Having days off from work does so good. I have the time to relax, meeting friends or trying myself on recipes I never made before. But not today - no time - and beside I was hungry and it had to be a fast done lunch. The first Panzanella I ate wasn't in italy as guessed - no I ate it in New York on my Holiday trip a few years ago. I immediatly fell in love and wondered why I never saw this salad to be served in Switzerland??? On the web I found different kind of recipes and I tried many out, till I found one of my favorite veganized Panzanella. Simple but without the shaved cheese.
2 Whole Grain Hamburger Buns 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper 1 can Heirloom Tomatoes, halved 1 can Artichoke Hearts, drained and chopped 4 tablespoons Red Onion, diced 10 large leaves Organic Basil, coarsely chopped 1/4 cup Light Champagne Vinaigrette Direction: Preheat oven to 350. Cut bread into one inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on baking sheet and cook for approximately 10 minutes or until bread becomes golden brown. Let cool. Combine tomatoes, artichokes, onion and basil. Toss with vinaigrette. Add cooled bread cubes, toss and serve.
Hope you enjoyed a great christmas eve together with you're beloved ones! We only celebrated on the 24th, as most of us got parents-in-law and wanted to celebrat with them as well. For christmas eve I made the appetizers and my mother made the whole dinner. A lot of work. Therefore I invited them the next day and my mother could spend a free day from cooking.
The dinner should be a light one for three persons. I craved my books, my mind and the recipes below are what I made. Enjoy your days off from work with skiing, relaxing in front of the fire or whatever, just hope you got a nice day.
50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted 1 pink grapefruit, peeled and segmented ½ Perfectly Ripe Avocado, peeled and stoned 16 individual chicory leaves (from about 2 large heads of chicory - 1 white, 1 red) For the dressing:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp white wine vinegar ¼ x 20g pack tarragon, leaves only, finely chopped 1 tsp Dijon mustard
1. Plunge the shredded kale leaves into a pan of boiling water, return to the boil and cook for 30 seconds. Drain and plunge into cold water, then drain and dry on kitchen paper.
2. Roughly break up the nuts in a pestle and mortar. Cut the grapefruit and avocado into small cubes and place in a bowl with the kale and nuts.
3. Place all the dressing ingredients into a bowl, season and whisk to combine. Spoon a little salad into each chicory leaf and arrange on a serving plate.
Christmas is coming closer and closer. Holly time I really do like this time - if only it wouldn't be such stressfull at work. All the "end-of-year"-stuff that had to be done before Christmas. This year I did not even had the time to make a stop at the christmasmarket of even going to the city. Luckely I don't wait till the last time to go for presents, I kept my eyes open trought the whole last 5 month, made it much quiter and easier around Once when being at a congress in "Murten" (city in the middle centre of Switzerland) and using the free afternoon to walk around in the little, cute center of the city, I entered a little store with all kind of special spices, gravys, snacks, mustard from Texas -wow! I was immediatly caught about the variousity and I knew that I would find some presents - and not even planing it before. - That's the way I mostly get a present. The unexpected ones are the best..... This year I had the idea to make a homemade present for every couple sitting at the decorated table, placed in front of theire plate. The idea was pretty easy found, a chutney. I bought all the needed ingredients and filled the kitchen with a great spicy-sweet-taste in the air.
For two Glasses (400ml) 8 fresh Figs or dried ones 1 knob piece of ginger 1 garlicknob 300 g Onions, chopped 80 g tried apricots 2 Cardamons 1 Tbsp. oil 1 staranis 70 g sugar 2 Tbsp. whitwine vinegar 250 ml red wine (or if you prefer balsamico) Salt fresh grounded black pepper
Direction:
1 Rinse figs, pat dry, peel and dice. Peel and chop ginger and garlic. Peel the onions. Dice along with the apricot. Crush cardamom pods. 2 Heat oil in a pot. Fry ginger, garlic, star anise and cardamom. Add onions and apricots and cook about 3 minutes. Pour vinegar and wine. Let simmer all together while stirring for about 15 minutes. 3 Add Figs and cook for a further 3 minutes, mix or puree everything trough (not if you desire chunchy bites). Allow Chutney to cool a little bit and season with salt and pepper. Immediately fill in jars and seal. The chutney with fresh figs will be good for about 2 weeks, stored in the fridge. The chutney stay's longer good if you use dried figs. It is especially good with vegan meat and cheese.
