Happy Sunday, beautiful kittens! We’re getting into Autumn, time to start taking the cosy clothes out of the closet and preparing for some time on with a hot beverage. And while I know that these Potatoes Arrabbiata by the Jewish Vegetarian Society are meant more for Spring (for Pesach, Passover which is in April), I feel that they are very good for Autumn too (as well as Winter!).
I saw this recipe not that long ago and made it just a few days ago: look how inviting it is! And obviously, so easy to make it’s beginner’s proof. So, without further ado, the recipe.
Ingredients
Handful of baby potatoes (skin on)
1 garlic clove, sliced
Pinch of dried chili flakes
200g passata
Handful of spinach
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
Cook the potatoes in a pan of salted boiling water for about 10 minutes, until cooked through. Drain.
Pan-fry the sliced garlic in a splash of olive oil over a medium heat for a few minutes until it starts to brown, then add the chili flakes, passata and cooked potatoes.
Season generously with salt and pepper and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add the spinach and simmer for a further minute until wilted, then squash each potato with the back of a fork, remove from the heat and serve.
Enjoy!
Let me know if you knew this recipe already or if you made it.
Hello kittens, how are you today? Here all good, just enjoying the weekend and sharing another scrumptious recipe with you: the Delicious Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff by VeganPunks. I was kind of craving mushrooms, but wanted to make something different from a mushroom risotto or a veggie stir-fry, I looked into the recipes that I bookmarked and this stroganoff was among the ones that I could make with the ingredients that I had.
The last time I had a mushroom stroganoff was at a pub and I shared it with a friend. Oooft, it wasn’t that good: the sauce was almost acrid, the accompanying rice seemed microwaved and overall it wasn’t an enjoyable experience. So, when I’ve seen this recipe in my bookmarks I decided that it would be good to try.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat and fry the onion until soft
Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute then chuck the mushrooms in and cook until they release a little water and have reduced in size – roughly 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the paprika over the ingredients and stir well and pour the stock into the saucepan, bringing to a boil, then quickly reduce to a simmer.
Next spoon in the crème fraîche and stir well, whilst watching it melt into the sauce.
Pop in the Worcestershire sauce.
When the sauce is still simmering, add the cornflour mix.
Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the sauce cooks down a bit and you’re left with a rich, creamy sauce, the consistency of thin cream.
Season with salt and pepper (to taste), top with fresh chopped parsley and serve with rice or mashed potato.
I had it with arborio rice, but I believe basmati or jasmine rice would be delicious too.
Hello my cats! How is your Sunday going? This has been the third Saturday I was working and … Today’s recipe is something that is really delicious: a vegan omelette made not only with chickpea flour but also with tofu, a Spanish Omelette. My mouth is watering just at the thought! The recipe I usually follow is the Vegan Tortilla-Spanish Omelette by ForkfulOfPlants. Obviously, easy and quick!
Add the sliced potatoes to a saucepan, cover with boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes, draining and rinsing with cold water once cooked.
Meanwhile, make the batter mixture. Add the chickpea flour, silken tofu, water, black salt, turmeric, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and a grind of black pepper to a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a 20-25cm non stick frying pan frying pan over a medium heat.
Add the sliced onion and fry it for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned and softened. Add the cooked and drained sliced potatoes to the pan. Stir the potatoes and onions to mix, then arrange the potatoes in a flat layer.
Pour the batter over the potatoes and onions in an even layer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the top has no runny liquid left sitting on it (it will still be soft).
When the first side is cooked, it’s time to flip the omelette! Take a large, flat plate, and place it upside down on top of the pan.
With your hand on top of the plate, flip the pan upside down, moving the tortilla onto the plate. Then, carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan on the uncooked side.
Cook for 3-4 minutes on the second side, then slide the cooked vegan omelette on to a clean plate to serve.
