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A Random Vegan/Vegetarian Products Review

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Last weekend I decided to do it…to just try to go 99% vegetarian.  Meaning there are only exceptions for holidays and maybe sushi a few times a year. While I am generally a fabulous cook and can make some darn good vegetarian unprocessed stuff myself (lentil loaf, lentil meatballs, chili from dried beans, etc.), my grad student life style means I don’t have a ton of time to prepare food from scratch all the time.

As such, I’ve been buying more vegetarian fake meat products.  In order to not eat a metric buttload of calories, I need a lot of protein.  Soy products suffice.  I’ve also been curiously trying vegan things, just for the sake of trying them, knowing that a vegan lifestyle is generally most sustainable for the environment.  Here’s a review of what I’ve tried that was memorable from the past few years up to more recently:

Frozen Meals/Quick Food:

  • Kashi frozen meals -  Mayan harvest bake, Three Cheese Penne, Spicy Black Bean Enchiladas.  The first and the last are better than the middle.  Kashi’s frozen meals retain a good texture and taste wholesome and satisfying, with complex flavors you wouldn’t usually find in frozen meals.  Only downside is that the instructions for cooking are a bit more complicated than some other frozen meals (2 to 3 step rather than 1 step).
  • Sukhi’s Naanwiches, Garden Vegetable – Very good flavor, especially with the naan.  Probably best if toaster ovened though.  Not super filling.
  • Fortune Avenue Vegetarian Potstickers – presteamed, so they’re quick to cook.  You can microwave these in a minute and a half.  These are my favorite vegetarian potstickers.  They don’t taste like meat, but they have a nice rich flavor and good texture and chewy veggies in there!
  • Amy’s Tofu Scramble Breakfast Wrap – Avoid!  How can something taste so much like cardboard through the entire bite?  Bleh.
  • Trader Joe’s Black Bean and Cheese Taquitos – These are addictive and surprisingly fairly low calorie.  They make a great snack or meal when paired with some salsa to dip them in.  A bit dry, but good flavor.
  • Trader Joe’s Paneer Tikka Masala – While this has a great flavor and good texture, it’s just not enough to keep me full.  I like the green rice with it though, and the tikka masala sauce is good.
  • Trader Joe’s Eggplant Parmesan – Good flavor, but not enough in the meal to keep me full.  And definitely not enough cheese for an eggplant Parmesan!
  • Trader Joe’s Tarte d’Champignon – A flatbread pizza type thing with cheese and mushrooms.  Amazing and rich and so good.  Bring it to a foodie potluck and people will be amazed.  Wait no, bring me one please.

Meat Substitutes:

  • Gardein Beefless Tips – The *best* beef substitute.  Hands down.  I’ve used them for many things, from stew to sliced and browned in vegetarian pho.
  • Gardein Chick’n Scallopini – a decent chicken substitute.  It has a good texture, but the flavor is a bit celery-like.  Browns nicely.
  • Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo – uh-maaaay-zing.  Same flavor profile as the meaty version but with less fat.  Great scrambled with eggs.
  • Tofurky Peppered Deli Slices – skip these.  Go for the Hickory Smoked and add your own fresh ground pepper.
  • Tofurky Hickory Smoked Deli Slices – the best fake meat lunch meat.  It has the best texture and a rich flavor and a slight hint of smokiness. Enough protein to be satisfying.  I make my sandwiches that I eat on the train out of these!
  • Trader Joe’s Chickenless Strips – I didn’t let myself eat chicken strips before.  Now I do.  These are healthier but also tasty.  They also make great sandwiches.
  • Gardein Chipotle Lime Chick’n Fingers – yuck.  It tasted someone dipped chicken fingers in lemon cleanser.  No taste of Chipotle at all.  Gardein should retire these or reformulate them.  They have a nice texture of crust on the chick’n though.
  • Morningstar Farms Bacon Strips – eh.  They’ll work in something (like deviled eggs) if you really have a hankering for bacon, but they’re not that great by themselves.  Salty for sure.  Texture is kind of crunchy, vaguely cardboardy, but none of the chew of meat bacon.
  • Morningstar Farms Grillers Veggie Crumbles – these are fine.  Nothing to rave about really.  They add the meaty texture to whatever you’re cooking (chili, shephard’s pie, veggie sloppy joes) but wouldn’t stand by themselves as much.  You could just as soon just get TVP and do the same thing for cheaper.
  • Morningstar Farms veggie sausage products – Skip the links and go for the patties.  The links don’t have a great texture.The spicy patties are hard to find but particularly good.  Better than the fake bacon.
  • Whole Foods 365 Brand Veggie Sausage Patties – good flavor, but not low on calorie.  Nice spices and seasonings, good texture.  A little spicy but not too much for me!