Christmastime, always the time when you enjoy being together with your family, lighting the candles in the evening, maybe a fire in your chimnee. Hopefully some snowflakes falling outside - just so great. It's always a magic, special time. Unfortunatly most people don't really know why we're are celebrating Christmas and that's sad.
Anyway. Every years from the beginning of december till christmas we have a christmas market in the city (I posted pictures the year before) and beside clothes, goods, sweets, spices, candles a.s.o. there're alway the "houses" were they serve food and sweet things.
One thing I mostly buy during this christmas time are chrunchy roasted sweet almonds (thought I don't really like almonds) but those chrunchy ones just taste soo great - hard to resist.
This year I still hadn't the time to go to the market and therefore I decided to make them on myself. They are simple and quick done.
Ingredients:
1 dl water
200 g sugarr
1 tsp. vanille sugar
maybe 1 hint of cinnamnon
200g unpeeled amandes
Direction:
Add everything exept the amandes into a pan and cook up. When cooking add the amandes. Cook under constantly stirring, till the sugar stick to the amandes and they look chrunchy. Shortly roast till amandes "shine". Immediatly give the roasted sweeted amandes to a lightly oiled backing sheet, spread out and let cool!
They taste chrunchy and sweet and of course so course. If you like amandes then you're defently going to love those chrunchy sweet roasted amandes. They are just tasting so great and they can be always bought during pre-christmas time at the christmas ferry. People just love it. No one can resist them ;)
Yesterday evening we had a pre-christmas family meeting at my aunt's home. This year was the second time we made it this way, cause we won't me each other on Christmas. Like last year my uncle made Fondue and like last year I brought my own food with (as I'm the only vegan person in the family).
I said that I would bring a part of the dessert and this was a home made vegan festive lemon cake, my sister made a mangocream. Like on easter they were really surprised that a cake can be made without eggs.....
I still don't know why non-vegan persons think a cake without eggs couldn't work or even taste. BUT it does and there's no different!
Anyway, they liked it and that was more important!
If you're thinking about you could do for dessert on christmas eve this cake defently will be worth a try!
Let me know if you made the cake or what ever else you made. Meanwhile I will give you the recipe of this great lemon cake. Weather you make it on christmas or not.
I really can't tell if this special known baked - normaly in the stoneoven - pizza-like loaded bread is called Flatflamebread, translated to english. But for me this was the logical word- so sorry if I wrote it wrong. Hope you understand anyway.
Before being vegan I ate a few times a Flatflamebread, and sometimes I'm in the mood for it, as it's lighter than a pizza - as the bread is thinner and not so loaded - more like an appetizer. The first flatflamebread I made the vegan way was very good, but this was years ago and yesterday I saw the frozer flatflamebread at the supermarket and all I wanted is to grab it - BUT it's not vegan. So I decided to go home and make another one on myself (still better ;-)
I kept the flatflamebread very simple (as known) just some vegan cheese and a vegetable. Perfect if you're in the mood for a pizza but a lighter version!
Serve the flamebread plain or with a salad (as I did). Enjoy this easy dish!
Time: 1 hr
Plus dough resting time, or you use a bought one (faster) Ingredients
For 4 pieces
10 g of yeast
250 g of flour
100 g whole milk vegan yogurt
6 tablespoons olive oil
salt
750 g Hokkaido pumpkin
Pulp of 4 figs
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tsp. brown sugar
cayenne pepper
4 tablespoons melted vegan margarine
Leaves from 1 sprig of thyme
250 g vegan cheese grated, or prepared one,
200g radicchio, trimmed and tease
Direction
Dissolve yeast in 4 tbsp warm water. Place the flour in a bowl and make a hole. Pour in yeast , yogurt , 2 tablespoons oil and 1/ 2 tsp salt and knead to a smooth dough . Shape into a ball and leave covered in a warm place for 2 hours.
Cut Hokkaido into quarters , remove seeds and cut into slices. Puree Fig fruit flesh with lime juice , sugar, cayenne pepper , 1 pinch of salt and 4 tbsp oil .
Cut four times baking paper in sheet size. Preheat oven to 250 degrees with sheet metal. Knead the dough , divide into 4 portions and let rest for 5 minutes. Wrap each portion of dough between two sheets of plastic and roll paper thin .
