Around The World On Your Plate

Ingredients: 1 grated apple (optional) 1 onion finely chopped 1-2 teaspoon garlic minced 2 cups diced potatoes, bell pepper, sweet potato,  carrots etc Salt to taste Oil as needed Roux: 2 tablespoon vegan butter 2 tablespoon flour 1/4 cup water 1-2 teaspoon Japanese curry powder Red chilli powder and garam masala to taste Method: Heat a nonstick pan on low and melt butter, add flour and mix using a spatula or a whisk until well incorporated and cook until its light brown, next add water and mix well.  Add the curry powder and red chilli powder along with garam masala and mix well.  Keep stirring on low heat until aroma wafts from the pan.  Turn off, the roux is ready. In a separate pan, heat oil and saute onion and garlic until light golden in colour.  Next, add all the vegetables and saute.  Add the roux and desired amount of water and mix well.  If you find this spice blend to be spicy, a grated ap...

Serves: 2 Cooking time: 20 minutes Ingredients: 1 cup cauliflower florets 2 medium sized potatoes peeled and cubed 1 cup onion chopped 1-1/2 cup tomato chopped 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon red chilli powder 1-1/2 teaspoon coriander powder 1 teaspoon garam masala Salt and sugar to taste Oil as needed Cilantro to garnish Dry fenugreek leaves to garnish Method: Heat oil on medium and fry onions along with ginger garlic paste until translucent.  Next, add the tomatoes and cook on low heat until tender. Once tomatoes are tender, add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, and garam masala.  Mix well and cook until oil separates from the tomatoes.  Turn off and let it cool. Once cooled, puree and set aside. In the same pan, add oil followed by cumin seeds and let them splutter, next add the cauliflower florets and potatoes and saute until golden in color. Add the above pu...

Ingredients: 1/3 cup warm water 2-1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast 1 cup almond milk 3-1/2 tablespoons of vegan butter 3 to 3-1/2 cups of all purpose flour 1 teaspoon of salt Cinnamon powder and sugar mixture as needed Butterscotch crunches (optional) Method: Mix melted butter with milk and set aside. Heat water to 110 degrees Fahrenheit and add yeast and sugar and set aside to activate. In a mixing bowl, add 3 cups of flour, salt and mix well.  To this add the yeast and butter and milk mixture and knead until it comes together into a soft dough. Once the dough is well formed and kneaded, grease a bowl and place the dough in it and cover it.  Place it in a warm spot in your kitchen and let it rise until double in size.  This may take anywhere from 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes. Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll it out to 14 x 8 inch rectangle, sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture eve...

Ingredients Vegetables: 1 burdock root, prepared 1 carrot, thinly sliced 1 potato, thinly sliced Others: 1/4 cup prepared dashi 1 tablespoon sugar 1 tablespoon cooking sake 1 tablespoon mirin 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sesame seeds 1-2 tablespoon of oil Instructions Cut vegetables into thin matchsticks. Heat oil in a pan on medium heat.  Cook the vegetables until slightly tender, add rest of the ingredients and mix and cook on low until all the liquid is gone. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve. Notes: Preparing burdock root for this recipe takes a bit of work. The best way to do it is by peeling off the burdock root with a knife and shredding it to thin matchsticks.

Ingredients: 3 cups of Dashi stock 2 tablespoon miso paste 1/2 cup chopped Spinach 1/4 cup cubed firm tofu Method: In a pot, simmer the stock along with spinach and tofu until just done.  Strain the miso using a mesh strainer into the soup and turn off the heat once you start to smell the rich flavour of the miso paste infused into the soup. Serve immediately. Note: Do not boil the soup after miso paste has been added. This soup can be made with a combination of veggies added to it, see below. Vegetable Combination: Spinach and tofu. Potato and onions. Mung beans. Cabbage and deep-fried tofu.

Vegan Dashi Ingredients: 3 cups water 1 small piece  of kombu seaweed Method: In a pot, put kombu and water and leave it for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, simmer on medium heat until it comes to a slow boil.  Turn off.  Remove kombu. The vegan Dashi stock is ready. Dashi with Bonito Flakes Ingredients: 3 cups water 1 small piece  of kombu seaweed 15 grams of dried bonito flakes Method: In a pot, put kombu and water and leave it for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, simmer on medium heat until it comes to a slow boil.  Turn off.  Remove kombu.  Add the bonito flakes to infuse the flavour only.  Do not turn on the heat. Strain using a fine mesh strainer and its ready. Note: Kombu is a type of edible kelp. If you prefer to make this without kombu, dashi stock powder is also available in supermarkets but it contains dried fish flakes and hence not vegan.

Ingredients: Seasoning: 1 teaspoon mustard seeds 1 teaspoon urad dal 1 teaspoon channa dal 1/8th teaspoon asafoetida 1 sprig curry leaves 2 teaspoon oil Others: 2 cups cooked rice 3/4 cup chopped bell peppers (green, yellow, red, and purple) 1 green chilli chopped Salt to taste Cilantro to garnish 1 teaspoon lemon juice Method: Heat oil on medium in a pan and add mustard seeds and let them pop, next add urad dal and channa dal and asafoetida along with curry leaves a saute for 20 seconds. Add in the green chillies and chopped bell pepper and saute. Once the bell peppers are just cooked, not too mushy, turn heat to low and add the cooked rice along with salt to taste and mix. Turn off heat and before serving some lemon juice and mix and garnish.

Ingredients: Vegetables: 4-6 baby potatoes peeled and halved 1 cup cauliflower florets 1 medium bell pepper cubed 1/2 cup carrot cubed Makhani (curry base): 1 cup onions chopped 1-1/2 cup tomatoes chopped 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste 2 green chillies, slit 2 red chillies 1-inch cinnamon stick 4-5 cloves 10 peppercorns 1 cardamom 2 bay leaf 10 cashew nuts 2-3 tablespoon oil/butter or as needed Others: Salt and sugar to taste 1 teaspoon Kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves) Cilantro to garnish Method: To prepare the curry base, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and saute onions and ginger garlic paste. Next, add all the whole spices along with green chillies and cashew nuts and saute. Add the tomatoes last and cook until tender.  Add salt and sugar as needed. Once the tomatoes are tender, turn off heat and let it cool in a separate bowl.  Puree once it has cooled. In the same pan, heat remaining oil and saute the mix vegetables ...