Spicy BBQ Jackfruit

• 2 20-ounce cans young green jackfruit in water or brine
• 2 tbsp oil
• ¼ white onion, diced
• ¾ cup bbq sauce, plus more for topping
• 4 pineapple rings, sliced ¼ inch (cored)
• 4 buns (toasted or grilled)
• ½ red onion sliced

BBQ Spice Blend

• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

1. If jackfruit is in water, drain, thoroughly dry, move to step 2. If jackfruit is in brine, rinse, dry with clean towel.
2. Remove core, hard parts, dense portions, seed like portions of jackfruit.
3. With your hands or a fork, string/pull jackfruit apart. Set aside
4. Mix the BBQ spice blend in a separate bowl. Add brown sugar, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, and cayenne. Then add to jackfruit and toss thoroughly to combine. In the meantime, heat a large skillet over medium heat.
5. Add oil to hot skillet, sauté onion until slightly translucent. Add jackfruit for 5 minutes.
6. Add bbq sauce and enough water to thin the mixture into a sauce (about ¼ cup)
7. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until flavor has permeated the jackfruit. Add more BBQ sauce and/or water as needed.
8. In the meantime, grill or sauce pineapple until slightly caramelized.
9. To serve, add grilled pineapple to bun. Top with BBQ jackfruit. Serve with additional sauce and desired vegetables.

Vegan Enchiladas

Enchilada Sauce

• 1 tbsp oil
• ½ white onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo, chopped
• 2 tsp adobo sauce
• ½ cup water (or broth)
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• salt + pepper

Enchilada Filling

• 1 tbsp oil
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ½ white onion, diced
• 1 poblano pepper (seeds removed), diced
• 1 15-ounce can refried beans
• 1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained + rinsed
• 8 tortillas

Directions

1. Heat large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add 1 tbsp oil, onion, and garlic. Gook until onion is translucent.
2. Add tomato sauce, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, maple syrup, and water. Reduce heat and simmer 5-10 minutes, covered to prevent splattering.
3. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
4. In another skillet or saucepan, heat 1tbsp oil. Also, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Add onion and poblano pepper to hot skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until pepper is soft and onion is translucent.
6. Add refried beans, drained pinto beans, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder. Mix well and cook for five minutes. Add ⅓ cup of the enchilada sauce. Remove from heat.
7. Pour bit of sauce into bottom of 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Spread to coat bottom of dish. Fill tortilla shells with filling and place them seam-side down.
8. Pour remaining sauce over top of enchiladas. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
9. Top with avocado, red onion, lime juice.

Vegan Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese

1 cup plain, unsweetened non-dairy yogurt

1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 3 – 8 hours and drained

1 cup water, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

3 tablespoons tapioca flour

1 tablespoon agar powder

Combine the yogurt, cashews, a half cup of the water, and salt in a blender and process until emulsified. Transfer to a container, cover loosely, and set aside for 12 to 24 hours until slightly tangy. Whisk in the tapioca flour.

Combine the agar and remaining half cup of water in a small saucepan. Whisk together. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in the yogurt mixture and mix well with a whisk. Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is smooth, glossy, and stretchy.

Prepare a large bowl of ice water. Using an ice cream scooper, drop balls of the cheese into the ice bath. Let sit for 20 to 30 minutes until firm.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding Parfait

If you are like me, you crave sweets on the regular. Usually, I opt for eating dark chocolate, but every once in a while, munching on chocolate doesn't satiate my desire for desserts. 

There's no way I can convince myself to get out of bed and make brownies, bake them, and wait for them to cool off. I need something much more immediate. Moreover, the night I made this, we didn't have any chocolate chips in the house. After doing some research, this recipe seemed like the best way to 1) use up my soon-to-go-bad avocados and 2) eat something chocolatey and delicious. 

This recipe is perfect since it is super easy- takes only 5 minutes to make- and is made with avocados which makes it a healthy "guilt-free" dessert. The cocoa powder perfectly masks the avocado taste, and really, what you end up with is a rich and creamy glass of decadent deliciousness.

Top with whatever ingredients you have in your pantry, fridge, or freezer. We had frozen raspberries and cacao nibs on hand. The fruit adds a nice acidity which breaks up the richness of the chocolate pudding, and the cacao nibs add a bitter crunch, which was surprisingly delightful.

After I ate all the pudding, I realized this would make excellent single serve shots. The avocado pudding and coconut cream keeps great in the fridge, so make a half dozen of them and eat throughout the week!

INGREDIENTS:

COCONUT WHIPPED CREAM

• 1 can of coconut milk (I use Trader Joes brand because it seems to afford much more cream than other brands) left in the fridge overnight, or for at least 6 hours
• squeeze of sweetener of choice
  *we don't use powdered sugar, but use it if you want the consistency of freshly whipped, whipped cream. For all others, use whatever you have (e.g. agave, maple syrup, honey) or leave out the sweetener all together! Taste test and decide for yourself.
• splash of vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE AVOCADO PUDDING

• 3 avocados
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 tablespoons liquid sweetener (maple syrup, agave, honey, raw sugar, whatever!)
• splash of vanilla or almond extract
• 1/2 cup almond milk

PARFAIT INGREDIENTS

• cacao nibs, raspberries, walnuts, chocolate chips, etc.

