Tag Archives: vegan

Aug 22 2012
3 Comments
Reviews

Did someone say hot dogs?

I grew up eating processed meats. I would happily eat hot dogs or bologna for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Gross, I know, but my Mom was a food chemist at a meat company and bringing home the product was a benefit of the job. She also analyzed vegan hot dogs and sausages, but would never bring that weird stuff home. She recently mentioned how annoying it was to test vegan “meats” because there was no cholesterol. I could sort of explain why, but she’s the chemist and my layperson translation doesn’t quite make sense to even me right now.

I have been really hesitant to try vegan hot dogs. I’m sure part of it is the annoyance that my mother displayed whenever she had to analyze them. Other than that, I guess I’ve been worried that they won’t taste like the real thing. I decided to take a chance when I saw Field Roast frankfurters at the store.

I’ll admit that I was attracted to Field Roast based solely on the packaging. The hot dogs are individually cased so you get a link of sausages; none of this smushing 8 or 10 links into one space. They also have a variety of interesting flavors like Mexican Chipotle and Smoked Apple Sage. The Frankfurter style look like hot dogs, they smell like hot dogs, they’re easy to cook, and they taste like hot dogs… mostly. They’re spiced really well with a good smoky flavor but a bit too salty for my taste. I wouldn’t say that they taste vegan so much as that they taste like a fancier brand of hot dog (a classy hot dog, if there is such a thing). They have a very solid texture, not chewy or grainy or crumbly.They go really well with ketchup. I tried them with mustard as well, but I found that the saltiness didn’t mix well with the mustard.They are not gluten-free, but they are soy-free.

You can prepare the sausages by boiling or grilling or browning: I opted to brown them since the instructions for boiling called for them to remain in their casing and I wasn’t comfortable boiling the product in its plasticky casing.

Hey, check these guys out! I cut up a handful of these tomatoes from the garden and mixed them with some onion to go with my hot dogs.

The verdict: these frankfurters are good. Not quite wicked good, but good. They’re definitely a great substitute if you find yourself craving a hot dog. I do want to try the other products that Field Roast has to offer, but I came to a conclusion after this meal: I don’t miss hot dogs!

Stay tuned… I have a whole package of this stuff and I am planning to use the rest of it to recreate a couple of my favorite hot dog dishes! –Melissa

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Aug 21 2012
5 Comments
Lazy Vegan

Bacon, Peas and Mac & Cheese!

Bacon in macaroni and cheese is something that would never have happened in my house growing up… now that I think about it, mac and cheese wasn’t something that happened in my house growing up… so this was a treat. All we did was grab a bag of Leahey Gardens gluten-free Mac and Cheese (a personal favorite because it’s easy, delicious and low calorie) and prepare the pasta as instructed.

Once that was done we mixed in a diced tomato to keep the pasta from sticking. Meanwhile I started the sauce with some unsweetened plain almond milk, a generous sprinkle of cayenne, a dash of flake red pepper and a cup of frozen peas.

Brent browned some tempeh bacon to perfection!

The peas and mac looked perfectly appetizing to me but we had to take it one step further and add bacon.

I did find it to be a remarkably pleasant adddition: the smoke of the bacon with the salty cheesy sauce and sweet peas was exactly the kind of comfort food we needed that particular evening. Enjoy!

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Aug 20 2012
3 Comments
Main Dishes

Kafta? Kefta? Kofta? All that matters is that it’s vegan!

You may recall that I went to Pita Inn for lunch on my birthday and, while I loved the falafel that I had, I couldn’t help but be a tiny bit envious of my friends and the delicious smelling meat dishes they were eating. So, I made vegan kefta kabob.

Traditional kefta kabob is usually ground beef seasoned with parsley and onion. I substituted with Gimme Lean Ground Beef, and I plan to try it out with seitan and tempeh in the future. The recipe below makes about 2 servings.

Vegan Kefta Kabob

1/2 lb ground “meat”
1/4 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, roasted and chopped.
1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
1/4 tsp cumin
pinch of coriander
Sea salt
olive oil (if frying)

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl and mashed them together. Then I put the mixture in the fridge to sit for about an hour.

I formed the “meat” into small patties. Kefta kabobs are usually put on a skewer and grilled. I thought about putting these in the oven, but opted to fry them since the “meat” is very lean.

I fried them in olive oil for about 3-4 minutes on each side.

I served the kefta with some roasted tomato and onion and dill rice.

The recipe is good enough as is, though I plan to use more garlic and add fresh ground pepper to the mix. I also need to try and replicate the awesome hot sauce from Pita Inn!

