Chickpea Crunch - Recipe

So, what does one do when your craving something to munch, and you really can't justify heading out to buy some junk food??

Chickpeas in the oven!

It can't get much simpler than that.

Here's the recipe below...

Enjoy.

POTATOES! I can't get enough! (Hassleback Recipe)

Recently, I realised how much I admire potatoes for the satisfaction and fill-factor they give me. To me, they're like a blank canvas. You can flavour as you will, and cook to whatever texture you desire! I am hands down a fan of the crunch-factor. Give me a bag of chips/crisps any day!

Although it's easy to cook potatoes like this, I thought it was worth sharing a pic where I thought they looked like gorgeous golden clam shells. I was expecting people for dinner last Friday as wasn't sure whether I would have enough food, so I thought I would break the potatoes in half (after I had prepped them), and voila, double the pieces!

To make Hasselback Baked Potatoes:

- Pre-heat oven to about 220ºC (425ºF).
- Cut large potatoes on half (length ways)
- Slice to create cuts seen in the pic (but don't cut all the way through!)
- Lay on lightly oiled baking dish, spay lightly in oil.
- Season with you favorite flavours.
- Cover in tin foil.
- Place in Oven for 40-50mins. Check on them every now and then. You are looking for a golden colour, with a but of crunch around the edges.

For this dish I flavoured it with a bit of salt and pepper as it was going to be served with a gravy.

Enjoy.

Kolhrab Again...

Since I discovered what Kohlrabi was, and since I discovered that I can use it to make Som Tom, I was as pleased as ever to receive it again in my veggie box delivery this week.

The recipe using Kohlrabi can be found on a previous post here. Today I thought I would play around with my camera, and voila, I think my photo turned out not bad thank you very much. BUT I realised that I had forgotten a vital ingredient :( Can you guess what it is?

Spring Greens Recipe

Spring Greens! Yum O! I love how earthy and wholesome spring greens are. The last time I used spring greens it was an experiment gone right! So I thought I would share with you today a meal made in less than 5 mins.

You will need:

• Old rice (preferably from the day before, from fridge is great. Don't use freshly cooked rice, otherwise it will be more like a porridge)
• Spring greens
• Ginger powder
• Korean red pepper powder (the kind to make kimchi)
• Juice from half an orange
• Soy sauce

Directions:

1. Place cold rice in pan, and add heat. You may need to add some spoons of water if the rice is hard
2. Cut spring greens while the rice is cooking, add to pan. 
3. Season with ginger powder, red pepper powder, and  little soy sauce.
4. When the spring greens are starting to limp, squeeze the juice from half and orange into the dish.

No quantities have been added as this is well, a left-overs dish. So be sure to taste what you're adding to get the flavour just right. The flavour is slightly reminiscent of Kimchi, but has a tangy, sweet earthy feel all at once.. And the best thing, it only take a few minutes to prepare so long as you have some left over rice. 

Enjoy. 

Kohlrabi Recipes - Including my Favourite Thai dish Som Tom

Som Tom using kohlrabi!

A few days ago I declared my absolute ignorance to a vegetable I now know as kohlrabi. After reading the suggested uses from the comments on my post, the thought came to me that I might be able to use this as a substitute in som tom instead of a papaya. Here in the UK, I've never come across the kind of papaya that is right for this dish. It needs to be mostly green, with a tiny bit of yellow coming through.

Traditionally, som tom is made using unripe papaya and fish sauce. However, I've made a few alterations, which I promise doesn't destroy the quality of this dish*. The first change was using salt instead of fish sauce. Fish sauce is.. well.. from fish.. this doesn't quite site well with me, and has an interesting smell to it. And the second change (recently discovered substitute), is using kohlrabi instead of papaya.

Ingredients:
• 1 kohlrabi peeled and grated
• 1 large tomato cute into thin wedges
• 1 grated carrot (option. bulks up and adds colour)
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• Fresh chili or chili flakes (add to taste)
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 lime (add more to taste)
• Roasted peanuts

Instructions:
• Place grated kohlrabi into a pestle and mortar, toss in tomato wedges and finely chopped garlic. Bash this together so the tomatoes have lost their shape.
• Add all the flavouring (salt, sugar, lime juice, chili), and continue to bash for 1-2 minutes.
• Taste. If you find it very sour, add some sugar. Or too sweet, add some lemon and a tiny pinch of salt.
• Finally, add freshly roasted and crushed peanut to this dish.

That's it! Easy hey? If you know how to use your taste buds while you're cooking, you are not going to be disappointed!

You can eat this with ordinary rice, vermicelli noodles, as a side salad, or my favourite - sticky rice!

