Asparagus is a great vegetable, despite its side effects. However, most people only steam or boil it. Sadly, during the summer, when asparargus abounds, no one wants to deal with heating the kitchen. Well, as the grill is already fired up, just toss on the asparagus. Just be careful that they don’t fall through the grates. While you tend to want thinner spears for steaming, when grilling use thicker ones if possible. If using thinner spears, you might want to use a grill basket. You can make the grilling easier by making asparagus rafts, see the directions below the recipe. If you have never had grilled asparagus, I urge you to try it now! Prep Time: 10 minutes Grilling Time: 10-12 minutes Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds of asparagus, rinsed, dried and tough ends snapped off 1 TBL olive oil 3/4 tsp salt 1 tsp grated lemon zest 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice Directions:
Salty, sweet and a little smokey make grilled sweet potatoes a great accompaniment for burgers and franks at any barbeque. You will want to make extra as they will go fast. They are a great alternative to French fries or potato chips. Also, by adding the oil to the potatoes and shaking them up in a bag, you end up using much less oil than if you brushed the oil on each one. It’s much quicker and easier too. You can use a store bought seasoned salt or try our recipe to make your own. Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 6-8 minutes Servings 4-8 Ingredients: 4 sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean. 1 TBL olive oil 2 TBL seasoned salt* Directions: 1. Slice each potato in half lengthwise. Slice each half into 4 to 6 wedges lengthwise depending on the size of the potato. 2. Place potato wedges in a large resealable
Artichokes are one of those foods that have always puzzled me. Who was the first person to see one and say, “hey, I want to eat that!”? They cannot be eaten raw, so who first though to cook one? When you cut them open there is a fuzzy center that you cannot eat, that covers the delicious heart. And then there is the eating of the leaves. Looking at all of this, I am really amazed and thankful that someone took the time to figure these suckers out. There is little better than a grilled artichoke in the summer. However, will a little preparation, you can enjoy the awesomeness that is a grilled artichoke. Grilling one whole does not really work without some serious prepartion and attention (I have lost many an artichoke to the fire gods). When I first attempted to grill an artichoke, I simply cut it in half,
I woke up one morning and had a brilliant idea – what if I took a hot dog, sliced it down the center, filled it with cheese, wrapped the entire thing in bacon and grilled it? It really wasn’t so much a question as an exclamation. Later that day I did just that for lunch. When I started preparing it, Ethan looked at me with wide eyes, marveling at what I was doing. He wanted one too. Who wouldn’t? After a few mintues on the grill it was time to taste. It was even better than I thought it would be. Prep Time: 6 minutes Cooking Time: 8 minutes Yield: As many as you make Ingredients: 1 package of vegan hotdogs. (I love the Field Roast Frankfurters) 2 strips of vegan bacon per hotdog (Upton’s Naturals Seitan Bacon is great here) Shredded cheddar style vegan cheese Hotdog buns & condiments Directions:
I have not enjoyed a mango lassie in over seven years. Given that they’re usually made with cream, milk and even sometimes clotted cream, this was one of the many things that I just assumed that I would have to give up when I went vegan. Oh, how I was wrong! I whipped this together and under two minutes this morning using our Vitamix blender. In truth, any blender will do. I enjoy the flavor of soy yogurt and soy milk but this can obviously be easily made using the nut milk and yogurt of your choice. Ingredients: 1/2 C frozen organic mango chunks 6 oz vanilla yogurt (I used Whole Soy and Company’s) 8 oz vanilla soy milk Pinch of cardamom Pinch of dried shredded coconut Directions Combine all ingredients in the blender and blend until creamy and smooth. Top with a dusting of Cardamom and a pinch of
Everytime I make fried seitan, I always make more than necessary for the immediate meal just so I can have these sandwiches the next day. Sometimes, I will even make the seitan for the sole purpose of making these. This is my veganized verison of the standard deli chicken cutlet sandwich. Even omnivores love this sandwich. Is it truly a bahn-mi? Well, as I don’t use a baguette, I suppose it isn’t. But that doesn’t really matter. Crispy seitan, pickled cucumbers and carrots, ciabatta bread and a hoisin spread all combine in a symphony of flavors and textures to make one amazing sandwich. In any event, here is my recipe for a Seitan Bahn-Mi Sandwich. Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cooking Time: 5 minutes Servings: 6 sandwiches Ingredients: 1 recipe fried seitan 1 recipe pickled cucumbers and carrots 2 green onions sliced into long thin strips, white and light green parts only
Back in my pre-vegan days, I was a tuna salad junkie. I made a really good tasting one with enhancements to my recipe (like the shredded carrots and spicy mustard) offered by my mother-in-law who makes the best tuna salad I ever tasted. Well, until now. Mine is now the best because it’s a cruelty free version of what she makes. Using chickpeas instead of tuna makes this a lower-sodium and mercury-free option while still retaining all of that great protein you expect from a “tuna” salad. Prep Time: 5 minutes or less Ingredients: 15 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained 2 green onions (finely chopped) 1 celery stalk (finely chopped) 1 medium carrot (shredded) 1 1/2 tsp spicy mustard 1 1/2 tsp sweet pickle relish 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise 1/4 tsp onion powder 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp paprika Sea salt, to taste Ground black pepper, to taste
This gets filed under the “little work for big return” recipes. A quick soak in a simple pickling solution gives regular carrots and cucumbers and extra flavor burst that is both salty and sweet with a hint of tart thanks to the rice vinegar. Want to add a little something special to sandwiches? Try these. This recipe is a key ingredient in our Seitan Bahn Mi sandwich (recipe coming soon). They also work great in sushi. This is also a great recipe for practicing your knife skills. You want the carrot and cucumber strips to be about 3 inches long. They can be longer and thicker, but then they will require a little more soaking time to allow the brine to work its magic. Prep Time: 5 minutes Marinading time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 1 cucumber 2 carrots 1 cup water 2 TBL white vinegar 2 TBL sugar 1 tsp salt Directions: 1. Peel
During the summer, I like to grill as often as possible. In fact, when I am a t barbecue, I am often appointed grill master for the evening and take over all grilling duties. When I became vegan, I didn’t think I would be grilling again, aside from vegetables anyway. But I loved my grill and I was not giving it up. I just needed to figure out what to grill. Tofu was a logical thing to try. It just needed a good marinade. I got some tofu, put in into my teriyaki marinade and voila! Success. My days of grilling were far from over. This recipe will even get the “I don’t like tofu” people to love tofu. The longer you let this marinate, the better. You want the flavors really getting into the tofu. Prep Time: 10 miuntes, plus at least 1 hour to marinade Cooking Time: 8
This recipe came to me from a former co-worker at my first job out of law school. We were working on a large anti-trust document review project and we all sat at the table in a conference room for 10 hours a day, every day for 5 weeks. Everyone brought his or her lunch to work as we didn’t have enough time to go and buy lunch somewhere, bring it back to the office and eat. The work was dull, but the working environment was great. One day, one of my co-workers brought in a huge container of sesame noodles to share with everyone. They were fantastic. I asked her for the recipe, which she readily shared. In fact, I still have the orginial paper she copied it on to. It stands out in my recipe binder as it is on pink paper from the photocopier at the office. The original recipe
