Baked Tofu Parmesan with Marinara Sauce

For dinner Sunday night, I made Happy Herbivore's test recipe for Baked Tofu Parmesan (her blog post about it is here). It was so delicious. She will be releasing the e-cookbook with this recipe in it soon, so your wait is almost over!

Baked Tofu Parmesan Cutlets naked:

In keeping with my personal challenge to use my cookbooks more frequently during VeganMoFo, I made the Marinara from Yellow Rose Recipes (the author's blog is here) to accompany my Baked Tofu Parmesan. Even though I've had this book for ages, this was my first time cooking from it! I left out the onions and used a can of whole tomatoes instead of diced. Since the whole tomatoes broke down so easily, I didn't blend the marinara as the recipe suggested. It turned out very well and was perfect with the dish.

Yellow Rose Recipes's Marinara coating the Baked Tofu Parmesan:

Backlog to the Forefront

Way back in July, I briefly mentioned a stew I'd made and claimed I'd blog about it because there was a bit of a story behind said stew. That poor stew was never heard of again...until now!

I'd had a request for the Tabbouleh with Mint and Pistachios (I left out the pistachios to reduce the fat content of the recipe) from the April 2008 issue of Vegetarian Times (to which I no longer subscribe), so I went to the local farmers' market to gather the ingredients.

Figs, red grapefruit, parsley, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, and celery (not all ingredients for the tabbouleh, obviously).

While at the farmers' market with my magazine, I also decided to make the Butternut Squash and Chickpea Stew with Couscous (minus the couscous, of course, because I was already making the tabbouleh).



The tabbouleh was good, but the stew was great! I'd recommend the stew recipe for an evening when you want dinner on the table quickly and you're craving a warm, comforting dish.

My Favorite Smoothie

I've written before of my allergies and how I treat them with Chickpea Noodle Soup from Veganomicon.

My other home remedy is the smoothie pictured above. According to an article I read earlier in the year (sorry, I don't have the link): "The supplement bromelain - a papaya and pineapple-based enzyme - helps reduce histamine release, the body's natural allergic response." This smoothie is 8 ounces of fat-free soy milk blended with roughly 8 ounces of frozen pineapple chunks until creamy. It's refreshing, bromelain-packed, and ALWAYS consumed from my Angels lenticular cup!

Nush-e jan!*

Today is my 10th anniversary of vegetarianism (and the first anniversary of this blog) and I think this post is a good way to celebrate amazing vegan food.

What did I do with my pound of seitan, you ask? I cooked an Iranian feast! I've carried great memories of delicious home-cooked Iranian food with me since I used to dine chez ma meilleure amie in high school. It was high time I tried my hand at it!

A while ago, I bought A Taste of Persia, a cookbook written by Najmieh Batmanglij. I really wanted to make chelow (rice) with tah dig (the golden rice crust). All I had left was to decide what the main dish would be. I chose khoresh-e bademjan (eggplant khoresh). According to the book, khoresh is a delicately braised dish (there are so many different kinds of khoresh that it was hard to choose!).

When the seitan had been baking for about an hour and a half (see previous post), I started the rice. Making chelow is a laborious process! I won't give away Batmanglij's recipe, but it included rinsing the rice multiple times, boiling it, creating the tah dig layer, cooking it again, and finally steaming! What you see below is the chelow with tah dig after I turned it out onto a baking sheet (I don't have a platter). It cracked, but still tastes great! It's wonderfully buttery (despite not containing any butter substitute; I just used canola oil) and carries the amazing fragrance of saffron.



I changed several things about the khoresh-e bademjan recipe. It called for onions, which I replaced with fennel, I significantly reduced the amount of oil, instead of an egg wash for the eggplant, I whipped up an Ener-G egg, and instead of meat...I substituted a pound of the seitan I blogged about in yesterday's post!

The fennel, tomato, and seitan mixture are combined on the stovetop and the eggplant is fried separately. Then, they all come together in a casserole dish to bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. The result is a deliciously warm, comforting, tangy dish with eggplant that simply melts in your mouth. Khoresh-e bademjan is going to become a staple of my fall and winter cooking. I've promised to try my hand at other types of khoresh, too, though!

Khoresh-e bademjan straight out of the oven:

My lunches for this week and part of next look like this:

This meal took me a little over 3 hours to prepare (not including the time it took to make the seitan). While it's not something I have the time or inclination to do every day, it was a wonderful way for me to spend a rainy day in the kitchen.

*Nush-e jan is the equivalent of bon appetit!

Seitan!

Before Saturday, I'd only made small batches of seitan, like for Happy Herbivore's Crispy Chickenless Nuggets. Well, Saturday was a cold and rainy day, albeit one surrounded by 90 degree sunny days, and I decided it was the ideal day to undertake an enormous cooking adventure.

I will save the bulk of the story for tomorrow's post and focus on the seitan in today's. I considered two different seitan recipes: the one in the Real Food Daily Cookbook and the one in Vegan with a Vengeance. I chose the RFD recipe because I'd made a VWAV recipe last week and I'm trying to use more of my cookbooks.

