Category: Eggplant

Thai Green Curry

2/27/2017

I've been on a Thai Curry kick recently. There's something about the combination of the spicy broth and coconut cream that I love. When you take a bite its so spicy and intense, and then the coconut sweetness comes in just enough for your mouth to recover before the next bite. Plus, with all the veggies I always feel good about ordering it for delivery.

I wanted to try cooking it for myself, for the challenge of trying something new, but also so that I could have it more frequently and not have to pay for delivery! Surprisingly, it was a lot easier than I thought! I found a lot of great resources on the website, Rachel Cooks Thai, and was able to come up with a great recipe.

One of the main differences I made was using two cans of coconut milk instead of one. Rachel talks about customizing the balance of coconut milk to water based on your own preferences. I made an earlier batch with only one can of milk and more water and I really didn't feel like I could taste the coconut flavor at all.

Like I mentioned, its a pretty simple recipe to make - heat the coconut milk, add in your curry paste, add more liquid and your chopped veggies, simmer until veggies are soft and the flavors have marinated!

Let me know what you think! What's your favorite kind of curry?

Ingredients:
1 Cup Uncooked Brown Rice
2 Cups Water

2 Tablespoons Green Curry Paste
2 Cans Coconut Milk
1 Cup Water
4 Carrots
1 Small Eggplant
1 Cup Green Peas
1 Package Tofu
1 Tablespoon Turmeric

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4-6

Instructions:

Combine the rice and water in a pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 35-40 minutes or until the water is absorbed.

Chop all of the veggies and tofu into cubes. Press the excess water out of the tofu. Fry the tofu in a skillet or non-stick pan with turmeric until all sides are crispy.

Open the two cans of coconut milk and scoop out the solid cream part at the top and put into a pan over medium heat. Stir until the cream has liquefied and begins to bubble. Add the curry paste and again stir to combine.

Pour the remaining coconut milk into the pan. Add your veggies and tofu and one cup of water. You can add more water depending on how thick you like your curry broth.

Cook until the veggies are soft and ready to eat.

Serve the rice and veggies in two separate bowls. As you are eating add the rice into the veggie bowl to soak up the broth and mix with the veggies - enjoy!

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Veggie Pot Pie with Cashew Filling

1/7/2015

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I made this recipe for Christmas this year. It is inspired by aveggie pot pie with cashew filling by Kathy Patalsky at Healthy Happy Life. Similar to the Brussel Sprout Casserole I made for Thanksgiving, I wanted to make something that had vegetables and grains/protein all in one since I wouldn't be able to eat much else that was served. This definitely did the job of filling me up! The cashew sauce is so rich and filling!

As you'll see in the instructions below, this comes together super quickly! Jay has mentioned before at how he likes pot pie and I had thought about making it for a while, but the word "pie" always turned me off. For some reason I have always thought of pies have difficult things to make. It definitely helped that I didn't make the pie crust on my own. I am not skilled enough for that and I didn't feel like experimenting on Christmas morning.

This dish was a huge it at Christmas! As you can see from the picture at the bottom of this post - there wasn't much left! I took that picture before I grabbed my second slice. There was just enough for me to have one slice for leftovers on Friday. I can't wait to make this for Jay and see what he thinks of it! It will be a great staple to have over the winter.

Ingredients:
Pie Crust
12 oz Mushroom
1 Zucchini
1 Squash
3 Carrots
1 Small Eggplant
1 Cup Vegetable Broth
2 Cups Soaked Cashews
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time:
Servings: 12

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Chop all your vegetables. Measure how much you'll need by putting them in your pie dish. I used the leftover that I had from making the Spiral Veggie Tart the day before. Transfer your veggies to a large bowl.

Drain the cashews. Add the cashews, vegetable broth, and apple cider vinegar in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour over your bowl of veggies and mix until the veggies are all coated. Depending on what size of a pie you are making you may not need all the cashew sauce. If you filled your pie pan full of veggies then you just want enough to coat the veggies and fill in the space between them. They shouldn't be swimming.

Roll out the bottom layer of your pie crust so that its about an inch wider (or the height of your sides) than the pie pan all the way around. Add the veggies and cashew mix to the pie pan. Roll out the top layer the same way and place it on top. Squeeze the top and bottom layers together around the edge. Slice 3-4 vents in the top of the pie crust.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Serve and enjoy!

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Spiral Veggie Tart with Sweet Potato Crust

1/4/2015

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I made this dish as a side for our feast on Christmas Eve. I combined two recipes that I found on Pinterest. I saw this vegetable tart on Pinterest and thought it was so cool (check out the video on how they made it). My mom thought the same and decided it would look great on a buffet line! That recipe used pie crust and creme fraiche, so I needed to make it gluten free and vegan so that my brother and I could eat it. I had pinned this quiche with sweet potato crust recipe to try the crust sometime and thought it would work great for this. I decided to replace the creme fraiche with a white bean mixture. I'd used white beans as a tart base years ago. Their neutral nature lends them perfectly to this. You can add in whatever seasonings you'd like so the dish doesn't taste like beans and their moisture keeps the dish from drying out and binds the vegetables to the crust.

Make sure your potato isn't sliced too thin and there's a lot of overlap in your crust. It will look like your crust is too think, but the potato slices will shrink during cooking.

My mom was right. This is a great dish to put on a buffet. It's very impressive and looks much more difficult to make than it actually is. I had to be the first one to cut into it because no one wanted to disrupt how great it looked. While it may not have been difficult, it definitely was time consuming, especially because my mom and I did not have the same expectation of how much we were making. I was already to go with two 9 inch pie sheets and she came in and switched them out for 2 13 inch quiche pans.

I made the recipe for one 9 inch pan, since that is a more typical serving size, and much more manageable. It's also helpful if you have someone slicing the vegetables while you arrange them in the pie pan. Thanks Mom!

Ingredients:

3 Medium Sweet Potatoes

3 Zuchinni
3 Squash
5 Large Carrots
1 Large-Medium Eggplant

1 15oz Can White Beans
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Non-Dairy Milk (I used Almond)
2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast (optional)

2 Cloves Garlic
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 6 as a side

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice sweet potatoes and arrange in a crust-like fashion in a 9 inch pie pan. You don't want your slices to be paper thin and a make sure that there is significant overlap among the slices. It will look like the crust is too thick, but the potatoes will cook down significantly. Spray the potatoes with cooking spray and put in the oven for 15 minutes.

If you end up with gaps in your crust you can cook some more potatoes on a cookie sheet and add them in. They will not need to cook for the full 15 minutes.

While your crust is cooking, prepare the base of the filling. Drain and rinse the white beans. Place them in a bowl and mash them with a fork. Add the lemon juice, milk, and nutritional yeast and mix until well combined.

Slice your vegetables using either a vegetable peeler or a mandolin. You can use a knife you you want, but that would take some great skills. You want the vegetable slices to be paper thin so that you roll them up. If you have some slices that are thicker you can use them on the outer edges that don't need to bend as much. Make sure that you get the skin on at least one edge of the slice.

Once the crust has cooled to the touch, fill in any cracks as necessary. Spread the white bean mixture over the crust. It will be thick, so place dollops of it throughout the crust and spread lightly with a fork. You may need to hold down some of the potato slices so they don't move.

Take a vegetable slice and roll it up in a spiral. Place it in the middle of your pie pan. Continue to wrap vegetable slices around the center in an alternating fashion until you finish the pan. You'll have to do a couple rows of the same thing in order to build up the color. Alternate the dark zucchini and eggplant with the lighter carrot and squash. Try to end with something other than the carrot so that there is separation from the orange crust.

Mince the garlic and sprinkle it over the top of the pan. Lightly pour the balsamic vinegar over the top.

Lower the oven temperature to 375 and put the tart in for 40 minutes. The tart is down when the skins of the vegetable slices have soften enough that you can cut through them.

Serve and Enjoy!

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Thai Green Curry

Veggie Pot Pie with Cashew Filling

Spiral Veggie Tart with Sweet Potato Crust

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