General Tsao’s Sauce (from scratch) with Tofu

This is my husband's recipe, he developed it after looking at a ton of General Tsao's sauce recipes online, most bragging about being completely from scratch... and having ingredients like hoisin sauce or something. Yes, this one does use soy sauce and chili oil, those are pre-made.
We used to buy General Tsao's sauce from Trader Joe's (it's very good) but with his corn allergy, we had to come up with our own version. Use lots of broccoli with this one :) 

If you're not familiar with using arrowroot as a corn starch substitute, it's a thickener that works very well with sauces. It's also a lower temperature thickener, so keep your sauce at a lower temperature when you add it. It's easiest to add to a sauce if it's already liquid, and mixes really well in cold water- so add a little cold water to your measured out arrowroot, stir, and then add the liquid to your sauce. Arrowroot also thickens quickly.


Ingredients:

5 Tbsp rice vinegar
6½ Tbsp. rice wine
½ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1½ or 2 tsp. chili oil
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
½ cup sugar
3 tsp. minced garlic
1½ tsp. minced ginger
4 or 5 teaspoons arrowroot, for sauce (pre-mixed in a little bit of cool water)

½ cup oil (for frying)
One container of Extra Firm fresh tofu.
1 cup (ish) onions
4 Cups broccoli (approx)

Sauce Instructions: 
Mix Rice Vinegar, Rice Wine, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Chili Oil and Tomato Paste. Add 1/2 cup sugar, then whisk it together.

In a large sauce pan lightly sauté the garlic and ginger in a small amount of oil, then add the mixture and bring to low boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and cook, and add arrowroot while whisking. It should be thick when done. Then remove from heat and set aside.

Stir Fry Instructions: 
Take tofu out of liquid it came in and chop into 1 inch cubes, press these between two towels to take out the moisture and dry them. Heat 1/2 cup oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Then place in the tofu, turn it during cooking so that each side gets browned. When all sides are browned, place the tofu on a paper towel to get rid of excess oil. Sauté the onions, add broccoli and cook until tender. (add water if necessary) Then add the tofu and then the sauce and heat over low for until everything is heated through.

Vegan Spinach Pesto Stuffed Shells

These were *amazing*

Start with homemade tomato sauce w/ vegan Italian sausage:

• 1 package Upton's Naturals Italian Sausage style seitan
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1 (15 ounce) can canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

I saute the seitan with the onions & garlic, browning the seitan a bit. The rest of the ingredients- the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, water, sugar, seasonings, salt, pepper, and parsley (if you have it) go in the crock pot. When the seitan/onions/garlic is done, add that to the crock pot and turn on low for 6-8 hours (while you're at work.)

Corn-free note- I've been using Eden Organics for canned tomatoes and beans because their canned stuff is completely free of citric acid, which may or may not be corn.

OK, so once your sauce is done, make the spinach pesto ricotta filling (adapted from the Veganomicon):

• 1 lb extra firm or firm tofu
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2-4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• ground pepper
• 1/2 cup minced basil leaves
• 1/4 cup pinenuts
• 2 T olive oil
• 2-3 cups baby spinach

I used my Cuisinart, and simply blended everything together, putting in the spinach last. Set aside (you can even make ahead of time and refrigerate it.

Cook up some pasta shells- the ones I used were actually brown rice shells, and I used them because the other brands at the store had lots of potential corn ingredients- various vitamin additives to the flour that are completely unnecessary. These were very good, tasted just like regular pasta. And the packaging promises you can't overcook them. But, they take about 20 minutes to cook.

After you cook your shells, spread a layer of sauce on the bottom of your pan, stuff each one with ricotta filling, and then pour more sauce on top of the shells (I think I used about 2/3 of the sauce.) Bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Dinner, Take 2 (final version)

Finally getting around to posting this...

The winner was the Baked Thanksgiving Risotto from the Vegan Holiday Kitchen, minus the corn. Not only was it delicious, it was the easiest risotto I've ever made. Seriously. I used delicata squash for the squash, since that's what I had, and the sweet flavor of the delicata complimented the red beans and spinach wonderfully.

So, there was the risotto, the sweet potato biscuits, and the carrot cranberry cake, all from Vegan Holiday Kitchen: More than 200 Delicious, Festive Recipes for Special Occasions.

It was delicious.

Thanksgiving Dinner, Take 1

So, since our beloved Tofurkey is out (big surprise, it has corn ingredients in it) I've been trying to come up with something else to bring to Thanksgiving dinner next week. Last night was dry run #1.

Recipes tried were:
Sweet Potato Biscuits from Vegan Holiday Kitchen: More than 200 Delicious, Festive Recipes for Special Occasions
Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Sage Crumb Topping from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

The Sweet Potato Biscuits were delicious. I thought that the prep was a little weird, since you make the dough in the food processor, and I'm not used to doing that, but it was easy, and the taste was very good. These will be made next week.

The Pumpkin Ziti was eh. A little on the glue-y side, and pretty bland. I fear that this is the kind of vegan dish that non-vegans hate, and with good reason. It didn't have a lot of flavor, which was weird, because the cashew ricotta tasted good and the breadcrumbs and the onions were delicious individually. Put it all together and it's not a winner, which is surprising, since everything else I've made from Veganomicon has been delicious. Oh well, you can't win every time. This will not be made next week.

