Blackened Tofu - Seasoning Review

Today for lunch I wanted something spicy, and I also had a few spare cubes of tofu. Blackened tofu came straight to my mind. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for Blackened Chicken. That is my favorite website to look up recipes I can't find in cookbooks and veganize them. This is how I get most of my ideas for my vegan recipes. It usually takes cooking a few failures, but in the end, I always get a very nice finish! Give it a try!

This seasoning mix was very spicy. If you are not a fan of something really spicy, then just leave out the cayenne pepper. Adjust the cayenne to how much spice you want. The recipe's suggestion of 1/4 tsp. had my mouth burning for a while, so keep that in mind while mixing this.

Overall, this recipe is quite tasty, but it is only for those who can handle a little spiciness. It is definitely not a recipe you make for guests. There are many people with an allergy to cayenne pepper, so exercise caution when serving this dish.


I rate this recipe with 3 Onigiris!

Chipotle Chili-Black Bean Burger Review

Last night I made Chipotle Chili-Black Bean Burgers from a recipe in the Student’s Go Vegan Cookbook. This recipe also comes with a sweet corn relish recipe, but I opted out of that. This recipe came together really quickly. I bought a can of black beans, even though I won’t buy anything but tomato paste in a can, and I made sure to rinse them extremely well to get all of the salt off that I could. In no time, I had my burger mixture, and it turned out perfect with very little work. The recipe calls for rolled oats, but I eat steel cut, so instead I processed unsalted saltines in a blender. It still molded perfectly.

They cook up nicely, and get a little crispiness on the outside. It’s not really a recipe to cook dry, so I sprayed the pan with a little bit of olive oil so they wouldn’t stick and burn. I really need more hard-anodized cookware! We had them on double fiber whole wheat bread with the Vegan Cheddar Cheese. They turned out great and even pleased an Omni! I think these burgers tasted much better than the frozen black bean burgers you buy at the grocery store. This is definitely a recipe I add to my repertoire.

I rate this recipe with 4 Onigiris!

Drumroll Please. . . Homemade Vegan Cheddar!

Ta-da! I have been wanting to try making my own cheese at home, because it always looked so easy. Not to mention that it is much cheaper than trying to buy the packaged cheeses at the health food store (and probably healthier too!). This recipe is from The Uncheese Cookbook. I only found this book on the internet, received it for my birthday, and finally got around to use it.

This recipe was surprisingly easy to make. I had all the ingredients on hand, because it uses a lot of vegan pantry staples. It contains raw cashews, miso, nutritional yeast, agar agar flakes, and some other spices. The video below shows what it looked like when I put it into the container to set up.

I let this set up overnight. The next morning I flipped the container, and it came out easily with just a few taps. It slices nicely just like the store bought vegan cheeses. It doesn't taste like them however. The store bought vegan cheeses are usually made from either tofu or rice. It tasted a little sharp like cheddar tends to, but doesn't taste exactly like real cheddar. I think that most vegans understand that you can't find an exact match for real cheese, but you can get close enough to sate your craving.

We had black bean burgers a few nights later and I put slices of this cheese on them. It tasted great. It melted nicely, but I found melting it in the microwave has an uneven melt, so it is best to melt it while the burger is in the pan. Another way is to very briefly stick it under the broiler in your oven.

I rate this recipe with 4 onigiris!

Update for C&R

I am adding some new features to the blog. I want to be as informational as possible, and when the blog gets bigger, I still want it to be easily navigated. I want my readers to be able to find as much of the info they need on this blog as they can. In my posts on recipes, I will be hot-linking some of the ingredients in order to give more information about that particular item. I am also hoping to add nutritional information. These changes will occur over the next few months.

One of the other new features coming to the blog is a rating system. When I review a recipe I will rate it based on a 5 point system. The system rates as follows:
5 Onigiris – This is a recipe that everyone should have! I could eat this everyday!
4 Onigiris – This is a really good recipe. I suggest that you try it out!
3 Onigiris – This recipe was decent. If you have the extra ingredients on hand, you might try it.
2 Onigiris – This recipe was not good. I wouldn’t attempt it if I were you.
1 Onigiri – Can we say EWW? This recipe is gross!

I have quite a few recipe reviews coming up for recipes I have found in either cookbooks or online. I have been getting cookbooks from the library to try new recipes. I will either suggest you go to your library to check it out, or tell you to steer clear! My next few posts today are pretty exciting (well, at least for me!), so I hope you enjoy them!

TVP Sausage Gravy

This is a perfect compliment to my drop biscuit recipe for a hot breakfast! The great thing about this recipe is that it is much cheaper than buying the pre-packaged sausage from the grocery store. TVP is usually very cheap in bulk at health food stores. It is also healthier than the grocery sausage like LightLife, because it doesn't have all the preservatives that are needed to keep it fresh. I am not trying to dis the LightLife sausage, but this recipe is a great alternative to it when you want something a little different!

Note! I actually add 1/4 of a cup of ground flax seeds to this gravy to give it a boost in nutrition. Flax seeds are powerhouses of nutrition, and I always try to get my daily dose early in the day!

TVP Sausage Gravy

2 cups TVP
2 cups soy milk
1 cup water
1/4 cup arrow root powder
1 1/2 tbsp. ground cumin seed
1 tsp. sage
Salt and black pepper to taste

1. In a large sauce pan, saute 2 cups of TVP with water, cumin seed, and sage.
2. After about 2 minutes, add soy milk and stir.
3. Slowly add arrow root powder while stirring. Use a whisk to break up chunks if necessary.
4. Cook on medium until the mixture has thickened. Add salt and black pepper.
5. Serve on fresh baked Drop Biscuits.
   

Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits

There is nothing like a hot biscuit for breakfast, or as a side to a hot dinner. Biscuits are always the first thing to fight over at a family dinner. It seems that there are never enough of them. So we vegans should not be left out of the delicious aroma!

This is a recipe for drop biscuits. The two main types of biscuits that are often served at breakfast and dinner are baking powder and drop biscuits. Baking powder biscuits are the type you roll and cut out, and drop biscuits are exactly what they sound like; you drop them on your pan and bake them.

Drop biscuits are great for when you don't have time to make the flaky layers of a baking powder biscuit. They are a soft, fast biscuit to make when you are in a hurry or are making a last minute dinner.

Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup melted vegan margarine
1 cup soy milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Stir flour, gluten, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Stir milk into dry mixture 1/2 cup at a time.
4. Stir in melted margarine.
5. Drop a heaping tablespoons of dough onto dark coated cookie sheets.
   
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes.