Spicy Mexican quinoa bowl

When the craze for bowl-based meals began, I didn't really understand it. Traditionally, I have liked to see my food neatly arranged on a plate. I preferred ingredients to stand on their own, rather than be immersed hidden at the bottom of a bowl.

As this post may suggest, I'm a convert to bowl meals now. I still think certain things are better on a plate, but quinoa and rice dishes do lend themselves to bowl-based eating. Now, I savour finding ingredients as I go. Each forkful is an opportunity for new flavours to come through.

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Middle Eastern spiced bean and date ragout

There was a reason I featured Moroccan tagine in my Vegan MoFo posts last year: I rarely make middle Eastern food despite being intrigued by it. 

Today's dish borrows from the tagine I made last year, but features a hefty dose of impromptu creativity too. I doubt it's the best ragout ever made and I make no claims to its authenticity (I am using 'middle Eastern' loosely!). However, I enjoyed it and am keen to record it for future reference. I particularly liked the dates and the balance of vegetables relative to beans relative to spices.

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Jerk spiced sweet potato fries with lemon-paprika lentils

Are you familiar with jerk seasoning? Our new neighbourhood has a strong Caribbean influence, so Jamaican dishes are common and jerk chicken is available on every other corner. Obviously jerk chicken doesn't hold much appeal to me, but the spice mix itself is full of things I like: chilli, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, lime and pepper, amongst other things. You could make the spice mix up from scratch, but I opted to pick up a prepared version from the supermarket. It is spicy, salty, a little sweet (the mix I bought has some added sugar) and very moreish. When the spice mix is paired with sweet potato fries, the result is very moreish!

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Spiced pancakes with tomato and basil beans

I shared my first UK snack recipe last week, and today I am pleased to share my first main meal recipe. (It is typical, of course, that the dishes came in that order.) These spiced pancakes with tomato and basil beans are perfect for summer or winter, and make the most of fresh, vibrant ingredients.

I used a pre-made curry powder mix in the pancake batter, but you could mix and match spices to suit your tastes or what you have on hand. A combination of cumin, turmeric, coriander and/or black pepper would do the job nicely. For the bean mix, fresh basil would be best, but obviously dried could be substituted if necessary. Similarly, fresh tomatoes would be ideal if they are in season, but the tinned equivalent provides an easy stand in for when they aren't.

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Quintuple spiced lentil eggplant curry

I had a bit of trouble naming this dish. I didn't think of it as a curry, but couldn't come up with a better descriptor - and technically, curry is probably right. I then dithered between five spiced and quintuple spiced. I am not thrilled with either, but quintuple won out to avoid Chinese five spice confusion (my five spices are not those five spices!). In all, it is probably easier to eat this meal than to label it. Fortunately, it tastes so good that I don't think it matters too much what it's called.

The five spices featured are turmeric, cumin, ginger, tarragon and cardamom. It was an impromptu mix, but one I can now recommend. The flavours were warm and varied and slightly sweet, and a perfect match for the vegetables. 

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Apple-orange-ginger cider cake

I am really stringing out our Mother's Day picnic! This cake is the last creation I'm sharing from the day, and I have been postponing it for a few reasons. The first is that it involves cider, thanks to the generosity of Rekorderlig cider. I mentioned Rekorderlig in my Taste of Perth posts, and I thought you might like a little cider break before I returned to it with this cake. The second reason is that I posted an apple gingerbread cake not too long ago. This cake is different, but one apple cake a month seemed like an appropriate limit!

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Sweet and sour tofu with kale

This sweet and sour recipe is not a traditional sweet and sour recipe. The type you can buy from your local Chinese take-away is likely to use rice wine vinegar for the sour component, brown sugar for the sweet component, and cornflour as a thickener. Most recipes online call for tomato sauce (ketchup) too. 

In contrast, this dish uses pineapple for the sour and sweet components and delivers a subtle spice kick thanks to (you guessed it!) sriracha. It also uses a whole bunch of kale. I liked it a lot. 

