vegetarian | Eats by Anna

Jun 15 2013

My Kitchen

Salad bar none

The other day I Insta-faced a photo of my lunchtime salad, and got such a good response I thought I’d post not only that recipe, but a few more easy, seasonal salad ideas from photos I’ve taken over the past month or so. As a knee-jerk reaction to this wintery weather around us, I seem to be craving crunchy, textural things – the greener the better. If you were hoping you might get a break from my current obsession with kale, you’re out of luck. I just can’t help it – it tastes so good at this time of year and is so good for you that I sneak it into almost everything.

I don’t really measure ingredients out when making salads – just use however much you think looks right, and if you end up with lots left over, all the better!

Sprouting Goodness Salad

Tear kale leaves from stems. Discard stems and rip kale into small pieces. Rinse and dry, then massage kale with some good-quality evoo. Be firm – you need to break down some of the texture of the leaves which will render them infinitely more edible. In a large bowl place prepared kale, mung bean sprouts, thinly sliced shallot, spouted peas or beans, sesame seeds and, if you like, some nice feta (I’ve been buying sheep’s feta lately – $5 for a 200g pack of Fratelli Fresh feta from Shefco on Dominion Rd). Dress with an emulsion of evoo, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, grainy mustard, garlic, salt and pepper.

Textural Tornado

Cook and drain brown rice (or use wild, red or black rice). Allow to cool then place in a large bowl. Add a can of lentils, drained, a very thinly sliced green pepper (season ending now – try fennel instead), some washed rocket leaves and almond flakes and toss together. Dress with an emulsion of evoo, fresh ginger and garlic (use a microplane), a little sesame oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Scatter over some more almond flakes, and some LSA, to serve.

Rainbow Slaw

Thinly slice red cabbage, carrot, apple, spring onion (fennel is good here too) and place in a large bowl. Add whichever chopped herbs you fancy (I used coriander here). Dress with your favourite dressing. I like either evoo, grainy mustard, garlic, white wine and malt vinegars, salt and pepper OR sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, salt and white pepper.

Beetroot, Lentil and Blue Cheese

Toss a drained can of lentils with cubes of slow-roasted beetroot, roasted cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, crumbled blue cheese, plenty of herbs such as coriander or mint. Dress with your favourite dressing – I like evoo, a smidgeon of grainy mustard, honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Tagged best salads, eating seasonally, vegetarian, winter salads

Jan 23 2012

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My Kitchen

More on Eggplant

First, an addition to my recipe for Creamy Charred Eggplant - I missed out a step. After you’ve chargrilled the eggplant and scooped out the flesh, let the flesh drain in a sieve for 10-15 minutes. It gets rid of a lot of the watery liquid which, while it won’t affect the taste of the dish, can detract from the creamy texture.

Last night I served the Creamy Charred Eggplant on top of a cannellini bean sautee with a Med/Middle Eastern vibe. Sauteed plenty of onion in olive oil until well softened, frying in a baharat I made (this one had black pepper, cumin, allspice, paprika, coriander seed and salt) and added what dark greens I had in the garden (good old cavalo nero and spinach, again!), then a tin of crushed tomatoes, some tomato paste to really get the lycopene content up and make the dish more umami, a tsp of sugar, and lastly a tin of cannellini beans. Let it all simmer away for a good half hour or longer while the eggplant roasted. I made a side dish of natural yohgurt with chopped mint and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt – add a dollop on top of the main or on the side. Great easy and hearty but not heavy dish that could be adapted depending what greens and pulses you have to hand.

Tagged aubergine, eggplant, vegetarian

Jan 12 2012

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My Kitchen

Creamy Charred Eggplant

I got this idea from a recipe in Yottam Ottolenghi’s drool-worthy vegetarian cookbook Plenty. In his recipe, he makes this creamy eggplant puree to top braised puy lentils – I just took the eggplant bit of the recipe and have used it here to top a salad made of giant couscous, with some spicy lamb sausages on the side.

All you do is grill eggplant (one medium eggplant per person is about right) in a hot oven until the skin is blackened and charred (about an hour). Make sure you prick the eggplants in a few places prior to cooking, lest they explode in the oven! You can also char them over a gas hob, but I’m too afraid of the resulting mess, to be honest. Once the skin is all burnt, you just scoop out the creamy flesh and leave behind the skin. Let the flesh drain in a sieve for 10-15 mins, then stir in some extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a little sea salt. You could do more here – garlic, sumac, cumin, fennel seed – but just with the olive oil and lemon juice the eggplant puree was tasty as hell in its seductively smoky way. By topping a salad with this puree, you’re adding a meat-free yet meaty element to the dish and creating a filling meal.

Tagged aubergine puree, babaganoush, vegetarian

Nov 28 2011

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Best In Season, My Kitchen

Crispy-Soft Tofu on Buckwheat Soba

So here’s something easy to do with those garlic scapes I was raving about. Another thing, I’ve realised they’re a lot easier to come by than I thought, and I’ve eaten them often in the past without knowing exactly what they were, having bought them at Asian supermarkets (Tai Ping, Silver Bell and the like). There they’re called garlic shoots and are sold longer, but still not really curly, with the flower head lopped off.

