My Grandparents Would Be Proud!

As I've said before, I love trying to make omnivorous food vegan---trying to make it as close in taste as possible. I'm starting to really master this technique. Today I made country fried "chicken" with pepper gravy, lemon potatoes with a leek garnish and spinach pesto broccoli.

Ever since I made the pepper sausage gravy for my biscuits and gravy, I thought about making country fried "steak". I thought they'd go perfectly together and they reminded me of my childhood. It was probably one of my favorite dishes of my mother's. So, I made a seitanic style patty made from chickpeas. I just mushed up some chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with some bread crumbs, vital wheat gluten, spices and some veggie stock. It was really simple. You must knead it for a while in order to get the meaty texture and to form the gluten. So, any Celiac's disease people reading this...stay far far way from this dish! I made the pepper gravy in the same pan with some flour, soy milk, salt and lots of pepper.

The potatoes were simple as well. I just put them in a pan with some olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper. I like to roast low for 30 minutes and then on high (approx. 425 degrees) for ten to fifteen minutes. I feel like they are tender but crispy on the outside. I topped with some sauteed leeks.

The broccoli was simple. I just blanched them for 2 minutes and then shocked them. I returned them to a pan and added the spinach pesto (recipe follows).

Spinach Pesto (I don't really measure, so this is approximate)

2 heaping handfuls of spinach
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup (or more) olive oil

Put the first 4 ingredients in a food processor. Blend until homogeneous. Slowly start to pour in the olive oil until a nice saucy, pesto-y texture.

Overall, this was a great dish, only took me about an hour total to make. I'm soo full from it still. I am now thinking of what I should make next. I think I need to hang out with more omnis to see what they eat.

Enough of my dinner, I want to bring up something really quickly. Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, my roommate's drunken girlfriend started yelling about how soy is bad for you but steak is good for you! I got really offended at first. I almost marched my ass out there and started screaming some healthful, vegan rhetoric. But, I decided after five seconds of contemplation that it was hilarious. She's a fat ass, so is her boyfriend. I mean, I have NOTHING against people who eat meat. But don't say soy is bad for you when you're overweight and unhealthy and eating steak all the time. I just felt bad for her because she is just uneducated. No one can argue that soy is worse than steak. She should eat a smaller portion of her steak with some more veggies on the side. I probably wouldn't care so much. I can't blame her for not knowing any better. And let me add this really quickly, I am not a huge fan of soy. I think we should find out protein and other things through natural means such as grains, nuts, and legumes. I'm also not saying that soy can't be bad for you. However, I am saying soy is not as bad as meat. I don't judge them, why should they judge me?

Anyway, I will be making another post this week because we are having a picnic and I have a couple of recipes I want to try out. Until next time, these were the things that come from la lengua de un vegan.