Daily Vegan: brown rice

Showing posts with label brown rice. Show all posts

Several months ago Matthew and I traveled to my sisters house in Salt Lake to stay for a while. We needed a break from St. George and a change of scenery. It's always wonderful to spend time with Jill and her family. She has been changing her family's diet and has done some amazing things. She introduced me to kale chips and I shared with her this Enchilada recipe. It was one of those clean out the fridge recipes...I seem to have a lot of those, what can I say, they get the juices flowing...in more then one way :) Anyway, her family loved it which is saying something. Jill's husband Mike is not exactly on the bandwagon yet. In fact, Jill, in her wifely efforts made lettuce wraps one night. Mike looked at the wraps, then at Jill, then at the wraps and with eyes pleading looked up to Jill and said, "so, this is our life now huh?" So the fact that Mike ate these enchiladas and enjoyed them is saying something.

Enchiladas

1 can enchilada sauce
vegan cheese
brown rice
black beans
chopped tomatoes
cilantro
1 small can green chilies
chopped green peppers
onion chopped
corn or flour tortillas

Mix everything together in a bowl except the tortillas. In a baking dish pour some enchilada sauce to cover the bottom. Scoop the mix into the tortillas wrap and place in the baking dish. Cover the enchiladas with enchilada sauce and then with foil. Bake in the oven on 350 till bubbly. Let stand for a few minutes and then enjoy!

Matthew and I have this sandwich that we really love. It's a sweet, salty tangy refreshing sandwich that unfortunately calls for feta cheese. We loved feta because it was great on so many things. So here is the end to our feta-less life woes. Some of you may recognize this recipe from my vegan cheese post. It's pretty much the same just with a little twist to make it feta-ee.

Vegan Feta Cheese

1/4 c garbanzo beans
1/4 c cooked rice
1/4 c cashews
1/4 c oats
1 c water
1 tb red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1 clove garlic

You know the drill. Throw it all in the food processor till smooth then heat on the stove till creamy. Now, Pour the cheese into a loaf pan that is lined with plastic wrap. completely cover and place in the freezer over night. Then pull out of the freezer and let thaw in the fridge. The cheese should crumble or cube very nicely now and can be used as feta cheese.

Yes, even as a child I was a food geek. I remember when my family would eat out at mick-e-dees. While the rest of the family ordered the usual quarter pounder with cheese, I went for the fillet o' fish. When they called for the big mac, I went with a salad. What can I say, I have sophisticated tastes.

I've always liked fish. Even when I first went vegetarian I didn't go all the way because I couldn't let go of my fish sticks. Now that I've found this substitute I'm happy to wave good-bye to my finned friends. This is way easy and tastes pretty authentic too. Try it with some white sauce, crumbled potato chips, and green onion for a gourmet version or pack it as a lunch.

Vegan Fish Fillets

1/4 c oats
1 c bread crumbs

(panko is best)
salt to taste
2 thingys of celery
1/2 red onion
2 russet potatoes raw
mustard
lemon juice
soy sauce
1 tb vital wheat gluten
1 pinch sage
1 pinch dill weed
1 tb veganaise
1/4 c cooked rice

In your magical food processor, quickly pulse your potatoes, celery and red onion. Now place in a sieve with a bowl under it and let sit for about an hour to let all the juice drain off. Or, to speed up the process you can wring it out in some cheese cloth. You must drain off the liquid or it will be too moist to stay together. Now put your oats, cooked rice, and all your dry ingredients (except the wheat gluten and bread crumbs) into the food processor and pulse. In a large bowl mix everything together, kneading it into a dough. Once it's a dough, roll it out between wax paper, cut into squares. cover with bread crumbs and fry in a pan with oil. These freeze really well! Serve on a bun with fresh tartar sauce.

The other day I entered the kitchen with the expectation of experimenting on a new vegan shepherds pie recipe, which, come to think of it, I still haven't made. Hum, anyway, I started making my recipe for vegan meat but when I finished I realized I had made vegan sausage. I love serendipity! I'm not quite sure what I did different except that I purposely left out the BBQ sauce when I realized what was happening. This worked out perfect since I had been craving some morning star sausages but we can't get them on the island. I saved a little of the dough to make sausage crumbles that were fantastic on pizza that night and we made these breakfast burritos the next morning. I wish all my mistakes were this delicious

Vegan Sausages

1/2 c cooked lentils

1 c brown rice
1/2 c oats
2 tb soy sauce
2 tb oil
3 tb flour
2 tb vital wheat gluten
1 large pinch of salt
1 tsp pepper
1 dash nutmeg
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp garlic

In a large bowl mush the lentils and rice with a fork till there are none left whole. Now add everything else and kneed it into a dough. Cover with plastic wrap and roll out. Use a cup and cut into rounds. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake on 350 for about 35-45 minutes turning once. These freeze really well and are great on their own.

Breakfast Burritos

1 eggplant cubbed
green onion
1/2 c cooked garbanzo beans
vegan sausage
tortillas
veganiase
mustard
EVOO

In a sauce pan, cook the eggplant and green onions till soft. Add the garbanzo beans and mush everything with a fork. Smear the tortillas with veganaise and mustard then layer with the eggplant mixture and vegan sausages. Wrap like a burrito and eat like you've never eaten a burrito before.

If there is one food in the world that I could eat all day, all night, and into the next day; it would be hash browns. I often have this before a fast as my farewell salute to food for a few hours. There are few things in this world that bring a smile to my face more than a huge plate of hash browns "smothered and covered" as the nice waitress at denny's used to say. But now I make my own smothered and covered and fight the urge to lick my plate....in public at least.

I love this recipe because it is sooo yummy and has only 3 ingredients

Hash browns
3-4 russet potatoes
1 c cooked brown rice or barley
a dash of onion salt

Wash your potatoes very well! Place in your food processor and pulse till they are very fine. Now add the cooked rice and onion salt and pulse. Kneed everything to make sure its sticks together. Roll out the mixture and use a cup to cut circles and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes flipping once. These are great to make ahead and they freeze really well.

The other day I left all my research up on the computer when Matthew came in to use it. From the other room I hear " um...hey hon - what's all this stuff about satan?" I must admit, I was a bit taken back. I thought for a moment and realized. " ah, it's pronounced se-tahn" Matthew was confused but relieved.

When I first started researching seitan I thought, "no way, anything pronounced satan can not be good and must be avoided at all costs." But now I know it's called that because it's so tempting!

Seitan is basically vital wheat gluten but Seitan sounds so much more rebellious and on the edge. My adventures with it have been less then successful, except when it comes to vegan spam.

Now, I know you're asking yourself, why would you want to eat something who's name sounds like satan and, if you're going to go vegan and take the time to make faux meat why on earth would you spend the time on SPAM? well, I'll tell you - MUSUBIES! I haven't met one I didn't love or met anyone else who didn't love them either. In fact, when I was doing research on vegan spam (yes, there are others like me out there) all of them wanted to make spam for the purpose of filling their musubie craving! One lady even made it with peanut butter in the shape of a can. That's so cool! I'm a little less adventurous.
In a state where seven million cans of spam are consumed every year (that's an average of 16 cans per person per year) and they even have a spam festival to celebrate this celebrity meat, "it wouldn't, it couldn't, it musn't, it wouldn't" be poly week without musubie.....

Vegan Spam
1/4 cup cooked pasta
1/4 c cooked rice
1/4 c oats
1/4 c soy sauce
1 bullion cube
1 tsp salt
1/2 c chopped celery
1/4 -1/2 c vital wheat gluten
1 tb water

Start a large pot of boiling water. In the food processor blend the pasta and celery with enough water to make it smooth. In a large bowl mush the rice with a fork till it's um, mushy. Now add everything else, adding the vital wheat gluten at the last. Now form your dough into a loaf and wrap it in tin foil. Add the tablespoon of water, wrap it up and put it in the pot of boiling water. Cover with a lid. The spam is finished when it has expanded to fill the tin foil (about 40 min).

Musubies

cooked rice
vegan spam
nori, or seaweed paper
Slice your vegan spam about 1/4 an inch thick. Saute it in a pan with EVOO till both sides are brown. Make a ball out of the cooked rice (having wet hands helps to keep the rice from sticking to you) keep kneading it till it sticks together. Place the spam on top of the rice and wrap in nori. This makes for a great portable lunch, just wrap in plastic wrap and go.

Alright, before we even get started I want to make something very clear - Hawaiian Haystacks are not Hawaiian! I lived in Hawaii for several years and never once did I have Hawaiian Haystacks. The first time I had them was at my sister-in-laws house when I was dating my husband....actually, we're still dating ;) Her family is hooked on this delicious dish and since she has an aspiring vegan in her family, this one is dedicated to her.

Vegan Hawaiian Haystacks
1-2 c vegan cheese
1 tsp sage

2-4 c cooked brown rice
1 bullion cube (vegan chicken if you can get it, if not veggie is fine)
1 can pineapple drained and chopped
1 c water
chopped celery
chopped green onion
crunchy asian noodles
any other fixins that appeal to ya'll

In a sauce pan, warm the vegan cheese, sage, bullion and water to make a sauce the consistence of cream of chicken soup. Now layer the cooked rice, pineapple, celery, other fixins (this is a good time to clean out the fridge!) Now pour on the sauce and top with crunchy asian noodles and green onion. Mmmmm, it's a sight to make a wahine proud!

