Veganize It!: Easy DIY Recipes for a Plant-Based Kitchen
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About this ebook
Discover vegan pantry staples—plus enticing recipes in which to use them—in this DIY guide. Many cooks prefer to make their own basics rather than buy expensive store versions, which are often loaded with additives and preservatives. These easy recipes make it easy to stock a home pantry.
Enjoy vegan milks, cheeses, bacon, burgers, sausages, butter, and even Worcestershire sauce in your favorite dishes. Sample Bahn Mi, Sausage Biscuits, Meaty-Cheesy Pizza, Milk Shakes, Jambalaya—even Jerky and Lemon Meringue Pie. With more than150 recipes and 50 color photos, this will become an indispensable cookbook for vegans—and everyone else who enjoys animal-free food.
“Robertson’s vegan alternatives to popular foods will draw even nonvegans.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“A good choice for new vegetarians or vegans, who might miss the satisfaction of traditional meats.”—Booklist
Robin Robertson
Robin Robertson is from the north-east coast of Scotland. He has published six previous books of poetry and received various accolades, including the Petrarca-Preis, the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and all three Forward Prizes. His last book, The Long Take – a narrative poem set in post-war America – won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize for innovative fiction, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Read more from Robin Robertson
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Book preview
Veganize It! - Robin Robertson
Copyright © 2017 by Robin Robertson
All rights reserved.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
www.hmhco.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-544-81556-8 (trade paper); 978-0-544-81557-5 (ebk)
Book design by Kara Plikaitis
Cover photography by William and Susan Brinson
Author photo by Joseph Lust
v1.0117
For all the caring and compassionate people who work to make the world a kinder, gentler place for all sentient beings
And for the animals
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1: Vegan Basics
Chapter 2: DIY Dairy-Free and Egg-Free, Too
Nut Milk
Almost-Instant Nut Milk
Coconut Milk
Oat Milk
Cashew Cream
Cashew Sour Cream
Easy Vegan Yogurt
Creamy Cashew Mayo
Easy Vegan Butter
Aquafaba Butter
Nut Butter
Basic White Sauce
Cashew Cream Cheese
Seasoned Tofu Ricotta
Nut-Parm
Melty Vegan Cheese
Cheddary Sauce
Smoky Queso Sauce
Say (Veganized) Cheese!
Tofu Feta
Htipiti (Feta Spread)
Spinach-Artichoke Dip
Pretzel-Crusted Cheddary Log
Bacon-Topped Mac UnCheese
Cheesy Broccoli Soup
Loaded Baked Potatoes
Spinach and Mushroom-Bacon Quiche
Spinach-Feta Quesadillas
Chickpea Flour Omelets
Cheesy Mushroom Scramble
Vive la French Toast
Breakfast Nachos
Chapter 3: Plant-Based Meats
Marinated Baked Tofu
Burmese Tofu
Crispy Tofu
Crispy Crumbles
Totally Tempting Tempeh
Beans from Scratch
Smoky Black Bean Soup
Iron Kettle Chili
Best Bean Burgers
Mama’s Meatballs
White Bean Cutlets
Piccata Meatballs with Penne and Asparagus
Tuesday Tacos with Avocado Crema
Baked Seitan Roast
Oven-Baked Seitan Cutlets
Seitan Oscar with Béarnaise Sauce
The Wellington
BBQ Seitan Ribs
Chapter 4: Vegan Charcuterie
Tempeh Bacon
Tofu Bacon
Coconut Bacon Bits
Eggplant Bacon Strips
Mushroom Bacon
Smoky Chickpeas
Hamish Loaf
DIY Jerky
Banh Mi
Handcrafted Pepperoni
Spicy Italian Sausage
Andouille Sausage
Country-Style Pâté
Jambalaya
Veganized Scrapple
Maple Breakfast Sausage
Cassoulet
No-Meat Loaf
