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....

 

[BigB]

yea i've had it before. it's pretty decent if you know how to work with it lol

 

[Rawkstah]

yea i've had it before. it's pretty decent if you know how to work with it lol

If you know how to work with it?  Is it lacking flavor-wise, texture wise, or both?
 
I haven't really found much store bought fake meat that really does it for me, sans Trader Joe's Soyrizo.  They all seem bland, taste like cardboard, are full of GM soy, or the texture is way off.  Two different meatless restaurants have opened up within walking distance from mi casa, and about a year ago I tried a gyro from one of them and was shocked.  It inspired me to figure out how to do it, and I started making homemade seitan and experimenting with seitan/bean sausages.  I've had meat eating friends not know they weren't eating meat and vegetarian friends curse at me when they thought I was tricking them into eating meat, so I think my experiments are going well.  If you're actually interested in making your own I highly recommend getting nutritional yeast flakes, smoked powders, and so far Bob's Red Mill have yielded me better results over some of the other brands for ingredients.  
 
I usually use some grass fed organic cold pressed whey powder, I explained why in a previous post, but as that supply is dwindling I was thinking about perhaps trying http://www.sunwarrior.com/, a buddy of mine told me about this stuff that he was using as he's trying to get in better shape.  I'm still unsure though if I want to ditch the benefits of the whey powder for that. 

 

[BigB]

If you know how to work with it?  Is it lacking flavor-wise, texture wise, or both?
 

 
It's good to get some sort of sear on it otherwise the texture can be weird. In terms of flavoring, you definitely need to have something to coat it with otherwise it tastes pretty bland. They sell it at whole foods and I've had the already prepared fake chicken and it has been good before, but not always. Pretty good chicken caesar salad substitute, fry it up with a little blackening seasoning on it 

 

[grantmichaels]

Danielle used to work for some 7th Day Adventists (?sp) or something like that, point being they didn't eat meat, I have no idea what else is entailed in their beliefs ... anyways, she always tells me the best meatball she's ever eaten was a veggie one made using a combination of nut flours and seasoning. I can never find anything when I look around, but if anyone knows how to make rockin' veggie meatballs, I'd be interested in seeing them!

 

[Rawkstah]

Haven't tried making meat balls yet, but I accept your challenge and will look into it in the next couple weeks .
I've made falafel from scratch before, and if its a nut/chick pea flour, I imagine it would be something similar to that.  I suspect with beans or mushrooms mixed in for the texture.  

 

[grantmichaels]

cool! i'll give it a try in follow-up, maybe for D's birthday as a surprise ...

 

[BigB]

I guess because my gf is vegetarian and i'm currently obsessed with chile peppers, you're going to see a lot of vegetarian posts here lol I made home made chipotle masa tortillas, home made guac from local avocados, the usual mexican red sauce (melted cheese in it) and ground up morning star black bean burger patties. It's pretty damn good, I like the philosophy fresher is better and the freshest only comes from what we can get locally and make your own products.

 

[grantmichaels]

people's TD entries really drew me in this evening, but they also distracted me enough that it took me too long to get finished in time to still cook.

then, the frozen-cooked shrimp in the freezer were date-less, old, and moderately freezer burnt.

so, we made this, one of those Just The Right Amount job-y's where the pasta uses up the water just so ...

#veggie

ps - i ended up not needing the feta, it was tasty w/ just the hard parm!

cheers!

 

[BigB]

you put the noodles in before the water was boiling? Your sauce looks nape though, looks good!  

BTW, you were speaking of shrimp and pasta and feta? I've got a real easy recipe I think you'd might like. Saute some garlic and shrimp up with some fresh rosemary, add in cooked pasta then some feta and bam! Sorry for the non-veg recipe in the veg section

 

[grantmichaels]

Yeah, in this recipe they just take up all the water, and it ends up pasta. It has a little bit of a different consistency, a little bit more starchy or glutenous or whatever word you would use ... it's good, though, still ...

 

[Rawkstah]

My mother would make something like that when I was growing up. She called it poor man's spaghetti. But she usually put bacon in it and it was delicious.

 

[grantmichaels]

That's so funny ... I had the package of pre-cooked, black-label Hormel out, too, last night ... but we decided to keep it veg and plop it in here ...

 

[Rawkstah]

Posted the mushroom ravioli from last night in the DC thread since my sous chef was a can of beer (I had to replace that sous chef a couple times!) 
But... Tonight is the night for the meat-less-balls.  I'll try to remember to take some shots along the way but the kitchen gets messy cause I make the red sauce from fresh tomatoes and have to julienne zucchini for noodles!  But I promise to at least take a final shot of the balls, cause I know y'all wanna see my ballz. 

 

[JayT]

I wanna see your ballz

 

[grantmichaels]

Sweet!

 

[Rawkstah]

Well the mixture is in the fridge.  I am loosely following this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chef-johns-meatless-meatballs/
I added some smoked powder, basil, and nutritional yeast flakes to mine.  Extra garlic too.
 

 
Here's the mixture before it hit the fridge

 
smells great so far.  On to making the red sauce. 

 

[texas blues]

If you know how to work with it?  Is it lacking flavor-wise, texture wise, or both?
 
I haven't really found much store bought fake meat that really does it for me, sans Trader Joe's Soyrizo.  They all seem bland, taste like cardboard, are full of GM soy, or the texture is way off.  Two different meatless restaurants have opened up within walking distance from mi casa, and about a year ago I tried a gyro from one of them and was shocked.  It inspired me to figure out how to do it, and I started making homemade seitan and experimenting with seitan/bean sausages.  I've had meat eating friends not know they weren't eating meat and vegetarian friends curse at me when they thought I was tricking them into eating meat, so I think my experiments are going well.  If you're actually interested in making your own I highly recommend getting nutritional yeast flakes, smoked powders, and so far Bob's Red Mill have yielded me better results over some of the other brands for ingredients.  
 
I usually use some grass fed organic cold pressed whey powder, I explained why in a previous post, but as that supply is dwindling I was thinking about perhaps trying http://www.sunwarrior.com/, a buddy of mine told me about this stuff that he was using as he's trying to get in better shape.  I'm still unsure though if I want to ditch the benefits of the whey powder for that. 

 
Soyrizo.
 
Just don't do it.
 
I've been catching hell and damnation for more than a couple years for posting that sheeit.
 
And thats just what it tasted like.
 
Looking forward to see how your balls turn out Rawk.

 

[BigB]

made ma po tofu with beyondmeat ground whatever it was, mongolian chili oil, and djinn's spicy powder (and boy was it spicy). Much better than having real pork in it actually

 

[grantmichaels]

Oh yeah, so ... not bad? ...

 

[Rawkstah]

Here's the final pics from last night
 
the uncooked balls:

 
after baking (flipped once)

 
And an inside look:

 
 
Conclusion:  I'd definitely switch some stuff up next time.  The texture was great, seemed like a meatball, but I think i'd switch out the oats for walnuts or chickpeas, the oats I used have been sitting in the cabinet for a while and I could taste the "old" in it a bit. I'd also add more parmesan, and instead of baking them before cooking them off in the sauce, I think I'd cook them up in a skillet to get more "sear" on the outsides.  The length of time it took to make these though was a downside.  They have to sit for about 4 hours it says.  I let my mix sit for 2.5, maybe if they sat longer I wouldn't have tasted the oats as much.  My dude ate them up though, and I'm my biggest critic, so I'll probably use the leftovers into a meatball sammy with some melted provolone later.