Vegan
A very unusual cassoulet – Vegetarian cassoulet with trout beans and wild mushrooms for guest post
Aug 30th
Un cassoulet peu traditionnel – Cassoulet vegetarien aux haricots pour Five Star Foodie
Natasha from Five Star Foodie kindly requested me if I could be one of her participants for a contest she is holding on her blog. I was of course extremely flattered but to be honest, most of the time, I tend to refuse those types of contests, because I am always concerned of not having the freedom to use what I want and obliged to use what I don’t want, resulting in a dish that is not really truthful to what I really enjoy.
I was very happily surprised when I received a nice little package from Marx Foods with a lot of delightful gourmet ingredients. Basically, the theme of this contest is to take a traditional dish, twist it around and make it un-traditional while incorporating some of the ingredients from Marx Foods.
After a lot of thoughts, I decided to go ahead and chose a very traditional and rustic French dish from Languedoc-Roussillon region called “cassoulet“, for the “connaisseurs” of French cuisine, this might not be unknown. It’s a white bean based dish cooked for hours, with a lot of different kinds of meats such as duck, goose, pork, etc…The beans are cooked for a very long time, resulting in unctuous beans melting in your mouth. In this “Cassoulet revisited“recipe, I used beans…dried porcini, black trumpets, chanterelles mushrooms and flor de sal, all coming from from Marx Foods.
I have to say that I prefer this vegetarian version (vegan) of the cassoulet than the traditional one which tends to be on the heavy side. The wild mushrooms add a rich and incredible woodsy flavor to this composition and will make carnivores forget that there is no meat in the dish. This is a very addictive meal, it’s hard to stop at the first bite, I almost ate the whole pot (and I am not talking about this tiny one on the picture) by myself.
Go check out Five Star Foodie for the recipe…and let us know what you think!
Back to Provence – Tian Provencal and tapenade tartine
Jul 24th
De retour en Provence – Tian Provençal et tartine de tapenade
Tian is a traditional dish from Provence, and should be made in a clay dish…since I just broke mine, I had to use a Pyrex one. The vegetables are sliced thinly, placed upright and cooked in the oven for a long time. You can add goat cheese as well, but I wanted to keep it vegan and light, so to get additional Mediterranean flavors, I served it with a tapenade tartine. This is a very simple dish to make yet delicious due to the slow cooking of the vegetables and all the herbs that have infused in it.
Of course, there are various recipes for tian, some people don’t add onions, but fennel, or potatoes, but tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants should always be around. You can play around with herbs, cheese, etc…but I wanted to keep it simple. Sometimes I like simple flavors and don’t want to add too many intricate and complex flavors into a dish. The slow cooking turned the vegetable almost “confits” in the herbs and own juices.
Usually tians are served with grilled meats or fishes, they add wonderful aromas to a dish. I have to admit that I ate the whole tian by myself and was still hungry. Usually this would be sufficient for four, if you serve it with a fish or meat, or also rice in case you want to keep it vegetarian. It really depends on how much vegetables your guests can eat. Quand on aime, on ne compte pas, that’s what the French say, when you love, you don’t count…which is true for many things. The tapenade tartine is a nice element if you want to keep your meal vegan, that olive spread is simply divine with this tian.
Ingredients for 3-4
- 3 large tomatoes, sliced crosswise
- 3 zucchini, sliced crosswise
- 2 medium eggplants, sliced crosswise
- 1 onion,
- lavender salt
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
- 1 tsp basil, chopped finely
- 2 tbs olive oil
- pepper
For the tapenade, see recipe here
Preparation
Spread some olive oil, all over the dish, preferably a clay dish.
Place all vegetables upright in the dish, alternating between a slice of tomato, two slices of zucchini (since the zucchini tend to be smaller), one slice of eggplant, and onion. The vegetables need to be tightly arranged so they stand still.
Add herbs and garlic, sprinkle with lavender salt and pepper. Add olive oil all over the vegetables.
