Juicy Lucy: Vegan Style

This is my vegan version of a Juicy Lucy, which is a legendary burger around Minneapolis. I've never had a "real" Juicy Lucy, but have had it described in detail and read about it a lot.

I used a Vegan Boca Burger, sliced in half horizontally to create two skinny patties, and I then inserted one slice of Vegan Rice Cheddar Cheese by Galaxy Foods. (I haven't been able to find the American flavor or the Pepper Jack flavor, but I want to. I like this "cheese" quite a bit because unlike Tofutti slices, this stuff is trans fat free!)

I ate the whole concoction on one piece of bread, and folded it all in half to have a weird double cheeseburger juicy lucy type of thing. It was tasty, but I believe that there wasn't enough fat in the burger to achieve true "juiciness".

Black Bean Burger Experiment Number One

This is my first time maing a veggie burger from scratch. It was tasty, but didn't hold together very well.

My recipe, made up:

386g black beans, drained and rinsed (I used one 25oz can, drained and rinsed)
83g onion, small dice
1 clove (7g) garlic, minced
2 jalapenos
1/2c hydrated TVP
1/4c salsa
1/2c frozen corn
3/4c cooked quinoa

spices:
taco seasoning, cumin, salt, pepper


1. hydrate the TVP in veggie broth or other flavorful broth.
2. Mash the can of drained beans in a bowl with a masher or fork or hands.
3. sautee onion, add cumin (1/2t?)
4. once onions start to brown, add garlic and salsa and frozen corn
5. after a minute or so, add TVP, mix thoroughly, add some taco seasoning and a little liquid. I only added a tiny bit of taco seasoning, and this recipe probably doesn't need any at all.
6. once mixture is thoroughly seasoned, turn off heat and add to bowl of beans.
7. mash/mix everything together.
8. add 3/4c quinoa, mix until it seems like a lot of the liquid is absorbed.
9. with a 1/3c as a scoop, make patties. Using the 1/3 measurement cup, you should get about 8 patties.
10. Fry up the patties, freeze the leftovers. Serve either on a bun or with chips and salsa, garnished with cilantro.

So....yeah, we'll see how they turn out after they have been frozen for a while. Maybe then they will stay together better. Or, I can just go back to the drawing board on this one.

Still tasty....here's one without chips:

Spinach Florentine Ravioli with Brussels Sprouts, Mushrooms, and Onions

This was lunch today. So fulfilling.

The ravioli is indeed vegan, from Rising Moon Organics.
This is a luxury purchase for us, since it's a bit expensive for a very small amount. However, it is a treat to have frozen ravioli that we can make really easily.

The sauce is good old Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara, and it's topped with Parma! Vegan Parmesan, a deliciously addictive parmesan alternative. It's nutritional yeast based, with walnuts and sea salt as the only other ingredients. Another luxury item since it is also quite expensive.

On the side, I sauteed 40g of onion, 90g of brussels sprouts, and 41g of mushrooms in a small pan with some salt and one or two sprays of the canola cooking spray.


Another picture for good measure:

Sriracha Potatoes

Just potatoes mixed with sriracha. They look cool. Taste good, too.

I have a couple of food theories. Number one, anything can be made into a sandwich. Anything.

Two, almost everything is tasty with sriracha on it. Casey from Top Chef answered the question I've long been wondering: Is Sriracha Good With Ice Cream? The answer: No.

A close third is everything is better (or at least tasty) deep fried. Cookies, candybars, potatoes, onions, vegetables, fruit, dough, ice cream....

That's about it for universal or near universal food truths.

Curried Broccoli with Carrots, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa

I usually make this with cauliflower and will again in the future. Not that this dish is bad with broccoli, but I think cauliflower works much better.

What You Need:
(serves 2)
1c cooked quinoa
300g sweet potato, cubed
200g carrots, baby, sliced in half lengthwise
150g broccoli
80g onion, large dice
2t curry powder
2t ginger paste
2 cloves garlic, minced

For The Quinoa:
I made extra, because it's always useful for any number of dishes. The directions are simple: one cup quinoa, two cups water. I add some salt for flavor, you could also cook in broth of some sort for flavor. Bring to boil on stovetop, bring down to simmer, COVER! DO NOT TOUCH for 15-20 minutes!!!!!! Seriously. It'll be done.

