Tapas! (mostly)

Due to an inspiration which I shall not mention here, I picked up a couple of Spanish Cookbooks at my local library, bent on veganizing some traditional Spanish recipes. Paging through Penelope Casas' book "¡Delicioso! The Regional Cooking of Spain," I came across two tapas recipes that were already vegan and that looked mighty tasty. That inspired George and I to put together a meal around these two recipes. We came up with this menu:

-Coriander-Scented Batter-Fried Eggplant (which we baked instead of frying)
-Spinach and Chickpeas, Sivilla Style
-Chili, Lime and Cilantro Grilled Tofu
-Pan Grilled Vegetables (zucchini, red peppers, onions, baby bellos and asparagus)
-Roasted Potatoes with Garlic Alioli
-Olives

The first two dishes were from "Delicioso," as was the alioli that George whipped up. The pan grilled veggies came from a recipe in Janet Mendel's "Food of La Mancha: Cooking from the heart of Spain." The tofu recipe was something I came up with on the spot, and is exactly what it sounds like, tofu marinated with fresh roasted chilis, lime juice and cilantro, then grilled on the forman grill.

Photographic evidence:

Chili, Lime and Cilantro Grilled Tofu



Coriander-Scented Batter-Fried Eggplant



Spinach and Chickpeas, Sivilla Style



Pan Grilled Vegetables



The Spread



Plated


The Spinach and Garbanzo Bean Tapas dish was by far our favorite. It was made with this paste that you made by frying bread and garlic together and then adding salt and vinegar. Definitely a keeper. I will work on a fat-free version and then post the results here in the futre.

Fat Free Vegan Recipe Source #1

When I am searching for a recipe, and I want it to be fat free and vegan (which is most of the time that I am cooking for myself), one of the places that I turn to is the FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipe index. Most of the recipes that I have ever made from there are pretty good, and if I don't follow the recipe to the letter (which I usually don't do, for whatever reason), they provide a good basis for experimentation.

I asked George to pick a couple of recipes to make while he was here, and he ventured over to the MWLP recipe page at fatfreevegan.com (btw, the blog is my favorite vegan blog, best photography too!). These are the two that he picked out:

Orange Millet Pilaf


George made this one himself. It was pretty good, but wasn't the best centerpiece for a meal. We had it cold today for lunch, and we thought it work better as a cold side. We serve it that night with a cold boiled potato and spinach salad, which was really good.



Quinoa Vegetable Jumbalaya


This was pretty good, nice flavor. However, we both would have preferred a rice Jumbalaya, but even that didn't stop us from eating it for lunch for two days straight.

Stay tuned for a post about my other favorite online recipe index!

Snack Emergency!

What do you do when you need a snack, and air popped popcorn doesn't sound like it will fit the bill? Well, you roast chickpeas of course!!!

See?

mmmmmmmm.... (that's a tiny bowl, not a collection of gigantic chickpeas).

They took an hour, but that allowed me to chill and drink some water, and by the time they were done, I was ready to snack!

Check out the recipe here. They take 50 minutes to roast, so you better get started!

Susan V's Creamy Zucchini and Basil Soup

See? More yummy basil creations. Christopher joined George and I for dinner last night, and I whipped this up after spending the afternoon locked in my bedroom writing. This was also pretty easy to create, and very tasty! Get the recipe on the FatFree Vegan Kitchen Blog.

I adjusted the recipe by adding a little more basil and cashews (I think my zucchini's were bigger, I'm not bragging, they just were).

I served this up with a fresh veggie salad, using up some CSA veggies and my trusty bag of spinach.

YumYummy Basil Cream Pasta

This was a quick and easy dinner I found at Vegan YumYum via Vegan Crunk. It was really easy and very good. My basil plant, that I picked up at my CSA last spring, has transformed itself into a bush, so I was happy to find a recipe that used up a bunch. More yummy basil creations to come.

I am a newbie to the whole raw cashew as vegan substitute for creaminess, and I am in love.
I served this with a side of steamed broccoli, and really, how could you go wrong with steamed broccoli?

Asian Millet Burgers

Asian Millet Burger with spicy mustard, cucumber and dill salad, and carrot sticks

In a search for a new kind of veggie burger, and a way to use some of the excess millet I had, I came up with this recipe for Asian Millet Burgers. I was inspired by a recipe I found on RecipeZaar for a millet burger that had ginger in it, and remember I had some dried shitake mushrooms in pantry, so I decided to do these up Asian style.

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup millet
3 cups water
pinch of salt
1 package dried shitake mushrooms (reconstituted per instructions)
1 onion, chopped
1 cup shredded carrot
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 handful chopped parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon vegan egg replacer, plus two tablespoons cold water

Heat the oil in a sauce pan, and add the garlic and ginger. Saute until fragrant, and then add the millet. Heat the millet until it is coated in oil and is browned just a little. Add the water, bring to a boil, and cook for 30 minutes, or until the millet has absorbed the water and is nice and fluffy. Remove from heat.

In a skillet, cook the onion in a bit of water, until translucent. Add the celery, carrots, and mushrooms, and cook until all the veggies are soft. Add the Braggs and crushed red pepper. Remove from heat and combine it with the cooked millet.

After you let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes, add the parsley, cornmeal, and egg replacer. I used my hands to combine everything, and it seemed to work well. If the mixture is too wet, add some more cornmeal. If it is too dry, you can try to add some water or more Braggs.

Form the mix into patties with your hands. Makes 8-10 patties.

I cooked them on my Forman Grill, and as always, the results were tastey.

Roasted Red Pepper Nacho Cheese Sauce

First of all, this has no cheese in it. However, it has a great texture and is packed with flavor , way better then of the nasty processed cheese you get in the can (IMHO). The main ingrediants are raw cashews and nutritional yeast.


This is straight version of the recipe I found on Shmooed Food, only I replaced the pimentos with 2 roasted red peppers, and added a tablespoon of turmeric for color (it was too red!).


I enjoyed it with with some veggie chili I cooked up on Saturday night, and then as a dipping sauce with some carrots and celery while I was watching football on Sunday.

Be sure to head over to Shmooed Food to check out the recipe. Highly recommended.