Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Baked Lentils and Rice Casserole

Ingredients

    • 1 medium onion, chopped
    • 1 cup uncooked brown rice
    • 1 cup dried lentils
    • 1 (14 oz) can crushed or diced tomatoes, with juice
    • 1 tsp dried rosemary
    • 1 tsp dried basil
    • 1 tsp dried oregano
    • 4 cups vegetable broth

Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Combine ingredients in large, deep baking dish (I used my giant Pyrex bowl) and stir gently.
    3. Bake covered for 90 minutes-2 hrs, until rice is soft and liquid is absorbed.
    4. Stir every 30 minutes during baking to prevent sticking.

This is from Juliana Hever's "The complete Idiot's guide to plant based nutrition"
Preparation is about 5 minutes.
Warm comforting and filling, serve with some greens or a salad.

You can substitute the dried herbs with fresh but use a tablespoon of each.

Curried Cabbage Stir Fry

INGREDIENTS

1large onion sliced
2cloves garlic chopped or
crushed
2tbs water for saute - more if needed
1T crushed ginger
1t mild curry powder
1t cumin seed
1t mustard seed
3c sliced red cabbage
1c frozen peas
1red capsicum
1/2c almonds roughly chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

1.In a wok or pan sauté the onion, oil, garlic and ginger until clear.
2.Add spices and stir in quickly.
3.Add cabbage and cook for around 5 minutes or until cabbage is soft.
4.Stir in the remaining ingredients and let peas warm up.
5.Note: Cabbage reduces down with cooking so you will need a bigger pan or
6.wok than you might think.

This came from the "Revive" cookbook - not sure if it was volume 1 or 2.
I have removed the oil.
Revive is a great vege cafe in Auckland

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Autumn Simmered Butternut Squash with Lentils and Savory Fruit

quick and easy one pot comfort food
Yield: 4
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

    • 1 large butternut squash
    • 1/2 medium yellow onion (thin slices)
    • 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
    • 2 1/2 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth or water
    • 1/2 cup red lentils rinsed
    • handful fresh thyme (chopped)
    • 1 medium apple (chopped)

Instructions

    1. Peel squash and cut into 1 inch chunks. Spray one heavy bottomed pay with cooking spray and heat on high. When hot add squash, onion and half of the cumin. When squash starts sticking add 1/2 cup of broth and simmer for 5 minutes with lid on. Add lentils, thyme, apple and remaining broth. Replace lid and simmer for 15 minutes. Enjoy! Delicious served with brown rice.

Notes

thought the cumin could be a bit overwhelming, 
half recipe was fine for 3 people and used 2 tsp of cumin. 
we served with mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts
instead of spraying with oil - saute the pumpkin in water or stock
This recipe came from "The Spectrum" by Dean Ornish 

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Anas Vegetable Combo - colourful & delicious

Ingredients

    • 1 large onion, chopped
    • (1 cup) vegetable broth, water, or wine
    • 4 ribs celery, chopped (1 cup)
    • 4 carrots, chopped
    • 1 * 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
    • 1 * 16-ounce package frozen peas, thawed under running water

Instructions

    1. In a nonstick saucepan, stir-fry onion in broth, water, or wine, until softened, then add celery and carrots. Blend peas in a food processor until smooth. Add chickpeas and blended pea mixture to onions. Stir, heat, and serve over brown rice or eat just plain.
    2. Served with chopped tomato and sprinkling of mustard sprouts.

Notes

This recipe is from "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esseltsyn
 
This is so yummy I have made it several times.
 
Note: If almost any recipe needs thickening, blended frozen peas will do the trick. 
They are a magic ingredient!

Smokey Tofu Stir-fry

This I made up as I went along and it was lovely. The smoked tofu was the inspiration, the veges were what I had in the fridge.

1/2 200 g block smoked tofu
1 clove garlic
2 cm root ginger
1 small onion
broccoli  (at least 1 cup)
1 courgette roughly chopped
Piquillo peppers - 3-4
mushrooms 1cup
tomatoes - 1
smoked paprika
Spike seasoning to taste
Braggs seasoning to taste
freshly ground black pepper
water and wine for stirfrying

Stir fry chopped onion in water +/- white wine until clear, add chopped garlic and ginger, add other chopped veges except tomatoes & stirfry until tender adding small amounts of water or wine to stop it sticking, cube the tofu and add. Add tomatoes last. Then add paprika and seasoning,  add a little wine at the end to help create the sauce and cook for a few more minutes.
Serve over brown rice.

This stirfry tastes quite different to an Asian style one.