Vegan MOFO - Day 15 - Chicken Cacciatore

I had a couple of suggestions for this conversion. My friends Julia and Jerry both requested this one. Neither of them had a specific recipe, but gave me some basic ingredients. I also remember my mom making this. I didn't like it much as a kid, but as my palate matured, I came to appreciate it more.

There are as many version of this as their are Italian men hitting on unsuspecting women in lounges all over the world. I took what my friends mentioned, what I remember my mom's version being, and ideas from the internet for inspiration. The result was stick to your ribs yummy.

Seitan Chicken Cacciatore

6 Servings with pasta

12 oz chicken style seitan chunks
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil divided
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
8 oz white mushrooms thickly sliced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh black pepper or to taste
1 - 6 oz can tomato paste
1 - 28 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes

In saute pan brown onions in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once browned, remove from pan. In same pan add two tablespoons of olive oil to pan over medium low heat. Dredge seitan chunks in flour and add to pan. Saute until browned, turning once. Turn off heat. In large pot heat remaining olive oil. Add minced garlic and saute about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add green peppers, mushrooms, herbs, salt, and pepper. Saute until peppers are slightly soft and mushrooms have released their juices. You may need to add a bit more liquid if vegetables start to stick (use veg broth or a bit of the wine). Once the liquid starts to reduce, deglaze with wine. Saute for 2 minutes and stir in tomato paste until combined. Add diced tomatoes and onions. Saute for 20 or 30 minutes. Add seitan and saute for 10 more minutes.

Serve over warm cooked pasta of your choice. If you like, you can sprinkle with vegan parmesan and crushed red peppers.

Vegan MOFO - Day 9 - Durty Rice Cakes

I'm doing tomorrow's post a little early. I am going to be on the road and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get online. I also didn't want to forget how I made these. The flavor is really good. I still want to tweak the cooking method a bit to get the perfect texture, but they are pretty good as written. Give them a try and let me know how they came out.

I made these to go with the stuffed okra. They still need a little tweaking to make them perfect, but they were damned tasty.

Durty Rice Cakes

Makes 10 cakes

1 cup uncooked short grain brown rice
2 cups filtered water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 green pepper, diced fine
1/2 medium onion, diced fine
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons catsup
2 teaspoons Tony C's Creole seasoning
6 oz seitan bacon
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1 Tablespoon unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons unseasoned breadcrumbs

Place brown rice in small saucepan with water. Bring water to a boil and cook rice 45-50 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. Let rice cool completely.

In medium sized iron skillet or saute pan, saute pepper, onion, an garlic until softened. Add catsup, creole seasoning and saute for about 3 more minutes. Add seitan bacon and black beans. cook until most of the liquid is gone. Take half of the mixture and puree in food processor. Add back to saute pan. Saute for 3 more minutes. Turn off heat.

Mix flax meal and soy milk together in small bowl. Let sit for a few minutes until flax seeds start to thicken. In a large bowl mix black bean mixture, cooled rice, bread crumbs, and flax mixture (flax egg). Stir until completely combined.

Form into 3-4 inch patties about 1/4 inch thick. Put on baking sheet lined with parchment. Let patties chill for at least an hour or they may fall apart when you cook them. Before cooking, coat both sides with bread crumbs.

Here is where they need a little tweaking. I baked them in the oven for about 15 minutes per side. They were still not quite the texture I wanted them. After baking, I sauteed them in a small amount of oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. I haven't tried just sauteeing them yet. They are delicate, so make sure to use caution when flipping. Cook for about 4 minutes per side. Gently remove from pan and drain on paper towels or paper bag.

Vegan MOFO Day 5 - Tracey's Spaghetti Extraordinaire

Fred's sister Tracey sent me her and her daughter Nicki's alltime favorite spaghetti recipe. The original is chock full of beef and sausage, so she was not sure if it could be veganized. Well, thanks to my friends at the PPK, I no longer fear the meaty recipes and find them quite fun to veganize. I'm not going to kid you, the texture and flavor are slightly different, so you won't fool anyone into thinking this is the greasy, unhealthy, factory farmed meat used in so many dishes. But it is a hearty, delicious homage to the original.

I did have to make a few modifications to the original recipe. Of course I had to replace the ground beef. I did this by re-hydrating TVP with vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet to give it that deep "beefy" hue and flavor. Next the Italian sausage. This was a no brainer using Julie Hasson's Spicey Italian Sausage recipe. I always find that when I use meat analogs I must increase the liquids used in the original recipe. In this recipe I had to add a 15 oz can of crushed fire roasted tomatoes to the original recipe. The order of adding ingredients changed just slightly as well. All in all, this was pretty easy to veganize. As you can see from the picture below, it came out very nicely. It has that rich tomato flavor and a hearty meaty texture. I fed this to Fred last night. He inhaled it in no time. Great recipe Tracey! Thanks for sending it to me.

Tracey's Vegan Spaghetti Extraordinaire

1 Cup TVP (sub for 1 lb ground beef)
1 Cups Vegetable broth
2 links vegan Italian sausage
1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
½ medium onion, chopped
½ chopped green bell pepper or 1 Anaheim pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz white or cremini mushrooms sliced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon crumbled rosemary
32 oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted)
16 oz can tomato sauce
15 oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes

Spaghetti or Angel Hair pasta cooked, drained, and rinsed

Grated vegan parmesan for garnish (optional)
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Combine vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet. Re-hydrate TVP by pouring hot vegetable broth over it. Let sit for 10 minutes to re-hydrate. Dice Italian sausage into small chunks, approximately ¼ inch. This can also be done by pulsing in the food processor.

In a 4 quart saucepan brown TVP and sausage in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once browned, remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan sauté onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic in remaining tablespoon of olive oil until soft and mushrooms release their liquid, about 10 minutes minutes. Add dried herbs and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, crushed tomoatoes and tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add browned TVP and sausage and simmer for about 10 more minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Serve over warm pasta and sprinkle with vegan parmesan if desired.