vegetarian Archives - Page 40 of 80

Vegetarian restaurant in Cabo San Lucas

Who knew there was a vegetarian, mostly vegan, restaurant in Cabo San Lucas? We sure didn’t until we saw their sign from the main drag. The El Ameyal Hotel and Wellness Center has a vegetarian restaurant that you get to by walking through the center courtyard of the hotel by the pool. You dine under a grass hut outside but don’t be put off by that. It’s perfectly comfortable under there. They only have a Spanish menu, but the staff was able to help translate enough to figure it out.

First off, they brought this delicious vegan cream cheese and some sort of dark bread. I would be happy to eat that spread on bagels every morning.

Kevin got the Pastel Cubano. It was a layered dish of black beans, plantains and tofu and came with a side of veggies. It was tasty but a little too much mush for me.

Beth got the Seitan al Chimichurri. And boy was that a lot of seitan! They tried to rely on the sauce too much for the flavor rather than seasoning up the seitan really well. It would’ve really been awesome cut in strips in a taco or burrito. Also, did I say that was a ton of seitan?

Taylor ordered Tofu con Hongos Mixtos, tofu stir fried with mushrooms with a side of brown rice. Also a huge portion. I’m weird about mushrooms and have to be in the mood for them. It was pretty good for being mushrooms and all. Taylor seemed to like it, so that was the important thing.

And I got the Albondigas de Espinacas, balls of spinach in a béchamel sort of sauce with a hint of nutmeg and a side of brown rice. I’m not sure how the spinach balls were formed. Maybe just pressed together, possibly baked? They weren’t crisp like croquettes. Whatever, it was awesome.

And yes, they had vegan desserts that weren’t just a pile of fruit. I didn’t really love them though. Kevin got this Tofucake that was similar to key lime cheezecake, but I think they used agar as a thickening agent. So it was a bit weirdly smooth and the texture just wasn’t quite right. The taste was nice and so was the crust, made of raw nuts and dates, I think.

If you’re a vegan vacationing in Cabo San Lucas and are getting tired of chips, guacamole and questionably vegan beans, you should definitely seek this place out for some tasty, healthy food.

Artichoke-Potato Gratin

Oh, hey, look at that … I have a blog. Sorry about that buddy. I don’t hate you but it’s been hard to find time and motivation to blog lately. If you want to hate on someone, I suggest you start with reddit.

Kevin has been sick lately so I was trying to think of something a bit comforting when making up my grocery list. I tend to set aside a ton of recipes that I want to try in Google Reader and MacGourmet so I was going through those looking for something interesting. I found Artichoke Potato Gratin. Creamy, a little cheezy, sounds perfect!

And this was awesome! The sauce had a nice tang to it from the artichoke juice and a warmth from the cayenne. I sprinkled the top with a little Daiya and some panko. While we would have both been happy eating giant bowls of this and nothing else, I marinated some tempeh and cooked it in a grill pan to go with it along with some french green beans. Trader Joe’s frozen french green beans are a great quickie vegetable to add to a meal.

If this doesn’t appeal to you, cruise around vegalicious.org. They have a huge bank of recipes that look tasty. And don’t be put off by the metric units. You can easily convert with google by typing in “220 degrees celcius in fahrenheit” and BAM it’s done!

Tofurky Vegetarian Feast

How do I keep getting so lucky? A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from a representative for Turtle Island Foods asking if I’d like a free coupon to try one of their vegetarian feasts. Um, yeah! It took three tries before I found it in stock. Sevananda ended up being the winner, but Whole Foods has since gotten some in. It was stored in a big freezer until it was time to drag it home and cook it. And even then it waiting in my fridge for a few days before it worked out that I could cook it.

Here it is taking a ride home:

Which was almost a disaster. At some point I rode over a bump that busted open the box. Luckily I noticed in time to keep from losing anything.

My Tofurky was fully defrosted so I was able to cook it in about 75 minutes. I used the olive oil, soy sauce and sage recipe for basting because I have fresh sage growing in my yard. For the veg, I used an onion, a carrot, a sweet potato and half a delicata squash. Everything went in my big Le Creuset lidded pot lined with foil. Pro-tip: spray foil with oil before you start loading it up. I didn’t and had a bit of stickage. Here’s the little buddy right out of the oven:

Sorry for the dark pics but it was, dark. An inside shot:

Plated up with gravy (included) and broccoli:

The veg turned out lovely. Some of the sweet potatoes were caramelized and everything just melted in my mouth. I’ve always liked Tofurky and, yeah, it’s still good. The gravy was a little thick, but very tasty. I could’ve thinned it but went with it as it came. Oh, and the broccoli is just a box of frozen stuff I had because I am lazy. There is a “wishbone” but I have to admit it’s still in its package. I’ll probably gnaw on it as a snack at some point.

Oh yeah, the cake. An Amy’s chocolate cake came with the feast. It was also fully defrosted. The cake was pretty moist and had nice chocolate flavor. I was wondering if it was going to be more poundcake like, but it was normal cake like. The downside is that it doesn’t have frosting. Cake needs frosting. Or ice cream. Or both. I had some extra vegan cream cheese frosting from something else, so I gave it a little topping.

Perfect!

If you aren’t really a cook or need something easy to take to some horrible meat filled holiday meal, this is a good option. We all know there are a few holiday roast options out there now. This one seems to be the most reminiscent of turkey if that’s what you’re looking for.

Tofu “fish” sticks

Back in the day, before I was veg*n, when I was poor and living in my first apartment alone, I used to rely heavily on those giant bags of frozen fish sticks, instant potatoes and frozen peas n corn. Oh yeah, that was also before I really knew how to cook too.

Anyway, every once in a while I think some trashy fish sticks would be good. You know, without the actual fish part. I’ve been eyeballing this recipe in Vegan Lunch Box for years but this is the first time I’ve made it. Of course I whipped up a little tartar sauce to go with it out of veganaise, sweet relish, lemon juice, salt & pepper. Oh wow were these good! Not the bland little fried bits I remember. Heck, not fried at all! On the side, roasted russet potato slices tossed with olive oil, smoked paprika, salt & pepper and Trader Joe’s frozen green beans.

Mmmm cherry juice

I’ve always loved cherries. My favorite pie is cherry. Love tart cherry jam. If I can get a hold of a vegan chocolate covered cherry, yum! Too bad fresh ones are so expensive even when in season. So when Cheribundi emailed me asking if I wanted to try their cherry juice it wasn’t a hard sell.

Cheribundi has three varieties, Tru, Skinny and Whey. I just asked that they not send me any whey since it’s not vegan. They nicely followed directions and the Tru and Skinny juices arrived. Of the two, I definitely like the Tru Cherry best. While you save 40 calories with the Skinny variety, the Tru Cherry has a more intense cherry flavor.

What great recipes did I make with the cherry juice? Well, I didn’t cook with it at all. I just drank it. Oh, I did make a cocktail. It took a while to find a cocktail that used cherry juice that I had all the other ingredients for. Which cocktail did that turn out to be? Why, the Louisiana Leg Spreader! And it ended up being sweeter than I like. But at least I did something other than guzzle this stuff out of the bottle, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m not sure what part of the country you can get this stuff though. According to the find a retailer function of their site, Cheribundi isn’t in any stores within 250 miles of me. As I’ve said before though, I’m more of a fruit eater than drinker.