Crockpot Seitan Roast w/ Carrots and Potatoes

This is loosely based off recipes from Robin Robertson and Ellen's Kitchen, though of course I can't do anything normal and have to screw around with it. I put this in my crock pot this morning, and I'm letting it cook for 6 hours on low. I'll report back with results.

UPDATE: The texture was a little soft for my liking, but the flavor was spot-on. I used about half a cup of black beans in this batch... I think I'll leave them out next time and perhaps replace them with chickpea flour. Also, I was in a hurry and probably didn't knead it long enough.

For the veggies:
1 pound baby carrots
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 pound potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup vegetable stock (I used liquid left over from slow-cooking beans)

Oil the inside of a crock pot. Mix the carrots, potatoes, garlic and onions together with the thyme, salt and pepper in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour the stock over the vegetables.

Seitan dry mix:
2 cups vital wheat gluten
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp each cumin, smoked paprika, dried sage, chipotle powder, vegetable broth powder, sea salt and black pepper
1 tsp fresh thyme

Mix together in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Seitan wet mix
1-1/2 cups water (I used bean cooking liquid)
3 Tbsp tahini
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp better than beef bouillon
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp olive oil

Blend until smooth. Add to the seitan dry mixture and knead for about 3-5 minutes, or until the dough springs back when you release it. You may need to add more wheat gluten, depending on various factors. Your final dough should be a little moist, but not sticky. (I always make sure to take the mixture into the other room while I'm kneading it and moan "BRAAAIIINS. BRAAAAIIIIINS!") Shape into a loaf, rub with a little extra olive oil and lay on top of the vegetables in the crock pot. If you like, you can pour another half cup of stock over the roast.

Put the lid on the crock pot and cook for 6 hours on low.

Mustardy Roasted Green Beans & Potatoes

Easy, tasty and made almost entirely from in-season veggies at the Des Moines farmer's market. Green beans and mushrooms are both sources of protein, so I've been eating this as a main dish for days now.

1 pound green beans, trimmed and halved
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into thin half-moons
4-5 baby onions, quartered
4 oz. oyster mushrooms, torn into bite-sized pieces
3 Tbsp whole grain or dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the green beans, potato slices, onions & mushrooms in a 9x13 baking dish. Whisk the mustard, olive oil and soy sauce together until smooth. Pour over the vegetables and toss to coat. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Potato & Pinto Bean Tacos w/ Blueberry-Nectarine Salad

Thanks to my helpful neighbor Howard's tortilla press, I was able to make my own tortillas for this recipe. I'm not crazy about corn tortillas unless they're homemade or toasted. I made just about everything in this meal from scratch, but of course you could use canned beans, hash browns, jarred salsa and pre-made tortillas to save time.



Taco Filling:
2 tsp olive oil
3 green onions, minced
2 cups diced potatoes
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 can diced tomatoes with chilis
3 cups pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the potatoes and onions and cook for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are starting to get tender. Add everything else, lower heat to a simmer and cover. Cook until the potatoes are practically falling apart.

Fresh Salsa:
2-3 cups diced tomatoes
a handful of cilantro
1 tsp lime juice
a generous sprinkling of sea salt

Combine. Let sit at room temperature while everything else cooks.

Homemade Tortillas:
2 cups masa harina
1-1/3 cups warm water (I used a little of the bean cooking liquid)

Mix the masa with the water to form dough. Divide into 12 equal parts and roll each part into a ball with wet hands. Preheat a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Line the tortilla press with a Ziploc bag with the sides cut out. Squish the dough ball into a disk and place between the Ziploc flaps, then press. Peel the pressed tortilla gently off the Ziploc. Cook for 30 seconds to a minute on each side. Cover the cooked tortillas until ready to eat. Repeat with all the remaining dough balls, dusting the Ziploc with masa in between pressings.

To assemble the tacos:
Tortilla + potato/bean mixture + salsa + diced avocado



Blueberry-Nectarine Salad
Chop up nectarines. Mix them with blueberries. Serve. :P

Ingredient Notes: I found my masa harina in the baking aisle at the Franklin Dahl's. Pressing the tortillas is a pretty tricky art. I find they're harder to get off the Ziploc if you press them too thinly. (I've also tried wax paper and plastic wrap, and nothing works quite as well as the Ziploc.) If you don't have a tortilla press, you can always put the dough in the Ziploc, put it on the floor, put a skillet (or book) on top of that, and stand on it.

Cheezy Vegan Hash Brown Casserole

1 batch Hurry Up Vegan Alfredo Sauce
1 tsp curry powder
1/3 cup hummus
12 oz. frozen hash browns
1 cup frozen peas (or shelled edamame)
1 cup french fried onions

Blend up the ingredients for the alfredo sauce for 1-2 minutes, or until very smooth, adding the curry powder and hummus at the end. Mix the sauce with the hash browns and peas in a well-oiled casserole dish. Top with french fried onions and bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Roasted Potatoes & Sausage

Couldn't be easier. Just chop, toss, bake and eat.