The seitan dough came together very easily. The recipe called for 2/3 cup of nutritional yeast, but I only had about 1/4 cup, so that is what I used (plus, I seem to have a sensitivity to nutritional yeast, so less is better). It's a baked seitan and does not call for kneading. The taste is fabulous and would make an amazing Thanksgiving dish with gravy (the RFD Salisbury Seitan recipe just might be my Thanksgiving meal this year). My only complaint is that it didn't seem to bake through all the way to the bottom.

The above photo is of 3 pounds of cooked seitan, which I wrapped and froze after it was completely cool. What I did with the other pound is a mystery that will be solved tomorrow...

Trader Joe's Wraps it Up

I'm not shy about bringing my own food to Angel Stadium to see my beloved team play. Usually, I'll make a little one-person picnic from things I have in the fridge or something simple I've whipped up. You might remember when Happy Herbivore's Corndawgs accompanied me to a game last month. I didn't have time to cook before the most recent game I attended, but I did have time to stop at Trader Joe's for groceries the previous night.

It is highly unusual for me to be checking out the items in the pre-made sandwich section at Trader Joe's. However, something pulled me in that direction on that fateful evening and I discovered this wrap with a nice big "V" for vegan stamped on its label. Intrigued, I picked it up and began reading the label. Imagine my surprise when I read that label not once, not twice, but three times and did not see the word "onion" on it anywhere. I found a VEGAN, ONION-FREE, grilled veggie wrap with baba ganoush. I still can't believe it!

Sneaking bites between innings as I juggled my wrap with my scorebook, I enjoyed every last morsel. While it's not something I'd buy often because I'd rather prepare my own meals, it's awesome to have a healthy, satisfying, and onion-free vegan wrap when convenience is key. Thanks, yet again, Trader Joe's!

Food Snobbery Survey #3

I just love the blog Food Snobbery is My Hobbery and its fabulous author has written another survey! You can play along by copying the survey to your blog and linking to her blog. Here are my answers:

1. Name a song that involves food in some way.
"Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel.

2. What criteria do you use when choosing a new cookbook to buy?
I almost never buy a cookbook unless it's vegan and was published in 2002 or later. Vegan cookbooks have come so far since then that most older vegan cookbooks seem seriously outdated.

3. What did you eat today?
Nothing yet; it's too early in the morning for me to eat!

4. Name a vegan food that you know exists but you have never tried.
Durian.

5. The Food Network just called and needs you to start your new show tomorrow. What will the title of the show be?
Hugger Food!

6. Favorite hot sauce or other spicy condiment?
Chipotle hot sauce.

7. How old were you when you became vegetarian/vegan?
I was 22 when I became vegetarian and tried veganism at that age, too, but went back to vegetarianism. I gave up cheese when I was 24. I've been solidly vegan since I was 29.

8. Favorite vegan cheeze?
Follow Your Heart.

9. Cutest baby animal?
Kittens!

10. Favorite type of jam/jelly/marmalade/preserves?
Organic raspberry with the seeds.

11. Do you take any vitamins/supplements?
Coenzyme Q10, flax oil capsules, glucosamine (all vegan, all by Deva). If it weren't for some joint issues I'm trying to heal holistically, I wouldn't take any supplements at all.

12. What food/dish most embodies the Fall season?
The stuffing I make every year for Thanksgiving.

13. What food would you have a hard time living without?
Fresh fruit.

14. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
Tea daily and hot chocolate for a treat!

15. It's 10PM and you're starving. What do you eat?
An apple (I don't usually eat after 9:30 p.m.).

16. If you have an animal companion, what is his/her favorite food?
My cat is on a strict diet because he has weight issues, but if I would let him, he'd eat fresh corn.

17. Worst injury you've gotten in the kitchen?
When I was in 4th grade, I was helping my mom cut bell peppers. I didn't know not to put my hand under the pepper as I cut, so I sliced into my middle, ring, and pinkie fingers on my left hand. We went to the emergency room and got it wrapped, but I didn't need stitches, thankfully.

18. When you have a food-related question, who do you call?
Usually people call me with food-related questions! Hmmm, I guess I'd call Your Vegan Mom because she's been vegetarian and vegan far longer than I have and she's an excellent cook!

19. Summer is ending- What food will you miss most?
Fresh blueberries.

20. What snacks do you keep in your purse/backpack/desk at work?
I'm not a snacker. I always have Luna bars in my desk for breakfast and Clif bars in my car for dinners on the run.

21. Favorite soup to make on a rainy day?
Veganomicon's Chickpea Noodle Soup!

22. What's your favorite combination of fresh vegetable and/or fruit juices?
I don't drink much juice. Fresh pressed Granny Smith apple juice is the best juice I've ever tasted.

23. Favorite brand of root beer?
I don't have one! I grew up with IBC, but it has high fructose corn syrup, so I don't drink that anymore. Virgil's is good, but not quite strong enough for me.

24. Make up your own question!
What is your best food/beverage-related way to fight an illness?
I find that soup with miso in it (the aforementioned Chickpea Noodle Soup or straight miso soup) does wonders, as does ginger tea.