Tag Archives: appetizer

TTLA Sandwich

4 May

Summer has suddenly descended on the Midwest, which means I basically want to spend zero time in the kitchen with the oven on. My Instant Pot has become my best friend for any cooking I would normally do on my stove top and while I’m still a salad-hating vegan, I’m rediscovering an old fondness for sandwiches.

Conveniently, Lightlife Foods offered me the opportunity to try their tempeh bacon on the newly popular tempeh, tomato, lettuce and avocado sandwich. If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you might have noticed we spent the weekend in Indianapolis, where we stopped at Whole Foods for several meals, and some Fakin Bacon Tempeh Strips.

See my spin on the classic #TTLA recipe below! Continue reading

Vegan Calamari

18 Jan

A few months ago I made the Vegan Oxtail recipe by Korenn’s Vegan World of Food and was very impressed by the texture of the oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms are kind of an old card in the vegan world, they work excellent as scallops or pulled barbecue on sandwiches. I thought it would be fun to use their shreddy texture for vegan calamari, and I was not disappointed. The mushrooms take a little oceany flavor on during a bit of marinating time, and get battered in a simple flour mixture. Feel free to use a more advanced batter recipe if you prefer. You can usually find large oyster mushrooms at bigger grocers and international markets. If you can’t find large ones, smaller ones will work just as well, but the calamari rings will be smaller. 

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Vegan Pizza Rolls

4 Mar Vegan Pizza Rolls

I am a 90’s kid and there’s no reason for me to deny it. I spent many an afternoon in front of a TV watching cartoons with a box of Totino’s pizza rolls. I’m sure most other 90’s kids remember watching shows like Hey Arnold and Rugrats after school, although maybe the pizza rolls were a particular remnant of my own childhood.

Vegan Pizza Rolls

I always have fun recreating foods like this and pizza rolls have been on my to-do list for years. I very specifically remember the thin and crispy, oily crust, so I knew a pizza crust wasn’t going to work here. I made a basic pasta dough, but used a bit of vital wheat gluten to firm it up. Alternatively, you could just use bread flour, but it’s not something I usually have on hand.

I didn’t get any pictures of the rolling and filling process, but it’s the same as making ravioli. YouTube is a great help for beginners if you’ve never made ravioli before, but it’s pretty simple. Dough, filling, and dough, and just seal around the edges.

I fried these, but they could possibly be baked on a parchment lined pan. The crispy crust effect won’t be the same so as long as you’re not eating them daily, I recommend a shallow fry. This recipe makes about 12, but you can easily double it and keep the rest refrigerated after cooking until you’re ready to eat them.

 

Be sure to check out the Vegan Meringue Group on Facebook for more aquafaba recipes and a thorough FAQ.

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Pizza Hummus

4 Sep

If you’ve read any other recipes on this site, you’ll surely notice that I’ve mentioned my favorite foods are pizza and sushi.

A few weeks ago, someone shared a recipe for pizza hummus from Chocolate Covered Katie and I knew my next batch was going to have to be pizza flavored. Since the prompt for yesterday’s VeganMoFo was “quick, easy, and delicious” this recipe seemed like a great choice.

We’ve gone through a lot of chickpeas making aquafaba, but when I make hummus, I make a LOT of hummus. We eat all but a small portion, and then we don’t want hummus again for weeks. I like to use my chickpeas as protein in other recipes like this curry, this chipotle chickpea salad, and fried rice.

I haven’t had a beer recommendation in a while, but despite the hot weather, we’re already in pumpkin beer mode here. I’m currently drinking this Pumpkin Smasher from a local brewery in Illinois.

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(I borrowed this picture from their website.) I usually stick to the Pumpkin Ale from Schlafly brewery but this is a nice alternative. Speaking of Schlafly, I spent 2 hours on my birthday weekend touring the facilities with the owner. It was quite the birthday present and we got to try plenty of samples, straight from the tap.

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But back to hummus…I’ve found the key to silky smooth hummus is removing the skins. This takes forever, but is totally worth the effort and becomes kind of relaxing after a while. I suggest washing your hands thoroughly beforehand, as you don’t want any icky germs in your hummus.

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