Comfort food! Today, our favourite food writer Chris Perrin offers a vegan version of the classic Reuben sandwich, along with a recipe for vegan Thousand Island dressing… If you’ve been following his tasty contributions here each month, you’ll know that Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute, writes for BIAO Magazine, food-blogs at Blog Well Done, and is working on his own vegan cookbook. Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Vegan Reuben: A Tasty Classic Gone Meatless

Lately, I have been on a sandwich kick which is a bit odd because before being veg, I took sandwiches for granted. They were everyday fare, something to grab on a busy day when I needed to shovel something quick. But now lunch meat is no longer a viable option, you know, because of the meat and all, and vegetarian sandwich slices are still a little ways off.

Sometimes, I just miss a good hearty sandwich piled high with fixings.

Fortunately, where there is a will, there is a way and even without meat there can still be sandwiches. All I need is a little ingenuity, a little planning, and two packages of good ol’ seitan.

Vegan Rueben

This motivation to make this sandwich actually grew out a craving for sauerkraut which sounds as just as weird as it was. The only problem in making it is the lack of any sort of faux corned beef. The good news is that corning some seitan is an easy process, but it does take over night. Still that means if you get to corning now, you can be having tasty reubens tomorrow!

Vegan Corned Beef

To make corned beef, all you need to do is a make brine (salted water) and soak the seitan in it over night. If you have real meat, just triple the water, brown sugar and salt and soak the meat for 3-14 days instead of overnight. Also, add some saltpeter if you have it or the meat will not be that lovely pink color.

6 cups of water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cloves
3-5 bay leaves
1 tablespoon juniper berries
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon all spice powder
2 packages of seitan

Pour all ingredients except the seitan into a pot and boil for five minutes. Set aside to cool.

Pour the brine into a plastic bowl and add the seitan. Put into the refrigerator overnight to brine.

(See, that was easy, wasn’t it?)

Vegan Reuben

The following recipe makes 16 sandwiches.

Once the seitan is ready, it is time to make the sandwich. Reubens are pressed sandwich so make sure you have a skillet and something you can set on top of the skillet (consider a second skillet) and something with some weight to it (usually a few cans of beans or veggies.)

2 packages corned seitan
16 slices of rye bread
8 tablespoons of vegan thousand island dressing (see below) or Dijon mustard
16 slices vegan Swiss cheese
8 tablespoons of sauerkraut
8 tablespoons of olive oil

Heat oven to 350°F. Lay the seitan out on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let the seitan cool.

Layout all 16 slices of bread and coat each with half a tablespoon of vegan thousand island or Dijon mustard. Add the seitan to one half and the vegan Swiss on the other. Put the sauerkraut on the top of the cheese and fold the sandwich. (By the way, order does matter.)

Bring a skillet to heat over a medium high flame. Coat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Place two sandwiches in the skillet and top with a second skillet or cookie sheet and then put a weight on the second skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes and then flip. Cook for another 1-2 minutes and remove the sandwiches.

If you are not vegan and you are using real Swiss cheese, make sure that the Swiss melts. Vegan Swiss cheese takes forever to melt, so just make sure the sandwich is heated all the way through.

Once the first set of sandwiches is done, wait about a minute for the skillet to get hot before repeating for the second set of sandwiches. Repeat until all reubens are done.

Serve with fries or chips and you will never miss regular reubens again. Oh, you will also end all your sauerkraut cravings!

Vegan Thousand Island Dressing

When it comes to reubens, I am a mustard fan, but I know a lot of people like their Thousand Island dressing. Here is a recipe using vegenaise, which is a mayonnaise replacement made from canola oil.

1/2 cup veganaise
6 ounces of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon vegan sugar
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons sweet pickles, finely diced
2 teaspoons sweet pickle juice

Blend all ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

Chris Perrin so outclasses me in the kitchen… He’s a columnist for BIAO Magazine, writes on food for KC Generations and KC Wellness magazine, and — starting next week — he’ll be flaunting his kitchen skillz on the Well Fed Network, at Grows & Grocers, Paper Palate, and EdibleTV. Chris has a cook’s certification from the Kansas City Culinary Institute and (wouldn’t you know it?) he’s working on a vegan cookbook exploring the mysteries of seitan. Heh. If he keeps this up, we’ll all be eating healthy — and loving it!
Enjoy!   ~ Jen

Many people have never heard of seitan, one of the more versatile vegan meat substitutes. Sometimes called wheat meat or Buddha food, it is formed by taking the gluten (proteins) from milled wheat, kneading it with water, and simmering the resulting dough in broth. Oh, and it is pronounced “SAY-tan” like everyone’s favorite Biblical bad boy. Which means I get a lot of weird looks when I start saying how awesome it is.

