Quickest veggie "Bolognese" sauce

A few very busy days meant a little less cooking experimentation, so here's one of my "go-to" recipes.

Purists should be warned that this is by no means an accurate vegetarian rendition of a Bolognese ragu, because it is much simplified. It does, however, make for a very delicious and hearty meal.

This recipe uses a store-bought vegetarian "ground beef" product. In the US my favorite is Morningstar's "griller crumbles" and this is what I used for this recipe. However, you can use whatever vegetarian grounds you prefer. 


Please note: most vegetarian meat-style products are not gluten free. The ones I used in this recipe are certainly not. Many of them are also not vegan, so choose carefully. I have now made this recipe with vegan and gluten free TVP, and have reported on the results here.

Also a note about the tomatoes: I prefer using canned crushed tomatoes for this recipe, as they have a stronger tomato flavor than you usually get from fresh tomatoes, at least where I live. Crushed are better than diced or whole, because they have better texture and because often diced/whole canned tomatoes contain preservatives meant to keep their shape. If you have access to really great fresh tomatoes, you can use those - just peel and crush them before adding to the recipe.

Quickest Veggie "Bolognese" Sauce

 

Ingredients (for 2 very large portions, or 3-4 smaller ones): 

* 250 grams (about 0.5 lbs) pasta of your choice

* 1 pack of Morningstar griller crumbles - or any other vegetarian "ground beef" product of your choice (these products will usually list their equivalence to actual ground beef in terms of quantity. You want the equivalent of about 1 lb or 1/2 kilo of beef).

* 1-2 tsp olive oil 

* 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced

* 1 large can of high quality crushed tomatoes (28 oz or 800 grams) (see note on tomatoes in the intro)

* Seasoning: salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, dried oregano. 

* Fresh herbs: 1 handful each of basil and parsley, finely chopped (these are optional.

The recipe will be tasty without them, but they do add a lovely freshness that just takes it up a few notches). 

* Grated cheese (optional) 

Preparation: 

1. Put a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. 

2. In a large saucepan on medium heat, heat the olive oil, and fry the minced garlic until it is just golden. Add the vegetarian grounds and keep cooking until the grounds are defrosted (if they were frozen) and a little browned.

3. Add the crushed tomatoes into the saucepan, stirring well to mix the grounds well into the tomatoes. Flavor with the seasonings, to taste.Lower the flame a little, and allow the sauce to continue cooking, stirring occasionally. 

4. While the sauce is cooking, salt the pasta water and cook the pasta as per the instructions on the box, until al dente. 

5. Strain the pasta and add it into the saucepan with the sauce. Mix well until the pasta is thoroughly coated. Just before serving, sprinkle with the fresh herbs and cheese, and cook while mixing until the cheese melts in. 

Enjoy!

Super-Chocolatey Cookies (GF)

Many years ago I threw a party, for which I prepared a particularly wicked cookbook recipe for chocolate chip cookies. The recipe quickly became known among my friends as the "Death by Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe, so named because the cookies were massive and each contained enough chocolate to fell a grown man.
The cookies were very well loved, but after a while I stopped making them, because there are only so many occasions for which you can make something as over-the-top extravagant as those cookies.

This recipe is a somewhat toned down version of the original. Don't get me wrong - these cookies are still extremely chocolate-y. They are also still about as far away from "diet food" as possible. However, compared to the truly staggering originals, they are somewhat saner. And they are certainly delicious.

Because they have so little flour in them, I made mine gluten free, but of course they can also be made using regular flour. 

Super Chocolatey Cookies

 Ingredients (for about 15 medium cookies): 

*   115 grams (about 4 ounces) dark chocolate, chopped (or high quality dark chocolate chips)
*  42 grams (about 1.5 ounces) cold butter, cubed
* 1 large egg
* 1/3 cup (75 grams, about 2.5 ounces) white sugar
* 2 tbsp gluten free flour (any neutral flavored kind will do) or regular flour
* 1/4 tsp baking powder
* a pinch of salt
* 200 grams (about 8 ounces) of chocolate chips of your choice (I used dark and white, but you can mix dark, white and milk, or whichever you prefer)

Preparation: 

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/375 F.

2. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.


3. Using a microwave, melt the dark chocolate (the first quantity listed) with the butter, by heating at 30 second increments and then stirring before continuing to heat.


4. Beat the egg and sugar together at high speed until a you get a very light yellow, fluffy mix.


5. Fold the melted chocolate into the egg mix.


6. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and fold until just mixed.


7. Fold the chocolate chips into the mixture (for a prettier cookie, save 1/4 of the chips for decoration).the mixture will basically look like lots of chocolate chips covered in a rather liquid batter. That's totally fine.

8. With a spoon, make lumps of cookie batter on the lined pan. (If you saved some chocolate for decorating, sprinkle it on top of the cookies).

