Nothing fancy, but absolutely delicious!
I smashed my homemade vegan meatballs, and drenched them in sweet miso-tomato sauce.
Smashed V-meatballs with miso-tomato sauce, sautéed cabbage, and homemade cheddar sandwiched in a hearty bagel from my favorite local vegan bakery.
There are a few food-related magic words that never fail to grab my attention.
One is “Adzuki” or “red beans,” and another is “Ube” or “purple potato.”
I just love everything about purple potatoes, from the color to the taste.
A bagel, a thick spread of homemade vegan butter, creamy purple potato paste, and a sprinkle of roasted chestnut pieces.
This looked so pretty, but that didn’t stop me from devouring it!
Loved everything about this.
A hearty chewy bagel, slightly salty butter, creamy sweet purple potato, and crunchy chestnut.
Super yum!
Why making banh mi with croissant?
Well, why not?!
Vegan croissant from Eureka Compass Vegan Food, homemade vegan butter, Thai sweet basil, zucchini slices, tofu steak, seitan steak, Daikon-carrot Asian slaw, and mint.
My husband had a chance to share this sandwich with one of his friends, who is definitely NOT a vegan, reportedly enjoyed this sandwich, tofu, seitan, and everything!
Woo-hoo!
Happy Sunday, everyone!
We finished our last batch of vegan meatballs, and it was time to make more.
I make a big batch, because it takes the same amount of time and effort either you make 35 or 70, and they freeze beautifully.
My husband likes these V-meatballs on the crunchy side, and I have to agree that the texture is better this way.
Extremely light baguette from a Vietnamese bakery, V-meatballs with red sauce, sautéed onion and green peppers, and cashew cream.
Super tasty!
These V-meatballs are just so good.
I’ve been using this recipe a number of times now, and I absolutely love it.
I use whatever nuts I have, and this time I used Brazil nuts mostly and some walnuts, and they turned out fantastic!
I bake them for about 30 minutes each side to get the crunchiness.
I’ve been going to the local Asian grocery store, Ha Tien Supermarket, almost weekly since they opened.
I don’t do all my grocery shopping there, but I go there rather for certain specific things.
One of the things I like to look at in the store is their potato/squash section.
They have a wide variety of potatoes/squashes, and the prices are always very good.
When I saw this beautiful taro root, I had to buy them.
This was how they looked after cooked and peeled.
I made it into cheesy croquette.
The taro root is extremely smooth when mashed, and I loved the contrast of the crispy outside and the creamy inside.
Bagel from one and only Eureka Compass , taro croquette, ketchup-Worcestershire sauce, shredded Asian cabbage, tomato slices, and homemade vegan mayo.
Super yum!
When I received a food request from my hubby that is not “Swedish Meatball” I do accept it (lol).
(He says “Swedish Meatball” too many times, and sadly it is often dismissed…)
He wanted a sandwich with some kind of chicken-like meat and lingonberry.
So this is what I came up with.
When I want a really firm texture that will resemble that of chicken, I like to use a specific tofu from Trader Joe’s.
I forgot to take a picture before I took the tofu out, but at least you can see the package.
This is super firm, and my husband really likes it when I cook it like chicken.
Doesn’t it look good?
For the bread I used vegan croissants from my favorite local vegan bakery/Bodega, Eureka Compass Vegan Food.
Homemade vegan Swiss cheese also gets recruited to the sandwich.
Vegan croissant, garlic herb “ticken,” homemade vegan Swiss cheese, arugula, homemade vegan mayo, and lingonberry jam.
The jam is from World Market.
They recently changed their label, and it’s very pretty.
Is there a dish that you grew up eating all the time as a kid because your mom made it, and then later as an adult you realize that no one else makes it?
This “egg” and lettuce hot sandwich is one of those foods.
My mother made this for my sister and I all the time when we were kids, and I thought everyone else was eating it too.
I was apparently wrong.
You spread mayo and mustard on two slices of bread.
Place generous amount of lettuce leaves and soft scrambled eggs.
Sandwich and then cook it in an oven toaster.
Of course to make it vegan, I used soft tofu to make the scrambled “egg” and my own homemade mayo.
I also added mayo later after the sandwich was out of the oven because I was not sure how my mayo would react the high heat (I didn’t want my mayo to become liquid oil during the cooking process).
This was actually my second attempt to make this sandwich.
The first attempt was rather disappointing.
I thought it would be better to add lettuce later after the cooking to keep it fresh, but it was a big mistake.
Cooking the lettuce along with the eggs really makes this sandwich special.
The lettuce gets soft and almost sweet, but not soggy.
Of course you have to eat quickly as soon as it’s out of the oven, but it’s not a problem (lol).
The other key is the mustard.
You cannot skip mustard in this sandwich.
It’s a must.
It tasted exactly like the one my mother used to make.
Loved it.
Reuben used to be one of my favorite sandwiches.
So when I made my first Swiss cheese (see my previous post), I knew this is what I wanted to do.
Making a vegan Reuben Sandwich!
Here is my vegan Swiss cheese I just made.
Easy Russian dressing, made with homemade vegan mayo.
For the meat I sliced and cooked my homemade seitan meat and flavored it with corned-beef inspired spices (cinnamon, all spice, ginger, coriander, onion powder).
For the cabbage, I cooked my cabbage instead of using sauerkraut.
The only thing I didn’t care for when I would eat Reuben at a restaurant was that sauerkraut was sometimes too salty for my taste.
I simply sautéed cabbage with oil, added salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar, and cooked a little more.
It was SCRUMPTIOUS!
My husband and I both devoured it.
Addendum: I was asked to share this “meat” recipe. I don’t have a detailed recipe, but here is a rough description of how I made this. I used this seitan steak recipe to make the steak first. After you steam it, slice it thin and sautee with oil until slightly browned and crunchy. Add some water to loosen the “meat.” Add soy sauce and sugar, and then spices (cinnamon, all spice, ginger, coriander, onion powder). Continue to cook until it achieves your preferred texture.
It’s been really fun experimenting with vegan food.
Different types of plant-based cheese makes our meals exciting.
This was my first try making vegan feta cheese.
I used the recipe in this book.
I’ve tried their blue cheese recipe as well, and they are both excellent except that I will reduce the amount of salt in feta cheese next time.
The flavor and the texture were both spot-on!
This is delicious when spread on baguette or crackers.
Or sprinkled on salad or pasta dishes.
It also makes delicious creamy dressing.
I mean, really, if you can have homemade plant-based feta cheese, cheddar, blue cheese, steak, and meatballs, you can’t say plant-based eaters meals are boring!
Well we live in Minnesota, and their state fair is famous for serving a lot of food on a stick.
So why not putting the most popular American food on a stick?
My homemade cheddar cheese ,
Makes beautiful slices.
Is it just me?
But anything tastes better when on a stick!
What you see is crusty bread toast, arugula, vegan burger, ketchup-Japanese Worcestershire sauce, cheddar cheese, and tomato.
The bread, burger, and cheese are homemade.
It turned out to be a fun light lunch for my husband.
He requested five sticks, and that’s what he got.
