Apple tarte tatin, beer-glazed carrots, salads, and soup with leftovers

(Nederlandstalige versie)

I missed a few days of VeganMoFo, and I still have photos of market finds & meals that I hadn’t posted yet, so I’m going to combine them in an attempt to catch up. :)

I bought this back in July so I’m not sure what everything cost, but we’ve got rainbow carrots, courgettes, fennel, turnips, daikon, fresh herbs, lettuce, apples, strawberries, and cherries …

… which brings me to Wednesday’s prompt: favourite late summer foods. Stone fruits are definitely one of my favourite things about summer! In July it was cherries, recently it’s been nectarines; I love them all, and I hope I’ll get to eat a few more before summer is truly over.

On the other hand, it’s been raining for days and I’m also starting to crave cold-weather foods. Like roast potatoes. In this picture I served them with tempeh, a salad of lamb’s lettuce with apples and walnuts, and beer-glazed purple carrots and turnips.

Let’s talk about omega-3s for a minute! (Day 11: specific nutrient.) You can get your alpha-linolenic acid by eating foods like flax seeds, chia seeds, or my favourite: walnuts. The walnuts in the salad pictured above were extra delicious because they’re from my aunt and uncle’s garden. (They gave me a big bag of them for my birthday. Aren’t edible gifts the best?) For more on omega-3s in a vegan diet (It’s also in full-fat soy products! But do you need a supplement?), read this post from The Vegan RD.

Day 14 was about sharing something vegan with a non-vegan, so here are some leftovers I shared with my boyfriend. We had flatbread, chickpea flour scramble, hummus, some kind of fresh coriander sauce, harissa, falafel, shaved fennel and courgette salad, pan-fried courgette, rocket, and fennel soup. (His plate probably had less salad and more bread, scramble, and falafel, but it still counts as sharing!) I imagine this plate would be a nightmare for people who don’t like their foods to touch, but I kind of love meals like these.

Finally, if you haven’t tried the tarte tatin recipe from Vegan Eats World, you absolutely should. (It’s also on Terry’s blog.) I mean, I didn’t even follow the recipe properly and it still tasted fantastic. This might even be good enough to serve to Obama (day 15).

Links of the day

Reading the other posts for this prompt, though, maybe I’d better send Obama over to someone else’s home. I’m sure he would love these grilled cheese sandwiches by Lazysmurf, these portobello steaks with parsley basil pesto by Jessica from Sprouts & Chocolate, or this tomato and mushroom pizza from Emily/la.vida.vegana.

Cucumber noodles, tomato toasties, and redcurrant pie

(Nederlandstalige versie)

First of all, great news: the blog roll for this year’s Vegan Month of Food is now available at the HQ! Head over there to see all of the blogs participating this month.

And now for today’s topic: quick, easy, and delicious meals. Unfortunately, quick dishes aren’t really my specialty. I like to take my time when I’m cooking something new, and when I need something quick, I tend to make the same things over and over. But before we get to the meals, let me show you what I got at the market two weeks ago:

6 courgettes for €1, 8 cucumbers for €1, 5 fennel bulbs for €1, 3 containers of lettuce (rocket and bull’s blood) for €1, 27 tomatoes for €1, 7 red peppers for €1, 3 bunches of herbs (parsley, coriander, mint) for €1, 5 bread rolls for €1, 3 pomegranates for €1, 2 containers of redcurrants for €1, a jar of peanut butter for €4, and a package of yeast for €2.95. 

The quickest, easiest, most delicious thing I made were these cucumber noodles with peanut sauce and coriander. Maybe “noodles” is a little misleading because it’s more like a spicy salad, but anyway — they were super tasty and refreshing. I used my julienne peeler to slice the cucumber (a regular vegetable peeler or a spiraliser would work too) and mixed it with peanut butter, soy sauce (kecap manis), chilli sauce (sambal oelek), fresh coriander/cilantro, and a few pickled chillies.

Another quick & easy meal: toasties! I considered doing a whole post about toasties for today’s prompt, but I realised I don’t know that many good vegan toastie combinations. I need more ideas! These had rocket pesto and tomatoes, which was good, but maybe a little boring?

