Beefless Wellington and KFC (Kentucky Fried Cauliflower) Re-create a restaurant meal #veganmofo day six #vgnmf15

Wow, here we are at day six already, time is flying by as usual. There should be a term “mofo time” kind of like tropical island time, but the opposite. In mofo land, time speeds up and flies by before you know it.

Beefless Wellington

Anyway back to mofo day six and our prompt “Re-create a restaurant meal”. I have two restaurant meal recipes for you. The first is Beefless Wellington. You see this at high end restaurants and I wanted to try and replicate the concept of roast beef smothered in a mushroom garlic pesto then wrapped in puff pastry and baked to perfection.

KFC (Kentucky Fried Cauliflower)

The second is a take on KFC, but this time it is Kentucky Fried Cauliflower. Now, there could be a debate on whether KFC is a restaurant, but I am not going there. Last summer I did a post on this and explained how I live one block “down wind” of a local KFC and the aroma that greets me almost on a daily basis has me drooling in my driveway. So for this post, I will link back to that post for the commentary regarding KFC and here for a recipe to satisfy your “finger licking good” cravings.

Enjoy,

 

 

Beefless Wellington

Beefless Wellington

Serves 4

• 1 beefless roast
• 2 Tblspns Dijon mustard
• 2 Tblspns olive oil
• 1/2 lb mushrooms cleaned and sliced
• 4 Tblspns dry red wine
• 3  cloves garlic crushed
• 1/2 tspn thyme
• 6 – 8 slices vegan chicken or turkey
• 1 packet vegan puff pastry
• 2 Tblspns non dairy milk

Beefless Roast

• 1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
• 4 Tblspns chickpea flour
• 4 Tblspns nutritional yeast
• 2 tspns onion power
• 2 tspns garlic powder
• 1 Tblspn vegan worsteshire sauce
• 1/4 tspn ground pepper
• 1   cup water
• 1 Tblspn olive oil
• 1 Tblspn tamari
• 1 tspn browning liquid (optional)
• 8 cups vegetable broth for simmering

Combine all liquid ingredients. In separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add liquid ingredients to dry and mix well. If necessary add a little more chickpea flour to make a dough like ball. Knead for 5 mins to develop gluten.  Form into a loaf. Wrap in cheesecloth loosely and tie the ends.

Bring vegetable broth to a boil, lower dough in and bring back to a slow simmer. Cover and simmer (do not boil) for  on hour turning occasionally. Allow to cool in broth. When cool, remove from broth and put in a Ziploc bag with 1/4 cup of broth and refrigerate overnight,

Brush roast with mustard on all sides.  Preheat oven to 400 F,

Place mushrooms, garlic and thyme in food processor and process into a pesto. Add to frying pan with olive oil. Sauté for 10 mins until mushrooms have released their moisture and most of it has cooked down. Cool.

Lay out piece of plastic wrap on counter. Place turkey/chicken slices on top overlapping to make a square that is slightly wider than your roast and long enough to wrap completely around.

Spread mushroom pesto on top of turkey slices. Place roast in the middle and wrap with turkey slices using the plastic wrap to help you roll it up. Tuck in ends as you go. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 mins.

Lay pastry down on lightly floured surface and roll out to a rectangle slightly larger than the previous turkey square.

Place roast in middle of pastry and roll up inside pastry, securing the ends and making sure the roast is completed encased.

Place seam side down on a  baking tray. lightly score the top with slits to allow steam to escape. Brush with milk, bake in oven 25 – 25 mins until golden.

Beefless Wellington

Let sit 10 mins before slicing and serving with your favourite gravy.

Beefless Wellington

Fettuccine Alfredo Amore #vegan valentines day #pasta

Fettucccine Alfredo Amore

Love is in the air. Next week is Valentine’s day and I was inspired to create a romantic dish for the occasion. What better way to show your love than to make a wonderful creamy Fettucine Alfredo and to have it “heart healthy” at the same time.

There is nothing in this delicious rich pasta sauce that is even remotely bad for you. The secret loving ingredient is the faithful cauliflower. This vegetable is a wonderous creation. Low calorie, crunchy when raw, perfect for dipping, smooth and creamy when cooked and pureed. I used brown rice pasta but if you wanted to take it even one step further in the health department you could use thinly sliced or  spiralized zucchini or other hard vegetable.

