Sorry about the lack of updates. What’s new?

Until I get around to posting more delectable rescued vegan meals, please enjoy this bizarro.com video that asks, “Are humans natural carnivores?” Answer: duh, no.

A lot of vegan french toast recipes use bananas, but I just don’t get it. When you use bananas it makes everything taste like… bananas. I want to taste french toast, so here’s what I do.

Ingredients:

• dumpster bread, sliced
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• soymilk
• margarine/oil
• dumpster fruit, optional

In a bowl mix the flour and sugar together while whisking in the soymilk. Slowly add soymilk until you have a smooth, thin batter then stir in the vanilla. Heat the margarine in a pan. Dip a slice of bread in the batter, coating both sides, and fry on each side until golden brown. Serve with slices of dumpster fruit, a little powdered sugar, and maple syrup. This makes about 4 pieces of french toast so you can multiply the ingredients to your liking.

Delicious vegan french toast with no unwanted banana taste!

I wanted to make some leek and potato soup but the dumpster did not bless me with potatoes so I had to do a little research. I found this recipe on vegweb.com, one of my favorite vegan recipe sites ever. Back in the day it was pretty simple, but now they have thousands of recipes and lots of tasty looking user-submitted photos. Sometimes I go there just to look at all the food photos.

• 2 cups lentils
• 1/2 head of cabbage (or lettuce in this case), roughly chopped
• 3-4 leeks
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• carrots
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 tsp basil
• 2 tsp oregano
• salt & pepper
• olive or vegetable oil
• water or broth

Boil the water or broth and add the lentils, cabbage/lettuce, a little salt, and some leek tops (you’ll take those out later). Reduce heat, cover, and simmer while you chop more veggies.

Slice the leeks in half lengthwise then chop them up.

Chop up the carrots and onions. I used about 1/3 of a bag of baby carrots and a few pearl onions that I dumpstered.

Saute the veggies in a couple Tbsp oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add the sauteed veggies and tomatoes to the lentils. You can also remove the leek tops now. Add the basil, oregano, and more salt & pepper to taste. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

I dumpstered a TON of mushrooms. Shitake, button, and portabello! I had a bag of dried tiger lily buds I bought a long time ago at Saigon Market so I decided to make some hot and sour soup. You can make this without the buds and fungus, of course, but I really like the flavor and texture they lend. Ideally I would have added some sliced firm silken tofu but I didn’t have any.

• A bunch of mushrooms, whatever you dumpster
• 10 tiger lily buds
• handful of black fungus
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 4 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• hot water
• 4 cups vegetable broth or salted water

First, remove stems and slice up your mushrooms. My button and portobello mushrooms were pre-sliced by a machine before being wrapped in Styrofoam and plastic. So wasteful. Well, at least I saved it from being a complete waste.

Put the dried fungus and buds in a bowl and cover with hot water.

You’re supposed to use cornstarch, but I didn’t have any so I attempted to use flour instead. Uhm, it didn’t really work so well. The cornstarch helps thicken up the soup, but it doesn’t affect the flavor so it’s not really a big deal if you just leave it out. I whisked the flour with some warm soy sauce and vinegar.

Bring the broth or water to a boil and add the mushrooms, fungus, and tiger lily buds. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes.

Add the soy sauce mixture and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and add pepper, oil, and tofu if you have it.

Yummy soup! Thanks dumpster!

After dumpstering a ton of cauliflower, potatoes, and tomatoes, I decided to make some Aloo Gobi.

I used:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (seems like a lot, but this recipe makes a ton of food)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tsp hot sauce (like Sriracha)
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3-4 tomatoes (or 2 cans), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp garam masala (I made my own)
• salt

First heat the oil and saute the onions and cumin.

Saute onions until translucent.

Add the turmeric and 1 tsp salt.

Add hot sauce and tomatoes.

Add garlic, potatoes, and cauliflower. Stir well, cover, and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked.

I didn’t have garam masala so I made a janky version using 1/4 tsp of each of the following:

• curry powder
• cumin
• black pepper
• cinnamon

Add the garam masala and stir well. You can eat immediately or let it sit for a while to really soak up the spices.

If you have it, serve with some fresh chopped cilantro on top.

I am horrible at keeping up with posting. Someday I will be a disciplined blogger. Of course, judging by the large gaps between my “Coming Soon!” post and when I actually write the post, that day may be a long time coming. I never said I was perfect.

Anyway, once upon a time I briefly dated a Korean girl. By briefly I mean one month and during this month I had a constant supply of her mom’s homemade radish kimchi in my fridge. It was a really good month. Then I screwed up and I’m pretty sure she still hates me and I definitely still miss that kimchi.

Cabbage kimchi is … good. But, radish kimchi is the shit. The texture of the daikon, crisp yet a little soft; lots of heat yet cold; the red pepper and the green onions. Pretty much perfect.

After a Food Not Bombs cooking night I had a ton of daikon and Jerusalem artichokes on my hands. I had to make kimchi even though I knew I didn’t have all the right stuff. Whatever, I had to make kimchi.

You’re supposed to use:

• daikon
• garlic
• ginger
• fish sauce (use soy sauce or mushroom sauce)
• sugar
• red pepper powder
• green onions
• salt

This is what I had:

• daikon
• garlic
• Jerusalem artichokes
• soy sauce
• sugar
• paprika and red pepper flakes
• arugula (which I picked out of a bag of dumpstered salad mix)
• salt

I cubed the daikon, covered with salt, and let it set while prepared the other ingredients. Jerusalem artichokes may look a lot like ginger, but there are no flavor similarities. I minced it like ginger anyway and used a lot since I had a ton and they have such a mild flavor.

