Vegan Mofo Day 30: Last Day

Vegan Mofo Day 30:

It's the end of Vegan Mofo today and I don't have a dish to post about. I think I was fairly successful: we were expected to post every weekday of the month, or about 20 posts in the month. I had 21 posts this month vs 1 post for October, I think I did extremely well.

Got to know some talented Vegan bloggers and will be visiting them often now.

I am going to miss Vegan Mofo, as it kept me going with the cooking, taking pictures and posting. I hope to keep the momentum going and will keep posting (some non-vegan dishes pretty soon).

Green Beans curry

Vegan Mofo Day 29:

I usually buy frozen green beans and avoid the fresh ones since in fresh ones need time and patience for prep, which I don’t usually have. But when I saw this huge bag of fresh green beans for less than $1.50, I couldn’t help but buy a bag. But my husband ended up prepping them for me. He stringed and chopped them into tiny dice while watching football game (now that is called multi tasking, I wish he could do that more often).

Ingredients:
Green Beans – 3-4 cups, chopped
Onion – 1 medium, chopped finely
Garlic – 2 cloves, coarsely chopped
Curry leaves – 6
Red chili powder – ½ tsp (or more to taste)
Ground peanuts – 2tbsp
Salt – to taste
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Dry red chili – 2

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan, add cumin seeds and red chili, cook until the seeds start to sputter around.
• Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or until lightly browned. Next add curry leaves and onions; cook until onions turn translucent.
• Next add green beans and some salt. Cover and cook until the green beans are tender and cooked through; about 10-12 minutes. Stir occasionally.
• When the beans are cooked to your desired tenderness (my husband loves them well cooked, so I cook a little longer), add red chili powder, ground peanuts and more salt (if needed). Cook for another couple of minutes and serve hot with steamed rice or roti.

Tofu Balls with Spaghetti

Vegan Mofo Day 28:

It is quite depressing that the long weekend is almost over and as usual it felt too short. For today's lunch I made these yummy tofu balls and served them over whole wheat spaghetti. Recipe is from The Ultimate book of Vegan Cooking by Tony & Yvonne Bishop-Weston.

Tofu balls are quite delicate and need to be cooked and turned very gently. Nudge the balls gently from the bottom when turning. They tend to stick to the pan, so it is very important they are lifted gently. (I know I said it too many times in 2 sentences, but they are very delicate and need to be treated ge......). The uncooked tofu mixture itself was so yummy that I tasted it far too many times than needed.

Ingredients:

Firm Tofu - 1 package, drained

Onion - 1 medium, grated

Garlic - 2 cloves, minced

Ground Cumin - 1tbsp

Ground Almonds - ½ cup (I used Almond meal)

Dijon mustard - 1tsp

Soy sauce - 2tbsp

Parsley - ¼ cup, finely chopped

Salt & Pepper - to taste

Spaghetti - 8 oz. (I made whole-wheat spaghetti)

Pasta sauce - home made or store bought - 1 cup

Method:

• Take drained tofu, grated onion, garlic, cumin, almond meal, soy sauce, parsley, mustard, salt & pepper in a medium bowl. Mash with a fork or your fingers until everything is well mixed.
• Make walnut sized balls and set aside.
• Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a large sauté pan. Slowly add the tofu balls and cook until they turn golden brown on all sides.*
• Once done, remove from the pan and set aside.
• In the mean time cook spaghetti according to package directions and heat the pasta sauce and keep ready.
• To serve: Add spaghetti and pasta sauce in the serving bowl and arrange 4-5 tofu balls on the top. Garnish with basil and serve hot.

* It's advisable to cook the tofu balls in batches instead of cramming everything in one shot.

No Knead Swedish Cardamom Bread

Vegan Mofo Day 27:

This is the recipe for the Holiday Braid Bread I had mentioned in my Thanksgiving post. Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and has won 1st place in "Holiday flavors around the world contest" and I can say that this recipe deserves to win the 1st place, hands down. The winner, Celia Ozereko, modified an old Swedish family recipe by getting rid of all the eggs and butter and making it a no-knead bread. It tastes amazing, we polished off half the loaf in one sitting. It is slightly sweet with a nice spicy kick from the cardamom, I bet no one can eat just one piece. Do try this out this holiday season. I'm sure I'll making it many many times.

Ingredients (makes 2 loaves):

All purpose Flour - 5¼ cups

Flaxseed Meal - 2tbsp

Active Dry Yeast - 1tbsp

Salt - 1½tsp

Whole cardamom seeds - 1½tsp, coarsely ground with a mortar and pestle

Almond Milk - 2 cups, plus more for brushing the loaf (I used soy milk and it worked fine)

Agave nectar (or Maple syrup)- 1/3 cup

Canola oil - 1/3 cup

Demerera sugar (Sugar in the raw) - 2tbsp, for sprinkling

Method:

• Stir together almond smilk (soy milk), flax seeds meal, agave nectar, oil, yeast, salt and cardamom in a large bowl. Add flour, and mix thoroughly with the wooden spoon.
• Cover with lid or plastic wrap (I draped the bowl with kitchen towel for extra sealing), let stand for 2½ hours at room temperature.
• Transfer the bowl to the fridge and let rest overnight.
• Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. Remove half of the dough from the refrigerator (reserve the other half for later; dough keeps good for up to 5 days in the fridge).
• Divide dough into 3 equal pieces, roll each piece into 18" long rope on a floured surface.
• Place dough ropes side by side 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Pinch ends together and tuck under. Loosely braid dough ropes, then pinch ends together.
• Cover braided loaf with kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush top of the loaf with soy milk and sprinkle generously with sugar.
• Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until golden brown.