Stuffed portobello mushroom

I've been using portobello mushrooms more in my cooking nowadays and I have come to realise that I love them! Normally I won't have mushrooms by themselves because they have quite a strong taste when cooked, but portobello mushrooms have a lovely subtle flavour. I think I could eat one on it's own...although I probably wouldn't. 

I decided to make myself a stuffed mushroom. Now I pretty much just threw together a whole bunch of vegetables which I put in my roasted portobello mushroom and then topped it all off with some hummus, panko breadcrumbs and olive oil. Baked it some more in the oven and there you go, a super healthy and delicious lunch. 

It's taken me a lot of practice and cooking before I have been able to whip together a quick meal. Sometimes it's hard to know what flavours go well together and it usually takes lots of experimenting to work that out. If you ever find yourself with a portobello mushroom and don't know what to do with it, then marinate it in some balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a little bit of maple syrup and then grill it or roast it. Portobellos and balsamic vinegar are always a good match :)

Chard wrapped polenta with mushrooms and caramelised onion

Today was another day where I wanted to use up some of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry to make something new. This is always a fun exercise because it feels like such a celebration when I find a recipe on the Internet that I have all (or most) the ingredients for. 

I found an interesting recipe for chard (aka silverbeet) wrapped polenta from Mollie Katzen. The original recipe was not vegan, but I changed it up to make it vegan friendly. I also found a mushroom and caramelised onion recipe which I threw into the wrap too.I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, and would most definitely make this again whenever I feel like eating super clean :)

Here's my vegan friendly version:

Chard (silverbeet) wrapped polenta, mushroom and caramelised onion

Serves 4-6


Ingredients:

Polenta:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon onion powder or onion flakes
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• black pepper 
• about 12 perfect large chard leaves

 Mushrooms:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups mushrooms
• 1/2 sweet yellow onion, sliced in thin strips.
•  1 clove garlic, minced
•  1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
•  1 teaspoon agave, or sugar of your choice
•  1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
•  salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Put on a large pot of water to boil.
2. Meanwhile, place a medium saucepan over medium heat for about a minute, then add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Toss in the onion powder/flakes, garlic powder and cumin and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
3. Add another tablespoon of oil, if desired, and sprinkle in the polenta, stirring to coat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and sauté the mixture for 5 minutes or so, or until the grains become lightly toasty.
4.  When the water boils, add 3 cups, 1 cup at a time, to the polenta mixture, stirring it in, then covering the saucepan between additions so the polenta absorbs it (as if you were making risotto, but with less stirring). This should take about 10 minutes. (Leave the remaining water simmering in the pot on the stove.) When the 3 cups are incorporated and the mixture is tender, 6 to 8 minutes, remove it from the heat and immediately stir in the nutritional yeast. Set aside, covered. 
5. Now to start on the mushrooms. Heat oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add onions, mushrooms, garlic and a few generous pinches of salt and a grind of pepper. Cook for 5 or 6 minutes or until onions and mushrooms cook down and caramelise. Leave aside.
6. Pick up each chard or collard leaf, one at a time, hold it by the stem, and immerse the entire leaf in the boiling water, down to the base, keeping it there until the spine becomes supple enough to bend without breaking, 20 to 30 seconds, depending on the size. Shake off any excess water and pile the blanched leaves on a plate as you go. Pat them dry with towels and, using scissors, trim off the stems at the base of the leaves and discard.
7. To assemble the packages, place about 1/4 cup of the filling (slightly more for larger leaves; less for smaller) near the bottom of each leaf and roll it up tightly, folding in the sides. Place all the filled leaves seam side down on a plate. If you have leftover filling, keep it handy.
   
   
   
   
8. Shortly before serving, place a large (10- to 12-inch) skillet over medium heat for about a minute, then add about 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the packages and sauté on both sides for a total of 5 to 8 minutes, or until heated through. (You can also sauté any leftover filling or heat it in a microwave and serve it underneath or sprinkled on top.) Serve the packages hot or warm. 

I served my chard packages up with some roasted broccoli and carrot :)

Vegan portobello mushroom and kale calzone with garlic miso cream (from The Simple Veganista)

Since changing to a vegan diet two years ago, I had bookmarked about 30 different vegan food sites which I would frequently check for new recipes. Unfortunately, I accidentally went and deleted all of my bookmarks the other month, so I've lost them all. 

But not to worry, I'll just start over :)

Which leads me to my point. I have fallen in love with a new vegan food website called The Simple Veganista. Check it out please! There are so many delicious recipes, and the food photographs are so good that I could eat my laptop screen. No joke guys. 

I have had my eye on a recipe for Portobello and Kale Calzones with Garlic Miso Cream, and I finally had some time today to cook this baby up. 

It is such a good recipe! I was a bit lazy so I used a box pizza dough mix rather than making a wholemeal pizza dough, but it still tasted delicious and I still felt healthy chowing down on my calzone. 

The garlic miso cream was gooood! It was just the perfect flavour combination to accompany the veggies in the calzone. Absolutely delicious! Make this up, and whoever you serve it to will be totally and utterly impressed with you. 

Happy cooking!

Vegan Portobellow & Kale Calzone with Garlic Miso Cream
From The Simple Veganista

Makes 4

Ingredients

• 1 500g flour and 4g yeast packet from the Laucke Pizza & Focaccia Speacialty Mix, divided into 4
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 -3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 2 portabello mushrooms, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, cut somewhat small
• four large leaves of kale, stems removed and roughly chopped or left somewhat whole (I used curly kale) or a bundle of spinach
• large handful cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half (I used small roma tomatoes)
• olive oil, to brush on top of calzone
• himalayan salt and cracked pepper to taste
• cornmeal for dusting the baking tray

Garlic Cream Sauce

• 1 cup cashews, soaked for at least two hours or over night
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup water, if you soaked the cashew for two hours use 1 cup, if soaked overnight use 1/2 cup water
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons white miso
• juice of 1 lemon
• himalayan salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200C).

First, roast the garlic for the garlic cream sauce. Remove most of the outer layer of skin on the garlic leaving enough to hold them in place, lay sideways and cut the tops off. Place garlic cut side up on a piece of tinfoil, drizzle with olive oil and top with sea salt & cracked pepper. Fold ends of foil up and squeeze together and crimp the edge. Place on cookie sheet and cook for 40-45 minutes. Let cool.

Once garlic is done, turn the oven up to 475-500 degrees F (250-260 C). Place pizza stone or baking tray inside the oven for about 45 minutes before cooking.

While garlic is roasting, make up the pizza dough according to the packet recipe. Cut dough into four equal portions, roll each portion into a ball, cover with light towel and let set for another 30 minutes away from oven heat to let the gluten relax....if the gluten isn't relaxed you may have a hard time rolling out your dough properly. (I let mine sit for 45 minutes after kneading it. After this time, it had tripled in size. I then cut the dough into 4 and let each ball rest for another 45 minutes. Lots of waiting, but trust me, your dough will come out better this way).

Next onto the garlic cream sauce. Drain cashews and place all ingredients into food processor/blender and process until creamy, about 4 to 5 minutes. If cream is too thick and extra water 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency being careful not to thin it out too much making it runny, if in doubt leave it on the thick side. Taste for seasoning, set aside.

Slice your grape/cherry/baby roma tomatoes in half, place in small bowl and set aside.

In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic and cook until onions become soft. Add in mushrooms, broccoli, kale/spinach, thyme and salt & pepper to taste, cook for another 5 minutes or so. Turn off heat and cover ajar to help steam and soften the veggies a little more while working on the next step. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion out into an eight inch oval, rectangle, circle, ...whatever works easiest for you. Lay on some of the veggie mixture, add a few heaping tablespoons of the garlic miso cream and top with some of the kale and tomatoes (or layer however you like, this is just a suggestion, my emphasize is to keep the cream in the middle of the calzone as much as possible). Fold the other half over and seal the edges by rolling them up and sealing or by pressing with a fork, or both. Top with a light coat of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, pepper and thyme.

Enjooooyyy!!

Vegan Mushroom Gravy

I was meant to make mushroom gravy yesterday to accompany my Love Bowl, but the fact that I didn't have mushrooms was a big factor influencing why I chose to make the peanut sauce instead. 

However, I did get my hands on some mushrooms today and so decided to whip up the recipe for mushroom gravy from my You Won't Believe It's Vegan! cookbook. 

It tasted just as I remember gravy tasting. It went well with the Love Bowl, and now I have something to pour over my vegan sausages too. 

Vegan Mushroom Gravy

Yields about 3 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 medium sized onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 1 pound button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable stock (I just used 1 teaspoon celery salt)
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 tamari
• 2 tablespoons kudzu (or about 1 tablespoon arrowroot)
• 1/3 cup water

Directions

1. In a large pot, saute the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary in the olive oil until onions are soft. Add the mushrooms and cook until they have released their juices.
2. Mix the stock and the water together and add to the pot along with the tamari. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
3. Make a slurry from the kudzu and the remaining water, and add to the pot. Cook the gravy until it has thickened. I suggest adding the kudzu or arrowroot slowly until it reaches the thickness that you like. 
4. Will keep for 4 to 5 days refridgerated. 

Not only is this the first time making vegan mushroom gravy, but it's the first time I've used the gravy bowl :P

Polenta with vegetable ragout and roasted radish, carrot and cauliflower

As I'm sure you all know, I love cooking. I love experimenting with new vegan recipes and ingredients I haven't tried before. It's even better when my friends get in on it too.

I caught up with Ruth and Nhi today for a blogilates session (I feel like I can refer to my friends by their names now because I've already mentioned them a lot in previous posts and I can assure you they will be along side me doing new things in posts to come). We also decided to cook up dinner using whatever was in Ruth's kitchen, plus some mushrooms Nhi brought along. 

We jumped on a great recipe search engine called Yummly. What I really like about this website is that it searches pretty much every recipe there is on the web. What I like to do is find an ingredient in my kitchen which I will make the star of the dish and then search this along side other search words like "vegan". 

We found some radishes in Ruth's fridge, and because none of us have ever cooked with radish before, we decided to do a search for "vegan radish" in Google which lead us to a search for "vegan carrot radish" recipes on Yummly.

We scrolled through the recipes and found a recipe for polenta with spring vegetable ragout and roasted radishes and carrot. We had to make some changes to the recipes because we didn't have all of the ingredients...and we really wanted to eat the mushrooms so we added those to the ragout. 

It was so much fun cooking with the girls, and before we ate the food we did some blogilates workouts. Abs, thighs and asses were on fire afterwards!

The reward for all exercise was a delicious meal. We really enjoyed the recipes and we were so proud that we were able to cook this recipe from what food was available to us. What also really surprised us was how good the radishes tasted! I've always thought they were a bitter tasting vegetable, but when it's cooked, it actually has a lovely earthy taste with texture similar to that of any other root vegetable such as cooked parsnip. So go on and give radish a try today :)

Polenta with Vegetable Ragout

Serves 4
 
Polenta:
4 cups light vegetable broth or water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup polenta or yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Ragout:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic clove, minced
8 baby carrots (4 large carrots cut to desired size), trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
6 radishes, trimmed and cut into quarters
1/2 cup light vegetable broth or water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup slices mushrooms
1 1/2 frozen peas and corn
Any herbs (we used rosemary and a all purpose seasoning)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Additional olive oil and herbs for garnish

To make the polenta, bring the vegetable broth or water to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart pot over moderate heat. Add the salt and then slowly add the polenta while whisking. Reduce heat to low and continue whisking until the polenta is thickened. Cover the pot and continue cooking. Every 10 minutes, stir the polenta vigorously, scraping the sides of the pan. Continue cooking for 30-40 minutes until polenta reaches desired thickness and creaminess. Stir in the olive oil. Serve within 15 minutes.

Make the ragout while the polenta is cooking. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over moderate heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for about a minute until fragrant. Add the carrots, radishes, vegetable broth or water, and salt. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft. Add the frozen peas and corn, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes. 

Remove from heat, stir in the herbs and lemon zest, and season to taste.

To serve, spoon the polenta into a shallow serving bowl or individual bowls. Make a well in the center of the polenta and spoon the ragout on top. Drizzle a little olive oil on top and garnish with herbs.

 

Roasted carrot, cauliflower and radish

Serves 4

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 bunch small to medium radishes, about 12
12 baby carrots

half head of cauliflower cut into florets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon paprika 

1/2 teaspoon cumin
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Place the radishes, carrots and cauliflower on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, rosemary, paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Roast until tender yet firm in the center, about 20 minutes.