Here Be Vegans

Vegan Recipes and Musings

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TOFU FRIES

To avoid any confusion, we feel like we should mention straight away that potatoes are indeed vegan. This is not a vegan french fry post. Unless they’re cooked in lard, fries are usually vegan. But tofu fries are fun and yummy and so easy to make.

These are modeled after the tofu fries from Susty’s Vegan Cafe in Northwood, New Hampshire, which had been making vegan food since 1998 until they closed down due to the pandemic.

Susty’s was a funny little restaurant. It was the rare sort of small town restaurant where the person who took your food order would then just walk into the back and cook it for you. It was really slow and pretty charming and the food was totally worth waiting for. Sometimes you’d drive there and it wouldn’t be open because the one person who was supposed to be working didn’t make it in that day, which could have been disappointing but always made us laugh.

RIP Susty’s. We miss you.

tofu fries

block of tofu (super firm or extra firm)

oil (we used olive)

our seasoning mix (or whatever seasoning mix you like)

nutritional yeast

Drain the tofu and pat it dry with a couple cloths, then cut it into little fries. Put the fries in a bowl, coat them in oil, then spice mix and nutritional yeast. Bake at 400 on a parchment-lined tray for about 25 minutes. Keep and eye on them and take them out when they’re as crispy as you want. We could advise you to flip them halfway through, but we didn’t and they turned out great.

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BACON

Tofu bacon is one of those classic, old school recipes that our vegan forefathers got just right. You don’t really need to mess with it. 

Vegan bacon options at the grocery store are surprisingly limited given how prevalent moc meat is at this point. Until Morning Star gets with the program and stops slopping egg whites into everything, you’re kind of out of luck on the pre-packaged front if you wan’t something really tasty. So, let’s travel back in time to, let’s say, the 1970s, when your hip parents were trying out all kinds of wacky recipes with radical, politically conscious hunks of bean curd. 

tofu bacon

1 block super firm tofu

1/2 cup tamari

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon liquid aminos

1 teaspoon pickle brine or vinegar

1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke

Mix up all the marinade ingredients. Slice the tofu very thinly. Soak the tofu in the marinade in the fridge for at least an hour.

Drain the tofu but save the marinade.

Lay out the tofu onto two oiled baking sheets. Spray or brush some oil on the tops of the tofu slices.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Flip the tofus. Add a bit more marinade and then oil to the top of each slice. Bake for 12 more minutes. (Cooking times vary depending on how thinly you slice the tofu, how many pans you have cooking simultaneously, and how crispy you want your bacon to be, so keep an eye on it!)

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RAMEN SEASONING PACKET/ ALL AROUND YUMMY SPICE MIX

This recipe makes a tasty, salty seasoning that you can use in a lot of different ways. It’s a fun thing to have on hand in your pantry. We use it as seasoning for nachos. 

Our nachos consist of finely chopped veggies (bell pepper, onion, potato, cauliflower, and jalapeño, if you like), cooked until soft (splash in some veggie broth as they cook!), seasoned with this stuff, then served on tortilla chips with chopped avocado on top. Our nachos are so good, but they’re also not really anything like regular nachos and, frankly, they’re kinda hideous. But if you make them you will like them! You thought this was a post about a seasoning mix but it’s actually a plea for you to make our nachos. Please make our nachos.

ramen seasoning / yummy spice mix

1 cup nutritional yeast

3 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons sea salt

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Pulse everything in a blender to make a fine powder. 

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ROAST YOUR VEGGIES

This is just solid life advice that we all need to hear at some point. Roasting vegetables is something that we do all the time now, but we haven’t always. If you don’t yet know about the wonders of veggie roasting, this post is for you.

Roasted veggies are reeeeally yummy, and they’re easy to make too.

basic roasted veggies

Just take your fresh vegetable of choice (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash... whatever you like) and wash it, peel it if needed, and chop it up.

Side note: If you’ve never peeled a broccoli stem and chopped and cooked it along with the florets, you should give that a try. Broccoli stems are delicious.

Put your chopped veggies onto a tray. A simple half sheet with a bit of an edge is a nice thing to own. Nordic Ware makes a great, inexpensive, no frills aluminum half sheet pan that every food blogger seems to own.

Drizzle oil on top and stir to coat the veggies. Sprinkle on salt and pepper.

Bake at 415ish for 45ish minutes. Stir regularly (we set a series of 10 minute timers if we’re feeling forgetful). Roast until thoroughly cooked and lightly browned. Taste them when they look done.

