Stuffed Shells

What You Need:

• 1 pound firm tofu
• 1/2 box firm or extra-firm silken tofu (six ounces)
• 1/2-3/4 cup Vegenaise (Erika says she would like 1/4 cup Vegenaise, but with the whole box of silken tofu.)
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/3-1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 box pasta shells, large-to-be-stuffed size
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 2 stalks celery, minced
• 3/4 package Gimme Lean, sausage flavor
• 2 large jars spaghetti/tomato sauce or your favorite recipe (50 ounces)

What You Do:

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. I like mine a little undercooked. Drain well and let cool to room temperature.
2. With a food processor or hand blender, cream together the two tofus, Vegenaise, nutritional yeast, and salt.
3. When you get the tofu the texture you want, add the fresh herbs and pulse until blended. Set aside.
4. Saute the onion and celery in the olive oil until soft. Add the Gimme Lean and cook while breaking it into little pieces with a fork. When it begins to brown, remove from heat and set aside.
5. Cover the bottom of a large lasagne-style pan with a 1/2 inch layer of tomato sauce.
6. Using a teaspoon, fill the pasta with the tofu mixture. Lay each one gently on top of the tomato sauce.
7. When your pan is full and the tofu mixture is done you have to stop, WHAA! That was too fun. Now, mix the sausage stuff up with what's left of your tomato sauce. Spread this on top of your shells and sprinkle with vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast.
8. Bake between 350-375F until heated through.

Risotto

Basic Formula:

• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 3 1/2-4 cups hot vegetable stock (water and broth powder work great)
• salt, to taste
• lots of freshly ground pepper, to taste

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What you do:

1. Cook up some hard vegetables in a tablespoon or so of olive oil for a few minutes.
2. Stir in the Arborio rice and let it get coated in the oil.
3. Stir in 1/2 cup of HOT broth.
4. Stir constantly until the broth is absorbed.
5. Repeat with another 1/2 cup of broth. Keep adding the broth in 1/2 cup increments stirring all the while. It will take a good 30 minutes of stirring.
6. Somewhere in the middle of adding broth, stir in some softer vegetables.
7. The risotto is done when you are out or just about out of broth and the grain has become very creamy and tender.

Hard vegetables to experiment with:

• onions, carrots, garlic, sliced Brussel sprouts, asparagus stems, etc.

Soft vegetables to experiment with:

• peas, asparagus tops, fresh herbs, olives, raisins, mushrooms, beans, etc.

You can make so many very good and delicious varieties of risotto if you experiment with vegetable combos and spices. Replacing some of the broth with wine also brings delicious results.

Kick in the Tush Lasagne

What You Need:

• One big batch of your favorite tomato sauce
• 1 box of lasagna noodles
• 4 blocks of fresh tofu from an Asian supermarket (the kind that is really fresh and comes floating in water)
• OR (if you have to, this is nowhere near as tasty): 1 block of Nasoya type packaged tofu and 1 box of Mori Nu brand silken tofu, soft
• 1 1/4 cups nutritional yeast flakes; not torula or brewer's yeast (find this in the bulk section of most health food stores)
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• About 1 cup of freshly chopped parsley
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

What You Do:

1. Prepare the sauce however you like it. I make a basic sauce with lots of basil and onions. When I'm in the mood I even put in peppers, broccoli, carrots, or whatever's hanging around the fridge.
2. Cook the noodles according to the box, but only halfway. When they're done, layer them between kitchen towels to dry and rest until you need them. (They will cook the rest of the way when you bake the casserole and are much easier to handle while partially cooked).
3. Put the tofu in a bowl and get out your trusty handblender. Or, use a fork if you don't have one. Work the tofu gently until it becomes loose. Be sure you don't massacre it, you want the texture to resemble ricotta cheese, not salad dressing.
4. Put the handblender away.
5. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.
6. Stir in about 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast flakes, parsley, crushed garlic and cayenne pepper.
7. Stir in the olive oil.
8. Preheat the oven to a good lasagna temperature (400-425° F).
9. Get out a big lasagna pan and spray it with Pam® or lightly oil it.
10. Put the lasagna together. Lasagna order is: Tomato sauce, noodles, tofu filling, and nutritional yeast flakes.
11. Ladle into the pan, just enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom.
12. Lay the noodles the long way down the pan in a single layer.
13. Spoon a layer of tofu filling over the noodles, spreading it evenly.
14. Sprinkle the top well with nutritional yeast flakes.
15. Repeat with another layer of tomato sauce.
16. This time, lay the noodles the short way across the pan so that they lie perpendicular to the first noodle layer.
17. Keep repeating until everything is used up and tomato sauce is on top.
18. Sprinkle well with nutritional yeast.
19. Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven until it is piping hot, about 35 minutes.
20. Remove the tin foil at the end, so that the top cooks, but doesn't burn.
21. Serve.

