Tag Archives: vegetarian

June 7, 2018 · 3:00 am

Trinity’s Kitchen Thai Coconut Curry with Kaffir Lime Leaves and Butternut Squash

I was dreaming of kaffir lime leaves the other day and then lo and behold there they were right in front of me at the super market. It was a signal. I came  home and went recipe hunting. As you can tell from the number of curry recipes in my recipe index curry is one of my number one favourite foods right behind French Fries!

This recipe is Thai inspired and has chickpeas, roasted butternut squash and spinach. The kaffir leaves give it a fresh Thai flavour and the bonus is that it’s super easy to make. I found this recipe on trinitykitchen.com. Give it a visit as she has come great recipes on it.

Here it is in all its glory!

 Ingredients
1 large butternut squash (1kg or 2lbs approx)
350ml (1½ cups) water
10 kaffir lime leaves
7 cardamom pods
1 heaped teaspoon grated ginger
4 large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
2 heaped teaspoons ground coriander
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
250ml (1 cup) passata (called sieved tomatoes in the US)
200g (1 cup) cooked chickpeas
100g (3½ oz) creamed coconut (see notes)
40g spinach ( a large handful)
Small handful of fresh basil leaves

Thai-coconut-curry_main-300x200.jpg

Instructions
Bake the squash
Peel, de-seed and dice the butternut squash into chunks of about 1.5cm (or ½ an inch) cubed. Larger chunks are fine, although you’ll need to add extra baking time.
Place the squash onto a baking tray and pop into an oven heated to gas mark 7 (425F/220C).
Bake until you can pierce a fork through the chunks. This make take 30 – 45 minutes.
Whilst the squash is baking make the rest of the curry.
Place the kaffir lime leaves and 350ml of water into a medium sized pan and bring to the boil. (Note: Count the kaffir lime leaves as you put them in and remember how many you used, because you will have to remove them at the end of the cooking period. They are meant for flavour, rather than eating).
Take the seeds out of the cardamom pods and crush with a pestle and mortar (or alternatively chop repeatedly over and over with a sharp heavy knife until they look ground). Toss them into the pan.
Peel and grate a heaped teaspoon worth of fresh ginger. Toss it into the pan.
Peel and crush 4 large garlic cloves and add to the pan.
Add the sea salt, coriander, turmeric, black pepper, passata, creamed coconut and chickpeas to the pan, stir together and allow all of the flavours to infuse. Let this simmer on the lowest heat for about 20 minutes and turn off the heat.
(Don’t add the spinach leaves right until the end – AFTER you remove the kaffir lime leaves.)
Once the squash has baked, take the kaffir lime leaves out of your other pan. When you are happy that all of the lime leave are out, then roughly chop the spinach and mix in the curry pan along with the roasted squash.
Add a little extra water if the sauce is too thick.
Use the basil to garnish.
Serve with rice, quinoa or millet or on it’s own as a stew.
Enjoy

Thanks Trinity for this awesome recipe.

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May 29, 2014 · 3:05 am

Coconut Braised Chickpeas with Spinach and Sun dried Tomatoes

Chickpea_Spinach_Plating1_HD1280A little something healthy to get you through the December holiday season.

This is a great variation on chickpea spinach curry. We ate this as a stew accompanied by a salad but you could also serve it on mashed yams, rice, or as a wrap.

This recipe is from Rouxbe Cooking School which has great vegan and vegetarian recipes and beautiful instructional videos.

1 yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 whole lemon
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes*
2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 – 15 oz can)
1/2 tsp chili flakes (or to taste)
1 tbsp coconut oil**

1/2 lb fresh spinach*

1 – 14 oz can coconut milk
1 tsp ground ginger
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1/2 bunch cilantro (to garnish)

To prepare, first dice the onion and mince the garlic and ginger. Next, zest the lemon. Juice the lemon and reserve for later. Measure out the sun-dried tomatoes. *Note: If using sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, make sure to drain them first.

Lastly, drain (if using canned) and measure out the chickpeas. Rinse. Gather the chili flakes and coconut oil. *

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat and then add the oil, followed by the onions and a good pinch of salt. Let the onions sweat for about 10 minutes or until translucent. Once soft, add the garlic and ginger and let cook for another minute or so. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest and chili flakes. Let cook for another minute or so.

Next, add the chickpeas and stir to coat in the tomato mixture. At this point, turn up the heat slightly and sort of fry the chickpeas a bit. Keep an eye on them though so they don’t scorch. You just want them to have a little color. This should only take a few minutes.

