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lazy vegetarians are everywhere. this is a collection of easy recipes and tips for dining out for vegetarians with little time or effort.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Daiya Cheese

I know that if I do end up making the leap and going totally vegan, it will be in large part because of Daiya cheese.
All of my vegan versions of recipes that have cheese pretty much revolve around their amazing cheese substitute, so I love when companies that make great products get recognition for those products.

PETA has named them company of the year.

Nice recognition for a company that truly deserves recognition.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Tempeh Bacon

This recipe is a for all the longtime vegetarians who still crave a good BLT on occasion.

I know all the vegetarians out there have heard the omnivores spout off about how we “gave up meat by choice, so why do we always try to make stuff that tastes like meat?” The anger that meat eaters have over the idea of fake bacon kind of blows my mind.

The simple answer to why we try so hard to make these fake meats is because we can.

The more complex answer will go into choosing not to kill animals to subside and having a clearer conscience after going vegetarian than before, not because we didn’t like meat.

So back to the fake bacon… this is my experiment with making tempeh bacon and the results are just what I liked best out of the several methods and mixtures I tried. This is one of those recipes that you should adapt and make your own.

Start by mixing the Braggs, water, molasses, liquid smoke and spices. I used a roasted cumin made by McCormick that worked really well. Having never seen roasted cumin before, I naturally was curious and it definitely is a different flavor than straight ground cumin so I will be trying it in some other stuff.

Mix the marinade thoroughly and set aside.

Slice the tempeh as thin as you possibly can, a filet knife works well and steady hands work even better.

Soak in the marinade for 20-60 minutes. The longer the better since tempeh will soak in the flavors as you leave it in for longer.

Preheat the over to 400 degrees and brush with olive oil. Place the tempeh strips on the baking pan and brush the tops with oil as well.

Bake for about 10 minutes.

Check them to see if they are nice and dark brown, if they aren’t, flip them over and leave in for a few more minutes.

Let the tempeh cool a little, but definitely use as soon as you can to keep the crispness.

I made BLT wraps with the ‘bacon’ this time, but could easily use the same stuff for a breakfast meal.

The sandwich part is as simple as just wrapping up the veggies, ‘bacon’ and some dressing or mayo/nayo.

Ingredients:

For ‘bacon’:


1 8 oz. package of tempeh

4 tbsps. Braggs Liquid Aminos or soy sauce

4 tbsps. water

1 tbsp. molasses

1 tbsp. liquid smoke

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. roasted cumin (optional)

1/2 tsp. paprika (optional)

Olive oil

For sandwich:

Tortillas or wraps

Lettuce

Tomato

Avocado

Dressing