Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Cauliflower Puree with Mushroom Compote, Seared Portabella, and Shiitake Bacon

2014_02_16a

Holy mushrooms! Mushrooms on mushrooms topped with more mushrooms. Oh yeah, there is some cauliflower in there somewhere too. If you love mushrooms, you’ll like this.

The original recipe calls for seared king mushrooms, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. I opted for a portabella instead. It seemed like it got the job done. I do plan on making this again when I can find some king mushrooms though.

I served this on a bed of arugula mainly just to add some color. But the slight crunch seemed to compliment the cauliflower puree pretty well. The shiitake “bacon” topping is a must for this too. It obviously doesn’t taste like bacon, but it gives a similar texture and salty punch that bacon has. I’m not a huge bacon lover anyway so this was a great alternative.

So not only is this super tasty, but see how awesome this looks (if you like mushrooms)!

The recipe link has great instructions and photos that help in putting this epic fungi-liciousness together.

2014_02_16b

RECIPES:

Recipe is from a great vegan cooking blog called vegangela.com

Cauliflower Puree with Mushroom Compote, Seared Portabella, and Shiitake Bacon

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings

2014_02_08Wow, this was delicious! What a great meatless version of chicken and dumplings. You really don’t need the chicken after all. I’ve made this three times so far and can’t wait to use fresh herbs from my garden this summer. Ellie loves the dumplings and requested it again.

RECIPES:

This is from Isa Chandra Moskowitz cookbook, Isa Does It.

This recipe is also posted on her website here: Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Aloo Mattar (Potatoes and Peas) and Mushroom Cashew Curry

20214_02_05This is from a website visit frequently Manjula’s Kitchen. There are a ton of recipes here that are vegan, but we don’t really think about it while we are eating them. It’s just really good food. Ellie, and especially Chloe cobbled these up.

I usually double the ingredients for these recipes when I make them so we have plenty of leftovers. I also usually leave the green chiles out because Ellie is pretty sensitive to the mild heat they bring. My favorite out of these two was the mushroom cashew curry. It’s so good it was addicting. And so good that Chloe devoured three bowls of it.

2014_02_05bRECIPE:

Aloo Mattar (Potatoes and Peas)

Mushroom Cashew Curry

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Chopped Salad with Baked Tofu and Almond-Miso Dressing

2014_02_04

This salad was filling and very delicious! The dressing also has no oil which is an added plus. This makes a perfect lunch and I’ve made this twice already. It was a little labor intensive with all the chopping and baking the tofu, but I expected that going in. The dressing is so tasty the kids had 3 helping of salad when I made this for dinner too!

RECIPES:

Chopped Salad with Baked Tofu and Almond-Miso Dressing

Matt Cooking Stuff, Recipes

Bistro Beet Burgers

2014_02_01Last year about this time I did a vegan week on the blog. We really enjoyed the experience of expanding our food options and incorporating different ingredients into our regular food rotation. Since then, we’ve also been eating a lot less meat and have noticed a substantial improvement in how we feel. And now that we are stuck in the winter abyss of sub zero temperatures and daily snow storms, we wanted to shake things up again and revisit vegan week. But this time we wanted to extend it to a month or two. To kick things off I made beet burgers.

I just dropped spinach from my top three favorite vegetables. It’s not that I don’t like spinach anymore, it’s just not top three material. With that spot open, I’ve been auditioning other vegetables as a replacement and beets have been the front runner. I like beets. I like them a lot. But this recipe was going to determine if I love them.

There is no replacing or comparing a juicy beef burger with a vegetable based burger. They are just too different. But different can be good. My biggest beef (heh heh, get it?) with a vegetable based burger is the texture. They taste great, but about halfway through, I’m sick of the mushy texture. However, since this burger is based with lentils and brown rice, it had a little more to hold on to texture wise. After cooking they also had a slightly crispy outside really enhancing the texture.

I topped these with romaine lettuce, tomato, avocado slices, and a homemade honey mustard dressing. Served with baked sweet potato fries and a salad, and this was one tasty meal!

I also want to give a much deserved congratulations and warm welcome to beets. You made it! You’re in the top three!

RECIPE:

This is from Isa Chandra Moskowitz cookbook, Isa Does It.
Everything I’ve made from this book so far has been really great!

This recipe is also posted on her website here: Bistro Beet Burgers