Revamping Recipes

 A few posts back I waxed poetic about how much we loved Seitan Piccata recipe from Veganomicon.  It was so tasty.  I really like that recipe, but it uses regular potatoes for the mashed potatoes and you need to have seitan on hand to make it.  I decided to revamp this recipe using cauliflower steaks and sweet potatoes instead of russet potatoes.

Making mashed potatoes out of sweet potatoes is pretty simple: boil chopped sweet potatoes for 30-45 minutes until soft.  Drain the water.  Mash in a bowl with some almond milk and Earth Balance.  Season with salt and pepper.

To make the cauliflower steaks, I cut the head of a cauliflower parallel to the table while sitting stem down approximately an inch thick.  I don't know if that was the best approach as many of my "steaks" fell apart.  Next time I may try cutting them perpendicular to the counter to see if that works better (it may not).  I then dredged them in WWPF (whole wheat pastry flour) and fried them in oil like the Veganomicon recipe.

The whole thing turned out quite tasty.  It was nice to be able to eat a slightly healthier and easier version of this dish. 

On a different vein, I also tried making a recipe from Living Raw Food: the Tomato, Fennel, and Avocado Pressed Salad with Caper Dressing.  It was really tasty basically consisting of chopped tomato, chopped fennel, chopped avocado, handful chopped basil, handful chopped mint, 1/4c chopped pistachios topped with a dressing made out of oil, capers, and some agave (if I'm remembering correctly).  It was really fresh and delicious.  You should give it a whirl!