Once the chickpeas are heated through, turn the heat down slightly and start to add the spinach, a handful at a time.

*Note: If using baby spinach you can add it as is. If you are using regular spinach, you will need to chop or tear it up a bit.

Once the first bunch of spinach has started to wilt, add in the next handful. Continue until all of the spinach has been added.

To finish the dish, add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Stir to combine and then add the ground ginger and a bit of the reserved lemon juice. Taste for seasoning. Add more lemon juice, salt and/or pepper as needed.

Once everything has heated through, serve immediately. The spinach will start to lose its color and it won’t look as nice. Serve it with brown rice or any grain of your choice. Garnish each plate with a healthy serving of fresh cilantro and enjoy!

Notes

 

You can add additional spices to this dish. For instance, if you are in the mood for curry flavors, try adding 1 to 2 teaspoons of curry powder or a nice masala mix. When adding spices, add them after the ginger and garlic. For added texture, you could also add ingredients such as water chestnuts or nuts at the end. Feel free to experiment to see what delicious combinations you come up with.

Check out the video on how to prepare this right here.

Thanks to Rouxbe for this great dish and to Dave for making it while I was away skating:)

http://rouxbe.com/recipes/4801-coconut-braised-chickpeas-w-spinach-sun-dried-tomatoes/text

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August 3, 2013 · 6:48 pm

Wild Rice, Green Lentil, Almond Salad with Lemon Tarragon Dressing

ImageI love Canadian Living.  This one came to me via their app which I now subscribe to. I adjusted this because the original recipe is Indian inspired so it’s flavoured with raisins, cumin and coriander and while I love those flavours I eat a ton of Indian food and I wanted something a little lighter and more summery. So I substituted those flavours with an olive oil, lemon, garlic, honey, tarragon dressing which was fantastic.

So this is super simple. Cook and dice and mix it all up.

The ingredients are:

1 cup wild rice uncooked

1 cup uncooked green lentils

1 cup parsley

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup red onion finely sliced.

Cook the wild rice until done (the same way you cook regular rice except it takes a wee bit longer). Boil lentil until done. Chop everything else up, throw them together in a serving dish and voila you have an awesome hearty summer salad.

I didn’t pour my salad dressing I made into the entire salad but instead dressed my salad with each serving. It keeps the veggies fresher.

Enjoy!

Cook 1 cup of wild rice and 1 cup of

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December 9, 2012 · 5:16 pm

Kale and Butternut Squash Soup – vegetarian, gluten-free

Oh my. This is so good. So good. Did I say good? Yes, it’s delicious.  I am having a love affair with kale this year which is likely one of the reasons I love this so much. Anyways, it’s easy and fabulous. Try it right away!
Ingredients
  • 3 medium carrots, peeled and quartered lenthwise
  • 1 large leek, washed and finely chopped
  • 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • I can finely diced tomatoes
  • 4 cups of finely chopped kale
  • 3 large fresh thyme sprigs
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 15 oz can of cannelli white beans, drained
  • 1 tsps Better than Bouillon vegetarian bouillon
  • salt and pepper to taste (I’m on a bit of a white pepper kick
  • 4 cups water

METHOD

Cut all the vegetables. Heat a large soup pot with olive oil. Add leeks, garlic and carrots. Stir until softened over medium heat for a approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Add one can of finely diced tomatoes. Add Better than Bouillon and thyme. Add squash and 4 cups of water. Bring to high simmer until squash is tender (but not overcooked!!) Add kale. Simmer for 3 minutes. If you want to thicken the soup with tomato paste to make it more stew- like you can ( I  was tempted but in the end I didn’t!)

 

 

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January 28, 2011 · 6:09 pm

Israeli Salad

For Christmas dinner Dave and I each chose different dishes to prepare. I chose paella as a main and he chose Israeli Salad and Gluten-free ginger cake for dessert. The Israeli Salad seems so basic that I was surprised that we hadn’t run into it somewhere before along our culinary travels but we hadn’t. The best way of describing it is ‘fresh’. It’s fresh and wonderful. He got the recipe from allrecipes.com where they have the handy portion calculator.

This recipe serves two:

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 2-1/2 cucumbers, diced
  • 1-1/2 roma (plum) tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 2 green onions, sliced
  • 3/8 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
  • 2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
  • 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 3 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh mint leaves
  • 3 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1-1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1-1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper

Directions:

Toss the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, garlic, parsley, and mint together in a bowl. Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice over the salad and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to serve. Dave chopped all the vegetables in quite small pieces which I really liked. That way each bite you get a little taste of everything.

