fast..healthy..easy..cheap..best all time vegan cheez

If you are looking for a DELICIOUS vegan cheez that costs pennies to replace melted mozzarella and melted cheddar you have found it.  Soy free, gluten free, nut free, grain free.. this recipe is the easiest vegan cheez to make; takes 10-15 minutes, requires only a blender, no hard to find ingredients, around .30 cents a big batch in 2014 u.s. dollars, holds up in frig and drizzles easily with a spoon compared to other vegan homemade cheez sauces with no gummy or stringy mess and no walking on glass, multiple equipment cooking methods with agar or powdered starches.   Also does well baked or microwaved, or as a dip.  

potato mozzarella on a slice of homemade vegan pizza, amazing! (I used homemade sunflower seed cream instead of water to make a richer tasting mozzarella)

Equipment:
Bottom blade Blender
spatula to get out of the blender
covered bowl for storage

Ingredients…
*  1 cup of packed down russet potato baked or microwaved  (the inside of the potato, not the skin)
*  1/3 cup oil (I use canola oil or olive oil for mozzarella)
* 2-3 TBL of melted refined coconut oil for a more saturated fat mouthfeel
*  3 TBL fresh lemon juice
*  1/2 tsp salt, or more if you like
*  water (or white veggie, seed, nut, bean milk) as needed to reach melted cheese consistency, usually up to 3/4 to 1 cup of liquid

Method…
Combine in blender the 1 cup of potato, oil, lemon juice, salt and water / vegan milk (a 1/4 cup at a time), until the consistency reaches melted cheese.  Taste to see if you need additional salt, tang.   Use right away or store, covered in frig a day or 2 until ready to use.

Mexican queso with green onions and cilantro

Ideas for additions to mozzarella or white cheez sauce..
a little miso, a tsp. of nooch nutritional yeast, cider vinegar, white wine.  For richer, heavier cheez use a soy milk, cashew milk, rice milk, sunflower milk and yes, I have used cauliflower milk or white asparagus milk successfully--all turns out delicious….although this turns out delicious if you use only the ingredients I have listed.

nachos with potato cheddar and "almond tangy sour cream"

Ideas for additions to make cheddar or orange cheez sauce..
a little tomato paste or a tsp. of sweet paprika then add some steamed carrots or squash for color, a couple TBLs of nutritional yeast.  Add jalapeño pickle juice or pimento pickle juice instead of water, hot peppers, lime juice, salsa and cilantro if making nachos or mexican queso. 

slow cooker seitan method

The slow cooker is my favorite method of cooking seitan.  I can go about my day and check on the slow cooker  from time to time, uses less energy and costs less on the energy bills.  Those of us who want to get away from aluminum foil wrapping can use soaked and rehydrated corn husks in the slow cooker to line the bottom and tops of placing these vegan meatballs.  You will need to wet the bottom of the cooker with water to keep moisture in or else the husks might burn.  Do not let the seitan touch the sides of the slow cooker, as they could also burn.

If you look real close, you can see the vegan meatballs under the first layer of husks.

It ended up taking around  2 1/2 - 3 hours on high for these seitan meatballs to cook thoroughly.  I had around 12 large meatballs, so 2 layers of corn husks.  I sprayed a tiny bit of water on the top layer of husks to keep moisture in.  Afterwards, I made a big pot of tomato sauce and placed all of the meatballs in the sauce and let simmer away.

I make all of my seitan in the slow cooker nowadays and wanted to share this easy method.

vegan holiday feast

Here are some links to recipes on this blog and ideas for a vegan feast....Have a peaceful, love filled, giving vegan thanksgiving and holiday season

Of course I have to have a tofu/seitan roast  (btw, if you make a frozen tofurkey roast, use the slow cooker with lots of veggies, it turns out much better than their method of oven roasting)

Next up is your vegan stuffing/dressing.

What is thanksgiving without a decadent potato dish.  This is my "heavy cream" scalloped potatoes.

and...my partners all time favorite, broccoli thanksgiving casserole!

For a beautiful, healthy, colorful side, choose the veggie medley casserole

Or, a crunchy topped texture, along with a flavorful veggie mix choose the vegan confetti bake.

tangzhong vegan rolls

I have experimented with tangzhong (japanese roux) in roll making for quite awhile now, and have finally hit the jackpot.  My older veganizations of tangzhong bread were too heavy, using soy milk or vegan milk.  I have taken my vegan parker house roll recipe, added tangzhong and the result is a roll that is moist, fluffy and stays fresh much longer (days)and does not have a dry taste when it hits your mouth.

