Chapter Three: A Few of Mary’s Recipes
(Mary) There are hundreds of websites who will give you a wide variety of recipes. Anyone who wants to explore the lifestyle can find scads of them very quickly. But I will share a few special ones that I think will appeal to folks who are not yet full Vegan, but want to explore the topic more deeply.
Almost everybody loves Nutella, that sweet chocolate/hazelnut spread. Sadly it is not Vegan. But here’s a way to make your own version of Nutella, that is is not only vegetarian, but is fun to make.
Here’s what you need for ingredients.
2 tablespoons each of cocoa powder and soy powder
¼ teaspoon Vanilla
¾ cup sugar
1½ cups of skinned hazelnuts
1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
Two things among the ingredients might frighten people away from the recipe: Where to buy soy powder and how to skin the hazelnuts: so let me talk about that. Soy powder is readily available. I don’t like to mention store names, but I will give two examples. You can buy it at pharmacies like Walgreens or department stores like Walmart.
To skin the hazlenuts is easy. To four cups boiling water, very carefully add six tablespoons of baking soda. Use caution because it will fizz and fuss for a moment. After it settles down, put the hazlenuts in and continue the boiling for another five minutes. The water will get ruddy and muddy, disregard that and safely remove one of the nuts and pop it into cold water. The skin should be easily flicked away. If it is not easily removed, continue the boiling for another two minutes and try again. When the test nut skins easily, plop the rest of them in cold water and brush away the skins. Your nuts are now ready for the next step: roasting them.
Roast the nuts at 350 degrees for 20 minutes in your oven or toaster oven. They will need to be checked and turned frequently to prevent burned spots.
Whisk them right out of the oven and into the blender and keep grinding them until you have nut butter. During the grind, you need to add some of the veggie oil and all of the vanilla.
After blending for another 30 seconds or so, insert the remaining ingredients and blend to the desired consistency.
When the recipe is complete, spread the Hazelnut butter on toast for a delicious recipe that is 100 per cent Vegan. You can use it as a cake or pie topping, in between a pair of cookies, or simply (please excuse the term) wolf it down with nothing but a spoon!
(Author) That’s a great recipe. I wish I had some of that right now. How about some more?
(Mary) As I said, Mr. Russo, you can get these recipes for free from a zillion websites. I just want to give people a better idea of the Vegan life. But since you asked, here’s a Vegan breakfast sandwich that is approved by my meat eating hubby. He loves those sausage sandwiches that he gets at Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s; but he likes my Vegan ‘Mary Morning Muffins’ even better.
For those of you who wish to try it, it takes about eight minutes to prepare a batch and seven more for cooking.
Here’s what you need:
English muffins – your choice. My husband likes the ones with the nooks and crannies. I do just as well with the Stop & Shop brand or the Publix brand when I am in West Palm Beach, Florida.
One ¾ inch slice of soy vegan sausage for each sandwich (it comes in a rolled tube). Just cut your slices to the desired width. I use ‘Gimme Lean’ brand. My husband also likes one called ‘Smart Italian Sausage’, but I don’t want to use that one because it has egg whites in it. You have to read the ingredients list carefully, even if the package says the product is vegetarian.
For each muffin, you will need two or three thin slices of bell pepper. I get them from my garden.
One tablespoon of vegan shredded cheese per sandwich. I use Daiya. It’s pronounced day-ya. Daiya products are sold in my area at Stop and Shop, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods.
½ teaspoon of vegan butter. I use Earth Balance.
A few shakes of black pepper.
A bit of olive oil for coating the patties
The final ingredient is a great taste enhancer. One teaspoon of maple syrup per sandwich.
There are probably a dozen ways to cook the sandwich. Some people have Panini grills, others have George Foreman clamshell arrangements, I just use an old fashioned skillet.
I start by cutting the muffins in half and putting them in the toaster oven. Then I put my patties on the pan for about 90 seconds before turning. That’s it, one turn. Don’t turn them again. If you want your peppers cooked, you can put a little oil on them and place them in the pan.
After about four minutes, turn off the heat and put the cheese on top of each patty. Cover the pan to allow the cheese to melt.
When your muffins are toasted to the shade you prefer, remove them from the toaster oven (or toaster if you used one, or from a pan if you fried them in a little butter) and spread the butter on one side and drizzle the maple syrup evenly on the other side.
Put the muffin with syrup on the top of each burger while they are still in the pan and press down lightly. Then arrange the bottoms of the muffins on plates. Take your spatula and remove the burgers with the syrup tops still on, and place them on the buttered bottoms.
These Vegan breakfast sandwiches never fail to please anyone, including meat eating husbands.
(Author) Mary that sounds absolutely fabulous. My only problem is that I would have to have two! Can you give us some more of your menu items.
(Mary) I could give you a thousand but it’s too boring. I read a few ‘Incredible Vegan Recipes’ books on Amazon and all they consisted of was one boring recipe after another, obviously copied from someplace and just slapped together for an e-book.
(Author) I get it. That’s why we have you here to spice up the book with your novel approach to the Vegan menus and lifestyle.