Ⓥaco Salad

I’ve blogged it before and I’ll blog it again. Improv cooking sometimes allows truly great ideas to flourish. And having fun with your food is unreal, interesting and extremely entertaining. Perhaps, not always a success, but worth it most of the time.

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From time to time, I do not wanna go to the grocery store. And that alone (maybe a beer or two, also) is my spontaneous/improvisational motivation. Cook and create with what you have on hand. I have strong belief that in a prior life, I was a Mexican chef. Furthermore, I always non-subconsciously almost hoard Mexican cuisine ingredients. A past life is the only way that I can explain it.

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Hopslam:)

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I’ve had some good beers in the last weeks. I had enjoyed my first ever Hopslam on draft. I’ve had it in bottle before, which is great. The preservation and balance in keg is unbelievable. Hopslam is made out of Bell’s Brewing in Galesburg, MI. It is a DIPA (double india pale ale) made with honey. FIND IT. ENJOY IT.

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Seitan ingredients:

  • Vital Wheat Gluten
  • Corn Meal
  • Rosemary/Cayenne/FennelSeed, crushed together
  • Tomato Sauce
  • Veggie Broth
  • Turmeric/Thyme/SeaSalt/Pepper/GarlicP/OnionP
  • Bay Leaves/Celery/Peppercorn/Fennel/Rosemary, for baking
  • Vegan ‘Cheese’ cloth

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Domino Effect:

  • Mix wet ingredients together and dry ingredients separately before mixing together.
  • Form into a loaf and put into wet ‘cheese’ cloth.
  • Put Seitan loaf into Lasagna pan and put Herbs/Veggies with Broth filling halfway.
  • Bake for two hours, flipping loaf in between.
  • Remove from cloth immediately and put in foil or use.
  • I broiled slightly after out of ‘cheese’ cloth.

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Relish ingredients:

  • Tomato, deseeded and diced
  • Cucumber, deseeded and diced
  • Onion, diced
  • Seitan, diced and slightly charred
  • Radish, diced
  • Garlic, minced
  • Lime, juice
  • Cilantro, chopped
  • SeaSalt/Pepper
  • Oil/BalsamicVinegar/RedWineVinegar/Sriracha

Mix.

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Rice ingredients:

  • Rice, Basmati – browned and cooked
  • Broth
  • Leftovers (mostly beans)
  • SeaSalt/Pepper

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Veggies ingredients:

  • Potato, chopped
  • Celery, sliced
  • Carrot, sliced
  • Onion, diced
  • Seitan, mmmm
  • Corn, browned
  • Cilantro, chopped
  • Daiya, slices for garnish
  • Rice

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Ⓥaco Salad ingredients:

  • Tortilla, baked as taco bowl
  • Lettuce, iceberg – sliced
  • Spinach, sliced
  • Jalapeno, roasted and deseeded/skinned
  • Vegenaise, mmmmm
  • Seitan, chopped
  • Relish, mmmm
  • Mushroom, sliced
  • Cilantro

Build.

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Happy Friday! Spring is approaching!

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Be safe.