Fettucccine Alfredo Amore

When I was dreaming up this dish, I had visions of lots of tiny red hearts sprinkled over the top. I would “cut” the hearts out of red peppers, simple…….not really. As you can see in the pictures the final result has three hearts. While they do look very nice, it is not exactly what I had in mind. These were more difficult than I imagined. Wether you make one, three or more, the thought is still the same, and, as they say, “it’s the thought that counts'”

Enjoy,

Fettucccine Alfredo Amore

Fettuccine Alfredo Amore

Serves  6

• 1 medium cauliflower
• 1/2 Tblspn olive oil
• 3 large garlic cloves minced or grated
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 Tblspn lemon juice
• 2 tspns onion powder
• 1/4 tspn ground black pepper
• sea salt to taste
• 8oz dry fettuccine of choice, I used brown rice fettuccine
• red pepper for garnish
• parsley for garnish

Separate cauliflower into florettes. Place in large saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat on high until water begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 – 10 minutes until tender. Drain and allow to cool slightly before processing further.

Heat olive oil in pan on low and saute garlic very gently for 5 mins. Do not let garlic brown.

Add cauliflower, garlic, half the almond milk, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, onion powder, pepper and salt to food processor ( you may have to do this in two batches). Pulse, scrapping down sides until everything is incorporated. Slowly add the remaining almond milk and blend on high until completely smooth and creamy, approx 3 – 5 mins. Set aside.

Fettucccine Alfredo Amore

Fill large pot with cold water, place on stove and bring to a boil over high heat. When water is boiling add dry pasta and cook according to directions on the packet.

Once cooked, drain and rinse.

If making red hearts, cut small piece of red pepper that is fairly flat. Using a sharp pointed knife, cut out hearts,

Add Alfredo sauce to drained pasta and toss together. Place serving on plate and top with red pepper hearts and parsley.

Fettucccine Alfredo Amore

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 220 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 199 Calories from Fat 9

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 1.0g 1%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholestero l0mg 0%

Sodium 65mg 3%

Total Carbohydrates 41.2g 14%

Dietary Fiber 6.1g 24%

Sugars 3.6g

Protein 8.9g

Vitamin A   14% • Vitamin C 123% Calcium 12% • Iron 14%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• Very low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• Low in sodium
• High in dietary fiber
• High in riboflavin
• High in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C

Roast Veggies With Tomato & #Lentils #vegan

Roast Veggies With Tomato & Lentils

Lots of cold weather and snow bring the need for a hot veggie casserole. The oven is on, the house is wonderfully cozy and warm despite the winter outside. The aroma of onions and garlic fill the kitchen and 70’s music is playing. What a great way to spend a lazy Sunday.

As you probably know, (if you have visited before), Sunday, is cooking day at my house. I spend the afternoon making a couple of dishes that I put into serving size containers. Then, during the week, I grab one or two and take them to work for lunch. This week, it is a potato corn soup and this delicious Roast Veggie Casserole.

I am a leftover lover. I love eating any kind of leftovers cold straight out of the fridge (especially anything with potato or pasta), so I don’t even bother to reheat this dish, it is great hot or cold.

Speaking of cold, I hope we don’t go back into the frigid temperatures here again anytime soon. We have had a couple of really cold weeks (in the -30’s C) and this Aussie is ready for some warmer (comparatively speaking, anything north of -20 would be great) weather. One consolation is being able to cook up a storm in the cold weather, it feels very comforting and toasty with the oven on.

Enjoy,

Roast Veggies With Tomato & Lentils

Roast Veggies with Tomato & Lentils

Serves 4

• 2 onions roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 medium sweet potato chopped
• 1/2 acorn squash peeled and roughly chopped (or any other squash of choice)
• 1 red pepper chopped
• 1 zucchini chopped
• 1 pint cherry tomato’s halved
• 2 Tblspns olive oil
• 1/2 head cauliflower broken into florettes
• 6 – 10 cremini mushrooms roughly chopped
• 1 cup green beans cut in half
• 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils (green are the best as they hold their shape, but any can be used)
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 Tblspn dried tarragon
• 1Ttblspn dried marjoram

In large bowl, toss together onions, garlic, sweet potato, squash, red pepper,  zucchini,  tomato’s and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste if desired. Place into large casserole or baking dish. Bake uncovered  375 F for 40 mins, stirring occasionally.

