Making Your Own Seitan

I've been wanting to make my own seitan for a long time, especially since the pre-made seitan is so overpriced. It turned out to be way easy.

Ingredients:
10 oz package of Vital Wheat Gluten
2 cups water

Preparation:
1. Empty the package into a large mixing bowl.
2. Stir in water. Pay special attention to mixing it thoroughly, or you'll end up with areas in your seitan that are tough and chewy.
3. Knead until completely mixed, and form into a ball. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
4. While that's resting, prepare a boiling pot of water with optional broth or flavors. I used fake chicken bouillon and veggie broth.
5. Add in setian (either chopped into large or small pieces, or as the entire ball) and reduce to a simmer.
6. Let it simmer for a looong time. I did it for more than an hour. Check for a cooked texture similar to chicken, and taste-test to make sure it is as flavorful as you'd like.

After preparing it, you can eat it plain, store it in the broth to soak up more flavor or prepare it with a sauce. I usually make it with the same sauce I use in the Asian-Style Marinated Tofu.

Vegan BLT Wrap

This is one of my favorite sandwiches. I make this constantly.

Ingredients:
1 low-carb tortilla (I use Mission Carb-Balance) You might also try using lettuce as a wrap.
2 small tomatoes
Romaine Lettuce or other greens
Vegan Mayonnaise
Vegan Bacon Bits or vegan bacon broken up into pieces.

Preparation:
1. Spread vegan mayonnaise on the tortilla.
2. Sprinkle bacon bits on the mayo. You can leave this out if you'd like. I try to find bacon bits with non-terrifying chemicals in them. The good thing is, most bacon bits are vegan, they just don't advertise it.
3. Add tomatoes and lettuce and wrap it up like its 1992!

Scrambled Tofu

I decided to try scrambled tofu, specifically the recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen.

I love the recipes over there! I already have two of their cookbooks, Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats. I just made some of the chocolate chip cookies from the latter, and they were very addicting! Nom!

Anyway, I sauntered over to their blog and found their scrambled tofu recipe.
I had wanted to try scrambled tofu for some time, considering that tofu is a pretty low-carb item, and I already have a pretty big crush on the stuff. We're total besties.

It turned out really well! It was really fast, easily customizable and was definitely a comfort-food. The Omninator liked it, and that's always a sign that the recipe's a real winner. I ended up skipping the thyme because I didn't have any, and I left out any add-ins (such as the mushrooms and onion) because I wanted to check out the tasty-ness of the base recipe. I would highly recommend a delicate touch when "scrambling" it. I went a little nuts with the stirring and ended up with more crumbles than chunks.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Noms!

Post-Apocalypse

Sorry for the short hiatus. It was a dark and stormy night the end of the semester, and I was conquering sea monsters finishing up classes. Also, the husband (henceforth to be referred to as The Omninator) graduated, and will be leaving me to go to grad school soon.

I will get back to blogging about eating/food (bleating/flogging?) very shortly!

Asian-Style Marinated Tofu

This is one of my favorite recipes. The tofu is deliciously flavorful, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Ingredients:
Pan-Fried Tofu
1/4 cup Soy Sauce or Bragg's
1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
2 tsp Sesame Oil
2 tbsp Honey or Agave Nectar
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Ginger Powder

Preparation:
1. Put soy sauce, rice vinegar and the sesame oil in a large pan and place on Medium heat. Stir until mixed.
2. Add honey and stir until the honey is dissolved.
3. Season with garlic and ginger.
4. Add in the pan-fried tofu and stir until the tofu is well coated.
5. Let the tofu and sauce simmer until the sauce thickens and the tofu has a thick glaze on it.
Optionally, you can add sesame seeds or crushed peanuts on top.

Serve on broccoli, with brown rice and peas, on wilted kale or bok choy etc.

Pan-Fried Tofu

This is the base recipe for most of my tofu dishes.
Ingredients:
1 pkg Tofu (Extra Firm)
Olive Oil (I use a spray)

Preparation:
1. Drain the tofu
2. Cut the tofu into small pieces. I like thin, square-ish pieces.
3. Coat a large pan in a thin layer of olive oil. I recommend using olive oil in a spritzer to get good coverage without using a lot.
4. Turn on Medium heat. If your tofu is taking too long to brown, you may want to turn the heat up a little later on.
5. Add a single layer of the tofu to the pan and let it sit there for about 5 minutes. You'll want it to turn a nice golden brown.
6. Flip the tofu and let the other side brown. This usually takes a little less time than the first side.
7. Continue until all the tofu has been pan-fried.

After the tofu is prepared, add sauces or spices to taste.

