Hemp and Chickpea Tempeh with Broccolini and Cauliflower, Quinoa (Almost No Added Fat)

My wife and daughter are traveling on Friday and I'm teaching tomorrow, so this is my last meal for the family till they return. My wife had picked up some broccolini, which I thought I'd make a mixed vegetable waterless dish out of. I picked up some Hempé brand soy-free hemp seed and chickpea tempeh, which I air fried at 350°F for 4 minutes then 400°F for an additional 2 minutes.

I put, in this order, a little onion, half a head of broccolini chopped into 1/2" pieces, maybe 2 cups of frozen cauliflower florets, 3/4 cup frozen bell pepper slices, and a large baby bok choy, cut into 1" lengths, into a large Saladmaster stock pan. I cooked waterlessly - i.e., I covered the pan and heated it on medium high until the vapor release started jiggling, then I reduced the heat to low till the jiggle stopped. I let it cook for about 20 minutes.

I mixed the "fried" tempeh and vegetables, then mixed in 4T of Frontera brand key lime skillet sauce (1g of fat per 2T). I served with sprouted quinoa and some delicious tomatoes.

I don't list this as "no added fat" because the tempeh has 7g of fat per serving, which is a quarter of the package. I used maybe 4/5 of the package; divided by the three of us, we each got about 4/15 or 1/4 of the package, so about 7g of fat. That's still not bad!

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Waterless Hemp Tofu with Kale and Carrot

Living Harvest "Tempt" brand non-soy hemp-based tofu was on sale today. I picked up an 8 ounce package of Chimichurri hemp tofu; my daughter and I enjoy tofu but my wife has difficulty digesting uncultured soy. We tried this in February 2014, when I made a simple saute. I decided to try cooking this tofu waterlessly with kale and carrots. (I was surprised that the tofu is 12g of fat per 4 ounce serving; for the three of us, we each got about 8g of fat from the tofu, so I'll list this as an almost no added fat dish, but it could easily be no added fat with conventional tofu.)


Ingredients

• 1 cup onion cut into approx. 1/4" x 1 1/4" half moons
• 2 medium carrots cut into 3/8" lengths (just over a cup)
• 8 ounces tofu cut into 3/4" cubes
• 2 compressed cups kale, stems excepted and cut into approximately 1" squares
• 1/2 t (or to taste) salt
• 1/4 t garlic powder

Process

1. I put, in order, the onion, carrot, tofu, and kale into a lightly warmed (on medium heat) large Saladmaster stock pan
2. I covered the pan and cooked on medium high till the vapor release lock started rattling, then I turned the heat down to low to minimize or stop the rattling
3. I cooked for 15m or so then mixed in the seasonings and served with bagel halves topped with warm marinara and nutritional yeast.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Artichoke Heart, Greens, and Tempeh (waterlessly prepared) over Corn and Quinoa Pagoda Pasta (No Added Fat) [see ingredient note about fat]

I had on hand some interesting looking corn and quinoa pasta in the shape of small pagodas and decided to try a artichoke heart and tempeh pasta dish. Here is what I did.


Ingredients

• 1 cup onion (about 1/3 of a medium onion) cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 cup frozen chopped greens (I used collards); fresh is fine, as well
• 1 cup artichoke heart halves (I used frozen, but fresh would be fine)
• 6 ounces tempeh cut into 1/2" cubes (I used 6 of the 8 ounces in a package of smoked salt and pepper peanut hemp tempeh and didn't realize till just now that this product doesn't have a trivial amount of fat - it has a whopping 40g per half package; my wife and are sharing the tempeh, so each of our servings is 30g of fat! That's a big surprise and is probably due to the peanuts; we'll have to return to more conventional tempehs which have from none to a few grams of fat. I'll still label this dinner as no added fat because most tempeh choices would indeed be no added fat.)
• 1 cup small grape or cherry tomatoes
• 1t chopped basil (I used frozen)
• 2T capers
• 1/4 t lemon pepper (or black pepper)
• 1/8 t garlic powder

