The return of FNF! - Paula Dean's Turkey Pot Pie

It's been a couple of months but we are back at it. It is the return of Food Network Friday's hosted by Tami of Vegan Appetite. Make sure to visit her blog to see how the other participants created their dishes for the challenge.

This time we are taking on Paula Dean by veganizing her recipe for Turkey Pot Pie. She loves to poo poo tofu and thinks nothing can be made without full cream butter, heavy cream and fatty meat. Despite these shortcomings, I do enjoy watching her. She has a very sunny personality. Her anti-vegetarian bent made this week's conversion even more fun.

My original plan was to not only veganize the butter queen's recipe, but to make a healthy version. I was super motivated to also make it a hand pie. While my intentions were good, once I got cooking I ended up abandoning both of my ideas. I found a box of vegan creamy portobello soup, so instead of taking the lighter road, I ripped open the box and forged on! The hand pies were still on the agenda...until my puff pastry decided to be uncooperative. So what the heck, I cut the pastry into strips and carried on.

I thought the proportion of cranberries was too much, so I reduced them to 1 cup. I used TVP chunks re-hydrated in water with Bill's Chiknish Seasoning. I had to play around with my puff pastry. I decided to serve this as a deconstructed pie. The filling was placed in small ramekins and garnished with puff pastry strips. Alternately you could make the lattices like she does in her dish, but I almost think that might make it too heavy. The cranberries provided the perfect hint of tart to mellow out the richness of the rest of the filling. I served it straight up. It was so rich, I knew I wouldn't be able to eat anything else with it. Look how pretty it is! Wouldn't it be lovely on your Thanksgiving table?

The verdict is in. I took samples of this too work for my anything but vegetarian co-workers. They were amazed at how "meaty" and really delicious this was. One guy even had seconds! I say that's another win for vegananizing another FN recipe!!!

Deconstructed Thanksgiving Pot Pie

2 cups water

2 teaspoons Bill's Best Chik'nish Seasoning

1 1/2 cups TVP chunks

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 stalks celery, diced small

1 medium onion, diced small

6 oz white or cremini mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 cup broth (using liquid drained from TVP)

1 - 16 oz container of Imagine Creamy Portobello Mushroom Soup

2 cups butternut squash, cut into 1/2" cubes

1 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup soy milk

1 tablespoon arrowroot

1 sheet puff pastry, cut into 1 x 3 inch strips

In a medium saucepan heat water and Bill's Best Chik'nish Seasoning to boiling. Add TVP. Turn off heat and let re-hydrate for 20-25 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place puff pastry strips on un-greased baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch between strips. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and keep warm.

While the TVP is rehydrating in a large saucepan (or small stock pot) over medium heat add olive oil, onions and celery. Saute until just soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add mushrooms, thyme, sage, pepper and salt. Saute until mushrooms start to release their liquid, about 3 more minutes. Stir in flour and nutritional yeast, stirring to incorporate. Saute for about 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and simmer until mixture starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. Whisk in creamy portobello mushroom soup, butternut squash and rehydrated TVP. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes until squash is tender. Add cranberries and simmer for about 5 more minutes. Whisk arrowroot powder into cold soy milk until dissolved. Whisk arrowroot mixture into squash mixture. Simmer until mixture thickens. Ladle stew into 1 cup ramekins and garnish with 4-5 strips of puff pastry. 

Vegan MOFO - Day 18 - Gourmet Pasta

This recipe was sent to me by my lovely friend Julie. This Casserole is a ridiculously rich and over the top dish not to be taken lightly. As a matter of fact, this could easily de-rail my biggest loser efforts, thank you very much. But holy mama is it freaking delicious. I am truly amazed at how many of the family favorites are laden with high-fat and normally big time dairy ingredients. C'est la vie. I left my camera at my friend's house (along with the leftovers LOL), so I will post the pics when I get them uploaded. Even the totally omni kids chowed down on this. When you have some calories to spare, make this one.

Gourmet Pasta

2 cups TVP
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons kitchen bouquet
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 - 14.5 can diced fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 - 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
5 oz ribbon noodles
1 cup toffutti sour cream
4 oz. toffutti cream cheese
6 green onions, chopped
1 cup Daiya cheddar cheese
1 cup Daiya Italian blend

Preheat oven to 350.

Stir kitchen bouquet into vegetable broth. Heat mixture and pour over TVP to rehydrate. In a large skillet heat olive oil. Brown TVP. Once browned add minced garlic and saute for 2 minutes more. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Lower heat to simmer. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain pasta. While pasta is still hot, stir in cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Mix well. Coat 4 quart casserole with canola oil (I prefer spray canola). Layer 1/2 of noodles, then 1/2 of tomato mixture, then 1 cup of Italian cheese mix, remaining 1/2 of noodles, remaining tomato mixture, then 1 cup of cheddar.

Bake uncovered for 35 minutes. Turn oven off without opening. Let sit in oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve immediately. Can also be refrigerated and re-heated at 350 for 25 minutes.

Vegan MOFO Day 5 - Tracey's Spaghetti Extraordinaire

Fred's sister Tracey sent me her and her daughter Nicki's alltime favorite spaghetti recipe. The original is chock full of beef and sausage, so she was not sure if it could be veganized. Well, thanks to my friends at the PPK, I no longer fear the meaty recipes and find them quite fun to veganize. I'm not going to kid you, the texture and flavor are slightly different, so you won't fool anyone into thinking this is the greasy, unhealthy, factory farmed meat used in so many dishes. But it is a hearty, delicious homage to the original.

I did have to make a few modifications to the original recipe. Of course I had to replace the ground beef. I did this by re-hydrating TVP with vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet to give it that deep "beefy" hue and flavor. Next the Italian sausage. This was a no brainer using Julie Hasson's Spicey Italian Sausage recipe. I always find that when I use meat analogs I must increase the liquids used in the original recipe. In this recipe I had to add a 15 oz can of crushed fire roasted tomatoes to the original recipe. The order of adding ingredients changed just slightly as well. All in all, this was pretty easy to veganize. As you can see from the picture below, it came out very nicely. It has that rich tomato flavor and a hearty meaty texture. I fed this to Fred last night. He inhaled it in no time. Great recipe Tracey! Thanks for sending it to me.

Tracey's Vegan Spaghetti Extraordinaire

1 Cup TVP (sub for 1 lb ground beef)
1 Cups Vegetable broth
2 links vegan Italian sausage
1 teaspoon kitchen bouquet
2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
½ medium onion, chopped
½ chopped green bell pepper or 1 Anaheim pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz white or cremini mushrooms sliced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon crumbled rosemary
32 oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted)
16 oz can tomato sauce
15 oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes

Spaghetti or Angel Hair pasta cooked, drained, and rinsed

Grated vegan parmesan for garnish (optional)
Fresh cracked pepper to taste

Combine vegetable broth and kitchen bouquet. Re-hydrate TVP by pouring hot vegetable broth over it. Let sit for 10 minutes to re-hydrate. Dice Italian sausage into small chunks, approximately ¼ inch. This can also be done by pulsing in the food processor.

In a 4 quart saucepan brown TVP and sausage in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once browned, remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan sauté onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic in remaining tablespoon of olive oil until soft and mushrooms release their liquid, about 10 minutes minutes. Add dried herbs and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, crushed tomoatoes and tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add browned TVP and sausage and simmer for about 10 more minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste if desired.

Serve over warm pasta and sprinkle with vegan parmesan if desired.