Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook (35 page)

Read Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook Online

Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz,Terry Hope Romero

Tags: #food.cookbooks

2 cups cooked or 1 (15-ounce) can black beans,
drained and rinsed
½ cup vital wheat gluten
½ cup plain whole wheat bread crumbs
1 teaspoon chile powder
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon tomato paste (or ketchup)
¼ cup finely chopped cilantro (optional)
2 cloves garlic
½ small onion
About 2 tablespoons olive oil plus olive oil spray
Whole wheat buns
 
MASH THE beans with a fork in a mixing bowl. You don’t want to puree them; just get them mashed so that no whole beans are left, but you should leave some half beans.
Add the wheat gluten, bread crumbs, chile powder, cumin, water, and tomato paste (and cilantro, if using), but don’t mix yet. Use a microplane grater to grate the garlic in. (A garlic press or very well minced garlic works, too.) Use the large holes on a box grater to grate in the onion.
Mix everything together with a fork, and then proceed to knead with your hands, until the mixture is firm and uniformly mixed (about a minute).
Preheat a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Divide the burger mixture into six equal pieces. Roll each piece into a firm ball. Use your palm to press the ball down on a clean surface to form a patty that is about 1½ inch thick. Press so that the patty is flat on both sides. Make six patties.
Pour a thin layer of olive oil into the pan. Cook the patties three at a time for 5 minutes on each side, gently but firmly pressing down on them with a spatula. Spray with olive oil before turning over, for uniform browning. Once cooked, the patties should be very firm when you press down on them.
Serve warm on burger buns.
SNOBBY JOES
 
SERVES 4 TO 6
TIME:
60 MINUTES
 
 
Every vegan cookbook needs a sloppy joe recipe with the name changed around a bit, right? Well, this is ours: those sloppy joes we loved as a child, but made with lentils. Snobby Joe thinks he’s better than all the other Joes because he doesn’t have any meat.
1 cup uncooked lentils
4 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, cut into small dice
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cut into small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chile powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
¼ cup tomato paste
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
4-6 kaiser rolls or sesame buns, sliced in half
horizontally
 
POUR THE lentils and water into a small saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Drain and set aside.
About 10 minutes before the lentils are done, preheat a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onion and pepper in the oil for about 7 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute more.
Stir in the cooked lentils, chile powder, oregano, and salt. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup to taste and the mustard, and heat through.
Turn off the heat and let the pot sit for about 10 minutes, so that the flavors can meld, or go ahead and eat immediately if you can’t wait. We like to serve these open faced, a scoop of Snobby Joe on each slice of bun.
BEANBALL SUB
 
MAKES 4
TIME:
40 MINUTES
 
 
This is a conglomeration of a few recipes from the cookbook that also would make great use of leftover Beanballs (page 189).We throw in a handful of spinach just for posterity; you need not be so healthy if you don’t feel like it. Also, if you don’t want to make the Pine Nut Cream (page 164) and just want to use soy cheese, we won’t judge you.These would be perfect for a Super Bowl party, or since you are vegan and hate football, a Nobel Prize party. Ooh, we can’t wait to see who wins for physics this year!
1 recipe Beanballs (page 189)
1 recipe (4 cups) Marinara Sauce, or any of the variations
(page 205)
1 recipe Pine Nut Cream (page 164)
4 hoagie rolls, split open
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, well washed
 
PREPARE THE recipes of the first three components. Preheat oven to 350º F. Place Beanballs on a tray and top with about 1 cup of marinara and all of the pine nut cream. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until pine nut cream is lightly browned. Spread more marinara sauce on one side of each roll and distribute the Beanballs evenly among the sammiches, layering the spinach leaves over them. Top liberally with more marinara sauce. Close your sammiches, slice in half on the diagonal, and serve.
CHILE CORNMEAL-CRUSTED TOFU PO’ BOY
 
SERVES 4
 
 
This is another sammich that uses various recipes from this cookbook. Crusted tofu and creamy coleslaw meet a spicy chipotle mayo and a pickle.We know that po’ boys usually don’t have pickles, so save your e-mails! We just can’t resist them.
1 recipe Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu (page 125)
1 recipe Creamy Coleslaw (page 102)
Chipotle Mayo (page 101)
Sandwich pickles
2 (12-inch) loaves of French bread, sliced in half and
split open
 
PREPARE THE recipes of the components. Spread mayo on the bottom halves of the bread and place the tofu, then the coleslaw, then the pickles on the bread. Spread some mayo onto the top half of the bread, close the sammiches, slice in half on the diagonal, and serve.
ROASTED EGGPLANT AND SPINACH MUFFULETTA SANDWICH
 
SERVES 4
TIME:
45 MINUTES, PLUS 3 HOURS MARINATING TIME
 
 
Only olive lovers need apply! This monster-size, New Orleans classic sandwich is drenched in a luscious multi-olive “salad” that—thanks to a long steep in the fridge—penetrates every succulent inch.The original is a medley of meat products; our version is stuffed to near-bursting with roasted eggplant, sweet peppers, and fresh sweet spinach. Take this sturdy sandwich along to your next picnic or the beach, or drop (wrapped very tightly) into a backpack for a long bike ride.The longer it sits in a chilled environment, the better it will taste. It’s really a meal in of itself but would be really nice with a little sangria and veggie crudités.
 
Mixed Olive Salad Relish:
1 cup pitted kalamata olives
1 cup pitted green olives
½ cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley
4 cloves pickled garlic
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, oil-packed or dried and
reconstituted (about 10 tomatoes)
4 teaspoons red wine or white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried, crumbled rosemary
1 teaspoon dried, crumbled thyme
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon dried, crumbled oregano
1 teaspoon dried, crumbled basil
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
 
Sandwiches:
1 smallish eggplant (less than 1 pound)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 cups fresh spinach leaves, washed and spun dry
2 roasted red or yellow peppers, from a jar or
homemade
1 (9- to 10-inch) round peasant-style loaf (about 1-
1½ pounds)
 
Preheat the oven to 375°F degrees. Lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet. Cut the eggplant widthwise into ¼-inch slices and rub each slice with kosher salt. Allow to drain in a colander for half an hour.
 
 
Prepare the relish while the eggplant is draining:
Place the olives, parsley, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes in a large bowl. Toss with the vinegar and dried herbs. With a food processor, chop the mixture in 2 or 3 batches, adding some of the olive oil with each batch and pouring into the processor bowl. Process only enough to chop up the olives and tomatoes; stop often and use a rubber spatula to move the stuff around. The idea is to create not a paste of olives but a chunky mixture. Scrape the relish, along with the remaining olive oil, into an airtight container.
Place the spinach leaves in a large bowl (you can use the one that once held the olives). Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.
 
➣
Use only high-quality, peasant-style bread with a thick, crisp crust. Anything less than that will disintegrate. Sourdough is particularly yummy choice for this sandwich.
 
➣
Use garlic-stuffed green olives to eliminate the additional pickled garlic. Try adding a tablespoon of capers or a few cut-up hot pickled peppers, too.
 
➣
Leftover olive relish is dynamite on pizza.

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