Shyamatara Das

In the Service of the Divine Mother

Vegan Bolognese Sauce with Impossible Burger

April 9, 2022 By Brian Leave a Comment

Vegan Bolognese Sauce With PastaPlant based meats have come a long way over the past few years, from the mushy crumbles of yore to something that truly approximates the texture and flavor of beef.

I recently picked up a copy of Cooking With Plant Based Meat from America’s Test Kitchen, and decided to give this dish a try for a weeknight meal. It turned out to be as delicious as the book promised, like a comforting “hug from an Italian grandmother.”

After finely chopping a carrot, a stalk of celery and an onion in the food processor, all three went into a cast iron Dutch Oven to sauté with olive oil and salt and pepper until soft and well browned. Then I added some chopped garlic and 3 tablespoons of tomato paste, and stirred that around until caramelized, then deglazed with half a cup of red wine. A 12 ounce package of the Impossible Burger went in next and cooked with the veggie mixture for a few minutes before adding two cups of veggie stock. I let that simmer for 15 minutes while cooking the noodles.

Finally, I added the noodles to the post of sauce, and let it all cook together for a few minutes before serving.

I truly believe that if you served this to even a discriminating carnivore, they would not know that it’s plant based. The textures and flavors were a perfect mimic.

I used egg white noodles, and Parmesan shreds, so the dish wasn’t strictly vegan, but one could easily use any wide eggless pasta noodle of some sort and vegan cheese (or just leave the cheese out).

It should be noted that although Impossible Burger is probably not less healthy than beef, if you are abstaining from meat for health reasons it isn’t really an improvement. If, like our family, the reason for eating a plant based diet is more a matter of ethics and spirituality, then using this product from time to time should be fine. It *does* contain some GMO material if that is a concern.

My wife has a recipe for a Bolognese Sauce made entirely from fresh vegetables that is also delicious. I’ll do my best to prevail on her for a copy to post in comments here.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Plant Based Meals, Vegan, Vegetarian Cooking

Vegan Pad Thai

February 15, 2022 By Brian Leave a Comment

Vegan Pad ThaiI’ve been wanting to try cooking Pad Thai for a long time, and finally got around to it last week. I had already researched recipes, but when I told my wife I was planning to make it, she scared up one more that was helpful in pulling together the dish.

Since my version does not include the shrimp and the fish sauce that are typical in Thailand, it’s not “authentic” Pad Thai, so I’m going to call it “Pad Bri.” 🙂

If you want, you could leave out the tofu. You could also add whatever other veggies you would like for the sauté. For a gluten-free version, use Tamari in place of the soy sauce.

For the Sauce

Combine these ingredients slowly one at a time, and when fully combined boil together for three or four minutes.

  • 4 T tamarind paste
  • 4T soy sauce
  • 3 T garlic chili sauce
  • 2 T maple syrup
  • 1/4 c powdered peanuts
  • maybe some peanut butter
  • 1 c veggie stock

Prepare the Tofu

Saute tofu cubes in a little sesame oil, then add soy sauce, some spoons of peanut butter, and a little of the garlic chili sauce. Reserve this.

For the Veggie Sauté

Cook the onion first, then add the garlic and ginger until fragrant, then the other veggies of your choosing. Finally. add the bean sprouts and a squeeze of lime. I used sesame oil in the wok for this.

  • 1 chopped onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic, pressed
  • some grated fresh ginger
  • chopped red and yellow bell peppers
  • 1 can of bean sprouts, drained
  • a squeeze or two of lime

Once these items are done, add a little peanut butter and soy sauce, the white part of some scallions, and then the sauce and prepared tofu. Finally, add a package of Thai rice noodles that you have already prepared by soaking in a bowl of hot (fresh from boiling) water for five minutes or so.

Toss all of this around in the wok to warm through, and serve with cilantro, scallions, crushed peanuts, lime wedges and Sriracha or other hot sauce.

This served our family of three, and there was enough left over for a nice lunch for one of us later in the week.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Healthy Foods, Plant Based Meals, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian Cooking

Tofu Scramble

June 26, 2021 By Brian

Tofu Scramble
Tofu Scramble Plated

Although I have yet to become a committed vegan, I do my best to observe a largely plant-based diet, and am always looking for tasty and nutritious meals that don’t contain meat.

I generally stick to simple recipes of rice, grains, vegetables and fruits, and also sometimes just leave meat out of recipes that call for it but are fine without (chili, pasta sauces, etc.). “Meat substitutes” have not been a huge part of my cooking vocabulary. I do like to experiment, though, and lately have been cooking with Field Roast products (sausages and burgers which are made from vital wheat gluten and are surprisingly good), and have also used tofu a few times.

For supper one evening this week, I made a tofu scramble that turned out really well. The trick for getting an “eggy” flavor is to use a Himalayan black salt called “Kala Namak.” You can read about the process and recipe on my food blog.

This time I included mushrooms, spinach, grape tomatoes and green onions. I also fried up some Field Roast vegan breakfast links to go along.

Tofu Ready to be Scrambled
Field Roast Vegan Links

The photo on the left is the tofu browning in the pan before any of the sauce was added. It’s amazing to me that such a thing eventually approximates a nice, rich, plate of scrambled eggs. 🙂

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Breakfast, Field Roast, Healthy Cooking, Plant Based Meals, Recipes, Tofu, Vegan

ༀ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

Mother of Liberation, Guide and Protect Us

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About Shyamatara Das

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