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Cookbook: Greens 24/7 by Jessica Nadel
On flicking through Greens 24/7 by Jessica Nadel, my first thought was ‘I want to make EVERYTHING’. There are so many gorgeous-sounding (and looking – they’re all accompanied by a photo) recipes, such as creamy spinach curry with tofu paneer, sweet potato and greens burger, and shaved asparagus and roasted tomato terrine, I didn’t know where to start.
Unfortunately, the first dish I tried – samosa burritos with peas – turned out a tad bland. Don’t get me wrong; it was pleasant enough and perfectly edible, it just lacked something. I know it lacked the cumin which was originally stated in the recipe but I’d left that out on purpose as, since The Meat Eater has recently started calling cumin ‘farts’, I’ve refused to use it in any meals I’m cooking which he’ll be eating. Fair enough, I reckon, eh?
Another absent ingredient were the fenugreek seeds as my local Tesco didn’t have any. I read on a website that fennel seeds can be used instead but The Meat Eater doesn’t like fennel, or anything aniseedy for that matter, so that was out.
By now I’m sure you’re thinking – and not unreasonably, I might add – ‘no wonder it was bland, you’ve left out all the spices’ but I did tip in about three tablespoons of curry powder to give it a lift but it still lacked any oomph (for want of a better word).
Still, there are two burritos left over in the freezer and I’ve been thinking about them and have decided that instead of serving them with basmati rice as I did this time, I’ll pour a load of curry sauce over them and perhaps serve on a bed of spinach. That’ll sort them out.
I’m making another recipe from Greens 24/7 tonight – a spinach and mushroom galette. This will involve me making pastry. Wish me luck!
Greens 24/7 by Jessica Nadel is published by Apple Press and is available at Amazon.
Giveaway: The Great Vegan Protein Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes
The next time someone asks you, ‘But where do you get your protein from?’ just whack them round the head with this book.
The Great Vegan Protein Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes is a cookbook bursting with – in case you hadn’t guessed – protein-rich recipes. These mouth-watering plant-based recipes are categorised into chapters containing:
- Beans and legumes
- Grains, nuts and seeds
- Tofu and tempeh
- Seitan
There’s also a chapter devoted to protein – why we need it, where can we get it from etc., in case you want to swot up on the facts and go down a route less violent upon being asked *that* question, other than whacking them over the head with a book.
Lots of full-page colour photos accompany the recipes, which range from breakfasts to desserts, along with soups, salads and sandwiches.
Giveaway: Win a copy of The Great Vegan Protein Book
If you’d like to win a copy of The Great Vegan Protein Book, simply leave a comment below with the answer to this question:
Which of these is not a good source of protein?
a) Tofu
b) Traffic cones
c) Kidney beans
Terms & Conditions:
UK entries only.
One winner will be drawn at random after the closing date of Midnight, Saturday 4 April 2015.
The winner will be announced on this website no later than Saturday 11 April 2015. If the winner doesn’t come forward within a week after this date, a new winner will be announced.
The Gentle Chef Cookbook: Pepperoni
I’d spent a long time pondering over whether to buy The Gentle Chef Cookbook, mostly because it’s self-published and I’m a still a bit snobby in that respect. I needn’t have worried though as the book is amazing. It’s beautifully laid out and produced and just as professional as any traditionally published cookbook. There aren’t any photographs but (and this is what swung it for me in the end) you can see plenty of photographs of the recipes on The Gentle Chef website. For even greater flexibility, if you do want the photos and the recipes combined, there’s a pdf version available to purchase.
The 235 pages are split into chapters:
- Seitan, with information on preparing it and recipes for lots of different types, e.g. meatballs, pepperoni, corned beaf, chick’n, bacun, roasts, ribz, etc., along with recipes in which to use them.
- Soy Proteins (tofu, tempeh, TVP),
- Udderly Un-Dairy (vegan butter, cream, cheese, etc.)
- Breakfast and Brunch
- Appetizers, Dips and Spreads
- Salads and Dressings (including vegan mayonnaise and mock tuna salad)
- Soups, Broths and Stews
- Entrees and Accompaniments
- Classic Americana
- British Fare
- South of the Border Cuisine
- Italian Cuisine
- German Fare
- Indian Cuisine
- Thai Cuisine
- Japanese and Pacific Cuisine
- Chinese Cuisine
- Sauces and Gravies
- Sweets and Treats
- Doesn’t this book sound amazing?
