Vegan MoFo 12 / Pumpkin Barley Risotto

I am still in the middle of my preparations for my A-Level exam next friday, so I'm just popping in to share a delicious & easy recipe with you....

Pumpkin Barley Risotto

feeds 4-5 people

Ingredients:

250 gr pearl barley, rinsed

1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, finely cut

veggie broth

1/2 butternut, peeled and cubed 

olive oil

dried herbs 

salt & pepper

 2 Tbsp. oat cream

optional toppings: nutritional yeast, chopped nuts, pumpkin seed oil, vegan cheese

those were just half of my butternut pieces

Preheat oven to 180°C (350F). Start by preparing your butternut. After you've peeled and cubed it, place the pieces in a large bowl. Add some olive oil, so all pieces are lightly (!) coated. Now add salt & pepper, some dried herbs, and more spices if you like. Spread on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper and roast for about 25 minutes, until tender.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and add the finely cut onion. Sautee for a few minutes, and add the well rinsed pear barley. Stir good and just before the barley will stick to the pan, add veggie broth, until well covered. Let cook for 25 - 30 minutes, and until all excess liquid is gone.

When the butternut pieces are ready, puree with oat cream. Add more cream if you like. Now add the butternut mixture to the barley risotto, stir and let cook for a few minutes. You can still add optional toppings, or fold in some vegan cheese pieces, as I did.

Enjoy!

Florence

Vegan MoFo X / Seitan Cutlets

This blog post comes later as promised, sorry about that. But I was busy studying (still), doing scout stuff and preparing my best friend's birthday gift & cake! (The recipe for her "Death by chocolate layer cake" will come soon!)

And now on to the recipe for this delicious seitan cutlets! Until now, I was not a big seitan fan, as it mostly turned out spongy, which I don't like at all. On the other side, I've made some tasty seitan sausages, and those turned out really wonderful!

But these seitan cutlets and their preparation method changed everything! Who would have thought of using a rolling pin and rolling the individual seitan dough pieces out....!? Apparently, I didn't, but from now on I will definitely do that more often...

Seitan cutlets

adapted from this recipe

 yields12 cutlets

Ingredients: 

Dry:

1 cup gluten flour

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1/3 cup chickpea flour

2/3 Tbsp. tapioca starch

1 tsp. poultry seasing

1/3 Tbsp. dried parsley

2/3 tsp. onion powder

2/3 tsp. herb salt

1/3 tsp garlic powder

black pepper

Wet:

75 gr medium-firm tofu

25 ml cold water

2/3 Tbsp. oil

more cold water as needed

Broth:

veggie broth (as much to cover all cutlets)

1/6 cup nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning

1/3 Tbsp. dried parsley

1/3 Tbsp. herb salt

Mix all dry ingredients, until well combined. Puree the tofu with 25 ml water, until smooth. Add as much water to get 200 ml. Whisk in 2/3 Tbsp. oil.

As it didn't quite work mixing the dough with my kitchen machine, I recommend using it to mix the dry and wet ingredients, but then doing the kneading by hand. This worked well for me. So knead the dough for as long as you can ;). Until the dough seems well combined and stretchable.

Prepare your broth, by combining all ingredients in a big pan. Don't forget, you can still add more veggie broth, when all cutlets are in the pan, so pour in too much at the beginning. Don't heat up yet!

Now break the dough into 12 equally sized pieces. And here it comes: take your rolling pin and roll out each piece as thin as possible and place in the cold broth. If necessary, add more veggie broth, so that all pieces are just covered. Let stand for 10 minutes. Now turn on the heat, cover and bring to a fast simmer. Then reduce the heat and cook for 1 hour. If possible, try to rotate some of the cutlets at the top, so they cook through evenly. 

Take the pan off the heat and let cool, for about 1 hour or so. Now you can remove your cutles and prepare them as you like. I simply coated 2 of them with chopped almonds and roasted for about 10 minuted. They turned out delicious & tender. The rest I layered in an airtight container between sheets of parchment paper, as suggested! 

That's how my cutlets looked just before preparing...

Enjoy!

Florence

Vegan MoFo VIIII / Sunday Dinner

Sorry for my lack of posting, but I am busy studying! Nevertheless, here's what I had for dinner on Sunday night.

Scalloped Cauliflower, Spaghetti with Mushroom Gravy and Seitan Cutlets! 

That was so good, especially the seitan cutlet! I have tried several seitan recipes before, and this was the best yet! So very tender and crispy on the outside.

Scalloped Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, washed and chopped into florets
lemon juice
water for boiling

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt, pepper

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
3 Tbsp. breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp. chopped nuts
1 Tbsp. olive oil
5 Tbsp. oat cream
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
a splash of lemon juice
salt, pepper

Put the cauliflower florets in a pan, cover with water, add a splash of lemon juice and let boil until tender.
Mix the apple cider vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper. Place the cooked cauliflower florets in a baking dish and cover in the vinaigrette. Let stand for 10 - 20 minutes.Preheat oven to 160°C (320F). Mix the remaining ingredients and spread over the florets, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Mushroom Gravy
olive oil

1 small onion, chopped
a handful of button mushrooms, chopped
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
veggie broth
oat cream
dried herbs

Heat up the olive oil, and add the onion and button mushrooms. Sauté for a few minutes, add the cornstarch. Stir, so everything is covered with cornstarch. Add veggie broth until the mixture reaches your desired thickness. Let cook for a few minutes and add some oat cream and dried herbs.

