It’s time again for another What Vegans Eat post. In this series, I share my breakfast, lunch, and dinner from one ordinary day.
People sometimes assume that making vegan meals is time consuming or arduous. But with this series, I show that it can be easy and delicious to live a compassionate life.
Breakfast
For breakfast I had one of those quintessential vegan breakfasts - a toasted bagel with sun-dried tomato hummus, sliced avocado, and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast flakes.
When I first went vegan, I made this kind of a breakfast often, usually with toast instead of a bagel. But bagels are so much more toothsome, chewy, and satisfying.
Plus, nutritional yeast & avocado are the Brad & Angelina Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson of the vegan food world.
Lunch
For lunch, I made a brown rice bowl with sesame yuba noodles, sesame kale, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
The sesame kale has a nutty flavor that goes perfectly in a bowl like this. Plus, I love that recipe, because it's easy for me to eat a big half bunch of kale or more in one sitting.
I had some brown rice ready to go in the freezer. So the whole meal only took 15 minutes to make.
Are you unfamiliar with yuba? Well, let me describe it to you in a way that will make it completely unappetizing.
You know when you're making hot chocolate, and a thin, squishy skin forms across the top of the hot cocoa, and you can actually skim it off with a pinch of your fingers? Well, a similar thing happens as the cream rises in heated soy milk.
A bean curd sheet forms on top of soy milk, and that is yuba. Yuba has a chewier texture than tofu that is kind of similar to shredded chicken.
I’ve had yuba occasionally at vegan restaurants and really liked it.
Hodo Soy is a company out of the Bay area that makes packaged yuba. It's cut into noodles, and it can be eaten straight out of the package or warmed and put into stir-fries, wraps, or bowls.
I’d heard about Hodo Soy many years ago, but finally found their packaged products when in Omaha a while back. (It’s sold at Natural Grocers.)
After a bit of emailing, I recently got Hodo Soy yuba noodles into a local grocery store so I can have easier access.
Dinner
For dinner I made grilled pizza! It's something I've had on my to-do list for years.
I first heard about grilling pizza from Amey at Vegan Eats & Treats. She did a post about having a grilled pizza party way back in 2013.
But most of the time when I make pizza, I just pull a cornmeal crust out of the freezer, and pop it in the oven.
Since dough-making intimidates me, I couldn't imagine spending a bunch of time waiting for dough to rise, and then worrying that it would all be wasted when the dough, laid straight onto the grill, slipped between the grates.
However, I was at Trader Joe's last week, and I picked up some of their pre-made dough in the refrigerated section. (I got the garlic & herb one.)
Amey suggested that mini pizzas are easier to manage on the grill. So I took her advice. I broke the dough into four balls, and stretched them out.
As you can see, they are not circular in shape, but they still tasted great! We can just say that they are rustic…
I put each piece of stretched dough onto the grill (set at around 500 degrees) for a couple of minutes with the lid closed. The dough did bend through the grates a little, but not enough to ruin anything.
Then I flipped the pizzas and spread on jarred pasta sauce. I then topped them with pepperoni and mushrooms that I'd sautéed in a skillet and chopped onion. I let the pizzas cook for about three minutes more and then took them off the grill.
They puffed up nicely and tasted terrific. I'd definitely do it again.
For the pepperoni, I used Tofurky. However, my favorite vegan pepperoni comes from The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner. If you ever want to make your own seitan pepperoni, that's the book to use.
With this post, I've now completed 12 months of What Vegans Eat posts + a bonus post in which my husband shared his breakfast, lunch, and dinner from one day. To celebrate, in my next post I'm going to do a round-up showcasing what an entire year of vegan meals looks like.
For more everyday vegan meals, check out this post from last month:Â August
Susan
I love yuba! I was lucky enough to try some gorgeous fresh yuba in Japan when I was there several years ago… there was a whole yuba shop! So yummy.
Grilled pizza sounds delicious, though intimidating!
Caitlin
tom hanks and rita wilson have always been my favorite hollywood couple. i knew brangelina would never last.
Cadry
How interesting! After so many years together, I thought they’d make it.
Pamm Mosey
I would love for you to continue “What Vegans Eat” Very inspiring.
Cadry
Thank you, Pamm! That’s such great feedback. It’s good to know that you’re still enjoying the series. 😀
Melissa @ Vegan Huggs
Grilled pizza? That looks incredible! I have to try this asap! I didn’t know that Miyoko made pepperoni…. I need to get my hands on this 🙂
Cadry
Thanks, Melissa! Miyoko doesn’t make pepperoni; although, that would be so great! But she does have a recipe for it in her most recent cookbook. The nice thing is it freezes really well. So you can keep one sausage out to use first thing, and then take the rest out of the freezer as needed. I love adding it to vegan charcuterie boards.
