ASDA has come out with a new range of vegetarian just-add-water mixes. The range includes burgers, sausages, falafel and nut roast.

When I first spied them in the store, I perused the ingredients list and noticed the presence of soy. It was not specified if this was genetically modified or not, so I called the ASDA help line on the back of the packet to enquire. Unfortunately, despite a 12-minute phone call at my expense, the customer “service” rep could not tell me if the soy was genetically modified or not. I asked if ASDA had a blanket policy on GM foods, but the rep was clueless on that as well. He took my contact details and promised a response within a couple of days, which (weeks later) I am still waiting for. Zero out of 10 for customer service on that one, ASDA!

We bought a couple of the packet mixes anyway, with the idea that we’d return them if it turned out they contained GM soy. After several days, and having received no response from ASDA, I searched the internet for the information. Turns out ASDA does have a GM-free policy, which applies to all of their own-brand food ingredients, but does not extend to  “the feeding of GM derived materials to livestock”. No GM worries for vegans, then!

Back to the food. The mixes sell for 78p, but are currently on offer at two for £1. Depending on the mix, they make from two to four servings each, so are really good value, and are a great idea when you’re pressed for time and want something quick and nutritious.

The first one in the range we tried was “Chargrill style meat free burger mix”, and we were not disappointed.

Preparation couldn’t be easier, as you simply add water to the dry mix and let stand for 10 minutes. You can then form the mixture into burgers. The directions called for making eight small burgers, but I made four “normal”-sized ones instead. I made the burgers using my burger press, but you can also form them by hand. They were then pan-fried until golden on each side. I fried two of the burgers; the remaining two were frozen uncooked for another meal.

I was pleased that the burgers held together nicely in the frypan. Both Mr Thrifty and I loved the savoury, delicious taste that was a bit reminiscent of fried onions.

When the time came to use the frozen burgers, I partially thawed them before frying, as I didn’t want them to overbrown before being hot inside. This worked beautifully, and were indistinguishable from the freshly-made burgers.

I highly recommend the new ASDA Chargrill style meat free burger mix as a quick, convenient, delicious and thrifty purchase. Reviews of other products in this range are forthcoming!

The other day I decided to experiment with a couple of faux meaty things.

I made “white seitan” from the book Viva Vegan (recipe can be found here; I made 1/4 of the recipe). I first steamed it for 30 minutes, then let it cool for a few minutes and tried it. It was gummy and unappealing, so I wrapped it back up and let it steam for 90 minutes total. This time the texture was nice and chewy. The flavour is good as well. It can be sliced very thinly. I think I still prefer seitan made with the addition of tofu though, as in this experiment.

I also had a package of bean curd skin in the freezer, and had wanted for ages to try making “ham” from it.

I started by cutting the bean curd skin into julienne strips, then poured boiling water over to soften. Drained it well, then added soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds and sugar. Wrapped it tightly in a piece of muslin and steamed over simmering water for 90 minutes.

It worked pretty well. Both Mr Thrifty and I really liked the texture, but the flavour was nothing like ham. It has to be sliced quick thickly or it breaks up. The problem is going to be trying to get the flavours into the ham before steaming it.  Using too much liquid seasoning means it just leaks out when being steamed. Next time I am going to try making my own bean curd skin from homemade soya milk, as I’m concerned that the bought bean curd skin may be made from genetically modified soya beans.

Further faux meat experiments to come!

These meatless hamburger steaks are really amazing. The texture is EXACTLY like what I remember hamburger being like, and Mr Thrifty concurs. The taste is most delicious, though the flavour could be tweaked to make it more meat-like if you so desire.

The hamburger steaks are a combination of TVP, gluten, minced veggies and seasonings. They’re formed into steaks and steamed, then pan-fried. They hold together very well, and would probably work great on the barbecue.

A thinner version of these would make fab burgers as well.

A note on ingredients: Marmite lends a rich, salty taste. If you don’t have it, try adding some veggie “beef” bouillon powder instead. The gravy browning is optional, but adds a nice dark colour.

Vegan hamburger steaks

1. Bring 100ml (1/2 cup less 1 tablespoon) water, Marmite and gravy browning to a boil in a small pot. Stir in TVP, off heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a heavy skillet and saute the onion, mushrooms and red pepper for 10 minutes, until softened.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine TVP with cooked vegetables. Add soy sauce, tomato puree (tomato paste), steak sauce or barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and 50ml (3-1/2 tablespoons) water. Mix well, then stir in ground oats and nutritional yeast.

