Now, y’all know I’m a Gulf Coast girl, and so I suppose it was only a matter of time until I put together a po’ boy for us to try here at home! I do love some good old Cajun flavor, and Louisiana-style restaurants are hard to come by up here in the DC area. So the other day, it hit me: I need a po’ boy. And I need it ASAP.
Enter tonight’s vegan shrimp po’ boys! So easy to make, so wonderful to eat.
I served our sandwiches alongside some sweet-potato fries, so I got those cooking first – seven minutes or so at 425 just to get the juices flowing. Then I placed a package of Sophie’s Kitchen breaded “shrimp” in the oven as well and heated it for another seven minutes to defrost the shrimp a bit so I could separate them. Then I set everything in for another 10 minutes and prepared the bread!
The key to this dish is to have a fresh, untoasted baguette at your disposal. I waited until the last minute today to buy mine just so it would be as soft as possible – a necessity if you’re not going to heat it up! I cut a hunk (that’s the technical term) off of the bread, sliced off the end, and then sliced each hunk lengthwise to make a top and a bottom to the baguette.
Next, I spread some Just Mayo out across each slice. Like a good Southerner, I tend to be a bit heavy-handed with the mayo, but add as much or as little as you like!
Then it was time for the add-ons (proportions in the recipe below). A little Tabasco does wonders when it soaks into bread, and atop that I added a layer of shrimp, like so:
And then several slices of tomato, some leaves of lettuce, some diced pimientos, and some Creole mustard. Put the top on the sandwich, slice it in half, and you’re good to go! Served with sweet-potato fries, you’ve got a wonderfully flavorful and filling meal that just can’t be beat.
It’s amazing to me that a sandwich as simple to make as a po’ boy can be so addicting. I’m not sure whether it’s the tang of the mustard, the crunch of the lettuce, the surprise of the pimientos or the chewy shrimp (real in my past life, vegan in my current :)), but the sum of the parts is a wonderful experience indeed. You ought to try them today!
VEGAN SHRIMP PO’ BOYS
Serves 2-4
What you’ll need:
1 package vegan shrimp (we used Sophie’s Kitchen)
1 fresh baguette
4 tbsps. vegan mayonnaise (or more or less, depending on the number of sandwiches and your preference)
Tabasco, to taste
1 tomato, sliced thinly
Romaine lettuce, to taste
1 jar diced pimientos
4 tbsps. Cajun mustard
First, bake the shrimp according to package instructions.
While it cooks, cut your baguette crosswise to make as many sandwiches as you like. Then cut each section lengthwise to create a top and a bottom to each portion of the baguette.
Spread the mayonnaise evenly across each slice, then top one slice of each sandwich with a few drops of Tabasco. Next, wait for your shrimp to cook. This allows the Tabasco to soak into the bread – a wonderful experience!
When the shrimp is ready, line them up along the bottom half of each sandwich. Then top the shrimp with several slices of tomato, and next the lettuce.
On the top half of the sandwich, add a tablespoon or two of Creole mustard. Then top that with several teaspoons of diced pimiento (or to taste). Next, place the top half of the sandwich onto the bottom and slice each sandwich in half crosswise. Serve, and laissez le bon temps rouler!
:)
Vegan Beef With Bordelaise Sauce and Ribbon Noodles.
Straight from the BettyGoes Vegan files, here comes tonight’s dinner! We’re big fans of Gardein’s “beef” tips here at Chez Recessionista, and I knew this meal had the potential to hit the spot in a big way.
As the weather turns more crisp and cool, I’m always looking for ways to bring the comforts of autumn to the dinner table – anything involving both “beef” tips and red wine is a pretty good start! Tonight, I slightly modified the recipe from the Shannons’ cookbook (a good proxy for it can be found on their blog, too) and got straight to work.
A few things I did differently than the recipe you see at that link: Instead of cooking the beef separately first, I just sautéed it right there in the Le Creuset along with the onion. I omitted the thyme (because I forgot about it) and instead of a bouillon cube I used two ice cube-sized blocks of frozen veggie broth. Further – and this was a mistake, looking back, since the sauce didn’t thicken up without it (duh) – I omitted the flour because I confess I get so tiredof whisking flour to make a roux! Honesty is a core value on this blog, y’all, so there you have it.
