Kale-Coconut-Stew

- potatoes
- root parsley
- root celery
- 1-2 carrots
- small can coconut milk
- small can chickpeas
- onion, garlic, ginger
- few leaves kale (curly kale)
- oil
- tofu, cut in stripes and fried in oil with some added soy sauce


This was a stew made out of a lot of different things which had to be used and this fresh green kale. As I made this a few weeks ago I'm not quite sure if I remember everything correctly, but it's a stew. You can't go wrong.

Cut onions, smash garlic, grate ginger and dice both the root parsley and the root celery. Oh and the carrots, too. I think I had one small carrot.
Fry in a teaspoon of oil, until onions get translucent.

Then add one litre water and salt, pepper, veggie broth,  a dash of paprika.

Let cook for 5-8 minutes and then add the potatoes and the kale.

Cook for another 8-10 minutes, then add the drained chickpeas and some coconut milk. I did use probably 3/4 of a small can. But these are just details and you can adjust this to your taste.
Let cook for a few minutes more until the potatoes are done or even a little longer, then taste if you need more salt and pepper. Serve hot with tofu stripes on top.

I love to make a big pot of soup or stew and have lots of leftovers the next day. Then I usually take some for work. You know, these stews taste better the next day anyway and so it's the perfect lunch at work.

Summer food.

From time to time I cook at punk shows for a bunch of people and I never know what to cook until last minute. I barely can follow a recipe, recipes make me totally confused and so I just think about something that sounds good, make a rough plan and go shopping. If I find everything I planned - yay. If I don't find everything - I make something different. It doesn't matter because I use everything I find in the particular kitchen where I cook and often change the plans during cooking anyway or add something I never thought of beforehand. I improvise and it's always way too much but more or less it's tasty.
Yesterday I got asked: "So you make awesome stuff off the top of your head?" Erm, yes. Kind of.
But then I always forget how I made it, which is irrelevant most of the time, but yesterday I made the best lentil salad ever. I hope, that I can remember everything.

- red lentils
- ground hazelnuts
- garlic
- lemon (juice and zest)
- mint
- salt, pepper, paprika, ginger, soy sauce
- olive oil
- dash of sugar

Heat a little olive oil in a pot, add lentils. Stir and fry for about 5 minutes. Add water until lentils are covered and stir from time to time. Red lentils cook very quickly, from 10-15 minutes. Add salt, pepper, ginger (I didn't have fresh one, I used powder as I found this in the kitchen and thought: oh, ginger!), juice from one lemon, soy sauce, sugar.

In a small pan heat some olive oil and add ground hazelnuts and smashed and chopped garlic, stir well until it smells very, very good and the hazelnuts are getting a bit darker. Turn off the heat and put the pan aside.
Chop a lot of fresh mint. When the lentils are done fold in the mint and the hazelnut-garlic mixture together with the zests of one lemon.

Serve on chicory leaves and enjoy. I might have good ideas for cooking, unfortunately I don't have good ideas for names. So this is just a very good summer lentil salad. Or THE summer lentil salad.

Yesterday I served this salad along with arugula salad with caramelised cherry tomatoes; the dressing was something like balsamic vinegar, oil, tahini, salt, water, mustard. The main dish was tagliatelle with a zucchini-snow peas-sage-cream sauce and roasted walnuts, which were also very good and I was very happy with the result altogether.

In general: just add roasted nuts and as much fresh herbs as you can and everything will be perfect.

summer lentils

arugula with caramelised cherry tomatoes

tagliatelle w/ zucchini, snow peas, oat cream, roasted walnuts

Garlic. And Ginger.

Spinach summer rolls.

-200g tofu

-200g fresh spinach (wash pretty well, remove the stems)

-light soy sauce

-ginger

- rice paper

- garlic

- sesame

This was a pretty good variation of summer rolls, which I usually fill with a lot more different things like grated carrots, glass noodles, fresh coriander, peanuts and so on. This filling is a bit more simple.

For the filling cut tofu into thin stripes and marinate in soy sauce and finely grated ginger ( I used a piece 2cm x 2cm) for about 20-30 minutes.

Drain the tofu and keep marinade. Fry the tofu stripes in oil and when they slightly get golden add some sesame seed and smashed garlic and fry for another two minutes, stirring constantly. Add the spinach and stir carefully, then add splashes of the marinade so it will fall together within a few minutes.

Set aside and let cool. Soak the rice paper sheets in cold water, but not for too long, otherwise they will crack. Prepare a filling station with a big bowl of cold water and enough space for filling and folding the sheets. Put about 10 sheets intot the water, wait a minute and begin: 

spread the sheet and put one tablespoon of filling right in the middle. Fold one side over the filling, then the other one. Then fold the bottom over the filling and roll up. The filling was enough for about twenty rolls alltogether.

Serve with soy sauce and/or other dips. I had cauliflower with some fried bread crumbs on the side. You could serve rice or something else with it, too.

Carrot-Cashew-Soup w/ Glazed Tofu And Brussel Sprouts.