4. Sieve the gluten flour over the wet mixture and combine well.

5. Divide mixture into four portions and shape into oval steaks. Wrap each steak in baking paper, then in aluminium foil.

6. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Steam steaks for 40 minutes over gently simmering water, switching positions halfway through (bottom steaks on top and top ones on bottom). Check water level regularly to ensure the pot does not boil dry and add boiling water as necessary.

7. When steaks have finished steaming, let cool. Unwrap and saute until lightly brown.

Makes four hamburger steaks.

I know I’ve been neglecting my blog somewhat, but I’ve been a busy little beaver in the kitchen.

I created the most amazing vegan-hamburger-steak-type thing which had just the perfect texture and a savoury and delicious flavour. And on the first try as well!

I also made some awesome vegan pepperoni sticks:

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Not to mention some very tasty butter bean burgers with a lovely crunchy crust (which all good bean burgers must have):

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AND, I also tried my hand at homemade crisps. It would be truly dangerous if I made these on a regular basis:

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Recipes will be in forthcoming posts!

But that’s not all…

I took a look in my freezer a month or so ago and realised there were still a couple of drawers full of fruit, waiting patiently to be made into wine. I’ve been making a gallon a week since then and so far have brewing: blackberry-raspberry; plum-blackerry; cherry-cranberry; elderberry-blackcurrant; and plum-blackcurrant-blackberry. YUM!

I also invested in a brand-spanking-new SoyQuick 930P, kind of the Rolls Royce of soya milk makers. Woohoo! I’ve made not just soya milk but also hemp milk, and will soon be experimenting with homemade tofu. Very exciting!

And I’ve bought a few exotic and somewhat hard-to-find ingredients: carrageenan, agar-agar and locust bean gum. These have been used to make a delicious garlic pâté (which was supposed to be cheese, but ended up with a consistency and flavour like pâté), as well as the aforementioned pepperoni.

Not only that, but we’ve been starting to prepare the allotments for the new growing season, and Mr Thrifty will be utilising his exceptional garden DIY skills to make raised beds for our second allotment. It’s a new and better design (hopefully) than the ones that are on our first allotment.

And if that weren’t enough, we’ve also joined a food co-op, and now can buy all kinds of delicious organic food at wholesale prices! Our first order has come in and we’ll be picking it up tomorrow. Yay!

Stay tuned, cyber-friends, details of these new ventures will be coming soon!

Sometimes I’m in the mood for a big ol’ slab of protein… seitan, that is!

A couple of days ago, I made Matt’s recipe for Chickeny seitan cutlets. I tweaked the spices slightly (I omitted the bay leaf and instead added celery seed and freshly ground pepper); used regular tofu instead of silken; and made half a recipe.

I like this recipe because it involves cooking the seitan cutlets in broth in the oven. This is easier than cooking them in a pot on the hob, where inattention can mean the difference between seitan cutlets and seitan brains. I checked them after about an hour, and they still seemed a long way from cooked, so I increased the temperature to 180C (350F). That did the trick and they were perfectly cooked in a total of just over 1-1/2 hours.

I then dusted the cutlets with flour and panfried them.

We served them with Mr Thrifty’s special mash, creamy mushroom gravy and a red cabbage salad from Epicurious.

The cutlets were delicious, tender and tasty, and the gravy was a perfect accompaniment. As for Mr Thrifty’s mash… well let’s just say, this is the mash that turned me into a mashed potato lover. The salad, I have to admit, was not my favourite; the flavours just didn’t seem to work together very well.

The best thing about the cutlets is that there were four left over. Yesterday I thinly sliced two of them to use as chickeny strips in Buddha bowls, and they were excellent in that role as well.

So when you have a few minutes, go and check out Matt’s blog My Veggie Kitchen, he’s got a lot of great vegan recipes.

Creamy mushroom gravy

1. Reserve two tablespoons of the bouillon and heat the rest in a small pot over medium heat. As it is heating, add the nutritional yeast, soy sauce, thyme, and salt & pepper to taste.