Put each piece of doughtarte on a piece of baking paper. Top with pumpkin slices and brush the squash with butter. Season the Tarte with thyme , salt and pepper and sprinkle with grated vegan cheese. Pull Tarte with the baking paper on the hot plate. Bake in portion (space in the oven!) on the 2nd shelf from the bottom about 6 minutes.
Mix Radicchio and fig sauce and serve together with the Tarte .
Sunday, bright shining sun but very cold. All I wanted was to spend a lazy day with some hours in the kitchen, but when I saw the bright, sunny weather outside I had to go for a morning walk around the neigbourhood to get some fresh air. The walk did very good and my mind was cleared and filled with fresh cold air. READY to start the kitchen work. The fresh air made me hungry, so lets start with lunch/dinner dish.
It's been a while since I made vegetable tarte and I knew there's a frozen dought in the fridge waiting for me to be done, perfect for this meal I've been thinking about.
In this savory tomato galette recipe the red onions are a little sweet from caramelization and a little sour from red-wine vinegar, but they complement the slow-roasted plum tomatoes perfectly. The result is rich and deeply satisfying. Serve this rustic tart with a green salad for a light lunch or a roast vegan meat for a hearty dinner.
Rustic Onion & Tomato Galette
Makes: 8 servings
Active Time:
Total Time:
Ingredients: Pastry Dough:
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2/3 cup vegan cream cheese
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons cold soymilk (or any other you prefer)
Tomato Layer:
12 small fresh plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 teaspoon water plus 1 tablespoon, divided
Onion Layer:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 cups sliced red onions (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup raisins
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, divided
4 ounces crumbled vegan goat cheese
Preparation
To prepare pastry dough: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it starts bubbling, cook, stirring and watching carefully so it doesn’t burn, until golden brown, 2 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a metal bowl and refrigerate until solid again, 25 to 30 minutes.
Combine whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse once or twice to mix. Cut the butter and cream cheese into pieces; add and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add canola oil and pulse until it looks like wet sand. Add milk and pulse until small clumps form.
Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper and press into a ball, then press the ball into a disk about 8 inches wide. Wrap in the parchment and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day before rolling out.
Preheat oven to 320°C
To prepare tomato layer: Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise. Place cut-side up on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place garlic cloves on a square of foil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon water. Wrap into a package and place on the baking sheet. Roast until the tomatoes are very soft and beginning to brown on the bottom, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.
To prepare onion layer: Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until just starting to lightly brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft, 30 to 35 minutes. Stir in raisins, vinegar and 1 teaspoon thyme.
Unwrap garlic; when cool enough to handle, squeeze out of the skins into a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon water and mash together into a smooth paste.
Increase oven temperature to 400°F.
To roll out pastry: Place a large sheet of parchment on a work surface and dust it with flour. Place the pastry disk in the center and lightly dust with flour. Roll out into a 15-inch circle. The pastry may crack a bit as you roll it, so go slowly and just nudge the cracked parts back together, pressing lightly. Dust with more flour as needed and keep the circle as even as you can, but don’t worry about rough edges.
To assemble & bake: Spread the onion mixture over the pastry, leaving a 2-inch border around the edge. Spread the garlic paste over the onions. Place the tomatoes, cut-side up, on top of the onions in a circular pattern. Scatter cheese over the tomatoes and sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon thyme.
Use the parchment paper to lift the edges of the pastry and fold loosely over the filling in 2- or 3-inch sections at a time. The pastry may crack as you lift and fold it, but that’s fine. Lift the galette on the parchment and transfer it, parchment and all, onto a baking sheet. Trim off any overhanging parchment.
Bake the galette until the filling is bubbling hot in the center and the pastry is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.
Let cool at least 15 minutes on the baking sheet. Lift parchment and galette onto a serving platter.
Use a spatula to very slightly lift the galette so you can slide the parchment out. Serve the galette hot, warm or at room temperature.
Note:
Make Ahead Tip: Refrigerate pastry dough for up to 1 day.
Yammy was the piece of Tarte good!!!!!! Hard to resist eating more.....
First Advent: Yesterdayafternoon I made a quick Advent wreath, I know not really special or even great, but I had no time preparing one and therefore mine's just a plate with some stars, glammer and candles. If I would have used greens the cats probably would play with it - and that's not what I wanted.