Process

1. I put the onion then greens then artichoke hearts into a large Saladmaster stock pan that I had heated on medium first for a few minutes. The onion immediately started sizzling.
2. I covered the pan and waited a few minutes till the vapor release started rattling, then reduced the heat till the rattling stopped and cooked for 15m.
3. In the meantime, I  sauteed the tempeh on a cast iron pan with no oil till nicely browned on medium heat (about 6 or 7 minutes). I also got the pasta cooking in boiling water.
4. I turned off the stock pot, quickly opened the top to add the tomato and basil, and covered it again, letting it sit for 5 minutes.
5. I mixed in the capers and lemon pepper to the vegetables.
6. After the pasta was done, I drained it and served on the plates.
7. I added the vegetables atop the pasta.
8. I put the tempeh (substituting tofu for tempeh for my daughter, who doesn't like tempeh) on top, followed by a sprinkling of garlic powder.

Results

Dinner was surprisingly good! The pasta didn't need sauce with the tomato and rich ingredients.

Ideas for the future

Though this didn't need sauce, it would be fun to make some sort of cashew cheese sauce or a no-fat vinaigrette and try it with the pasta.

Japanese Sweet Potato with Kale and Corn, Smoked Salt and Pepper Hemp Tempeh (No Added Fat)

Ingredients

• 3 sweet potatoes (I used my favorite, Japanese variety) cut into approximately thirds
• 1 cup of water
• 3/4 cup onion cut into 3/8" cubes
• 3 kale leaves, stems excepted, roughly hand torn into approximately 1/2" squares
• 1/2 cup corn kernels tarragon salt

Process

1. I put the cup of water into my Instant Pot pressure cooker, then put the sweet potatoes on top of the steamer rack so that the potato wasn't touching the sides. I had meant to do a 16 minute pressure steam, but did a simple 16 minute pressure cook.
2. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure. The sweet potatoes were perfectly done; my goal was to undercook them and complete their cooking with other vegetables.
3. I put the onion into my large Saladmaster stock pan and cooked on low, stirring occasionally, for 2 or 3 minutes till the onion was getting clear.
4. I then added the sweet potato, kale and corn and covered, letting it cook waterlessly for 10 minutes.
5. I served along with sauteed (with no oil) smoked salt and pepper dry rubbed hemp tempeh and salad.

Results

Dinner was great! I loved the Japanese sweet potato and actually was reluctant to continue cooking it. I kept the skins on for more nutrition, which also added to the appearance.

Ideas for the future

I need to serve these wonderful sweet potatoes as their own side dish sometime soon. I love the hemp tempeh; if it weren't expensive, I'd buy it more regularly.

Japanese Sweet Potato with Kale and Corn, Hemp Tempeh (No Added Fat)

Ingredients

• 3 sweet potatoes (I used my favorite, Japanese variety) cut into approximately thirds
• 1 cup of water
• 3/4 cup onion cut into 3/8" cubes
• 3 kale leaves, stems excepted, roughly hand torn into approximately 1/2" squares
• 1/2 cup corn kernels tarragon salt

Process

1. I put the cup of water into my Instant Pot pressure cooker, then put the sweet potatoes on top of the steamer rack so that the potato wasn't touching the sides. I had meant to do a 16 minute pressure steam, but did a simple 16 minute pressure cook.
2. After the cooking was done, I waited a few minutes and gently released pressure. The sweet potatoes were perfectly done; my goal was to undercook them and complete their cooking with other vegetables.
3. I put the onion into my large Saladmaster stock pan and cooked on low, stirring occasionally, for 2 or 3 minutes till the onion was getting clear.
4. I then added the sweet potato, kale and corn and covered, letting it cook waterlessly for 10 minutes.
5. I served along with sauteed (with no oil) hemp tempeh and salad.

