Three Salads

Yes, you did read the title correctly. I actually had salads for dinner tonight. The last (hopefully) cold front has left Florida and we are warming up again. I also really didn’t feel like much of a dinner, so decided to just have the side dishes I’ve made recently and some more of my flatbread. Of course, two out of three of these salads you have seen already. The Caponata I am still working on. I will the thoroughly sick of eggplant when it is done. Don’t expect to see any until sometime in May. The Gingery Carrot Salad, is from yesterday. After sitting for a day in the refrigerator, it did develop more of a ginger flavor. Will have to cook the carrots more next time, or maybe use them raw and shredded. There is one salad that is new, the Sesame Broccoli Salad. This is another AllRecipes find and it is another good way to eat broccoli, if you are not crazy about it. The recipe is really simple as well, so great when you need to put something together quickly. It can be eaten warm or room temperature, I prefer the latter. This is also a great dish to bring in your lunch or to a party, since it doesn’t mind sitting out of the refrigerator for a while. However, I would suggest that one runs the broccoli through a salad spinner to get all the water off of the flowerets after cooking them. Otherwise the dressing seems to get a bit diluted.

I went shopping today and found the Turtle Mountain Coconut Milk at one of the other stores I go to. They had it on sale for 2.49 a half gallon, so I splurged a bit and got some. No formal review yet, but I did have a glass of it today just as a test. The best news is that it does not taste like coconut, because we all know that would really limit how useful it could be. The texture is very reminiscent of 2% or even whole milk. I did not mind drinking it plain and cold. Now to try it in a smoothie and on cereal. I got the Original, but they have Unsweetened and Vanilla flavors as well. Don’t think this will become a regular purchase, unless the TeddyBear likes it and I have a job again.

Tamarind Lentils

Yes, I finally got to make the Tamarind Lentils from VCON. And they are so good. This is the first time I have had tamarind in anything, to my knowledge. I must admit, I really like the flavor it gives things. The sweet-sour is a nice contrast to the heat from the Seitan Vindaloo and the Gingery Carrot Salad as well. These are definitely a keeper. Now I understand why there are so many people who rave about them up at PPK. It is so different from how anything else tastes. There are really no words to describe it. Let me just say that if you can find some tamarind paste, you have to make these. And if you need something to make for someone who likes Indian food, but they not sure about things that are vegan, these will change someone’s mind.

The Gingery Carrot Salad on the side is from AllRecipes. Its good, but a bit disappointing. Maybe because of all the other strong flavors on the plate, I just didn’t taste the ginger in the carrots. It was a nice dish though to cool ones mouth after taking a bite of the Vindaloo. And it went well with the lentils. Maybe I should have cooked the carrots a bit longer so that they would be a bit softer and absorb more of the dressing. Not sure. It is, however, a nice cold side dish to have on a warmish Spring evening.

Caponata and Grilled Rice Vegan Cheese Sandwich

Missed lunch due to a job fair today (why do these have to start at noon). So had my lunch for dinner instead. The Caponata you have seen before. However, I don’t think I’ve talked about the cheeses from Galaxy Foods. They make both rice and soy based cheese, vegan and vegetarian. The Rice Vegan is distinctive due to its purple borders on the label. It also specifically says that it is soy free, gluten free and vegan. The best thing about this cheese is that it does actually melt. And if it melts for a grilled cheese sandwich, then you know that it will melt in whatever food you may want to use it. There are really only two bad things about their Rice Vegan line, however. One, no mozzarella is available. And they only come in slices, no blocks or shreds. So its usefulness is somewhat limited. However the slices are just fine for sandwiches, wraps or quesadillas. But I have yet to try these cold, so I cannot say if they also taste good cold or at room temperature. As a guess, since the American one tastes fine on the grilled cheese sandwich, I would bet that they also taste good un-melted as well.

Oh and one good thing did come out of the job fair. It allowed me to swing by the Indian store and buy some tamarind paste. And if I happen to have everything needed to make the Tamarind Lentils from VCON, they will be made tomorrow. These have been on the back burner for me for a long time, simply because I could not find any of this darned paste. This is the only store that I know in the area that even carries it. At least it is a cheap 8 oz ($2.49) and will last me for a long time.

Dinner and Rice Milk Recipe

Dinner was really simple. Stir fried onion and pepper mix from the freezer, sliced seitan cutlets (done on Sunday) and some more of that Molo sauce I made in February. All very simple, just through in a pan and cook. Then put over rice. Instant dinner. Actually this is how I am used to cooking, since a day of work usually makes me to tired to really make anything at the end of the day.

However, I know why you are here tonight. You all want to see the recipe for rice milk. Since I aim to please, here it is. But I will caution you, this is still a bit untested. It might need more agave nectar to make it sweeter. And I have not tried this with a natural sugar or molasses. You can if you would like to, but I have no idea what the measurements would be. I am not making it as sweet as it could be, since I usually have chocolate milk or have it over a sweet cereal. If you want to make is sweeter, go right ahead. This is also a half a batch, so if you want to make more, it should double easily.

Bunny’s Rice Milk (based off of this recipe)

3 ¾ cup water
½ cup white rice flour (may also use brown rice flour)
½ cup almond flour (optional)
½ cup agave nectar (you can add up to a 1 cup if you want it sweeter)
1 Tbsp vanilla

Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan.

Add the vanilla and rice flour to 3/4 cup water, stirring thoroughly.

Once the water boils, stir in the rice flour mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Turn heat to medium-low and boil at least five minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and no longer gritty.

Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and stir in the almond flour and agave nectar, till combined. Once mixture is cool, add it to your blender (or mix with your counter top mixer) and run till mixture is thoroughly combined and mixture appears to be smooth and semi-liquid. Place in covered container and refrigerate. Should be good for up to two weeks.

