Baked eggplant with red potatoes.

1 eggplant
red potatoes (you can use regular potatoes, too. but these are so pretty.)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
thyme
rosemary
1 tomato 
1 carrot
béchamel sauce (made from vegan butter, flour, soymilk, salt, pepper, nutmeg, squeeze of lemon juice and/or 1 teaspoon mustard)
salt, pepper, bay leave
oil

Cut eggplant in half and scoop out most of each half to make eggplant shells.
Cut onion and garlic finely into small cubes. Fry in 2-3 tablespoons oil together with fresh thyme and rosemary until the onions start to get translucent.  

Cut the scooped out parts of the eggplant and add to onions and garlic, stir well. Add a finely diced tomato. Fry for 3 or 4 minutes, the eggplant hasn't to be done, as it will bake for over 20 minutes.
Cut a carrot into thin stripes. 
Fill a casserole with 1-2 cm cold water. Place eggplant halfs into casserole and fill with the fried eggplant-onion-mix. Put carrot sticks and one or two bay leaves around the eggplants, season with salt and pepper.

Cover the eggplants with a thick batch of béchamel sauce. A part of it will drop into the water during baking time and melt together with the water to a delicious sauce. The rest will remain on top of the eggplants and will build a yummy, thick, golden, slightly crusty béchamel layer.

Cover the casserole with tin foil and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. First 10 minutes on high heat, then reduce to medium heat. Also, after the first 10 minutes you can prepare your potatoes and cook them for about 20 minutes with a little salt.

After the casserole has been in the oven for 20 minutes, remove tin foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the béchamel looks golden, slightly brown and crusty.

Serve with a few potatoes (drizzle a little bit of the sauce over them).

 

The eggplant is so tender, it's unbelievable.

Lemon and sage potato casserole.

This was a pretty simple but truly awesome potato casserole I had a few weeks ago.

Cut potatoes into thin slices and layer in a baking dish, season each layer with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Add some fresh sage leaves, rosemary, basil and slices of lemon on to the top and sprinkle with some olive oil.

Pour 150ml soy cream over the potatoes and cover the dish with tin foil. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove tin foil and bake for another 10 minutes. The potatoes will be super tender and every aroma has melt together to a soft and crispy potato heaven.

Braised Tomato Tofu w/ Lavender Potatoes.

400g tofu

1/2 chinese cabbage

1 small can tomatoes

2 carrots

red onion

garlic

1 teaspoon olive oil

vegetable broth

a bit orange juice

200g potatoes

1 teaspoon dried lavender

salt, pepper, rosemary, mint, light soy sauce

yoghurt (optional)

Cut the carrot and onion into dices, the cabbage into slices, smash tha garlic (as many cloves as you like, I used three) and put in a casserole with some water and the olive oil.

Cut tofu into slices and drape onto the veggies, sprinkle everything with soy sauce, rosemary, mint (I used fresh herbs) and a bit fresh ground pepper. 

Than pour the can peeled tomatoes over it and spread til everything is covered. Mix some vegetable broth with hot water (I used the empty tomato can, half filled with liquid) and add.

Bake everything in the open casserole for about 20min in the oven, gas mark 4. After 20min add a dash of orange juice and bake for another 15-20 min.

While the tofu braises in the flavoured tomatoes cook the potatoes with some salt and dried lavender. I used red potatoes and left the peel because it's less work and I like unpeeled potatoes a lot. Serve together and add some yoghurt or Tofutti sour surpreme to the potatoes, if you like.

Cannelloni.

Recently I had cannelloni in a quite quick version. It took me about 15 minutes to prepare and about 30 minutes to bake it. 

The filling was made of

- TVP

- tomato purée

- red bell pepper pesto

- garlic

- salt, pepper

The tomato sauce was made of

- 1 small can tomatoes

- salt, pepper

The topping was a béchamel sauce

- margarine

- oil

- soya milk

- salt, pepper, vegetable broth

- mustard

- dash of lemon juice

I mixed the TVP with salt and pepper, soaked it in hot water and added the other ingredients. If you don't have a vegan red bell pepper pesto just add a little olive oil and maybe more tomato purée or diced fresh bell peppers. Let sit the mixture for 5 minutes til TVP is more or less soft.

Fill cannelloni with the filling, layer in a casserole dish and pour canned tomatoes over it. More salt and pepper and minced garlic.

Then I made a béchamel sauce for topping and baked it with tin foil for 20 minutes, then another 10 minutes without the tin foil.

Filled Zucchini.

Cut zucchini in halves and scoop out. Drizzle slightly salt and pepper into
the halves.



I filled the zucchini with TVP (minced soya meat), herbs like lavender and
basil, garlic, two tomatoes cut into finefine cubes, the zucchini inside also finely
diced and lemons. Just put a few lemon slices on top, they will give
such a great summer-ish aroma and make you feel like being in France.
A little salt and pepper again (maybe other spices after
your fancy), then put in in a casserole dish and
add all the veggie dices which didn't fit in the zucchini halves.
Pour 200ml oat (or soy) cream over it and bake it 45 minutes.



Remove lemons before eating. Enjoy.