Vegan Ranch Dressing

Vegan Ranch Dressing is easy to make. I very often make it without measuring ingredients exactly. Anything that's roughly in the ballpark of the proportions below will be delicious.

Ingredients

1 Cup Just Mayo

2 Tsp. Dried Minced Onion

1 Tsp. Onion Powder

1 Tsp. Garlic Powder

1 Tsp. Dried Chives

1 Tsp. Dill Weed

1 Tsp. Dried Parsley

2 Tsp. Fresh Ground Black Pepper

1 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

Steps

1   Mix all ingredients. That’s it.

Vegan Gastonia Barbecue Slaw

As far as I know, this slaw is unique to Gastonia. If you're from the Gastonia area, you'll certainly recognize this slaw from R.O.'s or Black's. Yeah... I know both restaurant's takes on this slaw are slightly different, but they have more in common with each other than they do any other barbecue slaw.  What you'll find here is my own vegan take on it. I think it's delicious and I hope you'll agree.
Use it as a dip or make toasted sandwiches like you would get at one of the aforementioned Gastonia restaurants... just use Tofurky slices (or some similar vegan product) instead of dead-animal slices.

Ingredients

1 Medium Cabbage

1 Tbsp. Paprika

½ Cup Sweet Relish

1 Cup Hampton Creek Just Mayo

1 Cup Tomato Catsup

3 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

4 Oz. Diced Pimentos, drained

½ Tsp. Cayenne Red Pepper

½ Tsp. Chili Powder

1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard

2 Tsp. Fresh Ground Black Pepper

⅛ Tsp. Salt

1 Tsp.  Hot Sauce (Texas Pete or similar)

Steps

1   1) Roughly chop cabbage, add to blender, and blend - you ultimately want a finely grated consistency.

     2) Add remaining ingredients to blender and mix thoroughly.

Vegan Pimento Cheese

There is a wonderful vegan restaurant called Bean Vegan Cuisine in Charlotte, North Carolina. They make a delicious vegan pimento cheese and I would encourage you to go there for it if you can. They are the masters of this bit of culinary magic.

But I found that I didn't get to make the trek to Charlotte nearly often enough to satisfy my craving for this fantastic stuff, so I set out to reverse engineer the recipe to the best of my ability. If you can't go to Charlotte, you can still enjoy a close approximation of their vegan pimento cheese by following some simple directions to prepare my version. Some of the ingredients are slightly different, but I think you'll find that I've done a reasonably good job.
You can make delicious toasted pimento cheese sandwiches with it, use it as a dip, or just eat the damn stuff right out of a bowl. It takes all the restraint I can muster to refrain from eating the entire batch immediately every time I make it.
If you're not from the southern U.S., you may not know what the hell pimento cheese is. Trust me: it's worth trying.

Ingredients

2 Cups Jasmine Rice*

3 Tbsp. Red Miso

5 Tbsp. Tahini

¾ Cup Hampton Creek Just Mayo

6 Tbsp. Nutritional Yeast

16 Oz. Diced Pimentos (4 x 4 ounce jars)

1 ½ Tbsp. Sriracha

Steps

1   1) Cook the rice with vegetable broth.

     2) Add rice, Just Mayo, red miso, tahini, and nutritional yeast to food processor and blend thoroughly.

     3) Drain pimentos and save the liquid.

     4) Add pimentos and sriracha and mix completely.

     5)  Add saved liquid as necessary to adjust consistency. (Or save it to cook the next batch of rice with.)

        *I actually use a mixture of Jasmine and Basmati rice