Tag: Vegan

Easy Tofu Scramble

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‘Sup people? I’ve been meaning to make a tofu scramble for a while, and this afternoon I finally got down to it. I still love a good old egg scramble, don’t get me wrong. But if you want something plant-based, tofu is a great egg substitute. This Easy Tofu Scramble is awesome in wraps or bowls, on toast, or by itself. It’s also perfect for every time of day- breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Tofu is actually really easy to cook, and in this recipe I just drained it and proceeded to fry it up. But if you’re a first time tofu eater and want to know a little more about it, you can check out my post Soy Marinated Tofu, where I explain what it is and share another awesome recipe as well. To liven up this scramble a bit, I added some tomatoes and green onions, as well as paprika and garlic powder. Tofu can be a bit bland, so you want to make sure you add a lot of flavour.

Lastly, have lots of fun customising this scramble! If you want to add more veggies and different spices feel free to. Tofu is such a great blank canvas! Enjoy this recipe;))

Easy Tofu Scramble

Serves: 1

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • 85g of Extra Firm Tofu
  • 1/2 a tomato, diced
  • 1 green onion or chive, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add in the tomato, green onion, and tofu.
  2. Break up the tofu with a wooden spoon, until it resembles scrambled eggs. Cook for about a minute.
  3. Add in the garlic powder. paprika, salt and pepper and cook for additional two minutes, stirring often.
  4. Remove from the heat and enjoy!

Hope you like this recipe! Have a great weekend;)

Yours Truly,

Olivia

Zucchini and Olive Pasta Bake

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It’s SUMMA TIME and there’s an abundance of zucchini! Zucchini is delicious fried, roasted, in a fritter, and in salad, but today we’re using it in a Pasta Bake. Our guest star is the olive, which adds so much dang flavour into the sauce. If you’re not a fan of olives you can leave them out, but you don’t know what you’re missing. Don’t be a party pooper and just throw them in there!

We’re using my fave kitchen tool again- the amazing veggie peeler- to create little zucchini rolls for the bake.

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The pasta that I used was Go Go Quinoa brand macaroni, and it usually takes about 4 minutes on the stove top to cook. I baked it in the oven for 10 minutes, and it was just slightly past al dente. So if you’re using just regular wheat macaroni or small shells (you don’t want to go any bigger with your pasta selection) that normally take 7-9 minutes to cook in boiling water, I bake them for 10-15 minutes for an al dente texture. My recipe below doesn’t account for that, so just keep in mind what kind of pasta you’re using when baking this bake.

And that concludes my Ted Talk about how great this pasta bake is! DEFINITELY try it out and let me know what you think because it is now officially one of my favourite recipes. Here it is!

Zucchini and Olive Pasta Bake

Serves: 3-4

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 large zucchini
  • 1/2 a red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 200 ml can of sliced black olives, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
  • 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup Go Go Quinoa Macaroni **see note above if using a different pasta**
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the sliced onions and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes, then add the beans, olives, tomatoes, basil, oregano, balsamic vinegar, chilli flakes, and some salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and then turn the heat to low and cook for 25 minutes.
  2. While the sauce is simmering, use the veggie peeler to create as many zucchini ribbons as you can. The centre part of the zucchini, where the seeds are, won’t make nice ribbons, so you can dice it up at toss it in the sauce, making sure it has at least 10 minutes to cook in there.
  3. Add the macaroni into a small glass loaf pan or baking dish. Roll up each zucchini ribbon into a little rosette and place evenly spaced out in the pasta, like this:
  4. Once the sauce is done simmering, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Add the 1/2 cup of water to the sauce and bring it to a hard simmer before removing it from the heat. Scoop enough of it into the baking dish so that the pasta and zucchini are fully covered, about 2-3 cups of sauce. You may have some sauce leftover that you can eat with the pasta after it’s baked or save for later.
  5. Cover the glass dish with foil (shiny side down) and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and enjoy!

