Tag Archives: Vegan

The Spice of Life

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I suspect until December, you’re going to keep hearing about how busy my life is.  Rest assured I have been cooking delicious things and not just subsisting off of only instant  ramen.  The garden is still going, with peppers and carrots and herbs currently and beets and daikon in the works.  However, my slow cooker has become one of my best friends.  I can throw stuff in there and leave it alone while I study and have delicious food for the week.

One of my favorite recipes I made recently in the slow cooker was slow cooker lasagne.  Here’s the original recipe.  I’ll admit, I did use jarred spaghetti sauce because I was short on time.  However, I mixed zucchini, poblano peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and fresh basil into the ricotta mixture and that made it quite tasty and special.  Easy as pie, except that it’s sort of hard to fit lasagne noodles into an oval shaped slow cooker.

Another favorite recipe I tried was lentil meatballs . I substituted laughing cow cheese for ricotta and add a ton more fresh herbs, but they came out fantastic and were freezable in individual ziplocs for whenever I heated up jarred sauce.

I’ll admit that on the part time vegetarian front as of late, I’ve been a little slackery.  Making the kind of vegetarian food I like takes time, which can be lacking.  I’ll keep trying, though, because there are too many reasons and benefits to not at least reduce my meat consumption.

Along that line, I recently discovered a brand of Thai curry paste that doesn’t contain shrimp paste (like most curry pastes do): Amoy-D. My only beef with it is that I always have to add sugar to the curry because the curry paste itself is more savory than the ones I’m used to.  Today I made panang curry with fried tofu, butternut squash, apples and mango.  This time the fruit helped sweeten it up so I didn’t need to add sugar.

Curry is so versatile…you can put just about anything in it really, sort of like fried rice.  Why fried tofu? Because frying gives it a better texture and allows it to soak up more sauce/curry/whatever.

I made a big batch for my lunches for this week, because that’s what I do nowadays…make huge batches of something tasty and force myself to eat it for 3-5 days.

  • 1 cup of extra firm tofu cut into dice-sized cubes
  • 1-2 cups of vegetable or peanut oil for frying
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup panang curry paste (more or less, depending on your tastes)
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled with seeds removed and cut into large chunks (3″ or so)
  • 2 carrots, cut into half coins
  • 3 lime leaves (preferably kaffir, but if you have regular lime leaves it’s better than nothing)
  • 3 coins ginger or galangal
  • 2 small red peppers, cut into rings
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 1 apple, cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks (or fresh)
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas
  • 2/3 cup Thai basil leaves (substitute regular basil if you have to I guess)
  • 2/3 cup cilantro leaves

First, dry the tofu and cut it into the dice sized cubes.  Drying it is important!  This way it won’t splatter quite as much when you fry it.  If you want to be extra careful, you can squeeze as much water out of the tofu as possible and then dry it after you cut it into dice cubes too.

Heat the oil in a pot or wok until a drop of water added to the pan splatters.  Add tofu, stir constantly until tofu is golden brown and looks sort of like little sponges.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Set aside.

Add the coconut milk to a good sized soup pot and add water to thin it to the consistency somewhere between paste and milk.  Heat on medium. Add the curry paste and blend it in with a spoon or spatula.

Add in the harder vegetables: butternut and carrot.  Also add the lime leaves and ginger coins.  If using non-kaffir lime leaves, smoosh them up a bit in your hands before adding to the pot to release more of the essential oils.

Let this simmer until the butternut squash starts to get a bit soft, then add the peppers, apple, green onion, mango, and peas.

Let this cook for a couple of minutes at a low simmer, until the butternut is cooked to where it is soft enough to be cut with a fork.  Then add in the herbs (basil, cilantro) at the last minute.  Turn off the heat and mix well.

It doesn’t look glamorous, but it tastes fantastic.

A thank you to whoever actually reads this blog.  May all your tasty dreams come true!

 

Italian Confetti Sauce

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I’ve been inspired lately to try cooking spaghetti squash.  It has so many more vitamins and minerals than regular ol’ spaghetti.  I’d say this is probably a pretty Californian concept– who in their right mind would want to substitute vegetables for carbs?  People who like fresh vegetables a lot…like Californians…and crazy people like me who like to experiment with things.  I’m not the biggest squash fiend, though, but I am a tomato addict.  As such, I figured I’d make a spaghetti sauce type thing to go on top of some spaghetti squash.

The produce this time of year is fabulous, so my sauce ended up more like a stew.  I threw in some asparagus, bell peppers, etc.  I’ve been known to add grated carrots to this sort of thing on occasion too, but I figured I’d be getting enough Vitamin A from the squash. I kind of like my sauce that way…nice and chunky with tons of mushrooms.  And by tons, read on to see exactly how much I mean.

The colors and all of the different vegetables inspired me to call it “Confetti Sauce”.  It could very well be a stew, too, though.

