PLANTY

Plant based ideas. Plenty of them.

Appetizer

MUSHROOM BABA GANOUSH

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It’s grill season, and that means that mellow, familiar from childhood aroma of smoke is filling up the courtyard and soaking into your clothes and cooking food. This inimitable scent also carries with it a particular flavour that it gives off to veggies when they are baked. I can only describe it as “I am home” taste. Usually, when chefs want their food to imitate that effect, they use liquid smoke or smoky spices. But I, however arguable this statement might be, think that nothing can surpass an authentic grill. Infatuated with the smell, I was imagining all possible ways of infusing food with it during the season.

As always, it turned out that everything genius was simple.

There was a time when we travelled to Armenia, and that country momentarily won a special spot for itself in my heart. Flavours, so simple and so saturated, they captivated the tastebuds of someone raised on plastic tomatoes. That was Armenia that introduced a paste made of baked eggplants, garlic, greens and oil to me. An utterly astonishing and seemingly addictive one, also known there as baba ganoush. So recently, when my family decided to make some grilled vegetables and mushrooms for dinner, in a fit of inspiration I thought “Eggplant and mushrooms, what a great combo they’d make! Heat some pitas on cooling grill and it’s ready to be served”.

Are you really gonna eat mushroom baba ganoush rolled in hot pitas and topped with juicy herbs, while drinking red wine every day, you may ask? I won’t be able to respond I am afraid, being busy relishing every bite. But I will be able to point to where you can seat. By the way, did you bring more pitas and wine? Good guests never come empty-handed!

INVENTORY

Grill
Food processor with ‘blades’ attachment
Big bowl for serving

INGRIDIENTS

3 moderate eggplants
300 gr champignon mushrooms
3-4 garlic cloves (finely minced)
40 ml olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Handful of fresh herds
Salt, pepper to taste

RECIPE

1) Prepare eggplants on the grill for 25-30 min, turning them occasionally
to make sure they are cooking evenly. You can tell they are ready when
a skewer inserts easily and comes out from the other side. You don’t
want to burn them, so choose a moderately-heated spot for cooking.
When done, peal them and throw away the skins.

2) To prepare mushrooms you will need to put them their flat sides facing
down and grill for 10-15 min. You don’t want to flip them, as you need
all the juices to accumulate in the area around the stem. When done,
carefully remove from fire to save as much liquid as possible.

3) Put aside a few mushrooms, a third of one eggplant and herbs. Chop,
salt lightly and leave until the final step. 

4) In food processor ‘PULSE’ the rest of ingredients with blades to make
a paste. Don’t overrun it though, as you want the texture of vegetables
to partially remain.

5) Transfer into a big bowl, top with everything you’ve chopped in step
3, drizzle some oil and serve with hot pitas.

VEGAN “MOZARELLA” CHEESE

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One day I woke up with my conscious crystal clear. I looked through the
window, and suddenly felt the leaves shiver far away, the underground
rivers roar with thunder, the stars in a neighbouring galaxy explode. I
knew, that it could mean only one thing — I gathered enough knowledge
about vegan cheeses to create my own recipe! I watched my hands perform
a sequence of seemingly chaotic actions that held a secret known to me
alone.
20 minutes of preparing and 2 hours of chilling later I witnessed the birth
of a miracle – mozzarella. No not THE mozzarella, not one that warms the
heart of an Italian mother while she is pinching off generous chunks of it
to casually lay them on top of a salad. A salad that she is about to proudly
put on the table, drizzle with olive oil and call for her kids, husband,
parents, sisters and all her neighbours of course. But who says we can’t do
the same? Just hunt for some ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and olive oil. When
these four prime elements have united on the dining table the Universe will
strike a balance again! And don’t forget to share some with your
neighbours too!

You can find the recipe of the soup on the photo by following this link. That was the very dish that gave me the inspiration to create this mozzarella. The Green Kitchen Stories guys know for sure how to impress
their guests!

INVENTORY

 high speed blender
silicone spatula
middle-sized boiling pan (app. 15 cm in diameter)
15×15 cm food container, 5 cm in depth

INGRIDIENTS

 150 ml soy yogurt
250 gr raw cashews
4 tbsp lemon juice
25 gr tapioca starch
200 ml soy milk
1 tsp salt

RECIPE

1) Put all ingredients in your blender and run it for at least 2 minutes until
they become silky and homogenous.
2) Transfer the mixture to the boiling pan and set on medium heat.
Constantly stirring to avoid dry build-up on the bottom and walls let
cook for 5-7 minutes. When it starts thickening, stir a little more
vigorously to break any lumps that might appear. When the mixture
stops sticking to the walls and the spatula, transfer it to your food
container. Cover with a lid and let cool for half an hour at room
temperature. Then transfer the container to the fridge and let set for 1.5
hours.
3) When mozzarella becomes elastic and springy, carefully place it on a
cutting board and slice to serve.

KALE CHIPS. TWO WAYS: CHEESY & SMOKED

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I feel that the term ‘kale chips’ is a contradiction in itself. Otherwise, how do you explain that the most nutritious greens on the planet got fused with the most unhealthy beer snack? By their very nature these two can’t possibly share a common space. However it seems that our leafy chaps got stuck somewhere on the verge of two worlds colliding. In a place where ‘yin’ meets ‘yang’ these opposites found each other too, thus settling the eternal feud of junk lovers and health foodies.

We live in Saint-Petersburg, where kale is a somewhat rare commodity. That’s ironic, because initially kale – a.k.a. curly cabbage – originated from Russia. But the tables turned and now, hundreds of years later, it’s just not on the market anymore. The options are quite limited: you can either grow it seasonally or catch an overnight bus to Finland where it’s sold in abundance. The latter was what we opted for and, having gone to visit an old friend of mine, used the opportunity to snatch a few bagfuls of kale on our way back.

Upon return I finally managed to fulfil my long-sought dream and tried this foreign treat. Because let’s be real, what actual vegan wouldn’t have?

Sharing is caring they say. Well, spoiler alert, profound mental suffering is what you’ll get if you decide to make them at home. Let’s say, a recipe calls for 300 gr of fresh kale, right? You’ll end up with a shrivelled handful of leaves, feeling torn apart between greed and conscious. But don’t worry too much, as soon as you bite into the first leaf you’ll be swept away but the tenderness and subtleness of its crunch. It’ll dissolve all your doubts, I promise!

 

Ingredients

Cheesy version:

300 gr kale

30 ml coconut oil

20 gr sunflower seeds

10 gr white sesame seeds

20 gr cashews

10 gr nooch

a dash of salt

Smoked version:

300 gr kale

30 ml coconut oil

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried garlic

2 tsp dried oregano

0,5 tsp salt

 

RECIPE

1. Remove the stiff part of the stem from each leaf. Rip the leaves to same-size pieces (don’t get too extreme or you’ll end up with a pile of crumbs).

2. Transfer the leaves to a bowl and add the oil. You need to ‘loosen up’ your greens before they go into the oven, so give them a light massage by rubbing in the oil.

3. For the cheesy version put the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and ‘pulse’ until they are finely and evenly ground. Mix into the leaves.

For the smoked version just mix the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl and add to your oily leaves.

  

4. Prepare two baking trays by covering them with parchment paper. Evenly spread the leaves between the trays so that each piece is placed individually. Put into a pre-heated 125 C oven, bake first for 10 min, then carefully toss around to ensure that they cook evenly and then finish by baking until they turn golden (takes about 10-15 min more). Remove from the oven, let cool completely and then enjoy!