The first Sunday of Summer 2025 was HOT. Here in the South Suburbs of Chicago, we had temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit all weekend.
Claudia had prepared a potato and green bean salad for a Midsummer party that we attended on Saturday Evening, and par cooked enough extra to grill on Sunday. She also made a nice green salad, and I grilled some Tofurkey Vegan Polish Sausages that we served with sauerkraut and mustard.
Claudia described it as “Summer on a Plate.”
We served this over spaghetti for Sunday Dinner last weekend. Onions, zucchini, and various bell peppers, seasoned with Kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and some Italian herbs – nothing could be simpler or more delicious.
For Sunday Dinner this week, Claudia made a recipe she found on a Vegan Recipes Group on the Book of Faces. It was incredibly delicious and hearty.
She made a double batch, and it fed four of us nicely (we each had seconds). This was a huge hit with everyone at the table, and it was better than any Stroganoff I’ve ever eaten (including the decidedly beefy variety that we used to make).
We served this over wide noodles, and garnished with paprika and parsley.
Ingredients (for the double batch):
2 pounds of mushrooms, sliced (she used button and cremini)
2 onions, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil for sautéing
2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 T tomato paste
2 t paprika
2 cups of cashew crème fraîche (see recipe below)
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Sauté onions and garlic.
Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until they release their moisture and start to brown.
Whisk together vegetable broth, cashew crème fraîche, soy sauce, tomato paste, paprika, salt, and pepper.
Cashew Crème Fraîche
1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked overnight then drained
1/2 cup water
3 T olive oil
2 T lemon juice
1 T nutritional yeast
1/2 t salt
1/2 t dried thyme
Blend for about a minute in Vitamix or other high speed blender.
The crème fraîche on it’s own would make a fantastic Alfredo style sauce for pasta.
Whenever I run across recipes from Weber Grills these days, my first thought is often “I don’t eat that.” When I am conscious, my second thought is “How can I adapt this to not use meat?”
This Chorizo and Potato Hash with Egg recipe is a perfect example. It’s the sort of thing that would have had me running to Jewel for Chorizo and firing up the Genesis back when I was carnivorous. So when it hit my inbox, I was intrigued, then momentarily disappointed. Then I realized that I already had a recipe for Chorizo made with plant-based meat that I’d been wanting to try. I’d also had good luck with Tofu Scramble in the past, and although it’s not quite the same as a gooey, runny egg yolk dripping over the potatoes, I figured it would stand in nicely.
So I filed the recipe away in my Evernote, hoping I’d remember to get around to it. On a recent trip to Aldi, they had Beyond Beef bulk burger on sale, so we picked up a couple packages, and I finally remembered to put this meal together for Sunday Dinner this week. I opted for cooking indoors, just for the sake of efficiency, but I’ll definitely make this again on the cast iron plancha out on the Genesis this summer.
The Chorizo seasoning comes from America’s Test Kitchen’s Cooking With Plant Based Meat.
This is supposed to be enough for 12 ounces of ground plant-based meat, but it did fine to season a full pound of the Beyond Burger.
I used two pounds of potatoes, cubing them with the skins on, and soaking them in a bowl of water with a little salt and white vinegar until I was ready to cook. Once they were in the pot and about starting to boil, I sautéed the Chorizo in my wok with a little olive oil. When it was done (five or six minutes) I removed it to a bowl, deglazed the wok with a splash of vinegar, and then sautéed a diced green bell pepper and yellow onion. Once those were done, I removed them, and added the drained par-cooked potatoes. I debated on using another type of oil, but at the temps I was cooking the olive oil was just fine. The potatoes were seasoned with cumin, paprika, Ancho Chile powder and black pepper. They cooked for about fifteen or twenty minutes, and then I added the onion and pepper back in to cook for awhile, and then finally added the Chorizo.
My tofu scramble turned out good, although I added a bit too much dry mustard. The recipe calls for prepared Dijon, so I should have cut back a bit using the powder. Once it was on top of the hash, with a little salsa and scallions, it was fine.
This was a hit even with the carnivores in the household, though Claudia did make actual scrambled eggs for herself and her mom. She brought out some soft corn tortillas and folks were putting the hash and scramble into those for seconds.
The hash turned out better than any I’ve ever made. It occurred to me that I could adapt this recipe for Corned Beef Hash using my Pastrami seasoning instead of the Chorizo spices. I might add a little Vegan Worcestershire next time.
I will definitely make the Chorizo again as well, and use it this summer when we cook Paella.
I love to cook outdoors. Before I quit eating meat, I was obsessed with learning to prepare new recipes on the Weber Kettle and Genesis grills.
I still get emails from Weber, and my first reaction when I received the one with this recipe for Grilled Albondigas with Charred Salsa was “this looks really interesting, too bad it has meat.” I sometimes still forget that there are decent plant-based ground beef alternatives available nowadays.
Meier’s happened to have Beyond Beef on sale for a little over $5 a pound, so we picked up two pounds and adapted the recipe. The meatballs turned out really well. I used a little olive oil in place of the egg. I did use sour cream for the crema, since we haven’t left off dairy yet, but I imagine that you could easily substitute a little nut or oat milk for that.
For the salsa, I used two cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes and seven or eight slices of pickled Jalapeños along with the onion and garlic in the recipe. It turned out great as well.
I’ll have to work on the queso. I followed the recipe pretty much as is, and it came out thick and globby. I really would like to find decent alternatives to dairy cheese, but haven’t experimented enough with the products available to find things that we like yet.
The family, including the carnivores, seemed to like this recipe a lot. Along with a nice green salad, it fed four of us for Sunday Dinner, and there were leftovers enough for one evening meal for Kid this week, and snacks as well.
If I make this again, I’ll probably try it with Impossible Burger, as I like the texture of that product a bit better. Otherwise, the recipe is “a keeper” and something that the entire family can enjoy together, regardless of whether they are meat-eaters or not.