Tag Archives: spinach

cooked, main dishes, salads

Chana Masala Salad with Dried Tomatoes

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This is the simpler version of the Chana Masala, a rather sophisticated dish that might require some time when all things are done from scratch. So, this one goes to all of you who are new into Indian cooking and still want your leafy veggies in your plate 🙂

You start by cooking the chickpeas over the pressure cooker, adding a piece of whole cinnamon, cumin seeds and salt. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the yummy stuff: cut the onions finely, make a ginger garlic cream (simply mix it together with an immersion blender and a tad of water), slice half of a chilly and some dried tomatoes (if they’re hard, make sure you hydrate them in advance).

When your chickpeas are ready, put them aside to rest and fry the onions, the garlic-ginger cream and chillies with little oil and salt (use a skillet pan or a wok for that). When their water evaporates, add some chickpeas stock, sprinkle ground cumin and cinnamon, stir well and leave them to cook for a bit. Then add the chickpeas (a bit more stock is fine as well) and stir over the fire for another 5 to 10 minutes. You can use a fork or a special utensil to crush some of the beans.

Now the last details: take out the seeds of a pomegranate and prepare the fresh leaves you want to use – it can be spinach, kale, coriander, etc. When the chickpeas are not so hot anymore, mix everything together and, if you feel like, add some olive oil & lemon and sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

cooked, dressings, main dishes

Cashew Dipped Pleurotus with Veggies

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Best recipes never come alone. They come with friends, with ‘no-plans’ evenings and intuition boosts. This one started from Li’s proposal to make some vegan tripe soup, a supposedly superdelicious substitute dish for the original one. Not that I’d have any idea about the resembling taste… okay let’s do it!

That being said, we haven’t cared much about the recipe and basically wove around what was in the fridge. Back home, after one or two more experiments likewise, I ended up with this beautiful yellowish sauté, where leek slices, celery shreds and squash pieces are mildly spiced and dipped together with pleurotus in a rich cashew cream. Here’s how it goes:

Turn the veggies in the size you wish them to be, having in mind the texture you want to create. Being essentially a stir-fry, it won’t stay more than 15-20min over the fire, so move quickly.

Prepare the cashew cream by mixing soaked cashew nuts with water, lemon and salt in a high power blender.

Prepare the seasoning: crush a few cloves of garlic, cut in very fine pieces some ginger and ground some pepper. Now fry them in little oil and be sure they won’t stay as long as to be making a crust. Scramble in your favorite kind of tofu cut in small pieces (I used smoked tofu) and sprinkle pepper and turmeric and/or chilly flakes, if you wish.

Immediately after add the mushrooms and cover until they turn watery. Remove the lid and cook 5 minutes more, then add celery, leek and only at the end, squash. Stir gently from time to time to keep texture firm. Pour the cashew cream and serve with kale or spinach leaves and optional, slices of raw red onions. Squeeze more lemon to your taste. Enjoy!

 

 

 

cooked, main dishes

Indian Potatoes Crush

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Indian food…mmmm! I admit I have a crush. And it’s actually a crush on spices and enhanced flavors that I’m infatuated about. Although my eyes haven’t dropped on any reliable health claim on the methods of heating up the spices, my experience is that as long as it’s not oil & starch overloaded and of course, not in big quantities (which can be a bit tricky due to the typical thali ‘refill’ 🙂 traditional Indian food feels good in the body.

So let’s have a look at how spices can add up to such a common dish as potatoes.

First of all, any introduction to Indian cooking involves getting acquainted to chillies, onion, garlic, ginger, coconut & a lot of whole and ground spices. And subsequently to frying them at high heat in a drop of oil (not always, but most usual). The order in the pan starts with the tougher spices (cinnamon bark, star anise, cloves, black pepper, dried red chillies), followed by the seeds (mustard, cumin, fennel, coriander, nigella, etc) so by the time they start popping, they can all be incorporated with the onions (together with fresh chillies, garlic, ginger and so on). One must pay a lot of attention not to burn the spices, at least until the onions step in. The last ones to come are the ground spices, the powders (turmeric, cumin, coriander, different masalas, etc)

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Once you develop the skills, you can start playing 🙂 Here I used a combination of black mustard, cumin, fennel & nigella seeds with chilly flakes, onions, ground turmeric and cumin. When the base was getting ready – the onions turning yellowish – I added the new potatoes, previously halved and boiled in salted turmeric water. Cook everything together for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Now bring some European touch to it 😛 chop some fresh coriander, spinach or spring onions and peel some carrot slices to balance the taste and make it look even better!

list of ingredients

  • (new) potatoes
  • onions
  • mustard seeds
  • nigella seeds
  • fennel seeds
  • chilly flakes (fresh ones as well)
  • ground turmeric
  • ground cumin
  • cooking oil
  • salt
  • fresh coriander/ spinach/ spring onions/ carrot