Chard and Tofu Wontons in Sambal Soy Sauce

I defently can't get enough of chinese food! Yesterday I was again in the mood for it. As still having chinese stuff in my fridge I wanted to empty it at least a little bit. What I wanted to cook was for sure, but the filling was not definite. But when the Wontonleaves were at roomtemperatur I knew it. Having fresh pakchoy from my garden - and as packchoy are just the peferct asian vegetable  the result ended up just great.

Today does not seems to be my best one. I passed more than three hours in the emergency - NO, got nothing to do with this meal I ate the day before.
- but when I woke up this morning I had less sense in my left arm and hard to control my hand or work with it, beside less strenght. It feels like it's paralyse, I already relazide it when I woke up during the night. They couldn't tell me what it is. I may have been laying on my arm during the night it fall asleep (as it sometimes happens when lying on a nerve). But Now -  evening - I still have problems with my hand. It won't be better the next day I should come over once again. Hopefully it WILL be better tomorrow!!!!!!!!! It's really scarry.....


But for now let's enjoy the great and tasty light asian meal. Eather alone, with your partner or just with friends :)

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Chard and Tofu Wontons in Sambal Soy Sauce

 

Serves 10

30 minutes or fewer

 

Sambal oelek is a very spicy, slightly sour Indonesian hot sauce made from whole ground chiles (with the seeds). 

      

Wontons

2 tsp. roasted sesame oil

1 medium carrot, finely chopped (½ cup)

4 cups chopped Swiss chard leaves

170 g baked soy-seasoned tofu, chopped

1 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce

⅛ tsp. ground white pepper

1 pkg. wonton wrappers

3 green onions, chopped, for garnish

¼ cup chopped cilantro, for garnish

 

Sambal Soy Sauce

6 Tbs. Chinese malt vinegar or 2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar plus 1 Tbs. rice vinegar

6 Tbs. low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbs. sambal oelek

4 tsp. agave nectar

2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)

 

1. To make Wontons: Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot, and stir-fry 3 minutes. Add chard, and cook 5 minutes, or until wilted. Transfer mixture to food processor, and pulse until finely chopped. Add tofu, and pulse until combined. Transfer to bowl, and stir in soy sauce and white pepper.

2. Set 1 wonton wrapper on work surface. Spoon 1 tsp. tofu mixture in center of wrapper. Brush wrapper edges with water, and fold wrapper into triangle around filling. Press edges to seal, and place on lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining wrappers and filling.

3. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Cook 10 Wontons at a time in boiling water 90 seconds. Remove from pot with slotted spoon, and place in bowl.

4. To make Sambal Soy Sauce: whisk all ingredients together in small bowl. Top Wontons with Sambal Soy Sauce, and garnish with green onions and cilantro.

 

Nectarine-Green-Salad with Blackberry Dressing, Basil and Hazelnuts

Doesn't this salad look tasty?? A long the peaches I bought I also got some Nectarines and some Blackberries.

Every day on my way to work there are Blackberries growing a long the busstation. Especially in the evening when waiting for the bus and I'm hungry I pick some of the Blackberries, so good and sweet. Well some of you may think "eating Blackberries very close to pretty driven Road".... but I don't matter. Of course it would be better not growing so close to the street, but what could happen? A little dust won't kill me. AND I'm not going over to harvest them, just snacking while waiting.

But during this time my mind is spinning what else could be done with the Blackberry. A desert? A smoothie? For breakfast? But I wanted something to add for lunch or appetizer. Then I remembered that with any fruit there could be made a dressing.
And so my Lunchsalad took pictures of ideas.

Now having fresh Blackberries I took the adventure of making the dressing, first searching a little bit the web for an exactly idea of what ingredients pleases with the Blackberries.

The dressing is so fast done and just taste great! Together with some additional fruits in your green salad, a perfect summer fresh salad to enjoy!

Surprisingly my sister came over for a short stop and when she saw the salad she immediatly had to have bowl. She liked it as well as I did ;) and we had a nice lunchsalad together.

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Nectarine-Green-Salad with Blackberry-Dressing, Basil and Hazelnuts




Serves 1

Ingredients:
For the Salad:
2 Big handfuls salad greens
1 Nectarine, stone removed and fruit cut into thin slivers
2-3 T Blackberries
1/4 C Basil leaves
2 T Hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
Blackberry Dressing, a few tablespoons

For the Blackberry Dressing:
1/3C Blackberries, fresh or frozen and defrosted
2T Extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 T Balsamic vinegar
1/2 T Agave nectar (optional)
1T Water

Prepare the dressing first.
Blend all the listed ingredients up in a blender, pour into a jar or bowl and refrigerate while you prepare the salad.

To toast hazelnuts, lay on a baking try and place in a hot (180C) oven for 5-10 minutes, until skins are blistered. Watch closely so they don’t burn. Tip onto a kitchen towel, wrap them up and rub vigorously to remove loose skins. Don’t worry if they don’t come off completely.

Place a handful of salad greens on individual plates or in a large bowl, add a layer of nectarine slices and whole berries, scatter over the basil and toasted nuts and finish with a generous drizzle of the dressing.

