Vegan Celery Red Pepper Risotto

Ingredients
1 cup arborio rice
1 litre vegetable stock (I used just 1 stock cube)
1/2 onion finely chopped
2 large pods garlic finely chopped
1/2 red pepper finely chopped
1 celery stick finely chopped
1/4 cup soya milk
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soya margarine / spread
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper powder
few saffron strand to garnish (optional)

Method
Heat oil and melt butter together in a saucepan . Add onion and garlic . Saute till it starts turning brown . Now add celery and red pepper and stir for a minute or 2. Add rice and stir for a minute more . Now start adding stock little by little and keep stirring till the stock is absorbed and then again add more stock and stir . Repeat till all the stock is added . Add milk , salt and black pepper . Cover and simmer for 5 - 10 mins or till the rice is tender . Occasionally give a stir. The whole process of cooking risotto would take about 30 mins. Ladddle hot steaming risotto in a bowl and garnish with saffron strands.

Vegan Thai Curry

This recipe is for the "Its a Vegan World - Thai"




Ingredients

For curry paste
1 inch ginger piece
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion
1 mild green chilly
1 tsp tomato puree
1/2 tsp soya sauce (optional)
2 lime juices

For curry
1 carrot chunked
1/2 red pepper chunked
1/2 green pepper chunked
3 asparagus chunked
5 -6 mange-touts
349 gms firm tofu (this can be replaced with soya chunks also)
1/2 onion sliced
50 gms coconut cream
1 cup of hot water
handful of coriander chopped
1 kaffir lime leaf (optional)
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp salt

Method

For Paste
Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend it into a smooth paste , add little water if necessary.

For Curry
Heat oil , sauté onions till they start to brown. Now add the curry paste , saute for a minute . Add vegetables , creamed coconut, salt and hot water. Bring to boil , add kaffir lime leaf and simmer it for 20 -2 5 mins or till all the veggies are tender and cooked. Garnish with corainder leaves. Serve with hot steamed white rice.

Note : While making this curry you can use as many vegetables as you like and the quantity of each vegetable can be as much as you like.

Amazon Tripod to improve photos

I have always been disappointed about my pictures I post of my recipes. Lately, my husband suggested me to buy a tripod from Amazon , its called Gorillapod. Its quite a cute model , it has several nodes so it can be bent into any shape. My dad in law has a similar smaller version of the one I am buying. During some of our small trips, we borrowed it from him and it is easily portable. Hey guys , if u want to buy a tripod, then this one is really worth seeing.

VEGETABLE LOVE 2009 - Upma / Spicy Semolina with Mixed Vegetables

I am posting this recipe as an entry for the Vegetable Love 2009 competition.

This is the first culinary competition I am participating . I am very excited . The recipe I have posted is very easy and quick recipe. The advantage of making this is , it takes just 20 - 25mins to make it from scratch and its absolutely delicious and not to forget, its healthy too. Hence, you don't need to spend hours and hours in the kitchen preparing a meal for the special day. About the recipe, its a south Indian breakfast , but can be eaten for evening snack or as any main meal. I have used 5 different vegetables and 1 type of herb.

Ingredients

1 cup mixed frozen vegetables (preferably without green beans. I have used frozen peas,half fresh carrot chopped and frozen mixed peppers. You could also add frozen sweet corns or baby corns)
1 large onion chopped corsely
1 medium sized tomato chopped coarsely
1/2 cup semolina
2 1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal / beaten black gram
1 sprig curry leaves
2 medium hot green chillies slit into two
handful of chopped corrainder
2 tbsp grated coconut/ dessicated coconut (optional)
1/2 tsp salt

Method

Heat a wok and dry roast semolina till it leaves an aroma , this may take about 5 mins. Remove the semolina into a bowl. Now heat oil in the same wok , add mustard seeds. After they stop spluttering, reduce the flame to minimum and add urad dal/ beaten black gram, curry leaves, green chillies. Saute it for a minute and then add onions. Saute this for a minute or two and add tomatoes and mixed vegetables and salt. Cover and cook on medium flame for 5 - 10 mins or till they are cooked. You can add 2 tbsp water if the vegetables are dry. Now add all the roasted semolina and 2 1/2 cups of warm water. Now reduce the flame to minimum and gently stir it for 3 -4 mins till semolina absorbs all the water and becomes a semi solid consistency. Remove from flame . Garnish with grated coconut and corrainder.

