Happy International Women's Day!

A very happy International Women's Day to all my sisters out there!

POLENTA-RATATOUILLE PIE

This recipe is a variation on the Polenta Pie With Spinach I posted here 22 February - posted again for your entertainment and convenience. I had left-over ratatouille from a couple of days ago and thought what to do with it. Because I like things spicy most of the time and also because it would make it different from what we’d recently eaten, I jazzed it up a bit.

POLENTA-RATATOUILLE PIE
(Using Left-Overs)

The filling (I had that - the left-over ratatouille - maybe a couple of cups, give or take - I didn't measure) with extra zing of
Crushed chiles (about a tsp)
1 cup polenta/medium corn meal
3 cups water - or vegetable stock if you prefer
1tsp dried parsley
1 tsp crushed/pulverized garlic
1 - 2 cups Pasta sauce (I had some home made, but you could use your favourite)
A little (just light sprinkles) Vegan parmezan cheez (I used homemade version) - optional

Add the crushed chiles to the left-over ratatouille and keep it warm in a pan while you make the polenta, which is only slightly changed from the previous recipe. The major difference was in halving the recipe since I thought I’d made it a bit heavy the first time.

Bring 3 cups of water (you could use veggie stock and skip the salt) and a pinch of salt to a boil over high heat in a LARGE pot. Slowly add the 1 cup of cornmeal, whisking it in so that it doesn’t go into lumps - or use a wooden spoon, stirring all the while. Add a tsp of dried parsley flakes and a tsp of pulverized garlic and stir well.

Reduce heat to a bare simmer. Cover the pan and cook, stirring now and then, around 15 minutes or until the polenta is cooked.

Remove from the heat but leave it covered for about 5 minutes, during which time preheat your oven to 375 F.

TO ASSEMBLE:
Immediately spoon half of the polenta into a lightly oiled/sprayed pie plate. You will need to use the back of a large spoon to press it down and smooth it out nicely. Spoon the warmed ratatouille filling over the polenta base - to within 1/2 inch of the outside rim of the polenta.

Put the remaining polenta on top, carefully spreading it (I used a knife dipped in cold water again and again) and smooth the surface with the back of your big spoon.

Sprinkle the top with a little vegan parmezan cheeze (or your homemade faux cheez substitute), but this is optional.

Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 mins or until the top begins to brown a little. Remove from oven and let it settle for another 15 minutes.

Cut into wedges, garnish and accompany with pasta sauce if you are using it.

This was too good to call leftovers! Yummmm!!!! (As you can see, we managed, between us, to make great inroads into it.) Serve with a nice salad of your choice.

I was more pleased with this than with the Polenta Pie With Spinach because it wasn't so heavy on the polenta and also because I just love doing something useful with leftovers :) It WAS hard to photograph, though!

TOMATO CABBAGE SOUP

I make this soup fat-free (although die-hards are welcome to sautee the onions in a couple of Tbsp of oil if they must) and simmer for a bit longer than the stipulated time, since I think the longer these things cook the nicer they are. But for a Quick Fix soup, the time stated here is the one to follow.

TOMATO CABBAAGE SOUP (QUICK AND EASY FIX)

This recipe is easy and can be quickly made - It’s slightly adapted from Sarah Kramer’s _La Dolce Vegan_.

1 small red onion, minced
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp paprika, or to taste (we added a little more)
1 -14 oz can diced tomatoes
2-1/2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups cabbage, very finely chopped
1/4 tsp ground black pepper or to taste
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp maple syrup
salt, if you use it, to taste

Put all ingredients, except for the vinegar and maple syrup, into a soup pan and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat so that the soup ingredients simmer gently. After around 20 minutes, Stir in the vinegar and syrup. Salt if you like.

There ya go - a tasty, nutritious, easy soup that will serve a couple of hungry people or twice as many for a first course only.

Serve with a nice hunk of homemade wholewheat sourdough bread.

Can be kept in the fridge for a few days, but not recommended for freezing :( Definitely a keeper!!

CURRIED CAULIFLOWER WITH PEAS

CURRIED CAULIFLOWER AND PEAS

This idea is one I found in Dr Neal Barnard’s _Turn Off The Fat Genes_ (Recipes by Jennifer Raymond). I have adapted it slightly to suit our tastes, but I have left the simplicity of it intact - it would be foolish to try to make it more ‘authentic’ in cooking style, when the whole point would seem to be that it is quick and easy and requires little preparation apart from measuring the spices and chopping the oniion and cauliflower. Despite some misgivings (we tried it at lunchtime today), it was remarkably good and I will probably make it this way again! So easy!!

The original would have made far too much food for us to eat up in several days, so I cut back the amounts.

1/2 large cauliflower, cut into mini-’trees’ rather than florets (ie.bigger and longer)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp whole brown mustard seed
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin’
cayenne to taste
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup water
1 small onion, chopped
1 cups frozen peas
salt to taste

After rinsing and sectioning the cauliflower, set it aside.
Measure the spices.
Put a small skillet over medium-high heat and roast the spices for about a minute or until
they begin to darken. Don’t let them burn. Set aside.

Put the onions in another skillet large enough to contain all ingredients. Add the water and cook, stirring, over medium-high heat until the onions become soft. Four or five minutes should do it. Stir in the spices.

Now at THIS point you might need to add a little more water so that the spices and onions are in a kind of gravy-like liquid that you can turn the cauliflower in so as to coat the pieces of cauliflower with all these flavours (I did). Put in the cauliflower and keep turning it until they’ve taken on the yellow colour of the spice mix on all sides.

Reduce heat a little and cover and cook until almost tender. (Keep an eye on them, stirring now and then, because you don’t want it to boil dry and burn. Add a tiny bit more water if you think it needs it.)

Then add the frozen peas, stir, and cook until the peas are hot - that should take around a couple of minutes at most.

Salt to taste.

Serve with brown basmati rice, dhal, and kachumber or salad.

TUSCAN-STYLE BEANS WITH TOMATOES

(Serves 4 as a main dish, up to eight as a side dish)
A Quick Fix.

While this dish is traditionally made with cannellini beans, we use navy beans or northern beans, according to what we have cooked and ready. We make it without olive oil to sautee the garlic, etc. for another fat-free dish which is also quick and easy.

4 or 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3-4 cups (two cans, if you prefer them, but rinse and drain) white beans, cooked and drained
1 cup low-sodium vegetable stock, homemade if you have it
14-ounce can of tomatoes, chopped, including juice
a good pinch of dried sage or use four or five fresh sage leaves if you have them handy
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the garlic in a very little water for a few minutes to soften in a large pot, then add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Reduce heat and simmer - without a lid - for 20 minutes or so, until thickened nicely. Give it a good stir now and then while it does this. When the mixture is lovely and moist but no longer runny it's done. Easy and delicious.

RATATOUILLE

For lunch today we had some Tuscan-style white beans (recipe to follow) accompanied by this fat-free ratatouille - which is quick and easy and cooked on the stovetop.

You'll need -
2 onions, chopped
4 or 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large eggplant, diced
14-ounce can of tomatoes, with juice, crushed
1-1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs such as organo, thyme, basil, parsley
Several good turns of freshly ground black pepper
2 medium zucchini, sliced into half moons
1 large bell pepper (I like the red ones), diced
salt to taste

Cook the onion and garlic in a large pot in around 1/2 cup water on medium-high heat, until soft (maybe 5 minutes) then add the diced eggplant, tomatoes and herbs, salt and pepper and stir well. Reduce heat somewhat and let it cook covered (stir frequently, though, so it doesn't stick) for around 15 minutes or until the eggplant is soft.

Add the other ingredients and stir well, and cook for another 10 or 15 minutes, or until the zuccini is tender. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Serves 8.

SPICY RED DRAGON PIE

There are several versions of a Red Dragon Pie circulating on the net. The original is probably this one: http://www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk/recipes.php?i=4 And this is my take on it.

My usual way to make this is to soak a couple of ounces of wheatberries overnight and cook them with the adzuki beans. This time I have used a couple of ounces of pot barley instead. The barley gave it a nice texture with bite.

SPICY RED DRAGON PIE

The Pie Filling:
4 ounces (by weight) adzuki beans, soaked overnight
2 ounces ( ditto) pot barley, ditto
1 brown onion, chopped
1/2 lb. carrots, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-inch piece peeled ginger, very finely chopped
1 tsp or more crushed chile peppers
1 Tsp Tamari or Braggs
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1tsp or so of mixed herbs such as parsley, thyme, oregano
1 cup or more bean stock (or what you need to keep the mixture moist)
salt & pepper & cayenne to taste

The Potatoes:
3/4 lb red potatoes
a little low-fat soymilk for mashing the potatoes
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast for the potatoes
salt and pepper to taste for the potatoes
2 or 3 green/spring onions, finely chopped, for the potatoes

Garnish:
spirnkle of faux parmezan cheez or homemade similar, dash paprika, parsley


Drain the beans and barley and simmer for 3/4 hour or until cooked in a quart or more
of water. Drain, but save the stock for later.

NOTE: This part of the recipe can be done ahead of time - you can even cook and save the beans and barley and freeze the mix until needed. OR you can proceed with the recipe until the point of putting on the potatoes and stop there a day ahead or freeze until needed. OR you can make and freeze the whole recipe. It is very very forgiving.

To continue . . .
Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the onion and carrot and a little bean stock to cook until soft along with the garlic, chiles and ginger. Add add the cooked beans and barley and mix well.

Add the tamari, tomato puree and herbs to some of that cup of bean stock. mix, and add to the pan. Stir, and then add as much of the bean stock as you need to keep it from going dry - about a cup - bring to the boil, lower to simmer. (Use water or veg stock if you run out of bean stock.)

Simmer for about 20 minutes to blend the flavours nicely.

Meanwhile boil the potatoes and mash hem with the soymilk, add the nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and chopped green onions.

Taste the bean mix for seasoning and correct, adding salt, pepper and more cayenne if necessary. Put it in a lightly sprayed casserole dish and spread the mashed potato mix over the top. Sprinkle the top with the vegan faux cheez or nutritional yeast and crumb mix (if used) and sprinkle a little paprika.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes, in which time the potatoes should have browned and crisped.

Add a sprig of parsley or something green if you like and serve with green vegetables or a salad.

Reheats nicely in oven (cover with foil) or microwave.

Serves 4.