Kale Chips w Curry, Thyme & Garlic

Kale Chips w Curry, Thyme & Garlic
Kale chips come in all sorts of flavours nowadays, and many of them are really yum. But, they are still quite expensive, and if you have your own dehydrator, it makes much more sense to make them yourself, not only financially, but also because you can flavour them exactly as you like! They are easy to prepare, and this recipe is just one of the many varieties you can make.
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan, raw
Recipe type: snack
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
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You need
  • 1 bag of curly kale leaves (about 5 leaves)
  • 3.5 tbsp Cashew Cream (mine was quite thick)
  • 1 tbsp toum (or garlic paste, and add ½ tbsp olive oil extra)
  • 1 tbsp dried thyme
  • 2 tsp mild curry powder (or hot, if you prefer)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp water (optional)
To do
  1. rip all the soft bits of the stem, roughly tear them up (you want them to fit in your dehydrator) and place in a large bowl
  2. in a small bowl, mix all the other ingredients except for the water
  3. pour the mixture over the kale and use your hands to coat all bits and pieces
  4. if you find the cashew mix is a tad too thick and the leaves have too many dry spots, add the water to the kale in the bowl and massage again
  5. place pieces on your dehydrator trays (without sheet but with mesh)
  6. put trays in dehydrator and run it at 45 or 46C for a few hours; check now and then to see if the leaves have the desired crispiness. If you prefer to dehydrate at a lower temp, it will just take a bit longer. If you have very curly bits, you may want to turn them over during drying.

 

Toum for Garlic Addicts

Toum for Garlic Addicts
Toum is Lebanese for 'garlic', but if you order toum in a restaurant, you'll get this garlic paste. Sometimes made with egg white, but not necessarily. I had a go at making toum the traditional way with a mortar and pestle, which turned out tasting alright but not very fluffy, so I decided maybe I'm just not tough enough and tried it the electrical way. I used the small bowl of my food processor (a Kenwood, with only a single speed setting). Well, that worked out super fluffy! It is incredibly easy to make, but don't rush it or you'll ruin it. If you have a machine with more than 1 speed, I'd go for medium fast or just a tad faster, but no need to go at top speed. This is delicious in many ways, my current favorite is to spread it on the inside of a warm pita and stuff the pita with lettuce, coriander, rocket and apple 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan, Libanese
Recipe type: Condiment, life saver, necessity
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • 2 heads of garlic
  • 2 cups of oil (I used rice bran oil, you can also use sunflower oil, it has to be rather tasteless)
  • 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • a generous pinch of salt (Himalayan, in my case, as always)
To do
  1. peel the garlic and add to the small bowl of your food processor
  2. add your salt
  3. run machine for about 20 seconds, scrape sides and repeat
  4. the moment the garlic sticks to the sides, you can start adding half a cup of oil
  5. you do this VERY slowly, in a tiny stream. I used the 'funnel', for lack of better word, that comes with the machine and is perfect for this purpose - you'll see the oil and garlic start to become a nice homogenous mass.
  6. after half a cup, add ½ teaspoon of lemon juice
  7. start adding oil again very slowly, half a cup, then add lemon juice again
  8. continue till all is finished.
Notes
This recipe makes about half a liter of fluffy toum. Keep in a container in the fridge.

 

Roasted Sweet Potato w Thyme, Garlic & Sesame Oil

Roasted Sweet Potato w Thyme, Garlic & Sesame Oil
A simple side dish, but with the lovely flavours of toasted sesame oil and thyme 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: side dish
Serves: 2
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
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You need
  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 2-3 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp of minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp of dried thyme
  • 1 tsp of Himalayan rock salt
To do
  1. preheat oven to 200C
  2. mix the oil, garlic, thyme and salt
  3. peel the potato, cut in cubes and place in oven dish
  4. pour oil mixture over potatoes and toss to coat
  5. place in oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until soft and browned to your liking

 

