A Valiant's Newsletter
Dispatches from our plant based kitchen
Hello and welcome to the Valiant’s kitchen newsletter. Our kitchen may be a hot mess, but the food is exceptional and delicious.
Why are you receiving this? We are Valiant’s Eatery in Barrie, ON. (previously Boon Burger) and you signed up for our mailing list at some point over the past few years.
I apologize that its been a while since we emailed, but we’re back on a new platform and have a few things just for you: First, we have a couple of amazing deals for vegan food over on our webstore this weekend and wanted to let everyone know (more below). Second, moving forward we will be sending out a weekly newsletter with Vegan Recipes, cooking tips and tricks and more and we hope you will stick around and enjoy!
Who am I? My name is Michael Valiant and along with my wife Tina, we operate a vegan restaurant called Valiant’s Eatery (Valiants.ca) and manufacture - IOW: lovingly hand craft - plant based meat under the name Field Grown. We also previously owned and operated Boon Burger in Barrie ON and grew that franchise through southern Ontario.
If you have arrived here and are not yet subscribed, now is the perfect time to take care of that so you don’t miss out on future vegan goodness:
Before we get started… you mentioned some sort of Vegan Food Sale?
Yes I did! In addition to our restaurant, located in Barrie, ON, you can order our plant based meat products from our website: Valiants.ca. Roast Beest, Bacun, pepperoni & salami and much more.
This weekend, to honour Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we have two awesome offers on tap:
Free Bacon! (Bacun that is - this is a plant based newsletter!) All orders of $50 or more will receive a free package of our popular smokey bacun. Here’s a pic:
The Best Plant Based Bacon! Seriously good! Free shipping! All orders over $100 will ship for free in Ontario. Outside of Ontario all orders will be shipped for a flat fee of $20 (sorry, the gas surcharges are crazy right now!)
Being vegan has never been so easy! Checkout our plant based meats today!
The Promised Vegan Newsletter
You know how, at the beginning of lockdown, everyone found some hobbies? Or started that project they had been thinking about for ages? Well, we decided that we were going to start a newsletter and youtube channel. Unfortunately, between keeping our restaurant operational through lockdown and homeschooling 4 kids… well, we had the best intentions.
Fortunately ‘there is no time like the present’ as they say! And so, without further ado:
WELCOME to our Newsletter - Valiant’s Hot Mess. Why Hot Mess? If you know us, it kind of fits! Tina and I run a restaurant, spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to turn our growing line of vegan products into an honest-to-goodness consumer retail line, and homeschool 4 kids. We’re busy. Really, really busy - all the time, and time management is not one of my strong suits! So basically, the name is a reminder to us, and everyone else, about how important it is to keep a sense of humour while pursuing your dreams!
Right about now you are probably starting to wonder why you should care. What is Valiant’s Hot Mess about anyway? Well, I’m very glad you asked!
The primary objective here will be to get AMAZING, FRESH, EASY VEGAN RECIPES into your inbox every week. That’s basically it! We cook - a lot. And we can only put so much on the menu at our restaurant (seriously, have you visited our location lately? The menu has over 100 mouth-watering items before you even get near the dessert menu!), so we wanted to find a way to share all the amazing meals we prepare when we’re not in the kitchen… er, the restaurant kitchen that is.
This Newsletter, the one you are reading now, is our first effort. What you see here isn’t exactly what you will get every week (I mean, you don’t want all this talky talk every week!). This is our first step, the first effort - the ‘old college try’ edition. It will evolve as we go. For instance, over the next week we will be launching our youtube channel too, so future newsletters should have a recipe, plus the accompanying video to show you how to make it!
In addition to regular delicious recipes, we will include info about what we are up to, cooking tips and tricks, Q&A plus answers to reader email and comments, coupons/discounts for our products, resources and information, and much more! We have big plans, we’re excited to get going, and hope you will join us!
If you would like to submit a question or letter, please email us at: barrie@valiants.ca. We will verify permission before publishing.
Oh, and we’ll also share lots of photos of vegan food and products!
