cookbook_challenge | Entries tagged with vegan

This recipe has been lurking in my recipe bookmarks folder for a couple of years, and it presented itself to me when I was poking the folder in search of something to cook this week. I still had some orzo left from my last semi-disastrous attempt at a one-pot dish involving orzo, so I thought that I'd use some of it up and give the recipe a try.

You can find the recipe here, from Meera Sodha at the Guardian: Meera Sodha's vegan recipe for broccoli, fennel, and chickpea stew.

I followed the recipe pretty closely (some of my cooking times were longer than suggested, and my prep time was MUCH longer). I substituted a shallot, which I had, for an onion, which I didn't have. I used a shake of red pepper flakes for the green chili pepper, and I replaced the wine with all broth, plus the juice of one lemon. It turned out pretty well! Straight out of the pot the flavours weren't that strong, and I definitely undersalted it, but it had a pleasant sweetness from the fennel and I enjoyed it! I also think it's a dish that will improve as leftovers, to be confirmed at lunch tomorrow.

I can see how the wine would give the recipe more flavour, if you had some and could be bothered, and it might also be good with more lemon juice than I used, if you have a digestive system that can tolerate that. I'll note that although it's a vegan recipe, a little parmesan cheese sprinkled on top was a nice addition, and if you weren't vegetarian or vegan, you could probably rework the whole thing a little to incorporate some fennel sausage or something like that.

monksandbones

The Rebar Modern Food Cookbook has been my favorite since my mom gave me a copy to wish me well in my second year of grad school in 2007, long before I moved to the home of Rebar Modern Food itself. Most of the recipes in it that I haven't already cooked are lurking perpetually somewhere on my to-cook list. After I more or less lived through the winter on *mumble* cans of Amy's Organic Split Pea Soup and decided I should try making some split pea soup of my own, this recipe climbed to the top! Of course, after a cold and rainy/drizzly start to the week, this afternoon was warm and sunny and not perfect for soup, but oh well! It's a tasty soup, and one that I suspect will improve with sitting for a while!

From Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowicz, Rebar Modern Food Cookbook (Victoria, BC, 2001).

( Ingredients )

( Instructions )

I made a few slight modifications to the recipe: I didn't pre-heat my stock, and I couldn't face puréeing my can of chipotles in adobo so I substituted 1 tsp of chipotle chili powder, which I added with the red pepper flakes while I was sauteing the vegetables. My system can also only take so much garlic, so I skipped the two bulbs of roasted garlic and used six cloves of minced garlic instead of two. I used fresh sage, which I think from the volume given is what the recipe intended, although I think it would also work with smaller quantities of dry sage.

I had to add another teaspoonful or so of salt at the eating stage.

The soup has a pleasant heat to it with the quantities of red pepper flakes and chipotle given in the recipe. If you don't like things a little spicy, you could reduce the quantities, or maybe skip the red pepper flakes altogether. I'm also reserving final judgement until I've seen how the flavours develop over the next few days of leftovers, but I'm tentatively thinking that when I make this again, I might reduce the liquid smoke down to 1/2 tsp. It's a nice taste, but strong!

ioplokon

This a recipe from Just One Cookbook that I'd been meaning to make for a while & I finally had some leftover rice. I gave a simple summary of the method here, but the version on the site has photos, recommendations, and in-depth instructions. Though, just a warning, it also includes calories and nutrition information at the bottom of the instructions, so don't scroll below step 12 (presentation) if you'd rather not see that.

The recipe for the eggplant is really simple. You just cut into thin, long strips (preserving as much contact w/ the peel as you can for structural integrity). Salt & let sit for 20 mins. Pull out 4 Tbs soy sauce & 2 Tbs mirin. Prepare grated/chopped ginger while you wait. Dry & coat with potato/corn starch (or flour). Heat 2Tbs vegetable oil in a pan. Add eggplant. Sear 3-4 mins. Reheat rice while waiting. Add 2 Tbs more oil & flip the eggplant. Sear again for 3-4 mins. Add soy sauce and mirin, stir around & simmer until eggplant is coated. Serve on top of rice & garnish with green onion or similar.

I also added some fried tofu because I had it already in my fridge, but I think this would have been great and filling w/ the eggplant alone.

monksandbones

I've historically focused on cooking stew-type things in my slow cooker, but this weekend I decided to try one of my slow cooker soup recipes, which I left simmering while I was at work today, just in time to be my January post for my new 1–2 posts a month 2022

cookbook_challenge commitment!