The extensive number of seitan recipes was another factor in my decision to buy the book and the day it arrived in the post, I flicked through it and decided to make the pepperoni. Unfortunately, in my eagerness, I forgot about my over-zealous fan oven and slightly overcooked the pepperoni, as the outside was a bit tough and chewy. This hasn’t stopped me snacking on it all morning though, as it’s deliciously warm and spicy, containing chilli flakes, paprika and fennel seeds, along with other herbs and spices. I can’t share the recipe with you here as – quite rightly – Skye Michael Conroy (The Gentle Chef) doesn’t like his recipes being shared and would prefer you to buy the book and find the recipes for yourselves.
At the time of writing, The print version of The Gentle Chef Cookbook is only £10.67 with free delivery on Amazon. Or you can buy the print version or the pdf version direct from The Gentle Chef Website.
Vegan Egg Mayonnaise
Egg mayonnaise is wonderful but, you know, eggs come out of a chicken’s bum and all that which, you’ve got to admit, is a bit ick. I was willing to be corrected by a friend that eggs don’t, in fact, come out of a chicken’s bum but then he was corrected by another friend who informed us about stuff I won’t go into on a food blog.
Anyway, I fancied giving vegan egg mayonnaise a go and I’m so glad I did as this is just like the real thing. The tofu gives it the eggy texture, the black salt (also called Kala Namak, which is available from Amazon) gives it that eggy taste, while the turmeric provides a nice yellowy colour.
Vegan Egg Mayonnaise
(adapted from the recipe at Messy Vegetarian Cook)
2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
1/8 tsp black salt
Pinch of mustard powder
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of paprika
100g firm tofu
Mix together everything except the tofu.
Crumble in the tofu and mix it all up.
World Food Café Vegetarian Bible: Over 200 Recipes From Around The World
On first glance, The World Food Café Vegetarian Bible seems to be part National Geographic Magazine, part travelogue and part vegetarian cookbook. This isn’t surprising when you discover that Chris Caldicott used to be a freelance photojournalist and also London’s Royal Geographical Society’s glamorous-sounding Expedition Photographer-in-Residence. It was this opportunity to travel and eat in exotic locations that led to his desire to open his own world food restaurant. After meeting his wife, Carolyn, they travelled the world together before opening the World Food Café in London’s Covent Garden which was the go-to place for adventurous vegetarian food for twenty years. As travelling vegetarians, they faced the challenge of finding food in countries where the traditional cuisine leant more towards meat and seafood.
They managed it though and the World Food Café Vegetarian Bible is a compilation of recipes inspired by food found in Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. There are over 200 recipes in this weighty 384-page hardback (even the paprika and turmeric coloured cover hints at what’s inside), 120 of them suitable for vegans and over 200 vibrant photos of food, landscapes, buildings and people. Photos of camels are interspersed with photos of stews and curries; a photo of a Gorkha woman smoking on a hillside in Nepal precedes a recipe for panch kol (a combination of five vegetables with a rich garlic and spiced tomato gravy).
As you’d expect, the recipes are varied and wide-ranging; from familiar dishes such as saag paneer (an Indian spinach and cheese dish) to the not-so-familiar cozido (a Brazilian stew containing tofu, pumpkin and okra marinated in garlic, onion and tamari). As anyone with a large collection of cookbooks can tell you, many contain hard to find ingredients but, surprisingly, considering this collection is inspired from such far-flung places, most of the ingredients are readily available in the supermarket. Where the authors have felt an ingredient may be hard to source, alternatives have been suggested.
So, if your vegetarian world food expertise begins with a veggie chilli and ends with a Quorn curry, the World Food Café Vegetarian Bible will liven up your dinnertime. That’s if it makes it as far as the kitchen. It’s a bit of a cliché to say this wouldn’t look out of place on your coffee table, but it really is a beautiful book.
The World Food Café Vegetarian Bible has an RRP of £20 and is published by Frances Lincoln.
Tempeh Giardino
So many US recipes specify tempeh, but it’s not easy to find over here. However, the other week when I was buying some vital wheat gluten, I saw some jars of it, so thought I’d get some while I was there.
It looked a strange substance, floating in a jar of liquid and I thought it might be soggy like tofu. On fishing it out of the jar, I was pleased it was quite firm.
