onion

Not Beef Stew

Sometimes you just need some Heavy Duty Comfort Food

The kind that sticks to your ribs and makes you pleasantly stuffed.

Not Beef Stew

Seasoned Soy Curls:

  • 1/2 package Butler Soy Curls (I’m trying out some new vegan products for MOFO) prepared according to package directions and drained, these are GMO free, organic and use the whole soy bean. If you can’t source these or if you prefer, you can use 16 oz of cubed baby portobellos instead.
  • 1/4 C. white whole wheat flour
  • 1 t. garlic powder
  • 1 t. dried oregano
  • 1 t. dried thyme
  • 1/2 t. ground pepper
  • 1 t. sea salt

Using a large saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat, combine all ingredients above and brown the soy curls on all sides until nicely golden and crispy. You may need to use a bit of pan spray. Remove soy curls from dutch oven and set aside.

Add to dutch oven with a bit of water to saute the veggies in:

The Stew Veggies:

  • 1 diced onion
  • 4 minced garlic cloves
  • 2 diced carrots
  • 3 russet potatoes or big red potatoes diced with skins on
  • 1/2 t. ground pepper
  • 1 t. sea salt
  • 1 t. dried oregano
  • 1 t. dried thyme
  • 1 t. ground black pepper
  • couple dashes of hot sauce.

Cook over medium heat until onions are slightly soft, and water has evaporated. Add 2 T. white whole wheat flour and cook and stir til everything is really nice and browned, stirring and scraping up browned bits on bottom as you go.

Quickly add:

The Good Stuff:

  • 6 C. quality vegetable stock
  • 1/3 C. tomato paste
  • 4 T. soy sauce
  • 4 T. vegan worcestershire
  • 2 T. pure maple syrup
  • 1/4 c. dry sherry
  • 2 T. cocoa powder (for color)
  • cooked and seasoned soy curls (from above)

Simmer with the lid on over medium-low heat for 30 minutes or until veggies are fork tender

Add:

  • 1 C. cashew cream (from 1/2 C. soaked cashews and 1 C. filtered water blended until thick)
  • 1 C. frozen baby peas.


Serve in mutant bread bowls

Advertisement

A Very Vedged Out Lasagna

My friend Heidi at Lightly Crunchy once said to me

“I’m curious about how you’d make vegan lasagna. No cheese?”

(okay, this was really in a comment, since we’ve never really ‘met’. She lives in Canada and I live in Utah, and yes, to answer your next question, I’m vegan and I’m a Mormon, and no I don’t have 10 children or any sister wives despite the size of this lasagna)

THIS is how we do it at Vedged Out.

A Very Big Very Vedged Out Lasagna

1 Package whole wheat lasagna noodles (I like Delallo Organic no-boil flat sheets), you can use gluten-free noodles instead if you like – 1 large diced onion – 2 grated carrots – 2 stalks celery, diced – 5 minced garlic cloves, divided – 1 large diced eggplant – 8 oz. diced mushrooms – 1 head broccoli, chopped – 2 diced zucchini or summer squash – 2 C. chopped baby spinach leaves – 1/2 C. Chopped black olives (or kalamata or green olives depending on your preference) – kernels cut from 1 ear of corn (or 1/2 C. frozen corn) – 1 block sprouted firm tofu – 2 T. nutritional yeast – 1 t. each of dried thyme, basil, parsley and oregano – couple dashes red pepper flakes – 4 oz of this awesome cashew cheez minus the crushed red pepper flakes or other lame vegan cheez – 3 cups unsweetened almond milk – 4 T. whole wheat pastry flour (or 2 T. cornstarch for gluten-free version) – one 28 oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Organic Crushed Tomatoes – one 15 oz can Muir Glen Organic Tomato Sauce.

Method: Water sauté onions, celery and carrots until translucent, add all other veg except 2 cloves of the garlic and the spinach. Cook for 5 minutes more until veggies are crisp tender. Add fire roasted crushed tomatoes, spices, salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

Crumble tofu into a bowl, add 1 clove minced garlic, the spinach and the nutritional yeast, stir it all together.

In a small saucepan heat the almond milk and the flour or cornstarch, when it comes to a boil, add in the cashew cheez and the last remaining clove of garlic, salt to taste. This is your cheez sauce.

Assembly time! Using a deep dish lasagna pan, pour 1/2 can of the tomato sauce in the bottom. Level it out with a spoon until the bottom is covered in sauce, place 3 lasagna sheets over the sauce, then layer with half of the veggie mixture. Add 3 more lasagna sheets. Layer the tofu mixture and 1 C. of the cheez sauce over the top. Add 3 more lasagna sheets, your next layer you will do the remaining half of the veggie mixture, the remaining half of the tofu mixture and one more cup of the white sauce.

Add your final layer of pasta sheets, top with the other half of the tomato sauce, then drizzle with the cheez sauce.

Bake uncovered for 60 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool for 20 minute before serving if you don’t want sloppy lasagna. Even better and less sloppy on the second day.

p.s. this dish makes 12 filling servings, you can easily halve the recipe and bake it in a 9×9 square dish. It has zero cholesterol (duh, veggies don’t have cholesterol), is super low in fat and crazy high in fiber. You can really use whatever veg you have on hand, but perhaps not cabbage, or for that matter, brussels sprouts.

Check out Vegan Bloggers Unite today, my first post is live there! Are you a Vegan Blogger? You can post there too.

The lovely Lidia who runs the site is always looking for new material. 🙂 Check out the deets here.