OK, this picture is so awful but the tacos were really good and easy, a great summer taco, so I had to post about them! First I made a quick marinade of a tablespoon of Mexican oregano, 10 Kalamata olives, a small sweet orange pepper, and 1/2 cup of red wine. I steamed the tempeh for ten minutes then marinated for about and hour. Meanwhile, I made an orange-onion salsa with red onions, cumin, and oranges. Then, an hour later I sauted the tempeh in oil until it browned, added the marinade to the pan, reducded for a minute or two and then piled the tempeh into corn tortillas with spinach, and the orange-onion salsa. The olives rebounded so well with the peppers and the cumin sang its little cumin song of happiness in the background while the tempeh grounded everything in the way that only tempeh can. If someone makes these tacos and takes a better picture I will replace the picture and send you a gift from Lazy Smurf’s headquarters. So make them! Eat them! and Enjoy!
Tag Archives: spinach
Star Trek Feast
I can’t find the picture that I have of the 7th grade version of me dressed in full Star Trek the Next Generation starfleet uniform. I really wanted to post it. I am surround by two Klingons that are dressed so well you would think they stepped out of the future. When I was in 6th grade my best friend, Amanda, and I even reenacted an episode, casting all of our (girl) friends as Picard and Riker etc. I was a very belieable Worf, well as believable as a 6th grade girl can be.
So yeah, I was am a nerd. I don’t go to Sci-fi conventions any more but I did live in my mom’s basement for a while. And you know what? Now I blog about food that I made. So if you see me walking down the street you can yell “NERD” all you want and I will take it as a compliment. There aren’t many people, I would wager, who simultaneously had a crush on Captain Picard AND Wesley Crusher. I can also identify the season of the next generation by the shape of Riker’s beard.
I have been recently revisiting my Star Trek roots in anticipation of the new movie, listening to podcasts, watching the original series on the Roku and Deep Space 9 on DVD from Netflix (why do they have to be so expensive?). I have also been thinking about all the food and how good it would be. I was lucky enough to see the new movie with a glass of Romulan Ale in my hand (thank you Alamo Drafthouse) following this feast.
I made Bajoran Hasperat. It is based on Lolo’s version at Vegan Yum Yum except with the addition of a large sausage shaped chikpea cutlet, some extra spices (sumac & smoked paprika) and golden beets instead of carrots. Everyone really liked them and the guys even had them for breakfast the next day.
I also had gaeta olives on the side that were supposed to be in the wrap. Mmm Gaeta.
I roasted Ferengi Tube Grubs (Fiddlehead Ferns) and Asparagus for the side dish that were made palatable by the addition of Cardassian Yamok Sauce
the sauce was basically white beans sauteed with garlic, onions, tarragon, and lemon and then blended with a few green olives.
We had it on potatoes too, I loved it and it inspired the next night’s meal. I will post the recipe if anyone is interested it was perfect for the season.
Here is Amanda and I forcing her boyfriend to give the Vulcan salute, it is sad that neither of our boyfriends are Trekkies, they have thier own nerd activities though, I promise.
My favorite part of watching the new movie was that Amanda was sitting next to me and every time someone gave the customary hand greeting Amanda did it too. (NERD!!!!)
The best part of the whole meal, though, was the Earl Grey cupcakes, they are an alteration from the chai cupcakles in Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. I made the frosting from the book that uses Agave and coconut butter instead of sugar and margarine and it was divine. Mr. Smurf doesn’t even like frosting on cakes usually and he was eating the leftovers with a spoon.
It was a good meal.
What are you a nerd about?
PS- the cupcake background is from http://hubblesite.org/gallery/wallpaper/ they have lots of great images
Cinco de Mayo is coming, its practically here!
Last year on Cinco de Mayo, I listened to a local radio station lament the fact that people ignorant of Mexican culture don’t know what Cinco de Mayo is all about and yet they still celebrate by knocking back a couple of Cuervos and maybe having some nachos. What was absurd, to me, was that they went on and on about how this was such a travesty and yet they never once mentioned what Cinco de Mayo is all about. For one thing, I don’t even think it is a national holiday in Mexico. According to Wikipedia it is mostly celebrated in the state of Puebla but they fail to mention that it is probably more intensely celebrated in Mexico’s former territory: Texas. The date commemorates the defeat of the French by Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín and was also the last time the Americas were invaded by another country. In Texas, and the rest of the US, however, we primarily use the holiday to celebrate Mexican culture which in my mind means eating Mexican inspired food and yes, drinking beer and eating nachos. I thought I would do a round-up of some tacos that I have posted about to inspire some taco ideas other than the standard American version.