Happy Sunday, kittens! I hope you’re having a nice weekend. Here it has been very hot for a few days, with a very clear sky and temperatures around 27°C which is exceptionally high for where I live! Today I decided to go to the shops to get a little present for a colleague: the shop I wanted to visit is not in the town centre and I can reach it in 15 minutes by walking, so I went to the shop, got the present and when I went out it started raining. I got literally soaked! Wasn’t expecting that. Oh well, that’s life. Anyway, enough of my adventure! Because it is so warm, I wanted to share the recipe for a dessert that doesn’t need too much heat to prepare and is still extremely delicious: Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberries by Nutriciously!
I made them quite recently and are already on my list of favourite recipes. In addition, if you omit the white chocolate these are also a great snack or dessert for when you do the Limpia.
Ingredients
1 lb fresh strawberries (450 g)
Vegan chocolate coating
1 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate, chopped (100 g)
1 tsp almond butter (optional)
½ cup vegan white chocolate, chopped (50 g)
Toppings
Instructions
Prepare the strawberries
Rinse and drain the strawberries without removing the green leaves.
Pat dry with paper towels and place them in the fridge.
Make the chocolate coating
Get two clean bowls and put the chopped dark chocolate in one, the chopped white chocolate in the other.
Fill two pots ¼ of the way with water and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat, then place the bowls inside — make sure they are big enough to cover the pots!
Let the chocolate melt over the sightly boiling water, stirring occasionally.
When the dark chocolate has melted, add the almond butter and stir to incorporate.
Dip & coat your strawberries
Remove the strawberries from the refrigerator and get a tray lined with parchment paper.
Gather your toppings: melted dark chocolate, melted white chocolate, crushed almonds, shredded coconut and cocoa nibs. Make sure each of them gets its own little bowl or plate.
Grasp your first strawberry by the small green leaves and dip it into the melted dark chocolate, aiming to coat the strawberry evenly. Shake off any excess, then put your coated strawberry on your prepared tray. Repeat with the remaining strawberries and place them in a single layer on your tray. Drizzle a few of them with more black or contrasting white chocolate by using a fork or a piping bag.
Finally, add some crunchy toppings! Roll your chocolate-covered strawberries in the prepared bowls with crushed almonds, shredded coconut or cocoa nibs.
Refrigerate the decorated strawberries for 30 minutes before serving.
Easy-peasy! I hope you’ll enjoy these snacks perfect for the summer.
Hello beautiful kittens! Here the weather has been quite benevolent, not too hot (only a couple of days with unusually high temperatures two weeks ago, whew!) so I’ve been able to cook and bake and all – love it! One of the recipes I tried is this Roasted Buckwheat with Vegetables by WhereIsMySpoon: probably the third recipe I made with buckwheat and it’s lovely. Obviously nice and easy and quick.
As buckwheat is not a cereal but a seed similarly to quinoa and amaranth, it can be used in recipes that also would call for a cereal, making for the perfect gluten-free lunch/dinner (and limpia-friendly too!).
200 g/ 7 oz/ about 1 cup buckwheat groats Notes 1 and 2
350 ml/ 11.8 fl. oz/ 1 ¾ cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions about 150 g/ 5.3 oz
2 garlic cloves
2 bell peppers
1 leek about 120 g/ 4.2 oz (Note 3)
15 cherry tomatoes
½ teaspoon smoked paprika powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ – ½ teaspoon hot chili flakes to taste
juice from 1 lemon
250 ml/ 8.4 fl.oz/ 1 cup vegetable broth
salt and black pepper
Instructions
Chop the onions finely, the garlic as well, cut the peppers into thin strips, halve the leeks lengthwise, if very thick, and cut the halves into thin half rounds.
Bring the vegetable stock used for cooking the buckwheat groats to a boil. When the liquid boils, add the rinsed buckwheat groats, cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer on low heat until done to your liking.
Heat the oil in a larger and deeper pan. Cook the onions for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, peppers, and leeks. Stir well and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until slightly softer.
In the meantime, halve the cherry tomatoes. Add them to the pan with smoked and sweet paprika powder, turmeric, chili flakes, lemon juice, and vegetable broth.
