Food Network Monthly Cookalong: Super Topped Frankfurters

Just recently one of our local health food stores (Market Organics) started carrying Field Roast sausages and frankfurters. I was over the moon happy and rushed downtown to get some the very evening they announced this. I love Field Roast sausages but will admit I had never tried their frankfurters. Last time I went down there, there was one lone package of frankfurters left in the fridge so I decided to take them home and give them a shot. I searched through all the suggestions of what to top a hot dog with on Food Network US Grilling Central and landed on two different ideas. We tried them out on two different nights and really loved both. The best part is...they are super easy to veganize. Switch out the hot dog for your favourite vegan version (Field Roast Frankfurters recommended!) and you are most of the way there. Of the two we picked only one had cheese, I just used our favourite cheddar-y cheese sauce in place of it but you could use Daiya shreds or wedges as well. (Sidenote: we just got Daiya wedges here yesterday and again being the crazy person that I am for all things vegan, I ran to Rainbow Foods as soon as they tweeted their arrival and got some. Now that I have tasted them all, I wish that I had had them when I made the Nacho Dogs, the Jalapeno Garlic Havarti would be amazing on them!)

The first recipe I went for was from Bobby Flay called Nacho Dogs. It has a spicy roasted tomato salsa, guacamole, pickled jalapenos and crushed corn chips all loaded in there. It calls for grated white cheddar so I went with my favourite cheddary cheese sauce from Hearty Vegan for the Irish Nachos in it's place but like I said above, this would be a great place to use some Daiya Jalapeno Garlic Havarti. The guacamole has more in it than I usually do but I went with it (minus the yucky cilantro) to taste the dog as he intended it. It was tasty but I like mine spiked with garlic so next time I would throw that in. The salsa was a little wet but it was super tasty, smoky and spicy! I like the flavour it got from roasting the tomatoes and it was super quick to do. I just put them straight on the super hot grill and turned them every few minutes and they were quickly blistered and had nice grill marks on them. I grilled the Field Roast frankfurters on the BBQ as well. They were sticking a bit at first so I grabbed a small plate and put a bit of olive oil and S&P on it. I rolled each one in the oil and stuck them back on the grill and it worked much better. I did it a few times while they cooked sort of like basting them since they are not fatty like their meaty counterparts.

All together they were quite stuffed and it was tricky to get it all in one bite but we gave it our best! They were really tasty and Ryan and I both enjoyed them quite a bit. We both said after supper that we would want them again!

The next one we tried was a Chicago Dog from Food Network Magazine. I have heard about Chicago Dogs but have never tried one and I am so happy I finally did! I think it might be my favourite hot dog ever!!! I grilled the hot dog which I know isn't traditional but hey, neither is a wheat gluten franks so go with me here. Put your grilled frank in a bun (they say poppy seed, I say whatever you have since we have established I'm not a purist) and then load it up with relish, mustard, big spears of dill pickles, sliced tomatoes, diced onion then sprinkle the top with celery salt. It is amazingly tasty and fresh. This will definitely be my new hot dog combo of choice! I had two on my plate but only ended up getting through one and a bit before I was stuffed. I passed it over to Ryan who happily finished it off. I will admit to watching him eat it and being a little jealous that he could eat it all up. I served this one with pasta salad and grilled local corn (another reason I was so stuffed). It is so easy to grill corn and you won't regret it, it's delicious cooked this way and you don't have to heat up the kitchen with a big pot of boiling water which is a super plus since this summer here is crazy hot and humid. I used Bobby Flay's recipe for Perfectly Grilled Corn but just for the technique. I think I will have to try out his flavoured butters in the future!

 

Food Network Cookalong: Garden Burgers by Food Network Magazine

Since the theme this month is GRILLING, I headed to the Food Network website and searched for my favourite thing to grill...burgers! There were lots of options (998 to be exact) so I sorted through the top ones I would like to try then went to Ryan for his vote. He picked Loaded Chili Cheeseburgers as his number one pick and my number one pick was the Garden Burger. I swayed him to my side easily and promised to try his pick before the month was over. The Garden Burger is a beef patty topped with green goddess dressing, lettuce, tomato, avocado and sprouts. Not the usual toppings for a burger for sure but with a name like Garden Burger how's a vegan to resist!

