The Spicy Meatless Thread... (ya I went there)

I know going into this that this thread is going to get meat bombed... but there's gotta be at least a couple other people on this forum that have herbivore tendencies.  Lately almost everything I have been cooking has been meat-free unless its for the dogs.  I've been toying with recipes and finding ways to get the flavors of dishes that usually have animal muscle as the main feature.  Hopefully some of y'all do the same from time to time and we can swap and share some spicy veggie recipes. I've held off on making this thread for a while because I know the ridicule that will inevitably come, but I guess its better to clog my own thread with my hippy food rather than all the other cooking threads. 
 
So here goes, last night per request I made some arroz congri and tostones.  
 
For the rice and beans, I chop up a green and red bell pepper, 2 onions and about 4-5 cloves of garlic. Cook up that in the pot before adding the rice and beans and sufficient water.  Season it up, and pretty much just leave it on the stove for a while.  I don't have any fresh pods yet so I seasoned my batch up with some smoked naga powder for good measure.  The tostones start by cooking them a bit on each side before pulling them from the pan.

 
After the tostones are cooked and pulled from the pan you gotta squish em dip em in cold water and throw em back in the pan, for the second round of frying. When you pull them out you can season them with whatever you want, I like to make a garlicky spicy sauce concoction to dip them in.  Also, make yourself a guava-lime rum drink for good measure. 

 
Eventually, after a long long time (especially if you use brown rice), your arroz congri will be ready.  

 
 
Happy vegetarian eating! (I also ate left overs this morning covered in cheese and a fried egg)
 
Let's see what you got....

 

[Rawkstah]

Sometimes I like to make a big ole salad. Lunch today was romaine and spinach, topped with left over roasted peppers and onions, Quorn chik'n cutlets, Morningstar Bacon, avocado, carrot, green onion, hardboiled eggs, cherry tomatoes and cucumber from the garden, sliced nhu pepper, and a homemade vegan salad dressing (not that the salad is vegan due to the egg).  Salad had about 20g of protein which is pretty good for a vegetarian salad adding chickpeas or hemp seeds etc would have been another option.  
 

 

[Rawkstah]

Tried a new thing, "cauliflower alfredo sauce".  It was easy to make, Steam cauliflower, sautee some garlic, add milk (I used cashew milk), some butter, nutritional yeast flakes, some reserved water from steaming the cauliflower, onion powder, salt, and pepper, blended up into a "sauce".  I had it with edamame pasta and green peas.  Easily vegan with a butter sub and milk sub if  you roll that way. Only about 550 cals, 38 grams of protein and tasted great with some el capitan on top and fresh parm shaved on top!  

 

[Masher]

Tried a new thing, "cauliflower alfredo sauce".  It was easy to make, Steam cauliflower, sautee some garlic, add milk (I used cashew milk), some butter, nutritional yeast flakes, some reserved water from steaming the cauliflower, onion powder, salt, and pepper, blended up into a "sauce".  I had it with edamame pasta and green peas.  Easily vegan with a butter sub and milk sub if  you roll that way. Only about 550 cals, 38 grams of protein and tasted great with some el capitan on top and fresh parm shaved on top!  

Looks really good...a few yrs back wife and I went crazy with cauliflower dish ingredients.

Cauliflower rice, mashed potatoes, pizza dough, whole roasted, white sauce etc, while following a low card diet. Some of the best meals we ever had and still use many of them today.

 

[Rawkstah]

I made my version of Chipotle's tofu sofritos tonight.  Did the whole burrito like usual, cilantro lime brown rice, seasoned black beans, lettuce, tomato, avocado, roasted onion and green pepper, sofritos, cotija, and salsa.  Cooked the sofritos in a sauce mixture of liquid aminos, adobo sauce, roasted poblano, onion, garlic, and nutritional yeast flakes.  Seasoned it at the end with some of DeeRoo's Taco Tuesday.  Pretty good, not quite Chipotle's flavor, but I liked the texture I achieved better.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

That looks really good! I think I'd crumble tortilla chips on it.

 

[Rawkstah]

That looks really good! I think I'd crumble tortilla chips on it.

I had dude pick up tortilla chips on his way home, but we were too hungry and forgot to add them.  Oh well, gunna make black bean poblano soup later in the week and they'll be perfect in that. 

 

[The Hot Pepper]

 

[Rawkstah]

I've made this before and I'm pretty sure I posted it when I made it then, but it is so good that I keep making it.  Coconut mung bean curry.  I always make it spicy and usually eat it over rice.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I don't know if I've had mung bean!

 

[grantmichaels]

I like them ... we use them as a sprouted bean ...
 