“Dairy”:

  • Trader Joe’s Soy Mozzarella – Trader Joe’s does it again.  This soy cheese has a great texture and melts well, without the soy flavor of some vegan cheese substitutes.  However, it does contain casein (a milk protein) so it’s not truly vegan.  However, it didn’t bother my lactose intolerant tummy.
  • Trader Joe’s Soy Creamery Chocolate Chip and Cherry – Love Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia?  Lactose intolerant or vegan?  This is like crack.  No overwhelming soy flavor.  You will have to stop yourself from eating the whole dang tub.
  • Trader Joe’s Coconut Strawberry frozen dessert – Pretty good.  Tangy strawberry flavor, slight hint of coconut, good mouth feel and moderately rich flavor.  Different from strawberry ice cream, but in a good way.  It’d probably make some good summer cocktails if blended with rum!
  • Daiya Vegan Mozzarella/Cheddar Shreds – tastes like processed cheese product.  If you like Kraft singles, you’ll probably like this.  It melts well, but the Mozzarella and Cheddar kind of taste the same just with different colors.  However, works ironically well in scrambled eggs… (I can see some vegans face-palming right now!)
  • Pacific Organic Plain Unsweetened Almond Milk – almond milk generally works much better in coffee than soy or rice milk.  The latter curdle. Yuck!
  • Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese – Bleh.  Can the Daiya people make some cream cheese substitute?  It’d definitely be better than this.  This faux cream cheese has that cardboardy overwhelming soy flavor and texture that I dislike. This will probably sit in my fridge for a long while…maybe better in desserts though.

Seasonings/other:

  • Better than Bullion Vegetarian Beef Bullion: kind of flat and honestly doesn’t taste much different than their vegetable bullion (which is still a nice bullion substitute).  Salty like a good beef bullion with a fair amount of umami, but adding it to vegetable broth and adding some mushrooms (crimini or porcini) will make the flavor better.
  • Nuoc Mam Chay/Vegetarian Fish Sauce – similar funk to fish sauce, similar saltiness, but not fish sauce.  But it will do in a pinch for Thai and Vietnamese cooking.  Find it at Vietnamese grocery stores.
  • Vegetarian Oyster Sauce – oysterless, but still great on broccoli.  Stir fry with Gardein’s Beefless Tips and some chopped broccoli and satisfy your broccoli beef craving in no time!
  • Amoy-D Curry Paste: Most Thai curry pastes are not vegetarian (most of them contain some shrimp product).  However, Amoy-D is.  It lacks a bit in the umami depth of the shrimpy curry pastes, but it works fine to make a good curry at home.
  • Hummus: Trader Joe’s is the best.  Sabra (sold at Costco and Safeway) is okay.  It’s easy to make your own though if you have a food processor or blender and some canned garbanzos.

I hope you enjoyed those reviews above and avoid the things I’ve advised you to avoid!  Unless you’re desperate, I guess.

As a side note, my mom (one of my greatest inspirations and person who I have to thank for my cooking capabilities) may be making a guest post sometime in the near future, so keep your eyes open for that!

