I don’t think this really qualifies as cooking. I found that my local Turkish shop carried dried Kayseri mantı filled with tofu, so naturally I had to try it. I served it with haydari, paprika powder and paprika paste.
Of course it was not as delicious as fresh mantı, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the non-traditional filling worked.
This is a yoghurt meze dish. It is one of the few dishes where I like fresh dill. I had a small piece of feta so I included it.
These grilled peppers are yet another side dish for warm evenings.
This quick stir fry comes from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey. The seasoning is quite sufficient to obscure the pure raw taste of sprouts, unlike the in the sprout salad. Mung beans are blanched and then stir-fried with a sauce of ginger, garlic, spring onion, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil.
To make this pasta salad, I first soaked a handful of cashews in warm water, before blending them with a little water, one small clove of garlic, a bit of nutritional yeast, and half of a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. I then cooked the pasta, along with the carrots and broccoli, which I did not want to eat raw.
While the pasta and vegetables were cooking, I rinsed some tinned corn, sliced olives, chopped yellow and red sweet peppers, chopped cucumber, and chopped parsley. I rinsed the pasta, broccoli and carrots in cold water to chill them, then mixed them with the remaining vegetables, the cashew sauce, black pepper, salt, and olive oil.
Obviously the vegetables can be changed to taste – I meant to add some frozen peas to the pasta just before draining, but discovered I had run out – as the main thing about this dish is that it has a very light sauce instead of a heavy mayonnaise one that is typically found in pasta salads.
I decided to make this simple dip as a change of pace from my usual dip of Greek yoghurt and maple syrup. The marshmallow whip I found uses agar agar rather than gelatin, so this dip can be suitable for vegetarians.
It was a bit too sweet for my taste.
When you enjoy cooking it’s sometimes easy to forget about the simple recipes, like this salad of lettuce, cucumber, carrot and sweet pepper with classic Italian vinaigrette. It can serve as a summer lunch or dinner, or as a side.
It has been a hot summer, and one of the things I’ve been enjoying is peach iced tea. To make this I first made sun tea using Darjeeling first flush leaves for a slightly more vegetal taste than my usual Assam. I mixed the strained tea and peach juice into a glass (about 1/4 peach juice and the remainder tea) and added a few drops of stevia and a little lemon juice (optional). The only other thing it needs is an ice cube.
Another nice combination is white tea and guava juice.
I made French beans again. This time, I remembered to add basil and parsley before I ate. Either way, they get eaten up quickly!
TMI Food 