Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Diner

Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson is a wonderful book full of really delicious food. As the name implies, it focuses on 'classic comfort food'. You can see my other posts about it here.

Home-Style Loaf, (Garlic) Mashers, and Rich Brown Gravy: This homey combination made for a great cold weather dinner. The loaf is based on tofu, soy (or beefy) crumbles, oats, and walnuts. I used a bag of Beyond Meat Beefy Crumbles for this. It was very nicely seasoned, full of soy, ketchup, mustard, and sage. I cut this into 8 thick slices, and leftovers were good on sandwiches. The mashed potato recipe is simple and a bit cheesy from nutritional yeast. The skins are left on for a chunky mash. Although the recipe title in the book is Garlic Mashers, there is no garlic in the actual recipe, only in some of the variations. I just made them straight up. I made a half recipe of the gravy, which was plenty for serving with the loaf. This was a tasty gravy, though not brown in the Australian sense of gravy. But it tied it nicely together, along with some steamed green beans.
Rating: Loaf :), Mashers :), Gravy :)



Diner House Salad: The basis of this salad is the Diner House Dressing recipe from later in the book. It is a mix of balsamic, soy, and flax oil. I didn't have flax oil (or the variation of hemp oil), so I just used extra virgin olive oil. I found this to have a very strong vinegary and salty taste straight off the bat. Perhaps the flax oil would have mellowed it a bit? Perhaps due to the quality of my vinegar? The salad recipe in the book mixes greens (I used baby cos), carrot, and sunflower seeds (along with raw onion and hemp seeds, both of which I left out). I found the dressing in this mix to be a bit too overpowering. Two days later I used the leftover dressing on a suggested salad variation with baby spinach, apple, dried cranberries, and slivered almonds. This combination was great! The sweetness in the salad offset the dressing, plus I think the dressing mellowed after two days in the fridge.
Rating: :| to :) depending on salad ingredients.





Skillet-Baked Panko Cutlets: I've had this recipe marked to make for the last couple of years. Finally I made it and why did I wait? It involves a bit of advance work, you have to make and chill the Italian Sausage Cutlet recipe from later in the book, but once that is done it all comes together so fast. I made a half batch of the cutlets to make a half recipe of this. The cutlets say they make 9-11, I made four out of my half batch so they may have been a bit bigger. But they steam up great and firm up so well in the fridge. When it comes time, they are dipped in seasoned flour, a curdled milk mixture, and then panko before being fried, topped in a very easy to make tomato sauce, sprinkled with mozzarella (optional but really essential, I used Follow Your Heart), and then put under the grill/broiler in the oven. This was AMAZING! The cutlets turned out so well, they were so tender and juicy. I served mine over some baby spinach and a rice/quinoa mix, and had a leftover one in a sandwich. MAKE THIS!
Rating: :D (For the steamed and cooled cutlets on their own: :), though the possibilities are pretty endless.)



Double Chocolate Strawberry Pie: Another recipe that I had marked to make for ages, I finally made it last year for my parents' wedding anniversary. A chocolate sandwich cookie crust filled with a chocolate cream, covered in strawberries, and drizzled with a chocolate drizzle. I didn't have vanilla milk, so used a combination of plain oat milk and some vanilla extract in the filling, which was quite soft even after setting. The filling and the drizzle both call for strawberry or raspberry liqueur. Being a non-drinker, I didn't feel like getting a big bottle for a few tablespoons, so I used some strawberry extract instead. This pie had lovely flavours, and looked quite pretty to boot.
Rating: :)



Basil Spinach Spread: I made a half recipe of this. It is really a pesto, with all the expected pesto ingredients as well as some basil. I made sandwiches with mine, it is lovely with tomato and some chicken style slices.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Every Vegan Diner post I make has to end with the same photo of Sahara, trying to taste test the Biscuits and Gravy recipe from the book. I miss her trying to stick her face into my dinner.