Vegan Grilled Breakfast Sandwiches

Week 1: Browns vs. Titans

And we're back! A long offseason punctuated by a perfect fall day, a new tailgate van and a full menu

Hard at work on the new grill table

of vegan fare. A tailgate breakfast can be a welcome treat and a life saver. Often when making a big meal it can be hours before you eat and no one wants to snack on chips and salsa for breakfast. So that's why I love to incorporate a grilled breakfast item at the tailgate.

Last year Broccoli Rob made vegan break burritos ahead of time, wrapped them in foil and then tossed them on the hot grill first thing in the morning.  They were excellent! That got me thinking about other breakfast items we could make and naturally I landed on the Egg McMuffin.

This recipe combines the best of all worlds: marinated tofu, vegan sausage breakfast patties (there are countless brands to choose from), vegan cheese, whole wheat English muffins and a special blend of sauces. After you eat this sandwich you will ask yourself, "why can't I eat this every day?" Enjoy!

Ingredients

• For the marinade:
• 1/3 cup tablespoon vinegar (any kind but Balsamic)
• 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard (or less, if using ground mustard powder)
• 1/3 cup tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 

  Sriracha Maple sauce

  1 teaspoon black salt (Kala Namak is a must!)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• dash of white pepper
• 6 sandwich-sized slab of extra-firm tofu, cut into circles
• Rest of sandwich:
• Breakfast bread of choice: English muffin, biscuit, etc. (I used Ezekiel Sprouted English Muffins)
• Vegan cheese (I used Daiya cheddar slices)
• Vegan sausage patties (I used Gardein Breakfast Patties)
• Vegan margarine (optional)
• Sriracha-infused Maple syrup (optional. 1 part Sriracha, 1 part Maple Syrup)

Directions

1. The tofu should marinate AT LEAST overnight, then the rest of the recipe takes under 10 minutes to execute. 
2. Marinade: Mix the marinade ingredients in a small plastic container with a lid. It will be thick! If it looks dry, cut with a bit of cold water. Once you have a paste, toss in the tofu, close the container, and shake to cover tofu completely. Refrigerate at least 8 hours, and even up to 48!

3. 

   Tofu butcher is in the house!
   

   Prepare the grill for direct heat.
4. When grill is hot, give the tofu a final shake in the container, then place in grate along with the sausage patties. Keep most with any excess marinade. Grill the first side about 3-4 minutes. Flip tofu over, and grill another few minutes. When you flip the sausage over, place a piece of vegan cheese on top. Tofu is done when it's a goldenrod color on both sides and has nice grill marks. When the cheese is melted, pull the sausage patties off the grill. 
5. Meanwhile, prepare the bread to toast. Spread with a little vegan butter if you wish. Toast the bread right after the tofu and sausage is off. 
6. Now once the bread is toasted, spread some of the sriracha maple sauce and vegan mayo on the bread. You can assemble the sandwich and then place it on the grill, or just eat right then and there! 

Time to grill!

 

Grilled to perfection! 

Eat me!

Jo Jo Potato Poutine, The Akron Vegan Way

Part of me wishes I had tried poutine before taking the vegan plunge 4 years ago. Then again, the amalgamation of deep fried potatoes, brown gravy and cheese curds probably wouldn't have sat well with me. I didn't even know what poutine was until my little brother made several trips north of the border and came back raving about it. Since I had been thinking about veganizing the Canadian specialty for a while, a vegan Super Bowl party in Akron seemed like a perfect time.

What makes this poutine different from all other poutine? Well aside from the fact it's vegan, made with Field Roast Chao cheese and Vegan Sausage Gravy (see recipe below), it is also a special type of French fry known only to Akronites and Summit County Ohio dwellers as Jo Jo potatoes. Ok, the potato wedge isn't exactly unique to Akron, Ohio, but I can almost guarantee you that Jo Jo Potatoes have never made their way into vegan poutine before this. And now it's time to share with the world. 

The recipe is not hard to put together. To mimic the deep fried, egg covered Jo Jo's found in pizza and chicken shops in my hometown, I parboiled potato wedges and coated them in cornstarch, spices and a little olive oil before roasting them. The result is a crispy outside and a moist steamy inside. The poutine is assembled in separate bowls topped with the savory sausage gravy and a sprinkle of fresh sage. You can serve as an app, side or main dish. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 large russet potatoes (2.5 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Gravy Ingredients:
• 1 small onion, chopped, about 1/2 cup
• 2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
• 2 Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage sausages, crumbled
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce or tamari
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 cup plain soymilk or almond milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp sriracha
• black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup cubed Field Roast tomato cayenne chao cheese (or other vegan cheese of choice)
• 2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped fine 

Directions

Jo Jo's: Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Scrub the potatoes and cut them, lengthwise, into 10 to 12 even wedges.

Place the sliced potatoes into a large bowl and cover them with boiling water. Let them soak for 10 minutes (aka parboil).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat. Drain the potatoes and pat them dry thoroughly with a clean tea towel or paper towels. Evenly toss the potatoes with the cornstarch, than add the oil, salt and pepper.

