A simple rice and red lentil soup

October 23, 2009 at 7:48 pm (soup, vegan, vegetarian)

Here’s a vegan recipe taken from the book “Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East” by Arto der Haroutunian. He says it’s a popular Syrian soup that is also eaten by Turks and Armenians. You can use burghul instead of rice. Of course, you can add any seasonings you like to the recipe if you want added heat or spice. I added my tandoori masala mix taken from a cookery book that I have, can’t remember which, unfortunately (probably the “Balti Cookbook” by Pat Chapman).  It turned out more of an Indian soup for me (probably because I was listening to “The Greatest Bollywood Hits” at the time) and it was delicious. I needed to add a bit more salt than stated below. The great thing about this recipe is that you’ve probably got all the ingredients for the soup in your pantry.

This recipe serves 4-6.

Ingredients/Procedure:

Mince 1 onion in the TMX 3s/speed 5. Add 4 tbsp olive oil and fry 2m/varoma/speed 1. Add 75g long-grain rice that has been washed thoroughly under cold water and then drained. Fry the rice 2m/varoma/speed 1. Add 1.8 litres water, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of ground cloves (or your choice of spices). Simmer 5m/100C/speed 1. Add 175g red lentils and cook 15-20m/100C/soft stir until the rice and lentils are tender but not mushy. Cooking time depends on the quality of the lentils.

Garnish with a pinch of cayenne pepper and serve immediately.  My lentils seemed to dissolve even though the rice was tender. The soup still tasted good. I placed a few lemon slices in my soup because it reminded me of the mulligatawny soup that I used to love to eat as a child at the local Tandoori Palace in Rayleigh. Shame you can’t get Bombay Duck anymore. Loved that stuff.

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Sweet and sour vegetables (preserve)

October 23, 2009 at 12:01 am (preserve, Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)

Since we are now in the midst of Autumn, I had a sudden impulse to make some pickled vegetables to fill our pantry. This recipe appears on http://www.rezeptwelt.de/node/200. I adapted it slightly because I wanted to use up a lot of vegetables that were lying idle in the kitchen. The recipe calls for courgettes and red peppers but I used carrots, peppers and cucumbers in the second batch. The reviews for the recipe were all positive, but I haven’t tried the veg yet because I want them to mature a little first.

Ingredients:

800g courgettes, cut into bite sized pieces

400g red peppers, cut into bite sized pieces

200g onions, cut into rings

350g herb vinegar

240g water

240g apple juice

200g sugar

1/2 tsp salt (I added 1 tsp)

1 tsp curry

(I also added 1 tsp HOT Hungarian paprika for an extra kick and a few garlic cloves to the TMX with the vinegar, etc. Since I wanted a bit more spice, I also added 1 tbsp pickling spices).

1. Lay the chopped courgettes and red peppers in the varoma and lay the onion slices on top. Close the varoma. (Yes, it seems like a lot of vegetables;) The second time around I brought the vinegar mixture in the bowl to a boil first before setting the timer for cooking the vegetables. I think this technique was more successful. I also placed a teapot on top of the varoma to close it more tightly at the beginning).

2. Add the remaining ingredients to the TMX bowl. (Tip: I placed the spices and garlic in the basket, because the juniper berries in the pickling spice mix got jammed under the TMX blades causing the machine to make rather nasty grating sounds).

3. Cook 25m/varoma/speed 1. After 13 minutes, mix the veg in the varoma around so that everything is steamed. Watch out because the steam is HOT.

4. Fill the veg into clean twist-off glasses and cover with the vinegar. Close the jars and place upside down on table for 5 minutes to create a vacuum.

With the second batch, I didn’t have enough vinegar to cover the veg so I just cooked up half the recipe for the vinegar mix and then poured it over the vegetables.  I ended up with 5 large glasses of pickled vegetables.

This is a good recipe because you can use any veg you like and vary the spices. Plus it’s a good gift for a hamper. The colours of the vegetables are radiant.

