Lentil Quinoa Stew

I'm bacckkkkkkkkk. Or rather my camera is back.

This dish is a regular winter dish in our household. I can't believe I haven't blogged about it before. It ticks all of the boxes: healthy, cheap, delicious, easy and it's a one pot meal. I really wanted to caculate how much this soup was but was too tricky because a few things were out of the food co-op box, and the quinoa was bought in bulk from costco.

We served ours this week with some gf toast with margarine and nooch.

Lentil Quinoa Stew from La Dolce Vegan

1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 celery stalk, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 ½ cups vegetable stock
½ cup dry red lentils
¼ cup quinoa
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
1 medium tomato, diced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coriander, chopped (we often skip it or replace it with whatever we have on hand, we used parsley this week)

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, sauté the onion in oil until translucent. Add the celery, carrots and garlic and sauté for five minutes. Add the stock, lentils, quinoa, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover with lid and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until lentils are tender.

In a food processor or with a hand blender, blend half of the soup until smooth (I always skip this step since I like it with a bit of texture). Return to pot, stir in tomatoes, vinegar and coriander reheat and serve.

Simon's Vegan Laksa - Vegan MOFO Day 28

We came across this vegan Laksa recipe from the The Cook And The Chef  (You can see the youtube video of the episode here.) and I decided to take on the challenge of making my own Laksa paste! You know, making something form scratch is pretty satisfying sometimes.  

I substituted a few things on the recipe that I couldn't find (I also forgot to grab a lime form the shop and there were none at any supermarkets in Brunswick!!!!).  Instead of using Kaffir lime zest in the paste, I put Kaffir lime leaves in the soup.

Paste
2 teaspoon vegetarian blachan Mighty Mite
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 kaffir lime, zested (I use 3 kaffir lime leaves in the soup instead)
2 stalks lemongrass, finely sliced
1 tablespoon chopped galangal ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric, chopped turmeric powder
2 dried red chillies, deseeded and soaked 2 teaspoon red chillie flakes
30g macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, roasted and ground powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3 coriander roots
80ml peanut oil olive oil, 50ml for the paste, 30ml for frying

Soup
½ small bunch coriander leaves
1 packet Hokkien noodles, egg free rice noodles (500g)
1 bunch Vietnamese mint (rau raum)
300ml coconut milk (Chef's Choice)
600ml vegetable stock
2 limes, juiced 1/4 cup lime juice
1 bok choy, cut into ¼ lengthways
1 small  packet fried tofu (Yenson), cut into chunky slices
Thai seasoned soy sauce Chang's GF soy sauce to taste
2 teaspoons crispy shallot
Bean sprouts
3 red chillies, sliced red chillie flakes

Method

Blend all the paste ingredients in a blender until it becomes a smooth paste. This can be frozen, kept in a sealed jar or cooked for laksa soup.

Heat 30ml of oil in a saucepan and add about four tablespoons of the laksa paste. Fry until fragrant. Add coconut milk (and 3 Lime Leaves) and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Add bok choy and tofu and simmer for a few minutes. Season with Thai soy sauce GF soy sauce and lime juice.


Pour hot water over the hokkien noodles Cook rice noodle in a pot. Drain. Place heated noodles in serving bowls. Pour soup over noodles, making sure every bowl gets bok choy and tofu. Garnish with fresh chilli flakes, bean sprouts, coriander, crispy shallots and a little zested kaffir lime.

I reckon it tasted pretty damn good and authentic.  Not too hard to make too.

Peanut Eggplant and Shallot Stew

About a fortnight ago when the weather was cooler here Toby made this stew it's actually called spicy peanut eggplant and shallot stew but we made it mild.

Peanut Eggplant And Shallot Stew from PPK

1 lb. Eggplant, peeled, chopped in 1/2 inch cubes
1 tsp salt
4 oz. Shallots, peeled and sliced very thin
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 hot chili, seeded and minced (skipped this and used tiny bit of dried chilli flakes)
1” cube of ginger, peeled and minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/8-1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground tumeric
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 16 oz. Can roasted diced tomatoes w/ juice (I used regular diced tomatoes)
5 cups water or light veggie broth
1/2 cup creamy or chunky natural peanut butter
6 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro, lightly packed
chopped roasted peanuts and cilantro leaves for garnish (we skipped this too)

Directions
In a large bowl or colander toss eggplant cubes with salt. Allow to sit of 30 minutes to soften, then gently rinse eggplant chunks with cold running water. Drain and set aside.
In a large stock pot heat 2 T peanut oil over medium high heat. Add shallots and fry, occasionally stirring, for about 20 minutes until very soft, browned and slightly caramelized. Scoop shallots out of pot and set aside.
Add 1 T of oil to pot and add eggplant, stirring to coat with oil. Stir and cook eggplant for 12-15 minutes until slightly tender. Remove eggplant from heat and set aside (I toss it in the same bowl with the shallots).
Add remaining 1 T of oil to the pot again, then add ginger and chile and fry for 30 seconds. Add ground cumin, coriander, tumeric and fry for another 30 second then add onion. Stir and fry till onion is just slightly soft and translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Add tomato paste, stir and fry mixture for 1 minute.
Pour diced tomatoes, water or broth, eggplant, string beans and shallots into pot with frying onion/spice mixture. Stir to combined and raise heat to medium high. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then reduce heat.
In a separate bowl stir peanut butter to combine any separated oils. Pour a ladleful of hot soup onto peanut butter. Stir peanut butter with soup till creamy and peanut butter is completely emulsified. Scrape peanut butter mixture into rest of simmering soup, stirring to combine.
Simmer soup on medium-low heat, covered, for 35-45 minutes or until eggplant is very tender. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro and lemon juice. Salt to taste after soup has cooled for at least half an hour.