9. Bake for about 10 minutes. The cookies should be taken out of the oven when the sides are stable and no longer shiny, but the insides are still very moist. The cookies will look like they are not ready yet, but they will harden upon cooling!

10. allow the cookies to cool completely in the pan without touching them (they will fall apart if they are moved from the pan while warm). Keep in an airtight container at room temperature.

Pasta with tomatoes, asparagus and fresh mozzarella

This is just a quick and easy dish that works for lunch or dinner.
For the pasta, I used Trader Joe's lemon-pepper pappardelle, which are delicious, but any other pasta (including, of course, gluten free pasta) will work just as well. If you use non-lemony pasta then giving this dish a good squeeze of lemon juice at the end will make it even better.

Leave off the mozzarella for a version that is both low fat and vegan (but note it will also not have a protein).

Pasta with tomatoes, asparagus and fresh mozzarella

Ingredients (for two generous portions): 

* about 250 grams (8.5ish ounces) of dried pasta (you can also use fresh, of course, but the quantities are up to you). 

* 1-2 tsps olive oil 

* 1 bunch fresh green asparagus (preferably thinner stalks, but whatever you can get)

* 1 large or 2 small-medium tomatoes, preferably ripe and red, diced. 

* 2 cloves of garlic, minced 

* About 1/2 package (4 oz, 100 grams) fresh mozzarella (I prefer the small balls of mozzarella, called ciliegine, but any good fresh mozzarella will do).

* salt and pepper

Preparation: 

1. Boil a large pot of water, salt generously and add the pasta (if you're using really fast cooking pasta, like fresh pasta or angel hair, don't add the pasta until you have the other ingredients ready). 

2. Discard the lower third of each asparagus stalk. Chop the rest into pieces, about 1 inch (2 cms) long. About 3 minutes before the pasta is expected to be ready add the asparagus into the boiling water with the pasta. 

3. In a large non-stick pan, heat the olive oil on a medium flame. Add the garlic to the oil and fry until it is lightly golden. Add the tomatoes and then salt and pepper them (seasoning the tomatoes makes them give up their juices more easily, which adds more sauciness without adding unnecessary oil).Stir occasionally while you wait for the pasta to cook.

4. When the pasta is cooked al-dente (the asparagus should also be softer now, but still a bit crunchy) and before you drain it take about two tablespoons of the pasta cooking water and add them to the sauce. Then drain the pasta and asparagus and add them into the pan with the tomatoes. Stir well so that the asparagus and tomatoes are interspersed throughout the pasta.

5. Plate the pasta. Tear the mozzarella into bite-size pieces and add them to the pasta. The cheese will only slightly melt from the heat of the pasta, leaving it's delicious fresh taste.

Enjoy!

Rice noodles with tofu, scallions and snow peas (GF)

We started out wanting to make Pad Thai, but found that we were missing some crucial ingredients.
We substituted those ingredients with others and came up with a dish of noodles that bears little resemblance to Pad Thai, but is delicious all the same.

A word about soy sauce: I've discovered that I strongly prefer GF tamari to regular soy sauce (this is probably also true for regular tamari, I just haven't tried). Tamari has a milder, more gentle flavor than soy sauce, which can sometimes be overpowering. This recipe uses a lot of the sauce, because I also used it as an alternative to fish sauce in the original recipe.

And a word about the tofu: in this recipe, the tofu is fried before adding to the noodles, in order to give it a better texture and keep it from being bland. However, to avoid the frying, try marinading it in some strong flavors instead.

Noodles with Tofu, Scallions and Snow Peas

 Ingredients (for two decent portions, or one  very hungry diner): 

*  1/4 pound (120 grams) wide rice noodles 
*  7 oz (200 grams) extra firm tofu, cut into strips
*  canola oil for frying
*  2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
*  about 1/4 vegetable broth or water
*  4 scallions (green onions), chopped
*  1 egg, lightly beaten  (can be made without the egg to make it vegan)
*  handful of fresh snow peas, sliced into strips
*  1/4 cup of roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
*  1/2 lime or lemon

For the sauce: 
* 5 tbsp GF tamari sauce (or regular tamari or regular soy sauce)
* 2 tbsp sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes

Preparation:

1. soften/cook the noodles following the instructions on the box. Drain, rinse and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the sauce ingredients. 

3. In a non-stick wok, heat about an inch (2 cms) of canola oil to medium high heat, and  fry the tofu strips until they are golden. With a slotted spoon, remove the tofu strips to a plate covered in kitchen towel, to drain. Carefully pour out most of the oil, leaving only about 1 tbsp in the wok.

4. Place the wok on medium heat and add in the garlic. When the garlic is lightly golden, add the tofu and toss together. (I find the best way to work with stir frying is with a combination of a wooden spoon and heat proof kitchen tongs, but whatever works for you).