Results

Pending

Ideas for the future

Pending

Creamy Asparagus Soup, "Hempeh", and Tropical Quinoa

On the cruise last week, I was surprised when a creamy asparagus soup was served and - my daughter liked it! She had until then always said she didn't like asparagus. Back in 2010, I had made a version of a published asparagus soup recipe and decided to try coming up with another version of a creamy asparagus. Here is what I did.


Ingredients

• Approx. one dozen spears of asparagus, any hardened/white ends removed (about 4 cups)
• 1/2 medium onion roughly cut into maybe 3/4" thick half moons (about 3/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 3 leaves kale, stems intact
• 1t peeled ginger
• Approx. 1/3 of a Meyer lemon, any easily removable seeds discarded (composted) (alternatively, if Meyer lemon isn't available, 2T lemon or lime juice)
• 1/8 t each of dried oregano and dill
• 1/2 t (or to taste) salt
• 1 cup water

Process

1. On a cast iron pan at medium heat with no added oil, I gently cooked the asparagus and onion, stirring occasionally, for maybe 7-10 minutes till softened and slightly carmelized.
2. I put all of the ingredients into my VitaMix blender and blended. I tried it once homogenized and tweaked the seasoning (in particular, I originally had just squeezed the Meyer lemon but was delighted to find that the peel is not bitter, so included it), then let it go on high for several minutes till hot (this is a nice feature of my VitaMix; for other blenders, it may be worth homogenizing and then putting the soup into a pan to heat).

Though it's expensive, we like, as I described in early January when we first tried it, Smiling Hara brand smoked salt and pepper peanut "hempeh". We bought some more this week, and I simply sliced it and sauteed it on the same cast iron pan after the asparagus was done. Some prepared quinoa with coconut and mango that I had purchased already prepared from Whole Foods Market completed the meal.

Results

The soup was good but I didn't like a slight bitter flavor that I think the kale stems contributed. We should buy this "hempeh" more often! I am so happy about the revelation of including Meyer lemon skins in cooking; now that I have also found an organic source (Weaver Street Market cooperative), I can better justify the higher cost than (organic or conventional) lime or lemon as the peel is "appealing" :-) .

In the Food for Life program that I teach for, we recommend 10% fat calories, with, as a rule of thumb, no one dish having more than about 3g of fat. 1/2 cup of cashews has about 30g of fat; we had some leftovers, so let's call it about 8g of fat per our three servings, so I won't call this even an almost-no-added-fat meal.

Ideas for the future

I should try another batch of soup, but decrease the cashew (to reduce fat - the soup was quite thick and could have been thinner), maybe add a little "heat" like jalapeno (for batches not for my daughter), and omit kale stems. I am excited about Meyer lemon peel!

Smoked Salt and Pepper Peanut -Hempeh- w Vegetables, Pasta w Marinara (No Added Fat); Notes on My First Experience in Making Yogurt

We had some of the smoked salt and pepper "hempeh" left (now we'll have to buy some more!) and I thought I'd make a pasta dinner with the tempeh on the side. I sauteed the tempeh, along with half-moon slices of onion in a cast iron pan with no oil; when it was lightly brown, I added frozen spinach and bell pepper, as well as some chopped carrot that my wife had left, and cooked for maybe 5-7 minutes till hot.

I served the tempeh and vegetables, along with whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce. Dinner was good!

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My first experiment with homemade vegan yogurt

I am excited to report that I finally made my first experiment today with making vegan yogurt, and I think that the results were promising. I first picked up my first Instant Pot back in March 2014, excited about the idea of making my own yogurt. It turned out that the Instant Pot was so incredibly useful for easily making meals, that I have focused on that.

My key resource was Instant Pot enthusiast Donna Haney, who has a nice description of the process online. I followed her basic idea of putting a plant milk with minimal ingredients (I used Westsoy brand unsweetened plain soy milk) into the Instant Pot along with a vegan culture and just using the Instant Pot's "Yogurt" button, which brings the milk to 96.8-109.4°F. The longer it is cultured, the more tart and sour it becomes; Donna recommends 9-10 hours.

