Fresh Tomato & Wholemeal Bread Soup

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!

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Fresh Tomato-Wholemeal Bread Soup

Serves: 4-5

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.

Fruit Bread

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.

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Fruit Bread

For 2 Springforms 18 cm ø or 1 Cakeform 25 to 28 cm length of dough

 

Ingredients:

150 g dried apricots

150 g dried figs, stems removed

100 g of wine berries or sultanas

1 Tsp vanilla extract

2 dl tea, such as Rooibos Earl-Grey-flavoured, vigorous

per 150 g almonds and hazelnuts

100 g pistachios

100 g cane sugar or Agave nectar

1 Pinch of salt

Eggreplacer (1 Egg) of your favorite (I used soymeal with water)

200 g flour

1 1⁄2-Tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp. soymilk

Direction:

Put apricots, figs, grapes and sultanas, covered at low heat about 45 minutes in a pot. Add vanilla extract and tea and simmer on. Allow to cool off. Let lightly roast nuts in the 170-degree hot oven, take out, cool down.
 

Slighty fat the springforms then lay out with parchment paper. Drain fruit, keep 4 or 5 Tbsp. cooking liquid.

Add sugar and salt, heat while stirring, pull off the hotplate. Mix with fruit, nuts, eggreplace, flour, baking powder and soymilk. Knead well and when homogen give in the form.
 

Bake for 75 minutes in the middle of the 170 degree preheated oven.

 

Take out, let cool and enjoy!

10 Ways to use Chia seeds

I've just found this in the web. And I think it's good help as you don't know Chia seeds (as I do). I just copied it to post for you to get some idea.

For mine I heard a lot about chia seeds in recipe and had a few times a pack in my hand but never bought one, cause not really knowing how to use it.

Maybe some day when having a really good recipe I will get a pack, till then I guess I have enought things I have to use. Too much can be sometimes confusion.






By now, you have probably heard of chia seeds and their superfood status. But have you tried them? If you haven’t, you really should. Those little seeds are nutrition powerhouses, high in Omega-3’s, fiber and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). In fact, the word “chia” comes from the Mayan word for “strength,” since their warriors ate it to stay battle-ready.

Here are 10 cool ways to use chia seeds:

As an egg replacer.
Just mix 1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water for each egg in your baking recipes. Chia seeds can also be used to replace the oil in many recipes.
S
prinkled in. Add chia seeds to whatever you’re eating. We especially like them in smoothies, soups, oatmeal, cereal, and yogurt.

As a raw snack. That’s right – just pop them right in your mouth for a high-energy snack.

In chia pudding. When added to dairy, non-dairy milk, or water and left for a while (about 20 minutes on your countertop or in the fridge overnight), chia seeds provide a tapioca-like consistency. If you prefer a smoother texture, try creating a chia-seed powder first by processing them in a blender, food processor, or coffee bean grinder. Here is a chocolate chia seed pudding recipe you can try.

To make grain-free crackers. When combined with other seeds like flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower, chia seeds can help create gluten-free, egg-free crackers. Most recipes require a food dehydrator. Here is a simple chia and sesame seed cracker recipe to try.

In breakfast foods. Add some chia to your oatmeal, pancakes, cereal, smoothies or yogurt.

Instead of breadcrumbs. Chia seeds can be used in place of breadcrumbs in meatballs, meatloaf, and even as a breading for chicken breasts.

As a thickening agent. Try including ground chia seeds in soups and gravies as a thickening agent with added benefits.

To make chia sprouts. Chia sprouts make a great addition to salads. There are many ways to sprout chia seeds, so browse online for the method that looks the most doable to you.

Szegediner Gulash

Szegediner Gulash is a Ungary recipe (originally made with meat and potatoes). There is a various of kind of this recipe cruising through the web. Some recipe have more or less sauerkraut, some more tomatoes, some no potatoes and so on.

Of course my version is completly meat-free and a lighter version. Once I made this gulash with the potatoes in it, but then the dish was pretty heavy, so for now I left it, added some more tomatoes and served the potatoes beside. This way everyone can take as much as potatoes they want or just leave it away.

