Sprouts & Chocolate » texas http://www.sproutsandchocolate.com Livin' the veg life, one meal at a time Thu, 22 Oct 2015 15:04:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.1 Big Ol’ Texas Bowl with Nut-Free Nacho Cheese http://www.sproutsandchocolate.com/big-ol-texas-bowl-with-nut-free-nacho-cheese/ http://www.sproutsandchocolate.com/big-ol-texas-bowl-with-nut-free-nacho-cheese/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2015 13:51:00 +0000 http://www.sproutsandchocolate.com/?p=1786 There are a few things I am pretty confident saying I will probably never do: eat a chocolate-covered bug or any bug for that matter, become an adrenaline junkie since I am such a square and appreciate my feet firmly planted on the ground, use the term YOLO seriously in a sentence (oh no….), enjoy...

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There are a few things I am pretty confident saying I will probably never do: eat a chocolate-covered bug or any bug for that matter, become an adrenaline junkie since I am such a square and appreciate my feet firmly planted on the ground, use the term YOLO seriously in a sentence (oh no….), enjoy white wine better than red wine and never step foot into the Southern United States.

Now before my American readers get offended, it isn’t because I am a Canadian snob or dislike the U.S. but I genuinely believed that as a vegan I would starve. Seriously….

My fear of hunger drove my belief that I would never travel to the deep south of the United States.

I have always had a romantic ideology of the South: the dirt roads, pickup trucks, cowboy hats, beating the midday heat on a porch swing with a cold glass of lemonade, sun-kissed skin and in particular: the accents. I have the weirdest obsession with a good Southern drawl, when words just hang in the air to dry and time moves just a little bit slower. Less romantic note: sometimes when I maybe am drinking that red wine I pretend to have a Southern accent and in my head I am really good at it. Also I may have had a crush on one particular eyeglass wearing legitimate cowboy that I served once at the restaurant I work at but that is a different story.

Sprouts & Chocolate: Big Ol' Texas Bowl with Nut-Free Vegan Nacho Cheese. Vegan, gluten free and nut free.

Sprouts & Chocolate: Big Ol' Texas Bowl with Nut-Free Vegan Nacho Cheese. Vegan, gluten free and nut free.

Why all this talk about the South? Because on May 29 I am headed to Austin, Texas for Vida Vegan Con! I surprised myself when I hit the confirm button on my ticket and flight but the more I think about it, the happier I get about my decision. It is wild to think I will be meeting fellow vegan bloggers in person, going to seminars and demos and if the authors don’t find it super lame, getting my cookbooks signed. How heavy can my carry-on be anyways?

Turns out Austin, Texas is one of the most vegan/vegetarian friendly cities in the U.S. and I plan to eat my fill. I love going to a new place for the learning experience and making connections but mostly its an excuse to eat more than I normally would. Apparently tacos are a really big deal there, especially when served out of a restaurant trailer so I plan to eat a lot of tacos sitting on a blazing hot sidewalk. Please forgive me in advance for my possibly very sweaty, taco-eating selfies on Instagram while I am there. It will be ugly.

Sprouts & Chocolate: Big Ol' Texas Bowl with Nut-Free Vegan Nacho Cheese. Vegan, gluten free and nut free.

Sprouts & Chocolate: Big Ol' Texas Bowl with Nut-Free Vegan Nacho Cheese. Vegan, gluten free and nut free.

During all this excitement of booking my travels, I wanted a dish that was Texas-inspired. This is probably not on any menu of any restaurant in Texas but it is pretty darn good. I was experimenting with a nut-free nacho cheese on Instagram a while back and people were thrilled with the idea! On my account, I drizzled (more like globbed) the sauce onto a big pile of cumin-roasted potatoes and they were delicious however I wanted to lighten things up a little. I decided it needed more greens and a lot more protein to make this meal more balanced than a big pile of potatoes. It may seem crazy, it may seem wild but I just went for it- why didn’t I use the nacho cheese sauce as a salad dressing? Say what?? Oh yes, I went there. I drizzled it on my barbeque baked tempeh, roasted cumin sweet potatoes, fresh avocado and red pepper and dannnng it was banging. All the ingredients in the nacho cheese are pretty good for you and it is no different than any other sunflower dressing so just go for it!

See y’all in Texas! I promise not to wear a cowboy hat. Maybe….

Big Ol’ Vegan Texas Bowl with Nut-Free Nacho Cheese
Serves 2
This is probably not authentic Texan cuisine but it is really good, good for you and uses nacho cheese as a salad dressing! The nacho cheese is nut-free and the soaked sunflower seeds make a great creamy dressing like cashews do but at a fraction of the cost. Read all the directions before you start making this dish since the sweet potatoes have to go into the oven before the tempeh and the tempeh needs to marinate prior to baking. This dish is vegan. gluten-free and nut-free.
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Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
1 hr
Prep Time
30 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
1 hr
For the Nut-Free Nacho Cheese, makes about 1 cup
  1. ½ cup sunflower seeds, soaked for 2-8 hours*, drained and rinsed
  2. 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  3. ½ red pepper, chopped fine
  4. 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  5. ½ teaspoon ancho or chipotle powder
  6. ¼- ½ teaspoons fine grain sea salt
  7. 4-6 tablespoons warm water
For the Barbecue Tempeh, makes 8 pieces of Barbecue Tempeh
  1. 8-ounce package of tempeh
  2. 2 tablespoons tamari
  3. 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  4. ½ teaspoon Spanish or smoked paprika
  5. 6 tablespoons any hickory store-bought barbecue sauce of your choice
Salad
  1. 2 sweet potatoes
  2. ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
  3. ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  4. 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  5. 1 ripe avocado, pitted and cut into thin strips
  6. 1 red pepper, diced finely
  7. 5-6 green kale leaves + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil + 2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice, massaged together to soften the kale.
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
For the Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh
  1. In a wide shallow baking pan (I used my lasagna Pyrex pan), whisk the tamari, oil and paprika together until combined. I cut my tempeh into 8 triangles but any shape you like will do. Set the tempeh into the marinade for 20 minutes, flipping once.
  2. Meanwhile, cut the sweet potatoes into wedges and toss in the cumin, oil and salt. Transfer to prepared line baking sheet, leaving some room in between the potatoes. After the tempeh has been marinating for 15 minutes, add the potatoes to the oven since the potatoes need a little head start on cooking. Bake the potatoes for 5 minutes and then transfer the tempeh to the lined pan and place in the oven to bake for 10 minutes.
  3. Flip the potatoes and place back in the oven. For the tempeh, brush the barbeque sauce onto each triangle, flip and brush with sauce and place back in the oven for another 7 minutes.
  4. Once the tempeh is fully cooked, the barbeque sauce should bit sticky and a little dry. While the tempeh and potatoes are cooking, prepare the veggies and make the nacho cheese.
For the Nut-Free Nacho Cheese
  1. Add all the ingredients to a high power blender and blend until completely smooth. It should be a little bit warm to the touch.
For the Salad
  1. Divide the kale between two serving bowls. Add the rest of the ingredients including the sweet potatoes and tempeh, drizzle with the nacho cheese dressing and serve!
Notes
  1. * Quick soak method: In a small pot, boil water (an amount to completely cover the sunflower seeds), add the seeds, cover and take off heat. After 1 hour, they should be very soft and ready to blend.
  2. **You will have extra leftover nacho cheese but I never fret over this since it even tastes good in the grooves of celery stalks.
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