Tamari Chickpeas with Teriyaki Quinoa

I am always banging on about tamari soy sauce. It is wheat free soy sauce that I think has a richer flavour that plain ole Kikkoman. Quinoa  (say it keen-wa) is a seed and not a grain--even though it looks like a grain --and when it cooks the germ separates and each seed has a little sperm tail that comes out and curls around. Adorable! You do need to rinse it to remove any of its natural bitter coating. I like to serve this with some steamed veg. I used sugar snap peas, carrot and red pepper.

These recipes come from Dreena Burton’s cookbook Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. Her cookbooks are wonderful--especially her baking ideas. Who knew whole grains with low sugar could taste this good? But I digress. This is not a pudding post. Her food is awesome as well as this recipe attests.

Tamari Chickpeas and Teriyaki Quinoa

Preheat your oven to 200 C/400 F

Tamari Chickpeas

2 tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 TB olive oil

1 ½ TB lemon juice

1 ½ TB tamari soy sauce

½ tsp agave syrup

Large pinch of rosemary

Mix all this in a big roasting tin. In the mean time while you wait for the oven to heat do the quinoa:

Teriyaki Quinoa

1 cup of quinoa

2 cups water

4 cloves crushed garlic

Mix these together in a wee dish and hold on to it for later.

½ tsp ground ginger (I use BART ginger paste)

3 TB tamari soy sauce

2 ½ TB agave syrup

3 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Sesame seeds for garnish

Put the quinoa in a sieve and rinse under a cold running tap for 1 minute to remove any naturally bitter coating. Put it in the pot with the water and garlic and bring it to the boil. When you turn on the burner for the quinoa, pop the chickpeas in the oven for 12 minutes.

When the quinoa boils, reduce heat to simmer until absorbed (about 20 minutes) When the chickpea timer goes off, take them out and stir and return to the oven for 13 more minutes.

When the water is (mostly) absorbed in the quinoa, add the marinade you made earlier and stir and put the lid back on the pan and let it absorb.

Steam any veg you want on the side at this time so it will all come out about the same time. Garnish with sesame seeds and you are good to go.

As Sweet as Honey

It is pretty easy for people to understand why I don’t eat meat. It is a bit more complicated explaining why I don’t want dairy or eggs, but the one animal product people are always surprised about it HONEY. “But it’s natural!” “Manuka honey is good for you!” and the one that always stabs me in the heart--”Bees make honey for us to enjoy!” This tends to be from the same people who think that animals are there just for us--like vending machines--to just give us what we want whenever we desire it.

I don’t do honey. And I’ll tell you why. Number one--honey is essentially bee vomit. That’s just gross.

Number two--bees work incredibly hard to make honey. To make one pound of honey,  bees must visit 2 million flowers, fly over 55,000 miles and this will be the lifetime work of approximately 300 bees.

Number three--that honey is full of nutrients perfectly geared to meet the bee’s nutritional needs over the long winter. Just like cow’s milk is the perfect food for a growing calf. The last time I looked I wasn’t either of these animals and so it is not my food to take. I’m not saying we don’t need bees. Bees are an important part of our delicate eco system. I’m saying it’s not my food to take.

Number four--beekeepers take that honey and replace it with cheap sugar water or corn syrup which is devoid of any nutrients so the bees have something to sweet to eat over the long winter.

Now if I had worked my butt off making a perfect, nutritious, healthy meal and someone snuck in to my house and STOLE it and replaced it with Wonder bread and a super size coke I’d be pretty pissed. 

Animals are not vending machines. We do not have the right to steal from them food that is theirs or food that is meant for their children. And so I use Agave Syrup as a substitute.

Agave Syrup is a sweet, amber coloured liquid that comes from the Agave cactus--the same kind that gives us tequila. It is low GI--meaning it won’t hike your blood sugar--so it is perfect for diabetics. You can find it in squeezy bottles in your local health food shop and supermarket. Even my mum can find it in Louisiana so it is not something that is hard to find. It is as sweet as  honey--but without cruelty to bees. Win-win situation. Check it out!

What’s for pudding?

Here in the UK it is customary to refer to any dessert as a pudding. So you can have cake or pie  for pudding. Pudding is just what’s for “afters”--after your main meal. It’s like how in Louisiana you say:

What kind of coke do you want?

I want sprite for my coke, please.