2. Meanwhile, mix the cornflour (cornstarch) into the reserved bouillon and set aside.

3. When the bouillon in the pot comes to a simmer, give the cornflour/bouillon mixture a stir and add it to the pot, whisking continuously, and bring again to a simmer, whisking all the while. The mixture will thicken as the cornflour cooks.

4. Whisk in the optional cream cheese until incorporated.

5. Add sliced mushrooms and stir. Cover, turn heat to low, and cook at a gentle simmer until mushrooms are cooked, about five minutes.

This year for Christmas Day dinner, I made the same centrepiece as one year ago: seitan turkey roast with wild rice stuffing. This scrumptious vegan dish is similar to commercial products like Tofurkey or Cheatin’ Roast. Only better.

For side dishes, we had stuffing balls; veggie bacon-wrapped sausages; various roasted veggies: potatoes, oca, parsnips, carrots and brussels sprouts; along with braised leeks. All served with homemade turkey-style veggie gravy and lingonberry sauce (which is like cranberry sauce), accompanied by delicious homemade wine from our postman and friend, Hugh.

A vegan feast!

I decided to do the seitan turkey a bit different from last year. The technique of kneading the seitan dough, letting it rest, then kneading it again is rather time-consuming. And I found that it is not necessary to do it this way, as the texture of the seitan is not any different than simply using a basic seitan deli slice recipe. This method involves blenderising the wet ingredients, then stirring in the dry ingredients to make the dough. No kneading and no waiting.

I made the seitan turkey the day before. This meant that on Christmas day all I had to do was wrap the roast in the beancurd sheet (optional, but gives it a nice crispy “skin”) and heat it in the oven. I think the texture is a bit better if the roast is left to rest in the refrigerator overnight, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

If you don’t want to use beancurd sheet to make a “skin”, I suggest basting the roast so that it doesn’t dry out. There are a few basting suggestions on the Tofurkey site.

I’m posting this seitan turkey roast recipe as the “new and improved”  version over last year’s.

Happy Christmas to all creatures!

Seitan turkey roast with wild rice stuffing (version 2.0)

1. First, make stuffing. Rinse rice thoroughly with cold water. Bring a small pot of water to the boil, add rice and simmer for 40-45 minutes, until grains are beginning to pop.

2. Heat margarine in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat and saute onion, celery and mushroom until tender, about 5-10 minutes.

3. When rice is cooked, add to the sauteed vegetables along with the breadcrumbs, cranberries and pecans; mix thoroughly. Add enough broth to make the mixture moist but not soggy. Add salt, pepper and herbs to taste. Set dressing aside.

4. If you’re starting with whole cashews or almonds, grind them in the blender first while it’s still clean and dry, then remove and set aside.

5. Crumble the tofu into the blender. Put the bouillon cube in a glass measuring cup and add a couple tablespoons of boiling water to dissolve the cube. Add the soy sauce, then add enough water so the mixture equals 100ml  (6-1/2 tablespoons). Add this to the blender.

6. Add remaining ingredients to blender EXCEPT gluten. Blenderise until completely smooth. Empty into a large mixing bowl.

7. Whisk together the gluten and arrowroot or cornflour (cornstarch), then stir into the wet ingredients and mix until evenly combined. You’ll have a soft dough.

8. Place a large piece of cling film (Saran wrap) onto the work surface. Turn dough out onto the cling film and press flat into a 25×38cm (10″x15″) rectangle.

9. Spread stuffing evenly over dough, leaving a 1″ border at the edges. Roll into a log (starting from the short end), then press the ends together to seal. Make sure the log is short enough to fit into your steamer. You can gently press the log into a shorter, fatter shape if it’s a bit too long.

Seitan turkey before rolling

Seitan turkey after rolling

10. Wrap the log in a piece of baking paper (parchment paper), then in muslin and tie the ends with cotton string.

Seitan turkey wrapped in muslin

11. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Steam turkey for two hours over gently simmering water, turning a quarter turn every half hour. Check water level regularly to ensure the pot does not boil dry and add boiling water as necessary.

12. The roast can be prepared ahead of time to this point. If preparing ahead, let cool and refrigerate.

13. For “skin” on turkey: Preheat oven to 400F (200C). When finished steaming, let turkey cool until it can be handled. (Or remove from refrigerator if prepared ahead of time.) Unwrap from muslin and baking paper/parchment. Take the sheet of beancurd skin and dip it into a bowl of warm water until it softens. Don’t oversoak it or it will start to fall apart. Fold beancurd skin in half and place on work surface. Place turkey on top of beancurd skin, fold in the sides and wrap around the turkey.

