This a unique and delicious sandwich. It is made with tempeh, pepper, onion and a quick, homemade teriyaki marinade.
Unlike other times when I am all over telling you that the cheese is optional, in this case, I highly recommend including it - it adds some needed moisture to the sandwich. Although some of the marinade is added at the end, as well, the cheese helps tie it all together. I used Daiya Swiss, which has a strong flavor profile. Try not to use some mild-flavored version.
The marinade is homemade teriyaki that you mix and use as is, and it is made of a handful of ingredients, with nothing too obscure. I would say the oddest ingredient is the mirin. For that, I recommend getting it from the booze aisle, not the grocery aisle, where you pay a ton for a small bottle. If you get it from the alcohol section, you can pick up a proper sized bottle for around $7 US. This can either be mirin or sweet rice wine. Even sake would work.
I made the hoagies using the Refrigerator Dough recipe, which I totally love, because I can prepare it and stash it in the fridge until I need it (up to 5 days). Fresh rolls are terrific!
This recipe makes 2 (6-inch) subs, which I split among 4 people and served each with a garden salad.
If you need inspiration for your weekly menu, check out ours HERE.
Enjoy!
Speedy Cooking Tips:
Gather your ingredients.
Make the marinade.
Add the vegetables and tempeh as you slice them.
Marinate while the oven preheats.
(Printer-friendly doesn't seem to be so friendly. Just select the text between the arrows (including the white space to add margin on the top), right-click, select Print, and now it's printer-friendly. Can also be saved as PDF: choose Save as PDF in Destination drop-down, instead of a printer.)
Teriyaki Tempeh Hoagies
www.ZsusVeganPantry.com
Makes 2 (6-inch) subs
easy
1. Tempeh and Vegetables: Add the tamari, wine, sugar, oil, garlic and ginger to a shallow baking pan (cake pan is perfect). Add the slices of tempeh and set aside while you preheat the oven to 400F, 5 to 15 minutes. Can be covered and marinated overnight. Transfer to a baking sheet, reserving the marinade.
6 tablespoons tamari
3 tablespoons sweet rice wine, mirin or sherry
4 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoon2 toasted sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon garlic granules or powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 (8-ounce) package tempeh, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 bell pepper, sliced
1/2 small onion, sliced
2.Bake and Hoagie: Bake the Tempeh and Vegetables until the tempeh is browned, 20 minutes, basting every 5 minutes. Reserve some marinade for adding to the hoagies. Split the rolls. Add the cheese. Add the rolls to the same oven during the last 5 minutes of baking time, and bake until the cheese melts and the hoagie is toasted.
Meal 4 in the Prep Ahead Week 4 plan is a warm and comforting Black Bean Chili. This chili is packed with wholesome hull-less barley, black beans, bell pepper, onion, tomato, spinach and spices.
On the prep ahead menu the vegetables are cooked before hand, the barley soaked the night before and the whole dish is assembled and cooked in the slow cooker. It takes about 6 hours to cook on low (you can set the delay function).
Add some chopped canned tomatoes and a bunch of spinach during the last five minutes of cooking, and your chili is ready for the tables.
I topped mine with some finely grated vegan cheese, cilantro and chopped onions, but you can serve it as you like.
The chili is a welcome meal on a long cold day and there is wonderful chew that comes from the whole grain barley.
Black Bean Chili Serves 4 to 6
The night before: 3/4 cup hull-less barley 4 cups vegetable broth
1 medium onion, chopped 1 bell pepper, chopped 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (use gloves, if needed) 4 garlic cloves, minced 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder 2 cups cooked black beans (1 can) 1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes 1 bunch spinach For serving: 1/2 cup cilantro (1/2 bunch), minced 1/4 cup chopped onions 1 cup vegan shredded cheese Vegan sour cream (optional) Tortilla chips (optional)
Meal 2 of Week 4 Prep Ahead menu is Firecracker Chickpeas and Vegetables. This delicious dish is full of vegetables and beans and is cooked in a spicy chili sauce.
