Welcome to today’s show, we have the gorgeous vegan model Christina Galioto who will share a fancy and delicious vegan recipe with us! The cooking demonstration was filmed by the former CNN news anchor and Shining World Vegan Journalist Award recipient, Jane Velez-Mitchell.
Ms. Jane Velez-Mitchell was an internationally renowned television host and investigative journalist. She is the laureate of both the Los Angeles and New York Emmy Awards for excellence in broadcasting. She is also a New York Times bestselling author. After she retired from mainstream media, she founded a social media news outlet, JaneUnchained, which promotes a compassionate vegan lifestyle and raises awareness about animal rights. The channel has since attracted more than one million followers on Facebook and Twitter.
Ms. Christina Galioto is an entrepreneur, model, writer, and founder of Haute Bohéme Kitchen that makes seasonal plant-based dishes. She is also a business partner at the vegan restaurant “Nic’s on Beverly” Ms. Galioto is committed to bettering the world through investing in businesses that care about the environment, animals, natural health, and reducing waste. She is passionate about encouraging others to be more conscious in their everyday choices, however small and insignificant they may seem.
Today, Ms. Velez-Mitchell will use her unique style in JaneUnchained utilizing a smartphone with a stabilizer to show us how Ms. Galioto makes these beautiful, tasty, and nutrient-loaded Italian-Flavored Vegan Tempeh Sausage Pastry Tarts.
Jane (f1): Christina, tell us about the amazing dish you're making.
Christina (f2): It’s a dish that if you make this at home, you're going to impress yourself. You're going to impress everybody else. And it's the type of thing you put down and disappears in seconds. I'm making individual Italian sausage pastry tarts. And it sounds fancy, and it is kind of fancy actually. The first thing we do is make the marinade because we do have to marinate the tempeh for a whole hour. It only has three ingredients. You need a cup of vegetable broth.
(f1): OK, there you go.
(f2): We need three tablespoons of soy sauce, lemon juice.
(f1): Lemon juice.
(f2): This is freshly squeezed. I just reuse this bottle all the time.
(f1): OK. Very sustainable of you. We try to reuse bottles whenever we can.
(f2): And then we're just going to crumble the tempeh with our hands. (f1): Perfect.
(f2): This dish tastes just like Italian sausage. (f1): Really?
(f2): I'm half Italian. (Yes.) Italian sausage is not the sausage itself; it's the flavoring. It's the fennel; it's the red pepper flakes; the rosemary, thyme. I add a couple of things that sausages may not have. I'm not sure, but it does the trick. It tastes exactly like the real stuff.
(f1): Tempeh is super high in protein. It's fermented soy, and it's full of probiotics. Very good for you all the way around.
(f2): I’m crumbling it really good because what we are making is tarts. Everything needs to be as finely chopped as possible. Just mix it up. (Yep.) Yes. Like I said, this would typically sit for an hour, but we're going to move on to the next part. Two tablespoons of olive oil.
(f1): Look at that. Now so we've got some oil, we've got the red peppers that you diced very expertly. Onions (optional), red pepper, oil.
(f2): That's it. (And that’s it.) So we would typically let this sit for about seven to ten minutes. After we cook the onions (optional) down a little bit and then we're going to add the garlic (optional) and the spices.
(f1): Look at this! So now we have the crumbled tempeh that has been marinated. And now we're going to put in some garlic (optional). This tempeh is gorgeous.
(f2): We chop the fennel. This is a key ingredient. If you don't have it on hand, do not make it. Fennel seeds is what gives it the Italian sausage flavor. You can chop the fennel! I didn't even realize that it just releases a whole lot more flavor and scent.
(f1): I have to tell you, the aroma is absolutely astounding. Now, what are you putting in this?
(f2): Two teaspoons of thyme. Thyme. OK. Probably my most used spice in the kitchen.
(f1): Thyme?
(f2): Thyme, yeah. It just goes with everything. It gives you that home cooking flavor and scent. Two whole teaspoons of rosemary.
(f1): Rosemary? (f2): Yeah.
(f1): That sounds like the song “Rosemary and Thyme.”
(f2): It does, doesn’t it? Now this. (f1): Beautiful!
(f2): You can change the quantity depending on the spice level.
(f1): And that is? That is red pepper flakes. Also, a key ingredient to making it like a tart.
(f1): Yes. Red pepper flakes. Puff pastry, and look, it says, “100% vegan pre-rolled sheets.” Let's go back here and see what's happening. (f2): It comes just like this.
(f1): Oh my gosh. (f2): It makes our lives so easy.
(f1): Wow! Where'd you get this? (f2): Whole Foods.
(f1): Oh! Whole Foods. (f2): It’s at every single location that I've ever been to, surprisingly.
