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                Bento: The Art of Lunch

                Yummy Bento Friendly Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes!

                Avocado Truffles!

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                Ingredients
                - 3 large avocados
                - 3/4 C.  unsweetened coco
                  powder (more for a more
                  concentrated chocolate taste)
                - 2/3 C. Chocolate milk of choice 
                  (I like soy or almond)
                - 1 Tbs. Vanilla extract
                - 3/4 C. sugar
                - 1 8oz package semi sweet chocolate
                   chips

                Cooking Instructions

                1. Add sugar to milk in pan and heat until sugar
                    dissolves stirring constantly.

                2. Peel at pit avocados and put in food
                   processor or blender (or emulsion
                   blender)

                3. Add sugar and soymilk solution to
                   food processor

                4. Add coco and vanilla

                5. Blend until smooth

                6. Store in airtight container in the
                   refrigerator for 1 hour while it sets

                7. Roll avocado ganache into finger tip
                   sized balls with a 3/8 oz melon baller
                   and  freeze for an hour

                8. In a double boiler slowly melt chocolate
                    chips. Keep at a low temperature

                9. Dip ganache balls into melted chocolate
                    and then roll onto extra coco or topping of
                    choice

                10. Let harden for about 5 minutes

                11. Store in airtight contain in refrigerator
                     for up to 5 days or freeze again for
                     later use

                Wheat Seitan!

                All Hail Seitan! I love tofu but in the vegetarian world one can only eat so much of it. Wheat meat is a great alternative that sometimes (when prepared properly) even comes a little too close to meaty flavors!

                Makes about 1 LB

                Recipe modified from the Veganomicon

                Seitan ingredients:

                ·     1 C. Vital Wheat Gluten Flour

                ·     3 Tbs. nutritional Yeast

                ·     ½ C. cold vegetable broth

                ·     1/4 C. soy sauce

                ·     1 Tbs Olive Oil or oil of choice (sesame is good for Asian dishes)

                ·     2 Tsp seasoning (optional)

                Optional Seasoning: Always use ground not leaf if possible

                ·       Asian: ground ginger, powdered onion, curry powder, chili flakes,

                ·       Italian: thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, basil, VERY LITTLE fennel seed

                ·       Mexican: cilantro, chili powder, coriander

                Broth

                • 8 C. cold water plus 3 large veggie broth cubes or 4 C. broth plus 4 C. water
                • ¼ C. soy sauce

                Cooking instructions

                            Seitan
                  1. Place a Large stock pot with the broth/water on to boil
                  2. Mix together the dry ingredients very thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.
                  3. Mix the liquids together in a smaller mixing bowl
                  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix QUICKLY with a wooden spoon until most of the moisture has been absorbed. The dough will look clumpy and crumbly.
                  5. Knead the mixture for about 3 minutes until the dough is elastic DO NOT OVER KNEAD
                  6. Divide into desired size and simmer in the in broth for one hour with the lid mostly on
                  7. After an hour remove the lid and let stand 15 minutes
                 

                 

                Kerby Lane's Tomato Pie

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                Before my recent trip to Austin I have never heard of tomato pie. My palette had not yet been dazzled by the sweet and savory blend of freshly baked tomatoes, buttery crisp crust, basil, feta cheese, and kalmenta olives. My boyfriend and I were walking down on Guadelupe St. when I saw the Kerby Lane sign proclaiming tomato pie. I insisted that we go latter that day to taste the pie. It was amazing. Since my return from Austin last week I have made 3 tomato pies. I don't really use recipes so it took a couple tries to get it perfect.

                I used a vegan spelt crust (I still haven't mastered making my own pie crust), tomatoes basil and parsley from my garden, and some store bought olives. I did not anticipate how juicy the tomatoes were nor that they would sweat even more while baking. The pie was still very good but the flavors were not as concentrated as I wanted them to be. I have recently been experimenting with veganism and I chose to leave off the feta cheese- though it was an amazing addition to the original.

                In my next pie I squeezed the juice out of the tomatoes. This really helped. I then dehydrated the tomato innards for a soup later on. I baked the tomatoes to dry them out even more. My last pie had not been as dense as I wanted and it did not really stick together all that well so I added some soy "cheese." This also helped but I didn't like deviating from the original Kerby Lane pie. It stuck together much better.

                It was my third pie that turned out just right. I did decide to deviate from the original recipe and added crumbled home made tofu to the pie, hoping to make it denser and stick together without the soy "cheese." I love the way this turned out. After squeezing the tomato juice out and roasting them I mixed the tomatoes up with the tofu, some dried tomatoes and basil from the garden, along with some dried onions. This really added the intense tomato flavor I was looking for. For the most part the dried tomatoes were not chewy because they absorbed the moisture from the fresh tomatoes.

                Here is my ad-hock recipe so far:
                1 pie crust: preferably made from unbleached overly refined flours
                1-2 lbs of tomatoes (I like mixing up nice big red ones with orange cherry tomatoes)
                3 Tb. dried basil
                1/2 C. dried tomatoes or a small amount of tomato paste
                1/3 C. Crumbled Tofu
                Salt and Pepper to taste


                Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F
                Squeeze the juice and seeds of the tomatoes into a bowl (save for later!)
                Cut the tomatoes as thinly as possible for a more evenly dense pie
                Bake the tomatoes for 10 minutes
                After the tomatoes have baked squeeze more of the moisture out of them
                Sprinkle salt,fresh ground pepper and basil onto the tomatoes
                Mix the tofu in with the baked tomatoes
                In the pie crust layer 1/2 the dried tomatoes on the bottom to soak up the mositure
                Next put a layer of the baked tomatoes and tofu
                Use the rest of the dried tomatoes in the 3rd layer
                Finish off with rest of baked tomatoes

                Before I put the pie in the oven I gently pressed the pie mixture down and glazed the pie crust with olive oil
                Bake the pie for 30 minutes
                At the end you may add feta cheese and let it brown.
                Add sliced and drained olives to taste

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