The Vegan Thread

Yeah the options are quite small but a few more restaurants are opening and there is definatly a small change happening.

I made breaded grapefruit-peel steak last night and it was damn good.

It's an old Cuban recipe from times of hardship. The few accounts I found of people trying to make it today all said they couldn't quite get rid of the bitterness. But I gave careful thought to the marinade, using flavours that are known to counteract bitterness (turmeric, paprika, tomato puree, a little toasted sesame oil added in to the olive oil, sugar, salt). At step 5, instead of using vegetable-chicken broth, I pre-marinaded the steaks in something else well known for removing bitterness - milk (oat milk in my case but I bet diluted coconut milk would work a charm).

I used my hands to carefully remove the whole peel from each the inner fruit, rather than cut it along the segment boundaries and then cut those in two, so that I could have four larger pieces rather than a lot of smaller ones.

Texture was great (probably wouldn't be if you're not careful to squeeze the excess moisture out at each step), flavour was good. My partner yummed it up and found it hard to believe me when I told her, halfway through the meal, what it actually was. No grapefruit bitterness detected while eating, although there may have been a slight aftertaste (she said no, I thought there was but I'd also been carefully sampling bits of peel at various stages so it might just have been left from that).

I found the marinade gave plenty of taste so I didn't miss the faux-meat flavouring, but the rind should soak up your not-meat flavouring of choice. I liked the steaks much more than the typical meat-replacement because the texture was, well, real and had a proper consistency.

Would recommend, will certainly make again at some point.

What a great idea to make that. I'd never heard of it, or even of the possibility.

thats pretty great. Never heard of it either.. will have to give it ago.

whats a good source to buy tofu and tempeh in bulk?

For processed stuff I use this shop https://www.thevegankindsupermarket.com/.
Plain firm tofu I get from Hoo Hing, my local Asian supermarket.

I am also jealous of the fact that you live next door to VB and sons

Good news on the sausage/burger front but this seems a shame:
https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/food/oatly-slams-eu-over-dairy-ban/

Fucking ludicrous - we should leave the EU.

This is great, I hope it's a roaring success:

http://fatgayvegan.com/2020/10/27/vegan-butcher-to-open-in-london/

Trust Stephen Fry to talk a bit of sense.

This is incredible. Don’t think I’ve seen such an interesting recipe from a food history point of view.

amazing. A voice of reason.

In the process of making ramen broth from scratch. After straining the liquor from the roast vegetables I decided to make use of the pulp By making it into a pate.

A couple of mins in the blender with some sesame oil, generously spooned onto Mrs. Legs sourdough, and topped with coriander and shichimi.

Looks a bit like poo, tasted fantastic, haha.

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I made a carrot and ginger juice last night and food wasted the pulp - But next time i'll make a pate - inspired! Thank you.

Yeah man, just blitz that stuff up!

Juice pulp will still be nice and nutritious too, cooked veggies not so much but it’s better than them going in the compost.

can you share ramen brother recipe or is it top secretx WIP?

There should be no secrets when it comes to food!

Basically it's a load of veg roasted at 180 for about 3 hours until its a nice deep dark colour. Need to keep on stirring it every 30 mins or so. Better if you have more roasting trays like the glass ones in the photo as it prevents them from over browning. You'll know it's almost ready when no more moisture evaporates when you turn it.

From memory I used 2 onions, 4 carrots, 1 leek, 1 white cabbage, 1 butternut squash, handful chestnut mushrooms, 1 bulb of garlic, 1 celery head all chopped or grated.

Once it's nice and brown, add a load of boiling water to deglaze the trays and pop back in the oven for 30 mins. Strain off the liquid (and make a pate from the pulp ;) ).

That liquid is now a really good veg stock for anything really so if you have a lot you can set some aside and use for soups, gravy etc.

To make the ramen broth I soaked kelp and shiitake in the veg stock and added mirin to taste. Then I removed the mushrooms and kelp, chucked half of them in a blender with some white miso and made a smooth paste. I then added some of the paste back to the broth to give it creaminess. The remainder of the kelp and mushrooms I pan fried for garnish.

Phew, kinda a long process but worth it!

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Tofu coated in rice flour and then fried in sesame oil was the real star of the show. It soaked up the broth but still retained its crispness.

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at 180 for about 3 hours

what the fuck
how is this not complete mush by then

Well it basically is, haha! All that matters is that you get it nice and dark in colour and as dry as possible.

..colour definitely looks amazing!

That liquid is now a really good veg stock for anything really so if you have a lot you can set some aside and use for soups, gravy etc.

Pour in ice cube-trays and freeze for later!

Any recommendation for a good tasting vegan protein powder? Tried Bulk Powder this week but really not enjoying it...

Myprotein vegan protein blend was palatable for me but Huel is probably the best tasting one since I tried that. The black edition is basically protein powder

thats amazing! Thanks mate. I'll give that a go.