BBQ Tempeh and Forbidden Rice Salad

I'm finding more and more that cooking plant based has become habit rather than working on change.  Coming home and preparing dinner is as easy as it used to be before we went plant based.  I was thinking about this last Thursday night.  It only took me about an hour to come up with a great meal for dinner and enough for our lunches for the next day. When I got home from work, I sliced some whole grain tempeh I had in the fridge into strips and and tossed them in a marinade of Wheat Free Tamari, fresh lemon juice, a little Mirin, and a dash of sesame oil.

While the tempeh was marinating I peeled and sliced about eight very nice apple pears I picked up on the way home from work at the local produce store.  I sprinkled the slices with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little spice mixture from the cooking class last week.  I think it had some cumin, ground almonds, sesame seeds, and a little lavender.  I threw the slices in the dehydrator.  Just love dried apple pears, they're like candy to me. They'll be ready in the morning. I like to take them out when they are dry, but still a little moist and crunchy inside.

I put on a small pot of black forbidden rice and a pot kaniwa.  They both take about 20 minutes to cook and when they were done, I tossed them together and added some chopped green onion and diced red bell pepper, Tamari, Lemon Juice, Sea Salt, and a little Raw Apple Cider Vinegar.  Served on a bed of chard chiffonade and fresh sliced cucumber.  I picked the chard and cucumber from the garden Sunday.

Forbidden Rice & Kaniwa Salad

While the rice and kaniwa were cooking I browned the marinated tempeh in about a little less than a tablespoon of coconut oil and added some vegan barbeque sauce I had made up a couple days before.  I made the sauce on Sunday, planning to make this dish sometime this week. I cooked the tempeh and sauce just a few minutes until the sauce was warmed through.

Marinated Tempeh Browning

BBQ Tempeh

The BBQ Sauce is an easy recipe from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw. pg 139

½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
¼ cup raisins
1 cup filtered water
2 TB fresh dill, minced (I used 1 TB dried dill)
1½ tsp. raw apple cider vinegar
½ tsp. stone-ground mustard
Sea Salt to taste
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 TB olive oil
¼ cup tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 chipotle pepper, ribs and seeds removed, and soaked (optional)

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes and raisins in the filtered water in a small bowl for at least 30 minutes, reserving soak water.

Place the sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, dill, apple cider vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil, chopped tomatoes, chipotle pepper, and 1/4 cup soak water from tomatoes and raisins in a blender and blend on high for 30 to 40 seconds until a paste forms.

I spread half of this paste on my tempeh in the skillet and added the remaining soak water to the blender and blended for another 30 seconds to make a nice sauce. I drizzled some sauce on the warm plated tempeh.

Pasta Alfredo ~ More Vegan Comfort Food

Just got the latest issue of VegNews Magazine. I really like it. I usually can't wait to get the pages messy as I try out three or four of the recipes the first weekend I have the issue.  That's about the best perk I get for being a NW Veg member.  I enjoy their events and educational opportunities, but most of the events are in Portland, a fifty mile drive one way.  This comes right to my house every other month.  I like them so much, I don't lend them out and I keep them up with the recipe books.  I carry around the annual food issue each year for quite awhile.  Last year I think it had 105 recipes.

This latest issue has a great article about the health risks of the food industry workers, Injustice for All, by Mark Hawthorne, author of Striking at the Roots.  Many of us are becoming more and more aware of where our food comes from, how it's produced, and who produced it such as a small organic farm or a large factory farm..  I wonder if many people think about the health of the farm and factory workers when it comes to choosing their food.  We buy organic for health reasons, we don't want herbicide residue in our bodies, we aren't sure what the long term effects of GMO foods are yet, (we do have an idea of the short and long term affects environmentally) but do many of us think about the effects these things have on the people who grow and harvest our food?  That's only a portion of the issues they face and it's a large portion.

The recipe I noticed first in this issue is another classic warm winter comfort dish veganized, Vegan Fettucine Alfredo.  Very nice and really easy. I had most the ingredients in the house except the Fettucine, I used some penne pasta and some wide pasta noodles, all whole grain and dairy free.  When I first learned to prepare vegan meals, I learned a semi raw dish similar to this..  This would probably be pretty good without cooking the sauce too for a cool summer pasta dish.  But with the quickly dropping temperature outside, I want something warm right now.

Vegan Pasta Alfredo

Amazing Alfredo
by Allison Rivers Samson

1 cup raw cashews
2 tablespoons raw pine nuts
1½ cups water
4 teaspoons fresh lemon jice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
dash ground nutmeg
1½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
4 cups cooked fettuccine
3 tablespoons feshly minced parsley

In a blender, grind cashews and pine nuts into a fine powder.  Add water, lemon juice, garlic, nutmeg, and salt.  Blend until completely smooth.

Transfer sauce to a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk as you bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 7 minutes whisking regularly.  Stir in black pepper.

Server over hot pasta and garnish with parsley and freshly ground pepper to taste.

We completed the meal with what I call a TLT, a Tempeh, Lettuce or Greens, and Tomato sandwich with avocado.  The tempeh was marinated in garlic, herbs, and shoyu. I used fresh collard greens and some purple kale for the greens, organic tomato, and avocado, some of Dave's Killer Bread, Lite, a little flax oil veganaise, and a dash of dijon mustard.

Bene Bolognese

Bene Bolognese Recipe 

Made this tasty vegan version of a recipe generally made with pork, beef, and cream last night. I added some chopped eggplant from the garden, a diced mild chili, and used white troufle balsamic vinegar and water instead of the white wine. Most of the ingredients came from my garden. I am looking forward to lunch today.

Vive Bene

TLT with Avocado and Fresh Beet Chips

It's hot and I'm loving it.  I welcome the sun! Here's an easy meal for a hot evening.  A TLT, a  tempeh, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. Grilled lemon pepper tempeh strips marinated in teriyaki sauce on toasted whole grain bread with avocado and garden fresh tomatoes and lettuce.  I served it with thinly sliced turnips, golden beets, and red beets from our garden.  I  called them chips and my granddaughter ate them as if they were her favorite chips.