Thank heaven the final result wasn’t the worse for wear! LeeLee and I mowed down every last piece of beef and onion (and all of the sauce, too), and there are enough ribbon noodles left for some sort of lunch for tomorrow. We’ll definitely make this recipe again – it was absolutely delightful! Another success by the Shannons.
:)
New Recipe: Vegan Shrimp and Grits.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I adore the new vegan seafood products on the market today. Shrimp was the very last animal meat I gave up – growing up on the Gulf Coast, I fell in love with shrimp early and it was my very favorite treat for years! Only recently have I found a vegetarian protein to take its place, and friends, there’s just no turning back.
Tonight, I had a hankering for one of those good old Gulf Coast meals that I used to adore so much but haven’t had in more than a decade. Shrimp and grits? Yes, please!
I started with a cup of quick-cooking grits with a pinch of salt and set them to low heat. (As the grits began to simmer, I baked the shrimp in the oven to get them prepared.) Once the grits had a little bit of firmness – not a lot, they weren’t done, but just a little texture to them – I added a small can of diced green chilies to the pan and stirred well. A couple of minutes later, I added two tablespoons of tomato sauce and stirred well again.
Now, let me tell you a little secret about how I make grits: I don’t cover them, as it says to do on the package. Once, back in college, the lid to my saucepan was dirty and I didn’t feel like washing it, so I left it in the sink and cooked the grits “topless.” Lo and behold, the Earth did not spin off its axis, nor did the sky fall. Nor, even, were my grits any worse for wear! So now I cook them topless every time. And every time I am pleased with the results. You just have to stir them a little more often, is all.
But back to the cooking process.
By the time the shrimp was fully baked, the grits weren’t far behind – they’d thickened up nicely by this point and were quite nearly ready to eat. So I proceeded with the final step of the recipe and added 1 cup of Daiya cheddar shreds to the saucepan, stirring after each half-cup until the cheese was fully melted and had blended into the rest of the dish. Then it was time to eat!
We spooned big helpings of the grits onto our plates and topped it with a hearty dose of shrimp. Then we dove right in and cleared our plates – and went back to the stove for seconds! Unfortunately, there’s not a shred of shrimp and grits left in the kitchen at the moment – but fortunately, we loved every bite. You will, too!
VEGAN SHRIMP AND GRITS
Serves 2-4
What you’ll need:
1 package vegan breaded shrimp (we used Sophie’s Kitchen)
4 cups water
1 cup quick-cooking grits
1 small can diced green chilies, drained as best you can (they’re liquidy little suckers)
2 tbsps. tomato sauce
1 cup vegan cheddar cheese (we used Daiya)
Salt, to taste
Place the shrimp into the oven to bake according to the package instructions. (We cooked ours at 375 for 15 minutes.)
Next, prepare the grits. Set four cups of water to boil in a medium saucepan. Once the water is boiling nicely, add one cup of grits and salt to taste and stir well, then turn the heat down to Low.
After about 5-7 minutes, add the diced green chilies to the saucepan and stir well to combine. A couple of minutes later, add the tomato sauce and stir well again.
Once the grits are almost to the texture and thickness you prefer, add the cheese in half-cup increments, stirring well with each addition to combine. The cheese should blend in beautifully with your grits.
Next, when the shrimp is finished baking, pull it out of the oven and get ready to plate your dish!
Spoon a hearty helping of grits into the middle of a dinner plate, and then top the grits with however much shrimp you like. (We tend to be heavy-handed with it, admittedly.) Add a little extra salt if you think the grits need it, and most of all, enjoy!
:)
Sunday Cookout: Grilled Vegan Scallops With Green Beans, Acorn Squash, and Apple-Pear Salad.
Friends, tonight marked several firsts on the Recessionista Grill! And I can’t help but spoil the surprise right here at the top of the broadcast: The final results were all just great. I love when a maiden voyage gets to its destination safely!