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Pumpkin risotto

October 22, 2009 at 11:43 pm (rice, Thermomix, vegetarian)

I have seen a lot of blogs saying how easy it is to make risotto in the TMX, although I’m sure risotto purists will throw up their hands in horror. This week I finally got around to making my first risotto in the Thermomix. Actually, it’s my first risotto EVER. I don’t know if I got the consistency right, but I ate 3 portions in one sitting, so it must have tasted OK. This recipe was found on http://www.rezeptwelt.de/node/1859 and posted by the user sanneoli.

Ingredients:

1 onion

400g Hokkaido pumpkin (cut into 1.5 cm chunks)

500ml vegetable broth

2 x 30ml olive oil

180g risotto rice

100 ml dry white wine

2 tbsp dry parsley (I used about 4 tbsp fresh, finely chopped)

2 tbsp walnuts (I used almonds)

50g Parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. Grind Parmesan 10s/speed 10.  Set aside.

2. Mill walnuts 7s/speed 8.  Set aside in bowl, add 30ml olive oil and parsley and mix well. (I added a small, crushed clove of garlic).

3. Chop onion 3s/speed 5. Add rice and cook 3m/varoma/reverse/speed 1.

4. Add pumpkin and cook another 2m/varoma/reverse/speed 1.

5. Add white wine. Cook a further 1m/100C/reverse/speed 2 without MC.

6. Add broth, salt and pepper, cook for 20m/90C/reverse/speed 1 without MC.

7. Pour into serving bowl and stir in Parmesan. Serve with parsley-walnut oil (I stirred it into the rice).

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Plum jam with Amaretto

October 22, 2009 at 11:27 pm (jam, Thermomix, vegetarian)

Well, I’ve spent this week living according to the motto “use it or lose it.” I discovered some ripe plums in the fridge, browsed through the new German Thermomix recipe forum www.rezeptwelt.de and found the following recipe by the user m.one (source: http://www.rezeptwelt.de/node/1274).  It’s really easy to make (with or without the Thermomix) and tastes delicious.

Ingredients:

1 kg plums

70-100ml Amaretto

500g preserving sugar (containing pectin), ratio 2:1

What to do:

1. Stone the plums and leave to soak in Amaretto for 30 minutes.

2. Place in TMX and chop to desired consistency at speed 7.

3. Add preserving sugar and cook for 13m/varoma/speed 3-4.

4. Pour into clean jam jars, close tightly and place upside down to cool.

I added a little cinnamon for extra flavour.

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Green Spelt Bake (vegetarian/vegan)

October 18, 2009 at 12:46 pm (Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)
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Unripe spelt grain (German: Grünkern) is a wonderfully versatile ingredient and very popular among vegetarians in Germany when preparing sweet and savoury dishes. I use it to make patties, bakes and pastry.

The advantage of cooking the spelt mixture in the Thermomix is that you don’t need to stand next to the machine and stir constantly to stop the spelt from sticking to the bottom of the bowl.

I added tomato paste and the paprika to give the dish a bit of colour. If you can find them, chilli olives are great in this and give the spelt bake a little heat. Ovo-lacto vegetarians can use 2 eggs instead of soya flour to bind mixture and add 40g grated cheese. If you’re vegan, you could try adding a bit of nutritional yeast to give the mixture a cheesier taste.

Servings: 4-6

2 onions, quartered

2 carrots, cut into 1-inch lengths

1 leek, white only, sliced lengthways, cleaned, cut into 1-inch lengths

40 g oil of your choice

200 g green spelt grain (Grünkern)

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp mild Hungarian paprika

400 ml vegetable stock

40 g nuts

2 tbsp soya flour mixed with 4 tbsp water to replace two eggs

sliced olives to taste (can be omitted)

80 g oatmeal

sea salt

black pepper freshly ground

nutmeg

oil for greasing baking pan

1. Before you start: coarsely mill spelt (approx. 6s/speed10) and nuts (5s/speed 5) separately in TM. Set aside nuts for step 5 and spelt for step 3.

