Vegan pasta

What better than a pasta plate for dinner when in a rush? And to accomodate it: spinach and tofu simply cooked in olive oil. So simply delicious now with the pick of the spinach season, they are so soft and sweet.

Boil the pasta of your choice and drain them.

In the meantime, start draining a puece of tofu (hard or soft, both are good), wash the spinach and cut them in 4-5cm long pieces. In a large heated pan, add olive oil and the spinach, then the tofu in crumbles. Stir well. Add the boiled pasta, stir and add a bit more olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve and eat immediately.

January 21, 2017

Vegan burger

A. is always asking for burgers so I prepared him a special vegan burger with homemade vegan patties, avocado spread and plenty of salad, really plenty, as he lives salad a lot. I guess what he really wants when he says burger is a bloody steack and fries… but I tried to be inventivd and to have a very tasty combination and if worked cery very well. Beware, contrarily to most of the recipes I post this one takes a bit more time, but is very simple. I used what I had in the fridge for that so yoocan adjust easily with yours!

For the patties, inspired by Prunellia’s recipe of pancake seeds:

1 cup of quinoa, mind was black, but red or white works well, can be replaced by bulgur, red beans, rice…
a handfull of pumpkin seeds
a handfull of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of flax seeds, here I used brown, but blond work too,
2 large sato/taro imo, can be replaced by boiled chickpeas, boiled red beans…

For the filling:

1 ripe avocado
lemon juice
salt and pepper
green beans sprouts or any other sprouts: brocoli, alfalfa…
a lettuce

First grill the sato/taro imo in the oven with the skin until soft and creamy inside. In the mean time boil the quinoa until slightly softer than usual and drain if needed. Peel the sato/taro imo and cut in pieces, add to the quinoa. Add all the seeds, stir well to obtain a thick paste. In a frypan greased with olive oil make 1-1.5cm thick patties of about 8-10cm diameter and cook them until golden on both side. I prepared 2 per person. They are good cold or warm. You can rheat them in the oven if needed. Manipulate with care because they can break easily.

Chop the lettuce, smash the avocado and add lemon juice, salt and pepper. Wash the sprouts. Now you are ready to make the burgers. I used half of the avocado spread per person. I spread a thick layer on on patty, added the sprouts and flipped over the other patty. Served on top of the lettuce, finish with a little of olive oil. Et voila!!!

The sato/taro imo give a very good texture to the patties and help them to keep their shape, the creamy avocado it perfect with the crunchy patties, and the sprouts add freshness. I’ll do it again!!!!

January 20, 2017

Canola – 菜の花

The season has come already for canola – 菜の花 – nanohana. They mark that we are now heading towards the coldest times of the year and slightly more gloomy. January is marked by beautiful weather and it moves slowly into more rainy days. The bright green of the leaves and yellow of the flowers are illuminating these cold days and given a very first taste of spring. They also offer a good green option to spinach and cabbage! They can be cooked in many different ways and are part of Japanese traditional preparation of the season. I’ve already presented a few different, not very classic, recipes with canola: a quiche, an omelet…

Today I tried a new preparation and used the canola as I would use broccoli or cauliflower. I prepared it with chickpeas (boiled before) and with carrots. I first cooked the carrots in a bit of olive oil, then added the chickpeas, a tsp of cumin powder, salt, pepper, then added the washed and cut canola, and cooked under cover for s few minutes until the green leaves become very bright. Then I just added a little of olive oil, stirred and served. That’s all!

January 19, 2017

Mini corn crepes

In a constant search for better quality and better taste I have almost completely stopped buying processed food. Only when we are in a rush/have forgotten do I buy bread at the combini, otherwise I prepare something: pancakes, scones, crepes, bread, or A. stops at the nearby bread artisan to buy some sordough bread. Of course it requires organization and a bit of effort in the morning but it is also very gratifying to eat freshly made food. And getting used to prepare quickly the routine gets easier and faster, mire accurate too. And it helps for fixing anything not only for breakfast but also lunch, dinner… so when my mum sent me some vegan spread (some kind of salty porridge, I’ll try to make someday) and we are waiting for dinner to be ready, it took me only 5min to prepare a corn flour dough and make some mini thick crepes to try the spread. I used 100g of corn flour, works as well with chickpea flour or whatever you like, 1 egg and s bit of water. The dough must be thick but not too much. Then in a heated pan greased with olive oil I made small crepes (3-4cm diameter) with one tbs of dough each. Flip when almost dry on top. Serve with the topping of your choice.

January 18, 2017

It’s cold! Let’s eat fukinoto curry!!!

Plum trees start to blossom, fukinoto start to sprout out the frozen soil, but it’s cold outside!!! And when it is that cold I love the warmth of a curry with rice. So simple to prepare with whatever is in the fridge and whatever spices are on the shelves! For this recipe I used sweet potato, carrot, and fukinoto. For the spices: curry powder, cardamom, nutmeg, salt and pepper. I had a piece of grilled katsuo and added it to the dish but vegan is also very good. I chopped the vegetables and cooked them in a bit of vegetal oil, then cover them with water and add the spices: a tsp of each, a pjnch of salt and a bit of pepper and cooked until the liquid almost disappeared. I added here the grilled katsuo in big crumbs. Stirred well and finished with the fukinoto. Cooked under cover 2min and served to eat immediately with warm rice. The fukinoto suits very nicely the curry a very nice combination. What is your favorite recipe to fight thevold weather and keep warm?

January 17, 2017

Matcha meringues- 抹茶メレンゲ

Because the recipe for the panettone (which was a total failure) was using only egg yolks I decided to make meringues with the whites. In the country house I opted for non electrical appliances in the kitchen, except for the blender, I knead manually and I beat my egg whites manually too. So I added a pinch of salt to 3 egg whites a beat them until firm. Then I added 70g of icing sugar, and 2 large tea spoons of matcha powder. It gives this shiny green mix. Then I preheat the oven to 110deg and on s cooking paper sheet I made small mounts of the mix. The shape and size won’t change much, so you can decide easily for the size and shape you want. And I cooked until dry and a little hard, because I like my meringues soft inside, if you like them hard and dry keep them longer. It took about 15min for 4cm meringues. If you notice the edge getting brown is that the oven is too hot, lower the temperature to 100deg.

Have a nice week!

January 16, 2017

Fresh lunch

After our tennis game turned short because of a sudden snow fall, we went grocery shopping (beautiful radishes, carrots, spinach, cauliflowers and the first of spring veggies: na no hana (colza flowers) and fuki no to) and then back home for lunch. I was frozen and was about to prepare a warm curry or soup. But then the sun came out and the sky cleared again, so I changed my mind and went for a light radish, carrot and spinach salad, served with bonito sautéed in a crispy chickpeas flour crust. I just sliced the radish and carrot with a mandolin, washed and drained the spinach and removed the hardest parts. For the bonito I used a puece of a filet for sashimi and sliced it. I dipped the slices in chickpea flour, and then cooked them on both sides in vegetal oil. Dressed the plates and serve with a bowl of rice. Have a nice weekend!

January 14, 2017

Kabocha-mushroom risotto

This is the perfect winter dish for a busy evening! Super simple to prepare in a short time and you can prepare it before and reheat it just before eating.
For two people I use 1/6 of kabocha, 5 mushrooms, risotto rice of your choice, olive oil, salt and pepper and I finished my plate with freshly grated parmigiano, but it is optional. I sliced thinly the kabocha and the mushrooms. In a fry pan I heated a bit of olive oil and through the vegetables and roasted them until golden and crispy. Then I add the rice and grilled it a bit before adding water and salt. Let cook at low heat until the water is almost gone. Remove from heat and keep until you want to eat.
Before eating add a bit of olive oil, re-heat in the pan and stir softly if needed. Serve, add pepper, et voila!

January 13, 2017

My Japanese style vegan soup

Largely inspired by the quinoa soups (winter and autumn) I made, I wanted something more Japanese. So I cooked in a pan: one sweet potato, one large sato imo, a piece of kabocha and a leek in a bit of olive oil, and in an other pan I cooked a mix of seeds and beans together with brown rice, I cooked them as you would cook regular Japanese rice. I didn’t cook the veggies and the rice together to avoid over cooking the veggies, to keep their beautiful colors (black rice has a tendency to color a lot) and limit the stickiness of the rice and seeds. Just before serving I added a bit of boiling water to the rice mix to make it soupy, and I deglazed the veggies with a large table spoon of soy sauce. I served the rice mix, the vegetables and topped with golden sesame seeds. A rich and tasty soup for a winter evening.

January 11, 2017