Recipe Round-Up: American Vegan Kitchen

American Vegan Kitchen is an older title by Tamasin Noyes, and it appears to be out of print now (though there are some secondhand copies available). It is a book full of comfort food and diner-style cooking. I haven't cooked out of it much, but you can see a few of my previous posts about it here.

Tofu Rancheros: From the breakfast section, there are based on a tofu and pinto scramble in a homemade tomato sauce. I left out the chiles and capsicum, and replaced the chili powder with more paprika. I also added some celery in the scramble (instead of poblanos) and a bit of carrot in the sauce (instead of capsicum). This had a really nice blend of seasonings in the scramble mix! Topped with sour cream, avocado, and coriander.
Rating: :)



Asian-Style Salad Bowl: This was our last salad dinner of the warm season this year, now it is chilly and a big crunchy salad doesn't appeal right now on the cooler nights. Tofu is marinated and fried, before topping off a salad full of vegetables. I replaced the shredded cabbage with extra baby cos, doubled the amount of cucumber, shredded the carrot rather than slicing it, and used chopped beans instead of snowpeas because I couldn't get any. It also has broccoli in it, which was as the recipe called for. Oh, and I left out the capsicum, sriracha, red pepper flakes, and the raw scallions. It is topped off with beansprouts and a lovely peanut and lime dressing.
Rating: :)



Fettuccine Alfredo: A sauce made out of cashews and pinenuts gives an extra oomph to this classic sauce. Her recipe calls for adding green chiles and chili powder, which I 100% did not do, and as a result it tasted a bit strong on vingegar, so in future I'd reduce the amount of apple cider vinegar used. I used 8 oz pasta instead of 16 oz, but added broccoli, peas, and white beans to bulk it out, and served it over baby spinach for more greens.
Rating: :)



21st Century Tacos: These may have been given a modern name, but they tasted like the tacos of my childhood! Seasoned TVP is the mince in these, whch is simmered with whole bunch of stuff. I took the heat way down by leaving out assorted chiles. I found this to be quite sloppy and had to simmer on high the last few minutes to thicken up enough for taco use. Extra toppings included shredded cos, tomatoes, avocado, olives, salsa, and scallions. Served in crunchy taco shells, just like my youth! I had some extra TVP mix leftover, which is excellent scooped up with some tortilla chips!
Rating: :)





Brewpub Tater-Tot Pie: A fun way to play with potato gems! This is a meaty TVP base, topped with some potato gems before baking! The meaty mix also had onion, carrots, celery, portobello, and beer. I found I wished the flavour was a bit richer, so I think I would rehydrate the TVP mix with beef-style stock in the future. I used a 9 x 13 inch casserole, and didn't need the whole bag of potato gems to fill it. I had forgotten to partially thaw them, as the recipe calls to cut them in half and spread them on top. I just used whole frozen ones on top. They cooked through, but were probably not as crunchy as they should have been given that the bottom parts touching the casserole got a bit soggy. But still, I will never say no to potato gems!
Rating: :)



Stovetop Mac and Cheeze: This is a herby take on mac and cheese (with dried basil and thyme in the sauce) that I really enjoyed. It comes together pretty easily, so is great for a night when you want a quick dinner. I added peas and baby spinach to mine, as well as only using 8 oz instead of one pound of pasta. (It is served here with a sadly no longer available vegan sundried tomato and cheese sausage, that had chunks of cheese in them that went melty when they were cooked, I miss them.)
Rating: :)



Chocolate Chip Quick Cake: This is kind of like a giant cookie cake, much firmer than you would expect a cake but not as crunchy as a cookie (also much thicker)! It isn't very sweet, but you know that isn't a problem for me. It could have done with some more chocolate chips added, as they were a bit sparse. Served with some fresh strawberries, this is an easy and lovely treat.
Rating: :)



Spiced Chocolate Pudding Cake: An horrible photo, but don't let that keep you away from this recipe. I scaled this down to a half batch cooked in a 4 x 8 inch dish, and I used brewed tee-cino instead of coffee. Scaling it down made the perfect size to serve three (the number of people who live in our house). It is a self-saucing pudding, so you get a lovely cinnamon spiced chocolate sauce on the bottom. There is also a touch of cayenne in it, which gives a very gentle spicy. (Yes, sometimes I do like a teeny amount of spicy in my chocolate! Shocking, I know!).
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



In case you were wondering, Dim Sim is still super into the crocheted blanket.

Recipe Round-Up: American Vegan Kitchen

American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes is a fun book full of delicious, diner food classics. Growing up in Australia, our version of diner food was very different to America's diner food. And to be honest, I think that America has us beat! One of my favourite places to eat when I was younger and still a pregan was an American-style diner at a shopping center near us. I was very sad when it closed. This book is even better, it has so many more delicious treats than anything I experienced. As well as the individual recipes, Tamasin also includes a list of 'Blue Plate Specials', where you combine a few recipes to create a fun and complete diner meal.