Beyond BLT
Haute Dogs
Haute Dogs Wellington
Deviled Hamish Salad
Join the Club Sandwich
Chapter 5: Instead of Seafood
Clam-Free Chowder
Lobster Mushroom Bisque
Fish-Free Tacos
Vegan Fish and Chips with Tartar Sauce
Fish-Free Fillets
Fish-Free Sticks
See Scallops
Palm-Crab Po’boys
Hearts of Palm and Artichoke Cakes
Creamy Sriracha See Scallops
Chickpea and Artichoke Tuna Salad
Palm-Crab Imperial
Vegan Crab Louis
Chapter 6: Vegetable Steak-Out
Baked Eggplant Italian Style
Cordon Bleu–Stuffed Portobellos
Jumpin’ Jackfruit Chili
Roasted Cauliflower Piccata
Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie
Mushroom Stroganoff
Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives
Pulled Jackfruit BBQ Sandwiches
Eggplant Paprikash
Pan-Seared Portobello Strips
Cheesy Steak-Out Sandwiches
Chapter 7: Global Condiments, Sauces, and Dressings
Vegetable Broth
Homemade Vegetable Base
Red Wine Sauce with Mushrooms
Hollandaise Sauce
Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
Avocado Crema
Remoulade Sauce
Fish-Free Nuoc Cham
Better Béarnaise Sauce
Great Brown Gravy
Tapenade
Vegan Aioli
Basil Pesto
Tzatziki Sauce
Creamy Ranch Dressing
Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce
Mushroom Oyster Sauce
Goddess Dressing
Hail Caesar Dressing
Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad
Summer Rolls with Fish-Free Nuoc Cham
Seitan Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce
Buffalo Cauliflower with Ranch Dressing
My Kinda Chef’s Salad
Easy Kimchi
Niçoise Goddess Salad
Creamy Coleslaw
California Caesar Salad
Chapter 8: Flour Power
DIY Granola
Homemade Pasta
Handcrafted Lasagna
Fettuccine Bolognese
Spaghetti Carbonara
Orecchiette with Pistachio Pesto
Rotini with Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce
Pie Dough
Easy Artisan Bread
Perfect Pot Pie
Cheesy Sausage Biscuits
Cheesy Crackers
Scratch Biscuits
All-in-One Cauliflower Pizza
Pizza Dough
Benedict Pizza
Meaty-Cheesy Pizza
Loaded Polenta Pizza
Cranberry-Walnut Scones
Chapter 9: Sweets from Scratch
Whipped Coconut Cream
Cashew Chantilly Cream
Date-Caramel Sauce
Fudgy Chocolate Sauce
Buttercream Frosting
Vegan Mascarpone
Ganache
Veganized Marshmallow Fluff
Meringue
Lemon Meringue Pie
Scratch Cake
Tiramisu
Strawberry Shortcake
Mango Fro-Yo
Bellini Trifle
Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Truffles
Luscious Lava Cakes
Chocolate–Chocolate Chip Brownies
No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake
No-Bake Nut Lover’s Cheesecake
Chocolate-Covered Elvis Ice Cream
Chocolate–Peanut Butter Milkshake
Ice Cream Sundae Cake
Banana Split Soft-Serve Sundaes
acknowledgments
index
INTRODUCTION
I’d been a restaurant chef for seven years when I went vegan in the late 1980s. I happily immersed myself in cooking fabulous meals made with vegetables, grains, beans, and nuts. Soups, stews, salads, and stir-fries were a cinch.
But making a BLT for lunch or a creamy Alfredo pasta dish for dinner back then presented a challenge. The vegan alternatives to meat and dairy that we have on supermarket shelves today were just a pipe dream.
My husband and I had both been raised on a diet laden with meats, dairy, and eggs. But while we were at peace with our ethical decision to get healthy and stop eating animals, we saw no reason to deprive ourselves of the flavors and textures of dishes we enjoyed that were traditionally made with meat and dairy. If I wanted something meaty or creamy made from plant foods, back in those days, I had to come up with a way to make it myself—I had to figure out how to veganize it.
