For Taco Tuesday this week I made two new to us tacos. One with nopales and the other king oyster mushrooms . They were both just ok. The king oyster mushrooms were too chewy and the nopales a little too slimy. I doubt I’ll make them again to try to improve them.
From Aldi’s. They were pretty good but… I’m not sure these are vegan despite claiming to be plant-based. It doesn’t state that they are vegan on the box like some of their other products do. I found the following on the Aldi’s website which makes no sense to me…
“Our Promise: All our Earth Grown products are free from animal products, including meat, poultry and seafood, and our vegan items are also free from substances produced by animals – such as eggs, dairy, honey, gelatin and lanolin.”
The possible offender on the ingredient list that I see is natural flavors. I assume there’s no legal definition of Plant-Based and companies can use it how they like.
Went to my parents house and we made veggie burgers from a recipe my Mother found at Plants 365.
I needed to bring our food processor as my Mother had just gotten rid of hers because she didn’t use it, Streets were a little snowy and icy but I made it to their house without incident.
Mushrooms, tempeh, oats, rice and beets the main ingredients. It mixed up well and was easy to work with. I may have used too much beets.
Pan fried them for several minutes on each side.
They browned up nicely. Taste was pretty good and texture slightly soft on the inside like so many other veggie burgers. All 3 of us gave them a thumbs up. Served them with oven fries.
Ingredients
Ziti (or similar) noodles
1 yellow onion diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
Diced mushrooms
Faux sausage crumbled
Faux cheese
Tofu Ricotta
For Tofu Ricotta
1/2 block extra firm tofu
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Directions
Preheat oven to 375
In a sauce pan saute 1/2 of the diced onions
Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, spices to sauce pan and simmer for 20 or so minutes
Cook noodles according to package directions
In a skillet brown the sausage and mushrooms then set aside
For the Tofu Ricotta
in skillet on medium heat saute the remaining 1/2 diced onion
Crumble tofu and ad to skillet along with garlic powder, lemon juice and nutritional yeast
Cook for a couple minutes
Layer all ingredients except faux mozzarella in a casserole dish
Top with mozzarella
Bake covered for 15 minutes
Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes
Salsa, Beyond Meat crumbles, spinach, kale, tomato, and onion topped with Follow Your Heart cheddar shreds on homemade crust.
We celebrated having a picnic at the lake where Tara & Glen were camping.
Finally got to try the Impossible Burger which we got at a local butcher shop of all places. We both thought it was really good. I liked it better than the Beyond Burger but Nova prefers the Beyond Burger.
Nova made us the crust using a Pioneer Woman recipe substituting the white flour for whole wheat. Crust wasn’t bad for being whole wheat. This was our first time trying miyoko’s vegan mozzarella. It was good but we’d use more of it in the future. Guess we’re used to the really strong flavor of Daiya which we use sparingly.
Before the oven.
Out of the oven. Cheese is almost non-existent.
Sliced and served.
Aldi’s USA just recently introduced a line of vegan meats and cheese. So far we’ve tried two of the burgers.
The soy protein patty was pretty good. Nice meaty texture but I didn’t detect much of a flavor which is fine.
The Thai burger turned out a little mushy which may have been due to my cooking but it had a nice flavor.
I’d eat either of these again.
Beanie weenies with the weenies being marinated and roasted baby carrots. I never like traditional Frank & Beans as a kid and I didn’t like this either. I’m not a fan of baked beans.