Remember how a couple of days ago I told you how to thicken yogurt? No? Well, go back and look at the entry for Baja Tempeh for Frith’s sake. Anyway, another thing you can do with thickened yogurt is to make Mock Tiramisu. I say “mock” because real tiramisu has a shed load of calories and fat from mascarpone cheese. This is low fat and yum.

Mock Tiramisu

Put a 500g pot of plain soy yogurt in a clean at towel and tie up into a bundle. Hang it from the tap in your kitchen sink and walk away.  Let your yogurt drain several hours until thick and creamy--like Greek Style yogurt. Scrape it back into the pot it came in. Add 4 TB light brown sugar (we use Demerara) and 1 ½ tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 TB hot water. Mix well and chill for several hours. Spoon into small ramekins and dust with cocoa powder. Makes 4 servings.

OK, you might argue this is just actually coffee flavoured yogurt with some cocoa powder on top and you’d be right. But humour me and call it Tiramisu, OK?

Tangy Tamarind Tempeh with Roasties and Veg

A bit of alliteration to start this meal! This recipe came from some Omnivore cookbook I borrowed from the public library--it was supposed to be for beef. But hey, tempeh works well as a beef substitute in the same way tofu works well as a chicken substitute. This is why I don’t hesitate to read Omni cookbooks--you can still get good ideas. 

The tamarind, for those who don’t know, is a small sour fruit. I buy BART brand tamarind paste in a jar that is ready to use, but you can get it in a pulpy block and you have to soak it in water. Too much trouble for me. Look for tamarind paste on your World Foods Aisle (Or Foreign Foods Aisle as Xenophobic Louisiana grocery stores used to call it) Also try to use coriander and cumin seeds not powder--it really makes all the difference here.

 8 oz packet tempeh

Cut into strips and boil in water with some tamari soy sauce and a blop of marmite for 10 minutes to take away any bitterness and infuse the tempeh with a bit of beefy flavour. Drain and let cool, daddy-o. 

While that is boiling--prepare your marinade.

Tangy Tamarind Marinade

1 small red onion--golf ball sized--or just use part of an onion and save the rest for roasting

1 ½ tsp coriander seeds (not ground)

1 tsp cumin seeds (not ground)

½ tsp smoked paprika

1 TB tamarind paste

1/3 cup water

2 cloves garlic

1 TB brown sugar

1 TB lemon juice

1 TB tamari soy sauce

Whiz it all together in your trusty food processor until it becomes a thick puree (some little coriander and cumin seeds will remain whole and that’s a-ok.) Mix the drained and cooled  tempeh in making sure to get it all covered and let it marinate in the fridge for several hours.

When you are ready to cook: Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Take your tempeh out of the fridge to come to room temperature.

Roasties

12- 15 fingerling potatoes

1 scant TB olive oil

1 TB tamarind paste

Use your hands to coat the potatoes with the oil and tamarind paste. Put  this in a big roasting tin  and cook in the oven for 15 minutes. Take it out again and add:

1 large onion, chopped (you can use some of that red onion left over from the marinade)

1 red pepper, chopped

2 tsp olive oil

¾ tsp each coriander and cumin seeds

Add this to the hot pan and put it back in to roast for 45 more minutes.

At about 15 minutes until the roasties will be done preheat your non-stick skillet for the tempeh.

Cook your tempeh on medium high until sizzling and brown.

While your tempeh cooks, steam any other veg you want to go with the meal. I did tenderstem broccoli and carrots.

Tangy and Terrific and Tasty!

Market day

Saturday is market day for us and we stock up on all the loose fruit and veg at low prices. I like to wash most of it all in one go so it is ready to use later in the week. The exceptions are fresh berries and salad--we wash them as needed. But everything else--into the sink it goes. I wash with a smidge of ecological washing up liquid and a squeeze of vinegar (to cut any wax) then rinse and let air dry in the dish drain. You can see how pretty it looks in the photo. A rainbow of healthy stuff. You can also see the bottom of my mug tree that I picked up for 50p at a charity shop. I use it to dry out ziplock bags for re-use and to hang my scrubbie doo-dah made from a loofah sponge.

Baked Heaven on a Fork

This started off to be Veganomicon’s Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelised Onions and Sage Crumb Topping but became something similar that was like heaven on a fork. Their recipe was meant to serve 6-8 so I was trying to half it and I had to make major changes owing to what I had.

