Category Archives: Vegetarian & Vegan

My Grandma’s Slow Cooker Red Cabbage

My Grandmother was a lively, determined and courageous woman with great style. She kept a beautiful house, and was also a great cook. Not necessarily exquisite cuisine, but more of an everyday cook. Also super fast and very inventive.

She didn’t own a crock pot in those days, but I do remember her slow cooking on a Paraffin Stove.
Slow cooked Red Cabbage with apples and spices, just the smell reminds me of her and my mother who has cooked the same recipe for over half a century. To me this is home cooking.
I don’t make it very often but when the temperature drops it’s just what you need, home made cozy comfort food.

Serves : 6-8
INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp. butter
1 medium red cabbage, shredded on a mandoline or cut thinly with knife
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped fine
2 medium apples, peeled and diced small
1/4 tsp. ground dry ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground all spice
2 bay leaves
1/4 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 Cups water
1/4 Cup red wine (I use alcohol free wine so that works fine too) or more water

METHOD:
This couldn’t be easier.
Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker, toss very well.
Set the cooker to high and put on the lid. Leave to cook for 5 to 6 hours, depending how hot your slow cooker is. The water amount is just right for my slow cooker, but half way through cooking check to see how you are doing on the liquid, it shouldn’t get dry. Add a little water if necessary.
This is one of the few vegetable dishes that you want well cooked.

Enjoy!

Myra XO

Smokey Black Bean and Sweet potato Tacos with Onion Garlic Lime Crema.

5 Replies

To make the Monday less of a drag I’ve decided to make it Taco Monday!
I think we can all agree that Tacos can turn any dreary day into a fun day in a split second.
It will most certainly ease us into the week gently and give us something great to look forward to when we come home from work. You could actually do all the prep work the day before on Sunday and make dinner time a breeze. Soaking the beans is what takes the longest, because the actual recipe is pretty simple, we want simple on Mondays, am I right? If it’s to much hassle for you to soak the beans and cook, just use two cans instead.
Either way, this is some seriously good food to start off the very first day of the week.
And who am I kidding really, we love Taco’s around here and we’ll have them more than once a week without a problem, different flavours and textures of course, and now that I think about it, it’s probably (one of ) our favourite foods.
So these are different, I have added Sweet Potato. and I can only tell you that I kept on asking myself why I hadn’t thought of this before. The sweet potato is just sooooo good with the smokey beans, I mean KA-POOOW!!

Prep time: 15 min.
Cooking time: 15 min. plus cooking beans
Serves : 4

INGREDIENTS:

SMOKEY BLACK SWEET POTATO TACOS
• 1 lb. dried black beans or adzuki beans
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced or grated
• 2 onions
• 2 tbsp. Taco seasoning
• 2 tsp. liquid smoke
• 2 tsp. cocoa
• 1 tsp. hot sauce (optional for heat lovers)
• 1 12 oz. can passata
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro chopped
• 3 green onions chopped
• Himalayan salt and pepper to taste

ONION GARLIC LIME CREMA
• 1/2 cup (vegan) cream cheese
• 1/2 cup (vegan) sour cream
• 2 tsp garlic powder*
• 1 tbsp. onion powder*
• 1 lime juiced
• salt and pepper taste
• maybe 1-2 tablespoons of milk or water
To serve:
• 12 corn tacos warmed
• Shredded Iceberg lettuce,
• avocado slices
• Grated cheese
• salsa of choice or check out this one.
• more chopped cilantro
* I’m using dried onion and garlic powder on purpose, do not sub for fresh garlic because it will not get the right consistency and flavour. The dried powder will thicken the crema in a way that cannot be achieved with the fresh counterparts.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prepare the beans. Rinse and check beans for any dirt etc. Soak your beans over night.discard the soaking liquid after soaking.
2. Add beans to a large pot with about 5 cups of water. Bring the beans to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the beans are soft, but not quite done. About 45 to 60 minutes. Keep checking, not all beans cook the same. Drain.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Add onion and sweet potatoes and stir. Fry for a couple of minutes and add the garlic, stir.
4. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, until sweet potatoes are just beginning to softened.
5. While the sweet potatoes are cooking make the crema.
6. Place all the ingredients for the Onion Garlic Lime Crema in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add a little water or milk to thin if you like. It will get thicker and thicker as you let it stand.
7. Now add the remaining ingredients to the sweet potatoes except the cilantro and spring onions.
8. Cover and cook another 10 minutes. Add a little water if it becomes to dry.
9. Just before serving add the cilantro and spring onions
10. To assemble, place generous spoonfuls of the sweet potato + bean mixture on top of a bed of Iceberg lettuce in a warm taco. Top with the onion garlic lime crema and avocado, and some cheese or any other topping of choice.

