Food challenge

[sam_t]

frankie_ecap has been given a list of foods to avoid, and is looking for easy recipes which will help. I'm posting my ideas here, partly so that I can keep adding to the post as things occur to me, but also so that other people can join in too. I quite like the challenge of thinking of appropriate recipes - I like problem-solving, plus I get reminded of lots of tasty things.

"Avoid or minimise: spicy food, onions, citrus, white wine / champagne, apples, chocolate, fried food / fast food, tomatoes, caffeine, dairy products, fizzy drinks, peppermint, fatty foods.

By contrast, pineapples are recommended, and ginger is good too."

Apparently, 'spicy' means 'with chilli', so other spices are probably OK. Also, frankie_ecap doesn't eat meat.

Avoiding dairy and tomatoes does rather make some of the more obvious pasta options a bit difficult. However, there's still pesto - it usually contains parmesan but it is possible to find vegan versions (try health-food shops). There are also a number of pasta dishes that just use a couple of spoonsful of olive oil to coat the pasta and other ingredients, rather than relying on a dairy or tomato sauce. I'm assuming that this wouldn't count as 'fatty food', by the way - it wouldn't by my definition, provided you weren't drinking pints of olive oil daily, but check if you're unsure. Toasted breadcrumbs sprinkled on the top are also traditional in some parts of Italy, and add an extra flavour and crunch without needing to reach for the cheese.

Tagliatelle with courgette, pine nuts and pesto
Cut a courgette per person into thin diagonal slices. Toast a handful of pine nuts in a dry pan (optional - that is, the toasting is optional). Put the tagliatelle on to boil. Cook the courgette slices gently in a pan with a bit of olive oil. When pasta is cooked, add to pan with courgettes, put in a couple of spoonsful of vegan pesto and stir until it's all well mixed. Add a splash of olive oil if it needs it. Serve with the pine nuts sprinkled on top.

You can get a good range of dairy-free things these days. There's dairy free margarine, ice-cream (Swedish Glace is one of the better ones and available in supermarkets), a range of soya and other dairy-free milks (try different ones - they're not all horrible but none of them taste like cow's milk), soya yoghurts, and so on. Lots of this stuff is around in supermarkets, so you don't need to haunt health-food shops unless you want to. Don't expect any of them to be exactly the same as things made from cows, but they can be useful.

Pumpkin and chickpea stew
This is a recipe from pariyal, and it's great. It also lends itself well to variations - in this case you'd have to leave out the tomatoes and onions but I think that it would still be pretty tasty (although you may need to add a drop of stock instead of the tomatoes). So far I've made it with butternut squash rather than pumpkin proper. The only down side is that it makes huge amounts and is noticeably not as good if frozen. My solution on a couple of occasions has been to use the same technique and spices, but to leave out some of the vegetables - a courgette and (1/2 a small) aubergine version, for example. It's very good with couscous.

Roasted Things
Pretty much what it says on the tin: cut things up, stick them in the oven, take them out when they're softer and a bit charred round the edges. Good with couscous or stirred into pasta. Use whatever's in season: squash, peppers, fennel, celeriac (parboil first), potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc. Stir into pasta with herbs and olive oil; serve over couscous and drizzle over a little olive oil mixed with cumin and paprika.

Chickpea Wraps
Per person: 2 tortilla/pitta/other flatbreads, 1/2 tin of chickpeas, a little olive oil, salt, 1tsp paprika, 1tsp ground cumin, any salad you fancy (grated carrot & shredded lettuce goes well). Put the chickpeas in a pan with a few splashes of water, so they've got some moisture while they're heating up. when they're hot, add a spoonful of olive oil, the salt and the spices, and warm through. Heat the bread (microwave, grill, hot dry pan etc). Put chickpeas in bread, with salad unless you prefer the salad on the side. Eat while hot.

Indian-spiced potatoes
This is more of a side dish, really, but it's tasty and doesn't take long. I do actually have a proper recipe for this (which involves onions and chillis) but the book is still packed. I can look it up for you if you like, but the basic idea is simple: parboil some potatoes (waxy rather than floury if possible) and drain well. Heat some oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, add potatoes when the seeds are spluttering. Add some more spices (e.g. garam masala, turmeric, ginger, ground pepper). When it's all hot and the potatoes are slightly browned, serve with fresh coriander. Use your own judgement on which/how many spices are OK - mustard and pepper may count as 'hot'.