Kestrel’s Italian Confetti Sauce

(can be served on Spaghetti Squash or used as a sauce for other things)

Ingredients


Required Ingredients

  • 5 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh basil (preferred), but at least 1 tsp dried basil if no fresh basil
  • 1 tsp dried oregano (or substitute fresh if you have it, about 1 tbsp minced)
  • 1 bell pepper (or 2 small ones)
  • mushrooms (at least 1/2 cup chopped)

Optional Ingredients

  • 1 smallish spaghetti squash
  • 2 hot chili peppers (cut up finely)
  • about 1/2 cup crumbled tempeh (seasoned with a bit of soy sauce)
  • 1 cup chopped fresh cherry tomatoes
  • 4 stems asparagus
  • 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (I didn’t have any here, but you’d add it in with the basil & other herbs)
  • whatever other vegetables you have lying around, diced

Microwaved & baked

Prepare the spaghetti squash if you’re going to use it.  My squash came with directions on the sticker!  Here’s roughly what it said:

Stab squash repeatedly all over
Preheat oven to 375 F
Microwave 2-3 minutes per pound, until skin is soft (I ended up doing about 12 minutes, which was more than was recommended, but it turned out fine)
When cool enough to handle, transfer to a baking dish
Bake whole at 375 F for an hour
Let cool, cut in half
Remove seeds
Use fork to pull the squash meat out in spaghetti-like threads
Serve as desired

Cut in half

Spaghetti strings!

Set the spaghetti squash strings aside in a bowl.

In a big pot, add olive oil, garlic, onions, hot chilis (optional).  Bring heat up to medium-high.

Salt & pepper to taste.  Stir well and frequently until onions become translucent and begin to get just a little golden.  Do not burn them, though, because burnt garlic tastes awful.  This is the secret (along with fresh herbs and patience) to any great spaghetti sauce.

Add fresh cherry tomatoes and tempeh (optional).  I like the tempeh because it adds some protein to the dish.  The cherry tomatoes make it a little sweeter than with just acidic canned tomatoes.  Cook 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring frequently.

Add can of tomatoes, mix in well.

Add in whatever veggies you’ve got lying around (I used 4 asparagus stems & 2 small bell peppers).  Stir well.  Cook for 5 minutes on medium-low heat.

Add mushrooms (I used over 2 cups because I seriously love me some mushrooms).  Stir well, until thoroughly mixed.  Cook, uncovered, on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft.

Serve over the spaghetti squash or use the sauce however you want.  If you want to make this non-vegan and with more fat but probably more awesome tasting, top with some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Vegan for a Day

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Lately, I’ve found myself eating a lot of saturated fats and cholesterol in the form of cheese, meat, butter, etc.  My body doesn’t seem too happy about it, and I’m a little paranoid of an expanding waistline. Today my plan was originally to eat only fresh fruits and vegetables, to help give me some fiber and vitamins I’ve probably been missing out on.  I realized, though, that my taste buds wouldn’t forgive me for that, so I included some nuts and carbs.

Breakfast: banana, fruit and almonds from farmer’s market

Lunch: vegetable (green been, green onion, turnip, and cilantro) fried rice and miso soup with spinach, edamame, and corn

Snack: sourdough toast (with olive oil, salt, and paprika), a grapefruit, and some black tea

Dinner: portobello mushroom tacos (recipe below)

Portobello Mushroom Tacos

(Serves 1– 2 tacos)

The trick here to keep the mushrooms from getting too soggy is to roast them at 375 F for a while, drain off the water, then broil them for a few minutes.  This will make your tacos neater to eat and let the mushrooms have a good chewy texture.  If I were going to do this again, I may actually mash the avocado and spread it on the tortilla before adding the mushrooms and everything on top of that, to make it a bit more like cheese.  Overall, it came out quite good and refreshing, even if it was vegan.

Ingredients

  • 1 portobello mushroom with a firm cap, sliced into 1/2″ thick strips
  • vegetable oil spray
  • 1/2 pasilla pepper, sliced into 1/4″ rings
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
  • pinch salt
  • a couple of pinches of cumin
  • 2 corn tortillas
  • vegetable oil
  • 1/4 of an avocado, sliced into 4 strips
  • veggie toppings recommended: cilantro (lightly chopped), finely diced onion, diced tomato, lime (to squeeze on top)
  • hot sauce

Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a loaf pan lightly with vegetable oil spray.  Lay mushrooms, peppers, and garlic in the pan.  Let roast for about 20 minutes, then drain the water off.  Sprinkle with salt, cumin (and perhaps a little black pepper or cayenne pepper if you want).  Set oven to broil, return mushroom mixture to the oven and let broil for 5-10 minutes, until garlic cloves are well roasted.  Remove from oven and let cool while preparing tortillas.

Fry the tortillas on each side in a little vegetable oil, until golden brown.  Place on a plate, top with mushroom mixture.  Top this with avocado, cilantro, onion, tomato.  Add hot sauce as desired, and squeeze lime juice on top.

Would I do this whole-day-vegan thing again?  Not unless necessary for my health, I think. The tacos were pretty good, though.