Saffron-Tomato-Chutney

Hmm, my mouth watering when I see fresh picked Cherrytomatoes. Unfortnuatly my Cherrytomatoes on my balcony are a little late. To be truth, only 2 Tomatoes are ready to eat. The rest still green. Hopefully they will turn red soon.

Well till then I go to the city local little farmerstore, where you can serve yourself and pay by weight putting your money into cashierbox. Well this little store counts on their buyers not to cheat.

While having a stop over there today, they had fresh picked Cherrytomatoes and I immediatly had to buy an amount of them. Some I wanted to use in my daily salad or for Crostinis and I knew as well what I wanted to do. A Chutney. The bought ones are defently too sweet for me. And with selfmade I can regular the sweetness.

With this Chutney recipe, using no big amount of sugar and with no additional fruits, it's just what I wanted.

A similar Chutney I tried a few weeks ago at the local vegan / vegetarian restaurant. Well of course they didn't what me to give their recipe, but I asked and they told me that they use saffron and just spices and little sugar.
And now with having fresh Cherrytomatoes I wanted to try it myself. My first try was to strong of the spices. The second try cames out just perfect. Glad about that!

This defently going to be the most admired Chutney of mine!!

 

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Saffron-Tomato-Chutney



4 portions

Ingredients:
1 big piece of ginger
200 g Cherrytomatoes
Olivoil
250 g Pelati-Tomato (can, bottle)
2–3 tsp Chilipowder
4 pinch Saffron strands
1 tsp. Safran powder
½ Tbsp. sugar
salt

Direction:
Finely chopp the ginger. Cut the cherrytomatoes into quarters. In a pan preheat the oliveoil and add the chopped ginger and roast a short time, then add the canned pelatitomatoes and cook it up.

Add the spices, sugar and quartered cherrytomatoes and taste with salt. Cook it up once and fill in glasses and let it cool down.

Peach Rosmary Jam

I just love summertime. Lot's of fresh summerfruits I could dig myself into. Too bad my refrigerator is so small, in fact it's overloaded with food I can't live without.

- Fresh vegetable, fruits
- salad, sprouts
- Wakamesalad, Edamame
- Tofu, Seitan, vegan sausage, vegan ham
-  vegan sandwichspread, vegan cream cheese
- vegan gnocchi, miso, asian stuff
-  jam
-  precooked food
and so on, defently much for ONE Person

Unfortunatly there is no fuse in my basement to place an additional refrigerator or fridge, I defently could need it.

But for now, I bought fresh fruits I wanted to use immediatly to make - again - some jam, a some of course I will eat right away.
Since now I probably got about 25-30 glasses of jam in my basement and with this jam it will be more. But I guess this will be the last jam I make for this year. Hope I can resist to all the fresh fruits....

If you wonder about the ingredients in the list below, don't worry - the Rosmary doesn't taste that strong that it disturbs the taste fo sweetness of a jam. Try it out, it's really good!!

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Peach Rosmary Jam



Ingredients:
500g Peach
300g Sugar
20g (1 pouch) fast gelling sugar
2 g Rosmary
2-3 tsp. dried red peppercorn

Direction:
Cut peaches into slices or small pieces. Put them together with the fast gelling sugar in a big pan, preheat and let it cook for 1 min. Add the sugar and let it again cook for 6-8 minutes.

Pluck Rosmaryneedle and chop finely. Grind the red pepper between your hands and add it together with the chopped rosmary to cooking jam and stirr well. Turn off heat and put the jam in hot washed glasses, seal well. Let it cool down.

Note: If all ingredients were fresh and you worked cleanly the jam will be good for a long time, if stored at about 5 °C.

Enjoy

Miso-Garlic-Roasted Tofu Caeser Salad

Some of you may enjoy a lazy weekend and some of you had busy weekends. But never forget to eat healthy and what your stomach is calling for. Your body mostly tells you what you need - carbohydrate, salt, sweet - whatever listen to your body!

Mostly my body is calling for something salty. And this was what's happening on Saturday.
I had a busy weekend. As I'm working during the whole week, all what had to be done calls for saturday. AND as my mother wanted to celebrate her few days ago Birthday, and as she asked me to prepare a vegetablesalad - there was more work than usual to be done. BUT the different to my other work, this vegetablesalad was fun doing.

After being finish, my stomach was rumoring and hungry. Having a glaze at the refrigerator - pretty empty - there's got be a healthy,filling salad. Tofu and salad is what I always got in my refrigerator.

Guess everybody loves a Caeser Salad veganstyle - I do, but it's not so common in switzerland....



Miso-Garlic-Roasted Tofu Caseser Salad



4 Servings, about 2 3/4 cup each

Ingredients:
Tofu
1 big package extra-firm tofu, drained

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons miso (see Note)

2 cloves garlic, minced

Croutons

2 slices country-style bread, crusts removed, cut into 1cm cubes

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

Dressing & Salad

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

4 teaspoons miso

1 clove garlic, minced

8 cups torn, bite-size romaine lettuce

2 cups torn, bite-size radicchio

1/2 cup grated vegan Parmesan cheese

 

Direction:

Position racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 220 C. Coat a large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.

