Smoky Baba Ghanoush - vegan, plant based and oil free

We recently took a trip back to Florida where we used to live. On my MUST list, was a trip to my previously favorite Turkish restaurant where I would go with friends for baba ghanoush and lavash.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that their recipe used dairy and I was very sad. As I was lamenting to a friend, she reminded me that mine was way better than theirs anyways (thanks Sandee!) and SO much cheaper. Here's my oil free adapted recipe, and now I will continue to eat baba ghanoush to my heart's content.

This is a repost and adaptation from a post Sept 13, 2014. 

 For any of those eggplant haters out there - I'm with you.  My mom made it when I was a kid - hated it.  I tried it several different ways as an adult, and just hated it.  Then I had baba ghanoush, and am totally in love - it tastes nothing like eggplant to me this way. 

The baba ghanoush gets a smoky flavor from being roasted, as in roasted to a char. 

Place two medium sized egg plants on the grill (some recipes say poke them, but they fill with steam and cook better without holes).  While they can be roasted on a gas range, or in the oven, a grill really brings out the smoky flavor.  

Grill for 10-15 minutes, and then very carefully turn, using tongs. Roast an additional 15-20 minutes, until the eggplant is so charred that you are completely sure that it is inedible (you may find that it has exploded or burst from the interior steam - no worries.)  

Remove from grill, wrap in foil and let it steam for 15 minutes.  

Carefully make a lengthwise slit in the eggplant and open.  With a spoon, scrape out all of the flesh from the inside of the eggplant. 

Place flesh into a salad spinner and gently spin to remove excess liquid. 

Place in a bowl, and add three minced garlic cloves, and two Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.  Mix until it becomes creamy. 

Mix in three Tablespoons of tahini, and three Tablespoons of coconut milk until

 thoroughly incorporated.  

Stir in 1/4 cup chopped parsely. 

Season with 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of salt (to taste).   

Serve with lavas(h), naan, roti, or pita chips/bread, crackers or veggies. 

Smoky Baba ghanoush

2 medium sized egg plants

3 Tablespoons tahini

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

3 minced garlic cloves

1/4 cup chopped parsley

3 Tablespoons coconut milk

Sea salt to taste

Roast egg plant on gas grill for 30-40 minutes, until blackened and charred, turning once.  

Enclose in foil and allow to sit for 15 minutes. 

Carefully scoop out flesh (discard charred bits), and place in a salad spinner, and gently spin to remove excess liquid. 

Place in a medium sized bowl and mix until creamy with lemon juice and garlic. 

Add tahini, and coconut milk.  

Stir in parsley, and add salt to taste. 

*Note all ingredients can also be blended in a food processor or blender if a creamier consistency is desired. 

Serve with lavas(h), roti, baked tortilla chips, veggies, or crackers. 

Taquitos! Vegan, Whole Food, Plant Based

You may have noticed a taquitos theme in my previous posts.  All roads (or recent posts it seems) lead to taquitos.  

What can I say, other than we've missed them and these were pretty fabulous?

Be warned that this recipe contains several links to full recipes of some of the ingredients. If you don't already have the bouillon, ranch dressing, or salsa this recipe can be time consuming (but oh so worth it!), then again, if you are cooking or eating wfpb, you probably expect time consuming cooking anyways.


Taquito Shells - plan for 4-6 per person (this should allow for leftovers/lunch the following day)
1 Vegan Meat recipe
(1 cauliflower, 1 cup walnuts, 4-6 large shiitakes, 2 T. soy sauce or liquid aminos)
1 onion - diced
4 large garlic cloves - minced
1-2 T. chicken bouillon (vegan)
1 t. cumin
salt to taste (if needed)
2 medium potatoes - baked and peeled (cooked for 6-8 min in microwave until soft, then placed in plastic bag to sweat for 10 min., (to allow for easier peeling) then peeled)


Toppings
Ranch Dressing - vegan & oil free
Taquito Salsa - oil free
chopped spinach, arugula or lettuce
chopped tomatoes

Meat Filling:
Place vegan meat into large fry pan. Add peeled potatoes, onion, garlic and bouillon and mix with a potato masher, until potato is thoroughly mixed into the meat mixture.

Heat through with the addition of a couple of tablespoons of water (to keep it from sticking).