Other ideas that came from some viewers were:

From Fredelimaliya: Cook in salty water like a potato, and serve with "bechamel" (white sauce) sauce.
From Fredelimaliya: Cut into little pieces and use in a green salad.
From Fredelimaliya: Thinly sliced, braded and then fried.
From Melissa: Peel it, sprinkle with salt, and eat it! (Melissa insists this must be done while sitting out the back in the sunlight. I agree.)

There you have it. I've had a wonderful introduction to using kohlrabi, and I can't wait to have some more to make one of my favourite dish som tom!



* How do I know that substituting fish sauce with salt works just as well? Because I use to have fish sauce, as only at the beginning of last year have I become 100% vegetarian. Trust me.. it works.

Strange Vegetable

Do you know what this vegetable is?

I would be incredibly impressed if you did! 

I don't think I've ever seen it before, nor can I say I've eaten it before! 

It arrived last week with my organic food box which I get delivered every week. I saw it on the list and thought I would leave it there, as there is no best way to try new things, than to... well.. try new things. 

Kohl Rabi is what it is. Kohl Rabi (aka German turnip), is a relative of the Cabbage family. It can be raw or cooked, and has a similar taste to that of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart. While this is important to know (and thank you to Wikipedia for being my source of knowledge) my priority is to find a recipe to pleasantly digest this alien of a vegetable. 

The best recipe I found was a Kohl Slaw dish found at Easy Peasy Organic via Foodgawker.

I'll have to make a few small exception to the dressing that I use (clementines and lemon instead of grapefruit, and egg-free mayo), but hope it will be a refreshing salad to add to my recipe repertoire. 

If you've had any experience using Kohl Rabi, I would love to hear about it. I'll be making whatever it may be in 24-hours. 

Until then... keep smiling :)

BEST Pizza Dough Ever Recipe (and 5-minute sauce to accompany)

Image from 101 Cookbooks

When I saw the heading "BEST Pizza Dough Ever Recipe" from 101 Cookbooks, I knew I had to give it a chance.

Pizza - and making it from scratch has become a regular for Mark and I this year. It might sounds odd seeing as we cook vegan food, BUT, I believe goumet pizzas taste just as good without the cheese. It sort of loses the fast food greasy factor, and becomes and savory gourmet delight.

The pizza recipe is fairly long, but followed precisely, and you WON'T disappointed. You will need to plan beforehand though, because the dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for 24-hours. This was also the first time that I had made pizza dough and not had to use a rolling pin to get a pizza shape from the ball of dough. I felt like such a pro trying to gently stretch the dough by bouncing it on my fist - my love just laughed and said he didn't think that's how "they" do it... well it turned out very well thank you very much!

To top this recipe off, is an incredibly quick and seriously addictive tomato sauce. We were lucky to have left over sauce which we used to dip toast into. The 5-minute sauce can be found here.

Now let me assure you, I'm not just posting this for the sake of having a post. I have tried this.. and I can't see myself ever making pizza dough or the sauce for that matter in any other way (well, unless the Bestest recipe comes out).

Bon Appetite!

Edible Spoons and Bread Soup Bowl - Tutorial

Edible Soup Spoons and Bowl...

After recently discovering that I am indeed capable of making bread, in true style, I've tried to be as creative as I can! But, to be fair, "edible bread spoons" was my husband's idea. I'm sure I'm not the first to make these, but I dare not look (as I had a lot of fun making these up myself).

1. First you'll Need some dough. I decided to make a dough without yeast so that it was easier to make a flat spoon shape.

Ingredients: 325g flour, 1tbs salt, 1/2 tbs sugar, 200ml of warm water.

To make the dough: mix all the dry ingredients together, then add water and kneed with hands. Once you have a nice consistency, you're ready to go!

Prepare the work surface with flour

Dust Bowl with Flour

After rolling dough flat lay over bowl,
press into the blow shape, and cut off
excess dough around the edges.

Now that your bowl is ready, time to make the spoons!

Using a regular spoon, press top of
spoon into dough as shown,
then using the end of the spoon
do the same. (Try to get them
roughly the same size)

Using a knife draw lines from the

top curve to the bottom to

complete the spoon shape.

Next, align spoons in a (well I don't know what you call this tray???)... I don't even know what you would use it for? My neighbour gave a whole bunch to me a while ago. Can anyone shed any light?

Press the bowl of the spoon into the tray bowls.

Bake in Oven!!!

I baked mine in the oven for around 35 minutes at 195C (380F). Keep an eye on them, as cooking time will vary from each person.

Edible Bread Bowl and Spoon!

Filled with homemade Broccoli soup!

Verdict: My husband and I really enjoyed dinner tonight! It was cool to be eating from bread spoons - in fact, we didn't even use normal cutlery at all! The spoons were really crunchy, but still enjoyable.

Fancy a completely edible meal??