This gulash is a perfect dish for cold days. The dish is faster done if you use precooked sauerkraut - I have to admit I've never prepared and cooked fresh sauerkraut - maybe some day. But till now a whole cabbage for just one person is too much, doe I do like sauerkraut much!

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Szegedinger Gulash

Tastes very good to boiled potatoes. Also something for people whom sauerkraut is too sour for. The cream ameliorates the flavor of the herb, the stew is still quite spicy.

4 Persons

Ingredients:

150 g soy-cubes (TSP)

300 ml vegetable broth

2 Tbsp soy sauce (Tamari)

 

500 g sauerkraut, drained

a red bell pepper

a yellow bell pepper

2 red chillies, (sharpness desire)

a large white onion

500 g passed through Tomato (canned)

400 g chunky tomatoes

200 ml soy cream

a bay leaf

3 Tsp noble sweet paprika powder

1 Tsp cumin

Salt

White pepper

4 Tbsp sunflower oil

Direction:

Boil the vegetable broth, add soy-cubes. Remove from the heat and leave a quarter of  hour. Pour the soy-cubes and expressing a little to drain
 

Core the peppers and the chillies, remove the white inner skins. Finely chop the chilies, dice peppers. Peel the onion and dice also.

In a nonstick frying pan heat two Tbsp oil. Add the soy-cubes in it and fry until they are golden brown, deglaze with the soy sauce and set aside.
 

Heat the remaining oil in a pot, add onion and sauté till translucent. Add the bay leaf, pepper cubes and the chilis and cook shortly. Add the soy-cubes, and sauerkraut and tomatoes.

Let cook for about 45 minutes, to beware the whole thing to burn you can on and on adding some water if necessary. Remove from the heat and add the soy cream. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder and cumin.

 

Enjoy your dish. For mine I love it.

German Mett-Sausage (Spread)

Mett - is a traditional raw pork spread with onions- unbelieveble how someone could eat it, but it's a beloved dish (snack) for the germans. It's only know in Germany and therefore I never had it or even could imagine how it tastes.

Anyway while being in the web, watching vegan cook-recipes on youtube I came across a vegan version of Mett. I was curious and thinking while I watched it. I had to try it - but I was also a little bit afraid of it's taste. Cause in the video a meat-eater ate it and couldn't make a different in it's taste.

So I went to the supermarket to get the main ingredients: Ricewaffles. You may wonder - WHAT - but YES, surprisngly hmm...!!!!!!!!!!

And one good thing about this fake Mett - it's a superfast done spread for you next piece of bread (as it's be used for)

When done I tasted it wondering. Unfortunatly (or lookely) I never had Mett and therefore I had nothing to compare with but  - YES it tastes, in fact IT IS VERY GOOD and you don't have to be afraid eating raw meat with it's bacteries and antibioticas AND no animal got hurt.

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German Mett-Sausage-Spread

 

 

makes a middle size glass

 

Ingredients:



50 g Ricewaffles
2 - 3 Tbsp. tomatoe paste
Juice from a half lemon
1 Onion
a few chopped garlic
a bunch of chives
some majoranpowder
salt, pepper, paprikapowder
200 ml vegetable broth
some oil

Direction:

Crumble small the rice cakes and add into a bowl. Add 200 ml vegetable broth, until the whole thing has a slightly muddy consistency.

Then chop the onion and give in. For the color put 2 -3 Tbsp. tomato paste, then salt, pepper , majoran, chives, garlic and finally some oil.

Stomp the whole thing with your hand well through until you receive a uniformly colored mixture. If the "pork" is still too bright, again add some tomato paste and mix again.

The whole is stable for a few days in the refrigerator – at some point it just dries out.

Then leave least 5 hours (or best overnight) in the refrigerator, so that the ricewaffles soak up the flavor of the onions and spices. (It's been eaten on a piece of bread)

 

Note: after I finished the mett I seasend it up, cause I couldn't taste really well the spices - but then after a few hours resting it ended up to be too spicy. So beware of season it up too early!!!!!