The recipe for the seitan cutlets I will post tomorrow, so look out for it! :)

Vegan MoFo VIII / Veggie Calzone

Today is sad day in my vegan baking history... I decided to take a break from baking!! So no cupcakes, cakes, brownies, cookies, etc... I'll probably allow some creamy and fruity desserts, but not that often. Reasons?
Well, although I enjoy baking, it is just too much at the moment.. too much cake, too much sugar, too much dessert, not enough savoury meals! And it gets difficult if I am the only one eating what I bake, I don't want to gain weight... after I lost 15kg in the last year! :)

So, here's the Calzone I made tonight for dinner.... There were actually 4 of them, two vegan ones, and the other two made my mum for my brother and dad. Even though they like the vegan version, they prefer their meat.. :/

Veggie Calzone

the dough makes 4, the filling 2

Dough:

1/2 cube of fresh yeast ( you can substitute instant yeast: 14g)

1 tsp malt (or any sugar)

1 dl lukewarm water

1 - 2 Tbsp. spelt wholemeal flour

350 gr spelt wholemeal flour

1 tsp. herb salt

 2 dl water

You start by making the sponge. In a large bowl, mix the fresh yeast with the lukewarm water until it dissolves, then add malt and whisk. Lastly add the flour and sprinkle it over the sponge mixture. Let stand for about 15 minutes, or until the mixture shows bubbles. 

Now add the flour and the salt and start incorporating it with the sponge. Slowly add the water until the flour is just incorporated, make sure it is not too wet. Take the dough out and knead on a floured surface, for about 5 minutes. Put it back in the bowl, cover and let it rise until about double the size, but it doesn't matter if you don't have that much time. In the meantime prepare your filling.

Filling:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 zucchini, cubed

1 clove of garlic, finely cut

1/2 eggplant, cubed

5 leaves of savoy cabbage, finely cut

1 tomato, cubed

1 vegan sausage, cubed

lemon juice

worcester sauce

salt,  pepper

spices

350 gr silken tofu, soft

lemon juice

1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast,

salt, pepper

spices

 Heat olive oil in a pan, add zucchini, garlic, eggplant, savoy cabbage, tomato and vegan sausage. Sauté for about 5-10 minutes, stir often. Add some lemon juice and worcester sauce, so the mixture won't scorch! Let cook for about 10 minutes, until the veggies are soft. Add any spices you like! While the mixture cooks, whisk silken tofu in a bowl until smooth, add nutritional yeast and spices. Here as well, add the spices you like. In the end, combine the silken tofu with the veggies. 

Alternatively, you can use any filling you like! Be creative....! I even added some caramelised onions (I am obsessed!!) on top of the filling! This was so delicious, as it balanced out the spicy filling quite nice!

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350F). Take your dough and split in 4 equal parts. On a floured surface, roll each piece into a circle. Spread your filling on one half, and make sure to leave an edge of 1 cm. Now take the empty side of dough and close your calzone. Repeat, for the other ones and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Sorry, no picture of the filling, I was too busy eating!! :D

Enjoy!

 

Vegan Mofo III / Roasted Potatoes & Tomato Basil Falafel

For my third Vegan MoFo-Post I'll show you what I had for dinner. This is so easy, yet delicious. I love roasted potatoes! The Falafel were also very good, the best I've had!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled
3 potatoes
olive oil
worcester sauce
salt, pepper
dried thyme

Preheat oven to 200°C (395F).Cut the potatoes and sweet potatoes in long, thin, chips-like pieces and toss them in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and some worcester sauce and season with salt, pepper and dried thyme. Place on a baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes or until crispy.

Red Pepper & Carrot - Sauce
1 small onion
1 red pepper
1 carrot, peeled
white wine
1 tsp. bouillon concentrate
2 tbsp. soy yoghurt

Cut onion in small pieces and heat in some olive oil in a small pan. Add the red pepper and carrot in small pieces and let them fry for about a minute. Now add a splash of white wine and the bouillon concentrate and some water if needed. Let it cook for about 15 minutes, until tender. Take the pan from the heat, add the soy yoghurt and puree the mixture to your desired consistency.

Tomato Basil Falafel
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and peeled
4-5 dried tomatoes in oil
1 small onion, cut
10 fresh basil leaves, cut
worcester sauce (optional)
4-5 tbsp flour
salt, pepper
dried herbs (optional)

Preheat oven to 160°C (320F). Add the chickpeas to your food processor and process until crumbly. Then add the dried tomatoes and continue to blend. As you add the basil and onion, also add the salt, pepper, herbs and worcester sauce as much as you like as this is optional. When you blended everything start adding flour bit by bit, until the dough forms. Now you only have to form balls, place them on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.



Enjoy!