To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
~
All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
~
Click the image above to watch as I unpack a bunch of Herbivorous Butcher items & review them. Also – meet BRUCE – my newest foster – rescued from the South Korean dog meat trade.
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
Reposting this recipe because I have a video to accompany it. Please – subscribe to my channel on Youtube. Www.VideoVegan.com. Click the image below to watch.
One of my all-time favorite foods, since childhood, is BBQ ribs – especially of the Chinese variety. Sticky, sweet & chewy – just delicious. I lived above a Chinese take-out while I was in high school & smelled this shit cooking every day & never tired of it. Even as the grease filled the air & I could feel my skin breaking out – I still craved these all the time – even if I only let myself have them on special occasions – mainly because I perceived them as extremely fattening and bad for you.
Then I gave up meat in the eighties & all ribs of all varieties fell forever from my diet.
Still – I craved that BBQ sauce & would have my mother send me the Ah-So Sauce (below) – a brand not available in Los Angeles – and I would stir it into rice or dip vegetables in it. It was not nearly as satisfying as ribs but I learned to live with it.
Chinese BBQ pork is called Char Siu. Lee Kum Kee brand is widely available & certainly available online. I saw this jar on a shelf & a great idea popped into my mind. Why not make BBQ pork using Beyond Meat vegan chicken? Why not, indeed! Their chicken strips have a texture that can be experienced as chicken OR pork – as pork & chicken really do have a very similar quality. And – I also decided to make the Char Siu sauce from scratch. The ingredients are not terribly exotic & can certainly be purchased online – if your local ethnic or regular grocery stores don’t have them all. The result was visually vibrant & the flavor is dead on. I recommend this dish very highly! You could also chop these “ribs” up & make a pork fried rice that would feel even the most deenerate carnivore.
I marinated the chicken overnight (in the bag) but that is totally unnecessary. You can whip these up in ten minutes & feel all take-out Chinese-y & get your late night, OMG-I-drank-too-much experience right in the comfort of your own kitchen.
Vegan Char Siu or Chinese BBQ Pork Ribs
Serves 2 as an appetizer – double the marinade recipe if you like lots of BBQ sauce on your ribs
INGREDIENTS
9-12 oz vegan chicken (or seitan strips)
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
2 TBS agave nectar
2 TBS Shao Xing Chinese rice wine
1 TBS hoisin sauce
1 TBS Thai chili sauce
1 TBS dark soy sauce
2 tsp vegan oyster or mushroom-flavored sauce
2 tsp molasses
1 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS sesame oil
1 tsp red food coloring (critical for the fiery red color)
GARNISH (optional) – sliced scallions or green garlic
DIRECTIONS
Blend all the ingredients together & then add the chicken. Marinate for a few minutes – or overnight. I did this right in the Beyond Meat packaging.
When you are ready to cook them – heat a pan treated with cooking spray. Add the MARINADE first & heat until it bubbles. Add the chicken & cook, on high, turning often. The idea is to let them get a bit blackened. The sauce will thicken very quickly – which is why I suggesting doubling the marinade recipe if you like lots of sticky BBQ sauce. You could even heat part of the marinade in a separate pan & pour it over your finished ribs.
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
~
All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
~
I am reposting this recipe from June 2014 because I have a new Video Vegan Youtube recipe to go with it. Check it out here:
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
These are so crazy easy & so freaking delicious – I might eat them every day for the rest of my life! As a kid, BBQ ribs with that red, Chinese BBQ sauce were my favorite food on Earth. Having given meat up 25 years ago or so – I have often longed for those fuckers but nobody seemed to have any way to replicate them. Until now!
These will not fool a meat-eater into thinking these are beef or pork but who cares about that? Not fucking ME. I was very pleased with myself yesterday – having eaten the entire plate of these spicy wonders and – and sat there wondering why I put off trying to make my own seitan (wheat gluten-based fake meat) for this long.