METHOD:

(makes 2+ parfaits depending on the generosity of your servings)

AVOCADO CHOCOLATE PUDDING

1. Cut open the avocado, remove the pit and place into a 16 oz. container.
2. Add the coconut milk to the avocado and blend with an immersion blender. A regular blender works just fine if you don't have an immersion blender.
3. Add cocoa powder, salt, milk, and vanilla extract.
4. Add sweetener one tablespoon (or squeeze) at a time, tasting in between. You can add more or less sweetener depending on your preference.
5. Place in the fridge while you're making the coconut whipped cream.

COCONUT WHIPPED CREAM

1. Making sure to not turn the can when it is removed from the fridge, scoop the coconut cream out of the can.
2. Add the cream, sweetener, and vanilla to a clean 16 oz. container.
3. Blend with an immersion blender. If you don't have an immersion blender, put this mixture into a mixing bowl and whip by hand or with a hand blender.

CONSTRUCTING THE PARFAIT:

1. Place raspberries in the bottom of a your glass of choice.
2. Cover with coconut cream.
3. Add half the chocolate pudding.
4. Cover with coconut cream.
5. Top with cacao nibs and raspberries - these vary depending on what you have in your fridge/what your taste buds are craving. Walnuts, strawberries, and chocolate chips are other great options.

Vegan Buffalo Wings

Hello! and welcome to Sarasota Vegan. I've taken somewhat of a hiatus from blogging about living a Vegan lifestyle, but alas, I am back with a whole lot of recipes to share. Without further adieu ...

Vegan Buffalo Wings

■ 1 8 oz package of tempeh
■ 1/3 c milk (may need more, I use Almond Milk)
■ 1/3 c flour (may need more, I use Whole Wheat flour)
■ 1/2 t salt (I use pink Himalayan salt)
■ 2 t thyme
■ 1 t paprika
■ fresh ground pepper, to taste
■ 1/2 t garlic powder
■ 2/3 c breadcrumbs (may need more)

Sauce:

■ 4 T margarine, melted (coconut oil can be mixed with this to use less margarine, I use Earth Balance)
■ 2 1/2 T hot sauce (Cholula is my go-to hot sauce for this)
■ 4 T ketchup
■ 2 T agave nectar

Cut the tempeh into four equal blocks, then cut those blocks into triangles, and carefully slice the triangles in half lengthwise. Steam tempeh for about fifteen minutes or until tempeh is softened. Remove tempeh from steamer. Allow the tempeh to cool enough that you can handle it.

While the tempeh is cooling, make the sauce. In a large pot, combine all of the sauce ingredients and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Make your assembly line for the wings. Put your milk in the first bowl, your flour and spices in the second, and your breadcrumbs in the third. At the end of the line, have a greased baking sheet waiting.

Hopefully by now, the tempeh is cool enough to handle. Take a triangle, and dip it in the milk, then coat in flour. Then another quick dip in the milk before thoroughly coating it in the bread crumbs and placing it on the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the tempeh.

Bake in the oven for twenty minutes, flipping half way through. After the twenty minutes is up, toss tempeh in sauce coating all pieces as evenly as possible. Now, devour those little triangles of heaven! As always, serve with a green vegetable.

Vegan Blintzes

A few months ago, I was a backer on a kickstarter project for a vegan cookbook, "The Lotus and the Artichoke". My contribution was well worth it, every recipe I've made from this book has been a success. I recommend checking them out on Facebook.

I'm not sure how to go about posting recipes when I feel this author deserves compensation. The book is beautiful, and easy to follow. It serves as an inspiration to create my own.

I followed the recipe exact, however after the crepe was done, I filled them and put them in the oven rather than cooking them in a pan. We also added the blueberry sauce which wasn't in the original recipe.

Honey (alternative) Glazed Tempeh

Are you familiar with tempeh? My fondest memory so far was a chance visit in Omaha, NE. We had lunch at McFoster’s Cafe where I ordered my first tempeh reuben sandwich. Recently I decided to get away from the pan, and try a combination of steaming, marinating and baking. After the results, I'm not sure I'll be cooking tempeh in a pan for some time, this stuff just got really good!

In all honesty, I didn't measure when making this, so you'll have to base quantities on what you feel is best. We had a few containers of honey that needed scraping out, and that's just what I did.

Ingredients:

honey alternative (maple syrup is my preference)
balsamic vinegar
mustard
tempeh

Instructions:

Cut tempeh in nice size pieces. Steam for 20-25 minutes. Mix wet ingredients and marinade tempeh in refrigerator for at least two hours. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. I've found that depending on your marinade, the timing varies. If you have a lot of moisture, it can cook longer. Otherwise, it can burn, so watch it.

I like to serve with quinoa and a green vegetable.