4-6 cups various potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks or smaller
2 Tofurkey Italian Sausages, chopped (or homemade pinto bean sausages)
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
hefty sprinkle of salt & pepper
3 Tbsp margarine
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp stone-ground mustard

Combine everything in a covered oven-safe dish (I used my cast-iron Dutch oven) or a foil packet. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes and serve.

Tamarind Tofu-Potato-Onion Roast

This is one of those perfect make-ahead meals... assemble the night before, let marinate in the fridge, and bake the next day.

1/2 block extra-firm tofu or tempeh, cubed
3-4 potatoes, diced
1/2 largish onion, cut into crescents
1/2 tsp each salt and fresh ground pepper
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp each paprika & garam masala (or curry powder)
1 tsp saffron (optional)
1/4 cup Pickapeppa sauce (or other tamarind-based sauce)

Combine all ingredients in a casserole dish. Let marinate for 30 minutes or up to overnight (in the fridge). Bake, covered, at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Note: You could easily change up the sauce/spices here for a different effect. I've used barbecue sauce to good effect.

Baked Mushrooms, Potatoes and Tempeh in Gravy

This is based on a recipe in Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast, but it eliminates the standing over the stove part.

2 cups baby portobella mushrooms, quartered
2 pounds small potatoes, halved
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 8 oz. package tempeh, cut into small dice
2 Tbsp arrowroot powder OR flour
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 cup water

Toss the tempeh with the arrowroot, garlic powder and yeast. Mix the mushrooms, potatoes, onion and garlic in a baking dish. Add the olive oil, soy sauce and water. Add the tempeh mixture and mix well to combine. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Rich Potato-Kale Coconut Curry

1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
8 oz. frozen kale OR spinach
2-3 cups tiny potatoes (or larger potatoes cut into chunks)
1 can braised wheat gluten, rinsed and drained
1 5 oz. can Singapore curry gravy
1/3 package Shan Korma Chicken seasoning (note: contains no actual chicken)
1 14 oz. coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 can butternut squash puree
1 tsp tamarind paste
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup plain soy yogurt

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute onions until they are starting to get translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more. Dump that into a crock pot. Add everything else. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Ingredient notes: I picked up my curry seasoning at Double Dragon and Namaste, respectively. This was a little too spicy for me (and I have a higher tolerance than your average Iowan). I ended up dumping roughly 6 oz. of pureed silken tofu into the mix to make it palatable. So you can certainly feel free to use any (milder or hotter) curry seasoning that you desire.

Bacon-y Potato-Swiss Chard Quiche

This recipe is from have cake, will travel. I adapted it to what I had on hand, and goddamn, was it tasty. It didn't set up very well, but I had proprotionately less tofu than veggies and probably didn't press out as much cooking liquid as I could have.

Crust:
1 cup spelt flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp margarine (cold)
1/4 cup water (cold)

Filling:
1 tsp olive oil
1 largish potato, cut into thin half-moons
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1 bunch swiss chard, well rinsed and torn
3 garlic cloves, minced
6-10 tempeh bacon slices

Sauce:
1 package extra-firm silken tofu
4 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 chipotle in adobo
3 Tbsp miso
2 cloves garlic
1/3 c plain soy or rice milk

Prepare the crust. Whisk together the flour, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Use your hands to squish in the margine bits until crumbly. Add the water a little bit at a time, until the dough forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate/freeze for 10-20 minutes, to chill the dough.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Chop the potato, onion and garlic and rinse/tear the swiss chard. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, then add the potato and onion and 1/4 tsp salt and saute for a few minutes. Add the water, cover, and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, put the swiss chard in a large pot with an inch or so of water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, or until the swiss chard is all wilty. Drain the potatoes, onions and swiss chard in a colander (you may need to press out extra liquid).

Rinse/dry your skillet and return it to medium heat. Add the tempeh bacon slices and cook for 5 minutes, or until crispy. Chop/crumble into little bits.

Dump all the sauce ingredients in a large jar and blend until smooth.

Spray a pie dish with olive oil. Remove the dough from the fridge/freezer and roll it out between two sheets of wax paper until thin. Peel off the top sheet of wax paper and flip the dough circle into the pie plate. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.

Mix the potatoes, onions, garlic, swiss chard and bacon with the sauce. Ladle the mixture into the prebaked crust and return to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then serve!