Before long, veganizing all our favorite foods became second nature. I became skilled at preparing meaty cutlets, sausages, and roasts using beans, vital wheat gluten, and dairy-free versions of sour cream, mayonnaise, and more. I taught others how to do the same and began writing the cookbooks that launched my second career as an author. Nearly thirty years and more than twenty cookbooks later, I continue to develop user-friendly recipes that allow vegans and other health-conscious people to enjoy plant-based versions of foods traditionally made with animal products, while still maintaining the classic flavors and textures loved the world over. I also work at making it easy and inexpensive for home cooks to veganize their favorite dishes.
These days, a wide variety of vegan products are finally available, even in well-stocked supermarkets. So why make our own? There are a lot of reasons. Some of these products, such as vegan cheese, sausages, and burgers, can be expensive, highly processed, full of preservatives, or not to your liking. This book solves these issues by providing fast and economical plant-based solutions for all those favorite dishes that are traditionally made with animal-based ingredients.
In Veganize It! my goal is to combine my signature easy-cooking methods and years of experience in global cuisines to create the ultimate guide for making homemade vegan foods from everyday ingredients. Within these pages, you’ll find recipes for basics such as Cashew Cream Cheese, Oven-Baked Seitan Cutlets, and Easy Vegan Yogurt, along with specialties such as Handcrafted Pepperoni, Andouille Sausage, and Mama’s Meatballs—all made inexpensively, using simple cooking methods and easy-to-find ingredients. But I also wanted the book to showcase a variety of great-tasting classic recipes in which to use the veganized ingredients. For example, with the Cashew Cream Cheese, you’ll be able to use it to make Spinach-Artichoke Dip and No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake. Make the Andouille Sausage, and you’re just one step away from an amazing jambalaya.
The more than 150 recipes in Veganize It! provide a solid foundation of plant-based basics, such as dairy-free sour cream, mayonnaise, butter, and easy artisanal vegan cheeses, that taste like they took all day to prepare. There are recipes for plant-based meats including roasts, ribs, and loaves made from wheat, soy, and beans. There’s even a chapter on fish-free seafood recipes; a charcuterie chapter for making your own sausage, bacon, jerky, and other artisan meats; and a chapter called Vegetable Steak-Out that showcases vegetables prepared in rich, meaty ways.
This collection of recipes is geared to busy home cooks who want to get a great dinner on the table but don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. You’ll find recipes for homemade pasta and pizza dough, soups, and crackers, and the chapter Sweets from Scratch has recipes for vegan ice cream, ganache, caramel sauce, and much more. The recipes for international sauces and condiments are also informed by my background as a restaurant chef, which enables me to develop authentic plant-based versions of classic sauces. From Smoky Queso Sauce and my Hollandaise Sauce made without eggs or butter, to Fish-Free Nuoc Cham and Vegan Worcestershire Sauce, vegans can now reach for their own homemade sauces without having to worry about what’s in it.
With delicious recipes, variations, helpful tips, and informative sidebars, Veganize It! delivers a practical take on getting dinner on the table. With Veganize It! in your kitchen, healthy and delicious options are always at your fingertips.
Chapter One: Vegan BasicsThere was a time not many years ago when if you wanted plant-based alternatives to animal foods, you’d have to make them yourself.
These days, however, the vegan way of eating has exploded in North America. Vegan products are now common in small-town grocery stores, and new plant-based foods come out practically by the month. The meat- and dairy-free consciousness is so prevalent now that restaurants that once offered an occasional vegan option now provide a page of vegan choices, and this goes for the sandwich shop as well as the high-end restaurant. Moreover, dedicated and award-winning vegan restaurants are popping up in major cities, where skilled chefs turn out culinary art that even omnivores embrace. We also see the emergence of the vegan butcher
shop, where top-quality, organic, non-GMO vegetables and plant-based meats are prepared as prime cuts for the discriminating shopper.