Beetroot, Celery & Orange Soup w Dill & Garlic Cream

Beetroot, Celery & Orange Soup w Dill & Garlic Cream
Perfectly balanced, you can taste the celery, and you can taste the beetroot without the celery being overbearing. But what finishes it is the orange zest and the dill & garlic cream, they are great flavour additions 🙂
Prepared by:
Serves: 5-6
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
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You need
  • 2 medium beetroots, chopped
  • 1 large stalks of celery (I used 3 really thin ones from the garden), chopped
  • 1 medium potato, chopped
  • 2 tbsp of vegetable stock powder
  • 1.5 liters water (or omit stock powder and use vegetable stock)
  • 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  • a few cloves of garlic, chopped
  • ½ large onion, chopped or sliced
  • juice and pulp of 1 orange
  • zest of oranges, 1 tsp per serve
  • 1 tsp of Himalayan rock salt
  • a generous grind of pepper
  • a dash of oil
For the Dill & Garlic cream:
  • half a cup of Cashew Cream
  • 2 tsp of dried dill
  • juice of 1 small lemon
  • zest of ½ lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • salt & pepper to taste
To do
  1. heat the oil in a large pan, add chopped garlic and onion and stir fry for a minute
  2. add chopped vegetables, stir fry for a few minutes
  3. add water and stock powder
  4. add orange juice & pulp and coriander seeds
  5. boil till vegetables are soft
  6. blend the soup, taste and add salt & pepper as you like
  7. you could either serve the cream on the side for people to help themselves, or place a nice dollop in the middle (or draw a stickman)
  8. just before you serve, top with a teaspoon of orange zest per bowl

 

Steamed Rice w Capsicum, Onion, Garlic & Mint

Steamed Rice w Capsicum, Onion, Garlic & Mint
With a kitchen being renovated (no stove, no tap, no bench top, really good!), I used only a steamer to make this easy meal for two.
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: main
Serves: 2
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • one cup of rice
  • 1 capsicum, sliced
  • 1 small white onion, sliced thinly
  • 1-1.5 clove of garlic, raw and grated (or less if you're less of a garlic lover 😉 )
  • a small hand of fresh mint leafs, chopped
  • olive oil
  • chilli salt or something similar spicy
To do
  1. steam the rice for 30 minutes (in the designated bowl, with 1 cup of water)
  2. after 22 minutes, add another steam basket, and put the capsicum and onion in it
  3. steam to the end of the 30 minutes
  4. in the meantime, grate the garlic
  5. when rice is ready, mix all cooked ingredients, add the chilli salt, raw garlic and mint, and pour a dash of olive oil over the top
  6. taste and tweak the hot stuff if you like 🙂

 

Garlic & Kaffir Lime Leaf Soup

Garlic & Kaffir Lime Leaf Soup
If you want to treat your neighbours to a nice cloud of garlic, do make this soup 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: soup
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
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You need
  • 3 cloves of elephant garlic, or 9-10 small cloves
  • 4 small kaffir lime leafs
  • about 3 tbsp of olive oil
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes
  • 1 liter of water
  • lots of pepper
  • salt to taste (but probably not necessary)
To do
  1. grate ¾ of the garlic, chop the remaining ¼
  2. add the oil to a pan, heat it and add the chopped garlic
  3. let the garlic brown, then add the water, stock cubes and kaffir lime leafs
  4. stir and let come to the boil and then add the grated garlic
  5. let simmer for 15 minutes, then blend the soup in your blender or with a stick blender (take the leafs out before you blend)
Notes
You can serve it straight away or put the leafs back and keep till later.
Of course you can also use this soup as a base for many other soups 🙂

 

