Oh, I was so busy with projects at work that completely stopped posting. And I should confess I missed writing new recipes and while if that would be wonderful to stop eating completely I haven’t stopped cooking, using my already written recipes.
The Salad with Fennel, Dill and Watercress became one of our favorite salads after the salad with tomatoes and cucumbers with the sunflower oil, onion and dill (that is what we called “The Salad” in Russia and I might tell one day a related anecdote that happened with me on my first visit to the restaurant in the U.S.). To make it lighter and as a compliment to other dishes I started skipping on nuts, and also found out that the hazelnut oil is the best oil to use in this salad.
We continue enjoying Soba with Miso Soup and praising a wise culinary traditions of Japan. In our non-vegan life, the best food after a long hike was considered (at least by me) a cheeseburger; now it is a miso soup. On a way back from our recent hike we stopped to buy shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, sake, and green onion. And just in 10 minutes after being at home we enjoyed Soba with Miso Soup with warm sake (that was cold and windy in the mountains and we were cold).
Green Couscous Salad became our favorite too. It is so warm and calming. Now, when I think about “comfort” food I think about this salad.
Hummus became our butter, liver-pate, caviar, and everything else what we used to put on the toasted bread in the past. I make a fresh hummus almost every 3-4 days. To make it juicy I don’t drain the beans completely, and to make the hummus suitable for longer life in the refrigerator, I use hot freshly cooked (or reheated) beans and divide the hummus (made from 1 cup of dry beans) into 2 jars: one is tightly packed for storage for a couple of days and another for immediate use.
We continue making fruit juice in the morning and vegetable in the evening. And therefore I made plenty of times Muffins with Fruit Pulp with different kinds of pulp. The recipe works for the pulp from any fruits and berries. I don’t write down what we make juice from. But we started making names for some combinations. Thus, “Hawaiian Juice” is a juice made from one small golden papaya, a third of a large pineapple, 2 oranges or Mineola, and a half of a pound of strawberries. I also try to memorize which fruits don’t go together; for example, cherries seem to not work with a melon, a watermelon is tricky to find a partner to. Apples, oranges, kiwi and pears work with almost any other fruits and berries.
Barley with Tomatoes and Herbs is something what I like to make when there is no fresh produce in the refrigerator. It takes only barley, canned tomatoes and dry herbs. But the nutritional yeast is the must! Its taste so resembles cheese that I feel a bit of addiction to the yeast (funny, ah?).
On a mushroom note, I cooked Mushroom Vegetable Soup and made a mushroom stew with Red Chard as in this recipe Black-eyed Peas with Mushrooms and Greens.
We ate tofu only on two occasions, and both times I fried it marinated in the mixture of soy sauce (2 Tbsp), sesame oil (1 Tbsp), rice vinegar (1 tsp), maple syrup (1 Tbsp) and Sriracha (hot chili sauce; ½ tsp) — this is for 12 oz of firm tofu. It is amazing meal served with soba noodles sprinkled with the marinade left from tofu.
I also made the lentil stew with the red chard. But this is a story for the next post.