This newsletter is free and all content is available without a paywall, but you will see an option to subscribe for a small donation as well. This is not required, but greatly appreciated. If anybody thought running a small local restaurant was a great way to earn a living, let me just say that the restaurant business is not what it once was. It pays the bills, and puts food on the table, but your donations will help us greatly and allow us to put out even more great content moving forward.
But you’re here for an awesome freakin’ vegan recipe right?
Okay - Meals up in 20 minutes.
This week, to launch our new, vegan foodie newsletter, we wanted to share a super easy family favourite: Beef and Broccoli
This is not a complicated recipe at the best of times, but it can get a little tricky if you’re a vegan because, well, beef… and oyster sauce. Fortunately it’s getting easier and easier to find vegan meat products in the grocery store all the time, so getting plant based beef is not as hard as it once was. We will be using our own Field Grown Roast Beest for this recipe (and you can too! click here to check out - or checkout - our products) but you can substitute for soy curls, tofu or tempeh strips, or even dried mushrooms.
The oyster sauce is completely optional - it won’t appear in every version of the recipe you find. B.U.T… it will add fantastically deep undertones to the end product if you do include it (read: umami or tastiness!) If you do choose to make the oyster sauce, you’ll even end up with some extra for another recipe down the line - store in a jar in the fridge for 1 month.
And now, on with the show, er, recipe
Beef and Broccoli
Serves 4.
Time: 20 minutes (maybe 30 if you are on your own or getting distracted by you tube videos)
difficulty: easy
pans: 2
This is such a staple of American-Chinese food, that you will find it everywhere you can buy Chinese food and with almost as many variations of the recipe online. At it’s core it consists of tender pieces of beef sautéed mixed with crunchy broccoli and tossed in an aromatic sauce. It is very easy to prepare and usually served with pasta, or on a bed of rice.
The big issue that you It’s a flexible, as long as you follow the basics. Also, as with many vegan recipes, there are ways to up the flavour ante, which is crucial when you are taking out all the umami of real meat. You can just grab a traditional ‘meat’ recipe online or from your favourite cookbook and swap out the animal products for plant based ones, but it will often taste like something was missing. just a little disappointing. Don’t worry! I’m here to help with that.
First, let’s take care of the Oyster sauce - This step is optional. The recipe will still taste great even with out it!
Vegan Oyster Sauce
Use this button for a printable PDF (40k | Black & White PDF file)
dry:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp mushroom powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp cornstarch
wet:
1 cup water
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp balsamic
Mix up your dry ingredients in a medium saucepan. Add the water a bit at a time while whisking (or just use a fork!). Once the water is mixed in, add the rest of the wet ingredients and bring the whole thing up to a boil on the stove. When it comes to a boil, reduce the temperature and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes until thick - whisk regularly! That’s it - you now have delicious Oysterless Sauce.
Beef and Broccoli
Use this button for a printable PDF (44k | Black & White PDF file)
1 onion, rough chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
400-500 grams of your preferred ‘beef’ *see notes below
4 tbsp preferred oil
400-500 grams of broccoli (about 2 heads)
For the Sauce:
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup water, or broth
¼ cup oyster sauce
⅓ cup cornstarch
3 tbsp balsamic
3 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
Dash of white pepper
1 prep your ‘meat’ and cut your broccoli into bite sized florets.
2 In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the sauce starting with the cornstarch, and then adding the water to it slowly. Once combined, whisk in remaining ingredients.
3 Heat oil in a heavy skillet (I prefer iron) or wok over heat. Add the broccoli and stir until browned and crispy. This will take 1-2 minutes.
4 Add your diced onion, garlic and ginger to the skillet and cook for 1 more minute.
5 Add your ‘beef’ to the skillet and cook for 2 minutes or until warmed.
6 Finally, add the sauce mixture to the skillet and simmer for 2 minutes.
Serve over rice or noodles!
* Use soy curls, dehydrated mushroom or tofu slices for tasty ‘beef’ alternatives!