Check out some more great recipes on allrecipes.com. We’ll be having this with Easy Pasta and Scallops tonight!


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November 5, 2010 · 4:17 pm

Lemon Kale with Chickpeas (Vegetarian Stew)

Call me crazy but I just discovered Canadian Living online recipes. Thanks to my friend Diane that’s where I found this one which I have slightly adapted. It’s a surprisingly simple recipe but absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
• olive oil (to cover bottom of pan)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 bunch kale finely chopped (and washed)
• grated rind of one whole lemon
• 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
• juice of one lemon
• cups liquid (water)
• 1 organic veggie cube
Method:
Heat the oil over medium heat; cook onion, garlic, salt and pepper for about 4 minutes or until softened.

Stir in kale and lemon rind; cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes or until slightly wilted. Pour in water and add veggie cube; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until kale is tender.

Stir in chickpeas and lemon juice; cook over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes or until no liquid remains. Drizzle with olive oil. Using a masher slightly mash some of the chickpeas.

I served this with boiled potatoes and a grated carrot and beet salad (dressed with olive oil and balsamic). We ate this for two days straight and loved every bite!

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October 20, 2010 · 2:52 pm

African Yam and Peanut Soup from Rebar Cookbook

I religiously followed the recipe for this soup from the Rebar cookbook and it was delicious. We just had this for dinner with a beet + carrot garbanzo bean salad and some crusty bread. Well Dave had the crusty bread and I had the non-crusty rice bread.  One small thing about this soup. It tends to explode a little in your blender when you mix it up. Don’t overload your blender or look out!

  • 8 cups vegetable stock
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 6 tbsp minced ginger
  • 4 large garlic cloves
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 tbsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 4 medium yams, peeled (or not) and roughly chopped
  • 1 14 fl oz can water-packed pineapple, juice reserved
  • 3 ripe tomatoes, chopped
  • 5 tbsp natural smooth peanut butter
  • 1 bunch cilantro, chopped (optional)
  • Juice of 2 limes, or more to taste
  • Favourite hot sauce, to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat stock and keep it warm on the back burner while you assemble the soup.
  2. In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and a pinch of salt; sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, add garlic, ginger, and spices and sauté until soft and golden.
  3. Stir in red pepper, yams, and salt and continue cooking until they start to stick to the bottom of the pot. Add vegetable stock to cover, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover partially and
    simmer until the yams are tender.
  4. Add pineapple with juice, tomatoes, peanut butter, and remaining stock and simmer 30 minutes.
    Purée the soup until smooth, either directly in the pot with a hand blender, or in batches using a food
    processor.
  5. Return soup to the pot and simmer for a final 10 minutes. Season to taste with more salt,
    pineapple juice, and/or hot sauce. Just before serving, add chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice.

Serves 8.

From Rebar Modern Food Cookbook

I’ve also made Greek Red Lemon Lentil Soup with Rosemary and Feta from the Rebar Cookbook and it was also fabulous.

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September 14, 2010 · 5:21 pm

Quinoa and Toasted Pecan Salad with Herbs

I’m on a bit of a quinoa tare right now. I found this recipe on About Food and it is delicious!

  • 2 cups quinoa, cooked (I added a veggie cube to the quinoa when it was cooking)
  • 1/2 cup pecans (pine nuts or almonds may be substituted) ( I actually toasted almonds and pecans)
  • 3 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  • 3 scallions (green onions), chopped
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp garlic salt
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, nuts, parsley and mint.In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and garlic salt, then pour over quinoa. Gently toss this dressing over the quinoa. Season with salt and peppa.Chill for at least 15 minutes before serving to let the flavors blend. Toss again before serving

I served this with this.

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November 4, 2009 · 4:55 pm

Indonesian Coconut Chili Eggs: Gluten Free, dairy free and delicious

Just because you can’t eat gluten or dairy doesn’t mean your culinary life has to be dull. My dad hailed from Indonesia so we grew up eating sate, sajoer, nasi goreng, bami goreng,  hot fish, tofu, and all kinds of things like that. For those of you who can’t eat eggs (or don’t want to) you could easily replace the eggs with something like tofu, fish or chicken. There’s only two semi weird ingredients that are essential to this dish so if you’re not in the habit of keeping lemon grass or trassi in your pantry than it would be a good idea to go grab some at your local Asian grocery outlet. Continue reading →

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