Moroccan Carrot Salad, Take Two

How the hell do you spell Moroccan?  The question of whether to double your consonants or not becomes doubly tricky with the addition of "carrot" to Moroccan ... since in French it's "carotte."  What a mess.  As if British spellings weren't enough to mess up one's spelling.

When Helen sent me the link to this carrot salad in the LA Times, I was a bit like, ho hum, I've already made a Moroccan carrot salad, and it had harissa in it.  But this new one was WAY better!  Sauteeing the garlic, onions, and spices evened out the flavors.  Also, lightly cooked, larger chunks of carrot had a more pleasant texture than raw grated carrot.  Overall, this was a delicious, balanced dish: lemon, vinegar, chili, and cayenne all add zing, while sugar and cloves, ginger, cinnamon, etc. add warmth.  And of course, cilantro's off doing its own thing.  :)

I made a half recipe and it easily served three.

Spicy Moroccan Carrot Salad

(from the LA times)

Ingredients

2 pounds carrots

1/3 c olive oil, plus extra to finish

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tsp sugar

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 serrano chile, finely chopped (and seeded, if you want less heat)

1 green onion, finely chopped

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 TB white red wine vinegar

1 TB chopped preserved lemon lemon juice

salt, to taste

2 1/2 c cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped, plus extra to garnish

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, chilled

Instructions

1. Peel the carrots and cut them, depending on their size, into cylinders or semicircles one-half-inch thick; all the pieces should end up roughly the same size. Place in a large saucepan and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until tender but still crunchy, about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and leave to dry out.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the onion over medium heat until soft and slightly brown, about 12 minutes. Add the cooked carrots to the onion, followed by the sugar, garlic, chile, onion, cloves, ground ginger, coriander, cinnamon, paprika, cumin, and vinegar.
3. Remove from the heat. Season with salt and lemon juice, stir well and leave to cool.
4. Before serving, stir in the cilantro, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve in individual bowls with a dollop of yogurt, a drizzle of oil and a garnish of the extra cilantro.  Serves about 6.

Green Pea Soup

This soup is so easy and simple, but it's also very delicious and refreshing.  I could almost see myself eating it cold (and I really am not into cold savory soups).  Ginger, lemon juice, and mint all "cool down" this ever-so-slightly-spicy soup.  If you wanted a more intense version, I think this soup would also be a great vehicle for harissa, in the style of that split pea harissa soup.

Green extravaganza!  Salad with avocado, pea soup with mint

Green Pea Soup Recipe

(from 101 cookbooks)

 

Ingredients

3 TB fresh ginger, well chopped

10 sm-med cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

2 serrano chiles, stemmed and chopped

1/4 tsp ground cumin, plus more to serve

3 TB veg oil

2 bay leaves

1 medium onion, chopped

4 1/2 cups good-tasting vegetable stock or water

3 1/2 cups shelled fresh or frozen peas

1 tsp sea salt, or to taste

a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

8 fresh mint leaves

pan-fried paneed, queso fresco, or haloumi, cut into tiny cubes - optional

harissa (optional)

Instructions

1. Use a food processor to puree the ginger, garlic, chiles, cumin and three tablespoons of water into a paste. You could also use a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
2. Place a large saucepan over medium-high heat and add the oil. When hot, add the bay leaves and saute for 30 seconds. Stir in the onion and cook for a few minutes, until it begins to take on a bit of color. At this point, stir in the garlic-ginger paste, and cook for another minute. Carefully add the stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Then add the peas. Simmer just until the peas are bright, and cooked through - just a couple minutes.
3. Remove from heat, fish out the bay leaves, add the salt, and puree well with a hand blender. Taste, and add more salt if needed. Also, if you need to thin out the soup at all, you can add more stock at this point. Serve hot (or chilled?) topped with a bit of lemon juice, a pinch of cumin, mint leaves, and perhaps harissa? pan-fried paneer or cheese.  Serves 4-6.

Recipe Index Updated

Today I pulled out my very dusty html skillz from the late 90s and tried to make the index on the right-hand side of the blog a little easier to use: there's a list of categories at the top with links to take you down to each particular category.  I'd appreciate any feedback on a) whether this works ok in your browser and b) whether the categories are helpful/intuitive (and organizational suggestions).  I think it's a sign of what's exciting about vegan food that "main dishes" is a pretty irrelevant category, but it has made organizing this growing bunch of recipes a tricky task. 

:)

Italian-Inspired Rotelle with Sausage, Spinach, and Sundried Tomatoes

One evening I got home and needed to eat quickly before going to a concert.  I threw this pasta dish together.  It was balanced, filling, and fast, and the flavors went together excellently.

It was also, however, a huge gluten bomb in the stomach.  I've already written about how these Field Roast sausages are delicious, minimally processed, and yet strangely difficult to digest.  Since I bought them, I intend on using them!  Perhaps in smaller amounts.

