Another exciting Mediterranean recipe from my sister in-law Guelevren, made from zucchinis carved like, well, gondolas.

Before I became vegetarian one of my favorite kebabs was Adana kebab. It got its name from the city of Adana in Turkey, and with its simple yet hard to achieve preparation what made this dish so tasty. Naturally we won’t be using tail fat, or mince the meat with a cleaver but we achieved a result that will satisfy any meat-eater or vegetarian out there.While some may disagree, It is important that it is served with bulgur pilaf and slices of onion rings sprinkled with sumac.

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Beyond Adana Kebab

After becoming a vegetarian one thing I missed the most was this Turkish Adana Kebab. But with the help of delicious Beyond Meat, we are now reunited!

Ingredients

Kebab Ingredients

• 4 Beyond Burger Patties about 1lbs
• 1 onion finely chopped in food processor
• 1 t pepper paste
• 1 T Aleppo paper
• ½ t paprika
• ¼ t black pepper
• ¼ t salt

Onion Rings

• Sliced onion
• sumac

Instructions

Preperation

• Mix all the kebab ingredients in a big bowl, knead until consistent. Let is rest for couple hours.
• If you have wide skewers put the mixture on there, squeezing lightly until they stick on the skewer. If you don't, you can either make long meatballs or use a butter knife to shape them (i.e. use the butter knife as skewer until the meat is shaped then pull the kebab meat out).
• Grill it until some dark grill lines are visible. If you are not using grates make sure they are cooked and hard enough. The idea is to not grill them too long so they are not dry, or not to undercook them so they are too soft (picture below shows an undercooked kebab)
• You can either use fresh onion rings or the grilled slices as the side. Either way, sprinkle some sumac on them.
• Complete the plate with bulgur pilaf.

This is a great snack and tea companion. Crunchy puff pastry filled with vegetarian sausage and cheese, baked for perfection. If you like borek, or spanakopita you will love this.

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American Vegetarian Sausage Cheese Swirls

This is a great snack and tea companion. Crunchy puff pastry filled with vegetarian sausage and cheese, baked for perfection. If you like borek, or spanakopita you will love this.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 1 box of frozen Puff Pastry Sheets includes 2 ready-to-bake sheets, thawed but still cool
• 1 t olive oil
• 6 oz crimini mushrooms chopped
• 1 onion diced
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 lb vegetarian sausage such as MorningStar Sasuage Patties
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 c + 4 T cheddar shredded
• 1 egg or egg substitute, beaten

Instructions

Instructions:

• Toast the vegsausage patties for 14 minutes at 400°F.  After they have cooled, cut them in quarters and pulse them in a food processor until they are size and consistency of ground beef.
• Prepare the ingredients as described in the ingredients list.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add the mushrooms, onion, and salt.
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushroom mixture is very tender, about 6-8 minutes.
• Remove from the heat. Stir in the ground veg sausage, cream cheese, and 1/2 c of cheddar until well blended.
• Heat the oven to 400°F.
• Lay the puff pastry sheets down on a cutting board.  Brush with egg.
• Sprinkle with the remaining 4 T of shredded cheddar.
• Spread the filling mixture on the pastry sheets evenly.
• Roll the sheets into very very loose tubes.
• Cut them into half inch slices with a sharp knife carefully (total of 20 slice).
• Lay slices flat on a greased baking sheet, and spread out into a wide circle to give the puff pastry room to expand.
• Brush with the remaining beaten egg.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the pastry on the inside of the swirl is cooked and the pastry is golden brown.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.

