Oh PULEASE...... could today BE any more over scheduled???? I'm in the kitchen working on the components for a bunch of vegan cheesecakes I'm donating for a charity this weekend. I've got chocolate to temper for the decorations, chocolate crusts to make, not to mention the filling itself and baking of all those cakes. This, and today's prompt is "go to impress me meal." It just figures.
Heck, I'd love to make you a 6 course meal (no, not really, I don't like to cook, haters gonna hate, I'm a baker not a cook) but you're getting a fabulous vegan BLT from me today. I'm not about reinventing the wheel, meaning when I find recipes that are great, I use them. Not everything around here has to be a recipe I've written.
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Vegan BLT Artisan Vegan Bread Aquafaba Vegan Mayo Vegan Rice Paper Bacon (scroll down for recipes) Toasted, with fresh tomatoes, romaine and cracked pepper. Twigs & sticks again... how do we vegans survive. |
Bread in the Keys absolutely sucks. If you go to Key West, Cole's Peace Bread has a few accidentally vegan breads and I must say their mango bread is divine. Old Town Bakery also in Key West has a few accidentally vegan breads, they get extra points because they have a purposefully vegan sandwich on the menu using their own baked bread. Otherwise, I'm not vouching for any other bread bakers down here. When I lived up north I ate a lot of bread, every store, restaurant and bakery had good (vegan) bread. Once I moved here, bread became a non-issue. I won't eat it if it sucks, and just as well as I've cut many things out anyway because they cause me problems with inflammation (something I never bothered about in my younger years, but has caused me mountains of collateral damage for my health and ruins so much of my running efforts). Somehow I got turned onto this recipe for artisan bread, but I have no idea who or where I found it. The link for the bread shown in this video is provided after the video, scroll down.
Vegan mayo is now widely available from quite a few brands. I'm still an organic Veganaise gal as my favorite of all time, but JustMayo gives them a good run for the money. Aquafaba is a game changer in the culinary world (notice I didn't say vegan world.... I said culinary world) and I often make my own vegan mayo using the recipe linked below, scroll down.
Lastly, another game changer in culinary world is rice paper bacon. I use a recipe from "yup it's vegan" but the original is called Laekon, and if you google just that one word, you'll find their link. I don't single out any one particular animal product as worse than another, but bacon is evil. Gestation crates are truly a torture device. While visiting a farm animal sanctuary a few years ago, I was "invited" to step inside a gestation crate for the experience. Within seconds I began to have severe anxiety, which would soon lead to a full blown panic attack. Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on this planet, but among the most abused. If you google "gestation crate" you will see. Rice paper bacon is actually on the menu here now, it's that good. The recipe in the link is gluten free, and I use Bragg's liquid aminos instead of soy sauce. Soy sauce seems to burn easier and the flavor seems not all I want it to be. Bragg's liquid aminos give the recipe a great flavor, I also put a pinch of smoked paprika and black pepper in my version, but you really don't have to use it. I've also tried to make rice paper bacon using liquid coconut aminos hoping for a soy free version, don't do it. Coconut aminos are high in sugar, they just don't have the same properties as Bragg's, soy sauce or tamari, my attempt burned within 2 minutes.... billowing smoke galore. If you want gluten free and don't want to use Bragg's make sure you choose a wheat free soy or tamari sauce. Also, this certainly isn't a low sodium item, however Bragg's are about 1/3 the sodium of soy and tamari.
I've got to get back to my vegan cheesecakes now, but just know you can buy vegan versions of any of this, including vegan bacon, vegan mayo and store bought vegan bread. There's nothing like making your own, and what's most impressive about this super simple delicious sandwich is once you have the ingredients as pantry staples, you are looking at pennies on the dollar compared to store bought..... impressive indeed. Let's get to the video, then scroll to the end for the links to the recipes (with credits to the authors)
Let's eat!
LINK: http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/2016/02/12/homemade-artisan-bread-easiest-bread-recipe-ever.html
Vegan mayo recipe credit "peanutbutterandvegan.com"
LINK: http://peanutbutterandvegan.com/april-all-natural-day-5/
Vegan rice paper bacon recipe credit "YupItsVegan.com
LINK: http://yupitsvegan.com/2016/04/18/vegan-rice-paper-bacon/
Thanks for the recipes, I must make aquafaba mayo, it will save me money!
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