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.)


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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.