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!

All-Pro Veggie Burgs

Week 5 Bills v. Browns

How meaty!

Sorry for the delayed posting.  I made these veggie burgers at an impromptu apartment tailgate before the Thursday night game last week.  Vegan tailgates are known for veggie burgers, but they don't have to be tasteless and boring like those depicted in the recent Bud Light commercial.  

This recipe comes come from vegan grilling legend (and Clevelander) Tamasin Noyes.  When I met her a few months back, she insisted I try my hand at making this burger.  She said it delighted many meat eaters and vegans alike.  The technique is the same, but as you can see my recipe varies quite a bit.

What sets it apart is its meaty texture.  The TVP gives it a ground beef appearance and the vital wheat gluten holds it together.  Like most veggie burgers, the flavor is really customizable with the spices and the liquid smoke and vegan worcestershire add a great burger taste.  Enjoy!

Caught Taking a Leek: A Grilled Leek Dip

Week 4 Browns v. Bengals

Things have changed for the better in Cleveland. The Indians are in the playoffs and the Browns are tied in first place after a convincing win against their division rival.  I'm pretty convinced the karma of the vegan tailgate had something to do with it.  We had 5 people eating exclusively vegan at our tailgate this past Sunday, our biggest yet!  I got things started off with the phenomenal grilled leek dip that, because of time spent preparing ahead, required little work except grilling and slicing the leeks.

If you're a reader on this blog, you know I love dips to warm up the belly prior to eating a big meal.  This one really was a crowd pleaser and vegans and non-vegans alike really enjoyed it.  It comes from Tamasin Noyes, a vegan chef and writer I met earlier this year at the Cleveland Veg Fest.  Her cookbook, "Grills Gone Vegan" is one of my favorites.  Only next time, I'll have to triple the recipe!

The grilled leeks are key for this recipe.  They kinda come out nowhere and some people had never heard of them before.  But they perform well.  Kinda like a quarterback starting for the Browns right now!  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!

Bud Light NFL "Quinoa Burger" Commerical

Many of you may have seen the new Bud Light commercial featuring the tailgater at the whim of his girlfriend cooking a tasteless quinoa burger. While Bud Light has little room to talk about being bland and tasteless, it certainly shines a light on our little corner of the parking lot. Not the most flattering portrayal of a vegan tailgate but we have come a long way. Touché Bud Light!

Sawwwce is Boss: Chocolate Habanero BBQ

Week 1: Browns vs. Dolphins

Tailgate season is back!  We had our first vegan tailgate of the year this past Sunday at the Muni Lot in Cleveland.  The nice weather, blind optimism about the season and amazing food made for a great atmosphere (we won't talk about what transpired on the field).

I purchased some chocolate habanero peppers at the Tremont Farmer's Market last week just because I thought they looked cool. This Amish guy sells a huge variety of hot peppers and I am always talking myself into buying them. I ended up using an entire pint of them in this BBQ sauce for the seitan ribs. The recipe for this sauce came off the top of my head, which I plan on doing more of this season.  Getting inspiration from the amazing vegan community is all well and good, but I want to contribute my own personal flare to the vegan scene.

Rib sandwich w/slaw, mac and cheese and chipotle kale

Sauces are vital for tailgates.  So much so, I have been collecting sauce bottles this offseason with the intention of making at least one homemade sauce per tailgate.  I will post several sauces on the blog throughout the season.  There is little value in buying a sauce at the store. Name the last time someones eyes lit up at a bottle of ketchup or honey mustard.  They are usually loaded with ingredients you can't pronounce to preserve its color and flavor.  Yuck.

There is nothing like making your own variation of your favorite sauce, like this twist on my favorite sauce, BBQ.  I've been dabbling in making BBQ sauce since my college days.  It is really quite simple because it involves a base number of ingredients and the rest is fully customizable.  Don't let the thought of making your own BBQ scare you... its very easy!  It involves sauteing finely chopped onions/garlic/peppers and adding them to tomato sauce/ketchup/puree with several key additions like apple cider vinegar, liquid smoke, ground mustard, vegan Worcestershire (no anchovies!), brown sugar or agave and other spices like paprika, cumin or oregano.  Don't worry if you can't get chocolate habaneros for this sauce, any variety will do.  Its brings the heat, so 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!