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.

Learning New Skills

I lost track with the blog for a little while, life has been busy.  In preparation for my upcoming training, I have been cooking mostly out of two cookbooks, The 30-Minute Vegan and The Taste of The East the last few weeks so I didn't feel I should be posting too many same chef's recipes.  It's just not good chef etiquette.

 Recently I spent three days training to teach plant based cooking with one of my favorite chefs and the author of these vegan cookbooks, Mark Reinfeld, of Vegan Fusion.  I am now in the third phase of the training.  I'll assist in a couple five and ten day classes and then give it a try on my own beginning with intimate demos in the local health food store, the produce store, and private homes.  I'd love to do a demo at the farmer's market using just the ingredients on hand there.  I'm a bit nervous, but excited to try out something new.  I always did love working in the restaurant business.  I enjoy helping people create their own meals and participate in their celebrations. This way, I can be a part of sharing wonderful food without the stress of trying to run a restaurant.  I like that idea. We'll see how it goes.  Not quitting the day job just yet. The training was great and I feel like I have the tools to begin exploring this adventure.

This month I'm assisting an experienced teacher with a three part class based on Dr. McDougall's plant based diet. Then towards the end of the month, I'm off to Portland to assist in a five day intensive training.  Looking forward to cooking with new friends.

First Demonstration:  Tomato Mung Bean Salad

 How to clean the seeds from a chili pepper without touching the seeds. 

I'm creating some great meals in my warm kitchen.  I have quite a few fun recipes to share, I'll be posting some shortly.

Raw Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Blueberry Coconut Frosting

I came across this easy recipe on Facebook.  These cupcakes spend a little time in the freezer and a little time in the dehydrator making them crispy on the outside and cake like on the inside.  They were a huge hit at the potluck.  Luckily I held out a couple at home so we could enjoy them.

The recipe calls for almond pulp from fresh almond milk. I don't use a juicer, but I do have a very good high speed blender. Whipped these up in my Blendtec and used cheesecloth to separate the fresh almond milk from the pulp. 

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Blueberry Coconut Cream Frosting

 - by Priscilla Soligo, founder of Rawthentic Food

This heavenly raw cupcake recipe by Chef Priscilla can be created easily at home.  All you need to get your hands on is one of those flexible silicon cup cake trays so you can pop out the base with ease.  That’s really the key to getting raw cupcakes to look this gorgeous!  Take note of Priscilla’s detailed instructions for creating the cupcake frosting with a firm yet creamy texture.

Ingredients

Cupcake Base:

• 2 (258g) Cups Almond Pulp , (defrosted and excess water squeezed out.  Almond pulp is the left over almond after almond milk has been made with water in a blender and strained.
• 1 (87g) Cup Dessicated Coconut Flakes
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Nectar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 tsp Pink Himalayan Crystal Salt (I used a Celtic Sea Salt, worked just fine)
  

Blueberry Coconut Frosting:

• 2 1/2  Cups Coconut Butter Melted, (271g unmelted measurement)
• 1 1/2 (190g) Cups Blueberries
• 1 (60g) Cup Macadamia Nuts, (or cashews, pre-soaked 2 hours)
• 1/2 Cup Raw Organic Honey, (or coconut nectar for lower glycemic sweetener)
• 1 Cup Filtered Water

Method

For the cupcake base

In a food processor, process all ingredients together and place cupcake dough into a large bowl.

Using 14 mini silicon cupcake molds, press the dough firmly into each one making sure the top is flat.  Place in the freezer for 2 hours for the cupcakes to get up.  This will make molds easier to remove.  During this time, commence making the frosting.

Remove from the freezer and here you have two options.

Dehydrator Option 1:  Remove cupcakes from silicone molds.  Place cupcake bases onto a mesh lined dehydrator tray (not teflex sheet) and dehydrate at 115 for 6 hours.  Remove from dehydrator and allow to cool all the way through completely before icing.

No-Dehydrator Option 2:  Remove cupcakes from silicon molds.  You are ready to ice your cupcake! 

Using a knife, gently place frosting on top of the cupcake and garnish with a blueberry.

Storage:  The dehydrated cupcake bases keep well frozen for up to two months in an airtight sealed container.  The non-dehydrated cupcake bases will keep for up to a month, or so in the freezer in an airtight sealed container.  The frosting will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks in an airtight glass sealed container.

Variation: Replace the blueberries with other berries such as, raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries, or a ‘very berry’ combination.

 For the Frosting

In a high speed blender, place in all ingredients except blueberries and blend until smooth and well incorporated.  Pour into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mash the blueberries with a fork.   

Fold in gently (don’t over mix) blueberry mixture with frosting mixture so you can see two tones showing through.

Refrigerate frosting overnight, or for at least 8 hours before frosting the cupcakes.  For a faster set up try freezing and then stirring gently hourly for 3 – 4 hours to keep the temperature consistent.  This is a ‘cream’ frosting and won’t set stiff.

Almond Pulp and Almond Milk

 Almond Milk

• 3 Cups Raw Almonds (pre-soaked 8 hours, or overnight, rinsed and drained)
• 6 Cups Filtered Water

Tomato Mung Bean Salad

I'm very excited and nervous at the same time thinking about my upcoming Vegan Fusion workshop in Seattle.  The last two day workshop I attended, I was the most experienced vegan cook in the room besides the chef.  This time I will probably be with some experienced chefs who are taking their craft to the classroom or back to their restaurants to teach their cooks.  This class will be a bit challenging, but enjoyable I'm sure.  As time progresses, I find it difficult at times to get what's in my brain to come out of my mouth with grace. :-)

I received an email with the supplies and schedule of the course and I feel like I did when I was getting ready for a college class.  I've also been going through the ten day course via the Healthy Cooking Lessons website, a prerequisite for the course. I have three modules left. Chef Mark has asked us to be prepared with four or five choices of recipes we'd like to try out of the Vegan Fusion cookbooks.  We'll be working on preparing a training demo as well as shopping and prepping for our own demonstrations. I am really looking forward to it.  Two of the books Mark suggested we bring and choose recipes to demo out of I hadn't worked with;  The 30 Minute Vegan, and The Taste of the East.  I promptly purchased them and have been working out of them the past few weeks.

One of the favorites so far is a Thai recipe, the Tomato Mung Bean salad.  I kind of giggle a bit because it's from the 30 Minute Vegan series.  But, it's a thirty minute recipe after I spend three days sprouting the mung beans. Yes, I am finding that most of the recipes are for thirty minutes after I've done my prep work.  I've enjoyed everything I've tried so far. But, there's no possible way I'd find mung bean sprouts, one of the key ingredients, in this town.  As in all the recipes in these books, the ingredients can be substituted many ways, I'm sure I can find alfalfa sprouts and maybe some pea sprouts in town I wanted to make it with the mung beans.  So, it's a thirty minute recipe after three days of sprouting.  I tried it before the local potluck and it was such a great, refreshing salad, also very high in nutrition. I took it to the last potluck and it was a hit.

 

Tomato Mung Bean Salad

     The 30-Minute Vegan's Taste of The East

3 large tomatoes, chopped (3 cups)
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1½ cups mung sprouts
½ cup sliced green onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 hot chile pepper, seeded and diced, or to taste, (I used a mild Anaheim pepper for the potluck)
1 tablespoon minced fresh mint
1 tablespoon soy sauce (I used wheat free tamari for my Gluten free friends)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Dash of cayenne pepper, or to taste
½ teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and gently mix well.

~~Enjoy!~~