![Veg Cooking Session: Artisan Pizzas and Vegan Lasagna
Last May 22, I had the privilege of being part of a very exclusive vegetarian vegan cooking session with Alessandra Lanot, owner of Pipino Vegetarian resto, and Kara Hizon of Veg Wahine. :D
Initially, I had just asked to meet Alessa so I could talk to her more about her vegetarian beginnings and her business Pipino. The meeting kept getting pushed back (because I extended my stay in Baguio), but somehow, I became even more delighted with what our supposed interview turned out to be!
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[Alessa in her kitchen and her vegan-friendly ingredients]
Alessa also invited Kara to join us as she’s trying to go vegan too. (Well, I’m just trying to go lacto ovo vegetarian, really. But if I wind up vegan somehow, then VEGAN POWERS TO ME!!) So anyway, seeing as Alessa owns her own frikkin’ restaurant and Kara’s blog basically revolves around recipes, I was intimidated by the thought of having to contribute my own recipe to the session, since right now I basically do simple pastas, salads, and vegetarian homecooking for the lazy. Luckily, Alessa volunteered her recipes for that day. Yay! Pressure-free!
Being the teacher that she is, Alessa handwrote the recipes on pcs. of 1/4 pad paper:
My tasks were to the knead the pizza dough, prepare the tofu ricotta and chop mushrooms. Kneading the dough and and preparing the tofu ricotta was just like playing with my food because I was literally hands on (no pictures to prove it though). I also chopped the mushroooooooms! I love mushrooms but generally lack chef skills in chopping, but I think I did an okay job. :P
Being a vegetarian noob, I learned a lot of “exotic” vegan ingredients, and Alessa and Kara were patient enough with me to answer all my questions. :P
These may all seem like very strange things to you right now, as they did when I first encountered them, but I’ll try to give you guys a Vegetarian Food for Dummies post on chia seeds, nutritional yeast, liquid aminos and TVP (textured vegetable protein) in my next entry.
Since I’m a noob, and haven’t SUPER geeked out on all their origins and benefits YET, it’ll be super digestible descriptions for you guys, I promise. :D
Here’s a picture of the TVP, which we used as our vegan meat stuffing.
We also prided ourselves in creating most artisan-ish pizzas (Read: rustic, or a glorified term for very irregularly shaped pizzas. Bakit ba, pagkain pa rin yan. Sa Cibo ba bilog? Pang-Cibo to!)
O-ha.
The finished product:
And the super winner vegan lasagna:
And finally, me with my fellow happy kitchen messer-uppers, Alessa & Kara:
Don’t you think it looks like we could start our own cooking show? Though at this point, my relevant skill would be maybe hosting the show and asking all the questions on behalf of the vegetarian lingo illiterate. Haha.
I do hope I can hang out with the girls again soon! *hint hint* :D
Weeee,Jen
P.S. You guys will be getting even more familiar with Alessa and Pipino in an upcoming post. Come back for that! :)
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Veg Cooking Session: Artisan Pizzas and Vegan Lasagna
Last May 22, I had the privilege of being part of a very exclusive vegetarian vegan cooking session with Alessandra Lanot, owner of Pipino Vegetarian resto, and Kara Hizon of Veg Wahine. :D
Initially, I had just asked to meet Alessa so I could talk to her more about her vegetarian beginnings and her business Pipino. The meeting kept getting pushed back (because I extended my stay in Baguio), but somehow, I became even more delighted with what our supposed interview turned out to be!
Vegetarian Recipe #2: Tofu Fajitas by Nomad Manager
This was inspired by the yummy tofu fajitas I first tasted at Tomato Kick probably some time in the latter half of 2010, and kick started into action by a firmer resolve to whip up vegetarian / healthier home-cooked fare on a regular basis, which started with my attempt at tofu BBQ.
So anyway, for this recipe, you’ll need:
- Firm tofu or tokwa
- Fajita sauce (Okay, so I cheated here. I used McCormick Taco Mix, but you can properly use the fajita mix instead. The grocery was just out of fajita mix that day and I figured tacos and fajitas taste the same anyway.)
- Garlic yogurt sauce (This is a healthier option to sour cream — also an excellent sauce for tofu bbq, which winds up tasting like a tofu kebab with this sauce.)
- - 1 cup plain yogurt, the real, unextended, sour type
- - 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- - A few stalks of cilantro, minced (love this stuff!)
- - Salt to taste
- Tomatoes, diced
- Iceberg lettuce, shredded
- Cheese, grated
- Flour tortillas
I made the yogurt sauce a day ahead to let the garlic flavors mellow a bit.
The tofu I bought came in roughly 2x2x2 cubes, so I cut them into 3 thinner 2x2x.66(?) cubes.
Fry the tofu until lightly golden brown. After cooling them, cut them into strips, and coat and simmer them in the fajita sauce.
Assemble the fajita on a flour tortilla (grill it first, if desired) by layering on your tofu, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and blops (big drops) of the garlic yogurt sauce (do not use to much as this is strongly garlicky and sour).
Roll, bite and let the yumminess dance in your mouth. :D
My mother was against me posting this recipe in my blog because she prefers good recipes to remain secret. But since: a) I don’t think many people read my blog, and b) those who do might be too lazy to actually try this at home anyway, I am posting anyway.
And if you happen to be one of those rare individuals who actually does attempt this, then yay! I have brainwashed you into doing so. And when you try it, you’ll be brainwashed into believing that HEY, vegetarian food CAN be yummy! (I swear, you won’t look for the meat in this dish.)
Yay!
Soy advocate and brainwasher extraordinaire,
Jen
Vegetarian Recipe #1: Tofu BBQ by Nomad Manager
If you hang out with me often or if you read my blog, or at least this entry on Grill Queen’s Tofu BBQ, then you’ll know I love these grilled cubes of soy on a stick.
Because of my fondness for this food and my inclinations to recreate things I feel are feasibly recreate-able, I went ahead and attempted my own version of tofu BBQ.
The weekend before Holy Week, I had attempted this recipe without resorting to frying the tofu before grilling it. And while it was a tasty option of its own, I prefer this fried version, which I served to my family for Easter lunch. Sorry to the anti-fryers. :P
There’s probably a variety of basting sauces you can prepare to suit your taste, but I stuck to:
Basic inihaw marinade/basting sauce
- 1 part soy sauce
- 1 part brown sugar
- calamansi to taste (I’d say about 1 part calamansi for every 3-4 parts of soy sauce)
You’ll also need firm tofu or tokwa, of course. You can cut them up into bigger cubes if you want to retain more of the tofu taste, or smaller if you like your food uber saucy / tasty. I’d say something slightly smaller then 1” cubes are roughly a good size.
Lightly shallow fry, or deep fry them if you wish, but I opted to go for shallow frying so I wouldn’t waste too much oil. Don’t fry them to the point of crispiness though; fry them only until they form a light golden brown skin.
Skewer the fried tofu cubes onto BBQ sticks. Allowing them time to cool first would be advisable unless you have really thick skin.
Baste / soak the tofu with your sauce, put them onto the grill, baste, grill all four sides, baste all four sides.
Then, ENJOY (I hope), either on its own or with your favorite sawsawan mix!
My sister-in-law tried it with a garlic yogurt sauce I made for my tofu fajitas, and it made it taste like a tofu kebab! :P
I kinda tend to be lazy with my measurements (memories of my favorite childhood cook, The Urban Peasant, come to mind), so yeah, there really are no hard and fast rules. So go ahead and tweak the above recipe to make it your own. Send me a message when you do! I’d love to know your take on it. :D
Rock & roll cooking,
Jen
