Fake Chicken Nuggets...have I forgotton the real thing?

I made the Chickpea Cutlets from Isa's book Veganomicon, which is all over the web--here's the link to her blog: Post Punk Kitchen It's a great site, a great show, and I often use recipes from this site.

So, if you read vegan blogs (I do religiously, despite my moderate veggie status--yeah, yeah, I'm nuts for sardines) this recipe has been going nuts on the blogosphere. And I, as someone who hasn't eaten chicken for going on 12 years, think its great too. So I served it to my very picky meat eater friend who is always game to at least try the new recipes.

It didn't fly.

I think it was the fact that I hyped it, because I love the recipe. Maybe that or the fact I baked instead of deep fry. At any rate, I ate mine and his too, and he ate mostly the leftover oven potatoes from Sunday brunch.

What do you think?



Isa's Chickpea Cutlet Recipe:


1 cup chickpeas
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup wheat gluten
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup water or broth
2 T soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 t lemon zest
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t sage

extra oil for frying or baking

Directions:
-Food process chickpeas, oil, broth and soy until no whole chickpeas remain
-Add remaining ingredients and knead for 3-5 minutes
-(For nuggets) press dough into large rectangle, approx 1/2 inch thick, and cut into desired size pieces
-Preheat oven to 375 and bake on oiled pan, 20 minutes. Flip and bake additional 8-10 minutes


-eat with lots of excellent condiments--who knows? Maybe I like it because I'm crazy for condiments? (and wine)