» Archive for the 'The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen' Category

Fennel Risotto, Baked Tofu with Mustard, White Wine and Dill

Monday, June 1st, 2009 by cyn
fennelrisotto fennel risotto from Jamie Oliver, tofu from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen My boyfriend doesn't like this baked tofu because of the mustard, but I love it, so I was super excited to make it while he was out of town. It's all tangy and delicious. I love the mustard and dill flavors in this, they're so good. This would go great with any Mediterranean kind of meal. The fennel risotto was inspired by a recipe I found on Jamie Oliver's website. I really just used my standard pressure cooker risotto recipe and threw in some fennel at the beginning. I also put some cashew ricotta on top of it when it was done. Risotto in the pressure cooker is the best thing ever, it's so easy but so creamy and delicious. It does not get any more comfort food than this. Local: Tofu, fennel, salad

Spicy Tomato Sauce Pasta, Bok Choy

Thursday, February 19th, 2009 by cyn
pasta Tomato sauce from How To Make Everything Vegetarian, bok choy from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen The boyfriend made this dinner. He made pasta with from-scratch tomato sauce, and he put some dried chilis in it because he's obsessed with dried chilis. I think that making the sauce mainly involved squishing up a can of whole tomatoes and adding spices, but the end result was quite tasty. The pasta to sauce ratio was a little high, so next time we'll use a bigger can of tomatoes. As you can see, he made bok choy too! He has finally given in to my "Can we get a vegetable with this meal?" nagging ways. He sauteed the bok choy in olive oil with some garlic, red pepper and soy sauce, which is one of my favorite ways to make it. It was delicious. Boyfriend says "I think this is the most multi tasking I've ever done cooking, but I could tell it was going to turn out well. I would have liked the pasta sauce to be spicier. And the bok choy was surprisingly easy." Local: Bok choy

Tofu Egg Salad, Broccoli, Bread

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 by cyn
tofusalad tofu salad from The PPK, broccoli from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, bread from Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day I over cooked the broccoli slightly, but it was still very good. Cooking any vegetable with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes is pretty much my favorite thing these days. The tofu salad was pretty good - I liked it better the next day, as leftovers, when the flavors really melded. However, I think I'm just really addicted to my usual tofu salad, which involves tofu, veganaise, pickles chopped into small pieces, scallions, cilantro/parsley/basil, celery, turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper and sometimes wasabi powder or other hot sauce, depending on what I have lying around. This was good, but it wasn't my tofu salad. However, I did get around to finally acquiring Indian black salt (which is confusingly pink) in order to make this, so I'm excited to play around with that in other "eggy" dishes. Local: Tofu, broccoli

Mustard Crusted Seitan, Potatoes, Salad

Monday, January 5th, 2009 by cyn
seitan Seitan from Yellow Rose Recipes, Potatoes from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen This is what I have to say about this seitan: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM. ("Nom" is the sound of me shoving more delicious seitan in my mouth, in case you were confused.) It's all crispy and mustardy and delicious, and not very hard to make at all. I made the seitan itself using the recipe from YYR as well, and it turned out very well, although I had difficulty flattening out the cutlets without tearing little holes them. You should go make this seitan right now, even if you are afraid of both breading and frying things, like I am. These potatoes were okay. The cookbook is all "This recipe is delicious, but you simply must have the freshest potatoes and lemons, and the best olive oil," and I'm not going to lie to you, my potatoes were starting to go a bit dodgy. Anyway, this wasn't inedible or anything, just a bit boring. Local: Some of the potatoes, salad fixins

Asian Tofu, Salad

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 by cyn
asiantofu1 tofu from The Modern Vegetarian Cookbook Sadly, this tofu turned out kind of bland. I think I just didn't cook it long enough, since the marinade hadn't completely been evaporated/absorbed by the tofu. I put the leftover tofu in the fridge with the extra marinade, and after a while it became very tasty. It's pretty much your standard Asian-style baked tofu. saladbowl Check out the awesome salad bowl my mom gave me for Christmas - she said she thought it was the perfect bowl for a vegan, and I love it. It's so cute, and it's like you're eating out of a giant cabbage or head of lettuce. Plus it makes your salad more delicious. Local: Salad, tofu

Braised Cabbage with Apples, Tofurkey Beer Brats

Monday, December 15th, 2008 by cyn
cabbage cabbage from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen So, yeah, I got a little excited about my new cookbook . . . My CSA was sending me lots of cabbages for a while, which I originally had big plans to make into sauerkraut, but then I was concerned with leaving the sauerkraut alone (or taking it with me) when I went up to my parents' house for Christmas, and then I was worried that the cabbage would get old and sad, so I just ended up eating it. Well, most of it. I still have one lone cabbage rattling around in my crisper. Anyway, I really enjoyed this cabbage dish, especially with its use of caraway seeds. I love caraway seeds, and rarely see them outside of rye bread. This was nicely sweet from the apples and sour from apple cider vinegar, I really liked it. Yay for cabbage! I just cooked some Tofurkey beer brats on my grill pan to go with it, on the theory that nothing goes better with cabbage than beer brats. I felt kind of guilty about not making seitan beer brats, but I was feeling kind of lazy and so just used Tofurkey ones. I think the boyfriend was shocked - he was all "How are you making the beer brats?" and I was like "Eh, just on the grill" and then he was all confused until I revealed that I had bought them. (Side note: How spoiled is he? He flat out refuses to eat tempeh that isn't home made, too.) Local: Cabbage, apples

Beets and Balsamic Glazed Greens, Tofu in Garlic-Thyme Vinaigrette

Saturday, December 13th, 2008 by cyn
beets from the Modern Vegetarian Kitchen More from my new cookbook! I added some chard to the beets, because I like a large greens-to-beets ratio, and not all my beets had greens. (I had already eaten some of the greens by themselves, because they are so delicious.) This way of cooking the beets & greens together was simple, and I liked the way the bitterness of the greens balanced the sweetness of the beets. My only complaint was that the recipe didn't give any notion of how long it would take for the final step of the recipe (reducing the liquid into a glaze), which made it hard to time the rest of the meal. This tofu was also tasty, although not as good as my beloved tofu from the night before. Sadly, the boyfriend wasn't too crazy about this one, either. I really like the way this cookbook does baked tofu, adding the marinade directly the the pan and then baking it into the tofu as opposed to having the tofu sit in marinade for hours before hand, which I can never plan ahead far enough to do. Local: Beets, beet greens, tofu

Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic, Tofu in White Wine, Mustard and Dill

Friday, December 12th, 2008 by cyn
broctofu1 from The Modern Vegetarian Cookbook My boyfriend got me this cookbook, and I've been making tons of stuff for it. It's vegetarian but mostly vegan, and heavily influenced by macrobiotics. So far, I am loving it. This tofu recipe totally hit my all "ZOMG this is so yummy" buttons, and tasted sort of similar to how I remember feta cheese tasting. Unfortunately my boyfriend really didn't like it (too mustardy for him), and while that meant I got to eat all of the leftovers, it also means I can't make it for our shared dinners. But you better believe that whenever he leaves town, me and this tofu are going to be partying together. This broccoli was also super good. I love broccoli (or "broccoli trees" as I like to call it), and this was the first time we'd gotten any from our CSA. This simple preparation with olive oil and garlic was perfect for bringing out the pure broccoli goodness of it. The recipe said to serve it with lemon wedges, but it was so tasty that I'd eaten my first serving of it without bothering to squeeze any lemon on it. But I had seconds, so I can tell you it's good both with lemon and without. We had this with leftover spaghetti with raw tomato sauce and red pepper hummus. Local: Broccoli, tofu