I love veganizing my favorites! –Melissa

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Aug 19 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Southwest Soy-curl Salad

I needed a break from cooking so I decided to make something easy. I assembled the following:
1 tomato, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 Hass avocados or 1 green avocado
1 cup of soy curls
1/4 cup salsa verde or fajita seasoning and juice from 1 lime
flake red pepper and salt to taste

I reconstituted the soy curls according to the package directions and sauteed them lightly in olive oil with salsa verde. When they were lightly browned I set them aside to cool.

Brent diced the avocado while I chopped the tomato and onion with a device Brent got for me after I cut off the end of my finger last spring. I recommend it; it’s easy to clean and makes dicing onions and other spicy, fragrant or acidic foods virtually painless.

We mixed it all up in a big bowl.

Chopped cilantro and minced garlic might have improved this but it was excellent on bread with some spinach. It was exactly what we needed: creamy, lightly acid, buttery, spicy, and hearty.

We hope you get to try it!

This is Christie and Brent, signing off!

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Aug 18 2012
2 Comments
Cooking

Long Beans and Heirloom Tomatoes

Yay! Tomatoes are finally popping up in the garden. We have a nice crop of beautifully colored heirloom tomatoes.

I decided to throw some of these babies in with sauteed long beans.

First, I sauteed about a cup of long beans in olive oil with 2 cloves of minced garlic. Long beans are not meant to be eaten raw, so if you have them, make sure you cook them. They maintain their crunch even if they wilt, if that makes any sense.

I cut up one of the tomatoes. Unlike the other tomatoes that we grow in the garden, these are much more meaty, less juicy, but still sweet and tasty. I love that the tomatoes we grow in our backyard require little to no embellishment to be tasty. You can eat them like apples!

I boiled some penne, coated it in olive oil, and threw in freshly minced garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and nutritional yeast. I topped it off with the cooked beans and the raw tomatoes.

Easy, delicious, nutritious. The only thing missing is a glass of fine wine! –Melissa

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Aug 14 2012
5 Comments
Thoughts

Vegan Lifestyle: Shoes

We here at Turning Veganese could write many posts about shoes, handbags, and other accessories, and how turning vegan has changed how we shop. This post is about one particular brand of shoe: TOMS.

TOMS are pretty popular these days, but they first ended up on my radar when I was searching for vegan boots. They make a pretty damn cool vegan boot:

 

It was disappointed to then learn that their classic slip-on shoes are not vegan, though they do have some vegan styles. This is so exciting to me. I have two pairs of TOMS, one classic and one ballet flat, and I was finally able to get a pair of the vegan chambray slip-ons. They were on backorder for a long time!

 

While I wish TOMS was exclusively vegan, I have to appreciate that they make vegan products at all and are proud to do so. There are a lot non-vegan products that I’m having a hard time letting go of. It’s wonderful to know that I can still enjoy my comfy TOMS without compromising my vegan integrity.

Visit TOMS by clicking here.

Do you like TOMS shoes? What popular brands have vegan products? Let us know! –Melissa

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Aug 13 2012
4 Comments
Raw

Raw Vegan Crackers 2.0

Brent and I manage to juice more often and that’s fine with me. I’m writing this because our cracker recipe has gotten more complicated and more delicious! Our juice varies but usually involves some combination of spinach, kale, parsley, mint, basil, apples, oranges, lemon, ginger root, carrots, celery, mango, beets and cucumber. When we don’t have time to make crackers, we just throw the pulp into a baggie and freeze it.

The ratios don’t matter much, but you’ll find the stronger flavors will come out (celery in particular) in the crackers and will complement the spices well. If you’re not using any sweet fruits or vegetables, you might consider adding a little molasses. Typically we juice everything that we can make into crackers (which is just about everything except for cucumber) and then empty the pulp into our blender. If you’ve made enough juice for one person you’ll add the following (and this doubles nicely)
1/3 cup of flax meal
2-4 teaspoons of soy sauce or suitable substitute
2-3 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp flake red pepper
water as needed
We blend this up until the consistency is uniform and somewhere between a batter and a dough. Taste it and adjust the seasonings. It took me a while to get used to the idea of eating this raw or dehydrated so I understand if you’re wary. We use a spatula to spread it into the non-stick trays that go with our dehydrator and let it go overnight.

Sometimes I sprinkle sesame seeds on top but this isn’t necessary. You’ll have to put some pressure on each seed to make sure they don’t fall off once the crackers are dry. It’ll take some time adjusting the thickness of the dough when you spread it out in your dehydrator but you’ll end up with light crispy crackers that are great for you and awesome with hummus, bean dip or spinach artichoke dip. We store them in a giant plastic bag to keep the Miami humidity from softening them.

