The Paula Deen Vegan Challenge!: Glazed "Bacon"-Wrapped "Chicken" with Cheesy Asparagus & Rosemary Potatoes

As punishment for not posting a Weekly Vegan entry last week, I presented myself with the ultimate challenge. I had to turn Paula Deen recipes into tasty vegan dishes. The queen of butter and bacon was not gonna make this easy, but I was ready for her. Undeterred, I grabbed my trusty veganizing ray and set about on my mission, not sure if I'd ever return.

Whatever you do, don't look into the beast's eyes!

Glazed Tempeh Bacon Wrapped Gardein
Veganized from Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible
Servings: 4
Time: 2 and a half hours (2 hours inactive)

1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp tabasco
1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
4 gardein patties, thawed
4 slices tempeh bacon
1/2 cup light brown sugar

So you're supposed to cover two kinds of meat with sugar. Yeah, that sounds about right.

1. Combine the soy sauce, orange juice, tabasco and garlic in a plastic bag. Add the gardein patties and coat well. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack on top.
3. Free the gardein from its marinade grave and wrap with a slice or two of tempeh bacon. Use a toothpick to keep it secured.
4. Dip the gardein in the brown sugar and coat evenly. Place the chicken on the wire rack and cook for 15 minutes, turning once.

The glazed gardein was somewhat of a mixed-bag. It turned out a little dry since I cooked everything at once at 400 F (so you should probably reduce the time and temp). Evenly coating the gardein patties was also a little tricky, so some bites had nice flavor and some were sadly lacking. These pieces were quickly remedied by the glorious tempeh bacon, which cooked perfectly in the oven. The tempeh was truly the highlight of the meal and went magnificently with the two sides.

Cheesy Asparagus

Veganized from Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible

Servings: 3

Time: 15 minutes

1 lb asparagus, woody ends snapped

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Daiya cheddar cheese

Breaking off the ends of asparagus is oddly therapeutic. 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
2. Toss the asparagus in the olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking sheet.
3. Sprinkle on Daiya cheddar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the faux cheese melts.

The Daiya cheese had some issues with sticking to the asparagus.

Cheese covered asparagus brought me back to the unhealthy introduction to veggies we all have as children. The Daiya cheddar is a great imitation of the real thing (with an interesting and somewhat powdery taste). The only issue I had with this side was that the cheese mostly stayed on the baking sheet, forcing me to scrape it out. The extra work was worth it, though, and would also come in handy with the rosemary potatoes. 

Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

Veganized from Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible

Servings: 4

Time: 40 minutes

3/4 lb Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 1/4 inch chunks

3/4 lb red potatoes, cut into 1 1/4 inch chunks

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

2 strips tempeh bacon

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. 
2. Toss the potatoes and tempeh bacon in the oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper.
3. Roast, turning occasionally until golden and tender or about 30 minutes.

Cropped so you don't see the burnt potato!

Rosemary potatoes are a killer weapon to have in your culinary arsenal. They can add the perfect starchy finish to any dinner or breakfast (see: A Very Vegan Christmas). Opening up your oven to that roasted rosemary smell just might be one of the most perfect experiences you can have in a kitchen. I noticed Paula Deen's recipe wasn't Deenified enough, so I upped the unnecessary quotient by adding some tempeh bacon to the equation. This proved to be a brilliant idea as the potatoes, tempeh bacon and cheese from the asparagus enabled occasional side quests to the land of the baked potato.

Battered and bruised, I emerged victorious from my assault on Paula Deen's cuisine (rhyming is fun). This was a great break from the wild baking tangent I went on (My first actual meal post in almost a month!) and a welcome addition to The Weekly Vegan. Also, now that I live much closer to a Whole Foods (and may have stocked up on enough vegan supplies for the upcoming apocalypse), I'm ready to continue fighting the good fight in my crusade against the ultimate Southern cook.

Harissa Tempeh with Couscous and Sweet & Sour Okra

Tonight we attempted an intriguing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern fusion odyssey. My sister and I combined culinary forces for an unstoppable kitchen kicking experience. Twice the Kennairs! Twice the mess! It's cooking harissa with my sista!

Harissa

It adds spice to foods and doubles as eye cream! 

This was my introduction to harissa, a tunisian hot chili sauce that my sister loves.  It has a nice, sneaky kick to it.  You can find it as either a paste or as dried packets. All our local Whole Foods had was the packets, so we used a hand blender to combine it with equal parts olive oil and hot water (about 1/4 cup each) and some grape tomatoes for sweetness.

Greek Style Couscous
Servings: 8-10
Time: 15 minutes

5 cups couscous 
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
15 grape tomatoes, quartered
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/4 cup red onions
2 tbsp lemon
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Harissa to taste
Salt to taste

1. Prepare couscous according to product instructions.
2. Allow to cool then add in the remaining components.

I hope I didn't lose you after those crazy directions. We wanted a carb to help absorb some of the heat, so we went with a Greek style couscous.

Sweet & Sour Okra
Original Recipe
Servings: 4
Time: 20 minutes

12 oz frozen okra
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
7 tbsp water
3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
4 tsp lemon juice

1. Defrost the okra and drain well. Defrosted okra has a tendency to become slimy. You can fix this with a tiny bit of vinegar
2. Combine 4 tbsp of water, garlic and red pepper. Blend well.
3. Mix in the coriander, turmeric and cumin until it becomes a paste.
4. Heat olive oil over medium heat and add the spice paste. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes
5. Add the okra, sugar, salt, lemon juice and remaining water. 
6. Let the mixture come to a simmer then cook covered on low heat for 10 minutes.

Okra always reminds me of home thanks to my grandmother's amazing okra gumbo that is so spectacular it should be jarred and served as dipping sauce. Again we were trying to incorporate some sweetness to counteract the spice.

Harissa Tempeh
Servings: 5
Time: 75 minutes (inactive for 60)

12 oz tempeh
Olive oil
Lemon Juice
Soy Sauce
Harissa

1. Steam the tempeh for 5 minutes. This opens it up to better absorb marinades and removes some of the its natural bitter taste.
2. Marinade the tempeh in a mixture of the remaining ingredients for about an hour. I recommend a 1:1 mixture of soy sauce and olive oil with lemon juice and harissa to taste (and desired heat level).
3. Cook the tempeh over medium heat until browned (about 3 minutes per side).

Tempeh: soy protein that looks kind of like grainy hot dogs. You can't go wrong.

For our protein, I went with the fermented soy protein tempeh. To keep with our Mediterranean/Middle Eastern theme I decided to modify a marinade that I used before for making Gyros. This actually turned out to be tastier thanks to the harissa.

The meal ended up coming together quite nicely and was best enjoyed by just mixing it all together and pouring on copious amounts of the harissa paste.

It was great cooking with my sister whose style of adding ingredients willy nilly to taste provided a wonderful foil to my more methodical chemist approach. As I continue in this cooking journey and learn more, I hope to adopt that approach. If anything, it'll make writing up the procedures much faster.