Category: Food

The soup season, it has returned to Glasgow. So much for ‘Summer’ – we’re back to wearing jumpers pretty much all the time, and it’s a rainy day out today. We were told that there were only 2 weeks of Summer here – and now we believe. So, to go along with our hunt for a new flat (scouring the internet, making phone calls), we’re having soup!

Carrot Soup

• 8 Carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 red jalapeno
• water to cover
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 block Silken Tofu

1. Boil all veg. until tender.
2. Immersion Blend.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add block Silken Tofu.
5. Blend some more.

Just the barest hint of spice, this soup was quite fun to play with. This was a bit of serendipity, brought about by the fact that I had underestimated the amount of soup. So, when I added the block of tofu, things got a wee bit dicey, and I needed to remove about 2 cups of soup from the pot. So, we present you with … soup art.

I didn’t add the salt until I was adding the tofu, so the darker soup is sort of spicy-sweet, while the lighter is creamier and more savory. I’d suggest that you add the spice to the vegetables, as I’ve noted above, as balancing out the salt after the fact is a bit awkward. Serve with a slice or two of toast, or some crackers, or with a dollop of yogurt, and you’ve a wonderful cool-weather meal.

On another note, we’ve got 19 days until we’re on a plane to return to California for a visit. In that time we have to find a new flat, pack up all of our stuff, move into the new flat, and unpack. And I have to nail down my dissertation topic and do enough research to keep me in reading material for the next month.

Life here is chaotic at the moment, yet we’re still finding time to play Scrabble and to bake bread – because that’s part of who we are, and because … well, when you only own 200 cubic feet of stuff, half of which is books? Well, packing isn’t really all that difficult. About half of our stuff is books, one quarter it is kitchen things, and the rest is clothes and bathroom stuff. Not a big deal, more of a pain in putting together the boxes.

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Food blogging is not a competition as such, but sometimes the coolness factor of other people’s blogs make me want to hide my efforts and cringe. Some of you seem to post daily feasts and astonishingly good photo essays of inventive dishes. Especially when our household is facing work and school deadlines and we really wish we could simply subsist on cold cereal, food artistry simply doesn’t happen. We’re too tired. We’re too busy. We’re too… lazy.

That last little bit has become a problem.

It’s kind of a Kitchen Catch-22. We’re exhausted, and good, fresh foods would nourish and strengthen us, but cooking those foods requires time and effort and imagination…and energy. We only realized recently that we’ve been going around and around and around with this particular conundrum, and have begun to rely on ‘shortcut’ foods that are labor-intensive in terms of packaging (lots of plastic and cardboard), are more processed than we need, and contain ingredients we wouldn’t add if we’d made them at home. Mushroom paté? Tasty — but does one really need to actually buy it, when it’s such a simple thing? No.

We’ve come to some conclusions, mainly that we need a real KITCHEN again (and we’re making that a priority in our search for a new flat), to get to bed earlier, to go on a wee vacation and recover from the past few weeks, and then to snap out of it with the laziness already.

Tall order! But taking into account the artistry and brilliance of our food blogging buddies, it’s a lot easier than one might think. After all, there are directions right in front of us for creating such toothsome goodies as Holler’s curried chickpea wrap, Lolo’s Marmalade Tofu, Tara’s tasty ANZAC Biscuits, and Haalo’s gorgeous Walnut Tea Loaf, not to mention Pille’s seasonal goodies made from fruit and herbs she gathers herself. The fact is, we have shelter and fire and food, unlike three quarters of the world. We don’t really have any good excuse not to eat a good meal.

Encouraged by this fact, we went hunting for a recipe that had enticed us earlier in the week. It was for mushroom meatballs, and it looked so good. Pasta is a quick, simple meal, and why not add meatballs, I thought? Why not? Because 1.) we had no pasta except for orzo and 2.) I couldn’t find the recipe.

*sigh*

Losing a recipe can be a boon, however. The words “how hard can it be?” are the mother of invention! Can’t find the recipe? Bluff! You don’t have all the ingredients needed? Improvise! May your wooden spoon be a magic wand, and may you arrive at mushroom meatballs as tasty — and random — as ours.