14. Combine oil and soy sauce. Brush over surface of turkey.

15. Bake in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes, rotating halfway through, until “skin” is crispy. Slice and serve with gravy and all the trimmings.

Serves 4-6.

Vegan turkey gravy

1. Bring 310ml (1-1/4 cups) water to a simmer with bouillon cube. Add soya cream, onion, garlic, sage, thyme, salt & pepper.

2. Mix 2 tablespoons cold water with cornflour (cornstarch) until blended.

3. When broth mixture is simmering, slowly whisk in cornflour (cornstarch) mixture, until gravy is as thick as you like it. Continue to gently simmer for another couple of minutes.

Serve with seitan turkey roast.

Spaghetti & meatballs always reminds me of the “spaghetti scene” from Lady & the Tramp. These are so tasty that you may find it difficult to give that last meatball to your loved one.

I made them a bit different than my usual meatballs. I added a third of a recipe of mushroom burgers to the mix, and omitted the oil. They were really good, a bit firmer than usual. Next time I’ll probably just add extra mushrooms to my standard meatball recipe. I think the mushrooms make the meatballs moist without having to add oil.

The sauce was bolognese from Seeds of Change (which, despite the name, contains no meat or faux meat).

Mr Thrifty has been asking me for ages to try my hand at vegan Yorkshire puddings. Since I finally have a Yorkshire pudding tin, I have no more excuses.

Woo hoo… success on the first try!

I cannot take credit for this creation.. it’s from the now-defunct blog gorgeousveganblog.co.uk. They are super-easy to make, with only four ingredients: plain flour, gram (chickpea) flour, soya milk and salt.

They are sooo scrummy! Since I’ve never had traditional Yorkshire puddings, I relied on Mr Thrifty to critique their authenticity. He said the only differences between traditional ones and these vegan ones were that these had a slightly sweet taste (from the soya milk, which has a bit of sweetness that I’ve never really noticed before); and also they didn’t rise quite as much.

They were perfect with our Sunday roast dinner.

Sharing the plate is a beefy seitan roast, stuffing balls, roast potatoes, vegan gravy and stir-fried Chinese cabbage with garlic.

For those who aren’t familiar with Yorkshire puddings (which is probably everyone outside of the UK), they’re like a pancake on the bottom with a crispy coating on the sides & top and a hollow middle. They are traditionally served with Sunday roast dinners, but Mr Thrifty has guiltily admitted to having them with curry in the past.

In future, these will make a regular appearance on the plate whenever we have a roast dinner.

The gal who created the original recipe made them in a muffin tin, and the recipe yielded six puddings, but my Yorkshire puddingn tin only has four holes. There is more batter here than is needed for four puddings, so I’ll tweak the recipe in future.

Because I’m lazy, I didn’t convert the UK “weight” measurements to US “volume” measurements, but will do so next time I make this recipe.

Here, thanks to gorgeousveganblog.co.uk, is the recipe for making these scrummy delights!

Vegan Yorkshire puddings

4oz  plain (all-purpose) flour

salt to taste

1 heaped teaspoon gram flour (chickpea flour, besan)

half a pint of soya milk

vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 230C (450F). Pour a thin layer of vegetable oil in the holes of a Yorkshire pudding or muffin tin and place in oven. The oven needs to be hot and the oil needs to be hot.

2. Mix plain flour, salt and gram flour together with a whisk. Gradually pour in the soya milk taking in the flour slowly until all the milk is added and the flour is incorporated. Whisk with all your might until you can see bubbles. (I used the whisk attachment of my stick blender.) Note: the batter will be very thin, much thinner than pancake batter. It’s supposed to be that way.

3. Carefully remove tin from oven and fill the holes. If using a muffin tin, fill half way up; if using a Yorkshire pudding tin, fill all the way up. Put back in oven and cook for about 20 minutes. Don’t open the oven door to check them, as the oven needs to stay really hot. If your oven cooks hotter at the back than the front (like mine), you can rotate the tin halfway through, but do it quickly.

Enjoy!

Since this past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada, I decided to make a veggie turkey roast with various sides, and also pumpkin pie for dessert.