This fiery dish is very versatile because you can adjust the heat level to suit your taste. You can use the called-for jalapeno or not. Or you can use 3 jalapenos. You can increase the garlic chili sauce or reduce it - the choice is yours.
This is a very easy and quick dish to make - made even faster as a Prep Ahead meal, but can still be ready in around 30 minutes, if you make the rice using my Fast and Easy Brown Rice recipe.
The dish is served with steamed broccoli but you can serve it with mustard greens, bok choy or even cauliflower.
Firecracker Chickpeas and Vegetables
Serves 4 to 6
Firecracker sauce ingredients:
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sweetener
12 ounces broccoli, cut into florets
2 bell peppers, sliced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (use gloves if needed)
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (2 cups cooked)
3 cups cooked rice
1. Combine the ketchup, vegetable broth, garlic chili sauce, garlic, tamari, cornstarch and sweetener in a small bowl. Stir very well and set aside.
2. Steam the broccoli until tender.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced peppers and onions. Stir-fry (cook, stirring constantly) until lightly charred. Add the chickpeas, cook to heat. Mix the sauce and add to the vegetables. Cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
Been busy little bees these past few weeks. My son has just completed applying to graduate school in an area that accepts woefully few applicants. He is an amazing film director, so he does have an excellent shot at it, but it's all a craps shoot.
I am posting his latest film at the bottom of this post. It's really good and I'd love your opinion about it, if you're game.
For the post this day, I am sharing a Southwestern Strata recipe. It is a perfect brunch recipe!
Strata is an interesting dish. It is supposed to be layers of white bread alternated with layers of cheese, then soaked in a milk mixture and baked. This is the very original version of strata.
Since then the milk mixture has been augmented with eggs to give it a custard-like texture and the the layers now are not so much layers, per say, as additions mixed in.
Mix-ins now can include, vegetables, meats and various types of cheeses. This being a southwestern version, it uses cornbread as the bread (I used the Cornbread Muffin recipe in Everyday Vegan Eats. Delicious!), and a homemade queso fresco (recipe coming this month).
It also includes sauteed peppers, onions and cilantro. I added spiced chorizo chickpeas since there is aquafaba in the batter anyway.
The batter is where it gets interesting. Because I fell in love with the bread pudding recipe in my cookbook Aquafaba [AMAZON], I wanted to make a savory version and this is the result. The aquafaba mixed with psyllium husk (cannot be omitted) and starch, results in a custard.
Mix, let the batter soak into the bread and bake. Serve it with some inspired tomato sauce and dig in.
As promised, here is Mikel's WE-System short film:
In case you missed it, I am hosting a giveaway for The Essential Vegan Travel Guide. My girls used it this summer when traveling in Europe and it is amazing! Go enter the contest or, better yet, pick up a copy! Contest ends December 19.
Southwestern Strata
Serves about 6
Chorizo Chickpeas:
1 cup chickpeas
2 tablespoons vegetable broth
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
Other:
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
6 cups stale cornbread (cut into 1-inch cubes)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup crumbled vegan cheese, optional (Kite Hill or Follow Your Heart block is good or use homemade)
Batter:
6 tablespoons aquafaba**
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups unsweetened plain nondairy milk
1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder
1. Preheat the oven to 450-degrees F. Combine the chickpeas, broth, vinegar, oil, chili powder, oregano, cumin, paprika and salt on a baking sheet. Mix well and bake for 15 minutes. Set aside.
2. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the bell pepper and onion to the skillet. Cover and cook until the onion is browning, about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring often. Add a splash of broth if the onion is beginning to burn. Using a cover will prevent too much evaporation and help brown the vegetables without oil.
3. Add the aquafaba to a blender. With the blender running on medium speed, add the oil slowly. Add the milk in a steady stream (doesn’t have to be slowly) and the psyllium. Blend for 20 seconds. Add to a large bowl.
4. Add the cornbread, cilantro, cheese (if using) and reserved chickpeas. Mix well and set aside for 10 minutes. Add to a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish and bake in a 325-degree oven for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside for 10 minutes to firm up. Serve.
