Pumpkin Columns with Apple Vinaigrette

Yes Pumpkin season had started. It's not that I have waited for it nervously, but glazing at the shelf in the supermarket I couldn't stop myself and got one. Especially after I've been sick for at least one week with stomach-digest-problems and worst such horribly stomachpain. 

First pumpkin for this year..... and probably not the last one. Pumpkins are healthy and with lots of vitamins and not much calories. 

My first "normal" dish since a week. (The past week I've only eaten rusk dipping in vegetable broth and rice slime. Breakfast helds millet gruel lightly sweetend). 

So you see I've been graving for normal food and VEGETABLES AND FRUITS. But I wanted to keep it low, not overstressing my stomach too much for first. 

Anyway, guess you never appreciate a dish in from of you more than being after sick. And everytime I remind myself that there are so many people out there in the world not having the opportunity to choose what to eat. So be allways gracefull what you got in front of you on your plate......

LOVE, PEACE AND HAPPINESS TO EVERONE

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Pumpkin Columns with Apple Vinaigrette



4 Portions

Ingredients:
1 Hokkaido-Kürbis (1 kg)
1 El Öl
rough Seasalt
some grounded pepper
1  red  Apple
4 Tbsp. Lemonjuice
2 Tbsp. Agavesauce
Salt
3  spring onions
2 Tbsp. Pumpkin seed oil or normal oil

Direction:

Halve the pumpkin, core, and cut into 8-10 columns. Brush the columns with oil, place on a baking tray with baking paper and season with sea salt and pepper. Put in the preheated oven up to 200 C° on the 2nd track from the bottom and bake 25 to 30 minutes.

From the Apple remove core housing, cut into slices, then into cubes. Mix 4 tbsp lemon juice, Apple juice, water, salt, pepper. Brush spring onion, and cut white and light green in discs and stir in.

When done remove the Pumpkin columns out of the oven. Into the vinaigrette stir in pumpkin seed oil and serve with the pumpkin columns. Or sprinkle the vinaigrette right over the columns and serve it then.

Yellow Pepper Soup

Yesterday I wasn't feeling well, shivering, headache, cought and nausea. Great! The lunch I had to vomit and I was working.....

In the evening I wanted to give my stomach only a soup and a piece of bread. I was hesitating weather to eat just a vegetable broth, but I knew I would be hungry after anyway and so I prepared I vegetable soup - and hoped my stomach will accept it!!! And he did. Uff 
I just eat slowly. 

Homemade soups are always good when you got nausea. 

The day after I woke up with fever and I had to go to work - I couldn't leave my boss alone with no one at the office. That's the bad side when you're the only assistant at a doctors office. Luckely weeking was coming very close.

The next week I passed work and came back on Thursday, a little weak, but health enough to work. Guess I catched a really bad flu - long time since my last one. 

But anyway, here I am not posting just my felt feelings, no - I post a really good soup! AND that's all that matters. 
I love peppers - more if they are peeled (better stomachfeelings). I could it easly in every dish I prepare..... like leek - I love!

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Yellow Pepper Soup

4 Portions

Ingredients:

1 Shallot, finely chopped

1 Garlic clove, finely chopped

vegan margarine or oil for steaming

1 Stalk celery, cut into pieces

2 yellow peppers, deseeded, cut into pieces

150 g of potatoes, peeled, cut into pieces

⅓ Teaspoon turmeric or Curry

7 dl vegetable bouillon

Salt, pepper

100 g vegan cream cheese (optional)

Direction:

Damp shallots and garlic in butter. When translucent add celery, peppers and potatoes and steam. Briefly add turmeric or curry to the stew and steam on.

Deglaze with broth and cook easily covered for 30 minutes till the potato and celery are soften and well to puree.

Puree the soup, you may spread it through a sieve to get the fibrous away and taste with salt and pepper.

Pour soup into pre-warmed great bowls, and garnish  with 1 tbsp. vegan creame cheese. 

New Year's "Kale and Brussels sprouts Soba Noodles"

It's New Year's Eve. 

Basel at the River Rhine

Every year there will be a hug firework at the River of Basel (City). A few times I've be in the crowd, watching the great firework. 

This year I watched I from a little bit more outside of the crowd and my jacket won't smell smoky with some burned holes in it. 

I just love the feeling by then in the city.

Hope you enjoyed also a great evening with your friends or even alone by yourself.

The time before the firework I spend alone at home and made myself something good, with a drink and then some wine. Nothing to be sad about. 

For my festive New Year's dinner I made a good delicious meal. I kept it simple, but even a simple meal can look and taste great!

Kale and Brussels sprouts Soba Noodles

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 bunch tuscan kale
5 tsp. toasted sesame oil
10 brussels sprouts
1 plump clove garlic
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. low sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds (white or black)
2 pinches red pepper flakes
500 g soba noodles
4 slivered green onions, for garnish

Direction:
Slice the kale leaves from their stems and discard the stems. Working in batches, stack the leaves, roll them up tightly lengthwise, and then thinly slice them crosswise into narrow ribbons. Put the ribbons in a large bowl with 1 tsp. of the sesame oil and 1/4 tsp. salt. Massage the leaves with your hands until they glisten.

Discard any funky outer leaves from the brussels sprouts. Slice them paper thin (mandoline works best, peeling them by hand would take you some time..) then toss them with the kale.

Pound the garlic until smooth in a small mortar (I used a bowl and minced the garlic fine). Stir in the vinegar, remaining sesame oil and soy sauce. Pour the dressing over the greens and toss well. This much can be done in advance and kept in the fridge until ready to serve, or enjoyed alone as a salad.

Bring the water to a boil. When starting the noodles, finish the salad with the sesame seeds, pepper flakes and green onions. Cook the noodles according to package instructions and drain well. Toss the noodles with the greens. The noodle salad can be served warm or cold.

Beetroot-Soup

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:

1 Tsp mustard seeds

1 Tbsp. cross cumin seeds

2 Tbsp. vegan butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

500 g raw red or yellow beetroots, coarsely grated.

1 Liter vegetable broth

2 Bay leaves

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Sea salt

freshly ground white pepper

Direction:

Heat mustard seeds and cumin in hot clarified butter, stirring until it smells good and the seeds are poppin. Add onion, cook at low heat til soft. Stir in the root Beet and cook. Pour in the broth, add Bay leaves and boil. Simmer for 30-40 minutes (less if you used the precooked Betts). Season with Apple Cider vinegar, salt, and pepper, and continue simmer for several minutes.

 

Consistent with freshly grated horseradish. (it gives the special taste to it!!) Love it

Hope you like the "special" soup!

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!