Vegetarian Dishes for Daughter

Vombatus2, how about doing a nice Greek meal for your daughter, it's a nice sort of cuisine to chat over and you can prepare a lot ahead and if she doesn't feel really hungry all at once after a flight she can pick and chat and pick and drink and chat etc. It makes great left overs too and the meat eaters can put in some rosemary and garlic lamb or roast a nice lemony/garlicky/rosemary chicken.

If any of these take your fancy I am happy to type you up the recipes.


Start with a mezze plate with olives and artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, grilled haloumi cheese and

Tatziki and Houmous dip with vege crudite

I guess you would have to substitute some gluten free breads for the crackers, bread.


For the main meal perhaps one of these-

Zuchinni Fritters

Vine Leaves with pine Nuts and currants

Haricot Bean Soup

Spaghetti with chick peas and spinach (it doesn't have a lot of spaghetti)

Mushroom filo triangles

Tomatoes stuffed with nutty rice

Rice with spinach, lemon zest and feta cheese

Greek Salad

Roasted veges greek style

Broad Beans with Peas and artichokes

Some nice Baklava or poached pears for desert.

Well if you are on a small island in the South China Sea there are pine nuts in an unspecified supermarket starting with W and ending in E that looks out onto a very popular tourist beach destination - two words, first word two syllables, starting wih R and ending with E and second word one syllable sounds like "Day".


The spaghetti with chick peas and spinach is"


1 cup of dried chic peas (200g)

250 g noodles / pasta / rice

1 cup of olive oil

1 medium red Spanish onion sliced

3 cloves garlic - crushed

1 bunch English spinach, finely shredded (baby leaves would be fine or frozen spinach)

3 tablespoons of grated lemon rind

2 tablespooons lemon juice

3 medium tomoates, peeled, seeded, sliced

2 tablespooons chopped fresh parsleyy

2 tablespons chopped fresh mint


Place peas in a bowl, cover well with water, cover and stand overnight. Drain peas, place in pan, cover well with water, simmer, uncovered about 20 minutes or until tender (or cheat and use the canned ones!) Add pasta/rice/noodles to boiling water and cook until tender, drain, rinse under cold water, drain.


Heat 1/4 cup of the oil in pan, add onion and garlic, cook, strirring until onion is soft. Add spinach, stir over heat until wilted.


Stir in remaining oil, rind juice, tomatoes, peas and pasta, stir until hot. Stir in herbs and add salt and pepper to taste.


Serves 4 to 6 .


I think I would reduce the amount of oil a little 250 mls seems rather a lot.

That's the one - because no use having a great recipe if you spend all day looking for an ingredient that is not available - and I have done that a couple of times now. The biggest drama when I had finished all the shopping for a thai banquet for 10 clients and then couldn't find red onions at the three supermarkets nearest my house... must have been a shortage that week - I have similar dilemas with getting nice fresh coriander at my local market too ad thai food is just not possible without red onions and coriander. A dear friend brought some of hers over. I even drove a frantic helper home from the supermarket to my house the other day and gave her one of my secret stash of cream of tartar because her employer was about to send her around town looking for it, I related to her plight. Sadly I only need it to make bulk playdoh for the school :).

Veggie recipes for kids (of all ages) at http://www.vegsoc.org/cordonvert/recipes/youthrecs.html

Chickpea Soup With Spinach



Time: At least 2 hours (far less with precooked or canned chickpeas)


Advice: Be creative, add herbs, pepper, chili, etc... It is a good base which you can expand upon


1/2 pound dried chickpeas, or about 2 1/2 cups cooked

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 large onions, sliced

6 cloves of garlic, chopped small

pepper

1 pound fresh spinach, coarsely chopped.


1. If time allows, soak dried chickpeas several hours or overnight in water to cover. If not, boil them for 2 minutes, and soak 2 hours, or just start cooking them, unsoaked. Place in a pot with fresh water to cover by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer, covered, at least 1 hour, or until tender.


2. Put oil in deep skillet or casserole, and turn heat to medium-high. A minute later, add onions, garlic, a large pinch of salt and some pepper. Cook, adjusting heat as necessary so onions soften rather than crisp. Stir occasionally, and cook until onions become very soft and quite brown, at least 20 minutes.


3. When chickpeas are tender, remove from heat, and drain, reserving their cooking water. Purée half the chickpeas in food mill, immersion blender or upright blender, adding enough of the reserved cooking water (or fresh water) to keep mixture moving smoothly. (Use care when puréeing hot liquid. If you have time, let mixture cool to room temperature first.)


