Wanted: Good vegetarian recipes

[TheSp8]

We don't have many vegetarian recipes. I'm too much a Southern country boy to go without meat. I do have one that we do every so often, a vegetarian burrito. Slice portobello mushrooms 1/4 inch thick. Sautee in olive oil and season with fajita seasoning. Put in the tortilla with shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, salsa, and anything else that may come to hand.

YMOS,
Tony

[saxandpipes]

My current favourite meatless meal would be dal bhat although I always like onigiri, mostly for its versatility. (When oiling your hands to form the onigiri add a drop of sesame oil.) Congee is another dish that has endless possibilities. (I make mine plain, without chicken stock, and allow all the interest to come from the side dishes. Japanese pickles are always good with it.)

Dal
1c red lentils (masur dal)
4c water
1" cinnamon stick
1 or 2 bay leaves
1tsp salt

Put all but the salt in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then simmer for 25min, skimming off the foam, until the dal is tender and the mix is soupy. Stir in the salt. (Notice that you are not draining the water. If need be, boil a bit longer until you have what looks like lumpy pea soup. The dal should be soft but not completely mush.)

2Tbsp veg oil or ghee
1/2tsp black mustard seed
1tsp cumin seed (whole, not ground)
1Tbsp dried curry leaves, crumbled
1Tbsp minced garlic
1c chopped onion (the finer the better)
pinch of hing (asafetida powder)
1tsp cayenne pepper
1/4c fresh cilantro (for dressing when serving)

Using a heavy pan, heat the ghee to high temperature and add the mustard seeds. Keep stirring so they don't burn until they start to pop (it won't be long) then add the cumin and curry leaves. Stir for about 30 seconds, until the aroma becomes obvious, then add the garlic and onions and lower the heat to medium. Keep stirring for 2 or 3 minutes then add the hing and cayenne. Keep stirring for another 2 or 3 minutes, until the onion is tender and just starting to brown.

If you've done this while the dal has been cooking, when the dal is done, stir the onion mix in with the dal and serve in a rice bowl topped with some chopped cilantro beside another bowl of rice.

I'll make this for supper tonight and take a picture, if you like.

Great!

In general any of the more saucy type dishes, curries, stews etc. can be converted nicely to vegetarian. I especially like doing curries, and dishes with an Iranian influence. (Oh, and curries made from scratch, as above... simply cannot be beat!)

I did one the other day (Iranian inspired- it's all about the spices really... essentially, stews/curries- they're all the same really.)

I am assuming in Japan you have a rice-cooker handy!

Feeds 2 with left-overs

Ingredients:

1 Onion

2 Aubergines, you can use large courgettes

Cinnamon (about 3 tsp)

Dill (plenty/around 2 Tsp)

Cumin (about 2 tsp)

2 Cloves garlic

A tin of tomatoes

1 Lemon

1 1/2 small cups of (dry) basmati rice

Salt

Sugar

Olive oil

Butter

Optional: Saffron (a decent amount)


Method: (more or less, I sort of play it by ear...)

Chop the Onions small, and roughly cut the aubergines into c.2cm cubes.

Start frying in some olive oil... use plenty, as the aubergines suck it up.

Chop and add the garlic and about half of the cumin and cinnamon (you can add the rest later for taste).

Add the tomatoes and half the dill to the mix.. cover and let stew!


Start your rice about 20 minutes before you plan to eat (I normally let the thing stew for about 45 mins).

Put the rice, 2 times the water to volume of rice and butter into the rice cooker.

Crush the saffron in a mortar with a heaped teaspoon of sugar and a tsp of salt (can be done in a cup with a teaspoon- in which case, use water- you will see if you are crushing them well).

Add to the rice and cover (put the cooker on high). Don't worry if it burns a little... thats the way they do it in Iran!

Let the rice-cooker do its thing. (once the water is below the level of the rice, you can wrap a tea-towel around the rice cooker-lid- tying it up on the outside of the cooker:

http://javanehskitchen.files.wordpre...2/sl374487.jpg
(I've changed it to a link, because the picture was enormous!)

Once it's done, you can dip the bottom of the inner (removable) pot from the rive cooker in cold-water. Then flip the rice cake out onto a large plate. If it doesn't fall out nicely, just scoop it out (including burnt bits!) with a bamboo/plastic rice-scooper.

It should look like this:


(or something like it)

Mix in the juice of the lemon to the stew and serve with the rice!

The acidity of the lemon complements the cumin really nicely, and is exquisite with the saffron sweetness of the rice!

There is also a sort of very sour cranberry type thing, that is normally served with the saffron rice. You can substitute dried cranberries- and stew with a fair amount of sugar an water for about half an hour. Serve on the side.



Enjoy!

Oh, and the aubergine can of course be substituted for lamb!

Cheers,

Michael

[Chirs]

Oh, and the aubergine can of course be substituted for lamb!

Cheers,

Michael

Of course you can!! As I was reading the recipe, all I could think about was how that would taste with lamb made in the tagine. Mmmmmmmm

[Dixiecat]

The daughter and I have a few quick and tasty recipes for the lazy - which I am.

2 cups cooked quinoa
2 large cans of crushed tomatoes
1 can chick peas
1 can black beans
1 can corn

Throw everything in a large pot, add a little water if you want. Season with garlic, cumin and chili powder. Cook on simmer for about 30min. Freezes well and is really good for you. You can substitute anything after the tomatos.

To cook quinoa;
5cups water to 2 cups uncooked quinoa. I use vegetable oxo cubes to cook the quinoa in a veggie broth. Boil water, throw in quinoa, cook on simmer for about 20min. It's kinda like rice in the cooking method. AND really yummy!


Camp Curry
5 cups instant rice (sacrilegious!)
10 cups water
1/2 cup onion flakes
pkg cream of leek soup (Knorr)
1 T curry power
2t cumin
1t garlic powder
1/2c golden raisins

Boil water, toss everything in, cook 10min. This is awesome when camping, you put all the dry stuff in 1 ziplock and it's ready to go whenever the water is. Also good as a side.

[CDNSushi]

Camp Curry
5 cups instant rice (sacrilegious!)

Don't worry. Such sacrilege isn't even possible in Japan. The locals haven't ever even HEARD of such a thing as "instant" rice.

Any honest Japanese I've spoken to who has visited N. America, and to whom I've asked what they liked most about their trip, has admitted to me that Uncle Ben's is da bomb!

For the super-lazy though, Japan's answer to instant rice is vacuum-sealed pre-cooked rice that you either stick in the microwave for 90 seconds or toss into a pot of boiling water (still in the container) for a few minutes.

[piperdbh]

Camp Curry
5 cups instant rice (sacrilegious!)
10 cups water
1/2 cup onion flakes
pkg cream of leek soup (Knorr)
1 T curry power
2t cumin
1t garlic powder
1/2c golden raisins

Only 1 teaspoon of curry powder, and 2 of cumin? My curry motto is, "If you don't use at least half the bottle of curry powder, it ain't curry!" I like to add a can of coconut milk to my curry, which the cream of leek soup would substitute for in your recipe.

[Rob, ClanMacMillan, NM]

Maybe I missed it...

All these delicious sounding recipes -- what have you tried and how was it?

Inquiring mind(s) want to know...

[CDNSushi]

Maybe I missed it...

All these delicious sounding recipes -- what have you tried and how was it?

Inquiring mind(s) want to know...

Been too busy this week to do much cooking... Between work and scuba diving, it's been insane. Planning to try some of them next week though. I'll give you an update then...

[Old Hippie]

I've already admitted in this forum that as a vegetarian I have rather flexible ethics. It's my own hangup and I'm looking neither for approval nor opprobrium.

That being said, there's a lotta really good vegetarian food in the world. I realize you're in a place where the following may not be readily available, but I'm sure the network in here could get them to you.

My all-time favourite vegetarian cookbooks are all written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (sometimes with Terry Hope Romero). I generally have at least one of them open on the counter on any given day:

Vegan With A Vengeance
Veganomicon
Vegan Brunch

Don't let the "vegan" thing disturb you. You darn sure won't let it disturb you after you've tried the recipes, even if your notion of heaven is "where bacon comes from."

My oldest daughter came in and out of our lives during a period when we were not overtly vegetarian, so she was a little shocked/horrified/frightened/curious when we went back to it. Apparently Mum and Dad are never supposed to change...

I sent her copies of:

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, and
Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

because she's all about cake and other sweets and the cookies in particular are some of the best cookies I ever ate. (I'm not much of a cake person, myself, but I will cheerfully maim the person who takes the last cookie in the house.) She's now "trying it on" to see how it fits.

Just lately I was in a bookstore and saw that Isa has a new one out:

Appetite for Reduction

which is basically a vegan weight-loss book with recipes. I bought it just on the strength of knowing the author's work and it is of similar high quality. Made a few recipes out of it already.

Other favourites include:

Biker Billy Cooks With Fire, and
Biker Billy's Freeway-A-Fire

which are both vegetarian (not vegan) cookbooks featuring hot pepper recipes, and the old classics

The Book of Miso
The Book of Tofu
The Book of Tempeh

by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi. I think the only reason I would undertake a journey to Japan would be to search out every variety of rare miso still available. (Well, and drink sake...)

That's the nucleus of a good library of vegetarian cooking, anyway -- relatively non-specific to any particular culture. Am I the only freak with a kitchen library? Not only that, but our kitchen library has sections: Chinese, Japanese, Other Asian, Indian, New Mexican, Northern European, Eastern European, North American...

:ootd:

[bigdad1]

I would wrap the vegetarian in foil andbake at about 350 until he stops screaming.