Cover with aluminium foil and cook in a pre heated oven at 365-370 for about 40-45 minutes. Remove the foil and let the vegetables get golden brown.
The other grean bean – Curry Mung beans galettes and tofu-garlic dipping sauce
Jul 19th
L’autre haricot vert – Galettes de haricots mung au curry, et sauce tofu à l’ail
I don’t often cook with mung beans, but once in a while I like to eat them, they’re so cute and round and tiny with a little white eye staring at you.
Of course, I didn’t grow up eating those beans since they’re mainly used in Asian cuisine, and growing up Asian cuisine was not part of my diet.
I remember in Nancy, the first time I ate Asian food, was in a Vietnamese restaurant, the only one in town, I must have been 13 year old (so it’s been a long time!), it was located in a gallery (and still is).
Then I used crab mushrooms, as an accompaniment, those look like beech mushrooms to me, but they seem to be different. I saw a box of crab mushroom at the Asian store, next to a box of beech mushrooms so I came to the conclusion that they’re two different kinds of mushrooms. If I am wrong, please let me know. I would love to know.
The exciting part of this dish is that it’s vegan…and absolutely delicious. The tofu dipping sauce is so creamy and fragrant that the non-tofu friendly crowd will forget it’s tofu. I used regular tofu but silken tofu would be even better. Do not be intimidated by tofu, it’s such a versatile little ingredients and due to its neutral flavor, you can create so many dipping sauces an have a tofu makeover session! it’s so much fun to play with it!
Ingredients for about 10-12 galettes
For the galettes
- 170 g dried mung beans
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 poblano pepper, finely diced
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 leek, finely chopped
- 1 tsp curry powder
- a dash of soy sauce
- 2 tsp roasted sesame seeds
- 2 tbs mint, chopped
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the mushrooms
- 1 box of crab mushrooms
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp mirin
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
For the tofu dipping sauce
- 1/4 lb tofu
- 2 tbs soy yogurt
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Preparation
For the galettes
Cook mung beans in water until tender. Drain well and let cool. Mash with a potato masher or with your hands.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add peppers, and leeks and cook until tender. Add carrots and stir for a few minutes. Add curry powder, stir well and cook for a few more minutes until all the vegetables are coated with the curry powder. Add soy sauce and stir.
Add the vegetables to the mashed mung beans and mix well to obtain a homogenous mixture. Add sesame seeds and mint. Form patties usig your hands. Coat each patty with panko crumbs.
Heat olive oil in a pan, place each galette in the pan and cook both sides until golden brown. remove from pan and serve hot with crab mushrooms and tofu sauce.
For the crab mushrooms
Was mushroom and disassemble them. In a pan, heat olive oil, add onion, ginger and cook the mixture until fragrant, then add garlic and cook for a few extra minutes. Add mushrooms, stir well, then add mirin. Cook until the mushrooms are cooked but still moist. Add cilantro.
For the tofu dipping sauce
Place tofu and other ingredients in a blender, and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
Old soups are back – Roasted vegetable soup and oregano with tofu croutons…and 300th post!
Jun 10th
Les anciennes soupes sont de retour – Soupe de légumes grillés et croutons de tofu…et 300 ème post!
Yes time flies and I just realized that this is my 300th post! I completely forgot the 100th and 200th…
I knew when I ordered a new washing machine and dryer that something was going to happen and something did happen…today’s delivery has been canceled because they were in back order. So I have to keep running the dryer six cycles to have the clothes dry. I bet PG&E are thrilled and my mom to lift me up, told me “you don’t need a dryer, it ruins all the clothes”. Very few people have a dryer in Europe, so for most Europeans it’s an unnecessary item…let’s not put all Europeans in the same basket, let’s just say for my mom…but I don’t know anyone who has a dryer among my friends and family.
I was somehow disappointed and bummed, and not in the mood for cooking long and complicated meals…and since I had all the ingredients without rushing to my Greek grocery store, there was no question, I was going to make this soup. I used to make it quite often, then for whatever unexplained reason, it stopped appearing on my table…let’s go back to old recipes, sometimes you forget how great they are. This soup is filled with vegetables and is absolutely a, and 100% vegan. The tofu croutons do add this chewy/crunchy texture that blends beautifully with a spoonful of fragrant creamy soup. You can serve this with a tapenade tartine, so the leftover tapenade from yesterday came in handy. The olives complement the flavors of the soup to perfection. For the broth quantities, you will have to adjust it to your tastes, some people like their soup thicker, some people prefer it thinner, so you will have to play around with it.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 eggplant, sliced crosswise
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 zucchini, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and sliced
- 4 tomatoes, peeled and seedless
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbs oregano
- 1 tbs olive oil
- vegetable broth
- extra firm tofu
- flour
- fleur de sel
- pepper
Preparation
Grill bell pepper under broiler until the skin get charred. Peel and remove seeds. Cut in slices.
Place all the remaining vegetables in a tray, sprinkle with fleur de sel, pepper and olive oil and broil under broiler. Turn the vegetables both sides to grill them.
Mix bell peppers with the rest of the vegetables, add broth garlic, oregano and using a hand blender, mix to obtain a smooth purée.
For the tofu croutons, cut tofu in small cubes, coat them with flour, remove excess flour. Heat olive oil in a pan saute tofu at high temperature until both sides turn golden brown. Serve in bowls, add tofu croutons in the middle and drizzle with olive oil and extra oregano.
This soup can be eaten lukewarm or hot. If you like it hot, just heat it up on the stove for a few minutes before adding tofu.
As cute as caviar – Black quinoa, adzuki beans salad with fennel, carrots and mushrooms
May 16th
Aussi mignon que le caviar – Salade de quinoa et haricots adzuki, fenouil, carottes et champignons
I had bought some adzuki beans a while ago, yes I know there are so many kinds of beans, and this one is one among many others. It’s a bean mainly grown in the Himalayas and used in Asia in sweet preparations, they’re mostly known as red beans. Of course, I am not Asian, therefore in my culture beans are prepared in savory dishes and I wanted to try to prepare them in a more Western way, because after all a bean is a bean. I love black quinoa, it tends to be more flavorful and earthy than white quinoa and its nuttiness in this dish allied with the sweetness of fennel and red beans make it a palate pleasing combination.
Honestly, I was not sure I would post this because I thought it will be another quinoa/bean dish which is not the first on on my blog. After the first bite, I definitely thought it was blog-worthy, the colors were so contrasting all together and it resulted in a delicious and harmonious blend of flavors.
After yesterday delicious snapper with kumquat sauce I had shot, which for whatever reason my camera decided to not “save”, and after I ate everything, realized that not even one shot was there. I was wondering if this would happen again with this red bean dish…It seemed like my Canon was in a good mood today, and decided to keep this one. It happened a few times before and tends to be frustrating, especially after the terrible week I had.
Sometimes to speed up the cooking process of beans that have not been previously soaked, I add a little baking soda, it does reduce cooking time.
You can eat this salad warm or cold, either way it’s delicious.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 cup black quinoa
- 1 cup adzuki beans
- broth (1/2 onion, 1/2 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1 bay leaf, thyme)
- 1 shallot, diced
- 2 carrots, sliced in half lengthwise then crosswise
- 1 fennel bulb, diced
- 1 cup cremini mushrooms, diced
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
For the vinaigrette
- 2 tbs olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cook beans in water with all carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme. Cook for about 45 minutes until the beans are soft. Drain and rinse.
Steam quinoa like you would do with rice.
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add shallot and let brown, add garlic and cook for another minute. Add carrots and fennel. Cover and let cook for about 10 minutes. When the vegetables are half cooked, add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir well and cook until the mushroom water evaporates.
