The "share your no-meat recipes" thread

[Gregatron]

I saw bitter wanted some recipes, so I thought I would oblige him. I am a vegetarian, so I thought I would start a meat free recipes thread. Non-vegetarians are of course welcome to participate with their meatless recipes too, as good food is good food. This is a not a vegetarian-only thread.

When posting, please also try to include some of the culinary theory behind what you are doing. Thought processes are good (and in the TLDR tradition!). Also, feel free to comment on possible variations and suggestions. Also, little tips and tricks in the kitchen are always good. Oh yeah, feel free to give your thoughts about any recipe if you try it.

I will start with something both veggies and omnivores will like: my awesome pasta sauce. My specialty is soups and sauces. They just come naturally to me. I'm not a person that brags, but I'm a good cook and really really good at making soups and sauces (much better than I am at poker!). This sauce is really closer to an arrabiata than a marinara, which means it's much more garlicky and spicy. I am slightly hesitant sharing this, but I hope that me making this kick ass recipe public will encourage others to share good secrets and techniques. I have previously only shared this recipe with my wife, my mom, and my friend Amanda (2p2er VoraciousReader).

What you need (ingredients):

A head (yes, a whole head) of garlic - minced
It has to be extra virgin olive oil (henceforth EVOO)
Red pepper flakes
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
2 or 3 Tomatoes - diced (depending on how chucky you like yr sauce)
Decent red wine
Good balsamic vinegar
Sugar
Salt

Making the sauce:

Heat several tablespoons of yr EVOO (enough to coat the bottom liberally) to medium-high heat in a large pot – I actually use a wok for this, but a regular pot is fine. Put in your red pepper flakes while the oil is heating. Put in as much as you think you can handle (I like a lot, like at least 1 tblspn). This is a cool little trick to make sure the heat is distributed well through the sauce. It’s also useful to tell when yr oil is getting hot, as the flakes will start to sizzle a little. Don’t let them burn (they will)! Add your garlic, and sauté until it starts to get caramelized slightly. Then add your diced tomatoes and sauté for a minute or 2. You can throw in a few pinches of salt here. Now pour in your wine – maybe half a glass to a glass depending on how “winey” you like it.

Look at it: ain’t it pretty? Well, you could eat this now and it would be a kick ass sauce to be sure – but maybe a bit too potent!

Add your cans of crushed tomatoes. Stir around and pour in about a quarter cup of balsamic vinegar. This will also help you make that nice deep red color in the sauce, but you are not adding this for aesthetics. Seriously, this is the secret ingredient. Why I’m sharing it with you losers I will never know!

Now you let it simmer for half and hour to 45 minutes. Take a taste and add sugar and more salt as you think is needed. And there you have it!

I think this sauce goes especially well on regular spaghetti, thin spaghetti, angel hair, penne or ziti. Some good parmesan cheese goes well on here, as does a little mozzarella.

(One thing I don’t have here is a lot of herbs. The reason is that there is already a lot of flavor in this sauce, and the garlic, wine, pepper and balsamic vinegar will tend to overpower flavors like oregano, sage, thyme, and other such nice Italian herbs. I love these herbs, but I don’t think they are right for this recipe.)


[/ QUOTE ]

Okay, it’s your turn – share yr kick ass no meat recipe. Later I will share my recipe for TVP bbq sandwiches.

I am trying to perfect how to make seitan (wheat gluten). I would LOVE to read about how different people make seitan. There is this place in Houston that makes it so good (they do teriyaki skewers that are unbelievable). I would love be able to emulate them.

[matrix]

OK I'm a carnivore at heart - there's nothing quite like a juicy rare hunk of steak in my book.

I abhor TVP on principle but if that's your thing fair enough. I thnk you can cook veggy food thats great just using vegetables without adding fake meat to your dish.

When I first started my life as a chef veggies were frowned upon but slowly vegetarian food has crept onto menus all over the place by popular demand and my favourite vegetarian dish which I stick onto menus whenever I get the chance these days is Butternut Squash - roasted pinenut and spinach pasta.

