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Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes - 'Try before you Die!'
I have no luck hiding veggies (or anything at all). My husband and my oldest child won't eat food that is mixed together. Even pasta is questionable although they tolerate it as long as the cause has no chunks. They don't eat soup or stew or omelets or basically anything where there are different foods (especially different textures) mixed together. My husband is the pickiest eater I've ever known, worse than any of the kids ever were. Though I can get him to drink green smoothies as long as all he tastes is the apple.
I love this thread, whenever I need lunch ideas, or if I happen to make my own dinner (which is rare, but it happens) I come look here for recipes
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Am pan-frying some paneer cheese... yummy curry tonight!
**parks self in thread and takes notes**. I'm actually trying meal planning in order to improve my food budget, try new recipes, and get my wife to eat at least one home-cooked meal (dinner) that isn't riddled with salt. (I do the vast majority of the cooking when I'm cooking for two. She helps with cutting up veggies and rinsing stuff.) I'll take all the inspiration I can get!
I didn't realise how easy wholemeal chappatti's were to make -OMG -
Makes about 4 chappattis
Ingredients:
Wholemeal flower 150g I think
Pinch of Salt
Olive oil 1tsp
Water about 2 tbs I think
Method:
Put flour in bowl, and add a pinch of salt and mix together with clean fingers.
Make a well in the mixture with your thumb and add water a little at a time, mixing with fingers until you get a soft but not runny dough
Add olive oil and knead together for a few minutes or until you think you are bored.
Divide into 4 little balls and roll out until pancake thin on a floured surface.
Recite Om Mani Padme Hung continuously until all chapatti's ready to eat
Heat a teflon pan on high heat and place a pancake thin dough chapatti on the hot pan and get a scrunched up cloth and press on and turn the dough pancake - the dough blisters where you press on it - magical and fulfilling!
Flip chapattii and repeat until there are some brown/black areas suggesting that if you continue - the thing will burn.
Put the chapattis in aluminium foil and enjoy with curried paneer
If you are not alergic to tomatos then use tomatos in each veg meal you will never miss non veg once you taste the flavour of tomatos...
And also use coconut or coconut milk in food its very rich in taste.
I love kitchen gadgets. But what on earth is a roti? I looked at their website, and it basically says "makes roti up to 20 at a time" but I have no idea what that means
@karasti said:
I love kitchen gadgets. But what on earth is a roti? I looked at their website, and it basically says "makes roti up to 20 at a time" but I have no idea what that means
Also, their house is much, much cleaner than mine
Roti is very important and hard thing to prepare in Indian subcontinent. It's a kind of bread... With every food you can eat roti and it will make food great..
With bread veg food don't taste good.. But roti will make every food to taste good...It is prepared from wheat flour and water ....It fulfills the need of carbohydrate in daily needs. People can't live without it once they used to roti but it is very time consuming to prepare and needs lot hard work manually...
This eqipment is great to cook roti..
ahh! So kind of a flatbread. Interesting. So it's kind of like a bread machine for flat bread. Cool! I love naan, and flat bread, but I have never tried to make my own.
@karasti said:
ahh! So kind of a flatbread. Interesting. So it's kind of like a bread machine for flat bread. Cool! I love naan, and flat bread, but I have never tried to make my own.
It is one of the toughest job to make roti by hand...
Yum yum. I wished I was more inventive with my cooking, these days I just rotate the same 4 or 5 basic dishes.
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
@SpinyNorman, Look at the recipes we have in the thread, write down the ones that appeal, then schedule a dish rota for the week. Shop accordingly. Add variety and you'll vary your diet considerably!
Try this @SpinyNorman - I made this tonight for the kids, my daughter turned up her nose at the (very mild) chili - I just gave her a big glass of milk to drink, and told her to start enjoying it (to which she burst into tears and won a cuddle from a bad dad), but it was nice and easy to make and tasted great!
Chilli, Courgette, Shallot and Pea Pesto Tagliatelle
Serves 4 adults
Preparation time about 10 minutes
cooking time about 5 minutes
Ingredients:
Tagliatelle about 250 g
1 vegetable stock cube
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped or minced
1 echallion Shallot (it's halfway between an onion and a shallot in my eyes) finely diced
1 chilli - deseeded and finely chopped (remember not to scratch your face or poke yourself in the eye (or take a pee if your male without first washing your hands) - like I did - ouch even weak chillies sting like hell on sensitive sites lol
1 tbs olive oil
A Pinch of salt and pepper
Pesto (I'll post my pesto recipe soon after I check whether or not I've posted it previously before) - It's the bees knees!