Stir-fries
There are probably lots of ideas from Chinese food, as it doesn't involve much dairy, and some styles of cooking involve avoiding flavours like chilli and onion. Some ideas:
Heat a wok until almost smoking. Add oil and swirl around. When the oil is hot, add shredded ginger and garlic and stir. Add chopped vegetables (carrot, peppers, mange-tout, broccoli florets, greens, etc.) slowest to cook in first and stir-fry until they're just cooked. Add cashew nuts (previously toasted if you like), a dessertspoonful of soy sauce, the same of rice wine (optional) and a few drops of sesame oil, mix well and serve with rice or noodles.

Broccoli goes particularly well with ginger and soy sauce, by the way, and leafy greens go well with garlic. Either is good on its own as a side dish, or just with rice if protein is being handled elsewhere. Actually, tofu would probably work well in there, too.

Recipes for fried rice are generally also fairly quick and adaptable, although it helps if you start from previously-cooked, cooled rice (do I need to warn against leaving cooked rice around at room temperature?).

Lentil and wild mushroom soup
Substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock, and soak the dried mushrooms for however long it says on the packet before you put them in the pot (strain the soaking water and put that in too).

I'll try to find these recipes, but it depends on when I unearth the books. You may be able to invent versions in the mean time!
Braised chinese leaves
Shaolin monks
Butternut squash and sage risotto
Carrot and cashew pilau
Sesame greens
Home-made hummus

Comments

[mountainkiss.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. Thank you in particular for remembering something that I should have said and didn't: that I don't eat meat.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Actually I wasn't sure, but all the recipes that occurred to me first were vegetarian anyway.

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

This is not my recipe and it's not one that I've actually tried yet - I found it while going through some old folders. It can be easily modified for veg*ns.

Braised Puy Lentils
This is one of my favourite recipes. It is from the first naked chef book. (Veggies can omit the pancetta and use veg stock).

5g/two ounces pancetta
340g/twelve oz Puy Lentils
1tbsp Olive Oil
3 heaped tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary (or put a couple of sprigs in and remove at the end)
two shallots finely chopped
two cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 and a half pints of chicken stock (cubes are fine)
two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
half a tablespoon of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Slice the pancetta into fat matchsticks. Give the lentils a rinse. Use a thick bottomed pan (I use a le creuset casserole) heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and add the pancetta. Fry till slightly coloured then add rosemary, shallots and garlic. Cook for a further two minutes, then add the lentils and fry for about 1 min. Add the stock, put the lid on, bring to the boil and simmer in the oven for 1 hour at 160c stirring occasionally. By this time a lot of the stock will have been absorbed. Add two tbsps of your best extra virgin olive oil, half a tblsp red wine vinegar and black pepper and salt to taste.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Snoop around the vegan communities, they're very useful. ukvegans is the one that I frequent (very nice, helpful for new vegans, and won't be recommending ingredients only available in America) but there are several recipe ones on LJ too.

The vegan brand of pesto to go for is Sunita, it's gorgeous whereas the others I've tried are crap. They do a classic basil one and a very nice sundried tomato - oops. Well, the basil one, anyway. Goodness Direct is a very useful site for ordering specialist stuff. Basil pesto is lovely on pasta with sauted green vegetables (which if I'm being fussy includes a nice range, and if I'm being lazy means throwing some frozen peas in with the pasta a couple of minutes before it's done).

I'd probably go for Chinese food with those sorts of restrictions, onions would be your only problem but they don't have to be in everything. They don't use dairy or tomatoes. Japanese is also worth a try, I'm less familiar with that cuisine but again, no dairy, and I've only seen tomatoes in the odd salad. Indian tends to be heavy on the hot spices and while you can cook vegan Indian, there's more dependence on dairy. You can find vegan Thai curry paste if you hunt carefully, but they're still pretty damn hot, and the lashings of coconut milk used to cool it down sins on the fat front.

You can make a lovely raita (savoury yoghurt dip) using Alpro soya yoghurt, by the way. Shove in diced cucumber, olive oil, garlic puree, salt, and seasonings (mint for Greek, perhaps cumin for Indian) and I can eat it by the tubful.

That potato dish is nice, especially with sesame seeds.

It's worth remembering that foods designed to be deep-fried can often be brushed with oil and baked instead, for instance spring rolls (my local Chinese supermarket does a box of 60 small vegetarian spring rolls for £3).

I have a quicker version of forthwritten's recipe which involves sauteing a sliced onion in olive oil with spices (usually cumin, coriander and cinnamon) and garlic (generally puree, I do this recipe when I'm lazy) until golden, then adding a tin of brown lentils, but I'm not sure you could get that far without the onion. Lovely on pasta and takes about the same length of time to cook, it's one of our standbys for when we're too tired for real cooking.

I'm probably being nosy, but I'm now staring at that list trying to work out what condition would preclude those foods. Migraine?