Calzone with Spicy Seitan

This meal was a lot of fun. I can't remember why I wanted to do something complex this week, but I've been in a good mood. The diss is coming along, my students aren't driving me too batty, and making new stuff is fun. My buddy Megan was telling me about how she made some smokie moz cheeze from the Uncheese Cookbook. After a mixed review, she offered to give me some. I thought, sweet! What could I do with this? Some ideas went thought and I ended up with calzones. However, our scheduals didn't line up (Thursday is her busy day - she is also a PhD student) and I was left cheezeless. So I told Scoots and DR to get some FYH while I made Soyrizo Seitan. Yeah, you heard it: seitan made with soyrizo. It was pretty good! I've included the recipe below. I would suggest BLENDING THE HECK out of the wet mix. I just mixed it and it was, um, fun kneading the seitan. I made pizza dough and wrapped hunks of baked seitan in with some cheeze. The sauce (yum!) was silken tofu blended with a little agave, lemon juice, and spices, including a touch of cinnamon. It was savory and sweet and went well with the spicy calzones.

Soyrizo Seitan

wet
1/2 package (1 "link") vegan soyrizo
1 c tomato juice

dry
2 c VWG
1/4 c (or so) nutritional yeast
spices: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika. I didn't measure. :)

Blend the wet together (if you want soyrizo chunks, just mix). Mix into the dry, adding a little more tomato juice (1/4 c or so total) to make a nice dough. Knead it for a bit and allow to rest for the gluten to relax. Cook as desired. I rolled mine into a fat log in foil because it was very delicate because of the chunks'o'soyrizo. I baked it for a while in the oven and then unwrapped it and sliced it up. The soyrizo adds a lot of flavor and gives it a looser texture. Megan and I have talked about messing around with mixing different protiens with the VWG to see what textures we get. I guess adding soyrizo doesn't do anything great, but it isn't too shabby!

Tortillas with Cilantro Sour Creme

I got a TON of cilantro to try out the cilantro sour creme in Veganomicon. I was planning on making some enchiladas (inspired by the vcon kale and potato enchiladas) but, in getting my 9x13 pan out, I discovered that it somehow got chipped and had to go to Pyrex heaven. So we went and got a vegan pizza instead.

So tonight I got out the cilantro and whipped up some of this tasty sauce. It made a ton and we might need to be eating it for the next year, but it was worth it. It's flexible and could be used in a lot of ways. I served it with some potato tortillas, which were corn tortillas stuffed with cumin, cilantro, and lime seasoned mashed potatos. It was delish!

Taco Salad

I made a really fantastic taco salad. It has mushrooms, beans, tomatos, and homemade tofu sour cream.

Spinach Dip

S, DR and I are hitting up a vegan potluck tomorrow! We're excited to see all our friends and have been working on preparing some tasty dishes to take along. Among them is this spinach dip, which I just tossed together. I spent some time hunting for a recipe that used what we had in the house, but didn't find one. This one is really good.

Spinach Dip
1 box silken firm tofu (Mori-Nu)
1 c thawed frozen chopped spinach (drained)
1/2 c vegan mayo
2 cloves garlic
1 packet vegan onion soup mix (don't ask why I had this in the house!)
1 TB lemon juice

Combine everything in a food processor or vitamix and blend until combined. Refrigerate overnight to let the flavors develop. However, I will admit that it tastes pretty good fresh out of the food processor!

Makes 2 cups