I Faked it this Weekend....

.....with fake sausage patties - Chickpea Sausage Patties to be exact. This recipe I found on the blog "EATAIR" . These were beyond yummy! And for once I followed the recipe and the only thing I would do differently next time is to double the recipe. 5 out of 5 forks on these. I'm dreaming of "Vegan McMuffins" as I type this. These patties would be perfect for that...but I served them with baked butternut squash and asparagus.

Then I made some balls....

...for pasta & balls. I use the "BETTER BURGER" recipe from "Vegan Vittles" and make them into balls. I usually double the recipe so I have extras to freeze. This time I change the recipe a tad...instead of 2 cups of TVP (in the double recipe) I used 1 1/2 cups of TVP and 1/2 c. of ground walnuts. I very much like the change, it added more flavor and they weren't as "gooey".

....and some baked seiten. I confess, I made them a while ago, in fact I've made a couple of times. This recipe is from "Veganomicon" - since everyone now has made the Chickpea Cutlets**, the Baked Seiten Cutlet recipe is the recipe before it.

Here's a photo before going into the oven.....

And the finished product.....

As stated, I've made these a couple of times. The second time I made them, I thought I screwed up with the wheat gluten and the "dough" was extremely a stringy glob mess- and of course I doubled the recipe. So I put that aside, and made another, single batch, better, but still had stringy globs in it. Well, I decided not to waste anything and cooked all 3 batches. They ended up turning out great- taste wise, just not as pretty as the above photos. Oh, and I save the broth from the baking process (freezer) to use again to make these...no need to waste. The cutlets were moist and tender with less mess then the boil method.

I really need to perfect my wheat gluten technique; I have issues of getting distracted and I think the problem arises when I don't mix immediately upon adding the wet ingredients. Or maybe I pour the wet ingredients in too quickly and not evenly. Any one has hints, pretty please let me know. The seiten was great as a substitute for the tofu in my lettuce wraps (April 13, 2007 post).

**Okay, don't totally BOO me, but the Chickpea Cutlets from "Veganomicon" were just okay for me. Goods even agreed with me. I do think they are a great base to work with. Sorry if I offend anyone.

The next new fake meat I'm going to make is Corned Beef from the blog- Everyday Dish. Yummy??? I'll let you know.