We store roasted veggies in our fridge and eat them throughout the week. They’re so good that you might even find yourself eating them cold.

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BRAISED RED POTATOES

This is one of the yummiest things you can possibly make, and also one of the simplest. These cute little red potatoes are soft on the inside and browned and perfectly seasoned on the outside. They take a bit of time to cook, but you really barely have to do any work for this recipe. Next time you’re at the grocery store, grab some red potatoes and try it!

We posted this recipe once before as part of a dinner with other elements involved, but we thought it needed its own spot here because it’s so special and great. You can make this recipe using the tiny red potatoes that often come in a net bag or the kind that are a bit larger, either works well. It’s especially fun to use the tiny ones if you’re making this recipe for tiny humans :)

braised red potatoes

Maybe 2/3rds of a bag of tinies, or about 8 regular red potatoes, scrubbed and halved. Just cover the bottom of your pan, cut side down.

3 whole garlic cloves, peeled

a big pinch of dried thyme (or a couple sprigs fresh if you have it)

a big pinch of dried rosemary

1/2 to ¾ tsp salt (depending on the size/ quantity of the potatoes)

3 Tbsp Earth Balance

2 cups water

Arrange the potatoes cut side down in a well-seasoned cast iron or non-stick 12-inch skillet.

Pour in the water and add all the other ingredients to the pan.

Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Remove the lid. Take out the garlic cloves and place them on a cutting board.

Cook the potatoes, uncovered, while the rest of the water cooks off and the bottoms of the potatoes form a nice crust (about 30 minutes).

Turn off the heat. Mince or press the garlic. Add the garlic to the pan and stir to coat the potatoes in the butter-garlic mixture. Serve immediately.

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VEGGIE BURGER SUPREME

This is a variation of our go to veggie burger recipe (the stolen, award winning one). Cooking the onion and adding garlic, spices, and veggie broth elevates these burgers above the already great original recipe.

veggie burgers supreme (yields about 17 burgers)

1 yellow onion

1 tablespoon vegan butter

4 cloves garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, ground between your fingers

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

pinch of cumin

1 block firm tofu, drained

½ cup grated carrot

¾ cup sesame seeds

¾ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup tamari

1/3 cup neutral-tasting oil

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups bulgur wheat

½ cup veggie broth (more may be added if dough is too dry)

Chop the onion and get it cooking in the vegan butter on medium-low heat for at least 20 minutes, until softened and starting to brown. Add 4 cloves minced garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in all the spices.

In a large bowl, combine all-purpose flour, bulgur wheat, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. Add the cooked onion mixture.

In a separate bowl, crumble the tofu with your hands. Mix in the canola oil, tamari and veggie broth. Add the grated carrots. Add the cooked onion and garlic.

Combine the two mixtures. Mix thoroughly with your hands to make the batter.

Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours, or overnight.

Shape the mixture into whatever size patties you like. We try not to make them too thick. To achieve equal patties, you can use some sort of lid as a template.

You can store the uncooked patties as they are, but we like to cook them a bit before freezing, which makes them especially easy to heat up in the future. We use a big, double-burner stovetop griddle and cook the burgers on both sides until lightly browned. 

Stack the burgers between pieces of parchment and store them in the freezer in a freezer-safe container or bag. 

When it’s time to heat one up, cook like any other veggie burger - on a skillet with vegan butter or oil until browned on both sides, or on a grill - however you like it.

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DOG TREATS AND OR BABY TEETHING COOKIES

These thick and crunchy cookies are beloved by teething babies and furry friends alike. 

We originally made these as dog treats, but soon realized that Allie enjoyed them almost as much as Saul did. It’s the best because whenever Allie discards a drooly, partly eaten biscuit on the floor - viola! - it instantly transforms into a dog treat and is swiftly scarfed.

We would also like to note here, for posterity, that Audie consistently calls these “baby buns” for reasons which we don’t understand.

dog treats/ baby teething cookies

2.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1.5 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/3 cup real peanut butter

1/3 cup Just Egg

2 tablespoons molasses

Mix everything together to make a somewhat wet dough. Flour a countertop and work the dough a little bit until it’s easier to handle. Flour your work surface again and roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into whatever shapes you like and then bake them at 350 for 35 minutes on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

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CLASSIC TOMATO SOUP

Tomato soup for the cold days ahead. This is a veganized version of a Cook’s Illustrated recipe and it is a classic, creamy tomato soup. It has just the right amount of tanginess that gets you at the last second!

classic tomato soup

2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes

1.5 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons vegan butter

4 large-ish shallots, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

a pinch of allspice

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup cashew cream (raw cashews blended in alt. milk until thick and creamy)

salt to taste

Drain the tomatoes, but save the liquid and set it aside for later. 

