Best Dinner Recipes

I really enjoy trying out recipes from other blogs, so I thought I'd write a best-of. These are the best dinners I've cooked and managed to take a photo of in the last few weeks. First up: Better-than-Tuna salad on The Fig Tree, originally from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. This salad is great on sandwiches, in pitas or on its own. It's also a great way to get your veggies - it's full of celery, capsicum and carrots.

I also recently made this Sambar from Hungry Desi, a food blog full of delicious-looking and mostly vegan recipes. You can put nearly any vegetable you like in your sambar. I used onions this time and it was very good.

And because the recipes on Hungry Desi are just that appealing, I made another one, Kadai Tofu. It was wonderfully spicy and flavourful. I replaced the milk with soy milk. I expect a little coconut milk would also work great.

That's all for this week, hope you enjoyed the recipes! Let me know if you try any of them out.

Zwiebelmett (Mince with Onions)

Zwiebelmett is basically mince with onions and spices, which people often eat spread on buns. I've never tried real Zwiebelmett, since I had already been vegan for some years before I came to Germany. I'm not sure who first thought of the idea of making it out of rice cakes, but there are many versions of this recipe online in German.

While I was researching this, I found out that Germans sometimes shape Mett into a "Mettigel" (a mince hedgehog) for parties, and decorate it with onions for spikes. Definitely going to have to try that for my next party!

A Mettigel (Picture from Wikipedia)

Zwiebelmett (Mince with Onions)

Makes 600 ml - enough for a small Mettigel!

Ingredients

18 thin or 9 thick rice cakes (100 g)
1 onion
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt
pepper

Method

1. Crumble the rice cakes. Add 300 ml water and mix well. Mince the onion. Mix the onion, tomato paste, salt and pepper with the rice cakes.

2. Check the consistency. If it's too dry, add 50 ml more water. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. When you're ready to serve, taste and add a bit more salt and pepper if you like. This is nice on buns by itself or with some chives or a few slices of cucumber on top.

Zupa Ogórkowa (Polish Pickle Soup)

I went to Poland recently and thoroughly enjoyed all the vegan food I could get my hands on. Since then, I've been bookmarking hundreds of recipes to try out. I'm not up to making vegan smoked sausage yet, but I have tried my hand at some Polish soups. Zupa Ogórkowa consists of potatoes, grated pickles and vegetables in a rich, milky broth.

Zupa Ogórkowa

Serves 3
Based on this recipe

Ingredients

1 leek
2 carrots
1 onion
1.25 litres vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
6 peppercorns
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
6 pickles
4 potatoes
250 ml soy milk

Method

1. Slice the leeks. Dice the carrot and the first onion. Add to a soup pot with the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer until the vegetables are soft. Add the bay leaf and peppercorns.

2. Dice the remaining onion and mince the garlic. Grate the pickles. Heat some margarine or oil in a pan and fry the onion until golden. Add the garlic and fry for a minute, then add the pickles and fry for a few minutes, until most of their liquid has evaporated. Add to the soup pot.

3. Peel and dice the potatoes. Add them to the pot and cook until soft. Mix in the soy milk and heat briefly. Remove the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper.

Buffalo Chickpea Pita Pizzas

I've been looking forwards to making this recipe for buffalo chickpea soft tacos for a long time, but I don't have easy access to tacos at the moment. And so, buffalo chickpea pita pizzas were born.

Buffalo Chickpea Pita Pizzas

Closely based on this recipe
Serves 6, as a snack

Ingredients

1 onion
1 green capsicum
2 cloves garlic
2 cans chickpeas (ca. 750 ml drained)
60 ml sriracha
250 ml vegetable broth
1 bunch spring onions
3 pita breads
1 avocado
a lemon (optional)
vegan sour cream (optional)

Method

1. Chop the onion and capsicum and mince the garlic. Fry the onion in oil until softened. Add garlic and capsicum and fry for a minute. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add the chickpeas, sriracha and broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Boil until the sauce is reduced into a thick coating for the chickpeas. Chop the spring onions and stir them into the chickpeas. Add salt to taste.

2. Cut pita breads in half and top with chickpeas and avocado. Bake at 180 C for five minutes. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dollop of vegan sour cream, if you have any.