Recipe: Awesome Veggie Meat Balls

These things are so tasty and easy to make. I've made them about 5-7 times so far. Everyone likes them.

I gave up trying to find a tasty recipe that had good texture (don't like mush). This is my invention with trial and error, but probably close to other recipes out there. this will make about 12 small meatballs.

• 1/2 cup of chopped and fried onion, garlic, carrot, pepper, kale
• optional: grind in food processor will make it easier to roll into balls later. leave some bits of veggie.
• 4-5 tb gluten flour
• 2 ts nutritional yeast
• 1 tb olive oil
• 1/3 cup of mashed up beans
• 3 tb water (needed to make the gluten get firm)
• 1 tb ground flax
• 2 ts soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• pepper
• other savory spices (like rosemary, basil, thyme whatever you like)

Fry the veggies (ran out of kale, used spinach instead here).

Process in food processor (or not) and mix everything into a bowl. Just mix it with a fork, it should start turning into a stringy texture that holds together nicely (because of the gluten flour).

Form into meatball shapes with your fingers and fry on medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Get at least 2 side fried.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Done! Goes great with pasta, potatoes or by themselves.

white bread recipe from Sophie's bday

2 & 2/3 cups white flour

1/3 cup gluten flour 

1.25 cups hot tap water

3/4 ts salt

2 tb sugar

2 ts quick rise yeast

2 tb oil

ground flax seed (optional, i added a few tb to mine)

combine in your kitchenaid mixer

• 1 & 2/3 cup white flour
  
• 1/3 cup gluten flour
• the salt and sugar
• the yeast
• mix it up with spoon
• add the hot water
• mix with spoon

start mixer on slowest setting.

mix for a minute so its all mixed, will be pretty sticky.

• add the oil
• add the remaining 1 cup flour slowly
• let mix for 10 minutes on slowest setting (important!)

altitude and flour types can be different. if seems to sticky even after 8 minutes, add a little more flour. the dough should not be sticking to bowl.

after the 10 minutes, take dough out and cut in half if you want small loaves like we had.

flatten each loaf with rolling pin and roll up into long narrow french bread.

cover and let rise 1 hr

bake for 28 minutes at 385 degrees if one big loaf, a bit less if 2 small loaves.

done!

Recipe: Homemade Burritos

Homemade Veggie Burritos

Ok, these are so good I have to write it down in case I forget. These a completely homemade burritos: the tortillas, the guacamole, everything. It's surprising how much better a simple homemade tortilla is compared to store bought. Texture and flavour... and easier than you think. Key to success is the tortilla and the guac. Surprisingly the beans you use isn't nearly as important. You can use canned whole beans or refried beans or dehydrated pinto beans. I use dehydrated pinto or canned black beans.

This is more of an authentic taste, so you don't need much taco seasoning (maybe none). Try to get everything kind of done around the same time so things are hot. Use the microwave to heat up cold things (sometime the rice is cold by the time assembly happens).

Tortillas (make 4 bigish ones or 8 small ones and everything in between)
2 c white flour
3/4 c water
1/2 ts salt
2 ts oil

mix into a ball of dough. done. set aside for now.
Guacamole for 2

1 avocado
2 ts lime juice
salt to flavour
2 garlic cloves minced
mash it all together. add hot peppers, tomatoes if you got them, but there will be plenty of tomato in the salsa so not really needed.

Burritos (makes 2)
1 can black beans
1/2 ts taco seasoning
1 c cooked rice (plain)

cheese
salsa
hot chili sauce
chipotle sauce

cilantro

heat up the beans and seasoning together.

while this is happening, cut the dough into 4 parts. with a rolling pin flatten out 2 parts of the dough into really thin tortillas (its easy and works fine).

heat up a frying pan to medium heat. fry each tortilla for a couple minutes each side (nice brown spots appear). use oil or spray.

when tortilla is done, put on plate. add beans, rice, guac, cheese, cilantro, hot sauces. close tortilla and top with salsa. Extra lettuce or tomato is optional. Yum!

Yummy Dry Ribs

You can get very tasty (if oily) dry ribs in China town. There just like the ones served at Buddha's Veggie restaurant.

The vegan store is in a small mall along centre st and 3rd ave or so. Delicious!

 

You can get all kinds of other veggie meats there too.

Recipe: Gai Lan (chinese broccolli)

So far I've only tried fried GL where even after 20 minutes the stems weren't soft. I'll try boiling the GL next.

Frying Pan Recipe

Ingredients:

Gai Lan

Chinese Garlic Sauce:

3-4 cloves of garlic (chopped or minced)

1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)

1/4c - 1/2c each of vinegar, water, sugar

ts of hot sauce (optional, how ever much you want)

Wash and break off an inch of the GL stems.

In a pot mix all the sauce ingredients and let it boil down half way.

In a pan or wok, start frying the GL in oil (med-high heat)

Add the sauce

Cover and fry for 15-20 minutes.

The texture might still be a bit tough, but its delicious!

Restaurant Review: Coup

I went to the vegetarian restaurant "Coup" on 17th ave and 9st SW for the first time a few days ago. I've heard that it ways pretty good over the years but I've never gone because its not in good location for me and the one time I did go to check it out it was closed (not open from 3-5pm). Anyway, we got there and had to wait for a friend before they'd seat us. Thats a bit weird and unfriendly... but anyways... I ordered the tempeh shwarma. It was great! It was very tasty and a good size. Together with the yam fries it was a meal. There are other items on the menu I'd like to try too (noodle and pasta dishes). Best of all the tempeh wrap had this awesome hot sauce that I now can easily make at home as a change from my fave spicy peanut sauce. The new sauce is basically tahini (sesame paste), hot sauce and sesame oil. delicious! Service was great once we were seated. I'll be back.

