Recipes!

[dvoraen]

@Tez said in Recipes!:

@dvoraen It’s a 1:1 for replacement in almost all recipes, ad totally worth investigating, UNLESS YOU ARE A MONSTER WHO LIKES MUSHROOMS.

[mietze]

@dvoraen out of all the “meat” replacements, I think it is the best, personally. I really like the taste/texture for its own sake. The people in my family who aren’t vegan and hate “fake meat” actually like it as well, they’d rather have chili or taco meat from that than say ground turkey. It has great mouth feel if you’re looking for a very meaty texture, unlike most replacements.

There are certain dishes where it might be a little flat, especially next day stuff like cottage pie. I think adding just a smitge of marmite fixes that (depending on one’s taste, you do not need to add a lot)

Plus it is fun to cook because it browns up and sizzles and all that. IMO.

[mietze]

Pear cake!

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4-5 ripe pears depending on size of the pears, peeled and chopped into large chunks.

Preheat oven to 325. Spray/Grease and flour a bunt cake pan (or 9x11 baking pan

In a large bowl sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

In another large bowl mix together sugars and oil, mix until well blended. Incorporate eggs one at a time and well. Add vanilla and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a cup at a time and mix well. Spoon batter into prepared cake pan.

Bake for about an hour and a half or until it passes the toothpick/knife test. Allow to cool for 20 minutes and then turn over on cake plate, and allow to cool thoroughly.

This is our favorite way to use up pears when a ton ripen at the same time. Nice crust on the outside, very moist and tender on the inside!

[sao]

Does anyone have a vegetarian (or meat is fine if it is kosher i guess) split pea soup that’s like… really good? I want to avoid ham or bacon but I really want to make split pea soup that has that good saltiness in it somewhere and I’m a little stumped.

[Duke Whisky]

@sao -

Depending on effort levels, if you marinate some tempeh up overnight in a mix of soy sauce, maple syrup, salt, pepper and liquid smoke (I mean can replace liquid smoke with smoked paprika tbh) you can get the bacon-taste.

Marinade for at least 15 mins, bake at 200 Celcius (400 f) for 10 mins both sides. Done.

[hellfrog]

I have also made vegan bacon chips with large flake coconut soaked in liquid smoke, soy, etc.

[Kay]

This is less of a recipe and more of a recommendation: try spices in your coffee! I don’t mean just the good ol’ cinnamon (though that’s nice too), but things like cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and my favorite allspice. Especially now that the weather’s getting colder, the pumpkin/christmas spices are really nice in brew. They also work in black tea (see: various types of chai), hot apple cider and hot cocoa. They also work really well if you sweeten with brown sugar or maple syrup.

I don’t like chewing on spice, so I usually add it to the coffee grinds/tea leaves, but a sprinkle on top ain’t too bad.

[Kay]

An actual recipe this time! For all of you I have unearthed my slightly customized Guinness Chocolate Cake recipe.

For the cake: butter for pan, 0.5 cup Guinness stout, 10 tbs (1 stick + 2 tablespoons) butter, 1 cup unsweetened cocoa, 2 cups superfine sugar, 1/2 cup sour cream, 2 large eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 1/2 tablespoons baking soda.

For the topping: 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 2 packages (or 16 ounces) cream cheese at room temperature, 1/2 cup vanilla or maple yogurt, preferably whole milk. Optional: make it a 1/4 cup whole milk yogurt and 1/4 cup heavy cream, or otherwise alter the balance as you prefer.

1: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Heat on medium until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, whisk to blend.
2. In one bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add to Guinness-butter mixture. Add flour and baking soda, whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, bake until risen and firm: roughly 45 minutes to 1 hour. Place pan on a wire rack, leave cake in pan until completely cooled.
3. For topping: using food processor or the raw power of your own mighty muscles, blend cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth. Add the yogurt/heavy cream, mix until smooth and thick enough to be spreadable but not runny. Make sure to take taste samples, some like it sweeter and some less.
4. Remove cake from pan and place on platter/whatsit. Ice top of cake so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness. Devour.

This is my modified version of Nigella Lawson’s OG one, which you can find here on her site https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-guinness-cake - the original version is also in milliliters and such, for my fellow non-americans.

[TNP]

Autumn is apple season and I ended up with a lot of them since I can’t resist a sale. What else to do other than to make an apple pie? Except for the calories. And carbs. So I experimented. And a very successful experiment it was too. It comes out sort of like an apple bread pudding.

4-6 apples depending on size sliced into half wedges
4 eggs, beaten
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt
1/4 cup flour
cinnamon
sugar (or Splenda)

So I mostly eyeball it. Put the cut apples (I left the skin on since it has lots of nutrients) in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine everything else and mix well. As far as the sugar and cinnamon go, adjust to your taste. I sprinkled, mix, sprinkle, mix, till it seems right.

Pour the liquid over the apples and mix it all up till the apples are coated. Pour it all into a greased pie plate. Bake at 350 for 50-60 min.

It’s a crust-less apple quiche pudding something or other.

[Eleret]

@TNP Looks pretty similar to Norwegian/Swedish apple pie (or eplepai), with more eggs.

