Fantastic Mango Dip.

There was a half mango left in my fridge and I it had to be a dip. So I made the best mango dip today, using three ingredients:

- half a very ripe mango
- few leaves fresh mint
- 1 tsp soy sauce 

Puree everything together, et voilá: creamy, fruity, fresh, luscious, colourful, fancy but ridiculous simple and quick. It's perfect for a lot of hearty, spicy dishes and fried stuff.

I ate it to fried tofu slices together with mashed potatoes (sprinkled with coconut bacon) and salad.

Mashed potatoes are one of the best things and I truly don't understand how it's possible that there are people who don't recognize the importance of mashed potatoes. To vary my mashed potatoes I cooked them today together with a kohlrabi. I had a purple one! They're very pretty (but look the same like the pale green ones, once you've peeled them).

- potatoes
- kohlrabi
- vegan butter
- salt
- rosemary
- soy or rice milk

Dice potatoes and kohlrabi (kohlrabi dices should be smaller than your potato dices) and cook in slightly salted water until very tender and almost overdone. Drain the water and mash with vegan butter, salt, rosemary and a splash of soy or rice milk until fluffy and creamy.

Fried tofu slices are also simple as hell: cut tofu into thin slices, marinate in soy sauce for a few minutes and then fry the slices in (olive) oil until the edges get golden brown and crispy. Some garlic is highly recommended.

There are lots of coconut recipes out there, I used this as an idea but I skipped the liquid smoke and used shoyu instead of tamari. AND: I made it in a pan, this version is a bit quicker. Just use a very slightly oiled pan on medium heat and stir very often.

Creamy 8-minute-pasta.

- 200g pasta 

- 1 big onion

- 200ml coconut milk 

- salt, pepper, veggie broth powder

- fresh herbs e.g. mint, sage, basil

- oil

I came home from a meeting quite late and was totaly hungry but the fridge was quite empty today and I wasnt' really in the mood for cooking. I found the canned coconut milk and thought of a simple pasta dish - in the end it turned out way better than I expected. It's a very good idea to have fresh herbs on your windowsill. Almost everything is 100% better with it.

Heat a pot with enough water for the pasta. Cut the onion finely into small cubes and fry them in a teaspoon oil until they're translucent. Add coconut milk and spices, let simmer on medium heat. 

When the water is boiling, add the pasta and a big dash of salt, let them cook for 8 minutes (or whatever your pasta instructions tell you), stirring from time to time. 

Also stir the sauce from time to time, right before the pasta is done you can turn off the heat. 

Drain your pasta and add to the sauce. Cut your herbs into fine stripes and mix everything very well.

The sauce is not that coconut-ish as it might sound. It's more a very creamy, white sauce with the aroma of the herbs you use and the hearty taste of the veggie broth. Only a slight hint of coconut, but this may depend on your coconut milk brand. Of course you could use soy cream as well, the sauce will be ready in the same time.

Easy-peasy curry.

I was really craving for a curry but actually I was way too lazy to cook. So I forced myself to peel and cut a few poatoes and cooked them. As they were done I drained the water and added half a can of coconut milk, vegetable broth, curry powder, fenugreek, gomasio and pepper. I cooked it for another three or four minutes and that was it. No frying onions, garlic, spices, curry paste - just throwing a few things together. Totally yummy, though!

Green Curry w/ Glazed Tofu.

- potatoes

- brussel sprouts

- fresh spinach

- onions, garlic

- coconut milk

- green curry paste

- peanut butter

- salt, pepper, paprika, yellow curry powder, vegetable broth, lemon juice

- tofu

- shoyu

- sugar

In a big pot fry finely cut onions and mashed garlic in a little oil, stir in 2 tsp green curry paste and add a glass of water. Cook til onions are translucent. 

Cut potatoes into small dices, add 1 litre cold water to the curry mixture and add potatoes. Add spices and 2 tbsp peanut butter, cook til potatoes are almost done. Clean brussel sprouts and cut them into halfs (or quarters), add to the potatoes together with 200ml coconutmilk and 200ml water, cook for about 10 minutes. 

In the meanwhile cut tofu into thin stripes and fry in a pan, deglaze with shoyu and 1 tsp sugar. Fry on medium heat, flipping once, til very very crispy.

Wash spinach thoroughly and cut the leaves into stripes (roll all the spinach leaves together and cut) and add to the curry. Cook for another 3 minutes.

Serve the curry with fried tofu. 

You could use frozen spinach, but it's definitely not the same. Season with curry paste to your taste, I have serious trouble eating hot spicy things, so my dishes aren't that spicy.

Sweetheart cabbage ♥

Fried tofu dices, oyster mushrooms, sweet cabbage and chick peas in coconut  sauce, a bit curry-ish and yummy as hell. With lots of garlic and fresh savage leaves.

Creamy coconut carrot rice with fried tofu.

- rice

- one carrot

- savage

- 200g tofu

- 2 tsp shiro miso

- 1/2 small can coconut cream

- curry powder

- garlic leaves

Cook rice with a decent dash of sea salt, some savage leaves and the finely diced carrot. When it's almost done cut tofu into small dices and fry in a little oil til golden brown, lower the heat. Add the coconut cream and a little curry powder to the rice, let cook for another 2 minutes, stir frequently. In the meanwhile mix miso with about 1 or 2 table spoons hot water and pour over tofu and toss well. It will squirt a bit, but only for a moment. Serve rice with tofu and garnish with garlic leaves. 


p.s. Garlic leaves are great! Just put one or two cloves of garlic into some potting soil and let sprout. Way better than chive, trust me. 












.

Spaghetti Squash!

Another recipe in the "looks bland - tastes terrific"-category. And it's pumpkin and sqash season. And oh, I love the word squash. Sounds (and looks) more like a noise than a vegetable. Squash! Squashsquash!

This.....is a spaghetti squash:

I halfed my spaghetti squash and cooked it for 30 minutes unpeeled in very salty water with bay leaves. 

 After cooking it looks like this:

 

Now you can scrap out with a scoop the squash seed first and then the good part - the "spaghettis". The taste of this squash is quite neutral so you can use any hearty sauce you would use for pasta. I made it this time with a great creamy coconut-sauce with eggplants and sweetheart cabbage.

While the squash (!) is still cooking, cut eggplant into cubes, mince the garlic and fry both in 1 teaspoon oil, then add a little water, just to cover the eggplant.

Cook eggplant for about 5-10 minutes until almost all the water has gone. Cut the sweetheart cabbage into small pieces and add with another little water to the eggplants. Cook for 2 minutes, then add either coconut cream (liquid) oder a bit more water and the creamed coconut I used. It's a firm block as you can see in the pictures above, I used 100g and it melts in the hot water. I spiced this with vegetable broth, salt, pepper, a hint of curry. Cook all things together for another 5 minutes, then add fresh cilantro leaves. Serve with the hot squash spaghettis. (My squash was good for about 4-5 big portions altogether). Squash!