Friday night pizza

Over the last few weeks P and I have decided that Friday night will be pizza night. This started on the same day that we realised how easy it was to make our own pizza dough.



Since then we have been experimenting with toppings and I thought that I would share a few of them with you.


Tomato paste, fresh basil, rosemary roast pumpkin, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes.

Tomato paste, fresh basil and baby spinach, green olive tapenade, marinated artichoke hearts, mushrooms, kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes.

Tomato paste, fresh basil, mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes.

Yes, yes, I know that I ought to be more inventive, but when you like something...

Last weekend we did one with grilled eggplant, roast pumpkin, sweet potato & pumpkin, and most of the usual suspects, but I didn't get around to taking a picture.

Maybe this week I will be a little more radical.

Turkish dinner

This post is dedicated to Isil who finally gave me the confidence to make İmam Bayildi - one of my favourite dishes in the world.




Since my Mum was in town, I also made Fasulye, a cannelini bean salad and couscous.



Cannelini beans may seem a bit odd, but it was supposed to be a chickpea salad until I realised that I had completely run out of chickpeas...



I make Fasulye a little differently from the recipes that I have seen online, so here is my recipe if you want to try it.



Ingredients
500g green beans (with ends cut off)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
4 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup water

Heat the olive oil over a low/medium heat, add the garlic and stir for about a minute. Add the spices and stir again for 30 seconds. Add the beans and stir so that they get covered in the spice/garlic mix. Add the tomatoes and raise the heat to medium/high. Stir in the water and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

Turn down the heat to medium/low and cover. Leave it to simmer for about 45 minutes, checking periodically to stir and add water if it gets a little dry.

It should be really soft and melt-in-your-mouth-y when it is ready.

See Veggie Way for the Imam Bayildi recipe.

Ginger soy 'fish'

We had some of the soy 'fish' left over and so I decided to do a variation on the theme that P had done so successfully the other day. This time I did a ginger sauce, steamed some asparagus and puk choy, and made brown rice.

Ingredients

Ginger sauce
1/2 tblp canola oil (or any light vegetable oil)
2 tblp fresh grated ginger
1 tblp chilli sauce
1 tblp lemon juice
1 tblp soy sauce

soy 'fish' (2 or 3 per person)
asparagus
puk choy
brown rice


Cook the brown rice. (We use a rice cooker).

Heat the oil over a medium heat and add the ginger. Stir for about a minute and add the chilli, lemon juice and soy sauce. Stir for a couple of minutes and then lower the heat and let it simmer for a little. Add some hot water if it starts getting too thick.

Brush a fry pan with a small amount of oil and lightly fry the soy 'fish' on both sides.

Steam the asparagus and puk choy for about a minute (or until slightly wilted).

Serve all ingredients on to a plate and drizzle the ginger sauce to taste.

Rosemary roast pumpkin salad

Yesterday was hot hot hot and so we decided to have salad for dinner.
I roasted up some left over pumpkin with some rosemary from the garden. Added some mixed beans, a bunch of parsley (also from the garden), some tomatoes, snowpeas, asparagus and avocado and topped it with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and some Iku salad dressing. Yum.

Lily was quite taken with it, but had to settle for her own meal of avocado, butter beans and pumpkin.

Pesto pasta

Ingredients:

Pesto
1/2 cup basil leaves (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of rocket (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp salt

The rest
Penne pasta
1/2 cup marinated artichokes (roughly chopped)
1/3 cup Kalamata olives (pitted & halved)
1 cup button mushrooms (cubed)
1 tbp olive oil
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped) [optional if your little one doesn't like garlicky milk - like Lily)

Boil water and cook the pasta.

To make the pesto place all the ingredients in the blender and blend together until smooth. If it is too dry then add a little more lemon juice or olive oil.

Heat the olive oil over a medium/low heat. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir for 4 minutes. Throw in the artichokes and olives and mix together. Add the pasta and stir through several large tablespoons of the pesto.

Serve with a dollop of pesto on top.

Eat.

