Tuesday, April 3, 2007

A Whole Lotta Food

First up is an amazingly yummy curry posted originally by Fairly Odd Tofu Mom a while back. It’s Aloo Mutter Gobi (Spicy Cauliflower, Potatoes and Peas). I saw it again on Veg-a-nut's blog and she was raving about it. Like veg-a-nut I used less oil and light coconut milk. I also used edamame in place of the peas. I have to agree with veg-a-nut, it is soooo good! Anytime I have made Indian food before it’s never been quite as good as from a restaurant, but (even if I do say so myself!!) this could easily have came from a top notch Indian restaurant! Wee G was well impressed! So, thank you Fairly Odd Tofu Mom for this wonderful recipe! I will be making it again many times I am sure!

I also made some garlic and coriander naan bread to go along with it. I forgot to add the baking powder and only realised just before I was going to cook them...oops! So I tried to knead the baking powder in to the dough!! They actually came out reasonably well considering!


Then I still had some coconut milk left over so used it making this Coconut Millet Pudding. I got the idea from a recipe on the millet packet that used dried coconut. I missed out the dried coconut and used the coconut milk in place of some of the soy milk in the recipe. It came out pretty nice, but slightly dry and I had to add more soy milk after it was cooked. Yummy served with a dollop of jam. It wasn’t very coconutty mind you...

Artichokes were on sale in their thousands in Trader Joe’s last week and I’ve only ever eaten them a couple of times before so I jumped at the opportunity to try them again. I followed the instructions I found on this web site and served them with some melted Earth Balance margarine and some Vegenaise (thinned down a little). I know that you eat far from the whole thing, I was a little disappointed that for all the effort there really was next to nothing to eat...I couldn’t even find much in the way of hearts in them. I probably ate more mayo and margarine than artichokes!!


Another exciting find, at Whole Foods this time, was Living Harvest Hemp Milk. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as hemp milk and was keen to try it in the hopes it would be a nice alternative to my usual soy milk. First of all I drank it plain and I really didn’t like it. A couple of mouthfuls was more than enough! It was kind of nutty, but even after a good shake it seemed a little oily to me. However I did use it to make a quick smoothie the next day and I was happy to find that I couldn’t taste the yucky flavour this time (smoothie made with 1.5 cups hemp milk, 2 dates and a banana). If I was to continue to buy it I would probably use it mostly as an ingredient until I got a bit more used to the flavour.
This is some scrambled tofu from VWaV with added courgettes and broccoli. This is so good and makes a great brekkie with some whole wheat toast.
This is a mix of two recipes I have posted about previously – Far East Spicy Tofu and Tofu and Pineapple Stir Fry. It was basically Meoldy’s sauce from the Far East Spicy Tofu with tofu and fresh pineapple, broccoli and mushrooms. It was gorgeous! I love Melody’s sauce...it’s so tasty!






16 comments:

aTxVegn said...

I am so into Indian food now. I like to use edamame and lite ooconut milk too. Your dish and the naan look so good!

I bought fresh artichoke once. I really prefer hearts in a jar from the store. I think people just want to lick the butter off the leaves!

Hemp milk - very interesting! I'd like to try using it in a cake or muffin batter.

bazu said...

Yum! I'm intrigued by hemp milk, I've started hearing people talk about it, and I really want to try it! I'll take your smoothie advice. I've found that I like each "milk" for its own purpose- rice milk with oatmeal, soymilk in smoothies, hazelnut milk for tea and coffee, etc.

Wow, artichokes! You've made me have a true craving, now!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Your Indian food looks so delicious - complete with naan! The artichokes look so pretty - I like mine with melted Earth Balance with lemon juice. Happy Blogversary!!!! :o)

Mary said...

I've always wanted to create naan bread but I don't know how! What recipe did you use?

Sheree' said...

I am so glad you tried the Aloo, it is so good. Thank you so much for linking my post. I am so excited you found the Hemp milk. I have been waiting to get some. I will be going to Whole foods in a couple weeks and will pick some up. I am all about those Omega's. Thanks for the tip on not to drink it plain. I wanted to use it in my baking and cooking mostly. I have to agree with you on Mel's sauce. I too made her dish and it is the bomb!