One important aspect of visiting other countries is to buy different spices and food helpers that you cannot buy back at home. In our recent trip to Turkey we bought several different spice mixes one of which happened to be a helper for one of my favorite meatball dishes: Inegol Kofte. The original plan was to make the meatballs using this mix and the soy meat, but then we saw something more mouthwatering on the package, which brings us to this recipe. Please note that it might be hard to find this mix since Knorr only makes this in Turkey. There are other brands that can be purchased online, but we can never be sure if the results are going to to the same. We apologize for any inconvenience in advance.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

• 1 lbs of Morningstar original vegetarian sausage patties
• ½ pack of Knorr Inegol Meatball Mix  (if not available, you can try Basak brand which seems to be more accessible in some regions)
• ½ c of boiling water
• ½ Knorr vegetable bouillon cube
• 1 egg
• 4 T butter
• cooking oil

Veggie Roast:

• 4 T butter
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 medium onion, chopped in cubes
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped in cubes
• 2 small potato, peeled and chopped in cubes
• 4 medium tomatoes, sliced in thin circles
• 1 can of tomato paste (6 oz)

Garnish:

• 1 cup of shredded Kasseri cheese or similar (e.g. provolone)

Instructions:

Toast the sausage patties for 14 minutes at 400°F.  Pulse the toasted patties a food processor (or chop manually) to a ground beef consistency.

Melt the 4 T of butter (in a small bowl about 30 seconds on high in the microwave) and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Scramble the egg in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the boiled water with the bouillon cube and stir until it is dissolved.  Add the meatball mix continue stirring until well combined.  Add the toasted ground veggie patties, scrambled egg, and cooled melted butter.  Stir / kneed for about 5 minutes until it is mixed well. Make it long, round meatballs in shape of very short (2″ long) hot dogs, but little bit flatter. While making the meatballs, try not to squish them too much.  You want the meatballs to stay as fluffy as possible.  Put the raw meatballs on a greased cookie sheet in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Heat 4 T of butter in the empty large skillet. Add the onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic, tomato paste (in this order). Stir-fry until soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Set the vegetables aside.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Heat 2 T of vegetable oil on high heat in a large skillet.  Add the meatballs and sear them for one minute each side.  The meatballs should be browned on each side but not burnt.  You may have to do a few batches depending on how large your pan is.  Set the meatballs aside.

Grease the bottom of a deep baking dish.  Lay the tomato slices to cover the bottom. Spread half of the cooked vegetables on top, then add the meatballs side by side, and then add the rest of the vegetables on top.  Bake it covered for 40 minutes in center rack. Take it out, sprinkle the shredded cheese on top. Broil it until the cheese on top is melted and slightly brown (about  5 minutes).

When I saw the photo of this dish in Thai Cooking Made Easy by WeiChuan, I couldn’t resist. It had some thick sauce on it, and was served with rice. Those char lines alone were enough to sell me the recipe. So we fired up the grill, and started working (don’t worry, other than the grilling part, it’s relatively easy)

Ingredients

• 10 MorningStar Farms Original Vegetarian Sausage Patties (about 14 oz)

Marinade:

• 3 T + 1 t light soy sauce
• 3 T Hoisin sauce
• ½ t sugar

Sauce:

• 2 T light soy sauce
• 1½ T Hoisin sauce
• ¼ t sugar
• ¼ t pepper
• ½ c water
• ½ T corn starch
• Half a cube of Knorr Vegetable Bouillon

Directions:

Prepare the Marinade in a large bowl with a wide bottom.

Toast the patties for 12 minutes at 350ºF.  Toss them patties in the Marinade. Let them sit, marinating for 30 minutes.

It’s best if the marinated fake meat patties are charred over the grill. If you have a BBQ grill, flash char the patties directly over the flame or very high heat for few seconds on each side. Slow grilling or smoking are not recommended as they will dry the patties.   After they are done, slice them in to strips. Set them aside.

Mix the Sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan.  The corn starch needs to be dissolved into the liquid before the sauce is heated.  Heat the Sauce over medium heat, and mix until the bouillon cube is dissolved completely, and the sauce reaches a consistent thickness.  Pour the sauce over the sliced vegpork patties.  Serve with rice.

With its aromatic smell and flavor, Sichuan pepper makes any dish special. Now add hot bean paste, ginger, garlic, and some bell peppers – we end up with a Chinese delicacy that will satisfy anybody, not just vegetarians.