Vegetarian Italian hard cheese - finely grated
1/2 Cup of fresh garden peas
1/Cup finely sliced courgette (about half a courgette cut lengthways into slices and then cut into thin slices about the size of the tagliatelle)
Toasted pine nuts about 2 tbs
Method:
Bring about 200ml water to the boil in a large pan, add the stock cube and simmer.
Heat a dry teflon frying pan (no oil) and toast them tossing them over and over - if you take your eye off them they will burn! When tanned all over put them in a bowl to the side.
Now the next few steps have to take into consideration the tagliatelle cooking time - lets say 5 minutes...
Heat the olive oil in a pan on low to medium heat and gently fry the garlic, shallots and chilli for about 5 minutes or until the shallots are just softening, stirring gently - don't let the garlic burn! Simultaneously add the tagliatelle to the stock.
At about 2 minutes add the peas to the tagliatelle - remember not to let the garlic burn!
At 5 minutes add the courgette strips and stir for about 2-3 minutes don't let the courgettes go limp/flaccid, you need a little crunch - texture is everything in this dish. Add the salt and pepper.
Save a cup of the stock/pasta water from the tagliatelle, then drain the tagliatelle and peas into a sieve.
Add the drained tagliatelle/peas to the courgette/chilli/garlic and a add a few tablespoons of saved liquid stock, mix in the Pesto - et voila!
Serve topped with the vege hard Italian cheese and sprinkle half a tablespoon of pine nuts on top. A little rocket, red onion and tomato salad drizzled and tossed with with pesto adds another dimension of taste and texture...
Serve with sparkling water, or a nice Pino Grigio!
Enjoy - it really is a great dish...
I think given your Italian job background you might give a gentle nod of approval to this one @federica (especially the use of the water/stock from the tagliatelle and peas - learned this italian technique recently from a cooking course I've been doing and now regularly add broccoli and other veges to the pasta water +/- stock for the additional flavour)
ingredients:
Best olive oil you can lay your hands on
a pinch or 2 of salt and pepper
1 garlic clove roughly chopped
1 large handful of fresh basil leaves (about 50-100g)
4 tbs grated Italian hard cheese (I use grana padana or parmigiana reggiana)- there are some really good vegetarian options
4 tbs toasted pine nuts
1 tsp of lemon juice
Easy Method:
Put about 6 tbs of olive oil in a blender, add the salt, pepper, lemon, garlic and basil and half the pine nuts and pulse to desired texture, pour into a bowl and stir in the cheese and rest of the pine nuts, adding more olive oil to get the desired consistency. Test flavour of mixture and add more cheese, lemon, salt or pepper depending on your personal taste and preference - I sometimes use 2 garlic cloves but I'm a garlic fiend
The Satisfyingly Loving and Tender Method - requires pestle and mortar:
Put the garlic, salt and pepper into the mortar bowl and using the pestle grind to a smooth paste, then add basil leaves to make a green paste, add half the toasted pine nuts and grind to make a roughly ground paste, you can add more garlic if you like at this stage.
Pour into a bowl, and stir in the cheese and rest of the toasted pine nuts with the lemon, add olive oil to the desired 'just runny' texture, add lemon, pepper, salt and cheese etc to your own personal taste.
Cook your favourite pasta (ours is fresh penne pasta) and serve al dente with a big dollop of pesto mixed in.
You can have it just like that or be adventurous. We experiment with variations of vegetables including the following, where we cook the vegetables with the pasta (saves on washing up):
green beans (add 5 minutes before end of pasta cooking time), and diced salted & roasted new potatoes (mixed into the drained pasta with the pesto )
peas and sweetcorn (add 5 minutes before end of pasta cooking time)
tenderstem broccoli
I also love a tricolore salad using alternating slices of beef tomato (beef as in big and beefy not the mooing kind), mozzarella,and avocado lightly salted and drizzled with the pesto and sprinkled with basil and rocket leaves. Makes a great starter
It stores well in a sealed jar for a good week to 10 days... But it never lasts that long in our house
enjoy!
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
edited February 2015
Italian Mamma says:
Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano. The latter is a bit stronger.
Never add the grated cheese unless you intend to use the pesto immediately. If stored for more than 2 days (even in the fridge) the cheese begins to ferment, and make the flavour far more acidic.