Let’s start with the vegan scallops. We tried these a little while ago as part of an indoor meal, and I confess we weren’t 100% blown away by the final product. The problem, we determined, was that we expected the flavor profile to be bursting straight out of the box, when what was necessary in actuality was a bit of seasoning before cooking. So with that in mind, this morning I defrosted a box of Sophie’s Kitchen’s vegan scallops in the fridge, and this afternoon I brought them out to room temperature, sprayed both sides with cooking spray, seasoned the scallops with one of my favorite barbecue rubs, and placed them on two rosemary stalks. (LeeLee and I like to buy “barbecue rosemary” each year at the nursery; this is the first time we’ve ever actually used the stalks on the barbecue!)
Once the scallops were prepared, I set them aside and worked on the other dinnertime components. I snapped the ends off of the green beans (bought just yesterday from our friends at Bigg Riggs Farm) and placed them in their standard foil packet with a pat of butter and some chipotle seasoning, and then I sliced an acorn squash (which arrived a couple of weeks ago in our box from Great Country Farms) into half-moons to accompany the meal. Then it was time to light up the grill!
The green beans went on first, allowing for about half an hour’s worth of cooking time. Next went the acorn squash with a total cook time of about 20 minutes – I flipped the crescents over halfway through. Finally, with 15 minutes left in the cooking time, I placed the scallops on as well, turning them every 5 minutes or so in order to get them fully crispy-cooked.
As everything grilled, I prepared one last side dish inside: the apple and Asian pear salad I made a few weeks ago! I topped the dish with honey, cherry pepper spice, and some feta cheese, and brought it to the table to wait on dinner.
Within short order, the green beans, acorn squash, and scallops all made their way off the grill, and we dug in. The scallops weren’t lacking for flavor this time around, let me assure you! I think I’ve found out their secret, which shouldn’t be a secret at all: Like seafood scallops, this vegan variety requires a bit of finesse work to make them fun to eat. How quickly we forget the ways of the sea!
The acorn squash – another first on the grill – turned out incredibly tender and flavorful, not needing much in the way of additional seasoning. And the green beans and salad both got the job done in terms of satisfying our appetite – as usual!
What a great autumnal meal this was! I’m already looking forward to next week.
:)
Chicken-Free Pot Pie.
Tonight, there was a crispness in the autumn air that hasn’t been around for quite some time, so I knew that we needed something especially hearty for dinner. Enter a new pot-pie recipe I found from perusing my library copy of Betty Goes Vegan!
I’ve mentioned this cookbook, written by Annie and Dan Shannon, a few times on the blog recently, and I must say I’m still in love with it. I just adore how so many homestyle meals can be made vegan with very little trouble; their explorations are every veg cook’s gain! I have yet to make a recipe from Betty Goes Vegan that disappoints; everything I’ve tackled thus far has been pitch-perfect. That’s not due to my cooking skillz, I might add. It’s just that this book is so descriptive, so accessible, that it’s hard not to fall right into lockstep with the Shannons!
Anyway, getting back to tonight’s chik’n pot pie. The Shannons actually have a similar recipe up on their blog, so I’ll direct you to that if you’re not interested in the whole cookbook as of yet. I will say that instead of making my own pie crust, I used a veg version from Whole Foods, and instead of making my own gravy, I used a vegetarian mushroom gravy from Safeway. All in the name of expediency on a Tuesday night!
I heated everything up together and put it into a pie crust, and then topped the pie with the second crust and baked it for about half an hour. The crust was nicely browned and the gravy was bubbling steadily after 30 minutes, so I brought the pot pie out to cool and, 10 minutes later, dug right in.
Success! I loved how the flavors mingled and how the gravy served as a binder as well as seasoning. The peas and carrots, green beans, celery, and of course the chik’n all went together beautifully and filled the pie plate perfectly to the brim!
Furthermore, we’ve got plenty of pot pie left for lunch tomorrow – a fact that we’re both incredibly happy about! We’ll definitely make this dish again; I can already see it’ll become a fall-and-winter staple!
:)
New Recipe: Vegan “Shrimp” Tacos With Avocado Fries.
One of my favorite coastal meals is shrimp tacos, and since LeeLee and I have been vegetarian (almost 15 years running now), I haven’t had any proxy for them, not even once. Tonight changed all that – and we’re hooked!
