Chickpea and broccoli curry with tofu on rice

The other day I stumbled across an old post about food I had eaten at a vegetarian restaurant some years ago. My companion’s food looked so good that I took a photo as inspiration to make something like that at home. I had forgotten all about it but finally the day had come! 😅

I remember the meal as aromatic but not overly spicy, very German. So I looked for a recipe for a chickpea curry that would fit that bill for me and opted for the linked one below. When I found the thick brick like tofu bars at the Asian supermarket I knew I had what I wanted to create some fat slices to be fried in some oil. There was also some guesswork involved because I have no idea what kind of brown sauce was used on the original dish. Since it looked very much like a glaze I opted for Crema di Balsamico.

I forgot to add salt, to both rice and the curry 🙄 but thankfully that was easy to fix on the plate and it was a good meal. The Crema di Balsamico worked superbly on this. My co-eaters decided to also add some hot sauce but that’s just them…

https://vegancocotte.com/broccoli-chickpea-curry/

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Chickpea and Aubergine Curry

This morning I went into town to get more supplies for my Asian cookery, a lot of my staples were about to run out so I needed to restock.

I came back starving.

The curry luckily doesn’t take that long and was really easy to do with vegetable chopping assistance by my husband. It’s a long time favourite and is special because of the mint that goes into the creamy tomato sauce. I got some chillies out of the freezer, one of them was half a Scotch Bonnet and I was a bit worried but it must have lost its zing in the freezer so the overall heat was very modest.

As it happens many years ago this curry (without chillies) was the first ever that I gave to my baby boy to try and he grabbed it with his little hands to stuff the rice with the sauce into his mouth making appreciative sounds while eating eagerly 😍

https://www.copymethat.com/r/BqmMciSsm/chickpea-and-aubergine-curry/

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Afghan Aash (of sorts)

This was quite yummy but not as good as the other Afghan pasta dish I’ve made a while ago. It’s by the same (Afghan) creator but I noticed in the comments of this one that according to other Afghans he was using the wrong kind of pasta, apparently they are supposed to be more like spaghetti. Ah well, it was good but not as good as Afghan Macaroni, so we’ll stick to that one. The name, of course, made us giggle when speaking German 🤭

The main differences between the two dishes are:
- Aash is meatless, it uses chickpeas, spinach and fresh coriander, whereas the Macaroni one is with minced meat
- Aash is served with the Chakka going on top and not underneath
- Aash uses long pasta, Macaroni uses (confusingly) pasta shells

If think making a meatless version of the Macaroni dish would work perfectly with soy mince, therefore if you feel like trying it, here is the recipe to the Macaroni dish:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/nyvuw12ffd/afghan-macaroni/

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Spicy cauliflower stir-fry with added tofu

I don’t understand all the ins and outs of Chinese cooking (such a big country with many regional cuisines) but I do know that I like Pixian Doubanjiang, a fermented broad bean, soy bean and chilli seasoning that adds a lot of umami and spiciness. It’s not as sweet as Gochujang (the Korean kind of equivalent) but just as spicy.

This recipe from Omnivores Cookbook makes use of it and after adding some tofu slices to the cauliflower it worked perfectly as a main dish on a meatless Monday:
https://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/spicy-cauliflower-stir-fry

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Spinach in tomato sauce on Basmati rice

Some of Vegan Richa’s recipes are just divine. As traditional in Indian cooking there is some frying of whole spices happening here and then creating a tomato sauce with them into which you add the spinach at the end. I also put in some pre-soaked soy mince to give the dish a bit more of something to bite on. For me the vinegar and sugar make this well rounded.

I fully recommend buying the Vegan Richa cookbook for more of her wonderful food. Here’s my version of the recipe:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/0fQnrq02b/spinach-in-tomato-sauce/

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My tastebuds are ruined for certain European dishes. Yesterday I cooked a dish with rice, brown lentils, aubergine, fennel and cashew nuts from a recipe that sounded nice - and it turned into a gooey mess that didn’t even have enough water for the rice to cook through! On top of that it was severely lacking in the taste department despite using curry powder, paprika, cinnamon, fresh minced garlic and lemon juice as per the recipe. At least it still looked somewhat appealing with the cherry tomatoes and the chopped herbs. We made the best of it by applying hot sauce.

Half of it was leftover but there were no more tomatoes, so I decided to turn this thing into a biryani style rice dish. On a whim I mixed in tandoori powder, cayenne pepper and natural yogurt, heated it up once more and then stored it overnight on our ice cold balcony. Today we ate it (again with chopped herbs and hot sauces) and the overall taste profile was much, much better.

I’m not going to link to the recipe 😅 If I ever feel like trying this one again, I’ll cook the rice separately and make my own recipe out of it, the basic ingredients were fine.

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