Grana originally referred to a class of hard, mature cheeses from Italy which have a granular texture and are often used for grating. These cheeses are typically made in the form of large drums. The structure is often described as crystalline, and the drums are divided by being split with a fairly blunt triangular knife designed for the purpose, rather than being sliced, cut or sawn. Within the European Union, the term Grana is now legally protected by Grana Padano Protected Designation of Origin, such that only Grana Padano may be sold using the term in EU countries.
The two best-known examples of grana-type cheeses are Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana Padano. The two cheeses are broadly similar, with the latter being less sharp, crumbly and grainy.
The main difference between the two is that cows producing Parmigiano-Reggiano eat only grass and cereals (no silage), no preservatives and no antibiotics. Cows that have been treated with antibiotics are suspended from production of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Silage is a fermented forage that requires the addition of a natural preservative to Grana Padano.
Pesto should only ever truly be made with a Pestle and Mortar: hence the name (Pestello & Mortaio).
Oh, I'm being such a clever-clogs today.... must be my employment optimism!!
Thanks for the top tips Mama @federica and info - I like it when I learn new facts; we have a bio-cool compartment in our fridge that keeps food just at, but not quite, freezing point, which is why when I have had it nearly a week later, the fermentation hadn't really occurred. As i said freshly made pesto don't last more than a day or so!
You might need to go to a health food store and buy some ingredients here, but if you know where to go you can get quite a lot for your money when compared to the high fructose-glucose syrup snacks we are indoctrinated into buying!
This is a good alternative to chocolate biscuits and is high in omega 6 (and vege derived omega 3) oils, you can mix and match the ingredients how you like but I recommend the dried cranberries as essential. Place the prepared ingredients in a storage jar and when peckish put a couple of handfuls out in a small bowl out on the side and nibble when feeling a little peckish (for chocoholics - see note below):
Ingredients
1tbs sunflower seeds
1tbs pumpkin seeds
1tbs pine nuts
1tbs crushed walnuts
½ tbs sesame seeds
½ tbs flax seeds
1tbs cranberries
½ tbs raisins/sultanas
10 dried apricots finely diced
handful dried banana chips - placed in a plastic bag and crushed into smaller chips
Finely chopped dried mango
For those who need a little chocolate rush - buy a bar of original Cadburys milk chocolate or milk chocolate buttons (not Hershey's - YUK!) and roughly chop it into small pieces, or if you have OCD chop into small squares - alternatively freeze it solid and bash it in a plastic bag into small chips is my favoured technique
Take all the big nuts and seeds and toast them in a dry pan until just starting to brown. add the sesame and flax seeds
Preparation
Take all the big nuts and seeds and toast them in a dry pan until just starting to brown or pop. Add the sesame and flax seeds and stir for a few minutes or until sesame seeds look toasted. Put in a bowl to cool.
Prepare the dried fruit and add to the cooled nuts. Place in a dry tight-sealed storage jar.
Keep the chocolate chips frozen and add a little each time you make a new bowlful...
Don't be greedy now - it's a snack!
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silverIn the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast.Veteran
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Goodness, I just made my own 'Sumac' spice! It costs an arm and a leg at Waitrose - ! I made it totally FOC!
@federica said:
SpinyNorman, Look at the recipes we have in the thread, write down the ones that appeal, then schedule a dish rota for the week. Shop accordingly. Add variety and you'll vary your diet considerably!
I'm actually not a bad cook and I often used to help with cooking on retreats, it's just I can't be bothered. I'm a bit more inventive when I cook for friends but when it's just me it's all fairly routine. Also shopping is simpler when you have simple menus!
I'm the opposite. I love to cook for myself. I can take however long I want, add as much spice as I like (a lot) and have plenty of left overs. I don't mind cooking for my family, but there is a chasm of difference in what they are willing to eat and what I prefer, lol. My sister is an excellent cook, I wish I had her gift for knowing what to add, when. She spent many summers cooking at the Rainbow festival, and now runs a restaurant in Minneapolis. I love love love when she comes home and cooks for us!
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silverIn the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast.Veteran
@federica said:
Goodness, I just made my own 'Sumac' spice! It costs an arm and a leg at Waitrose - ! I made it totally FOC!
I just skimmed the article, sounds useful! I'd like to try it on eggs / omelets, should be good, huh? What's your favorite use for it?
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
On chicken, as a marinade... and I made some za'atar spice some time ago, with a small adaptation... it's really very good....
Something I've been doing recently is pancakes, and eating them with sugar and lemon juice ( though you could eat them with all sorts of other goodies ).
Say 3 eggs, a large mug of plain flour, half a mug of water and add milk to get the right consistency. A whisk is handy.
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silverIn the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast.Veteran
Oh gawd don't get me going on childhood anecdotes...One day I was in the kitchen stirring a batch of box brownies with my bare hand, and my mom and grandma were sitting at the table - turned and asked what are you doing? I said, it says on the box: stir by hand.
Wow, that's a lot of recipes! I am going to look through them They are labeled by week, do you know why? Is it like a menu of what they serve during retreats or something?
I have a book called "3 Bowls" that is a Zen Monastery cookbook. Excellent. Some very, very good stuff in there. If you live in a city with ethnic/Indian/Tibetan groceries, even better. There are things I want to try but would have to order ingredients online.
I like a good stir fry @shoshin, and I use all these ingredients regularly - I like the simplicity, but would probably complicate it and add some cashew nuts and sesame oil for a bit more texture and flavour...
I love cheese and biscuits - I played around tonight with some cheese, fruit and salad I had leftover in the fridge and discovered a great taste combination. Makes a great starter or amuse bouche if you are hosting a dinner party...
Ingredients:
digestive biscuits
fresh rocket (aka roquette or in the states as arugula I believe) leaves
a varity of cheeses: goats cheese; brie, camembert and jahlsberg, St Agur (a delicious french blue cheese - mmmmmmm!)
grapes - cut in half
Let the cheeses come to room temperature and then liberally spread or apply the cheese to the biscuits. Lay 3 or 4 rocket leaves on top of the cheese and then top with the grapes about 2 to each biscuit...
Moorish!
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
4 large tomatoes
4 eggs
4 slices of sourdough bread
home-made pesto..
Pre-heat oven to 200 (fan-assisted, 180).
Cut tops off tomatoes, scoop out majority of loose pulp and seed flesh, break an egg into each tomato, drizzle in a little olive oil, salt & pepper.
Place in oven for 15 minutes, or until eggs are firm to taste.
Toast bread slices, spread with pesto, slice into soldiers.
Eat, enjoy. Brilliant breakfast!
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Making some Barley miso today.... I'll let you know how it turns out next year....
( I don't do measured amounts as such, just add some of this and some of that until I think it's enough)
Kidney beans,checkpeas (at times I use lotus seeds instead "when I'm feeling Buddhisty" ) soaked overnight, then slow cook... Steam green beans, broadbeans, red green and yellow capsicums, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, add when beans and chickpeas are cooked, thicken with (non animal) gravy mix, put in filo base to pie in baking dish, add the cooked stuff, then layered with sliced low acid tomatoes, mushrooms and vegetarian cheese add filo pastry top to pie. cook for around half an hour forty minutes...Yumm
Had half for this evening's meal and will have the other tomorrow....
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Made myself a cous-cous, edame, rocket, roasted barley, almond/pumpkin/sunflower seed, cucumber and chilli salad yesterday for work lunch. It was utterly lush! Just add all the inrgedients in the proportions you want. Add other stuff at will, but be careful about very 'wet' ingredients, as they leach and make the salad over-moist if you make it ahead of time, as I did. (Hence no tomatoes. And I pre-salted the cucumber to drain the excess water).
Dressing? very simple: lemon juice, salt, olive oil and a half teaspoonful of mayonnaise (best quality from a jar is fine.)
Take a tortilla wrap and warm up in the microwave
Spread thick with peanut butter (I use 100% natural - other stuff too sweet and salty!)
Add a banana across the middle.
Roll it up and eat!
Glad you discovered the delights of peanut butter and banana, @Banks
Something else you can play with is sauteed kale with chard and a little lemon juice as a starter - add whatever your heart or taste buds desire...Yum!.
@federica said:> If you eat eggs, because (strictly speaking) they are 'meat in the making' you'd be known as an 'ovovegetarian'.
They're unfertilised though, aren't they?
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federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
I should hope so!
They used to test eggs by holding them up against a candle flame and viewing through them, in a darkened room, to see whether there was a silhouette of an embryo.
Which as many may or may not know, is formed in the albumen (white) not the yolk (yellow).
Haven't seen this thread in a while. Good to read through again.
We're on a smoothie kick lately. I don't add water or crushed ice to smoothies, I like them very dense. I buy big bags of various frozen fruit. There are things that can be put in smoothies that have undetectable taste but stiffen up the texture. A good smoothie pours very slowly and sometimes has to be encouraged with a spatula.
Generic ingredients list:
Chunks of frozen fruit (vary by mood)
Banana (overripe frozen bananas are very sweet)
A few spoonfuls of extra firm tofu
Mushrooms
Greek yogurt
You can also add small amounts of things like wilted salad and other refrigerator refugees that are perfectly healthy but past their cosmetic show time. Keep the quantities small though.
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silverIn the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast.Veteran
wow - I posted something but I guess it didn't take.
I like the idea of using frozen banana and the xtra firm tofu. Is tofu fermented or not?
The other day my wife tossed some potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and kumara (sweet potatoes) in some salt, pepper and olive oil then baked them in the oven until crunchy.
I then tossed them through some garlic aioli. So delicious!
Roast beetroot is great too but needs a looooooong time roasting.......
Comments
I have no luck hiding veggies (or anything at all). My husband and my oldest child won't eat food that is mixed together. Even pasta is questionable although they tolerate it as long as the cause has no chunks. They don't eat soup or stew or omelets or basically anything where there are different foods (especially different textures) mixed together. My husband is the pickiest eater I've ever known, worse than any of the kids ever were. Though I can get him to drink green smoothies as long as all he tastes is the apple.
I love this thread, whenever I need lunch ideas, or if I happen to make my own dinner (which is rare, but it happens) I come look here for recipes
Am pan-frying some paneer cheese... yummy curry tonight!
I didn't realise how easy wholemeal chappatti's were to make -OMG -
Makes about 4 chappattis
Ingredients:
Wholemeal flower 150g I think
Pinch of Salt
Olive oil 1tsp
Water about 2 tbs I think
Method:
Put flour in bowl, and add a pinch of salt and mix together with clean fingers.
Make a well in the mixture with your thumb and add water a little at a time, mixing with fingers until you get a soft but not runny dough
Add olive oil and knead together for a few minutes or until you think you are bored.
Divide into 4 little balls and roll out until pancake thin on a floured surface.
Recite Om Mani Padme Hung continuously until all chapatti's ready to eat
Heat a teflon pan on high heat and place a pancake thin dough chapatti on the hot pan and get a scrunched up cloth and press on and turn the dough pancake - the dough blisters where you press on it - magical and fulfilling!
Flip chapattii and repeat until there are some brown/black areas suggesting that if you continue - the thing will burn.
Put the chapattis in aluminium foil and enjoy with curried paneer
If you are not alergic to tomatos then use tomatos in each veg meal you will never miss non veg once you taste the flavour of tomatos...
And also use coconut or coconut milk in food its very rich in taste.
Rice will make you some problem..try this roti maker for daily meal.
Even more better to save time to be a vegetarian.......
I love kitchen gadgets. But what on earth is a roti? I looked at their website, and it basically says "makes roti up to 20 at a time" but I have no idea what that means
Also, their house is much, much cleaner than mine
Roti is very important and hard thing to prepare in Indian subcontinent. It's a kind of bread... With every food you can eat roti and it will make food great..
With bread veg food don't taste good.. But roti will make every food to taste good...It is prepared from wheat flour and water ....It fulfills the need of carbohydrate in daily needs. People can't live without it once they used to roti but it is very time consuming to prepare and needs lot hard work manually...
This eqipment is great to cook roti..
ahh! So kind of a flatbread. Interesting. So it's kind of like a bread machine for flat bread. Cool! I love naan, and flat bread, but I have never tried to make my own.
It is one of the toughest job to make roti by hand...
Yum yum. I wished I was more inventive with my cooking, these days I just rotate the same 4 or 5 basic dishes.
@SpinyNorman, Look at the recipes we have in the thread, write down the ones that appeal, then schedule a dish rota for the week. Shop accordingly. Add variety and you'll vary your diet considerably!
Try this @SpinyNorman - I made this tonight for the kids, my daughter turned up her nose at the (very mild) chili - I just gave her a big glass of milk to drink, and told her to start enjoying it (to which she burst into tears and won a cuddle from a bad dad), but it was nice and easy to make and tasted great!
Chilli, Courgette, Shallot and Pea Pesto Tagliatelle
Serves 4 adults
Preparation time about 10 minutes
cooking time about 5 minutes
Ingredients:
Method:
Bring about 200ml water to the boil in a large pan, add the stock cube and simmer.
Heat a dry teflon frying pan (no oil) and toast them tossing them over and over - if you take your eye off them they will burn! When tanned all over put them in a bowl to the side.
Now the next few steps have to take into consideration the tagliatelle cooking time - lets say 5 minutes...
Heat the olive oil in a pan on low to medium heat and gently fry the garlic, shallots and chilli for about 5 minutes or until the shallots are just softening, stirring gently - don't let the garlic burn! Simultaneously add the tagliatelle to the stock.
