Fancy simple stuff.

- 2 king oyster mushrooms
- 200g tofu
- one small broccoli head
- one small onion
- one clove garlic
- 1 tblsp shiro miso
- soy sauce
- olive oil
- pepper
- salt


Cut the broccoli into florets and cook in water with some salt. While the broccoli is cooking cut the piece of tofu into small cubes, dice finely the onion, slice the mushrooms and smash the clove of garlic. Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a pan and first add the tofu. When the tofu begins to get slighlty golden-brown add onions, garlic and mushrooms. Stir from time to time until tofu is brown and crispy. Deglaze with some soy sauce and season with a tiny amount of pepper.
In a small bowl prepare the dressing for the broccoli: mix the tblsp miso with some hot water and 1 tsp olive oil. 
Cook the broccoli only for a few minutes until it gets soft but not wibbly-wobbly. Strain it. Then toss the broccoli into the miso dressing. I had some arugula left and tossed it in, too.
Serve tofu-mushroom mix with the broccoli and add some of the dressing.
Very hearty and umami but light and fresh though.

We're still crazy when we're sane.

On Saturday Kptn Fuchs called by and we had some delicious things besides a very nice evening, hanging out in the kitchen and chatting all the time.






Tofu, fried with ground hazelnuts. Mashed potatoes (with an apple), gravy and arugula salad. The whole topic was autumn/wintertime, I guess.

Arugula salad with miso-tahin dressing and vegan cheese cats.

get yourself a cat shaped cookie cutter and your favourite kind of vegan cheese slices

Vodka with pear juice fits also into this autumn theme, doesn't it?

For dessert we had wintertime cupcakes. Made the vanilla cupcake from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World but used half a cup soy milk and half a cup apple-cinnamon tea (instead one whole cup soy milk) and added a few chocolate chips. The topping is soy cream with ground hazelnuts, vanilla and cinnamon.

sceptic cat is sceptic

Sushi Saturday.

Yesterday it had to be sushi and I made lots of maki sushi with mango, avocado and fried tofu. Furthermore inari-zushi and a miso soup with udon noodles and veggies as a starter.

Chopped coriander roots

Mango. I also made some with mango and coriander

Tofu fried with soy sauce and sesame

Miso soup with garlic, onions, roots of coriander, broccoli, chard, carrots, coriander leaves, shiro miso, soy sauce and udon noodles

Very not matching colours

Beans with tahin dressing.

200g green beans
1-2 tbsp tahin
1/2 apple
salt
soy sauce
mint
coriander


Wash the beans and cut off the ends. Cook in salted water for about 10 minutes, until they're done but still crisp.
Mix the tahin with a little water and 1-2 teaspoons soy sauce. Add some leaves of mint and coriander.

When the beans are done strain them and rinse with very cold water. This will keep the beans' pretty lime-green colour and prevent them from getting grey-ish. 
Cut apple into small cubes.
Put the beans and apple cubes in a bowl and toss with dressing.

Miso Wasabi Pasta Salad. And dinosaurs.

dressing:
- oil
- soy sauce
- miso
- vinegar
- agave syrup
- miso

salad:
- 250g noodles 
- 200g tofu
- one zucchini
- fresh coriander
- smoked salt
- olive oil

Cook the noodles and prepare everything else while they're cooking. I had dinosaur-shaped pasta which is highly recommended. If you poor thing can't find anyone, use regular pasta of your preferred shape. I even think this salad would be wonderful with glass noodles but I haven't seen any cute shaped glass noodles ever, so where's the fun in that?

Whisk some oil (rather neutral in taste, like safflower oil) with the rest of the ingredients for the dressing. I had a tiny amount of wasabi, just enough that there is this hint of its fresh spiciness. Adjust to your taste.
The miso works really well with the wasabi and the syrup completes all this hearty and tangy flavours to a umami deliciousness.

Cut your tofu into very small cubes, the zucchini cubes can be a bit bigger. I had a yellow zucchini but the taste isn't very different to the green ones.
Heat a little olive oil and fry the tofu until it gets slightly brown and crispy. Add some smoked salt and then the zucchini. If everything is almost done, deglaze with soy sauce, then turn off the heat.

If the pasta is done, drain and toss with dressing. Then add tofu, zucchini and coriander, mix well.

I put the warm salad into jars as we were heading for a picnic and it was perfect as it could sit for 2 hours or so before we ate it.

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

Slightly spicy veggie stew.

This is a very hearty, slightly spicy, very satisfying, curry-ish stew.

- onion
- red curry paste
- carrots
- fresh spinach
- frozen edamame
- tahin
- fennu greek
- paprika
- soy sauce
- soy cream
- oil


Fry finely diced onion in a little oil until translucent. I used olive oil but use any oil you prefer.
Add some red curry paste to your taste, I only had half a teaspoon. If you like your food spicy use a bit more! Stir pretty well and add diced carrots. Add fennu greek and paprika, stirring all the time. 

Add some water, until the carrots are just covered. Let cook for a few minutes until the carrots are almost done, then add the very, very, very good cleaned spinach leaves. Stir, then cover your pot with a lid and let simmer for two minutes so the spinach will kind of wilt. 

Add the frozen edamame, a little bit tahin and soy cream (you can use coconut milk as well, I only had soy cream and it was really good), stir again and then season to taste with soy sauce.
The tahin makes the stew creamy and yummy, make sure to try it!

Banana tofu with avocado cream.

200g tofu

1 ripe banana

soy sauce

oil

basil

pepper

paprika

avocado

lemon juice

salt

Cut tofu into cubes and the banana into slices. Fry tofu in some oil until it starts to get slightly golden, then add the banana slices as well as some soy sauce, pepper and paprika. Stir carefully.

Mash the avocado together with lots of lime juice, salt and pepper.

When the tofu gets darker brown and the banana slices are mushy add some fresh basil and serve with the avocado cream. This is an unbelievable creamy deliciousness.

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.