Extra-Ordinary Mushroom Meatballs

• 4 large white closed-cap mushrooms
• 1 c. dry breadcrumbs
• 2 large cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp. dry bouillon mix
• 1/4 c. raw almond
• 1 c. textured vegetable protein or beef(ish) mince
• 1/4 c. dehydrated mushrooms
• 1/3 of a bell pepper
• 1/8 tsp. rubbed sage
• 1/2 tsp. cumin, whole
• 3 allspice berries
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 ounce Edam cheese, optional

This is a recipe that you can do make entirely with a food processor and one hand tied behind your back. Of course, if you have our food processor, which holds maybe two cups, it’s tricky, but just pulsing the ingredients a few at a time and keeping a mixing bowl handy worked just fine.

The ingredients are listed in the order in which they were pulsed. The mushrooms and bell pepper provide enough moisture that you will need no more; if your TVP or beef(ish) mince is unsalted, the bouillon should take care of that perfectly, so no additional salt is necessary. The cheese takes care of the addition of fats.

Preheat oven to 350°F or whatever is “medium” for you, and line a pan with foil or parchment paper. Lightly spritz it with olive oil. When all the ingredients are chopped into almost a purée, simply use your hands to create ten medium sized portions. Form them carefully into balls. They’ll be crumbly and chunky, so just sort of pat them and leave them alone. Once they’re on the pan, you can spritz them with olive oil again if you fear they’re too dry. Bake for thirty minutes and enjoy.

These crunchy, savory, tasty bits of goodness are slightly earthy and mildly reminiscent of falafel. They would work well in wraps, atop pasta in a lovely puttanesca sauce, or on toothpicks. This recipe yields ten mushroom balls; if you make them smaller, you will, of course, have more, and I can see fiddling with the recipe to make thirty or so large ones next time. However, for a meal for two, ten is more than enough.

Success! Lunch was a highly anticipated event, and the main event was a big hit. We enjoyed our mushroom balls atop garlicky orzo and peas with a red cabbage and kohlrabi salad on the side. Feeling a pleasant sense of accomplishment, I was nonetheless disgusted when D. asked, “Oh, did you use the recipe posted by Sher at What Did You Eat?” Of course not! The universe hid it from me! But now that I’ve found it again, you can bet I’ll be back for more.

Thank you, everybody, for cooking well, eating well and inspiring me thoroughly.

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They call it “cheese salad,” but it’s never just made of cheese. Salad has, by definition, some kind of fruit or veg, yes? At least in California this is the case. Anyway, Holler’s No Croutons Required challenge this month is to make a cheese salad, and my losing battle with pudge made me instantly wary. Cheese is one of those addictive, fat-laden foodstuffs that have stood in the way of us becoming entirely vegan — and remotely thin. We try to limit its use, but… with a cheese salad? Is it possible?

Continuing our trend of enjoying ‘vaguely Mediterranean’ cuisine (that is, dishes we invent using traditional Mediterranean produce and seasonings), we thought we’d use Greek cheese for our salad. From there, we built our meal from what we had on hand. We came up with an incredibly good “cheese” salad incorporating lots of veg, minimal mayonnaise, the very non-Greek kohlrabi, and …garam masala. (We did say vaguely Mediterranean, didn’t we?!)

We tend to be of the ‘chop-and-dump’ school of thought with salads, so add ingredients accordingly.

Random Feta Salad

• 1 c. “chicken” (Quorn) or 1 block firm smoked tofu, chopped
• 1 whole English cucumber, peeled and diced small
• 2 green onions, sliced finely
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
• 1/4 of a raw kohlrabi, peeled and diced small
• 1 tbs. brine-cured capers, chopped
• 10 green olives, chopped
• 1/3 c. sprouted beans (we used lentil, kidney and chickpea sprouts)
• 100 grams (3.5 ounces, or half a small block) of Feta cheese
• 1 tsp. mayonnaise (we used Plamil’s egg free)
• 1/2 c. thick Greek yogurt
• 1 heaping tbsp. wholegrain spicy mustard (homemade is best!)
• 2 tbsp. hummus (homemade, or Cauldron’s chickpea paté is interesting)
• 1/2 tsp. chipotle powder or cayenne pepper, OR 1 green chili, desseded, sliced fine
• 1/2 tsp. garam masala (also homemade)

And really, that’s all there is to it.