First the recipe called for tinned pumpkin. The only brand I can find here is Libbys and they are owned by Proctor and Gamble--a company we boycott because of their excessively cruel animal testing. So I subbed some baked sweet potatoes. The halved recipe asked for 1 cup pumpkin but I kept it doubled and used 2 “man’s naughty bit” sized sweet potatoes. (about 1 cup each when baked and squished out) You get the picture.

Second, the recipe called for onions. I couldn’t find any locally grown onions when I went to the shops but leeks are in season so I bought those. And I had some red peppers that needed using up so I roasted some of those along side the sweet potatoes. Next time I think I’ll roast the onions next to the peppers to save a step, but the leeks were good.

Thirdly, the recipe called for a HUGE amount of pasta and we try to not over eat on pasta so I cut it back to our standard serving which is ¾ cup dry pasta each.

Lastly, you were meant to use fresh breadcrumbs and a little walnut but I used lots of walnut and some gluten free sage and onion stuffing mix I had lurking in the back of my pantry. After all, it was just breadcrumbs, dried onions and sage.

So I may have changed loads of stuff, but the result was baked heaven on a fork. It was a wee bit time consuming with having to roast the sweet potatoes, but it was worth it. It was so rich that it would be good for a holiday dinner.

Heaven on a Fork

2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled

2 red peppers, chopped

1-2 onions, chopped

2 -3 tsp olive oil

Black pepper

Roast 2 sweet potatoes at 180 C/350 F for 1 hour. After 15 minutes add the pepper/onion in oil and pepper mixture to the pan, bung it back in the oven and carry on. Now make the cashew ricotta.

Cashew Ricotta

¼ cup cashews

2 TB lemon juice

1 TB olive oil

Whiz this in your food processor until as smooth as you want it to be. Then add:

1 box firm silken tofu that has been put in a tea towel and SQUEEZED for all it’s worth and lots of the liquid drained out. It should look like a crumbly ball. Zoosh it all together until it is mixed. This makes and *amazing* rich dairy free ricotta cheese. I plan to try it in a lasagne soon.

When the sweet potatoes are cooked and soft and the onions and peppers are caramelised take them out of the oven and let cool until you can scoop all the lovely orange potato guts out. Mix the potato guts with the cashew ricotta and the roasted veg. While you are waiting for the potatoes to cool--boil your pasta.

Pasta

Boil 1 ½ cups whole wheat pasta shapes (I used wholemeal spelt rotini) until al dente and the drain and run cold water over them to stop the cooking. Then drain really well and mix with the sweet potato/ricotta/roasted veg mixture.

Then add to the mix:

1 TB unrefined sugar (I used Demerara)

¼ tsp nutmeg

Pinch cayenne

Spread it all into a greased 8 x 8 pan. Then do the topping.

The Topping

½ cup walnuts--coarsely ground

½ cup sage and onion breadcrumbs (I used gluten free)

 OR ½ cup breadcrumbs and some dried sage if you are more Martha Stewart than me.

2 tsp margarine

Melt the margarine in a non stick skillet and then stir around the walnut crumb mixture until, all coated and toasty. Spread the crumbs evenly on top the sweet potato/ricotta/roasted vegs.

Bake at 190 C/375 F for 25-27 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes to firm up before you slice.

Yes, that was a bit of trouble--but it was worth it. It really was Heaven on a Fork and I think this will join the ranks of Christmas meals along side nut roast.

Pizza Soup and leftover Beer Bread

This is a fast soup inspired by a recipe found in the cookbook Vegan Yum Yum. Only the spices have been changed to protect the innocent. We call it Pizza Soup because it tastes like drinking a pizza. Some Italian croutons floating in it can give a bit of “crust” feel to it, but since we had leftover beer bread we just used that.

Pizza Soup

1 onion, chopped

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried thyme

½ tsp chilli flakes

1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tins chopped tomatoes (to make a total of 28 oz)

1 tsp smoked sea salt

2 TB nutritional yeast (there’s those cheesy flakes of goodness popping up again!)

1 cup hot water

Lots of black pepper

Saute the onion in a bit of oil until softened. Add the garlic and the herbs and stir for another minute. Add the chickpeas and saute until the chickpeas begin to turn golden. Add the tomatoes and salt and simmer until the tomatoes are cooked--about 10-15 minutes.

Add the nutritional yeast and hot water and puree either in a blender or with a stick blender until smooth. Dust with vegan parmesan cheese and twist on lots of cracked black pepper. Done and dusted in under 30 minutes