Review: Ha Long Bay

2St and 7Ave SW, Calgary

I just had lunch here today for the first time, to try their veggie sub. It was $7.50 and costs less for take out. It does come with tofu though, so I had high hopes as most veggie subs don't have tofu. It was pretty disappointing, it was pretty small, this would never be a meal without something else. The sauce was watery and salty, and the sauce pretty much makes the sandwich. Before I had finished the bun had been soaked through and soggy (yuck) on the side with sauce. I would say its the least tasty viet sub I've ever had.

Tasty spicy peanut sauce recipe

If you eat Thai or Vietnamese type food, this recipe will get a lot of use. I use it for stir fries, salad rolls and tofu subs. I swear it is better than ANY peanut sauce I've had in a restaurant or grocey store. Not sure why because it's so easy to make.

Basically you need these flavors: sweet, spicy, salty, savory. I use brown sugar, hot sauce, soy sauce and natural peanut butter plus sesame oil.

Here's a pic of my ingredients:

Everyone has different preferences about how spicy or sweet they like things. To start with use these measurements then just add more of the flavour you want:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tb hot sauce
• 2 tb sugar
• 1 ts sesame oil

Blend them all together. enjoy!

Here is some sauce with homemade salad rolls!

Best Veggie Sub?

Vegetarians in Calgary better like veggie subs, otherwise choice is pretty limited in a foodcourt (its already extremely limited).

I'd say the tastiest was the original veggie sub at Quiznos, they've replaced with a veggie lite sub which is cheaper but not as good (contains cheese). you can still get the orginal at some locations but they are 3 or 4 dollars more. Subway is very good, as their veggies and tomatoes are almost always perfect. Toasted is pretty good. Both the Quiznos and Subway subs are pretty bland without cheese, and I like to eat vegan as much as possible. There's a new sub place in my food court called Chachis which has a pretty tasty veg sub even without cheese (havarti) as it has pesto (yum!) and artichokes (thats original!) which are pretty flavorful. 

The out and out winner though is a good tofu vietnamese sub! I love the crusty buns, the carrots, the onions, the peanut sauce, and the tofu. I use my homemade peanut sauce whenever possible. The only place downtown that makes a tofu sub is Thai Thai, and I got ill everytime I had one. Vietnamese subs with cheese are tasty too, but i prefer tofu.

Rankings

#1 Vietnamese tofu sub

#2 Chachis (because cheese isn't required for tastiness)

#3 Quiznos - the buns are better

#4 Subway - still very good

if only one of these places offered AVOCADO! (not guac, but actual sliced avocado).

Homemade

Inspired by Chachis and some sandwiches my wife made once, I made a pretty tasty sub/sandwich today with pesto (green and red) artichoke hearts, red pepper, spinach, tomato and hummous. Very good, I just need to add avocado and onion to it.

Where to Get Good Veggie Burgers in Calgary

Restaurants:

#1 Harveys - these are very meaty (not grainy) and fairly big

#2 Burger King - these are good, but fairly small

#3 Chilis - you can sub a veggie paddy into any burger. all restaurants should do this rather than have a dedicated veggie burger on the menu.

Frozen

#1 M&M Meats

#2 Grillers from the Seventh Day Adentists

#3 super store has really good ones, but are very expensive

Veggie House

Restaurant Review: Veggie House

I've been going to this place for 15 years with my vegan brother. It's located in a little food court in Chinatown on centre street and 3rd ave. It's where I first discovered gluten as a tasty fake meat. It makes gluten meats unlike most others. They use regular flour instead of gluten flour. It takes longer but tastes better. Its about $8 for a plate of rice and gluten.

Restaurant Review: Metropolitan Grill

Calgary Metropolitan Grill. I went there for a company team lunch yesterday. I would rate is as very bad. First the coke the brought me was almost pure carbon soda, they didn't notice that is was lighter than an ice tea. It also took them over 45 minutes to take our order. Probably because they have a guaranteed tip with corporate groups. Veggie specific problems: there is NOTHING on the menu thats vegetarian other than perhaps a salad. I ended up getting a chicken/bacon sandwich with avocado swapped for the meat. It's nice they have avacoda at least. I asked for no mayonaise so the sandwich had no condiment so was pretty bland. I should have asked for vinegeraite or margerine but changing a menu item usually confuses the server enough that I thought substituting a condiment was pushing it (anyone else have problems making simple substitions, it seems like its brain surgery sometimes). The fries were extremely greasy (if you like arby's fries, then you will like these I heard). Overall, probably the worst veggie restaurant in town. I'll never go back unless its just for drinks.

Sunterra

I've gotten salads at the downtown Sunterra (+15 level, 5ave and 1st SW) the past couple days. Man are they good! There's such a great selection with stuff like artichokes and beets that you don't get in many restaurants. It's not the cheapest (its usually at least $7 for me) but worth it for sure. Lots of salad dressing to choose from too. Highly recommended to any downtown Calgary veggies out there.

Hearty Bean & Barley Soup

A pretty tasty soup with very little seasoning required!

1/2 cup of barley or more
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
black beans (i use black bean soup mix)
1/2 onion
optional potato or pasta
4 cups of water with veggie stock

1. fry the onions and celery in oil
2. add water and barley
3. wait 15 minutes
4. add carrots and potato and black beans and pasta
   
5. add salt and pepper
6. cook for another 30 min or so
7. when everything is tender, add several handfuls of spinach

enjoy!

First post

Thought I'd start a blog to write about being a vegetarian in cow-town. mostly about food and restaurants.