Most well-stocked supermarkets offer rows of vegan milks made from almonds, cashews, and soy sitting right next to cow’s milk in the dairy case, just as Earth Balance, a vegan buttery spread, perches alongside dairy butter. Tofu varieties abound, as do nondairy ice creams, cheeses, and other dairy-free products, including yogurt, sour cream, and cream cheese. And look at the prepared vegan food now available! Even chain supermarkets and big-box stores carry plant-based products, including sausage, burgers, cold cuts, bacon, meatballs, and vegan seafood.
While many people extoll the convenience and availability of these products, some shun them, saying they’re too processed or too expensive. There are others, such as myself, who take a more balanced approach, applying a cost/benefit analysis concerning such foods and deciding on a case-by-case basis which products I want to make at home from scratch and which I’d prefer to buy ready-made. Generally I opt for buying minimally processed foods, such as plant milks, tofu, and tempeh, from the store and make the rest at home, including seitan, cheeses, and sausage.
The premise of this book is a simple one: For reasons of health, ethics, and the environment, food is better when it’s made with vegan rather than animal products. That’s why I say let’s veganize it! If you can enjoy ingredients such as sour cream, cheese, sausage, bacon, and butter without causing ill effects on your body, without harming animals or decimating the environment, why wouldn’t you? And if those ingredients could be found in one easy-to-use book, all the better!
It follows that if food is better when it’s made vegan than with animal products, then vegan food is better still when it’s homemade and not processed. This is, of course, because a whole foods, plant-based diet is better than a vegan diet that relies on processed or ready-made products, not just because fresh homemade foods taste better and are better for you, but also because making your own foods can be more economical as well as fun and easy to prepare.
Make It Better—Make It Yourself
When I was growing up, cooking everything from scratch was an everyday ritual. My mother made her own pasta, bread, sausage, and more, not just because they were less expensive but also because they tasted better. The fact that she came from a time when convenience foods were virtually nonexistent also played a role. These days, the popularity of selling handcrafted artisan foods has grown in recent years from small-batch jam and locavore soy sauce to artisan breads and bean-to-bar chocolates. In addition to buying handcrafted products from artisanal purveyors, DIY cooking is enjoying a renaissance in home kitchens.
When an ingredient is typically made with animal products, I have developed excellent ways to veganize it. Not only that, but you also have in your hands excellent recipes in which to use them. For example, when you make recipes for vegan mayo and bacon, there’s a recipe for Beyond BLTs using both. Likewise, the book contains recipes for Handcrafted Lasagna (made with homemade pasta, sauce, vegan ricotta, and a melty cheese) and others such as Cheesy Sausage Biscuits, Meaty-Cheesy Pizza, and Loaded Baked Potatoes.
What you won’t find in this book are recipes that do not traditionally use animal products, such as salsas, jams, and hummus, for the simple reason that they are already plant-based and don’t need to be veganized. The only exceptions are the handful of naturally plant-based recipes that are important to a particular recipe, such as pizza dough for the pizza.
If you want to enjoy vegan cheeses, sauces, and proteins without paying the hefty price tags for ready-made versions, then you’ll love this book. Not only are homemade foods cheaper, but they also give you an opportunity to customize foods to suit your own taste. Another big reason people favor scratch cooking is to avoid additives and highly processed foods. Plus, store-bought versions of some vegan specialty foods aren’t always easy to find, so that gives foods you can make at home a built-in convenience factor.
While some people love to spend hours in the kitchen honing their food-craft, not everyone has that kind of time. That’s where Veganize It! comes to the rescue with streamlined recipes using easy-to-find ingredients. Within these pages, you get easy and economical recipes for vegan staples as well as recipes that incorporate several of those staple ingredients for a complete vegan cooking experience.
It Takes a (Well-Stocked) Pantry
All it takes to make do-it-yourself-vegan staples is a pantry stocked with basic ingredients and some time to make quantities in advance. Most of the ingredients used to make these recipes can be found in well-stocked supermarkets. However, based on my own experience, there are a few ingredients that may be a little more difficult to find if you do not live in a metropolitan area. For such ingredients, I either order them online (many are available on Amazon) or I keep a list going of such ingredients and get them whenever we drive to the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area. Everything else, including agave, sriracha, hearts of palm in jars, and smoked paprika, I am able to find in stores in or near my rural Virginia town (population 5,000), so I will assume that you can find them, too.
