TVP Tacos

Here are the TVP Tacos I've been promising to my friends.  I've invited dear Chef to guest blog since he's the one who made this delicious awesomeness possible.  :)

Start off putting 2 Cups TVP into a largeish bowl and set aside.

Measure 1/4 Cup Kitchen Bouquet in a 2 Cup (or larger measuring cup)

Top off the liquid to 2 Cups with water

mix in 1/3 Cup taco seasoning.  Commercial works (I will add a recipe soon for mine... much cheaper)

and bring to a boil.

While you are waiting for the juice to boil, it is a good time to prep your toppings. We go with red leaf lettuce, limes, avocado, onions, tomatoes, black beans, peppers, green onions, olives and what ever else sounds good that night.... oh yeah tortillas are a must.

When the juice boils, slowly add it to the TVP while mixing.  You want to be sure to get all the TVP wet.

Let the TVP sit for 5-10 minutes, just until it has no crunch left, but is still nice and hot.

Enjoy.

I hope you all like it as much as we have!

Thanksgiving Feast

Hello all.  I've decided I have the energy to start blogging again and thought I'd start by sharing our lovely feast pictures with you all.

We made several standard items: mashed potatoes, the Chef's stuffing, grilled haricot verts, and a lovely vegan "turkey" gravy, but a few items were inspired by all the Vegan MoFo out there and I thought I'd share the pictures and links.

We always do a fruit and cheese plate to start the day before the big meal:

Eldest did the fruit and cheese.  She put out grapes, strawberries, baby cucumbers, baby carrots and pomegranate pips.  

She also did a baked brie wrapped in puff pastry surrounded by various cheeses (all local!).  The endive is tipped with a local chevre and green onion, we dipped these in the balsamic vinegar reduction Chef made on Monday.  

Then for the main course I made the seitan roulade from Vegan Yum Yum's recipe.  There was a warning on it because many people have, apparently, had trouble with it.  I suspect it's due to regional humidity differences, since we are so dry and the recipe stresses that the dough should be wet, I simply added a couple extra tablespoons of the liquid.  It was simple and SO GOOD!

Sorry you only get the raw view, I meant to take a finished picture but we ate it too fast.  I did tweak the recipe by adding some poultry seasoning to the dry and using 6 tablespoons of water with three parts "chicken" bullion and one part "beef" to replace the same amount of veggie broth.  It gave it a more "turkey" flavor.  

I hope you all had a good vacation and I will get the roast beast and lentil loaf recipes up soon.  :)