Vegan Recipes: Brassica

Showing posts with label Brassica. Show all posts

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Cavolo nero soup with chickpeas and pasta

A low fat, high protein vegan dish

1 bunch of cavolo nero

1 shallot

1.5 l vegetable stock

1 can chickpeas

plus the same amount of water

1 cup of small pasta

salt and pepper to taste

extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Wash the cavolo nero and remove the white stalks. Slice the shallot. Put everything in a pot with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the content of the can of chick peas, plus a can of water. Simmer for other 30 minutes then blend with an immersion blend, but not too finely, leave some of the chickpeas whole. Bring back to the boil, add the pasta and simmer until the pasta is al dente. Taste for salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil before serving. It is actually better the day after!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Broccoli and cauliflower with miso dressing

These were the side vegetable dishes of my Vegan Japanese dinner. For those of you who missed some 'episodes', the antipasto was raw avocado sashimi, and the main Fried tofu puffs simmered in vegetable broth. I wanted to have a cooked and warm side vegetable dish, and a raw one. Of course variety, colour and difference in texture were as important as taste. For the warm vegetables I used broccoli and cauliflowers with a very easy miso sauce:

Broccoli and cauliflowers with easy miso sauce

Ingredients:

A few broccoli and cauliflower florets

Hot vegetable stock (I used the broth strained from cooking the Fried tofu puffs simmered in vegetable stock - recycling is everything in Japanese Vegetarian Cuisine!)

Miso paste

Steam the broccoli and cauliflowers for a few minutes (they should be cooked but not mushy, nor too crunchy). In a small ball thin down about a tbsp of miso paste with some hot vegetable broth to make a thin paste. Arrange the broccoli and cauliflower florets in pretty serving bowls or small plates and drizzle just a little miso dressing on each dish. Don't overdress, as miso is quite salty, but leave some miso sauce in a side bowl for diners to help themselves if you like, or use the remaining miso sauce to make miso soup (this will be the last course, recipe coming soon).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Stuffed white cabbage leaves with lentils

This is a first. I like stuffed cabbage leaves but I always use this dark green curly cabbages (like Savoy) to make them, and I never used the round and firm white cabbages that are used to make coleslaw. But I happened to have a big white cabbage and the outer leaves were sort of green... I managed to remove 7 leaves before the cabbage become to compact to pull apart. Then I washed them and boiled them in salted water (which I later used to make vegetable broth for an Asian noodle soup - never waste!). I also boiled a few more cabbage leaves that got broken while I was trying to pull them away: they were going to be used in the filling.

For the filling I used some cooked cabbage leaves, a couple of slices of vegetarian bacon, chopped parsley, breadcrumbs, smoked salt, chili flakes, coriander seeds and smoked garlic. I mushed everything with my hands and divided the filling between the 7 leaves, and then I rolled them up.

I prepared a soffritto with a shallot, half a carrot, a celery stick, and some chopped parsley, all sautéed with a little olive oil.

I added the cabbage leaves and let them sauté on one side only for a few minutes.

Then I added one cup of tomato passata (Italian tomato sauce) and one cup of vegetable broth. I covered the pot with a lid and let the cabbage rolls simmer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes I added the content of a can of Italian brown lentils (their water included) and simmered everything for another 30 minutes.

Well, I just managed to taste one, the other six were two each for the kids and the babysitter (I was teaching that night), to be eaten with bruschetta (actually, just a baguette cut into slices and the brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and baked until golden and crispy, the kids just love it!!). The result? I was pleasantly surprised: I am not a fan of white cabbage, but in this way it tasted great! Pity that I could not get more leaves out of it, maybe I need to boil the whole cabbage and then try to pull off the leaves... next time I will try. Or maybe I will just go back to use my usual Savoy cabbages! :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Green Cauliflower and Red Radicchio

What do vegetarians eat? Lots of vegetables! Some people call it rabbit food, I don't know why, I swear to you that we are not rabbits! Let's start with the red radicchio, my brother made this: cut the red radicchio into strips and place onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and dried oregano (he says that dried thyme is better but we didn't have any). Bake until the red par of the leaves is crispy (and most of the bitterness is gone!).

And what about this lovely green cauliflower? I think that green cauliflowers taste 'sweeter' than the white ones, and this one did! I just boiled it al dente, let it cool down and dressed it with extra virgin olive oil, salt and Aceto Balsamico di Modena. Simple but perfect!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini and her brother ©

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Brussels, Cauliflower and Broccoli Mix

About myself I could say that I love broccoli, I like cauliflower, and I eat brussels sprouts. Do you like them? I think that I buy them about once a year, I did plant them once but I wasn't very successful: they opened up like little cabbages (maybe it is not cold enough in Auckland) and they attracted lots of bugs. And nobody in the family is exactly 'crazy' about them. My husband saw my shopping bag and said 'Brussels???'. He wasn't looking forward to dinner. The kids didn't even remember the taste, since we eat them so rarely, but they hear horrible tales about them from other kids: nobody is supposed to like them.

But I love variety, and if I cook the brussels slowly in veggie stock, and maybe with other vegetables, I think that they can be interesting. I put them in vegetables soups, like minestrone, and they don't seem bitter then. This time, instead, I wanted to cook them with other brassica, so a made a big brussels/cauli/broccoli mix.