Note: You will only need certain of these specialty ingredients if you plan to make particular recipes. For example, the sea vegetables are used primarily in the Instead of Seafood chapter to lend a briny flavor to the plant-based seafood recipes. Likewise for the lobster mushrooms and oyster mushrooms. Other ingredients, such as nutritional yeast and vegetable base powder or paste, are called for throughout the book.
A well-stocked pantry is essential to easy and convenient plant-based cooking. The list below features many of the ingredients used to make the recipes in this book. You may or may not be familiar with some of these ingredients, but they are all available in well-stocked supermarkets, natural foods stores, or Asian markets.
Got Dairy Alternatives?
Contrary to popular belief, milk consumption does not prevent osteoporosis and is not necessary for bone development. Humans are the only animals that drink the milk of other species and continue to drink milk after infancy. Recent studies show that milk consumption can actually contribute to heart disease, some forms of cancer, psoriasis, allergies, and a host of other ailments. The highest incidences of osteoporosis occur in countries where milk consumption is high. So do you ever wonder why drinking your milk
became the battle cry of moms to their children beginning in the 1950s? Here’s why:
The dairy industry developed an education
program during the 1950s to promote dairy products in American classrooms. Ever since, people have believed that calcium in milk is the only way to grow big and strong. In addition to the dairy industry’s inherent animal cruelties, they never revealed another secret—that better sources of calcium can be found in tofu, nuts, broccoli, dark leafy greens, and sea vegetables. And about that vitamin D in dairy products: It’s actually a hormone that our bodies create when exposed to sunlight. In other words, it doesn’t occur naturally in cow’s milk and must be added later (the same is true of vitamin D added to nondairy milks).
When people transition to a plant-based diet, they often find it easier to stop eating meat than dairy products because of their fondness for (some say addiction to) dairy—especially cheese. Fortunately there are plant-based alternatives to replace everything from milk, to cheese, to eggs—and this book is filled with recipes for making them at home.
PANTRY LIST
In addition to the ingredients listed below, you will want to keep on hand a variety of fresh produce, dried and canned beans, grains, pastas, and tomato products, along with condiments such as tahini, salsa, and nut butters, to add variety to your meals. Other necessary pantry ingredients include dried herbs, spices, vinegars, sea salt, and basic seasonings, as well as baking items such as flours, baking powder, baking soda, extracts, and thickeners.
Flours
Chickpea flour
Cornmeal
Semolina flour
Tapioca starch (aka tapioca flour)
Vital wheat gluten
Nuts and Seeds
Almonds
Cashews, raw
Flaxseeds
Peanuts
Pecans
Sesame seeds
Sunflower seeds
Walnuts
Oils
Coconut oil
Dark (toasted) sesame oil
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sunflower oil or grapeseed oil
Seasonings
Creole or Cajun seasoning blend
Filé powder
Kitchen Bouquet or Gravy Master (browning liquid)
Liquid smoke
Old Bay seasoning
Rice vinegar
Smoked paprika
Sriracha sauce
Sun-dried tomatoes
Tamari soy sauce (low-sodium)
Thai chili sauce
Sea Vegetables
Agar-agar powder
Dulse flakes or powder
Soy Foods
Miso paste
Tempeh
Tofu, extra-firm
Tofu, silken
Sweeteners
Agave nectar
Unrefined sugar
Pure maple syrup
Medjool dates
Vegetables, Canned or Jarred
Artichoke hearts, marinated
Capers
Chipotle chiles in adobo
Hearts of palm
Jackfruit (packed in water)
Pimientos, chopped
Pitted Kalamata olives
Tomatoes, whole peeled (San Marzano)
Miscellaneous
Chocolate chips, vegan semisweet
Coconut milk, canned,