Emmy said...

Wow, I didn't know hemp milk existed either. Thanks for the heads up. Glad you realized you forgot the baking powder before you cooked the naan. It looks delicious!

The fresh artichokes look pretty. I love artichokes but usually buy the hearts in a can or jar. I'm too lazy to bother with trying to eat fresh ones. LOL

Nikk said...

I really want to try hemp milk. It's just pretty pricey when I do see it and I hate to spend too much on something that I'm not sure I'll like!

All the food looks delicious, but I'm in love with the naan and that millet pudding!

Brooke said...

Hmmmm, hemp milk. Interesting!

I love love love artichokes, in any form. And I think I will try the Aloo recipe soon, as well as make some naan. Sounds good!

scottishvegan said...

aTxVegn, I think you are right about people eating artichokes just for the butter cos there really isn’t that much artichoke being consumed, is there?! I like the idea of using hemp milk in cakes/muffins. Do you think the Omega 3’s would still be ok, as I know you’re not meant to cook with flax because it damages the Omega 3’s. I’m not sure...

bazu, I tend to just use soy milk for most stuff because it’s my favourite, but I want to try and vary my “milks” a little.

Vicki, lemon juice sounds good with artichokes. I will use that if I ever can be bothered to faff around with them again!!

Mary, I used this recipe, except I used all white whole wheat flour and didn’t quite add the baking powder at the right time :) Good luck with it! I thought it worked pretty well (apart from the human error part!!).

Veg-a-nut, if you hadn’t mentioned the Aloo on your blog I probably wouldn’t have tried it...so thank you!! Maybe you would like the hemp milk plain...who knows?

Emmy, I don’t think I will be cooking fresh artichokes often either...! Canned are much less hassle!!

Nikk, I can’t remember exactly how much my hemp milk was, but I don’t remember it being as much as it says on the Living Harvest web site ($4.59). Maybe if you are lucky you will spot it on special offer one day!

Brooke, definitely try Aloo recipe soon...you will love it!

Kris said...

Ooh, I'm so jealous of your naan! I know what I'm making soon, I've never made it homemade before!

Isn't the hempnut milk cool? I think I might like the chocolate better than chocolate almond milk, and that's saying a lot for me!

Wow, everything looked so amazing, I need to get a snack now!

Lelly said...

Man, I love naan bread! In my pre-diet days I use to eat loads of it dipped in vegan garlic mayo.

Those were the days...

KleoPatra said...

That Aloo Mutter Gobi looks sooooooooo good!!! And how awesome to use the edamame with this dish. i'm a big fan of edamame... FO Tofu Mom has got some great stuff on her blog!

i also loooooove naan. Tho i'm no fan of coriander (or its sister cilantro), i might be loving this anyway!

I never heard of Hemp Milk till you just posted it. Lookin' good!

ARTICHOKES! Nice! I like the photos, too. It's hard to get 'em, and it takes a lot of 'em to get a serving, so the frustration factor there always stops me from making them. But i do enjoy them!! My mom makes a great salad with marinated a'chokes that is wonderful!

You can't go wrong with a stir fry!

scottishvegan said...

kris, it’s so easy to make naan, you should definitely give it a try! I think chocolate hemp milk is probably much nicer than the original one I had, but I didn’t see any in the store :(

lelly, I wish naan was a bit more diet friendly too :) I haven’t tried it dipped in garlic mayo… that sounds so yummy (and even more diet unfriendly!).

kleopatra, you could just miss out the coriander in the naan, garlic naan is still really good!! I had no idea there was such a thing as hemp milk either until I saw it in the store!

laura k said...

Mmm, I would love to try hemp milk sometime. Wow--I just posted about aloo gobi matar! There's some kind of Indian food craze taking over. :)

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

Yeah, just logging in a year or so late... but wanted to say I'm glad you like the curry! Still one of our favorites!!

Kary said...

The Living Harvest Vanilla Hemp milk is good!! When I'm going to try a new non-dairy milk i first pick the vanilla flavor...I don't know why haha xD maybe I think that I would like it better than the original...I haven't tried the original hemp milk yet.