Ingredients

• 1 lbs Gardein Chick’n (Mandarin Orange, or a similar version that is battered but not breaded.  Set aside the sauce for another use.)
• 1 T hot bean paste

Pepper spice mix:

• ½ T Sichuan peppercorn, ground
• 1 dried hot red pepper

Veggies:

• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 T green onion, minced
• 1 t garlic, minced
• 1 t ginger, minced

Sauce:

• 3 T cooking wine
• 3 T light soy sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T water
• 1 t sesame oil
• 1 t rice vinegar
• 1 t corn starch
• ½ Knorr Vegetable Bouillon

Directions

Bake the fake chicken pieces in oven for 18 minutes at 425°F flipping midway. They should be golden brown, and little crispy. Cool.  Cut each nugget in half.

Prepare the Veggies per the Ingredients list.  Combine the Sauce ingredients into a medium-sized bowl.

Heat the wok, add 3 T oil.  Stir fry Veggies until fragrant. Remove and set aside.

Add 1 T oil to the wok. Add in hot bean paste to fry until fragrant, then add in the Pepper Spice Mix.

Turn off the heat.  Add the Sauce and stir well to ensure the boullion is completely dissolved.

Add the baked chick’n and Veggies back into the wok.  Stir well to coat everything evenly with the sauce.

This is Taiwanese comfort food at its best. My mom used to make it all time, and as kids we loved it. She even stuffed the Thanksgiving turkey with it. It’s so good it’s addictive.  We adapted the below recipe from WeiChuan’s Rice cookbook for our vegetarian diet.  We used dried marinated turnips in place of the typical dried shrimp/fish.

Ingredients:

• 4 c sticky rice 糯米 (rice cooker’s cup, long grain preferred)
• 6 MorningStar Original vegetarian sausage patties
• ½ oz dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 oz pickled dried marinated turnip, finely chopped and washed to remove excessive salt. (When we can’t find turnip, we substitute with raw peanuts.  It yields a different taste, but also very good.)
• 4 large shallots, cut in half and then sliced in half circles
• ½ c vegetable oil

Seasoning

• 5 T soy sauce
• 1 t salt
• 1 t sesame oil
• 1 t pepper

Instructions:

Wash the rice, add water up to 4 cup line of your rice cooker pot.  Cook the rice in a rice cooker.

Soften the dried mushroom in warm water for 30 minutes.  Cut out the stems and coarsely chop the rest.

Toast the vegetarian sausage patties for 15 minutes at 450°F. Pulse in food processor to a ground beef consistency.

Heat 1/2 c of vegetable oil in a very large sauce pan.  Add the shallots, mushrooms and pickled turnip and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add Seasoning ingredients and mix well to combine. Turn off he heat.  Add ground sausage patties and mix to combine.  Add steamed rice, and mix well until the rice has an even brown color.

The word musakka almost always refers to eggplant musakka, at least where I came from. It was surprising to see a cauliflower musakka in this Turkish cookbook we found on Amazon (Sultan’s Kitchen). We already had most of the ingredients at home, it would be mistake not to try this dish!

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower
• 8 MorningStar Sausage Patties
• 1 T tomato paste

Cooking Oil:

• 2 T unsalted butter
• 2 T olive oil

Onion & Garlic:

• 1 onion, diced (¾ cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

Rest of the Ingredients:

• 2 green bell peppers,seeded, thinly sliced
• 2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
• ½ t ground red pepper (we use ½ t Aleppo pepper mixed with a pinch of cayenne)
• 2 T dill, finely chopped
• ¼ c Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1 c stock (hot water mixed with 3 Knorr vegetable bouillon cube)
• 1 t salt
• 1 t pepper

Instructions

Cut cauliflower into florets. Blanch the florets in a hot boiling water for 4 minutes. Immediately drain, and put in ice cold water. Drain, and set aside.

Toast the sausage patties in toaster oven 15 minutes at 450°F. Turn them into ground beef by pulsing in a food processor.

