If it’s about texture you could try TVP granules instead of the pricey fake ground. I always make chili with beans and TVP. It’s dirt cheap
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I used to make it all the time for my kids, but I never used a recipe. Once you get an intuitive feel, it’ll be easy. Coconut milk (or coconut cream, if you want a dessert you can serve to guests!) is the usual mixer, but fruit juice works great too.
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Had a hankering for one of my old junk-food go-tos, the nacho, so I tried my hand at a vegan version. I always make them with just black beans or pinto beans cooked and spiced up, but also generally melt cheddar on top and add sour cream or plain yogurt on top, so tried substitutions.
Here’s before it went into the oven
It kept looking almost the same after several minutes so I looked up melting vegan cheese and learned the steaming trick. It worked. Here it is, topped with cashew sour cream and fixin’s
Good to learn the melting trick, but I didn’t care for the cheese flavor, Violife. I’ll try other brands if I see them, but more likely will alter my junk food craving to making a yummy bean dip or something. The cashew sour cream is decadent.
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And one more dish from the weekend…
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[eta] And a chickpea version…
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No mention of seitan yet?
We use the base recipe from Chicago Diner cookbook. Paired with a “corned beef” blend for Reubens, or chunked and doused in bbq sauce…droool…
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Ripple Half and Half is really good if you can find it (peas + science!)
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Have you an online version of this recipe you could point us to?
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Most other searches yield recipes for their rueben, which is solid.
Chuckled at the post title “Seitan is f***ing gross, how do I make it not?”
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Thank you very much! I’ve got a canister of vital wheat gluten just waiting to get busy. Hail seitan!
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This is a good source for vegan recipes, with useful explanations:
This is another site that can have good options, and I’m intrigued by their use of broiled eggplant as a base:
Edited to add, as I’ve hit the 2-replies-in-a-row limit…
I used to make these for my kids and they loved them. Obviously you can use the first part of the recipe to make the seitan and then alter the rest of you want something other than BBQ ‘ribs’ as your end result:
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I would call that legume paté, not tofu!
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Either way… looks pretty easy to do.
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I found a sea vegetable! Up in Anchor Bay Mendocino I first harvested these fronds at a very low tide.
Now they came to me!
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I’ve wanted to harvest those when I’ve been out at the coast. Sea beans, too!
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Whenever I make mujadarra I am endlessly impressed by a recipe that is simultaneously flavorful, satisfying, simple, and stupidly cheap. By my math, you can prepare 6-8 hearty servings of mujadarra for about $7:
- 1lb lentils, $1.50
- 1lb white rice $1.50
- 3lb onions, $3
- oil, salt, pepper, cumin, etc., $1 maybe
Of course, what you’re paying in is time. All told, what with the onion prep and caramelizing, you’re in for about 90 minutes of active cooking time and 2 hrs or so before dinner is ready. Also, you will smell like onions for a week. But it’s worth it!
(in re: onion prep, It’s one of the few dishes where the slicing and julienne blades on the food processor are really life-changing.)
Anyway, as usual for Levantine cuisine, my go-to recipe is from the Mediterranean Dish.
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Yes Sea beans when we had a house in Bolinas.
Good memories.
Thank you.
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Seriously, this is one of my absolute favorite dishes. I follow an almost identical recipe and can eat it for days and still want more!
I find the African spice blend Berbère really takes it to the stratosphere, but ymmv.
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Did someone mention Berbère?!
Here’s a beloved recipe in our family:
Ethiopian-Style Spinach & Lentil Soup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or more oil if making it vegan)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 heaping tablespoon Berbère spice mix
2 cup brown lentils (I use black, just because I like them better)
8 cups water (I use veg broth, just because I like it better)
2 teaspoons salt (less if you’ve used broth)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 ounces fresh spinach or baby spinach (about 4 packed cups)
4 tablespoons lemon juice
Preheat the pressure cooker (by pressing brown/sauté mode).
Add the butter, oil, onion, garlic, and berbère mix. Sauté three minutes. Add the lentils and water.
Close the lid and pressure-cook for 10 minutes at high pressure. When time is up, open the pressure cooker with natural release: Turn off the pressure cooker and wait for pressure to come down naturally, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the lid, tilting it away from you. Add the salt and pepper, and mix in the spinach leaves to wilt them into the soup.
Stir in the fresh lemon juice and serve.
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