Vegan Chili - my new favourite dinner

Lately P and I have decided that vegan chili served on fried polenta is our new favourite dinner food.


This version has kidney beans, borlotti beans, green lentils, tvp, herbs, spices and tomatoes - and it is yummy!



To cook fried polenta you need to make sure that you cook it in the right amount of water:

• Pour 2 cups of polenta into a medium saucepan
• Add 2.5 cups of cold water and place on the stove over a medium heat
• Add a little salt
• Add 2 cups of boiling water
• Stir continuously until it starts to boil
• Turn down the heat to low
• Keep stirring continuously until it is thick and almost (but not quite) sticking to the pan
• Turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan
• After about 5 minutes, pour the polenta into a baking tray and spread it so that it is about 2 cms thick
• Leave to cool
• Chop into pieces and fry over medium heat (with some olive oil).

That looks like lots of steps, doesn't it? It shouldn't though - it really is very easy.

Lentil barley soup

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of olive oil
*1 small onion (finely diced)
*2 cloves of garlic (finely diced)
a handful of button mushrooms (quartered)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
3 carrots (diced)
1/2 celery (diced)
3 zucchinis (diced)
2/3 cup of red lentils
1/2 cup pearled barley
the juice of two fresh lemons
water (or *vegetable stock if you can eat it)
salt & pepper to taste

[*Obviously I didn't add these, but I think that it would have been even yummier if I had.]

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pot over a medium heat for a few minutes. Add the onion (if you are lucky enough to be able to eat it) and fry for about 5 minutes (until it becomes translucent). Add the garlic and spices and stir thoroughly. Add the mushroom and stir so that it becomes coated in the spices (if you cannot eat onion - like me - then cook the mushroom first and then add the spices to it).

Once the mushroom has browned slightly, add the other vegetables and stir together. Leave the vegetables to sweat over the heat for about five minutes.

Add the lentils and barley and stir through. Then add about a cup of water (or vegetable stock) and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon juice and more water (the amount can vary depending on how liquidy you would like your soup to be). Raise the heat in order to bring to a boil, and then cover and let it simmer over a medium-low heat for about 20 minutes.

It is ready when the lentils are mushy and the barley is soft to chew. Add salt & pepper to taste and serve with some yummy crusty bread.

Spinach and tofu pie

I made this yummy tofu and spinach pie with lots of nutritional yeast, lemon juice and herbs. It makes a great dinner (with a side salad if you have the energy) and also saves well for a yummy lunch the next day.

Weekend cooking fest and baba ghanoush

In keeping with our new mission to get organised about food, P. and I had our first cook up this weekend in order to prepare for the week.


It took a few hours, but by the end we had made orange cupcakes, potato scones, baba ghanoush, spinach and chickpea curry, and lentil-rice balls with pasta & tomato sauce (the last of which we also decided to have for dinner). They all worked out pretty well, but I was particularly happy with the baba ghanoush (recipe below) and the lentil-rice balls (from Vegan Lunch Box).

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients
One large eggplant (washed)
3 tablespoons of tahini
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 180c.
Poke a few holes in the eggplant with a fork and place in preheated oven for about 45 minutes (or until it sort of collapses).
Remove eggplant from oven and let it cool.
Cut the eggplant in half, remove the seeds and discard them. With a spoon, remove the remaining flesh from inside the skin (it should be soft and gooey) and place in a blender or food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge.



This was our dinner after the cook up - lentil-rice balls with wholemeal pasta and tomato sauce (tomatoes, onions and garlic). It was delicious!



These are the orange cupcakes and potato scones (which are just mashed potato, flour and a bit of salt kneaded together and baked at 240c for 10 minutes). We haven't actually tried either of these yet - I put them straight in the freezer once they were cool - but the orange cake looked (and smelt) particularly yummy.



Finally, here is the curry - which is supposed to last us for three meals (one lunch, one dinner and one for the freezer for later). The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance, but it was a pretty standard curry recipe really.

