Confession: although I have at least five different Indian cookbooks, I made this Indian-inspired recipe from Bon Appetit magazine. Well, with a couple minor adjustments – I added hot sauce and lime juice at the end. It’s not very authentic (whatever that means, really), but it is quick and flavorful.
The roti are a basic recipe, but the more I make them, the better they get. These rolled out super thin and wide, but puffed and blistered perfectly during cooking to give them a nice flaky texture that was soft enough to use for scooping. I also threw a handful of chives in the dough, just because they were handy.
All in all, a satisfying, quick (other than griddling the flatbread) Friday night dinner.
Making up a batch of roti – I rolled them out extra thin and added a handful of chives in the dough, because I had some sitting around, purposeless. I love it when they blister and puff while they brown.
This dish did not turn out especially photogenic, but it was tasty.
Yet another Vegan Eats World inspiration… I followed the recipe pretty closely, aside from the pearl onions; I couldn’t find them organic (boyfriend is antsy about non-organic stuff) and… well, frankly, I am not a big fan. That texture isn’t my favorite. But I did do a quick baby kale braise (in white wine) to go on the side. It’s warm and inviting and tasty.
My favorite thing about a dish like this is that it works best with planning, meaning time spent on the mise-en-place. I LOVE putting together the mise. I don’t know why! It’s incredibly satisfying! I had a tray next to the stove with all the ingredients, prepped and ready to add to the pan as the recipe dictated. A bowl of minced yellow onion! Another of red and yellow bell pepper with a whole ton of minced garlic! A smaller dish with all the spices measured out! The rice, washed and drained and ready to add! Frozen peas, measured, and 1-quart container of vegetable broth just waiting to pour. Half of what they do on cooking shows is just make use of the mise-en-place someone else put together, as if ingredients just come ready to dump from perfectly sized clear glass bowls. THEY DO NOT!
And the prep is most satisfying! The pride I take in a well-diced onion is ridiculous. Yesterday I had perfectly tiny mango cubes for my salad and it filled me with joy I cannot express in words. So if you take nothing else away from this post, please: remember to take pride in your mise.
Continuing my Vegan Eats World tour, tonight’s dinner is the millet mango peanut salad with black-eyed pea patties on the side. I don’t cook millet often, and usually mango is reserved for the boyfriend’s snacking needs, but these sounded like a lovely combination. And–besides the mango and all the dry ingredients–the veggies and aromatics were all available at the farmers’ market. Yum. The picture above is a “snack” portion: I’m headed to Pilates tonight, and Pilates on a full stomach is a bad idea, but I wanted to make sure everything was tasty.
These recipes both made so many portions, you guys. I am expecting mega-leftovers, which is good, since I am on my own for lunch nowadays and these dishes both seem like they’ll keep well. They’re spicy and bright with citrus tang and fresh herbs and onion and have great texture. The patties are a little bit like baked falafel, but softer, since black-eyed peas are decidedly mushier than chickpeas. Plus, the colors! I love a colorful plate.
I was out of cereal, so I had to make blueberry pancakes instead. The boyfriend isn’t into pancakes so I will have to keep the leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast. OH, UNEMPLOYMENT IS SUCH A BURDEN RIGHT NOW.
(It’s been a week. Let me have my snarky freedom.)
This week I actually planned ahead – at least three meals from recipes I haven’t tried before, using some ingredients I don’t normally cook with. Tonight it’s laksa, a (typically nonvegan) Southeast Asian specialty featuring a rich curry broth with rice noodles and herbs. I followed the recipe from Vegan Eats World, so it’s probably more “inspired by” than anything, but I did make everything from scratch.
The first layer in the soup bowl is gently wilted and very roughly chopped baby bok choy flowers and tops. Very tender greens and stems. I nuked it briefly to help it cook quickly once the hot broth hit it.
Next we add rice noodles. Continuing my tendency to evade “authenticity,” I opted for some forbidden rice ramen-style noodles, which are a beautiful purple color and nice texture.
Then I added slices of pan-fried tofu. The recipe calls for tofu puffs, but I had really nice fresh tofu, so I just cooked it up so it’d at least get a bit of a ‘puffy’ crust.
Bean sprouts are a necessary last minute addition. Actually, the recipe suggested napa cabbage as an alternative, which keeps a lot better, but strangely enough, I didn’t see any at the market.
After the soup has simmered for a while, it’s ladled over all of the above. Bright yellow and rich with coconut milk and aromatics, plus the oyster mushrooms.
