Truffle Tofu and Vegetable Stew with Cheezy Scallion Dinner Muffins

I really like the season of Autumn because it means hot stews, heart meals, and breads (sans gluten, bien sur). I really wanted to eat Pot Pie, but my waistline said, 'Evan.... that's just buttery bread with some starch vegetable soup filling! Maybe not the best idea to keep healthy.'

So, I opted to create a soup that mimicked the flavors of pot pie, with some tiny dinner bread on the side--or on top--or in it--or everywhere.

Behold, stew!

Cheezy Scallion Dinner Muffins

Ingredients

2-1/2 Cups Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour by Bob’s Red Mill

3 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

1/4 cup Nutritional yeast

3/4 Cup Earth Balance vegan buttery spread, chilled and cut into rough 1/4-inch cubes

2 Vegan Neat Eggs

1 Cup dried or fresh green scallions

1 Cup Vegan mozzarella (I like Daiya, but any brand will do)

3/4 Cup Flax milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450° F. Get out your Nordic Ware Autumn Cakelette Pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutritional yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add cubes of Earth Balance, and use your hands or a pastry blender until all is blended and the texture resembles small pebbles. Then add scallions and cheeze.

In a small bowl, whisk together your neat eggs, and the flax milk. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir until a soft dough forms. Dough will be slightly wet. Use your hands (or a pastry blender) to thoroughly incorporate and make sure it all is evenly mixed. Knead dough until it is soft and slightly warm. Make small balls (maybe 1” in diameter) and place into the Nordic Ware Autumn Cakelette Pan holes. Press down into the mold so that the bread will take the form of the cute Autumn shapes.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until tops are slightly golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool, outside of pan (if left in pan they may continue to cook) for five minutes before scarfing down.

Note: these little suckers are delicious with some vegan cheesey spread, vegan butter, or dropped in stew!

Truffle Tofu and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients

Truffle tofu

½ Block of extra firm tofu, cubed

¼ Cup truffle powder

1 Cup fine almond flour

2 tsp nutritional yeast

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

½ tsp white pepper

Pinch of cayenne

Pinch of poultry seasoning blend

For the tofu:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix together all seasoning ingredients in a large mixing bowl. This will be our breading for our tofu. After your tofu is lightly pressed and cubed, and your oven is ready, coat each cube of tofu generously in this dry seasoning mix. Toss the cubes individually around in the mix until thoroughly coated and then place them on the pan for baking, with some room around each cube.

Place pan of tofu into oven, and bake until it starts to get golden colored (around 10 mins), then flip the cubes, so they get even coloring on top and bottom (around 10 mins). Ovens will vary, and I am a color oriented person, so I just watch the color of the tofu change. Be attentive!

Ingredients

Stew

6 cups of vegetable broth (I like a combination of vegan vegetable broth and vegan chickn broth)

6 smallish red potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 ½ cups of sliced cabbage

½ white onion, roughly diced

½ cup frozen green peas

¾ cup Soycatash (Trader Joe’s Soycatash)

2 cups frozen rainbow carrots, sliced

2 cups quartered white mushrooms

4 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped

¼ cup tomato sauce (I used some leftover roasted vegetable pasta sauce)

¼ cup lemon juice

2 tsp Braggs liquid aminos

3 tbsp poultry seasoning blend

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp white pepper

2 tsp nutritional yeast

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tbsp Vegenaise

¼ cup fresh sliced green onions / scallions

In a large pot, bring vegetable broth to a boil. Add in potatoes and cook until aldente. Then add in onion, carrots, mushrooms, Soycatash and cabbage, and bring to boil again. Cook until mushrooms are starting to get soft, and then add in peas. Once everything is boiling again, add in tomato sauce, lemon juice, and all seasoning, except Vegenaise. Bring down to simmer and leave simmering for about 15-20 minutes. Add in Vegenaise and stir until properly mixed, and then add in spinach, and turn burner off. Wait til it is cooled down a bit, and then add in the truffle tofu, and serve with green onions on top.

I particularly liked putting my little scallion muffins in this stew. YUM!