Put the tomatoes on an aluminum-lined baking sheet and sprinkle the brown sugar on top. Bake at 450 for about 30 minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes begin to brown. When they’re done, transfer them to a bowl.

Start cooking the shallots in the butter in a pot over medium-low heat. After a few minutes, add the tomato paste and allspice. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the shallots are nicely softened. 

Whisking constantly, add the flour and let it totally incorporate before slowly adding the veggie broth. Stir in the roasted tomatoes and the reserved tomato juice. 

Turn the heat up to medium, cover the pot, and bring the soup to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Add the cashew cream and the salt. Use an immersion blender and puree the soup until it is smooth. 

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HANK POPS (COCONUT POPS)

Creamy, not overly sweet coconut pops. These are easy peasy and really good.

When Audie asks us to tell her a story, she specifies what type she wants, a “once did” or a “pit-pat”. Once dids are true tales of things that Audie once did. Pit-pat stories, on the other hand, are made up on the spot. Pit-pat stories are about Audie going off on some adventure, often into the woods where she encounters a bunch of animal friends, and they always end with the words, “... and then Audie ran home and told her Mommy and Daddy all about it, just like that,” and then we snap our fingers. Wow, the set up for explaining why these coconut pops are called Hank pops is already so long, but we can’t stop now! The main thing is that Hank is a character from a deeply weird pit-pat about a man and his dog who make and sell popsicles together, and it barely makes sense, even to us, but we refer to coconut pops as Hank pops now, and we will forevermore!

Hank pops (yields approximately 6 Hanks)

1 can coconut milk

1/3 cup cashew cream (whole, raw cashews blended with alt. milk until very smooth and thick)

1/4 cup fine coconut flakes

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 to 4 tablespoons maple syrup, depending on desired sweetness

Mix it, freeze it.

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EASY CINNAMON BUNS

Have you ever had a cinnamon bun without any icing? The thing is, a warm, homemade cinnamon bun is already perfection, all by itself. Putting a bunch of icing on top can actually add such an overwhelming amount of sugar that it makes it hard to taste the essential flakey, buttery, cinnamon-y goodness of a cinnamon bun. Anyway, there’s no harm in trying a bite sometime before you frost ‘em.

We adapted this recipe from the great Baking Illustrated recipe ‘Quick Cinnamon Buns’ and all we did was veganize them, reduce the sugar, and nix the icing. They are perfection!

cinnamon buns

cinnamon-sugar filling

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vegan butter, melted

biscuit dough

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk (cashew milk plus 1 Tbsp white vinegar)

2 tablespoons vegan butter, melted

2 tablespoons vegan butter, melted (to be spread on top of rolled out dough)

1 tablespoon vegan butter, melted (to be brushed on top of the buns right before baking)

Mix up the filling and set it aside.

Whisk together all the dry biscuit dough ingredients. Whisk two tablespoons of the melted butter into the buttermilk, then pour that in. Mix and knead a bit until you’ve got a nice dough ball. When kneading, add a little flour if necessary until the dough is no longer sticky.

On a floured surface, squish or roll the dough into a roughly 9 x 12 inch rectangle. Brush 2 tablespoons of the melted butter on top of the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border of dough along the two long edges.

Maintaining the 1/2-inch border, spread the filing on top, then press it down gently.

Gently and tightly roll up your dough from the longest side.

Cut the dough log into 8 slices. Place the cinnamon buns in a buttered 9-inch round pan. Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter onto the tops.

Bake at 425 for 23 minutes.

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LIEGE WAFFLES

Waffle meets pastry? These waffles don’t need anything on them. Store them in your freezer and heat up a couple in the toaster oven for a special treat.

What is a liège waffle? Well, they’re bread-ish and pastry-ish and also waffle-ish. They’re dense, buttery, and chewy apart from some delightful pearl sugar crunches. They’re just so good.

