I’m feeling pretty good about the fact that I haven’t consumed a bag of salty snacks in months thanks to my dehydrator (the various tiny bags of chips that come in my Vegan Cuts Snack Box DO NOT count!), but despite the warm fuzzies I’m experiencing, there was still something missing. Something starchy. And spudly. And toasty. Where does the potato fit into the raw world?? To answer this need, I went Frankenraw and created a chip that was part potato, part sweet potato, part raw and part roasted.
I’ve shared this recipe on Healthy Vegan Friday on The Veggie Nook.
Potato/Sweet Potato Chipotle-Cheez “Chips”
Who’s counting? Makes 2 full dehydrator trays
1 1/2 cups flaxseed meal
2 red-skinned potatoes, baked (leave skin on if organic) & cooled
1 sweet potato, roasted, cooled and peeled
2 tbsp. vegan Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 baby carrots
pinch salt and black pepper
1 to 1 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. dried onion flakes
1 tsp. prepared horseradish (not “sauce”)
1 tsp. agave nectar
1 tsp. chipotle in adobo (or more if you like it spicy)
Put the flaxseed meal in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
Cut the potatoes and sweet potato into chunks and add to a food processor. Pulse a few times to break them down, then add the remaining ingredients (cheese through chipotle) and process until thoroughly combined and smooth.
Divide the mixture between two dehydrator trays that have been lined with non-stick sheets and pat or roll out (using another sheet on top) to create a smooth and even layer. Lightly score the dough into desired shapes and place the trays in the dehydrator and turn it on to 145F. Dehydrate for 30 minutes, then turn it down to 115F and continue dehydrating for about 12-14 hours – or until the chips are very crisp and dry.
There was a time when I could not pass up the cocktail wiener, the Vienna sausage, the “pigs” snuggled into biscuity blankets. It was as much their diminutive size as their flavor – I mean, Vienna sausage?? Yikes. Scary stuff even during the height of my carnivorous days. Post-meat, the allure of the dainty sausage remained and when I opened the current issue of KAF’s The Baking Sheet and saw a recipe for wee hot dogs in biscuit dough, I had to give it a vegan go. What I miss about sausage isn’t the meat, it’s the flavor – for which the spices are mainly responsible. Seitan sausage has flavor to beat the band, so adapting this recipe was easy-peasy. I added a touch of mustard and sweet, soft caramelized onions.
Filling:
Bake for 15-20 minutes and serve while warm. The original recipe suggests serving these with chutney – which sounds pretty darn good – much better than catsup. They also suggest they’d be good alongside scrambled eggs, which of course, in our case would mean scrambled tofu.
All that really needs to be said about these is: mmmmm. Flaky pastry dough, spinach and creamy red lentils with a little bit of spice. Yeah. These make a perfect lunch along with a cool, crisp salad, or if made smaller, could be handily applied as an appetizer. To get ahead of the meal game, make up a batch to the point of baking*, wrap well and pop into the freezer. You can them bake them straight out of the freezer (removing the plastic or foil wrap, of course).
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve was a big deal in my childhood – and in many ways, much more special than Christmas Day. By 9:00 am on Christmas Day I always felt a little deflated, as if I’d caught just the tail-end of a raucous parade. But Christmas Eve was full of promise and anticipation: the decorated tree awash in delicate multi-colored light, the empty stockings at the fireplace, the plate of cookies waiting for Santa. And then there was the Christmas Eve dinner, a tradition created by my father with a nod to his Sicilian and Italian roots. He spent days in the kitchen preparing a rich tomato sauce with a variety of savory meats and seasonings; special cheeses were purchased from the Italian deli in downtown Cleveland and boxes of lasagna noodles were at the ready. My dad’s lasagna was a many-layered thing of beauty, dotted with fat green olives, thick rounds of sausage, crumbled hard-boiled eggs, creamy ricotta and tangy Parmesan. Cutting into that first pieces was like slicing into a wedding cake. We kids could not wait to dive in with our forks. But before the lasagna came out of the oven (dangerously hot), there were the artichokes. Stuffed to the point of bursting with Italian sausage, bread crumbs and copious amounts of Parmesan cheese (hand-grated by dad), they sat temptingly before us on our plates, leaves begging to be plucked and scraped clean of their bounty. The prize was at the bottom – the succulent heart of the ‘choke. Some of us slowly savored their artichokes and some of us, more impatient, tore through them like twisters roaming across Kansas.
Stuffed Artichokes Oliverio
Artichokes: