Author Archives: Sade

It happens to be that my in-laws (a.k.a. Jan’s parental units) keep geese in their garden. They also keep hens. It also happens to be that a week or so ago, the weather went somewhat nuts and decided to go from below freezing to a balmy 15°C during the day. And so the geese decided it was a good time to lay some eggs. So when Jan passed by to fix their computer, he came back home with two geese eggs.

The first time I ate this kind of egg was also from the in-laws geese, a couple of years ago. I made some scrambled, and I also turned one into a sponge cake. The taste was quite surprising. Strong. Absolutely not what I’m used to. But then I had only eaten chicken eggs and quail eggs before. Not what you’d call strong flavor. So what is one to make when such an egg comes to reside in one’s fridge? Well, today it was an(other) oven omelette. The second egg might turn into cake. Or egg salad. I don’t know yet.

And here is where the goat cheese comes into place. I had one roll of it leftover after making the mushroom & pumpkin Wellington last Saturday, so it has to be used. Today was as good a day as any other, turning our plain oven omelette into something a bit more special.

Oven omelette with goose egg & goat cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 courgette, diced
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled (~300 gr)
• 1 goose egg
• 100 ml milk
• 90 gr goats cheese, in 8 slices
• salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes (whole) and cook for 8 minutes, until just cooked. Drain and cut in 5-7 mm slices.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a saute pan. Add the garlic and onion and cook until golden, then add the green pepper and cook until just soft. Finally add the courgette and cook until some pieces start to turn golden.
4. In a bowl, crack the egg (use a knife to crack it open, rather than the side of the bowl). Whisk, add the milk and whisk some more. Season.
5. In an oven proof dish, mix sliced cooked potatoes and courgette mix. Pour the eggy mixture over it. Then distribute the cheese on top.
6. Bake in the top half of the oven at 180°C for 20-25 minutes, until egg is set and cheese is melty to golden.

Servings: 2 servings

Nutritional info:

Calories: 491
Protein: 27 gr
Fat: 25 gr
Carbs: 41 gr

Last night we had guests over, and so I went all out with the cooking skills. Because while I love cooking for the two of us, it’s more fun when you can make more things and surprise people. The menu of the night was:

And today’s recipe is the Lavender tofu cheesecake with shortbread crust. It is elaborate? Well, yes, it’s a cheesecake. But at the same time it’s easy if you just follow the steps. So get baking and enjoy the vegan deliciousness.

Lavender tofu cheesecake with shortbread crust

Ingredients:

For the shortbread crust:

• 1 cup (wholewheat) pastry flour
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp water (if needed)

For the lavender tofu cheesecake:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 tsp + 2 tsp lavender
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 500 gr (= 2 blocks) firm tofu
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp agave syrup (*)
• 3 tbsp cane sugar syrup (*)
• 2 tbsp + 2 tsp cornstarch

(*) You can use both syrups, or just one, but make it 6 tbsp total. The cheesecake is not too sweet as it is!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

For the shortbread crust:

1. Place the flour, nuts, and salt in a food processor and blend until finely ground.
2. With the processor running on low speed, slowly add the oil, maple syrup, and vanilla (water if needed). Process for a few seconds to form a crumbly dough, then transfer to a 9-in spring form pan. Press the mixture evenly over the bottom and about 1/3 of the sides. Set aside.

For the lavender tofu cheesecake:

1. Bring almond milk to a simmer, add 2 tsp lavender, simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Let infuse until milk is cool, then strain. 
2. Add lemon juice to milk. It will thicken. Set aside. 
3. In food processor, mix tofu, oil and agave syrup until smooth. Sprinkle cornstarch on top and add the thickened soy milk. Blend until smooth. With a spatula, mix in the last 2 tsp lavender.
4. Pour tofu mixture over crust. Place on baking tray, just below the middle of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Lower temperature to 160°C and bake an additional 15-30 minutes, until set. Cover with foil if it browns too much.
5. Let cool completely before removing from form.

Servings: 8 servings

Nutritional information:

Calories: 325
Protein: 12 gr
Fat: 18 gr
Carbs: 27 gr

Do you really need a recipe to make curry? In my opinion, no. But then most recipes are only guidelines! This is what our curry turned out to be this time, but it might be different next time.

Curry with chickpeas & quorn

Ingredients:

• 100 gr dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in cold water
• salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 big garlic cloves, minced
• 2 carrots, peeled, sliced in rounds
• 1 yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1/2 courgette, cut in 1,5 cm cubes
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 500 gr tin / tetrapack tomato pieces
• 300 gr quorn “chicken style” pieces
• 1 tin (160 gr) coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the bay leaf and chickpeas, bring to a simmer and cook for 1,5h, or until chickpeas are tender. Drain and keep chickpeas aside.
2. Heat oil in a big pot. Cook onion & garlic until golden, then add carrot and cook until they start to turn a lighter shade. Add the bell pepper & courgette and cook for a few minutes, letting them turn slightly golden.
3. Add the curry powder and cook, stirring, for a minute. Add the chickpeas, quorn, and tomato pieces. Add 1 dl water (approx, just enough to get the liquid to barely cover everything). Bring to a summer and cook for 10-15 minutes.
4. Add the coconut milk and stir through. Cook for a minute or so.
5. Serve with potatoes (as on the picture) or rice.

Servings: 4 servings

Nutritional info: (without potatoes or rice, per serving)

Calories: 334
Protein: 20 gr
Fat: 12 gr
Carbs: 35 gr

Stir fry with tempeh

This isn’t a recipe, as much as a what I threw together for dinner on Friday. But if you’re curious, it contained:

Ingredients:

• 200 gr tempeh
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 banana shallot, chopped
• 2 (fat) cloves garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, peeled, in half moons
• 1 green bell pepper, in about 2×2 cm pieces
• 1/2 courgette, in half moons
• 125 gr egg noodles
• 1 tbsp dry chilli pepper rounds (or fresh), or to taste
• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Instructions:

1. Put a couple cm water in a bot with steam insert. Cut the tempeh in quarters lengthwise and then in 8 equal parts width wise. Place in steam basket and steam for 5 minutes. Remove the tempeh, discard the water, and rinse pot. Steaming the tempeh removes part of the bitter taste some people complain about, so don’t skip it.
2. Fill previous pot with enough water to cook the egg noodles in. Add salt, bring to a boil, and cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan (or a wok, your choice). Start by cooking onion & garlic for a couple of minutes. Add the chilli pepper, and cook for a minute, then add the bell pepper and cook for a couple of minutes, then the carrot and cook for two minutes, and finally the courgette and cook for another couple minutes.
4. Add the tempeh to the stir fry and heat through for a few minutes. Add the soy sauce and mix through.
5. Divide noodles over dishes. Divide stir fry as well and place on top. Enjoy!

Servings:  2 servings

Nutritional info:

Calories: 461
Protein: 28 gr
Fat: 9 gr
Carbs: 67 gr

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.