No Chicken Vegan Pad Thai

I. Love. Pad. Thai. Love it! I've made one or two pad Thai dishes since becoming vegan. They were both super healthy and "noodle-free." While still good, I've decided that pad Thai is not to be messed with. It's meant to have noodles. It's meant to have chicken...well...grain-meat chicken. Vegan chicken. It's meant to have a rockin' sauce with cilantro and mung beans and crushed peanuts perched atop! Yum! This No Chicken Vegan Pad Thai has all that and a bag of chips. Featuring steamed broccoli and sliced grain-meat chicken. A robust homemade sauce coats the rice noodles, topped with crushed peanuts, mung beans and fresh cilantro. 

It's quick, simple and totally delicious. I have to make it in fairly small quantities or before I know it, I'll have devoured five servings of rice noodles. Two ounces per serving?! What is that? That seems pretty darn skimpy to me...that's all I'm saying. 

You have to try this. It's soooo good. One of my favorite dishes!

No Chicken Vegan Pad Thai

Inspired by Vegetarian Ventures

Serves 2-3

• --Sustenance--
• 1 head of broccoli, florets only and chopped
• 8 oz. dry stir-fry style rice noodles
• 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 vegan grain-meat chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 green onions, thinly sliced
• --Sauce--
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes
• --Toppings--
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• crushed peanuts 
• fresh bean sprouts

Begin by steaming the chopped broccoli until bright green and just tender. When ready, remove from heat and set aside until ready to use. 

Bring a medium pot of water to boil and follow the directions on the package for cooking the rice noodles. Usually this means once the water is boiling, add the noodles, remove from heat, cover and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside until ready to use.

While the noodles are doing their thing. Heat the oil in a large saute pan and and in the garlic and the sliced grain-meat chicken. Saute until the chicken is heated thoroughly and the garlic becomes fragrant. 

While the chicken is cooking, add all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk until well combined. 

When the noodles are finished cooking, add them to the heated chicken.

Add in the broccoli and the sauce and stir everything over low heat for a minute or two to heat. 

Serve warm and topped with fresh cilantro and crushed peanuts!

Also, add fresh bean sprouts if you can find them. They're hard to come by where I'm at. 

Oh yes. Christmas Meditation – Jingle Bells Recipe Card

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Kale and Red Potato Soup with Grain Sausage

Yikes, it's getting a little cray cray up here in Alaska! There's all sorts of wind and rain and just straight up craziness. I guess the weather experts are calling it a storm. Listening to the news, you'd think we'd better build a bomb shelter with all this talk of emergency preparedness. I'm sorry lady news anchor, but I'm not stalking up on two gallons of water per day for potential emergencies. I'm just not. Who has that kind of space? It's crazy. I have a water filter in my backpack and a lake that's a three minute walk from my house. Who doesn't have a water filter anyway?! People, that shit's important. I feel like having a way to source potable water is much more along the lines of good emergency preparedness than just having gallon jugs of water around.

What if it's the zombie apocalypse!? Are you really going to go running through the woods from zombies with gallons of water? No. However, our water filter weighs like 5 oz. and is about the size of my hand, so...also, it's already in my backpack! I guess the moral of this post is to go buy a water filter? I don't know. 

Whoa, no. This post is about this soup! Sorry, I guess I got a little off track there. Anyways, needless to say that today is just kind of a soup type of day. And what goes better with stormy weather than soup? Not much. Also, soup is kind of my main man when I don't feel like cooking. Hello beautiful.

This Kale and Red Potato Soup with Grain Sausage is so savory and delicious. There's something about a potato and sausage soup that just wraps you up in rustic comfort! It's perfect for these chilly stormy nights. 

Kale and Red Potato Soup with Grain Sausage

Inspired by Skinny Taste

Serves 6-8

• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 2 (6 oz. total) vegan sausage links (I used Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Grain Sausage)
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, sliced thinly
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 5 cups water
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 4 medium red potatoes, unpeeled and diced
• 1 tsp. dried Italian herb seasoning
• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
• sprinkling of red pepper flakes
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1-2 bunches of kale, de-stemmed and chopped
• fresh thyme, for garnish (optional)

--A Few Notes-- 

I like a lot of kale in my soup so I use two bunches, but feel free to use only one.  I like to split the liquid in half and use 5 cups water and 5 cups broth, but you can certainly use 10 cups of vegetable broth if you wish.

In a large soup pot, heat 1 tsp. of olive oil. Add the sausage links whole and allow them to brown for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally. Once browned, remove from the pot and set aside for later.

Add 1 tsp. more of olive oil and heat. Saute the diced onion and sliced carrots for about 5 minutes or until the onions have started to turn translucent. Now, add in the minced garlic and saute for a couple more minutes.

Slice the sausage now that it has cooled. Add in the remaining ingredients to the pot, including the sausage but not yet the kale. Bring to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, de-stem and chop the kale. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for about 5 minutes, covered. 

