Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Yumza ~ Iowa Style

Vegan Yumza...Iowa Style

We have a restaurant chain in the midwest called Runza. Born in Nebraska these special sandwiches are kind of like calzones, but smaller and breadier, and full of ground beef, cabbage and spices. They've expanded over the years and have done special versions like an Italian, and the swiss and mushroom version.

But. Since we don't eat there anymore due to the whole meat thing, and since we had a refrigerator with some spoonfuls of this and that, and since I recently tasted a savory Vegan kolache, I put my creative food wrangling cap on and came up with this. I have all sorts of ideas dancing around in my head. An Italian one for sure, my hamburger crumbles recipe and cabbage etc. etc. I'm also thinking these little "meaty" packets will freeze for quick dinners down the road. I think I'm onto something. Expect more.

This one is a basic pot pie feel. It tasted pretty darn good.
(Serves 4 people)
 
Dough:

    3 teaspoons yeast
    1 cup warm water (110-115 f)
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1TBSP olive oil
    1 TBSP ground flax seed
    1 teaspoon salt
    2 cups flour + additional to knead into dough as needed. (I used mix of unbleached white and whole wheat pastry flour)

Instructions

Put yeast in bowl and cover with 1/4 of the cup of water. Stir and add sugar. Let sit for a few minutes til it foams. Add oil, salt, remaining water, flax and the two cups of flour. Stir until mixed well. It will form a soft ball. Add another 1/4 of flour or so, knead that in (in the bowl works just fine). Repeat that step two or three more times until the dough doesn't stick to you and it forms a nice ball. Knead it a minute or so. Let sit in a warm spot for 1/2 hour or 45 minutes, it will double in size. Preheat oven to 425. When ready form into four equal sized sections. Rectanglish...I used my hands. The dough is pretty easy to work with. And you can see my rectangles are not quite...ya know.

While the dough is rising, grease a pan, and prepare the filling.

2 medium or 3 small potatoes diced
1/2 onion diced
3 smallish carrots thinly sliced or diced
3 celery stalks thinly sliced or diced
1 cup vegetable broth or 1 cup water and 1 tsp vegetable boullion
1 TBSP Earth Balance
1/2 to 1 cup of leftover bits of whatever you need to use up in the fridge like lentils, seitan, cauliflower other veggies
1 tsp salt if using salt free broth.
pepper to taste.


Melt Earth Balance in a pan, toss in onion and celery and saute til tender and turning translucent. Toss in the rest of the veggies and potatoes and cook until they begin to brown. Add broth and salt if using. Simmer until the mixture thickens and potatoes and carrots soften.

Place 1/4 of this mixture on each rectangle. I placed the mixture in the middle of the left side of the dough and then folded the right over the left and pinched it closed. Repeat with the other 3 pieces of dough and the filling. Lay the packets in the baking dish 9 x 13 works. Slit each 2 or 3 times on top of the packet. Bake at 425 for 23 minutes.