The taste and texture is a little strange, but not unpleasant. The Meat Eater said it was ‘neither here nor there’.
This recipe is from Isa Does It by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and I’m not going to post the recipe exactly as it is in the book as I’ve already used one of her recipes today making the oatmeal peanut butter cookies but the main ingredients were: a jar of tempeh, 2 courgettes, 1 red onion, a tin of chopped tomatoes, 5 cloves of garlic and some basil. I’m sure you can work out what to do with them (i.e. chuck them in a frying pan).
Vegan Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
I’m supposed to be writing a book review, so obviously I had the urge to bake something instead. I had it in my head that I wanted to use up the silken tofu in the cupboard and googled recipes for muffins that used silken tofu, then realised I didn’t have any other muffin-making ingredients and plain tofu muffins didn’t sound too appealing.
So, I had a look on the Post Punk Kitchen website and found this recipe for oatmeal peanut butter cookies.
Isa’s recipe is slightly different to mine as I didn’t have the same ingredients, but after reading the comments, I discovered I could use mashed banana instead of applesauce (which I didn’t bother mashing as it was going into the blender). I also used rapeseed oil instead of canola oil (which might be the same thing, I’m not sure), agave nectar instead of molasses, plain flour instead of whole wheat flour and on discovering the tofu I thought was silken, was just normal tofu, used that. Also I used vanilla soya milk as that’s what I’ve got open in the fridge.
I made half the dough into cookies and half pressed down into a tray. Both are delicious, but the cookies are firmer, while the bars have a more cake-like texture (although they were still warm when I tried them, so they may well firm up a little when cool).
The recipe below is how I made them – if you want the recipe as it was originally (and by someone who knows what they’re doing), go to the link above or below.
Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
(Adapted from the recipe at The Post Punk Kitchen)
Ingredients
3 oz tofu
1/4 cup banana
1/4 cup rapeseed oil
1/4 cup soymilk
3/4 cups peanut butter
1 cups sugar
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cups plain flour
1 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 180C
In a bowl, sift together the flour, oats, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, mix together peanut butter and sugar until well combined, 3 – 5 minutes.
In a blender, crumble the tofu in, add banana, soymilk and oil. Whizz on high until completely smooth. Add this mixture to the sugar mixture and cream together until well combined. Beat in the agave nectar and vanilla. Fold in the oats/flour mixture.
Make into balls with your hand, slightly flatten and place on to an ungreased cookie sheet, or press down into a tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup (vegan)
I thought this soup might be a bit adventurous for lunchtime – my lunches are usually plain and simple (if you don’t take into account the pizza flavoured tofu in pitta bread I had yesterday), but I needn’t have worried; this soup was lovely. It’s silky smooth, with a subtle taste and didn’t leave me feeling heavy and bloated.
Sweet Potato & Coconut Soup (serves 6)
(adapted from Vegan 100 Everyday Recipes)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp vegan Thai red curry paste
1 tsp salt
600g sweet potatoes, diced
400ml coconut milk
1 litre vegan stock
- Heat the oil. Add the onion and ginger and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the curry paste and salt and cook for a further minute or so. Add the sweet potatoes, coconut milk and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
- Blend in a food process or use a hand-held blender.
Mexican Vegan Crustless Quiche
I was supposed to be writing a script so, obviously, instead I did my washing, sent photographs of wallpaper to the decorator, went to the Post Office, emptied the cat litter tray and, most importantly, satisfied my urge to make a vegan crustless quiche.
I’ve had the urge to make a vegan crustless quiche ever since my friend Gemma said on Facebook she wanted to make one. This made me curious so I found this recipe for Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches, which Gemma duly made and pronounced delicious.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any firm silken tofu in my local supermarket and buying nutritional yeast would have meant a trip to Holland and Barratt, so I had another look for a recipe that didn’t require tofu and found this recipe for Mexican Vegan Crustless Quiche which, as well as being dairy-free and egg-free, it’s also gluten-free which, although I don’t have to avoid gluten, lots of my friends do.
I’ll have to admit, I was dubious. But I’m going to take back my dubiousness because this was amazing. It’s firmer than an eggy quiche but because it’s the eggyness that’s the worst bit of a quiche for me, that’s fine by me.
The way I did it, is pretty much the same as the original recipe, except Laura’s uses coriander (bleurgh) and she mixed up the chickpea flour and water mixture with the vegetables, whereas I didn’t have a bowl big enough to do that in, so I poured the vegetables into the dish, then poured the chickpea flour mixture over the top.
Mexican Crustless Chickpea Quiche
(adapted from www.sprint2thetable.com)
- 4 cups loosely packed cups spinach, de-stemmed and chopped
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 red chilli, chopped
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 2 cups chickpea flour
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1.5 tsp ground cumin
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 cups water
- Pre-heat oven to 200C. Lightly grease a 9″ spring-form pan or other oven-proof dish.
In a medium bowl, mix together the vegetables.
Using a handheld blender or food processor combine the chickpea flour, oil, cumin, salt, pepper, garlic and water. Blend until smooth and frothy.
Pour the vegetables into the ovenproof container, then pour the chickpea mixture over the top.
Bake for around 45 minutes until the quiche is brown on top, and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly before removing from the dish.
Serves 6.
Approximate nutritionals (per slice): 175 calories, 4.8g fat, 24.1 carbs, 5g fiber, 5.7g sugar, 8.8g protein
The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant: Islington
Back in 1999, The Gate Vegetarian restaurant in Hammersmith was the second vegetarian restaurant I’d ever been to. I never went again, mostly because it was in Hammersmith and I lived over the other side of London, so when I heard they’d opened a branch in Islington, I was keen to try it out.
Despite booking a table for 6pm when it opened, there were already a few diners in there which I took as a good sign.
We were seated quickly but then left for a long time before the waitress came back to take our orders and ask if we wanted drinks. My friend, Tracey, asked what the soup of the day was. The waitress didn’t know, neither did the colleagues she asked. Eventually, a waiter came over who knew what the soup of the day was (sweet potato, coconut and chilli) which Tracey ordered, while I ordered the courgette flower.
Never having a courgette flower before, I had flashbacks to when I was 13 round a friend’s house where her mum had given me broccoli which I’d never seen before as, in our house, petit pois were considered exotic. Which bit did I eat? The fuzzy bit or the stalky bit?
Back when I was 13, I watched to see which bit my friend ate but now at 43, a bit of common sense told me that the stalky bit was the actual courgette and that could be eaten as well as the flower. Duh.
My courgette flower was filled with goats cheese, pine nuts, leek, basil & sun-dried tomatoes, served with lentil salsa & aioli and was absolutely gorgeous. I loved it so much, I could have happily eaten another twenty-three of them.
Tracey found her soup nice, but a bit sweet and she would have liked some black pepper. There was none of the table and the waitress hadn’t come over to ask if we needed anything. The waitress also didn’t ask if everything was okay when she came to clear away our starter, which wasn’t a problem as everything was indeed okay, it was just unusual. Saying that though, I’d far rather be ignored than have a waitress come over every five minutes to ask if everything’s all right.
For my main, I had the panko aubergine. This is a panko and cajun-coated aubergine filled with okra on a bed of char-grilled sweet potato and finished with a black bean, red pepper salsa & guacamole.
The panko crumb was beautifully golden and crispy and I even ate the guacamole, which I usually hate. So, well done The Gate – you have cured me of my hatred of guacamole – I may even try it again one day.
Tracey’s green vegetable laksa was a bowl of mange-tout, green beans, snow peas, tofu, rice noodles, poached egg & bean sprouts cooked in a Malaysian-style coconut broth, served with water chestnut and aubergine wontons. She said it tasted nice but the tofu was a bit chewy (I can confirm it was a bit chewy but I’ve had far worse – especially if I’ve made it).
Although the food wasn’t heavy and seemed a light meal, by the time we were finished we were full. As in proper full. Despite this though, we decided to pig out and have dessert.
I ordered the lime and coconut cheesecake which was creamy, smooth and cool but had no discernable taste of coconut or lime.
Tracey was disappointed her vegan fruit trifle had no lumps of fruit in it but she liked the vegan cream.
You won’t get a quick meal in The Gate; we were in there for nearly two hours. But if you want to linger over some good vegetarian food and wine, then The Gate’s for you. Just make sure you get the courgette flower.
Our bill came to about £80 for the two of us for a starter, main and dessert each, plus a bottle of wine.
Would I go again? Definitely.
During National Vegetarian Week (20-26 May 2013) The Gate are offering 20% off their Express Lunch Menu and 25% off their cookbooks.
The Gate Vegetarian Restaurant
370 St John Street
London
EC1V 4NN