Friday I will be making the Baked Thanksgiving Risotto from the Vegan Holiday Kitchen, minus the corn. Fingers crossed!!

Make Your Own Almond Milk (It's Really Easy)

OK, when we figured out my husband's corn allergy this summer, and realized that the almond milk we buy had corn-derived ingredients in it (Almond Breeze Unsweetened, if you're curious) he suggested we make it. I was immediately against it. What a pain in the ass.

Boy was I wrong.

It's really easy, and I actually like how this stuff tastes, which I can't say that I did for the Almond Breeze. Why bother? Yes, we also buy corn free soymilk (WestSoy Unsweetened, Trader Joe's Unsweetened, and Eden Soy Extra Unsweetened are nothing but soybeans and water)- but baking with soymilk is pretty bad. Baked goods have this weird, smooth texture that I don't like. Baking with almond milk is (to me) just like baking with regular milk- baked goods turn out fluffy and delicious.

You do have to plan ahead a little, but we go through this stuff regularly enough that I seem to always have a cup of almonds soaking.

Ingredients:
1 cup raw (non-salted) almonds, soaked from anywhere from 4 hours to several days
3 cups water
1 T honey
your blender
a nut milk straining bag

Making Almond Milk- Soaked Almonds, a photo by zombie amelia on Flickr. 

Yes, I know that ideally, you should only soak your almonds from 4-8 hours, but I've not noticed any difference in the finished product if I soak them longer. You just get weird white fatty stuff soaking in your water. I soak the almonds at the ratio of 1 cup almonds to 2 cups water, and just set it out in a Pyrex glass measuring container on the counter and leave it there.

Once your almonds are soaked, strain them (discard the soaking water) and rinse them off. Put in the blender with the water and the honey.

Making Almond Milk- Before Blending, a photo by zombie amelia on Flickr. 

Puree that stuff. For a minute or two.

Making Almond Milk- After Blending, a photo by zombie amelia on Flickr. 

Once you've pureed it for a few minutes, pour it into a container through your strainer bag. The strainer bag is really helpful. I tried it with a mesh colander and it was all over the place.

Making Almond Milk- Straining Bits, a photo by zombie amelia on Flickr. 

Remove the bag from the milk and squeeze the milk out of the bag, discard the almond bits.
This recipe makes about 3 cups of milk.

Honey Oat Bread (Dairy Free)

Dairy free, delicious, honey oatmeal bread :)

Adapted from Bakingdom's Soft Honey Oat Bread and made in my new bread maker. Why a bread maker? With all our food allergies, it's hard to buy a bread that both my husband and I can eat. Clasen's bread, from Middleton, Wisconsin, comes closest, even nicely labeling when they use cornmeal on the bottom of bread, but we like a softer, honey oat type bread than the one variety of bread of theirs we can both eat. So, I bought a bread maker. I love the bread maker. It's so easy.

All you have to do is put the ingredients in the bread maker in the correct order and turn it on.

The bread maker requires correct layers of ingredients: bottom is the liquids, then the dry ingredients, and then the yeast.

This is a 1.5 lb loaf of bread, I set my bread maker to medium crust darkness.

So, in order to make this delicious bread, you need (in order):

1 cup almond milk (room temperature, not right out of the fridge- you can warm it to about 75-90F)
1/4 cup water (lukewarm/warm temperature)
2 tablespoons melted Spectrum palm oil shortening
1/4 cup honey (the tangier, the better)
2 & 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup whole wheat bread flour
3/4 cup oats
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
1 package Rize yeast (no corn ingredients) it's about 2 & 1/4 tsp

The yeast actually goes into a little indentation you create in the top of your dry ingredients, a little well to hold the yeast.

Finished loaf!, a photo by zombie amelia on Flickr.

You can also opt to drizzle honey on top of your loaf and sprinkle oats- this can be done when your bread maker tells you the last rise cycle is starting- this is when you get the option to remove the paddles and reshape the loaf, sometimes I do this, sometimes I don't.

Either way, the bread is soft and delicious.

Delicious No Chicken Broth Recipe

In trying to make matzo ball soup yesterday, I realized that my previous no chicken broth standby is on the "has corn" list, thus making it inedible for my husband. So, I attempted to make a "no chicken" broth and came upon this delicious recipe, which I think is pretty close to the Imagine brand that I was buying.

The trick was finding seasoned salt that had no weird corn based ingredients, and Penzy's won. Their Seasoned Salt is corn free.

I found this recipe on the http://www.myvegancookbook.com blog. Modified to removed the vegan butter.

• 1 Cup Onions, Chopped
• 1 Cup Celery, Chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 5 Cups Water
• 2 Teaspoons Onion Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
• 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (Kikkoman is corn free, no alcohol.)

In a large stock pot, simmer the onions and celery with the olive oil on medium-low heat until vegetables are soft. Add the onion and garlic powder, seasoned salt, poultry seasoning and soy sauce and saute for another minute.

Add water and let simmer on medium-low for 30 minutes. Strain broth and discard vegetable pulp.

Makes 4 cups.

It also makes a great sick day veggie soup/broth if you don't strain the veggie pulp.