Tag Archives: vegan

Sep 03 2012
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Thoughts

Happy Labor Day from Turning Veganese!

It’s still a holiday in the USA for the next three hours or so (at least in Chicago). I ended up having a laid back, no frills day. In terms of food, I celebrated with some soy curl barbecue which is so easy and fast and delicious!

Speaking of Labor Day and barbecue, I am pretty pleased with myself for surviving summer without eating meat. I have definitely been tempted at times: the aroma that wafts over from backyard barbecues still makes my mouth water. But I made it you guys! I’ve been turning veganese for over nine months now and it’s been… well, it’s been really great, and this blog is a huge part of why going vegan has been fun, exciting, and painless.

Happy Labor Day, wherever you are! –Melissa

Did you hear about our giveaway? Read this post for all the details and thanks for visiting Turning Veganese. You are awesome!

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Sep 02 2012
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Lazy Vegan

The Other Lazy Vegans: Sausage and Eggs

If you’re thinking about burgers this Labor day weekend, you might want to check this out (and the list of beef, pork and poultry products recalled for contamination with potentially deadly bacteria at Food Safety News) before you make any important decisions about burgers. Saturday is a glorious day when I get to sleep in 2 hours before going to a grueling double session of Brazilian jiu jitsu. “Sausage” and “eggs” is the kind of all American breakfast that you’d expect a pair of martial arts enthusiasts to enjoy except that my jiu jitsu dojo was the first place in South Florida outside my vegan farmer’s market that I’d met other vegans.

This particular variety, Bahama rice sausage – swinging Italian sausage, was unassuming right out of the package. I heated them by sauteeing in my favorite fry pan and presented them along with some scrambled tofu to my fellow vegan ninja for breakfast.

The texture was nice: firm and moist. The flavor was disappointing. We tasted strong cumin and some pepper but otherwise we had to slather them with hot sauce and garlic salt (which they did compliment well) in order to make them tasty by themselves. Sadly, I wouldn’t get them again. I liked how easy they were to prepare and that I could recognize the ingredients(like rice and lentils) in the whole patty. They would be fabulous at any BBQ slathered with mustard, relish and everything else that makes a burger good!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Sep 01 2012
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Recipes

Easy Bean Salsa

I was craving bean dip but didn’t want something too thick or chunky, so I made some slightly runny bean dip.

 

I gathered the following ingredients and mixed them in a food processor:

1 small tomato, diced
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion, diced
1 can black beans, drained

I topped it with some diced onion, cilantro, and salsa verde and noshed on it with some tortilla chips.

Easy and delicious! –Melissa

Did you hear about our giveaway? Read this post for all the details and thanks for visiting Turning Veganese. You are awesome!

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Aug 30 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Spaghetti and Hot Dogs

You may be thinking, “Isn’t this blog supposed to be about vegan food?” YES! Even non-vegans are grossed out by the idea of hot dogs and spaghetti, but it’s Filipino food gospel. After trying out some vegan frankfurters, I was anxious to use them in one of my childhood favorites. Oh, who am I kidding? I still prefer hot dogs as the protein in my spaghetti as an adult.

Making this dish is easy. All you have to do is add sliced hot dogs to your sauce when you’re heating it. This only works with marinara or other tomato-based pasta sauce (hot dogs and alfredo? yuck!). Clearly, it works with any kind of pasta. I had penne this time around so that’s what I used.

To prep these vegan frankfurters, I removed them from their casing and sliced them. I chopped some onions and garlic to add to the sauce because why not?!

First, I browned the hot dogs with the garlic and onion. Then I added some tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. You can also use your favorite jar of pasta sauce. Mix together and heat it through.

Not only was this tasty, it warmed the heart of my inner child. Spaghetti and hot dogs. Try it! –Melissa

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Aug 29 2012
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Raw

Mean Green Openface Sandwiches!

I’m calling this the mean green sandwich because it’s full of raw, good-for-you awesomesauce and they’re open face because I like to look my meal in the eye. Fortunately these don’t have any eyes because I have issues with that. The first thing I did was make a basil garlic spread using the following:

1 very large handful of basil leaves

5-6 peeled garlic cloves

1/4 cup of pumpkin pits

1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tsp Meyer lemon olive oil

2 tbsp veganaise

1/2 tsp flake red pepper

1/2 cup of water (you might not use all of it)

I blended all of that up, adding water as needed to form a spreadable texture. We spread it on sliced, toasted gluten-free bread and topped it with spinach and avocado.

I added a lot of extra flake red pepper because I’m just that kind of girl. This was a fast and delicious meal. The buttery avocado was a great contrast to the spicy basil and pesto. The nuttiness of the bread and hemp reminded me I was getting a heaping dose of omega fatty acids and protein to go with my antioxidants and iron.  It would have been great in a nori wrap with sprouts too for a real raw meal! Maybe we’ll do that next time and until then, nom on!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 28 2012
6 Comments
Cooking

Adobo Sitaw

We’ve been really lucky with how the backyard garden turned out despite the drought this summer. Right now, we are up to our ears in long beans or sitaw. Check this out!