Garlic & Thyme Cheeze

Garlic & Thyme Cheeze
It doesn't have to be cheese! Nut cheese may never taste like real cheese - it just isn't that oily - but it looks great, it tastes great, it slices, cubes and it melts! Pretty good! :-),
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: cheeze, vegan alternatives
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp of cashews
  • 3 tsp of garlic powder
  • 3 tsp of onion flakes
  • 1¼ tsp Himalayan rock salt
  • 2 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves (or 1 of dried thyme)
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tbsp of nutritional yeast
  • 8 tsp agar agar powder
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp of miso (preferably light miso)
  • 1¾ cup of non-dairy milk (I used a combination of rice milk and almond milk)
  • ¼ cup of rice bran oil (or other oil you prefer)
To do
  1. grind the nuts in the small bowl of your food processor till fine
  2. add garlic, onion flakes, salt, thyme, turmeric and nutritional yeast
  3. in a small sauce pan, bring the milk with the agar to the boil, making sure all the agar is dissolved
  4. with the machine running, pour the agar mixture into the bowl
  5. add lemon juice, miso and slowly pour oil in
  6. let run till all nice and smooth
  7. pour into plastic or silicon container and place in fridge for about 4 hours
  8. take out of mould and that's it 🙂
Notes
Keep in fridge, it will stay fine for weeks. It melts, so you can use it on pizzas, for toasties, stir it into your pasta dishes, ahh... anything 🙂

 

Dill, Garlic & Tomato Skins Dip

Dill, Garlic & Tomato Skins Dip

Dill, Garlic & Tomato Skins Dip

 

Another dip to use the tomato skins that are left over when you made a skinless tomato sauce.

•     3/4 cup of tomato skins
•     1/2 cup of Cashew Cream
•     2 tsp minced garlic
•     1 tbsp of dried dill
•     salt and a decent amount of pepper

Way to go about it:

– add the tomato skins & Cashew Cream to your blender, blend till nice and smooth (or not so smooth if you prefer)
– add garlic (start with 1 tsp, as I looooove garlic and tend to use a lot), dill, some salt and the pepper
– blend quickly again
– taste and tweak

Serve with anything! I have used it on home made pizza as base sauce, mmmm 🙂

 

Faux Smoked Salmon Paté

Faux Smoked Salmon Paté
Well, there definitely is something fishy about this paté! It was a lucky shot, to be honest, but I was pretty surprised it indeed tastes like smoked salmon... and I wasn't even aiming for it! But there you go 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: condiments
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • 1 cup pine nuts
  • 2 cups hemp milk (I guess you can use other non dairy milk, but flavour may slightly change)
  • ⅛ cup agar agar powder (or ¼ cup for flakes)
  • 2 tbsp vegetable broth powder
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika powder
  • 1.5 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp Himalayan Rock salt
  • 2 pinches of chilli powder
  • ½ tsp of liquid smoke
  • a little oil to grease your bowl, in case you don't use plastic or silicon
To do
  1. add pine nuts, paprika powder, garlic, salt, chilli powder and liquid smoke to the small bowl of your kitchen machine (with a blade) and run it till the mixture is nice and fine.
  2. in a small sauce pan, heat the hemp milk with stock powder and the agar agar powder and bring to the boil, stirring regularly
  3. when dissolved, add the liquid agar mix to the running kitchen machine, and let run for a few minutes. You want the mixture to be completely smooth
  4. when done, pour in 2 small, greased bowls or ramekins, or 1 bigger one.
  5. put in fridge and let set and rest for a few hours
  6. when set, turn upside down on a small plate and done! You may have to slide a knife along side the edges for the paté to come out.
Notes
Done. Keep in fridge, and eat on toast, biccies, raw veggies, whatever you like 🙂

 

 

 

Cucumber Canapé’s w Dill & Asafoetida Dip

Cucumber Canapé's w Dill & Asatoetida Dip

Cucumber Canapé’s w Dill & Asafoetida Dip

These are lovely, tasteful canapés. Bit different, as asafoetida is not very common, or at least not used too often in the western kitchen.

♦   3/4 cup Cashew Cream
♦   2 tsp dried dill
♦   1.5 tsp asafoetida
♦   2 small cloves of garlic, minced
♦   salt to taste
♦   Spring onion, finely sliced
♦   Sweet paprika powder (do not omit!)
♦   Cucumber slices

You do (for the dip):
– mix everything but the salt (and the cucumber, of course)
– add salt to taste

Top cucumber slices with dip, spring onion and sweet paprika powder.

If you want this as a dressing, then dilute with a non dairy milk.