by Robin Robertson
on March 16, 2009
It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, so I decided to make “Almost Irish Stew” from
Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. It’s one of those basic “comfort food” stews that is perfect on a cold rainy day. I used baby carrots (halved lengthwise) but you can use sliced regular carrots, if you prefer, and any kind of white potatoes work well — just make sure they’re cut uniformly so everything gets done at the same time. I included diced seitan in my stew, but you could use white beans instead — it tastes great either way.
When I want extra flavor, I sauté the onion in a skillet first, but this time I skipped that step and it still tasted great. You can also sauté your seitan before adding it to the slow cooker, if you like it nice and browned. Again, it’s a personal choice.
To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I wanted to boost the Irish factor with a touch of green, so I added some fresh baby spinach (blanched first and then added close to serving time). Kale or cabbage would be good, too, but I especially like how the bright green spinach, orange carrots, and white potatoes show the colors of the Irish flag!
Almost Irish Stew
With the slow cooker doing all the work, it will give you time to make a loaf of Irish soda bread. Adapted from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Variation: Substitute cooked white beans for the seitan. Instead of spinach or kale, you can substitute cabbage which can be added raw to the slow cooker when you add the carrots and potatoes.
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cups baby carrots, halved lengthwise
5 small white potatoes, halved or quartered
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons tamari
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups blanched spinach or kale
8 ounces seitan, diced
Place the chopped onion in the bottom of a slow cooker. Add the carrots, potatoes, garlic, stock, bay leaf, wine, tamari, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, add the spinach and seitan. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve hot.
Serves 4
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by Robin Robertson
on March 13, 2009
I always cook pasta a pound at a time, even though we usually eat only half of it at any given meal. I do this because I love having extra cooked noodles on hand to inspire me to make a quick and easy dinner the next day with the leftovers.
This week, the extra pasta was angel hair and the answer to what to do with it was pancit, the popular Filipino noodle dish. I know angel hair isn’t traditional for making pancit, but everyone who makes pancit has their own variation, and this is mine. I used the recipe from Vegan Fire and Spice and added some tofu and cilantro — so good!
Pancit is a fairly mild dish, heat-wise, but it has lots of flavor. I like to add a splash of chili oil to round out the flavor, but you can add more or leave it out, according to your own taste. Here’s the recipe:
Vegetable Pancit
This recipe is adapted from Vegan Fire and Spice.
8 ounces angel hair pasta or pancit noodles
2 tablespoons cold-pressed canola oil
1 pound extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups shredded cabbage
1 large carrot, shredded
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Asian chili oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Lime wedges (optional garnish)
Chopped fresh cilantro (optional garnish)
1. Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add the tofu and stir-fry until golden. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
3. Heat the remaining oil in the same skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion, garlic, cabbage, and carrot, and stir-fry for 5 minutes.
4. In a small bowl, combine the water, soy sauce, tomato paste, and chili oil, stirring to blend. Add to the vegetables and cook 2 minutes longer.
5. Add the cooked noodles and reserved tofu and toss to combine. Season with a generous amount of black pepper and add additional soy sauce, if desired. Cook until hot, then transfer to a serving platter or individual plates and garnish with lime wedges and cilantro, if using.
Serves 4
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by Robin Robertson
on March 6, 2009
I often find myself craving tofu and like it prepared in a variety of ways. One recipe that has a regular spot in my menu rotation is the Red Hot Chili Tofu from Hot Vegan. The tofu gets dredged in cornstarch and cooked to a crisp golden brown. It is then cloaked in a spicy red sauce that coats the tofu with flavor.
The “red hot” in the title has as much to do with the color as with the heat. With one teaspoon of chili paste, I’d call it moderately spicy, and since we like our food extra-hot, I usually toss in an extra “oops” of chili paste into the sauce. This recipe makes just enough sauce to coat the tofu, so if you want extra sauce, simply double the amount of sauce ingredients in the recipe.
Red Hot Chili Tofu
The tomato paste and chili paste combine to turn the tofu a lovely red color. Add more or less chili paste according to your heat tolerance.
-
3
tablespoons
tomato paste
-
2
tablespoon
water
-
2
tablespoon
soy sauce
-
3
teaspoons
sake or dry white wine
-
3/4
teaspoon
sugar
-
1/4
cup
cornstarch
-
1/4
teaspoon
salt
-
1
pound
extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch strips
-
3
tablespoons
cold-pressed canola oil
-
1/4
cup
minced scallions
-
1
teaspoon
minced garlic
-
1
teaspoon
minced fresh ginger
-
1
teaspoon
hot chili paste
(or more, to taste)
-
Chopped cilantro, for garnish
-
In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste, water, soy sauce, sake, and sugar. Mix well and set aside.
