Fun With Your Food

One of my favorite recipes is TEV's stuffed portabello's. I've made them enough times now that I don't use the recipe but wing it, tossing in a bowl artichoke hearts, spinach, pesto, Vegannaise, nutritional yeast, bread crumbs, sea salt, and pepper all to taste (i never did use tofu in this one as it calls for) then toss it all in portabello caps and bake to perfection. Not having much in the way of basil or a pesto recipe I felt like adhering to, I whipped up a quick one using the following and my trusty immersion blender:

Easy Pesto
2 handfuls pine nuts
1 handful hemp seeds (toasted all of those in a warm skillet)
about 10 leaves basil
1/3 c. fresh parsley
2 T. nutritional yeast
splash of lemon juice
couple T water
2 pinches sea salt
black pepper to taste
olive oil to desired consistencey (i just added it until it was creamy and not too dry)

I put a few healthy spoonfuls in my 'shroom filling and mixed it all up, then browned some soy curls in olive oil before adding a bit more pesto to those and sauteeing til crispy. served that alongside my 'shroom over some leftover brown sushi rice. yum! right?

right.
but the next day, i had a problem. while soooo very tasty, the 'shrooms never seem to hold up thru a second serving the next day. they're limp and less than plump and juicy as they begin the day you first make them. so of course i did what any good vegan would do. I made patties! I chopped the 'shroom bottoms and leftover pesto soy curls and added them and the filling to my food processor and pulsed til desired conistency. I then added more of that brown sushi rice that was lingering in the 'fridge and stirred it all up til it was a sticky, gooey mess that held together nicely when formed into patties. into the hot skillet they went with a touch of olive oil til browned to perfection.

I served as you see them with a bit more pesto and some leftover roasted red pepper almond sauce. these patties are full of so much good stuff that I ate them and nothing else for a couple meals while running around for a day or two.

they were perfect eats as i busily made the following to stock the 'fridge of friends who just welcomed their first baby boy into the world:

Susan's Ribz
VT's meatless loaf for sandwiches
huge green salad with Ginger Dressing for days
rice noodles and zucchini rawsta with roasted red pepper almond sauce (mmmmm)
chickpea salad with hummus and pitas and brown rice cakes to enjoy it on
Welcome to the world, Keiran Forest!

oh, and the remaining agave cupcakes from my frosting disaster ended up getting frosted after all...they may look like they're piled high with poo, but i assure you that a ton of VCTOTW's chocolate buttercream frosting (with newly purchased Florida Crystals powdered sugar) was all they needed to transform them from light, fluffy goodness to totally decadent birthday yumminess for a friend). having no fancy tools i employed the 'fill plastic baggie with frosting, cut corner and pipe' method for that dog poo finish. ;) the pic is blurry but i was in a hurry to race out of town to deliver them and do some bday celebrating with our friend. they were devoured....imagine that!