The World's Best Chick'n Salad

As I said before, Soy Curls are my favorite mock meat right now, and we use them to substitute for chicken strips and beef strips in many different recipes.  Chop up those chick'n strips and you can make your favorite chicken salad as well!  Here is my new favorite Chick'n Salad recipe.  People will swear it is made with real chicken!

World's Best Chick'n Salad

• 1 8 oz bag Soy Curls
• 3/4 cup vegan white wine
• 3/4 cup low sodium No Chicken Broth
• 6 organic spring onions, finely chopped
• 4 ribs organic celery, finely chopped
• 1 organic Granny Smith apple, finely chopped
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup (or more if needed) Veganaise vegan mayonnaise (I use the reduced fat)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper or more to taste

Boil the wine and broth together in the microwave making sure to keep the end amount at 1.5 cups.  (This is the minimum amount of moisture needed to rehydrate 8 oz of Soy Curls.)  The chick'n will not be cooked further, so make sure the wine boils enough to eliminate the flavor of alcohol.  Add Soy Curls to hot liquid and leave for 10 minutes (you may need to place a weighted plate on top so all the curls get to absorb the liquid.)  While those are re-hydrating, chop your celery, onions and apple and place in a large mixing bowl.  When curls are re-hydrated, let cool, chop into small dice, and place in mixing bowl with chopped veggies.  Sprinkle in black pepper and mix to combine.  Add Veganaise and mix well until you get the creamy consistency you want.  Use as you would any chicken salad in sandwiches or stuff some tomatoes.  In the pictures below, we stuffed tomatoes with this Chick'n Salad and with our Fegg Salad from my March 8, 2012 post. 

Which do you think people will eat first? The Chick'n or the Fegg?

Indian Dal With Brown Basmati Rice

Wow!  It's been a while since I've posted anything here so I better get crackin'!  We've been enjoying a lot of favorite dishes these days, so I have not been terribly creative of late, but I did come up with quite a nice Indian Dal a few weeks back.  I looked at a bunch of recipes online: some were simple; some seemed more complex.  Mine is some type of hybrid and I kept it easy, of course.  We serve this lentil soup with brown basmati rice, and it's a hearty meal on its own.  This recipe will easily make twelve servings, but it's kind of tough to limit yourself to just one serving unless you have a big salad and other dishes coming afterward!

Indian Dal With Brown Basmati Rice

• 2 cups organic brown basmati rice
• 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 lb organic red lentils
• 9 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp yellow curry powder
• 1/2 tsp red curry powder
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 large organic tomato, finely diced
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

So, pressure cooker for the rice, Dutch oven for the soup.  Get the rice and the 4 cups of broth into the pressure cooker on a high burner and lock the lid on.  When pressure valve pops up turn heat to low and set timer for 25 minutes.  Meanwhile, chop the onion and saute in a bit of water over  medium heat in the soup pot.  Add ginger and garlic and continue sauteing until onions are translucent. Keep a bit of water in the bottom of the pot so nothing browns too much.  Add all of your spices and stir, add lentils and  9 cups of broth.  Turn heat to high, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer with lid on for 20 minutes.  When the timer for the rice goes off, remove rice to a cool burner and let pressure decrease naturally.  By the time the soup is finished, that pressure valve will drop.  After the soup has simmered 20 minutes, stir in the tomato and cilantro and simmer 5 more minutes.

Presentation - My wife says I'm all about the presentation and well, sometimes I am.  I use a 4 oz Asian tea cup as a rice mold, inverting the rice into the center of a standard size soup bowl.  Then I ladle about a cup of the dal around the rice island.  You can add some additional cilantro on top as garnish as well.



A note about the spices: as I said, I looked at a lot of different recipes online and some had long lists of spices.  I just took out all of the spices in my pantry that were often used in Indian cooking.  The red curry powder, yellow curry powder, and garam masala are all spice blends anyway, so combined they probably are equivalent to a much longer list of individual spices!  LOL  I just winged the amount at 1/2 tsp each (except for the cayenne and black pepper) and the finished product had a great mild flavor with a very slight kick from the cayenne and a bright, fresh hit of cilantro.  You can certainly adjust any of the spices to your taste, or use a different mix of what you have available in your pantry.