I cook this for myself quite often it makes a great lunch.

ingredients: (4 portions)

1 butternut squash
1 bulb of garlic
1 red onion
handful of pine nuts
olive oil
Pasta (Pappardelle is my favourite with this but you can use any shape you like - Penne works quite well) - enough for 4 people
100g Gorgonzola cheese
50g Parmesan (freshly grated)
4 Good handfuls of spinach
salt and pepper

Method:

Peel the squash and cut into large 2cmish chunks
break the garlic into cloves and squash each one with the flat part of a knife leaving the skin on.

Mix the squash chunks and squashed garlic cloves together - drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper and roast for about an hour at 150oC until squash is soft.

Remove the garlic (keep the roasted cloves in oil and use the oil to add fabulous flavour to later dishes)

Cut gorgonzola into 1cmish chunks.

Cook the Pasta in rapidly boiling water for about 6 minutes - drain and place into a large bowl, season well with pepper add the gorgonzola and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Finely slice the red onion and cook in a little oil - add onion to pasta.

Toast the pinenuts in olive oil till golden brown - remove nuts from pan - but keep the oil in there to cook the spinach in.

Get a frypan really hot and rapidly cook the spinach until it wilts (hint - do not add salt to spinach until after it's cooked - it draws water out of the leaves and causes them to boil rather than fry - season with salt after wilting)

By this time the heat from the pasta will have nicely melted the Parmesan and the Gorgonzola will have started to go gooey as well - mix the cooked squash and the spinach and pine nuts through your cheesy pasta - then dish up into bowls and enjoy.

You can also throw sundried tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, kalamata olives some porcini mushrooms and if you really insist ripped up Parma Ham as well for variations.

If blue cheese turns you blue Taleggio makes a viable alternative.

[SamIAm]

I'd like to see more recipes for tofu. I eat tofu all the time, but I always cook the tofu the same; I dice it and then sautee it for a long while (because nobody like squishy tofu).

I put it in eggs and tomato sauce and ramen, and on & on. But it's always the same tofu.

I don't want to make vegan mayonnaise or vegan egg-salad; I know people who whip tofu for those. But those people are all vegan. I'm not. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Any new tofu ideas?
-Sam

[Gregatron]

Tofu: I used to dice it up and saute for bbq sandwiches. Then I found tvp worked much better. I don't cook a lot with tofu anymore, but I have a friend who I have not seen for a while that made a GREAT chocolate peanutbutter pie using tofu as the main filler. She used the extra firm. I need to look her up to get that recipe.

I like the way my local Chinese take out deep fries their tofu for General Tsao's bean curd. Had it last night in fact. Maybe you could try deep frying.

One trick with tofu (firm and extra firm) is to freeze it first. This makes it a spongey consistency. Then it marinates better (which I find a MUST, as it's inherently flavorless). It makes it chewier and more meat like I find.

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
One trick with tofu (firm and extra firm) is to freeze it first.

[/ QUOTE ]Right. I usually put it between two plates and then stack cookbooks on top. (Vegetarian cookbooks work best.) It's always satisfying to come back an hour later and dump out the water you removed from your tofu. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

In college, I was served a really great tofu dish with sorta shredded tofu. Tiny, marinated pieces that almost looked like rice. I don't know how they made it, though. (I went to Oberlin; they practically put tofu in the water-fountains. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])
-Sam

[SamIAm]

I don't want to scare-away meat-eaters in the thread, and tofu's pretty scary stuff. I'm not veggie, but I really like Moosewood's pesto recipe. (I shouldn't replicate it here, since they sell books for that purpose.)

Basically, it uses much less oil and basil than normal pesto, but uses a whole pound of spinach instead. You blend all the spinach and get a super green, super healthy sauce that tastes like pesto, but "greener". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
-Sam

[JJNJustin]

J's Soy bean dip:

blanch a 16 oz bag of fresh or frozen edamame (soy beans)in boiling water for 5-7 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water. If in shell, take out of shell.