Combine quinoa with beans, then add the vegetables. Let it cool.
For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients together mix well. Pour vinaigrette on the vegetable/quinoa mixture. Add cilantro, toss and serve.
Let's get back in shape – Grilled sweet potato and spinach salad with blood orange and candied ginger vinaigrette
Apr 17th
On se refait une petite santé? – Salade de patates douces grillées et pousses d’épinards – vinaigrette d’orange sanguine et gingembre confit
I am not sure where I had this for the first time…maybe in Boston (since I lived there at some point in my life before moving to San Francisco) at a Slovenian’s friend’s house… or maybe not. I know it has something to do with New England, even though has nothing to do with New England’s cuisine in terms of flavors. I love this salad, it’s pungent, fresh, citrusy and has a very unique flavor due to candied ginger. I never had candied ginger other than in Japanese restaurants and served with sushi but it goes perfectly with sweet potatoes, as surprising as it may sound.
I think I tend to deviate more towards a vegan diet still using dairy and eggs (so I guess technically, it’s not vegan). I have not been enjoying eating fish either lately, and I have no idea why this is happening, maybe this has something to do with my horrible allergies and stuffed head. I prepared a beautiful trout dish last night since a friend came over for dinner, and could not enjoy it. Let’s hope this is just temporary, I want to be able to enjoy fish again! In the meantime, let’s go vegan!
What I love about this salad is the contrast in flavors and textures between the warm grilled potatoes and the cold spinach salad. The orange juice in the dressing enhances the natural sweetness of the potato and along with the garlic, really adds a very refreshing sensation at the first bite. This is not French, nor Italian, nor Mediterranean, but it’s really delicious, besides the grilled potato gives a little sweet finish to the dish!
Ingredients for 2
- 1 medium size sweet potato, peeled and sliced
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 2 tbs olive oil
- juice of one blood orange
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1 scallion, chopped
- a few walnut, chopped
- 1 tsp candied ginger, chopped roughly
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Coat potatoes with some olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, then broil in the oven. When one side is golden brown, turn the other side and let it broil until it turns golden brown.
For the vinaigrette, mix all ingredients together (except the spinach).
Place spinach in one plate, then add nicely the potatoes on top and sprinkle with vinaigrette.
You can serve the potatoes hot, warm or cold to your preference.
A far away cousin of vegetable paella – Saffron brown rice with mixed vegetables
Mar 19th
Un cousin éloigné de la paella végétarienne – Riz brun au saffran et méli mélo de petits légumes
It’s time for some rice…rice and potatoes are two ingredients I rarely use, French people eat a LOT of potatoes, at my parents my mom rarely made them, Italians are more pasta eaters than potato eaters. A while ago, I started buying all the different kinds of rices I ran into, from black rice, to bamboo rice, any shape and color rice I saw. It seems like the excitement faded away, but I don’t want to leave rice aside, because I love it. It’s nutritious, healthy and can make wonderful side dishes.
The world of food has so many items to explore than sometimes, you get caught trying out new ingredients, and leaving aside the ones you know too well.
This rice has a rich and deep yellow color you get with combining saffron and paprika or pimenton as they say in Spain but I found Spanish pimenton to have a more smokey flavor.
Basically the rice is steamed in a vegetable broth with saffron and paprika, so it comes out almost orange. Such a vibrant color to have in ones plate.
Plain white rice is great with spicy dishes, it enables to decrease the powerful and strong flavors of the spices and balances everything perfectly. Sometimes I enjoy some more intricate rice dishes like this one, you can just eat it as a main dish and as is, because it’s a whole meal in itself and full of fragrant flavors. I certainly don’t want to call this vegetarian paella, which would be so wrong, but it has some similarities in some of the spices and cooking method, even though I did not use a paella tray, nor used Spanish rice.
