Vegan Replica Hack: Lipton’s Chicken Noodle Soup

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since anything was posted here!  We’re never going to get a book deal or TV show on the Food Network at this rate!

My kid is sick today, and I just made him one of his favourite lunches – 'tofu noodle soup’ - perfect for a sick kid, but great for any time you want a warm, quick, easy lunch.  L claims he doesn’t like soup, but he makes an exception for this one.  In fact, when I told him today that’s what I was making, he said “awesome, I love that soup!”  L is not one to exclaim about his food, so that is high, high praise.

I started making this soup about a year ago one day when I had a craving for Lipton’s Chicken Noodle soup – you know, the one that comes in the little pouch that you empty into some boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes?  I think it’s pretty much the first thing I ever ‘cooked’ on my own (if you can call that cooking).  This version is just as easy, and as long as you always have some tofu in the fridge, it’s simple to have all the ingredients on hand to whip this up any time.

Not-Lipton’s Not-Chicken Noodle Soup in a Flash

Ingredients:

• 5c water
• 2 veggie ‘chicken’-flavoured bouillon cubes (or plain veggie, if you can’t find a vegan chicken cube)
• 1/2c xtra firm tofu, cut into 1/2cm cubes
• 1/2c extra thin noodles (or more, if you like your soup extra noodly, which I do)

Directions:

• Bring the water to a boil over high heat.
• Add the remaining ingredients, return to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 5m, until the noodles are soft.

That’s it!  Serve to your sick kid (with a couple of ice cubes in it to cool it down quickly).  Yum.

“Larabar” Universal Formula Hack

I like Larabars. They are awesome, tasty, simple and completely vegan. You can get more information here [Larabar] and they look like this:

The key information on the Larabar website is the nutritional information. For this particular hack, we’re going to make our own Larabars by reverse engineering the ingredient lists.

Background Information & Basic Rules

Food scientists do this all the time and what we’re doing here is basically what every competitor does when imitating a food product. Thankfully, Larabars are SUPER simple and they use natural ingredients that we can actually buy (no chemistry set required). The objective is to get as close to the original food as possible but also leaving room to adjust to personal tastes.

What we’re going to do is apply the following four basic rules:

• Ingredients are always listed in the order by mass from the most to the least
• Dates have double the mass of the next nearest ingredient because dates are the “glue” that holds the bar together.
• Spices are generally added sparingly and added to recipes last based on taste preferences
• The “Ratio” of ingredients to each other will always be constant.

So… let’s do an example…

Re-inventing the Larabar

Look at the ingredient data for the Coconut Chocolate Larabar. The ingredient list (from most to least) is:

• Dates
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• Unsweetened Coconut

So, like almost all Larabars, they are mostly dates and bits of other things. In this case, let’s quickly infer that the ingredients are distributed in the following manner (guessing things in a way that honours “the Rules”):

Dates	Almonds	Walnuts	Cocoa	Coconut
4	2	1.5	1	.5

What we’ve done here is get a starting point for a Larabar formula. If you wanted to make about 9 cups, then the ratios above would be “cups”. In most cases, you won’t want to make more than about 4 cups so your ratios will stay the same and the actual volumes will decrease. Note that while ingredients are listed by mass, we can assume that volume correlates to mass as all the ingredients are roughly the same density (unless they come up with a Lead flavoured Larabar :-) )

Making your first Larabar

Actually, assembly of the larabar from your ingredients is pretty simple, you basically need a good food processor, a rolling pin, some waxed paper, and a VERY good knife. For the “dates” you’ll need pre-pitted dates (available in bulk pretty much at any bulk store). The other ingredients will get “processed” so save yourself some time and get things pre-chopped if possible. Your food processor (and ears) will thank you for getting the pre-chopped walnuts and almonds. Here’s how you make a Larabar:

• Take the “non-date” ingredients (excluding spices, see below) first and combine in a food processor. Process until the bits are very small but remain distinct bits (for example peanuts should be small bits and not “peanut butter”). Remove from the food processor.
• Add the dates slowly (a few at a time) to the now-empty food processor and process until they are a clumpy mess. You’ll likely have to pause many times during this process as the clumpy mess tends to form a ball and not get mixed very well. If you have “balling” problems, just divide the ball into thirds, distribute evenly in the food processor and resume adding new dates. Once you’re done adding all the dates, evenly distribute the date paste around the food processor bowl before adding back the other ingredients.
• Add back the ingredients from the first step and mix until all the ingredients have combined evenly with the date paste.
• IMPORTANT – YOU WILL PROBABLE SCREW UP THE MIX OF INGREDIENTS AND THIS IS WHERE YOU ADJUST. If the “flavour” ingredients are weak, add more while honouring the rules. If the dates are insufficient to hold everything together, add more here. Add any spice ingredients at this stage to taste.
• Once combined, remove the ball of dates and ingredients from the food processor. Place the ball on a chopping board lined with waxed paper and put a piece of wax paper on top of the ball. Then press flat using another chopping board. Once relatively flat, roll to the desired thickness with a rolling pin while maintaining the top piece of waxed paper. [HINT: If you want a particular thickness,use a dowel or other wood to keep the rolling pin off the chopping board. Cake makers know this trick for working with fondant.]
• Form the flattened paste into a DENSE rectangular shape and then chop through the waxed paper with a knife to create long “bars” about an inch wide.
  
• You should now have a lovely dense "larabar" that you can cut down to your desired length and then wrap in plastic wrap. They keep in the fridge for a very long time (long enough that I've never actually seen one go bad... but I do eat them quickly too).

Enjoy!

Gear I love – The Star Peeler

Okay, you probably already know about this thing but if not, prepare to see something unexpectedly awesome.  The Star Peeler is (after a good chef’s knife) possibly the kitchen tool that saves me the most time.  But first, to the heart of the problem… Vegetables, especially tasty gourds and roots often have some kind of unpleasant outer covering that keeps the veggie innards tasty by being a pain in the ass to any creature looking to eat said vegetable. The Star Peeler excels at solving that problem but is also so much more.

So… here it is… check out the video of the peeler being sold in NYC by its most famous (and now deceased) salesperson:

The thing is awesome in so many ways.  You really can go as fast as the guy’s demo illustrates with almost no practice (and I’ve flayed a finger or two in an over-zealous peeling rage).

The Veggie Hacks (for now)

Although watching the demo video will give you a couple of awesome hacks (the carrot “starring” and slicing is cool to watch), vegetarians can apply it to so much more, such as:

• ULTRA-Thin Tofu – Take a block of EXTRA FIRM tofu squeeze out all the fluid that you can (his works poorly on anything less firm than “extra firm” because of the thickness you’re working with here).  Lay the block of tofu so that the long and narrow side is down on a chopping board.  “Peel” the tofu brick into strips.  These pick up marinade in ways that hand-cut tofu cannot because there’s almost no thickness.  Marinades permeate the whole piece (not just the outside).  They also hold up to frying and baking (see the “Dreaded Tofu Rice Bowl” recipe to be posted shortly). (Anybody else thinking of using this technique in connection with the Vegan Gyros posted earlier?)
• Cucumber “Wrappers” – Take an English-style cucumber and then slice the whole length of the cucumber with the peeler.  The first few strips are pretty much all skin but after a few strips, you get a really nice thin cucumber wrapper that can be rolled around rice or other grain and easily pinned with a toothpick I’ve seen these used as a wrapper in “vegan sushi”.
• Butternut Squash Peeling – Not really a trick but a life-saver nonetheless.  Butternut squash is sometimes a pain to cook with because (a) when it’s diced by hand the curvy shape leads to a ton of wasted tasty squash; (b) it takes forever to prepare.  Just peel the whole thing with the star peeler first and then you get nearly 0% waste when you cook with it.