** Although aquafaba is best if homemade using the recipe provided in the book, you can use aquafaba from canned chickpeas. Use the organic, low-sodium, canned chickpeas and strain off the liquid into a measuring cup using a fine mesh strainer. Note the amount of liquid you acquired, then add it to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the liquid reduces by 1/3. Cool the aquafaba completely before using.
After reading many of the comments that folks left about what their favorite bowl meals are, I felt the inexplicable need to make one that seems to be a particular favorite among the crowd - bowls with peanut sauce.
While I've dabbled in the nutty concoction before, I haven't posted it to the blog - a huge oversight on my part!
At first I wanted to add coconut milk to the sauce, but then - with the addition of peanut butter and, (what I think is a great idea), the addition of red curry paste (more on that later), it became too much like Thai Panang Curry (recipe HERE).
So, I kept it simple, at 9 ingredients. The red curry paste (available in grocery stores, though watch out for fish or shrimp in the curry) is an easy recipe in my new book, Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N). Red curry paste typically includes garlic and ginger and, therefore, omits the need to add those ingredients to the peanut sauce. Of course, if you don't have red curry paste, simply add garlic, ginger and red chili flakes to the sauce, and you're all set.
The optional capers add a *funk* to the sauce - much like fish sauce does. Add it completely at your discretion for that ingredient, though, since it is not a necessary addition.
To bring color and additional nutrition to the dish, I added kale and red bell peppers. Possible substitutions might be broccoli rabe (my first choice), julienned carrots, bok choy, napa cabbage, purple cabbage or daikon radish.
Watch out for your peanut butter; omit the sugar from the recipe if your peanut butter is sweetened.
After cooking the pasta (reserving about 2 cups of the cooking water), saute the kale and peppers and add the curry paste (cooking it a bit first, because the garlic and the ginger within it need to be sauteed), the peanut butter, scallions, tamari, lime and sugar and salt.
The whole thing can be done in under 30 minutes, including prep. Start the medium pot of water to boil while you chop the ingredients and this is a dish ready in a snap.
I have been looking to come up with an awesome stuffed pepper recipe for years now and short of using a ton of cheese, it hasn't occurred to me what to stuff it with. I'm not a fan of dry stuffed peppers and I didn't want it to be mediocre. After a long time, I've come up with something really great!
Stuffed Peppers with Creamy Polenta and Adobo-laced Pepitas. Yeah.
Ingredients? 12 total, plus salt, sugar, black pepper and water.
The polenta in these peppers is creamy and luscious. I used coarse cornmeal, so my polenta took about 45 minutes to cook until tender, but it was so worth it! It goes to show, when your cornmeal is coarse, don't be afraid to cook it longer than you would cook a finer version of cornmeal.
I cooked the onions until caramelized, cooked the polenta and added raw zucchini at the end. After cutting the tops off the peppers, leaving just enough room to add the polenta, I baked them in a very simple tomato sauce.
Speaking of the tomato sauce, once baked, it is crazy good! If you love sauce as much as I do, go forth and double its recipe.
Then there are the pepitas! Did you know that pepitas are super high in protein and they are so tasty. Pepitas can be roasted in hundreds of different ways and here I add an adobo seasoning to them.
Adobo seasoning is a Latin American mixture of spices, sometimes including cumin, coriander, garlic, oregano, turmeric and/or bay leaves (just watch out for meat ingredients). There are organic versions or traditional ones available at any grocery store and you will find yourself using it often. If you have a few spices, HERE is a recipe (sub the fresh garlic with 1 teaspoon garlic granules).
Making your own, quick Cajun spice mix will allow you to control what actually goes into the mix, the amount of spice it will contain and save you a few bucks. This pasta dish comes together fairly quickly, including pan-frying the coconut-crusted tofu, which reminds me of coconut shrimp from my pre-veg days.
This fresh tomato based sauce reminds me of Hungarian lecso or Latin sofrito, both of which are covered in recipes in my upcoming cookbook, Vegan Bowls (Amazon, B&N). I adore this way of making sauces as it is both flavorful and a snap to prepare. The most important ingredient in the process is patience.
