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Tofu Agrodolce

Firstly, thanks for all your supportive comments on my dietary changes. I’m working with a wonderful naturopath and am optimistic that her suggestions are going to help me and that I’ll be able to loosen up the restrictions before too long.

More so than ever, I’m looking for my meals to be full of goodness, and I’m sure many of you are of the “New Year, New Start” mentality and also seeking out especially nutrient dense foods. It’s turned cold and wintry again here though so warm, nourishing meals are more appealing to me than salads right now.

If you’ve been reading Coconut and Berries a while you’ll know that I’m a fan of exploring international cuisines from all over the world and also keen on languages. French and Spanish are my main languages though I do speak some Italian too. “Agrodolce” is the Italian Sweet and Sour (“Agro”- Sour, “Dolce”- Sweet) but is a much subtler dish than the Chinese version, the gloopy dish which I’ve experienced in rather inauthentic Chinese restaurants anyway. Its sweetness comes from the tomatoes and red onions, enhanced only a little by a touch of sugar, and is complemented wonderfully by the briny olives and slight tang from the vinegar.

Unsurprisingly I suppose it’s traditionally a chicken or lamb dish, but I opted for tofu for a meat-free version. You could try tempeh or chickpeas for a variation too. It’s an easy weeknight dinner which comes together in less than 30 minutes, rounded out with a simple side salad and quinoa or couscous.

Tofu Agrodolce:

1 350g/12oz Block of Firm Tofu, Drained, Pressed and cut into triangles or cubes *
1T Olive Oil (Divided)
1T Tamari
250g/8oz Cherry Tomatoes, halved
2 Medium Red Onions, cut into wedges
2 Cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
1C Vegetable Broth
1T Dried Oregano
1 1/2t Agave Nectar OR Coconut Sugar (OR other sweetener of your choice)
2t Red Wine Vinegar
2/3C Pitted Green Olives, Drained & Sliced
Handful of Chopped Parsley

Dry-fry the Tofu over medium heat, flipping until both sides are golden brown and crisp. Set aside and toss with 1/2T olive oil and 1T tamari in a large oven-proof dish. Leave to sit until needed.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

Add the remaining 1/2T oil to the pan over medium-high heat. Add the red onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Stir in the oregano, sweetener, vinegar and stock and bring to the boil. Pour over the tofu, along with the halved cherry tomatoes.

Bake for 15-20 minute, basting halfway through cooking time, until the liquid is slightly reduced. Scatter with the olives and parsley. Serve with quinoa or couscous.

Serves 3-4

* Try chickpeas or tempeh instead of the tofu for a variation.

Hope 2014 has got off to a good start for everyone!

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Butternut, Barley & Lentil Pilaf

Hope everyone had fun at the Virtual Vegan Potluck at the weekend! I was happy to bring my dessert along to the party and enjoyed seeing what everyone else came up with.

I’d been doing well so far this autumn in avoiding any lurgies but I finally succumbed to a cold over the weekend- I’m blaming my Mum who came to visit last week, and she’s apparently blaming her boyfriend (Thanks James!). It takes a lot to keep me out of the kitchen but admittedly my energy was pretty zapped and cooking wasn’t high on the list of things I felt like doing at the weekend.

All the same, a girl’s got to eat- “feed a cold” and all that. Not to mention I wanted to share a new dish with you today, so I pulled myself to my feet and into the kitchen, and this is what I came up with.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like roasted squash. It’s probably the highlight of the season’s vegetables for me. Roasted with spices and olive oil then combined with chewy barley, lentils, a few extra accents and a sweet and tangy dressing, this really hit the spot. I made a large batch too so if my energy levels are dragged down this week I’m good to go with a nutritious meal waiting for me in the fridge.