2. Cut onions, leek and carrots into chunks. Chop on speed 5 until finely chopped.

3. Add oil and spelt to vegetables with vegetable stock. Scrape any ingredients from sides into bowl. Add tomato paste and paprika. Cook 100/20m/speed2/reverse. (You may have to increase the speed up to speed 3/4, reverse at the beginning to mix the ingredients thoroughly).

Make sure you insert the measuring cup, because the mixture starts to splutter after about 10 minutes.

4. Open the lid carefully, because the mixture is really hot. Scrape out the contents of TM into a bowl. Set aside until mixture has cooled a little.

5. Heat oven to 175C. Add nuts, soya flour with water (or eggs), sliced olives and oatmeal (and grated cheese if using) to spelt mixture. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

6. Grease a baking pan (I used a square, silicon one) with oil and pour spelt mixture into it. Smooth top before baking for 35-40 minutes. Leave to stand a few minutes before cutting.

This is great served with a spicy tomato sauce and steamed vegetables from the Varoma.

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Making soya milk in the Thermomix (vegan)

October 18, 2009 at 12:43 pm (Thermomix, vegan)

I don’t know about you, but I find the taste of commercially bought soya “milk” rather like liquid plastic. During the last few days I have spent the rest of my precious holiday time thumbing through some absolutely brilliant vegan cookery books and soya milk seems to crop up a lot as an ingredient. I’m not planning to use soya products that often in the kitchen, but if I do use them, I’d like to produce them myself.

So yesterday I went shopping for soya beans and bought 1 kg of GM-free, yellow soya beans for my first batch of soya milk. The soya beans cost me 3.99 Euros, so they aren’t that expensive. I ended up making 2.4 litres of soya milk, 2 litres of which were then transformed into 400g of tofu, the remaining 400g I used for Chai tea. I was left with 2 cups of okara after pressing out all the soya milk and I used the soya bean residue to make 10 soya burgers. And all that for 1 Euro plus a few cents for 2 tsp of calcium sulphate which I bought from the local chemist.

I’ll start with the recipe for soya milk which I found on the German Thermomix forum www.wunderkessel.de. It was posted by a certain Inka and I’m grateful to her for  the recipe.

I made this in two batches in the Thermomix because it only holds 2 litres.

Ingredients:

200g soya beans (yellow)

Soak the beans  in water for 8 hours, then drain and rinse them.

For the soya milk:

1. Pour half the soaked, drained and rinsed soya beans into the TM bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 10. You’ll end up with a fine, yellow powder.

2. Add 1.3 litres of water to TM bowl and cook for 20 mins/90C/speed 2.

3. After that you’ll need to mix the milk for about 2 mins at speed 10. A word of warning: the milk is very hot at this point, so gradually increase the speed during the 2 mins up to speed 10. The milk may splutter during mixing.

4. Pour the milk through cheesecloth in a sieve with a bowl underneath. The okara (pureed soya beans) stays in the cloth. You’ll need to twist the cloth, draining every drop of soya milk into the bowl. Set the okara aside for the soya burgers if you’re making them.

Repeat the process for the second batch of soya beans and then admire your Thermomix soya milk. I had about 2.4 litres of soya milk. You can sweeten it with some pureed dates if you wish.

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Making tofu in the Thermomix (vegan)

October 18, 2009 at 12:37 pm (Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)
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I used the 2 litres of soya milk from the previous recipe to make around 400g of tofu.

First, you’ll need to heat the 2 litres of soya milk in the Thermomix to 80C. I did this by setting the clock to 4 mins and pressing the 90 C button. Heat the milk and turn off the Thermomix once the 80C light is lit.

Mix 2 tsp of calcium sulphate powder with a little water to make a smooth paste. Pour this through the lid of the Thermomix and then blitz the soya milk for 10 seconds on speed 3. Leave the soya milk for at least 20 minutes to coagulate.

Assemble a bowl, a sieve with a fresh cheese cloth and carefully pour the coagulated soya milk through the cheese cloth. The soya “whey” will collect in the bowl. You’ll now need to press the remaining moisture out of the tofu. You can line the basket with more cheesecloth, add the tofu and cover with cheesecloth, weighting the tofu with a heavy object. I’ve seen a few tofu presses on the Internet, but I found another way to press the tofu. I used a “sausage maker” (see photo), which did a great job of squeezing the soya whey out. I left it for about 30 minutes and got quite a soft tofu.