Cover, turn the heat down to medium-low, and cook the vegetables, occasionally stirring, for about 10 minutes or until done to your liking.
Add the cooked kasha to the vegetable pan and stir well but carefully.
Adjust the taste generously with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and the remaining lemon juice.
The recipe calls for a carrot and yojurt sauce, but I haven’t tried it with that and it was already spectacular.
Happy Sunday, my kittens! Today I wanted to share with you the best vegan brownies recipe: you won’t need others as this is THE ONE. A premise though, because I love the soft brownies and I am not too much of a fan of those big, chewy brownies that you find around. These are soft and almost spongy, my favourite kind!
This recipe is by ChocolateCoveredKatie: she makes delicious vegan as well as keto and paleo recipes.
1/3 cup white sugar, unrefined if desired, OR stevia baking blend
2 tbsp cornstarch, or ground flax
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips optional
Instructions
Whisk the first 3 ingredients, then set aside. (If using flax, whisk it in as well.)
Preheat oven to 330F. Grease a 9×13 pan (or 8×8 for thick brownies), or line with parchment paper, and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine all dry ingredients. Stir wet into dry.
Pour into the pan. Smooth down. Bake 16 minutes, or 24 in 8×8.
The brownies will look a little underdone when they come out, but that’s okay! Refrigerate – they start to firm up after a few hours and are nice and cut-able by the next day, and the taste is much better the next day as well.
Beautiful kittens, I hope you are well and had a good week. Mine was very busy as at work I have had requests for 3 pieces of research while also having to look into the possibility of applying for two grants to help the library. Yesterday I felt like making these Vegan Crispy Lentil Fritters by the VietVegan: this is my go-to recipe for when I want comfort food while keeping it healthy. It was not the first time I made them, but never talked to you about them, so I am here to fix this!
Oh my goodness, they are delicious, extra easy and quick and so simple, I am sure you’ll love them. Bonus point, this recipe also talks about feminism and Lisa’s experience as a feminist in Canada.
Soak the rinsed split red lentils and water together for 1 hour, until they have absorbed the water. Transfer soaked red lentils, onions, chives, salt and pepper into a food processor and process until smooth. It may seem a little watery but don’t worry, it’ll fry up beautifully. [I have to say that when I make them, I never use the onion nor the chives – I just go for some dried herbs like oregano and rosemary]
Preheat oil in a pan. Gently drop scant tablespoonfuls of the lentil batter into the oil. Fry 3-4 spoonfuls at a time turning occasionally until golden. Remove from oil and let drain on a paper-towel-lined platter. Enjoy!
The recipe calls for mayo and chipotle, but honestly, they are already so good I’d eat them straight from the pan!
I hope you’ll make them and enjoy them as much as I do.
Beautiful Kittens! This is a “Recipe Sunday on a Monday” – yesterday has been a very busy day and didn’t really manage to sit down and write. So here we go today! The recipe is for these beautiful and healthy Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies by HealthyLittleVittlle: I know, it’s warm and it’s not ideal to get the oven going, but I need comfort food at least once a week. But here’s the kick: the recipe I am sharing today is also very healthy!
3/4 cup maple sugar* (may substitute with coconut sugar)
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Method
Cook one serving of quinoa per package directions.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the flax eggs by combining the flaxseed meal and water together in a bowl and let it sit to ‘gel up’.
In a large bowl, whisk together the tapioca starch, baking powder and maple sugar. Add the cooked quinoa, vanilla, peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter) and flax eggs to the bowl and mix until a batter forms, then fold in the chocolate chips.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then using a large cookie scoop (about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of batter per cookie), scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet leaving a few inches in between cookies.
Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes, they should just start to look golden- avoid over baking unless you like crunchier cookies.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for about 5 minutes, then using the back of a small bowl or measuring up gently flatten the cookies, not too flat. Let them cool to set up completely and then enjoy!