Since the blogosphere is abuzz with talk of Thanksgiving, not much more than a week away (!), I couldn’t help but think of my American readers when making this dish. It would be a good one to serve on the big day- colourful, vibrant, tasty: a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Butternut, Barley & Lentil Pilaf

Yield: 4 servings as a main, 6-8 as a side

Ingredients

Pilaf:

1/2 C Pearl barley (For GF use Brown/Wild Rice or another hearty GF grain)
1/2 C Puy lentils
Small Butternut squash (approx 680g/1 1/2lb), peeled and cubed
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp Ground cumin
1/2 tsp Ground coriander
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Garlic powder
Large pinch of salt
1/3 C Raisins
1/3 C Pumpkin seeds, toasted (reserve 1-2 Tbsp for topping)
1/3 C Finely chopped red onion
1/2 C Roughly chopped parsley

Dressing:

3 Tbsp Orange Juice (fresh)
1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp Extra-virgin Olive Oil
Salt + Pepper (to taste)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200C/400F
Cook lentils & barley in two separate pots according to package instructions. Barley typically takes 40-45 minutes and Puy lentils approx 25 minutes. When al dente, drain and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cubed squash with olive oil, spices and a large pinch of salt. Spread in a layer on a baking sheet and roast for approx 25 minutes, or until soft when pierced with a fork.
Meanwhile, whisk together the dressing ingredients and add to barley and lentils along with the raisins, pumpkin seeds and red onion. Toss well.
Finally, fold through the roasted butternut and the parsley, transfer to a serving dish and scatter the remaining pumpkin seeds on top.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2013/11/18/butternut-barley-lentil-pilaf/

Are my US readers ready with your menus for Thanksgiving yet? What will you be making?

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Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

I get a lot of my cooking inspiration from restaurant menus, normally not vegan or even vegetarian restaurants. I love being able to take a dish containing animal products and make it vegan-it’s sort of my gentler way of putting two fingers up and saying “ha, I don’t need your animal products- I made your dish better- for us, the planet and the animals!”

This “Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese” is my take on the beetroot & goat’s cheese salad I’ve been seeing on menus all over the place.

Eliminating cheese is a doddle when you’ve got cashews, the magical nut! I usually use cashews for creamy sauces and spreads, but to replicate goat’s cheese’s crumbly texture I baked my blended mixture to dry it out, taking this recipe as my starting point.

I used the same recipe back in the summer for my Herby Courgette Galette recipe (Please excuse the terrible pictures, photography’s been a steep learning curve!) and learnt then that straining the cheese didn’t achieve much so I skipped that step this time.

Here’s what my little ramekin of cheese looked like out of the oven.

Baked Cashew Cheese

2014-07-18 06:59:16

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Ingredients

1/3 C (Heaped) Cashews, soaked, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Neutral Oil (I used Organic Sunflower)
1 Tbsp Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C/350F
Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor or high-power blender for 5 minutes (This helps the cheese firm up so even if it’s smooth blend for the full amount of time).
Pour into a lined/oiled ramekin. Bake for approx 25 minutes, until firm on top and beginning to turn golden.
Remove from oven and let cool completely in the fridge.

Notes

*This makes twice the amount you need for the salad but it’s nice to use in other dishes too)

Adapted from C'est La Vegan

Coconut and Berries http://www.coconutandberries.com/

To turn this into a meal-worthy salad I bulked it up with roasted sweet potato chunks, some spicy rocket leaves and a scattering of toasted pine nuts. Simply delicious.

Beetroot & Sweet Potato Salad with Baked Cashew Cheese

Yield: 2-3 Servings

Ingredients

3 Medium-size Beetroot
2 Medium-size Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 2” chunks
1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sprig of Thyme
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
3/4 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1-1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Parsley, coarsely chopped
Handful of Rocket leaves
Salt & Pepper
2 Tbsp Pine Nuts OR walnuts, toasted
50g/2oz/1/2 Recipe Cashew Cheese (See Above), crumbled

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F
I like to roast beetroot using the tin-foil method. Alternatively, if you want to avoid getting messy, you can also use the pre-cooked kind (usually found in vacuum packs).
Drizzle sweet potato chunks with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and spread in a roasting pan with the thyme. Roast for approx 25 minutes, until soft and golden.
Meanwhile, whisk mustard, vinegar and olive oil together for the dressing.
Peel and chop cooked, peeled beetroot into chunks the same size as the sweet potato.
In a large bowl, toss the beetroot and sweet potato with the dressing. Add the parsley and rocket, salt and pepper to taste and toss again. (You can either wait until the roasted vegetables are cool to do this or eat the salad warm, in which case the rocket will wilt).
Remove to a serving dish and top with the toasted pine nuts and crumbled cashew cheese.

http://www.coconutandberries.com/2013/11/02/beetroot-sweet-potato-salad-with-baked-cashew-cheese/

I’m submitting this recipe to the weekly link-ups: Wellness Weekends and Healthy Vegan Fridays

Have you successfully veganized any dishes you’ve seen on restaurant menus? Or have you got any you’d like to challenge me to veganize?!