The recipe is from Judith Finlayson, The Vegetarian Slow Cooker.

( Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup with Coconut )

The soup turned out to be decently tasty, and worth experimenting with making again! I think if I made it again I'd want it spicier–more red pepper flakes, definitely, and more curry powder and more effort to hunt down the right kind of fresh hot pepper as well. I think I would also try a smaller amount of tomato. The big can of tomato made the tomato flavour a little overpowering to me, especially compared to the squash. Finally, I would definitely use light not regular coconut milk next time. I don't know what I was thinking! Regular coconut milk is really rich and this is not that much soup for the amount of coconut milk!

tielan

Moroccan Tagine with Vegetables and Chickpeas from "Food as Medicine" by Sue Radd

( Moroccan Tagine with Vegetables and Chickpeas )

tielan

The introduction to this recipe says "a colourful lasagne that is both dairy-free and meat-free! As it takes a while to prepare, I always make this recipe in stages. Lasagne is also best made the day before, as it is less likely to fall apart. The good news is that this recipe will feed a party - but you will require a large lasagne tray. Or halve the recipe and use a small one."

recipe
Cookbook challenge

notes, thoughts, changes: This was a fiddly dish - the roasting, then making the tofu ricotta, then layering the elements, then baking - but it was delicious once made!

I really liked the tofu ricotta - the miso and garlic make it absolutely amazing. If you wanted a dairy-free cheeselike sauce or filling and didn't mind the strong flavours? This would do really well as a substitution.

Cookbook challenge

As the introduction suggested, I made a giant pan of the stuff, and froze half of it for later eating. We've just finished the last of it this week and it was still extremely edible.

I'll definitely make it again, when the ingredients are to hand - most likely in the autumn, when there's a glut of the vegies in question.

tielan

The recipe is from the book Levant by the proprietor of the UK restaurant Tanoreen.

Cauliflower Steaks with Pomegranate Tahini

The recipe is produced online here and actually gives credit to the chef and the book. (Other ones by chef bloggers didn't.)

( full text under cut )

August

notes, thoughts, adjustments: It's a slightly tricksy recipe: lots of little moving parts, and quite a bit of messiness. Deep frying is probably easier if you have an air-fryer, although it's the dipping and crumbing part that is the truly messy bit.

I didn't have pomegranate molasses or harissa for the sauce, so I just blended up some pickled kumquats and added them in, looking for the tangy, bright fruity taste to cut through the breaded and deep-fried cauliflower. It definitely worked for my tastebuds!

In spite of all the hassle and fuss, it's delicious and a show-stopper and I would definitely make it again. It also ends up with a lot of smaller pieces of cauliflower that can be used to make a creamy soup or a cauliflower gratin.

Now I have to find a vegie dish with some nice vivid colours (greens, oranges, reds) to serve with the cauliflower steaks!

hudebnik

Recipe at Epicurious or 177 Milk Street.

Executive summary: peel and cut up broccoli, saving the stems and leaves. Boil the stems and leaves until fully tender, c. 10 minutes. Add fresh spinach until wilted, c. 20 seconds. Fish out the green stuff and put in a blender. Boil the broccoli florets in the same water for c. 3 minutes, fish out and rinse. Boil pasta in the same water to al dente. Meanwhile, add garlic, capers, lemon zest, and a little cooking water to blender, and puree. When pasta is done, drain it, return to the pot, toss with green puree and broccoli florets, more lemon zest and grated cheese (unless you want it vegan).

Yum: definite keeper. But both

shalmestere and I were bothered by the raw-garlic bite; for next time, we'll try parboiling the garlic with the spinach to take the edge off.

gramarye1971

A nondairy make-ahead overnight breakfast pudding, swiped from one of Giada De Laurentiis's recent cookbooks.

2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp whole chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp maple syrup
Pinch kosher salt
Toppings as desired -- fruit (raspberries, blackberries), sliced almonds

In medium bowl, whisk together almond milk, chia seeds, vanilla, cinnamon, maple syrup, and salt. (For ease of preparation and serving, the amount given here can be split evenly between two Mason jars -- 1 cup of almond milk in each jar, 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp chia seeds, and so on.) Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk again to combine. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Before eating, stir and top with toppings.

Entire recipe is 4 to 6 servings. If split between two Mason jars, each jar is about 2 to 3 servings.

