Martin Luther King, Jr. Veganized Eats!

     Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!  I'm sure as people reflect back to where we were as a country and now- it is wonderful to know how much progress we have made.  We're also reminded that we still have places to go.  I am not going to tell you that this empowering voice from the South was a Vegan, but I thought I would try and do a veganized version of whatever his favorite food was. Check out Huffington Post "10 Things You Didn't Know About MLK".  It has a great slide show with little tid-bits of things that you may not have known about MLK.  Such as, his father changed his own name to Sr. and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s name in honor of the protestant that started the Lutheran church.  Growing up as a Lutheran I always wondered if there was a relation because as a Lutheran child I thought we were celebrating Martin Luther until my dad corrected me.
     On a more related note, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s favorite foods were fried chicken and pecan pie.  Well... it's hard to get any farther away from veganism than that, thankfully we have come a long way for veganism as well!  Below is a video from the "Sweetest Vegan" and a link to her Sweetest Vegan Blog.  Below that you will find a recipe for Vegan Pecan Pie from the "Hell Yeah It's Vegan!" a vegan recipe blog.

Vegan Fried Chicken

Yields: 2 Vegan Fried Chicken Breast

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups canola oil, for frying

2 teaspoons salt free seasoning blend

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (You will likely find this in the vitamin section of a health or whole food market)

3 tablespoons yellow mustard

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoon baking powder

2 vegan chicken breast (CHECK THE LABEL!!  Not all meatless patties are vegan! She is using Gardein.  I personally don't care too much for meat substitutes so I use firm tofu that I have squeezed the water out, sliced and then marinaded.  If you want to know more about that- let me know in the comments section!)

Instructions:

-Heat canola oil over medium - high heat in a large pot or deep fryer.

-Whisk the salt free seasoning, all purpose flour, and nutritional yeast to a shallow bowl.

-Mix together mustard and water in a separate bowl. Stir 1/3 cup of the flour mixture to the mustard.

-Whisk baking powder into the remaining flour mixture.

-Dredge, dip and coat, the chicken breast into the mustard and then the flour, one at a time.

-Fry the chicken until crispy and golden brown.

Best Vegan Pecan Pie
Recipe type: Dessert Cuisine: American
Prep time:  30 mins Cook time:  55 mins Total time:  1 hour 25 mins
Serves: 8

Ingredients
1¼ c flour
½ tsp salt
6 Tbsp shortening, chilled

1.5 Tbsp vegan butter, chilled
3-5 Tbsp ice water
1.5 c pecan halves
½ Tbsp vegan butter
pinch of salt
10 saltines, crumbled
½ c water
2½ Tbsp vegan butter
1¼ c sugar
¼ c light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp applesauce or pumpkin puree
3 Tbsp corn or tapioca starch

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425°F.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt.
Using a pastry cutter, cut in shortening and butter until pea-sized.
Sprinkle with 3 Tbsp ice water and stir until dough comes together in a ball, adding more ice water as needed. (Use as little water as possible and handle the dough as little as possible, so as not to end up with a tough crust!)
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface.
Transfer to 9″ pie plate; trim and shape edges as desired.
Prick crust with a fork and fill with pie weights; bake for 5 minutes.
Remove pie plate from oven and set aside.
Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
In a heavy skillet on medium heat, melt butter.
Add pecan halves and salt and toss, stirring occasionally until pecans are toasted. Take care not to burn them!
Turn off heat and set aside.
In a small bowl, stir together crackers and water.
Let water absorb, then put mixture in a food processor with vegan butter, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, applesauce or pumpkin puree, and starch.
Process until mixture is relatively smooth.
Pour mixture into saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
When mixture boils, lower heat slightly and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to make sure nothing burns to the bottom of the pan.
Fold in pecans.
Remove pie weights from crust, then pour filling into crust.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Cool fully, a couple of hours, before slicing and serving.