What's Cookin: Yo Cheese, Vegetarian Gumbo and "Chicken" Salad

This past week was quite an adventure in cooking up new things.  I made three new recipes and all were delightfully good for various reasons.  Plus, I'm now 3 new recipes closer to my goal of 24 for the year for a total of 4 so far.  And it's only been 11 days!


Yo Cheese

Yo? Cheese? You ask?  It's actually not cheese, but yogurt without the whey.   It's quite easy to make and it's great for a cream cheese substitute or diluting down mayonnaise in recipes to reduce the calorie count.  All you need to make it is the following:

• 32 oz. container Non-Fat Plain Yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farms Plain Organic Fat-Free Yogurt)
• Cheesecloth¹
• Strainer
• Bowl large enough to hold strainer

Directions:

• Line your strainer with the a double-layer of cheesecloth
• Pour your yogurt in the middle of the strainer and place in a large bowl
• Place the bowl in the fridge for 24-36 hours, pouring away the whey every so often (before it touches the bottom of the strainer)
• Put Yo Cheese in a container and enjoy!

The texture of the Yo Cheese is thick and creamy and it's virtually calorie-less!  I even used it my "Chicken" Salad recipe featured below.  I give this recipe 5 out 5 spoons!

¹Walmart does not sell cheesecloth as I found out one day after asking 4 employees there.  Not one of them even knew what cheesecloth was.  I also wouldn't get it at Target since they sell it for around $10 a package.  You can get it at any health food store for less than $3-4 a package.


Vegetarian Gumbo

I was searching the recipe archives at vegetariantimes.com for a vegetable stew I could make that would use up all the random veggies I had in my fridge.  I happened across their Vegetarian Gumbo and thought it would be perfect.  I've never had gumbo before and since you can pretty much put whatever you want in it, it was a good choice for this week.  The recipe calls for parsnips, but I used zucchini instead.   The directions asked you to cook the roux (flour and oil mixture) on high for 10 minutes until a dark caramel color.  However, I found after about 2 minutes on high heat, it turned fairly dark.  I ended up turning it down to a little over medium and only cooked it for 5 minutes before I started the next step.  I believe I got the roux too dark, but the dish still tasted great.  And it was even better the next day as most stews are.  I also stewed it in the crockpot for about 8 hours rather than on the stove.  The picture definitely doesn't do the gumbo justice, but I included it anyway.  I give this recipe 4 out 5 spoons.


Quorn "Chicken" Salad

I might be vegetarian, but I still love chicken salad sandwiches.  I look for ways to replace the chicken with something that's not only good, but has a good texture.  The perfect substitute are Quorn Chik'n Tenders.  Quorn products are soy-free meat substitutes made out of mycoprotein.  They have a great taste and texture.  So this week, I made "chicken" salad for the first time and used the Chik'n tenders.  I adapted a recipe out of Cooking Light's 5-Star Recipes and made the best vegetarian "chicken" salad I've ever had.  I give this recipe 5 out of 5 spoons and I've included it below:

• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
• 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Yo Cheese (see above)
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 2 cups Quorn Chik'n Tenders (cooked according to package)

Mix all the ingredients together and chill!  Yields 3-4 1/2c servings.