(One note: The "pudding" produced by chia seeds is very gelatinous, akin to tapioca. If you have never had chia pudding before, I recommend making half a recipe first to ensure that you like the taste and texture.)

glinda

I thought I was going to have to cheat and use the veggie lasagne I made from a recipe a colleague gave me last month and I've been meaning to try ever since. (I had all the ingredients, I just kept not getting round to making it.) But as I had the oven on anyway I decided to bake while I was at it and made this beetroot chocolate loaf cake that I'd been meaning to make since I got this book a couple of years ago. (The book is Cooking on a Bootstrap by Jack Monroe, I supported the kickstarter for it so I have the self-published version which means I've been meaning to make this recipe since about 2015? You can find the recipe here.)

I made a couple of substitutions based on what I had in the cupboard - cooked beetroot instead of raw, coconut milk instead of coconut cream - which felt in the spirit of the book, the batter consistency came out right and it tasted good - both the raw batter and the finished cake - so I have no complaints. It's a quick and straight-forward cake to make up, all the wet ingredients go in the blender and then get added to the dry ingredients, while everything comes together in about ten minutes? (Long enough that my resting lasagne had stopped bubbling but was still hot when I chucked the loaf tin in the oven and served it up.) The loaf's baked consistency/texture wasn't quite right - likely better if you don't substitute! - but no worse than many a commercial vegan cake I've eaten and in fact better than many of those. More of a pudding cake to be eaten with custard affair than a slice with a cup of tea, but while I won't be hurrying to make it again, I'll have no difficulty eating my way through this loaf.

Current Mood: accomplished

adrian_turtle

Since I stopped eating dairy, I've missed cream of broccoli soup. I had some vegan recipes waiting for me to have the right combination of ingredients, ability to use my hand, and interest in a new vegetable soup. In the last few weeks, I made two variations; both were good, and one will go into regular rotation. Both are simpler than the original, using a stick blender, microwave, and mallet to reduce the need to transfer things to and fro. Both are scaled for my 3-quart soup pot.

https://www.kathysvegankitchen.com/vegan-cream-broccoli-soup/

( recipe using potato )

( recipe using white beans )

mama_kestrel

I've had the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook since it came out in 2003. I like it because not only are the recipes clear and straightforward, they explain things like what the ratio of flour to liquid is for basic bread, how to vary it, and how different recipes relate to one another. I'd made several things from it, but never plain, everyday white bread. I've been baking bread for better than 50 years (I had to stand on a stool when my grandmother first taught me), so if I want plain bread I just make it. No recipe, and very little measuring. I measure the liquid to set how much dough I'll end up with, and the yeast because I gave up on packets in my teens. After that, it's mark one eyeball.

But my son, who has sensory issues and has had a lot of trouble with cooking, has been watching Gordon Ramsey and Bingeing with Babish religiously, and he decided that it was time to make his own bread. Specifically, he wanted to make small loaves he could use as bread bowls.

So I went in search of a recipe, and found this one in the aforementioned cookbook, then looked it up on their website. My son made it, with mom's oversight and demonstrations of things like kneading and shaping. It came out really well; about 75% of the batch vanished the day it was made.

In the book version, the powdered milk is listed as optional. I left it out, because I didn't have any. I also used olive oil as the fat, and honey for sweetener and yeast-booster. Other than that, we followed the recipe. I did note that it took 5 cups of flour rather than the listed 6, but that amount of variation isn't unusual in bread, and has mostly to do with the lack of humidity in a heated home in winter.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Home

tielan

I've been planning to make this for a while, but a working bee at my house on Lunar New Year provided opportunity, with people who are open to vegetarian dishes.

The dish is known as Buddha's Delight in the Omnivore's Cookbook, but I know it simply as "jai". My mother cooks it at Chinese New Year, and I figured it was time to learn. I did have mum's recipe, but for the purposes of this challenge I figured I'd just run with the Omnivore's Cookbook recipe.

( adjustments, notations, thoughts )

NB: For those concerned about meetings and eatings, under current COVID conditions in NSW, Australia, working bees and other gatherings around food in private homes are permitted as our community transmission is considered extremely low.

fred_mouse

I've had the tab for this open for Quite Some Time (since mid/late 2020, when we discovered the existence of these tasty tasty treats), but finally got it together to try tonight. We did not do a great job, and have concluded that doing this on a sheet BBQ (so one can do a whole batch at once) would be great. Otherwise, too fiddly to count as a quick meal, even if the mixing and individual cook times are short.

Link to recipe: https://www.whats4eats.com/breads/cachapas-recipe

We used frozen corn, which was still cold when we started, and I don't think that helped. The description of 'thick as heavy cream' had us scratching our heads. Youngest thinks we added too much water (they didn't hold together well), I'm not so sure. And blend until 'still a little chunky' wasn't helpful either (not entirely sure we shouldn't have kept going).