Blue Plate Special: Tuna-Free Noodle Casserole; Bistro Broccolini: Chickpeas take the place of tuna in this yummy casserole, that also has a lovely cashew-artichoke sauce. I used fettuccine for my noodles, left out the capsicum, and added in extra leek and mushrooms. The broccolini was simply done, with pine nuts, garlic and lemon.
Rating: Casserole :D, Broccolini :)



Blue Plate Special: Seitan Goulash with Kraut; Rosemary Carrots; Parsleyed Noodles: I had some sour cream that I needed to use up, and goulash was just the ticket. I did decrease the sauerkraut from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups, as my dad isn't a fan of too much kraut. I also left out the capsicum. Other vegetables included celery, mushrooms and carrots. Yum! It also has beer in it, I used Coopers Pale Ale. For the noodles, I just made a half batch (using 250g instead of 1lb). They have vegan butter and parsley mixed through. The carrots are very quick and simple, with a tasty taste. I used fresh rosemary, but a whole teaspoon instead of just half because I like rosemary.
Rating: Goulash :), Noodles :), Carrots :)



Blue Plate Special: Spaghetti Pie with Arrabbiata Sauce; Roasted Broccoli and Carrots: The spaghetti pie recipe was super saucy, I ended up with sauce leftover... it wouldn't all fit in the baking pan! But that is OK, because it is a tasty sauce and you can freeze it for later. The pie was tasty, with a tomatoey TVP sauce and a yummy topping of blended tofu, sour cream, cream cheese, lemon, nooch and others. I also topped it with the optional grated vegan cheese. The vegetable side was meant to be broccoli and capsicum, but I roasted carrots instead of the devil vegetables.
Rating: Spaghetti Pie :), Roasted Broccoli and Carrots :)



Noodle Omelet: This was tasty, though I managed to burn my hand making it. Ouch! Tofu and chickpeas are blended up with seasonings and then poured over cooked angel hair pasta to make a thick omelet. I used a small saute pan to cook it in, and it took a little while given the thickness to cook through. It was still a bit mushy in the middle, but warm. I forgot to put the parsley in, so mine isn't as pretty as it could be. It also keeps really well, and then cuts up nicely into wedges.
Rating: :)



City Skillet: Roasted potatoes, mushrooms and tofu are the base for this tasty fry-up. I used extra mushrooms because I had them and mushrooms are great. I would suggest cooking the tofu first to get it nicely seared, then putting it aside until it is called for later in the recipe. The sauce is meant to be a blended capsicum sauce, but I just skipped that step and used good old ketchup.
Rating: :)



'Big Soup' Minestrone: I used the white bean option in place of tempeh here, as my dad prefers beans. I also couldn't find vegan lemon pepper (why do people put milk products in it?), so I used some lemon juice and black pepper. This is a hot and satisfying soup for cold weather, with vegetables and pasta and beans. Served with a side salad and some crusty bread.
Rating: :)



No-Tuna Melt Paninis: This uses soy curls, instead of the regular tuna stand ins, which gives it quite a tuna-like texture. I really enjoyed this tuna salad mix, both on the sandwich or on its own. The sandwiches are also spread with some delicious cheezy mayo, and are layered with a slice of tomato. I used the panini press to cook these, rather than buttering them and cooking in a skillet.
Rating: :)



Tempeh Stroganoff-Stuffed Potatoes: The tempeh is roasted before being added to the other stuffing ingredients, but I found that I needed to increase both the time and the temperature to get the tempeh to absorb all of its roasting broth. This was a very satisfying meal!
Rating :)



Italian Big Bowl: This pasta is full of garlic, sausage, tomatoes, capers and olives. I used some of the fancy Sanitarium/Vegie Delights sausages (these aren't the greatest sausages). I decreased the pasta from 1lb to 250g, which gave me 4 smallish serves.
Rating: :)



Italian-Style Seitan with Linguine: Instead of making seitan for this, I used a package of Fry's Chick'n-Style strips (the old variety). The pasta (I used 12oz instead of 1lb) is tossed with seitan, garlic, mushrooms, peas (standing in for capsicum), spinach and has a white wine and lemon sauce. I would have liked more lemon in the sauce!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photos of the Post



It is well known that cats have toes like beans (thanks Pusheen), and here is Sahara demonstrating her little pink toe beans.

VeganMoFo 2015 #14: Lisa's birthday cake

14. Share something vegan (and delicious, duh!) with a non-vegan.

My friend and co-worker Lisa has somehow lucked out and has become the one work person that I make a birthday cake for every year and take it to work to share. Lisa is a vegetarian, and the everyone else is an omni. In previous years the theme has normally been berries, however this year Lisa was keen to branch out after she heard me mention pineapple upside-down cakes. I really like pineapple upside-down cakes, they are fun! I've made a few in the past, so for this year I settled on a recipe I hadn't tried before (which is always my way), the one from American Vegan Kitchen.

Of course the most important part of a pineapple upside down cake is the syrup and pineapple layer! In this recipe, the holes in the pineapple are stuffed with dried cherries. Then of course you top it with the batter, bake it, and turn it out to reveal a beautifully glazed cake.



When I turned it upside down, the pineapple had migrated to the outer edges leaving the middle of the cake without pineapple. Also,the glaze in the middle stuck to the pan, leaving the top of the cake looking super nekkid! I was able to scoop up the glaze from the pan and patch it back onto the cake, and decorate the middle with my super cook cake decorations that I have had since I was a kid. The recipe calls for four rings of pineapple (which was conveniently how much was in a small tin of rings), but if I made it again I would put a fifth ring in the middle.



All packed up and ready to go to work the next day!



The all important cutting of the cake! Supervised by a watchful Evie.



I was a little worried about the cake, because it seemed to have a lot of baking powder in it. It also seemed a little dry on cutting, though it had been stored in the fridge and I did have to bake it an extra 10 minutes to set it properly. However it all tasted good! And the important thing is that Lisa really liked it, I got a message from her saying she wanted to keep eating it all! So success!

Recipe rating: :)

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo



On her 13th birthday. <3