Spicy BBQ-Sauce

Summer time is coming and with the warm temperatur the grill get started warmed up. 

Summer is definitely my time! Sitting or being outside, relaxing or with a good book on the balcony. 

To begin the great pleasely eveving, I already prepared a big bootle of BBQ-Salsa. This sauce keeps - stored well in the refrigerator - for a long time. Last year when I made it, it kept for really long - well this depends naturally very much on how often you grill or with whatever you enjoy this spicy Sauce. 

If you got children at the table, you may reduce the spicy or make an extra little bottle - as it is kind of spicy - not too much - but enough....


Spicy BBQ-Sauce

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3-4 garlic cloves minced
24-ounce jar of strained (or crushed) tomatoes (or a 28-ounce can)
7-ounce jar of tomato paste (or a 6-ounce can)
2 tablespoon Srirache
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup whole grain mustard
1/4 cup agave nectar

Preparation:
Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion sauté for about 5 minutes, until the onion is slightly tender, add the garlic and saute for another minute or two.

Add in the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine, reduce the heat to a medium-low and allow to simmer for 30 - 40 minutes, stirring often.

Taste the sauce 

Remove from the heat, allow to cool for a few minutes, then puree until smooth in the food processor or blender.

note: if you don’t like spicy, you can skip the sriracha, add less or use just a pinch of two of red pepper flakes instead.

Vegan Mini Pepper Nachos with Corn, Beans and Avocado

Yesterday -  sunday - I was invited to a friends house for grilling. I made a lot of things, such as the Mango-Dip, a spicy Vegan BBQ Sauce, a vegan Aioli, a Gazpacho Salad AND those Mini Pepper Nachos. I made them the first time and they where very good - just tricki to fill as they where so small. Luckely they widend in the oven during grilling. 

It was the first time I saw mini peppers at the market and I brought them before nowing I was invited. And first I thought about letting them just topped and deseeded and then filled, but when the Invitation came I changed my mind. 

Everybody really liked them - a kind of different and much more healthy snack. 

Luckely the weather staid good - cause we had a week passed with rain nearly every day and the temperature lowered pretty much. 

But on Sunday the temperature rised just right up to be comfortable being outside with just one time a little rain. 

We had a really great evening - though my friend can't eat spicy and some of my prepared food was a little to spicy for her and she didn't tried. I was so sorry, I haven't really knowed it..........

Anyway the Nachos she really loved ;)

Note: Some recipe from my other prepared food - I will post some not as I haven't made pictures. Sorry

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Mini Pepper Nachos with Corn, Beans and Avocado

20 min
4 Servings

Sweet mini peppers nachos filled with lots goods such as pico de gallo, avocado, beans and vegan shredded cheese.

Ingredients: Pico de Gallo
2 cups tomatoes (seeded and chopped)      
1/4 cup onion (chopped) 
1 jalapenos (seeded and chopped) 
1 clove garlic (chopped) 
1 lime (juice) 
1 heaped handful cilantro (chopped) 
salt and pepper to taste 



Preparation:
Mix everything. 

Ingredients filled peppers:
1 small (200g) can of corns
1 small can (200g) of black beans, drained (or just a can of peas)
about 200-230 g Pico de gallo 
1 medium avocado, diced
salt and pepper 
500 g mini peppers, halved and de-seeded
1 cup vegan shredded cheese (or use a nacho sauce)
1 springonion chopped or cilantro for garnish. 

Preparation:
Preheat the oven up to 180 °C. 

Mix the drained beans, corn and pico de gallo and the diced avocado and springonion, season with salt and pepper (to get it spicier use some Cayennepepper or chilipowder). 

Arrange the prepared peppers on a baking sheet, fill them with the filling and then sprinkle over the vegan shredded cheese (or your nacho-sauce) and grill for about 20 min. The peppers should be soft and the cheese melted. 

Serve with a sauce such as a vegan sour cream or eat them plain as they are. 