If you're like me, you will have all the ingredients for this as pantry (or fridge) staples. In an ideal world you would press your tofu ahead of time, but if you walk in the door at 6.30pm this could be on the table 30 minutes later. Served with quinoa or rice, it is a perfect mid-week meal. It is so good, though, that you might want to whip a bowl up on the weekend too.

Sweet and sour tofu with kale

Serves 3 if served with a grain base

Vegan

Author: Bite-sized thoughts

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Ingredients

1/3 cup natural pineapple juice

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sriracha or other chilli sauce, or to taste

350g block firm tofu, pressed and sliced or cut into squares

1 small onion, chopped

1 large carrot, finely sliced

1 small bunch curly kale, roughly torn or chopped

1/3 cup canned pineapple pieces

Oil, for sauteing

Quinoa, rice or noodles, to serve

Method

In a measuring cup or jug, whisk together the pineapple juice, soy sauce and sriracha and set aside until needed.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat and drizzle with oil. Add the tofu and allow to cook for several minutes on each side, until starting to crisp up and turn golden.

Add the onion and approximately one-third of the sauce mix to the pan. Allow to cook, uncovered, for another 5 to 8 minutes until the onion is soft and the tofu starting to brown. Add the carrot and another one-third of the sauce and cook for a further 5 or so minutes.

Add the kale, pineapple pieces and remaining sauce to the pan and reduce heat to low-medium. Allow to cook for 10 minutes or until the kale has cooked down, stirring occasionally.

Serve with quinoa, rice or noodles.

I'm linking this in to Catherine's Anyone Can Cook Vegetarian Food challenge for March - non-terrifying tofu; and to Ricki's Wellness Weekend.

Do you like sweet and sour dishes? I go through stages with them - sometimes they seem just right, other times not at all what I want!

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Cardamom and ginger spiced biscuits (cookies)

Do you remember studying Venn diagrams in high school maths? Chocolate tastes in our household resemble an overlapping 2 circle example.

In the overlapping component ("Kari intersect Mr Bite") we have moderately dark (50-70% cocoa), reasonably sweet, dairy free chocolate that doesn't include nuts or spices.

In the bit specific to me ("Kari minus Mr Bite"), we have darker, less sweet chocolates of all varieties, plus lighter dairy free blocks with nuts and/or spices.

In the bit specific to my husband ("Mr Bite minus Kari"), we have milk chocolate.

Chocolate chip biscuits featuring Cadbury's Marvellous Creations chocolate.

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Spiced baked apples and pears with sherry vinegar

Before Christmas, I tracked down sherry vinegar to make Angela's lentil mushroom walnut balls on Oh She Glows. Sherry vinegar is made from the unfermented juice of the sherry grape and most varieties come from Spain. Angela noted that it was a key part of her ingredient mix, and I agree that it is quite different to other vinegar varieties I've had before. It seems a little sweeter than wine vinegars, but more rounded in its flavours than balsamic.

(Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? I don't, really. I'm just trying to turn vague taste experiences into words that might make sense. If they do, great. If they don't, buy some sherry vinegar yourself!)

Having most of my sherry vinegar bottle remaining, I've been looking for ways to use it up. On the weekend, I was also looking for ways to use up aging apples and pears. And, to complete the tripartite of circumstances, I had the oven going already and had conceded my kitchen to an afternoon of heat.

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Raw zucchini noodles with a spicy peanut sauce

When I posted this recipe for zucchini noodles with a tahini-lemon sauce, I mentioned that I'd first planned a Thai-style sauce with peanut butter and lime. A month later, I'm pleased to be back with that sauce. Carrying Thai flavours beautifully, the mix of peanut butter, chilli, ginger, lime and a dash of salt and sweet makes for a highly enjoyable dressing.