Potato-Butternut Curry w/ Edamame

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
a few pinches saffron
4-5 potatoes of various sorts, diced
1/2 cup water
1 cup frozen peas or edamame
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp salt

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add mustard seeds, stir, and cover so that the popping mustard seeds don't escape. Let pop for 30 seconds or so, then add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes, or until starting to turn translucent. Add garlic, curry, garam masala and saffron and cook for another minute or so. Add the potatoes, and if uncooked, the squash. Add the water, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Once the potatoes are tender, add the peas and, if cooked, the squash. Add salt to taste and cook, uncovered, until all the water has evaporated. Serve with rice, dosas or flatbread and tamarind sauce.

Food/exercise log - April 19th

Breakfast:
- oatmeal with walnuts, flax seeds, raisins and soy milk
- orange juice w/ calcium

Lunch:
- red beans
- Creole okra, tomatoes & corn
- toasted pita bread
- pear

Snacks:
- green tea (4 cups)
- banana
- fruit leather

Dinner:
- sweet potato black bean hash
- baked plantains

Exercise: 30 minutes yoga (Urban Living AM), 40 minutes yoga (Power Yoga - Intermediate Strength & Balancing)

Veggie Pot Pie w/ Potato Scone Topping

1 small head broccoli, chopped into florets
1 small sweet potato, cut into chunks
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup each frozen peas and corn
pepper
2 batches of Cashew Gravy, made with a little curry powder
1 batch Potato Scone dough

Chop the broccoli and sweet potato. Steam the broccoli on the stove for 5-10 minutes, or until tender. Meanwhile, place the sweet potato and a little water in a microwaveable dish and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until tender. Drain and mix with the garlic, peas and corn in a pie dish. Season with pepper.

Make the cashew gravy according to directions and pour over the vegetables. Put together the potato scone dough and flatten it into a circle roughly the size of the pie plate. Lay the potato topping on top of the pie and spray with baking spray (or brush with olive oil).

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the topping is cooked through.

Portobello Steaks w/ Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Portobello Steaks

Boy, do I love me those packs of 4 portobello mushroom caps that our local CostCo carries. If you love mushrooms even the slightest bit, this recipe is a no-brainer.

2 portobello mushrooms caps, stems trimmed
2 Tbsp steak sauce (as noted below, I prefer Pickapeppa sauce)
salt & pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 drizzle dark sesame oil
1-2 drops each liquid smoke & chipotle Tobasco
1-2 Tbsp black sesame seeds

Redhydrate the sun-dried tomatoes by setting them in a covered bowl of boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, mince the garlic and let it sit in a mixture of the olive and sesame oils plus the liquid smoke and Tobasco while you prepare everything else.

Clean and trim the mushroom caps. Lay the mushroom caps in the bottom of a baking dish. Brush each cap with the steak sauce, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the oil/garlic mixture over them. Sprinkle each cap with black sesame seeds.

Cover with foil and bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the mushrooms are cooked all the way through. Serve over...

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

4-5 Yukon Gold potatoes, washed and cut into bite-size chunks
water to cover
1 veg bouillon cube
1/3 cup plain soy creamer, or as needed
3 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp garlic powder
a hefty sprinkle nutritional yeast (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes, water and bouillon for 20 minutes, or until very soft. Drain and mash with the remaining ingredients until seasoned to taste. Finish the pureeing job with a hand blender, if desired.

Potato Scones

1 cup cold mashed potato
2 Tbsp melted Earth Balance margarine
2/3 cup plain soy creamer
1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 Tbsp salt (use less if your potatoes are seasoned)
3/4 Tbsp baking powder
canola oil spray

Grease a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the mashed potatoes, margarine & soy creamer. Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, 1/2 cup at a time, just until the mixture forms a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface. Knead lightly, then roll into 2 balls. One at a time, flatten the balls and cut into 8 pieces. Place the scones on the the baking sheet, spray with canola oil, and cook for 15 minutes, or until browned.

Irish Stout Stew

Another month, another office potluck. :) This week was St. Paddy's-themed, and with it came a whole slew of potato-based recipes. We had this stew with potato scones the night before, and there were scant leftovers to take to work the next day.

1/2 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, thickly sliced
1 tsp celery flakes
1 pinch sage
2-3 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into chunks
1 can braised wheat gluten, drained
2 tsp Pickapeppa sauce or A-1 sauce
1 bottle stout beer
2 cups veggie broth
1/3 cup Imagine creamy tomato soup (optional)
3 bay leaves
1 tsp white miso
1 handful fresh parsley

Heat the olive oil and add the garlic, carrots, celery flakes and sage. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat, then add the potatoes, gluten, Pickapeppa sauce, stout, broth, bay leaves and creamy tomato soup. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Add the miso and parsley, stir to dissolve, and serve.

Ingredient Notes: Guinness is not actually vegetarian, since it's filtered through a substance derived from fish bladders. All Samuel Smith brand beers are a safe bet (we used their oatmeal cream stout); you can also use Sam Adams cream stout.