Scraps and Snippets ~ Cheezeburger Pizza

Cooked and with black sesame seeds.

Pizza Crust:  Use your favorite. If you don't have a recipe or favorite crust here's an idea. 

3 teaspoons yeast
1 Cup warm water 
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 TBSP olive oil
2+ Cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour) 

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water in medium mixing bowl. Add sugar (to feed the yeast). Stir and let this sit for 5 minutes, it should foam). Add the oil, salt and the rest of the water. Add 2 cups of flour and stir into a soft dough. Dump onto a floured surface and cover with flour. Knead dough adding flour as needed (a TBSP at a time) until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.

Place dough into a greased bowl and cover with a towel and let rise for about 30 minutes. 

In the meantime prep the toppings: Preheat oven to 450 or as directed by your pizza crust recipe/instructions. 

Use your favorite meat substitute for hamburger (approx 1 cup or two burgers broken into pieces). If you need recipes here are a few of our favorites. 

Ready for the oven. 

1/3 Cup organic ketchup
1 and 1/2 TBSP mustard
3 TBSP dill pickle relish or  equivalent dill pickles chopped
1/2 Cup small dice onion
2 TBSP sesame seeds (I used black, maybe not quite as appetizing when you look at it). 
Additionally, 1/2 to 1 Cup, shredded "cheddar cheese", Daiya, etc. or use 1/4 Cup cashew cheese sauce like I did (I don't have my own recipe, I was actually testing one for an upcoming cookbook so I can't give the details.)

Mix the mustard and ketchup together and use as your pizza sauce. Spread your meat substitute, pickles and onion over the sauce. Pour or sprinkle your cheese over that and top with sesame seeds. 

Bake for approx 20 minutes. 

Feel free to add diced tomatoes, lettuce, more ketchup and mustard as toppings before serving. 

Makes one decent sized pizza, serves 3-4 people. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Mexican Potato Skins

Yesterday I shared Deviled Potatoes. Those were so much fun I went ahead and veganized one of our other favorite appetizer/fun meals.

Preheat to 350

Wash and remove eyes from 4 medium potatoes. I used red and I left the skin on, but you could peel them.

Pierce the potatoes and place in a covered baker. (It's important to cover them, the potatoes need to stay moist.) Bake for 30 minutes, test for tenderness. When tender remove from oven and let cool.

When the potatoes are cool, cut the potatoes in half longwise and scoop out most of the potato flesh from the middle of each of the potatoes and add the scoop to the mixture in the food processor. 

Additionally you need:

1 avocado (peeled and seeded, obviously. :  )

1 small onion chunked

3 TBSP salsa

2 cloves garlic

Add these to the potato in the food processor and process until smooth. 

Place the potato shells back in the oven, under the broiler and allow them to crisp and brown.

Scoop the filling into the potato wells/holes, heaping it up a bit. Then, load em up. Vegan cheese, avocado slices, tomatoes, salsa, green onions. cilantro, coconut or tempeh bacon bits.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Deviled Potatoes

Makes 8 deviled potatoes

Preheat to 350

Wash and remove eyes from 4 smallish potatoes. I used red and I left the skin on, but you could peel them.

Pierce the potatoes and place in a covered baker. (It's important to cover them, the potatoes need to stay moist.) Bake for 30 minutes, test for tenderness. When tender remove from oven and let cool.

Into your food processor place the following.

1/2 of a small onion 

several good shakes each of salt and pepper

3 TBSPS of vegan mayonnaise 

1 TBSP mustard to the onions. Give it a few whirs.

When the potatoes are cool, cut the potatoes in half longwise and scoop out a large section from the middle of each of the potatoes and add the scoop to the mixture in the food processor.

The potato shell should look a lot like a deviled egg without the filling. Kind of...a cross between a twice-baked potato and a deviled egg and potato salad. Whir the mayo/onion/potato mixture until creamy. Taste it. Make sure you are happy with the blend. Now, if you are a fan of German potato salad, or have a favorite egg salad, deviled egg or potato salad recipe feel free to use it here. No sense in reinventing the wheel. Also, if you prefer an idea of chunky go for it.

Scoop the filling into the potato wells/holes, heaping it up a bit. Then, come up with some garnishing ideas. I used paprika sprinkled over the top. Coconut bacon would be delicious.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Walking Taco

Back in the day when the kids belonged to 4H we used to go to the local county fair. It was so much fun. And one of the big treats was discovering a thing called walking tacos. They were little sideways slit bags of Fritos with chili and cheese and other assorted goodies on top. I don't know if it was the fun factor or novelty, but every year we looked forward to those walking tacos. 

Now we can have them whenever we want. Veganized and as delicious as we remember. 

6 small bags of Fritos.  Cut the the bag horizontally. 