All we did was veganize Deb Perelman’s recipe. And we added cinnamon. We always add cinnamon.

liège waffles

1/2 cup cashew milk

1/4 cup water

2 Tbsp sugar

1 packet (2 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast

1/2 cup Just Egg (can sub 2 tsp flax whipped up with 2 Tbsp water)

2 tsp vanilla

3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (can sub whole wheat pastry flour)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

14 Tbsp vegan butter, softened

1 1/3 cups pearl sugar

For heartier waffles, go for the ww pastry/ flax version.

You need to prep the dough for these waffles the night before you want to make them.

In a small saucepan, warm up the milk and water just a bit, until lukewarm, then transfer to a standing mixer with the dough hook attached. Stir in the sugar and the yeast and let it all it sit for 5 minutes. It will get all foamy. 

Whisk in the Just Egg (or flax eggs) and the vanilla. Mix in the salt, cinnamon, and 1 cup of the flour.

Next add the butter, a spoonful at a time (2 Tbsp?), making sure that each spoonful of butter gets fully kneaded in before adding more.

Add the remaining flour and mix with the dough hook for 5 minutes, until glossy.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for 2 hours, it should double.

Deflate/ push it down, then re-cover with plastic wrap.

Put it in the fridge overnight, or for up to 24 hours.

The next day, when you’re ready to make the waffles, take the dough out of the fridge and knead in the pearl sugar. Divide the dough into 16 pieces, cover with plastic and put in the fridge. 

Take out two chunks of dough at a time to cook in your waffle iron (to make 2 waffles at a time). You don’t need to grease the waffle iron. Cook for about 5 minutes, until golden.

You really should make these waffles, they’re incredible. But if making waffles with fancy ingredients that need to rise and sit overnight is too ambitious a task for you today, try our classic waffle recipe instead.

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COOKBOOK RECOMMENDATION

When you read Miyoko’s recipes, it’s like she’s whispering secrets in your ear. Nut milks, vegan butter and mayo, every kind of mock meat and cheese you ever wanted, tofu, baking mixes... Miyoko gives it all up! We love this cookbook.

We don’t own many vegan cookbooks because we’ve always had more success with just veganizing great non-vegan recipes. Miyoko’s book is an exception to that. Her recipes are incredible, and her voice, which is peppered pretty sparingly throughout the book, is so wise and sweet.

We know Miyoko cares more about helping people become vegan than she does about selling cookbooks, so we’re going to post a few of our favorites below. But the whole book is excellent and if you’re interested, you really should buy it.

whole wheat pancake/ waffle/ biscuit mix

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

5 Tbsp ground flax seeds

3 Tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

we like to add a tsp of cinnamon too

Just whisk everything together and store it in a container in your pantry. Whenever you want to whip up pancakes or waffles, it’s really fast and way more wholesome and yummy than a mix you can buy at the store. Combine with somewhere around a 1:1 ratio of your favorite alt milk.

butter (1 lb/ 2 cups)

1.5 cups melted refined coconut oil (refined coconut oil does not taste like coconut)

1/2 cup soy or nut milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp liquid lecithin (to emulsify)

Put all the ingredients in a blender and process for about a minute. Pour into whatever container you want to store it in. We got a silicone mold that makes butter sticks with tablespoon notches. Refrigerate to set.

mayo (3 to 3.5 cups)

1 cup soy or other vegan milk

1.5 Tbsp mustard

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp salt

1.5 to 2.5 cups canola oil

Put the milk, mustard, vinegar, and salt in a blender and process a bit. With the blender running, add the oil in a very thin, steady stream until the mayo suddenly turns very thick. The amount of oil you add depends on how slowly you can pour it and the speed of your blender.

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KATHY’S TOFU SAUCE

This is a really good, easy sauce that we love to make. Perfect for a good stirfry. This size batch makes enough for a big stirfry PLUS enough leftover to fill a glass Marukan rice vinegar bottle to the brim (2 cups total).

stirfry sauce

3 Tbsp peanut oil

1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 Tbsp minced garlic

2 Tbsp minced ginger

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup tamari

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup water

We usually just use the little glass pots of pre-minced garlic and ginger from the grocery store for this.

Start cooking the peanut oil, toasted sesame oil, garlic, and ginger over medium-high heat. Let that go for a minute or two and then add the rice vinegar, tamari, and maple syrup. Bring to a boil.

Whisk to dissolve the cornstarch in the water. Pour the cornstarch-water mixture into the sauce. Whisk until sauce has thickened.