Put in blender with 1/4 cup sesame tahini paste, 1-2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup water, fresh cilantro or parsley (opt), 1 tsp salt, and juice of one lemon or 2 limes.

This is a bean dip served with good low-fat tortilla chips, such as baked blue corn chips.


-J

p.s. all the ingredients are available at Whole Foods, including the chips.

[katyseagull]

Your pasta sauce does sound very awesome. I want to try it with angel hair pasta.

I don't have a recipe to share but I am looking for one. A couple months back I recall seeing a nice couscous recipe. At least I'm pretty sure it was couscous but I'm hopeless with the search function. (It was probably in OOT) Does this sound familiar to anyone because I really want that recipe. It had raisins and nuts.

[NhlNut]

simple gazpacho recipe:
recipe
now's the time to try it, with fresh produce.


The pasta sauce sounds good. As a meatty person, i would ruin it with panchetta. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[JJNJustin]

I dont like hot chili flakes and wine together in sauces.

1 tbl sounds like a boat load, I usually use 1/4 tsp in similar recipes and find it on the spicy side. You must like hot spicy Thai and Indian food.

Here are a few of my pasta sauce tips:

Score an X shaped cross on the top of fresh tomatoes, poach in boiling water for 1-3 minutes, remove, allow to cool, peel, core, and roughly dice the flesh for sauce. Fresh tomatoes taste incredible in sauces, and cleaning them up this way gets rid of the skin and seeds. Chopped tomatoes in a can are much easier, but you can taste the difference.

Garlic- dont go haywire on the garlic. Too much will overpower the dish and give it a harsh, hot flavor. 1-4 cloves per recipe, as long as you're not making a huge batch will suffice. You can mince, slice, or smash your garlic. I prefer slicing or dicing, as smashing 1-2 cloves results in unequal distribution in the sauce. The longer you cook the garlic, the more it mellows. If you burn it, it takes on an altogether different flavor. For stronger garlic flavor, add some of the garlic later on in the dish.

Fresh thyme and sometimes oregano is very good in tomato sauces. When using dried herbs, always use 4x less than called for fresh herbs.

Port wine is the wine of choice for tomato sauces. Burgundy, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon will do in a pinch, but the tannins are higher and result a slightly more bitter flavor. Port Wine is sweeter.

If using basil, dont add it to the recipe until the very end, as cooking greatly reduces the flavor.

Invest in good quality parmigian-reggiano cheese, even if a small block. The powdered stuff in the green Kraft can is just not even in the same ballpark.

For more concentrated tomato flavor, simmer the sauce without the cover for longer time, allowing more water to evaporate out.

For a richer sauce start by sauteeing a mirepoix base of evenly diced carrot, celery, and onion (1:1:2)in olive oil along with garlic and fresh herbs. Then add your wine and fresh tomatoes and simmer over low heat.

For bolognese sauce, add a little milk or half and half. True bolognese sauce has chicken livers, but they are gross and full of hormones and whatnot.

Adding a 1/2 cup of good quality green or black olives will give the sauce another taste dimension.

Dont forget to season the sauce with salt and pepper to bring out the garlic and other flavors.

For more healthly pasta dishes, buy green pasta (pasta with spinach in the dough).

When making pasta from scratch use bread flour because of its high gluten content. All-purpose flour makes crappy gummy soft pasta. Bread flour is high gluten and similar to the durhum flours used to make pasta in Italy. Always make fresh pasta first because the dough has to rest and required a lot of kneading and rolling to build to gluten up. The rolled pasta has to be dried before it is dropped in salted boiling water.

Always salt your pasta water 2 tbls kosher salt + 6 quarts water for every 16 oz dry pasta. This may seem too salty, but the pasta doesnt pick up all the salt, and required this much salt to be properly seasoned. Always slightly undercook your pasta (al dente) and then re-toss it in the sauce for a few minutes before serving.

-J