To veganize it was quick and simple, I switched out the homemade patty for a Gardein Ultimate Beefless Burger since they are my favourite pre-made burgers. I have always cooked them on the griddle or frying pan before so it was the first time I had made one on the BBQ. It was still just as delicious and had the caramelized outside that I always loved about them while cooking them inside. The toppings were already vegan so all that was left was the green goddess dressing. I switched out refrigerated silken tofu for the low-fat yogurt (exactly the same amount) and used 4 tbsp of Vegenaise in place of the low-fat mayo called for in the recipe. I added a bit extra since after blending with the original amount, I felt it needed a little extra so try it first and taste for your own personal preference. I added Wan Ja Shan brand Organic Worcestershire Sauce (vegan and gluten free) and the rest of the ingredients stayed the same, fresh chives, basil, lemon juice. It was a lovely bright green from the herbs once it was all blended and had the perfect tang to it to still shine through all those burger toppings and the patty itself. I served them on PC brand pretzel buns because we are currently obsessed with them. I even buttered and grilled them as well! It made a delicious burger that tasted fresh and had lots of crunch with the sprouts and lettuce. Ryan even commented that his taste buds must be evolving because he was really enjoying it and didn't hate the alfalfa sprouts (since he usually doesn't love them). I have loads of dressing left over so there will be some green goddess dressed salads in my future for sure but since it's so tasty, I'm looking forward to it! I would definitely make these again!

Food Network Friday: Reuben Meatball Sliders

This Food Network Friday I got to pick! I simultaneously love and stress out about picking. I want to pick something I think is tasty, that I think everyone else will enjoy, something that is a little tricky but not impossibly hard. Then I came along a recipe by Jeff Mauro the self-proclaimed Sandwich King for Reuben Meatball Sliders and knew it was "the one"! I had never had a Reuben pre-vegan but during sandwich testing with Tami and Celine, I tested a few and loved them! I know Tami and Liz both love a Reuben so I knew this one would be a hit.

In preparation for this Food Network Friday I watched a few episodes of the Sandwich King which just recently started airing up here in Canada and I gotta say...I'm not a big fan. My husband can't understand why I keep watching it since all I do is talk smack while it's on. I wasn't a fan while he was competing on The Next Food Network Star but I do like his show idea of making any sandwich into a meal and any meal into a sandwich. That's something I can get behind because I seriously love me some sandwich action! Now if he can just stop leaning on the counter talking to me as if it were completely natural and describing everything like he just got a new copy of the Oxford English Thesaurus that would be great marvellous spectacular wonderful perfect!

And on to the recipe itself...We loved this one for sure! It wasn't insanely hard, came together pretty quickly, and most importantly tasted amazing. Tami was originally worried that we would all go with seitan for the meatball base so I made sure to mix it up. I decided to try (for the first time) a tempeh meatball. I love tempeh (as you might have noticed having read previous blog posts) and most of the Reubens I have loved so far have been tempeh based so I thought I would give it a go not really knowing what to expect. I started out by grating the tempeh with a box grater. I did half on the larger holes and half on the smaller side and I think that was a good idea. I liked the larger pieces for texture but the smaller side I think helped them hold together better. In the original recipe there is shredded Swiss cheese in the meatball which I decided to replace with a homemade Swiss-ish spread (recipe below!) that also helped pull it all together while adding a little zing. For breadcrumbs that were supposed to be rye bread I went with Glutino gluten free pretzels. I really love these pretzels despite their high price tag and they make an excellent stand in for breadcrumbs in just about anything. I fried the outside of one little meatball to check the seasoning and it fell a bit flat. I added some minced onion, upped the caraway and cheese spread and tried again and they were much tastier. I also reduced down some "beef" style veggie broth while I was making the meatballs and threw a splash or two of it in the pan once they were evenly browned to try to add a little "beefy" flavour to them. It worked to add the flavour but did soften the outside of the meatballs if only just slightly.