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway! 3 free codes for the Vegan Delish app to win!

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Red Lentil & Root Vegetable Tagine:

R is for…Red Lentils!

I hope everyone’s still enjoying the A-Z series. We’re coming to the end of Vegan MoFo now. Sob but you’ve probably realized that I’m not going to get to the end of the alphabet by Sunday…I’ve been posting every weekday which will only take me to T by Friday. I’m having a lot of fun with it though, so, if you don’t mind, I’m going to keep going through to Z (though I might skip X unless anyone has any ideas for me!). I’ll try and post over the weekend and wrap up by the middle of next week but that might not be possible.

Back to the topic of the day…red lentils!

Red lentils are a little different to their green, brown and black friends in that they don’t hold their shape at all when cooked. This lends them well to curries, stews, soups and similar dishes where they work to thicken up and add body to whatever it may be. The only red lentil recipe I’ve got up on the blog so far is my Sweet Potato, Spinach & Coconut Dahl but I’m sure that will soon change with the arrival of the colder weather when I start to crave those comforting dishes mentioned.

I’ve been sitting on this recipe for far too long and it’s something I’ve made numerous variations of over time. A flavourful, fragrant Moroccan tagine with root vegetables and red lentils.

I mix up the vegetables every time I make it, this time I was delighted to be able to use both the squash and courgettes from my garden. I recommend a combination of hard, root veg and something green like courgettes or green beans. But it really is up to you.

It’s just occurred to me that this is another sweet and savoury dish, like yesterday’s recipe, so I hope there aren’t too many haters out there!

Tagine has to have fruit in it though. The sweet dried fruits are lovely with the spices and make this dish that bit more special. Just like the vegetables, you can also use whatever dried fruits you have to hand. This time I used a combination of dried apricots and dried figs but have used both prunes and golden raisins in the past with good results.

Red Lentil & Root Vegetable Tagine:

Get creative with this dish and use whatever vegetables and dried fruits sound good to you.

1/2T Oil
1 Medium onion, diced
1 Large clove of garlic, minced
1” pc ginger, minced
1/2T Cinnamon
1t Cumin
1t Ground coriander
1-2t Harissa (optional if you like a bit of heat- or try 1/2t Chili Flakes)
1/2t Salt
1/3C Red lentils
1 1/2C Vegetable broth
1 x 400g/14oz Can of chopped tomatoes
1 1/2C Cubed squash (I prefer large chunks)
1 Large carrot, chopped into large chunks
2 Medium courgettes, chopped into large chunks
1/2C Dried fruit (I used a mixture of unsulphured dried apricots and dried figs)
1T Lemon juice
Chopped fresh parsley to serve

This needs to simmer for approximately one hour. You can either do this on the stovetop or in the oven.

If using the latter method, preheat the oven to 180C and place a large casserole dish/tagine in the oven to warm up.

In a large pan, warm the oil over medium heat and add the onion. Cook for a few minutes until softened and add the garlic, ginger, spices and salt. Cook for a further minute for spices to toast. Add lentils, broth and tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add hard vegetables like squash and carrots and stir to coat in sauce.

Transfer mixture to the warmed dish from the oven if using this method and add the dried fruit to the mix. Cover and return to the oven. Check on it every now and again and give it a stir to prevent sticking.
After about 45 minutes add softer vegetables like courgettes or green beans and return to oven again to finish cooking. Mine usually takes around 1 hour total. You want your vegetables to be cooked through and fairly soft, but not collapsing.

Remove from the oven and stir through lemon juice.

I served this with quinoa (of course!) topped with toasted, chopped almonds and plenty of parsley.

Serves 4

PRINT RECIPE HERE

I didn’t do a link-love yesterday so you get extra today.

Red lentil recipes I like the look of:

Curry Cashew Red Lentil Burgers

Creamy Red Pepper Lentil Lasagna

Spiced Red Lentil Pancakes

Red Lentil, Lemon & Rosemary Orecchiette

Mellow Lentil “Sniffle” Soup

Enough to keep you busy there?