But the thing is, seitan (the food, not the archdemon) is a fantastic go-to ingredient for everyone because it’s high in protein, low in fat and if cooked properly, it has a texture and flavor very much like meat. Which is why I used it to make gyros when I was craving Greek.

Mediterranean restaurants are often vegfriendly and while I love hummus, dolmades and falafel, I often find myself sitting next to people blissfully munching on meat-stuffed gyros and I wanted some! This recipe was the result. It is a great meal to prepare the night before and take for lunch the next day. Even better, for picky children, quickly stuff the seitan inside a pita and top with salsa or hummus. They’ll never know the difference.

Seitan Gyros

Photo: iLoveButter

1 package of seitan
1 cup of broth (optional)
3 ounces of olive oil, preferably Greek
½ teaspoon of oregano, preferably Greek
¼ teaspoon of thyme
1 clove of garlic, minced
½ teaspoon of white pepper
1 lime, juiced
Salt to taste

Some seitan is sold as stir fry strips which are about an eighth of an inch thick. If you can’t find stir fry strips, cut your seitan into one-eighth thick inch pieces. This will allow the seitan to cook completely and feel more like meat.

Next, anytime I cook seitan, I like to simmer it for 5-10 minutes before sautéing or frying it. I find that it makes the seitan less firm and again makes it feel more like real meat.

Lastly, preheat a skillet over high heat, then add olive oil. Wait until the olive oil is blazing hot before adding all of the ingredients except the lime juice and the salt. Sauté the seitan until it is well browned on both sides. Add the lime juice and cook for another thirty seconds, then check for salt. It may need a pinch or two, especially if the broth was low sodium.

Serve with whole wheat pita, hummus and salsa that has been kicked up with roasted red peppers and a little more olive oil and you’ll never miss the fact that you’re not eating meat.

Need a quick meal?

A number of companies are turning seitan into really good cold cuts, but they tend to be dry. For those not willing to slather their sandwiches in mayonnaise or mustard, Lightlife has a product called Fakin’ Bacon Organic Smoky Tempeh Strips made from tempeh (a soy-based protein.) Lightlife says they are supposed to replace bacon, but their deeply smoky flavor and elegant sauce propel them far past mere bacon. Put them on a sandwich, add a little mayonnaise, tomato, and lettuce and you have an instantly delicious BLT.

For more of what is going in Chris’ lunchbox, on his dinner table, and on his party menus, as well as thoughts on food and culture, food in the media, and even the occasional recipe featuring meat, check out Chris’ food blog, Blog Well Done.

Gorgeous photos, easy recipes for tasty dishes, not to mention all the health and weight-loss benefits of the Mediterranean and Asian cuisines… MediterrAsian Cooking is my new favourite foodie site.

The blog is built on the idea that Asian and Mediterranean cuisines and lifestyles are not only delicious (who can disagree?) but also a great source of health. The purpose is to live long and healthy and eat gourmet-style along the way.

You’ve had a sneak peek introduction to The Mediterrasian Way cookbook, already, thanks to our friend Guilherme Zo’C — but don’t take Gui’s word for it (or mine, for that matter): you’ll want to go ogle this new blog for yourself. Especially if a tight waistband and the thought of impending swimsuit season *ahem* is making a new healthy diet look good about now…

And all the health and weight-loss benefits aside, we’re talking about the kind of gourmet food that real people (not just those overachieving Martha types for whom I harbour a secret envy) would actually make themselves at home.

There’s a Mediterrasian Cooking group at Flickr , too… but you might not want to look at those beautiful food pr0n shots on an empty stomach: a bit like going grocery shopping when you’re ravenously hungry! My suggestion? Have a nice apple and a bit of cheese, then go ahead and get your menu on!

Now, don’t spill your OJ with the excitement, but General Mills is giving away free samples of their Fiber One breakfast cereal when you sign up for the EatBetterAmerica newsletter.

As the name suggests, this free cereal offer is for Americans only.
Perhaps the rest of us are as “regular” as we need to be?

Nah.
Let’s just not go there….

Go here, instead, and have a bowl of crunchy breakfast fiber goodness for me.

Well, look who’s been doing his own stint of “reality TV” — and it doesn’t get any more real than cooking in front of the television cameras, people.

Last week, the delightful Ken Hoyt hit AM Northwest to demonstrate his recipe for delicious Savory Bread Pudding with Blue Cheese Sauce.

Watch our Ken do his kitchen thing in this video from the TV show, then grab the full recipe at his own oh-so-stylish blog.

This bread pudding sounds like the perfect savoury and comforting dish for a cold winter evening. Best yet, it’s a meal that can be mostly prepared the night before. Come home and toss it into the oven, make the sauce, and enjoy!

The only thing that could make it more perfect would be Ken Hoyt in situ to share. You have to adore a lifestyle guru who can get away with saying things like this:

A cheese sauce adds a little bit of dignity to a whole bunch of things — like broccoli that may not be so yummy. But you put a little cheese sauce on it and you can choke down any good thing…

Amen to that cheese sauce, my friend!

Welcome back to our Food-and-Drink aficionado, Guilherme Zo’C, guest-posting with another fresh perspective on all things edible from his home in Italy — a look at a healthy and delicious cuisine that blends the best of two continents. Enjoy! ~ Jen

The Mediterrasian Way:
The World’s Oldest Health Revolution

I have just finished reading The Mediterrasian Way, a book I was willing to read since before it was published. The book is the brainchild of Ric Watson and Trudy Thelander, a couple from New Zealand who also run a site called Mediterrasian.

I first landed on Mediterrasian.com about two years ago, googling for a recipe of Pesto Genoese (which can be also found in page 278 of the book) and was first impressed by the gourmet approach to food, rather than plainly copied and pasted recipes we usually find when looking for food.

In total amazement, it might have taken me an hour before I realized the main purpose of the site was healthy food rather than gourmet food. In fact, not even that, the site was about healthy living.

Ric and Trudy are supporters that Mediterranean and Asian (thus Mediterrasian) diets are the healthiest in the globe, and also delicious, so it is like they live on a permanent diet — and are loving it.

As an added benefit, the fact that it is plain natural to eat like they do, not only delicious and healthier, but probably even more practical than regular western medical or weight control diets.

The book is beautiful from the very cover and is not just a collection of recipes. The first part explains the Mediterrasian philosophy, backed up with medical facts and history, and an actual plan to follow a Mediterrasian way of life for 14 days. (As someone currently living in Italy, I can say living like this for far more than 14 days is anything but a pain!) The second part is a catalog of delicious recipes showcased with beautiful pictures that, by a historical coincidence, happen to be great for your health.

The approach of the book is brilliant and it is so delightful to read that you actually want to get into the kitchen to put in practice. And the good news is that you should, because this is not a candy book that has to be enjoyed in moderation. This book can be enjoyed in every single meal and, in fact, I would recommend that.

“Welcome to the world’s oldest food revolution,” they say, and so it is. There is little need to look for synthetic ways to become fit and healthy if we start by not choosing to be unhealthy in the first place.

Guilherme is a Web Designer and works freelance in northern Italy. His past work life includes also developing software prototypes for Sony Ericsson mobiles, teaching Photoshop, compiler design and photography. He is happily married to Anna, and in his free time he enjoys cinema, traveling, cooking and eating.

Can the way you shape your family’s Christmas traditions help your kids to avoid those adult diet pitfalls? Our favourite guest foodie, Guilherme Zo’C, thinks so — and he makes a compelling point about the role of food in our holiday memories. ~ Jen

Start a Healthy New Holiday Tradition

How your Christmas celebrations can help your children to succeed with their New Year’s resolutions

Christmas is upon us and at this time of the year we are often full of the fondest memories of childhood, of simpler times, of delicious Christmas feasts, of a time where, for most people there was no concern about the weight. But also these days, in some cultures, it is time to see that another year has passed and maybe it’s time to include, once again, lose weight into the New Year’s resolutions list.

I have seen, time and again, people who are on some kind of weight control make a break during Christmas celebrations because, in theory, it is too hard not to abuse of food on Christmas. Christmas is this time of the year when all should seem magical and effortless but requires us a lot of effort to do it so.

