VWAV's (Fava Beans &) Quinoa Croquettes and Corn Chowder

It was one of those days when I was out of inspiration and looked at VWAV for ideas. I decided upon the black eyed peas and quinoa croquettes with corn chowder since I had 5 ears of corn at home. Unfortunately, I realised I had only fava beans or kidney beans at home. So I decided to swap the black eyed peas for fava beans. This made a decent meal, something different from the usual fare but again I think I need to work on the spice level a bit to suit our taste. It makes a pretty presentation for parties though!

VWAV's Mashed Potatoes and Chickpea Gravy

The first dish I made after acquiring the Vegan With a Vengeance was the mashed potato and chickpea gravy. The chickpea gravy had received rave reviews and so I decided to try it. It was pretty good and interesting but I found that it was a bit bland for my taste. I also made the the tempeh crumble from VWAV but I didn't quite care for it. I think the recipes are a good base to start but I'll probably have to tweak it to suit my taste. 

Only For Beet Lovers...

I was running low on veg stocks and since it was prior to CNY, I couldn't bring myself to brave the throngs of crowd in supermarkets to buy veg. So, I digged about and found a pair of beets waiting to be used. Somehow, just the day before or so, I caught a glimpse of the Rachel Ray Show and she was making drunken spaghetti in beets. Her version was to cook the pasta in red wine and add the sauteed beets to it. I decided to do it a little different by cooking the beets and pasta separately and tossing them in together. I loved the deep burgundy red of the pasta as the beets stained it beautifully. Topped off with some Chinese celery for contrast, it made a rather tasty meal for me. Hubby has never liked beets, but he did enjoy the pasta minus the shredded beets. He suggested alternatively to puree the beets into a sauce. Maybe I'll do that the next time round. 

Recipe for Beets Spaghetti (For 2 ample servings)

2 small beets (or 1 medium beet)

1 onion, sliced

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp of chilli powder (reduce/increase to preference)

1 tbsp of nutritional yeast (adds a nice 'chickeny' taste to it)

salt to taste

Olive oil

Sufficient pasta for two.

Some Chinese celery/spring onions for garnish

Method:

1) Prepare beets - I trimmed the sprouts of the beets, scrubbed and boiled it whole for about 15 mins to 20 mins. After which, I peeled parts of the beets that I found offensive and left the other bits of skin on. (The beet's skin is edible. Just make sure to remove all the soil and dirt) 

2) I julienned the beets but I think a food processor will easily do the job as well. 

3) In a pan, heat some olive oil and add the onions and garlic and saute until brown and fragrant. Add chilli powder and continue to saute until its cooked. (At this point the chilli powder might stick to the pan, I usually add a tiny bit of water instead of oil)

4) Add the beets and salt to taste and saute until it is completely cooked. It should go limpy. It will taste pretty good by itself now. For a more savoury taste, add nutritional yeast.

5) Prepare pasta according to package instruction. Once cooked, drain most of the water away, leaving the pasta a little wet. Throw in the beets, toss and serve.

6) Garnish with spring onions or Chinese celery

Vegan Mee Rebus

I'm quite ashamed of myself for not updating the blog regularly. My parents have returned from India which means, my mum cooks most of my meals now :) I've also started on my classes, so that means I have little time outside work to actually do the things that I like.... I know these are excuses, but I will get down to more blogging soon ;) 

This is a vegan mee rebus that I did for my hubby one day when I was running out of ideas on what to cook. I didn't want to make the same old stir fried noodles and hubby just didn't want rice. So I settled for mee rebus. This is a traditional noodle dish of Malay/Indian origin, consisting of yellow noodles in a stock made from mashed sweet potatoes, shrimps and mutton/beef. For my vegan version, I took inspiration from Crystal's recipe and this. Unfortunately, I can't remember how I did it now, I just added a handful of this and that, but I do know that I added some vegetarian sambal belachan, curry powder, a piece of galangal, vegetarian salted fish (soaked and ground) and about 300g of japanese sweet potato (as suggested by crystal) among other things.

To increase the nutritional value, I topped with some beans sprout and bean curd puffs. Traditionally it comes topped with an egg. My hubby liked it but he did say that it does not taste like the 'real deal'. I've never been a fan of mee rebus so I suppose I have not registered the exact taste of it!