I made this dish somewhat on the spur of the moment, so my recipe is scribbled in very vague form on a piece of scrap paper. I hope I have copied it accurately below. It's a fairly simple dish, so I'm confident that you can switch ingredients to your tastes and pantry if required.

I had planned to top the salad with nuts, but in the end used chickpeas simply because I had them on hand. Obviously cooked chickpeas are not raw, so if you want a fully raw dish, you will want to revert back to nuts for your topping.

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Peri-peri tofu and kale on toast

If you read Bite-Sized Thoughts regularly, you may know that I don't often have sandwiches, toast or even bread. It's not that I dislike those things, but rather that I find leftovers easier than sandwiches for work lunches, am a fruit/cereal/smoothie girl for breakfast, and prefer crumpets, English muffins and fruit bread to plain toast or bread for snacking.

With the above said, today I am sharing a bread-based recipe that is as delicious as it is simple, and which I would happily have for lunch every day if I could manage it.

This tofu meal brought to mind memories of baked beans on toast and eggs on toast, and reminded me that toast is rather lovely when topped with savoury foods that soak into the bread beneath. When those flavours include a subtle kick of peri-peri spice, all the better.

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Mother's Day picnicking with salads galore, apple cider cake, jaffa brownies, and sunshine

Having Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May is a tradition that Australia shares with America but not with Britain. As my mother's mother lives in England but has children in Australia, England, Canada and the US (Hawaii), I have often wondered whether she gets multiple mother's days or misses out altogether.

These cross-country musings aside, we celebrated Mother's Day with a picnic that included myself and Mr Bite, my parents and two siblings, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law and her husband and three children, plus one Labrador dog.

King's Park, Perth, Western Australia

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The incredible delights of som tam

You all told me. You sung the praises of the green papaya salad that is som tam, with its lime and chilli and sweetness and spice. You told me it was a classic dish, and that I needed to try it.

And you were all right. Very, very right.

I don't know how authentic my version of this salad is (probably not very), but it was enough to win me over. In fact, it was enough to make me swoon. My mouth danced. My soul danced. My memories of this salad are still, right now, dancing.

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Plum muffins (vegan and streusel topped)

I finally got those plum muffins I was dreaming of.

As it turns out, they really are the muffins of my dreams (and I have made a lot of muffins in my time). They don't have an exotic ingredient list, they aren't particularly different to other plum muffins around, and they're not really new or creative. They are, however, really really good.

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Chipotle tofu steaks with cauliflower rice

This dish is really a hybrid between last year's teriyaki tofu steaks (which were also served with cauliflower rice) and my more recent black eyed beans with chipotle mango sauce.

Please don't ask me to choose which of the three meals I like best.

It's probably enough to say that I could eat all of them on a constant rotation.

This is another meal that is really simple to prepare. Moreover, you can vary the spice quota, use a grain base instead of cauliflower (I think bulgar would work beautifully), and adjust the vegetables to taste and convenience. In all, it is as easy as one-two-eat.

Chipotle tofu steaks with cauliflower rice

Vegan, easy, delicious

Adapted from my teriyaki tofu steaks and black eyed beans with chipotle mango sauce.

Serves 2

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Ingredients

350g (1 block) firm tofu

2 chipotle peppers with 2 tsp adobo sauce (or to taste)

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp tomato sauce

1/2 cauliflower, roughly chopped into florets and tough stems removed

1 medium carrot, thinly sliced

1 medium capsicum, thinly sliced

Method

Slice your tofu into four thick 'steaks'. If you're using a 350g tofu block, one block gives four steaks. 

Press the tofu steaks using a tofu press (if you have one) or for at least 15 minutes between tea towels and chopping boards, under a pile of books (if you're me).

While the tofu is pressing, finely chop the chipotle peppers and then combine the peppers, adobo sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, maple syrup and tomato sauce in a bowl or jar. Whisk to combine.

Place your tofu steaks in a shallow baking dish and cover with the chipotle marinade mixture. Allow to marinate for at least 15 minutes.