As most sundays I do a lot of work in the kitchen. Cooking, preparing dips, spread, sauce and so on. This day I first prepared my lunch: a healthy one. As I already precooked Pasta on hand and some vegetables to be done and my vegan pesto.
Damm this salad was good. It's been a while since I ate Pesto....and I realized that I really missed the taste of herbs and so on.
The good thing about this dish? It could be eaten hot and cold and at the low temperature I ate it of couse hot ;)
1/2 cup shelled pecans , walnuts or pine nuts (I used pine nuts)
1-2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 to 1/2 cup good tasting extra virgin olive oil, as needed
Sea salt, to taste
Direction: Pesto
Combine the fresh herbs, nuts, and garlic in a food processor and process the mixture until it turns into a coarse meal. Slowly add extra virgin olive oil in a steady drizzle as you pulse the processor on and off. Process until it becomes a smooth, light paste. Add enough olive oil to keep it moist and spreadable. Season with sea salt, to taste.
Cover and store chilled for at least an hour to saturate the flavors. I like to pour a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil over the top to help keep it bright green.
Makes roughly a rounded cup.
Direction: Broccoli, Pasta
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta and reserve the water to blanch the broccoli. Place the drained pasta in a large bowl and set aside.
Bring the pasta water back to a boil, then add the broccoli. Boil broccoli for 2 minutes, then place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain the broccoli and add to the pasta.
Add the remaining ingredients to the pasta and broccoli and gently fold to combine the ingredients.
Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours prior to serving so that the flavors can combine.
As promised or said the post earlier, here's the peperonate recipe.
I made this italian stew a few times before but the different with this one are the peppers. The are special italian small peppers, called Papacella napoletana (describtion see my post "pepper-chili-dip"). They are as said smaller, tastier and a little bit spicer but sweet than normal ones. They are various in color and are all riped. They grew in italy and are different to tell from other peppers, therefore only the real Napoleans in italy can really make the difference. (thats how its been said).
What can be better trying new peppers than making only a pepper stew? The bought peperonata are usually made with sugar (too much) witch I don't like but if you feel like add a little sugar, still good just gives a sweet touch to the peperonata witch can be very good, when you can adjust it for yourself ;) I tried different kind of peperonate and still I love the unsweeted version better. But tastes are different.
If you got problems with digesting the pepperskin (as I do) roast the peppers in the oven till you can unpeel them, then continue with the direction below, just that the cooking time will be less!!! Note this!!
If you like a more stomach-filling stew just add some potatoes or serve the peperonate poured over cooked and halfed Potatoes pieces. The various kind to serve this dish are big, but only the one below is the real original way italian serve it - plain with bread!
500g mixed red, green and yellow peppers (cored and deseeded)
1 large onion (peeled and finely chopped)
2 to 4 cloves garlic (peeled and finely chopped)
600g plum tomatoes (peeled and finely chopped. )
400g tin of chopped plum tomatoes
salt and pepper (to taste)
oregano and oregano flowers
Directions:
Cut the peppers into strips. Warm the oil in a large frying pan or a wok, that has a lid and then add the peppers, onion and garlic. Cover and stew for 30 minutes.
Add the fresh tomatoes and the tinned tomatoes, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Leave to simmer over a gentle heat, uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes.
Allow to cool before serving, and garnish with oregano leaves and/or flowers. Serve with crusty bread for a light lunch or supper.
Note:
The peppers must be sweet and ripe. Don't brown the onion, just let it soften to a pale golden colour. The texture of the peppers and onions should be silky and soft enough to crush between your fingers. The stew will mellow when left in the fridge for a day or two.
A simple Italian classic that brings out the best in fresh peppers. Can be prepared ahead of time as the flavours intensify. Makes a perfect accompaniment for any family meal, or a main meal for vegetarians when served with crusty bread.
Whats more interesting than trying new discovered vegetables? A few day I saw special peppers at the store. They are called "Napaccella napoletana"
(sorry, after roasting)
Here's what they are described like:
""The Neapolitan is a amber_ferren pepper, small berries, slightly crushed and costolute (thats why they say curly), very meaty and tasty: ideal for traditional pickled or preserved in oil.
Neapolitan market stalls, from July until the first cold, overflowing with colorful peppers but only the authentic Neapolitan-now only those of a certain age-know understand at a glance the genuine curly papaccelle. The markets are in fact invaded by hybrid peppers, almost identical morphologically to papaccelle.