This pie wasn’t exactly quick, but at least it was delicious. I wanted to make a frangipane with something other than almonds, so this one has sunflower seeds. I mixed in a little amaretto and cinnamon, and it tasted fine, but I’m afraid that grey colour doesn’t look very appetising.

A few other things I made: fennel and rocket soup (more or less this one with rocket/arugula mixed in); one-pot spaghetti with lentils, bull’s blood, courgettes, and tomato sauce; ravioli with a pea, rocket, and mint filling and a roasted red pepper sauce; pasta with rocket and hazelnut pesto; a parsley and mint cake; these redcurrant pancakes; fresh mint tea; oatmeal porridge with redcurrants; courgette soup; and probably other things I’m forgetting right now — some of these may show up in future MoFo posts.

Links of the day

It’s 11 p.m. as I’m writing this and all of your posts are making me hungry.
– Looks like I found my toastie inspiration! These waffle toasties from Hasta La Vegan look amazing.
– Don’t you wish you had some of this homemade nut-free-tella from Two Vegan Sisters right now? We could use it to make this banana-stuffed French toast from Ichiban Vegan.
– Salads are usually quick, and it’s easy to make them delicious — this gorgeous Mediterranean chopped salad from Boards & Knives just reminded me of that.

Market log: Panini and crostini, spicy scramble, and pomegranate jelly

(Nederlandstalige versie)

Time for another market haul!

Here’s what I bought: a bag of chillies, lots of chard, lots of lamb’s lettuce, a bag of spinach, 5 bread rolls, pomegranates, orange peppers, mushrooms, strawberries, fresh herbs (mint, parsley, and coriander), the cutest little aubergines, and dried oregano. This was a while ago, but I’m pretty sure everything was €1 except for the strawberries (which I think were €1.50).

All of this barely fit into my fridge, so this is what I made first:

Things in jars! They take up much less space. Most of the parsley and coriander went into chimichurri sauce and parsley pesto. I really liked the quick-pickled chillies and harissa I’d made the last time I’d bought red chillies, so I made another jar of each of those, too.

My boyfriend had discovered a ready-made yellow pepper bruschetta that he really liked, so I wanted to try to recreate that. I roasted most of the peppers, then mixed some of them with garlic, herbs, oil, salt, and vinegar. Other crostini toppings pictured above are pesto & tomato, chimichurri & roasted pepper, strawberry & mint, and stir-fried aubergine.

My new favourite way to prepare aubergines (inspired by this recipe from The Kitchn): marinate them in oil with garlic, chilli, and herbs, then stir-fry until soft and slightly browned. Add a splash of wine or water near the end, and briefly cover the pan with a lid if you want to get them extra tender.

I had the leftover aubergines with a chickpea flour scramble inspired by this recipe from Serious Eats (with hazelnuts instead of pine nuts). It wasn’t until I’d taken my first bite that I remembered I hadn’t bothered to take the seeds out of the chillies and this harissa was waaay too spicy for me. Oops. At least my boyfriend liked it, and we both loved the scramble.

On the left: a quick pizza made up of leftover flatbread with mushrooms, aubergines, greens, and sunflower seed cream on top.

In the middle and on the right: panini!

After a few days, the weather got so hot that all I really wanted to eat was ice cream, water, and fruit, but I still tried two new things. Agar pudding was still on that list of cooking resolutions I keep forgetting about. This one has pomegranate juice (from mashed/strained pomegranate seeds), lemon juice, sugar, and water. I didn’t have enough agar to fill the entire mould (which may be why it didn’t come out in one piece) but I thought it came out quite well for a first try. I used the rest of the juice to make heart-shaped pomegranate ice cubes. <3 <3 <3 Getting the juice out of the pomegranate seeds was a bit of a pain (I’ll try the blender next time), but at least the jelly and drinks helped us through the heat wave.

(Banner by Amey from Vegan Eats & Treats)

Finally, VeganMoFo 2015 is coming soon! It’s starting on the first of September and you can read all about it here and here. I haven’t signed up yet (I’m still brainstorming ideas) but I’m already looking forward to reading everyone’s posts!

Market log: bull’s blood, harissa, and quick-pickled carrots and chillies

(Nederlandstalige versie)

It’s been a while since I posted a market log! I already mentioned the purple carrots and beetroot leaves in this pasta post; here’s the rest of what I got:

Three bunches of spring onions (€1), a bag of purple carrots (€1), a bag of red chillies (€1), three containers of “bull’s blood” beetroot leaves (€1), ten yellow peppers, three heads of romanesco (€1), and two bunches of parsley and one bunch of coriander (€1). I also got two pineapples (€1), but they were still in my bag when I took the photo.

I’d never seen the purple leaves before and the packaging only said “bull’s blood”. Google told me that these are a type of beetroot leaves, and that they’re similar to spinach, so we stir-fried them and had them on pizza with peppers, spring onion, seitan pieces, and a coriander and parsley pesto. Not bad.

Because the leaves are so small, they also taste very good raw. They were almost the same colour as the purple carrots, which I thought made for gorgeous salads:

The salad above had beetroot leaves, purple carrots, and red onions with a simple vinaigrette. On the side, I had bread with hummus and toppings: a romanesco tapenade based on this recipe, only with miso instead of anchovies (a tip I’d read on Bryanna Clark Grogan’s blog); a harissa made with the red chillies in the front.

I don’t have a very high tolerance for spicy food so I think you can tell by the quantity that this harissa wasn’t very potent (next time I’ll leave more seeds inside the chillies!) but it was very good. I looked at recipes from Smitten Kitchen and The Kitchn and delicious. and made my own version using red chillies, olive oil, garlic, toasted coriander and caraway seeds, ground cumin, and salt.

I wanted to make a kind of quick pickle out of the carrots so that I could keep them for a longer time, so I briefly boiled them in vinegar with salt and sugar and then let them sit for a while. Somehow, this process turned the carrots bright red! Not what I’d expected, but they certainly made my afternoon snack of rice crackers and hummus (with parsley pesto underneath the carrots) a lot more interesting to look at.

After pickling the carrots, I saw Rachel Khoo do something similar with red chillies, so I decided to do the same. My version used regular vinegar instead of rice vinegar, but the flavour was still great — less spicy than raw chillies, but full of flavour and great to have in the fridge. I used them in cornbread, on sandwiches, and as a topping for the enchiladas pictured above.

I’m really pleased with the things I discovered this time. I often only use a few chillies at a time and let the rest dry out, but maybe next time I’ll buy extra to make more harissa and pickles. I’m also curious about the way the rainbow carrots seem to change colour. My Mum used them in a soup which didn’t look very appealing on its own (apparently puréeing a rainbow turns it grey), but then she sprinkled it with lime juice and the surface became flecked with a lovely bright orange. I’ll buy more of the carrots if I see them again — I wonder if they have any other surprising properties. :)

Market log: roasted pumpkin bowl and green soup

(Nederlandstalige versie)

Here’s what I bought at the market last month (I’m such a slow blogger): red onions for €1, round courgettes for €1, leeks for €1, four pomegranates for €1, two bunches of fresh coriander and one bunch of fresh parsley for €1, and a butternut squash for €1.50 (as well as bags of spinach and a garlic, €1 each, that I forgot when I took the picture).

Unfortunately two of the pomegranates were brown on the inside (maybe I should’ve peeled them all straight away) and we ate most of the other two as a snack, but I managed to save a few seeds to sprinkle into this bowl:

It’s roasted chickpeas, pumpkin and pumpkin seeds over short-grain brown rice with a coriander, parsley and tahini sauce. I crammed everything into my little oven at the same time so it was tricky to get the chickpeas and seeds crispy while the pumpkin had to soften, but the flavours were great together. Next time I think I’ll try stacking an oven dish and a baking sheet on top of each other and see how that goes.

On the left: I posted about this curry soup here. I had the leftovers (which get very thick and creamy) while sitting in the couch under a blanked because it’s been COLD. The only thing I got from the market in this soup was the fresh coriander (and chilli peppers I bought and dried months ago), but I think it counts because this post needed an extra picture.