You can see how fluffy and amazing this looks

This will make a sticky, heavy dough that seems counter-intuitive to light bread

Equipment:

small saucepan

small silicone whisk

big bowl for dough rising

plastic bag for covering rising bowl

some clean towels

bench scraper

big spoon

rolling pin

3-4 inch, or 7-8 centimeter round cup or biscuit cutter

8-9” round pie pan for placing the rolls
baking rack for cooling 

Tangzhong:

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 cup water

Ingredients: rolls

2 1/2 tsps or 1 package of active dry yeast (not the self rising type or the pizza dough, or the bread machine type)

2 - 3 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour

1 tsp egg replacer (I use Enter-G egg replacer)

2 tsps salt

2  TBL sugar

3 TBL tangzhong

2 TBL melted vegan butter

oil spray

as needed, warm water

Use this dough to make cinnamon rolls and doughnuts!

Method…

Tangzhong:  place the tangzhong flour and water in saucepan, medium heat, and use whisk to incorporate until mixture becomes thick and pudding-like and smooth, while constantly whisking to keep lumps out.  Turn off and remove from heat when mixture reaches this consistency.  cover with plastic wrap.  set aside.  refrigerate left over cover wrapped tangzhong.

Workspace and prepping:  Have a very clean, dry, somewhat open, large workspace (like a kitchen island, or a large counter).  Have a clean towel on hand, your bench scraper and tangzhong by your side and around 2 cups flour mixed with the dry yeast, egg replacer, salt and sugar in a big mixing bowl, set aside and ready to go.  Have around 1 cup flour at the edge of your workspace, on the table top, ready to be dusted and used.

Step 1:  Add the warm (not hot) 3 TBL tangzhong to the flour mixture, then add the melted vegan butter, then start adding warm water from the tap (NOT HOT), mixing with your spoon until the mixture starts forming a dough ball.  This should just be coming together, not batter like but dough like.

Step 2:  Dust your hands and work area with the flour you have setting aside, and remove the formed mixture from the bowl, fold it over a couple times, while dusting with flour until you feel you can knead it a little without it sticking to everything (although this dough will be heavier and sticker than non-tangzhong dough).  Start kneading the dough, flipping over and pressing your palm into it, while constantly incorporating more dustings of flour for around 5-10 minutes until very much combined (yes, it will still be stickier than non-tangzhong dough).  

Step 3:  Let the dough ball sit uncovered,  then wash your big mixing bowl with hot, warm water.  Dry the bowl and put a little spray oil in the botom of the bowl.  Transfer the dough into the warm bowl, then cover with the plastic bag and set in a somewhat dark place for around 1 hour or double in volume.  Since this is a heavy dough, it must be in a warm environment to rise efficiently (warm (not hot) oven, warm bowl).  This is the first rising.  Clean up the workspace with the bench scraper and leave the flour pile to use for the 2nd rising.

Step 4:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, at least 1/2 hour before this step

Step 5:  Second rising:  take the dough out of the bowl and press down on it and start kneading again, while incorporating flour, until it is getting kind of hard to knead, approx. 5-10 minutes?  Dust with flour and rollout with rolling pin until around 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) depth.  Cut into as many rounds as you can get with the bisquit cutter or cup, then fold each round in half and pinch somewhat together and place in oiled pie pan (they will rise and stick to each other and become pull apart rolls).  ALTERNATELY, make vegan burger or hotdog rolls by shaping into the desired shape.  Cover with plastic bag, again, and let rise for another 1/2 hour - 45 minutes or until doubled again.  Since this dough is heavy, it must be in a very warm environment to rise (warm (not hot) oven turned off)

Ahhh, you have never had a hotdog roll quite like these, promise.  This is a field roast vegan frankfurter and if you have never had one, you must…they are absolutely delicious

Step 6:  Place in oven, and bake until nice and light brown (watch that you do not burn) , approximately 20 minutes. Remove from oven, place on baking rack until completely cool,  spray with oil for that nice gloss and serve.

Store in tight plastic bags overnight when completely cool or freeze.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION-real churned corn butter

Real churned corn butter, as of 3/5/18 will report exact recipe
coming soon!!

The great part about this is that ingredients do not have to be exact,  you will go by the fluffy look

Equipment:
Food Processor
Small silicone spatula
Dry measuring cups
2-3 cup glass container with lid

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe of sweet corn cream vegan butter,(this would work with any vegan butter recipe you prefer) cut into squares and placed in food processor for around 15 minutes prior to whipping
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup light oil, use as much or little as you wish when you see the mixture fluffy enough (I use safflower and canola oil)
• a few shakes of salt

Method:
After the sweet corn butter is a little used to room temperature, add a little salt, then oil, a little at a time, and process the food processor until you think the mixture looks fluffy enough, but not so much that the heat separates the mixture.

Transfer the mixture immediately to a glass container, scape down sides of food processor with spatula, and cover container, refrigerate.  Can take 3-6 hours to set up.

 "this is nothing like margarine it is 100x better"