South Lake Tahoe mayor mixes it up with veggies and tofu on the smoker.
Meat-and-potatoes-type dishes fueled Devin Middlebrook’s outdoor adventures while growing up in South Lake Tahoe. Now, the 33-year-old mayor of that very city can be found perusing vegan cookbooks and experimenting with vegetables on his smoker.
“My mom was always cooking. Her side of the family is from West Texas, so we had a lot of good old Texas cooking,” Middlebrook recalls. “Anything you could chicken fry, we would have chicken fried.”
More Meatless
After working as the sustainability program manager for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, in addition to his duties on the South Lake Tahoe City Council over the last four years, Middlebrook began to take a hard look at how his meat consumption affected his carbon footprint.
“I’m not strictly vegan or vegetarian, but I’m meat conscious. My wife and I challenged ourselves and went vegetarian for a month. I thought I would miss meat, but I realized it wasn’t so bad,” Middlebrook explains. “It’s a combination of wanting to eat healthier and [knowing] the environmental impact that meat has on climate change.”
At home, Middlebrook cooks plant-based meals using protein-rich beans, lentils, tofu, and mock meat, while saving his occasional meals with meat for dining out.
“You don’t have to be perfect and super strict to reduce your consumption of meat. Any little bit helps,” he adds.
Vegan Grill
Because he receives a weekly community-supported agriculture box from Mountain Bounty Farm in Nevada City, Middlebrook bases his meals on the seasonal produce inside. His favorite tool for cooking vegetables is a nod to his meat-eating roots: a pellet smoker.
“A lot of people, when they think of barbecue, only think of meat, but tofu on the smoker is amazing,” Middlebrook says. “You can chop up any veggie, throw it in a cast-iron skillet, and put it on the smoker at a low temperature, and an hour and a half later, you have the most delicious caramelized vegetables.”
Middlebrook enjoys “veganizing” meals that he grew up eating, including his own spin on barbecue ribs using seitan, a meat alternative made from wheat gluten. Rubbed with a medley of spices, smoked with oak and applewood pellets, and basted in barbecue sauce, it’s the perfect plant-based entrée to serve alongside a mayo-free potato salad.
“It’s cool to be able to put a twist on the recipes that I grew up with but cook them in a way that fits a more modern and environmentally conscious lifestyle,” Middlebrook says.
Claire McArthur admires Middlebrook’s lead-by-example attitude in the city council chambers and the kitchen. Send her your favorite recipes at Clairecudahy@gmail.com.
Smoked Seitan Ribs
(courtesy of Devin Middlebrook, mayor of South Lake Tahoe. Serves 3 – 5)
1¼ cups vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon pork seasoning mix
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons almond butter
1 tablespoon liquid aminos or soy sauce
14 ounces tofu
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
¼ cup water or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Barbecue sauce of your choosing
Preheat smoker to 300 degrees F (an oven or traditional grill also will work). Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add water, tofu, almond butter, liquid aminos, liquid smoke, and apple cider vinegar to a blender. Mix until smooth. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture and stir to combine.
Knead dough mixture for 5 minutes and form into a ball. Let rest for 5 minutes. Separate dough into about 10 equal pieces, then mold each individual piece around a skewer in the rough shape of a rib. Smoke seitan ribs for 30 minutes, turn, then smoke another 30 minutes. Baste seitan ribs with barbecue sauce and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Flip after 5 minutes to baste other side. Remove from smoker and serve with more barbecue sauce and desired sides.
No-Mayo Potato Salad
(courtesy of Devin Middlebrook, mayor of South Lake Tahoe. Serves 3 – 5)
1 pound red potatoes
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Preheat grill to medium heat and lightly oil grate. Chop potatoes into medium-sized chunks, then place them in a cast-iron skillet with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook on grill until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Combine all ingredients and seasonings in a large bowl with potatoes and mix well.
