Vegan MoFo is Upon Us!

.. and, I am damn excited. October is the ideal month for me for the following reasons: 1) an entire month dedicated to the delicacy that is vegan fewd nomz, 2) my birfday is this month, and 3) HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEN. This means that I have thirty one days to cram as many horror movies into one month as humanly possible. From 80's horror to 90's, from 70's exploitation to Universal Monsters, from Japanese horror to.. You get the idea. I admit, I've cheated and already gotten a head start on my horror movie intake. What can I say?

I haven't posted a lot of late and not due to lack of cooking. If you haven't noticed it's late September which means I've been back in school for almost a month. And, it's kind of kicking my ass. Also, when I've been cooking, it's been evening time meals where I'm trying to relax. Taking pictures of my food has been the last thing on my mind when a big plate of tastiness is sitting in front of me. Anyway, without further ado, here is what I've been cooking up.
















This was my second illness soup: Asian Mushroom Noodle Soup. It was inspired by a recipe I found in one of my mom's many low-carb cookbooks. One thing I will never submit to is this low-carb craze we find ourselves in. Carbs 'til death! The recipe in the book called for pork, so I subbed seitan. This recipe is really basic and really anyone could make it on the fly. It incorporated cabbage, carrots, button mushrooms, and wheat spaghetti noodles. (Soba noodles would've been MUCH better, though.) This was a really healthy meal and even the sodium content was very mild.















Remember that tempeh stew I made like, a post ago? The left over tempeh was used to make these: Tempeh burritos. I didn't do anything special. I steamed tempeh with some soy sauce and then topped it with some homemade peach mango salsa. Does anything sound more elegant than 'peach mango salsa'? I think not.
















This hearty red lentil pasta sauce is one of my favorites that I've made recently. Next time, though, I'd rather make it with a different pasta, one that holds sauce a bit better. This is a great alternative to those fatty fake meat grounds that you usually throw in your pasta sauce to make spaghetti.















About a year ago, I couldn't stand the taste of tahini. I would avoid making homemade hummus just to avoid it. I found it impossible to cook with and even more impossible to scarf down. Tahini is definitely an acquired taste, but once you do acquire it, you're hooked. Using tahini in sauces and such is all about combining it with the proper amount of water. Tahini has a very potent nutty flavor and needs water to counteract it and tone it down. I love love love this recipe for soba noodles with tahini sauce! This was my first time cooking soba noodles and I couldn't stop snacking on them while I waited for the rest of my meal to finish cooking. Such an awesome flavor. A note: I think next time I make an alfredo sauce I will mix equal parts tahinia and water to the garlic, soy milk, margarine mixture. Tahini with the right amount of water has a bit of a cheesy quality that is absolutely delicious.

Tempeh Stew

This past week has been utterly horrid due to the fact that I seemed to have caught that cold that's been going around. It's been awful. Sore throat. Sniffles. Hacking cough. The works. Regular customers at my place of employment have even been teasing me and claiming that I have Swine Flu. Jerks. :( So, in an attempt to remedy my illness, I decided to be a little old-fashioned and whip up some hearty soup. And, it was hearty in deed. This soup is very low maintenance and since you cook the tempeh with the broth, you don't have to steam it beforehand. Could this have been more simple? Negative.

Tempeh Stew for the Sickly

1 cup red lentils
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 veggie bouillon cube
1 can chickpeas
2 medium tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. tempeh

In a large pot, hydrate lentils with water through bay leaf on medium heat. Add more water if lentils start to stick. This is soup, after all. Add remaining ingredients, save the tempeh. Before the chickpeas are fully cooked, add tempeh and cover. When tempeh is desired texture, remove from heat and serve.

Tofu Spinach Alfredo

This was thrown together in a bit of a hurry. I used my go- to alfredo recipe that I modified a bit for this recipe and Brianna Clark Grogan's Breast of Tofu recipe that can be found on Everyday Dish. I would've preferred to have used penne, but being that I'm a broke college student, I had to use what was on hand.

Alfredo Sauce
1 cup soy milk
3 tsp chickpea flour
2 tsp all purpose flour
1 tbs nutritional yeast
2 tbs Earth Balance
dash of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

Bring soy milk to a boil and flour to a boil while whisking constantly. Lower heat and add remainder of ingredients. Continue to whisk until desired consistency achieved. Could this be any easier?

