Monthly Archives: February 2013

Whole wheat pasta with roasted carrot sauce

Ingredients:

• 750 gr carrots, peeled and in 1,5 cm thick slices
• 1 onion, peeled, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic (big ones, if they’re small, put more!), unpeeled
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp dry thyme
• 1/2 tsp dry sage
• 200 ml vegetable broth
• salt & pepper
• 60 gr fresh cheese (or crème fraîche)
• 250 gr whole wheat pasta (penne, spirelli…)
• 160 gr grated cheese

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 200-220°C.
2. In a big bowl, mix carrots, onion, garlic cloves, olive oil, sage & thyme. Place in oven proof dish and roast in the oven for 45 minutes, turning once or twice, until carrots have some brown spots. If garlic begins to brown too much, remove from oven earlier.
3. Take carrots out of oven and let cool slightly. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their skins, and add to the bowl of a food processor, together with carrots & onion. Add broth. Process until smooth. Add fresh cheese and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to instructions (minus a minute or so).
5. Drain pasta, reserve some of the cooking liquid. Add carrot sauce to the pot where pasta was cooked, add pasta, and cooking liquid if needed to make a smooth sauce.
6. Serve pasta warm with cheese on top.

Servings: 4 servings

Nutritional info:

Calories: 446
Protein: 24 gr
Fat: 12 gr
Carbs: 62 gr

Next time I’m probably skipping the cheese and serving the pasta & sauce as a side to a veggie schnitzel or something like that.

This is one of the recipes that’s worth making a big batch and freezing it in portions. It’s even tastier if it has time to rest, and it freezes & thaws well. So go ahead and get your big soup pot out to make this.

Chilli con quorn al mole with a side of brown rice

Adapted from “Chilli sin carne al mole”, that can be found in the book Vegan with a vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Ingredients:

• 125 gr (dry weight) white beans
• 250 gr (dry weight) red beans
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• salt
• 2 1/2 tbsp oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 chilli pepper (type of your choice), minced
• 1 bell pepper (in today’s version, yellow), chopped
• 320 gr minced quorn
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp smoked (hot) paprika 
• 4 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 bricks (500 gr each) tomato pieces
• 500 ml vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp agave syrup

Instructions:

1. The night before, place beans in separate bowls, cover with water, add 1 tsp cumin to each and soak overnight. The next morning, drain the beans, put in separate cooking pots, cover with about double the water, add a bay leaf and 2/3 tsp salt to each, bring to a simmer and cook for 45-50 minutes, until soft. Drain.
2. In a big heavy bottomed soup pot (~7l), heat up the oil. Add onion, shallot and garlic and cook, stirring, on medium heat, until transparent. Add the peppers and cook until they start to soften. 
3. Add the quorn, stir to brown slightly. Add all spices and stir, cook for 30-60 seconds, then add the tomatoes, cocoa powder, agave, cooked beans, and vegetable broth.
4. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring from time to time, for about 30 minutes. Let rest for at least half an hour, the more the tastier though. Reheat if needed before serving.

Servings: 8-10 servings, depending on hunger and what it is served with. I like to serve it with either rice, wheat, or potatoes.

Nutritional info: (based on 8/10 servings, no rice/wheat/potatoes…)

Calories: 264 / 211
Protein: 19 / 15 gr
Fat: 6 / 4 gr
Carbs: 34 / 27 gr

If you can’t find quorn, you can use minced seitan, or textured soy protein, or whatever other vegetable protein mince of your choice.

If you don’t want to bother with dry beans, you can substitute canned ones. The 375 gr dried beans yielded 875 gr cooked beans. Make sure to rinse canned beans well. I like to use a mix of white and red because it makes the dish a bit less monocolor.

On the picture you can see the chilli served with brown rice. Oh, and by the way, that’s only half a serving, I don’t like my food to get cold so I serve it in two times.

A mix of sweet and salty, different textures, spices. A warming meal for a cold night.

Seitan stew with raisins and couscous

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled and in cut half moons
• 1/2 courgette, in 1cm cubes
• 200 gr seitan, in bitesized pieces
• 3/4 tsp ras el hanout
• 1 small tin tomato concentrate (70 gr)
• 30 gr raisins
• 120 gr (dry weight) couscous
• salt & pepper
• 1 tbsp dry parsley (or 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Instructions:

For the stew:

1. Put the raisins in a heat resistant bowl, and cover with boiling water.
2. In a broad pan, heat up the oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook on medium heat until golden. Add the carrot, and cook until it turns golden, several minutes. Add the courgette and cook for a few minutes. Add seitan and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring.
3. Add the ras el hanout, and season with salt and pepper. Stir and let the spices cook for about 30 seconds, to release the flavor.
4. Add the tomato paste and about 2-3 tbsp of water to dissolve it. Stir well. Add the raisins and their soaking water. Bring stew to a simmer and let cook for 10 minutes.
5. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

For the couscous:

1. Place couscous in a heat resistant bowl. Add pinch of salt, pinch of black pepper, garlic powder and dry parsley. (If using fresh parsley, add once the couscous is cooked).
2. Bring water to a boil. Measure 150 ml (the same volume as the couscous), and pour over the couscous. Let couscous soak the water for several minutes.
3. Once all water has been absorbed, fluff couscous with a fork before serving warm with the stew.