As for the tofu, I am thrilled to have found an easy way to dredge and crust an ingredient without the batter dissolving before being cooked. I didn't try baking it, but am planning on attempting to do so in the future.
Finally, since I received some pedron peppers in my CSA last week, they had to make it onto the plate. I preheated my toasted oven and baked them on 400 for about 5 minutes, until they blistered. You could also quickly fry them in the same pan after all the tofu is cooked. Pedrons have very thin skin so they cook fast. Incidentally, they are delicious!
Cajun Pasta with Coconut-crusted Tofu
Serves 4
12 ounces pasta, cooked al dente, drained and reserving 1 cup of cooking water
Spice Mix:
1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon white pepper
¼ to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 celery ribs, chopped
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup vegetable broth
2 teaspoons spice mix (above)
1 cup reserved pasta water
Tofu:
¾ cups arrowroot starch or cornstarch, divided
½ cup vegetable broth
2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes, blended for 10 seconds in a blender
2 teaspoons spice mix (above) 1 (14-ounces) package firm or extra firm tofu, pressed, cut into ½-inch slices
4 tablespoons neutral oil
1. Spice Mix: Combine the salt, paprika, garlic, onion, pepper and cayenne in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Sauce: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and celery. Cover and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are broken down, about 10 more minutes. Add the vegetable broth and spice mix. Cook until the broth evaporates, about 4 more minutes. Add the pasta and pasta water. Stir and cook until the pasta is heated through and well coated with the sauce.
3. Tofu: Combine ½ cup of the starch and broth in a shallow dish. Combine the coconut flakes, ¼ cup of the starch and spice mix in a separate shallow dish. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Dredge the tofu in the wet mixture and then in the coconut mixture. Fry the tofu until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels.
4. Assembly: Serve the pasta with the tofu. Sprinkle the dish with more spice mix, as desired.
Day 13 VeganMoFo is this loaded Fajita Burger with Avocado Sour Cream. It is packed with fajita seasoning and fajita veggies, all stuffed onto a corn and bean burger. What do you add to a fajita? Cheese, sour cream and avocado! Done!
This was one terribly delicious burger! I charred the bun a little to give it an extra smoky flavor, but those veggies deliver on their own.
Fajitas are my absolute favorite meals to grab at Mexican or Tex-Mex places, so for me this was a must make burger. It's an easy one to make that takes you to a Mexican mom-and-pop joint without leaving your kitchen.
Don't miss my twitter chat with The Food Duo tonight at 8 EST and 5 PST. If you haven't checked out their List-mania theme for MoFo, get a move on.
HERE is the twitter chat link (and you should also follow me on Twitter): @ZsuDever.
Last order of business, remember to enter the giveaway for "Vegan Tacos" HERE.
1 (15.5-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3/4 cups vital wheat gluten (Stirred before measuring)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
4 burger buns, toasted
1/2 cup shredded vegan cheese
Fajita Veggies, recipe below
Avocado Sour Cream, recipe below
1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the corn, onion, garlic, cumin, oregano and salt and black pepper, to taste and stir and cook until the corn is golden, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, stir and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool thoroughly.
2. Add the cooled mixture to a food processor. Add the cilantro and pulse just to break up the beans, about 6 (1-second) pulses. Transfer to a bowl and add the gluten flour, lime juice, tamari, chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Knead until the mixture forms gluten threads. Form the mixture into 4 burgers.
3. Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with oil and arrange the patties evenly. Bake for 30 minutes-flipping after 15 minutes.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the burger patties and cook for 2 minutes. Flip, add 2 tablespoon cheese to each burger, divide the fajita veggies evenly on top of each burger, add 1/4 cup water to the skillet, cover the skillet and cook until the cheese melts.
5 Make the burgers by spread the bottom buns with avocado sour cream, add a burger and add the top bun. Serve.
Fajita Veggies
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small bell peppers, mixed colors, sliced thin
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and spices and stir and cook until crisp-tender. Remove from heat and set aside.
Avocado Sour Cream
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1 medium ripe Hass avocado, mashed well
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Salt and black pepper
1. Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl using a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, black pepper and lime juice.