This is Brent and Christie, signing off!

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Aug 11 2012
3 Comments
Thoughts

Simply Vegan

I reached another milestone yesterday: I had another birthday! It was my first birthday as a vegan. I don’t know about you, but for birthdays and other holidays, I like to enjoy a decadent meal, guilt-free. This year, I knew exactly what I wanted: a Tofurky cheese pizza and a Chicago Diner cake (which you can find at Chicago-area Whole Foods in addition to the diner itself). Props to my family for getting me exactly what I wanted! My nieces even loved the cake:

She’s a goofy one! That was dinner. Lunch was pretty darn good, too. My sister treated me to falafel from Pita Inn which is the falafel that I measure all other falafel against. In other words, it’s the best.

It was such a breeze to know exactly what I wanted to eat for my birthday. Previous years have been almost annoying… do I want Chinese food? Pizza? If pizza, deep dish or thin crust? Steak? Fried chicken? Gyros? Basically, what awful and unhealthy food should I get? I love that that wasn’t an issue this year.

In other news, I think I have finally settled on the perfect vegan Filipino breakfast:

Super garlicky rice with tempeh strips and tomato salad. I have finally embraced the wondrous tempeh strip. I credit Brent and Christie for that. This breakfast is so easy, super yummy, and hearty! And it MUST be eaten Filipino-style, with a spoon containing a little bit of everything on the plate:

Now please excuse me while I have another slice of that delicious birthday cake! –Melissa

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Aug 10 2012
2 Comments
Cooking, Main Dishes, Recipes

Daal Biryani

Bryani is a dish that’s a regional specialty in one of my co-workers’ home town, Hyderabad, India. She gave me her recipe which calls for lamb and asked me to know how the vegan version pans out. I told her I planned to use lentils and she corrected me, “daal” so that’s what I’m calling it. We used the following:

1 cup of lentils or black-eyed peas, soaked and drained
1 cup split lentils, washed and drained
2-3 chili peppers (we’re using 2 jalapeños)
1 big toe sized piece of ginger, sliced
1 thumb sized piece of turmeric, sliced

some curry leaves if you’ve got them
2-3 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 carton of silken tofu
juice from 1 lemon

2 medium onions, sliced into strips
4 smallish tomatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces
4 medium white mushrooms, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 pinch of cumin seeds
3 bay leaves

corn oil

1 cup of basmati rice

Put a tablespoon or so of corn oil into a large pan and add the cumin seeds. Heat it until they start to sputter, then add the onion, peppers, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, coriander, cumin, tofu and lemon juice into a large pot, add a little corn oil and stir fry. Add about 1.5 liters of water and use a hand blender to mix everything into a smooth creamy broth.

Chop your veggies while that heats to a simmer.

Now mix in the veggies, legumes and rice.

We added eggplant in addition to mushrooms. They’ll float to the top, this isn’t a problem; it means you won’t need a lid.. Cook until all the water is absorbed and the rice and legumes are tender. This will take about 1 hour give or take 15 minutes on low heat. You can also bake it at 350F/180C in your favorite baking dish for about an hour.

This is a great meal for hungry people who like curry. I don’t know how it measures up to the carnist version, but we managed to eat all of it within 2 days and considering it was almost too big for the pot I was using, this is really saying something. Brent wanted to add some chopped green peppers to the mix immediately before serving next time for a sweet crisp crunch and I agree that would add something. If you try it, let me know. Enjoy!

This is Christie, signing off!

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Aug 09 2012
6 Comments
Main Dishes

Creamy Mushroom Soup!

This was comfort food. It’s raining sideways again here in Miami and you just gotta have something decadent. We used the following:

1.5 cups mushrooms, chopped roughly

1 carton of silken tofu

1 onion, diced

1/2 cup of white wine (we used a chardonnay)

1 tsp herbes de provence

1 pinch nutmeg

1 cube bouillon

1 generous pinch sage

2 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

water to texture

salt and black pepper to taste

I combined the white wine and tofu in my blender and blended it until smooth. Then I put the onion and mushrooms in a pan and sauteed until the onion was translucent. I added the rest of the ingredients, adjusted the seasonings and then added water until I liked the texture.

I garnished with some shredded basil and served it. It was creamy and earthy and savory and soothing and with lots of protein and not a lot of fat. This would be awesome hot with a big tomato salad or as a cold appetizer. It’s also quick and easy enough to make for a quick lunch.

This is Christie, signing off!

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