Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

Tag: Cooking — Vegan Recipes

  • Simple Roasted Cabbage – Easy Way to Use Up Leftover Cabbage

    For some reason, I have never thought about roasting cabbage even though I have roasted a good number of other vegetables over the years.  Thankfully, I recently tried roasting cabbage in an attempt to use up a 1/2 head of leftover cabbage from a recent Indian cabbage preparation.  I had searched for cabbage recipes online, and ended up finding references to a Cook's Illustrated roasted cabbage wedges recipe though I couldn't find the actual recipe on the CI website.  The "recipe" though is pretty simple and basically the standard recipe for roasting any vegetable – cut into uniform pieces, cover with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  I put the cabbage in an oven at 450 degrees, and roasted for approximately 20 minutes or until the cabbage started to brown.  The roasted cabbage that resulted makes a perfect, low-calorie side to any fall/winter main course.

    Roasted Cabbage

  • Failed First Attempt at Preparing Eggplant – Sichuan Eggplant

    I purchased my first eggplant at the local farmers market this summer.  I was excited for the purchase because not only was I looking forward to trying Madhur Jaffrey's Hot and Spicy Sichuan-Style Eggplant recipe from World Vegetarian, but also I recently discovered I actually enjoy eggplant.  I have long disliked eggplant – mostly because of its texture – and I feel that finally eating it is part of the process of me becoming an "adult" eater (though mushrooms continue to escape my fancy).  

    So in any case, when I started to prepare the eggplant, for some reason I decided it would be best to forgo the steaming of the eggplant called for in the recipe and instead saute the vegetable instead.  Unfortunately, that step seemed to be the first and most important in leading to a pretty inedible dish (I made some other recipe modifications – e.g., substituting onion, chili garlic sauce, etc. – that I will omit here).  I looked up eggplant sauteing online, and then kept cooking it until it seemed both under and overcooked at the same time.  There was also a slightly charred, unpleasant flavor that developed as I was cooking the eggplant.  Ultimately, I had a few bites of the dish and ended up throwing it away.  So until I learn how to actually saute eggplant, I think I will stick to steaming and roasting it, which seem to be the most common – and most foul-proof – ways to prepare this vegetable 🙂  

    Sichuan Eggplant

  • Summer Corn Soup – Very Light Opening Course

    Several weeks ago, when summer corn was at its apex, I decided to use some leftover ears in the fridge to make a corn soup.  I didn't fully know what I was doing, but with a parmesan rind on hand (that is supposed to be a good soup additive, right?), I thought I could figure something out.

    The result was pretty good – perhaps a little light for the soup I was trying to achieve, but still pretty flavorful despite its thin consistency.  I think this soup would be an excellent summer meal starter, and is definitely a good way to get through any extra summer corn (which sadly has passed us by this year!).

    Corn Soup

    Summer Corn Soup

    Ingredients:

    • 1 tbsp. vegetable/olive oil
    • 1 leek, white and light green parts washed and diced
    • 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (would substitute 2 cloves minced garlic – unfortunately I did not have garlic the day I made this soup)
    • 1 piece parmesan rind (I used a 5 inch by 1 inch piece, broken in half)
    • Corn kernels from 2 ears of corn
    • 3 cups water
    • Salt
    • Lime or lemon juice (optional)
    • Fresh herbs (optional)

    Directions:

    • Heat oil in soup pot until shiny on medium-high heat.
    • Add leeks, garlic powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.  Cook until leeks are tender.
    • Add 3 cups water and bring to a boil.
    • When boiling, add corn kernels and lower heat to a simmer.  Cook for at least 5 minutes, adding salt, citris juice, and/or fresh herbs to taste.
    • Remove rind and serve warm.

  • Savory/Spicy Pongal – A Flavorful, One Pot South Indian Rice and Lentil Dish

    Although I haven't attempted my favorite Indian weekend morning foods – dosa and idlis – I did recently try for the first time making pongal, a South Indian rice and lentil dish that can be savory or sweet.  I  like the savory/spicy pongal, and so I asked my mother for her recipe.  I made it with a few modifications – the full recipe follows the picture below – and could not be more pleased with the results.  It was perfectly flavored, filling, and very easy to prepare.  I look forward to making it again!

    Pongal

    Pongal

    Makes approximately 4 – 6 servings.