Actually recognize them is not difficult: the true papaccelle are small, reaching up to the 8, 10 cm diameter.
The berries have colours ranging from deep green to yellow Sun (yellow fruits are generally larger) or from green to red wine.
The sweetness of the flesh is the distinctive element that distinguishes amber_ferren from other varieties of similar appearance but decidedly spicy flavour. The perfume is particularly intense, with fresh and herbaceous notes. Sowing can be done from the second half of March to early July while collecting, done by hand, occurs from mid-June to early November.
The papaccelle can be eaten fresh, roasted, lightly stir-fried, or baked, stuffed with classic filled with tuna or anchovies, salted olives, bread crumbs, raisins, pine nuts, tomatoes and capers the piennolo. The berries preserved in red wine vinegar are the main ingredient of salad, typical dish of the Christmas holidays of Naples""
Of course I had to buy them, curious if they're really tasting different - and they do somehow. I buy a whole net and first I just made one on its own - plain tasted and some dizzled olive oil. I got to say they are really good. Hard to describe it, just more tasty, with the rest I made a peperonate (recipe later).
A few days later I bought a whole new net from them and I wanted to make a dip with them. I wanted to catch their spices into a dip together with a othe spicy ingredients - Chili ;)
The result is great!!!!!!! Spicy I got to say, cause I used a habanero chili..... (the only I had on hand, picking from my little habanero plant.)
Ingredients:
about 300g Papacella peppers (roasted, deseeded and peeled)
1 small chili
4 garlic knob
30g sunflower seeds
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. cuminpowder
1 tbsp. oil
salt
Direction:
Preheat over to 200°C. Lay the washed Papacella peppers, chili and garlic (with the peel) on a tray and roast till the skin turn dark and blows up. Take the chili and garlic earlier out of the oven when they are done (this won't be a long time). Put everything in a freezing bag and let cool, then unpeel and cut into pieces.
Meanwhile process the sunflower seed in your blender then add the peppers, garlic, lemon juice and cuminpowder. Process everything well trough. Add the oil and again process trought. Taste with salt and seal in hot washed glasses and let it sit in the refrigerator over night before eating.
The dip can be served with roasted and oily dizzled Pitabread scones, or use on your next lunch sandwich ;) Or whatever you are up to.
Since a while I'm having a pack of wheat tortillas they had to be eaten. Till now I wasn't really in the mood for them, but today is deadline for them.
Still not feeling well, caughing, nose running something easy for dinner was just what I wanted! But loaded full with vegetable was for sure!
I made mexican wheat tortillas with sweet mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables from onions, beans, peppers, eggplant, okra and fresh coriander.
My creation intended to be more a finger food but can be easily eaten as a main dish. For mine it endet up to be a main dish served with a saladbowl. Yummy
Peel the sweet potatoes, cut into small pieces and cook. Cut onions and pepper into strips. Cut Eggplant into small slices and okra into pieces. Finely chop the coriander, then squeeze the lime.
Fry the eggplant and okra in olive oil for 3-4 minutes and set aside. Now sauté the onions and add peppers and cook briefly. Stir in the eggplant and okra and mix with 1-2 tbsp brown sugar cane. Finally add kidney beans.
Drain the sweet potatoes, mash with potato masher, add lime juice and brown sugar and mix everything.
Heat oven to 160°. Heat up the tortillas for a brief moment.
Now on every tortilla put 1-2 EL sweet potato puree. Some vegetable mix, 1 teaspoon pine cores, 1 tsp Agave juice and add some soy yogurt and fresh cilantro and tightly roll up. Repeat with remaining tortilla . Now cut each roll up evenly into sized pieces. Arrange them on a platter and serve.
Beetroot-soup together with some other ingredients is a traditional Russian recipe called "Borrtsch". I ate Borrtsch a few times - as my grandmother grew (they flee during world war) up some years in Russia she brought back the Borrtsch-Soup and we always ate it on Easter Sunday when being over at them together with my fathers brother's familily.
But for now I'm not posting a russian Borrtsch-Soup recipe. I just had Beetroot on the hand and if you have precooked ones you can make a pretty fast soup. AND I defently needed a hearthy soup as I'm feeling sick today. Cold, hurt throat, running nose, cough etc. This soup will give me some more warm from the inside and hopefully helps.