Happy Sunday, kittens! Here in the UK, we’ve had a couple of days of very spring-y weather with some sunshine, but without being terribly hot. And I feel that this is still muffin weather. I tried this recipe a few days ago and oh, my goodness! it’s just too delectable.
Before reading this recipe, I was thinking I wanted to do something gluten-free and lo and behold, looking through my emails I found the newsletter by Delightful Adventures where she shared her recipe for Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Banana Muffins. It sounded perfect, I had all the ingredients, only a few steps and there you have an amazing result.
The only thing I modified is the flour as I used ground oats: the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour and I used the same amount of ground oats. The result is excellent!
At the same time, I have been a bit more generous in the scooping part, because I have one set of silicone muffin cups and they can yield a good amount of batter, so I got 8 muffins. Which is great because they are the perfect breakfast for the workweek, or you could have them as a quick snack for whenever.
Hello peeps! Today I would like to share something that has helped me for almost 7 years when suffering from chest infections and bronchitis: the tomato and turmeric soup. I hinted in another post that that’s my remedy for this kind of illness, although it hasn’t worked for the Covid symptoms.
Now, I must say that this is not really a recipe of my own, but first of all, despite good research online I haven’t been able to find the original recipe again, and secondly, it is almost 7 years that I’ve been making it and I would say that it is become kind of my recipe, at least the one I am going to write about.
Then
One of the ailments that affected me since I was a child, was chest infections: when I was younger, I suffered these a lot, I got bronchitis so many times (sometimes twice a year) and I also got pneumonia twice (not that it’s something I’m proud of)! But it’s to give you a picture of my health. And obviously, each time meant taking loads of antibiotics. Obviously, when you are young, you just want to get rid of the illness, so you take whatever they can give you, so I took so many medicines.
Now
When I moved to the U.K., roughly 7 years ago, I obviously caught a chest infection. That time I went to the GP and took the antibiotics. However, I started developing the idea that there might be something else to help with chest infection problems. I started looking for information online using keywords such as “natural remedies chest infection”: this research conducted to several of the usual websites when you’re looking for medical assistance, such as WebMD and HealthLine, all of them giving the same remedies such as hot water and tea. [The best result I found is this one – Turmeric Tomato Detox Soup: however, it is not the “original recipe” and I haven’t tried it, so if you decide to make this recipe please let me know!] But then at some point, I found a page on another website providing the recipe of a tomato and turmeric soup perfect for chest infections, giving also all the specifics of how every single ingredient and their measurements worked its magic. The turmeric/black pepper ratio has to be 3:1 in order for them to activate in the right way. With the following recipe, I have been trying to keep those ingredients and measurements.
Since then, I have never had to get chemical antibodies again (and hopefully, it will stay that way!) and I get rid of the infection in 3-4 days.
Before proceeding, I have to say that I decided to share this recipe because is something that has always worked for me and never needed other drugs, but always consider to seek advice from a doctor if you are unsure.
The Recipe
The best way for this recipe to be effective is to use fresh tomatoes, however, tinned tomatoes can also be effective: I’ve made it a couple of times this way because I was out of fresh tomatoes and in no condition of going out to buy them so I used what I had.
Ingredients for two soups:
5-7 big vine tomatoes, chopped;
3 red onions, chopped;
5 garlic cloves, minced;
1 tablespoon olive oil;
1 tablespoon turmeric powder;
1/3 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
Method:
In a pot, heat the olive oil and when hot add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds, then add the onions and cover to let cook until soft. At this point add the tomatoes and cover again for 3 minutes, until the tomatoes have released some juice.
Now add the turmeric and black pepper and give a stir to mix everything. Turn the heat off, cover and let cool off for a few minutes.
Finally, blend everything.
Serve hot.
Note: If you make this for your dinner, be prepared to sweat. A lot. This is great because the concoction is working.
I hope you won’t ever need to make this soup, but if you find yourself afflicted by bronchitis or chest infection and you make this recipe, let me know how it goes for you!
The Vegan Cat Librarian 