At about 2 minutes add the peas to the tagliatelle - remember not to let the garlic burn!
At 5 minutes add the courgette strips and stir for about 2-3 minutes don't let the courgettes go limp/flaccid, you need a little crunch - texture is everything in this dish. Add the salt and pepper.
Save a cup of the stock/pasta water from the tagliatelle, then drain the tagliatelle and peas into a sieve.
Add the drained tagliatelle/peas to the courgette/chilli/garlic and a add a few tablespoons of saved liquid stock, mix in the Pesto - et voila!
Serve topped with the vege hard Italian cheese and sprinkle half a tablespoon of pine nuts on top. A little rocket, red onion and tomato salad drizzled and tossed with with pesto adds another dimension of taste and texture...
Serve with sparkling water, or a nice Pino Grigio!
Enjoy - it really is a great dish...
I think given your Italian job background you might give a gentle nod of approval to this one @federica (especially the use of the water/stock from the tagliatelle and peas - learned this italian technique recently from a cooking course I've been doing and now regularly add broccoli and other veges to the pasta water +/- stock for the additional flavour)
Home-made basil pesto:
ingredients:
Best olive oil you can lay your hands on
a pinch or 2 of salt and pepper
1 garlic clove roughly chopped
1 large handful of fresh basil leaves (about 50-100g)
4 tbs grated Italian hard cheese (I use grana padana or parmigiana reggiana)- there are some really good vegetarian options
4 tbs toasted pine nuts
1 tsp of lemon juice
Easy Method:
Put about 6 tbs of olive oil in a blender, add the salt, pepper, lemon, garlic and basil and half the pine nuts and pulse to desired texture, pour into a bowl and stir in the cheese and rest of the pine nuts, adding more olive oil to get the desired consistency. Test flavour of mixture and add more cheese, lemon, salt or pepper depending on your personal taste and preference - I sometimes use 2 garlic cloves but I'm a garlic fiend
The Satisfyingly Loving and Tender Method - requires pestle and mortar:
Put the garlic, salt and pepper into the mortar bowl and using the pestle grind to a smooth paste, then add basil leaves to make a green paste, add half the toasted pine nuts and grind to make a roughly ground paste, you can add more garlic if you like at this stage.
Pour into a bowl, and stir in the cheese and rest of the toasted pine nuts with the lemon, add olive oil to the desired 'just runny' texture, add lemon, pepper, salt and cheese etc to your own personal taste.
Cook your favourite pasta (ours is fresh penne pasta) and serve al dente with a big dollop of pesto mixed in.
You can have it just like that or be adventurous. We experiment with variations of vegetables including the following, where we cook the vegetables with the pasta (saves on washing up):
I also love a tricolore salad using alternating slices of beef tomato (beef as in big and beefy not the mooing kind), mozzarella,and avocado lightly salted and drizzled with the pesto and sprinkled with basil and rocket leaves. Makes a great starter
It stores well in a sealed jar for a good week to 10 days... But it never lasts that long in our house
enjoy!
Italian Mamma says:
Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano. The latter is a bit stronger.
Never add the grated cheese unless you intend to use the pesto immediately. If stored for more than 2 days (even in the fridge) the cheese begins to ferment, and make the flavour far more acidic.
Grana originally referred to a class of hard, mature cheeses from Italy which have a granular texture and are often used for grating. These cheeses are typically made in the form of large drums. The structure is often described as crystalline, and the drums are divided by being split with a fairly blunt triangular knife designed for the purpose, rather than being sliced, cut or sawn. Within the European Union, the term Grana is now legally protected by Grana Padano Protected Designation of Origin, such that only Grana Padano may be sold using the term in EU countries.
The two best-known examples of grana-type cheeses are Parmigiano-Reggiano and Grana Padano. The two cheeses are broadly similar, with the latter being less sharp, crumbly and grainy.
The main difference between the two is that cows producing Parmigiano-Reggiano eat only grass and cereals (no silage), no preservatives and no antibiotics. Cows that have been treated with antibiotics are suspended from production of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Silage is a fermented forage that requires the addition of a natural preservative to Grana Padano.
Pesto should only ever truly be made with a Pestle and Mortar: hence the name (Pestello & Mortaio).
Oh, I'm being such a clever-clogs today.... must be my employment optimism!!
Thanks for the top tips Mama @federica and info - I like it when I learn new facts; we have a bio-cool compartment in our fridge that keeps food just at, but not quite, freezing point, which is why when I have had it nearly a week later, the fermentation hadn't really occurred. As i said freshly made pesto don't last more than a day or so!