Yield: 5-6 cups? Base (I haven’t calculated total servings yet)

To make rice milk
8 oz
1/4 cup base and 3/4 cup water: blend till combined (I do in my Magic Bullet, but it may work to just stir it in)

16 oz
1/2 cup base and 1 1/2 cup water: blend till combined (I do in my Magic Bullet, but it may work to just stir it in)

It will separate in the refrigerator, but will remix quickly in the jar upon shaking.

Seitan and Rice Milk

Tonight is leftovers (the last of the Gobi Aloo and some more of the Seitan Vindaloo), so I thought you might like to know some of the other things I have been doing lately.

First of all, I found that the Baked Seitan Steaks also works well if you do it on the stovetop with cutlets. Just for fun I tried it on Sunday, making 8 cutlets for one batch of the seitan. I cooked them on the stove top with 2 cups of water and 4 tsp of Bryanna’s Homemade “Chicken Style” Broth Powder. I set my stove on 1 and was going to let them sit for an hour, but upon checking them after 40-45 minutes, they were done. The broth was simmering, but the cutlets were not airy or brainy looking. They tasted good as well, which was good since they were our dinner. I ended up using three and the rest are in the refrigerator in the broth. They should get used up this week.

On the rice milk front, I made an important discovery today. My problems with the base were that I skipped a step in making it. I had made the decision that since it was going to be mixed up in a blender that I could skip the mixing step once it was cool Big mistake. I just blended the last of the base and it totally changed its character. Instead of being hard and stiff, it became smooth and more fluid. So I decided to make a small batch of the milk and put it in the refrigerator. This one tasted much better. It did not have the grittiness I had previously found. So this batch may be a winner after all. I just needed to add a step.

And on a surprising finding, I actually found the Turtle Mountain Coconut Milk at one of my grocery stores on Saturday. Much to my surprise since I still cannot get MimicCreme (Vegetation and Mandee you may get it before I do). I haven’t bought it yet, since I am not sure I can validate the cost in my mind. Even though the cost does not seem to out of line for a half a gallon of product, 4.50 for a half gallon. Just have to see how my budget works out.

And on another surprising finding. Earth Balance will be coming out with a soy-free (yes, that is correct), vegan margarine in May. I just found it on the site today and can verify that it is soy-free. It uses no soybean oil, soy lechitan or soy protein. I have already started the wheels in motion, with a few emails, to try and get my local Publix to carry this. If I have to choose between this and the coconut milk, this wins; hands down. Can soy free tempeh be to far behind? Products page has been updated.

Seitan Vindaloo

Dinner tonight is courtesy of Vegan Dad. I figured that since I still had some of the Gobi Aloo, it needed another Indian dish for a dinner; so I decided to try something that had been on his blog last year. However, the first problem was to find a recipe for some beef-style seitan, since I usually make chicken-style. As usual, Google is your friend. I just used as my search “beef seitan” and what turned up but Bryanna Grogan’s Seitan Beef Cutlets. Very easy to make, but does make a lot, so they will be going into the freezer (and I easily have enough to make one of Joni’s burger recipes). If you have not made these before and need a beef flavored seitan, I definitely recommend them. As for the Vindaloo, it went together very easily. The sauce ingredients all fit into the Magic Bullet, but I did have to make a few changes. First, no white wine vinegar so I used rice wine vinegar; no black mustard seeds so I used yellow ones; sucanat for the brown sugar; 1 tsp of jarred, chopped ginger; no garlic available, so I used some garlic granules; and I cooked this in a sauce pan instead of a frying pan, just to make it a bit easier to do. After all that, it was very good. But the next time, I am definitely cutting back on the pepper flakes. It was way to hot for my tastes.

As for the job front, the temp position fell through due to the employer changing the type of job and it wound up being somthing I am unable to do. So back to hunting again.

Caponata and Mexican Rice Pudding (PDQ Vegetarian)

Hi, guys. Miss me.

Sorry about being gone but way to much food. However, I have done a bit of cooking recently. This was my dinner tonight, since I had an errand to run that took me through lunch today. The Caponata was made last night and I finished it today with the balsamic vinegar and any needed sugar. I liked it, but this recipe makes way to much for one person. One can hope I am not sick of it and eggplant when it is gone. On the side is the last of my store bought Tabbouleh. And next to it is the last of the Almond “Feta”, along with some the flatbread I made last week. Now I just have to use up all the oil that the “Feta” was in, hopefully it will make some nice Italian dressing.

For dessert I had some grapefruit segments, from the jar; walnuts and some Mexican Rice Pudding (from PDQ Vegetarian, using vegan variation of rice milk and coconut milk). This is not like Isa’s in VwaV, you make it like a traditional rice pudding. Still not quite sure why she calls this Mexican; possibly due to the coconut milk, dried orange peel and the stick cinnamon in the recipe. It calls for dark raisins, but all I had were golden ones, so in they went. If you don’t like brown rice, this would be a good recipe for you; since all the other ingredients really cover up the nutty taste and flavor of the brown rice. However, you can also make this with regular white rice as well. And if you like a more traditional rice pudding, you would like this. I, however, do want to add some chocolate to it. Maybe just a drizzle over the top.

On the job front, I have a fairly good nibble through one of my staffing agencies; but won’t know more till next week. Once everything is finalized, I will let you all know how it will change things around here. It is long term contract, which is fine for me; because I also have another possibility that is on an indefinite time frame for hiring. The second position is more to my liking; but it may be up to a year away, since they are waiting on government grants. So now I am in limbo till I get more details.