To assemble taquitos, place meat filling in the bottom of taquito shell, add chopped greens, tomatoes, then taquito salsa and finally vegan ranch.
 

Salsa for Taquitos

Salsa para los taquitos - continuing with the taquitos theme, these are a requirement for eating taquitos - at least good, homemade ones.

I was a little dubious about omitting the oil from these when cooking them, but it turned out great. The consistency is a little bit thicker, but the flavor remained unchanged.

10-15 dried red chiles (arbol or japones) - usually found in the latin spice section at store

6 cloves of garlic, smashed and half set aside

1 coarsely chopped onion, half set aside

1 can 14 oz. tomato sauce 

1 T. chicken bouillon - vegan 

Using gloves (or sandwich baggies which I always have on hand (clever huh?) but not so much with the gloves) crush or break the chiles and remove and discard seeds and inner veins (or save these and use them for crushed red pepper seasoning).  

Place in a frying pan with 3 T. water and sautee until they become slightly tender. Add half of the onions and half of the garlic and continue to sautee until tender, adding additional water as needed so that it doesn't stick.  

Place pan contents and remaining ingredients into a high powered blender and puree until smooth. 

Salt to taste (if needed). 

Serve over taquitos.

Baked Corn Tortillas - tostadas, chips, strips, tacos and taquito shells (no oil)

We love hispanic foods and use corn tortillas in a lot of different ways.


We use corn tortillas which have the least amount of ingredients with no oils or sugars (and if I can't pronounce or don't know what an ingredient is (or if I google it and it sounds funky), then we move along to another brand or make them ourselves with maseca.)

 The best tortillas contain the fewest ingredients - corn and lime (a mineral used to break the corn down) should be the two main ingredients.

For Simple Tostadas:
Simply separate, then lay corn tortillas on the oven rack and broil for 5-10 minutes, turning once when browned.  If you prefer crunchy, let them go a little longer, if you prefer them a little more chewy, use a little less time.  Remove and allow to cool, then serve topped with beans, lettuce, tomatoes, pico de gallo, avocados, olives, hot sauce - whatever you've got on hand. This is a fantastic snack, or super easy go to meal we use when we are short on time or ideas.

Easy Tortilla Chips:
If we are lazy, we simply break up tostadas (above) for dipping. However, some people want the uniform triangle chip, and cut them with a pizza cutter (or knife) into triangles (8 from each tortilla) and arrange them on a baking sheet and bake at 350* turning once, for 10-15 minutes.  

Tortilla Strips:
Tortilla strips can be made just like the tortilla chips by simply cutting into strips and baking at 350* for 10-15 minutes, turning at least once until browned.

Taco or Taquito Shells:
Corn tortillas - as many as desired (we plan for 4-6 + per person, which allows for lunches the next day).
Heat oven to 350*
Working in batches of 12, use a tortilla warmer like this  (they aren't expensive and they are amazing!) to heat up a stack of tortillas for 2 minutes in the microwave.

Tortillas can also be wrapped into a dishcloth or papertowel if a tortilla warmer is not available , heat for 2 minutes in the microwave.

This steams the tortillas and makes them pliable.

When they come out all steaming and pliable, simply drape them across the rungs of the oven rack - covering two rungs (they break when draped across just one rung - trust me, I've tried.)



Bake for 10 minutes until slightly golden brown, then remove and allow to cool.

These are a little wider mouthed than store bought taco shells, but still give a great crunch, and are easier to fill!

Ranch Dressing - Non Dairy

I know, several of my recent posts have been about taquitos - what can I say? We love taquitos and to eat them properly, you need ranch and special salsa. As seen in this photo:

In my recent quest to make wfpb acceptable taquitos, I created this ranch dressing recipe - the spices combination come from wellness mama, but she didn't have a dairy free option for the dressing part of it. So here's mine. It's not Hidden Valley, but it is plant based and still tastes great too.

Spice Mixture
1/4 c. dried parsley
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1 T. dill weed
1 T. garlic powder
1/2 t. basil
Mix in food processor and store in airtight container.

Dressing
1 c. raw cashews (drained if soaked for 2-4 hours if you don't have a high powered blender)
1/2 c. silken tofu
3 T. coconut milk
2 T. lemon juice
salt to taste
1/2 - 1 c. water

In a high powered blender, blend ingredients until a smooth dressing like consistency is reached - add water slowly as needed until desired viscosity is reached.

