Vegan MOFO Day 1: Vegan BLT Sandwiches!

Vegan MoFo is here again, everybody! For those of you who don't know, October is Vegan MoFo, or Month of Food. This gives all us vegans...especially the foodies!...a great excuse to talk as much as we can about food, cooking, cookbooks, veganism, health, etc. And you know we love to talk about what we eat, not to mention talking about what everyone else is eating, too! So all in all, Vegan MoFo is like our month-long food porn fest. yeah.

For the first day of Vegan MoFo, I will share about my underground restaurant. It doesn't have a name or anything yet, but I'm working on that! Basically, I serve food restaurant-style out of my apartment once a week on Sundays. I make one meal and dessert, and whoever hears about it and wants to come is MORE than welcome! It's going around by word of mouth right now, and word of blog I suppose, so I hope that it will continue to grow as I keep working at it! This past weekend was the fourth installment of the "supper club" type get-together, complete with all the good stuff....

The main dish: Vegan BLT Sandwiches!! One of my favorite things to make in the summertime to celebrate the abundance of awesome tomatoes. Since I still had plenty to use up at this end of summer period, I figured BLT's were a must. They have tempeh bacon (see a few posts ago for that recipe!) from local tempeh, crisp organic lettuce, my mom's homegrown tomatoes, avocado, and vegan mayo, all on homemade millet bread! What a sandwich!!

On the side, I made Local Potato Salad (made with local potatoes, red onion, garlic, and carrots!)...

The other side was Citrus-Spice Pickled Watermelon Rind from Terry Bryant's Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook. I loved these!! I saved all my watermelon rinds from my last local watermelon of the season and pickled them with lemons, oranges, and spices. Delicious! A perfect item for that summer to fall transition!!
And NO meal would be complete without dessert!! In keeping with the local produce theme, I decided to make a tester recipe from Terry Hope Romero's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook: Sweet Corn Ice Cream!!

Corny, creamy, simple, delicious. Even more irresistable when I topped them with Praline Pecans!! I mixed barley malt syrup, Earth Balance, soy creamer, cinnamon, salt, sugar, nutmeg, and pecans together and poured the mixture over the yummy ice cream...
Let's just say I had no complaints!

More MoFo to come!!

Chili-Coffee Rubbed Seitan Sandwiches!

So there's this sandwich idea that's been floating around in my little foodie head for a while now. The dream sandwich of which I write is my Chili-Coffee Rubbed Seitan Sandwich.
This is exciting because I have felt in a little bit of a creative slump with all the cookbook testing I have been doing...lots of cooking, almost none of it my own recipes! I'm not complaining, of course, I 'm just sayin. So this recipe finally came to fruition last week! And it was everything I wanted it to be. And more. I had been playing around with the idea of a chili-coffee rub for seitan, and it just screamed messy, delicious sandwich to me. And that's what I did! It turned out soooo well! You just have to try it! The smoky, savory quality of the dry rub is balanced out perfectly by the spicy, tart quality of the Raspberry Chipotle Sauce, creamy avocado, and sweetness of the caramelized onions. zomg you guys. zomg.Chili-Coffee Rubbed Seitan Sandwiches (serves 4)
For the seitan:
1 lb seitan, thinly sliced (I used my homemade seitan, but use whatever kind you like.)
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/4 cup coffee grounds (freshly-ground is best)
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
pinch or two of cayenne

In a large bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients, except the seitan, until well mixed. Add the sliced seitan in the mixture and toss with mixture to coat completely. Let marinate for 4-6 hours or overnight. When preparing to use, heat a large cast iron (or your favorite) skillet over medium heat. Lightly coat with canola oil or non-stick spray. Add the seitan and any remaining marinade to the heated pan, making seitan is in a single, even layer. Cook for 5 minutes without stirring or turning the seitan. Flip the seitan and cook for 5 more minutes, until the marinade has mostly reduced. Turn off heat and cover until ready to use.

For the Raspberry Chipotle Sauce:
1/2 cup vegan mayo
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 Tbs dijon mustard
1 cup raspberries (thawed if using frozen)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3-4 chipotle peppers, in adobo sauce
1 tsp dried thyme
2 Tbs maple syrup
dash or two of hot sauce, to taste

In a food processor or blender, puree all of the ingredients together until well mixed. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the caramelized onions:
Cut 1 red onion in half and thinly slice. Saute onion slices in 1 Tbs canola oil, over medium heat, until lightly browned and caramelized. Set aside until ready to use.

To assemble the sandwiches:
4 hamburger buns or ciabatta rolls, split and toasted if desired
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1 batch caramelized red onions
2 cups spinach or mixed greens
1 recipe Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
1 recipe Chili-Coffee Rubbed Seitan

Open bun or roll so both insides are face up. Slather each inside with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce. Mound 1/4 of the seitan on the bottom bun. Pile caramelized onions, sliced avocado, and spinach on top of the seitan. Top with the other bun half. Repeat with other three buns until all the seitan is used. Serve hot!

One of the best parts of this creation was that I used homemade buns!! These were my first homemade bun attempt, and they were great! I used Melisser's Cornbread Burger Buns. Soooo sweet and savory and good.
Aaaaaand I served these messy guys up with Sweet Potato Oven Fries and slices of my momma's homegrown tomatoes!! Yipee!

It was truly a party in my tummy! And mouth!

Latina Tester Salad and Sauce!

Awesome in-season produce was the motivation for tonight's tasty dinner! The local tomatoes are in full swing, so I used the opportunity to put them in a tester recipe for Terry's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook. I made the Ensalada Chilena recipe, which is actually the national salad of Chile btw, and it is made up of crisp, sweet vidalia onions, ripe tomatoes, and a tangy vinaigrette dressing. This was awesome and the perfect way to show off those local 'maters!

To accompany the salad, I made Pinto Bean Tostadas (just something I threw together, not a test recipe). They had homemade refried pinto beans layered with shredded lettuce, fresh cilantro, chopped jalapenos, green olives, locally-made salsa, and some tester Pickled Red Onions. But they just weren't complete without a special sauce....These just screamed for another Vegan Latina test recipe: the So Good, So Green Dipping Sauce! Truth be told, the tostadas were just an excuse to make this sauce...I have been eying the recipe in the tester forums for months! This dipping sauce is packed with herbs, garlic, and lime, and has the perfect balance of creamy and chunky textures! This sauce is just sooooo flavorful! Went very well with the tostadas, of course!
I could dip about anything into this.....put tostadas, tamales, tacos, empanadas, or just a plain old finger in this sauce and it would still be so rockin!