Roasted Veggie Tahini Bowl

I found a recipe for roasted broccoli and mushroom bowls in the New York Times, which gave me the idea for this recipe. I adapted it to be vegan, low fodmap, and gluten free and made it for Ian. We both loved it! Ian had thirds. I’d definitely make this again, but next time I’d add a third (and 4th?) veggie to reduce the fodmap content, since this ended up being too much broccoli and mushroom for me to tolerate.

For the bowls:

2 cups cooked rice

Prepare the tofu:

2 blocks tofu

1 tbsp canola or olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 425

Drain and press the tofu

Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch squares

Use half the oil to oil a cookie sheet

Spread the tofu out on the cookie sheet

Brush the rest of the oil on the tofu and sprinkle the salt

Cook for 30-40 minutes, flipping half way through

Prepare the veggies:

1.5 lbs broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces

1 lb mushrooms (I used baby bella), cut into thick slices

3-4 tbsp olive oil

3/4 to 1.5 tsp salt

Mix half the olive oil and salt into the broccoli and spread it onto a cookie sheet

Mix the second half of the olive oil and salt into the mushrooms and spread them out onto a second cookie sheet

Put in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes

While the veggies are cooking, make the dressing (I didn’t measure so this is approximate)

Combine together and blend:

3-4 tbsp tahini

1/2-3/4 tsp salt

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh sage

1 tbsp wine vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

water or broth as needed to reach dressing consistency (I think I used 4 tbsp)

Serve with walnuts on top of the bowls.

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Baked Eggs in Cream

Usually when I make baked eggs, I make them in a tomato-based sauce. This recipe for baked eggs in a creme based sauce seemed intriguing, and used a lot of fresh herbs that I had on hand in my garden. For the herbs I used a mixture of parsley, basil, and scallions. The recipe also gives you the option of adding veggies. I added kale, which worked quite well. It also says you can use either half and half or heavy creme. Since I can only find lactose free half and half, that is what I used and it worked fine. This is a very tasty and easy recipe that can easily be adapted to whatever veggies and herbs you have on hand. A good weeknight dinner.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019768-baked-eggs-for-a-crowd?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page&region=recently-viewed&rank=14

Rice Noodles with Eggs, Broccoli, and Dark Soy Sauce

Recently, one of my neighbors was giving away a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks. In the pile was Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott, a cookbook I know my mother owns and likes.

The first recipe I tried was this rice noodle dish from page 164. Nancie describes the dish as easy to prepare and indeed it was. I could see myself making this on a weeknight when I want something comforting and indulgent as an alternative to ordering take out.

The recipe calls for a dark sweet soy sauce called si-yu but offers an alternative combo of regular soy sauce and brown sugar. I used this option since I didn’t have si-yu. But next time I go to the asian market I’ll be looking for si-yu so I can try making this again. The other change I made was reducing the oil. Nancie calls for 3 tbsp. I only used 4 tsp. Next time I think I’d try cutting it to 1 tbsp since the dish was still pretty high calorie.

I followed the timing of the dish carefully and the veggies came out crisp, just like I like them. The flavor of the dish was peppery and savory. And the eggs add a creamy aspect. Very yummy. Nancie calls for offering chili vinegar as a condiment, but I didn’t have any. So instead I used about a teaspoon of rice vinegar on each bowl, which added to the flavor. I’d like to pick up chili vinegar for the next time I make this.

Update: So far I’ve made this twice, once for myself and once for my sister’s family while in Germany. It was a hit both times. Easy, tasty, filling, and indulgent. A very good weeknight dish indeed. The only issue we had with the dish was the ratio of pasta to broccoli. Everyone, including my seven-year-old niece, agreed it needed more broccoli. Although I think I messed up the proportions when I made it for my sister’s family, so it probably was more that than the recipe. Still, I’d do 4 cups of broccoli instead of 3 and probably 7 ounces of pasta instead of 8 and see how that went. The other issue I had both times was volume. Flipping this recipe without a big wok is really hard. Next time I’m going to try making it in my cast iron dutch oven and see how that goes instead.

