Portobello-Sandwich

 Lately I was taking a visit in the main city of switzerland - Bern. Years ago I used to go there for school (Job-reason) and every once a time for shopping. Just love this city. 

Knowing that there have opend some vegan stores and small "restaurants", I haven't discovered yet - I traveled up there - a little out of the citycenter. Just curious what to find there. 

I was really surprise - and I spend too much money. Back in the citycenter, I was hungry so I had a look out where I could get some vegan-food. After asking aroung I found a Cafeteria. 

Enjoying a great Sandwich - made with Portobello - Just had to ask how the sandwich have been made. 

Of couse they didn't told me really recipe - but they gave me hint how to prepare. I wrote everything down, as fast as I could on my palm - left. 

Back at home, after a few tries I could prepare a similar sandwich - tasting great as had.  

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Portobello-Sandwich

Portobello mushrooms are the steaks of the vegetarian world. Here, they’re marinated, roasted and sliced for a meaty sandwich filling. 

Serves 4 

30 minutes or fewer 

2 large portobello mushrooms, stemmed
2 Tbs. prepared balsamic vinaigrette
8 tsp. melted vegan margarine or olive oil
2 Tbs. finely chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
8 slices whole-grain bread
vegan-cheddar, sliced, use any you like
1 cup arugula

Preheat oven to 250°C. 
Clean mushrooms and brush with vinaigrette and place on a baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes, turning once. Slice into 1 cm thick strips. 

In a Bowl stir together margarine, parsley, and garlic. Brush 4 bread slices with half of margarine mixture, and set margarine side down on the baking sheet. 

Sprinkle cheese shreds among bread slices on the baking sheet. Top with the brushed mushroom strips, then with arugula. Cover with remaining 4 bread slices. Brush sandwich tops with the remaining margarine mixture. 

Heat large skillet or griddle over medium-low heat. Cook sandwiches in skillet for 4 minutes, or until browned and crisp. Flip, and cook 3 minutes more, or until second side is browned. 

Take out, serve and enjoy!

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.

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).

Nectarine and Watercress Salad with Tarragon-Rasperry Dressing

Salad and again a Salad. At the end of summertime a fruity and fresh salad always goes for Lunch or entree for dinner. For me there is no day without having a bowl of salad. It's so various, either with the ingredients you mix or the Dressing you use. Always tastes different and never the same.

For now my lunchsalad had two different fruits in it. The taste was sweet and spicy both way. Just great. First I wasn't sure if the rasperry compaires with the tarragon but the result was astonishing good.

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Nectarine and Watercress Salad with Tarragon-Raspberry Dressing

 

Serves 4

30 minutes or fewer

To make this salad super colorful, use a mix of yellow and white nectarines and yellow and red cherry tomatoes.

      

Dressing

¼ cup raspberry vinegar

2 small shallots, cut into thin rings

1 large nectarine, cut into chunks

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 tsp. fresh tarragon leaves

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground black pepper

 

Salad

4 cups watercress leaves and small, tender stems

2 nectarines, halved and cut into ½-inch-thick slices

8 cherry tomatoes, halved (1 cup)

½ small cucumber, halved and sliced

¼ cup chopped toasted pecans, for sprinkling

 

1. To make Dressing: pour vinegar over shallots in small bowl; let stand 10 minutes.

2. Place nectarine, oil, tarragon, salt, and pepper in blender. Drain vinegar into blender; reserve shallots. Purée nectarine-vinegar mixture in blender until smooth; season with salt and pepper, if desired.

3. To make Salad: Toss together watercress, nectarines, tomatoes, cucumber, and reserved shallots in large bowl. Drizzle with Dressing, and toss to coat. Sprinkle with pecans.

And of course enjoy your fresh and fruity salad