vegansaurus!

Recipe: The Vegan Italian Hoagie!   »

Growing up in Philly, I ate plenty of hoagies in my pre-vegan days. Italian hoagies were my jam especially so when I saw that Diaya was coming out with provolone slices, I was like, “this is it! It’s hoagie time!” And god bless me, my vegan hoagie turned out out of control delicious!

You too can make your own Italian hoagie, here are the supplies you will need:

-Italian Amoroso-type roll (I found one at the deli at the regular grocery store—had cornmeal dust and all)
-Vegan mayo (I used Earth Balance)
-Daiya provolone
-Veg salami (I used Viana Velami, got this and the Daiya from Vegan Essentials)
-Iceberg lettuce
-Onion
-Pickle slices
-Olive oil
-White vinegar
-Salt/pepper/oregano

Slice your roll along the side (not the top like crazy Subway) and spread the mayo inside. Place your meat and cheese slices like so:

Then slice your lettuce and onions. BTW this is prob the only time I will ever recommend iceberg for anything. Don’t tear it or anything, the lettuce should be sliced into strips like these: 

And I just sliced the onion similarly. Sprinkle ample amounts of lettuce and onion on top of your open sandwich. Then top with pickle slices. 

Sprinkle a little of your oil and vinegar on top. Then the salt, pepper, and a dash of oregano. 

TA-DA!

Ike’s takes Los Angeles!   »

Ike’s is the top spot in the Bay Area for serious business vegan sandwiches, and this very spring he’s opening a new shop in L.A. What’s more, he’s replacing a Subway! What? Per Scott James:

Ike’s secured the Westwood spot after a campaign on Facebook that encouraged fans to email the property owner, asking her to rent the space to Ike’s after Subway’s lease expired. It was a risky move that Shehadeh admits could have backfired. “If she was going to get mad, she wasn’t going to rent to us anyway,” he said.

Instead, Shehadeh said, the landlord was impressed when she was flooded with 1,000 emails in favor of Ike’s. Such passion…for a sandwich shop? Soon the deal was signed.

The rest of the article is mostly about James’s relationship with his reportage of the saga of Ike’s in San Francisco, which is significantly less interesting. The point is: Congratulations L.A., the king of vegan sandwiches is coming to you! Viva Ike’s!

[photo by digiyesica via Flickr]

Product review: Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Crab Cakes!  »

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I miss seafood. Thankfully, many a talented chef and  vegan company have heard my incredibly influential sobs, and risen to the challenge of putting this kind of delectable food item on the market! Today, we talk about Sophie’s Kitchen — specifically the crab cakes. 

 

I got these bad boys at Whole Foods, a market I did not previously notice them at until recently. Here’s what I have to say — if you see them, grab them up. Honestly, I could not be more stoked with this product. 

I am not a fan of frying my food my food at home, which some of you might find surprising since I eat so much of it when going out. Whatever, let’s move on. I baked them, at 350, for about 15 minutes, or golden brown on the edges. I immediately ate one of them plain, because waiting for both the oven to pre-heat and then the cakes to bake was excruciating. Delicious! I don’t know how Sophie’s Kitchen does it! The best part is that these are gluten and soy-free! The texture is spot on, without being too much, if you aren’t a fan of faux-meats that are exactly like the real thing. The taste itself is also pretty spot-on, without being overly “fishy”, thanks to the wakame powder. 


Baked to perfection and demolished in 30 seconds.  

Being a San Francisco Bay Area native, hot crab sandwiches were a part of my childhood. They bring back family lunches out, in Marin County while visiting my grandparents, and then my mom replicating those same sandwiches in our kitchen at home. Sometimes the hardest part of being vegan is not being able to eat the food that is linked to my family and our memories. Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Crab Cakes are delightful to me, not only because they are scrumptious, but also because for the first time in over a decade I got to eat a hot ‘crab’ sandwich! 

My crab sandwich was nothing too spectacular, as I made it at my grandma’s house with only the crab cake, some french bread and Veganaise on hand. You can bet when I make them at home, I’ll be going all out with an english muffin, green onion, Veganaise and  melted vegan cheese. I can’t wait. However plain this one may seem, I was happy none-the-less!

The crab cakes are somewhat small, so I thought I could eat all four that come in a box, no problem. I actually could only get through two, because they are quite decadent! 

Last but not least — the ingredients! I know a bunch of you are into analyzing this part of processed and packaged food items, so have at it! 

I can’t wait to try all of this company’s other products! 

Cookbook review: Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!  »

Celine Steen and Tami Noyes have a new, gorgeous cookbook out called Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!, and because vegan blogging tends to be a mutual admiration society (you’re all so great!), they sent me a copy for review.

It has long been established that the sandwich, in all its many, glorious forms, is the perfect food. But if a good sandwich is as easy as taking your favorite main course and slapping it inside some carbohydrate casing, why would you need a cookbook? I advise thinking of this book as more of an inspiration guide, like reading two inventive ladies’ food-dream journal.

The photos are nearly obscene, they’re so beautiful, and the recipes aren’t terribly daunting. I made four, for research purposes.

Green monster rolls (pp. 178): Easy and delicious! Super garlicky, which I love, plus the boiling step makes a satisfying, chewy crust. I froze a few of my first, less photogenic batch, and plan to defrost them for panade once cold weather returns.

