Roasted Roots

The original recipe for this delicious side dish comes from The Candle Café Cookbook, one of my all-time favourite cooking books. The authors are the owners of Candle 79 vegan restaurant in New York. I used a bit more vegetables and garlic, I also made more marinade. Here is the slightly adjusted recipe:

Roasted roots (serves 4 as a side dish)

2 medium carrots, cut into 2 cm pieces

3 parsnips or root parsleys, peeled and cut into small chunks

2 beetroots, peeled and cut into small chunks

2 yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks

2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. tamari or shoyu soy sauce
pinch of dried basil, oregano, thyme
freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the vegetables on a shallow baking sheet. In a small bowl combine the olive oil, soy sauce, herbs, pepper and salt, mix well. Pour over the vegetables and mix well. I do it with my hand, in fact sometimes I put all the marinade ingredients directly on the vegetables and mix. It saves time and a bit of washing up ;) Bake until tender, it usually takes about an hour.

Grapefruit and pear juice with a kick

This is my attempt to recreate a juice from the Saf Restaurant and Bar at Whole Foods Market Kensington. Both shopping for some vegan ingredients hard to get in Belgium and a lunch at the restaurant are a must for me every time I am in London. I wish they opened one in Brussels, but so far my requests have been ignored... ;)

The rather unexpected ingredients in this juice are flaxseed oil and cayenne pepper. They do give it quite a kick ;) Flaxseed oil (otherwise known as linseed oil) contains Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, both needed for our health. Still, the juice will also taste great and be very refreshing if you don't like flaxseed oil, which has quite a special taste, or if you don't like the idea of a spicy juice altogether. Either way, if you like grapefruits and feel like a bit of help to wake up in the morning, go for it :)

Ingredients for 1.5L of juice:

6 grapefruits, peeled
6 pears (I use conference)
1lemon, peeled
a piece of ginger
1 tsp. flaxseed oil
a pinch of cayenne pepper (a very small pinch ;)

Juice all the fruit, then add the oil and cayenne pepper, mix well, pour into glasses and enjoy!

Vegetable curry with quinoa

Vegetable curry with quinoa (serves 4-6)

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp. freshly grated ginger
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. ground cumin
2 tbsp. dry coriander
1 pack (375g) firm tofu, cubed
800g frozen vegetables (mine included green beans, carrots, zucchini, red peppers, onions, cucumbers, broccoli, green peas, vegetable bullion, green olives, powder garlic, pepper, basil, oregano, thyme)
2 cans chopped tomatoes
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper or chili
½ cup sunflower seeds
2 cups quinoa
A bunch of parsley, chopped, for serving

This is a very simple and fast recipe I came up with for dinner today. Usually I serve curries with rice, but it actually worked really well with quinoa. I think thanks to the quinoa the dish feels quite light, but at the same time it is actually filling. Very healthy and very tasty, nothing more I could want from a nice dinner ;)

Heat up the olive oil in a wok and fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a few minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar, cumin, coriander and fry for another 2-3 minutes, add the tofu and fry until it’s well covered in the garlic/ginger/spices mixture. Add the frozen vegetables and cook over low-medium heat for about 10 min, then add the canned tomatoes, sunflower seeds, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper or chili. Cook until the vegetables are done, but still crispy. In the meantime prepare the quinoa according to the instructions on the package. Serve the vegetable sauce over quinoa, topped with chopped parsley.

Fruit salad with basil

We are still on Sardinia, enjoying the beautiful late summer. Today it has been really hot and after a long biking trip, I felt like something light and refreshing. I simply combined all the fruit I had at hand with some chopped fresh basil leaves, lime juice and maple syrup. A very nice dish on a hot day! Last time I made it, we had it as dessert and then the following day I combined the leftovers with some mixed greens. It turned out to be a fantastic side salad to the grilled tofu, eggplants and zucchini we had for dinner.

Fruit salad with basil

1/2 small water melon
1/2 melon
1 orange
2 peaches
1/2 small pineapple
a handful of chopped basil leaves
juice of 1/2 lime
maple syrup to taste

Kamilla's signature sandwiches ;)

I love sandwiches. There are many combinations of vegetables I like using as toppings, but for sure a classic one for me is tomatoes and avocados. A simple but delicious combination which I discovered during my trip to Chile and Argentina in January/February this year. It started with a few hotel breakfasts, where I quickly realized that the usual options include toasts, jam, ham, sometimes cheese, some great fresh fruit, at least ten types of cakes and absolutely no vegetables, which is what I would normally have with the bread in places where no other vegan options are available. So I started bringing my own tomato and avocado for breakfast ;) I would also use this easy to prepare combination for my road trips sandwiches. And those I ate a lot of, as we covered hundreds of kilometers by car every day. In a way I feared I wouldn't be able to look at avocados and tomatoes after coming back to Brussels, but that wasn't the case, it's one of the things I seem not to be able to get bored with. I just wish the vegetables I buy in Brussels reminded more of the South American ones ;)

Some of my favourite choices for other ingredients to go with the avocado/tomato combination are listed below. The tofu is optional. I often keep some marinated tofu slices in the fridge, but they all taste great without it as well:

- hummus, mixed greens, tofu, tomato, avocado, salt, pepper
- any vegan bread spread, tofu, tomato, avocado, salt, pepper
- hummus, vegan 'ham' slice, tomato, avocado, salt, pepper

Right now I'm on Sardinia, where the tomatoes and avocados are just so divine that it would feel like too much of a waste not to eat plenty of them every day. Below just two examples of some Sardinian interpretations of my tomato-avocado sandwich:

a slice of durum semolina bread with sundried tomatoes, vegan sundried tomato spread, mixed greens, tomatoes, avocados, salt, pepper, chili powder

a slice of durum semolina bread with sundried tomatoes, grilled tofu, tomatoes, avocado/grilled zucchini, pepper

04.09.2011 - update ;) A friend of mine from Denmark sent me a recipe and photos of his version of the avocado/tomato sandwiches. They for sure look fantastic! I have never tried artichoke pesto, but I will definitely see if I can find it in Brussels once I'm back, so that I can also try this very tasty looking combination. Thank you, Kim!

Brown bread or toasted white bread, some artichoke Pesto from Irma, tomatoes, avocado in slices, basil leaves

Breakfast pancakes

After a long break, I finally pulled myself together and so here comes a really delicious recipe for vegan pancakes, ideal for a lazy weekend breakfast ;)

Ingredients:

½ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup spelt flour or all-purpose white flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 cup soy milk

¼ cup vanilla soy milk (or rice milk instead of both types of soy milk)

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. agave syrup

2 bananas, sliced (I used frozen banana pieces that I keep in the freezer for making quick smoothies, I just defrosted them by putting the plastic bag with the bananas in some hot water)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients and the banana pieces. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix together. Heat a nonstick pancake pan over medium-high heat and pour a portion of the batter, the amount depending on how big you want the pancakes to be. Cook until the underside is lightly brown, then flip to the other side. Repeat until you have used all the batter. I served them with some mango and peaches, agave syrup and extra cinnamon. They are absolutely delicious, I will for sure be making them often.

Mango and tomato salad

This is another invention I came up with after returning from a holiday and realizing there isn't much food at home. I had never tried to combine mangoes and tomatoes, but it tastes really good. I think it would be even better with some fresh corriander and maybe some avocado slices. Next time!

1 ripe mango, cubed
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 tbsp dried basil
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Mix all the ingredients in a salad bowl. I served it with potatoes with dried rosemary, salt and pepper, garlic cloves (peeled) and red onions (cut into wedges), all baked in the oven.