Stuffed Mushrooms

Everyone has their very own special way in which they grill portobello mushrooms. Some people choose to simply brush on oil, grill and eat, others add all of the bells and whistles. My favorite way to grill portobellos is with plenty of balsamic vinegar, pepper and olive oil, but while checking out at the grocery store yesterday my friend Petra asked if I was going to stuff my mushrooms. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind and as I left the store a million ideas were running through my noggin. My final decision was based off of my love of mushroom pizza and I quickly began my mushroom stuffing assembly.

First I prepared a bowl of tasty Italian flavored TVP.

1/2 cup dried TVP
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
pinch of salt
pepper to taste
1/3 to 1/2 cup hot water
1/8 tsp liquid smoke
1 1/2 T. tomato paste
1/4 cup shredded Daiya



In a heat safe bowl combine TVP, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Add hot water to bowl, first starting with 1/3 cup and mix, TVP will thicken and may require more water. You don't want it to liquidy but not too dry either, as you want it to be moist when you grill the mushrooms. Add in liquid smoke and tomato paste then stir until well blended.

Using a spoon take out stem and scrape off ribs inside of mushroom. Chop the stems and mix in with TVP mixture, then stuff those babies! Wrap in foil and put on the grill on high for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and turn heat on grill to medium. Place the mushrooms with stuffing side faced up and sprinkle on Daiya, and cook until cheese is melted. Eat and Enjoy! These little guys taste just like mushroom pizza and are perfect with a crisp summer beer.



Fills 4 medium or 2 large portobello mushrooms.

Taking on the V-Con Pt. 12

As many of you know three lovely ladies and myself decided to challenge our selves by cooking our way through the Veganomicon, our own Vegan version of Julie and Julia, if you will. It was great fun, but unfortunately didn't last as long as I had hoped. I haven't even looked at the Veganomicon since our last recipe, almost a year ago. Lately I haven't had the expendable income to purchase groceries needed to fulfil new recipes and have been making standards and creating new things from what I have in the house. I have had an enormous amount of lentils in the house due to my love of lentil soup but as the temperature increases my love of soup diminishes (only a little, really) thus I found myself staring at a pound of red lentils and not a single clue on how to consume then. I then remembered the fabulous Snobby Joe's recipe we did last year with red lentils and decided to see if there were anymore creative and delicious recipes with lentils as a main ingredient.

I had only to turn to page 177 and find my favorite meal of all time Lentil Fetoosh, or as called in the Veganomicon "Lentils and rice with caramelized onions and spiced pita crisps" whew, that is a mouthful...of awesomeness! There is a restaurant Timmy and I frequent called Pita Jungle and we tend to order only one thing, the lentil fetoosh salad. Firstly because fetoosh is so much fun to say and secondly because it is the best fucking salad I have put into my mouth. The recipe in the Veganomicon is not spot on but it was close enough for me!


Ingredients:
3 large yellow onions (I used 1 1/2, because three seems like way too much)
3/4 cup olive oil (i drizzled mine on, maybe used 1/3 cup)
1 cup long-grain basmati rice
1 cup red lentils
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees

and start slicing your onions into thin rings.

Spread onions our on a deep baking dish and coat with olive oil. Roast in pan and stir often, I checked mine every five minutes. While the onions are roasting bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add rice cinnamon stick, all spice and cumin. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, then add lentils. Gently stir in lentils to incorporate and bring to a boil. Once boiling lower the temperature and cook for about 45 minutes.

Gently fluff the lentils and rice when finished then fold in caramelized onions. You can eat the lentils and rice as so, or do what we did, put it over a bed of lettuce and have yourself a plate of lentil fetoosh. We made a lemon dressing similar to the one at Pita Jungle and drizzled that on top of our salad.


along with the salad we enjoyed a marinated bean salad as well. Yummy!