Enjoy!
Myra Xo

Coconut Lime Tempéh with Peanut Sauce and Banana Chips

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 block of tempeh, (16 oz. / 450 gr)
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic
• 1 tbsp. minced ginger
• 1 tbsp. green curry paste
• 1 tsp. sambal oelek
• 1 can coconut milk, preferably full fat
• About 1 cup water
• ½ – 1 tsp salt or fish sauce
• 1 tbsp coconut sugar, or gula java
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• A handful of toasted salted peanuts for serving
• A handful Banana chips for serving
• More lime wedges for serving

INSTRUCTIONS:

Start by cutting the tempeh in half and boiling it on medium heat for 5 minutes.
After this time, remove and set aside to cool.
When cool enough to handle, cut into large-ish chunks, about 1”/ 2.5 cm pieces.
In a large pan heat the coconut oil and add the tempeh. Frying on all sides for about 5 minutes. Remove to a plate and reserve.
Add the finely chopped shallot, garlic and ginger to the pan and cook gently until fragrant.
Add the curry paste and sambal and cook for one more minute. Carefully add the coconut milk, fish sauce or salt, coconut sugar, peanut butter and lime juice. Bring to a simmer.
Add the tempeh and cook for about 15 minutes.
Serve with on a bed of rice, with the toasted peanuts and coconut chips and more lime wedges.

Enjoy!
Myra XO

Roasted Red Pepper and Sun Dried Tomato Fettuccine

9 Replies

A quick Pasta dish, made in minutes. So simple and so good, I mean really, really good. The creaminess from the cashew nuts is so much better than any dairy cream I can think of and it’s also highly nutritious and actually good for you. So what’s not to love, it’s delicious, it’s quick, it’s nutritious, it’s pasta! And honestly, picky eaters are not even going to know they’re eating roasted peppers, win win if you ask me.

Ingredients;

1 lb. Fettuccine, preferably fresh
½ Cup sun dried tomatoes
1 Cup cashew nuts
4 whole roasted peppers from a jar
½ Cup dry white wine
2 cloves garlic
¼ Cup Parmesan cheese
More Parmesan cheese to serve (leave out for vegans)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Handful of Basil
Handful of toasted pine nuts to serve
About 1 – 1 ½ cups of water to thin the sauce.

Instructions;

Soak the sun dried tomatoes in a cup of water for a couple of hours.
And also soak the cashew nuts in a cup of water for a couple of hours.
You can do this the night before or early in the morning.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.
Meanwhile place in a blender; drained sun dried tomatoes, drained cashew nuts, the roasted peppers, the Parmesan cheese, the garlic, white wine, about ½ cup of water to begin with and salt and pepper to taste.
Blend until creamy. Adding just enough water to get it creamy.
When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and reserve a cup of the boiling water.
Return the pasta to the pan straight away and pour over the roasted red pepper sauce, adding enough of the water from the cooking to make it saucy.
Serve immediately with more Parmesan Cheese, toasted pine nuts and Basil.

Enjoy!

Myra Xo