In a big pan (or a sauce pan) melt and mix the Cooking Oil over medium heat. Add Onion & Garlic, cook until soft without browning for about 2 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste. Add the cauliflower florets, stir for few seconds, then add the Rest of the ingredients.

Bring the mixture to boil, reduce heat to simmer for 45 minutes covered.

There should be just enough water to be used as sauce in the pot. Add the meat the last.

Sprinkle with lemon juice when serving.

When I was in college back in Turkey, it was common for us students to eat cheap fixed menus at nearby restaurants which usually consists of soup, rice, a meat dish, and a dessert. My soup of choice (if there was any choice) was always Ezogelin. Tasty mixture of lentils and bulgur in a tomato-based soup, accompanied with a slice of fresh bread.

That’s why I was excited to see the recipe in one of the best-selling Turkish Recipe books on Amazon (Sultan’s Kitchen – eBook version is about $13). I got even more excited when the soup turned out really good.

Ingredients

Cooking oil

• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T butter

First Batch

• 1 onion finely chopped (3/4 cup)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Second Bach

• 2 T tomato paste
• 1 tomato, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped (1/2 cup)
• 2 T paprika
• 1/2 t  mild Aleppo pepper mixed with a pinch of cayenne (original recipe asks for 1/2 Turkish pepper, which is not easy to find)
• 1½ c red lentils
• ¼ c long grain rice
• 7 cups of hot water
• 3 cubes of Knorr vegetable bouillon

Last Batch

• 1/4 c fine bulgur (you can make your coarse bulgur finer in blender)
• 1 t dried mint
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Prepare the ingredients as described above in the Ingredients list.

In a pot or a big sauce pan, put Cooking Oil over medium heat until it gets melted evenly.

Add First Batch, cook it until soft, for about 2 minutes.

Add Second Batch in the order listed, stirring for few seconds in between.

Cover the pot, bring it to boil. Lower the heat, simmer for 30 minutes.

At this point the rice will be soft, and lentils will be mushy and absorbed a lot of the stock.

Add the Last Batch, cook for another 10 minute, stirring occasionally.

If the soup is too thick, you can add some water, but the original recipe was 6 cups of stock, and we already added one more cup to compensate.

When I was little, I used to consider it a special treat when my dad would make these curry fried noodles.  My dad would tell me, “the secret is to put a lot of oil.”  I’ve since learned that you can add a little oil at the end of cooking to create the feeling of an oily dish, without a lot of oil.  This week we had guests to impress, so we put our vegetarian hats on for this yummy noddle dish with fake Chinese BBQ pork!

Ingredients:

• 14 oz (400g) dried rice noodles (usually 1 pack)
• 3½ c stock (2 Knorr vegetarian bouillon cubes dissolved in 3½ cups of boiling water)
• 4 MorningStar Farms Original Vegetarian Sausage Patties
• 3 stalks of celery, outside skin shaved and then cut into 2 inch thin strips

Marinade:

• ½ C boiling water
• 1 Knorr Vegetable bouillon cube, dissolved in the boiling water
• 0.35 oz (10g) NOH Chinese BBQ (Char Siu) seasoning mix, dissolved in the boiling water

Veggies:

• 1 medium onion (about 9.5oz), quartered and then sliced
• 7oz (half can) of shredded bamboo shoots
• 3 medium size carrots, jullienned

Spices:

• 4 T curry powder
• 2 t salt

Instructions:

Prepare the ingredients as described in the ingredients list.  Combine the Marinade ingredients in a medium-sized bowl with a wide flat bottom.

Toast the patties at 400°F for 15 minutes.  Cut each patty in half.  Marinade the halved patties in the Marinade for 30 minutes.  Toast the marinated patties in the oven on 350°F for another 5 minutes to dry the patties out.  Slice the patties into very thin slices, about 1/8th inch thick.

Soak the rice noodles in very hot water for 15 minutes, until soft.  If the noodles are long, cut them in with kitchen scissors into approximately 6 inch segments.