We suggest that all of your chopping and dicing yield ingredients of roughly the same size so as not to create mouthfuls which are dominated by cukes or cheese. Also, don’t forget to have fun with the ingredients. Why not add a teaspoon of sunflower seeds to your serving? Or pumpkin seeds, if you crave an additional crunch? We’ve been known to make these salads and substitute celery for kohlrabi, and use cumin, allspice and ground white pepper in place of the garam masala. Sometimes we add a few tablespoons of dried cranberries for a piquant chewiness, or even raisins to play up the hint of cinnamon in the masala.

The kohlrabi adds a nice spicy crunch, augmented by the bite of the onion; the cukes add a crisp, cold sweetness which is balanced by the tangy creaminess of the feta. The savory flavors are warmed and pulled together by just a hint of spice. In no particular order, simply toss it all together, tuck it into a warm pita, and enjoy. Salads are one of the best things about warmer weather, and whatever your particular ingredient preference, this basic recipe is the platform for creating some tasty treats.

Καλή όρεξη! Bon Appétit! Enjoy!

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We have been to nirvana.

Okay, no, not the band — I think they broke up when poor Mr. Cobain died. I mean, nirvana, the Ultimate Experience. We have been to The 78.

It’s a vegan pub.

The drinks are fully vegan — and organic, which, if you’re a beer and wine aficionado is probably a good thing. That doesn’t interest us at all, but we were interested in something else — the menu. This is not your mother’s pub grub, people. The food is — wow. WOW.

There were four of us, and we enjoyed some great starters — A lovely pesto crostini with toasted cashews and chopped apples generously loaded onto the bread, and a plate of Vietnamese spring rolls with a smoky-sweet chili dip. Then we enjoyed vegetarian haggis, a falafel plate, and a wrap. In the falafel plate, the olives were mild and the hummus and falafel were perfectly balanced and delicious. The caramelized onions in the mashed potatoes matched mouth-wateringly with the savory vegan haggis, and the sugar snap peas were lightly steamed, crisp and sweet. But the crowning dish — was a chili bean and coconut wrap. Yes — coconut — and no we don’t mean coconut milk. Imagine a tasty wrap filled with kidney beans in a tangy tomato base, smoked tofu and shredded coconut, liberally dusted with chipotle powder. Spicy, smoky, addictive.

We *were* going to make pasta next weekend when G. comes to visit, but we’ve decided to drag him — and all of our future guests — to this pub. We’ve decided we need to move to the block of flats across the street. It is that good. And we didn’t even get around to the dessert menu!

The perfect end to a blustery Sunday.

Photograph courtesy of Flickr user and fellow Scottish Vegan Network person Hack_Man. Glad somebody remembered to actually take pictures instead of just inhaling and exclaiming.

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That whole thing about the end of soup weather might have been a smidge premature, but we’ve had our say and we’re sticking to it. Soup season has ended. However! We’re just in the preliminary warmups for noodle season.

You see liquid at the edge of that bowl? Pay no attention. It’s not soup. It’s… um… wet stir fry. That’s it. Wet noodles. They’re better for you.

*Ahem*

Noodles can be… well, kind of like an addiction for us, sadly. We’re carbohydrate addicts, and when we make stir-fry, we try and make sure it’s three quarters vegetables and tofu, and only one quarter noodles or rice, because really, it’s all about the veggies and the best stir fry has a good balance of each. This quick non-soup is all about the tofu — both in creamy firm chunks and in yuba bean curd sheets.

Yuba is made from the process of making tofu — boiling soy milk and adding coagulant leaves a thin skin atop the liquid. It’s skimmed off and sort of folded up to dry, and the resulting thin, rubbery skin can be rehydrated and reused.

The best way we’ve found to use yuba skin in noodle dishes is to place thinly cut strips in boiling water and a tablespoon of soy sauce (or dry bouillon mix) along with dehydrated mushrooms, and leave them overnight to hydrate together. Once we’ve started our stir fry by browning sliced onions, finely chopped garlic, firm tofu chunks and ground beef substitute, we add bok choi, bell peppers, Thai chiles, and whatever additional veggies we’re adding. Finally, we toss in cooked noodles (either the straight-to-wok kind, or ones we’ve already cooked up to a slightly chewy, almost-done texture), the rehydrated mushrooms, yuba strips and the flavorful mushroom water. A quick, hot satisfying meal that you can almost enjoy like a soup.

Almost.

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