What I did

1. I used three separate glass containers. I didn't sterilize them, though, to be careful and not end up culturing any "bad bacteria", I could boil them first. Donna doesn't take this step and just makes sure that she starts with clean containers, as I did. I put about 6 ounces of the unsweetened plain soy milk into each of the containers.
2. I added existing store-bought unsweetened yogurt. In the first container, I used a teaspoon of So Delicious brand Greek style plain unsweetened coconut yogurt. In the second and third, I used Kite Hill brand plain unsweetened almond yogurt; 1 teaspoon in one and 2 teaspoons in the second.
3. I put the containers into the stainless steel pot that goes in the Instant Pot with nothing else - no water in the pot or anything. I pressed the "Yogurt" button and adjusted the time to go for 9 hours.
4. When the time was up, the top readily opened; there wasn't much pressure. The yogurt was good but not very sour. I returned the bottles to the Instant Pot and pressed the "Yogurt" button again and adjusted the time to 5 hours to get a total of 14 hours of culture time.

That's it! The yogurt was runny (would make a great Indian lassi) but good. It had a good amount of tang. My wife loved the yogurt, especially the one with the double dose of the almond yogurt. My daughter and I preferred the first bottle with Greek yogurt as the starter. The yogurt was excellent when we then mixed something in for sweetness; I used organic strawberry preserves, my daughter preferred maple syrup, and my wife used raisins.

Though it was a bit runny, it was warm. We finished the Greek yogurt started one, but went ahead and cooled and refrigerated the other two bottles. We look forward to seeing what they're like tomorrow.

Without sweetener, this is of course good with Indian flat breads, served with rices, used to make a cucumber-yogurt raitha, for a salty Indian lassi, or any number of other savory uses. Sweetened, it's great to now be able to have organic berry yogurt (I have not been able to find yogurt made with organic berries in the store, and we are careful about trying to eat only organic berries). It's wonderful how easy this is and how it avoids buying yogurt in containers that we then have to recycle.

Ideas for the future

I'd like to try this again, using more starter culture, perhaps a tablespoonful of yogurt. I could certainly save some of the homemade yogurt as starter but for now want to first keep on experimenting with a base yogurt. I would again go with 14 hours or maybe 15 or 16 hours for more tang.

I'm not sure why the Instant Pot's yogurt program has such a range of temperatures. The Cultures for Health site suggests keeping the nascent yogurt between 105-112°F and culturing it for 6-8 hours, then letting it set in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours for maximal thickness. The fatfreevegan site suggests 110-115°F for 8-12 hours).

Here are some other things I plan to try:

• I'd like to try other yogurt starters. For 6 ounces or so, I'd like to try a tablespoon of yogurt. I'll look for more plain yogurts, like by Nancy's.
• It might be good to use a vegan culture, such as is available at Cultures for Health, but it seems expensive - about $10 for 4 uses, each making 1-2 quarts.
• I could try a probiotic as a starter, such as by Custom Probiotics, which would be much less expensive - a bottle costs $25 for 50g, and only .4g is needed per 2-4 quarts of milk, which means that over 100 batches of 2-4 quarts of yogurt could be made for about 25 cents a batch for the probiotic. Klaire Labs also makes probiotics that are said to be made with no dairy. Probiotics and cultures are often grown on dairy medium, so one has to be careful to get an appropriate product.
• I'd like to try different unsweetened milks with few ingredients. We should definitely try our homemade almond milk that we make in our blender by blending almonds without skins with water. I recently found how easy it is to make soy milk in the Instant Pot, and should try that sometime.
• I wonder if I should introduce another ingredient to thicken the yogurt, such as agar, tapioca, pectin, or arrowroot. It may add a little extra processing time, such as increasing the milk's temperature and mixing in the thickener before proceeding, but if I find it gives a pleasing texture that I can't otherwise get, it may be a good option.
• From what I've read, yogurt is typically made by scalding the milk to 180°F, pasteurizing it and killing any harmful bacteria, then letting the milk come down to 110°F (or at least below 115°F, checked with a thermometer or just till it feels lukewarm), introducing the culture, and then culturing it for some hours. Because I'm using plant milk, I don't think that the pasteurization is necessary. I'd like to try it though to see if it enhances the thickening of the yogurt. This would be easy to do with the Instant Pot:

