Wednesday, August 15

Recipe File: Meat Filling

So there you are, making a lovely raw vegan meal, and the mugwumps start their kvetching. (Kvetching -- a nice Yiddish euphemism for what they're really doing: The B word.)

"I want hamburger in my taco! I want meat in my spaghetti! I want beef in my dog food!" (Barking. What B. word did you think I meant?)

So I store a container of this yummy meat substitute in my fridge. It keeps a full week, and it's usable by the spoonful for filling anything that might otherwise require crumbled burger.

And it tastes good. And looks pretty.

Ingredients
  • 1 C. walnuts, coarsley chopped
  • 1/2 C. mushrooms, coarsley chopped (Criminis or Portobello look best, because they're darker)
  • 1/4 C. garlic (I like the dehydrated, sliced garlic for this recipe)
  • 1/4 C. onions (Again, dehydrated, sliced, available in bulk at Asian markets, works well)
  • 4 tsp. tamari*

  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1 T. olive oil
  • 2 tsp. raw cacao powder**
  • 1 tsp. cumin, ground
  • 1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
  • 2 tsp. oregano, dried
  • sea salt to taste
Instructions
Stir together chopped mushrooms, walnuts and dehydrated ingredients in a small bowl. Cover with water, stir in tamari. Allow to soak for two hours.

Drain walnut mixture. Pat dry. Stir in vinegar and oil until coated. Stir together remaining ingredients and sprinkle over walnut mixture while tossing. For Tex-Mex flavor, add:
  • 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

* A raw soy sauce. Raw alternatives include Bragg's liquid aminos or Nama Shoyu. And if you're not fussed about tiny portions of cooked condiments, try the world's best soy sauce: Pearl River brand Mushroom Soy. It's inexpensive, and good enough to drink straight from the bottle.
** A good friend won a chili cookoff. It took me years to talk him out of his secret ingredient: Dark cocoa powder. What a gift to learn that cacao powder is the raw form of the same darned thing.

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And now, the Muppets would like to sing you a song about my refrigerator: I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.

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