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SIAN’S CHOCOLATE CLOUD COOKIES

These are the best cookies ever? Every person we have ever made these for has asked for the recipe. The only way we can think to describe them is that they’re like perfectly soft sugar cookies combined with rich chocolate brownies, with an addictive hint of molasses. They keep their shape on the pan, so you can make them pretty thick, and they have an amazing, soft-as-a-cloud texture. They are truly perfect cookies and so easy to make.

A sweet treat for special occasions. If you only have one cookie recipe up your sleeve, make it this one.

Sian’s chocolate cloud cookies

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegan butter

1/2 Spectrum shortening

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 Tbsp molasses

1/4 cup alternative milk

1 cup vegan chocolate chips (minis are nice if you got ‘em)

Cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar. 

Mix in the milk, vanilla, and molasses. 

Mix in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Add the chocolate chips.

Roll the dough into little balls between your hands without flattening them. You can place the dough balls pretty close together because they don’t spread much, but it still takes two trays. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes on parchment-lined baking sheets. 

Cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then move to wire racks.

Need just one other perfect dessert recipe? Okay. Try our pecan pie bars.

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HAIL SEITAN

We’ve been keeping this one to ourselves for the past seven years. Now that the lovely restauranteur who shared her secret recipe with us is happily retired, we’re posting her perfect seitan recipe for you to enjoy.

seitan

3 cups vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

3 Tbsp chickpea flour

3 Tbsp onion powder

3 Tbsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 can white beans (such as cannellini, great northern, navy), pureed

2 cups water

1/2 cup oil

Whisk all the wheat gluten, flour and spices together. 

Add all the remaining ingredients. We use a Kitchen Aid with the bread hook attachment for 1 to 2 minutes. You don’t want to over-mix it because the gluten will go crazy.

Form the seitan dough into a long log, maybe 13 inches long.

Wrap the seitan log entirely in tinfoil. Place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Flip the log. Bake for another 50.

Cool. Slice. We store the slices in the freezer.

There are lots of things you can do with your seitan. In the photo above, we had it on a sandwich with a sauerkraut/ vegan mayo/ ketchup slaw and a slice of Chao cheese. There’s a restaurant we love in Denver that serves a seitan slab smothered in gravy with biscuits and tofu scramble. It’s also great chopped into pieces and added to a veggie pot pie.

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FRIED PLANTAINS

The secret to soft fried plantains is wrapping them up in tinfoil and baking them for a bit after frying. These are Audie’s favorite breakfast treat.

fried plantains

1 ripe plantain

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 tsp salt

Peel and slice the plantain into 1/4-inch thick coins.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. 

Place the plantain slices in the oil. If the oil is hot enough, it should bubble a little as you add each plantain slice. 

Cook for about 6 minutes, until nicely browned, shuffling them around regularly but not flipping them.

Flip all the plantains. Sprinkle on the salt. Cook on this side for about 5 minutes. 

Remove the plantains from the pan and place them on paper towels. Pat away excess oil. 

Wrap up the plantains in a little tinfoil pouch and pop them in the oven (we just put them in a toaster oven) at 400 for 10 minutes.

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SPICY TACO SAUCE

Austin has a lot of incredible restaurants, but if I had to choose just one of them to be transplanted here to Boulder, I would actually choose a little food truck that used to be parked next to the anarchist bookstore on North Loop by Avenue F, a food truck named Rockin’ Vegan Tacos.

This recipe is our best guess at their incredible orange taco sauce and it is just perfect on breakfast tacos. We keep this stuff in our fridge at all times.

This sauce is seriously hot, but so addictively yummy. You’ll probably want to use a very small amount at first and work your way up to using more.

spicy taco sauce

4 roma tomatoes

1 small yellow onion

4 garlic cloves

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup dried arbol chilies

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp salt

Slice the tomatoes and put them cut side down on a roasting pan. Peel the onion, slice it into thick rounds and place those in the pan too. Broil for 20 minutes on the top oven rack. Flip, stir, and kind of smoosh things around as you check on it every few minutes. You’re going for browned but not burned.

Heat a bit of oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the peeled garlic and cook for 3 minute while stirring. Add the chilies and cook another 10 minutes, stirring as they get a bit toasty.

Put the chilies and garlic in a blender (we used a Cuisinart), along with the vinegar and water. Let stand 5 minutes to soften. Puree and pour in the oil slowly to allow the sauce to emulsify. 

Add the roasted tomatoes and onion, and the salt, and puree until smooth.

You’ll probably need some tofu scramble to go with that taco sauce.