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.