I made the turkey roast the same as I did for Christmas last year, except to save time I used stuffing from a box instead of homemade.

It was delicious, though not quite as nice as with homemade stuffing.

I served it with roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, salad and peas. Except for the potatoes, the sides were not traditional, but sometimes you just have to wing it.

For dessert, I made pumpkin pie, which is totally traditional for Thanksgiving. Instead of milk & egg like in a traditional pumpkin pie, I substituted silken tofu.

Don’t mind my lame pie crust… even when I use pre-rolled pastry out of a box it doesn’t seem to turn out right (sigh).

But overall, it was a big success… and a Thanksgiving meal that even the turkeys would be thankful for!

For Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food) this year, I will be cooking my way around the world with interesting dishes from different regions.

Starting in my own country, today I’m featuring that classic British pub dish, bangers & mash with onion gravy.

Anyone following my blog previously knows that I’m a big fan of veggie sausages, and I’ve previously shared recipes for breakfast sausages, bratwursts, hot dogs & sundried tomato sausages.

I’ve been experimenting with a new ingredient for my sausages that I’ve used a couple of times now. I was inspired by Quorn, a brand of vegetarian meat substitute that has a huge range of different products. Quorn isn’t vegan, but the main ingredient in Quorn is mycoprotein, which is a type of factory fabricated fungus. Of course, I have no way of making this type of fungus in my kitchen, so instead I used a fungus which is available, i.e. the marvellous mushroom. I used mushrooms in place of the tofu or beans I usually use in my sausages.

The first time I made sausages with mushrooms, I used fresh shiitake mushrooms, which are ever so tasty, but freakin’ expensive. This time, I used half shiitakes and half ordinary white button mushrooms.

The sausages were a bit softer using shiitake/button mushrooms, than with just shiitakes. I’ll be experimenting further with using mushrooms in sausages, but for now I’ll post the recipe as I made it. The seasoning combo I used was deelish.

I served the sausages with Mr Thrifty’s special mash, along with onion gravy and peas. The recipe for onion gravy is here, the only modification I made was to use vegan margarine instead of butter. It was super scrummy.

To really get into the whole pub experience, the meal was made complete with beer (for Mr Thrifty) and homemade cider (for me).

Cheers!

Homemade vegan bangers

1. If you’re starting with whole almonds, grind them in the blender first while it’s still clean and dry, then remove and set aside.

2. Thickly slice the mushrooms, then saute in a bit of the coconut oil until excess moisture from mushrooms has evaporated. Set aside.

3. Put the bouillon cube into a glass measuring cup and add a couple of tablespoons of boiling water; stir to dissolve the cube. Add soy sauce to measuring cup, then add enough water to equal 125ml (1/2 cup). Add this to the blender.

4. Add remaining ingredients to blender EXCEPT gluten. Blenderise until completely smooth. If the mixture is too thick to blend smooth, add a bit more water, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture can be blended smooth. (I added three extra tablespoons of water.) Empty into a large mixing bowl.

5. Add gluten to wet mixture in bowl and mix well, until you have a uniform soft dough. If the dough is too soft to form into sausages, add more gluten, one tablespoon at a time, until dough is firm enough.

6. Divide dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a sausage shape. Wrap each sausage in baking paper and then in aluminium foil. Lightly twist the ends together.

7. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Arrange wrapped bangers in your steamer insert, with seam side down to reduce the likelihood of a foil blowout. (Packing the bangers tightly in the steamer also reduces this chance.) I arranged four on the bottom of the steamer insert, then another four at a 90 degree angle on top of them.

8. Steam for 40 minutes over gently simmering water. If you’ve arranged your bangers in two layers, switch their positions halfway through the cooking time (bottom ones on top and top ones on bottom). Turn heat off and let cool.

9. To cook, gently pan fry in a bit of olive oil until golden.

Can be frozen for future use: leave them wrapped and place in a freezer bag.

Makes eight bangers.

Mr Thrifty’s special mash

1. Peel potatoes and cut into large chunks. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add potatoes and simmer 15 minutes, or until tender.

2. Drain potatoes, reserving a bit of the cooking water. Mash potatoes in the pot, then add margarine, mayonnaise and bouillon powder. If the mixture is a bit dry, add some of the reserved cooking water.

Makes two servings.