No it's not a national holiday but it definitely should be. One of my weekend relaxation pastimes is cooking and while a lot of that is essentially meal prep for the week, I also take the time to try some stuff I may have seen on Insta or recipes from the new Rainbow Plant Life cookbook called Big Vegan Flavour (more on that another time). One of the recent statutory holiday Mondays became vegan sandwich day!
The day started with a classic grilled cheese. We had found some decent sourdough and used vegan butter. The key is not being in too much of a hurry, using medium heat to ensure meltiness. You can use a cover to encourage the cheese to melt but not too much that the bread gets soggy. BTW, we used some Daiya Smoked Gruyere slices which were amazing!
Next, I saw a post on Instagram featuring tofu skins and pickled mustard. The recipe was on @tifflovestofu. I marinated the tofu skin and pan-fried it. Meanwhile, we found pickled mustard in an Asian grocery store, and it was in a small enough quantity that it didn't inhabit our fridge for long after the sandwiches. I topped it with some roasted peanuts, and it was great!
I've noticed that grating and baking tofu has become popular. I got the idea from @scratchkitchen, where a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika are added to grated firm tofu and baked in the oven. The result is crispy and tasty. Some good bread, a tasty slaw, and some tomatoes, and we were in business!
Thanks to @prettybrownvegan, we completed our sandwich tour with a walnut meat burger. It has walnuts, mushrooms, onion, spices, and other stuff. The cheese is the cauliflower and tapioca starch thing that I've been making quite often lately and which is wonderfully melty. Good buns and some decent condiments are another key. I don't miss the meat burgers at all.
These vegan brats are from @plantbasedbrandon. They were a little on the dry side (probably my fault) but I would slice them in half lengthways and saute them before making a sandwich.
Honestly, Instagram recipe ideas have become one of my favourite hobbies. Since leaving the omnivore world behind, a whole world of new flavours has been opened up. I know some of this looks like meat but most of it tastes like compassion and whatever you want it to taste like (spices and so on).
We are certainly not limited by our imaginations like we were as omnivores.
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