The Pantry Pocket

I love making Chinese food!

First meal at the new house! Veggie burgers topped with hummus and cayenne on toasted onion buns with a side of spiced sweet potato steak fries.

I tried pressing and “dry-frying” tofu for this stir fry dish because it apparently it’s supposed to taste restaurant quality. It was okay but not close to what I’ve gotten from other places. I may try and cut the slices thinner or press it longer.

Breakfast cravings brought me to make this awesome meal. Pancakes with strawberry butter, tofu scramble with soysage and spiced hash browns.

Super Spicy Sweet and Sour Knotted Tofu

I finally found knotted tofu at the Asian supermarket in Nashville. Soaked it in a cayenne, hot chili and pineapple juice marinade and fried with green and red peppers and pineapples over rice.

Probably the hottest thing I’ve ever made. My roommate washed the pan I cooked it in and tried to cook potatoes and complained because the hot spices had soaked into the pan.

Mock Duck Sweet Curry over Jasmine rice!

I’ve been in the process of packing and moving and unpacking into a new house and I’ve been sick so I’ll try and post more stuff from the past few weeks that I’ve whipped up! -Chase

First time sushi!

Sweet and spicy tofu maki. Tofu seasoned with crystallized ginger, sesame seeds, teriyaki and crushed cayenne pepper. Also a side of steamed carrots topped with a teriyaki rice ball.

Got a craving for sushi after most places had closed last night so I decided I’d try my hand and rolling my own. My rolls ended up being way bigger than I wanted them to be but it was still amazingly delicious and I’m excited to make more soon.

Sweet Curry!

Banana, pineapple, raisins, “chicken,” green and chick peas over brown rice.

I found a recipe for Banana Curry from Death By Curry (who’s site looks like it came from Angelfire circa 1995) and modified it some.

• 1 package of Gardein Chick’n Strips, Morningstar Meal Starters Chick’n Strips or you can use drained and cubed extra-firm tofu
• 1 can coconut milk
• 3 large or 4 medium bananas, split and cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup dried shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tbs. curry powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 3/4 tsp. nutmeg 
• 2 tbs. crushed red pepper
• 2 tbs. Sambal Oelek
• 1 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits
• 1 14 oz. green peas
• 1 14 oz. can chick peas
• (optional) 1 14 oz. can straw mushrooms, drained.
• (optional) 1/4 cup cashews

Add the coconut milk over medium high heat then add and stir in the spices and sambal oelek. Add the rest of the ingredients except the bananas. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to low, add the bananas and cook for about 5 more minutes. Serve over rice and enjoy.

Mini gingersnap cupcakes. Not as spicy as they should have been but still awesome!

Homemade orange “chicken” over brown rice.

Manicotti with tofu ricotta, portobello, garlic, zucchini, onion, green and red peppers.

Orange walnut “chicken” stir fry.

I like to push the envelope sometimes and see just what I can come up with. I googled and found a recipe for orange walnut chicken and made a few substitutions to make it vegan and put the mix over some homemade lo mein noodles. It was pretty good. I used some weird fake chicken that I hadn’t tried before and it was way too tender than I wanted but the overall taste was incredible!

I made this two days ago! I used the pumpkin mac and “cheese” recipe we posted earlier along with mashed sweet potatoes with coconut and pecan and I had some rosemary and basil fried “chicken” to top it all off. Finishing up leftovers tonight!!

Vegan In-N-Out Animal Style Burgers and Fries

While I was vegetarian, I got to go to In-N-Out a few times when I visited California. We don’t have them out here and I went back to being vegan in March. Since I keep seeing people post images of their food from there I thought in my head that not only I could make my own, I could also make it vegan. This really wasn’t that hard after acquiring everything that I needed. The hardest part was caramelizing the onions since that takes the longest and timing the fries to be done around the same time the burgers get done cooking.

Here’s everything you’ll need for the sauce:

• 5 tablespoons of vegan mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup
• 1 tablespoon of sweet pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon of raw unbleached sugar
• 1 tablespoon of vinegar

You’ll also need

• 1 onion (diced) for caramelizing
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• some yellow mustard
• Some wheat buns
• Vegan American cheese - I used rice cheese
• Fast food style fries - Frozen ones work fine unless you want to slice up your own like they do
• Vegetable toppings - depending on what you want on it like dill pickle slices, fresh lettuce, tomatoes, sliced onion
• Vegan burgers - I used organic vegan boca burgers. You could make your own, but they should be really thin if you do.

1. First things first, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium-high heat while you dice your onion. After you’ve diced it, add it to the skillet and stir well until it starts to dry and the onions start to brown. You’ll want to add some water to them every now and then to keep them from burning and keep them juicy. This process can take up to 20 minutes or so. So while these are cooking you can start on everything else.
2. Pre-heat your oven for your fries according to the package and put them in once it’s heated up.
3. Go ahead and make the sauce by just combining everything in the first list into a small bowl and stirring well and prep your toppings.
4. Once your onions are nice and brown, put them aside and then add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet and lower to medium heat. Add your burgers and stir, making sure the oil covers the bottom of the burger and salt and pepper the top. Also add a tablespoon of mustard to the uncooked top side and once its cooked about a minute or so, flip and cook the top side in the mustard. As soon as you flip, add a slice of vegan cheese to the top so that it melts a little bit. You don’t want to cook these very long because they’ll dry out and lose their taste.
5. When your fries come out, add a slice or two of vegan cheese to the top, some of the onions and the sauce. Put your buns in the oven for two minutes so. Take them out and on the bottom of the buns, add the sauce and vegetable toppings then the burgers cheese side up and the onions on top.

These were pretty close to what I remember them tasting like. I hadn’t had their burgers but from what I’ve read the burgers without the toppings aren’t very flavorful but these definitely are. If anyone else tries this please let us know how it turned out.

-Chase

Vegan Veggie “Cheese-Steaks” with Garlic and Basil Seasoned Fries

I was craving something new so this is something I kind of came up with for the veggie mix.

• 1 green pepper (sliced)
• 1 sweet onion (sliced)
• 1 package (6-8 oz) of mushrooms (preferably portobello) sliced
• 3 jalpeno peppers (minced)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 package (8 oz) of seitan (strips work best)
• 2 tablespoons of canola oil
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Prep all your veggies first and then heat up the oil to a large skillet or wok on medium high heat. Add your veggies then let them cook for a little while then add the seitan and spices.

While this is cooking I used this nutritional yeast cheese sauce recipe to make the “cheese” for my sandwiches. It turned out pretty good make sure you read some of the suggestions to the type of “cheese” you’re trying to create though.

And while all this is going on, I baked some fries in the oven. As soon as the were done, I slid in some multi-grain wheat rolls that I sliced open and slightly topped with some vegan margarine to get them a little toasty then added the mix and the cheese sauce on the bread and served with the fries topped with some seasonings.

This mix and cheese sauce recipe yielded about 6 pretty decent sized sandwiches and is way more on the veggie side than the “meaty” side. I definately enjoyed coming up with this and will be making it again soon!

-Chase