Remove from oven, carefully add all remaining ingredient and stir thoroughly. Return to oven for 15 – 20 mins, or until vegetables are cooked to your desired tenderness.

 

Roast Veggies With Tomato & Lentils

 

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 475 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 436 Calories from Fat 74

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 8.2g 13%

Saturated Fat 1.2g 6%

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 63mg 3%

Total Carbohydrates 69.7g 23%

Dietary Fiber 28.5g 114%

Sugars 10.7g

Protein 23.9g

Vitamin A   139% • Vitamin C 145% Calcium 11% • Iron 40%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• Low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• Very high in dietary fiber
• High in manganese
• High in phosphorus
• High in potassium
• High in thiamin
• Very high in vitamin A
• Very high in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C

Scalloped Twin Potato’s plus Greens with CauliCheez Sauce

In last weeks post, I promised the remaining two recipes for my Thanksgiving dinner, and here they are.

Scalloped Twin Potato’s (at the top middle of the pic) and Greens with CauliCheeze Sauce (at the bottom of the pic). I could not decide if I wanted Brocoli with CauliCheeze sauce, or Asparagus with CauliCheez sauce, so I had both. 🙂

Lentil Seitan Roast with Mushroom Sage Gravy

This photo is literally what I ate for Thanksgiving (plus a second helping of Scalloped Twin Potato’s, they were so good. While this is a ton of food, I still felt full of energy afterwards, No Turkey overload here, just great food.I decided to make the scalloped potato’s with a mixture of white and sweet potato’s this year. The white potato, while delicious, is a bit of a bad boy, he is the one you love, but you know you shouldn’t. A little is fine, but too much could get you in trouble. Now his twin, Sweet Potato, on the other hand is the good reliable guy, the one that wont hurt you and is actually good for you, He has loads of vitamins and fibre. When you mix the two together, you get the best of both worlds.

Scalloped Twin Potato’s

When it came time to make the Brocoli and CauliCheez Sauce, I was literally standing in the grocery store with a lovely vibrant green head of brocoli in one hand and a bunch of crisp tender asparagus in the other and I couldn’t make up my mind which one I wanted, so I did both, you can never have too may greens on your plate 🙂

Asparagus with CauliCheez Sauce

Both the brocoli and the asparagus tasted wonderful with the caulicheez sauce. The recipe made lots of sauce, so I had some left over. By mid-week, I had a craving for pasta (not an unusual occurrence for me), so I used up the remaining sauce and turned it into Mac and CauliCheeze (no recipe, just added the sauce to cooked pasta and voila!!)

Mac and CauliCheez

 

 

Enjoy,

 

 

Scalloped Twin Potato’s

Scalloped Twin Potato’sServes 4

• 2 tblspns olive oil
• 1 medium onion finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced or grated
• 1 tblspn flour
• 2 cups unsweetened almond (or other non dairy) milk
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 2 white potato’s peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 large sweet potato peeled and thinly sliced

Heat oil in medium pot on medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for 5 mins until soft.

Add flour and cook 1 min. Slowly add about 1/2 cup of the almond milk while stirring quickly. The mixture will thicken immediately. Add the rest of the milk and continue stirring until everything is completely mixed. Stir in nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Lower heat and allow to simmer slowly for a few minutes to thicken. Remove from heat.

Grease the bottom of a baking dish with a little olive oil. Place half the white potato slices in the dish in an even layer, top with half the sweet potato slices, Pour half the milk mixture over the top. Repeat with remaining potato’s and milk mixture.

Bake uncovered in 350 F oven for approx 35 mins or until potato’s a soft and top is lightly browned.

Remove from oven and let sit for 5 – 10 mins before serving.

