Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Fire & Spice

I was gifted this book by my lovely friend Amy. She had this on her shelf, as well as Hot Vegan, which is the renamed and newer released version of Fire & Spice, and she kindly gave me this old copy. Both are by Robin Robertson. I was thrilled, because I love Robin Robertson but was understandably weary about purchasing a book devoted to spicy food. I can hear you right now wondering what I would even do with such a gift. Well, I just make things but not spicy. And most of the time it works out great! The book is divided into sections of the world: The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East & Africa, India, and Asia. As always, the Asian section is the one that has drawn me in most. But I have made a couple of things from other regions. Anyway, please enjoy my version of 'Fire & Spice'... without the fire or the spice. This is the first time I have posted about this book on my blog!

Penne Arrabbiata: This is a simple dinner of penne in a tomato sauce. The recipe calls for it to be spiced up with either dried peperoncino chiles or red pepper flakes. I gave a teeny sprinkle of some fancy fruity Sicilian chili powder my brother brought home once, which gave it just the slightest warmth. I also decreased the amount of pasta, using 8 oz instead of one pound, and I added a tin of red kidney beans.
Rating: :)



Vindaloo Vegetables with Mint Chutney: I left out the chili and the capsicum in this, instead adding extra cauliflower. Other vegetables included green beans, carrots, and potatoes. This gave bit serves over some spinach, I didn't need any rice. Overall the flavour was a bit bland though, I guess it really relied on the chili! I served it with yoghurt, some mango chuntey, and the mint chutney. The mint chutney I was not a fan of, it was too minty and made everything taste like toothpaste, though again I had left out the chili. There is a much better version of this recipe in her other book Vegan Without Borders.
Rating: Vindaloo :|, Chutney :/



Five Spice Tofu and Vegetable Salad: Cubed tofu is pan-fried with garlic and ginger, then cooled and mixed with vegetables to make a refreshing salad. The dressing is made from vinegar, five spice, and sesame oil. It is meant to have chile oil as well, but I left that out (if people wanted extra heat there was some sriracha at serving time). The recipe calls fro the tofu to be mixed with carrot, blanced snow peas, and capsicum, I left out the capsicum. I also did not drain the salad before serving, instead using that as extra dressing to toss with some cos lettuce. I would have liked a bit of a stronger five spice flavour in the dressing, I am a five spice fiend!
Rating: :)



Gingered Broccoli: This was delicious! To make it a main, I doubled the sauce and added some diced Soyco Japanese flavoured tofu, and served it over spinach and rice. The only sad part was that I didn't have enough broccoli! Make sure to get a big head so you have a lot to soak up all the sauce!
Rating: :D



Szechuan Vegetables: Szechuan without the heat? YES! I go there and I do that! I made this with zero spice at all, leaving out the hot red chiles the recipe called for. I also left out the capsicum and replaced it with some celery for crunch. The rest of the vegetables were carrots, shiitake, and wombok. Without the chile, it was a very nice sauce! I got two serves out of this,s erving it with some rice and some steamed gyoza.
Rating: :)



Slivered 'Seitan' and Vegetable Stir-Fry: I used slivered Soyco Japanese flavoured tofu in this rather than seitan, because I didn't feel like making seitan and I really just love tofu, so why not. I changed up a few things with the vegetables, using broccoli stem and diced carrot instead of red and green capsicum and using celery instead of water chestnuts (I'm just not a big water chestnut fan). And of course I left out the red pepper flakes for a heat-free dish. This was delicious! I got three serves from it with rice and baby spinach.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim's kissable little toe beans. We have had a whole week of stable health, so go Dim Sim!