Veganism is taking the mainstream by storm. It doesn’t get any more mainstream than Oprah… when Oprah speaks the world listens. And listen they did earlier this week when Chef Tal Ronnen paid a return visit to the Oprah show to plug his new book, The Conscious Cook as well as some great new vegan products by Gardein.
Tal Ronnen is the chef behind Oprah’s 21-Day Cleanse where she went vegan for nearly a month. Kudo’s to them both, that was probably the first time many American’s had ever heard the word vegan before. While she didn’t end up sticking to a vegan diet she has remained quite a good ally to have on our side as she does do her part to get the good word out there. Her segment with Chef Ronnen that aired this week was nothing short of being a very positive advertisement for veganism. Props to Oprah for that.
First a bit about Tal’s book, then we’ll get to the tasty bits.
The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat
By Tal RonnenA former steak lover himself, Chef Tal struggled for years on a vegan diet that left him hungry and filled with cravings for butter and meat. By applying traditional French culinary techniques to meatless cuisine, he found that he could gratify his cravings for rich flavor and fat. The Conscious Cook shows readers that avoiding the health risks and ethical dilemmas of eating meat and dairy does not mean sacrificing taste and appetite. This is not a cookbook of sprouts and tofu burgers, but of mouth-watering, hearty meals that keep the protein at the center of your plate. Featuring 75 original recipes that will satisfy the fussiest foodies and the most dedicated of carnivores, The Conscious Cook is a breakthrough in meatless cuisine that will revolutionize the way readers experience food.
You’re going to want this book. What I like about his approach to vegan cooking is that he’s going for taste and flavor- he’s not afraid of fat and isn’t going to try and convince you that you’re going to hell for using a bit of olive oil or Earth Balance butter. The food he’s making is by default pretty healthy, but it’s not a health food book, it’s a book of delicious vegan food that anyone would love to it.
The first thing Chef Ronnen prepared on the Oprah show was a Celery Root Soup with Granny Smith Apples which looked really tasty and easy to make. The next thing he made was Gardein “Chicken” Scaloppini. They didn’t show him cook it on the show but it looked so good I was drooling (stick around til the end, I’ve got you covered).
This makes for a perfect segue to talk about Gardein. Some of you are already familiar with this product, a newcomer on the vegan food scene which has taken over our taste buds by storm. Many restaurants are starting to offer vegan meals thanks to the faux beef & chicken products by Gardein, and now they’ve expanding to making their stuff available in markets so that regular folks like you and me can serve it up at home.
Well if this Oprah episode seemed like an ad for veganism it was also a huge ad for Gardein. Not only did Chef Ronnen use Gardein’s faux-chicken as the main ingredient in his recipe, but he & Oprah spent a lot of time talking about Gardein, explaining vegan protein and basically just talking up what a great product it is. I can only imagine that sales and stock for Gardein must have skyrocketed overnight as soon as that show aired. This is seriously awesome.
Awesome because Gardein is totally delicious, totally vegan, and totally coming to restaurants and markets near you. I don’t mean only the hippie markets either, here in L.A., Ralph’s supermarkets have started carrying the brand new frozen line of Gardein and most of the stores seem to have them in stock already. This is major news people! Vegan meals and snacks in your nearby frozen food isle!
I was recently given the opportunity to try out this new line of vegan goodies and I am most thoroughly impressed. Have a gander at what’s in store for you…
No doubt these vegan Buffalo Wings are going to be everyone’s favorite, mine included. Geez, these are so good… you pop em in the oven and within 10 minutes you’ve got scrumptiously spicy wings that are just as good if not better than their real birdy counterparts. I wasn’t sure if they would be spicy enough because often packaged and frozen foods just don’t live up to the flavors you’d expect, but these were HOT! Serve them up with a vegan ranch or dipping sauce of choice to help cool things off and you’re good to go. You’re going to want to stock your freezer up with these as it’s going to become a staple food that you never want to be without.
This ball of love is known as the Marinara Chick’n Good Stuff. I absolutely hate the name but I absolutely love the dish. It’s basically a big piece of stuffed “chick’n” filled with tangy tomato sauce and perfectly melted Daiya cheese. The outer breading is seasoned with tasty herbs and bakes up to a nice crisp while the chick’n inside stays moist and the cheese gets nice & gooey. I can’t think of a more prefect marriage of vegan foods than Gardein & Daiya. I am so glad they invited me in for a ménage à trois.
Now my next favorite, these are the Crispy Tenders, aka, chicken fingers, made with seven grains and no chickens or fingers. Just like before, all you need to do is heat them up, get yourself a yummy sauce to go with and you’re all set.
I served my tenders with a delicious apricot-chipotle sauce which was an excellent match. These tenders are moist and juicy on the inside, golden-crispy on the outside. So good!
