Mom's tomato, tofu and almond burgers

Here's a recipe from my mom for some yummy vegan burger patties!

Easy on the bread stuffing

I adore a good bread stuffing. The butter, the herbs, the soft crunch of the sweated onions and just the fluffy softness of the butter soaked bread crumbs which have just sucked up all of the flavours. That to me is when it is at it's most perfect and delicious, when it's fresh out of the pot. Since I've tried to limit my wheat intake to only occasional indulgences, bread stuffing had fallen to the back of my mind. It's a forgotten pleasure for me which has only recently seen a reintroduction to my diet. 


You can make this with whatever type of bread you like; normal wheat, wholewheat, brown, batch, soda, rye or gluten/wheat free. Whatever you like and can eat. 


*Also for the time being you'll have to forgive my lack of a photo I've been having some problems with my SD card and my camera lately.

Baked aubergines with soya cream and thyme

Original recipe by Nick Slater in Tender (pg 61). 

I LOVE aubergines. When they are properly cooked (not just cooked until they go rubbery) they go so soft and gooey and have such a gentle flavour. To me this is a beautifully simple recipe that really celebrates how wonderful aubergines really are. 

Lentil stuffed sweet peppers

Based on 'A lentil stuffing for a cheap supper' recipe by Nick Slater in Tender, p 289.


Serves 4-6 people.


Ingredients:
200g green/brown lentils,
1 sweet pepper per person,
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
6 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp sweet paprika,
2 tsps hot paprika,
Salt,
Pepper
Olive oil.


Preheat the oven to 180°C

Irish nettle soup

We have a big patch of nettles growing out in the back garden and I know they can be eaten. So I decided to make the most out of my unintentional crop and try using them in a soup. I found a recipe for a very nice Irish nettle soup in Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills Of Cooking book. 

According to her book, the leaves are best picked (obviously wearing gloves) in Spring, I had heard before that they are unsuitable to eat later in the year because they become too "woody". She goes on to explain that nutritionally nettles are a good source of vitamin C, iron, histamine, silica acid and potassium, which help rheumatism and other pains. They also appear to help lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels to increase haemoglobin in the blood as well as improving circulation. 

With all these benefits combined with how easy and cheap it is to source since it's a pretty common weed, it's pretty much the perfect student food! Free and very nutritional, who can argue with that?

Lazy Miso Soup

Veggie miso soup is wonderfully easy to make and very nutritious. The Blazing Salads cook book recommends that vegetarians and vegans have a small bowl of miso soup daily because of it's beneficial B12 content as well as the iron and calcium provided by the seaweed. Traditionally it's a soup made using a dashi stock, but when I make it I want a quick fix and don't really have the patience to pre-make a stock, then the soup. 


While I'm not a big fan of salt on food, I should mention though that miso paste has a wonderful salty taste to it, so if you feel like making this for yourself, have a few glasses of water lined up!

I think it makes for a great starter as it always wets my appetite and if I'm feeling poorly, it's my alternative to chicken soup. Since one of my wisdom teeth is at me again, I think it likes to bother me now during the weeks running up to my birthday. Same spot got infected last year causing me an understandable lot of pain. It's starting to become difficult to enjoy food that enjoys any real chewing or has a texture that aggravates the gum further I think I may end up having to make a large batch of veggie miso soup this week and live on it and soft rice noodles until the pain subsides

Lazy tofu scramble

Inspired by another recipe from the wonder that is Vegan Cowboy Food, I decided to make tofu scramble for myself a couple of days after making the tofu ricotta stuffed peppers. Again I did not really stick to the original recipe. I was feeling lazy and very hungry so mine was far more simplistic and I don't think I let the tofu cook for nearly as long as she did. Mine was still rather white but slightly golden at the edges, whereas hers looks wonderfully brown in the pictures. To check out her complete recipe follow this link; Tofu scramble ala Vegan Cowboy Food


Ingredients:
As much firm tofu as you think you'll eat,
Chopped spring onions/shallots,
A handful of cherry tomatos, halved
Cracked black pepper,
Squeeze of lemon juice.


I crumbled the tofu with hands into a hot non-stick frying pan and dry fried the tofu. I did this for about 5 minutes until the tofu began to turn slightly golden around the edges, I would've cooked it a little longer, but I was hungry. I added the chopped cherry tomatos and the shallots, stirring the contents of the pan occasionally. Next I cracked some black pepper over the tofu and added a squeeze of lemon juice, letting it cook for another couple of minutes while I got some toast on. Once the toast was done I just piled the tofu on top of it and enjoyed it in front of the television with a cup of coffee. 


I think it was nicer than actual scrambled eggs. Yum yum yum.

Lemon and saffron rice

Roll's sister Erica did an Indian cooking course recently and was kind enough to give me the recipes she got for curried lentils and for a super yummy lemon and saffron rice. I didn't have all the ingredients for it, but listed below is what I did have and I think it turned out wonderfully anyway.


Sorry for the poor picture quality, my camera needs charging so I used my phone.


Serves:3-4


Ingredients:
550ml of vegetable stock
1/4 tsp saffron threads,
1 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 onion, sliced,
2 garlic cloves, crushed,
2 tsp finely chopped ginger,
1/2 a lemon rind grated,
250g long grain rice,
1 tsp dried coriander.


Bring the stock to boil in a saucepan, then remove it from the heat, stir in the saffron. Cover the pot and leave it to stand for 10-15 minutes. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook the onion, ginger and garlic until the onion begins to brown lightly. Then stir in the rice and the grated lemon rind and allow to cook in the pan for 2 minutes. Bring the pot of vegetable stock and saffron back to the boil, add the contents of the frying pan to the pot as well as the dried coriander and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes or whenever all the liquid has been absorbed. Lastly stir in the lemon juice and leave to stand with the lid on for 5 minutes.