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Soy Albóndigas

7 Jul

I remember when I was a little girl, way before ever imagining of becoming vegetarian, I used to dream of ordering the Spaghetti and Meatballs at the Crystal Palace restaurant at World Disney World. I would go in and order the same thing every single year when we visited the park. The spaghetti my grandma used to make had the meat crumbled or “molida” in the sauce, never made into a meatball. It’s just not the norm here.

Here in Puerto Rico, albóndigas are mostly made as an appetizer for parties and you eat them with toothpicks. They used to be my appetizer of choice to make using those frozen meatball from Sam’s Club – so easy and so delicious. A Xmas party wouldn’t be the same without them… or guineítos en escabeche.

I may be vegetarian now, but I still crave the creamy “meatiness” of those albóndigas with tomato sauce. And every once in a while Mary and Angie, from the Yoga Center, satisfy my cravings. But what happens when they’re not around. I needed to learn to make my own, no?

SOY ALBONDIGAS

1 cup of textured soy protein
½ onion, chopped finely
¼ green pepper, chopped finely
2 tbs sofrito
½ vegetable bouillon cube
½ cup balsamic vinegar – you can use the cheaper one here
3 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Herbamare Seasoning to taste, I use about 1 teaspoon
¾ cup garbanzo or chickpea flour
Canola Oil to fry them
  1. First you need to soak the soy protein back to life… place in a medium-sized bowl with plenty of water for the soy to absorb and reconstitute. Allow between 20-30 minutes for the soy to rehydrate. After the soy turns soft, drain it and squeeze as much water from it as you can. Set aside for a little while.
  2. In a medium skillet or sauce pan over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions and peppers. Sautee the onions and peppers for a few minutes then add the sofrito, vegetable cube, garlic and season with salt and pepper.
  3. When the vegetables are softened a bit, add the textured protein to the pan. Mix well to combine. Add a tad bit of olive oil if the mixture seems too dry. Add the Herbamare seasoning. Add the balsamic vinegar and lower the heat to a simmer and cover so the soy cooks in those juices and absorbs the flavors. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow the soy to finish cooking with the residual heat of the pan and burner. Allow the mixture to cool off a bit before continue to forming the albóndigas.
  5. When the soy mixture has cooled off a bit, transfer it to a medium sized bowl and add the garbanzo flour to form a sort-of paste. Mix with your clean hands for better mixing.
  6. Using a heaping measuring tablespoon, portion out the soy to form albóndigas about the size of a ping pong ball.

Here you can do 1 of 2 things: Freeze them individually in a sheet pan and then store them in freezer bags for future use… or fry them right then a there. Your call…

To cook them… fry the albóndigas in about 1 inch of canola oil.  I fry them over medium high heat, but make sure the oil is not too hot to avoid the albondigas to cook too much on the outside and not enough on the inside.  A nice golden color is what you’re going for.

Tomorrow I’ll post the recipe for the tomato sauce you can eat these with… easy and delicious!!

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Eggplant Sandwich Stacks

6 Jul

We were talking recently about my favorite sandwiches… but not all sandwiches need to have bread. Such is the case with these Eggplant Sandwich Stacks. I think they’re more aptly named Eggplant Stacks and done. But Mili at the Yoga Center always calls them Eggplant Sandwiches.

To me an eggplant sandwich is like these ones… eggplant fried or grilled inside two pieces of bread. In this case, the eggplant is the “bread” and the filling is lots’o cheese.

They’re easy to make and are a great way to enjoy eggplants…

EGGPLANT SANDWICH STACKS

2 medium sized eggplants
2 cups of tomato pizza or pasta sauce – I like to use this one I make
1 package of mild cheddar cheese, sliced thinly
½ cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
Olive oil
Garlic and herbs Seasoning mix
Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
  2. Cut the eggplants in rounds. Do not peel them as the skin will help retain the shape of the eggplants. If you’re not fond of the skins, you can certainly remove them while you’re eating them. They’ll peel off easily.
  3. Drizzle the eggplant rounds with olive oil and season with garlic and herbs seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Place them side by side on several cookie sheets to roast in the oven covered with aluminum foil paper. Let them cook in the oven for about 15 -20 minutes.
  5. After the eggplant stacks are partially cooked… we stack them. Find pieces that are evenly sized so your stack is even. Or if pieces are not exactly the same size, try for the bottom piece to be larger than the top piece.
  6. Take one piece of eggplant, spread some tomato/marinara sauce on top, but not too much. Place a few slices of cheddar cheese, top with another piece of eggplant.
  8. Spread more tomato/marinara sauce and finish with a mound of mozzarella cheese. Repeat until you have stacked all pieces of eggplant into these sandwiches.
  10. Place again in the oven for about 10-15 additional minutes to finish cooking the eggplants and allowing the cheeses to melt and brown on top.
  11. Allow them to cool a bit before transferring to a plate to serve.

We had these eggplant sandwiches with a lovely rice made in the oven with spinach, mushrooms and nuts.