Hope you like this pasta dish! See you Wednesday;))

Yours Truly,

Olivia;)

Thai Ribbon Salad

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Hey there! Today I have a quick and easy recipe for you guys that you can just throw together and top with whichever protein you’d like! This Thai Ribbon Salad looks super fancy, but all you need is a veggie peeler and some veggies and you can whip it up in a snap!

In this salad I used zucchini, which is one of my favourite summer vegetables, along with cucumber, carrots, and bell peppers. Top it all of with some spinach, crispy quinoa, sunflower seeds and a protein of your choice (salmon goes amazing in this salad), and you’ve got a perfect summer salad!

Did I not mention the dressing yet? Because it’s AWESOME. I used the peanut dressing from my Asian Kale and Quinoa Salad with Peanut Dressing. I had to put the dressing in the name because THAT’S HOW GOOD IT IS. I’ll link to the recipe in the ingredients down below. In the meantime, lets get to the salad!

Thai Ribbon Salad

Serves: 2

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 small zucchini
  • 1 carrot
  • 1/2 a cucumber
  • 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
  • 2 tbsp quinoa (optional)
  • 1 batch of Peanut Dressing
  • Protein of your choice (optional)

Directions:

  1. Using a veggie peeler or mandolin, slice the zucchini, cucumber, and carrots into thin strips. Start by dragging the peeler down the outside of one side of the veggies so that you don’t get a piece of all skin in your salad. Then continue to drag the peeler down lengthwise to create thin pieces. Once you’ve reached the middle of the vegetable, you can turn it around and repeat on the other side. It might be hard to get all the way through the middle of the veggies, so you can save that part for a lil snack later;)
  2. Toss the veg with the peppers, spinach, sunflower seeds, quinoa, and dressing. Top with a protein of your choice (or leave as is) and enjoy!

Hope you like this simple summer salad!

Yours Truly,

Olivia

The ULTIMATE Guide To Roasting Veggies

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Hey guys! Roasted veggies are one of my favourite things to eat, and my go to side dish. They get so caramelized and delicious in the oven and just taste AMAZING! I’ve posted a lot of recipes that feature roasted veggies as well, and I thought that it was high time to post an ULTIMATE guide to making these babies. They’re very simple and straight forward, but this post will help you get the perfect roasting time and know exactly what to look for when your veg comes out of the oven.

I’d have to say that my favourite veggie to roast is sweet potato, but I also love a good roasted cauliflower, onion, beet, carrot, or chickpea. The possibilities are endless! I’ll categorize the veggies that I’m writing about into groups like root vegetables and cruciferous vegetables (your vocab word of the day- veggies like broccoli and cauliflower), so that if there is a veggie I’ve missed you can roast it the same way as the other veggies in its family. Let’s get started!

First of all, I almost always roast my veggies at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s high enough to cook the veggies quickly and get some nice caremelization going, but not so high that you’ll burn them to a crisp. Some kind of oil is also good for roasting, so I usually toss my veg in about a tablespoon or two of olive oil, enough to lightly coat them, and some salt and pepper before throwing them on a parchment lined baking sheet in the oven. You can also get creative with other spice combos! Okay, now that you know the roasting basics, you can scroll on down and I’ll let you know how to prepare each vegetable and how long to roast it for. When reading this next part, keep in mid that soft means easily pierce-able with a fork, but not mushy. No one likes mushy vegetables.

Root Vegetables

Sweet Potatoes (had to start with my fave): Wash your potato well, or peel it. Dice into cubes about an couple centimetres wide. Roast for about 30-35 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are soft and going slightly dark around the edges. (ps I don’t do a lot of normal potato roasting, but I can assume it would be the same procedure).

Carrots: Peel the carrots. Cut into sticks about five centimetres long and a centimetre wide. Roast for about 25-30 minutes, until soft and slightly caremelized.

Beets: Peel the beets. Dice into cubes that are two centimetres wide and roast for 30-35 minutes, until soft.

Onion: Peel the onion. Cut the onion in half, then into think slices, without separating the layers. Roast for about 20 minutes, until they’re soft and slightly brown.