Now, uncover, add the chopped kale, and allow to cook over high heat for about 5 more minutes, or until the kale has reached your desired texture. 

I like mine to still have a little bit of sustenance but if you like to boil it into submission that's okay with me, if you like it that way. I have been accused of liking my kale a bit tough.

Serve hot and topped with fresh thyme!

I think this is a very appropriate song for today with regards to our windstorm, snowbird – The North Wind Doth Blow

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"Tuna" Salad Sandwiches

As I a child I went to "fish camp" at Copper River. As a child I ate many, MANY salmon salad sandwiches. As I child I threw most said sandwiches under the elementary school cafeteria tables. Reflecting, it's not something I think is terribly funny and it actually causes me a probably unnecessary amount of grief from time to time. All those salmon. Their lives lost and laid to rest under a gum encrusted cafeteria table, surrounded my dirty, mischievous little sneakers. Only someone who was forced to eat the same damn thing every day for their childhood could possibly understand to what I am speaking of.  The fate of my childhood salmon salad sandwiches has finally been revealed. Now, as a responsible adult, I can proudly say that I've not been throwing any food items under any tables. As a responsible (I only lay claim to environmental and ethical) adult, I also don't eat fish. Though, confession time...I freaking love salmon. It IS my favorite non-vegan food. Yet, I love them alive more than dead and that is why I choose not to kill them and eat them! In addition, and contrary to popular belief (get ready Alaskans!), fish isn't that good for you...and enter angry comments. Don't blame me, blame science. Blame evolution. Blame plants. Blame chemicals.

Find a way to tell yourself that fish is still good for you and that I'm wrong, but first please check out this treasure trove of related information here...or choose to live in ignorance. People say, "...but humans have been eating fish and meat since the beginning of time!" Yes, but we've also been raping and murdering people since the beginning of time. Not everything we've been doing since the beginning of time is ethically or environmentally appropriate. Geeze, what a downer. Enough of this soapbox nonsense for now, I have in-laws reading this!

Back to my embarrassment regarding the sandwiches. Since I won't have salmon or tuna and I always loved fish salad sandwiches, I've created my own vegan fish salad recipe! I can say with 100% scientific certainty that garbanzo beans are better for you than fish. This faux tuna salad is even delicious! For vegans and non-vegans! An ex non-vegan approved faux tuna sandwich?! Yes my friends. Yes, and I quote, "This is really, really good. I like this!" My Dad makes his salmon salad with mayonnaise, only a little bit of mustard, dill pickle and red onion. And that's how I like mine too. No frills. Not to mention it's made in a pinch.

So if you're trying to eat healthier or are just embarrassed to bring a fish sandwich for lunch to work, this recipe is for you. And hey, maybe this time it won't be you clearing out the break room. Maybe if, as a child, I had this sandwich instead of a stinky salmon one, I wouldn't of thrown it under the table. I have no idea...it's just speculation.

"Tuna" Salad Sandwiches

Inspired by Atiliay and my Dad

Makes enough salad for 6 sandwiches

• 2 15 oz. cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2 celery stalks (including leaves!), minced
• 1/2 medium red onion, minced
• small handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon (or yellow) mustard
• 1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish or minced dill pickles (I like sweet pickles)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 12 slices of your favorite bread (I used potato bread)

Pulse the drained and rinsed garbanzo beans in a food processor. They don't need a lot of processing, just enough to get that flaky "fish" texture. Pulse about five times, then scrape down the bowl and do a few more.

In a medium bowl, combine the pulsed beans along with all the remaining ingredients excluding the bread.

Eat the salad as is or scoop it onto your favorite bread.

Yes, my sandwich hucking days are over. It's a terrible, awful secret that only a couple of my best friends know about.

I hope my Dad doesn't read this blog...

The worst part is that the lunch ladies would always demand to know who tossed the sandwich under the table and I  would always sit silently, wide-eyed, shaking my head left to right, and shrugging. Oh lord, the shame! It depends on who you ask, but my best friend may tell you that everyone knew it was me all along. I never have ever been a very good liar.

"Tuna" Salad Sandwiches

 

Recipe Type: Entree

Author: Katie - Produce On Parade

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 2 15 oz. cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2 celery stalks (including leaves!), minced
• 1/2 medium red onion, minced
• small handful of fresh parsley, chopped finely
• 1 Tbsp. Dijon (or yellow) mustard
• 1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish or minced dill pickles (I like sweet pickles)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 12 slices of your favorite bread (I used potato bread)

Instructions

1. Pulse the drained and rinsed garbanzo beans in a food processor. They don't need a lot of processing, just enough to get that flaky "fish" texture. Pulse about five times, then scrape down the bowl and do a few more.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the pulsed beans along with all the remaining ingredients excluding the bread.
3. Eat the salad as is or scoop it onto your favorite bread.

 

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