I promise, I’m alive. And eating.

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This last semester of grad school really kicked my butt.  I still made some tasty and interesting things and have a nice garden growing– I just haven’t had time to post anything about it.  I have two days until Summer Session starts (3 classes), so I wanted to post something brief to reassure you that while I’m not posting, I am alive and eating well.

Vegetarian Bean Soup

I went up to visit my parents for a few days.  Given my attempts at eating tasty vegetarian things more often and meat generally less (but not strictly so), I decided to cook them a tasty bean soup.  The key to vegetarian soup, to me, is to have a good, rich stock.  I boil several types of dried mushrooms (this time, shiitake, porcini, and black fungus) with onion and some carrot and celery trimmings and add a non-negligible amount of soy sauce (probably about 1/2 cup or so for 5 cups of broth here).  Don’t overdo the shiitake quantity, though, otherwise it’ll just taste funky.  5 or 6 usually does it. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and let it simmer away as long as you can stand it.  We let this batch steep overnight, actually.

Then for the bean soup, I threw in dried beans that we’d soaked overnight and rinsed (adzuki and pinto, I think?) in a crock pot with the strained broth.  The secret ingredient I added this time was dried ancho chilis (seeded and chopped). I don’t like what crock pots do to onions if you just put them in there as is, so I usually sautee them and any other veggies and a bit of chopped garlic in some oil until slightly browned in places before adding them to the pot.  I think this helps to avoid the slight sour taste the would otherwise get.  Some salt, some pepper, some oregano and you’re good to go.  Let that all simmer away for a day time period.

When serving, I finely chopped green onions, cilantro, and some spicy red chilis (seeded, of course) together into a nice garnish and gave everyone a bit of lime to squeeze on top.

Chili-inspired, but not chili.  :)

Molé Cow

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It’s been a while since I posted.  Graduate school has this tendency to take over your life.  Luckily, though, you still have to feed yourself (gotta keep those brain cells fueled!) so cooking great food is an entirely legitimate use of precious time.

Graduate school also lends itself to attempts to save money so that you don’t find yourself broke come summertime.  As such, I invested in a cheap crockpot.  Crockpots are the holy grail of kitchen devices for extremely busy budget minded people.  Throw some cheap stuff in, let it cook on low overnight or while you’re at work, reap the benefits.  I was pretty stoked to start using mine and feeling adventurous, so I headed to the local market.

There’s one key piece of demographic information about my neighborhood that shapes the availability of just about everything– it’s mostly populated by Latino families.  This results in an abundance of cheap meat and delicious popsicles, among other things.  Grabbing myself a paleta, a pound of mixto de res (beef stew meat), and various spices, I headed back home with the intent to cook some molé inspired stewed beef.

As far as I know, molé typically involves chicken.  For some reason I was craving some spicy rich beef, so I decided to riff on the classic in my own crazy gringa way.

The ingredients were, I think, as follows:

  • 1 lb beef stew chunks
  • flour
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 onion
  • a few cloves of garlic
  • cumin
  • chili powder
  • unsweetened chocolate
  • sesame seeds
  • pumpkin seeds
  • dried chipotle peppers
  • vegetable oil
  • palm sugar
  • 1 carrot
  • water (should’ve used beef stock, but I didn’t have any)

First I mixed the beef chunks with the flour, salt, and pepper and let that sit.

(The next step should’ve been to brown the beef quickly on all sides in some oil in a hot pan, but I didn’t.  It still came out good, but this would’ve made it even better.)

Then I sauteed the onions and garlic with all the spices and chipotle peppers, and after they were nice and caramelized I turned off the heat and mixed in the cocoa powder.  The crock pot had already been heating up for a bit while I was sauteeing the onions.  I put some oil in there and let that warm up.

Once the crock pot was heated up on high, I added the beef, then the onion mixture, and finally some carrots for some added nutritional value and color.