Note: We found that using a curry sauce instead sends this out of this world! Yum! Which do you think is best?

This recipe is for my mother-in-law Pam. She loves broccoli and cauliflower and all those yummy things. Whenever we have a party she always brings the relish tray with all sorts of yummy rawness, and lots of extra broccoli and cauliflower. She has great taste. She also is great at meals on the fly, which this is. So, I dedicate this to her. Love you Pam!

Cheesy Broccoli Casserole

leftover cheesy broccoli soup

cauliflower (optional)

cooked rice

bread crumbs

Blend everything in a bowl and place in a 9 x 13 pan. Cover with bread crumbs and Bake in the oven on 350 till bubbly - about 45 minutes.

The first time I had curry I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was made by a friend from India....he knows what he's talking about! It was sooo good! After that I always stuck with yellow curry because I thought it was the best and most authentic. I then went to a thai restaurant (ya, THAT thai restaurant) on a night I was feeling particularly adventurous. It was torturous, being a creature of habit, to try a different kind of curry. But, after one bight I found I love torture. This curry seemed even better than the first. Dr. Seuss was right yet again "try it and you may, try it and you may I say."

Massaman Curry

1 pkg or can massaman curry (maesri is a good brand. Make sure it says massaman!)

2 sweet potatoes cubed (or any kind of potato is good)
2 carrots cubed

1 can coconut milk

Throw everything together in a slow cooker or a large pot. Cook till the potatoes and carrots are tender. Serve over rice. You can add as little or as much curry paste as you like. Top with cilantro and chopped peanuts to serve.

When I was young we were blessed to have many foreign exchange students live in our home, most of them being from Japan. This was a great cultural experience for us kids as we learned to love the culture, the people, and the food through their influence.

This was all cool until, as a 3rd grader, I went to school with sushi in my lunch box. In theory this sounded cool. In practice it was not. You should have seen the faces I got. I was shamed for the rest of my elementary career. Of course, it didn't help that my mom kept insisting that it was cool and did it on a regular basis.

Jump forward to the present. I still love sushi and as an adult I'm glad I can wear this out in the open. I'm even part of an elite sushi club. Yes, it's true. I'm in a club of four women that eat sushi together in Salt Lake City Utah. Now, you may ask, sushi, in Salt lake? Yes, in fact, some of the best sushi I have had was in a town called logan in northern utah. If you are ever on a sushi eating tour call me and I'll give you details.

On one of our club excursions we met at the restaurant and ordered edamames for an appetizer. Come to find out, this was the first time one of our members had had them. Thinking they were snap peas she ate the whole thing, pod and all. I would not recommend this. After the meal, when she realized the rest of us has been putting the pods in a separate bowl, she laughed and confessed she had secretly been spitting them in her napkin the whole time to which she displayed a napkin full of pods.

This recipe can be as spicy or mild as you wish, just add the chili sauce a little at a time. I used to make it with imitation crap but now I substitute garbanzo beans and I like it just as much. I even got a little kid who is a picky eater to like this. His eyes were watering the whole time because of the heat but he kept coming back for more. I'm sure you will too.

Sushi

cooked rice
seaweed paper/nori
1/2 c garbanzo beans
Vietnamese chili sauce
veganaise
1/2 avocado
1/2 cucumber sliced length wise
wax paper
sesame seeds

Cook the rice and let it cool out of the fridge. If it cools in the fridge it will go hard. In a blender, add the garbanzo beans, a spoonful of veganaise, and chili sauce (add a little at a time). Slice your cucumber and avocado length wise. Place a sheet of nori on the wax paper and wet your hands (this will help keep the rice from sticking to you). Take a handful of rice and form it into a ball the size of a baseball. Keep working with it till it holds together well. This brings out the gluten so it will stick to your nori. Now put it on your seaweed and spread it around pressing it into your nori till the whole sheet is covered. Now flip the sheet over so the rice is on the bottom. On one long end of the sheet, layer the garbanzo bean mixture, sliced avocado, and cucumber. With 2 hands start to roll the sushi. Roll with the wax paper (make sure you don't roll it in) this will help keep it tight. To seal it, wet the nori at the end and squeeze it together. Now roll it in sesame seeds. To cut, use a very sharp knife. Cut the tube in half and then put the two halves together. Keep doing this until they are 1/4-1/2 an inch thick. Stack on a serving plate and serve with wasabi and soy sauce.

Steam or blanch your edamames and sprinkle with sea salt. Remember not to eat the pod!

Alright carnivore, stop right there - move along - there is nothing to see here. Just go back to your happy little life with your cheese and your sour cream and pretend that everything is okay...keep moving. This post is for vegans ONLY! Ya, it's a private club. Now beat it.

