Day 7: Could it be...

Seitan!?

Why yes, it is special

No, not that kind of protein, whatever it is you're thinking. 

The Vegan Age is coming to an apocalyptic end. 

And why not go out with a little flourish? 

Tonight I invited Seitan into my life.

Seitan is known by many names,
including Wheat Meat.

Seitan is a weird asian industrial food product. For some reason, lots of people think this kind of thing is good for them. I don't know, but it cooks into something meat-like, and it got a nice char on the grill pan.

Since I've been talking about hell and paganism all week, it had to be seitan Greek-style. Those guys know their sin. Opa!

Hey, that's not lamb!

Pseudo Souvlaki

Grilled seitan

Caramelized onions and red peppers
Roasted garlic-dill aioli (vegannaise base)
Red romaine lettuce
On flatbread

with tabouli, assorted olives,
and pickled peppers

But I don't care!

Week's Recap:

Eating vegan for a little while really isn't a punishment. I didn't challenge myself by trying to eat out, but what I made at home was great. After a day or two, all these oddball proteins actually tasted meaty and satisfying. A little soy sauce and you're there. 

Takeaway:

I had fun cooking and writing about rabbit food, and I lost a couple of pounds along the way. Right now, I could go for a little dairy, but I really don't miss meat. All I can say for sure is that it's possible to eat vegan and eat very well.
                                                                                       I'd even do it again.

S. Pacific Volcano Mt. Cilantro Erupts

50 supertasters still missing.

Embassy Officials: "no comment."

The green guy upstairs is happy

Day 6: The Vegan Basin 

"Boom!
"Nobody saw it coming. There was cilantro everywhere. Our chief leaves the island and 6 days later, Boom! Our Cilantro is furious!" said a local man.

"But then we offered our coconut-peanutbutter-noodles-with-tofu-and-veggies to the mountain spirits. They thought it was awesome." and the island was saved.

Locals are advised to take cover

Stir-fried Offerings

Ginger-garlic tofu

With bok choi, onion, red pepper, and rice noodles

In peanut-coconut milk broth

Cilantro

Day 5: Approaching Balance

Asceticism has a way of becoming routine. At some point, any exercise in restriction becomes plain old life as we know it. All the discipline it took to hold back goes to waste. We slowly regress to the mean of our old way of living. We're all tied up to cycles of abundance and scarcity, our fat times and lean times. Finding a way to live through both fat and lean is a challenge for everyone. Finding some way to change where the balance lies between the two is even harder.

"Whosoever would undertake some atrocious enterprise should act as if it were already accomplished, should impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past."

---Jorge Luís Borges



 Borges wasn't much of a rice-and-beans guy, but the yin-yang thing with the white rice and black beans was too much fun.

Arroz y Habas "Yin-Yang"

El Yin

Refried black beans

Green chile and sauteed onion

Spices

La Yang

White rice

Served with fake cheddar, corn tortillas and pico de gallo, alongside a dram of Red Breast Irish Whiskey. So much for asceticism.  

Day 4: Is This Scurvy?

One of the best ways to make yourself write is to start a series of something. When you count day 1, 2, 3, etc. you start feeling obliged to add more. Even if you don't really feel like cooking or showing it off. Even if nobody ever reads it.

Vegan Week would be as incomplete as the proteins I'm eating it didn't get a full run of 7 days.

Here's all I could come up with on Day 4.

Back to basics. A typical pasta-and-sauce, with a few added tricks. Fresh oregano, mushrooms deglazed in grappa. Then you pour in a bunch of Textured Vegetable Protein and presto, you have an ersatz bolognese. It did the job.

The dog didn't beg tonight

Rotini Bullshitnese
San Marzano Tomatoes
Soy flakes
Mushrooms
Herbs

Day 3: Our Future, the Triple MMM

It tastes like just like a Manwich or Sloppy Joe, I swear.  Manly, yes, but wearing drag and strutting with crabby Maryland flare. Here in the land of pleasant living, we call it a Sloppy Josephine (Jehws-ephine, as spoken here). Or a Maryland Marshy Mushwich. Or a "Triple M."

Counting down

We're entering the middle of Vegan Week. It's no longer feeling like a penance for December's sins. More like a taste of the future instead. A sampling of the kind of food they'll make you eat if you ever go to space. The Triple M is full of protein and vitamins, and easily reconstituted with water. It wouldn't go bad in storage, and would stick to the plate even in weightlessness.
Just sayin'.

The Triple M is spicy, tangy and hearty, with a strong Old Bay flavor warming up the background. The sweet potatoes have a good desert herb aroma, along with a nice sweet-salty balance.

No green here. No meat either.
It's delicious. The future is MMM.

It tasted much better than my webcam let on

Triple M
Soy flakes
Red pepper-vidalia onion puree
Fire-roasted tomatoes
In Gator Ron's Original Bloody Mary Mix

Sweet Potatoes
Rosemary and sage
In olive oil

with
Gotham
2010 Shiraz
Barossa Valley




Shout out to Steve and Debbie Paderofsky! 

They're my cousins, and the people behind... 

Gator Ron's Zesty Sauces and Mixes
Ron was their close friend. He cooked all sorts of amazing sauces for barbecues, wings, bloody marys, and lots of other things until ALS made it impossible. Ron's wife and Debbie got together and remade all Ron's recipes in his memory. 

All money that they can squeeze from their operation goes to research to find a cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. 

They're all awesome. That goes for the sauce too! And it's showing up in restaurants and grocery stores around the DC-Baltimore area. Check them out. 

http://www.gatorrons.com/

Day 2: Mid-East Madness

I love to make generic middle-eastern food. Stuff that could be passed off as Greek, Lebanese, or maybe Moroccan on a bad day. Doing it vegan makes me feel like I was cooking with the best stuff I could find outside my cave without getting spotted by a drone. But it was pretty good.

The hummus, tabouli, and baguette did the job nicely. The lentil burgers were more like a well-fried corned beef hash, and that's a good thing.

Maybe I'm just hungry, but this tasted good. I'd even make it again. 

The Sheik's Lentil Burgers 
Roasted garlic and shallots
Carrots and peas  
Natural flavor and/or... 

Tabouli 
Parsley, tomatoes, and  onions in bulgar wheat 
With mint, lemon juice and  olive oil 

Traditional Hummus  

Toasted Soft Baguette  

Day 1: Post Holiday Repentance

Get out your sack cloth and ashes everyone!  

It's 

Vegan Week! 

He hates carrots but he's been a bad boy  

For many of us January is a time to lay low, curl up by the fire, and sweat out the habits of gluttonous December. This year, part of my self-administered purgatory is a week of veganism.

Not bad. 

Still hungry. A little gassy too. 

But not bad. 

Day One: 

Massaman Kale
with carrot-celery-shallot mirepoix

Curry Tofu
fried with hoisin sauce

Long Grain Brown Rice
prepared with vegetable broth