Orange pomegranate tempeh

The miracle of random cookery has struck when least expected! This is a flavorsome vegan dish perfect for a chilly winter night.

Ingredients:
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 orange
2 Tspn pomegranate molasses
½ tspn turmeric
1 ¼ cups chopped mushrooms (I used enoki)
¼ nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
250g tempeh
Fresh lettuce
1 Lebanese cucumber
Handful of almond slivers or cashews
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Heat oil in pan over medium heat and add turmeric.
Fry chopped onion and garlic.
Slice and add tempeh and fry for another 2 minutes.
Squeeze in 1/2 orange.
Add mushrooms (and any other veges you may have in fridge waiting to be eaten) and sauté for 2 mins.
Squeeze rest of orange and drizzle pomegranate molasses.
Add in yeast and toss to coat and fry for another couple of minutes.
Remove from heat and add mustard and almond slivers.
Serve on a bed of freshly chopped lettuce & cucumber.

Noosheh Jan!

Byzantine Burritos

Combine the 3 recipes below and wrap in some fresh tortilla (I used a package from the local super market but am looking for simple tortilla recipe which I’ll hopefully post soon) to make yummy burritos. The messiness is the best part... Who knew vegans had so much fun?

SALAD SHIRAZI
Ingredients
1/2 red onion
2 tomatoes
2 Lebanese cucumber (don’t cheat on this, you’ll be sorry if you use a crummycubmer!)

Instructions
Chop all finely, add balsamic vinegar.

TAHINI GUACAMOLE
Ingredients
1 fresh avocado
1 roma tomato
1 tea spoon nutritional yeast (optional, excellent source of B12)
1/2 lime
1 Tspn tahini
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Combine all in a blender and serve fresh.

CURRY BEANS
Ingredients
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tspn curry powder (best to mix your own. I’ll post a curry powder blend soon)
2 tspn garam masala
1 tspn turmeric
1 tspn hemp flour (optional – good source of protein)
20 gram tomato paste (sugar free if available)
2 roma tomatoes
1 cup kidney beans (or if you’re short of time a tine of mixed beans will do)
1/2 cup puy lentils (they were originally grown in organic soil around Puy in France. Fact!)
1/2 cup red lentils
1 lemon

Instructions
Boil beans in separate pan till soft.
Fry onions & garlic in turmeric till soft and golden. Add all garam masala and curry powder.
Squeeze lemon on top
Puree tomatoes and add along with tomato paste.
Add puy lentils and 1 cup water. Leave to simmer for 15 mins. Add red lentils, beans and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer till soft (another 15 mins)

Greening pains

I love food. More importantly, I love cooking! I was indifferent to the joys of a meal cooked with reckless experimental ingredients and humour until I was about 26 and cooking for myself for the first time. Free from expectations of a meal which had to be, as a minimum, edible I threw myself into cooking indigestible food experiments which made me laugh at the impossibility of the ingredients (apple goat soup, anyone?) and stand back in shock on the rare occasion that the madcap experiment actually paid off (oh loveliest of chicken coffee pasta, I was never unable to replicate your exquisite dark and tasty flavours).

Gradually my experiments became more tempered by reason (and hunger!) which demanded a modicum of sense and technique was required in order to make tasty edible meals. Cooking with friends taught me new wonderful ways of experimenting with new ingredients in a variety of traditions. The random acts of gastronomic mixmastery gradually turned into a trusty arsenal of ingredients which could be cooked in a variety of ways. Some traditional, some mildly experimental, but almost always edible. That is, until about 7 months ago.

The one constant in all my cooking has always been meat. So easy to build a tasty meal around the ripe flavour of beef cheeks, or the subtle teasing taste of chicken. The texture alone can hold a meal together. But I have found it more and more unappetising to partake of my once beloved beasties. Happily nibbling on a drumstick, I'd suddenly be aware that this was once the leg of an animal. And then have a clear image of the body of which it was once an indispensable member. My lemon peppery feast would suddenly become a dismembered limb, a carcass made of bone, cartilage and muscle. Dear God no! How did this happen?

It has been a slowly growing awareness which I've been studiously ignoring for a while now. But late last year, I had the unenviable experience of carrying a par-cooked parrot which had been caught under the bonnet of my car in a freak accident and burned to a crisp. As I carried it to the bin, I could smell the roast chicken smell emanate and watched the carcass with horrified suspicion just waiting for the poor critter to wake up and berate me with outrage for its horrific end. And the link between carcass and cooked meat was undeniably displayed before me in living (dead) glory. So that was that. No more meat for me, my dear parrot. I've partaken of many a winged creature but I've never had to admit to the fact that they were once sentient beings.

So then came a period of reading copiously about factory farming, the mechanics of meat production and the baffling economics of easily affordable protein in 1st world countries. Alongside that came some paltry (no puns intended!) attempts at vegetarian cooking. It almost always seems to end with me giving up on my bland meal and boiling up some trusty dahl. Tasty, to be sure, but only for the first couple of weeks!

I'm hoping to find my cooking mojo by trying a series of vegetarian meals over the next month. I'll share the recipes and see how it goes. Viva les legumes!