Asparagus with CauliCheez Sauce

Greens with CauliCheez Sauce

Serves 4

1 head of brocoli cut into medium florets’

or, 1 bunch asparagus trimmed (or a combination of both)

Steam brocoli and/or asparagus until just tender.

CauliCheez Sauce

• 1/2 head cauliflower cut into medium florets’
• 1 onion finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
• 1/2 tspn smokey paprika
• 1/4 tspn dry hot mustard powder
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tblspn corn starch
• 1/2 tblspn lemon juice
• salt to taste

Place cauliflower, onion and garlic in medium pot, add 2 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and allow to simmer for 20 mins. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Transfer in small batches to food processor and blend until smooth. Return to pot and add paprika, mustard powder and nutritional yeast. Mix cornstarch with 2 tblspns water to a smooth paste, stir into cauliflower mixture. Return to heat and cook on low for 6 mins until thickened. Stir in lemon juice and salt to taste.

Drizzle sauce over brocoli and/or asparagus and serve.

Nutrition Facts Scalloped Twin Potato’s

Serving Size 281 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 202 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 6.0g 9%

Saturated Fat 0.6g 3%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 111mg 5%

Total Carbohydrates 31.8g 11%

Dietary Fiber 6.5g 26%

Sugars 3.6g

Protein 8.1g

Vitamin A   115% • Vitamin C 42% Calcium 18% • Iron 19%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• Low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• High in dietary fiber
• High in niacin
• High in phosphorus
• High in potassium
• High in riboflavin
• High in thiamin
• Very high in vitamin A
• Very high in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C
• High in vitamin E

Nutrition Facts Greens & CauliCheez Sauce

Serving Size 158 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 106 Calories from Fat 10

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 1.2g 2%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 202mg 8%

Total Carbohydrates 19.1g 6%

Dietary Fiber 7.3g 29%

Sugars 3.1g

Protein 9.0g

Vitamin A   25% • Vitamin C 112% Calcium 5% • Iron 19%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional Analysis

Good points

• Low in saturated fat
• No cholesterol
• Very high in dietary fiber
• High in iron
• High in manganese
• Very high in niacin
• Very high in pantothenic acid
• Very high in phosphorus
• High in potassium
• Very high in riboflavin
• Very high in thiamin
• Very high in vitamin A
• Very high in vitamin B6
• Very high in vitamin C

KFC (Kentucky Fried Cauliflower), finger licking good…

KFC (Kentucky Fried Cauliflower)

When I made this the first time, I used tofu for the nonChicken (see post pictures yesterday). While the tofu worked very well, visually, it just did not remind me of the original. So, after some thought, I decied to try cauliflower. This versitile little veggie can be used in so many ways. Grated raw, it resembles rice, pureed, it can make a tasty replacement for mashed potato’s, and now, it steps up to take on the challenge of chicken.

While this does not taste like chicken, the herb and spice blend is definately KFC in taste, and the best part is you can eat the “skin” with no guilt.

Enjoy,

KFC (Kentucky Fried Cauliflower)

Serves 2 – 4

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 head cauliflower broken into medium size flowerettes
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup non dairy milk
• 1 tspn apple cider vinegar

Herb and Spice mix:

• 3 tspn paprika
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1/2 tspn black pepper
• 1 tspn vegetable stock seasoning
• 1 tspn oregeno
• 1 tspn tarragon
• 1 tspn parsley
• 1/2 tspn thyme
• 1 tspn chives
• 1/2 tspn garlic powder
• 1/2 tspn onion powder
• 1/2 tspn celery salt

Preheat oven to 400.

Blend all herb and spice mix ingredients together in a bowl with flour.

In seperate bowl, mix together milk and vinegar.

Dip cauliflower pieces in milk mixture, then in flour spice mixture. Redip in milk mixture and again in flour spice mixture. Place on greased baking sheet.

Bake 10 mins then turn over and bake for another 10 mins.

Remove from oven. Allow to cool slightly.

If you want the true, oily, spicy, effect, heat olive oil in pan and lightly fry each piece for a few mins on all sides until crispy. Place on paper towel to drain, then serve.

If you prefer less fat, serve after baking.

Serve with Creamy Dreamy Potato Salad and Tangy Coleslaw.

KFC (Kentucky Fried Cauliflower)