We called on good old Sophie’s Kitchen again tonight for all our vegan shrimp needs, and once again, we weren’t disappointed. I baked a batch of “shrimp” for about 15 minutes and tucked a little foil pan of black beans into the oven too – why use a stovetop eye when the oven would do the trick all the way around? (Near the end of the cooking process, I also tucked four flour tortillas wrapped in foil on the second oven rack to warm up.)
As everything baked, I prepared my side items! I used shredded lettuce tonight – we normally use the leafy kind instead, but tonight I wanted a coastal, light taste, and shredded lettuce did the trick. We also had quite a few cherry tomatoes on hand from this weekend’s veggie plate while watching the football game, and I washed a helping of those for garnish.
Finally, I prepared the avocado by slicing it into French-fry-style wedges, putting all the wedges in a bowl, and tossing them with a hearty dose of nutritional yeast and a pinch (or several) of chipotle seasoning.
Within just a few minutes, everything in the oven was ready, and we set to work assembling our tacos. First we spooned a small serving of black beans in the middle each tortilla, then topped it with three or four (or five) pieces of shrimp. Then we added a handful of lettuce, several tomatoes, and a generous dose of black olives, and topped everything off with some Daiya pepperjack cheese! LeeLee added original Tabasco for some flair, while I went the more sedate chipotle Tabasco route. Diff’rent strokes and all that.
The final product was so incredibly tasty. We loved the blend of flavors, from the smoky black beans to the crispy shrimp, from the crunch of the lettuce to the juicy cherry tomatoes. The olives added a salty kick, and the pepperjack gave the dish some spice (to say nothing of the Tabasco!). And the avocado fries! They were just great – the creamy avocado really soaked up the nutritional yeast and chipotle powder.
I can already tell you that this recipe will soon be a mainstay at our place!
VEGAN “SHRIMP” TACOS
Serves 2-4
What you’ll need:
1 package vegan shrimp (we used Sophie’s Kitchen)
1 can black beans
1 package taco-sized flour tortillas
1 bag shredded lettuce
1 container cherry tomatoes
1 can sliced black olives
1 package vegan cheese (we used Daiya pepperjack shreds)
Hot sauce, to taste
Cook the shrimp according to the package directions. Heat up the black beans however you see fit (on the stovetop, in the microwave, or in the oven in a foil pan). Several minutes prior to the end of the cooking time, wrap the flour tortillas in foil and add them to the oven with the shrimp – just two to three minutes will heat them through.
Just like that, it’s time to put everything together! Once the shrimp and black beans are hot and fully cooked, spoon the beans onto a tortilla, then add three to four pieces of shrimp. Next add the lettuce, tomatoes, olives, cheese, and hot sauce, as well as any other side items you like (sour cream and avocado are other favorites of ours).
Dig in – you’re ready to eat!
:)
Potato and Corn Salad With Vegan Shrimp.
So, as I’ve mentioned now quite often, we have a bunch of potatoes skulking about the house. Fortunately, other members of my CSA, Great Country Farms, have been generous with their recipe suggestions, and I took one of them to heart tonight!
Along with our potatoes, we’ve also had plenty of fresh corn as of late thanks to our weekly veggie boxes, so this Food Network recipe was no trouble at all to put together. Since I’m training for a triathlon and this week is a ramp-up week, I’m hungry all the time, so I decided to add a little protein to the mix by way of some Sophie’s Kichen vegan shrimp. As a Gulf Coast native, I figure shrimp (or, these days, its vegan counterpart) goes with anything!
And so I got started preparing the veggies – though I deviated from the recipe a little and boiled both the corn and the potatoes in the same pot at the same time instead of sautéing the corn separately. As they cooked, I heated up a pan full of vegan shrimp, which were warm and toasty by the time the potatoes were soft and the kernels of corn were ready to be cut off the cob!
In a large bowl I shaved the ears of corn clean and then added the drained diced potatoes to the mix. Then I put the shrimp on top and sliced a scallion, and finally tossed everything in the dressing. Instead of using buttermilk, I used almond milk, and for the first time I tried out Just Mayo, which I liked quite a lot! I also used white balsamic vinegar for the vinegar, because we had it lying around so why not. :)
The result? Majesty! We loved this salad so very much, and the shrimp did indeed make a wonderful addition to the mix. It was fresh yet filling; healthy yet hearty. And the dressing was just great! I was worried that the almond milk would render it too watery, but it maintained a very nice consistency within the salad and coated the ingredients just beautifully.
We were both so pleased with this salad – I’ll definitely make this recipe again! And heaven knows we’ll have plenty of potatoes to practice on in the next little while. (Speaking of, if you have suggestions for what we should do with our dozens of pounds of potatoes, please speak up in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.)
:)
New Recipe: Vegan “Tuna” Noodle Casserole.
Now THIS is a recipe I haven’t had in a long, long time – not for at least 14 years, or since LeeLee and I became vegetarian!
I’ve been noodling – no pun intended (well, maybe a little bit intended ;)) – on how to concoct a vegan version of tuna noodle casserole for a few months now, and tonight I decided to give it a go. It’s so much easier now that we can enjoy vegan Toona via Sophie’s Kitchen! And after I concocted a satisfying vegan cream sauce recently, pairing it with my creamed “tuna” over English muffins, I knew this casserole would be doable indeed.
With that in mind, I got cooking! I put the pasta water on to boil and started in on the cream sauce (details below). Once the water was boiling, I added a package of eggless ribbon noodles and half a bag of green peas, and after the sauce thickened there on the other burner, I added a jar of sliced mushrooms and a jar of pimientos (like a good Southerner, I keep them on hand at all times!). After the cream sauce was nicely thickened, I added two cans of Toona, stirring well to combine, and then drained the pasta. After that, it was simply a matter of mixing everything together in my bright yellow casserole dish, topping the meal off with some bread crumbs, and baking it for 20 minutes!
Let me tell you, friends – this toona noodle casserole was SO good. It tasted just like the seafood version I remember from all those years ago! The cream sauce was smooth and satisfying; the pimientos and peas played nicely amidst the noodles; and the Toona itself was wonderfully flavorful, with a mix of salt and pepper hanging out within the flakes. I confess I enjoyed two helpings, and we’ve got plenty more for lunches for the week! I can already tell you that it’ll be a fight between family members to get the lion’s share for each day’s noontime meal.
OK, enough intro – let’s get on with the recipe!
VEGAN “TUNA” NOODLE CASSEROLE
Serves 4-6
What you’ll need:
1 bag ribbon noodles (think egg noodles, but vegan)
½ bag frozen green peas
¼ cup vegan butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups almond milk
1 jar sliced mushrooms
1 jar diced pimientos
1 can vegan tuna
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
¼ cup bread crumbs
First, set the pasta water on to boil and prepare the noodles according to the package instructions. Add the frozen peas to the pasta pot as well; they’ll all heat up nicely together!
As the noodles cook, prepare the cream sauce. First, make a roux by melting the butter in a saucepan and then whisking the flour in to make a paste. Once those two ingredients are combined, add the milk and whisk continuously until the mixture becomes a cream sauce (this always takes me 5-7 minutes). Once the sauce has thickened to a creamy consistency, add the mushrooms, pimientos, vegan tuna, salt, and pepper, and stir well to combine.
Drain the pasta and peas and then put them into a casserole dish. (The casserole dish I used tonight managed to fit almost all of the cooked pasta; your mileage may vary!) Next, pour the sauce on top a few dollops at a time, stirring to combine as you go. Keep adding sauce until the sauce is all gone (or until there’s simply no more room left in the casserole dish!). If you have sauce left over, you probably have pasta left over, too, so just combine the two and you’ll have an auxiliary tuna noodle casserole for later.
Sprinkle the bread crumbs atop the casserole and put the dish in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes. Once the crumbs have browned and the top noodles are a little crispy, you’re ready to eat!
Enjoy!
:)
Vegan Jalapeno-Popper Burgers With Grilled Green Beans and Grilled Potatoes.
Have I mentioned that we are now the proud owners of 50+ pounds of potatoes?
I know I’ve alluded to the fact that we now have a steady stream of potatoes coming in the door in our weekly veggie boxes from Great Country Farms, but clearly we are gluttons for spuds – this weekend, we ventured out to the farm to pick our own potatoes! This is an annual event for LeeLee and me; beginning the day with fresh pancakes and then proceeding out to the potato fields (and, later, to the vineyard across the road for a taste!) is a Labor Day weekend tradition.