Add 1 Tablespoon +/- of the spice mixtures, then season to taste with salt and additional ground black pepper if needed.

Versatile Plant Based "Meat" from Cauliflower, Walnuts and Shiitake Mushrooms

In the (almost) year that we've been eating whole food, plant based, I've learned an important rule.
NEVER cook something you used to love, expecting it to taste like it used to. Just don't, because you'll be disappointed - I've been disappointed a lot! When you cut out the sugar, oil, processed flours and ingredients, of course the flavor will change. There's just no getting around it.

Note - This photo contains onions, garlic, potatoes and taquito seasonings

In trying to find a meat substitute, we played with jackfruit for a while, trying to come up with some pulled pork options with little success. We had jackfruit tacos at a restaurant and we loved them (but I'm pretty sure they still used sugar and oil), but we couldn't replicate them - no matter how many variations on a theme we tried.  My point is, things just don't work, or turn out the same.

That said, I was super dubious about trying some different recipes for fake meat using cauliflower, mushrooms and walnuts.  Let me be clear - this doesn't taste like meat. Even with seasonings, it doesn't taste like meat. It does however, have a great texture, and a very mild flavor that carries flavors VERY well (perfect for mexican dishes).  We've used it for tacos, power bowls, and taquitos (all different flavor profiles) and we've been very pleased with it. My teenagers will eat it - need I say more? Super simple, and you can adjust your seasonings as needed for your dish.

1 small head of cauliflower - trimmed and broken into 1-2 inch pieces
1 cup walnuts
4-6 large shiitake mushrooms - cut into 1 inch pieces (+/-)

Using a food processor, one ingredient at a time, process into a coarse crumb, sized to your preference - between a corn kernel, and a rice kernel.

Mix in bowl.

Add 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce or liquid aminos and mix thoroughly.

Heat oven to 350*, and spread mixture into a shallow baking pan.
Bake for 30 minutes. Stirring once at 20 minutes.

Season as desired.

Chicken Bouillon - plant based

When we started eating WFPB, a lot of our favorite staple recipes had to be retired. We weren't big beef eaters, but we ate a lot of poultry. Yesterday as I sat down to make a menu (er...figure out what the heck I was going to try to feed my family) I was thinking about how much my family loved taquitos - the ones my friend Berta taught me to make years ago. They are nothing like the frozen grocery store taquitos and even though we didn't make them very often, they were always a huge hit.

I was day dreaming about them and I wondered if they could be made WFPB, but then I remembered that my recipe calls for (and heavily relies on) chicken bouillon.  I figured, "why not see if there are any alternatives out there?" and googled it - coming up with a surprising number of results.  Some WAY more complicated than what would be worth the work.

Here's my adaptation of several different recipes. I was shocked at how much it tasted like chicken bouillon - shocked, and then overjoyed. My husband tasted it and was also amazed. I added some to a glass of hot water and made a broth and it STILL tasted like chicken bouillon!

Thrilled, I reworked my taquitos recipe and we had them for dinner. People (including me) moaned. They weren't our normal taquitos, but they were still pretty dang good - all thanks to the chicken bouillon.

Note - this recipe (and every other that I came across) calls for nutritional yeast. My family can't stand the stuff, but I figured I would try it one last time to see if it worked in this recipe. In my previous experience buying the nutritional yeast flakes, I purchased the large flakes. Yesterday however, I bought a much finer flake, and was very surprised by it - I didn't mind it nearly as much. If you have the option, my recommendation would be to use the finest/smallest flake available.

1 cup nutritional yeast (see note above)
2 t. onion powder
1 t. onion salt
1/2 t. sage
1/2 t. majoram
3 T. dried parsley
1.5 t. garlic salt
1.5 t. celery salt
pinch basil
1 t. thyme
1 t. rosemary
1 t. sorrel (I LOVE the flavor this herb adds, but it is a bit obscure and difficult to find. I found some seeds this year and grow it, but have never seen it for sale - so if you can find it, grab some, it is delightful!)

Combine ingredients in a food processor or blender.
Store in airtight container.

**For broth - add 1 Tablespoon to 1 cup of boiling water. Adjust taste as needed.