Topped with chopped cilantro and mint, because that makes everything better. Unless you hate cilantro, I guess.
The recipe didn’t call for it, but I added a quick squeeze of lime juice to my bowl. It’s nice and spicy and chewy and crunchy. I bet the broth will taste better tomorrow–if there’s any left…
Just spent an hour going through some cookbooks I like but don’t cook from often enough, looking for recipes I wouldn’t normally attempt because they have ingredients I don’t regularly buy and/or seem super complicated and time-consuming. I’ll try to make a few of these every week while I can. I’ve got recipes from Isa Does it, Vedge, and Salad Samurai, but half the list is from Vegan Eats World, which I think is a pretty underrated book! I’ve cooked a lot of things from it and had many hits, and still feel like I don’t know it that well. It might be my stealth favorite, simply for ambitiousness and inspiration.
It’s been a while since I felt like I was really in a cooking groove, but I’m getting back to it.
Breakfast was a now-standby chickpea scramble from Isa Does It, with a side of braised chard and toast with Miyoko’s Double Cream Chive and sliced tomatoes. Reliably good. I woud’ve gladly made avocado toast, but our last avocado was too far gone. Alas.
For lunch, I quickly cobbled together these collard wraps stuffed with spicy red beans and rice and topped with leftover carrot ginger dressing. I used canned kidney beans and a little bit of yesterday’s brown rice and just sauteed it with chopped tomatoes, minced onion, a dollop of hot sauce, cumin, coriander, and a handful of chopped fresh cilantro. The collard leaves are just steamed until tender. It’s pretty damn tasty for something I threw together in 20 minutes.
Usually I like to eat out on Friday nights – it’s always been a long week, I’m always tired, I always get home later than usual. But, well – I’ve been home all day, and I have an excess of tasty vegetables. Why not save money and the frustration of deciding where to go and just cook?
It started with my standard last-minute recipe search technique: I had some beautiful fresh shiitake mushrooms and I was in the mood for tempeh, so I searched* for “shiitake tempeh stir fry.” Among the first results was this perfectly acceptable suggestion: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/shiitake-tempeh-and-kale-stir-fry/
Made a few modifications to account for the fresh mushrooms instead of her dried, partially because I hate dried shiitakes but mostly because, hello, beautiful:
But that was minor – subbed vegetable broth for the mushroom liquid in the tempeh marinade, and fresh for dry mushrooms in the stir fry itself. Easy.
After making the marinade and adding the tempeh, I threw a mix of sprouted red rice and plain long grain brown rice in the clay pot while everything else prepped. (This rice combination turned out especially good. I need to find more sprouted red rice.)
I didn’t think this was quite enough of a meal, so I decided to add a simple salad (just mixed baby lettuce) and carrot ginger dressing from the Isa classic Appetite for Reduction. I don’t know how I’d avoided making that recipe before–it is very tasty. I may have used more ginger than it called for, and I have no regrets.
* So until quite recently, I worked on Yahoo’s Search property. Since getting laid off, I decided to switch to another search engine, but feeling contrarian, I opted to set it to DuckDuckGo instead of Google. I know most people won’t care, but good lord, we could have a very long and likely boring conversation about search results.
I just lost my job. Their loss, I tell myself. Onward and upward. Until the next thing comes along, I’ve got plenty of time to reinvigorate my cooking. While I have grand plans about poring over my cookbook collection, pulling out recipes I always meant to try but didn’t have the time or energy to do, etc. etc., I decided to stick with what I know tonight. That is: homemade corn tortillas, fresh guacamole, vegetable saute (onion, mushroom, bell pepper, kale), and seasoned black beans. All from scratch – time! – and mostly from the farmers’ market. It feels good.
I hadn’t made tortillas in awhile, though I had gotten the technique down pretty well. Those damn grain-loving moths finally wormed their way in to my other masa harina stash, so I had to toss it. Anyway, I’ve been resupplied, and I observed some experts (i.e. the ladies filling endless orders for the Oaxacan Kitchen Mobile at the farmers’ market) press TWICE, flipping in between, so I gave it a whirl. It does seem to get them just a bit thinner, which is nice.
Anyway, more to come. Cooking keeps me sane–and fed–and posting about it gives me a nice daily objective. At least, until I get a new job. Fingers crossed.
New Year’s Eve dinner includes leek and potato soup with white beans, wilted arugula salad, and tomato herb pizza bread with a hibiscus orange juice sparkler (no alcohol).
