Sauergluten with Red Cabbage

Sometimes I want a stronger, more flavorful meal than the children like, or will even try, and this SAUERGLUTEN WITH RED CABBAGE scared them into eating ramen noodle soup with their friends last night. Initially stung, I soothed my wounds with the pleasing thought “All the more for me!”

My inspiration was a recipe in Brother Ron Pickarski's Friendly Foods cookbook. I had every intention of following it to the letter, until it came to the part where I was supposed to let it marinate for twenty-four hours. I wanted it for dinner, so that wasn't going to work for me. Also, I had already planned ahead by roasting my seasoned gluten the day before, so that was about as forward thinking as I wanted to be.

Miso Mushroom Gravy

 

MISO MUSHROOM GRAVY is good on brown rice. Miso was thought to protect against radiation sickness in Japan after the atomic bombings. Some people have found it helps them after radiation treatments. It is also a delicious salty condiment with the added benefit of friendly bacteria, and it should be added at the end of cooking when the gravy is warm, not hot, to keep the friendlies alive.

Ingredients

1/2 pound — mushrooms, sliced

1 — onion, chopped, optional

Olive oil to fry in

1/2 cup — whole wheat flour

1 tsp — garlic powder

1 tsp nutritional yeast

Sprinkle — dried basil

2 1/2 cups — hot water

1/4 cup — miso 

1/2 — squeezed lemon

 

Method

Heat a kettle of water.

Slice half a pound of your favorite mushroom. I used white. In a frying pan, saute the mushroom slices in two tablespoons of olive oil until they are limp and slightly reduced in size.

Mix half a cup of whole wheat flour with a teaspoon garlic powder, a teaspoon of nutritional yeast, and a sprinkle of basil. Stir in with the mushrooms. It will be crumbly. Keep it moving as you brown the flour for a minute or two.

Very gradually add hot water to the pan. Altogether it will be two-and-a-half cups of water. The slower you go and the hotter the water, the less likely the gravy will be lumpy. Let it cook down to a gravy consistency. This may take fifteen minutes or so to thicken. You can use a spatula to stir it every now and then to keep it from sticking. The mushrooms might get stuck in a whisk.

Remove a little gravy to mix with a quarter cup of red miso, or whatever miso you prefer. I also added half a squeezed lemon. Add this paste back to the gravy when it has cooled slightly, so as not to kill off the friendly bacteria in the miso or dim the brightness of the lemon.

How to Serve

This would also be good made with onions along with the mushrooms. I served it with the brown rice I made in my rice cooker, some steamed kale, some more of the outer crunch tofu — though it was more chewy this time than crunchy: I baked it at 425F degrees, and I had marinated it in water to cover, two tablespoons tamari, and half a teaspoon of garlic powder — and a salad made with red lettuce, scallions, avocado, grapefruit, shredded carrots, and dried cranberries.

The boys all vied to have their plate of food be the most photo-worthy. I wonder whose I will pick?

Baked Beans and Roasted Cauliflower

This time the BAKED BEANS turned out fine. I soaked too many navy beans, and my pressure cooker was so full I decided to just boil them for two hours. At that point the beans I was going to use to make the baked beans were done enough. The remainder I pressure cooked for another twenty minutes to make sure they were soft enough. They can be used in a soup in the next couple of days. My enormous amounts aren't necessary for smaller, less hungry families, so I will give a recipe that fits into normally sized cookware and stomachs.

Outer Crunch Tofu, Biscuits, Gravy, Collards, Carrots, Peas

Method for Tofu

This TOFU was cut in large rectangular pieces and dipped in whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast and some seasonings (garlic powder, salt and basil), then roasted at 425 degrees on an oiled cookie sheet, with a spray of oil over the top. Turned after thirty minutes, roasted another fifteen. Had a nice crunch. Might have had more flavor if the tofu slabs were marinated first. I'll try that next time.

Ingredients

1 block — tofu

1/2 cup — whole wheat flour 

1/4 cup — nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp — garlic powder, salt (if not using marinade), dried basil

Up to you — spray of olive oil on pan and top of tofu

Optional — marinate tofu first in a seasoned brew (use up the end of a vinaigrette, for instance)

 

Method for Gravy

The GRAVY was made with the leftover flour I dipped the tofu in, stirring it over heat with some olive oil, adding some more nutritional yeast, and slowly whisking in hot water. Added tamari and then lemon juice at the end of cooking.

 

Ingredients

1/4 cup — leftover seasoned flour

1/8 cup — olive oil

1-2 tblsp. — nutritional yeast

2 cups — water, as needed 

1 tblsp. — tamari, at end

1/2 — lemon, squeezed, at end

 

Vegan Shepherd's Pie

I never made a SHEPHERD'S PIE before, vegan or otherwise, but somehow I got it into my head yesterday that I wanted some. I consulted my Fannie Farmer cookbook to see what was in it normally, and then I just substituted what I wanted to use instead. One member of the family remembered it from cafeteria lunches as having a layer of corn under the potatoes, so you could do that if you wanted to, but it's not what I did. This didn't take long to make, but I had all the required ingredients on hand.

Most problematic for those of you without a constant supply of soy pulp from making soy milk every few days would be the soysage, which is made with the leftover soy pulp. I was thinking it could also be made with partially cooked beans, though I haven't tried that yet. I was picturing soaking and cooking some beans for about half an hour, then grinding them in a food processor, before using them in the soysage recipe.