Cheddar Herb Muffins & Southwest Chickpea Cakes

Took the day off today to do some much needed cleaning after our basement flooded. Yuck! So, while Danny was taking care of that :-) I was baking muffins and planning tonight's meal. I made the Cheddar Herb Muffins from here: http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/springing-up-everywhere/  I made only a few changes. I didn't have smoked paprika so I used regular. I didn't have scallions so I used chives and I didn't have fresh dill so I used dry dill. I also added 1 T nutritional yeast for extra cheesy flavor. They turned out great. Next time, I may omit the walnuts though. I wasn't really feeling them in there.

For dinner, I made Southwest Chickpea Cakes from MeatoutMonday.org:
http://www.meatoutmondays.org/emails/11-01-10.htm
I modified this recipe a bit. Instead of cayenne pepper and hot sauce I used chili sauce. Chili sauce is available in the Asian food section of most grocery stores. I didn't have fresh parsley so I used dry and I added chopped mushrooms because I needed to use them up. I doubled the flour and cornstarch to make them firmer and added them together before mixing with the rest of the ingredients.

Chickpea Cakes before Frying

I made a sauce with vegan mayo, Tofutti sour cream, spicy brown mustard, chili sauce, agave, salt & pepper and sugar for drizzling over the cakes and let it sit so the flavors could mesh while the cakes chilled. When I fried these they crumbled some, so a flax egg might be a good idea for next time. Despite the crumbling, the flavor was incredible. I think if you have a George Foreman type grill it will come in handy for these. It's the flipping that causes them to crumble. I tried coating a few in Panko and they still fell apart but tasted good. You really need some type of sauce with these, so don't skip that part. Happy cooking!