Heat a very large non-stick sauce pan on medium-high heat.  Add 5T oil. Stir-fry the Veggies until they are soft, approximately 5 minutes.  Add the celery and the spice mix and stir to combine well. Pour in the stock, and bring to a boil. Stir in the softened rice noodles and stir fry until all soup dried out, mixing well to ensure that the noodles are evenly soaking up the soup.  Add the sliced, marinated BBQ pork and 3 T of cooking oil, and mix to combine.

This is one of my favorite dishes from my childhood. I remember asking my mom if she could make that ‘soup with dots’ since tiny chopped mints pieces looked like little dots on this white soup. Once in a while I make this dish using soup packets by Knorr or Piyale, but this is the first time I made it with fresh ingredients. If I knew it was this easy, I would have cooked it long time ago! I had to ask my mom for the recipe, so here it is. Tried and mom-approved!

Ingredients:

• ½ c of rice
• 2 liters/quarts of water
• 1 cup of plain yogurt (not fat-free)
• 1 egg
• 1 T flour (wheat or all-purpose)
• ½ c water
• Salt to taste (at least 2 t)
• 2 t fresh mint leaves (or 1 t dry mint)
• (optional) pinch of paprika for color

Directions:

Boil the rice in the water until soft, reduce heat.

Mix the yogurt, egg, flour, and ½ c of water with a mixer. Add this mixture to the slow-boiling rice. Stir well, and keep stirring to avoid lumps. Cook it for 5 minutes over medium-heat.

Add salt. Before sprinkling the mint, fry it in little oil until fragrant. Add pinch of paprika before serving to add some nice red color.

If you like mashed eggplant dishes like Baba Ganoosh, this dish is for you. It’s a tart Indian dish, packing in lots of spices and flavor. If you have the ingredients, making it is very easy. Either eat as a side dish, or make it a dip for your chips.

Ingredients

• 2lbs of eggplant
• ¼ c cilantro
• ½ c finely chopped onion
• 1 t garam masala
• 1 t cumin seed
• 2 T butter

Eggplant spice mix:

• 2 t ground coriander seed
• 1 t ground cumin seed
• 1 t salt
• ¼ cayenne pepper
• ¼ t ground turmeric
• ½ c finely chopped onion
• ½ c tomato sauce
• ½ T lime juice
• 1 t grated ginger
• 1 T (or 2 cloves) finely chopped garlic
• ¼ c cilantro

Pierce eggplants with fork to vent steam when grilling. Grill for 15-20 minutes until skin is blistered (we put in them in the oven at 500°F, but you can use charcoal/gas grill or your oven).

Place eggplants in a large bowl, cover it for 30 minutes, Peel the skin, mash the eggplant pulp until smooth (you can use your food processor).

Combine the Eggplant Spice Mix ingredients in a large bowl.

Add the mashed eggplant to the Eggplant Spice Mix.  Mix to combine evenly.

Heat 2 T butter in a wok or a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Sizzle cumin seeds for about 30 seconds. Add 2 T of the chopped onion, stir fry until golden brown.

Add eggplant mixture, and rest of the chopped onions, stir-fry for 10 minutes. Lastly, stir in garam masala just before removing from heat. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro on the top.

During our stay in Japan, one of our favorite snack places was bakery shops. Every major train station and busy street have at least one those. One of the items in these shops is a deep fried bun filled with curry (in Japanese Kare Pan or  カレー パン). It was kind of hard to find a vegetarian one (and even if we did, we were certain there was beef stock in there), but it was sure delicious. When we came across this recipe in our Chinese Dim Sum book, you can imagine our excitement. We don’t know the origin of this dish, and even though it was in our Chinese cooking book, it tastes pretty similar to the Japanese Kare Pan. It exceeded our expectations so we couldn’t help but to share this recipe with you.

