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Pesto with Tofu and Sauteed Veggies

This was soo good!!

So, you need to marinade your tofu first, I used a single block of extra firm cut into seven chunks. Toss it into a container with a splash of oil and a few good splashes of balsamic vinegar and then stick it in the fridge for a bit.

After you are done marinating, preheat your oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit and start encrusting your tofu. I use sesame seeds because they are better for you than bread crumbs, but whatever gets you off will work. Just roll them around in your stuff and slap them on a cookie sheet with tinfoil and then bake until golden.

For the veggies you want to start with the prep, cutting the yam and squash into thin discs and the broccoli down to bite size. In a pan place down your yams and cover them with water until submerged completely, tossing in some rosemary and then bringing it to a boil until all of the water is cooked off or repeating until the yam is nearly done. Add a splash of oil, oregano and thyme, reducing to medium heat and add the rest of the veggies. Cook until the squash is done to your liking.

I usually just bullshit my pesto, with basil, italian parsley, garlic and pinenuts. Chop it all up, add a liberal amount of olive oil and then go to town with your mortar and pestle. I like to bullshit rather than measure, unless it is my first time making something. Pesto is pretty hard to fuck up, so I am sure you can do it, or buy some at the store if you really want.

0 comments
June 6th, 2010
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Light and Dark Mandarins

If you happen to have a can of mandarin segments laying about, this simple dish is a really refreshing dessert!

Now, that syrup they pack them in is nasty as hell and gives me headaches, so since it off in a colander and then plate the segments in whatever way you choose, preferably something that isn't flat because we are going to give them a few splashes of Rice Wine Vinegar to add some acidity, as they are really savory due to being processed and sugared out.

Then, sprinkle a good amount of black sesame seeds on top. I never skimp on my black sesame, I love them and the more the merrier. End with a few shakes of mint, or if you have fresh mince a few leaves and evenly disperse.

This dish is really just the essence of light and refreshing, the mint really taking it to the upper flavour notes with the sesame serving as a textural component that contrasts with strong base notes.

12 comments
May 29th, 2010
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Apples and Cremé

A simple dessert or appetizer consisting of sliced apples and a cream dressing made from coconut milk!

To thicken coconut milk, just pour a car into a container and refrigerate it over night! Then, add in sugar and mint to taste with a whisk, whisking minimally so as to not flatten the cream.

Slice up your chunks of apple, and there you have it!

I really love apple paired with coconut creams, especially really savory apples, the sort that are not very acidic, because the apple aftertones really compliment the light, near watery complexity of the cream.

2 comments
May 29th, 2010
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Seared Tofu Chorizo

I pan-seared some soyrizo and nopalitos with one whole jalapeno and a fourth of a white onion and served it over wild and long grain rice!

Now, in making this dish, you can either go the long way and make the soyrizo and nopalitos yourself, which takes a long time but is well worth the effort if done correctly, or go store-bought (provided that the ingredients are there..).

I love making everything myself, usually. But making soyrizo is a long process and my mum bought me some from the store, so I used that. But, here is the link to the recipe that I like to use. It is really delicious. http://www.phamfatale.com/id_165/title_Homemade-Vegetarian-Soy-Chorizo/

Nopalitos are cooked slices of the Mexican Nopales cactus, and are really cheap, filling and good for you. Making it can be a bit tricky, yet luckily there is an awesome website that gives you a step by step rundown of how to deal with them: http://chanfles.com/comida/nopalitos/

Anyway, heating a little bit of oil in a medium pan, I added the cubed soyrizo that I had coated in a thick hotsauce, making sure to stir only occasionally so that the soyrizo got a nice thick crust from the sugar in the sauce. When the soyrizo was mostly done, I added in the nopalitos and only cooked for a few mins so that they stayed nice and plump.

I topped with a few splashes of Tapatio hotsauce. I don't know how to explain the flavour of nopalitos.. They are just so yummy and go well with the hearty soyrizo and the sharp vinegar of Tapatio. Yum yummmm. ^-^

1 comment
April 27th, 2010
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Korean-Thai Tempeh

As you all know, I love the various cuisines of asia, so much that I combine my favourites! This is tempeh that I marinated in korean bbq sauce that I added fresh Thai Basil paste to, and then seared, placing it over a bed of brown rice and broccolli-carrot-snowpea stir-fryed in a bit of sweet chili sauce.

I drizzled some of the bbq sauce over the tempeh and dabs of sriracha.

Here is the recipe for Vegan Korean BBQ Sauce (from vegsource blogger Bryanna Grogan):
2 tablespoons Korean fermented hot pepper paste (gochujang)
3 tablespoons organic unbleached granulated sugar
or 2 tablespoons agave nectar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Asian (roasted) sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar (or a little more to taste)
1/2-1 teaspoon liquid smoke

Combine in pot, and whisk on medium-high until sugar has dissolved.

The texture of the tempeh was just right, and the bbq flavours really popped next to the basil paste I added in there, really transforming the normally heavy sauce into something much lighter. The veggies could have gone without the mae ploy when accompanied by a bite of the tempeh, but by itself was fine.

3 comments
April 27th, 2010
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Gaijin Potatoes

Now, everyone needs their junk food, mine just happens to be vastly different from the rest of the world's. Haha.

These are basically hashbrowns with Nori Komi Furikake(NKF), peanut butter, and sriracha.

Nori Komi Furikake is a japanese rice seasoning composed of nori seaweed, black and white sesame seeds, and seasonings. It is really a versatile seasoning, and I use it a lot. Seaweed is a really good source of iron, and most of my family is anemic so I do my best not to become so.

The flavour combination is rather indescribable.. It is amazingly tasty though, the sweetness of the peanut butter compliments the starch well, and the nkf really adds a huge web of flavour notes that play against that sweetness. Sriracha serves to add the heat I like to eat, and the play of its garlic-infused flavour always sits well with peanutbutter.

0 comments
April 27th, 2010
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Spaghetti Salad

So this simple recipe is good for a complete meal!

I use vegan angel hair noodles, a homemade spaghetti sauce, fresh greens and peppers!

Here is the recipe for the pasta sauce: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Nannys-Spaghetti-Sauce/Detail.aspx

I usually cook the noodles until al-dente in water with olive oil, having prepared the sauce well before hand.

Taking whole leaves of lettuce, line a bowl, placing either fresh or blanched basil with spinach in the center. Place noodles directly atop and ladle some of the sauce on, toping with half cut sweet bell peppers.

You can top it with some nutritional yeast as a sub for parmesan, I often do.

The lettuce prevents the meal from being strictly hearty, I usually eat it last as then the oils from the sauce and noodles have just lightly coated the leaves in an almost vinaigrette manner.

The basil and spinach are what really make the dish different from typical spaghetti, their strong flavours culminating to play against the sweetness of the sauce.

You don't really need the peppers on top, but I love peppers on everything..

2 comments
January 24th, 2010
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Worldly Salad

We veggie peoples like a lot of variety in our life, and we like to look to all parts of the world for inspiration. No where is this better demonstrated than in fellow vegan and heartthrob @casioclark 's newest vlog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alWrHKVmxTM

Anyway, lets get to the dish at hand.

I like to make my salads very varied in terms of flavour, utilizing every bit of my palate as possible.

At the bottom of my bowl was a nice layer of chickpeas and yellow corn, atop of which I put some fresh garden greens, a bit of italian parsley, a few slices of a roma tomato, shredded carrots, mandarin segments and homemade chutney dressing!

For the dressing all I did was take a few scoops of the chutney featured a few booths back, added a few splashes of olive oil, a squish of fresh lemon, and enough water to make it the consistency of dressing. As chutney is strong, if you add a bit too much water it really shouldn't matter. You don't want it too thick anyway or else it won't disperse well enough.

It was simple and delicious! The chutney dressing was totally different than I expected it to be, being more like a raspberry vinaigrette or something of the sort than a chutney mixed with water like I feared. xD

The carrots were kinda sloppy as they soaked up a lot of the dressing, but that is kind a good thing, as it made it funner to eat. The mellowness of the chickpeas evened out the sweetness of the corn and dressing well, and the greens were so lush. The parsley was a really good choice, it added a note that really brought to harmony the difference of flavours in the rest of the ingredients in a way that the dressing hadn't. And the occasional juicy bite of mandarin or tomato were really good, but not entirely necessary.

3 comments
January 15th, 2010
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Orange Curry served on Brown Rice

The curry is a combination of red and yellow curry paste. I usually try not to use curry pastes and make my own curry sauce with fresh ingredients, but I was severely lacking on said materials and had to resort to them. Within the curry is: eggplant, potato, carrot, mexican squash, water chestnuts, yellow onion and green bell pepper.

I always cook my potatoes, eggplant, and carrots first, because they take the longest. Cover the bottom of a wide pot with said veggies and fill it with water so that they are covered fully but not too much more. Then bring the water to boil and wait for all of it to be absorbed. Then throw in the squash and pepper, cooking until they get a tad soft.

Then you pour in your coconut milk, having already whisked in the pastes, as well as adding in the rest of the ingredients.

You should also be cooking your rice during this time. And here is a super secret I have about making rice (I only eat brown rice, so I am not sure if it works with other kinds..): Boil it for 35 mins in double the water, draining the rest of the water and then fluffing with a fork. Perfect rice every-time.

Anyway, this curry was rather yummy. It combined the flavours of both varieties into something entirely its own, probably helped by the liberal amounts of basil and coriander I tend to blast my food with. It had the savory side of red curry, and the tang of yellow. Eggplant is the perfect thing for curries, because its texture and flavour accent the spices so beautifully. The potatoes usually for me become a base and a thickener, crumbling into oblivion with a few select hearty chunks that tend to hang around with the carrot.

2 comments
January 15th, 2010
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Tofu Tacos

So, tonight I actually didn't make anything myself. I was invited out to dinner at one of my favourite local mexican restaurants!

But, tacos themselves are very easy to make, getting the right flavours into the tofu is very hard, and to be honest I haven't accomplished that perfection yet myself! :[

What I usually do, and for the most part it works but is never as good as the restaurant's, is to soak my hand crumbled tofu in a mixture of cumin, celery salt, ancho chili powder, and liberal doses of various hotsauces for an hour or so. Then I drain the liquid and fry the tofu in hot oil with fresh cilantro and some nopales (tender sliced cactus) until there is significant browning. A local company makes the best corn tortillas, and I warm them so that they are loose on the skillet, put on some shredded cabbage and lettuce, diced onion and tomato, and two lines of Tapatio brand hotsauce.

Do you have a recipe for your favourite taco filling? If so, please do share and I would love to try it out.

3 comments
January 10th, 2010
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About

This is @Qaiel's food blog!

I love love love food. If you know me in real life, you would know that I adore cooking, and that my tastes vary greatly in terms of ethnic variety and exploring often unused ingredients.

So, this is an exploration in my life of food. You will never see any meat or dairy products, as everything is vegan and healthy, but more importantly YUMMY! If possible, the recipes or a link to the recipes will be included in the blurb so that you can try out some of the stuff yourself!

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