-
In a shallow bowl, combine the cornstarch and salt. Dredge the tofu strips in the cornstarch mixture, shaking off any excess.
-
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the tofu in batches and cook until golden brown. Transfer to a platter.
-
Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the same skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the scallions, garlic, ginger, and chili paste, and cook, stirring for 15 seconds. Add the reserved tomato paste mixture and stir until well blended.
-
Add the reserved tofu and toss gently to coat with the sauce, cooking until heated through, about 2 minutes. Serve hot, sprinkled with cilantro
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by Robin Robertson
on February 21, 2009
I’ve come to the conclusion that some of my favorite fast-and-easy meals are inspired by a near-empty larder and a desire to stay indoors. That’s exactly what happened last week when, as lunchtime approached, we were in the mood for a big bowl of brothy soup and fresh out — of everything. I was supposed to have gone grocery shopping that morning but there was a menacing glaze of ice on the roads and the wind chill was below zero, so scratch that idea. Then how did I make the delicious soup you see in the photo in less than 15 minutes? It went something like this:
I sauteed some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil in a pot. Added 4 cups of water and some veggie broth base (I used Better Than Bouillon). Added about 1 1/2 cups cooked rice (leftover from previous night’s dinner), 1 1/2 cups frozen chopped spinach, and 1 1/2 cups (or a 15-ounce can) of white beans. I brought it all to a boil, then reduced the heat, added some salt and pepper and a little dried savory, and simmered for about 10 minutes. That’s it.
It was so satisfying that it’s hard to believe how simple (and quick) it was to make. The moral of the story, of course, is next time you think there’s nothing in the house to eat, think again.
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by Robin Robertson
on February 14, 2009
Okay, coming up with a dessert for Valentine’s Day was easy. The great-looking strawberries in the store, plus my husband’s fondness for my vegan cheesecake, made the dessert choice a no-brainer.
What to make for dinner was another thing entirely. I knew I wanted to make something different while still keeping the whimsical “heart” theme that I try to do each year. Looking in my pantry for inspiration, I noticed a jar of hot red pepper jelly — as eye-catching and ruby-red as it was the day I bought it at the farmer’s market last summer. With the spicy-sweet pepper jelly as the catalyst for inspiration, I decided to make a sauce combining the jelly with sherry vinegar and soy sauce. The flavor reminded me of a tofu dish I had in a Thai restaurant once. I thought the spicy sweet-and-sour sauce would also go great with sautéed cabbage.
Now, I realize tofu and cabbage aren’t exactly synonymous with Valentine’s Day, but there was no turning back. I sliced a block of tofu horizontally into three slabs, got out my little heart-shaped cutter, and started making adorable little tofu hearts. I made a few out of a slice of seitan, too, and then braised them in the sauce.
In another pan, I braised some red cabbage in the same sauce and cooked up some rice. To serve, I shaped the rice into a heart and surrounded it with red (let’s call it “purple passion”) cabbage. I topped the rice with several of the tofu and seitan hearts for a yummy Technicolor meal. Sure, it’s not the most traditional dinner to serve on Valentine’s Day — that’s why I decided to make it a day early!
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by Robin Robertson
on February 6, 2009
The popular Vietnamese noodle soup is traditionally made with beef, and that’s why my pho is faux. I usually make it with seitan, but when I got a craving for it the other day, I didn’t have any on hand, so I used tofu instead. I can’t seem to keep a supply of rice noodles in the house (I need to start buying it by the case), and I wasn’t about to drive an hour through the mountains in this weather just to get some, so I used cooked linguine (leftover from the day before) to make faux pho and it turned out great — just slightly more faux than usual!
Faux Pho
This version of pho, the yummy Vietnamese noodle soup, is a sure-fire cure for a cold winter day. Serve with additional hoisin sauce, Asian chili sauce, and soy sauce at the table so everyone can adjust their soup to suit their own taste. This recipe is adapted from a recipe in The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook.
1 tablespoon canola oil
8 ounces seitan (or extra-firm tofu), cut into strips
5 cups vegetable stock
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon miso paste
1 teaspoon Asian chili sauce, or more to taste
8 ounces cooked linguine
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the seitan strips and brown on all sides. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Bring the stock to a boil in a large pot. Add the onion, ginger, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Remove 1/2 cup of the hot liquid to a small bowl. Add the miso paste to the liquid in the bowl and stir to blend well. Transfer the blended miso paste into the soup along with the chili sauce. Do not boil. Stir in the cooked noodles, lime juice, and the reserved seitan.
5. Divide the soup among individual bowls. Top with bean sprouts, scallions, and cilantro, as desired. Serve at once.
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