Vegan MoFo DIY Pantry Round Up

Wow! This is the 18th post during the Vegan Month of Food! That's a whole lotta vegan food! There are two posts left, kind of a finale of sorts which I'm very excited about it. The only thing I'll say is one is very colorful and the other is a dessert that features Pumpkin, for Halloween, of course!

I am pretty proud of sticking to my theme of including a DIY pantry item with every recipe - even the Iron Chef and Chopped Challenges - so to give myself a little pat on the back and a visual display of each DIY item, I present this round up.

The month kicked off with some fakin' bacon, made of adzuki beans and buckwheat, which was featured in a BLT.

Next came my first dessert, Limoncello Macaroons with Lemon Icing. Both the limoncello and the preserved lemons were DIY, but since I hadn't written a post on the limoncello, the recipe is courtesy Local Lemons.

Spinach Pesto was my next DIY pantry item and it was served with Beet Ravioli, the first Iron Chef Challenge: Secret Ingredient - Beets!

Simple, easy to make, Herb Fermented Cashew Cheese. And the ingredient that makes it all ferment? Rejuvelac! The whole point of DIY pantry items is to make it cheaper and quicker at home.

Caramel Flan made with DIY Pantry Vanilla Extract. Wow, this was a show stopper: for it's simplicity, it's unbelievable texture, and it's amazing taste. Coming soon to my next dinner party for sure!

The buckwheat crust was the DIY ingredient in this Kale, Cashew Ricotta, and Olive Tart; kind of stretching the theme a bit, but the tart was so delicious, I decided it was worth it!

Next up was the Chopped Challenge of Butternut Squash, Apricot Preserves, Rosemary and Popcorn! My Sweet and Spicy Butternut Phyllo Rolls has some DIY Pantry Chipotle in Adobo, perfect combo with the apricot preserves and rosemary salt!

Back to the savory side of things and a Chick Pea Cutlets with Cashew Parmesan Sauce with DIY Pantry Tomato Sauce. Homey food inspired by Italian peasant cooking, this may have been my favorite dish of the month!

The final Iron Chef Challenge included potatoes of any sort and sesame. Since I already had plans for sweet potato latkes, it was simple to shift continents and make the dish an Asian inspired Sweet Potato Cakes with Cashew Sour Cream, which included sesame oil and other Thai flavors.

Quinoa is one of those trendy ingredients that I always seem to be at a loss for incorporating into my standard fare, until I hit upon this brilliant idea: stuff mushrooms with it! Add DIY Pantry Slow Roasted Tomatoes and they are a masterpiece!

Ahhh, Vegan Buttermilk Sausage Biscuits. Life is good! Although it was the first time making them, the sausages were the DIY Pantry item here, and many are frozen in my freezer because they were so good!

Buffalo Style inspired Kickin' Mock Chicken Pizza with DIY Pantry Hot Sauce that will warm your whole house when ole man winter blows through, this was so good that I wished there was some more waiting in the freezer! Luckily, there is more pizza dough and more hot sauce, so more pizza for everyone!


Whew! So much food, so many blogs I've discovered and so many new cookbooks purchased! Guess I'll just have to top it all next year! Happy vegan eating!

Hugs!

Kickin' Mock Chicken Pizza

 Ever since discovering the "Buffalo" combination, I have been a life long fan. As a cook at Jaggers' restaurant in Atlanta, GA, I used to fry up the wings and send them out hot and spicy.

Wings are best made in a deep fryer, so I rarely made them at home. But a few years ago I had a hankering for them and figured out a way to make a traditional version using the oven. Recently I veganized them. But my latest version involves pizza! Specifically, it was Dagwood's Kickn' Chickn' Pizza that inspired me; use hot sauce for the red sauce, sliced tempeh on top with cilantro and drizzles of ranch dressing. Fantastic!

This is the second copycat pizza I have made inspired by Dagwoods' Pizza, the first being BBQ Tempeh Chicken. But this was the first vegan pizza I made, using vegan cheese. I used a combination of the Daiya and Lisanatti brands of mozzarella, since I find the taste of the Lisanatti better although the Daiya melts better. I found it to be a good mix, but feel free to work with whatever you prefer.

Kickin' Mock Chicken Pizza

pizza dough for 12" pie
1/2 cup hot sauce (DIY Pantry)
4 oz tempeh
2 bay leaves
1 sprig thyme
4 fresh sage leaves
1 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups vegan mozzarella, shredded
small handful cilantro, chopped
2-3 tablespoons vegan ranch dressing (DIY Pantry)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Steam tempeh with bay leaves, thyme and sage leaves for 15 minutes. Drain water and discard herbs. Cool tempeh for 10 minutes then slice into six 1/2" pieces and if desired, quickly sear on high heat in olive oil to give them a crunchy edge.

On floured baking sheet, spread pizza dough out to desired size. Smear hot sauce around, leaving 1/2 inch border. If you sauce is really fiery, spread very thinnly; the hot temperature of the pizza will increase the heat of the hot sauce in your mouth! Sprinkle mozzarella over top, top with tempeh and bake for 13-16 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and cheese is bubbling. Remove from oven and sprinkle cilantro over top and drizzle with ranch dressing. Serve immediately.

Hugs!

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Dreamy Creamy Tofu Pickle and Pea Salad at K's Veg Recipes
Apple Cider Donuts at Leaves and Flours
Avocado Coconut Lime Tart at Just the Food

Hot Sauce - DIY Pantry

Some pantry items I go through like nobodies business: vinegar, olive oil, mustard. So it made so much sense to start making my own vinegars and mustards. Hot sauce just wasn't one of those until I discovered Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes which required hot sauce. Then I went through all of my hot sauce in a hot minute! When I realized how obsesses I was with those cakes hot sauce went on to my DIY pantry list in a hurry!  Luckily, we just finished a super hot growing season here in Southern California and the Farmers' Markets were awash in red jalapenos. Hot Damn!

It turns out that making your own hot sauce is pretty simple - saute onions, garlic, hot peppers in oil and then puree with water and vinegar and jar. For this batch I had 20 red jalapenos and another 10 green serranos which I added fearing the jalapenos might be too sweet (!) since they were red rather than green. Ha ha ha ha! I'm sure the hot chili gods had a good laugh over that one! None the less, this is a wonderfully hot, hot sauce!

You'll notice from the photo that it looks really thick, which was intentional since this sauce will soon be spread on a pizza crust for my next posting. After that recipe, I'll thin it out with a little more vinegar so that it shoots out of the jar instead of plopping. And in case you're wondering, the jar it is in was from some store bought hot sauce; couldn't resist reusing it!

Jalapeno Hot Sauce (from this recipe)
(makes 1 1/4 quarts)

20 red jalapenos, chopped
10 serranos, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup onion, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups water
1 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon salt

In large skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil for 2 minutes and add peppers. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until they just begin to soften. Add salt and water and stir, cooking another 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes. Place in blender and puree until very smooth, adding in cider vinegar. Jar and refrigerate. Refrigerated, sauce will keep for up to 6 months.

Hugs!

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Spaghetti with Broccoli Cream Pesto at Smitten Kitchen
Big Bird-Free Bahn Mi at Pamela's Modern Family Table
All Purpose Mushroom Marinade at My Plant Based Family

Vegan Buttermilk Sausage Biscuits

Biscuits with sausage were my secret guilty pleasure for the last years of my 15 year stint as a vegetarian. Specifically McDonald's Sausage Biscuits. Truly, a super secret guilty pleasure. I had them once a year on the way to the beach with my mom. I know, it sounds like a food horror story from my childhood, but I freely participated in this one.

Lately I've been totally addicted to making biscuits with cider vinegar and almond milk as my "buttermilk." I found the recipe at Holy Cow (a great blog, check it out if you are not familiar with it). I now know the recipe by heart! What's even better, is that it's easy to make only 2 or 3 and then there are no leftovers (old biscuits are N.G. no good!)

I toyed with the idea of using the Field Roast (bought with the coupon I won through Vegan MoFo) as the sausage for this sausage biscuit, but upon finding this sausage recipe from hell yeah it's vegan, I knew the DIYer in me would win out. (By the way, I bought the Wild Mushroom Field Roast, highly recommend it!)

