I have never called myself a chef. I don’t enjoy spending hours in the kitchen or making complicated, pretty dishes that require a ton of preparation and after-cleaning. I almost never follow recipes to the T: I usually look for shortcuts or ways to make them healthier. I don’t follow cuisine-specific rules, and mix and match ingredients that I think would taste good together.
Nevertheless, going by feedback from my family and friends, I tend to be pretty successful in the kitchen. People usually like my food, and over time, I have realized that I may truly have an intuitive knack for putting together good food. I also love experimenting with new ideas that sometimes come to me on a whim, and are sometimes more carefully strategized. Here are some results from my recently successful kitchen experiments.
Black Bean Burgers
I was myself taken aback by the dense, “meaty” texture I ended up with in these burger patties, especially because I used no special or fancy ingredients and no meat replacement. In fact, the recipe is entirely whole foods-based. I first boiled black beans in my trusted pressure cooker, mashed them up with some of the remaining liquid and added spices (salt, pepper, chilli powder, dried dill (the most important, don’t skip this), dried basilikum, and a little dried fenugreek powder). I then added chickpea flour (Besan, in Hindi; Kichererbsenmehl, in German) and some rolled oats until I ended up with a dough that could be handled with the hands without sticking. I also added a small amount of ground up flax seeds and sesame seeds. I then divided the dough into six parts, made a sphere (?) out of each and flattened it with my hands onto a baking sheet. I then baked it at around 165 degrees for about 20 minutes on each side.
Asparagus-Green Bean-Tofu Pasta
By far, my favourite pasta recipe. It is really flavourful and delicious, and using a sauce is completely optional, I prefer it without. Making this just involves boiling pasta as usual, in al dente style, and making a separate stir-fry with coarsely chopped asparagus, green beans and tofu, flavoured at the end with fresh/dried basilikum, oregano, and rosmarin. The pasta is then simply mixed with the stir-fry. If you want a sauce for extra creaminess, use cashew cream, and/or a tomato-based sauce.
Broccoli Poha
Poha is a classical Indian favourite breakfast, comprising a flavourful beaten rice dish with mustard seeds, onions, potatoes, roasted peanuts, green chillis, curry leaves, and spices. I decided to jazz up my poha a step further, by adding some florets of broccoli to go along. I first popped some black mustard seeds, browned some green chillis and chopped onions in the same pan, and then added some water, finely chopped steamed potato pieces, and some small broccoli florets, and cooked unil they softened about 70%. When this was done and the water was boiling, I finally added the beaten rice, turmeric powder, and roasted peanuts. The heat then needs to be turned off immediately to avoid the rice getting too soggy. The remaining water should be just enough for the rice to absorb and become fluffy. Leave the pan on the (switched off) heating plate for a while. Note that beaten (flat) rice has been steamed already, so it cooks almost instantly.
Loaded Chickpea Flour Pizza/wrap/pancake/cheela….
In India, a popular savoury dish is the besan cheela (chickpea pancake), which typically contains chopped onions and/or other veggies. I decided to do a twist on this dish, instead loading the veggies in the form of a stifry on top, to get a pizza kind of dish. I cooked a stir-fry separately, with kale, zucchini, and carrots, and the chickpea pancake separately (in the dough, I used chickpea flour, water, nutritional yeast, salt, and turmeric powder). I then put on a layer of the New Roots garlic vegan cheese spread (you can also use home-made cashew cream) on the chickpea pancake (cheela) and then loaded the stirfry on top. This can then be enjoyed as-is or folded into a wrap structure.
South Indian-style Veggie Raita/Yogurt Dip
I’ve always been a curd-rice fan, especially of the combination of the flavours of mustard seeds, curry leaves, and red dried chillis. I got this idea for a veggie yogurt dip one day when I had some extra zucchinis and carrots lying around. I first roast mustard seeds, curry leaves, and dried red chillis in a pan, and after the seeds have popped, pour this mixture into some vegan yogurt (my favourites are cashew and soy-based), suitably thinned down to a dip consistency, or kept thick based on preference. I then grate up some raw zucchini and carrots into thin slices or small pieces, and mix them to the yogurt dip, with salt, pepper, and a store-bought spice mix for “dahi vada”. This yogurt dip can then be eaten with cooled rice for a curd-rice experience, or simply enjoyed as a side with another meal.
Tofu-Mushroom-Onion Skewers
When summer arrives, so does barbeque season. I was never a fan of meat replacements, so I came up with this recipe for skewers, which can be made in the oven or roasted on a barbeque (maybe? I never tried). It’s pretty simple, I chopped up onions, tofu, and mushrooms into big pieces and loaded them onto store-bought wooden skewers. I then made a separate sauce to coat them with tahini, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and some store-bought spice mix for tofu. One could use liquid smoke or barbeque sauce for that smoky flavour, but I don’t like it, so I did not. I then covered the skewers with the sauce and baked at around 180 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, reversing the plate direction in the middle to even out the heat.
Some batch-cooking pictures
As mentioned above, I’m a pretty lazy cook and club together a lot of my cooking acitivities over 2-3 instances in the week. I took some photos from my batch cooking, which I have nowhere else to put, so here they are! 😛