Italian-Inspired Rotelle with Sausage, Spinach, and Sundried Tomatoes

Ingredients

2 servings of pasta, cooked as directed (I used whole wheat rotelle)

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oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 sausage (I used Field Roast Italian), sliced

lots of spinach

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juice and zest of 1 lemon

3 sundried tomatoes (from a jar), chopped

oil from tomatoes

red pepper flakes

salt, if needed

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to directions.

2. In a frying pan, heat oil, then saute garlic a few minutes.  Add sausage and cook until browned, then add spinach and cook briefly.

3. Toss pasta with saute mixture and remaining ingredients.  Add lemon and salt to taste.  Serves 2.

Spicy Noodles with Basil

Intrigued by a recipe that uses ketchup (as well as other premade sauces I didn't have), I made this noodle dish.  Basil, citrus, cucumber, and ginger freshened up the heavier flavors of sugar, peanut butter, and ketchup.  I found myself wishing for a greater variety and overall amount of veggies, but otherwise this was interesting and satisfying, and I think it could withstand a ton of tweaking based on your tastes and what you have lying around.  I also think rice stick noodles might be better, given that the flavors--insofar as they were anything--seemed more Thai than Japanese.

Spicy Noodles with Basil

(adapted from get sconed)

Ingredients

1 package tempeh, cut into pieces

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2-3 servings noodles (I used soba, but rice noodles might be better)

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2 TB tamari

1 TB wocerstershire

3 TB water

2 TB peanut butter

1 tsp ketchup

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp garlic chili paste

sesame oil

turmeric

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5 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 in piece ginger, minced

1-2 chilies, minced

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carrots, sliced

other vegetables

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juice of one lime

1 small cuke, peeled, diced, and divided

scallions, chopped and divided

basil, chopped and divided

Instructions

1. Steam tempeh, and then save water. Combine marinade/sauce ingredients (tamari through turmeric).
2. Marinate tempeh and cook noodles as directed.
3. In a frying pan or a wok, fry garlic, ginger, and chilies.
4. Pick the tempeh out of the marinade (reserving marinade), add said tempeh into the frying pan along with carrots and other veggies.
5. When tempeh is browned and veggies are slightly cooked, stir in noodles, leftover sauce/marinade, lime juice, and some each of cucumber, scallions, and basil.  Serve warm and top with additional cucumber, scallions, and basil.  Serves about 3.

Two One-Offs

I recently made a faster version of the green curry broth soup.  I didn't simmer the broth for all that long before straining it, and then I added stir-fried tofu, mushrooms, carrots, shredded collards, and udon noodles.  I garnished it with lime juice, scallions, cilantro, and sesame seeds... really, though, the possibilities for this soup are endless.

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Secondly.  Sometimes I want to make something savory for breakfast in the morning, but the sausagey recipes require sooo much measuring that I'm just not down.  But I've gotten around this problem by quadrupling the spices from the oats and rice sausage recipe so that you have a mixture of:

2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2-1 tsp ground black pepper
4 tsp ground sage
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp dried thyme
4 tsp fennel seeds

You'd then use about a heaping tablespoon for the original recipe, or less for smaller batches of stuff.

In this case, I then referred to this tempeh sausage squares recipe.  I mixed 1 TB tamari, 1/4 tsp liquid smoke, and about 1/4-1/2 c water with a heaping teaspoon of the above mixture.  Then I fried triangles of tempeh on both sides before pouring this mixture over the top, letting it cook off, etc., etc.

Then, because I happened to have some lying around, we topped off the tempeh with some mushroom gravy. Not the best photo, but this is one of the best (and fastest) homemade sausage things I've made yet.

Caraway Beer Bread

This bread was baked with some amount of anticipation because it was super fast and used two very exciting ingredients: beer and caraway seeds (obviously).  Like this other beer bread, I think the beer is not so much for leavening as it is for flavor (yeasty/malty, sort of compensates for it being a baking powder bread rather than a yeasted one).

Though the caraway seeds are zingy and fun, though, I've yet to meet a soda bread that I'm really excited about.  Fresh out of the oven, slathered in earth balance, it tastes awesome (don't most things? [don't answer that]).  But as early as the morning after, it feels stale, dry, dense; it lacks flavor... which is why I made a funny-looking half loaf (pictured below). 

Does anyone have a really awesome quick bread recipe?  I mean, a bready one (not pumpkin bread or something like that, where the sugar, oil, and pumpkin all add to the moistness).

Caraway Beer Bread

(from food.com)

Ingredients

3 c all-purpose flour

1 TB baking powder

1 TB sugar

1 tsp salt

2 TB caraway seeds (don't overdo this--it won't look like that much, but a little goes a long way)
12 ounces beer, room temperature 

2 TB vegan butter, melted 

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350*F.  Coat a small loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and caraway in a large bowl.  Add beer; stir in liquid into flour mixture just until flour is moistened.  Scrape into pan.
3. Bake at 350*F for 50 minutes.  Brush top with half of melted butter, then bake 10 more minutes or until lightly browned.
4. Remove loaf from oven and brush on remaining butter.  Cool somewhat, then serve warm or at room temperature.  Makes one (9x5) loaf.