Arrange the fries in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and flip them. Continue to bake until the fries are golden and crisp, about another 20 minutes longer. In the last 5 minutes, remove the pans and add the cheese on top. Allow to melt before removing. Time serving so these are hot!

Sausage Gravy: Heat a skillet over a medium flame. Add the onions and cook for three minutes, until starting to soften. Add the crumbled sausage and cook for five minutes, until starting to brown. Add the flour and stir well. After two minutes, add the remaining ingredients, whisking well to combine. It will thicken and be ready rather quickly. 

To serve: Place fries in a bowl or on a plate and sprinkle with cheese. While still warm, pour gravy over fries and cheese. Top with fresh sage and enjoy!

Parboiled taters in cornstarch

Coated taters ready for the oven

Crumbled sausage

MMMMM graaaaavyyy

Jo Jo's

The final product

Chipotle Sausage Stuffed Cabbage with Creamy Chipotle Tomato Sauce

It's been too long! I've neglected posting but have been blogging over at Field Roast and Fresh Fork.  I figured, why not share those awesome recipes over here!  Football season is coming up soon so it's time to get thinking about what to cook.  Enjoy!

The first step to stuffing cabbage is steaming the head and peeling off the leaves one by one.  Fill the leaves with flavorful mixture or vegan sausage, brown rice, onions, garlic and spices.  Meanwhile, whip up a creamy, spicy tomato sauce.  Once the sauce is done and a cabbages are rolled, let simmer and prepare to be amazed!

Vegan Links on the Gridiron

Week 6 Browns vs. Lions

The Browns were dealt a low blow losing hometown hero QB Brian Hoyer last week to a season ending knee injury.  Back comes Brandon Weeden and he precedes to make "the worst interception of all time."  All joking aside, this is kind of what we come to expect from the Browns, year after year.  So what do we rely on? The tailgate.  And it was one of the years best.  Perfect fall day and people in good spirits.

I decided to make vegan sausages for the 3rd time.  I had a couple practice rounds before trying it out at the tailgate.  People tend to grimace when I tell them my sausages are vegan, but honestly do they even know what kind of meat is in a "normal sausage?"  Probably better they don't know.  While some don't want to know how the sausage is made, I'm ready wax poetic about how to make these delectable vegan apple sage sausages. 

Fall means apples in Ohio and across the midwest.  A trip to an apple orchard with my girlfriend left us with a huge bounty of several varieties of apples.  I made sure to get a number that were good for baking and making sauce.  By cooking down the apples, I made a plain jane apple sauce (just water and apples) to use in recipes, including the one below. 

The technique is similar to the All-Pro Veggie Burgs, where you knead wheat gluten with wet ingredients, wrap in foil and then steam.  Afterwards, the sausages can be refrigerated until they are ready to grill. Next time I might use a bit less wheat gluten to make the sausages more moist.  The flavor was incredible though and people were impressed. We even topped them off with some polish stew for an authentic taste.  Enjoy!

Vegan Low Country Boil with Handmade Sausages

Week 2 Ravens vs. Browns (road game)


If you would have asked me a couple years ago what a "low country boil" is I would have looked at you dumbfounded. But when my brother went to Alabama to work for 7 months, he came back talking about this common backyard BBQ tradition. I thought, why can't you veganize it?  So we did.

Low Country Boil

The concept behind a low country boil is simple.  Take a bunch of seafood, sausages and veggies, add a ton of spices, liquid to cover and bring to a boil on an outdoor heat source.  While there are a few common ingredients, such as potatoes and corn, everything else it pretty much left up to you.  The spice mix varies, but I'd recommend going heavy on the flavor.  Why not?  The more complex the flavor profile the better.  The key to our boil was the bay leaves.  Other folks swear by Old Bay.

The number one takeaway is that its pretty hard to mess this up.  No matter what, a low country boil comes out tasting good and serving a crowd.  You are supposed to dump it on a picnic table covered in newspaper, but we just didn't have the capacity to do that.  Next time!

I could've taken the easy road and purchased my favorite Field Roast Sausages along with all the other ingredients.  Instead, I prepared handmade sausages for just the second time and they came out great.  Thanks to a bulk vital wheat gluten purchase, I had abundant supplies to create sausages from scratch.  The technique is interesting and one I picked up on from one of my favorite vegan chefs Alicia Simpson.

You start out making the sausages like nearly every other seitan recipe, dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in the other, knead together.  But here you roll the sausages out, wrap them in foil and steam them for 30-40 minutes before cooking.  The result is a plump, juicy vegan sausage loaded with your favorite spices and without any added oil.

Enjoy!

The Offseason Nears Completion

Dear Fellow Vegan Tailgaters,

We have made it through a long, cold, northeast Ohio winter unscathed.  Well aside from my epic 7-day juice cleanse and fast.  Now it's time to start planning for tailgate season.  There are lots of things in the works at Hold the Pigskin including a debut 2013 tailgate at the USA/Belgium soccer match May 29th.  This year we will have more homemade dishes, like vegan sausage, and new special features, like how to stock a vegan kitchen.  Final exams are just around the bend, so stay tuned in early May for another update.  Until then, I leave you with some photos from some boring indoor vegan cooking I did over the winter.  Enjoy!