4. Return purée to pot along with remaining chickpeas, plus whatever chickpea cooking liquid remains, along with enough water to make 4 cups. Stir, adjusting heat so mixture simmers. Add spinach, and stir. When spinach is tender, after 5 to 10 minutes, taste, and adjust seasoning. Then serve.


Yield: 4 servings.

Tofu Salad


Snack to keep in the fridge, or before dinner...



Time: 20 minutes, plus 4 hours' marinating


1 pound extra-firm tofu or dry pressed tofu

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoon hot chili oil, or to taste

3 tablespoons sesame oil

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks

5 shallots or 1 medium red onion, sliced.


1. If using extra-firm tofu, drain well, cut in two and place between two paper towels. Place under heavy cutting board or other weight at least 30 minutes, changing towels if they become too wet. Cut into 2-inch cubes or matchsticks. If using dry pressed tofu, just cut it into cubes or matchsticks.


2. Whisk together soy sauce, hot oil and sesame oil. Add tofu, carrots and shallots. Toss everything together, and let marinate at least 2 hours in refrigerator. Toss again before serving. Taste, and add more soy sauce, chili oil or sesame oil if necessary.


Yield: 4 servings.




If you visit a local shop, you should find prepressed tofu, often cut into strips. Also known as pressed bean curd or extra-firm tofu, it has a brown exterior and is usually packed in plastic, without water. Or you can get it in the wetmarket from one of the stalls.

Ok, those were recipes, but here is what I eat a lot:


Tortilla wrap - large ones

Bowl of Salad (spinach, fresh herbs, what you like)

Beans or tofu - marinated, cooked whatever you like

Avocado cut up (or you can mix the avocado with the salad)

grilled vegetables


This can be a family meal.


Put all the ingredients in different bowls:

Salad

Beans

Tofu

Cut Avocado

Get creative!

(even a bowl of grilled chicken sliced for the non-vegetarians)


Serve the bowls in the center of the table, or lined up like a buffet.


Take a large tortilla and quickly heat on the stove (1 minute on each side in a large non-stick frying pan with no oil) or in the microwave (15-20 seconds).


Everyone gets a tortilla and makes their own 'wrap'.


With lots of creative ingredients this is a fun meal and very easy to prepare. It is good to teach your daughter by example some easy to prepare foods so she can eat healthy when living on her own at university.

Not sure if you are in HK or not...


If you can't find the tortillas mentioned above - you could always make your own with your choice of flour.


Chinese (Japanese, Indonesian, etc..) food has excellent vegetarian options - both traditional and modern.


At C_tyS_p_r in I_C2, they have a fabulous collection of vegetarian 'fake meat' by a brand call 'vegifarm' from Taiwan. OK, it does not taste like meat, but it adds good texture to a pasta sauce, chilli, etc... They also have fresh tofu and tofu products that are very good.


Tempeh too. As well as UK and USA brand veggie burgers, veggie sausages, etc... (these can be found at most of the Wlcm and PnS too)


The veggie restaurants often also have a window on street level where you can pick and choose and get a box of veggie 'things' for about HKD 20. These are good to snack on or experiment with too. some are made from wheat gluten, others from mushrooms or tofu.


My parents used to cook stir fries - one for me with out meat, but then cool their own with meat - same veggies and flavourings, but mine was cooked first before the wok was 'contaminated' with meat.


Now we have a BBQ - left half for meat, right for veggies, and we always cook the veggies first so there is no 'mixing'.


We make dumplings at home - very easy - with tofu and spinach inside.. we make lots and freeze them so they are always ready to pop into the steamer and snack on.

The larger W-c-m-e stores are selling a line of 'Green Dot' organic rice and pulses, which include dried chickpeas - I use them a lot in my cooking and they are great. I find canned chickpeas too soggy - just personal preference!

Some Websites for vegetarian recipies:


http://www.epicurious.com/ - everyone knows this it has 'posh' recipes with a good veggie section. The recipe reviews are very useful as people contribute their variations.


http://www.allrecipes.com/ - user contributed recipes, star rated and user comments- veggie section has grown a lot over the years and is further divided into sub categories that are good to browse.


http://www.care2.com/channels/lifestyle/food - all vegetarian and vegan recipes. There are a lot of vegetarian/vegan options and it is a site your daughter might like to explore as it is 'eco friendly' and quite interesting.