Anyway, you can buy these things all over the place.  Get one and never look back.

Vegetarian Restaurant Hack – McDonald’s Breakfast

The post about the Champion Sandwich reminded me that there is another common hack that my partner and I use at McDonalds during their more “vegetarian-friendly” breakfast hours.  In short, it’s an “off-menu” trick and it seems to work everywhere that we’ve tried it. Here’s a post just in time for the last few hours of the McDonalds breakfast menu… enjoy.

The “Other” Big Breakfast

Basically, McDonalds (in Canada at least) offers the “Big Breakfast”.  The meal contains an English muffin, hashbrowns, sausage, eggs and liquid margarine (it’s listed as a separate ingredient on their dietary chart, no joking!).  A copy of the dietary information for the "Big Breakfast” is here. Note that the cholesterol and sodium numbers for the basic Big Breakfast are basically off the chart (did you know that Sodium is so large it could have been measured in GRAMS, not mg).  In short, the big breakfast is a loaded gun and you should never pull the trigger.  With this in mind (and a hungry toddler in hand), I improvised something that would work out nicely as a large, tasty and meat-free “big breakfast”.  I order one order of pancakes and then ask them to add in a side of eggs.  They usually say something like “there’s no menu item for eggs” but there is one for “folded egg” which would get you much the same result as a scrambled egg.  Usually, they get it and you get straight-up scrambled eggs in addition to the hotcakes.  Incremental cost is actually about $1 but it varies by location and how they key it in. Add a hashbrown and you’re basically set.  It’s big, it’s tasty, it’s a better meal combination than the “big breakfast” and it’s really not any more expensive (and no animals had to make you sausage!). Basically, you should check out the nutritional information on the link above and when you ask for “detailed” nutrition information, you can see all the little a la carte items that you can combine with the hotcakes to get you a nice, large breakfast.  The beauty of the McDonald’s standardization is that all their terminals should allow adding single orders of the requisite components.  I would be curious as to what other combinations I could get to work. More to come on this but hotcakes with egg is a winner.  Try it. You’ll like it.

The Egg McMuffin

Okay, they label all the “special” McMuffins with their particular meat-related add-ons (eg. the Sausage and Egg McMuffin).  However, the “Egg” McMuffin actually comes with ham… I’ve always wondered about the omission of the word ham from the product name.  Either way, ask for it without meat.  9 times out of 10 they will get it right (usually resulting in a yell from the cashier to the cook that “the egg mcmuffin’s are all without meat” if you order more than one!).  They hate adding grill slips to their meals (especially when they don’t understand why you don’t want the meat).  It’s no Champion Sandwich but it’s easy and you can get it in a combo. As an unintended bonus, you will usually get a “fresher” sandwich than the pile of pre-combined ones sitting in the warmer waiting for the breakfast rush.

First Post!

Hi! This is the first post to Vegetarian Food Hacker.

Inspired by the “Champion Sandwich” (which I’m sure is the subject of a post that’s being drafted right now), this blog is intended to share our ideas about:

• Restaurant Veggie Hacking – How to get decent vegetarian food from common restaurants without much hassle.
• Recipe Hacking – Our own favourite vegetarian recipes and recipes inspired by other awesome vegetarian recipes.
• Gear & Techniques – Stuff that we like in terms of equipment and processes (e.g. have you ever used a sandwich press to make crisp veggie bacon in a ridiculously short period of time, try it).
• Random Thoughts – Rants, raves, crap that cannot be easily categorized.

What vegetarian means to us? Dairy is okay, eggs are okay, Meat of any kind is not okay (fish is considered meat). Simple.  Not necessarily vegan (although lots of posts will likely be vegan too!) but still a pretty standard lacto-ovo-vegetarian definition.

In terms of comments, we would love to hear your constructive, positive thoughts about our posts.  Just keep it clean.  We’re doing this to have fun and share our ideas. Any comments with the same spirit are always welcome here.