Leek and Potato Frittata

I have never made a frittata. When I studied abroad in Chile my host family only knew how to make three vegetarian dishes. One of the three was a tortilla española, which is pretty similar to a frittata. So I ate a lot of tortilla española. They would make them with a all sorts of vegetables, including lettuce. It was the only time in my life I actually moved my food around my plate to make it look like I had eaten. Needless to say, for years I had zero desire to eat anything resembling a tortilla española. But recently I had one made by a Puerto Rican friend of mine and enjoyed it, leaving me more open to re-approaching the genre.

I noticed this recipe in Peter Barley’s Fresh Food Fast for a Leek and Potato Frittata that I had previously overlooked for aforementioned reasons. I really like leeks so this seemed like the perfect way to dip my toe into the frittata waters. This was really easy to make, a great weeknight recipe.

I made a mistake when reading the recipe and failed to notice that it called for 3 tsp of coarse sea salt and instead used 3 tsp table salt. Once I realized the frittata was way way to salty, there was little I could do about it. I added two extra eggs but the frittata was still very very salty. My sister told me she always halfs the salt in Peter Barley’s recipes, but I think that 1.5 tsp of table salt probably would have been fine. Even though I added the two extra eggs to address the saltiness issue, I think this was the right ratio of veggies to eggs. Without the two extra eggs, there wouldn’t have been enough egg to fully cover the vegetables.

I used 3 tbsp of salt instead the 4 called for. I think I could probably reduce it to 2 tbsp next time. You can see in the photo that the frittata was fairly oily.

Other than the salt issue, I really liked this recipe. It was flavorful, filling, and easy to make. I’m going to try making it again with less salt and less oil.

Gado Gado

I discovered Gado Gado a couple summers ago when I was looking for vegetarian Indonesian recipes. I love it because there it’s cool and fresh for hot summer days, while I’ll being very filling. It’s pretty much been a hit with everyone I’ve made it for, from my four-year-old niece to my brother’s Persian father-in-law. It was my mom’s number one request for my parent’s 50th anniversary party.

I use this recipe for the peanut sauce, but follow my own sense of what to do for the salad its self from reading a lot of different recipes. One note. This makes A LOT of peanut sauce. You can make the whole batch and freeze it. Otherwise I recommend cutting it in half, or possibly even in a quarter if you’re only making it for one or two people.

https://moosewoodcooks.com/2014/04/gado-gado/ (It appears the mooswoodcooks website is down. Here’s an alternative:)

http://legacy.culinate.com/content/369933/index.html

For the salad my favorite combination uses the following:

Vermicelli rice noodles

Firm Tofu

Long beans

Julienned Cucumber

Julienned Carrot

Bean Sprouts

Shredded Chinese Cabbage

My favorite way to prepare the tofu is to bake it. I brush it with a small amount of oil, cut it into small cubes, and cook it in the oven, turning it over every 20 minutes or so until all sides are brown.

To cook the long beans and vermicelli, I boil a kettle of water and pour the boiling water over them, letting them sit in the boiling water for about three minutes before draining.

Everything else should be served raw.

In my experience the best ratio is as follows: 2/8 noodles, 1/8 tofu, 2/8 cooked veggies, 3/8 raw veggies

Black Bean and Zucchini Quesadillas

This recipe from page 85 of Peter Barley’s Fresh Food Fast is a standby for me and a great way to use up a ton of zucchini from my garden. The mixture is super fast to make and can be premade, allowing for super fast dinner all week. I make a few adjustments to up the veggie factor and lower calories:

1. Black Beans: The original recipe calls for 2 cans or 3.5 cups of black beans. I make the recipe from dry beans and use 4 cups cooked.
2. Zucchini: The original recipe calls for 2 lbs zucchini, which should be about 4 cups pressed and shredded. I use 6 cups.
3. Cheese: The original recipes calls for 12 ounces Monterrey jack cheese. I use 8 ounces.
4. Tortillas: The recipe calls for flour. I use whole wheat.

My sister has transcribed the recipe on her blog the Captious Vegetarian. Here’s the link:

https://captious.wordpress.com/2006/07/06/black-bean-zucchini-quesadillas-b/