I took a peek at Liz's summary this morning and saw that we both used Tami's Reuben sauce from American Vegan Kitchen. I guess we both know who to look for Reuben advice. I had originally planned on baking up a batch of slider size rolls for this but then remembered the hundreds of other things I had to do this week so I went with some store bought hamburger rolls and cut them to size with a biscuit cutter. They did look really cute! Ryan decided he wanted more meatball per sandwich so he went with a full sized bun with a few meatballs all smooshed into one sandwich, more like a Reuben burger than slider but still delicious he said.

I definitely will be experimenting more with tempeh meatballs because they really did hold their shape well and the texture was perfect. I did write down what I did this time to share with you so let me know if you do try them!

Looking forward to next Food Network Friday!! Don't forget to check out what everyone else did with this one on Tami's blog and maybe next time you can cook-a-long with us!

Finished product!! 

Tempeh Reuben Meatball Sliders

Swiss Style Cheese Spread
1/2 box of Mori-Nu Extra Firm Silken Tofu
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp yellow miso
1 tbsp lemon juice (I used bottled)
100g whole blanched almonds
1/4 tsp salt

250g pkg of tempeh, grated
1 tsp ground caraway seeds
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1/4 cup finely ground gluten free pretzels
1 small onion finely minced
1/2 cup swiss style cheese spread
splash of Kitchen Bouquet
2-4 tbsp olive oil, as needed to fry the meatballs

2 cups sauerkraut, drained
1 cup of your favourite 1000 Island type dressing (my I recommend the recipe in American Vegan Kitchen if I haven't already!)
Dill Pickles on the side (absolutely necessary)
12 slider buns, toasted

1. Make the swiss style spread first by combining all ingredients in a high speed blender and blending at highest speed until smooth. (You can soak the almonds ahead of time to make this easier/faster but I tend to just throw them in and hope for the best. It also helps to add half of them at a time.) Set aside.

2. Combine grated tempeh, caraway, salt and pepper, ground pretzels, onion, swiss spread and splash of Kitchen Bouquet in a large bowl. Mix together with your hands until everything is uniformly mixed and it sticks together nicely when shaped into a meatball. You should be able to get 12 slider sized meatballs from this. Lay on a sheet pan lined with waxed or parchment paper until you are ready to cook.

3. In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and add the meatballs. You may have to do these in batches depending on the size of your skillet, adding more oil if needed. Make sure to flip them around so all sides are evenly browned.

Optional step: Once they are browned, drain the oil in the pan and return to heat adding a few splashes of reduced "beef" style veggie broth to the pan and let it reduce down even further while flipping the meatballs so all sides get a bit of the flavour.

4. While your meatballs are browning, add the drained sauerkraut to a small saucepan and gently heat. Turn the heat to low and add the 1000 Island dressing, stirring to coat.

5. Once everything is warmed, assemble your sliders! Place one meatball on each slider bun bottom, top with dressed sauerkruat and finish by adding the top bun. Skewer with a toothpick to hold together until you are ready to eat! Enjoy!

Food Network Friday: Bayou Chicken Pasta by Emeril

This is one delicious Food Network Friday! This time we are making Emeril Lagasse's Bayou Chicken Pasta. It is a spicy one though (you've been warned) and I even cut the heat down considerably by cutting the habanero out completely! I like a little spice in my food but I will admit to being totally intimidated by habanero peppers. Between what I've heard about them being like the hottest peppers on Earth and a bag of Death Rain potato chips a few years back, I am straight up terrified of these seemingly harmless little guys. I did however really enjoy Emeril's Essence (still questioning the name of it though as it conjured up some less than PG jokes from Ryan and myself that night) and it really did give this recipe a hit of "BAM!" like he's always promising.

