I decided that picking a theme for Sunday Dinner Posts would make my life a little easier. This week I wend with Updated (and veganized) Diner Classics.
I didn’t want to go with the typical burger and fries approach. Firstly, because I haven’t figured out how to make a good homemade veggie burger, and secondly because that’s far too common. I wanted something from the “entree” section of a diner menu, not the “burgers and sandwiches” section. In search of inspiration, I went to the website for Mel’s Drive In, a totally not vegan but very popular diner here in SF (I think there might be a couple veg/vegan things on their menu, but I’ve never been in to check). Sifting through dozens of menu items, I finally came across “Open Face Hot Beef Sandwiches” and I knew that that was the ticket.
My friend Elias came over to help cook and together, Tom, Elias, and I updated the typical side dishes to the Open Face Sandwich. Here’s what we came up with…
- Appetizer: Hot Spinach Dip (Recipe and photos in the next post)
- Open Face Hot Seitan Sandwiches with mushroom gravy
- Roasted Smashed Potatoes
- Ginger Garlic Broccolini
- Wine Pairing: The Velvet Devil Merlot ’11 (Charles Smith Wines)
- Blueberry pie (See previous Saturday Sweets post)