Caponata

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Combine in a medium saucepan, cover and cook for 15 minutes:

• 1 large eggplant, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 small red bell pepper, diced
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1/3 cup olive oil or vegetable oil

Add to mixture and combine together:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry sugar
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts
• 6 ounce can of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup stuffed green olives, sliced

Cover and simmer 25 minutes. Serve room temperature or chill & eat.

 

Cacciatore

What You Need:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced medium thick
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 3 medium stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 3-4 cups cooked seitan or wheat gluten, sliced (this would probably be equally yummy with fried tofu triangles).
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 5 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup dried shiitake mushroom slices, hydrated with boiling water and drained (you could use sliced fresh mushrooms too).
• 2 cups canned diced tomatoes
• 1/3 cup dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon unbleached granulated sugar

What You Do:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
2. Add the onion, garlic, celery, carrots and salt and saute until soft.
3. Add the seitan, rosemary and oregano and continue to cook and stir for about five minutes.
4. Add the plum tomatoes and let cook until they begin to soften.
5. Stir in the mushrooms, canned tomatoes, sherry and sugar.
6. Simmer about 10-15 minutes and season with more salt to taste.

Serve over steamed brown rice or with crusty Italian bread. Makes about six servings with rice.

Pizza

   
This pizza is top notch. It might sound like much, but it's really simple once you get the components down. The dough is a quick bread, not yeasted, so it's faster to make-plus you get to cook with beer. Mix the dough last and then assemble. Rawk!
 

• 1 15 ounce can organic tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil chopped, or 1 teaspoon dry
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped, or 1 teaspoon dry
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

What You Do:

1. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl.

 
Pizza toppings are personal. Make it however you like, listed below are Me and Dazee's favorites.

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups baby portobello mushrooms, cubed
• 1 medium onion, slivered finely
• 3 cloves garlic, slivered or minced
• 1/2 serrano chili, slivered
• 3/4 tube Gimme Lean Sausage, or whatever sausage you like.

What You Might Do:

1. Heat the oil over medium heat and saute the mushrooms until they release their juice. Drain and reserve mushrooms (I add the mushroom juice to my sauce.)
2. Heat up the other tablespoon of oil and throw in the serrano chili and onion. As soon as the onion softens, add the garlic.
3. Saute on medium low until the onions begin to caramelize.
4. Add the Gimme Lean and break up with a fork into small pieces. Cook until the GL is heated through and just begins to brown.
5. Remove from heat and add in the reserved mushrooms.

 
This recipe is from my favorite cookbook author, Bryanna Clark Grogan, who has graciously allowed me to put it here. It's easily the best I've found for pizza, and I use it every time. The recipe, "Melty Pizza Cheese," can be found in her book  20 Minutes to Dinner.

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon unbleached white flour
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice or white rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic granules
• 2 additional tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

What You Do:

1. Place the water, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, flour, lemon juice or vinegar, salt and garlic granules in a medium saucepan.
2. Whisk together to make sure there are no lumps.
3. Over medium heat, whisk constantly until the sauce begins to thicken.
4. After the sauce has thickened, whisk in the additional water and olive oil.
5. Remove from heat.

  

• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 12 oz beer

What You Do:

1. In a large bowl, put together all of the dry ingredients. Mix well to get the baking powder evenly dispersed.
2. Pour in the beer.
3. Stir with a big spoon.
4. Ditch the spoon and knead the dough for a minute until it all comes together. If it needs more flour, add some tablespoon by tablespoon until it's dry enough to pat into a pie pan.

  

1. Pat the dough out onto an oiled 18" aluminum pizza pan.
2. Evenly spread the tomato sauce on top.
3. Evenly spread the Gimme Lean mixture.
4. Drizzle the cheeze top on top...hitting every available inch.
5. Bake in a preheated 400F oven 20-25 minutes until crust is golden and cheez sauce has formed a skin. If your pan fits under the broiler, you can broil it briefly to get brown speckles on top. Let sit a few minutes, slice and serve.