No Egg Salad w/ Chickpeas And Raw Zucchini

There are lots of vegan "Egg"-salad or No-egg-salad recipes out there. As I can't follow recipes anyway I just made a version of my own, vaguely remembering what other people use and what I used the last time when I made one (I think I used a recipe back then). I added raw zucchini to have a more fresh taste.

- small can chickpeas
- 100g pasta
- one small finely grated zucchini (or half a medium one)
- a few spoons vegan mayo
- salt (if you have use kala namak but be careful)
- parsley


Cook pasta al dente and let cool a bit. Drain chickpeas and smash with a potato smasher or a fork. You can smash the pasta too if you want to, to have this egg-salad consistency. I had small mezzo pennones so I didn't want to smash those beauties.

Mix chickpeas with mayo and parsley, salt slightly. 

Then add the finely grated zucchini and pasta. Mix thoroughly and season to your taste. Cool the salad in the fridge for at least 30 minutes

 

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.

Zucchini-tofu-stripes.

You can't really see it but in this picture of my tiny morning glory it's finally raining. 

 I then decided to cook something very good for my lunch at work tomorrow. 

- two zucchinis
- 200g tofu
- scallions
- small clove garlic
- smoked salt, paprika, pepper
- olive oil
- herbs like sage, thyme...

Cut everything into very thin stripes. Heat the oil and first fry the tofu until it's crisp and golden brown. Add garlic, zucchini and the rest and fry for a while, shaking the pan quite often. If it seem to be too dry, just add splashes of water. 
That's it. Very good.

Keep it simple.

As it's way too hot to cook I stick to sandwiches and salads most of the time. 
For example a sandwich with avocado spread and vegan cheddar cheese, thin slices of tomato and lettuce.

If I do cook, it's something quick and simple but yet delicious like this:

- 1 yellow zucchini
- a few cherry tomatoes
- lots of garlic, smashed
- scallions
- olive oil
- fresh rosemary and sage
- salt and pepper

Cut the zucchini into cubes. Heat the oil and fry zucchini for about 5 minutes. Add garlic, tomatoes (cut into halves or quarters),herbs and the scallions (cut into small rings). Fry for another 5 minutes, stir from time to time. Season with salt and pepper.

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

Bento.

My bento box is rarely used. Poor thing. 
So I decided to give it some attention and made for tomorrow: fried zucchini with rosemary, a beetroot salad (with soy sauce, lime juice and fresh tarragon as dressing) and cooked millet with lots of fresh parsley and mint. Hope my co-workers don't mind that my vegan stuff is way more pretty and tasty than their boring microwave crap.

Summer tofu.

200g tofu

1 zucchini

1 peach ( I had one of these flat white peaches, they have a bit more flavour than the round ones)

2 cooked potatoes

oil

salt

pepper

fresh thyme

Cut everything into cubes and start frying the tofu and potatoes, after about 5 minutes add zucchini and peach. Season with salt and pepper. Add splashes of water if it seams to dry and fry for about 10 minutes until everything is golden brown and the peach starts to get a bit mushy. Add lots of fresh thyme. This is pure summer, I promise.

I had this today at work for lunch and was so happy to have so good food. Unfortuately non of the generic "but what can you eat as a vegan?"-people where around...but on the other hand they pretty sure would've been totally scared of fried peach and tofu. Ignorants.

Mustard-dill zucchini and oyster mushrooms with mashed potatoes and beet roots

I really love the dill and mustard combination in a cream sauce. And I love the magenta mashed potatoes!

Miso über alles.

Fried Miso-Tofu With Zucchini-Parsnip-Purée And Orange-Gravy

- 180g tofu

- 2 teaspoons miso

- 2 big parsnips

- 2 big potatoes

- 1 zucchini

- soysauce

- starch 

- orange juice

- paprika

As parsnips have a heavy sweetness its a good idea to combine with something hearty like the miso and with something sourish and fruity like the orange juice.

Stir 2 teaspoons or more in hot water (about 3 tablespoons) until miso dissolves. Cut tofu into slices and brush with miso paste. Put aside and let sit for a few minutes.

Cut parsnips and potatoes in cubes and cook very tender with a little salt. While veggies are cooking fry tofu in some oil on middle heat from both sides, you can brush some more miso on it if you wish.

Grate the zucchini. Mash parsnips and potatoes with pepper, a little miso paste and fold in grated raw zucchini. The purree is hot enough, so the zucchini won't be that raw anymore until it gets into your mouth.

If tofu is done put aside and fill your pan (covered with all the leftovers of fried tofu and miso) with some water. Dissolve about 1-2 teaspoons starch in 3 tablespoons cold water and stir in.  

Season with pepper, paprika and dark soy sauce and add about 50 ml orange juice, bring to the boil only for a short time - done. Serve fried tofu with purée and gravy.

PIZZA.

- 300 g flour

- 1 sachet dry yeast

- 2 tablespoons olive oil

- water

- salt

- sugar

- tomatoe sauce

- veggies

- vegan cheese

Mix flour with yeast, salt, a tiny dash of sugar and oil. Knead with lukewarm water for about 5 minutes and let sit for 30 minutes at least at a warm place.

When it's doubled its size you can roll out on a baking sheet and spread with tomatoe sauce (tomatoe puree with water, salt, pepper and herbs to taste).

Cut veggies in thin slices or stripes, for example zucchini, and crumble cheese on it. Yet again I used the Redwood Cheezly, Edam Style.

If there really should be leftovers you can freeze it for 3 months or so and have a frozen pizza to celebrate kinda trash food like the non-vegan freaks.

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.