Going through Christmas without food abuse seems a complete betrayal of our childhood memories, and we must sacrifice something to honor them. After all, this kind of memories help us to hang on when difficult times arise along the year and they deserve to be as special as they can.

The taste of food is strongly cultural, you learn to like food as you grow. That is clearly visible when you see how cuisines can be easily classified by geographical criteria, and how the taste of a culture is often linked to products available in the region: naturals as well as industrialized.

The very fact that Christmas food remains the same year after year is proof of that. There is no reason why some food is better on a certain day of the year, other than a cultural one.

Now, what if our fondest Christmas memories were linked to healthy food and healthy habits in healthy amounts? Probably it would be those habits that would help us overcome the difficulties along the year, and maybe we would reach New Year’s Eve without having weight-loss as a challenge for the following year.

Even if it seems impossible to change old habits and seems that is too late for us, the old ones, it is just the perfect time for those who are children today and will have healthier memories in their future. And because food taste is strongly cultural, there is no reason why a healthy Christmas feast can’t be delicious.

Guilherme is a Web Designer and works freelance in northern Italy.

He is happily married to Anna, and in his free time he enjoys cinema, traveling, cooking and eating.

How much can you tell about someone by what’s in their fridge?

More importantly, what can you learn from snooping around in other women’s fridges that might help to make your own life easier?

That’s the concept behind a new e-book just out from 2 Paupers, Inside the Fridge. It takes a little tour of the kitchen supplies and food-serving habits of various busy WAHMs (work-at-home mothers) you may have run into here and there online, for a bit of insight into the juggling act that so many women must do.

Yeah, you guessed it… your friendly neighbourhood Domestik Goddess was interviewed for the book — and somehow, it makes me sound ever so much more organized than I really am!

2 Paupers are two Australian mums, Anne Maybus & Kathie Holmes, who are raising families and living on tight budgets. In addition to Inside the Fridge, their “Making Life Easy” series of e-books tackles the topics of Halloween party food, ideas for fancy dress costumes, Christmas food, recipes for dips, and even a guide to having (or helping with) a stress-free wedding.

If you want the word on authentic Italian cooking, where better to find it than in Italy? Today’s guest post is contributed by that modern-day Renaissance Man best known as Guilherme Zo’C — and I think you’ll enjoy his joyful approach to cooking! ~ Jen

How to cook original Italian style

Many of the delicacies gourmets use and abuse these days, were created to overcome food difficulties of the past.

Sun dried tomatoes, just as most other dried food, were invented mostly to overcome food shortage on winter. In southern Italy, people dried the tomatoes in the sun and, to make them last even more, they conserved them into olive oil, a mix that could easily last for a long winter.

These days, anyone can have dried tomatoes just because is delicious, and just because of this, about a month ago I decided to make my own conserve of Sun Dried Tomatoes.

Because I had never done one, I found it appropriate to google a bit before I start. I found many pages with similar, although different, procedures. After a bit of reading I put my thoughts in order and my hands into it.

You can dry the tomatoes yourself by cutting them into halves, cover them with a mix of sugar and salt and let them dry in the sun for a couple of days, but I decided to buy them already dried because it was the conserve I was actually interested in.

For the conserve, pick a clean and preferably sterilized glass pot and pour some Extra Virgin Olive Oil nto it. Put a layer of sun-dried tomatoes, then cover them with olive oil, then another layer of tomatoes and so on.

Be sure the olive oil covers entirely the tomatoes. Cover and let them rest for 2 weeks before using it. If the oil properly covers the tomatoes and you keep the jar from dust, they can last for the whole winter as in the old days before the refrigerator and canned food.

So far, so good, but what is so interesting in this conserve, why didn’t I just buy the conserve, once I have bought the tomatoes already?

Well, the fun part is that you can chose your favorite oil other things to go into the jar with the tomatoes and oil. Among the recipes I read, I found suggestions to add garlic, basil, oregano, peppers… but I also found a warning:

Sorry, I must disagree!

A good part of original Italian cuisine was developed by housewives, little local restaurant cooks and even the poor and the people in general trying to survive to winters, wars and misery. What makes it so good is the intimate cultural relationship they have with food, that naturally becomes a cooking instinct.

I think the only way to really cook Italian style, is to develop an instinct and invent your own dishes on a daily basis, even if your first attempts are so bad that Italians themselves would laugh at it.