We often cook these beans adobo-style. It’s tasty, goes well with a lot of other foods, may be eaten hot or cold, and it lasts awhile. It actually gets better the longer it’s been sitting in the fridge. As a bonus, it’s easy to make!

Like with the soy curl adobo, you will base the amount of garlic, soy sauce, and white vinegar that you use on the amount of beans you use. It’s basically a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and vinegar along with lots and lots of garlic.

Chop the garlic and then combine the soy sauce and vinegar in a bowl and top it with some black pepper. Now, you can either add the garlic to the mixture OR you can saute the garlic with the beans first. My Mom was the chef for this one and she chose the latter approach for this batch.

Once the beans are cooked but still crisp, add the mixture. Mix everything around for a few minutes and then cover and let it simmer. If you want a more soupy dish, add some more soy sauce.

Here’s how it looks about halfway between adding the mixture and the final product. In this instance, let it cook until the beans get wilted.

I devoured this with some rice and a tomato-onion salad. Some pickled peppers gave it a good kick. This is an ultimate comfort food for me. It’s deliciously savory and I’m so glad that it’s vegan as-is. –Melissa

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Aug 26 2012
3 Comments
Lazy Vegan

The Other Lazy Vegans: Junk Food that isn’t Junk

Even “hint of lime” chips often contain sour cream or whey for flavoring and this makes me SO angry. Being limited to greasy potato chips or plain corn chips gets a little old so we’re trying out some alternatives to let you know what’s in the bag.

Plentils come in 4 flavors (sorry, the other 2 aren’t in the picture because we ate them already): sea salt, dill and sour cream, margherita pizza and garlic parmesan. They’re light and airy and the flavors are outstanding. I particularly liked the margherita pizza and Brent liked the garlic parmesan. We’d buy these again. They’ve got a decent amount of protein, fiber and iron in each serving and aren’t terribly greasy or heavy. They’re $3.99 per bag and the bag is pretty big but it’s mostly air. If you’re sensitive to gluten, these are a great alternative to health chips that often contain wheat ingredients.

Nacho, sea salt and pepper and pico de gallo are the thee flavors we tried from Beanfield’s . The nutrition data is pretty good, there’s a reasonable amount of iron, fiber, protein and calcium. They’re $3.49 per bag and there’s a lot more than in Plentils. The texture is light and crispy and the flavors are awesome. These are both great alterniatives for people who can’t have corn chips but want to enjoy their salsa!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Aug 25 2012
7 Comments
Cooking

Perfect Pancakes

I have tried a handful of vegan pancake recipes and they have all been disasters until I decided to try this 5 Minute Vegan Pancakes recipe. I first tried it about one or two months ago. They turned out so well that I really wanted to write about them, but I decided that I better try them again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

It wasn’t a fluke.

There is a minimal number of ingredients. In addition, both times I have used this recipe, I didn’t have to do the usual tossing of the first pancake. You know what I’m talking about.

I tweaked the recipe a bit today and used the following ingredients:

1 cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1 tbsp turbinado
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsbp flax meal
pinch of salt
1 cup almond milk (I used soy milk the last time; either is fine)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c or so of dried blueberries

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl…

…and then I cooked the pancakes. That’s all there was to it.

Yay! Fluffy vegan pancakes! As you can see, I couldn’t even pause to take a photo before digging in. Actually, I ate the first pancake as soon as it came off the pan. That’s how delicious these are. They’re even better with some maple syrup and a side of tempeh strips.

Next vegan pancake challenge: Swedish pancakes! –Melissa

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Aug 24 2012
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Lazy Vegan, Main Dishes

Spicy Cheesy Toasty Toast!

I was serving some soup and was going to serve just plain old cheesy bread but decided to spice it up a little. I combined the following:

1/2 onion, diced

1 smaller tomato, diced

1 jalapeño, minced

1/4 cup TVP

I mixed these all together, adding the TVP until most of the moisture from the tomato was absorbed. I didn’t want soggy bread, don’t judge me.

I spooned the mix onto my bread (this is gluten-free and vegan made by a local lady), added a few slices of Follow Your Heart mozzarella and baked it up near the broiler so it would get toasty and delightful. It was at 400C/200F and for about 5 minutes. Watch it carefully.

When I took it out, it was indeed toasty and delightful.

I’d do this again because it was quick, easy and delicious and had lots of veggies in it for something that barely took 15 minutes to make. I hope you get to try it!
This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 23 2012
3 Comments
Snacks

Breakfast Parfait

Vegan doesn’t mean you have to skip parfait. We’ve found a yogurt recently that makes me dance around the kitchen. Amande is made from cultured almond milk and is completely vegan, gluten-free and delicious. It comes in strawberry, coconut, cherry, blueberry and peach. I can’t decide which is my favorite.

We combined it with Wyman’s frozen wild blueberries and Cascadian farms fruit and nut granola for a super easy tasty treat. I come from a family of blueberry addicts. I love blueberries and these are particularly flavorful. I eat them on my cereal almost every day.

It didn’t last long and had the most delightful textures. The frozen blueberries kept it cold and the crispy granola and smooth yogurt made the whole thing kinda decadent. What do you do for your quick easy snack or breakfast?

This is Christie, signing off!

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