STEEMIT CULINARY CHALLENGE #2: Vegan Pulled Pork-less, Turnip Taco Sandwich with Brussels Sprout, Cabbage and Carrot Slaw

 

Seriously, it does take some work to be this much of a freak. I mean really? Who makes a sandwich out of some turnip, tomatoes, walnuts, brussel sprouts and a bit of shredded carrot?

Well, me. 

My name is Rebecca Ryan. I live a high plant-based, raw and Paleo lifestyle.

I'll explain a little further, without becoming a "born again eater".

Lots of days, through the average week, I'm a Vegan but on the other days, I consume animal protein, selectively.

I also don't eat any grain, rice, soy, corn or white potatoes.

So, on Friday when @enlishtchrivy suggested that I might want to throw my Paleo spear into the ring and join the second Culinary Challenge, I was a little hesitant because the contest theme was "out of the box" sandwiches made with easily accessible ingredients.  It sounds easy enough, but I don't consume bread and that means that I had to come up with an alternative delivery method in which to hold my sandwich filling in less than 48 hours to meet the contest deadline.

The contest's prize purse was graciously sponsored by @smooth, @rusvanelulmarin and @wingz and I'd like to acknowledge their generosity and say thank-you to each of them.

After some thought, I decided to make an almost raw turnip sandwich. I say almost raw, because my barbecue sauce recipe contains maple syrup, tomato paste and fire-roasted tomatoes. The slaw dressing contains a small amount of nutritional yeast. All of these things have come into contact with heat and that makes them, technically not raw.  In order to be considered truly raw, all the ingredients in the recipe must not be exposed to any temperature over 118 degrees F. 

This is done to maintain as many of the key vitamins, minerals and enzymes contained within the vegetables, seeds, nuts and fruit as possible. It can be a tricky business, but it's surprisingly worth the effort.

I am not a professionally trained chef or cook, but I do have a strong background in holistic nutrition...which definitely helps me to get "my freak on".

I started the construction process of my sandwich by gathering some tools and ingredients.

Tools:

This is an olive serving tray that I bought at a Thrift store for a few dollars. I didn't have one and I love to serve tapas so it's perfect because it's going to serve double duty as my "turnip taco form". (Any long narrow object would work, like a small circumference rolling pin, for example.) 

The other appliances that are needed are a high power blender like a Vitamix or a food processor and a food dehydrator.

This is a food dehydrator. The brand is an Excalibur and it's the 9 tray model. If you are going to invest in a dehydrator, the best advice that I can give is to get one that has a lot of capacity. Usually, the dehydration process takes many hours and sometimes days to achieve the correct level of dryness and texture, so if you're going to run it for many hours, you should fill it to its capacity to make the most efficient use of time and electricity. (It costs the same to dehydrate one tray as it does to dehydrate nine.)

This is a Vitamix blender. Next to my refrigerator, it is the one household appliance that I use everyday. They are expensive but incredibly versatile. (This particular model cost about $600 (Canadian dollars). I would be lost without it.)

Ingredients:

Turnip Taco Shells:

4 large round slices of turnip (You'll need to bend the slices around the object you are using as your taco form, so the slices need to be big enough, to be able to do this.)

Pulled Pork-less Filling:

11/4 cups of walnuts (soaked in water for 12 hours).

Barbecue Sauce:

3 cups of diced roasted tomatoes.

2/3 cup of tomato paste.

1/4 of cup maple syrup.

1/2 cup of minced onion.

6 cloves of minced garlic.

1/4 cup of coconut sauce (This is a natural soy sauce alternative. It's a dark brown colour and is sold in glass bottles, just like regular soy sauce.)

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.

2 tbsp of dry ground mustard.

1/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt.

Brussels Sprout, Cabbage and Carrot Slaw:

3 brussels sprouts sliced into small pieces.

1 small leaf of cabbage (either red or white), shredded into small pieces. (1 cup in total.)

1/2 cup of shredded carrot.

Slaw Dressing:

1/4 cup of coconut milk or almond milk.

2 tbsp of olive oil.

2 tbsp of nutritional yeast.

1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar.

1/8 cup of macadamia nuts.

1/8 cup of pine nuts.

 Directions:

• Place walnuts in a medium sized bowl and be sure to completely cover them with water. Let soak for 12 hours.

• After soaking, drain the walnuts and rinse them thoroughly under running water and set aside.
• Cut the thick peel off the turnip and discard.

• Slice 4 large, but relatively thin turnip rounds from the middle of the turnip so that you can obtain 4 of the largest pieces of turnip to make your shells with.

(These are the turnip discs soaking in water, beside the walnuts, also soaking in water.)

• Soak the turnip discs for 2 hours, in room temperature water. (This softens them and lets you bend them around your taco form.)
• Bend the turnip discs around your taco form and tie in place to help the turnip keep its new shape while they dehydrated. Dehydrate the turnip shells for 4 hours. (You still want the shells to be somewhat pliable so that when you pick them up with your hands to eat, they won't break into pieces.)

(I used twine to tie the turnip discs and secure them onto my form, so that the string would be visible in the photo. Any string will work. Plan on 2 slices of turnip per person.)

• Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, maple syrup, coconut sauce, apple cider vinegar, onion, garlic, mustard and salt to your blender or food processor.

• Blend until everything is thoroughly combined and the consistency of a thick sauce.

This recipe makes 5 cups of barbecue sauce. I always separate the batch in half and save 2.5 cups to use as plain barbecue sauce for other recipes. If you were serving 4-6 people, double the amount of walnuts to 2.5 cups of walnuts. This will provide ample filling to make 12 turnip tacos.

• Add the walnuts and blend well.

(This is the meat-less sandwich filling. You can add any spices to it to create a customized flair. If I had added chili powder and cayenne pepper to this mixture, it would have a truer Mexican flavour, but I kept the barbecue flavour by adding dry mustard to this particular blend.)

• To make the slaw, shred the cabbage, brussels sprouts, and grate the carrot. 

   

Here's the "cabbage bowl" holding most of the slaw ingredients. I also bought this little dish from a Thrift store for about $2. I fell in love with it and thought it would be perfect for this application.

• To make the slaw dressing, soak the pine nuts and the macadamia nuts in room temperature water for 2 hours. 

• Drain the nuts and add to the Vitamix blender or food processor along with the coconut milk and blend really well.

This dressing acts like a Vegan mayonnaise. 

• Add the oil, apple cider vinegar and nutritional yeast and blend again. The nuts and the nutritional yeast give it a creamy, buttery texture.
• Toss the shredded cabbage, carrot and brussels sprouts with the dressing and let it sit for 1/2 an hour to let the flavours meld.

• Fill your turnip taco shells with a generous helping of the pulled pork-less sandwich filling. Then top with the creamy slaw.

Here's a closer look at the Vegan pulled pork-less taco sandwich, topped with slaw.

As a side note, I bought the nutritional yeast and the coconut sauce at my local bulk-food store. These are common ingredients that I keep in stock, in my Vegan/Paleo kitchen. Here's what they look like, if those ingredients are "new" to you:

The coconut sauce should be kept refrigerated after it is open. The nutritional yeast can be kept in a cupboard for long-term storage.

Thank you for making it all the way to the end of "my out-of-the box" sandwich entry in the Steemit Culinary Challenge. 

I welcome your comments and I invite you to follow me on my journey.

~RebeccaRyan