Vegan Broccoli Cheese

Oh this looks little messy........ but this was the best I could take.....

Ingredients
1 broccoli head cut into florets (I do not discard the stem , I use them as well)
1 cup soya milk (I used sweetened)
1 tbsp plain flour
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper powder
1 tbsp soya spread
190g (1 packet )of Redwood mozzarella cheese / any non dairy cheese (you can experiment with cheddar style) grated

Method
Cook the broccoli in microwave for 10 mins / till they are tender. Meanwhile make white sauce by melting soya spread in a saucepan . Add plain flour and then slowly add milk little by little and keep stirring . Make sure to blend the little milk you add with the plain flour to make a smooth paste and then add little more milk. Repeat this till all the milk is added and the suace is ready without lumps. If any lumps, do not panic, you can blend it into smooth sauce . Add salt and pepper to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the cooked broccoli and top it with grated cheese.
Bake it in the oven for 20-25 mins or till the cheese melts and starts turning golden brown.

Wholewheat Penne with mushroom and tomato sauce

Ingredients
300 gms wholewheat penne
1 carrot cut into strips
1 large onions chopped into strips
2 large tomatoes chunked
3 tbsp tomato puree
3 garlic pods finely chopped
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
10 -15 mushrooms chopped
1 tbsp oil, preferably olive oil
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper powder

Method
Prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the packet ( cook the pasta in 1 litre of water , drain and wash under cold water to remove extra starch and also it helps separate the pastas from each other ).

Heat oil in a large pan . Saute onion and when they start turning brown , add garlic and saute till the garlic starts browning. Add carrots and cook for 5 mins.Now add mushroom and coo till they sweat , add water if the mushrooms starts sticking to the pan. Now add tomatoes and tomato puree dissolved in 1 cup water. Add salt and pepper powder. Cover and cook till the tomatoes are tender and mushy. This could take about 10 mins. Add dried herbs and the pasta. Mix them and let the pasta heat for 5 mins . Keep stirring to avoid any sticking to the pan. Add water if the sauce is too dry to coat all the pasta. Serve with vegan parmesan (optional), I have not added.

Tips
You can add as many vegetables and as much as you like (peppers , baby corn, zucchini , sweetcorn , aubergine , sun dried tomatoes)
You can even add vegan sausages , seiatin . (I added Redwood's Ham style vegan Cheatin cut into thin strips while serving).

Vegan Baby Broad Bean Pate / Hummus

My husband just hates broad beans, but I quiet like it. Now I had to invent a dish using baby broad beans. One day I was watching a food show on TV and they were making a dish using humus, and then the thought occurred to me "Why not use baby broad beans instead of chickpeas?" and thus , this recipe came into existence. My husband quiet liked it, he did not realize he was eating baby broad beans till i told him.

Ingredients

1 cup frozen / fresh baby broad beans
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
a pinch of salt
a pinch of turmeric
a pinch of black pepper
1/2 lime /small lemon juice
1/4 tsp paprika powder (optional)

Method

Defrost frozen beans , remove the skin (if using fresh ones , then cook them in microwave for 10 mins or till they are tender and the skin can be removed easily). Put all the ingredients along with de-skined beans into a blender with 1 - 2 tbsp water and whiz. Water is to aid the mixture to blend , if the mixture can be blended without water then do not use water. Care should be taken that the blended mixture is of humus consistency and not very liquidy. Pate / Broad beans humus is ready . At this point you can taste and add more spices or salt if required and then garnish with a pinch of sesame seeds and red chilli flakes.