Anyway, a quick recipe idea for using garlic scapes:

-Pour hot water over dried wood ear fungus* (also called black fungus -sounds lovely, doesn’t it?) and soak for an hour or more.

-Mix a dressing (approx equal quantities, a bit less of the oil) of gochujang, Japanese soy or tamari sauce, sesame oil, mirin and rice wine vinegar, with some toasted white sesame seeds.

-Coat large pieces of firm tofu in a mix of tapioca (or rice, potato, corn) flour, dried chilli, powdered ginger, dried seaweed such as Pacific Harvest Sea Lettuce. Heat 1/4 cup or so of rice-bran oil in a wok and when it’s bubbling, fry tofu on each side till golden and crispy on the outside.

-Meanwhile blanch garlic scapes and courgette (or other green vegetable), then stirfry over high heat with softened black fungus and a little oyster or mushroom sauce.

-Cook buckwheat soba according to instructions (about 5 minutes in boiling water, then refresh and drain very well), and divide between serving bowls. Top with the stirfried vegetables and then the crispy tofu, with a few petals of pickles ginger on top. Pour over dressing and serve.

*Wood ear fungus is sold dried at Asian supermarkets. It needs to be soaked in hot water for an hour or so before cooking with it, to soften, It swells considerably, so be frugal with how much of the dried stuff you use or you’ll end up with a lot going to waste. It’s almost tasteless, but it’s all about the texture, which remains delightfully crunchy even after blasting in a hot wok or long slow braising. Here’s what it looks like:

Tagged buckwheat noodles, crispy tofu, garlic scapes, garlic shoots, gochujang, soba, vegetarian

Nov 08 2011

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My Kitchen

Take a Leaf

When the cat is away the other cat will eat salad. Having the house, and dinner times, to myself while my husband is away tends to mean meat-free meals. It was the same when I lived by myself; I just can’t get that exited about cooking with meat for one person, and besides, I rather relish the smug sensation of busting the 5+ a day calculator with just one little meal. Here’s a salad which took in a number of items from my garden: tender young cavalo nero leaves; perpetual spinach; corn salad; springs onions, and basil. Getting lentils involved – puy, in this case – as well as some goat’s cheese, turns a salad into a respectable meal in a bowl. Take a leaf and feast on salad alone tonight.

Tagged corn salad, meat-free, perpetual spinach, puy lentils, salad, vegetarian

Sep 20 2011

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My Kitchen

Channa Dal

For no particularly valid reason, I’ve not cooked much in the way of Indian food at home. I think I’ve always considered it far better to relished when done really well at a restaurant or in an ex-pat’s kitchen; that it’s too hard to get it right at home. I do still think that way about a lot of Chinese cuisine, due to the need for intense heat under your wok (though I have my sights set on my barbecue gas burner for this summer), but after trying a few quite basic Indian recipes at home recently, I’m happy to welcome Indian food into my regular cooking schedule. Here’s a really basic channa dal recipe that I tried last night after borrowing from a few different recipes, to get what I wanted. Now this channa dal may well not be utterly authentic (rules about when and how to add different spices and whether to cook with ghee or not seem to be fiercely debated), but it was pretty damn tasty – warming, aromtic and filling but not greasy at all. I’ve used a good packet garam masala out of haste, and it was perfectly fine, but you could of course grind up your own masala.

2 cups channa dal (washed and soaked for an hour or more)

6 cups water

Finger-length fresh ginger, crushed

1 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

2 tomatoes, chopped

Handful fresh curry leaves

Cooking oil

Tarka

2 Tbsp oil

2 finely sliced onions

2 tsp cumin seeds

4-6 whole dried red chillies

1 tsp chilli flakes

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tsp garam masala

Boil the dal until it froths and skim off the scum, lower the heat, add the ginger, turmeric, and a bit of salt and cook, partially covered, until the dal is tender but not mushy. Stir in the tomato and turn heat right down.

In a saucepan, heat a little oil (rice bran is good) and fry the curry leaves until fragrant and crispy, then set aside.

While the dal is still cooking, in a saucepan heat the oil (or ghee, or a mix of oil and butter), and fry the onions on high heat until transparent, then turn the heat down and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to caramelise. When they’re starting to look thin and brown, turn the heat up a bit and add the cumin seeds, dried chillies and garlic. Cook until the garlic is turning crisp, then turn the heat up a bit more, add a bit more oil and the chilli flakes and garam masala. Let cook for just a minute until the spices have dispersed. Stir the crispy curry leaves and the tarka through the cooked dal. Save a bit of the tarka to garnish the top of each plate of dal, plus some freshly chopped coriander leaves. Serve with steamed basmati and plain yoghurt.

Tagged channa dal, curry leaves, dal, indian, vegetarian

Eats by Anna

confessions of a kitchen magpie

Tag Archives: vegetarian

Salad bar none

More on Eggplant

Creamy Charred Eggplant

Crispy-Soft Tofu on Buckwheat Soba

Take a Leaf

Channa Dal

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