(f1): And this is “Aussie Bakery Puff Pastry.” So no trans fat, no hydrogenated oils, no high fructose corn syrup, mono or diglycerides, artificial colors or additives, preservatives. And of course, because it's vegan, no cholesterol. (f2): Yep.
(f1): Look at that. So you're just cutting it up.
(f2): I'm just cutting it up. (f1): Wow.
(f2): I’ve already sprayed my baking tray here.
(f1): Wow, look at this.
(f2): Look at that. They puff up.
(f2): You get it in the frozen section. It thaws really quick. So you don't have to do any sort of preparation because prepping everything already takes enough time for it to thaw on the counter. So when you start the dish, you take it out. This is important that the pastry is buttery. You want it to be flaky. The product itself already does most of the work on that. But yeah, you just put a little bit of olive oil. Well, now that we're done here, we're going to preheat the oven. (f1): OK.
(f2): To 400ºF (200ºC). (f1): All right.
(f2): And we're just going to put it on top. It really puffs up so much. So you just put it in the center as much as you can. You’re going to see; it looks like I'm overstuffing these things, but it can handle it.
(f1): You just scoop that and put it on. Whoa! That's incredible.
(f2): I've tried a few different ways. I've tried to decorate it put little fork marks in it nothing turns out. It puffs the way it wants and it puffs perfectly. So, this makes 19 tarts.
(f1): Nineteen, wow! And by the way, this is not an expensive dish. Not at all. (f2): Not at all.
(f1): Look how gorgeous this is. Tempeh Sausage Pastry Tarts with tempeh instead of animals. We don't need to use animals, absolutely delicious. and it’s pretty too. (f2): Yeah.
(f1): Here we go. We're popping it in the oven for eighteen to twenty minutes depending on your oven. Look at that. This is the finished product and look how gorgeous this is. So why don't we do a taste test with one of these? Is that OK?
(f2): Absolutely. That’s what they’re here.
(f1): OK. So now, this is my absolute favorite moment of the day.
(f2): Where I get fabulous people to make lunch for me. If you eat three, it's a decent meal.
(f1): Look at this. Look how gorgeous this is. Look at this. I mean, I feel like I'm in Paris right now. Oh, my God.
(f2): Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. Like I said, this dish pleases everyone. ((f1): Oh my God.) It will vanish the second you put it out.
(f1): Oh my God, this is brilliant. It’s so light and fluffy, and the pastry is delicious. And then this…. You're a person who is a model. You're in perfect shape. Some people might say, “Oh, you can't eat pastry.”
(f2): Indulge a little because when you deprive yourself, is when you start craving. So that's definitely how I live. Me and my sister, we don't diet. You could do it yourself by cooking at home. It becomes enjoyable. When you pick your produce, you wash it, you prepare it. It hits your heart more, it means more, and you enjoy your food more.
(f1): What's your vegan message given animal agriculture’s horrific impact on climate change now?
(f2): I love nature so much. I have a beautiful one-year old daughter, and I want her to experience the world like I have. These big-scale thing that could be done. But what can every single person do at home starting right now, is switch to a vegan diet. And we all know that's a fact. This is what you can do right now. There's no question like, “Oh, I wish I could do something. I can't afford a Tesla, or I can't control all these things.” You can go vegan, and that's what will help.
(f1): And how long have you been vegan?
(f2): Since I was 19. So I'm 33 now, and I am a living, breathing, thriving vegan.
(f1): Now you're in Hollywood, you're a model. Do you see the culture changing? Completely. I… There're so many things to celebrate every single day. And it's going at a fast pace. I think ever since Beyond Meat’s initial public offering skyrocketed, it's become a little bit down to earth, but I think it got and all of a sudden, everybody's like, this is where the smart money's going.
(f2): Exactly.
(f1): It’s coming, and the world is changing. I want to thank you so much for taking your time to do this incredible dish, which you can make it home. Absolutely spectacular. I'll leave you with one more drone shot. Wooh! Try vegan. It's a lot of fun.
INGREDIENTS (For all ingredients, please use organic versions if available)
For the MARINATED TEMPEH (vegan), the ingredients are:
8 ounces of tempeh, crumbled
1 cup of vegetable broth
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
For the VEGAN TEMPEH SAUSAGE PASTRY TARTS, the ingredients are:
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ small onion, finely chopped (optional)
8 ounces of marinated tempeh
3 garlic cloves, minced (optional)
2 tablespoons of fennel seeds (chopped)
2 teaspoons of thyme
2 teaspoons of rosemary
1½ cups of filtered water
1 package (17.3 oz) of vegan Puff Pastry from Aussie Bakery
Red pepper flakes (depending on spice level)
Olive oil spray
For more information about JaneUnchained, please visit: JaneUnchained.com
For more information about Christina, please visit: Instagram @ChristinaGalioto