Asian eggplant (pp. 130) on a green monster roll: Girl, this eggplant was to die. TO DIE. Spicy and savory, the sauce was a great foil for my little rosa bianca eggplant. I then used the leftover slaw on my tomato sandwiches for the rest of the week.

Bierocks (pp. 88): The older I get, the more I love cabbage. And sauerkraut. Pickled foods forever! Here, I substituted Soy Curls for the tempeh called for in the recipe, and it turned out smashingly. These we ate with spicy brown mustard, as advised, and oh, they were tremendous. German pierogi!

And for dessert, open-face Bananas Foster cake sandwiches (pp. 168): We used Double Rainbow vanilla soy cream. These were lovely, though I feel like the banana cake was better cut thick, toasted, and spread with vegan butter, probably because I’m not an ice cream superfan.

You can find these recipes, plus 100 more, inside Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day!, available at all fine booksellers. You can also find the recipes I followed by searching inside the book on Amazon. For even more food porn, check out Tami’s VSStD photo set on Flickr.

[photos by me; let’s be Instagram pals: @meaverly!]

Restaurant review: Fairfield’s Vegan Paradice is exactly what you want, suburban vegans!  »

Solano County is a million times greater now, thanks to Kimberly and Gerald Brown’s delightful cafe, Vegan Paradice. It’s in downtown Fairfield, which I didn’t know was so adorable. Faithful reader Allison tipped us off to it a couple months ago, but it’s only open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and I have three jobs, so when am I free? But I made it this week for lunch, because I am dedicated to you, suburban vegans. Also it’s hot as all get-out and I wanted soft-serve.

My ma ordered the all veggie sandwich ($6.95), with lettuce, tomato, red onions, olives, sprouts, and tons of avocado, on sprouted whole wheat bread with mayo, ketchup, and housemade cucumber relish and must-have sauce. It was so full the avocado fell out in great green pieces, covered in that tangy sauce.

I got the terrific tofu burger ($7.75), with lettuce, tomato, grilled red onion, and sprouts, with the same ketchup, mayo, and housemade must-have sauce and cucumber relish on a sprouted whole wheat bun. It really was terrific! Gerald compared it to a Wildwood tofu patty; it’s housemade, with diced vegetables (including kale!) and cooked to a crispy outside and a sort of scrambley-textured inside. So good, dripping with sauces and that relish, just tremendous.

We were both pretty full, but because we were there for Vegansaurus, I insisted we order the soft-serve as well. It comes in vanilla, carob, and swirl; obviously we ordered swirl, though I was dubious about the carob.

But I was wrong! It was delicious! They make it with a combination of soy and coconut milks, and it’s sweet and creamy, just as soft-serve should be, with a slightly salty finish that makes the flavor more complex than your standard soft-serve. I think. I haven’t had soft-serve yogurt since 2008, and soft-serve ice cream since 2005. Bless you, vegan geniuses, for bringing us the technical and culinary triumph that is vegan soft-serve. This is a small cup ($3.75), by the way, and it’s huge and we couldn’t finish them.

You can read more about Vegan Paradice in this article in the Fairfield Daily Republic; it’s been open all summer, and they are working on expanding their menu and staff—right now it’s just the Browns. They make a lot of their stuff in-house, including almond roca and caramel for the soft-serve. ALMOND ROCA AND CARAMEL FOR THE SOFT-SERVE.

If you live anywhere near Fairfield, or drive past it on your commute, you have got to stop in at Vegan Paradice. It’s going to be hot through September; come for the soft-serve, stay for the burgers. They have vegan meat-and-cheese combinations we didn’t even try! I’ll definitely be back the next time their hours and my time off coincide. Suburban vegans in Northern California finally have a cafe! Let’s help it flourish.

Subway’s New DC Vegan Offerings: The WaPo Has a Review!  »

Only people in the DC area are getting to enjoy Subway’s new line of meaty vegan sandwiches. I was wishing I had a teleportation machine a couple weeks ago when I had to pay a dollar extra for some measly squeeze-bag avocado on my salad-on-a-bun at a gas station in Pine Junction, CO. Yes, I’d love some Daiya with that whine.

Lucky for Andrea Sachs, she’s in the area, and she’s got the full low-down on her experience over on the Washington Post’s All We Can Eat blog. My summary: They’re about what you’d expect from Subway. But way better than salad-on-a-bun.

I’ll be in DC in October, so maybe I’ll get to try them myself. Until then, let’s keep lobbying Subway to bring these nationwide! Hot dog!

Big news! Some beltway Subways now have three vegan sandwiches!  »

And we’re not talking about “all the vegetables on mustard-slathered bread,” either, because that sandwich is boring. Compassion Over Killing’s got the scoop: The three sandwiches are called the Sweet Riblet, the Malibu Greek, and Italian Black Bean, and the “Italian” bread is vegan, and that’s all we know!

Have you tried a vegan sandwich yet? Let us know! We don’t usually long to live in the D.C. area, but today, we’re totally envious. Eight franchises are offering these sandwiches; find them at COK!

If you are dying for vegan Subway in your neck of the woods (and we know you are!), contact the company via WeLoveSubway and ask, firmly and politely, for the vegan options you need. SANDWICHES FOREVER!

[photo by Compassion Over Killing]