Tag Archives: smoky

Smoky, vegan pea soup

Posted in The vegan elephant by

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There’s something very homey and comforting about a bowl of pea soup on a cold winter day. I remember my mother making pea soup that started with the leftovers of a ham – leg bone and all – simmering in a pot and imparting its rich, smoky flavour.

But today we have liquid smoke and smoked paprika to the rescue. Pigs and vegans rejoice!

This recipe is fast, easy and will last for 3-4 days in your fridge. In fact, it’s even better the next day.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients

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2 Tbsps. oil

1 medium onion diced

2 medium carrots cut into quarter moons or diced

4 cups vegetable broth

1 cup yellow split peas

1– 3 Tbsps. red lentils (the more you add the thicker your soup will be).

½ tsp salt or to taste

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp liquid smoke

 

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The more red lentils you add, the thicker your soup will be. I used 2 tablespoons of red lentils and can stand a spoon up in the soup when it’s cold.

Directions

In a medium-sized pot, sauté the onions and carrots in the olive oil until the onions are translucent (about 2 minutes). Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for one hour until the split peas are tender.

Optional – I like to use a hand blender and give the soup a brief whiz just to make it creamier while still retaining its chunkiness.

Enjoy!

p.s. This soup is wonderful with some crispy fried Sham.

 

Real vegans fake it – rice paper bacon

Posted in The vegan elephant by

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So my Facebook friend, Bob Kurtz, casually mentions to me in a chat “Have you tried rice paper bacon yet?” No, I had not. But once Bob showed me this video and pictures of his own creations, I was IN!

This is faux bacon made from rice paper and marinade. It’s ridiculously easy to make, inexpensive, tasty, crispy and gives you the salty, smoky, chewy flavour which is what any sane human is actually craving when they think they want bacon.

I googled a few different ways to make this bacon and this is my version.

Ingredients

8 sheets of rice paper

6 Tbsp nutritional yeast (Bob grinds his in a coffee grinder to get a fine powder)

2 Tbsp neutral tasting oil like canola oil

3 Tbsp soya sauce

½ tsp liquid smoke

½ tsp maple syrup (Bob and I both agree on this)

A pinch of smoky paprika

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Directions

Heat your oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine all the ingredients except the rice paper in a small bowl. Add about 2 Tbsp water to get a gravy-like consistency.

Cut your rice paper into strips about 1” wide. I had difficulty cutting the dry rice paper without it snapping so I took two sheets at a time and quickly ran them under tap water and cut them while damp.

When you have your strips cut in a double thickness (see video again), dip them in water once more, use your fingers like a squeegee to slip off the excess water and then coat them in your marinade.

Place each strip on your parchment lined pan.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 400 degrees. Watch them. Just like pig-bacon, they can go from crisp to burnt quickly.

Bob fries his bacon as per the video and also lets it cool off on a baking rack so that that his strips have the classic wavy ripple to them.

I want to have breakfast with Bob some day.