Mae
Grilled pizza! My stomach is growling….it’s 11pm – not a good time to be hungry!
Cadry
Many apologies! Hopefully today you can feed the craving. 😀
Amy Katz from Veggies Save The Day
I’m dying to get Hodo Soy where I live! I tried the yuba at Expo West and loved it. I got some Thai tofu nuggets when I visited San Francisco and made a picnic lunch in my hotel room. 🙂
Cadry
You should definitely drop a message with your local grocery store about it! Whole Foods was always really good about getting new products, and I’ve had luck with lots of smaller chains as well. I think grocery stores are happy to know what their customers want and will buy. I haven’t tried those tofu nuggets yet, but they sound like a wonderful addition to a hotel bed picnic! 🙂
Andrea
I’ve been buying dried yuba (and sometimes fresh frozen when I can get it) at Asian stores for more years than I care to mention. I love it! Whenever we’re in San Francisco we always buy Hodo soy products because they’re so great. Last time I was there I had their yuba, and I guess I thought it was only sold locally. I’ll have to see what I can do about getting it here. (p.s. Photoshop is probably a safer way to clean the grill than using a wire brush. I was horrified when I read about people almost dying from ingesting stray wires in their grilled food. And I can see it works really well.)
Cadry
I’ve seen dried yuba at my local Korean market, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to use it. Have you done any kinds of recipes with it on your blog, or do you have ones you’d recommend? I’d like to become more familiar with it as an ingredient. I know that Miyoko has some yuba recipes in her newest cookbook, but I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that it needed to be fresh yuba, not dried.
Hodo Soy used to only be available in the Bay Area, and it was always on my list of things I wanted to try when I was there. Now I somehow haven’t been to San Francisco since 2009 or something. That’s hard to believe! But luckily, Hodo Soy has started making more of their products available elsewhere.
That’s really interesting about wire grill brushes. I’ve never heard of that issue. So how do you clean your grill instead?
KZ
Yum! I love yuba! I first had it at Vedge, they serve their tofu dish with a yuba crackling. Then I had it at Superiority Burger, on the new creation, its the best thing ever!
Cadry
Oh, yuba crackling! That sounds amazing. There are just so many reasons I need to get to Vedge. Maybe in 2017! I had yuba at Millennium years and years ago. I’m surprised it’s not more widely available in vegan restaurants. It’s so good!
Hannah
That grilled pizza though!
Congrats on 12 months of What Vegans Eat posts!!
Cadry
Thanks, Hannah! I always love grill marks, but on pizza? Come on! I didn’t think anything could make pizza better, but that does it.
Dianne
Dennis and I have been saying that we want to grill pizza since we first got a grill. You (and Amey) are making me think I need to do it right away, before it gets too cold to grill.
Cadry
Yes, since you’re such a grilling fan too, you should definitely give it a go. I started with one small pizza first, so that I could make sure it wouldn’t stick too badly before I put on all of the pizzas. I also preheated the oven just in case. I figured with 3/4 of the dough left, I could still make an emergency pizza in the oven if necessary. 😀
Mary Ellen @ VNutrition
Love your vegan eats posts. They show it’s not hard to eat compassionately!
I’ve tried Hodo Yuba and really liked it. I did not exactly know how it was made but even after hearing it, I still want some b/c it was so good lol.
I think I need some grilled vegan pizza in my life!
Cadry
Thanks, Mary Ellen! I’m so glad to hear that you like these kind of posts.
I heard from the people at Hodo Soy yesterday, and apparently the yuba noodles are made a little differently than standard yuba. They said the noodles are made in a way that’s closer to pasta. I’m interested in learning more about that! It’s always fascinating to hear about food ingenuity and how people can make many things out of one product (soybeans in this case).
Jenn
I’ve never heard of Yuba before. Sounds interesting. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled next time I’m in a specialty grocery store. Loving that grilled pizza!!
Cadry
I’m surprised yuba isn’t more widely available here in the States. Whenever I’ve had it, I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m glad I finally took the plunge on the grilled pizza. It was very tasty!
Tracey
Oh, wow..this post has given me some awesome ideas!!! I’m going to see if I can get my grocer to carry those noodles. Two questions, did you heat the noodles up in a pan before eating? Oh, & how did you cook/make the kale side dish? Thank you!!
Cadry
I’m so glad to hear that this post has given you some ideas! For this particular bowl, I just warmed the noodles in the microwave with the rice. However, I’ve also used it for stir-fries and put it in the skillet with the rest of the ingredients. Like tofu, it’s a cooked product that can be eaten hot or cold equally well. You can find the sesame kale recipe here: http://cadryskitchen.com/2016/05/06/sesame-kale/
Tracey
Thank you!!!