Recipe Round-Up: Hearty Vegan Meals

Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites (also sold as Home-Cooked Vegan Comfort Food) is a fun book that I have blogged about before. So let's get into some decadent food!

Black and Braised Tofu: I had some issues with this recipe, mainly the beautiful dry rub seemed to just wash off in the braising liquid so there wasn't much of the flavour left on the tofu itself. I am not sure where I went wrong. This recipe calls for a 680g block of tofu cut into four steaks, which is a huge slap! Served with broccoli and brown rice.
Rating: :|



Beefy-Cheesy Mac: I decreased the amount of butter and oil called for in this recipe, but it is still very rich. Hamburger Helper was not really part of the growing up in Australia experience, so I can't compare this to it's original inspiration, but this was very nice. Cheesy and beefy from TVP, I added some peas and served over broccoli.
Rating: :)



Pasta Alfredo: This one was a little too rich for me, even with reducing the amount of butter. It is a combination of butter, sour cream, cream cheese and others. It comes together very quickly.
Rating: :|



Traditional Red Lasagne: This is yum! Classic layers of ricotta (tofu and cashew based), and a TVP red sauce (which is a bit on the sweet side) will definitely satisfy. Although cooked in a 20cm square dish, the serving sizes are huge because it is so hearty. I served it with some roasted vegetables.
Rating: :)



Pasta Alla Carb-Onara: This creamy sauce is not as rich as the alfredo, based on light coconut milk and homemade nut/seed parmesan. The flavour here is subtle but satisfying, and the fresh burst of peas and salty flavour of the bacon bits (I used the recipe from the book) is nice.
Rating: :)



Twice-Baked Spaghetti: I never had this sort of spaghetti based casserole before going vegan, but now I love them. The sauce is again fairly rich with mayo and cream cheese but this is cut by the tomato sauce mixed through it, and nooch makes it cheesy as well. Of course I added some extra nooch.
Rating: :)



Eggplant Parmigiana: This is delightful, and the sauce is super tasty. As well as making a red sauce, it also uses a home made hemp and almond parmesan as well as homemade mozzarella (very easy to make). You end up with a huge pan of a very nice dinner. I served over pasta with a side of Brussels sprouts.
Rating: :)





Irish Nachos: Hello lover. You can't go wrong combining potato gems (or tater tots, for my US friends) and nachos. This was amazing! There is a great smoky, cheezy sauce and fresh diced tomato and bacon bits and sour cream... all smothering crispy gems. My mum and I ate this together, and it really is a bit much for two people, but we persevered.
Rating: :D



Deli-Style Macaroni Salad: I made this to take to a potluck, where it was well received. Bonus, it makes a truck load! I used grated carrot instead of diced capsicum, and also added some white beans.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



It is very hard for me to get a photo of Dim Sim with my big camera, because she generally runs away. It is also hard for me to get a good photo of her with any camera, because black cats confuse cameras. This photo is slightly fuzzy and it makes her head look out of proportion, but this is a photo I was recently able to capture using my big camera. I guess she was really sleepy.