Ingredients for 2-3
- 5.29 0z (or 150 g) brown rice
- one dose saffron
- 1/4 tsp Spanish pimenton
- vegetable broth (rice x 2)
- 1 shallot
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tbs mixed oregano, very finely chopped
- 1/2 red bell pepper, cut in very small cubes (1/4 inch)
- 1 cup fresh peas (or frozen)
- 1/2 bunch asparagus, cut in small chunks (1/2 inch)
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a rice cooker or regular pot, mix broth, rice, saffron, pimenton and salt. Let it sit for a few minutes until the saffron has dissolved. For broth quantities, I use about twice the amount of rice, in this case, since it’s brown rice, which takes harder to cook, I use about 3 times its quantity. If using rice cooker, broth needs to be at 2 cm above the level of the rice.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and let them soften. Add all the mixed vegetables and stir well. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked but still firm, add garlic and oregano and cook for a few additional minutes to get the flavors out.
Mix in the rice, stir well until all the vegetables are well incorporated into the rice.
Artichokes are back in town – Tagine of artichokes, chickpeas, potatoes, red peppers and olives
Mar 8th
Les artichauts sont de retour – Tagine d’artichauts, pois chiches, pommes de terre, poivrons, et olives vertes
It looks like artichoke season is starting and you see them come out on the shelves, one of the largest producer being close to the Bay Area in Castroville (they claim to be the artichoke capital of the world, which is quite a big statement, but they certainly do produce a lot of them), we have in San Francisco, lots of beautiful artichokes, the babies, the medium, the large, you pick which one you want. I even planted some in the garden, but seems like it takes over 300 days for them to grow, so I cannot count on my own crops this year!
I had some fresh chick peas left from last week and I just wanted to use them in a tagine. They remain green and taste so good but cook very quickly so when using them in a dish, they only need to cook for 15 minutes or so, therefore add them at the end. I love tagines, I could eat them every day. The flavors of all the spices infusing with all those wonderful vegetables is a pure pleasure to cook (and to eat of course too). After 10 minutes of placing the tagine in the oven, the house starts to be filled with incredibly aromas. It’s like a pure perfume. Ca embaume.
As in the majority of my tagines, I used Ras el hanout which is a traditional mix of Moroccan spices and literally means “the roof of the grocery store” in arabic. A few common spices included in Ras el hanout are cardamom, mace, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, lavender, ginger, nigella, turmeric, etc..but so many more. It’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine to enhance many dishes such as couscous, meat dishes, etc…
The composition of Ras el hanout can vary from 24 to 21 spices but can go as far as 40 spices, so there are so many variations of Ras el hanout as there are cooks, manufacturers and tastes. I bought a big bag of spices in a Moroccan grocery store in France that will last me my lifetime, and that is a very nice blend, not one spice overpowering the mix, and a very well balanced combination. Unfortunately the manufacturer did not include the list of the spices he used, so I am afraid I won’t be able to know what has been used and to what quantity. In France we have a huge Arabic population, probably the biggest among all other European countries, which means a lot of stores with great products and very inexpensive.
Anyone who loves artichokes and spices, will really enjoy this dish, besides the beauty of tagines is that it might take you a while to clean the artichokes, and peel the potatoes, but then you just put it in the oven and cooks by itself, comme une grande fille!
Ingredients for 4
- 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in big squares
- 8 medium size artichokes, trimmed
- 5 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1 large red bell pepper, cut in big square
- 1 cup fresh chick peas
- 1.5 tbs Ras el hanout
- 1 preserved lemon, cut in 4 quarters
- 1/2 cup green olives, cut in halves
- chili powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients together except for the chick peas and using your hands mix well.
Place the vegetables in your tagine pot, cover and cook in a pre-heated oven at 390F for about one 1h30 min. Add chick peas 20 minutes before removing tagine from the oven. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve as a side dish or as a main dish, with a quinoa or couscous accompaniment.