5. Add the softened noodles into the wok and toss. Pour the sauce over the noodles (make sure you get the sugar, that tends to stick to the bottom of the bowl) and stir well. Then pour a little bit of the vegetable broth (or water) over the noodles, to keep them from sticking and creating some more sauce. Stir well.

6. Push the noodles to one side of the wok, creating some space. In that space, add a little bit more oil (just a tsp or two will do). Pour the egg into the newly created wok space, and when it starts to set, scramble it. Mix the scrambled egg into the noodles.

7. Once again push the noodles to one side. In the space created, add the snow peas and the scallions and cook until they are just lightly cooked. Mix them into the noodles and keep cooking, while stirring, for a little longer, just until the snow peas are a little soft (but still crunchy).

8. Squeeze the lemon (or lime) over the noodles and stir well.

9. Plate the noodles and garnish with the chopped peanuts.

Enjoy!

Red lentil and rice croquettes

I recently got my hands on this great new Israeli vegetarian cookbook: Al Haschulchan's Vegetarian Kitchen (it's in Hebrew, sorry readers). A lot of veggie cookbooks are a bit repetitive, offering the same tired pasta and risotto dishes, or relaying too heavily on tofu. This book is great, because it balances recipes that use tofu or meat replacements like TVP and meatless ground beef, with recipes that just use great, tasty vegetarian ingredients to make a delicious and balanced dish.

These croquettes (or patties, or whatever you want to call them) are a perfect example of the latter. The combination of rice and lentils means that they are an entire meal in and of themselves. The original recipe calls for grated carrots and zucchini rather than the yam, but I had neither at home, so yam it was. And two small tips about this one: first, apparently the croquettes can be baked until crispy (in a 200 C/400 F oven) instead of fried; also, these are surprisingly delicious cold out of the fridge, so you can make them for dinner one night, and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day!

Now, on to the recipe (ok, the picture isn't great. I'm still working on figuring out how to photograph food well. But I promise they are delicious, and that I will try to improve):

Red Lentil and Rice Croquettes

 

Ingredients (for about 20 croquettes):
* 1/2 cup  uncooked white rice (or about 1.5 cups of cooked rice. If you have leftover rice, that's perfect).
* 1/2 cup  uncooked red lentils
* 1 small onion, finely diced
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 1 smallish yam, grated (or, if you want to follow the original: 1 grated carrot and 1 grated courgette or zucchini, the latter drained).
* I added: a handful each of fresh parsley and fresh mint, very finely chopped. 
* 3 eggs
* 2 tbsp breadcrumbs (I used Aleia's Italian gluten free breadcrumbs, because that's what I had. Obviously regular breadcrumbs will also do just fine if you don't need the recipe to be GF).
*  Salt and pepper to taste (I also added some chili powder)
* 3 tbsp canola, for frying.


Preparation: 
1. Cook the rice and the lentils in two separate pots for about 15 minutes. Drain.

2. Fry the onion in the olive oil until it is browned.

3. In a bowl, combine the rice, lentils and fried onion with the yam (or vegetables), eggs, breadcrumbs, herbs and seasoning and mix or knead together.

4. Heat the canola oil in a large non-stick pan, make patties in your preferred size, and fry the patties about 2-3 minutes on each side until they are browned and crispy. When they are ready, place them on a plate lined with kitchen towel. Serve immediately or reheat in a heated oven (or, as I said, eat cold).

Enjoy!

What this is all about...

Take a (somewhat picky) vegetarian foodie with a penchant for collecting cookbooks and a mild addiction to to the Food Network. Add a spouse who is a meat eater and not a fan of the cooked vegetable (although also not one of those hardened carnivore who won't look at a plate if it doesn't have steak on it). Then, just to make things interesting, diagnose said spouse with celiac disease (an intolerance to gluten).

What do you get?  Well, a bit of a cooking challenge.

But then, what foodie doesn't love a good challenge?

For a couple of years I was just figuring out how to cook in this new situation, but I've recently gotten back to trying new recipes and rediscovering my cookbook collection in depth. Now, after being inspired by recipes shared by Danny and Becca on their blog, I've decided to try my own hand at it.

The main point of this blog will be to share recipes that I've tried and enjoyed. Usually these will be recipes from cookbooks or websites (with full credit given, of course), but often with my own comments, corrections or suggestions. As I test out my cookbooks more thoroughly, I might even post some reviews of my faves. Stick around.

* Although our household is not veggie (see above re: spouse), all of the recipes on this blog are vegetarian. Some recipes might also be vegan, in which case I'll try to tag them appropriately.

* Because most of our house is now GF, many of the recipes will also be gluten free, in which case I will clearly mark them as such. There will also be some recipes that can easily be made GF by making a few substitutions. Where possible, I will try to suggest appropriate ones.