Tofu Udon Noodle Bowl

Usually I work late on Wednesdays, but I covered a day shift last week as a co-worker is on holiday. It was quite nice because my other co-worker Lucy and I got to have a little jaunt into town between assignments.

We work all over the place and rarely get to see each other. There’s one of my co-workers that I haven’t seen in six months. So this was a luxury. We are both interested in cooking and baking healthy food and we’re both veggies so we went in search of tofu for both of us and nutritional yeast for Lucy.

I ended up in a green grocer/health food/Asian food store that was brilliant and I was able to get everything on my list for our tea (that’s what dinner is called over here).

I made a dish from The Vegan Cookbook by Adele McConnell. The Udon Noodle Bowl was full of well udon noodles and pak choi, mushrooms and tofu.

Unfortunately the marinated tofu was the best part of the dish. The flavours were really good while I was working on it but the recipe called for four cups of water. I only put two and a half in but it was enough to completely drown out the flavours. I don’t think I’ll try this recipe again, but if I did I’d triple the amount of mirin, rice vinegar and miso.

There are other recipes I’ve tried in her book- like the artichoke pasta, which I’ve adapted by adding butter beans and is now a weekday staple for us- so I won’t let this one put me off making more. She has several recipes using tempeh, which is really hard to find around here. 

Vegan Spicy Bean Burgers

Its funny how we have certain roles when it comes to food. I am the Katsu Curry, chilli (we debate about this one), falafel and baked goods maker and Billy is in charge of lasagne (his is the best), pizza, calzones, bread and Sunday roasts. We make lots of other things together like Indian dishes but we definitely have our specialities. 

Friday nights have long been Pizza Fridays in the Sully (Su + Billy = Sully) household. But lately we've been feeling a bit bored of the usual pie. So last Friday I opted to make one of Billy's recipes- his Spicy Bean Burgers. I made these once before in Florida when Billy was busy making meat burgers and I had to fend for myself. 

These are really great veggie numbers that are pretty healthy as they are full of, well, beans. As I was in charge of making these guys I decided to make them vegan by using the flaxseed "egg" as a binding agent. I am again in awe of this method as I think it actually worked better than an egg. I was able to get perfectly formed little patties and I got to nibble on the mix while I chopped up the sweet potato wedges. 

Your eyes are not deceiving you, those are sweet potatoes! Every once in a while we'll get a few sweet potatoes that are white and it is always a bit odd eating them because they look like normal potatoes but with all the yumminess of the sweet variety.

The burgers (which we had again last night) freeze very well which makes them a great mid-week meal. I like them with corn on the cob that I grill on the George Foreman so it's healthier that always having the wedges.

Though I love these burgers I still want to try some other recipes. Giraffe has a super tasty falafel, burger with hummus, beetroot, rocket, tzatziki, harissa and best of all halloumi. I make pretty good falafel and tzatziki already so this should be pretty easy.

You can find the burger recipe here. It uses my simple salsa which can be found here. The sweet potato wedges are super easy. You just chop a sweet potato into the wedge shape and mix in a large bowl with a tablespoon Grey Poupon mustard, olive oil, some cayenne pepper and sea salt and pepper. I bake them with a little bit of oil and they are super tasty. Bon Appétit!

It's Salsa Time!

I love Mexican food. I love nachos, tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, burritos, chimichangas, empanadas and tamales. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. But you can't have good Mexican food without salsa.

I've talked before about how I grew up eating out of tins, jars and cardboard boxes (think Kraft mac n' cheese) so its no surprise that my salsa too came from one of these containers. I would make burritos using a tin of refried beans, season my beef from a small packet and use my jar of salsa to top it off. 

It wasn't until I was visiting my bf Jess in Washington DC that I ever saw anyone make salsa- I was I was 27! Jess used her food processor and quickly tossed a few ingredients in and suddenly there was a green salsa that was incredibly spicy but otherwise amazing and it only took minutes to make. My mind was blown! 

Now salsa is a staple in our house. We use it in veggie burgers (see my next post), as a side with steak (when I ate meat) and of course with Mexican food. The great thing about my recipe, which I developed over years of trial and error, is that if you add avocados, then presto, you have guacamole! 

So here is my simple salsa recipe.

Butternut Squash Katsu Curry

For over a decade now my signature dish has been Chicken Katsu Curry. When I was a student in London in 2003 Wagamamas was the restaurant du jour for poor students and the CKC was by far my favourite. When I went back to uni in New York I craved katsu curry like nothing else. So after a few trial and errors I found a way to make it (and I think its better than the original, but I may be biased).

Since I've stopped eating meat this dish has been off the menu, much to my husband's disappointment. A month or so ago we went to a street food market in london called Kerb and I got Pumpkin Katsu Curry. I was really surprised, not by how good it was because I have long loved pumpkin, but by how well the pumpkin held its structure.