Sesame Tacos with Blood Orange Tacos
Tequila Sausage & Cornmeal Crusted Plantain Tacos
Peanut Crusted Seitan with Blood Orange Salsa
I would love for any other bloggers to link below to any of their favorite taco creations!
And have a happy International Worker’s Day
Spinashed Potatoes
Did you know that you can add spinach to your mashed potatoes and then eat them with smug superiority knowing that they are more nutritious than their plain white brethren? They are really yummy, colorful, and easy. Imagine how excited people will be if you serve these for St. Patricks Day! Just add a few handfulls of chopped spinach or baby spinach to your cooking water when your potatoes have another minute to go, drain and mash as usual making sure that spinach gets incorporated.
Original Recipe Seitan
The polenta is leftover from when I made it a week ago. I sauteed carrots & leeks and then at right before serving mixed in the spinach and some tarrago. The gravy is the Punk Rock Gravy from Vegan with a Vengence and the seitan is from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Just kidding! I was trying to decide what to do with my last seitan cutlets and googling chicken recipes and I came up with the spice mixture from KFC’s original recipe, it sounded good and I had everything so I tried it. We both liked it a lot although it wasn’t as good as Wheatsville Co-ops! Here is the spice mix:
3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 teaspoons onion salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon dried powdered rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried powdered thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
It was really easy to mix and very similar spices to the Punk Rock Gravy so it was easy to make them together and pull together this recipe.
VeganMoFo: El Taco Italiano and a word on olives
I love olives. They are probably my most favorite food in the history of the world. When I was little I once had a dream that the Sears Tower in Chicago was made of olives. I also used to put an olive at the bottom of my ice cream cone for a salty finish. I still like to finish my meal with an “after dinner olive” and I make sure if I am running low to keep an “emergency olive” on hand in the jar until I replace my stash. This naturally led to a love of Italian and Greek food. Traveling in the Mediterranean I was so excited to be able to order a little plate of olives with every meal!
Living in Austin Texas I eat a lot of tacos. I often read on vegan food message boards “I don’t know what to put in my taco” and it makes me laugh because anything can be a taco! I had a bunch of red peppers in my fridge that I needed to use up and some black olives that I had already popped the can on as well so I decided to make and Italian-sausage-style seitan, a roasted red pepper creamy topping and add some olives. They were the best tacos ever. My partner had eaten three before I even took the picture!
Italian Style Seitan O’Greatness
This turned out fantastic. The red wine and tomato paste made it very yummy. Next time I will replace the nutritional yeast with chickpea flour because I think that would make this the perfect Italian style seitan. You mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Then add them together and knead for a few minutes. Roll the seitan into a log and then roll it into foil making sure to keep the whole dough surrounded and to twist the ends. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 minutes. When I made the seitan I also roasted peppers, garlic, and potatoes in the oven and could have made cookies too since it takes so long!
1 and 1/2 cups Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp fennel
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp caraway
1/2 tsp corriander
1 Tbsp worchestire
1 and 1/2 Tbsps Red Wine
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp olive oil
Roasted Red Pepper, Jalapeno, and Pine Nut Cream
First roast the peppers for 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven. Then let them steam in a paper bag for another 5 minutes to loosen the skin. Remove the skins if you want and add the peppers, jalapeno, pine nuts, and garlic into a food processor and mix well. Then add the water and salt, taste, and season again. Enjoy this cream with tacos, bagels, or maybe mix with some vegetable broth and some wine to make a pasta sauce!
4 red bell peppers
6 medium garlic cloves (you may want to use less)
1 jalapeno
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tsp parsley or 1 Tbsp fresh parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
For El Taco Italiano*
1/3 of Seitan roll, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
5 cups of Spinach or 2 cups of other leafy green (Chard would be nice)
1 cup black olives
6 Tortillas
First wrap the tortillas in foil and warm up in the oven. Saute the sausage with a couple cloves of chopped garlic and some olive oil. After the sausage is browned add quite a bit of spinach or other dark leafy green. Cook until wilted. Assemble sausage mixture, red pepper cream, olives on tortillas and Enjoy!
*Note- you may want to cut WAY down on the garlic in this recipe. We love garlic but it was pretty intense! I think next time I would fry the sausage with red onion instead of more garlic.
Lazy Smurf's Guide 
