Quick & Tasty Dinner

Vegan Creamy Tomato Soup & Grilled Vegan Cheese Sandwich

I've been on a soup kick this week.  Yesterday, I made Southwestern Black Bean & Corn Chowder from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. It's one of my most favorite soups.  It comes together quickly, simmers for a half hour and is ready to eat.  It's forgiving when I don't have all of the right ingredients (like only 1 can of black beans, so I subbed 1 can of great northern beans and no fire roasted tomatoes, so I used organic tomato sauce).  I've used many different combinations of almost the right ingredients (no chopped mild green chilies? use dried jalapeno instead) and it's delicious every time!

Southwestern Black Bean & Corn Chowder

Today, I picked up a small container of Creamy Tomato Bisque soup and put it in the fridge at work.  I'm thinking you can guess what happened tonight when I was in the car driving home.  Yep! I left the soup at work.  My son still wanted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese, so I went online searching for soup recipe.  And, I found a good one ... Panera Creamy Tomato Soup Copycat Recipe by The Novice Chef. 

It was an easy fix to veganize this recipe.  I switched out the half and half for SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer.  I also added a few things based on the suggestions in the comments of her blog.  The result was a creamy soup that mimics the taste of Panera Bread's Tomato Soup. Here is the slightly altered recipe below. 

Vegan Creamy Tomato Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves (run through a garlic press0
1 large onion, sliced (I used 2 small)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (add more for a spicy soup)
1 tablespoon Earth Balance
2 (28 oz.) cans San Marzano peeled whole tomatoes with juice
1 to 1½ cups water 
1 vegan chicken bouillon cube
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer
1 small package of organic basil leaves (in the produce section) sliced in ribbons
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat pan, add olive oil and then add garlic & sliced onions at the same time.  Cook over medium to medium low heat stirring frequently for 4 minutes.  Add smoked paprika, red pepper flakes and Earth Balance.  Continue cooking another 4 minutes or so until onions are translucent.

Add the tomatoes with juice, water, bouillon cube and sugar.  Turn the heat to medium until soup starts to bubble.  Simmer for 12 -15 minutes.  Add the vegan creamer, basil, oregano and salt & pepper to taste.  

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it's smooth with no large chunks of veggies or spices.  Serve with crusty bread or grilled vegan cheese sandwiches. Can be frozen for up to 3 months.

This is definitely enough to feed 4 people.  My son and I both had a generous helping and I'm freezing the rest to eat another week when I need "fast food" at home. 

Fork-and-Knife Reuben

This post will be parts 2 and 3 for my St. Paddy's Day meal, which I'm actually eating tonight.  My dinner of choice is the Fork-and-Knife Reuben out of American Vegan Kitchen. Last night, I sliced the Savory Seitan ball into thin slices.  I made the marinade and put the seitan in it to marinate overnight and all day long today.

The seitan was ready to cook when I got home tonight.  First, I made the sauce and put it in a bowl in my fridge to chill while I cooked the seitan.  I have a huge skillet that accommodated all of the pieces of seitan since I was only making a half batch.

After it had heated through for 7 or 8 minutes, I added the marinade and cooked it until the marinade was almost gone.  I didn't have any rye bread, so I used double fiber bread.  I spread Dijon mustard on one slice, added a layer of seitan, added a layer of sauerkraut, and then added a drizzle of the sauce.  The recipes only calls for the sauce on the outside of the sandwich once it's done, but I HAD to put a generous drizzle on top of the sauerkraut.

Next, I popped the sandwich in a parchment bag and put it in my Rocket Grill to grill for about 2 minutes.  What came out was perfection!

I drizzled more sauce on the finished sandwich, grabbed a fork and knife, a cold beer, and sat down to enjoy my creation ... compliments of American Vegan Kitchen and Tamasin Noyes, of course! :)  This is a most excellent cookbook.  I have loved everything I've made out of it. I highly recommend it.

Portobello Philly Cheese Steaks

Tonight, I was determined to use the two remaining portobello mushrooms that I had.  It was either use them or toss them tomorrow.  So, I decided to make Portobello Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches.  I have never made them using mushrooms.  OK, OK, I've never made them at all.  I combined a couple of recipes that I found taking a bit from one and another ingredient from the other.  I used a recipe from VegWeb.com called Portobello Cheese-Steaks and one from MealsMatter.org called Portobello "Philly Cheese Steak" Sandwich.

I sliced the onions thin and sauteed them in some olive oil until they were starting to caramelize.  Then I added thinly sliced mushroom cap and some spices and cooked it until the mushroom was soft.  I added some Braggs, vegan Worcestershire sauce, and a bit of Balsamic Vinegar.  After that simmered for about a minute, I sprinkled the mixture with flour and added some mushroom broth and let it cook until the sauce thickened.  Overall, it was very good.  I think I'll leave the vinegar out next time, though, as I thought the flavor was too predominant.  I ate mine on a high fiber tortilla (11 grams of fiber) instead of a roll, but that's because I forgot to pick some up at the store.  I topped it with some shredded vegan cheese and some sliced pepperoncini to add a little kick.

Portobello Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

2 portobello caps, thinly sliced
1 medium to large onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 teaspoons oregano (dried)
1/2 teaspoon or so black pepper (didn't measure, so this is a guess)
flour to coat veggies (1 to 2 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons Braggs or lower sodium Soy Sauce
2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
1½ teaspoons Balsamic vinegar (I'll leave out next time)
1/2 to 2/3 cup mushroom broth
shredded vegan cheese (your favorite)
pepperoncini peppers

Saute onion in olive oil until it's soft and starting to brown; add garlic and sliced mushroom.  Sprinkle with the oregano and black pepper.  Saute until mushroom is soft, stirring frequently.

Sprinkle mushroom/onion mixture with flour, stir to coat.  Add broth, Braggs, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar (if using).  Simmer until broth has thickened.  Serve on French rolls, whole wheat bread, or pitas.  Top with shredded vegan cheese of your choice and peppers.  Enjoy!