Beetroot Hummus

While last week I made a few delicious dips and spread and they are almost already eaten, I craved for more! I was searching a recipe for making Baba Ganoush and while going through cookbooks where I probably would find it, I crossed a recipe for Beetroot Hummus. I immediatly wanted to it make next. I even found the recipe for Baba Ganoush but Beetroot Hummus going to be first done.

This Hummus is really very very fast done (I haven't prepared a lot Hummus before....) and so delicious. Unbelievebl I haven't made my hummus myself before. Maybe you can't understand but for now till ever I will make my own Hummus - believe me!!

I bought cooked Beetroot and already have a pack in my refrigerator for more or something else. A Beetroot soup is spinning in my mind. Probably the next dish I'm going to prepare.




Red Beet Hummus

Isn't the colour great?!


Ingredients:
500 g Red Beets (I used precooked ones)
1 can chickpeas
1 big onion
1 Tbsp. cross cumin
1 Tbsp. tahini
230 ml vegetable broth
60 ml lemonjuice
80 ml oil

Direction:
Peel and dice then cut the red beet into cubes, add to your blender or a big bowl. Drain and rinse the canned chickpeas give to the red beets.

Peel and chop the onion. In preheated pan with 1 Tbsp. oil roast the onion for 2-3 min then add 1 Tbsp. cross cumin and roast for another minute. Afterward add to the beet and chickpeas.
Add the lemonjuice and vegetable broth, garlic, tahini and process well trough. At the final end slowly - while processing -  pour in the oil and process till you get a smoth consistence.


Store in glasses in your refrigerator and the Hummus will be good for a few weeks. If you havn't eaten it before ;)

Pumpkin-Pesto / Dip / Spread

Today was a day with 3 stop overs. First stop was at the dentist - everything ok. Second stop was at the supermarket where I buyed a Hokkaido-Pumpkin and stuff I needed for my cooking-adventure. And of course the third stop ended up in the kitchen

As I love vegetable dip/spread/pesto's I wanted to make one out of Pumpkin. I was so exausted about starting with it and of course about the result. I have to say ahead - it is delicious!!!!!!!
I hardly couldn't stop myself from digging in my fingers.

The pesto isn't oily - which I like more and it's creamy and therefore usuable for many kind of variation, such as a dip, spread or even as a sauce for your next pastadish.

Well, let's see how long it will last till I ate everything. Probably not very long. It won't be the last time I've done it!

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Pumpkin-Pesto / Dip / Spread

 

 



 makes about 2 big and 3 small glasses

 

Ingredients:

1 Pumpkin (in my case Hokkaido about 1300kg)

2 knob garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

100 ml water

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

2 Tbsp. sunflower seeds (or pine seeds)

6-8 dried tomatoes (I used the ones in oil)

50 ml olive oil

3 Tbsp. chopped chives or parsely

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. fresh grounded pepper

 

Direction:

Halve the pumpkin and pull the core away, then cut into pieces. Preheat a pan and add one Tbsp. oil, add the onion and garlic and shortly roast. Then add the chopped Pumpking, stirr and shortly roast then add the water and cook at middle heat till soft. When done put into a bowl and set outside or in the refrigerator to let cool down.

 

Meanwhile chopp the tomatoes and together with the left ingredients combine in a blender. Process well through then add (when cooled down) the pumpkin and blend all together. Season with more salt or pepper if needed.

 

Put the pesto / dip / spread in well-sealing glasses and keep refrigerated. It will be good for about 2 weeks.

 

Tastes great on bread , Pasta or as a dip!

 

 

(of course I first had to neatly clean the bowl with my finger before cleaning..)

Pumpkin Puree with Lentils and Mushrooms

My first pumpkin this year - yeah finally. I had to buy one, cause the one plant having in my garden came out to be a carnish-pumpkin. This happend cause I picked some babyplants from my sisters compost. I was pretty upsad, but maybe next year with the now saved cores.