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Broccoli Pesto

28 Jun

So I wanted to see if I could find a way to eat a whole head of broccoli before it turns yellow, like it usually does in my fridge. How can I eat large quantities of broccoli just by myself??? I have seen how Food Network chefs can make a pesto out of anything… pestos are just “pastes”, right? So let’s make it out of broccoli…

This recipe rocks… it is simple and you do not need to pre-cook the broccoli. I do cook a few florets separately to give it a nice touch and for people to see what’s in the dish. But it certainly does not need it. You can do without the extra broccoli pieces, particularly if you’re giving these to proclaimed non-lovers of broccoli.

Go ahead… convert them with this dish. I dare them to say they do not like broccoli!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BROCCOLI PESTO

½ head of broccoli, florets separated
2 oz of cream cheese
¼ cup almonds
½ tbs horseradish
¼ cup of shredded cheese mix
¼ cup pecorino romano cheese
2 garlic cloves
¼ cup heavy cream
About ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
½ bag of whole wheat or brown rice pasta
  1. In a large pot bring water to a boil to cook the pasta. Salt the water liberally and cook pasta according to package instructions, until al dente.
  2. Reserve a few broccoli florets for the final dish.
  3. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor mix together the remainder raw broccoli, the cream cheese, almonds, horseradish, shredded cheeses, pecorino romano, garlic and heavy cream. Pulse a few times to combine. Add a drizzle of olive oil thru the shoot of the food processor until the mixture is creamy and loose.
  4. Take the reserved broccoli florets and add them to a hot skillet with a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
  5. When the pasta is done, drain all water reserving about a cup and return the pasta to the same hot pot where it cooked. Add the creamy broccoli mixture to the pasta… add a few tablespoons of pasta cooking water to loosen the sauce if needed. Add the sautéed/cooked pieces of broccoli to the mix to add flavor and another layer of texture.

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Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes

17 Jun

I love to eat baked potatoes… I remember when we first got a microwave oven, way back when, I was always in charge of making the baked potatoes. Prick them a few times with a fork… bake in the oven… wrap them in foil paper to retain the heat… and eat them just like if you were at a steak house.

That was AGES ago… now, I no longer have a microwave in my kitchen and steakhouses are not part of my restaurant rotation. But I still love to bake potatoes. But they take FOREVER in an oven… even in a toaster oven which is what I usually use if it’s just me and a few others to feed.

My sister gave me an Express Cooker last Xmas as a gift. One of the recipes in the booklet that comes with the Express is how to bake potatoes… and to do it in just 15 minutes. In the regular oven, it usually takes about 1 hour to properly bake a potato. So this is a real time-saver. But the real kicker is what to mix it with… Anybody can bake a potato, but the fixings are what make it special.

LOADED TWICE BAKED POTATOES

1 large baking potato
1 tbs butter
2 tbs sour cream
2 tbs cream cheese
1 large garlic clove, minced or grated
2 scallions, chopped
1 tbs of Vegan Bac’n
2 handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese, divided
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
  1. I baked my potato using the Express… but you can do it in a regular oven or toaster oven. I cut the potato into 2 halves, oiled it with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. And cooked it cut side down for 15 minutes.
  2. When the potato is baked, I allow it to cool off a bit so I can handle it easily. But it needs to still be warm for you to easily be able to remove the flesh of the potato and leave the outer skin with a bit of potato so it has still some structure.
  3. Place the flesh of the potato in a medium sized bowl and mix in your favorite fixin’s… mine has butter, sour cream, cream cheese, garlic, scallions, these new Vegan Bac’ns I found at the health food store the other day and shredded cheddar cheese. I use a bit of cheese inside the mash and leave some for the topping.
  4. Mash all the ingredients together… season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a drizzle of olive oil if you feel the mixture needs some moisture.
  5. Take the potato mash and spoon it back into the potato shells. I like to mound the mixture so it looks luscious and abundant. Place what’s left of the shredded cheese on top.
  6. Place in a toaster oven on 450F or broiler for about 10 minutes to melt and brown the cheese on top.

To me, half a potato is plenty for me as a side dish… and both halves are good as a main course with a salad on the side.

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Tofu with Snow Peas and Bean Sprouts

13 Jun

Making this Korean Seasoned Tofu recipe made me think of the first time I ever made tofu. It was a Martha Stewart recipe I had seen on her show. My mom and I weren’t even declared vegetarians yet. What surprised us the most about this recipe is how much it didn’t taste like the idea we had of tofu in our minds… rather, it tasted exactly as the imprint we had of what chicken tasted like. Weird…

Since that day, my mom and I remember and reminisced about that recipe. And one day recently we found, at the Pulguero, a bag of snow peas and some bean sprouts. Armed with my “emergency” block of tofu I always have on hand, the rest is history…

TOFU WITH SNOW PEAS AND BEAN SPROUTS

3 tbs toasted sesame oil
12 ounces extra-firm tofu,
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup bean sprouts, about half a plastic container
1 cup snow-pea pods, trimmed, strings removed, and sliced into thirds on long diagonal
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs toasted sesame seeds
  1. Cut tofu into 1/4-inch slices and press in between a bunch of paper towels for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
  2. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add tofu and cook until well browned on both sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
  3. Raise heat to high and add sprouts and snow peas. Stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
  4. Season soy sauce. Remove from heat, transfer to serving dish, and garnish with sesame seeds.

 

Serve over steamed brown rice or even my version of Leek Rice. I think Martha would be proud of our rendition… don’t you think?

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