Brussels, Cauliflower and Broccoli mix

I sauteed a garlic clove with a little olive oil, then I added my brassica: brussels and cauliflower florets first, and the after 5 minutes, the broccoli. Stir well during this time, you don't want to burn your brassicas!! Then I added 250 ml of vegetable stock, lowered the heat, covered with a lid, and cooked the lot until the liquid was absorbed. They can be used as a side dish, but also with pasta, or to fill a pie. They were eaten no problem, with comments like: "Cooked like this they are not bad..." which probably meant "Ok I'll eat them, but can we have pizza tomorrow?"

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tofu and Brassica Green Curry

Day 6 of Vegan MoFo

Ingredients:

1 tbs green curry paste (see recipe here)

1 can coconut milk

1 couliflower, cut into florettes

half carrot, sliced (I sliced it in the shape of flowers)

1 block tofu, cut into pieces

1 large broccoli, cut into florettes

1-2 chili peppers

Thai or regular fresh basil leaves

Thai or Vietnamese fresh mint leaves

Place the paste in a pot with the coconut milk, the cauliflower, carrot, and the tofu. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the broccoli, cover and simmer for 5 minutes (I like my broccoli to be still green and a little crunchy). Add the chili peppers and the fresh herbs, cover and simmer for 5 more minutes. Add salt to taste and serve with Thai rice.

Serves 4

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Fresh corn and broccolini salad with miso dressing

Boil the corn, cut off the kernels, add some steamed broccolini and dress the lot with a miso dressing (just white miso paste thinned down with a little hot water). Simple but delicious! If you like to add more proteins just top this salad with a handful of sesame seeds.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Stir-fry with marinated tofu

Usually I don't buy ready made products like this, i rather buy the plain tofu and marinate it myself, but sometime I am pressed for time, so I tried this one from Bean Supreme.

Really nice! I made a quick stir fry with noodles, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage and carrots.

It was like food in a minute!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Orecchiette with Broccolini and Fake Parmesan

First I made the fake parmesan: I fried some breadcrumbs with olive oil and garlic, and a little salt. This is also called 'poor people parmesan' in Italy, it is actually traditional for some pasta courses, and actually preferred to parmesan for some dishes, like this one.

When the breadcrumbs were golden I put them aside and used the same saucepan to cook the broccolini (no rinsing of the pot required, just add a little more olive oil and fresh garlic). Fresh broccolini need very little cooking, even less than broccoli, I just sautéed them with olive oil and garlic, and a pinch of salt, then turned the heat off, put the lid on the pot for a few minutes, and the remaining heat did the rest of the cooking. You need a pot with a good lid!

In the meantime I cooked the orecchiette in plenty of salted boiling water. I followed the packet instructions for this, as different manufacturers seem to have different timing and orecchiette are usually more 'crunchy' than other types of pasta.

Once ready I drained them and placed them in the pot with the broccolini, I stirred and then topped everything with the fried breadcrumbs.

A chilli can also be added to the broccolini for a hotter taste.

The broccolini are from my garden :-)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Cous Cous with Broccoli Romani

I am the very happy owner of a few brassica plants. I grew them from seeds, and now that it is spring I am harvesting the last brassica to make space in the veggie garden for other seeds and plants.

But does it get tiring eating broccoli and cauli every second day? No, if you know how to cook them. This recipe is made with my Broccoli Romani.

Broccoli Romani from my garden

My friend Enza blanches the broccoli with boiling water, to which she adds salt and olive oil, then drains the broccoli and uses their water to cover the cous cous (the pre-cooked type, of course) while she fries the broccoli with olive oil. Finally she tops the cous cous with the broccoli. THis is the Sicilian way.

I followed her instructions but made a few variations: I only added salt in the boiling water, and then added a little olive oil to the cous cous before covering it with the broccoli broth. I covered the cous cous with a lid and waited 5 minutes and then, because I have a weakness for cous cous with lemon, I stirred in the juice of half a lemon and one tablespoon of finely chopped Italian parsley.

Also, I did fry the broccoli in olive oil, but I also added 4 garlic cloves.

Considering that the broccoli, garlic, lemon, and parsley came from my garden I only had to buy the cous cous, salt and olive oil for this dish. Even the water is rain water and comes from my water tank, fulfilling a few of my self-sufficiency fantasies!

And here the last image from my veggie garden, I know that it has nothing to do with the recipe, but it is such a good looking cauliflower, and apparently it is also Sicilian (so the seed pack says...), so I am gifting it to Enza to say thank you for her recipe.

Cavolo di Sicilia from my garden

Vegan Recipes

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Saturday, October 10, 2015

Cavolo nero soup with chickpeas and pasta

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Broccoli and cauliflower with miso dressing

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Stuffed white cabbage leaves with lentils

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Green Cauliflower and Red Radicchio

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Brussels, Cauliflower and Broccoli Mix

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tofu and Brassica Green Curry

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Fresh corn and broccolini salad with miso dressing

Friday, June 24, 2011

Stir-fry with marinated tofu

Friday, December 10, 2010

Orecchiette with Broccolini and Fake Parmesan

Monday, November 8, 2010

Cous Cous with Broccoli Romani

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