Chickpea cutlets, roasted brussles sprouts, and "monster mash" potatoes!

Suzanne and I recently crossed over the one month mark as being vegans! With this in mind, I wanted to make a special meal to celebrate. After browsing through the post punk kitchen website, I came across this interesting item called "chickpea cutlets." In hindsight, I'm soooooo glad I decided to make this meal because it was phenomenal and super easy to make.

For me, this meal resembled good old fashioned home cooking; the comfort food that your mom or dad makes for the holidays. It kept us full, happy, and content as Suzanne and I continued on with our night (which consisted of finishing Season 3 of The Walking Dead and watching V for Vendetta. Remember remember the 5th of November...).

As I mentioned before, the chickpea cutlets recipe is from The Post Punk Kitchen, however, the brussels sprout and potato recipes are Pastrano originals!

During the cooking process, I got the brussels sprouts cooking first, then the potatoes, and then the cutlets. Without any further ado, I give you chickpea cutlets, roasted brussles sprouts, and "monster mash" potatoes!

THE BRUSSELS SPROUTS:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cover a baking pan with aluminum foil. Grab your brussels sprouts (I used half a bag - roughly two servings) and begin to chop them in halves. Once done, place them on your baking sheet, cover them with olive oil (I wouldn't go over board, but just make sure that most of them get a nice sprinkle) and season with salt and pepper. Place them in the oven when it is done preheating and let them cook for 30 minutes (being sure to stir them at 15 minutes).

THE "MONSTER MASH" POTATOES:
These are a signature side that I make. I made them once for Suzanne several years ago and she loved them, so much so that they are requested in our house :P I call them "Monster Mash" potatoes because they have a kick. The secret? Tabasco. (For those of you who would like the non-vegan version of these potatoes, I used to add shredded cheese, milk and butter.) For the vegan version, the cheese has been replaced by nutritional yeast, the milk with water, and the butter with earth balance.

Grab a pot, fill it up with water (judge how much you need by the amount of potatoes you're using), toss in some salt, and set it on the stove to boil. Proceed to cut up your potatoes (I used about 10 or 12 smaller golden yukon potatoes). Once your water is boiling, toss them into the water. Once the potatoes are soft and ready for mashing, drain the water, add some butter (we use Earth Balance vegan butter - I used 1/2 of the smaller sticks that you can buy), shake in some Tabasco (however much you want), sprinkle your nutritional yeast (again, use however much you want - just season to taste), 3/4 cups of water, and begin the mashing! The nutritional yeast gives the potatoes a nice cheesy flavor and the Tabasco gives the potatoes a kick and a little added sweetness.

THE CHICKPEA CUTLETS: MAKES 8 CUTLETS
1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of vital wheat gluten
1 cup of breadcrumbs
1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of thyme
4 cloves of garlic

Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Put them in a mixing bowl, add in your olive oil and garlic, and begin mashing them (I used a potato masher). Make sure that they are mashed well (no large pieces). Once they are mashed, add in all of the other ingredients. You can them mix it up by hand, kneading the mixture for about 3 minutes. Your mixture should almost look like a ball of dough. You know when you're good to go when the dough looks "stringy" when you pull it apart.

Preheat a pan on medium-low heat.

Place the cutlet dough on a cutting board. Cut it into 2 equal pieces, then cut those 2 pieces in half, and then cut those pieces in half - you should have 8 separate pieces of chickpea dough. Flatten out each piece into cutlet shapes (about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide at the middle).

Pour some oil into your pan, and place two of your cutlets into the pan (I cooked two at a time). Cover the pan and let each side cook for 6 to 7 minutes. If you need to add more oil to your pan during this process, feel free to do so. Repeat these steps for the remaining cutlets.

And there you have it! Suzanne and I ended up with 2 extra servings of potatoes and 6 cutlets for leftovers. Seriously, this meal was the real deal. SO DANG GOOD! I also had a nice cold glass of Newcastle with my meal.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did! Take care, everyone. Here's to a beautiful and family filled November.

-Bearded Vegan