So for the past few weeks I've been scouring the internet for recipes for pumpkin curry. There are loads out there but in the end I decided I'd make it exactly the way I make Chicken Katsu Curry but with one difference- I used 'vegan eggs' aka flaxseeds as the binding agent. I again am amazed at the powers of the flaxseed. I think it binded better than eggs.

Now I should say that I am of the mind that anything that comes packaged is bad and there is probably a way to make it better (and more healthily) yourself. This includes things from fajita and chilli mix (seriously this just takes about 6-10 spices that you probably already have in your spice rack) to cake and brownie mixes (I grew up using these but now everything bake is from scratch and therefore much better. It is so ingrained in my family that the last time I was home and I made my brownies- which are amazing if I do say so myself- and my sister asked what box mix I used! Pah!!).

That being said I have never found a way to make the golden curry sauce that is as good as this one. I will endeavour to find a good recipe one day but until then I will go to the Asian food store and use this one. Honestly when I open the package it fills the entire room with magic curry aromas that if you're not careful to fully clean-up after cooking will continue to fill the room the next day when curry smells may not be as welcomed.

Seeing as how it is August there was nary a pumpkin to be found and instead I used butternut squash. As every good southern girl knows, the secret to good fried chicken is coating it with seasoned flour before putting it in the egg mixture. After I cut the squash I dipped it in wholemeal flour then into the flaxseed and water mixture then into the Panko (Japanese bread crumbs that are a must for this recipe). I was really chuffed with how well the Panko stuck to the squash (which I par-boiled for five minutes but will probably not do the next time as the squash was a little too soft).

Then I baked the squash until the Panko was golden brown. We paired it with brown rice, golden curry sauce, and the all important edamame (soy beans- mmm).

I was really happy that I was able to adapt my recipe to be vegetarian- well I guess it was actually vegan. I think the squash was probably a little too sweet and I needed to slice it thinner but it was still good. I definitely want to try again when the pumpkin comes into season.

Egg-less Banana French Toast

So I woke up at a friend's house on Sunday morning very hungover, tired and hungry. All I wanted was French toast or American style pancakes. Unfortunately not every cafe sells such breakfasty goodness and instead I settled for a croissant.

But I couldn't shake the craving. I was able to make an egg-less French toast using a banana, flaxseeds, vanilla bean extract, cinnamon and skim milk (the recipe was actually for vegan French toast but I was out of unsweetened almond milk and used lactose-free skim milk instead).

The result was tasty and French toast-esque. I used multi-seeded bread that I think was too thin and long because I had trouble getting it well cooked in the centre. I used coconut oil because I think its far better than olive oil when making sweet things, though I do use it on savouries too. The edges of the bread were pretty good though. The banana caramelised and helped the firming up of the bread. And I topped it off with a little pure maple syrup (I don't use Aunt Jemima or any other syrup that uses high-fructose corn syrup- yuck).

I would totally make these again but I'd like to try the vegan version. I'm starting to think that I could give up eggs altogether, which I'm pretty excited about. Now if only I could work on my cheese addiction.

Veggie Chilli

Its been ages since I've posted on you blog. I'm sorry blog. I do love you and think of you often but sometimes I'm just neglectful. If you were my child- which you kind of are- I'd be in the dock for abuse! I know I should be better, and I mean to be. To show you I am dedicated I have a shiny new post for you. See I'm better already.

I'm a vegetarian, well technically a pescetarian but I think that is a stupid thing to be so I refuse to call myself that. I eat a mostly vegetarian diet with fish or seafood as a supplement on occasion- usually when the only veggie option is risotto. It shows a distinct lack of creativity when nice restaurants opt for risotto. And often there is some sort of brie and cranberry concoction that is great- once.

I haven't missed meat at all. My husband and I mostly follow a Mediterranean diet incorporating whole grains, oil, nuts and a ton of fresh fruit and veg. I have cut out all refined sugar, white enriched flour and heavily processed chemical laden food- pretty much the stuff I was raised on and therefore inevitably crave.

Billy has, over the months, become a vegetarian as well, which stemmed mostly out of his decreased meat intake at home. We've come up with new recipes and we avoid old ones that would involve a meat substitute. I am not a fan of adding something that is suppose to remind you of meat into recipes. Adding Quorn mince into lasagne wasn't going to be an option. Instead we double up on veg and beans. Lots of beans. Which is really good for us but does have some unfortunate side affects.

Tonight I made my chilli for the first time since we stopped eating. I love chilli and Billy loves my chilli, which had a lot of mince involved. I decided to add red and orange peppers, cannelloni beans (I couln't find black beans in the shop) and some red lentils to add the chunky bits. I was going to add some chia seeds to thicken it a little but it didn't need it in the end.

This was really just an experiment but I think it was just as yummy as the original. I don't ever expect a recipe to taste exactly the same but as long as it still tastes good. My next attempt to adapt on old favourite recipe will be with Chicken Katsu Curry. I'm going to use pumpkin instead! It should be interesting :)