Wednesday 25 November 2015

Recipe Round-Up: Forks Over Knives

Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook is a trusty volume that I often head to when I am feeling the need for something a little bit lighter, but not lacking in flavour. I have also done a round-up for this book before. Here is some more from it!

Chinese Brown Sauce: This sauce comes together quickly, and has a rich and garlicky flavour. I never have date molasses and found myself unexpectedly out of rice syrup, so I used some maple syrup mixed with a touch of water instead. This is a base for several recipes in the book, but is also handy for a quick stir-fry sauce on its own.
Rating: :)

Chinese Brown Sauce


Spicy Tropical Green Smoothie: I was not a big fan of this, and I normally love green smoothies. I found this thin (even with frozen fruit), kind of grassy and it had an odd smell. I used the lime juice option, and added a sprinkle of cayenne as suggested.
Rating: :/

Spicy Tropical Green Smoothie


Chilean Bean Stew: This was nice, though quite sweet because it has a lot of corn and is also based on pumpkin. It has basil stirred through which gives a lovely accent. It is great with nooch added to make it a bit cheesy.
Rating: :)

Chilean Bean Stew


Brown Lentil Stew with Avocado Salsa: It is funny how some dishes you remember because of what happened while you were eating them. I had just sat down to a bowl of this when a large glass door panel shattered. Not the fault of the stew, of course, which was exactly what I needed to get through. I needed to add an extra cup of water to get the lentils to cook all the way through, and I left out the capsicum. I doubled the salsa, which you will definitely want to do as well. Served with quinoa, baby spinach and a side of glass-door related angst.
Rating: :)

Brown Lentil Stew with Avocado Salsa


Bean and Mushroom Chili: I made a half batch of this (a full recipe says it serves six), and I got one dinner and one lunch out of it, so I think I eat more than they think you should eat. I served it with avocado, some nooch, a baked sweet potato and baby spinach. After simmering covered, I had to simmer for a bit longer at the end without a cover to thicken up.
Rating: :)

Bean and Mushroom Chili


Penne with Spicy Eggplant: This was yum. I used only half the penne (so 250g instead of 1 pound... 1 pound of pasta makes too much for me, and I like my pasta on the saucier side) and added a tin of kidney beans and some frozen peas, and served over spinach. Even with only using half the pasta I still got five serves out it! The recipe says that full amount of pasta will serve 4!
Rating: :)

Penne with Spicy Eggplant


'Penne' with Swiss Chard, Olives and Currants: When I was shopping for this recipe I could have sworn that I had penne at home in the cupboard, but when it came time to cook it turned out that it was rotini. Oh well! Still good. Once again I used 250g pasta, rather than 1 pound, and I added kidney beans. I didn't have fresh thyme, so I used dry. I also sliced my shallots in quarter moons rather than dicing them small. Overall this was a little lacking in flavour, so I added some veggie stock to it and topped with nooch and it was good. I would suggest adding veggie stock powder to the reserved pasta water when it comes to that step.
Rating: :)

'Penne' with Swiss Chard, Olives and Currants


Sicilian Cauliflower Linguine: This recipe again calls for 1 pound, I happened to have 12 oz/375g left in my cupboard so I used it all, but it was really a bit too much pasta for the sauce, I would use 250g next time. I also added in some chopped spinach as well for greens. This has a nice flavour, with lots of garlic and miso in the sauce.
Rating: :)

Sicilian Cauliflower Linguine


Stir-Fried Noodles with Spring Vegetables: This uses a recipe of the Chinese Brown Sauce from the beginning of this post. it calls for onion, carrot, asparagus and snow peas, I also added some sauteed tofu. I got three and a half serves of this, serving over wholewheat noodles because I couldn't find the brown rice ones the recipe called for.
Rating: :)

Stir-Fried Noodles with Spring Vegetables


Peanut Noodles with Broccoli: Peanut sauce, noodles and broccoli have to be one of my favourite combinations. The sauce here is super awesome, using refreshing coconut water as a base. I served this over baby spinach leaves. Highly recommend.
Rating: :D

Peanut Noodles with Broccoli


Cute Kitty Photo of the Post

Dim Sim hiding


A few weeks ago Dim Sim had to go to the clinic because she was off her food. Everything ended up being fine! But I popped out of the room to go pay my bill and when I came back had a moment of panic - where was Dim Sim? She was hiding under the flap of my bag, but poked her nose out when she realised I was back.

12 comments:

  1. Aww Dim Sim! Our boy likes to hide at the vet too. In the waiting room he tries to hide behind the chairs, and in the consulting room he subtly slides in under the desk. Our girl prefers to stand at the door, ready to try to make a run for it when anyone comes in or out. One day she made it out and across the street but now I know to hold her lead very firmly.

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  2. I've been interested in maybe checking this cookbook out, thanks for the review! Sweet Dim Sum(love the name)

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    Replies
    1. It's quite a nice book. Dim Sim is indeed very sweet.

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  3. I can't believe I never got this book. Looks like lots of good stuff, esp those peanut noodles and the pumpkin-corn stew.

    Poor little Dim Sum all scared at the vet!

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    1. The peanut noodles are divine, and there are heaps of great sounding recipes I still need to try.

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  4. I've never seen the book in real life so great to get a sense of the recipes. Aw, Dim Sum! It took me a while to spot her in the picture.

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  5. You cat is so adorable. I always feel so bad when I have to take my cat to the vet, since I can't just explain why they are going.

    The recipes all look so good. I have to agree, I love lots of sauce on my noodles.

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    1. Dim Sim gets so nervous at the clinic, but it is always for her own good!
      I think noodles should always be saucy.

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  6. Great sounding cookbook. It's too bad the smoothie wasn't so good - it looks really pretty =)
    The Brown Lentil Stew with Avocado Salsa sounds the best. Yum!
    What a cute kitty picture - I can only imagine what a scare she gave you.

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    1. It was a bit of a fright for a second!
      The avocado salsa was amazing, definitely a great dish.

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