Let me know your thoughts on the A-Z. If you’re getting bored of it please say so!

Vegan Roasted Vegetable Frittata

You might have to forgive me for throwing several recipes at you over the next few days. I’ve got a stack of them lined up waiting to be posted and in my kitchen I’m churning out more than I can keep up with posting. Also, if I want to participate in Vegan MoFo I’d like to get most of them out to you before it begins in September.

On that note, I haven’t decided if I’m going to take part in Vegan MoFo this year. For those of you who don’t know, the idea of Vegan MoFo (Month of Food) is for bloggers to write as much as they can about vegan food over the designated month. Bloggers usually take on a theme for the period and write posts accordingly. There aren’t strict guidelines for how often to write, but the idea is to shoot for every weekday, or about 20 times in the month.

As I’ll be moving into my new flat in September AND starting my Masters course at the end of the month I don’t know if it’s going to be possible to blog that frequently…so we’ll see. Is there a theme you’d like me to tackle?

After being reminded of how much I like tofu omelettes when I made my pesto, ricotta + cherry tomato filled ones a while back, I thought I’d try out another variation- frittata! I haven’t quite worked out the difference between frittata and Spanish omelette yet (I think Spanish omelette might just have potatoes and onions along with the egg base, whereas frittata can have other ingredients too? ) but just like with my decision to name my “Summer” rolls, I decided on frittata to avoid the negative associations I have with “Spanish omelette”…

On a Spanish exchange I went on when I was 15, not an overly fun experience in any case, my exchange’s mother kindly packed me a lunch to take on one of our day-trips. I was greeted by a Spanish omelette sandwich: a thick wedge of potato omelette between 2 slices of white bread. Now that might sound delicious to some of you but to the fussy teenager that I was then, who also hated eggs, it was a pretty nasty sight. Needless to say it got tossed in favour of an ice cream…!

I’ve used a similar silken tofu base to my omelette for this recipe, easy enough to whizz up in a blender, then combined it with some sweet roasted vegetables and diced new potatoes for some substance, cooked it in a skillet on the stove top and finished it off under the broiler. A lovely light meal for 2-3, and very quick if you happen to have any leftover roasted veg on hand.

Roast Vegetable Frittata:

(Adapted from Chef Chloe)

Roast Vegetables:

1/2 Yellow, chopped
1/2 Red Pepper, chopped
1/2 Red Onion, Sliced into fairly thin wedges
1/2 T Olive Oil

Frittata Base:

200g Silken Tofu
1/2 T Olive Oil
3T Arrowroot (or other starch)
1/2t Black salt (or sea salt if unavailable)
Pepper
1/8t Turmeric
1/2t Onion powder
1/2t Garlic powder

Handful of cooked new potatoes, halved or cut into slices approx 1cm thick.
2T Chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 350C.

If you haven’t already, steam or boil your new potatoes.

Place vegetables in a roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for approx 20 minutes, until soft.

Meanwhile blend all the ingredients for the frittata base in a blender. (I used my Tribest personal blender which is ideal for small amounts. If you don’t have something similar I’d suggest using an immersion blender rather than a full-size blender or it might be difficult to get all the mix out of the bottom. )

Heat a 9” oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Add a touch more olive oil and toss in the potatoes to crisp up the edges for a couple of minutes and to grease the pan. Add the roast vegetables to the skillet too and finally the frittata base mixture from the blender. Quickly mix with the vegetables before it starts to set, and, using a spatula spread out the mixture evenly in the skillet. Turn down heat to medium-low and let cook, undisturbed for 15 minutes.

Preheat the broiler.

At this point the frittata should look set on the top, if not continue to cook for a few more minutes. Place skillet under the broiler for 3-5 minutes to brown up. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn!

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

Serves 2-3

Looking at these pictures from a few weeks ago reminded me of the silly game we played during dinner- spot the garden bean! At that time only a few of our green beans were ready to pick so I combined them with some we had bought. Now, it’s a different story all together- I just picked 1/2kg (over a lb) this morning!

Frittata or Spanish omelette, which sounds more appealing to you?

Are you taking part in Vegan MoFo this September? You don’t have to be vegan, just only post vegan food!