Trying New Things - fast, easy Indian

For a quick, easy, delicious dinner I love these Tasty Bite dishes. They're vegan and available in most supermarkets. All you need to do is heat them up and serve with rice (or whatever you like). 

One pack is a good sized meal for one person - if I'm cooking for two I like to mix two flavours together. 

Here's what I do;

Choose a mix of two. My faves are Mumbai Mushroom mixed with Punjab Eggplant, or Bombay Potatoes with either. All you have to do is heat them up, so I heat them together and add a bit of tomato sauce ... yep, just old-school White Crow tomato sauce, it makes it a bit tastier and I love tomato flavoured curries. You could go nuts with what you add to it, but I'm usually in a hurry when I'm serving up this dish.

I serve it on brown rice, with a bit of Tofutti Sour Supreme Better than Sour Cream and fresh parsley or coriander. This is a really quick, really easy meal - particularly if you always cook extra rice and have some in the fridge ready to go.

When people find out I'm vegan they say things like "gosh, you must find that really hard". I actually find it the complete opposite. Particularly when there are great products like these on the shelves (so I too can make a bang-up meal and feel like I'm cheating *wink*).

Cheers, M

Not Osso Bucco

Right, so 'osso bucco' in Italian means 'bone with a hole' (according to Wikipedia) - and there are no bones or bones with holes in this here recipe. However, I based it on a few traditional osso bucco recipes, and the inspiration for putting it together was seeing a celebrity chef serve up a steaming dish of *almost* loveliness (besides the big meat chunks of course). So here is my veg version of Not Osso Bucco.

 

 

What you need;

eggplant

2 small zuchinnis

1 brown onion

4 celery stalks

2 large carrots

5 tomatoes

2 or 3 tbsp of tomato paste (to taste)

400g canned crushed tomatoes

fresh thyme

handful fresh parsley

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup stock (I use veggie)

semi-dried tomatoes

40 grams vegan alternative to butter (Nuttelex works well)

3 cloves garlic

olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon rind

kalamata olives

What you do;

1) Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook the garlic and onion for a few minutes. Add the carrot and celery and cook until just soft.

2) Add the roughly chopped fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, semi-dried tomatoes, wine, stock and a bit of fresh thyme. Let it boil then reduce to a simmer and leave covered for about an hour (stirring occasionally).

** While that's cooking, prep. the eggplant by slicing it thickly and sprinkling salt onto each side. Leave it in a colander over a plate for about 30 mins. **

3) In a separate pan, cut the prepared eggplant and zucchini into chunks and fry in olive oil until just browned.

4) Add eggplant, zucchini, olives, parsley, lemon rind and juice to main saucepan and cover for another 30 mins or until eggplant and zucchini are tender.

That's about it! - I like to serve it on brown rice with gremolita on top (lemon rind, garlic and parsley). You might like to add a bit of quinoa or cous cous rather that serving it on rice.

ENJOY!

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Just a side note, I found the most amazing olives the other day. They're called Mount Zero and are grown locally in Victoria, Australia near the Grampians. You have to pit them yourself but it's definitely worth it and so easy - and there's the added bonus that you can eat a few while you're doing it (when I say 'a few' I mean 'half the jar' of course).