I didn't write down a recipe since I didn't really change much of what was actually written but I will go through my substitutions to show you how easy it is to take a dish that looks so unvegan and make it deliciously vegan! Emeril goes for chicken but I say "BAM!" and change it out for chickeny seitan cutlets. I used a tester recipe from Tamasin so I can't share it but you could use any seitan or sauteed mushrooms would be excellent or even pressed tofu like Liz did over at Cooking the Vegan Books. He also uses a bit of butter in the recipe, you could use EB or something like that but I just went with a little more olive oil. Next up was the heavy cream which led me to the cupboard for some cashews. Cashew cream is one of my favourite vegan tricks to make a dish really creamy and one of the many reasons I love my Vitamix. I used to let my old blender run for 10 minutes and still didn't get the creamy smoothness that the Vitamix does. I used 3/4 cup of cashews with 1/2 cup of soy milk and 1/4 cup of water to make my heavy cream so take that Emeril...BAM! Last substitution needed was the Parmesan which I quickly swapped out for some nutritional yeast and this time I really did say BAM! as I sprinkled it on top of the final dish. I had to say it once at least while making this or it would feel right!

Some other subs I made that were just for personal preference or lack of stock in the fridge (I'm talking to you green onions) were: took out the habanero completely (like I mentioned), didn't add the extra 1 1/2 tsp of salt (it was already salty enough for me), I used leftover spaghetti instead of linguine which made my cooking time a little less and used up my leftovers (I added 1/2 cup of veg broth to my diced tomatoes instead of just plain water and heated the pasta in the sauce as it simmered) and left out the green onions but think they would really work with it. I also added in some sundried tomatoes (six halves of the non-oil packed kind to be more specific) when I added the cream to up the tomato flavour and I think it really added a little something....maybe a little BAM! I also added some peas to it after I took the picture because there is something about peas and pasta with me. It would also taste excellent served with some steamed broccoli.

Ryan really enjoyed this one (read went back for seconds and had it for lunch the next day) as did I. My mom gave it a try (sans chickeny seitan) and while it was a bit hot for her tastes she did eat it all. We will definitely be having it again maybe even more toned down. It would be good even without the chicken as well. Another idea popped into my head while I was cooking this as well...."Damn, this would have been a great pizza!" so I'm sure that will happen sometime soon too! Everything tastes better on pizza crust, doesn't it?

Don't forget to check out what everyone else did for this Food Network Friday recipe over on Tami's blog! And why not cook-a-long with us for the next one?

My First Veganized Recipe (From Everyday with Rachel Ray)

For some reason I am super hooked on Food Network Magazine and Everyday with Rachel Ray. They are filled with food I won't eat (and don't particularly like to look at) but I like the way they think. I guess it's mostly comfort food which is what I love to eat and most of the time when I read through them I just think about how I could veganize it.

I picked up the October 2011 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray at Costco a few weeks ago. I was reading through it and then I saw it...I stood up and ran over to Ryan to show him because I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Right there in a recipe was "vegan mayonnaise"! The rest of the sandwich was far from vegan but just seeing it written there in this magazine was crazy to me. I have only been vegan for about a year and a half and I have even noticed in that time that veganism has become a little more widely accepted. I was still extremely shocked to see it in the pages of Rachael Ray's magazine. I decided right then and there that I had to make the sandwich but make the whole thing vegan. It wouldn't be so hard anyways and that's kind of my point I guess, it's not usually hard to change up a recipe to make it vegan.

The sandwich was sort of like a Thanksgiving supper on a bun with turkey, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce and strangely cheese. During my sandwich testing with Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes, I had tested a recipe for Gobbler Slices which was a homemade "turkey" cold cut which were incredibly good! I knew these would be the perfect "turkey" for my sandwich and lucky for you Tami has posted the recipe for them on her blog so you can make them too! I also made another one the next day for lunch and used some "chicken-y" seitan sliced thin and it was also really great so you could go either way and get great results.

