Thursday, December 15, 2016

Vegan Vegetable Fried Rice


My kids LOVE Chinese food. They go eat it every Sunday with their Grandma... it's their "thing". Tonight my son asked me to recreate one of his favorites, fried rice.

We started out making rice and scrambled tofu and went from there. It worked out perfectly! We made a few of my Mushroom Egg Rolls  and Gardein orange chick'n to pull it all together. The results were 2 thumbs up from the kids & my husband. Clean plates are always a great sign!


Recipe:

1 Tbsp vegan butter 
1 package extra firm tofu
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast 
1 tsp. turmeric 
1 tsp. garlic powder 
1 tsp. paprika 
Black salt  (or regular salt)
Pepper 
2 cups vegetables, diced small
4 cups prepared rice
Soy sauce or coconut aminos to taste

Method: 

Melt butter in a deep, nonstick, skillet over medium heat.

Crumble tofu into small pieces.

Add tofu, vegetables, nutritional yeast, turmeric, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper to skillet.

Increase heat to medium high. 

Cook tofu about 8 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add Rice and soy sauce to tofu.

"Fry" rice an additional 5 minutes, until slightly browned. 

Makes 6 servings. 




Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Garlicky Kale and Sausage Pasta


This pasta dish came from a night cooking with my son. I was going to make a (boring) tomato sauce to go with our pasta and Tofurky Italian sausage. Mikey wanted a garlicky sauce and kale, so, we made it happen. 

We started out making a roux, like we would for mac-n-cheese. We wanted a sauce full of garlic and herbs that would be great with the kale. We also wanted it to be creamy like an alfredo sauce. This is our creation. It was easy, full of garlic, creamy, and perfect with kale.. just what we were looking for on this cold night.


GARLICKY KALE & SAUSAGE PASTA:

Ingredients :

1 (1 lb.) box pasta
1 package of Tofurky Italian Sausage ,  cut into bite sized pieces*
4 cups chopped kale
3 Tbsp vegan butter 
3 Tbsp of flour
5 cloves of garlic, crushed 
3 cups unsweetened plant milk 
1/2 cup nutritional yeast 
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning 
Salt and Pepper to taste 
Paprika to garnish 

Method:

Cook pasta according to package & drain well.

Sautée Tofurky Italian sausage* & kale over medium heat until sausage is brown and kale is tender.

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter and flour. 

Allow flour to cook throughly, then add garlic . Cook about 2 minutes. ( Don't allow garlic to burn.)

Add plant milk, nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Whisk continously while milk comes up to a boil to avoid lumps in sauce.

Cook sauce an additional 5 minutes after it boils.

Toss sauce, sausage , kale and pasta together. Garnish with paprika before serving . 

Makes 5 servings . 

* You can use 2 cups chopped mushrooms if you don't want to use the Tofurky Italian Sausage.