 

[Rawkstah]

Big ole pot of soup.  Onion, garlic, celery, carrots, fresh turmeric, kale, cannellini beans, and farro.  Added some curry powder and sriracha to the broth (I swear there is broth in there somewhere) and some smoked red habanero pow pow for good measure.  Had it with some homemade rye bread, and then followed it up with some homemade coconut matcha ice cream. 

 
ice cream wasn't spicy, but it is dairy free and sugar free (honey and dates to sweeten it a bit).

 

[Rawkstah]

Falafel from scratch! I started with this recipe as a base http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/my-favorite-falafel-231755 except I'm awful at measuring and eyeballed everything but the baking powder.  I also added in some ground coriander, Arabic curry a friend gave me from Dubai, fresh grated turmeric, and used smoked ghost pepper powder instead of whatever the recipe called for.  Hummus was whipped together from a can of chick peas, and Kentucky Mules to wash it down (add a slice of hot pepper to your mule for extra kick, trust me its good!)
 

 

[dragonsfire]

Oooo, love Falafel !! Nice looking dish

 

[Rawkstah]

I have all the ingredients in my fridge to make miso soup.  I was thinking about how to make it a meal and what dish to pair with the soup that I could make with the ingredients I have here... I did some internet sleuthing and found some recipes for vegan sushi rolls, sooooo tomorrow I'm going to play around with some veggie rolls.  Hopefully things won't get too messy and I'll have time to snap some pics!

 

[Rawkstah]

I did it!  Vegan sushi! It was pretty dang good. Did a few rolls with a spicy garlic mushroom filling, and the others were a mock spicy tuna made with sunflower seeds, and raw cashews.  Here's the recipe for that http://www.forkandbeans.com/2014/06/21/vegan-spicy-tuna-sushi/ It turned out pretty well, definitely would make it again.  Picture isn't great making sushi get messy in my counterless kitchen.  
 

 

[Rawkstah]

I think breakfast prices going out are outrageous but love breakfast food.  We are trying to save up for a house and move, so we've been budgeting everything in our lives.  I had to make a tough choice today over how to spend the allotted "going out money", do we splurge on breakfast or save it for a dinner?  Obviously I chose to learn how to make "fancy" breakfast instead of paying $10-15 for one portion of the same thing. My problem was what could I make, in an acceptable amount of time, with what I had on hand.  No bread in the house, had to feed it to the dogs last night after I got paranoid they may have licked up a tiny piece or two of glass when a jar broke last night.  I did crepes a few weeks ago and really was in the mood for savory anyhow... I was thinking quiche, but ended up settling on making my first frittata as it seemed a bit easier.  I pulled out some mushrooms, swiss chard, onion, garlic, and left over buckwheat groats.  Seasoned it with pink salt, smoked red savina powder, savory, smoked paprika, black pepper, and turmeric.  I had a little feta cheese left that I sprinkled over the first layer and added some cotija as well, and then poured the eggs over.  Stuck it in the oven, and finished it with a couple min on broil.  I didn't have potatoes on hand so I cooked up some frozen french fries, chopped them up halfway through cooking and tossed them in olive oil, a spoonful of sour cream, vegeta seasoning, and smoked paprika for makeshift breakfast taters.  Got all of that done in about 30-40 min and satisfied my craving!  It was hard choosing a hot sauce to accompany the frittata though.  I went with Valentina's, a staple breakfast sauce for me, dude went with To the Moon. 

 

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

     Your frittata looks great. Especially for a first shot. It can be tricky to get them done right without being over or under browned. I always make them with noodles. I just toss leftover noodles in a really hot pan with some butter and olive oil and pour eggs over when they get hot. They're so good and so cheap. And you can just throw in whatever you have on hand.

 

[SmokenFire]

Love the way that sushi came out!  Looks great.  
 
We did vegetarian last night and I kiped your falafel recipe.  Some lentil dal, jerusalem salad, tzatziki and homemade naan round it out.  Loved it!
 

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

     Nice, balanced meal. I love your dinner spreads, Dru. No matter what cuisine you focus on, you always have a protein, a starch and a veggie. And no matter where you go, exotic or "local", you always execute. Maybe that comes from years in the restaurant biz (it's kind of engrained in my head, too ) - it always looks pro.
     What kind of dal is that? Whenever my wife makes it, it turns out as a thick soup. Lots of toasted whole brown mustard seeds and fresh squeezed lemon juice. I've never seen it in a form where it could be piled up like that. I think her recipe is from somewhere in India.

 

[SmokenFire]

     What kind of dal is that? Whenever my wife makes it, it turns out as a thick soup. Lots of toasted whole brown mustard seeds and fresh squeezed lemon juice. I've never seen it in a form where it could be piled up like that. I think her recipe is from somewhere in India.

 
Thanks for the kind words my man!  The dal recipe you see there is adapted from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking preparation with carrot, onion, ginger and garlic/spices.  Main difference between mine and your wife's is that I tend to let mine cook down to a thicker almost mashed potato like consistency.  If I'd have served them maybe 15-20 minutes prior they'd have been more soupy like you're used to.