Spicy Fries w/Special Sauces

   

It's Vegan MoFo, Day 5!

Time for a classic: homemade french fries! I adapted this recipe from the one in Vegan with a Vengeance, and always serve it with two special dipping sauces: sriracha vegenaise and curry ketchup. Both sauces are extremely easy to make, but are still very special. 

Actually, this entire recipe so easy that I almost gave it one of my "For Really Lazy People" epithets, but I got weirdly attached to the name I'd already chosen.  

The following recipe makes 1 large serving.

S p i c y  F r i e s  w /  S p e c i a l  S a u c e s

Ingredients

For the fries:

1 very large russet potato

olive oil*, 2 TB-ish

paprika

cayenne pepper

oregano

chili powder

sea salt

freshly ground tricolor** pepper

For the sauces:

sriracha

Vegenaise

ketchup

curry powder

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Rinse and scrub the potato until clean. I leave the skin on mine - it looks better and adds interesting texture - but some people may choose to peel it off at this point. 
3. Slice potato length-wise into 1/4'' strips. 
4. In a large bowl, combine the olive oil and spices. The first 4 spices are listed in order of most to least, in terms of how much I use. Lots of paprika, a fair amount of cayenne, and just a tiny bit of both the oregano and the chili powder. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
5. Toss potatoes in bowl until strips are mostly coated. 
6. Bake on a lightly oiled cookie sheet, for 30-32 minutes, flipping them about 20 minutes through.
7. While the fries bake, prepare your sauces. In a small bowl, mix a few TB of Vegenaise with as many squirts of sriracha as you like, and in a separate small bowl, mix a few TB of ketchup with as many shakes of curry powder as you like. Using a chopstick or similar, stir each sauce until ingredients are fully blended. 

Notes

*Any oil with a high smoke point will do. I used Spanish olive oil, which I love for its buttery-ness.

**The tricolor pepper gives these fries such a great flavor - and it's so colorful - but black pepper will do if you can't find tricolor!

Lemon Miso Salad Dressing

What I love about this salad dressing is its simplicity and that it's mega-lemon-y. And, so long as you already have these ingredients, it's SO EASY to make. You know how I love cooking endeavors that start with minimal effort and end with astronomical flavor (aka, lazy cooking!). 

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L e m o n  M i s o  S a l a d  D r e s s i n g 

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Ingredients

3 tsp yellow miso

juice of half a large lemon

2 TB tahini
1 TB mild-flavored oil, such as sunflower seed oil

1 TB rice vinegar (or less)

1 TB agave (or more)

1 TB Bragg's Amino Liquids (or use tamari)

ground ginger, a pinch

sea salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

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Method

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a fork or whisk. I also threw in some of the pulp from my lemon, for extra flavor bursts and added texture.

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Serving Ideas

Serve by tossing with your favorite green salad. I enjoyed mine tossed with a simple mix of romaine and grape tomatoes, topped with black beans.

Vegan Chicken Salad For Really Lazy People

The dog days of summer are starting here in LA. Honestly, I couldn't be more ready for them. Hot weather, DO. YOUR. THING. Why am I so excited about the insane heat, you ask? Well, I tend to run cold; I despise wearing long-sleeved shirts; and I weirdly like the challenge that comes with the heat - it's sort of like taking a Bikram yoga class...all the time.

(Actually, I've taken two Bikram yoga classes in my life, and, well, I'm not really sure those are for me. ;) I will say, though, that I would give Bikram another chance.)

Anyway, I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooo lazy with cooking lately. I want to chop, like, nothing. Ingredient list longer than 5 items? No, thanks. Prep time is longer than...wait, there's PREP time? Pass. 

There has been a benefit to my laziness of late, however. That is, I'm so averse to even getting in my car to drive to the grocery store that I'm not spending extra cash on ingredients! So, I'm thrifty, too. Win-win.

And by the way, rather than "lazy," I prefer the phrase "energetically economical."

Okay no I don't.

Right, so without further ado...here is the recipe:

V e g a n  C h i c k e n  S a l a d  

F o r   

R e a l l y  L a z y  P e o p l e ! 

Alright, look, here's a forewarning: Given that this recipe was inspired by my laziness, it relies heavily on dried spices, which I just happen to collect in my kitchen cupboard. You can never go wrong with buying whatever dried spice is on sale, I say, but, I digress. Anyway, if you don't have all the dried spices, it's really okay. Don't knock yourself (and your wallet) out over it - just skip! I wrote viable substitutions where possible.

Ingredients:
Stuff you have to saute
1/2 a package (4 oz) of tempeh (I use Trader Joe's, which comes in an 8 oz pack)
2 TB peanut oil (or any oil that doesn't burn when you saute with it)

Stuff you have to chop
1/3 cup pickles, diced (use whatever kind you feel like - I used 3 Kosher sandwich slices)
1/3 cup onion, diced (use any kind - I used white because it was already in my fridge)

Stuff you have to mix
3 TB vegan mayo (I love the Follow Your Heart brand, called "Vegenaise" and I used the original)
1 TB (or less) mustard (I used the standard yellow mustard)
dried tumeric (enough to give it color)
dried dill (maybe like 1 tsp)
sea salt, to taste 
black pepper, to taste (I used the tricolor peppercorn from Trader Joe's)
fresh lemon juice (squeeze maybe 1 or 2 tsps' worth)
optional: some mustard seed (use more mustard if you don't have mustard seeds)
optional: a lot of celery seed (see, there was mold on my *real* celery, so I doubled up on celery seed - if you don't have celery seed, you can substitute 1/3 cup celery, diced)
totally optional: black sesame seeds, a couple sprinkles' worth (I only used this to see what it'd look like...totally skippable)

What To Do:
Heat the peanut oil slightly. Slowly crumble the tempeh into the pan and saute until most sides are golden-ish.

Mix all other ingredients together, adding the pickles and onion last. Add the tempeh. Stir. Refrigerate until ready to serve so that flavors combine.

Serving idea: This tastes great in a sandwich! Pictured is mine: vegan chicken salad on toasted sourdough bread, with big leafy romaine, chopped grape tomatoes, and sliced avocado. Mmmm-MMM!!!

Serving idea #2: Double the recipe if you want to make it for your family/roommates/etc. or if you want it to last a couple of days. I specifically made the recipe small because I am only cooking for moi!