Red Beet-Soup
4 Portions
Ingredients:
1Tspmustard seeds
1Tbsp.cross cumin seeds
2 Tbsp. vegan butter
1largeonion, finelychopped
500grawredoryellowbeetroots, coarselygrated.
1Litervegetable broth
2Bay leaves
1Tbsp.apple cider vinegar
Sea salt
freshlygroundwhitepepper
Direction:
Heatmustard seedsandcumininhotclarified butter, stirringuntilitsmellsgoodandtheseeds are poppin. Addonion, cookatlowheat til soft. Stir in the root Beet and cook. Pour in the broth, addBay leavesandboil. Simmer for 30-40minutes (less if you used the precooked Betts). Season withApple Cider vinegar, salt, andpepper, and continuesimmer forseveralminutes.
Consistent with freshlygratedhorseradish. (it gives the special taste to it!!) Love it
I really got a very nice Boss at work! She really cares for her employers. As we had very stressfull and long days during the last few weeks, and I've been away the whole last weekend to a congress too, and she knew she will be gone to a congress one whole day she suggested that I can take off the whole day - to rest - sleep and recover. HOW NICE! I never had a Boss like her!
I really needed sleep and it did so good!!! Though I didn't slept long but all I wanted was to relax and clean up my appartement (even for that I had no time during the last two weeks).
After being finished cleaning up - I was just in the mood for preparing a snack or a dessert. I ended at the dessert but it had to be something fast done and these coconut balls are pretty fast done so far and soo good!
Of course some I will eat myself and I guess the most I will bring at work tomorrow.
Anyway, if you try these balls, I hope you like them, eather just for yourself or together with your beloved friends.
Of course I don't know if your a housewife, working part-time or full-time. For mine, I'm working full-time - 42h per week. The whole last week was very stressful, with long (12h) working days (surgeryday). To be said, everyday I got very tired home. All I wanted was to relax and just a long sleep, but no - I will be away the whole weekend at a congress nearly 2 hours away - starting saturday and sunday at 8 a.m.
Finaly back at home my cats - sorry the starved at the point I left on saturday till I came home on sunday late afternoon.
Been at home I immediatly went into the kitchen to feed the cats and then I started to cook to my dinner. NO RESTING TIME. HOW could I ? I'm a single person! Anyway, after cooking I sitted down at 7.30 p.m. released myself before I will eat dinner. SO TIRED! I could go to bed wtihout eating, but I need strengh for starting work on monday. UFF. You see, stressfull.
Still I want to show you - or better - give you the recipe of what I ate/cooked witch will give you at least at the moment the strengh if needed ;)
(As tired as I was I made a picture and wrote down the ingredients)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup wild rice (any rice works, timing will vary accordingly)
1 block extra firm tofu
2 tsp. coconut oil or a good oil
2 tsp. soy sauce or tamari
fresh ground pepper
1 heaping cup thinly sliced carrots
3/4 cup cooked, shelled, organic edamame
3 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
handful of chopped Cilantro or Pea Sprouts
Miso Dressing:
2 Tbsp. white miso
2 Tbsp. agave nectar or brown rice syrup
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 1/2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 shallot, minced
Juice of half an Orange
Direction:
Rinse the wild rice. Bring two cups water to a boil. Add the rice, turn the heat to a simmer, cover and cook until all the water is absorbed (about 35-40 minutes), adding a bit more water if necessary to finish cooking. You will see a tuft of white pop from the center.
Wrap the tofu between a few layers of paper towel or a dish cloth and set it aside to drain for 10-15 minutes. Cut it into about 2.5cm dicees. Heat the coconut oil over medium high heat. Add the tofu and saute for about five minutes. Sprinkle the soy sauce and a few grinds of fresh pepper over the top and saute another few minutes until the edges are browned. Turn off heat and set aside.
Whisk all of the dressing ingredients together (Don't be tempted to add salt, miso is pretty salty).
In a large bowl, combine the rice, tofu, sliced carrots, edamame. Toss everything with the dressing. Add the sesame seeds and cilantro and give it another toss.
Serve room temperature or chilled. Of course it can easely be eaten warm (as I did at this seasontime ;)
As I may have said earlier - I love Leeks! A vegetable I could eat every day easely. Unfortunatly the leeks in my garden are not ready to pick - or just too small and thin, and therefore I still I have to buy it.