To store your tofu, place in a container with water to cover and keep in the fridge. Change the water daily. Or cover it with water and freeze. After thawing the tofu will have a more fibrous texture.

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Okara burgers (vegan)

October 18, 2009 at 12:34 pm (Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)

If you’ve followed the two recipes for soya milk and tofu, you’ll be left with around two cups of okara like I was. I googled for an easy okara recipe and found one on http://ellenskitchen.com/clearlight/okara/okara.html#okaraburgers.

I doubled the recipe to make 10 burgers. Unlike the original recipe I also added garlic and chopped ginger to the vegetables before sautéing.

Ingredients for 10 burgers

  • 2 cups of finely sliced vegetables (I used finely chopped white cabbage, grated carrots and finely chopped onion, ginger and garlic and packed them into the measuring cup before adding them to the Thermomix)
  • 4 tbsp stock or soya sauce to sauté the vegetables
  • 2 tablespoons of seasoning or spices (I used an Asian spice mix)
  • 2 cups of okara
  • 7 tbsp (or 8 tbsp) chickpea flour (or flaxmeal, amaranth or rice flour which you can make in the Thermomix before starting to make the burgers)
  • flour or oat flour to thicken if necessary
  • crushed rice crispies, corn flakes, bread crumbs to coat (optional, I didn’t use them and the burgers didn’t fall apart in the pan).


1. Add the vegetables to the TM and sauté with the soya sauce or vegetable broth on Varoma, reverse, speed 1 for about 8 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

2. Add the spices, okara and chickpea flour and sauté 4 minutes on Varoma/reverse/speed 1. You may need to increase the speed at the beginning to mix all the ingredients and push the mixture down with the spatula during cooking.

3. Add flour if necessary to bind the mixture so that you can form the burgers. I didn’t need to add any. Tip the mixture into a bowl and form around 10 burgers. It helps to dampen your hands with water occasionally so that the mixture doesn’t stick to your fingers. You can coat the burgers at this stage before frying or baking.

4. Now fry or bake your burgers. I fried mine until golden on both sides, but you can bake them at 180C/350F in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, turning them over once during baking.

I ate mine fresh from the pan, accompanied by mango ginger chutney. As a side I served Thermomix coleslaw which I prepared in the rinsed TM while the burgers were frying. For this I just mixed together a dressing in the TM, added white cabbage and carrots, a little onion, salt and pepper, chopped on speed 5 for a few seconds and that was it. Next time I’ll add fresh ginger to the salad dressing and blitz before mixing with the vegetables. I’m a bit ginger-fixated at the moment.

The author says that you can freeze the burgers but they are a little fragile after thawing.

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Perfectly Easy Seitan

October 18, 2009 at 11:51 am (Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)
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While on holiday recently I scoured amazon.de to find a few vegan/vegetarian books to help me find inspiration for animal-free cooking. Arriving home I found “The Grit Restaurant Cookbook” by Jessica Greene and Ted Hafer waiting for me. It includes a few recipes for seitan which sound interesting, but I had absolutely no idea what it was.

I found the following recipe for “Perfectly Easy Seitan” on the Internet which was blogged under http://seemore-vegan.blogspot.com/2008/11/perfectly-easy-seitan.html. To save time, I decided to try it out in the Thermomix. It is ridiculously easy to make. I had to use vegan mushroom stock powder instead of “chicken” stock granules.

Dry ingredients:

2-1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

½ cup chickpea flour (besan)

½ cup nutritional yeast flakes

3 tablespoons vegetarian chicken broth powder

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

½ teaspoon sage

½ teaspoon thyme

Wet ingredients:

1-3/4 cups water

2 tablespoons tomato paste (double concentrated)

2 tablespoons soy sauce (or Braggs)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions for the Thermomix:

1. Preheat oven to 160C.

2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. In TM, briefly beat together wet ingredients 5s/speed 5. Add about a cup of the dry mixture and beat on dough function for 2 minutes. Add another cup of the dry mixture and beat on dough function for another 2 full minutes. Add remaining ingredients and blend again 2m on dough function. If necessary, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time until dry ingredients are just combined (I didn’t need any extra water, mixture came together beautifully).