Some Not-So-Recent Fewd Endeavors.

The concept for this dish derived from a certain sous- chef of mine screaming, "This is FRY AND BREAD EVERYTHING NIGHT." It totally was. Totally. I used the Breast of Tofu recipe from Everyday Dish but instead breaded it with garbanzo flour. This gave it such an awesome flavor. I opted to bake the tofu this time around, but I have to say, frying it is definitely the more successful method. The breaded zucchini was a bit of an experiment. It was also breaded with garbanzo flour. I used Ener-G egg replacer in the coating the breading process.
















Next to ramen noodles, casseroles are the ultimate comfort food for me. Not to mention this dish had rice, broccoli, garlic, and an awesome cheeze sauce consisting primarily of tahini and nutritional yeast. Where else could I have found such nomz other than It Ain't Meat, Babe. I was surprised the sauce was as flavorful as it was because it is thinned with water. I found a way to sneak garbanzo flour in this dish, too! Primarily for thickening the sauce. This was really quick and easy. I recommend it as a quick drunken meal or a side dish.

Hello Fellow Fewd Junkies!

I haven't posted in a while because I've been doing absolutely no cooking. I've been in central California visiting my father and younger siblings. My meals at the house have been limited to spinach salads and boca burgers. Nothing too inventive. I did however encounter a few food gems when my family and I journeyed to Santa Cruz this past weekend.

The first was at Falafel House. The staff was surprsingly helpful and the food was delicious. While my family was off dining at a local burger place downtown, I wandered off to find more vegan friendly nomz and this is where I ended up. I ordered your standard falafel pita with a side of pita chips. If you do find yourself at Falafel House, be sure to order the vegan tahini sauce, which is friggin' godly. The default tahini sauce they give you has dairy in it.

The next place that floored me was Badass Coffee Company. It's establishments like this that make me ashamed to be employed at Starbucks. Their coffee selection is limited to Kona, but that was perfectly fine with me. They had soy options and even their white mocha syrup was vegan. As if that weren't enough to win me over, they offered vegan options in the pastry case! I ordered some vegan chocolate cake which was rich and dense and moist and pretty much everything that chocolate cake should be. They also had oat bars that were on par with Clif bars. The staff was very friendly and helpful here as well. It made me a little sad that they were located in the more commercial section of downtown Santa Cruz.

EDIT: A few hours after this post, my father was kind enough to take me to Davis to eat at a restaurant I'd been eyeballing for a while via the interwebz. We ate at Delta of Venus. While this isn't a vegetarian or vegan restaurant, it has both options available. My father was able to eat a turkey sammie and I had a curried tofu salad sammie. The tofu salad was alright considering that I find soy mayo positively disgusting. I also got a homemade chocolate chip bran muffin that was later enjoyed with a glass of soy milk for dessert. This restaurant had a nice little atmoshpere despite all of the pretentious art fags that littered the lawn. Davis is a quaint little college town and Delta of Venus definitely reflected that.

Falafel Pitas with Homemade Hummus

Talk about a chickpea overload. This meal contained an obscene amount of protein and was positively delicious. My only criticism: I would've baked these. Either my bum efficiency apartment stove is well, a bum efficiency apartment stove or these just don't gt cooked through the center when they're fried. Also, due to my hormonal stove top's incosistent tempurature, they got mildly deep fried and a little burnt on the outside.

While I've made my fair share of homemade hummus, I've NEVER made falafel from scratch. I'm not sure how authentic this recipe is, but it certainly did the trick. This meal was ideal because it allowed me the opportunity to sneak onions into EVERYTHING. Seriously. I can't stress enough how perfect this recipe would have been if I would've I'd only baked it.

Baked Mac 'n Cheez

Super Ultra Comfort Fewd Nomz achieved! This took less than 45 minutes to prepare and cook and was so wonderful. It was even enjoyed by a cheese-addicted friend of mine. Win. I used my Supa Simple Mac Sauce and two cups of macaroni. For the topping I sprinkled a handful of Panko breadcrumbs and about a teaspoon of both paprika and pepper. Also, if you have taste buds are even remotely similar to moi, you'll throw in an onion. Just for good measure.