    Ingredients:

    • 2 tbsp. olive oil
    • 2 tsp. cumin
    • 1 tsp. ginger, minced
    • 12 curry leaves (I used dry, but you can use fresh – both can be found at Indian grocery stores)
    • 1 tsp. coarsely ground black peppercorns (can use whole as well)
    • 2 tsp. salt
    • 1 cup uncooked white rice
    • 7/8 cup moong dal
    • 5 cups water

    Directions:

    • Soak the white rice and dal separately for thirty minutes (optional).
    • In a medium dutch oven, or other heavy bottomed pot, heat the olive oil on medium heat.  When warm, add cumin, ginger, peppercorns, and curry leaves.  Saute for one minute, and then add the rice and lentils.
    • Fry the mixture for 2 – 3 minutes, lightly tossing the mixture to ensure the rice/lentils do not stick to the bottom of the pan.  
    • Add the salt and water and bring the mixture to a boil.  When the pot contents start boiling, reduce heat to bring about a low simmer, and cover the pot.  
    • Cook for 25 – 30 minutes, or until the rice and lentils are soft and the water has been fully incorporated into the dish.
    • Serve on its own, or with other Indian breakfast foods or pickle.

  • Mujaddara (or M’Jaddara) – Very Easy and Shockingly Delicious Recipe

    I have had mujaddara – a Middle Eastern grain (I have had both bulgar wheat and rice versions) and lentil dish with fried onions – before in restaurants, but only attempted it at home for the first time a few weeks ago.  I was shocked at the ease in making this flavorful dish – just 5 ingredients (lentils, rice, olive oil, onions, and cumin) plus salt and pepper – and how hands off the preparation is, making it a perfect future party dish as well.  I used Victor Matiya's recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian book, and was pleased that it used olive oil instead of the butter that I imagined must be part of the dish to develop its rich flavor.  This recipe is so good that I am planning on making the dish again today!

    Mujaddra

  • Hot and Sour Cabbage – v2 a Success! (v3, not so much)

    Just a quick post to describe my second and third attempts at the Vegetarian Times Hot and Sour Napa Cabbage recipe, from several weeks ago.  I had some leftover napa cabbage from a Chinese rice cake dish, and I decided to try the VT recipe again because I finally had napa cabbage on hand.  When I first tried this recipe, I ended up using savoy cabbage instead of napa cabbage.  The dish didn't turn out that well, and my memory – unaided because I failed to check this blog, thereby negating the purpose of the blog – seemed to indicate that the recipe didn't work out simply because of the cabbage, not because of the recipe's suggested ingredient list.  

    So, without consulting this incredigly helpful blog, I decided to make the recipe again with the napa cabbage.  As it would turn out later, thankfully, I was unable to open my new bottle of balsamic vinegar while making the recipe so decided to forgo it.  The result was really good – good texture to the cabbage and just the right amount of soy sauce and spice.  I quickly finished my leftovers over the following days.  

    Hot and Sour Cabbage v2
    The next time I made this recipe though – because I still had more napa cabbage in the fridge – Andy was able to open the balsamic vinegar bottle for me, so I ended up putting in a few splashes of it in the dish.  I think I used less than what the recipe had called for, but the extra flavor was not that pleasant – just too balsamic-y.  Of course, had I actually consulted my initial blog post about this recipe, I would have remembered this.  In any case, the leftovers were not consumed at all.

    Lesson:  Read MadhuKnitsandCooks.com before trying to repeat a recipe!

  • Homemade Vegan Noodle Soup

    I have had a hankering for a good vegetarian noodle soup for some time, but surprisingly, it can be really hard to find a restaurant that will serve a vegetarian noodle soup (as opposed to chicken noodle soup).  And most prepared soup mixes at the grocery store have MSG or other equally undesirable ingredients.  Because I still had a good amount of celery and carrots in the fridge from the Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice attempt, I finally decided to give this idea a go.  I ultimately put together a recipe based on my personal tastes, the Food & Wine Emeril Lagasse Vegetable Noodle Soup, and the Food Network Kitchen's version.

    The final product was pretty solid — not great, but definitely good.  It was noticeably better (even great) the day after (perhaps as the water evaporated a bit more in the microwave?), but I'll probably continue to tweak it to get a richer flavor (which unfortunately, does not seen to be found with adding bouillon cubes).  One alteration though that I would not suggest though – or at least the way I approached the alteration – is substituting arborio rice for the pasta.  I made this soup a second time, and substituted nearly 3/4 cup of dry arborio rice for the pasta.  I definitely used WAY too much rice — it definitely sucked up much more liquid than I thought it would, and the rice was also just bland (definitely did not absorb the soup flavors).  So at least for now, my future experiments with this recipe will involve pasta instead of rice.