Anyway I was so excited when I bought a Hokkaido, first thinking about making a soup, but that was too daily. I wanted something different. Then I reminded myself having a great pumpkin-puree last year at the vegetarian/vegan restaurant (which was sooo good).
Well over a year I couldn't quite remember every ingredients it got, but for now I tried a to cook it at least similar.

Thought I've used other spices and herbs the result was very good. I couldn't get my spoon out of it before serving!

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Pumpkin Puree with Lentils and Mushrooms



4 Portions

Ingredients:

Pumpkin puree:

1 pumpkin, for example Hokkaido or butternut, approx. 1 kg.

Ghee

Sea salt

125 g black lentils  or green Puy lentils

150 g shiitake mushrooms or mushroom mixture with Portobello, Oyster, shiitake mushrooms, cleaned

Freshly cut parsley sauce:

1/2 of bunch of smooth-leaved parsley (leaves)

3 Tablespoons nuts and seeds, such as walnuts, pine nuts, almonds

3-4 TBSP freshly grated vegan Parmesan cheese

6 Tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt

black pepper

Direction:

Pumpkin puree:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Cut Pumpkin in half lengthwise, remove the seeds with a spoon. Brush Pumpkin halves with ghee, add salt. With the cut surface give down on a plate with parchment paper.

Bake 30 to 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. The time longer or shorter depending on the variety: once the skin is lightly browned and bubbles (great meat), remove. Allow to cool slightly. Solve the pumpkin flesh with a spoon out of the shell.

Cook Lentils up with 2.5 dl of water. Simmer covered at small heat 20 to 30 minutes until they are soft. Drain, set aside later.

Parsley sauce:

Put the ingredients in a mortar including olive oil, crush roughly the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Then quickly stir fry mushrooms in ghee over high heat and season lightly.

Dressers:

Put the pumpkin puree on a preheated plates, place lens,  sprinkle with sauce and cover with mushrooms.

Tip:
This is a recipe for the whole year. In the summer, you can make the dish with Zucchini, spaghetti squash and Patissons (with the mandolin in spaghettiform cut and stir fry in a pan).

Veggie Gulash

Autumn/wintertime is coming closer. Today was the first day pretty cold and windy, though sunny. But standing on my balcony almost blew me away - freezing.....
This day really calls for a hearty, warm filling dish for dinner. My Grandmother used to do a lot Gulash, and what was traditionall was Borrtsch - coming from Russia. NO I'm not a Russian girl but

NOTE: my grandmother parents gone/flee with their childs to Russia - during the third worldwar. I don't know anymore how long they staid there but when they had to flee from there and being back in Switzerland they all been separeted but found together years after.
My Grandmother - Good bless her, R.I.P. -  used to tell us her story and of course she brought in some special Russian dishes. NOTE finished

But now back - as I'm not posting a russian dish!

Gulash is a dish with all ingredients in one pot - easy and not very expensive - so it was mostly called for "the pore dish" - but I can't comite it. It depends what you put in it, but you only got on Pan or Plate on your table where everybody can selve themselve. No long washingtime needed.

But now finish, I'm guess I'm getting too far away from the main point of cooking....

This recipe is also perfect if you got leftovers to be used.

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Veggie Gulash (Stew)



2 Portions

Ingredients:
100 g Onions
1  garlic knob
1  yellow Pepper
1  small zuccheti
2 Tbsp. Oil
2 tsp.  lightly hot Paprika powder
2 El Paprika mark
1 tsp. cumin seeds
200 ml vegetable broth
Salt
Pepper
sugar or Agavenectar
250 g Seitan
2 Tbsp. chopped Parsely

Direction:
Finely dice onion and garlic clove. Clean peppers and Zucchini, wash and dice about 1 cm long. Heat oil in a saucepan. Add peppers, Zucchini, onions and garlic and stirr in it. Shortly steam with the yellow Pepper, pepper mark and cumin seeds.

Deglaze with vegetable broth, season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Sauté covered over medium heat about 10 minutes. Dice Seitan roll into about 2 -3 cm tall pieces. Add to the stew and simmer open another 10 minutes. Maybe you got to season with salt and pepper otherwise sprinkle with parsley. Serve and enjoy!