Healthy fruit and nut snack!
You might need to go to a health food store and buy some ingredients here, but if you know where to go you can get quite a lot for your money when compared to the high fructose-glucose syrup snacks we are indoctrinated into buying!
This is a good alternative to chocolate biscuits and is high in omega 6 (and vege derived omega 3) oils, you can mix and match the ingredients how you like but I recommend the dried cranberries as essential. Place the prepared ingredients in a storage jar and when peckish put a couple of handfuls out in a small bowl out on the side and nibble when feeling a little peckish (for chocoholics - see note below):
Ingredients
1tbs sunflower seeds
1tbs pumpkin seeds
1tbs pine nuts
1tbs crushed walnuts
½ tbs sesame seeds
½ tbs flax seeds
1tbs cranberries
½ tbs raisins/sultanas
10 dried apricots finely diced
handful dried banana chips - placed in a plastic bag and crushed into smaller chips
Finely chopped dried mango
For those who need a little chocolate rush - buy a bar of original Cadburys milk chocolate or milk chocolate buttons (not Hershey's - YUK!) and roughly chop it into small pieces, or if you have OCD chop into small squares - alternatively freeze it solid and bash it in a plastic bag into small chips is my favoured technique
Take all the big nuts and seeds and toast them in a dry pan until just starting to brown. add the sesame and flax seeds
Preparation
Take all the big nuts and seeds and toast them in a dry pan until just starting to brown or pop. Add the sesame and flax seeds and stir for a few minutes or until sesame seeds look toasted. Put in a bowl to cool.
Prepare the dried fruit and add to the cooled nuts. Place in a dry tight-sealed storage jar.
Keep the chocolate chips frozen and add a little each time you make a new bowlful...
Don't be greedy now - it's a snack!
Goodness, I just made my own 'Sumac' spice! It costs an arm and a leg at Waitrose - ! I made it totally FOC!
I'm actually not a bad cook and I often used to help with cooking on retreats, it's just I can't be bothered. I'm a bit more inventive when I cook for friends but when it's just me it's all fairly routine. Also shopping is simpler when you have simple menus!
I'm the opposite. I love to cook for myself. I can take however long I want, add as much spice as I like (a lot) and have plenty of left overs. I don't mind cooking for my family, but there is a chasm of difference in what they are willing to eat and what I prefer, lol. My sister is an excellent cook, I wish I had her gift for knowing what to add, when. She spent many summers cooking at the Rainbow festival, and now runs a restaurant in Minneapolis. I love love love when she comes home and cooks for us!
I just skimmed the article, sounds useful! I'd like to try it on eggs / omelets, should be good, huh? What's your favorite use for it?
On chicken, as a marinade... and I made some za'atar spice some time ago, with a small adaptation... it's really very good....
Something I've been doing recently is pancakes, and eating them with sugar and lemon juice ( though you could eat them with all sorts of other goodies ).
Say 3 eggs, a large mug of plain flour, half a mug of water and add milk to get the right consistency. A whisk is handy.
Oh gawd don't get me going on childhood anecdotes...One day I was in the kitchen stirring a batch of box brownies with my bare hand, and my mom and grandma were sitting at the table - turned and asked what are you doing? I said, it says on the box: stir by hand.
This may be of interest. This page may look like it comes from a Chinese restaurant, but actually it is from a monastery
http://buddhagate.org/bgm_recipes/Vegetarian/recipes/English.html
Wow, that's a lot of recipes! I am going to look through them
They are labeled by week, do you know why? Is it like a menu of what they serve during retreats or something?
I have a book called "3 Bowls" that is a Zen Monastery cookbook. Excellent. Some very, very good stuff in there. If you live in a city with ethnic/Indian/Tibetan groceries, even better. There are things I want to try but would have to order ingredients online.
@karasti, probably that's it, I'm not sure. I just stumbled upon this site.
Any "No Squeals" meals are fine with me ...I'm not a fussy eater...
Simple vegetarian recipe (This evening's meal)
Bok choy-Spring onions-Red capsicum-Mushrooms-Pressed tofu fried in Avocado oil and lightly soy sauced ...( eating utensils "chop sticks")
I like a good stir fry @shoshin, and I use all these ingredients regularly - I like the simplicity, but would probably complicate it and add some cashew nuts and sesame oil for a bit more texture and flavour...
Wow!
I bought a pressure cooker yesterday, and already it is transforming my life cooking rice and pulses!
