I’m so excited about this guest blog post!  I’ve always said that if I had a dog, s/he would be vegan too…

Hello to all the Vegans on a Mission! This is Kelly from www.easyVegan.info, responding to Maida’s call for guest posts. A little background on me: I’m an adopted mommy to six furkids – five rescue dogs and an ex-stray cat. The husband and I are vegan; the dogs are vegetarian-going-on-vegan; and the cat is an omni, on a special kibble diet for his kidneys. We feed the dogs a mix of commercial vegan and vegetarian kibble, along with some homemade vegan food and, for afternoon and nighttime snacking, peanut butter balls (in which we hide all sorts of healthy supplements).

Dogs are awesome to cook for: by and large, they’re unfussy, enthusiastic eaters. I joke that I cook more for my dog-kids than I do for my human family, but probably that’s not far from the truth. Here’s one dish I recently came up with; I hope your furry friends enjoy it as much as mine did!

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In the days before delicious and vegan dog food blogs, I collected my favorite recipes in a three-ring binder. Two of ‘em, actually: one for the humans, another for the dogs. The dogs’ binder is literally twice as large as the humans’. Priorities, people, priorities.

Anyhow, I’ve been wanting to mix their menu up a little lately, so last night I pulled out the doggeh binder in search of recipes. Instead of following any one recipe verbatim, I decided to veganize the “Hearty Hound Loaf” from the Three Dog Bakery Cookbook. Naturally, I also had to rename the dish; “Have-a-Heart(y) Hound Loaf” struck my fancy since, unlike the original recipe, mine does not include the corpses of other animals (in this case, turkeys).

Actually, to say that I merely veganized the recipe isn’t wholly accurate; more like I used it as a starting point to develop my own loaf-like dish. Here, the cooked and mashed beans act as a stand-in for “ground turkey”; the peanut butter replaces the tomato paste (though this is optional); and Liquid Smoke is the main spice, as opposed to sage and garlic. And did I mention that I quadrupled the original?

Have-a-Hearty Hound Loaf

Ingredients

2 16 ounce bags of dried beans (I used 16 ounces of small red beans and 16 ounces of black beans) OR 8 16 ounce cans of beans (You can find a dry-to-canned bean conversion chart here.)
1 teaspoon marjoram (optional)
2 cups of peanut butter (You can substitute in 2 to 4 cups – or 12 to 24 ounces – tomato paste for a different taste)
2 tablespoons Liquid Smoke
1 cup of finely chopped green bell peppers (or other mild pepper)
2 cups mixed vegetables (corn, peas, finely chopped carrots and/or green beans, etc.)
1 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts (optional)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1-2 baking pan(s), lightly greased

Directions

1. Sort, rinse and soak dried beans overnight. When done soaking, rinse and add to a large pot. Or, if you’re using canned beans, pace the beans in a colander, rinse, and then add them to a large pot.

2. Cover the beans with water; the water level should rise above the beans by 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and then reduce the heat to low. Stir in the marjoram. Cook, covered, for about two hours, or until the beans are soft and tender. (The cook time will be much shorter if you’re using canned beans.)

3. Remove the cover from the pot and continue to cook until most of the water has evaporated. You can also remove the pot from the heat and let the beans sit until most of the excess water has evaporated. Let cool.

4. Using a hand masher, mash the beans until at least half of the beans are broken up. For a smoother mix, transfer in batches to a blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth.

5. Mix in the peanut butter (or tomato paste) and Liquid Smoke; stir until blended.

6. Add the peppers, vegetables and nuts; stir until mixed.

7. Stir in the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, thickening up the stew-dough until thick (but not dry).

8. Transfer the dough to a greased baking pan. Cook at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Note: I used a glass pan measuring 15″x10.5″x2″. The dough just barely fit, making for a 2″ high loaf. The top, bottoms and corners were nicely browned and crisp, but the middle was still a little mushy after 1 1/2 hours in the oven. This was fine for my needs, as I mix a little kibble with the homemade meal – no need for a perfectly constituted loaf. That said, if you’d like a firmer, more traditional meat-type loaf, I’d recommend using several smaller pans, and not piling the batter so high.

9. Let the loaf cool before serving – dinner’s no fun with a burned tongue!