The recipe for the cornbread stuffing in the magazine relied on some store bought cornbread muffins but I decided to make my own. The recipe is below if you don't have access to vegan store bought cornbread and want to make them too. I went mini but only so they would bake more quickly. I made some cranberry sauce myself as well since I had some frozen cranberries up the freezer that weren't getting much love and never have cranberry sauce in the can. It was so easy to put it together and took three ingredients. Recipe for it is below as well. They mix the mayo with the cranberry sauce which I also did but on the second attempt I just went with the mayo and enjoyed it more. I guess it depends of course on whether or not you like cranberry sauce and I've always been on the fence on that. I definitely enjoyed the sandwich, it's especially good with the pickles added which I totally forgot the first day I made this but they really do make the sandwich. I used thinly sliced dill pickles in place of the cornichons in the recipe but only because I always have a jar of dill pickles in the fridge and have never had a cornichon in my life. I also really loved the stuffing part of this sandwich too. I always thought it was strange to have fruit in stuffing but the apples were really tasty in this and provided a nice bit of crunch too. I'm definitely converted to this kind of stuffing! Here's the recipe if anyone wants to give this one a go...I recommend you do!

Pilgrim Sandwiches (Veganized from Everyday with Rachael Ray)

Makes 4 sandwiches

1 recipe of mini cornbread muffins (recipe below)

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp vegan butter/margarine

1 apple, diced (suggested are gala, mcintosh or honey crisp)

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 ribs celery, finely chopped (or if you are like me and never have celery, 1 tsp celery seed)

Salt and Pepper

2 tsp poultry seasoning

Fresh thyme, a few sprigs, just the leaves removed from the stem

1 cup vegetable stock or vegan "chicken" flavoured stock

1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce (recipe below)

1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise (I used Organic Vegenaise)

4 sandwich rolls, split

1 1/2 lbs. sliced Gobbler Slices or any "chicken-y" seitan sliced thin

Vegan cheese, optional

Thinly sliced red onion and sliced dill pickle (or cornichons), for topping

1. Preheat broiler. Take mini muffins and crumble or cut into bite sized chunks. Place on a sheet pan and broil on middle rack of your oven until slightly browned. This should take about 5 minutes, making sure you mix them up half way so all the pieces get equally crisped. Set aside.

2. Heat the olive oil and vegan butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet until the butter has melted. Add the apple, onion, celery and salt and pepper. If you are using the celery seed, add it when you add the poultry seasoning. Cook the apple/onion mixture until it is starting to soften but still crisp. Add in the cornbread muffin pieces, poultry seasoning, thyme leaves and celery seed if using. Stir to combine then add the vegetable stock to moisten to your liking. (I added about half a cup and found it to be enough). Continue to cook until the broth has been absorbed and the stuffing is browned a bit. Turn off the heat and set aside.

3. Mix the cranberry sauce and mayonnaise together in a small bowl (or don't like I said above). Spread the cran-mayo on the tops of the rolls. Assemble the sandwiches on the bottoms of the rolls, starting with cornbread stuffing, Gobbler slices and vegan cheese if using. Broil to melt the cheese (or if you aren't using the cheese, still broil it briefly to heat up the gobbler slices and rewarm the stuffing. Remove from the oven, top with onion and pickles and roll tops. Enjoy!

Mini Cornbread Muffins

Makes 16 mini muffins

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp soy milk

1/4 cup non-dairy plain unsweetened yogurt

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Spray a mini muffin pan with spray oil.

2. Mix dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk or fork to evenly distribute everything. Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine.

3. Using a mini scoop or small spoon, scoop batter into the mini muffin pan. Bake for 8-10 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan, then move to a rack to cool completely.

Cranberry Sauce

1 cup frozen cranberries

1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan over high heat stirring until sugar dissolves. Cover and reduce the heat to low for 5 minutes until the cranberries start to split and soften.

2. Remove the cover and turn heat back up to medium-high and bring to a low boil/simmer for 5 more minutes or until it is thickened. It will thicken more once you let it cool. Remove from heat and let cool. Place in fridge, covered once cooled to let chill.