Product Review - Doctor Hummus Spinach Artichoke Dip

I have been a regular at our local farmers market for quite some time now. There are lots of vendors selling fresh fruits and veggies, organically raised fish, meats and lots of other non-vegan specialty food items. It seemed that finding vegan friendly boutique foods was a bit of a challenge. I always love to support individual vegan friendly businesses. Doctor Hummus is based right in Tempe, AZ. It doesn't get much more local than that for us. I read that the owner will be opening a restaurant called Wild Flavors (also in Tempe) this summer. I am hoping there will be lots of vegan options. I had visited Doctor Hummus' booth many times. They do have some delicious vegan hummus. One day I noticed they had this creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip.

Not often running across such vegan specialties, I thought I should bring some home and give it a try. I sliced up some crusty bread and got to eating. The dip is very rich and creamy. I thought the texture was great. It had a few nice chunks of artichoke and a good amount of spinach. What it did not have, however, was a lot of flavor. Something just seemed to be missing. I was very surprised as their hummus varieties have great flavor. I added chopped roasted red pepper and that seemed to help with the flavor. I might have added some more lemon and salt as well. I think that might have brought it up to a good flavor level.

The final verdict: the quality of the product is very good. The packaging was very nice. The texture was excellent.  The flavor was a bit lacking. For me, I found the $7.00 cost for 8 oz. a bit high. It did inspire me to make my own artichoke dip. For about the same cost, I was able to make 3 times the amount. If you needed a vegan dip, that is not hummus, in a pinch this would be a good option.


Where to find Doctor Hummus Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip: Local farmers markets, Whole Foods, New Frontiers and AJ's Markets. 


Cost: $7.00 for 8 oz. container

MOFO - Day 26 - Product Review - Tofurkey Frozen Pizzas

The past couple of days have been jam packed full as I am sure they have been for everyone. I did not have even an hour to whip something up today, so I am going to do a product review of the new Tofurkey Pizza's. I bought 3 varieties and we have tried two of them so far: the cheese and the roasted vegetable. While I much rather make my own pizza's, these work pretty nicely in a pinch. I fed these to my mom and sister who are not vegetarian. Fred and I also tried them. While we all thought they were pretty tasty, my omnis didn't really think the cheese was very close to the real deal. I have to admit, on a cheese only pizza, Daiya is not nearly amazing as it is when it is used as more of an accent than a main attraction. We all very much liked the roasted veggie pizza. The veggies are chopped very small, I'd love to see them a bit larger so they are more distinctive. The sauce is a bit bland, but sprinkle of oregano and crushed red pepper livens it up quite a bit. We all agreed we'd eat the roasted veggie one again.

The cheese variety would need some doctoring to make it to the plate. All in all, I think these are a fine fall back when life gets really busy. It's nice to have a good vegan option in a frozen pizza. Tofurkey brand is the best vegan frozen pizza I've tried yet. I'll be keeping at least one on hand for those busy days.

Oh and so I don't stray from the chile theme, we topped half of the cheese pizza with jalapenos. Yum!

MOFO - Day 23 - Product Review Tacupeto Chips and Salsa

I have to be honest with you, I am a bit of a salsa snob. Not that I think mine is the best or anything like that, but I find many jarred salsas sub-par at best. Every once in a while I stumble across one that is truly worthy of a place in my fridge. I was pleasantly surprised to find just such a salsa in the refrigerated section at Whole Paycheck. The salsa is so fresh tasting. It has just the right amount of roasted, smoky goodness I crave in a salsa. The tomato goodness makes you feel like it was just a tomato in a garden recently.

Several weeks earlier I found a new love that has certainly made my pants fit just a little more snuggly, because yes, dear readers, I am a tortilla chip scarfer from way back. Again, most commercially produced chips leave me wondering why I'm eating them (not that I stop). Enter Tacupeto corn chips. Oh my beautiful crunchy triangles of corny joy, I am both thrilled and horrified to have found you. Thrilled because your texture and flavor make me want to eat a whole bag of you in one sitting. Horrified because my ever expanding posterior really didn't need the new addition. Tacupeto is based out of Encinas, CA. The only ingredients in the chips are corn, soy bean oil and salt. The easy to read and understand ingredient list with no artificial ingredients has added to my bliss. If you can find this brand, check it out. It will make your mouth so happy!

Product Review - Uptons Natural Seitan and Smoked Cheddar Style Sheese

Before I delve in to the review I just wanted to shoot out a couple of reminders. Don't forget about the Men Who Cook 2010 Challenge and Giveaway. Men can show off their mad kitchen skillz and get a chance to win the most awesome American Vegan Kitchen cookbook by Tami Noyes from Vegan Appetite! Entries must be submitted before September 8th. Click here for contest details and get those boyz cookin'!

Also coming up is the next Food Network Friday Challenge. This week we're taking on Tyler Florence in honor of the new FN show The Great Food Truck Race. Each of us will put our spin on his Double Dipped Fried Chicken recipe. It's a lot of fun, so I hope you can join in. Do your thing with the recipe and post a link at Vegan Appetite or e-mail Tami with your creation.

While I was visiting in Chicago in July I had the pleasure of meeting up with Liz from Cooking the Vegan Books and Tami from Vegan Appetite. We had great fun talking food, partaking in adult beverages, and enjoying the city together. The only complaint I have as that our time together was too short. Liz was kind enough to bring me some Sheese products all the way from the UK. Sheese makes some amazing tasting vegan cheese products. I had tried the blue cheese variety when I visited Portland last year and really liked it. Sadly, I left Liz's gift at my mom's house when I retured to AZ. My neice just happened to visit a couple of weeks ago and brought the Sheese back for me. Yay for awesome neices!

So finally I get my goods. Sheese freezes and travels quite nicely by the way. It is actually produced by a company out of Scottland called Bute Island Foods. I have yet to find it here in the Phoenix area, but you can order it online. The company has a really nice website that gives you information on where you can find their product in the U.S. Last night I opened the Smoked Cheddar flavor. It has a nice smoky smell. The texture is nice and firm and wonderful for grating. Grate it I did. I also tasted it before cooking it. The texture will not fool you into believing it is dairy cheeses, but it did not offend like some other brands. We thought it tasted more like smoked Gouda than Cheddar...which for me is a big plus. I love that Gouda flavor. I made a chorizo and cheddar quesadilla. I have to say it didn't melt really well, but no matter, it was really tasty on the quesadilla. Just a word of warning: if you are looking for the ooey gooey melty texture you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a yummy tasting alternative to cheese, this is it.

Also featured in last night's quesadilla is a product I had never heard of: Upton's Natural Chorizo Style Seitan. Upton's is based in Chicago. They boast all natural seitan products that are all vegan and low soy. Their products can be found in several states, but sadly not AZ. However, they do sell their products online through Vegan Essentials. I chose the chorizo style seitan. I used to love the spices and flavors or chorizo (both Mexican and Spanish style). The texture of Upton's chorizo was much like that of ground beef. It was closer to Mexican style than Spanish style, but it was much drier than the chorizo I've had in the past. This is not necessarily a bad thing depending on how you use it. I think it would work quite well in burritos or enchiladas. The spice mix is a little weak for my taste, but if you are a little leary of a lot of spice and heat, this might be just the product for you. It is very easy and convenient to use. It crumbles very nicely. I love the fact that it is truly a natural product and made in my kinda town.

Here you can see the cheeze is not very melty, but it was oh so tasty

When you put both products together, you get a quick and tasty snack or meal. I added a bit of chopped onion and jalapeno and called it dinner. I try not to use processed food too often, but I would use both of these products again. I do hope to see these products here in the future. I liked them both better than a couple of other products we have in the valley.

For those of you who are not vegan or are just starting to embark in meat/dairy substitutes, always keep in mind these products are not meant to be identical to their animal derived counterparts. You must enjoy them for what they do offer and that is tasty flavors and interesting textures.

Tofu Dog Wars - Who's is Best?

Last week I had a bunch of teen agers coming over for a party. I was trying to find an easy way to feed this army of boys. Of course hot dogs came to mind. They can be cooked on the grill quickly (an important feature in 100+ AZ weather). The trick for me was that all the neighborhood kids know that I do not eat meat, which makes their noses crinkle quite often. So I wanted to make the veggie dog experience fun. In the spirit of adventure I devised a blind taste test of three brand of tofu dogs to see which one meat eaters preferred.

My local Whole Foods had three different brands (pictured above). All the dogs were cooked on an outdoor grill. They were cut into bite sized pieces for all to try naked (the dogs, not the peeps). This may not have been the best option, because hot dogs really need the fixings to taste good in my opinion. But who am I to say? I never really liked hot dogs of the meaty variety all that much either. But that could be because I found out how they were made at a rather tender young age. 

I'm not sure if it was bias on my testers' part because they knew they were veggie dogs or if the results were truly accurate. No one really cared too much for any of the selections. I had a rather large plate of hot dogs left over, which with 10 hungry teen aged boys is not a good sign. There was a clear winner amonth the three. The Yves Jumbo dogs recieved the most votes by a great majority. They had the most realistic texture and the best flavor overall. Fred likes to have some quick protien available for busy days. I do buy him tofu dogs on occassion. After this test, he will be getting Yves from now on.

 The Tofurkey dogs were the loser with only one vote. Most of the crowd thought the flavor, color and texture of the Tofurkey dogs was odd and gross. No one really commented on the Litelife Smart Dogs.

So what have we learned from all of this? Don't let your neighbor kids know you don't eat meat before serving them hot dogs. Do not serve tofu pups naked. If you are going to enjoy a pre-packaged tube steak, try Yves Jumbo dogs. Don't forget the brat relish from American Vegan Kitchen. That stuff will make any dog taste like a million!