The Rest of the Dish:
(Apologies, I made this a couple weeks ago and my notes are missing the cooking times.)

1. Lightly steam carrots, until just barely tender.

2. While the carrots are steaming, sautée onions (I just use a little spray oil so the fat content is extremely low in this dish) and cubed potatoes until the potatoes get tender and can almost slide a fork through.

3. Add carrots to the pan, mix thoroughly.

4. Add broccoli, ginger, garlic, curry powder. Add a little bit of liquid (water, .25-.5c) and stir everything together. Cover until the liquid is nearly gone. This helps to steam everything a little. Stir, Stir, Stir until everything is mixed together and evenly distributed.

5. Plate up. 1/2c of quinoa and about half of the veggie mixture per serving.

The calories for each serving (NOT including Quinoa) is HERE. The 1/2c quinoa info is HERE.

Bento Birthday Box

This is a dinner from Midori's Floating World Cafe, a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis. This is from their special all vegan menu, which is available only at the restaurant and only if you ask. If you click the picture, it should bring you to Flickr where I labeled the picture.

clockwise, starting with the rice:
tempura veggies
veggie sushi rolls
soba noodles and wakame
fruit
pickled ginger and pickled veg in center

I also had some agedashi tofu, a special vegan version (dashi = fish broth, and the agedashi tofu is usually served with bonito (fish) flakes. At Midori's they serve it with a shitake broth, and nori strips.)

Sub Sandwich with Four Bean Salad and JoJo Potatoes

I didn't make any of this meal: a Veggie Delight from Subway with no cheese and ALL the veggies; 4 Bean Salad (garbanzo, green bean, white green bean, baby lima bean) from the deli counter; and JoJo Potatoes from the deli counter.

Cheesecake On Parade

In Celebration of my day of birth, I was given and consumed a LOT of vegan cheesecake. All of the cheesecake was from the lovely Muddy Paws Cheesecake in Minneapolis, where they have over 180 flavors of dairy cheesecake and many many flavors of vegan cheesecake. They also have vegan cheesecake single slices available daily, at least one to two flavors.

The large picture shown above is a whole blueberry chocolate chip cheesecake. Wow. That's all I have to say.

Here's a slice:



I was unable to get a decent picture of this Raspberry Almond Cheesecake, you'll have to trust that it is better than it looks here:



Finally, an apricot? style cheesecake. I'm not sure, but that was my best guess as I ate it. It was an unlabeled gift, I just know it was vegan and meant to be consumed by me, haha:

Manicotti Stuffed with Pesto Tofu-Ricotta

So, I made this a few weeks ago, but it's taken me a while to get around to posting it.

Really, really tasty. It's also quite simple to make, the pesto is probably the most complicated part of the meal. Well, I usually make a sauce from scratch and that takes a while, but I cheated this time and simply added some onion, garlic and spices to good old Newman's Cabernet Marinara.

Basically, make a pesto, blend it with some extra firm tofu that has been drained and crumbled. Boil manicotti or shells or other stuffable pasta, stuff with petso-tofu mixture, set in 9x13 baking pan, cover with sauce, and bake until bubbly. If we had some soy cheese, it would be done when the soy cheese was melty, possibly browning.

I'll put some more pictures up on this post later. Until then, here's the recipe:

Pesto:
110g basil leaves, fresh, no stems
110g pine nuts
3T Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic
salt to taste

--> Blend until a thick paste. May need more or less olive oil or garlic. This amount was just right for 1lb (or one of those water packed containers) of tofu.

Sauce:
1.25 jars of Newman's Own Cabernet Marinara (I'll check the oz later)
60g onion, small dice
3 Cloves garlic, smashed and minced
2T olive oil
2-3 "turns around the pan" of balsamic vinegar (I have a pourer spout on my balsamic, and if you ever watch Rachel Ray, she often uses this measurement. I just mean that I pour in large circles in the pan...make sense? No? I'll clarify when I edit later.)
good shakes of (to taste):
red pepper flakes
poultry seasoning
oregano
garlic salt
kosher salt
pepper

---> start with sauteeing the onion in the olive oil. add garlic, and pour in sauce. Add balsamic, stir. Add seasonings. Let cook for a while (15-20 mins? less? I need to find my cooking notes.)