To make the cauliflower rice, process the cauliflower in a food processor until crumbly and rice-like in appearance.

When the tofu has marinated, heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Cook the tofu steaks for ~10 minutes, turning every few minutes, until crispy. Retain a few tablespoons of the chipotle marinade if possible. Remove the tofu from the pan and allow to stand.

Add the carrot and capsicum to the non-stick pan, along with any remaining chipotle marinade. Stir fry for ~5 minutes.  Then reduce the heat to low-medium and add the cauliflower rice and mix through. Return the tofu steaks to the pan and keep on very low heat for a further 3 - 5 minutes. 

Why did it take me until age 25 to discover tofu?

I am submitting this to Ricki's Wellness Weekend 24th to 28th January 2013, and Healthy Vegan Friday 27, co-hosted by Gabby and Carrie.

What meal are you loving this week?

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Black eyed beans with couscous and chipotle mango sauce

You may remember that six months ago, Mel of Veganise This! kindly sent me a smoky, flavour-filled package. Her gift included liquid smoke, smoked paprika, chile chipotle powder, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. These ingredients have provided me with a lot of kitchen fun, as well as the ability to make her tofu bacon properly. Tofu bacon is still one of my favourite tofu preparation methods, and I can't see myself tiring of it anytime soon.

Recently, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce have become available in Perth. I've now seen them at two separate supermarkets, and this increased availability has allowed me to experiment more with their use. When ingredients are hard to find, and consequently precious, I became very cautious in how I use them. When they can be replaced more readily, I branch out and start putting them in dishes even if I'm not certain how things will turn out.

Last week, I had chipotle peppers to hand, a mango needing to be used, black eyed beans soaked, and an opportunity to make a dinner for myself that wouldn't be eaten by Mr Bite (he was having chicken). The result was one of the nicest meals I have had to date this year.

The base of this meal is simple: couscous, black eyed beans, vegetables, and some pineapple on the side. The key component is definitely the sauce, which incorporates 2 chipotle peppers, some of the adobe sauce in which they came, and fresh mango. It takes the meal from basic to wonderful.

If you like spicy flavours and a bit of heat, I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did!

Black eyed beans with couscous and 

chipotle mango sauce

This sauce can be used with other dishes

Sauce adapted from the chipotle-mango BBQ sauce at Iowa Girl Eats

Serves 4

Vegan

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Ingredients

For the base -

2 cups cooked black eyed beans

1 cup uncooked couscous

2 carrots, finely sliced

1 red capsicum (pepper), finely sliced

1/2 cup chopped pineapple, fresh or tinned (optional, but enjoyable)

For the sauce -

1 medium fresh mango, finely chopped

2 chipotle peppers with 2 tsp adobo sauce

1/2 small onion, peeled and diced

1/2 cup tomato sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 - 2 tbsp maple syrup

Method

In a large bowl, add 1 cup boiling water to the 1 cup couscous and whisk with a fork. Cover with a tea towl and set aside, fluffing with a fork after 5 minutes.

Roughly chop the chipotle peppers, and then combine all sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cover and bring to boiling point, then reduce heat to low and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the carrots and capsicum in the top half of a vegetable steamer (you could also stir fry them in a non-stick pan, if you don't have a steamer). When the vegetables are nearly cooked, add the black eyed beans to heat them through. Just before serving, add the pineapple to heat this through.

Combine the couscous, black eyed beans, vegetables and pineapple on a plate. Top with the chipotle mango sauce and serve.

I ate this for dinner, and then I ate the leftovers for lunch on consecutive days. I think I could happily have eaten it for lunch and dinner and snacks all in a single day, and only the desire to make it last prevented me from doing so. Mango and chipotle seem to be very good friends, and I think this will be on regular rotation from now on.

I am sending this to Ricki's Wellness Weekend 17th to 21st January 2013.

Do you use chipotle peppers regularly?
What are you like with 'rare' ingredients - do you use them immediately or ration them with caution?

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