Herb-Roasted Beyond Meat and Vegetables

Tuesday, November 12

Herb-Roasted Beyond Meat and Vegetables

Rating; 3.75

We just got a copy of Betty Goes Vegan, so I decided to take it for a test drive. If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s the result of a project by Annie and Dan Shannon, who we were thrilled to have do a cooking demo at Atlanta Veg Fest on Saturday, to veganize the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I knew when we got the book that it was different from how we normally cook. It uses a lot of vegan meat and cheese substitutes, which we don’t eat a lot of. Still, I wanted to give it a go. This was the first recipe we tried from it. I liked it more than Seth did, but then again, I like Beyond Meat more than he does. It’s pretty simple to make, which is in line with the Betty Crocker way of doing things. I did alter the recipe a little bit, because it calls for a LOT of olive oil. I reduced the oil by almost half and increased the amount of Beyond Meat in it. (Just as info, it calls for “vegan chicken”, not specifically Beyond Meat.) I think that the amount of oil is there to keep the dish moist since there’s no “juice” from vegan chicken. Anyway, the herb mix is delicious, but I think I over-lemoned a bit because I felt like the flavor was a little too prominent. Seth felt like this was simpler in terms of what was in the dish than what we normally eat, but I think that was kind of the point. This is a veganized version of a typical omni dinner. “Chicken”, potatoes, and vegetables roasted in a simple sauce. I think if you’re trying to convince a skeptical meat-eater that vegan food isn’t poisonous, and is in fact, quite tasty, this is a good bet. To be fair, Seth’s unimpressed opinion wasn’t about the flavor of the dish at all - he really, truly liked the taste - it was more that it was, well, simple. Which, again, is kind of the point. Anyway, we had a lovely salad alongside it and I made a batch of Caesar dressing from Isa Does It (y’all knew that was coming right?). I had a small problem in that I had about ¼ the amount if capers I needed. It’s gotten suddenly cold here (ok, sort of cold and it won’t last) and I was not about to go back out to get more capers, so I wnet without them. It wasn’t as briny as it should have been (or as Seth said “Caesarish”) but it was still really good and I can’t wait to make it again, correctly this time. I also made a loaf of bread (also Isa Does It) since the not-chicken recipe suggested having bread to mop up the seasoned oil. It was good advice. Plus, it’s cold outside and I can’t stop baking bread. I really can’t.