Could it be oyster plant? – Simple salsifis salad
Feb 12th
Simple salade de salsifis
You probably don’t care about salsifis and there is nothing extraordinary about the recipe. It’s all about the salsifi. Sometimes I like to feature some unpopular vegetables like this one, it’s a root vegetable that people tend to forget like cardoon, so I thought to bring it back from the deads.
I have not had those for such a long time, I have been eating salsifis when I was a child, their consumption is quite common in France but nowadays even there people tend to forget them.
I have just seen some of those at the store today and it just reminded me that I had forgotten to post those while in France.
Basically, they are a long root and have a thick brown skin, their flesh is quite white and they taste like artichoke to me, but some people say it tastes more like oysters so that’s how they got their name from. Honestly I have seen no similarities between an oyster and a salsifi.
You would need to wear gloves when peeling it since its flesh tends to stain hands and the flesh and skin are quite sticky, somehow like a glue. So I’m sure you wondering then, why even bother. Well, there is a good reason to include salsifi in your diet, they contain a lot of minerals and vitamins and are a wonderful vegetable with low calories and lots of fibers, so I think we should re-introduce it in our diet. You can make gratins with them, quiches, I have aslo tasted them in stew and are quite delicious. When preparing them simply like this, you need top quality olive oil, and the juice of a fragrant lemon such as meyer lemons.
Ingredients
- one bunch of salsifis (maybe 10)
- 1.5 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of one lemon
- freshly ground pepper
- Fleur de sel
- Parsley, finely chopped (optional)
Preparation
Peel salsifis. Cook in boiling water for about 7 min, or until cooked but not mushy. Drain and sprinkle with vinaigrette, top with pepper and fleur de sel.
No soup for the holidays – Soup of cauliflower, chickpeas and quadretti
Jan 31st
Zuppa con cavolfiore, ceci e quadretti
I heard California got a lot of rain this season, all the news talked about it when I was in France and I heard it from my neighbors when I got back. The good things is that it’s clearing up. Eventhough France was very cold with -10C temperatures some days, my mom never made soup and neither did I. Of course during the holidays, we tend to eat “holiday meals” and strangely enough soup is not entitled to the be on the “holiday” list, so I somehow missed it.
One soup I really like is this cauliflower soup with chick peas and small pasta, you can put potatoes instead of the pasta, or even both. You can use any small pasta such as quadretti (little squares), ditali (small cylinders) or any small pasta to be used is broths or soups. I had none left so I cut some fettucine into small pieces, and it worked quite well. The difference is that quadretti are a egg pasta and thinner than fettucine which are not supposed to be used in soup as per the pasta étiquette. So I went against the étiquette, nonetheless it was really enjoyable. I think some ingredients can be substituted and some others, cannot. In this case, I would say it could be.
I am not sure how the word “pasta” is used in the US, if it refers to a particular pasta dish cooked in a particular way and not in soups. Then not sure what the word “noodle” refers to either, so I will try to be as accurate I can be. For me noodles reminds me of the Asian pasta, and not Italian pasta. Every kind of pasta in Italy has its own name, that makes it quite easy to what type of pasta you are talking about.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 medium size cauliflower
- 2 potatoes
- 4 medium tomatoes, seedless, peeled and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbs onions chopped
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1/2 lb chick peas (either canned or dry and soaked overnight)
- 5 tbs quadretti or small pasta for soups
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot, brown onions, then add garlic, stir a few minutes. Add tomatoes, cook for about 5 minutes to let the water evaporates, then add potatoes, cauliflower and rosemary. Stir well to coat all the vegetables and cook for about 7 min stirring. Add enough broth to cover the vegetables (you might want to add extra to have enough liquid to cook the quadretti). Let it cook until the vegetables are tender but not mushy, remove rosemary then add chick peas. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add pasta and 1 garlic clove and cook until desired texture (I like them al dente). Sprinkle with olive oil, cracked pepper and serve.