If you're vegan you understand. Vegan cheese is an "acquired" taste. If you're not committed, don't even try. I've heard that there are some great new vegan cheeses that have come on the market back in the states but being out here in never never land with the lost boys I haven't had the pleasure of experimenting for myself. As for now, I am stuck with what the local corner market can supply; but, after much research I've developed something that seems to work. In my research I have come across two types of cheese -
1. tofu/soy
2. non tofu/soy (usually made with nutritional yeast and cornstarch)
I try to avoid soy whenever possible.....hormonal reasons, don't ask........I said don't ask alright? sheesh....Anyway, since soy is not an option we had to try something else.

Well, I tried the cornstarch variety and while it tasted ok my brain couldn't quite swallow it. So, mine is more of a rice cheese.

Now, this is not my first attempt at cheese making. When Matthew and I were first married we were gifted some Kefir grains. We Loved Kefir....that is until I neglected the poor dears and we got a sour batch. Well, not wanting it to go to waste, I came up with the brilliant idea of making cheese out of it. I researched it online and found I was well on my way to a perfectly delight cheesy substance. I watched it like a hawk for days, if only I had given it this kind of attention when the grains were still good. Finally, I summoned Matthew into the kitchen to try my first of what I hoped to be many batches of Kefir cheese. I sliced off a delicate morsel of a ball that was the consistency of soft cream cheese. We both took a bite and realized.....I had made alcoholic cheese. It fizzled like rootbeer and smelled like a drunk on new years eve. Okay, so not my best.

So Kefir didn't work, that's alright. I then got into sprouting and heard that you could make cheese out of rejuvilac left over from soaking wheat. Now what could go wrong with wheat? It's not alive...so to speak, no way to kill it. This one was sure to work. After several days of anticipation I called Matthew into the kitchen again to taste my new cheese. I guess the memory of the last experience was still a little too fresh in his mind, or maybe it was the mold that was growing on the outside of the cheese; whatever, it was, I was able to convince him that mold was part of the cheese making process....like blue cheese, this was just a sign of my success. Unfortunately, he wouldn't agree to be the guinea pig this time so we agreed to try it together. We then concluded that no, this was not the right kind of mold.

As I'm re-reading this I realize this is not the best intro to get you to try my vegan cheese but look at it this way, with all this experience behind me I now know what NOT to do. That's got to count for something. So, try it if you dare. I tried it on the vegan pizza for an upcoming post and it is heavenly! So, if nothing else, try it on the pizza.

Vegan Cheese
1/4 c cashews
2 potatoes
4-5 carrots
1 onion
1-2 c celery
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C nurtitional yeast
1 c water

In a pressure cooker cook potatoes, carrots, celery, water, and onion for 10 minutes. When finished add all the ingredients to a blender to make it creamy. Use while its hot. You can also use it cold as a cheese spread.

Add ins: for nacho cheese add bottled salsa and a hit of Tabasco
or, add broccoli and vegetable stock and serve over potatoes

Anyone who has lived in Hawaii, or even been there on a visit can tell you about Zippies Chili and Rice. It's legendary. Whenever we go back, the first place we stop, after the luggage carousel, is Zippies. And true to Hawaiian style, one serving usually satisfies both of us...depending on the in-flight meal. It's one of those things that if you're in Hawaii you've got to try - like surfing and Motsimotos (try the shaved ice with the beans....you won't regret it). But, If you're not planning a trip to the rainbow state any time soon, this recipe will satisfy for now. Or, if you've been there it might make you more anxious to go back.

Hawaiian Chili and Rice

Lentils
1 can refried beans or homemade
1 lb black beans
1 lb kidney beans
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 onion chopped
1 can corn
salt
garlic powder
brown sugar to taste

First, soak the black beans and the kidney beans over night. This will help cut down on the "end result" that beans can have. If that's not an option then just put them together in a pot with water and cook. Once the beans are cooked add the stewed tomatoes, chopped onion, refried beans, and lentils. (remember those left over beans and lentils from the bean burritos? throw em' in!) Now add the salt and brown sugar till it tastes slightly sweet. At the very last add the can of corn. This way the corn will stay crisp. Serve over rice. (this is a great way to use up the plain rice left over from the fried rice).

Now, grab a bowl, head out to the backyard with your slippas and some island music. You can thank me later for saving you on your grocery bill AND your travel expenses.

Pages

Enchiladas

Enchiladas

Special: Vegan Feta Cheese

Day 71: Vegan Fillet o' Fish

Day 63: Sausage Egg.....Plant Breakfast Burritos

Day 58: Hash Browns

Day 48: Musubies - Spam Sushi

Day 43: Hawaiian Haystacks

Day 39: Cheesy Broccoli Casserole

Day 26: Curry

Day 22: Sushi with Edamame

Special: Vegan Soy Free Cheese Updated

Day 4: Hawaiian Chili & Rice

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