On the right: I had no idea what to make for dinner until I saw this green soup recipe on the Dutch blog Ikbenirisniet. I had no cucumber, peas, or celery so I just used the green vegetables I did have (leeks, courgettes, spinach, parsley and coriander ) and it was still super good. This is a great way to get a variety of greens into your day with minimal effort. (My blender doesn’t like green smoothies and it’s way too cold for them anyway.)

Other things I made but didn’t photograph included a pumpkin and spinach curry, a polenta pie with red onions, and just a whole lot of mixed vegetable soups. (Did I mention it’s cold? OK I’ll shut up now.)

I’ve posted my most recent market haul here. It included a ridiculous amount of dill so if you happen to have any dill-heavy recipes you recommend, please send them my way. :)

Market log: chicory and tomato pies and vegan bitterballen

(Nederlandstalige versie)

The market was almost over by the time I arrived on this day, so I couldn’t find everything I wanted but I did get a few discounts. This is what I brought home (in the dark, hence the halved cabbage that I didn’t photograph until the next day): seven sweet potatoes for €0.50, eleven yellow peppers for €0.50, a red cabbage for €0.50, tomatoes for €0.50, mushrooms for €1, little aubergines for €1, and five heads of chicory/Belgian endive for €1

And here’s how we ate it: the yellow pepper and aubergine stew with chickpea flour dumplings that I posted about earlier, baked sweet potato chips, cabbage salad, a kind of savoury cobbler with sweet potatoes and white beans, roasted tomato and endive pies, stewed red cabbage with potatoes, stir-fries, and mushroom bitterballen.

This dish was inspired by something my Mum used to make (original recipe — in Dutch — here). The original consists of boiled chicory, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese wrapped in puff pastry. Of course this could easily be veganised using vegan cheese and pre-made puff pastry, but I wanted to try it with a cheese sauce and home-made pastry. The pastry was not what I wanted but the other elements worked well. I roasted some halved tomatoes at 200 °C (400 °F) for about 50 minutes I decided to do the same with the chicory so I wouldn’t have to boil it in a separate pot. I wrapped the vegetables in pastry with a layer of cheese sauce based on this recipe from Vegetus and baked them until crispy. If chicory’s bitter flavour doesn’t appeal to you, I think a dishes like this are an excellent way to get used to it.

Finally, I decided to try my hand at home-made bitterballen. This snack usually consists of a meat ragout which is rolled into balls, battered, and deep-fried, and served with mustard. I’m pretty sure these are mainly eaten in the Netherlands and Belgium, but if you live elsewhere and you’ve had something similar, I’d love to hear about it! :)

I was half expecting this experiment to be a disaster because I’ve had shop-bought bitterballen fall apart in the deep fryer far too often, but all of these held up beautifully. I only got a picture of the ballen before they were cooked, so the ones above are still very pale, but they came out of the fryer nicely browned and crispy. I made the ragout with mushrooms instead of meat and oil instead of butter, and I used a chickpea flour batter to help the breading stick to the outside. I’d like to post a full recipe sometime, but I’d have to make them again first (poor me, right?).

Market log: a salad, a stew, and courgette spread

(Nederlandstalige versie)

Here’s what I got at the market last month: lots of tomatoes for €1; eleven leeks for €1; strawberries for €1.25; six yellow courgettes for €1; seven fennel bulbs for €1; a bag of yellow peppers for €1, and a bowl of Brussels sprouts for €1.

Most of it went into soups and stews, but I also made pizza (as always), polenta with seitan and roasted vegetables, fennel and courgette salad, and roasted Brussels sprouts.

On the left: I got a mandoline on sale for €5 last month so I’ve been eating a lot of things in thinly sliced form. Apparently this method makes raw vegetables taste extra good because this courgette and fennel salad made me love raw courgette. I had the leftovers with the pesto and tomato toastie shown above.

On the right: Another good way to use up your courgettes is this courgette butter I’ve posted about before. I’m happy to report that it’s just as good with yellow courgettes, especially on fresh bread with a little pesto on top. (That’s a fennel, potato, and tomato stew on the side.)

Some of the yellow peppers also went into a stew but I’ll save that recipe for a separate post. Speak to you soon!