Pasta salad w/ cannellini beans

Last night I made one of my favourite summer meals - pasta salad - and it was made all the more exciting because we were able to use our own freshly ripened tomatoes, basil and chilli from our little balcony on the garden.



Ingredients
250g wholemeal penne
1 tin of organic cannellini beans (well washed)
3 fresh tomatoes (finely diced)
large handful of baby spinach (torn into small pieces)
large handful of rocket (torn into small pieces)
large handful of fresh basil (torn into small pieces)
juice of one large lemon
2 cloves garlic (finely diced)
1 fresh chilli (finely diced)
extra virgin olive oil



Cook the penne in boiling water until it is al dente. Drain and set aside to cool.

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and one of the cloves of garlic. Stir for about a minute and add the cannellini beans. Heat over medium/high for about 5 minutes. Take out of the pan and set aside to cool.

Combine 2/3 tablespoon of olive oil with the lemon juice, garlic and chilli in a small jar and shake to combine.

Combine all the ingredients in a large salad bowl.

Serve and eat.

p.s. I hope you like this little corner of our balcony. We are pretty happy with how our plants are coming along - particularly since we face West.

Chinese eggplant and greens

Chinese Eggplant

Ingredients
1 whole eggplant chopped into cubes of about 5 cm2*
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil (or veg oil)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or Bragg's)
Water
Sprinkle of sesame oil to taste
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
*[Several chinese eggplants would also work here if available]


Heat a heavy-based pan over medium high. Add oil, chilli and garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the eggplant and stir so that the ingredients mix together well.

Allow the eggplant to start to brown, add soy sauce and stir. Add sesame seeds and stir through. Turn up the heat to high and add a small amount of water, and stir as the water steams off and then add some more. Repeat several times allowing the bitter juices to evaporate.

Add a small amount of water, turn down heat to medium and cover with lid. Remove lid every now and then to stir and make sure that it is not sticking. Remove from heat when mixture is goey (but still has some shape).

Sprinkle small amount of sesame oil to taste.

Greens

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
Small bunch of shallots, diced (remove ends)
1 small red chilli, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
Ginger, finely sliced
Button mushrooms, chopped in half or quarters
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or Bragg's)
Asparagus, chopped in thirds (remove botton end)
Snowpeas, chopped in half (remove ends)
Baby buk choy, chopped coarsely (remove base)

Heat wok over a medium heat. Add oil, shallots, chilli, garlic and ginger and stir together for about 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and stir until lightly brown.

Add soy sauce, asparagus and snowpeas and stir for a few minutes. Add buk choy and turn off the heat.

Mix the ingredients together and serve.


Serve over brown rice.

Moroccan chickpeas

This is one of my favourites recipes and, like the minestrone, I learned it from my Mum.


Ingredients:
1 tbl of olive oil
½ an onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 small fresh red chilli, diced
2 teaspoons of harissa spice
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp hot chilli
6-8 button mushrooms, diced
1 quarter of a preserved lemon, chopped finely
1 tin of chickpeas (or equivalent of dried beans soaked overnight), rinsed thoroughly in boiling water*
2 medium tomatoes, diced
8 baby tomatoes, quartered
Several handfuls of snowpeas, chopped into thirds
Lemon and/or lime juice to taste
Couscous or basmati rice to serve

*I also take off some of the skins so that they are softer, but this is probably unnecessary.

Heat the olive oil over a medium low heat. Add the onion and stir until translucent (5-10 minutes). Add garlic and chilli to the onion and stir together. Add spices, ensuring that they remain moist.

Add the mushrooms, stirring thoroughly so that the mushrooms get coated in spices and a little oil. Raise the heat slightly and add some of the tomatoes and the preserved lemon to avoid the mixture becoming dry. Stir for around 5 minutes.

Add chickpeas and stir for around 5 minutes. Add the rest of the diced tomatoes and a little water to create a sauce. Finally add the baby tomatoes, snowpeas and lemon/lime juice.

This should be served on couscous, but I am avoiding wheat at the moment so we used basmati rice instead.