    Vegetable Noodle Soup

    Homemade Vegan Noodle Soup

    For approximately 4 servings.

    Ingredients:

    • 1 small onion, diced
    • 2 ribs celery, diced
    • 1 large carrot or 2 small carrots, peeled and diced
    • 1/2 cup pasta (I may increase to 1 cup the next time)
    • 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
    • 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (or a few garlic cloves minced – I didn't have any at the time though, so substituted powder)
    • 2 cubes vegan bouillon (I may reduce to one cube the next time)
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 2 tbsp. chopped cilantro or other fresh herbs
    • 3 tsp. lemon juice (to taste)
    • 1 tsbp. olive oil
    • Kosher salt
    • Water

    Directions:

    • Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat, and add onion, celery and carrot and saute for 3 – 5 minutes until vegetables are softened.
    • Add the thyme and garlic (powder), and saute for one minute or until the garlic is fragrant.
    • Add 5 cups water, bouillon cubes, bay leaf, and maybe 1 tsp. salt.  Bring mixture to a boil.
    • Once boiling, add pasta.  Cook until the pasta is tender.
    • Lower heat, add the herbs, lemon juice, and salt to taste.  Remove from heat and serve.

  • My Aunt’s Vegetable Korma — A Hearty and Flavorful Indian Vegan Meal

    Ok, so this post is not what I wanted it to be.  I had two paragraphs of background on korma typed, edited, and proofread, and I had the recipe instructions meticulously copied down from my handwritten notes.  But then, my typepad editor froze and I lost the entire post.  And now, I have presumably learned to save my posts periodically while working on them, but somehow I feel like I won't actually do that.  In any case…

    I am not a lifelong fan of vegetable korma — it's only the past few years where I have tried to seek it out.  One of those occasions was at my aunt Chinna's house, where I had the best korma I have ever had.  Thankfully, she sent me the recipe and it appears with my minor modifications below.  The korma is really flavorful, and this version does not contain any cream or butter, which often appear in North Indian restaurant kormas.  The only issue I had with my recreation of my aunt's korma was that there was one spice that seemed a bit too strong in the dish (and thus resembled the other kormas I have had in the past that I haven't liked that much) — no one else who tried my version of the dish had this complaint though.  And for some reason, upon reheating, whatever that spice inconsistency was disappeared.  One potential solution — which Andy came up with — could be making a spice bouquet of sorts with the whole spices and removing them before the dish is complete.  I'll post an update if I try that approach and it makes a difference.

    Vegetable Korma

    Chinna Pedhi's Vegetable Korma

    Ingredients:

    • 2 tbsps. sliced almonds (optional)
    • 4 tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut
    • 1 tbsps. white poppy seeds (available in an Indian grocery store)
    • 1 2-inch piece of cinnamon stick
    • 3 cloves (whole)
    • 2 cardamon pods (whole)
    • 2 dried bay leaves
    • 3/4 tsp. cumin seeds
    • 1/2 tsp. turmeric
    • 1/2 tsp. garam masala
    • 3 cups chopped onion
    • 1.5 tbsps. ginger-garlic paste (available at an Indian grocery store, or blend equal parts ginger and garlic to a paste at home)
    • 3 medium potatoes, cut into 1.5-inch pieces and soaked in salt water for at least 15 minutes
    • 1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
    • 1 cup carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces, or substitute baby carrots
    • 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
    • 3/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
    • 4 – 5 green chilies (to taste)
    • 1/2 cup green peas
    • vegetable oil
    • water
    • salt

     Directions:

    • Dry roast white poppy seeds in pan on stovetop until they become light brown in color – approximately 5 minutes.  Blend the poppy seeds to a fine powder, and set aside.
    • Blend the almonds and coconut into a fine paste.  Then blend 1 tbsp. of the roasted poppy seeds with 4 – 5 tbsps. of the almond/coconut paste.  Add approx. 1/4 cup of water to make a more wet paste.
    • In a large pot, heat approx. 3 tbsps. of vegetable oil on medium-high heat.  When hot, add the cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, bay leaves, and cumin.  Saute for approx. one minute or until fragrant.
    • Add the chopped onion to the pot, stirring to coat the onion with the spices.  Cover and cook until the onion is translucent.
    • Then mix in the green chilies, turmeric and ginger-garlic paste, and cook until the ginger-garlic paste is fragrant.
    • Add the potatoes, 1/4 cup water, 1 tsp. salt, and cook with the spices for 5 – 7 minutes or until the potatoes are partially cooked (can be partially pierced easily with a knife).  
    • Mix in the green beans and carrots, an additional 1/4 – 1/2 cup of water (to retain a curry-like consistency to the dish, an additional 1/2 tsp. salt, and cook for five minutes or until vegetables are approx. 3/4 cooked.
    • Mix in the green peas, the blended poppy seed/almond/coconut paste, and the tomato.  Bring the mixture to a boil, adding up to 1/4 cup of water to ensure the dish retains a soupy consistency.
    • Finally, stir in the cilantro, up to 1/2 tsp. of garam masala if desired, additional salt to taste, and cook until the vegetables are cooked to your taste.  If you would like an additional creaminess to the dish, you can stir in a bit of plain yogurt.
    • Serve with rice or Indian breads.

  • Breakfast Baked Apples — Good for Leftover Apples, But Not Necessarily a Go-To Recipe

    Fall has of course brought an abundance of apples to the local farmers markets, and I have had little success in resisting my overally tendency to overconsume.  (Just wait until the clementines really start coming in — my apartment will undoubtedably be filled with boxes and boxes.)  Although I had hoped to make an apple tart to both use up my remaining apples as well as finally use the tart pan I bought last year, I ended up settling on a far simpler recipe from Cooks Illustrated — breakfast baked apples.  The recipe had the benefit of including ingredients that I had easily on hand at home, and would require far less work than constructing a tart.  

    I increased the baking time to fully cook all of the apples, but otherwise the recipe was pretty straightforward.  The result was definitely better when I reheated the apples later in the day because when I ate the first one out of the oven, the vanilla flavor was a bit too powerful.  Generally though, I think the baked apples were a bit "meh" and I don't know if I will actively seek out opportunities to make this recipe again.  Instead, I think it'll be a second (or maybe third) choice the next time I have some leftover apples that I need to use up.

    Breakfast Baked Apples

  • Chinni’s Brussel Sprouts — A Surprising Seasonal Delight

    I admit that I have retained my childhood fear/dislike of brussel sprouts well into adulthood.  But just as I have been trying to accomplish with other food groups (a post on that topic is forthcoming), I recently bought some brussel sprouts at the farmer's market to try to finally enjoy these healthy vegetables.  Initially, I thought I would make use of my new CooksIllustrated.com online membership, but instead I happened to bring up brussel sprouts when I saw my cousin Chinni.  She and her husband swore by a roasting recipe that she had tested to perfection (the analogy to the resulting roasted brussel sprouts was popcorn), and so I decided to try this approach. 

    The recipe turned out really well — the brussel sprouts were both caramelized and crisp.  I think the next time I make this recipe, I will try to cut the pieces more uniformly in size so they roast more evenly (some of the larger pieces weren't as tasty as the smaller halves) and also tinker with the baking time a bit (not sure if that means more or less time yet!).  I will probably also season the sprouts more generously because I think I was a little too hesitant to do so during this first go-round.  The details on my brussel sprouts attempt follows the picture of the roasted sprouts.

    Chinni's Brussel Sprouts
    Chinni's Roasted Brussel Sprouts

    Ingredients:

    • Approx. 3 cups brussel sprouts, washed and halved
    • 2 tbsps. olive oil
    • 1 clove garlic, chopped
    • sea salt to taste
    • Pecorino or Parmesan cheese, finely shredded or grated (optional)

    Directions:

    • Heat oven to 450 degrees, and line large roasting pan with foil.
    • Place the halved brussel sprouts in a medium-size mixing bowl, and pour the olive oil over the sprouts.  Sprinkle with the chopped garlic and sea salt, perhaps 1 tsp. to start.  
    • Place the seasoned brussel sprouts on the pan in a single layer with the cut sides down.
    • Bake for 17 minutes or until browned, and flip the sprouts over.  I baked the sprouts cut size up for approx. 3 – 5 minutes before then sprinkling grated Pecorino lightly over each of the tops.
    • Bake for another 3 – 5 minutes, or until uniformly browned.  
    • Remove from oven, add additional salt as necessary and serve!