Grilled Millet rounds with Mango-Dip and Salad

There is nothing better than grilling on a warm summer early evening. Mostly you roast Tofu, Seitan and vegetables, fruits on the grill (or whatever else), but beside grilling wrapped Potatoes or Filo-packets there are not much possibilities to roast grains - exept you prepared patties out of them. 

And so did I. Grilled Potatoes and flatbread - I defenetly had done it much, but not ofter patties on the grill (always afraid they will fall apart). 

Today I tried it again and I don't know what I have done wrong the last times - but this time just perfect. 

Defenetly "a making again"-dish! If you miss a sauce for the patties I would recommend a Mango-Dipping Sauce (recipe below).

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Grilled Millet rounds with a summer salad

30 min
4 Persons

Ingredients:
4 dl vegetable broth
150 g of millet
150 g carrots, finely grated
150 g zucchini, finely grated
1 shallo, finely chopped
80 g nutritional yeast (instead of cheese)
1 egg-replacer
4 tbsp. tarrangon, finely chopped

Salad:
Salad of your favorite

Asia-Style Dressing:
3 Tbspl wine-vinegar
2 Tbsp. rice-vinegar
2 Tbsp. soysauce
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 cm gingerknob, finely chopped or grated
2 Tbsp. sesamoil
5 Tbsp. oil

Mango-Dipping Sauce:
1 ripe Mango
1 ripe Avocado
1/2 small jalapéno pepper

Preparation: Mango Dip
First make the dip by peeling the mango and avocado, removing their stones and placing in the flesh into the processor along with the de-seeded jalapéno pepper. 
Blend until smooth and then pour into a bowl for dipping. Set aside. 

Preparation: MIllets-patties
In a cooking pan bring water to a boil and stir in the millet, cook covered over low heat (simmering) about 20 min. When the time is over, remove from the heat and set aside. 

Add the carrots and all ingredients and mix well. The mash should make about 16 portions. Take some with wet hands and shape a ball, then flatten slightly into patties. Set on a grill aluminum shell.

Place the aluminum plate on the hot grill - with lid closed over high heat. Roast the patties about 4 min on each side. 

While the patties are roasting prepare the salad and the dressing. Then mix the salad with the dressing and serve the patties with the salad and the dipping sauce. 

NOTE: If you miss the vegetables (such as zucchini, peppers, corn, eggplants a.s.o - grill some on the grill as well.

Pentecost vegan grill-dinner

Well, pentecost is over and I saw I hadn't posted my prepared the post I actually wanted to. Guess, something went wrong - anyway here it is. 
Pretty simple but so good! 

For cooking or even eating it was just too hot - the hotest pentecost since 1950. 

All you can do is staying in the shadow, keeping your apartement as cool as possible - hard when aircondition is usual in Switzerland. Well Fan's would do, but I hadn't one. 

I had about 28°C inside - won't even tell you how good you could sleep....

Anyway, perfect for grilling.Grilling just loves eveyone.

I kept the menu quite simple but perfect for not long standing in the kitchen.

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Stratified Ratatouille

Ingredients:
2 Tomatoes
1 green and yellow Zucchini
1 small onion (or half a big one)
1 clove garlic
150-200 ml vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper
olive oil

Optional: vegan parmesan

Preparation:
Cut the zucchinis and tomatoes into thin slices. Not too thick or thin - about 2-3 mm would be good. Now stratify the vegetable alternately in a casserole dish.

Dice the onion and garlic and roast them in a oiled saucepan until translucent. Give in the vegetable stock and place a bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a about 5 minutes to allow the bay leaf can deliver its great flavor to the broth. 

Pass the broth through a sieve over the vegetable (till half in broth). Sprinkle the vegetables with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Cover the baking dish with either a lid or with aluminum foil and put into the preheated oven at 150 ° C.


After 45 minutes get the Ratatouille from the oven and pour the broth carefully out. 
Sprinkle the vegetables again with a little olive oil and push for a further 15 minutes at 180 ° C in the oven. But this time without the lid! 

(Optional: dizzle over some parmesan for a cheesy crust).

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Garlic-Herb-Bread

Ingredients:

1 bread-dought (bought or buyed)

2 clove garlic

1 shallot

1 bunch of parsely

1 bunch chives

1 bunch basilicum

(any other herbs you like)

salt, pepper

1-2 tsp. olive oil

herb oil for dizzling

Preparation:

Chop the garlic and shallot very finely, give in a bowl. Wash and pat dry the herbs, then chop finely and give into the bowl. Add oil and season with salt, pepper.

Maybe pulse shortly trough to get it smoother - as you like.

On a floured board, roll out the dought about 1 cm thin and spread the herbmixtur on the top. Roll up from the longer side till you got a "roulade-like" bread. Either bake it as it is as whole bread or like I cut into 2-3 cm think rolls.

Arrange in a big baking dish - with some little space between the each and bake at 180-200 °C for about 20 min (or till well). Frequently- during baking - dizzle with herboil.

When done, take out, let cook or eat hot. Then just enjoy ;)

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Grilled Soysteaks in BBQ-Sauce

Well, for mine today's soysteaks I used another BBQ Marinade, but after eating I did not really found it well, way to salty and not really BBQ-like. So I tried it again the other day with another sauce and it was perfect. (not this picture)!

But it won't withhold you my used marinade for those who wanna try it and try it.

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My used BBQ-Marinade

Ingredients:

100 ml soysauce

2 Tbsp. ketchup

4 Tbsp. oil

1 bunch of spring onion, chopped

pepper

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, let stand for 1 hour the marinade your meat-replace for several hours.

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Here's the BBQ-Marinade I used the next day and profound better...

This easy, no-cook vegan barbecue sauce recipe takes nearly no time to make. It’s especially delicious with plant-based protein foods—tofu, tempeh, and seitan—prepared on the grill. 

Makes: about 2 cups

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari, or to taste
1 teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano or basil

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix/ blend well. Cover and let stand for an hour or so to allow the flavors to combine more fully. But don’t worry if you need to use it right away, it will still be quite good.

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.

 





After a rainy monday the sun is back and it looks like the sun will stay the whole week. AND I had two hard working days and always went home after 6 p.m. totally tired and just wanted to lay down and relax for a while before entering the kitchen.... but - there are two hungry cats waiting for me to be feed first and right after I will start to cook my dinner. As you might imagine most times I'm not eating before 8 p.m.

Anyway, I had to eat something and for today I decided to make a fast and easy dish, served with some roasted bread and a salad. Which just gave me back the strenght and energy I needed.

This small and easy done lunch/ dinner snack you can either do on the grill or in the oven. I decided to make it in the oven, as I'm living on the second floor and I would have first clean my grill (after standing in the shadow over years..) would have taken to much time for me to prepare the peppers. 

Result: The taste was just great -  lightly warm and fresh... enjoy

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Guacamole-Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Makes: 4 servings, 1 pepper each
Active Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

5 small-to-medium poblano peppers

2 ripe avocados, halved and pitted

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup thinly sliced hearts of romaine

 

Direction:
Preheat broiler to High.

Place peppers on a large baking sheet. Broil 3 to 4 inches from the heat source, turning once or twice, until the skins blacken and blister, about 10 minutes total. Transfer to a large bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let stand until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Peel the peppers, leaving the stems attached.

Meanwhile, scoop avocados into a medium bowl and coarsely mash. Add cilantro, onion and salt; stir to combine.

Stem and seed 1 pepper; chop. Stir into the avocado mixture. Make a lengthwise slit through one wall of each of the remaining 4 peppers and carefully remove the seeds. Divide romaine among the peppers, then fill with a generous 1/3 cup guacamole each.