Vegan MoFo Day 30: How to Fix a Broken Sauce + Recipe

Above is a really delicious, but REALLY broken, sauce. It's a lemon butter sauce. The base is a little soy milk, reduced, and a little no-chicken broth, reduced. And sometimes, for one reason or another, when you add your fat, everything sort of falls apart. And you get this sort of speckled, animal print looking sauce. It's really frustrating for a vegan because the best way to fix a completely down-right ruined sauce is to use an egg yolk. But for obvious reasons, that won't work.

So, in honor of my failures this week, I thought I'd give you all some tips on how to fix your broken sauces.

1. If you see it start to break, immediately obtain some of your base [[this could be soy milk, broth, whatever you started with]] and whisk some in, about 1-2 tsp., until the sauce comes together again.

2. You can whisk a little flour in when you add your fat [[oil, butter, etc.]]. This way, your sauce is less likely to break since flour is a pretty awesome binding agent.

3. You can also try blending a little tofu, a flax egg, or using an ener-g egg replacer in order to bind the sauce again.

4. To prevent, add you fat slowly and whisk quickly. And don't let it sit on the heat too long.

[[Lemon Butter Sauce]]

1 tbs olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
1/4 cup chopped assorted mushrooms
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup no-chicken broth
1/2 cup soy milk
2-3 tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
4 tbs earth balance
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

-- Heat olive oil on medium heat.
-- Add shallots, mushrooms and garlic, when oil is heated. You can test the oil with one piece. If it sizzles, it's ready.
-- Cook vegetables for 3-4 minutes. Allow the garlic to become fragrant and the shallots to become soft and translucent.
-- When ready, add the no-chicken broth. Turn the heat up to medium high. Bring to a simmer.
-- When the broth has reduced in half, add the soy milk and whisk together. Once again, allow the milk to reduce in half at a simmer.
-- Add the lemon juice. Whisk together.
-- Add the 4 tbs of earth balance and whisk quickly. Add the earth balance slowly! If you add it too quickly, it will break. Try one teaspoon at a time. If the sauce begins to break, try any of the methods to salvage the sauce as stated above.
-- Add the parsley and pepper. Serve over any meat substitute, vegetables, pasta, mashed potatoes, rice, etc. Be sure to not let this sauce sit on the heat too long, as that will cause it to break. Prepare it right when everything else is ready. And if you refrigerate it, you're doomed! Dun, dun, DUN! [[like scary music?... ok.]]

Southwestern Quiche with a Whole Wheat Crust

This weekend was my one year anniversary with Andrew. It's crazy how fast time flies. You always think your parents are stupid for saying that, but it does. Anyway, we had a really good time. We went to Summerfest that CD101 put on and got to see Matt and Kim. Then we headed over for a chilly patio meal at Mad Mex. Andrew made some tofu scramble for breakfast, too, that was unfortunately really good and now I'm getting a complex. He must be on some kind of roll, because he made amazing Thai curry last night. More on that later.


I've been slacking a little with posting, so here's a quiche I made last week. Honestly, before this, I've never really had egg quiche. My sorority in Berkeley would serve it, but it looked like a gooey, nasty mess in a crispy crust. Not very appetizing. But as most new things that I love go, Andrew convinced me, based on trying it once when he was 12, that quiche is awesome. And while I can't tell you this is "just like the real the thing!", I can assure you, it's delicious. Maybe even like the real thing, I don't know. The crust, even though it was whole wheat, is really flaky and buttery and crispy. The quiche filling sets nicely and gains a great firm texture. The chipotle sausages give it a little kick as well. Give it a try.

[[Whole Wheat Quiche Crust]]

1 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup earth balance
2-3 tbs soy milk
1/2 tsp salt

-- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
-- Mix the salt and the whole wheat pastry flour.
-- Cut the butter (cold) into the whole wheat pastry flour. It's best to use your hands here, or you can use a fancy food processor. Mine broke. So I use my hands. When it's ready, you should have a bunch of pea-size balls of butter mixed into the flour.
-- Add the soy milk. Start with two tablespoons and add more if the dough doesn't come together.
-- Lightly dust your (clean) kitchen counter or a cutting board with flour, and roll out the dough into a large round. Place in an 8-9 inch round baking dish. Press into the pan and cut of the excess around the rim with a knife.
-- Line the pan with two layers of foil so that the dough is covered. Bake for 8-10 minuets. Remove the foil and bake for another 4 minutes. Remove from oven.


[[South Western Quiche]]

one prepared pie crust

one block of extra firm tofu
1/2 cup plain soy milk
3 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried cilantro
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp onion powder
a pinch of nutmeg
2 cloves pressed garlic

olive oil
1 vegan chipotle sausage, chopped into tiny pieces -- you can get them at whole foods
1 small red onion chopped
1 small red bell pepper chopped
1 cup loosely packed spinach
1 zucchini, sliced
4-5 oyster mushrooms

-- Preheat oven to 400 F.
-- In a blender, combine the tofu through garlic. Blend until smooth.
-- With about 1 tbs olive oil, cook on medium heat in a pan the chipotle sausage until crispy. Set aside.
-- Add more oil if necessary. Cook onion and bell pepper until soft. Set aside.
-- In a separate bowl, mix together the tofu mixture, bell pepper, onion, raw spinach and sausage.
-- Remove the stems of the mushrooms. Lay the mushrooms and the zucchini flat in a pan, then flip after about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

-- In a prepared pie crust, lay the zucchini and the mushrooms flat on the bottom of the pie crust. Pour the tofu mixture on top.
-- Place in oven and cook about 45 minutes, until set and the top looks a darker orange.