This is the brand I bought & I got it at the local health food store. I am certain Whole Foods & places like Erewhon must also carry it – perhaps even in the bulk items aisle. If you live in a remote area – buy it online. But BUY IT!
The rack of 8 ribs I made yesterday took 1 cup of this flour to make – which is only about 500 calories – plus the calories from the BBQ sauce. Not bad for what feels like an enormous amount of meat because, remember, those ribs you see here are boneless – so that big slab is all eatin’ material. Plus – it is really enough for two – I just completely lost my shit & shoved these down my gullet like hotdog-eating champion Takeru Kobayashi. It must have looked obscene (had anyone been here to watch me) and I will admit to a near-sexual level of excitement as I devoured these. It was madness! I had become unhinged! And I write about it now without shame or regret. Though I still suffer from a haunting, multi-pronged depression-anxiety that clings to me like a sticky burr on a pilly Irish sweater. So – these ribs, magical as they are, do not cure THIS feeling (photographer unknown):
Never fear – wine takes at least some of the edge off – if you also feel like that image above. The combo of wine & these ribs will keep those demons at bay for at least a brief respite.
OK – back to the ribs. I made two kinds of BBQ sauce yesterday – Korean & traditional. Both were very spicy but I ended up opting to use the Korean variety on my first faux rib effort. The Korean one was made in my crock-pot as I hiked. The other was made stove-top. I used 2 TBS Gochujang (seen below) in the Korean BBQ sauce but only because I had it. It is in NO WAY critical to the final outcome.
I put everything EXCEPT the cornstarch into a little crock-pot & left it for two hours. Once it was bubbly – I added 2 TBS cornstarch & whisked it in. That made the sauce very thick & gooey. Perfect! You can do this stove-top by just bringing everything (except cornstarch) to a boil & then whisk in the cornstarch. It would likely take only a few minutes to come together.
Spicy Traditional BBQ Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS white sugar
1 TBS ground pepper
1 TBS garlic powder
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS Dijon
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 TBS horseradish
1 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS vegan (or other) Worcestershire sauce
2+ chipotle peppers in adobo (minced) (use more or less to suit your heat tolerance – I used 5)
juice of 1 orange
DIRECTIONS
Bring all ingredients to a boil & simmer until thick. 10-15 minutes. Maybe more but not likely.
Vegan BBQ Ribs
INGREDIENTS
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 tsp chipotle powder (smoked or not)
1 TBS lemon pepper
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS garlic powder
1 cup water
2 TBS tahini
2 TBS low sodium tamari (soy sauce)
1-2 drops (DROPS – as this shit is overpowering and gets nasty-tasting fast) – liquid smoke (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Also – get the barbeque ready. It is the grilling of these guys that is the magic. A regular BBQ with charcoals is best.
Mix the wet ingredients (water, tahini, tamari & liquid smoke) in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a larger bowl – mix the dry ingredients (wheat gluten & spices) and add the wet ingredients. Mix it up until that gooey hamburger-looking stuff comes together – which happens almost instantly.
Grease a loaf pan & press the seitan into the pan. Smooth it flat. Bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven & transfer the seitan to a plate & slather it with the BBQ sauce of your choice.
When your charcoals are ready – flop the seitan, BBQ sauce side down, onto the grill. Slather lots more BBQ sauce on the other side.
Now just cook this until it looks the way you would want ribs to look. I took mine off too early & found the “ribs” still not chewy enough to seem like meat so – I cut the slab into ribs and cooked them all a bit more.
And then I commenced the food orgy. I suggest you do the same!
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
Follow Your Heart came out with a vegan egg (photo above stolen from Google). The first time I tried it – I was put off by the fact that it is a powder you add water to & that it takes FOREVER to set & become eggy. It seemed like a chemical rubber to me & I talked shit about it a bit. When I decided to make a fried rice – it crossed my mind that this egg might work better as part of a larger dish – without the pressure of having to stand on its own. So – I made it again. I noticed that the powder even has a very faint eggy-sulfur smell – that I did not notice the first time. And – this time – I let the pan get very hot before I added the mix.