Were you "pressured" into buying one ?
I'm not pressious enough..
lol
I love cheese and biscuits - I played around tonight with some cheese, fruit and salad I had leftover in the fridge and discovered a great taste combination. Makes a great starter or amuse bouche if you are hosting a dinner party...
Ingredients:
digestive biscuits
fresh rocket (aka roquette or in the states as arugula I believe) leaves
a varity of cheeses: goats cheese; brie, camembert and jahlsberg, St Agur (a delicious french blue cheese - mmmmmmm!)
grapes - cut in half
Let the cheeses come to room temperature and then liberally spread or apply the cheese to the biscuits. Lay 3 or 4 rocket leaves on top of the cheese and then top with the grapes about 2 to each biscuit...
Moorish!
4 large tomatoes
4 eggs
4 slices of sourdough bread
home-made pesto..
Pre-heat oven to 200 (fan-assisted, 180).
Cut tops off tomatoes, scoop out majority of loose pulp and seed flesh, break an egg into each tomato, drizzle in a little olive oil, salt & pepper.
Place in oven for 15 minutes, or until eggs are firm to taste.
Toast bread slices, spread with pesto, slice into soldiers.
Eat, enjoy. Brilliant breakfast!
Making some Barley miso today.... I'll let you know how it turns out next year....
No Squeals Homemade (anything goes) Vege Pie...
( I don't do measured amounts as such, just add some of this and some of that until I think it's enough)
Kidney beans,checkpeas (at times I use lotus seeds instead "when I'm feeling Buddhisty"
) soaked overnight, then slow cook... Steam green beans, broadbeans, red green and yellow capsicums, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, add when beans and chickpeas are cooked, thicken with (non animal) gravy mix, put in filo base to pie in baking dish, add the cooked stuff, then layered with sliced low acid tomatoes, mushrooms and vegetarian cheese add filo pastry top to pie. cook for around half an hour forty minutes...Yumm
Had half for this evening's meal and will have the other tomorrow....
Made myself a cous-cous, edame, rocket, roasted barley, almond/pumpkin/sunflower seed, cucumber and chilli salad yesterday for work lunch. It was utterly lush! Just add all the inrgedients in the proportions you want. Add other stuff at will, but be careful about very 'wet' ingredients, as they leach and make the salad over-moist if you make it ahead of time, as I did. (Hence no tomatoes. And I pre-salted the cucumber to drain the excess water).
Dressing? very simple: lemon juice, salt, olive oil and a half teaspoonful of mayonnaise (best quality from a jar is fine.)
I have discovered the most wonderful breakfast:
Take a tortilla wrap and warm up in the microwave
Spread thick with peanut butter (I use 100% natural - other stuff too sweet and salty!)
Add a banana across the middle.
Roll it up and eat!
Glad you discovered the delights of peanut butter and banana, @Banks
Something else you can play with is sauteed kale with chard and a little lemon juice as a starter - add whatever your heart or taste buds desire...Yum!.
Is egg vegeterian food?
Yes but not vegan.
If you eat eggs, because (strictly speaking) they are 'meat in the making' you'd be known as an 'ovovegetarian'.
They're unfertilised though, aren't they?
I should hope so!
They used to test eggs by holding them up against a candle flame and viewing through them, in a darkened room, to see whether there was a silhouette of an embryo.
Which as many may or may not know, is formed in the albumen (white) not the yolk (yellow).
Haven't seen this thread in a while. Good to read through again.
We're on a smoothie kick lately. I don't add water or crushed ice to smoothies, I like them very dense. I buy big bags of various frozen fruit. There are things that can be put in smoothies that have undetectable taste but stiffen up the texture. A good smoothie pours very slowly and sometimes has to be encouraged with a spatula.
Generic ingredients list:
Chunks of frozen fruit (vary by mood)
Banana (overripe frozen bananas are very sweet)
A few spoonfuls of extra firm tofu
Mushrooms
Greek yogurt
You can also add small amounts of things like wilted salad and other refrigerator refugees that are perfectly healthy but past their cosmetic show time. Keep the quantities small though.
wow - I posted something but I guess it didn't take.
I like the idea of using frozen banana and the xtra firm tofu. Is tofu fermented or not?
I love roasted root vegetables!
The other day my wife tossed some potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and kumara (sweet potatoes) in some salt, pepper and olive oil then baked them in the oven until crunchy.
I then tossed them through some garlic aioli. So delicious!
Roast beetroot is great too but needs a looooooong time roasting.......