Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Richa's Everyday Kitchen

This is the first round-up for one of my newer cookbooks: Vegan Richa's Everyday Kitchen. I was excited to get my hands on a copy of this, as I had heard many good things about it. The book is divided into themed chapters, originally focusing on sauce types (such as peanut butter & coconut, sweet & sour, etc) and recipes to make using them, and then also has some chapters focusing on types of foods (such as bowls, burgers, sweets, and more). I've had a lot of fun using this book so far!

Red Lentils in Peanut Butter Sauce: This is a fast recipe, where red lentils are cooked and then mixed with a peanut sauce and vegetables. The Peanut Butter Sauce recipe is very quick and easy to make, just blend up a bunch of things and then use as directed in the recipes. The lentils in the recipe ended up being a bit too smooshy when cooked according the directions, so they sort of melted into and thickened the sauce. For the veggies I used shallot (instead of onion), carrots, zucchini, broccoli stem (instead of green capsicum) and peas (added because I like them). I didn't add any extra water when I added the peanut butter sauce, as there was enough liquid in it already. I served this over some basmati rice and baby spinach, and got 3.5 serves.
Rating: Lentils :), Peanut Butter Sauce :)



Peanut-Sauce Fried Rice: This recipe is quick (as long as you have cooled rice on hand and the peanut sauce) and delicious. As always, I decreased the amount of rice a bit (I used a blend of plain and basmati rice), and increased the vegetables. For the vegetables I used a big carrot, lots of broccoli, and I left out the capsicum. I also used some Soyco Japanese marinated tofu instead of plain tofu. I left out all the spicy ingredients, but did serve with sriracha for those who wanted to add some heat.
Rating: :D



Chickpeas in Peanut Butter Sauce: This does not use the peanut butter sauce recipe, but instead has it's own peanut butter blend. For this, I decreased the amount of chickpeas from two tins to one, and increased the vegetables. I used two zucchinis, a carrot, peas, and broccoli, and no capsicum or spicy seasonings. This is quite a rich and thick sauce, with lots of spices. I fot four serves over rice and spinach.
Rating: :)



(Orange Sauce) Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry: This recipe appears in the book as Kung Pao Tofu and Vegetable Stir-Fry, but I took the suggestion to try it with the orange sauce. This is a nice mix of tofu, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli (you can use whatever veggies you want) over jasmine rice and spinach. I only got two and a half serves out of it. As for the orange sauce, OMG it is so good!
Rating: Stir-Fry :), Orange Sauce :D



Hoisin Mushroom and Tofu Stir-Fry: I love hoisin sauce, so was curious to try making me own. The recipe for the sauce is OK, I found it quite salty on its own, but once it was cooked into other things it mellowed a bit. The sauce uses nut butter in it to make it creamy, so of course I used peanut butter, but not what I consider a regular hoisin. But it was still good when added to a veggie and mushroom stir-fry. I used a 500g block of tofu (rather than 596g), and added some broccoli along with the mushrooms. I only needed to add 1/2 cup of water and the cornstarch to the mix at the end to get it to thicken up and coat well.
Rating: Stir-Fry :), Hoisin :)



Vegetables and Chickpeas in Orange Sauce: I was keen to enjoy more of the orange sauce! This is a veggie heavy recipe with carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and baby spinach. I added in extra greens because that is how I roll. The sauce thinned out a lot in cooking with the lid on, would maybe be better with the lid off for the end to keep it thick and glorious. I got three serves.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



LOOK AT THIS CUTE PRECIOUS SLEEPY BABY! All tucked in to bed while I am reading my book beside her.