And – this time – it came together a bit more quickly. I added some salt to it before it set & scrambled it until it was no longer wet. And tasted it. And, this time, I kinda liked the result. The visual isn’t perfect but the taste & texture were actually pretty good. I wonder how a quiche or chilaquiles might turn out with this stuff. I will experiment & report back. But – if you crave breakfast eggs – I am changing my thumbs down on these to a pretty enthusiastic thumbs up. Omelettes might be the ideal way to use this stuff – because added flavors & textures can only help.
One thing – once set – these eggs don’t break up like real egg & so – cut up – they look sorta plastic (visually – see below) and were lost & overwhelmed in this rice. Just FYI.
As to this rice dish – it was just an excuse to make my awesome Vegan Char Siu or Chinese BBQ Pork Ribs – above. Those fuckers are so convincing & delicious – I just had to make them again the very next day! I also had a myriad of random vegetables to use up & I really wanted to experiment with the vegan egg again – so – this dish was born. It is a pretty straight-forward stir-fry & you can add anything you want to it or lose anything from it that you don’t like or have around already. Two notes – the egg gets sorta lost in this so it might be a waste to use them for this dish and – I stirred the chopped “pork” into the stir-fry where the heat sorta steamed their crispy, stickiness away. In the future – I would top each plate with a portion of the ribs — on top or on the side.
Also – I made this with my newest rice discover – Thai Rice Berry (black jasmine) rice. ANY rice will work – but I had this left over so that is what I used.
I saw this new rice at my favorite Thai grocery store – Bangluck. $10 for 5 pounds – so I could not resist. I looked it up online & found THIS:
Riceberry Rice is the new variety of rice that has been bred in Thailand. The rice is deep purple in colour; this rich dark colour is typical of plants that yield high nutrition. Rice berry rice is cross pollination of three hardy and loved rice strains; they are:
Thai Hom Mali Race – also known as fragrant jasmine rice, the highest quality and most sort after rice in the world, after cooking it retains its structure but takes on a soft fluffy consistency.
Hom Nin Rice – has well known and documented antioxidant properties, but this grain can become a little chewy if it isn’t cooked through.
Khao Dawk Mali 105 – a hardy seed which will grow in a broad range of agricultural environments.
The cross-pollination of these three rice plants has resulted in Riceberry Rice, a new and exciting rice variety. Riceberry takes on the best attributes of each of the grains that were used in its inception. The light fluffy texture and flavour from Thai jasmine rice, high in minerals and antioxidants from Hom Nin rice and hardy and high yield characteristics of Khao Dawk Mali 105.
Riceberry Rice Nutrition Profile
Riceberry rice is rich in many antioxidant that help our immune system stay healthy. It contains significant levels of:
Beta-carotene
Gama Oryzanol
Vitamin E
Folic Acid
Tannin
Zinc
Fiber
Bran Oil
These antioxidants, vitamins and minerals give riceberry rice a nutrition profile that is relatively unique. The dark purple colour it matures signifies it high nutrition content and gives it a unique appearance when served.
The rice is also extremely high in fiber and bran oil, this natural aids digestion and helps keep the stomach free from disease.
Thai Rice Glycemic Index
Riceberry rice has been graded as low-medium in the glycemic index. The abundant fiber and bran oil which it contains helps to reduce the risks of diabetes by hindering the absorption of sugars into the blood through the stomach. It also helps the pancreas function better.
1-6 chili peppers (I used 2 serrano & 4 jalapeno – but I love heat)
2 cups purple cabbage (or green or both) – chopped
1 head Swiss chard – ribs removed & chopped
4 radishes – sliced
1 cup peas
4 TBS liquid aminos (or soy sauce or tamari)
1 TBS minced ginger
1 TBS minced garlic
2 Follow Your Heart vegan eggs (optional)
GARNISH – more radish slices and/or lime wedges, sliced scallions or sliced green garlic
DIRECTIONS
Make the pork ribs & set aside. When cool enough to handle – chop them up.
If using the eggs – make them, chop them up & set aside.
Heat the oil in a large saute pan or wok.
Basically – just dump everything (except the rice, egg & ribs) in there & cook until the veggies are soft. You might want to wait until it is close to done before adding the peas so that they don’t get all smooshed. Add the rice & combine. My photos show adding the egg & ribs to the pan but I think they would work better added to each serving when you plate the rice.
Plate the portions & top with chopped egg & pork and any garnish you prefer.
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
One of my all-time favorite foods, since childhood, is BBQ ribs – especially of the Chinese variety. Sticky, sweet & chewy – just delicious. I lived above a Chinese take-out while I was in high school & smelled this shit cooking every day & never tired of it. Even as the grease filled the air & I could feel my skin breaking out – I still craved these all the time – even if I only let myself have them on special occasions – mainly because I perceived them as extremely fattening and bad for you.
Then I gave up meat in the eighties & all ribs of all varieties fell forever from my diet.
Still – I craved that BBQ sauce & would have my mother send me the Ah-So Sauce (below) – a brand not available in Los Angeles – and I would stir it into rice or dip vegetables in it. It was not nearly as satisfying as ribs but I learned to live with it.
Chinese BBQ pork is called Char Siu. Lee Kum Kee brand is widely available & certainly available online. I saw this jar on a shelf & a great idea popped into my mind. Why not make BBQ pork using Beyond Meat vegan chicken? Why not, indeed! Their chicken strips have a texture that can be experienced as chicken OR pork – as pork & chicken really do have a very similar quality. And – I also decided to make the Char Siu sauce from scratch. The ingredients are not terribly exotic & can certainly be purchased online – if your local ethnic or regular grocery stores don’t have them all. The result was visually vibrant & the flavor is dead on. I recommend this dish very highly! You could also chop these “ribs” up & make a pork fried rice that would feel even the most deenerate carnivore.
I marinated the chicken overnight (in the bag) but that is totally unnecessary. You can whip these up in ten minutes & feel all take-out Chinese-y & get your late night, OMG-I-drank-too-much experience right in the comfort of your own kitchen.
Vegan Char Siu or Chinese BBQ Pork Ribs
Serves 2 as an appetizer – double the marinade recipe if you like lots of BBQ sauce on your ribs
INGREDIENTS
9-12 oz vegan chicken (or seitan strips)
1/2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
2 TBS agave nectar
2 TBS Shao Xing Chinese rice wine
1 TBS hoisin sauce
1 TBS Thai chili sauce
1 TBS dark soy sauce
2 tsp vegan oyster or mushroom-flavored sauce
2 tsp molasses
1 TBS minced garlic
1 TBS sesame oil
1 tsp red food coloring (critical for the fiery red color)
GARNISH (optional) – sliced scallions or green garlic
DIRECTIONS
Blend all the ingredients together & then add the chicken. Marinate for a few minutes – or overnight. I did this right in the Beyond Meat packaging.
When you are ready to cook them – heat a pan treated with cooking spray. Add the MARINADE first & heat until it bubbles. Add the chicken & cook, on high, turning often. The idea is to let them get a bit blackened. The sauce will thicken very quickly – which is why I suggesting doubling the marinade recipe if you like lots of sticky BBQ sauce. You could even heat part of the marinade in a separate pan & pour it over your finished ribs.
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
~
All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
~
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
These are so crazy easy & so freaking delicious – I might eat them every day for the rest of my life! As a kid, BBQ ribs with that red, Chinese BBQ sauce were my favorite food on Earth. Having given meat up 25 years ago or so – I have often longed for those fuckers but nobody seemed to have any way to replicate them. Until now!