Guilherme is a Web Designer and works freelance in northern Italy.

He is happily married to Anna, and in his free time he enjoys cinema, traveling, cooking and eating.

As I seem to be on a bit of a self-improvement kick at the moment, let’s see what I can do about organizing the pre-mealtime chaos with a little bit of planning ahead for this week’s supper meals.

And what better way to plan meals than to go along with Laura the Organizing Junkie‘s Menu Plan Monday? (I’ve been meaning to do this for ages, but usually I’m just not quite organized enough!)

With armloads of fresh produce coming in from the garden each day, and overflowing the stalls at the local market, it only seems right that there’s a bit of a “Celebrating the Garden Harvest” theme to our meals right now…

Monday:
Leftover Pork Roast
Ginger-Roasted Autumn Vegetables

Tuesday:
Pan-Fried Halibut
Mushroom Rice Pilaf
Pearl Onions, Green and Yellow Beans

Wednesday:
Squash-Carrot Soup
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Green Salad

Thursday:
Cherry-Tomato Surprise Meatballs
Mushoom Rice Pilaf (leftover from Tuesday)
Snow Peas, Baby Carrots

Friday:
Atlantic Salmon Steaks
Beer Bread
Cucumber Salad, Green Beans Amandine

Saturday:
Stuffed Green Peppers
Caesar Salad

(The stuffed peppers on Saturday will use up the extra ground beef from the meatballs on Thursday — I buy it in the economical large size package, so it goes for several different meals, but do cook it all up at once to avoid spoilage, then freeze a few small packages of the cooked ground beef to pull out when I need them.)

Sunday:
Roast Chicken
Boiled New Potatoes
Mashed Turnip, Green Peas

(According to my clever-clever plan, that Sunday night chicken will be a big one — it’s going to make a lot of lunchtime sandwiches for the next week. The skin and bones and undesirable bits go into a large container in the freezer, for making a batch of chicken soup stock later on.)

Should we talk about dessert?

The early apples are just beginning to hit the local farmers’ market, but I only grow the later varieties like Macintosh and Cortland, so I’m holding off on apple-based desserts. Blueberries and blackberries are out in rich abundance, however, so we’ll be enjoying blueberry pie and crushed blackberries in cordial over ice cream for a bit of a sweet after supper this week.

Okay, well, that’s the menu… now, to see if I can manage to follow it!

All the weight-control guru types tell us not to skip breakfast, but c’mon, how realistic is that? I can barely manage to get my act together enough to grab a cup of coffee on the way through my kitchen. Given a choice between a bowl of Kellogg cardboard and an extra fifteen minutes of sleep, I know which one has more appeal on the average morning!

But toast, now — how challenging is it to find time for a bit of toast?

Target’s pop art toaster, which “prints” your choice of 6 designs on the bread as it toasts it up, is just amusing enough that it might be the push a lazy girl needs to do that whole blood-sugar-level stabilizing breakfast thing, and face the day all energized.

Maybe.

But the lovely Italian Pink makes a good point on this — In the morning, still trapped in the haze of sleep, all tousled and goopy-eyed and foggy in the brain… who is going to want to fiddle around changing disks on the damn toaster as a way to start the day.

But the toaster is, you have to admit, very retro-cute. And maybe someone else would volunteer to make the toast, all thoughtful and romantic-like?

Certainly, if a couple slices of smiley-face toast were to appear before my eyes… maybe some of that homemade cinnamon-oatmeal bread, with just a touch of honey, and a cup of free-trade java on the side… I’d probably be prepared to re-think this whole breakfast-eating idea.

Hip urban toddlers can now play make-believe sushi bar, when the dolly’s tea party scene starts to get old.

Make room in the toy box for an updated version of the classic wooden alphabet blocks— sushi blocks, all cunningly packed in a painted bento box just like the real food!

Three types of sushi rice (nigiri, oshi, and maki) pieces come with shrimp, tuna, salmon roe, and egg pieces. Ginger, wasabi, and a dish of shoyu (soy sauce) are included, along with chopsticks, a play cleaver, and a menu. And the most fun, is that when you slice use your sushi rolls, the velcro keeping them together makes a realistic “chopping sound”.

Melissa & Doug‘s clever Wooden Sushi Play Set is $20 at Oliebollen. This toy is suggested for children ages 3 and older.

[via www.nicoandzoe.com via hotmomsclub.com]