Servings: 2 servings

Nutritional information:

Calories: 537
Protein: 40 gr
Fat: 7 gr
Carbs: 81 gr

Ras El Hanout is a spice blend used in Morocco and other North African countries. There is no definitive recipe for it, but commonly it will contain cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ground chilli peppers, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, peppercorn and turmeric. If you can’t find it, just use a mix of the spices above.

Sometimes I want an omelette, more often than not, a Spanish one (potato omelette). But I also don’t feel like the pan turning mess waiting to happen. So I cook thick omelettes in the oven. It ends being a cross between an omelette, a fritatta and a (crustless) quiche. It’s just all eggy deliciousness, and you don’t have to hoover over the omelette checking that it sets but doesn’t burn. So, a veggie oven omelette was born:

Oven Omelette

Ingredients:

• 3 medium potatoes (~ 300 gr)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 courgette, (not peeled), chopped in 1cm cubes
• 1 tin sliced mushrooms (~ 115 gr drained)
• 4 medium eggs
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp light cream
• 50 gr light Emmental cheese
• salt & pepper

Instructions:

1. Grease an oven dish with a couple drops of oil. Set aside. Preheat oven to 175°C.
2. Peel the potatoes, put it a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and cook for 10-12 minutes, until just done. Drain, and cut in cubes. Put in the oven dish.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a saute pan. Add shallot and garlic, and cook until transparent. Add carrots and cook for a couple of minutes, then add bell pepper and cook two more minutes. Add courgette and cook another couple of minutes. Finally add the mushrooms and heat through. Season with some salt & pepper. Add the cooked vegetables to the potatoes and stir.
4. In a bowl, whisk eggs with soy sauce, cream and freshly ground pepper. Pour the eggs over the vegetable potato mix. Sprinkle cheese on top.
5. Bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes, until eggs are set and cheese is melted. Serve warm!

Servings: 2 servings.

Yes, another recipe!

Mushroom Seitan Stew with Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled & minced
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 500 gr white mushrooms (or other, to taste), clean & sliced
• 1 tbsp whisky (optional)
• 1/2 tsp marmite (or other yeast extract)
• 1/2 tsp broth powder / granules
• 1/2 tsp dry sage (adjust accordingly if using fresh)
• 1/2 tsp dry rosemary (adjust if fresh)
• 1 dl water
• 200 gr seitan
• salt & pepper
• cornstarch to thicken
• potato mash to serve
• parsley for garnish

Instructions:

1. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add onion and garlic and cook over medium heat until golden. Add mushrooms, and toss to cover in oil. Add a pinch of salt to get the juice of the mushrooms going. Cook until mushrooms have more than halved in volume (do not reduce liquid).
2. Add whisky if using and cook for a couple of minutes. Add sage, rosemary, pepper, marmite and broth powder. Stir to melt the marmite & combine. Add the seitan and cook for a couple of minutes. (Ideally here, let it rest for half an hour, but you can go on without waiting).
3. Bring to a boil, use a cornstarch slurry (1 tsp starch, 1 tbsp water) to thicken stew.
4. Serve piping hot with mashed potatoes. Garnish with parsley.

Servings: 2 servings, can be easily doubled.

Nutritional info (*):

Calories: 453
Protein: 41 gr
Fat: 13 gr
Carbs: 48 gr

(*) Info calculated with approximately 150 gr mashed potatoes (with a tiny bit of butter and some milk) per serving.

Sweet potato curry

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 fat cloves garlic (or to taste), minced
• 1 1/2 – 2 tsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
• 1 small tin mushrooms (115 gr drained)
• 50-60 gr frozen peas
• 1/2 courgette, cut in fourths lengthwise and then in thick slices
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in big pieces
• 200 gr tempeh
• 1 brick / tin tomato pieces (500 gr)
• as needed: sugar, cornstarch
• fresh or dried coriander, for garnish

Make it:

1. Cut the tempeh in cubes approx. 2cm big. Bring a couple cm of water to the boil, and steam the tempeh for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Why do you steam the tempeh? Tempeh tends to have a bitter taste that some people find unpleasant. By steaming it, this bitter taste is reduced to nearly none.
2. Heat the oil in a deep pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook until golden. Add the curry powder and cook for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, peas, courgette, sweet potatoes and steamed tempeh. Add the tomato pieces and add some water as needed to barely cover the contents.
3. Bring pot to a simmer, and let cook for 45 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are easily pierced.
4. Taste, correct acidity if needed with a pinch of sugar. Thicken if needed with cornstarch.
5. Serve warm with coriander leaves for garnish.

Servings: 2 servings as a main meal as is, you could also serve it with rice and make it 4 servings.

And for those interested, the way I made it it turned to be (per serving, counting 2 servings without rice):

Calories: 411
Carbs: 60 g
Fat: 8 g
Protein: 26 g

Values will vary depending on the size of your tablespoon of oil, onion, courgette, sweet potatoes…