veggie2

One pot cooking is one of those things that can make cleaning up after a good meal less of a chore. I have a habit of just throwing a meal together out of ingredients that are on hand. This was concieved during one of those moments working out what we were going to eat whilst scrounging through the fridge and cupboards. This is the tasty result! It is a sort of chilli made with ingredients we had on hand. It was delicious, tart, filling and quite healthy for a vegetarian watching his carbohydrate intake.

Serves two as a main meal.
Preparation time: 10 minutes.
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Level of difficultly: Easy
Cost efficiency: Cheap

Ingredients

• 1 red bell pepper chopped
• 1 medium onion; chopped
• 2 green pickled chilies; sliced (or use fresh or dried, what ever you have on hand)
• 6 Peppadews; sliced
• 4 mushrooms; chopped
• 1 400 gram can of kidney beans in chilli sauce
• 4 soy sausages; sliced into 2cm circles
• A slurp of peppadew vinegar from the jar
• A little oil

Implements

• A pot big enough to hold it all
• Wooden spoon
• Sharp knife
• Chopping board

Method

• Chop, slice and dice all your vegetables.
• Put the pot on a low to meduim heat and add the oil.
• Chilies in first, this flavours the oil as well.
• Onions next, cook until translucent.
• Throw in the bell pepper/sweet pepper/capsicum and cook until softens.
• Next comes the kidney beans followed closely by the mushrooms, peppadews, soy sausages.
• Add the peppadew liquid if the chilli sauce from the kidney beans is not enough.
• Cook until the mushrooms are cooked to your satisfaction.
• Serve straight out of the pot.

Variations

As this was just a meal chucked together the variations are endless. In some ways it is a simple version of Chili con carne without the meat. It is quite hot and you may only want one chile or none as the peppadews do have heat to them. Because of the peppadews it was quite tart and a little acidic so don’t add if you want it a little sweeter. You can use meaty sausages for the soy sausages but the chilli sauce soaks nicely into them. It makes a totally satisfactory main meal or could be combined with some rice or pasta to stretch it to serve four. Add cheese and sour cream on top, hell, you could use it as a foundation for nachos. A versatile easy meal made up on the spur of the moment!

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On peppadews, they are avaliable in most countries, for more information go to the node or the website

So, fur is murder, eh? Well, just because you're enjoying the moral high ground doesn't mean you can't pull a Marie Antoinette. My mother worked up this recipe a few years ago, when I couldn't stand the sight of meat. Without further adieu, we bring you the Tofuless Vegan Chocolate Cake (complete with non-dairy icing!).

Ingredients

- 1 cup     sugar (250 mL)
- 1.5 cups  flour (375 mL)
- 1 tsp.    baking soda (5 mL)
- 1/4 cup   cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1 tsp.    vanilla extract (5 mL)
- 1/3 cup   vegetable oil (80 mL)
- 1 cup     water (250 mL)
- 1 tsp.    vinegar (5 mL)

Directions

Stir the sugar, flour, baking soda and cocoa powder into a bowl. Put the vanilla extract, vegetable oil, water and vinegar together, once the dry ingredients are mixed. Continue stirring until you have a mixture. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan (whatever you've got handy, but remember, this is going to be the shape of your cake!).

Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit (About 175 C) for about half hour. Let cool before eating.

Frosting Ingredients

- 1 cup     icing sugar (500 mL)
- 1/2 cup   coconut oil (margarine) (125 mL)
- 1/4 cup   cocoa powder (unsweetened) (60 mL)
- 1/2 tsp.  vanilla extract (2 mL)

Frosting Directions

Beat the coconut oil with a mixer until creamy. Add cocoa, vanilla extract and icing sugar and continue beating until it's as consistent as desired. Ice cake as desired.

Notes

This cake is the closest I've ever gotten to chocolate without dairy or eggs. And there isn't the nasty stigma of tofu. So you can feed this to your non-vegan friends and they'll hardly notice the difference. And the frosting on its own is a great snack to keep around, for when you need some comfort food.

Sources:
Everything Kitchen Conversion Table
Mom!

Dedicated to wertperch who happens to be getting married today! Horrah!