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 T active dry yeast
• ¾ c water
• ⅔ lbs (300g) all-purpose flour
• 1⅓ lbs (37g) sugar
• 1 T cooking oil
• 1 T baking powder

Filling

• ⅓ lbs (150g) vegetarian meat (which is about 4 MorningStar Sausage Patties)
• 1 c onion, chopped
• ½ c carrot, shredded
• ½ c green onion, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 1 T curry powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 t sugar
• ¼ t white pepper
• ½ t rice wine
• ½ t sesame oil
• Half an apple, diced

Cornstarch Mix

• 1 T cornstarch
• 1  Knorr Vegetable Bouillon Cube
• ½ c boiling water

Other ingredients for cooking/frying

• 3 t cooking oil
• 3 c fine bread crumbs (panko)

Procedure

Toast the vegetarian meat patties for 12 minutes at 350°F. Turn it into ground  meat in food  processor. Set it aside (it will be added to the Filling at the end)

Dissolve the yeast in the water, then mix together with other Dough ingredients until smooth. Divide into about 16 equal-sized balls.  Cover to keep the dough from drying out.

Combine the Filling ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine the Cornstarch Mix ingredients in a medium bowl and stir until the bouillon cube is dissolved.

Beat the eggs lightly, then scramble in 1 t oil. Remove from wok. Heat the wok, add 2 t oil, then stir-fry the Filling ingredients except the cornstarch mix and the ground meat until cooked through. Thicken the whole filling with the Cornstarch Mix. While mixing make sure no bouillon cube pieces left undissolved. Add the ground meat, then the eggs,

Roll the dough balls. Put 1 T of filling in each dough, pinch to seal. Dip in water to moisten and roll in fine bread crumbs. Once you do this for all 16 dough balls, they are ready to be fried!

Fill your wok or deep-fryer with cooking oil to the recommended level, and heat it. Deep fry the curry balls until golden brown. Usually it takes less than a minute for each side, assuming the deep fryer is not overfilled, and has the right temperature. Remove from the oil, drain, put on a paper towel-lined plate. Enjoy while hot, and feel free to dip in your favorite sauce

Ingredients

1 pack angel hair pasta

12 sun dried tomatoes, cut in half

10 olives, sliced

2 T capers, drained

1 jar Alfredo sauce

2 cups of fresh spinach leaves

Boil the pasta as instructed on the package. Prior to draining, reserve one ladle of the cooking liquid.

Stir-fry the spinach leaves in 2 T of cooking oil on medium heat until wilted.  Drain,

Combine the sun-dried tomatoes, capers, olives, spinach, alfredo sauce,reserved cooking liquid, and pasta in a large container.  Stir to combine well..

Normally we cook different cuisines every week, but this week was an exception. After our tasty red curry last week, we decided to go with another curry dish. Not only do we like curry, but we are still excited about new book Thai Cooking Made Easy by Wei Chuan. For this dish, we will use our MorningStar sausage patties instead of beef. We also adjusted the ingredients to compensate the lack of real meat.

Ingredients

Soup

• 6 T peanuts
• 2 potatoes, cut in bite size
• 6 c water
• 3 Knorr vegetarian bouillon cubes

Curry mix

• 2 T oil
• 3 T masaman curry paste
• ½ c coconut milk

Sauce

• 2½ c coconut milk
• 2 T fish sauce
• 2 t palm sugar
• 2 t lime juice
• ½ t paprika powder

1 medium onion, chopped

8 MorningStar Original vegetairan sausage patties

Instructions

Toast sausage patties  for 12 minutes at 350°F. Chop them into bite sized pieces (6 pieces each)

Combine the Soup ingredients in a large pot.  Boil for 20 minutes.

Combine the Curry Mix ingredients in a medium bowl.  Combine the Sauce ingredients in a large bowl.

Stir-fry Curry mix separately in a large sauté pan over medium heat about 1 minute. Add the Soup and Sauce, then bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cook for 10 minutes.

Add the onions and sausage patties, and cook briefly until heated through.

Serve with steamed rice.