Yesterday I chopped a few vegetable for my stew and at the end I had too much chopped leek leftover. To store chopped leeks in the fridge - no good idea, and wasting no way!
Hmm, what doing with it? As I made a lot of puree, dips the last few weeks why not trying to make mousse/puree/dip with it? The only reason I had at that moment, for a dip or puree the amount was not really enough. So I shortly stopped at the supermarket and got more Leeks.
I took a recipe from another puree and just varioused a little the ingredients. My first try I've made with Hummus, oil and broth - well the resultat was quite sticky. So the next time I used nutrional yeast and sunflowers and more oil and the result ended up to be perfect!
If you don't believe me, this dip tastes great - try it out, really!
450 g Leeks
1 onion, chopped
1 knob garlic, chopped
50 ml Oil
1Tbsp. nutrionational yeast
2 Tbsp. sunflowers
a little vegetable broth
salt, pepper, paprika
chives (as much as you like)
Direction:
Preheat a roasting pan or normal pan with oil, add the chopped onion and garlic, roast till translucent then add the chopped leek and steam till well done, - sometimes adding some vegetable broth if needed- , season.
Give into a foodprocessor or a pot, add one the oil, yeast, sunflowers, spices. Pulse well through (you may have first some problems as the leek is fasering) add the herbs and pulse again through till you get smooth puree.
Season if needed and keep stored in well hot-cleaned-glassed in the refrigerator.
Note: I got to say: it was so good and is definitly something I going to do again and again. Well just a different puree/dip you can buy nowhere!
I had such a hardworking day and coming home and passing through the market lanes, I saw fresh, big and so great smelling italian tomatoes (unfortunatly I forgot their name..). I had to buy them immediatly. First I was thinking about making a tomatosauce for my next tomorrows dinner, but then being back at home I changed for the soup. But this will have to wait till tomorrow
Sunday, one hour back of time changing into winterseason. Every half of year the same and mostly every time I forget it and realize it when waking up, hearing the news on the alarmclock-radio. This year was different, I knew the time would change the day before but I forgot it. When it the alarmclock ran I turned it off - some more sleep, but when getting up the radiospeaker said the hour and I was lightly shocked - what? - oh now... For a sundaymorning a little bit early I have to say.
After I passed the morning through with kitchenwork, I needed a lunchbreak. The idea about making a soup with the fresh yesterday-bought italian tomatoes. This soup would calm my stomachrumors for sure.
As almost every soups, this one is very fast done, perfect if you are in a hurry! AND of course so tasty. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 1 tbsp rapeseed oil 1 large onion 800g fresh tomatoes 1 lt vegan vegetable stock 4 medium slices of wholemeal bread 25g pack basil Direction: Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion for five minutes. Add the tomatoes, cover and cook for a further five minutes. Stir in the stock and bring to the boil.
Roughly tear up the bread and add to the soup. Simmer for five minutes. Add the basil and purée with a hand blender or in a food processor. Season to taste.
What a great Autumnday! The sun's bright shining and even the temperature where warm. These day's of Autumn I really do like. When you see the Treeleaves turning red-yellow, walking throught the forrest, intensivly smelling. I hoped to pass some Hazelnut-Trees - unfortnunatly I didn't.
The next day I wanted to catch the colours into a bread, and what could be better than dried fruits? I'm going to have guest over for a cup of tea or coffee and this Bread would be for it. Well not really a light bread, but fresh so good! Some dried fruits I had to buy, some I had at home.
Well, this bread takes more work and of course you can take everykind of dried fruits you like - beside apples.
To be said: my guests liked the bread very much and I give each of them a big piece home.
Eggreplacer (1 Egg) of your favorite (I used soymeal with water)
200gflour
1 1⁄2-Tspbaking powder
2Tbsp. soymilk
Direction:
Put apricots, figs, grapesandsultanas, coveredatlowheatabout45minutes in a pot. Add vanilla extractandtea and simmer on. Allow to cooloff.Letlightlyroastnutsinthe170-degreehotoven, takeout,cool down.
Slighty fat the springforms then lay out withparchment paper. Drainfruit, keep 4or5 Tbsp. cooking liquid.
Add sugarandsalt, heatwhilestirring, pulloffthehotplate. Mixwithfruit, nuts, eggreplace, flour, baking powderand soymilk. Knead well and when homogen giveintheform.
Bake for 75minutesinthemiddleof the 170 degree preheated oven.