Way back in late 2005, I attended a nodermeet at the abode of our own Wiccanpiper, in lovely, er, Heyworth, Illinois. Being vegan, I thought it would be a nice gesture to cook up an epic vegan feast fit for a an assortment of noders.

As a (non-vegan) child, I always enjoyed the chicken stir-fry that my mother would sometimes make. So I decided to create a vegan dish based on it. I suspect that if one were so inclined, one could swap out the tofu in this recipe for chicken thighs, and it would turn out just fine. After a few tiny-proportioned trial runs, the recipe below is what I came up with.

As an experiment on a captive audience prior to the nodermeet, I made this and served it to my carnivorous baby boomer parents, who actually liked it, if that says anything about how appealing this particular entrée can be.

At the nodermeet, it did pretty well going up against Wiccanpiper's sausage soup; if memory serves, almost everyone in attendance (I think there was only one other vegan besides me) at least tried it, and it received quite a few compliments from sated diners, some of whom even helped themselves to additional portions.

So, without further ado, here's the recipe. Please let me know if you end up preparing it for yourself!

You will need the following ingredients:

• 16 oz (450 g) of extra-firm, cubed tofu
• 2 cups (500 mL) of rice
• 4 cups (1000 mL) of (preferably filtered) cold water (in which to cook the rice)
• 1 cup (250 mL) fresh broccoli (chopped)
• ½ cup (125 mL) fresh carrots (chopped)
• ½ cup (125 mL) fresh celery (chopped)
• ½ cup (125 mL) soy sauce/shoyu (your choice of style; I use regular)
• ½ cup (125 mL) white rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons (45 mL) of sesame oil

Optional ingredients:

• Raw ginger root (very thinly sliced; for flavour)
• Scallions (jarred/canned is OK)
• A couple cloves of garlic (minced), by suggestion of Helen4Morrissey (thanks!)
• Baby corn
• Mushrooms (your choice of species)

Directions:

1. To prepare the marinade, combine the tofu, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil into a large mixing bowl or a high-walled glass baking pan. I prefer the institutional steel bowls commonly found in restaurant kitchens. Cover it with cellophane. Refrigerate it for one hour.
2. When the tofu is finished marinating, put the rice on to cook, ideally in a rice cooker. Then take the bowl containing the tofu and its marinade from the fridge and empty it into a wok. (If you don't have a wok, a large skillet will do.) Set the wok to medium-high/high heat, then add the veggies gradually as it cooks, so that in the finished product, they have a steamed-but-not-fully-cooked texture.
3. Cook for ten or fifteen minutes or until everything is at your desired texture.

Serves three or four. Multiply the ingredients to cook for larger settings.

The firmness of the tofu, the crispiness of the veggies, the softness of the rice and the mild tang of the soy sauce, rice vinegar and ginger combine to create a fully pleasing and filling meal from top to bottom.

Variations:

• The scallions can be easily omitted, as not everyone likes them (I sure don't). Generally, whatever neutrally-flavoured veggies pique your fancy can probably be included without consequence.
• I use long-grain white rice, and though I haven't tried any other kinds with this, I suspect brown, basmati, jasmine or sushi rice would all make acceptable substitutes, depending upon the refinement of one's palette.
• The raw ginger root can be swapped for pickled ginger root, served on the side, Japanese style.
• Tofu is easier to handle with a fork, so you may want to have a few ready. It is my definite preference, however, to use hashi whenever the opportunity arises, especially when consuming east Asian food.

This recipe is based on an appetizer at a local steakhouse. The original is made using a veal stock but since I wanted to avoid that this recipe uses heavy cream as a substitute. The creaminess really does add a whole other dimension to the flavor and texture. If you want to make this into an entree, I suggest roasting some asparagus and serving this over the top of it.