Added some water and threw in the palm sugar and topped it off with some pumpkin seeds for good measure.  I let that come to a simmer on high, then turned it down to low and let it cook all night while I was sleeping.

Let me tell you, though…cooking in a crockpot in a studio is a sure fire way to make everything in your entire abode smell like whatever you’re cooking.  I woke up and was socked in the face by molé. After a bit of a “wtf?” moment, I realized that the reason my nostrils were burning was because I’d put too many chipotle peppers in there.  Hoo boy.  That’s one way to wake up.  It smelled good, but there was no denying that it was spicy.  Probably too spicy to eat alone.

So after letting that sit in the fridge for about a day while pondering how exactly I’d eat my face-searing beef, I decided going taco-style might help mellow out some of the spiciness.  It was perfect.  The beef was so tender that I was able to shred it, topped with some fresh cilantro and some perfectly ripe tomatoes and a squeeze of lime, it was a perfect meal.  The beef was also quite good in a big ol’ burrito.  Confusingly inauthentic and potentially baffling to native eaters, but deliciously so.

So in the end, I’d say beef molé is actually pretty tasty as a concept, but to improve upon my recipe I’d sear the beef, use less chipotles, and then use beef broth instead of water.  It should be pretty satisfying.

Spicy Nectarine Salsa

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I’m not sure how I came across this one, but I did a while back.  I was reminded of it because my friend Mee and her boyfriend had some mango papaya salad with fish the other day and nectarines are just beginning to start to come into season in the US.  Thanks for reminding me, guys!

Originally, I just kind of threw it together and it turned out to be even more amazing on my tastebuds in real life than in my head.  I remember eating this on the lofted patio of my cousin’s amazing mountain-y home last memorial day while sipping some sangria, then going off to soak in the hot tub.  The slight floweriness and tang of nectarines works so well with the bright cilantro and spicy habanero peppers.  It’s great on fish, as you’ll see below.

Kestrel’s Nectarine Salsa

Makes 3 servings as a topping for fish.  Feel free to double, triple, or even quadruple.

  • 1 nectarine, somewhat firm, just starting to ripen up and get soft (too firm will be too sour, too soft will be too mushy). Make sure it smells good!
  • 1 habanero pepper, minced (more if you’re a masochist, or substitute jalapenos or anaheims if you’re a wimp.  Here I used serranos because they were cheaper, but they weren’t as spicy as I’d like.)
  • 1/4 of a red onion, finely diced
  • 5 sprigs cilantro, minced
  • fresh juice of 1 lime

Combine all of the ingredients, prepared as listed above, in a bowl.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes and stir so that the flavors have a chance to mingle.  For the best flavor, let it sit an hour or two, but make sure you use it within 2 days (keep refrigerated).

This is great to serve with a nice light white fish (cod, tilapia) in the summertime, or just to eat with chips while sitting outside.  Here I served it with a fresh fillet of cod that I just lightly coated with rice flour and a dusting of curry powder (mostly for color) and pan fried (I used butter, but you could use olive oil) for no more than 10 minutes total.  It’s a super quick recipe that seems quite fancy!  The key is getting quality ingredients and keeping it simple.


It’s quite healthy, but the flavors in this are so stunning that you won’t notice.

 

Japanese Taco Salad

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Today I wanted to do a price point challenge.  I had $11 in my wallet and was craving fish tacos.  With what I bought from Trader Joe’s to make this dish (spices, oil, and flour excluded), it only cost about $11 total to get enough ingredients for at *least* 4 servings (admittedly I did get my soba from 99 Ranch, the Asian supermarket, so it might cost more at TJ’s).  ($9 for fish & veg, $2 for a bottle of 2 buck chuck (excluded from costing here >.> , and $2 for soba noodles)

For the soba noodle “taco salad”:

  • soba noodles cooked & rinsed & drained as per directions on package
  • white sweet onion diced finely
  • shredded cabbage
  • jalapeño peppers, finely diced (how many probably depends on how spicy they are)
  • cherry tomatoes, cut into four pieces each
  • fresh cilantro, chopped  (mine was from my garden!  whee Spring!)
  • 1 freshly squeezed lime
  • dash sesame oil (not used a lot in Japanese cooking, but whatever, it’s identity crisis fusion)
  • toasted sesame seeds
  • salt

For the fish:

  • Trader Joe’s frozen Mahi Mahi chunks (defrosted)
  • lime juice
  • sea salt
  • dash of Ponzu
  • brown sugar (or substitute Mirin for more Japanese flavor)

Marinaded briefly, then dried and then coated with:

  • rice flour
  • hot chili flakes

Fried in

  • vegetable oil

until golden, dried on paper towels and served on top of the salad.

To make this more Japanese, top with Kewpie brand or slightly sweetened U.S. mayo (ala Oaxaca fish tacos) and sub green onions for white onions.  Some furikake or shredded nori would be a fancypants garnish.

You could substitute regular white flour or cornstarch for the rice flour in a pinch, or go super fancy and make the fish tempura style.
Eaten together, this recipe was awesome for a hot day.  I’m not normally a fan of mahi mahi, but it does in a pinch if it’s the cheapest fish you can get.

Vegan for a Day

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Lately, I’ve found myself eating a lot of saturated fats and cholesterol in the form of cheese, meat, butter, etc.  My body doesn’t seem too happy about it, and I’m a little paranoid of an expanding waistline. Today my plan was originally to eat only fresh fruits and vegetables, to help give me some fiber and vitamins I’ve probably been missing out on.  I realized, though, that my taste buds wouldn’t forgive me for that, so I included some nuts and carbs.

Breakfast: banana, fruit and almonds from farmer’s market

Lunch: vegetable (green been, green onion, turnip, and cilantro) fried rice and miso soup with spinach, edamame, and corn

Snack: sourdough toast (with olive oil, salt, and paprika), a grapefruit, and some black tea

Dinner: portobello mushroom tacos (recipe below)

Portobello Mushroom Tacos

(Serves 1– 2 tacos)

The trick here to keep the mushrooms from getting too soggy is to roast them at 375 F for a while, drain off the water, then broil them for a few minutes.  This will make your tacos neater to eat and let the mushrooms have a good chewy texture.  If I were going to do this again, I may actually mash the avocado and spread it on the tortilla before adding the mushrooms and everything on top of that, to make it a bit more like cheese.  Overall, it came out quite good and refreshing, even if it was vegan.

Ingredients

  • 1 portobello mushroom with a firm cap, sliced into 1/2″ thick strips
  • vegetable oil spray
  • 1/2 pasilla pepper, sliced into 1/4″ rings
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
  • pinch salt
  • a couple of pinches of cumin
  • 2 corn tortillas
  • vegetable oil
  • 1/4 of an avocado, sliced into 4 strips
  • veggie toppings recommended: cilantro (lightly chopped), finely diced onion, diced tomato, lime (to squeeze on top)
  • hot sauce

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a loaf pan lightly with vegetable oil spray.  Lay mushrooms, peppers, and garlic in the pan.  Let roast for about 20 minutes, then drain the water off.  Sprinkle with salt, cumin (and perhaps a little black pepper or cayenne pepper if you want).  Set oven to broil, return mushroom mixture to the oven and let broil for 5-10 minutes, until garlic cloves are well roasted.  Remove from oven and let cool while preparing tortillas.

Fry the tortillas on each side in a little vegetable oil, until golden brown.  Place on a plate, top with mushroom mixture.  Top this with avocado, cilantro, onion, tomato.  Add hot sauce as desired, and squeeze lime juice on top.

Would I do this whole-day-vegan thing again?  Not unless necessary for my health, I think. The tacos were pretty good, though.