Vegan Buttermilk Sausage Biscuits
(makes 6-8)

1 cup very cold almond milk
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour (the original calls for 1 cup all purpose and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons margarine, cut into small cubes, placed in the freezer for at least 20 minutes

In small container mix vinegar and almond milk and set aside to curdle for at least 5 minutes. In medium mixing bowl, combine flour(s), baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend well. Add well chilled margarine and cut into the flour, either using two knives or a strong fork, until the margarine is well blended and the flour resembles coarse cornmeal. Stir in the almond milk and form into a ball, and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator. Sprinkle a little flour on clean counter or cutting board and roll dough out to 1/2 inch thickness, and fold it in half. Roll one more time and fold in half. Cut out disks of dough using biscuit cutter or an upside down glass. Combine scraps from cut biscuits to create last ones and brush tops with olive oil. Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and serve with your favorite faux sausage.

Hugs!

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Jackfruit Carnitas and Yam Fries at Veggie Fixation
Seaweed and Ranch Dressing at Just the Food
Spicy Rapini Stuffed Girasoli at 4 Every Kitchen

Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms with Slow Roasted Tomatoes

One of the joys of blogging is spending countless hours surfing through your favorite blogs, reading their first posts, digging out lots of goodies that you missed and of course bookmarking tons of fun recipes. If you haven't spent some quality time tooling around Smitten Kitchen, put it on your calendar. Great recipes, hilarious writing and always inspiring. It was her version of stuffed mushrooms from 2006 that lit the fuse for my variation above.

Stuffed mushrooms are a classic fancy comfort food. The delicious umami savoryness of sauteed mushrooms with butter, breadcrumbs, cheese and parsley is a staple of many a decent cook's fancy repertoire. But I wanted to update them, creating a version that was vegan, gluten free, made with pantry items and of course, stunningly delicious!

After a recent score of 20 lbs of San Marzano roma tomatoes at the farmers market, I knew that I was going to slow roast at least half of them to create better than sun-dried tomatoy goodness. My friend Eve introduced me to the idea at her blog Garden of Eating and I've been hooked on them ever since.

The critical trick to making these stuffed mushrooms perfect is a quick bake of the empty caps to get them to release some of their juices so your filling isn't soggy. As the caps are baking, you prepare the filling, making this a quick and easy appetizer, side or part of a main meal depending on your mood. Add a salad and you've got the perfect lazy afternoon meal!

Thai Sweet Potato Cakes with Cashew Sour Cream

 Here it is October 20, which means only 11 days of Mofo left! Twelve posts done and another eight at the least (although it will probably be closer to 12) to go. Whew! What a ride!

And this weekend we got another Iron Chef Challenge:

Potatoes and Sesame

I almost said no way, I'm worn out! Gotta gear up for the big finale! But luckily, my next post was for sweet potato latkes, to go with the cashew sour cream. And for a myriad of reasons, the post kept getting postponed. Now I know why! So I could rejigger it for Iron Chef!

Diners, for your review, please allow me to present Thai Sweet Potato Cakes with Cashew Sour Cream. Decidedly Thai flavors of cilantro, toasted sesame oil and lime pair with sweet potatoes and fresh chilies. Top with cashew sour cream and a side of quick radish pickles, and your tastebuds will overcome your brain's confusion at finding a potato cake with Thai flavors!

Thai Sweet Potato Cakes with Cashew Sour Cream
(makes 12-20 cakes)

1 sweet potato
1 fist size red or white potato
4 jalapenos or other green chili, minced
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 cup loose packed cilantro, minced
1/2 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
1 teaspoon almond milk
1 teaspoon salt
oil for frying (sunflower, safflower, peanut)
cashew sour cream (DIY Pantry)
lime wedges

Combine flax seeds with enough water to make a thick but pourable paste and set aside to rest. Grate potatoes on large shredder holes into large mixing bowl. Add cilantro, chili, agave nectar, salt, and sesame oil and mix well. Combine thai red curry paste with almond mix and blend well. Add flax mixture and curry paste mix to vegetables and mix very well, using your hands if necessary.  Heat large skillet over medium low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add thin layer of oil and swirl to coat bottom of pan. Drop 1/4 cup of mixture into pan and flatten and cook on each side until nicely browned. Add oil as necessary and repeat until all of batter is fried. Remove to paper towel to blot off excess oil and serve with cashew sour cream and wedges of lime.

Hugs!

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Pumpkin Ice Cream with Candied Pepitas at Vegan Dad
Mandarin-Ginger Tofu at Tofu Mom
Cheesy Kale Chips at Earth Remedy