Ingredients

• French or sourdough bread (1/2 inch thick at an angle, buttered, grilled)
• 2 ounces sliced Shiitake mushrooms
• 2 ounces sliced Portobella mushrooms
• 2 ounces sliced button mushrooms
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
• 2 ounces white wine
• 6 ounces heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. In a large sauté pan over med-high to high heat, melt butter, add shallots and all three mushrooms. Sauté until mushrooms are almost cooked through.
2. Add garlic. Sauté briefly. Add wine and reduce until almost dry.
3. Add cream, Worcestershire and parsley. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Place the bread in the center of a warm plate, pour the mushroom mixture over the bread. Sprinkle with cheese and serve immediately.

This is a terrific item to make for breakfast or brunch. Its delicious, it smells incredible while baking and will be eaten quickly. It can be made ahead of time, and I highly recommend doing this because it is somewhat time consuming to make. Do not make this if you want something that’s easy to make and doesn’t make a mess. You will end up with multiple dirty pots, pans and bowls. You’ve been warned. But, let’s say you are planning to have guests visit and want to make something impressive that you can make ahead of time and pull out of the fridge and pop into the oven. Then this is for you.

Let’s talk about ingredients for a minute.

The ingredients for this are fairly easy to obtain through your friendly neighborhood grocer. The bread should be day old at least. You need structure for this dish. You want bread that won’t disintegrate into mushy ickiness once exposed to the egg, wine and half and half mixture. If it is relatively fresh you should dry it out, either at room temperature for several hours, or you can put it into a 200-degree oven for about 30 minutes. Do not skip the shallots. Trust me on this one. Use whatever wine you want to for this. The first time I made this, I only had flat champagne leftover from the night before. It was still delicious. Use whatever works for you. Just make sure it’s a somewhat dry wine, nothing sweet. Lastly, don’t skimp on the cheese. The recipe calls for 8 oz. I probably put in at least 50% more than that. But, do what you prefer.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf of French bread, cut into ½” slices
• 5 Tbsp butter, softened
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 medium shallots, minced
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 1/2 tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 8 oz. fontina cheese, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 6 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups half-and-half

Method:

• Butter the slices of bread on 1 side with 2-3 Tbsp of the butter. I found that the most efficient way of doing this is to let the butter come to room temperature and then microwave it for a few seconds. Literally, only microwave it for a few seconds. It should be soft enough to use a pastry brush to brush the butter onto the bread, but not melted enough to make soggy bread. Fear the soggy bread. Set aside the half buttered bread.


• Bring a medium sized pan of water to a boil over medium-high heat, add 1 tsp salt, and boil potatoes until just tender. Drain potatoes. Set aside.


• Heat 2 tbsp of the butter in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook potatoes until they start to brown. Add shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and translucent, about 2 minutes longer. Add garlic and rosemary and cook about 2 more minutes. You’ll notice that all of a sudden, your kitchen smells amazing. This is the point where you should transfer mixture to a medium bowl and season to taste with salt and white pepper. Set aside.


• Return the skillet to medium-high heat, add wine, and simmer until reduced by half. Set aside.


• Butter a baking dish, at least 3” deep. Either 8x8” square or 11x7”. You want it to be deep enough to hold the two full layers of ingredients, but also not so wide and shallow that the egg mixture doesn’t cover everything.


• Arrange half of the buttered bread slices, buttered-side up, in a single layer in the dish. Sprinkle half of the potato mixture, then 1/2 the grated cheese evenly over bread slices. Arrange remaining bread slices in a single layer over the cheese, then sprinkle remaining potato mixture and another 1/2 cup cheese evenly over the bread.


• Whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in wine and half-and-half. Pour egg mixture over the bread layers. Cover the surface flush with plastic wrap or foil. The idea here is to make sure that everything is soaking in the egg mixture. It helps if you put another pan on top to weigh everything down with boxes. If you are making this ahead of time, this is the point where you should pop it into the refrigerator overnight. Alternately, let the mixture soak for about 30 minutes before proceeding.


• Remove dish from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes (if refrigerated overnight). Heat oven to 325 degrees. Bake until both edges and center are puffed and edges have pulled slightly away from sides of dish, about 50 to 55 minutes (60 to 70 minutes if you've doubled the recipe). Cool on a rack for 5 to 10 minutes, then cut into squares and serve.

This is so much more filling than you would think it would be. This recipe is enough to serve 6-8 adults.