I had a lot of chickpeas (image from wikimedia) in the fridge (that was the bean I soaked, and I didn't feel like freezing the leftovers yet - I love chickpeas), so was delighted that the Mac Daddy recipe from Veganomicon has a 'chickpea' variation, where you use smushed chickpeas instead of tofu as the creamy protein. I was dying to make mac and cheez. I love creamy, gooey pasta as much as the next girl, but basically never eat it bc it is a calorie and fat nightmare - I don't like any of the low fat variants I've tried, but making it the 'right' way will totally make me sick from all the dairy fat. I used to make a creamy noodle thing with tahini, but had basically just put mac and cheese in the 'things I don't eat' category. Then I remembered vegan cheeze sauce... with nutritional yeast!!
I had just enough nutritional yeast to make a half recipe of Mac Daddy, perfect from J and I. I made it with brown rice penne from TJs, with smushed chickpeas and chopped spinach tossed in, so it was a complete meal: whole grain, protein, greens, and cheezy goodness. J loved it too! I wasn't sure, given the strong yeast flavour, but he did. To me it tastes kindof like the cheese packets inside Kraft Dinner. Yum.
As I was lovingly flipping through Veganomicon, I decided to dabble into the baked good section. The almond quinoa muffins caught my eye, and I whipped up a batch in true June Cleaver on the commune style. It was my first foray into eggless baking, and they were DELICIOUS. Binding provided by ground flaxseed in soymilk, batter made of flour, almond meal, with cooked quinoa and dried cranberries folded in. Sweetened with maple syrup. They are tender, wholesome and flavourful, with a lovely texture from the quinoa. I'm about to have one for my morning snack.
A side effect of all this cooking is that we have too much food! I have to resist the urge to cook tonight so I can eat some leftovers. I subdivided our tempeh shepherds pie, freezing the tempeh filling for later and will eat (some) of the mashed taters with a chickpea cutlet and spinach salad tonight for dinner.
The tempeh shepherds pie sounds great although I have never had the meat version for fear that it had weird animal parts like minced meat pie....did the recipe come out of the Veganomicon? I have my food processor ready and waiting :)
ReplyDeletehey anonymous! The shepherd's pie did come from Veganomicon - food processor not needed! It was steamed tempeh with a gravy sauce and peas and corn. it took a few steps, but not too much effort.
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