Above are the very versatile Beefless Tips, tasty marinated beef-like chunks that you can heat up and eat as is, or use in a sauté, stir-fry, stew, what have you. I did a quick sauté myself with a bit of olive oil, fresh ginger & garlic, lemon juice and red chili, served over a bed of red cabbage, chard and portobello mushrooms, topped with sesame seeds.
And finally we come to the Chick’n Scallopini, lightly seasoned not-a-chicken cutlets that are great as is or you creative cooks out there can do just about anything with them. I went real simple with these as I wanted to see what they tasted like on their own, so I just baked them up as per directions and served with a little lemon juice (I like lemon on everything you might have noticed) and a kale salad. Just like all the other Gardein products, this was delicious and very realistic. I can promise you that you’ve never had a fake meat product anywhere that comes nearly as close to the taste and texture of the real thing as Gardein. In fact, those of you who don’t like meat analogs won’t like this… it’s almost too real. Bummer for you.
Ok so I told you sticking around till the end would be worth it. You’ve seen what I did in the kitchen with this stuff, now you get to see what a pro like Chef Tal Ronnen can accomplish with Gardein in his much more capable hands. This is the dish he presented on Oprah which they didn’t show him make on the show:
Oh man, that video makes me so hungry! Chef Ronnen will you marry me? You don’t know how excited it gets me when you cut fancy shapes out of udon noodles & fry them and then make your sauce with spoonful after spoonful of vegan butter!
Hopefully some of you out there are as excited as I am that you can now get the makings of such meals just about anywhere. If your local stores don’t have Gardein’s products yet don’t despair. Visit Gardein’s “Where to Buy” page to find out exactly where to get it near you, and they’ve even provided a handy dandy form you can print out to take into stores and request they start carrying it.
Also don’t forget to pick up a copy of Chef Tal Ronnen’s book The Conscious Cook, it’s filled with many more tantalizing recipes like the one above. Eat up and enjoy!
- Delighted by Vegetable Delight
- New vegan Thai food in NoHo: Lotus Vegan
- Vegan Thai ginger stir-fry
- Thai Vegan-Chicken Salad
Sounds like a worthy book – thanks for the review!
awesome post!!!! and the chicken tenders are out-of-this-world!!! my freezer is stocked with gardein (for now…) :) thanks!
I only caught the last part of the Oprah show where they were tasting the Gardein. I’ve tried a couple of their products and liked them. I had no idea they had such an extensive product line, I’ll have to track them down now. Thanks! :-)
WOW! All of those gardein products look SO amazing! Unfortunately they don’t carry them here in Saudi Arabia, but when I make it back to the states I will be buying stacks of these asap. Especially those hot wings.
Tal’s Scallopini receipe has about as much fat in it as deep-frying butter.
I did the numbers and it’s roughly half a day’s worth of fat per serving (using the American Heart Association’s recommendations).
But then, I wouldn’t expect less from a “healthy chef” who maintains that “fat is flavor.”
It’s not a “bit of oil” in that recipe. It’s 30 grams of added fat per serving. I didn’t bother adding up the “saturated fat” (which is even worse for your cardiovascular system).
Love your blog, but not Tal’s heart-abusive unconscious from a health standpoint approach to cooking.
Anyone can sub out a chunk of meat with a vegan analog, but to fry the hell outta it, then slather oil over the fried udon noodle cake is hardly creative (or advisable). It’s been well-documented (and measured) that one high fat meal affects the elasticity of your blood vessels for 6+ hrs. Is consuming a half day’s worth of fat with ONE entree really a good idea?
Something, IMHO, to consider. I think we should hold vegan chefs to a higher standard than “oh, how wonderful, he’s not using meat and non-vegans are buying his book.” This chef caters to the unhealthy taste addiction many have to fat, and is oblivous to the consequences.
This is the only comment about your post I’ll do here.
FYI, Mark
Mark: This isn’t a low fat / no fat blog. I love fried food and I love (vegan) butter. I don’t feel it’s any chefs responsibility to cook low fat, vegan or otherwise, if that’s not the sort of food they want to cook. It’s not a health food cookbook and it’s not a low fat cookbook so I don’t see the point in attempting to compare it to some standard that does not apply.
It’s called a butter sauce… I’m not sure what part of that would lead anyone to think that it wouldn’t have a lot of fat. If you want to eat low fat, health food- go for it! But to complain that a butter based recipe has too much fat or that a chef is required to cook a certain way to meet your standards is just silly.
Wow, I almost came when he added the Earth Balance to that sauce! ;-)
I absolutely agree with you, FoodEater. I think we do a disservice to the animals when we insist that vegan food has to be low-fat. Vegan food has become popular in recent years precisely because people have started shifting away from that old stereotype.