Vegan MoFo Day 6: Tester Arepas!

It's Day 6 of Vegan MoFo, or the Vegan Month of Fooooooood! I want to talk about being a tester for Terry Hope Romero's upcoming cookbook, Vegan Latina. I was so honored and excited when I found out I was going to test for her next cookbook! With amazing cookbooks like Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Veganomicon under her belt, Terry lives up to her reputation with this collection of Latin-inspired recipes. From tamales and empanadas to horchata and dulce de leche, all the recipes in this collection are authentic yet innovative and are full of flavor. I have learned a ton of new techniques, such as tamale-making, while testing for this cookbook! And I love learning new things! When this comes out, do not hesitate to get it! This will be an essential to any good vegan's cookbook collection.

Tonight for dinner, I made a new test recipe: Venezuelan Oyster Mushroom and Pimento Arepas. Yes, it's as good as it sounds!! Arepas are similar to corn tortillas, but are smaller in diameter and much thicker, as they are used for stuffing full of good stuff. This arepa filling is a saute of onion, garlic, pimentos (the jarred red peppers), oyster mushrooms, and spices, then layered in the arepa pocket with fresh avocado slices. Yum!!

Salty, chewy, creamy, spicy, tangy, savory.....and most importantly, messy! These are like little sandwiches, except better. They make an awesome lunch or dinner and are really a stand-alone dish, which make prep and clean up easy! Bonus! I have made one other arepa tester recipe, which was filled with a tempeh-jicama-veganaise-avocado filling...I can't decide which one I like more...I guess I'll just have to eat both of them! A lot!!

Dinner with Terry and Isa

Tonight I had dinner with Terry and Isa. OK, maybe I didn't actually "dine" with two of the best vegan chefs ever, but I did make one Terry dish and one Isa dish for my dinner tonight! It was great! Tonight's meal was Latina-themed, since I am currently testing for Terry's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook. btw, this cookbook is going to be awesome! A lot of the recipes are multi-step and take some time, but all of the recipes I have made so far have turned out delicious!!

The main course was the Sexy Avocado-Tempeh Stuffed Arepas, a Vegan Latina tester. omg these were amazing!! If you haven't heard of arepas before, they are a little corn-based tortilla, but much thicker and denser, and they are used for stuffing and devouring! Very popular in South America especially. The insides of these Venezuelan-style Arepas have a polenta-like texture, while the outsides are crispy, almost like the crust of American cornbread...these are very interesting and tasty little treats! The Avocado-Tempeh Filling is really creamy and delicious, and gets a little zing from lime juice, and there is a secret filling ingredient: shredded jicama! It lends an amazing texture! I could go on and on about these little guys, but I will let the photos do the talking:

First, the Masa Harina-based dough is pan-fried...
And, of course, cooked to a golden brown for a nice crust...Then, they all go in the oven for a little while to get the insides nice and cooked...And then they are ready to be stuffed with all sorts of goodies!Here they are, stuffed and ready to be eaten! Even better with a few dashes of hot sauce along the way!

For my side dish, I made a recipe from Isa's new Vegan Brunch cookbook: Fried Plantains!! I picked these mainly because this sounded like a perfect Latina accompaniment to my Terry-tester-arepas, but also because I really want to make everything ever in Vegan Brunch!! These were really good, too! I like my version a little better, I must admit, as these were more salty and less sweet, but still delicious! I mean, it IS an Isa recipe for goodness sake...can't really go wrong, can you??!

I'll definitely be making all of these dishes again and again and again....