But never before have I actually broken the scale when checking out! LeeLee kept saying that my bag was too heavy, that I needed to cease and desist, but I paid him no mind. When we went to check out, his bag rang in at a jaunty 20ish pounds and mine was … well, my bag caused the little scale to beep because my haul was over 30 pounds. Yikes!
After putting the potatoes out to dry and cure for a couple of days, we’ve packed them into big cardboard boxes and lined each layer with newspapers. With proper protection, they’ll last us till the new year!
If we quit eating them for every meal, that is. Currently we’re still in the honeymoon phase with our potato haul – they can do no wrong as of yet. Which brings me to tonight’s dinner: a Labor Day cookout, naturally.
A couple of weeks ago, I finally got the hang of grilling potatoes, and now there’s no stopping me! Years ago, I tried the same feat, but I didn’t factor in the girth and density of the spuds, and they came out hard and inedible. (We had to bake them in the oven for another half-hour to render them useful!) That little experience put me off of grilling them again for quite some time, until a couple of weeks ago, when I cooked out with my mom and dad, and I got the nerve to give it another try.
I’m SO glad that I did! That time, I washed them (as usual) and cut them into a small dice, then put them in a foil packet with a bit of olive oil. They turned out wonderfully after about 35 minutes on the grill! Tonight, I went a step further and used butter instead of olive oil, then garnished them with a little salt, garlic powder, and fresh parsley from our herb garden. Then I put them on the grill and let them go for about 40 minutes (to be safe!), flipping them every 10.
As they cooked, I also prepared some fresh green beans and placed them – along with some butter, some diced veggie bacon, and some chipotle powder – in a foil packet and let them cook for about 35 minutes, turning every 10. Let me tell you, friends – the bacon was a welcome addition to this side dish and one that I shall repeat with gusto as time goes by!
But I haven’t even mentioned the main course yet – the jalapeno popper burgers I’ve made from time to time! I found this recipe over at Tablespoon a long time ago and have used it with great success since. At first, I took the writer’s advice and prepared these in my cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, but these days I’ve thrown all caution to the wind and grilled them outside several times with no ill effects. I use a tube of Lightlife Gimme Lean veggie beef as my base and then tonight used Daiya cream cheese with a diced jalapeno from our garden (and a dash of cumin, just because) as the filling. After about 12 minutes on the grill, these big, thick burgers were ready to go!
We devoured the meal with much excitement – there wasn’t a bad dish in the bunch tonight! Paired with some leftover beers from this weekend’s football game, it was a Labor Day feast to be reckoned with indeed.
:)
Vegan Bacon Cheeseburger Hash.
Well, I’ve found a new cookbook that I absolutely adore, and I must share it with you posthaste!
When I was at the library a week or so ago, I stumbled upon Betty Goes Vegan, by Annie and Dan Shannon, and after thumbing through it there in the aisle, I was instantly smitten. I happen to love everything Betty Crocker has ever done – the only trouble is, since I’ve been vegetarian for the last one-and-a-half decades, I’ve not been able to enjoy everything Ms. Crocker has to offer for quite some time! Betty Goes Vegan does a remarkable job of veganizing all of good old Betty’s recipes – and the results are astounding.
So with that in mind, tonight I pulled out my biggest cast-iron skillet and got to work on Vegan Bacon Cheeseburger Hash. I won’t delve into the intracacies of the recipe here – the Shannons have a book to sell! – but let me just say that the blend of ground “beef,” diced onion, diced tomato, liquid smoke, and frozen breakfast potatoes did my heart good. It’s a Monday, things are stressful at work, and I’ve just returned from a weekend visiting family and have as usual left a bit of my heart with them; combine all of these things together and I was in desperate need of comfort food tonight! This cheeseburger hash came in mighty handy on that front; my hunger, both physical and emotional, was quelled. I can’t think of anything more to ask of a weekday dinner!
And to make matters even better, it only took about 20 minutes from end to end to cook. And did I mention I got to use my beloved cast-iron skillet? (I know I’ve already mentioned that. I just love it so!) I’ll definitely return to Betty Goes Vegan in short order. Look for another test run next week sometime!
:)
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