The Reluctant Vegetarian Cookbook

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Mexican-Spiced Fake Meat
(or, how to use spices to distract your tongue from realizing that this isn't real meat).

• Fake beef or fake chicken.
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• sprinkling of paprika
• sprinkling of cayenne
• 2 taco bell (mild) sauce packets
• Pat of butter
• Salt and pepper

Put ingredients in a sauce pan, toss so that all fake-meat pieces are covered, sautee until the fake meat is slightly crunchy on the outside.

You can eat this plain, put it on spanish rice, put it in a taco or burrito, etc.

• 2/3 can of Amy's Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup.
• 1 packet Simply Organic Wild Mushroom Sauce.
• 1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 Gardenburgers (if you're feeling crazy, go for the portabella mushroom flavored)
• 1/2 cup of button mushrooms
• 1 package frozen veggies (preferrably the kind with green beans, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers).
• vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste.

Heat sauce pan. Defrost and cut gardenburger into small suqares. Put in just enough vegetable oil to keep the gardenburger from sticking, then sautee the gardenburger until crispy. Then add all the other ingredients. Lower heat and stir until veggies are all defrosted and sauce thickens (you may need to add more water to prevent it from burning).

Serve over rice.

• 1 Package extra-firm tofu
• A handful of sphaghetti
• Spaghetti sauce
• 3 slices bread
• 1 egg
• 1 Tblsp. Milk
• 1 Tsp Flour
• Oil
• 1 Tsp Oregano
• Cheese: Mozerella, Sharp Cheddar, Feta, Parmesean

Boil some spaghetti. Heat up some pasta sauce (or you could make your own by bringing to a boil tomato sauce, cooking sherry, salt, herbs, garlic and onion). Put the spaghetti on the bottom of a pan, then spoon the sauce on top of it.

Take a package of extra-firm tofu. Cut it in to thirds lengthwise so you have three big flat pieces. Use a napkin to soak up as much moisture out of the tofu as you can (don't press too hard or it will crumble). Beat together an egg, a little milk and a little flour (to make the egg even stickier) then rub the tofu pieces in the egg. Now, cut some toast in to little pieces, bake it until it's hard, smash it in to little pices, add a little orageno, and drop your egg-covered-tofu in that. You shoudl now have breaded tofu. Now fry those things briefly in oil (I used half olive oil, half vegetable oil). Take them out of the frying pan, blot off the excess oil, and throw them in your baking pan on top of the spaghetti sauce.

Now comes the most important part: the cheese. I suggest a lot of mozerella, a bit of sharp cheddar, a bit of feta, and a lot of parmesean. Grate it all fine, mix it all together. You should make enough to cover every exposed bit of tofu and pasta in your baking pan. Once you've sprinkled it on top, chuck the thing in the oven with broil on. Everything in there shoudl be still hot, so you don't need to cook it much, just until the cheese on the top gets crispy.

Serve and eat.

Before you get started, you'll need to mix up 3 different blends of spices for the crust, sauce and topping:

Crust Spice Mix: Grind up sweet basil, thyme, rosemary and a little tarragon.

Sauce Spices: Grind up a little black pepper, some marjoram, savory and sweet basil.

Topping Spices: Grind up some coriander, oregano, a little sage, some rosemary. Finely chop fresh hops strobules (preferably the centers of the strobules), a little bit of lavender (too much will be bitter) and some chamomile flowers (try to remove the stems). Add a little bit of the crust spices (above), at about a 1:4 ratio.

Crust Brushing Stuff: Now we need our "crust brushing stuff". Add about half of the crust spices, finely chopped fresh garlic and equal parts honey and olive oil. You will want enough to paint the bottom of the crust with a thin layer. For best results, let this mixture sit in the fridge over night.

Dough: Now we create the dough. Here are the ingredients:

• 2.5 Tsp. dry yeast (1 envelope)
• 0.5 Tsp. sugar
• 0.75 cups luke warm water
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• Fresh grated parmesan
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• finely chopped garlic
• The other half of the crust spices

Mix the yeast, sugar, .5 cups of the water and .25 cups of the flour. Proof for 10 min. Add the remaining ingredients. Knead for 8-10 min., cover and let rise for 1-2 hrs.

Sauce: While the crust is rising, make the sauce. Use canned stewed tomatoes, with the juice. Put in a little bit of tomato paste (only about a Tbsp.), put in some chopped green bell pepper, garlic and sauce spices. Let it simmer for a while, stirring, until it comes to a nice saucy consistency.

Cheese Blend: Now mix up the cheese blend. Add grated mozzarella, a little bit of grated jack, a little grated provolone, a good amount of grated romano and parmesan and most importantly, some Jarlesburg.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.

When the dough is ready knead it out in to a good pizza shape. Now brush the whole bottom, the sides and the parts on top which won't be covered by sauce or cheese with our brushing mix. Then dust everything you brushed with corn meal. Set on a pizza cooking pan. Spread the sauce on top, then put on the cheese, then sprinkle a bit of the topping spices on top of the cheese (warning, these are strong spices, be sure not to use more than fits your individual taste). Put in the oven on a rack moderately close to the burner, and cook until the cheese starts getting brown.

Make the sauce, combine:

• 3 Tbl. Sugar
• 4 Tbl. Lime Juice
• 1 Clove Garlic (finely chopped)
• 2 Tbl. red chili paste
• 2 Tbl. fresh basil (finely chopped)
• 4 Tbl. fresh mint (finely chopped)
• 1 Tbl. soy sauce
• 2 Tbl. rice wine

Take half the sauce, put it in a frying pan, start it heating. Take half a package of tofu, cut in to medium sized cubes, press the cubes with a paper towel to get out the moisture. When the sauce is simmering, drop the tofu in. Cook until sauce evaporates. Put tofu in bowl, set aside.

Put the second half of the sauce in the frying pan. Put in half a package of ground beef tofu crumbles and half a package of oriental style frozen veggies. Cook. When it is almost done, add tofu in.

Serve over rice.

Grind up the following:

• 1 pt. Black Pepper
• 2 pt. Salt
• 1 pt. Cayenne Pepper
• 1 pt. Paprika
• 1 pt. Minced Garlic
• 1 pt. Minced Onion

Tasted good on: Fries, Meatless-Chicken-Nuggets, Baked Potatoes, Parmeasan Bagels.

Put the following in a big pot of boiling water: