Kumara-Pear Tzimmes with Pecans & Raisins

1 kg Kumara peeled & cut into 3/4 inch chunks ( I added in some pumpkin too)
3 firm pears seeded & cut into 3/4 inch chunks
1 tbs vegetable oil
2 tbs Mirin (or other sweet cooking wine)
1 tbs maple syrup
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup pecan halves
3/4 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 180 C
Place kumara & pears in a large roasting dish. sprinkle with oil & miring and mix to make sure all is coated.
Add maple syrum, cinnamon, slat & pecans and toss to coat.

Cover with aluminium foil & bake for 30 minutes.

Remove foil & add raisins & gently toss.

Return to oven uncovered & bake for 30 more minutes tossing occasionally.

It took more than an hour to cook - probably needed to be in a single layer in a larger dish.

Said to serve 6 - would probably serve 8.

Awesome mix of flavours & colour & textures!

Spinach noodle Kugel (Casserole)

3 cups pasta (I used some vegeroni spirals - recipe suggests any short cut ribbon noodles or broken up lasagne noodles

3 packages of frozen spinach, thawed
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs (Matzo meal if you want a genuinely Jewish dish)
1 small onion finely chopped
340 g (just over 1 package) of firm silken tofu
1 cup vege broth
2 tbs olive oil (to make it oil free I just added extra tofu)
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill ( had to resort to a couple of tsp of dried dill)
2 tbs lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Cook noodles according to package direction & preheat oven to 180 C
Place thawed spinach in colander and leave in the sink to drain.
Blend tofu, broth & oil (if using) until smooth and put in large mixing bowl with the breadcrumbs.
Squeeze as much water as possible out of the spinach and add to the bowl.
Drain pasta & run under cold water, add to the bowl along with the rest of the ingredients.
Mix well, use your hands if needed.
Coat a casserole dish with oil spray
Press the kugel into the casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes.

This was a large recipe supposed to serve 8. I halved it  - the four of us had plenty and there were leftovers the next day.

Would like to try it with wholemeal pasta but that is proving difficult to find - can only source in penne or macaroni shapes at the moment

Birthday Dinner

My Mum turned 83 last week and I turned to "Veganomicon"by Isa Moskowitz & Terry Romero for inspiration.

Spinach Noodle Kugel & Sweet Potato Tzimmes were what I opted for - the pale spinach noodle casserole along side the brilliant orange of the Tzimmes alongside some simple green peas looked wonderful on the plate.

The delicate and subtle flavours of the Spinach dish alongside the bursts of flavour & crunch of the Tzimmes just awesome!

My elderly parents and brother (all non-vegan) absolutely loved it!

The recipes follow in the next posts.

Vegetable Casserole

INGREDIENTS

1 kg potatoes

1 large brown onion peeled & diced

2 medium carrots peeled & diced

2 stalks celery diced

2-3 cloves of garlic, smashed

1 smallish leek white part only cut into rings and washed

1 can kidney beans
6 portobello mushrooms cleaned & sliced

Salt & pepper

125ml white wine

375 ml vege stock

Instructions

Heat oven to 200 C

Peel potatoes and cut into fine but not transparent slices

Put in a large mixing bowl with diced onion, carrots, celery, garlic & leek rings & beans  and toss together. Sprinkle with pepper & salt.

Heat pot & sauté mushrooms in a small amount of stock until softened, remove from heat

Put half the potato/vege mixture into an ovenproof dish,

Cover the layer with half the mushrooms

Then the remaining potato/veg mixture and final layer of mushrooms.

Add the wine and stock (Liquid should come halfway up the dish.

Season to taste.

Cover the dish with 3 layers of cooking foil and a lid if there is one. No steam should escape.

Bake for 1 hour, peel back the foil and test the poatato, cook for a further 10-15 minutes if needed.

This was based on a recipe by Kate Fraser from the newspaper column “Cooking with Kate”. Oil was removed and beans added to the original recipe.

The smell when it was cooking was wonderful and drove me crazy. Great flavours – a real keeper.

Said to serve 4 - it's a big recipe - if you have a side of greens too you will probably have leftovers.

Tofu Mayonnaise

Here in small town New Zealand sourcing vege mayonnaise is not easy - especially if you want something low fat and without all sorts of weird additives. I had read some recipes and had part of a block of tofu in the fridge that needed using so ...

tofu
vinegar (I have some white balsalmic but I'm sure white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar would be fine)
dijon mustard
some lemon juice
agave nectar or other sweetener

(no quantities as I did a splash of this and a teaspoon of that)

blitzed it in the benchtop blender and it was lovely - I would dare anyone to recognise it as tofu based from the taste.

This week for lunch I have been having salad wraps, spread with hummus and drizzling a little of this "mayo" over it mmmmm tasty!

Stock and Broth - economical tip here

Lots of recipes call for low sodium broth or stock - not easy to source at supermarket but really easy to make your own.

Good base for broth is:

Onions
Carrots
Celery
herbs and seasonings - a bay leaf or two is great, mixed herbs or your favourite dried herbs can be added.

optional extra veges - Celeriac, parsnip, mushrooms etc. (Cabbage most people agree has too strong a flavour for a nice broth). Beans and potatoes are also useful.

put them in a pot and boil for 30-60 minutes and strain. - Keep in fridge for a few days or freeze in iceblock trays and keep cubes of stock in your freezer.

You can reserve the solids and mix with some of the broth to make a soup.

Useful economical tip from Chef AJ writer of "Unprocessed" - keep your (clean) vegetable peels and trimmings (anything not decayed) and add to a ziplock bag in the freezer, when you have enough use those to make a stock, strain and discard the solids. You can use the tops of carrots and leaves of celery etc.

Pasta e fagioli

I love Italian food and this is Italian peasant food. Robin Robertson in her book "Vegan on the Cheap" estimates the cost at less than $1 per serving this was in American dollars in 2010.
Sounds posh - just means pasta and beans!


Made the Vege stock myself in the weekend

INGREDIENTS

3 cloves garlic

2 cans crushed tomatoes

1 can beans (1 ½ cups of cooked if cooked from scratch)               

                Cannellini, pinto, borlotti – or whatever you fancy

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

1 bay leaf

2 cups vegetable stock

Salt & pepper to taste

250g wholegrain macaroni or other small pasta

1 Tbs chopped parsley

METHOD

Heat a large pot and add a small amount of stock and sauté the garlic for approx 1 minute until softened. Stir in tomatoes, beans, herbs, stock and seasonings. Simmer 20 minutes

In a large pot of boiling water cook macaroni over medium-high heat until al dente – about 7 minutes. Drain and add to bean mixture with the parsley

Simmer gently to blend flavours – about 10 minutes. Remove Bay leaf and serve.

I used 2 cans of beans so it was more of a stew than a soup. Used Spike seasoning instead of salt. Served with some steamed spinach and followed with some fresh fruit.

Next time I may add an onion also.