Vegan MoFo: Chik patties & potato squashers with fresh horseradish cream sauce (H is for Horseradish)

H is for have you ever: have you ever seen fresh horseradish before? Like, not a jar of horseradish, but the actual whole root that prepared horseradish comes for? I hadn't! Check this bad boy out:



I got the smallest one I could find at the store because I wasn't sure how much I needed to cook with and also because there was no price listed on the sign. (That drives me crazy when stores have a careful display of something-- signs saying where the horseradish was grown and info on the farm, etc-- but no basic info like price. I love the extra info but guys, I need to know if this fits into my budget or not!) Anyway, the "smallest" horseradish root I could find was like, more or less the length of my forearm. Extensive!

When I decided to do horseradish, I googled for horseradish sauce and instantly came up with Alton Brown's horseradish cream sauce recipe. Not vegan, but soooooo close. It doesn't even actually have "cream" in it per se. I will post my veganized version because that's the sporting thing to do and also because I didn't use vegan sour cream (which would be the most obvious decision) but really, any fool could veganize this.

Originally I was going to use the sauce to top the American Vegan Kitchen savory seitan cutlets that we loved so much last weekend, but once I realized how crammed my Friday-Saturday schedule actually was (see: in the kitchen for bake sale stuff yesterday afternoon-evening, then up early to make more bakesale stuff, go to bakesale, and run other errands today) I realized that was not actually within the realm of reality. So I settled for something even simpler: the horseradish sauce served up on some Boca chik patties, with the Eat Drink & Be Vegan potato squashers (sprinkled with more fresh horseradish) and broccoli on the side. Et voila:



Almost Alton Brown's Horseradish Cream Sauce
makes about 1.5cs

1c plain soy yogurt
1/4c of grated fresh horseradish root
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp rice or other light vinegar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
generous grinding of black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients in bowl or container. Stir til smooth.
2. Put in the fridge for 2 or more hours to let flavors develop.

That's really it. Your end result is this:



How does it taste? Surprisingly mild. It's quite lovely actually... velvety in the mouth, and while definitely horseradishy, not at all harsh or burny. I love it. I want to put it on everything. It tastes like it should be like 600 calories a serving. It tastes like something you should put on potato chips when you want to double their negative impact on your healthy. And yet it's actually NOT particularly rich. It's just soy yogurt with some flavoring! Brilliant! Alton Brown, you've won this round.



The potato squashers were tasty too, by the way. I had forgotten how much I like ED&BV for its simplicity and reliability. Nothing I've made out of there other than one of the hummuses (it was sweet; I don't like sweet hummus, and that is my personal problem!) has been unlikable. The potato squashers weren't an out of this world win for me... I didn't see that much advantage over a nice crispy skinned baked potato... but they were certainly good and since they were squished flat, they were good vehicles for some of the sauce we had leftover after the chik patties.

The Emperor was very interested in the horseradish and tried both some of the grated horseradish (after which he licked his fingers thoughtfully) and the horseradish sauce (after which he handed me back the spoon and said "no" rather solemnly) while I was putting dinner together. Since he didn't seem thrilled by it, I left it off of his serving of everything and just gave him some plain chik patty, a plain and very small potato, and some broccoli. Guess what one thing he ate off of that plate was?

The broccoli. He ate all of it, then asked for more. When he ate what was left in the pot, he then scavenged the last of J's broccoli off his plate. The broccoli. But the kid won't touch a potato. Sometimes I worry about him.

He patronized the bake sale, by the way, which is where today's bonus picture comes from:



So now you know that he ate at least a cupcake and some broccoli today...