tried the Veggie Italian and the Veggie-Dog. Both were really good– so good that I can’t choose a favorite. I would eat both again.

I made dessert (of course!) and since Brianne doesn’t like cake, she requested Mexican Wedding Cookies. I couldn’t stop there, so I made a Birthday Dessert Platter of Mexican Wedding Cookies, low-fat Zucchini Brownies and fresh strawberries. I’ll be offering these through my bakery… if I ever get the website up and running. I have the domain, just not the time to actually get the website looking good. That sort of explains my absence lately… business has really picked up and I’m a little worried that it’s taking off faster than I can keep up. I just need a few more hours each day to get it all done!

Meal In Minutes – BBQ Tofu

maida — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:19:14 +0000

Last night, I suddenly realized that it was dinner time and I needed to whip something up quick. The fridge was running on empty and I still had half of the 6-pound zucchini to use. Pretty much the only dinner item in the fridge was some tofu, which made me think of VeganDad’s Memphis BBQ Tofu. And if I was going to go to the trouble of grilling the tofu, why not grill the zucchini too?! Oh, and speaking of VeganDad, he’s hosting a “guess the gadget” giveaway which runs until July 6. You could win a copy of his cookbook.

Back to the food… The tofu was freakin’ awesome! Like seriously, seriously good. Even a non-tofu lover would like this stuff. I used super firm tofu, put on the dry rub, then grilled it on my indoor grill. After it was grilled on both sides, I coated it very generously with BBQ sauce (Bull’s Eye brand… sorry, but I love it and am too lazy to make my own from scratch), then put it in a baking dish in a 300 degree oven while I grilled the zucchini. I had the leftovers on top of a salad for dinner tonight and it was unbelievably good!

The zucchini was a different story… the thing was just too big to be worth eating as a zucchini should be eaten. The seeds were huge– like the size of pumpkin seeds– and the flesh was super fibrous and tough. These big guys are best for baking, but I still ate it to set a good example.

Start to finish, this meal probably only took 15 minutes to throw together. If I had had a larger grill, it would have taken half that. And did I mention that the tofu was awesome?!!