3 crumbled veggie burgers or veggie meat crumbles. ( I used these)

2 small tomatoes diced

1 small onion small dice

1 tsp fresh chopped cilantro
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cumin

Toss the meat, onion, tomato in a hot pan and stir until onion begins to brown. Add the spices and water. Simmer until the water is absorbed. 

Scoop the mixture onto the Fritos in the bag. Top with some of the following: vegan sour cream, vegan cheese, chopped tomatoes, slices of avocado or guacamole, chopped black olives, black or pinto beans, lettuce, salsa... eat with a fork and enjoy. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ All American Burger

One of my pet peeves with vegan burgers is the texture. I don't like biting into a burger and have it squish out the sides of the bun because of a little bite pressure. 

I had a huge zucchini and home prepped frozen chickpeas, so I set out to make a burger that would withstand the simple bite test. And I think I nailed it. 

(I'm sure any shredded veggie would do to replace zucchini, and also the mushrooms. My second time around I used celery instead of mushrooms, the color was lighter but the taste and texture were just fine. 

3 Cups shredded zucchini

1 can drained chickpeas (1 and 2/3ish cup of home done)

1 small onion

1 Cup mushrooms

1 TBSP dried dill

1 TBSP dried parsley

2 TBSP soy sauce

3 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 TBSP garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoons mustard powder

1 1/2 teaspoons tumeric

1 1/2 Cuts oatmeal

1 1/2 Cups gluten flour

Shred zucchini in a large food processor (three cups is 1 - 1 1/2 zucchini depending on the size. (I peeled most of the skin off but not all of it). Add soy sauce, nutritional yeast and spices, chunked onion and mushrooms. Whir. When uniform add the drained chickpeas. Blend well and transfer to a bowl. 

Add oatmeal and gluten flour. Stir and then knead the dough until completely uniform and mixed. 

Form into 12 patties. Place these on a greased cookie sheet (or two). Bake at 350 for a total of 1/2 hour, flipping halfway through. These can be frozen for later or kept in the fridge for over a week. 

I also kept some back and experimented with it in a frying pan to see if it would work as "browned" hamburger. Break it up and keep moving it around in a hot pan and it does indeed. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Marinated Summer Squash Sandwiches

Marinated Summer Squash Sandwiches

1 summer squash sliced thin

1 small onion thinly sliced

(thin sliced peppers if desired)

2 TBSP soy sauce

2 tsp oil (I used sesame)

1 TBSP vinegar (apple cider, malt, red wine vinegar)

1 1/2 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 TBSP garlic lemon pepper seasoning, or 1 tsp each of pepper, lemon zest, garlic powder)

Marinade squash and onions, (and peppers) stirring until everything is fully covered. 

Vegan Cream Cheese and Garlic Spread

3 TBSP non-dairy cream cheese

1 tsp powdered garlic

Bread or rolls of choice. (enough for 6 small or 4 medium sandwiches)

Additional suggestions: 

Thinly sliced tomatoes 

Spinach leaves

Romaine lettuce

Avocado

Saute marinated vegetables until browned, golden.

Broil or toast plain bread. Spread the garlic cream cheese mixture evenly over both sides of the bread. Place under broiler and heat. Watch and warm for 30 seconds to a minute. It might bubble but don't let it burn. 

Layer the sautéed squash and onions and any of the additional add ons you desire. Put sandwiches together and serve. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Flexivegan Again ~ Potato Pancakes with Celery Sage Gravy

I'm guessing once a week I'll be bringing you flexivegan posts. What is flexivegan? Well, for me it's ideas that are fails but are then saved because, darn it, I'm not going to waste x amount of $ in ingredients. 

I introduce you to Potato Pancakes with Celery Sage Gravy

Pancakes 

1 1/8 Cup vegetable broth

2 medium potatoes

1/2 stalk of celery

1 - 2 cloves garlic

2 TBSP chopped onion 

2 TBSP soy sauce

2 TBSP nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp tumeric 

1/2 Cup oatmeal

1/2 Cup vital wheat gluten

Chop potatoes, celery, garlic and soy sauce to the veggie broth in a saucepan. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes.

Cool and transfer to a food processor. Run and when smoother add nutritional yeast, pepper, tumeric, oatmeal and process again. Add gluten and run just a few seconds. 

Spoon a few TBSP each onto a hot griddle, when side browned, flip and press with a spatula. 

Gravy

1 Cup vegetable broth

1 stalk minced celery

1/4 cashew pieces

1/4 tsp dried sage

1 TBSP flour

2 TBSP cold water

Simmer celery and cashews in the vegetable broth until celery is tender, add sage. Mix the flour into the water then pour into the simmering gravy mixture. Stir until the thickness you desire. 

Pour gravy over the pancakes and serve. Makes about 8 pancakes.