Another lower-carb use is apple curd, e.g.:

2.2 lbs apples
2 T lemon juice
2 T water
3/4 c brown sugar (or as preferred)
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 stick butter, cubed
1 t cinnamon

Simmer apples, lemon juice, and water until soft enough to mash/blend. Then mash/blend.
Whisk together sugar & eggs; whisk mixture into the apples; follow with the butter & cinnamon. Cook on medium-low until thickened, stirring frequently.
Chill before serving. Store in fridge. Can be frozen.

[mietze]

We ran out of bread yesterday and since there’s a dusting of snow and I don’t wanna deal with other drivers, my youngest wanted to make flatbreads. Brought back really nice memories of doing this with my older kids too.

2 cups self rising flour (you can make this too iirc it’s easy but i’m lazy and love to make pancakes and biscuits so i tend to have a bag)
1 1/2 cups greek yogurt
pinch of salt

Mix ingredients until they form a soft dough. You may need to add some more yogurt to get the balance right. If that is needed we just add a spoonful at a time. You can knead with your hands to help form the ball, but don’t do it too much. it’ll make the bread a little tough but i mean, it still tastes good.

Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece out on floured surface into flat ovals. If you are like my teens were and can’t find your rolling pin, squishing them flat with the bottom of a smooth plate also works as long as you get it relatively thin.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat (no oil or butter needed but sometimes the kids liked to put it in there anyway). Cook the flatbreads about 2 minutes on each side, until they get brown spots like you see in naan bread or cooked tortillas. They’ll be a little puffy!

These are best used the day of making. Never had them survive longer than 20 minutes though, unless I was going to put them in lunches for later.

This is a really awesome cooking dealie with kids because it’s quick and simple, and my teens would make this all the time all on their own too (it doesn’t make a big mess either). And as college kids they do at school too (since they all text me for the recipe their freshman year. :D)

[mietze]

Going to be adding some more stuff as we taste test them! One of my kiddos had to get unplanned dental surgery this week and was really down at the idea of having to exist mostly on protein shakes for a few days so I’m making a bunch of cold soups for a palate change while he recovers! He avoids dairy and prefers plant based stuff, so that’s what these cold soups will be!

Creamy Cucumber Soup
1 large cucumber, english or regular)
1 medium avocado
Fresh dill to taste (I used a little under 1 tbsp minced but we LOVE dill around here so…)
One clove garlic (I used roasted, not sure I would do raw in this out of preference)
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 cup water
A pinch of salt

Throw everything into a blender or food processor and puree. Taste and then season more if desired. Chill for at least an hour.

Kiddo loved this, I only got a very small sample.

Watermelon Gazpacho
1 small seedless watermelon, cut up
1 medium cucumber, peeled and seeded
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup fresh basil, diced
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, diced
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp red onion, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Combine everything and then puree in batches according to blender/food processor capacity. I also used an immersion blender in the bowl once everything was processed (but only because my kiddo isn’t allowed to chew!), otherwise I think I might have pureed most of it and left some chunky bc I like crunch. Chill for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight.

This tasted really good to me right off the bat but I only did enough tasting to see if it needed more salt than a pinch. Can’t wait to break it out tomorrow. This made a LOT so I’m hoping I’ll get to have a cup tomorrow.

Edited to add that I had some this morning and I think I might like it a little more than the creamy cucumber one, but I am a huge watermelon salad fan so that’s probably why.

[ten]

@mietze

Those sound so good.

[mietze]

Resurrecting to share something I’ve been making pretty frequently because it’s really tasty and is a quick way to get my protein even on the fly (i double batch it) or to toss into a salad or whatever if i’m having to make a lunch for work last minute). I love all things smoky/burnt-ish, plus these things are nice and chewy too (also a lovely texture for me). I thought i’d share! the partner and kids tend to steal these too when they’re right out of the oven. Plus it’s easy and takes minutes to prep and just 20 minutes to bake.

Tofu Crumbles

About 400g Tofu (firm or extra firm, pressed so excess water is removed, I don’t bother pressing if it’s fresh/not packaged in water)
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 Tbsp oil of choice (i prefer avocado or sunflower for this one), or oil spray of choice.

Preheat oven to 400F

Combine all dry spices in small bowl and mix well.

Crumble the tofu into a large mixing bowl, crumb sizes should be chunky breadcrumb (stuffing?) sized but i like to have some bigger chunks in there too and the teeny ones get all nice and crunchy so it’s fine.

Put the spice mix in with the tofu and toss until everything is coated evenly. then pour in liquid smoke and toss again.

Spray a baking tray well with the oil spray or spread the oil in the pan. Put pan in the oven at temp for a couple of minutes until it starts to smoke a bit (around 5 minutes but if you’re using spray might wanna watch this closely).

Pull out tray and dump the crumbles on it, spread them evenly and return to oven for 20 minutes, stir about halfway through.

Once they’re done if you let them cool for about 5-10 minutes they get even crispier! I think they’re great over the next few days (store in fridge) but they don’t really last at my house more than one extra day.