 

To prepare tofu:
Pat tofu dry and cut into 1,5cm cubes. Combine lemon juice, miso and garlic in a large bowl. Add the tofu and gently toss to coat. Spread the tofu in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake on the upper oven rack, turning two or three times during baking, until browned, for 18 to 20 minutes.

To prepare croutons:
Toss bread with oil, pepper and salt in a medium bowl. Spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake on the lower oven rack, turning two or three times during baking, until browned and crisp, for 12 to 14 minutes.

To prepare dressing & assemble salad:
Whisk oil, lemon juice, miso and garlic in a large bowl. Add lettuce, radicchio and Parmesan; toss to coat. Serve topped with the tofu and croutons.

Watermelon, Grape and Tomato Salad

Hopefully your late summer is still going on with good and warm weather. For myone I guess the really hot day we had are over, but still warm. Tomorrow it should rain and the temperatur lower down.

 

If your days are hot and your seeking for a delicious and refreshing light meal perfect for a hot summer day, this one you defently have to try. This Salad is even good as a entree for dinner.

 

Summerfeeling!

 

 

Watermelon, Grape, and Tomato Salad

 

30 minutes or fewer

 

Ingredients:      

3 cups cubed or balled watermelon, seeds removed

2 cups seedless green grapes, rinsed

½ red bell pepper, seeded and cubed

1 bunch Italian parsley, coarsely chopped

1 large yellow tomato, chopped

1 large red or orange tomato or cherry tomatoes

110g crumbled tofu or vegan cheese

1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar, or to taste

 

Direction:

Combine all ingredients, toss and serve.

Note: adjust the vinegar to your taste and flavor

Stuffed grilled peppers with Baccalà and other dish

Saturdaynight fever! Yesterday I had my first day at the job, it was a good day. As I previous said before I started working at a surgery doctors office with Operations and two part-time surgery doctors (with only normal office hours). Anyway on my first day I was already alone in the afternoon and I managed it very well I have to say! Well my chef was very helpfull and showed me a lot on the computer, explained etc. very good. I feel well there and that's very important for me!

But back to the roots of my post.

Being back at home I was lightly hungry and needed a small but healthfull dish. Having fresh peppers (the milder ones) from the local market I knew immediatly what I wanted to do, cause I already had it in my mind a few days ago. As I had some leftover rice from the day before this dish was pretty fast done. I grilled them in a grilling pan instead on the grill, the taste almost the same.

So good. I served it with a green salad -  just perfect for a very hot passing day!

Enjoy!

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Stuffed grilled peppers with Baccalà



Ingredients:

For 6 persons

250 g chick peas from a can
50 g Tahin
7 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt
2 Tsp rose hot paprika
2 Tsp cumin
3 Tbsp lemon juice
100 g onions
30 g chopped almonds
1 Tin of Saffron powder
250 g cooked long-grain rice (100 g raw)
30 g raisins
5 Stalks fresh mint
100 g vegan feta cheese (or any other melting cheese)
6 green pointed pepper of approx. 75 g
1 Tablespoon sumac

Direction:
1. Finely mash the chickpeas with about half of its cooking liquid, Tahin, 4 tbsp olive oil, some salt, 1 tsp paprika powder, 1 TL cumin and 3 tablespoons lemon juice, taste and then refrigerate.

2 Finely dice the onions. Lightly sauté with the almonds in 3 tablespoons olive oil. Stir in Saffron, 1 teaspoon chili powder and 1 tsp cumin and sauté briefly. Then add the rice and raisins and season everything with salt. Finely choars chop 3 Stalks of mint leaves, and stir. Take rice from the heat and mix in crumbled feta cheese.

3. From the peppers cut each a lid at the base of the stalk. Remove the seeds and fill in the rice mixture. Seal with lids and stuck the lid with 2 wooden skewers. Grill the peppers around 10 minutes.

4. Serve the peppers with the ahead prepared Baccalà dizzled with 1 tbsp olive oil, chopped remaining Mint and sprinkled with sumac.

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Saturday and again a hot day. I had a lot of household to do beside groceries. When being finished with the program I layed myself in the backround and started reading my fourth book in 3 weeks.

 

After give the vegetable in the garden some water I went inside for preparing the dinner.

 

This is what I made:

 

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Moroccan carrot salad with Harissa

 

 

Serves 8

 

Ingredients:

10 carrots

2 tablespoons Harissa

4 tablespoons chopped preserved lemon (about one lemon)

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped

salt & pepper to taste

 

Direction:

Cut the carrot to rounds about 1/2 cm thick.

Boil 4 cups of water and add salt.

Boil the carrot for 10 min until soft but still have some bite to it. Drain, let dry and cool.

Mix the carrot with the rest of the ingredients and let it sit in the fridge at least over night.

Before serving check and see if the salad needs more salt or vinegar.
Serve at room temperature.