Phat Vegan

Much deliciousness, animal-free style.

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Grilling, Vegan Style

Vegans aren't just relegated to corn when it comes to grilling. Buzzfeed posted 38 recipes that prove that point.

Most of these look mighty awesome. A few have cheese, but for the most part this is territory for vegans who want to do magic on their grills.

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Mock Meat Stir-Fry

Your local Asian food store is a goldmine for vegan variety. The same old proteins can get tiresome; picking up a few cans of gluten-based mock meats is touch of fresh awesomeness.

These cans above contain vegan versions (from left to right) chicken, duck and pork. Going into the experience expecting replicas of those items will leave one confused. These are chewy, tasty bites, but they don't taste what I remember meat tasting like.

Easier to sell something called "mock duck" than "braised gluten" I suppose.

These are not only something different for vegans eating tofu, beans and such all the time, but they're easy and yummy. They're already cooked, so you just need to chop them into slightly smaller pieces and throw them into a stir fry.

Fry the whole can of the meatuesque stuff (better make it two, these are pretty small) in a little bit of oil. Toss in a few dashes of basil, all spice and black pepper.

When they get a bit crispy, toss in about 2 cups of veggies. I used frozen stir-fry veggies that included celery, carrots, broccoli, red bell pepper and green beans. Those less lazy and pressed for time as myself will opt for fresh versions.

Cook everything in a stir-fry sauce until all the veggies are cooked. My quick stir-fry sauce is 1/3 soy sauce, 1/4 oj, a few squirts of Sriracha, a dash of ground ginger and about 2 tbl of rice vinegar. 

Yum-yum.

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What to Do With Tofu: Pt. 1-BBQ

For those unsure or wary of tofu, let me introduce you to a few ways to enjoy it. Baking it in BBQ sauce is a good way to start. It's easy and celebrates the sauce of your choosing.

You just need one pack of extra firm tofu and a bottle (about 1/2 cup) of your favorite barbeque sauce. Press the tofu first to get out some of the water instead and to increase deliciousness.

To press, wrap the whole block of tofu in a tea towel.

Then pile between two plates and stack with some weight, vegan cookbooks for example.

Pour barbecue sauce into a baking dish. Place tofu in dish and carefully toss.Let tofu marinate in sauce for as long as you can stand it. (1 hour is good.)

Pop in preheated oven (400 degrees) and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn tofu over and slather on more barbecue sauce. Bake 20 more minutes or so.

That’s it.

Served here with corn and red cabbage slaw, garlicky collard greens and penne with vegan cheesy sauce. 

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Thug Kitchen Shows Us All How to Eat like a Boss

Thugkitchen gets the Most Awesome Vegan-Related Thing I've Seen This Year award.

This is a blog dedicated to vegan cooking, grubbing and nutrition. So often vegan stuff is so saturated with hippydom. Not Thug Kitchen. Profanity and swag are the common threads to this informative and entertaining site. I'm inspired to chug some aguas frescas and snap peas with peanut sauce.

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Vegan cooking and death metal, two great loves come together. My new favorite web show. 

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Scrambled Tofu Sandwich with Sausage Gravy

Weekend started off right.

Scrambled tofu: Drain and crumble one pack of firm tofu. Add several vigorous shakes of nutritional yeast, along with dashes of salt, pepper, cayenne, tumeric and about 2 Tbl. of soy sauce. Stir and then cook in oil. Midway through cooking toss in more nutritional yeast and a touch more soy sauce. Cook until much of the tofu is crispy and brown.

Sausage Gravy: (recipe from Lane Gold's Vegan Junk Food)

Brown one package of Gimme Lean sausage. Stir in 1/4 cup flour, cook for one minute. Whisk in 2 cups nondairy milk,. Cook, stirring occasionally until thick and bubbly. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover one half of vegan English muffin with tofu, cover tofu with gravy, top with the other half of the muffin. Tell McDonald's you don't need them.

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Filo dough experiments. #strawberry #pineapple

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Cinnamon Chilaquiles

Out of cereal and hungry for breakfast, I decided to turn chilaquiles into something sweeter. Normally the bits of tortilla are cooked in salsa with eggs and cheese.  I wanted more of a Cinnamon Toast Crunch-Mexican fusion and it came out pretty well.

The tortillas are torn into small pieces, cooked in Earth Balance, tossed with cinnamon and sugar. A few chopped almonds on top, grapefruit chunks on the side, and that's it. Should you try this, I'd suggest adding some sort of sauce as it was a touch dry. Something mapley maybe?

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Tofu scramble on tater tots. Let's breakfast.

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The vegan recipe treasure trove is slicker and more robust.  Have a look.

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Bomb-Ass Banana Bread

On the rare occasion that my wife cooks, it's almost always some sort of baked good and it's almost always for breakfast.  Hard to find a better way to start a Saturday than you're lady handing you a fat slice of banana bread with chocolate chips.

Here's how she did it (modified from How it all Vegan) :

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Mash bananas real good. Add sugar and oil and stir it up. In another bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and soda. Add banana stuff to flour mix and stir until gently mixed. Spoon into an oiled loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes. The shit is awesome.

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Vegan thanksgiving plate at the Dilbert house

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Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Tasty, dense muffins with the power of flax seed.

I bought a box of flax seeds, lured by the promise of Omega 3 oils, but I didn't really know what to do with them. Turns out there was an excellent recipe on the box.

1/4 cup flax seed

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 white flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

egg replacer equal to one egg

1 1/2 cup chopped apples

3 tbsp oil

1/2 cup non-dairy milk 

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix dry stuff in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the egg replacer, oil and milk. Add wet to dry and stir until just blended. Stir in apples and nuts. Plop your thick ass batter into well greased muffin cups. Pop in the oven at 400 f for 18-20. Breakfast time.

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Cajun-Style Black-Eyed Peas

My wife's pregnancy diet requires a ton of protein and the inclusion of orange foods for various vitamins. I threw together this recipe to satisfy my need for Cajun flavors and get her and the little baby that's cooking the stuff they need.

I'm not going to claim that this is authentic at all, but tasty nonetheless.

I started with a roux, a gravy-like substance for plenty of Cajun dishes.  It's basically equal parts fat and flour.  I have used a high-quality margarine or else veggie oil.  You can follow a recipe like this one at food.com.

Next up, I cooked some frozen black-eyed peas, chopped onions and orange bell pepper in the roux.  For spice, I tossed in healthy dashes of paprika, cayenne, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Otherwise, some Tony Chachere's would suffice.

Served with sauteed spinach and millet.

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Vegan French Toast

Some Sunday mornings, I feel just like the drunk chick on 40 Year Old Virgin, craving some Freeeeench toast. Tried it with sliced wheat bread and it got soggy. A retry with some French bread came out much better.

Used a recipe from How it All Began.

Whisk together 1 1/2 cups non-dairy milk, 2 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tsp sweetener, 1 tsp cinnamon.  Soak bread in liquid.  Fry and flip and done.

Made this round with crispy tempeh "bacon." Recipe here.

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Vegan recipes galore on my old, less handsome blog

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Vegan Coconut Cream Pie with graham cracker crust from this food.com recipe. Booyah.