4. Divide dough into two equal pieces (each weighing around 454 g) and roll (or stretch and pull) each piece into a log about 15 cm long. Wrap each log tightly in aluminum foil, twisting the ends to seal.

5. Bake for 90 minutes.

Makes 2 pounds of seitan, about 12 servings.

This morning I woke up with an absolute craving for fried eggs. Instead I tried a little sliver of the seitan and was surprised at how good it tasted. I put on some brown rice to cook in the Thermomix basket for 30 minutes and surfed the internet for a VERY fast recipe to make using seitan.

“Beef” Teriyaki Stir Fry is a recipe listed on www.vegweb.com by furrysgirl. Since I only had cabbage and carrots lurking at the bottom of my fridge (glad I finally used them up today), I sliced four carrots, quarter of a cabbage and then thinly sliced the seitan. I made the following sauce according to the recipe which I added to the fried seitan and vegetables :

“Beef” Teriyaki Stir Fry Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mirin

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons minced ginger

3 tablespoons minced garlic

red pepper flakes, to taste

Thicken the sauce with 2 tablespoons corn starch mixed with 2 tablespoons water. This produced a gigantic wok full of food and went down very well, even with the meat-eating members of the family.

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This blog…

October 18, 2009 at 11:23 am (About me)
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is kept purely for selfish reasons. I want a house. And a garden with fruit trees. And a vegetable patch with a bordering herb garden.

But if I want a house for my family and myself, I need to save money for a down-payment for a mortgage and I also need to start budgeting for the future.  For me, budgeting means starting in the kitchen.

I’m planning to use this blog to write down my attempts to save money while cooking. One of my main helpers in the kitchen – and this is going to sound a little schizophrenic – is my Thermomix (TMX), a German kitchen appliance that costs around 980 Euros produced by the company Vorwerk. Yes, 980 Euros can buy you a LOT of food. Let’s face it, a Thermomix is a luxury, i. e. it’s something you really don’t need, after all people have been preparing delicious food for centuries without electricity and without expensive technology.  I use my Thermomix at least once a day and it really is enjoyable to prepare and cook food with it. But the real fun is to use the TMX to invent dishes using leftovers from the day before,  something I have never really enjoyed. Or you can transform a few pieces of fruit into a jam in the TMX while you unload the dishwasher or fold the washing.

The Thermomix is not one of those gadgets you buy (like a sandwich maker) which you use fervently for a couple of weeks and then one day find it gathering dust at the back of some dark cupboard. If you keep it on your work surface, you will use it daily. Unless of course you generally hate cooking. (No, I don’t sell these machines in case you’re wondering).

I’ll also include some slow cooker recipes that I have tried out, because these appliances can help to prepare food “in the background” while you do something else. I know a lot of people swear by pressure cookers but I prefer the crockpot. You will not find any recipes starting with the words “Take one tin of cream of mushroom soup, mix with one pound of meat and….”

My aim during the next few months is to also use my freezer more. I tried once a month cooking (OAMC) at the beginning of the year and bought a couple of books on the subject. I also scoured the internet but the recipes all seemed the same. The authors also appeared to eat a lot of meat. And I mean A LOT. OAMC is supposed to – as a lot of people understand it- save you money and meal preparation time. But I feel that OAMC should not focus on getting a warm, meat-based meal on the table that – in many recipes that I’ve seen so far – is totally “dead” in terms of nutrition and flavour. Having said that, however, the book “Fix, freeze, feast” by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik offers freezer options that do not revolve around endless variations of slopping Joes, chili con carne and meatballs.

My recipes will sometimes contain meat, but there will be vegan and vegetarian recipes as well. Since I want my Thermomix to pay its way, I’ll be using it  as much as possible, but most of the recipes can be made without the TMX, using a food processor, for example.

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