1. I'd start with putting the steamer rack into the Instant Pot and a cup of water, putting the bottles with milk atop the steamer rack, and, using the "Steam" button, pressure steam for just a minute.
2. I'd give the Instant Pot 10m or so to come down in pressure, then carefully open it.
3. I'd carefully take the bottles out, remove the steamer rack, and drain the water.
4. Once the milk is under 115°F, or lukewarm, I'd add the starter, put the bottles into the pot without the steamer rack, press the "Yogurt" button, and adjust the time to 14 (or 15 or 16) hours to let it culture that long.
5. When the time is up, the pot can easily be opened. I would do a taste test and, unless I want to culture for longer for more tang, I'd cool and enjoy.

Words of wisdom from Donna Haney

In July 2015, Donna posted in the discussion of making vegan yogurt that inspired my efforts, giving her thoughts based on her experiences over the past year in making yogurt:

1. Fat matters: higher fat content (higher ratio of soy to water, adding cashews, adding *coconut cream, etc) results in thicker yogurt. *Not necessarily ETL however.
2. Culture matters: I'm thinking about 15-30 billion viable cultures per quart of milk.
3. Time matters: 12 hours seems about right to me. Overnight so my pot is available during the day. The longer it is incubated the more tart and thick it tends to get, but not more than 20-24 hours as then the bacteria run out of food.
4. Cleanliness matters, but sterilization is not necessary.
5. I prefer making it in 8oz jars, but if you have extra liners, you can make it directly in the liner, especially if you intend to strain it for a thicker/Greek style.
6. Making your own yogurt is fun, EASY and can be VERY inexpensive depending on your choices of milks and culture, homemade soy milk and probiotic powder being the cheapest-- unless you use pepper or cherry stems!? smile emoticon Most "failures" can be used in smoothies, so low risk.
7. AND some may wonder: the Instant Pot is SO energy efficient as to use only about .06 kWh for incubating yogurt for 10 hours per one very aware Instant Pot user, Mike Cameron. Less than one cent in his area.

Smoked Salt and Pepper Peanut "Hempeh", Kite Hill brand Lasagne, Homegrown Broccoli with Roasted Red Bell Pepper

I was shopping a few days ago and found an intriguing looking tempeh, Smiling Hara brand smoked salt and pepper peanut "hempeh". While my wife finds that tofu and most other soy products bother her stomach, she (and most people that I know) can enjoy tempeh without problem. We don't look for soy-free tempeh, and I wasn't even aware that tempeh could be made without soy. I liked the look of this product (made with peanuts, hemp seeds, and rubbed with smoked salt and black pepper), so decided to try it. My daughter wasn't so excited to try this tempeh, so I heated some smoky tempeh for her instead.

I also like Kite Hill brand artisanal almond based vegan cheese products. They're expensive, so I don't have them often. Whole Foods Market had prepared lasagne made with the Kite Hill ricotta on sale ($1.99 for a piece), so I purchased some.

I heated the lasagne. I took half of the tempeh, halved it, exposing the unrubbed inside, and sauteed in a cast iron pan with no added oil till slightly browned on low-medium heat, flipping a few times. My wife is growing broccoli and harvested some - it's sweet and tasty. I served the broccoli with slices of a red bell pepper that I had roasted.

Dinner was good! My wife loved the tempeh. I thought it was quite good and plan to occasionally purchase it.