So, it's been a little over a week since I purchased the Vegan with a Vengeance cook book to kick start myself towards living a more vegan lifestyle. My first step was to read the cookbook and make a list of main ingredients that I would need on hand. I made a trip to my favorite local health food store Ellwood Thompsons:
http://www.ellwoodthompsons.comI love that Elwoods soooo much! I wish I could afford to do all of my shopping there but I can't so I just load up on stuff I can't get at the regular grocery store. I am now stocked with TVP, Nutritional Yeast, Braggs Amino Liquid, Vital Wheat Gluten (for making seitan), coriander seeds, cardamom pods, turmeric, raw walnuts, carob chips (I am very allergic to chocolate), and a few more staples.
Here are my first three trial recipes from Vegan with a Vengeance:
Potato Edamame Samosas with Coconut Mint Chutney:I had never made samosas before. They are fun and super easy to make... once you get the samosa pocket technique down that is! Here's a link to a video I watched for some help with that:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-samosa-115649/3 cups flour
3/4 cups soy milk
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon tumeric
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon or more of saltYou can pretty much make the stuffing out of whatever you want. I baked mine in the oven and they were totally delicious. You just have to make sure you brush them with vegetable oil and that your cookie pan is coated. You should flip them about half way through baking them too. They take about 20 mins to cook. You could make a ton and freeze them. I made two batches, one with a potato stuffing, and the other with a green pea and mushroom stuffing. Both awesome.
Tofu Scramble: I like to call this dish SCRAM. It's more fun. I loved this meal. It is supposed to be kind of like spicy scrambled eggs and mushrooms but thankfully it tastes nothing like scrambled eggs. Eggs are my least favorite food on earth no matter what way you fix 'em. I've tried them again and again over the years just to see if my tastes may have changed but I just can't do it. The smell is too much like a fart for me to put it in my mouth, and the texture of the whites... YICK! I could go on and on about my hatred of eggs. I'm sure there are many of you reading this that could go on and on even longer about your love affair with them. Anywho, so this dish does not taste or smell like eggs and I love it. It's quick and easy to make. I served it over a bed of fresh uncooked spinach leaves and coconut jasmine rice. I topped it with a swirl of pineapple chili sauce and diced cilantro leaves.
I can't wait to make it again!
Seitan Portobello Stroganoff:This dish is for cold days when you want some hearty comfort food. I liked it a lot. I wouldn't make this weekly because it's so filling and heavy but I can see myself craving it's big burgundy flavor and wide noodles during a snow storm or on a cold fall night. I made my own seitan instead of store bought which was a good lesson since I'll be using seitan in tons of vegan recipes. I'd eaten seitan (say-tahn) before but didn't know what the heck it was. It's just a dough made from vital wheat gluten. You can flavor it however you want. It's great for adding girth and texture. Here's a link to the video I watched before making it. I didn't follow all these instructions. I didn't use a food processor for the dough I just worked it by hand. I also added extra flavorings to the stock I boiled it in but this is still a good video to show you how easy it is to make:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=40673776You can freeze any left over seitan you have for your next dish.
That's all for this week. It's been an easy and adventurous start. I like researching ingredients and putting it all together in the kitchen. I hope you will too.
