Are you ready for this? Hold onto your aprons because this is one delicious recipe!
I cannot take any credit for creating this recipe. I followed it almost to the letter from Crescent Dragonwagon's Passionate Vegetarian tome. The only downside to Passionate Vegetarian is that it's HUGE. It's over 1,000 pages long; it's easy to get overwhelmed with the options.
So what is Golden Peanut-Miso Velvet? It's a creamy, rich, peanut gravy that is poured over basically anything! It is vegan but you would hardly know it. It tastes like a lot of butter and heavy cream have been added to make it into a wonderful salty creamy sauce.
This velvet is perfect comfort food. Make it on a rainy, gloomy day.
It tastes horribly bad for you, but it is actually packed with nutrients. Each serving has less than 5 grams of fat and has over 6 grams of protein! Plus, it is high in vitamins B-12, B-6, niacin and riboflavin. Not bad for gravy!
It is also quite flexible. You can pour this gravy over just about anything. And that is where the recipe becomes a little time intensive. All the vegetables and protein need to be prepared separately from and prior to making the velvet. I used boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli, and baked tofu. If you are going to use other vegetables, use at least one that has some color to brighten the dish. Be sure to also include some sort of protein to make it more substantial of a meal. Seitan would be fabulous in this. Some grilled tempeh would also be good.
I decided to use baked tofu. I have never baked tofu before! It was really easy, but time consuming. The tofu should be marinated for 1-24 hours prior to baking for a total of 25 minutes at an extremely high temperature (factor in preheating the oven when estimating your time). If you don't want to spend the time baking your tofu, you can buy already baked tofu.
I marinated my tofu in cornstarch, sherry, garlic, salt and pepper for about an hour. Lay the tofu strips on a well-greased baking sheet and preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
After baking for about 10-15 minutes, turn them over when they are browned on the bottom. Bake for another 5-10 minutes and remove from the oven. So good.
I used fingerling potatoes from our CSA and steamed broccoli. And then because this was kind of a complicated recipe, I measured everything out beforehand. This made putting together the velvet extremely easy.
Once the velvet is done, pour it over the potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, and baked tofu. Serve over a grain, pasta, bread, whatever. I chose whole wheat couscous because it was fast and easy.
Golden Peanut-Miso Velvet
Serves 4, from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon
1 large onion, diced
2 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons sweet white miso
2 tablespoons peanut butter (nonhydrogenated)
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons arrowroot (cornstarch would probably work but would make it a little more gelatinous)
1 tablespoon mirin (I used sherry)
Salt and pepper to taste
- Pour a little oil in a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent (about 5 minutes). Stir in 1 3/4 cup broth and bring to a boil.
- Add the yeast and arrowroot to the reserved 1/4 cup broth and stir to remove any lumps. Then add the mirin to this mixture. Set aside.
- Bring the boiling broth and onions to low and add the miso and peanut butter. Mix well to remove any lumps. Do not bring back to boiling (miso likes lower temperatures).
- Stir the yeast, arrowroot, mirin mixture into the skillet. Stir well while the sauce thickens. Taste and add salt and pepper. You will probably need a small amount of salt and a large amount of pepper.
- Pour over cooked vegetables and protein. Serve over rice or toast. (I used about 4 cups cooked diced potatoes, 1 head of broccoli steamed, 2 diced tomatoes, and 16 ounces of diced baked tofu)
Labels: Gluten-free, Miso, Nutritional Yeast, Peanut butter, Vegan