I rinsed the daikon and mixed everything together in a bowl. Korean red pepper powder is NOT the same thing as red pepper flakes (like you put on pizza). Red pepper flakes come from cayenne peppers which means they’re pretty hot. I used the paprika, which is quite mild, and added a little bit of red pepper flakes to add some heat.

Pre-fermentation:

I covered it with an inverted plate and plastic wrap and let it sit unrefrigerated for 24 hours to ferment. Then I put it in small containers and put them in the fridge. It didn’t even compare to REAL kimchi, but it was good enough considering what I was working with.

Here’s one of the recipes (with nice photos) that I referenced when making my janky kimchi.

Post-fermentation:

And that’s the story of how I made the world’s jankiest radish kimchi.

Check it out: Another way to use up dumpstered bagels (or any other bread).

Delicious vegan stuffing with colcannon and a side of totally canned green beans from my moms.

Yeah, girl. This stuff is good. Let’s see if I can remember how I made it. This was supposed to be posted a couple months ago, but then I became a bad mother and started neglecting Trashy Gourmet.

Ingredients:

• lots of old bagels or bread
• celery
• carrots
• mushrooms
• onion (about one cup of each veggie give or take)
• garlic
• veggie broth (I don’t know, 3-5 cups?)
• oil
• s&p

Cut the bagels up real nice like. It seems like we always dumpster quite a few cranberry bagels which I don’t really like. This is a perfect time to get rid of those suckers. Plus, they’re more moist because of the fruit and tend to get moldy faster than the other bagels. Slice and dice the veggies up real nice like too. Bring the veggie broth to a boil and throw in the veggies. If you don’t have broth you could just use some water with a little olive oil, salt, and herbs. Cook for a couple minutes then combine with the bagels in a lightly greased casserole dish. Bake at 400 degrees uncovered for about half an hour depending on how moist or dry you want the stuffing to be.

Sorry about the lame pictures. All I have right now is a camera phone. That isn’t even mine. Some day Trashy will have clear, focused photos with all kinds of megapixels…

Happy Super Belated St. Patty’s Day! I actually started a draft of this post in March. And now it’s May. Awesome!

In honor of the holiday and since I dumpstered a beautiful head of cabbage I made some colcannon. Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish. It’s incredibly economical and simple as well as a tasty way to use up leftover mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• potatoes (or leftover mashed potatoes)
• cabbage (or kale)
• soymilk
• margarine
• garlic, minced
• s&p

If you’re not using leftover mashed potatoes then peel (if you want), dice, and boil potatoes until tender. Reserve the water from the potatoes to boil the cabbage with. Quarter the cabbage and slice into about 1″ thick slices. Mash the potatoes with the remaining ingredients while the cabbage boils. Mix in cabbage and adjust seasonings to taste.

You don’t really need exact measurements. Just start small and keep adding until, you know, it tastes good. Like I said, this is a really simple dish and pretty hard to mess up.

Variations:

• Add vegan bacon, sausage, or cheese.
• Roll into balls or make patties and fry. (Add flour if not thick enough.)
• Put fried colcannon on bread or pita with favorite sandwich toppings.
• Add veggie or mock chicken broth and soymilk to make a creamy soup.

Let’s say you dumpster a ton of vegetables. Let’s say you can’t eat them before they start to make your house smell like the dumpster you pulled them out of. Well, kid, I’ve got the perfect solution, and I am offering it to you completely free of charge. Just like the veggies you dumpstered!

We happened to find a couple bags of fancy schmancy pre-sliced carrots, three boxes of mushrooms, a green pepper, and an onion – all of which are perfect for making veggie tempura.

I had some tempura batter mix that my mom gave me, but it’s super easy to whip up your own all-purpose batter.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• water, broth, beer, or soymilk (add a dash of vinegar to make ‘buttermilk’)
• 1 tsp salt

Just mix together flour and salt then slowly add liquid until you reach a pancake-like consistency. Double or triple recipe as needed. You can also add a few splashes of hot sauce if you like. Batter your sliced veggies and deep fry.

But, wait, I said I could tell you how to solve your ‘too many veggies’ dilemma. Now you just have a ‘too much tempura’ problem. That doesn’t really solve anything.

This is where your freezer becomes your best friend. But you can’t just throw a bunch of steaming hot tempura in a bag and freeze it. Then you’ll just have a big tempura ice cube on your hands. First you have to let the tempura cool a little (while you’re stuffing your face) and spread them out on a plate or cookie sheet. Put them in the freezer for about an hour. This way they’ll be partially frozen when you wrap them up and won’t stick to each other.

Problem solved! Now whenever you want fatty fried food you can just pop these in the oven for a few minutes and reminisce about the night you dumpstered the veggies you’re now eating.

Pierogi + Dumplings = Pieroplings!

I still had a ton of dumpstered potatoes and some wonton wrappers in the fridge. And so the pieropling was born.

Ingredients:

• 4 small potatoes, baked
• 1/2 cup sauerkraut
• 2 Tbsp margarine
• 2Tbsp onion, minced
• s&p
• wonton wrappers

Slice potatoes in half and scoop insides into a bowl. Stir in rest of ingredients (except wrappers, of course). Place about a tablespoon of the mixture in a wrapper, wet edges with water, and fold however you desire. You can either boil or steam them. I steamed them for about 10 minutes. You can fry them after this, but I was too lazy. Serve with vegan sour cream or minced onions sauteed in margarine. I ate mine with mustard. I thought ketchup would be a good idea since I eat ketchup on pretty much everything, but I was wrong. It’s pretty gross. Don’t try it, I warned you.

Before being cooked:

After: