Cabbage Stew

By quick googling I found out that cabbage stews are eaten around the world. They’re also eaten here in Finland and here’s my vegan version. It wouldn’t win a beauty contest, but it’s simple and easy weekday dinner. Here it’s served with beet salad, pickle slices and bread. In Finland cabbage dishes are often served with crushed lingonberries or lingonberry jam, but I forgot we had lingonberries in our fridge. Well, maybe next time.

Cabbage Stew

1,5 dl textured soy protein
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
hot water
1-2 onions
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp oil
1 big carrot
2 potatoes
piece of parsnip (50-100g)
600 g cabbage (1/3 of cabbage head)
3 dl water
1 tsp each: marjoram, parsley and lovage
salt if needed

Mix textured soy protein, garlic powder and pepper in a bowl. Add some hot water and soy sauce and mix well. Let sit until soy protein is soft. Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a pot and sauté onions, garlic and textured soy protein until onions are soft and translucent. Meanwhile peel carrots, potatoes and parsnip. Slice carrot and cube potatoes and parsnip. Cut the cabbage into strips. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot and simmer until all the vegetables are soft (half an hour maybe?).

Casseroles Are Autumn Food

I have noticed, that when the weather turns colder and days get darker I want to eat casseroles and soups. Today we made a casserole using things we had at home. It was quite nice, especially with hot sauce. But I think diced bell pepper, garlic and maybe olives could have made it better.

Edit: We had a lot of leftovers, and I added bell pepper and pickled cucumber before reheating. They made the casserole better, and I’ve added them to the recipe too.

Barley and Lentil Casserole

1,5 l water + 1 tsp salt
2,5 dl broken barley
2,5 dl green lentils
1 parsnip (150-200g)
1 onion
1 small bell pepper
1 pickled cucumber (2 small)
100g chopped nettle or frozen spinach
3 dl oat or soy milk
salt an pepper
1 tsp marjoram
0,5 tsp thyme
0,5 tsp lovage
1 tsp paprika

Bring the water to boil, add salt, barley and lentils, simmer covered on low heat for 20-25 minutes and drain. Peel and grate the parsnip, chop the onion, dice the bell pepper and pickled cucumber. Mix barley, lentils, parsnip, onion, bell pepper, pickle and nettle/spinach in a oven proof dish. Mix oat milk and spices in a bowl and pour on other ingredients. Stir, cover with lid or aluminium foil and bake 30-40 minutes in 200 Celsius degrees.

Somewhere Deep in The Caribbean…

No rats in the vichyssoise, but a warm and sunny bowl of soup. Pineapplejuice, ginger and chili give this soup warmness, which makes it perfect winter food. The recipe isn’t ours, someone gave it to me couple of years ago, but I have no idea where it has been published originally.

Caribbean Lentil Soup

1 onion
piece of red bell pepper
piece of parsnip
2 carrots
3 medium potatoes
2 dl red lentils
2-3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp grated ginger
pinch of chili powder or some fresh chili
2 tbsp minced garlic
2-3 tbsp tomato purée
0,5 tsp ground allspice
1,5 l water
4 dl pineapple juice
1 tsp salt
0,5 dl lemon juice
cilantro (optional)

Chop the onion and cube the vegetables. Rinse the lentils. Heat the oil in a big pot and sauté the oinon, bell pepper, ginger, chili and garlic couple of minutes. Add tomato purée, allspice and cubed vegetables, sauté couple more minutes and add water and lentils. Bring to boil and simmer 30 minutes. Add pineapple juice and simmer a little longer. Season with lemon juice and salt. Sprinkle fresh cilantro on top and serve.

Starring: The Chickpea Loaf

In Finland we have a cooking magazine called Maku. I haven’t found many interesting recipes from issues I’ve read, most of them are for omnivores and vegetarian recipes are usually so basic recipes that I could whip them up any time (could be good recipes for beginners, though). This loaf from issue 6/08 is exception. It’s easy to make and it’s best loaf I’ve ever eaten. This time I baked it in star shaped dish, but usually I use an elongated dish.

Chickpea Loaf

600g cooked or canned chickpeas (3 dl dry)
150g chopped onions
1 tbsp canola oil for frying
2dl rolled oats
2 dl oat cream
1 dl canola oil
4 tbsp potato flour
2 tbsp curry paste (less if it’s strong)
2,5 tsp salt
2 tsp ground aniseed or ground fennel seeds
2 tsp basil
0,5 tsp ground black pepper
150 g grated parsnip
2 dl sunflower seeds

to the dish:
margarine
1 dl sesame seeds (bread crumbs can be used too)

Fry the chopped onions in oil.

Put everything except parsnip and sunflower seeds to a big bowl and puré them with a hand held blender. Add grated parsnip and sunflower seeds and blend a little longer. Some of the seeds should be crushed and some should stay unbroken.

If you’re not using a non-stick dish, cover at least the bottom with piece of parchment paper. Grease the dish (and paper) with margarine and coat with sesame seeds. Pour the chick pea mash to the dish and even out. Bake in 175 Celsius degrees for about an hour. Let the loaf cool down a bit and flip over. Can be served hot or cold.