St. Josephs

I received two cookbooks on Thursday.  One, I had read great reviews on in someone's blog and it is American Vegan Kitchen.  There is a recipe for burgers in it that I will be trying this week.  I can't wait.  The other cookbook is Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food.  Today, I waited too long before I sat down and tried to figure out what I was cooking for dinner.  Luckily, I found a recipe in the Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food cookbook that was perfect for a casual Saturday night dinner.

When I went to Whole Foods last week, I picked up some TVP.  I have seen it in numerous recipes and thought it would be a good thing to have on hand.  And tonight, it was.  This is my first experience with cooking and eating TVP and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I reconstituted it in veggie broth (actually, water with 1/2 cube of no sodium veggie bouillon) with a tablespoon of Liquid Smoke added.  The recipe called for hickory flavor Liquid Smoke, but all I had was mesquite flavor, so I used that.  It was still good.  I mixed up the sloppy joe BBQ sauce and let it simmer while I sauteed the onion and orange pepper.  I think the recipe called for green, but I got a 3-pack of colored peppers, as I think I need colored for the burgers I'll be making this week.  Once the onion and pepper had cooked a couple of minutes, I added the TVP.

The TVP only needed to cook for 2 minutes before I could add the sauce.  The mixture wasn't as firm as I thought it should be, so I let it simmer a few minutes to reduce the sauce some.  I was truly amazed at how closely the finished dish resembled sloppy joes made with crumbled ground beef.  If I hadn't made the dish and had it at a friend's house for dinner, I would have never in a million years guessed that it was TVP.  I may have thought crumbled chicken or turkey even, but never TVP.  

I didn't have any buns and can you believe this?  The store that I went to so I could buy some was out.  Just my luck.  I did have some sandwich rounds, which are kind of like a bun, but extremely thin.  They are whole wheat and only 100 calories.  I had my Sloppy Joseph on one of those, but I had to eat it with a fork and knife as it was just too soupy to pick up on that thin bread.

I will definitely be making more recipes from the Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food cookbook.  There is a great looking taco recipe in there using TVP.  I'll be making that soon.  As I try more and more dishes, I will be giving more reviews.