Mod: could I please have a tag for gluten-free.

ioplokon

So, I've been cooking out of Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons cookbook for a couple of years. However, I fell into a bit of a comfort zone where I would just revisit my favorite recipes over and over, without branching out into anything new. One of the best things about this cookbook was that his braised celery finally gave me a way to prepare celery that I actually liked. I used this challenge to push me to try one of the other recipes, a cucumber and celery salad. I was a bit nervous about it, since after all, it's raw celery, but it turned out great!

Note: we're in a pandemic & also I just generally cook with a lot of substitutions, so I'll mention my alterations as well as the original recipe. Anyway, in my opinion a lot of these recipes are more about the cooking techniques & preparations than the finished product, so I don't feel like adapting them is overly risky (& heck, I'm a vegetarian so for like 60% of the recipes in here I'm substituting out the meat)

1 large cucumber - peel the skin if it is hard/waxy, cut on a sharp angle into thin slices. Put in a strainer and salt to make a quick salt pickle (20 mins)

2-3 stalks celery - trim & reserve leaves if you're able to. Cut horizontally to divide into halves or thirds, depending on length. Then cut on an angle into long, thin, stick-like slices. Place in a bowl of ice water (10 mins)

1 clove garlic - smash and peel. Place in a bowl with dried apricots (I used raisins) Cover with red wine vinegar & let sit (10 mins)

1/2 cup toasted pistachios, chopped (I used walnuts - also just adjust the measurement to taste)

Chopped celery leaves, parsley, mint, and basil (~1/2 cup each, loosely packed - adjust based on the eye test) + red pepper flakes. (I used celery leaves and cilantro + red pepper flakes)

Drain celery and pat dry, then add it to your serving bowl. Pat the salted cucumbers dry & add them to the celery. Remove the garlic from the red wine vinegar + dried fruit, then add this mix to the cucumbers and celery. Add toasted nuts, herbs, and drizzle olive oil on top. Add salt and red pepper flakes to taste. Serve.

The result is a really nice, simple salad. Because the celery is cut so thin and because you cut diagonally across the ribs, the texture is not stringy and the flavor is not overwhelming. The simple cucumber pickles are also surprisingly flavorful. I think it would be nice with some fresh apple on top or maybe persimmons, too - especially if you end up making an herb-lite version like I did.

mama_kestrel

Yes, really. Apparently it's a Depression/ WWII era recipe. My daughter in law posted it on faceplant in July, asking me if I was willing to try it. I promptly bookmarked the video here. So tonight I pulled up the video, copied the ingredient list, and had at it.

The original recipe, which the demonstrator showed a brief image of, was a list of ingredients. No temperature, no mixing method, no nothing. That's pretty typical for older recipes, which assume one knows how to cook.

I did not do it the way the woman on the video (there has to be a less awkward construction for that) did. She piled everything in a bowl and took a mixer to it. I sifted the flower, leavening agents and spices together and set them aside. Then I creamed the butter and sugar, beat in the tomato soup, and stirred in the flour. The raisins were stirred in last. I baked it in a tube pan at 350 F (175 C) for 30 minutes. It rose more than I expected, and smells wonderful. You can't taste the tomato soup at all, though it has a definite reddish tint; for all intents and purposes, it's a spice cake. Next time I'll add an egg.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice (substitution for clove, which I didn't have)
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar (I used half brown and half white)
1 can tomato soup
1 cup raisins

ETA: Family consensus is that this would be better with a cream cheese frosting. I think it could also be baked in a loaf pan, and simply spread with cream cheese like banana bread.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Home

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Cookbook challenge

Make new recipes you already own!

Entries tagged with vegan

Broccoli, Fennel, and Chickpea Stew

Smoky Green Split Pea Soup with Sage and Roasted Garlic

Soy-glazed eggplant donburi

Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup with Coconut

Moroccan Tagine with Vegetables and Chickpeas

Lasagne with Roasted Vegetables

Cauliflower Steaks with Pomegranate Tahini

Pasta with broccoli-spinach puree

Breakfast Chia Pudding

Beetroot Chocolate Loaf Cake

broccoli soup

Walter Sands Basic White Bread

Buddha's Delight (Jai)

Cachapas - Venezuelan fresh corn pancakes

Celery+Cucumber Salad

Tomato Soup Cake

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February 2024

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