Garlic (great for soups and dips!): Wrap a whole garlic clove in some tinfoil (I don’t use oil for this one) and roast for 15-20 minutes. Let the tinfoil cool slightly, then unwrap the little packet and remove the garlic cloves from their skins.

Cruciferous Vegetables:

Cauliflower: Wash the cauliflower well and cut it into florets a few centimetres high and a couple wide. Roast them for 20-25 minutes, until they’re tender and going brown.

Broccoli: Can be roasted the same way as cauliflower.

Brussels Sprouts: Remove some of the outer leaves and cut the brussels sprouts in half. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until soft and going brown.

Red Cabbage: Wash the cabbage and cut into lengthwise into cross sections about a centimetre thick. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until soft.

Kale: Chop width-wise into two centimetre long pieces and roast for 15-20 minutes, until crisp.

Squashes:

Zucchini: Wash and slice into circles about a centimetre think. Roast for 20 minutes, until soft and browning.

Butternut: Peel and cut into two centimetre wide cubes. Roast for 30-30 minutes, until soft and going golden.

Eggplant: Wash and cut into one centimetre thick cross sections. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until soft and going golden brown.

Other (aka I don’t know where these go)

Cherry Tomatoes: Wash and roast for 10-15 minutes, until very soft and getting slightly charred.

Tomatoes: Wash and cut into quarters. Roast for 15-20 minutes, until slightly charred.

Peppers: Wash, remove the stems and cut into chunks a few centimetres wide. Roast for 20 minutes, until soft.

Asparagus: Wash and cut off the very bottoms of the stems and any mushy parts. Roast for about 20-25 minutes, until fork tender but still a bit firm. The one vegetable that I would most hate to have mushy is asparagus!

Snap Peas: Wash and roast for 15-20 minutes, until soft.

Mushrooms: Apparently washing mushrooms make them absorb water that will come out when cooking them, so wiping your mushrooms with a paper towel might be a better cleaning method. You can slice the mushrooms and roast them for 15-20 minutes, or leave them whole and roast for 20-25 minutes. Either way, the mushrooms should be soft when done.

Chickpeas (from the can): Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then roast for 20 minutes, until crispy.

And there you have it! Talking about these veggies makes me want some:) If you like roasting any other kinds of veggies, let me know so I can try them out!

Yours Truly,

Olivia;)

Stuffed Pepper Stew

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Hey there! Hope you’re all doing well;)) I find that cooking is a great way to stay busy, so I’ve been trying to at least plan out new recipes every day. I wanted to make stuffed peppers, because they’re so comforting and delicious. But it turns out that I only had one big pepper, and two mini ones. Here’s where some quarantine problem solving comes in! This Stuffed Pepper Stew combines all of the flavours of a stuffed pepper, but in stew form. It’s so good and uses super simple ingredients! It actually might be better than a stuffed pepper, because it reminds me of an amazing Hungarian pepper dish that my Mom and Grandma make. Plus, there’s lots of protein in there from lentils. I also used some soy sauce to boost the savoury flavour, which is a trick I learned from The Stingy Vegan. All the veggies get simmered in a delicious broth that’s loaded with herbs and spices, and it’ll make your house smell really good;)) This stew is also one of those things that tastes better the next day, because all of the flavours sit together overnight. Check out the recipe down below;))

Stuffed Pepper Stew

Serves: 4

Total Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 bell peppers, any colour, chopped
  • 1 clove of garlic, minced
  • 1 sprig of oregano, finely chopped (or 1/2 tbsp dried oregano)
  • 1/2 tbsp basil
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 cup green lentils
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp of tomato paste
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add in the onion and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes.
  2. Add in the peppers and garlic, and cook for another six minutes until the peppers are soft.
  3. Dump the diced tomatoes, spices, soy sauce, herbs, and lentils into the pot and stir until combined. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for about an hour, until the lentils have cooked through.
  4. Once the lentils are cooked, stir through the tomato paste and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Enjoy with rice, quinoa, some bread, or by itself!

Keep cooking and creating!

Yours Truly,

MyDayIsBooked