How to Drain Tofu, Quickly

Being vegan, it's pretty hard to avoid using tofu at least once a week or so. Personally, I love tofu, so I enjoy using it in the occasional stir fry or pot pie. However, in the past I neglected to use it due to the time-consuming process of preparing it.

A couple months ago I was in the kitchen after making some delicious vegan cookies (not so low-carb, but oh so wonderful), and I still had my cooking racks out. I wanted to have tofu with dinner, but I was hesitant...until I decided to use the cooling racks to help!

I got out a dish cloth and put it underneath the cooling rack, then I put a single folded paper towel sheet on the rack, and put the tofu on top of that. I added one more paper towel on top of the tofu and a heavy object (I happened to use a large can of beans I had laying around). I let it set for two or three minutes and came back to a perfectly prepared block of tofu!

Spinach Tomato Spaghetti with Grilled Vegetables

Ingredients:
~4-5 cups spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup spinach
1 can diced tomatoes
garlic and dehydrated onions to taste
1 pkg shirataki noodles
olive oil
~2-3 cups small mushrooms
2 green bell peppers
1 white onion
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Pour sauce into medium sauce pan. Add spinach and diced tomatoes. Add spices. Heat on med., stirring often.
2. Drain shirataki noodles and rinse. Place them in a small pan on med. heat and add a small amount of olive oil. Cook until they have a neutral taste.
3. Chop mushrooms, bell peppers and the onion. Place in a large pan and drizzle with a small amount of oil. Cook veggies until onions are translucent. Add oil if necessary. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve by placing 1/4 the noodles in a bowl, add 1/2 cup of sauce and pile on the grilled veggies!

Asian Soup

Ingredients: 
1/4 onion
1/4 head of cabbage
1/2 of a bok choy bunch
4 stalks celery
1 bunch of kale
Olive oil
8 cups water
2 cubes of fake chicken bouillon or cut out 2 cups water and add a can and a half of vegetable broth
1 block of tofu, drained and cut into cubes
1/4 cup soy sauce or amino liquids
2-3 tbsp honey or agave nectar
Ginger, garlic, salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Chop vegetables and place into a large pot. Add small amount of olive oil and sautee until cabbage, onion and bok choy begin to become translucent and kale begins to wilt.
2. Add water, bouillon cubes and tofu and bring to a simmer.
3. Add soy sauce, honey and spices
4. Let simmer for ~15 minutes, or until celery is tender and tofu is flavored.

Mashed Cauliflower

Ingredients:
head of cauliflower
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dehydrated onion
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Chop cauliflower into medium pieces.
2. Steam the cauliflower until tender. I use my awesome rice cooker for this, as it has a great steamer attachment. If you don't have something like this, try microwaving by putting the cauliflower into a plastic colander and resting the colander on top of a shallow bowl of water. If you have a metal colander, try boiling a pot of water and setting the colander on top with a lid.
3. Use a food processor to mash the steamed cauliflower with the onion and garlic.
4. Scrape a serving into a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:
olive oil
1/2 pkg Boca ground "beef" crumbles
2 green bell peppers
1 can green beans
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp dehydrated onion

Preparation:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a large pan with olive oil, or measure 1 tbsp and coat the pan.
3. Empty Boca crumbles into the pan and cook over med-med high heat until hot.
4. While the Boca crumbles are heating, core and scrape the seeds out of 2 green bell peppers. Set aside.
5. Add can of green beans to Boca crumbles and stir.
6. Add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup water to prevent the crumbles from burning or drying out.
7. Add spices, stir, and heat for ~5 more minutes.
8. Pack the green peppers with Boca/green bean mix.
9. Place on lightly greased or non-stick baking sheet for about 15 min. or until green peppers are no longer firm.

Asian Stir-Fry

Stir-fry mix:
1 whole bok choy
1/4 head cabbage
1/2 bunch of kale
1 head of broccoli
1 pkg Shirataki Noodles

Sauce:
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce or amino liquids
3 tbsp honey or agave nectar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp dehydrated onion
Ginger to taste

Preparation:
1. Chop up all veggies and cook on med heat in wok or high-walled large pan.
2. Add sesame oil and rice vinegar and cook until vegetables are soft and tender.
3. Add soy sauce, honey and spices and continue cooking about 5minutes.
4. Add shirataki noodles (if using them) and cook, stirring often, until sauce is absorbed by most of the vegetables and the noodles and there is only about 1/4 cup of sauce left in the bottom of the pan. You may need to reduce the heat.
5. Serve into a bowl. Add sweet thai chili sauce on top for some spicy heat. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.