These will not fool a meat-eater into thinking these are beef or pork but who cares about that? Not fucking ME. I was very pleased with myself yesterday – having eaten the entire plate of these spicy wonders and – and sat there wondering why I put off trying to make my own seitan (wheat gluten-based fake meat) for this long.
This is the brand I bought & I got it at the local health food store. I am certain Whole Foods & places like Erewhon must also carry it – perhaps even in the bulk items aisle. If you live in a remote area – buy it online. But BUY IT!
The rack of 8 ribs I made yesterday took 1 cup of this flour to make – which is only about 500 calories – plus the calories from the BBQ sauce. Not bad for what feels like an enormous amount of meat because, remember, those ribs you see here are boneless – so that big slab is all eatin’ material. Plus – it is really enough for two – I just completely lost my shit & shoved these down my gullet like hotdog-eating champion Takeru Kobayashi. It must have looked obscene (had anyone been here to watch me) and I will admit to a near-sexual level of excitement as I devoured these. It was madness! I had become unhinged! And I write about it now without shame or regret. Though I still suffer from a haunting, multi-pronged depression-anxiety that clings to me like a sticky burr on a pilly Irish sweater. So – these ribs, magical as they are, do not cure THIS feeling (photographer unknown):
Never fear – wine takes at least some of the edge off – if you also feel like that image above. The combo of wine & these ribs will keep those demons at bay for at least a brief respite.
OK – back to the ribs. I made two kinds of BBQ sauce yesterday – Korean & traditional. Both were very spicy but I ended up opting to use the Korean variety on my first faux rib effort. The Korean one was made in my crock-pot as I hiked. The other was made stove-top. I used 2 TBS Gochujang (seen below) in the Korean BBQ sauce but only because I had it. It is in NO WAY critical to the final outcome.
I put everything EXCEPT the cornstarch into a little crock-pot & left it for two hours. Once it was bubbly – I added 2 TBS cornstarch & whisked it in. That made the sauce very thick & gooey. Perfect! You can do this stove-top by just bringing everything (except cornstarch) to a boil & then whisk in the cornstarch. It would likely take only a few minutes to come together.
Spicy Traditional BBQ Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2 cups ketchup
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
5 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS white sugar
1 TBS ground pepper
1 TBS garlic powder
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS Dijon
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 TBS horseradish
1 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS vegan (or other) Worcestershire sauce
2+ chipotle peppers in adobo (minced) (use more or less to suit your heat tolerance – I used 5)
juice of 1 orange
DIRECTIONS
Bring all ingredients to a boil & simmer until thick. 10-15 minutes. Maybe more but not likely.
Vegan BBQ Ribs
INGREDIENTS
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 tsp chipotle powder (smoked or not)
1 TBS lemon pepper
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS garlic powder
1 cup water
2 TBS tahini
2 TBS low sodium tamari (soy sauce)
1-2 drops (DROPS – as this shit is overpowering and gets nasty-tasting fast) – liquid smoke (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Also – get the barbeque ready. It is the grilling of these guys that is the magic. A regular BBQ with charcoals is best.
Mix the wet ingredients (water, tahini, tamari & liquid smoke) in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a larger bowl – mix the dry ingredients (wheat gluten & spices) and add the wet ingredients. Mix it up until that gooey hamburger-looking stuff comes together – which happens almost instantly.
Grease a loaf pan & press the seitan into the pan. Smooth it flat. Bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven & transfer the seitan to a plate & slather it with the BBQ sauce of your choice.
When your charcoals are ready – flop the seitan, BBQ sauce side down, onto the grill. Slather lots more BBQ sauce on the other side.
Now just cook this until it looks the way you would want ribs to look. I took mine off too early & found the “ribs” still not chewy enough to seem like meat so – I cut the slab into ribs and cooked them all a bit more.
And then I commenced the food orgy. I suggest you do the same!
Delightful-Delicious-Delovely 