rants & recipes

Nothing really in this recipe is set in stone, either ingredients or amounts. It's so easy and tasty - make it often and adjust as you see fit.

Ingredient (suggestions):

• Chick'n: any combination of chickpeas, tempeh or reconstituted TVP. The amounts in this recipe assume about a "14oz-can-of-chickpeas-worth" of chick'n
• 1 1/2 tbsp vegan mayo
• dash each red pepper, black pepper, chili powder and/or cumin, dry mustard, paprika
• liberal sprinkle each kelp granules, celery seeds (or chopped celery, if you like raw celery)
• hemp seeds and/or pumpkin seeds and/or vegan bacon bits
• onion and garlic powder, to taste (if using TVP, I reconstitute onion flakes with it; if you like raw onions, they'd be good)
• 5-6 drops spicy mustard
• hemp and/or flax seed oil (a good squirt - this salad has a lot of flavor, so it's a good place to 'hide' a little oil!)
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice (or some pickle relish?)
• 1 - 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp toasted wheat germ (optional - I actually don't know if I've ever used wheat germ but it would certainly be tasty and nutritious)
• sprinkle of Indian black salt, if you have it (and haven't used too much soy sauce) - in addition to tasting like eggs, Indian black salt (which, incidentally, is pink)  is *really* salty.
• salt, to taste, if you didn't use soy sauce or black salt

Instructions:

1. If using chickpeas, mash them with a fork. If using tempeh, crumble and brown in a little oil and soy sauce. If using TVP, reconstitute with boiling water and your favorite boulion.
2. Add rest of ingredients and mix together.
3. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Add more mayo, if needed, so salad holds together.
4. Chill, if desired. Serve with crackers or bread. Nice with spinach.