 Soup:

- 1 red onion, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and finely chopped

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp sugar

- small piece of ginger, finely chopped or grated

- 2 red bell peppers, chopped

- 5 carrots, chopped
- 1 big potato, finely chopped

- 80 grams cashews ( I had roasted, salted ones, as they're cheaper. Regular one might be better)

- splash orange juice

- salt, pepper, paprika, curry, cumin, vegetable broth, fresh rosemary

Tofu:

- 200g firm tofu

- handfull brussel sprouts

- olive oil

- shoyu

- orange juice

Fry onion and garlic in olive oil, add the sugar. Let caramelize while stirring constantly. Add red bell pepper and a splash of water, let cook for about 5 minutes, stir. Add carrots, more water, ginger, spices. After cooking for 5 minutes add cashews and let cook on medium heat for about 20min. 

In the meanwhile cut tofu into small triangles and marinate with shoyu. 5min before the soup is done, fry tofu in 1-2 tbsp olive oil, cut brussel sprouts into halfs or quarters and add. Stir from time to time until tofu and sprouts are brownish and look yummy. Deglaze with a big splash of orange juice, let cook until all the juice has gone.

Purre the soup with a handheld mixer and serve with tofu and sprouts. It's spicy but not hot and creamy as hell. 

Lime ginger lemonade.

 1 litre: fresh lime juice from 2-3 limes, 200ml ginger ale, sugar to taste, lots of ice cubes, fill up with water.

Carrot-parsnip-ginger soup with caramelized tofu and sesame.

Mock Duck with gingery curry and basmati rice.

Fried mock duck from Vantastic Foods with a very gingery curry and basmati rice alongside.

Curry:

- garlic

- ginger

- onions

- coconut milk

- yellow curry paste

- 2 carrots

- bamboo sprouts

- 2 leaves sayoy cabbage (or other cabbage)

- broccoli

- light soy sauce

Fry finely chopped garlic, ginger and onions until lucious and tender. Add curry paste, diced carrots and coconutmilk. Cook for 10 minutes, then add finely chopped savoy cabbage and broccoli, cook for another 5 minutes. Season to taste with light soy sauce and add bamboo sprouts in the end.

In the meanwhile fry mock duck in margarine for about 5 minutes each side, cook basmati rice. The mock duck was one of the best I've had so far and the gingery curry was a dream.

Peanut-Miso-Tofu With Cauliflower

Tofu marinated with a peanutbutter-miso-mix, cauliflower and cream sauce with fried parsley.

200g tofu

2 tblsp barley miso

2 tblsp peanut butter

1 big piece of ginger

1 small head cauliflower

2 bay leaves

200ml soy cream

handful of fresh parsley

margarine

Mix miso and peanutbutter with about 2-3 tblsp hot water to a thick paste. Cut tofu into thin slices and brush with the paste, let sit for about 30-60 minutes.

Cook cauliflower in water with salt and the bay leaves til tender, about 20 minutes. Be sure to remove the bay leaves before serving, they just add flavour but are not edible.

Melt a piece of margarine in a pan and cut ginger into thick stripes, fry ginger and add the marinated tofu slices. Fry on medium heat til the tofu is dark golden brown. For the sauce: just melt a small piece of margarine, cut the parsley and fry for about 3 minutes. 

Add soy cream and season with salt, pepper and a hint of cumin. 

Banana-Chocolate-Shake

- 2 ripe bananas

- 500 ml soy milk

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- 1 dash ginger powder

- 1 dash cinnamon

- 2 table spoons cocoa

Put everything in your blender and blend or in a high bowl and mix it with hand blender. Easy, hm?

Ginger-Tofu with veggies and amaranth.

Not a real recipe because I can't remember neither the exactly nor the round about measurements but hey, you can cook, can't you? And even if not, just guess how much carrots and tofu you'll eat. Amaranth will double its size so you don't need very much of it per person.


Cut a lot of veggies into small pieces like scallions, red bell pepper, carrots, navets,... and stir fry them in 1 teaspoon walnut oil.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a navet. Nice taste and nice colour, they come in white and pink. They taste like something between small radishes and kohlrabi.

Then grate a huge amount of ginger. I love ginger and I love garlic and there can't be enough of it.
Add ginger to veggies.


While the veggies fry you can marinate the tofu, I used smoked one but just use
the kind of tofu you prefer. I grated another huge piece of ginger, mashed 3 cloves of garlic and mixed it with light soy sauce and lavender leaves.



Add some amaranth to the veggies and fill it up with water or vegetable broth.



Just cook for a few minutes and if the amaranth has absorbed the liquid you cann add some tomato purree. Salt, pepper and lots of parsley.
Just let the pot on small fire and heat some olive oil in a pan for the tofu. Fry the tofu with garlic and ginger on both sides and add the remaining soy sauce to deglaze it.

Amaranth and parsley are full of iron and and both tofu and amaranth are good protein sources and full of calcium.
Healthy things can be so yummy.