Veganomicon mistakes

I had a less-than-stellar couple weeks in my Veganomicon cook-through, though that streak is broken with the Butternut Squash Rice Paper Rolls I will blog about shortly.  Here are some notes about Double Pea Soup, Chickpea Cutlets, and the Grilled Yuca Tortillas.

I'm not sure why I try to make split pea soup as often as I do.  I don't really like it.  But I guess I have a feeling that there is a way to cook anything to make it taste good, so I just keep trying!  So the odds were against Double Pea Soup with Roasted Red Peppers from the beginning.  To be fair, it is the best split pea soup I've ever eaten...the tarragon, sweet peas and red peppers lent it a freshness it doesn't usually have.

On the other hand, the wheatberry dish I had on the side was awesome.  I don't remember what I did exactly, but I had cooked wheatberries in the freezer and I heated those and added them to lots of sauteed mushrooms.  It was flavored with red miso paste stirred into some hot veggie broth and probably a little fire oil.

Chickpea Cutlets are one of the signature recipes in Veganomicon, which is why I wanted to make them right away!   There are many reasons I should have loved them...

...but I did not.  It's possible I had the heat on too high while pan-frying them, because I didn't leave them on as long as the recipe recommended--they were getting too dark.  But the texture in the middle was unpleasant to me--sort of gooey and stringy.  I have used vital wheat gluten before to much better success (Vegan Dad's excellent Tempeh Burgers), though, and I think I will give this recipe another chance.  I also made the Mustard Sauce from Veganomicon (I would thin it out more next time), and served it with green beans from the freezer.

I was also a little disappointed in the Grilled Yuca Tortillas, cheese-less quesadillas with root vegetable and garlic filling.  I'm glad to know of a new-to-me vegetable, though--the yuca--but next time will take very seriously the warning to remove the fibrous core.  My yuca was very thin, and I couldn't see it (I'm guessing it's more obvious in the thicker, older yuca), so I didn't worry about it, but I had to remove a piece from almost every bite...blech.  That was my fault.  But I also found them a little bland and dry, especially as leftovers, though they were pretty satisfying the first day.

On day 3 of the leftovers, I gave up on the yuca-dillas and made soup from the yuca mixture and salsa, and it was wonderful (though I was still removing those inedible fibers...).  I had it for three more days!