We have issues in the past making eggplant dishes, I'm not sure if we don't salt it long enough or don't cook it long enough but it always ends up bitter and a bit too hard but the eggplant was perfect in this. This dish was easy enough to make and had a beautiful rich flavour we will be making it again in winter.

Vietnamese style noodle soup from 1000 vegan recipes

As promised here is the recipe from 1000 vegan recipes, we made quite a few adjustments to make it gluten free:

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 onion, chopped
1 serrano or hot green chilli, seeded and chopped (we used dried chilli flakes)
1 tablespoon of ginger, chopped
3 tablespoons soy sauce (we used tamari)
2 whole star anise (I couldn't find star anise at the supermarket so left it out)
5 cups of vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of barley miso paste (we used white miso paste without barley so it was g/f)
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime
1/2 cup hot water
4 ounces (113 grams) dried rice noodles
6 ounces (170 grams) dried seitan (we used smoked tofu but like Batgirl's idea of using fried tofu)
1/2 cup fresh bean sprouts (we left this out since apparently you used eat bean sprouts when taking traditional Chinese medicine)
3 green onions chopped for garnish
1/4 cup chopped coriander for garnish

1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, cover and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Add the chilli and ginger and cook unitl fragrant. Stir in the soy sauce, anise and broth. Simmer, uncovered for 45 minutes to allow flavours to blend. Strain the soup and return it to the pot discarding the solids. (Toby skipped the straining stage)
2. In a small bowl combine miso, hoisin, lime juice and water and add to the soup, stir in the noodles and the seitan. Cook until the noodles are soft about 10 minutes.
3. Ladle the soup into 4 bowls and garnish with bean sprouts, green onions and cilantro.

Enjoy!

Soup for the soul

Again, a dish that I made in my early vegan days. I love this soup, it has lots of veggies in it and is the type of thing that requires lengthy cooking time but that's when you get to go blog or whatever. We had this for dinner and then had it as leftovers the following day as a pasta sauce.

This recipe makes a lot so be prepared for leftovers, it freezes well too:

2 cups green lentils
1 head garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed
2 medium onions finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bunch celery chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4-5 carrots sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
4 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
8 to 10 cups water or vegetable stock
2 bay leafs (remove before serving)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste


1. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about five minutes or until soft.

2. Add onions and garlic to stock pot with water or stock.

3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally for at least 1 hour. Like most soups of this type, this one will taste even better the second day when the flavors have had a chance to develop.



This has got to be one of the least appealing food pics, but it's better to have crappy images, than none right?

Soups make winter bearable

We have been making lots of yummy soups lately. I can't remember exactly which one this was and I have lots more pics that even I won't post.



My two favourite soups so far include Cheri's Hearty Garlic and Lentil Vegetable soup which is so warming and comforting when you have a cold.

2 cups green lentils
1 head garlic, peeled and finely minced or pressed (we used less than this)
2 medium onions finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bunch celery chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4-5 carrots sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
4 medium potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes
8 to 10 cups water or vegetable stock
2 bay leafs (remove before serving)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste


1. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about five minutes or until soft.

2. Add onions and garlic to stock pot with water or stock.

3. Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occassionally for at least 1 hour. Like most soups of this type, this one will taste even better the second day when the flavors have had a chance to develop.

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A surprisingly awesome combination is apple and pumpkin soup from the great big vegetable challenge. The apple just adds a nice sweetness to this otherwise savoury soup. It has inspired me to try other soup recipes that I have seen about that contain fruit.

Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Soup

500g roasted pumpkin flesh

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 medium onions finely chopped

2 tablespoons of rape seed oil (or olive oil)

2 medium cooking apples, peeled cored and diced

1 roasted garlic bulb ( roast at same time as pumpkin flesh)

1 and a quarter pints (750 ml) of vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to season

Roast the pumpkin flesh by scraping out the flesh in large chunks and laying it in a baking tray, season with salt and pepper and mix round with a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Roast in the oven at 180 for about 35 to 40 minutes. Wrap whole garlic bulb in foil with a little oil drizzled on top and roast at the same time.

In a small frying pan, gently saute the chopped onions and apple together until both are soft.

Puree roast pumpkin, add squeezed out roast garlic. Add onion and apple and stock and puree with a hand held blender or in a food processor. Cook in a large pan over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Dutch Pea SoupHow come the books pic is yellow and not green like mine, it does contain GREEN split peas after all?

Ok, so you are probably sick of me talking about Las Vegan's Soup For All Seasons cookbook, but this will be the last one for the while or my other cookbooks will get jealous.

I couldn't wait to try the dutch pea soup after Lisa Dempster raved about it. I started cooking it, again excited by the simplicity. Have I mentioned i'm a pretty lazy cook? I was a little worried by the yucky smell of it cooking, it kind of reminded me of the smell of cabbage soup or something like that, but it was delicious. Although I do disagree with Lisa about one thing, I like it with the soy hot dogs.

While on the topic of Las Vegan, I went back yesterday and decided that the ginger-lemon muffin is my fav muffin and cajun eggplant calzone is the greatest.

Weird food combination trial 1

As per my request Mr T made Green Gourmet Giraffe's Peanut Stew with Bananas.

This recipe rocks and banana does actually go quite well with Parsley. The stew is yummy by itself so even if you aren't adventurous you can make enjoy it minus the Banana salsa, but the salsa adds something special to the dish. I've added it to the huge list of things that we should made again.

Next on the list of combinations to try is either Strawberries and Coriander or Mint and Mustard. Or maybe I will try to participate in time for the latest They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT) #7: caramelized cauliflower and Cocoa.