seitan and cheese enchiladas

Continental Night

On Saturday nights I like to make something from the Western Hemesphere, North American or South American.

Enchiladas are a wonderful way to present some of these dishes in a most delicious way. Another Enchilada dish I blogged about before had vegan cheese and spinach in a blue corn tortilla. This one has seitan, pan seared, and a combination of Daiya and Follow Your Heart. Melting the cheeses on the stove top first and then rolling them in the tortillas is the best way to make sure that your vegan cheese melts.

I made Red Rice for the enchiladas, using brown rice and baking the whole thing until the rice was tender. This took a little trial-and-error, having to add more water and then baking it some more, but I think I have the water to rice proportion correct now.

The refried beans are just pinto beans, with some sauted onions, garlic, cumin and water to thin the beans.

The enchilada sauce is just as simple using, chili powder, flour, water, tomatoes and onions.

This does not dissapoint. If you want to add sauted vegetables or tofu instead of seitan, it is all very workable and will taste great. Just make sure not to overfill the tortillas.

Cost Breakdown:

beans: $2

tortillas: $1

rice: $.50

tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, pepper: $3

seitan: $2

vegan cheeses: $5

herbs, spices: $1

Total to make 5 complete servings:

$14.50

Red Rice Recipe

hungarian layered potatoes

I have tried numerous times to successfully remake this very popular and absolutely delicious Hungarian meal. My parents made this on special occasions and as I have blogged before on a former attempt to make this, in its original form, it is full of fat. So much so, that it is considered well made if you can see the fat oozing out of the layers.

While my previous attempts were absolutely delicious, I still felt that it was missing something or something was just a tad off. Thinking what it could be, it became obvious that in its original state, cooking the potatoes and then slicing them relatively thick was acceptable since all of the fat would soak through the potato layers. However, without the stick of butter, pound of bacon and sausage, pint of full-fat sour cream and half-a-dozen-or-so eggs, this was not going to work. The potatoes needed to be thinner - more like that of an Au gratin dish.

This worked beautifully!

Also, after having been encouraged by Tami Noyes of American Vegan Kitchen, I went and bought a Tofu Express presser. As I have stated before, pressing your tofu between layers of paper towels and plates and whatever you need to weigh the whole contraption down with, does not work. Period. Wrapping the tofu in layers of a thin kitchen towel and setting it in the fridge overnight is your second best bet.

Your very best bet is this machine.

I cringed at spending $45 on a tofu press (a tofu press!!), and had been mulling it over for the past six months, but in the end it is totally worth it.

Thanks, Tami!

I made the 'eggs' in this layered dish using the Tofu Express and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. You can slice the tofu as this as you need to after pressing it in this thing and that is a key to making the 'eggs' successfully. In addition, the tofu does not crumble after pressing.

Cost Breakdown

potatoes: $3

tofu: $2

spices, herbs: $1

vegan sour cream: $2

vegan sausage: $4

vegan milk: $.50

 Total to make 6 servings:

$12.50

HUNGARIAN LAYERED POTATOES PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE