Vegetation

Who in the heck decided we needed to be able to label every single post. Honestly, sometimes I get so tempted to just leave it blank :P Anyway, rant over.

This week Mr Un-Veg is away which means, generally, easy meals.

First up was Esmes special sauce. I know I've blogged it before and it's nothing new, but I haven't eaten this since my last post and forgot just how yummy it really is! This time I added some fresh baby spinach that was just wilted and some cut up baby corn and it was heavenly, I definitely need to eat this more often! This time I threw in 2 Tbsp of everything except I added the mirin which I didn't do last time and only used 1 Tbsp. Mmm sooo gooood!
Then I made some black bean burgers from Ashasarala over at The Metal Femme's Vegan Living blog (which I've just discovered and am loving). Mine were a bit dry, I ended up throwing in 2 Tbsp of mayonnaise. I also used Rice Crumbs which I won't do again, for some reason they wouldn't stick (and they look uncooked in all the photo's for some reason, I think the dying sun was kind of shining through them or something but they looked much better in reality):
There was a PPK discussion very recently about loving smoked paprika, which I really do. I've temporarily forgotten who posted it but I'll amend this later when I get on there. They said they crumb their seitan in a mixture of breadcrumbs (they said Panko, but I was out and didn't feel like driving into the city so I used regular and it was fine) with some veggie salt (seasoned salt), savoury (nutritional) yeast flakes and some smoked paprika. So I tried it and it was awesome! I know you've all seen a thousand crumbed chicken seitan cutlets but meh, you get to see them again :P Seriously though, try this! (I used about a cup of crumbs, 1/4 tsp Salt, 2 Tbsp Nooch and 1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika).
Last but not least I also recently discovered the Happy Herbivore blog and am also adoring it! I decided, after seeing it on there, to make Aloo Gobi, only thing was hers used chilli and without it I knew the flavours wouldn't be what they should so I did some googling and came up with this one. It was good, but next time I'll probably double the spices, while I don't like heat, I do like my spices to be fairly prominent and they were really mild in this (again a crummy pic, it's starting to get dark earlier and earlier which I love for life but not so much for food porning):

Aloo Gobi
Serves 2-3 as a main, with rice or Naan bread

2 Potatoes, diced
1/2 Cauliflower, cut into florets
1/4 of an Onion, diced
1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp grated fresh Ginger
1 tsp (clove) minced Garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Water

Boil the potatoes for about 12-15 minutes or until just tender (I did mine 12 and they were too soft). Remove, drain and set aside.

Soak the cauliflower in boiling (boiled) water while the potatoes are cooking.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan (really large! With a lid if you have one). Add the onion and cook a few minutes until starting to soften. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for another minute, then add the remaining dry spices and cook for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.

Add the potatoes, drained cauliflower and cook for another couple of minutes, mixing all well.

Add the water and lemon juice and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until veggies are cooked through.

Drizzle if you wish with a bit of soy or dairy yoghurt and serve with the bread or rice.