Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I made the almost or nearly Egyptian soup last week (what is that called again? heh). it was pretty good, but not great. It was kind of a basic lentil soup, with carmalized onions tossed in at the end. My parnter was very 'meh' on it. He likes our old standby lentil soup better. He kept repeating that. I took leftovers for a few days, and they were good. Better with sirracha. But since he was so meh, we most likely won't have it again.

That being said, I thought the onions, which were carmelized with cumin and fennel, were AMAZING. I want to use those for something else! Hmmmm....what else could I do with them? Maybe on a flatbread? That could be pretty amazing. Baked on top of foccia? That could be good too.

Yum, do the foccacia idea, Chicki!

Made the Sizzling Seitan Pho Noodle Soup last night, and it was well worth every painstaking step. Absolute amazingness. I wouldn't change a thing, except that I didn't have all the optional add-ins, and next time I would have more of those on hand.

Then today I made the Sri Lankan Red Lentil Curry with the Sri Lankan Coconut Roti. Another huge hit! I even scored a win - my picky son gobbled it up and said it was the best meal he'd had in days! It was all very easy to make and I was very excited to work with fresh curry leaves and pandan leaves, both of which I've never used until today. I just love the way this book is broadening my horizons, and even the horizons of my kids!

I just noticed that some (well, 2 that I have spotted) of these recipes have changed quite a bit since testing. I thought I'd used yoghurt in the injera so I went back to check and I did and it's changed. Also the ingredient amounts in the mujadarrah have changed quite substantially. I only mention it in case other testers wanted to try something again. I had no problems at all with the origina injeral so based on feedback above I'm going to print it out and use that one next time I get some teff.

The testing injera didn't work for me at all and it broke my heart because the batter seemed perfect until I tried to start cooking it. I'll have to try again.

Well maybe I'm the only one it worked for and that would explain the change for the book!

The seitan noodle salad took FOREVER, but it was worth it! And you could do a lot of the work ahead of time.

So delicious!!

Seriously, I love that salad so much. It will be hard to top...

I'm making the adobo stew this weekend and had sort of resigned myself to just using supermarket soy sauce and white vinegar for it which would have been fine, I'm sure, but I was out running errands today, checked McEwan's (gourmet supermarket) and lo and behold, they had coconut vinegar and "light" (which I interpret to be "mild") soy sauce. So yippee! Authenticity! I might not make the recipe till tomorrow though as I have enough leftovers still of my black bean soup for dinner tonight but right now, I'm prepping ingredients, making marinades and salad dressings and carmelizing my onions and making whatever condiments/preps I can until 7:00 (that's when stuff I want to watch on TV comes on) to make weeknight cooking easier.

I also got sumac powder and star anise while shopping today. And medjool dates and shelled pistachios as I want to make the date pistachio quinoa salad next (prolly next wee). It'll take all my sumac powder though (I bought a 30 gram= regular spice sized bottle) but I bet if I go to Kensington I can get a quantity of it for much cheaper. The recipe calls for 4 to 6 tablespoons (I think) of sumac powder and I think that will take the whole bottle I bought today. Might not be enough in fact but I figure it would serve for 3-4 tbsp and that would be enough for my first shot at the salad. If I really like it I can add the greater quantity of sumac next time...

What brand is the light soy sauce? The one I use is much saltier than the Philipino one I got for that recipe, so you might want to be careful about that.

The eggplant shakshuka was delicious! I added both chickpeas and spinach to make it more substantial. I wasn't sold on the green tahini sauce when I tried it on its own, but it went *really* well in the shakshuka.

It's "Blue Elephant" brand and it says "Light Soya Sauce" and then underneath that "a sweet and salted seasoning". I hope it'll be okay! Salt is in the first ingredient (Actually soy sauce is the first ingredient but it lists salt as an ingredient of that) and is also the third ingredient here so eek, I hope it's not too salty. I'll find out tomorrow.

I made the chopped mexican salad again last night, with a few modification which made it WAY BETTER. (for us anyway)

The salad, which I liked before, is a lettuce/greens-less salad made consisting mostly of tomatoes, jicama, peppers and cilantro. My partner, he is not huge on tomatoes (ok he hates them) and was kind of on the fence on the rest. But we both loved the dressing

So this time, I halved all the veggies, and added a bunch of chopped romaine. Chopped pretty small. Kept the same amount of the dressing. It was amazing. Really good. Will make it this way in the future for sure!

That farro white bean soup is really tasty and super easy. I skipped the chickpea parm topping, but I would've had plenty of time to make it while the soup simmered.

I made the black beans and rice for dinner, with brown rice. Since Terry writes that you should add as much water as it says on the rice package, I did that and it turned out too watery. But it was still edible, with lots of hot sauce and salsa Lizano.

@Shukriyya
do you need any help with this index project???

I can't really think of a good way to share the workload among people, but I'll let you know if I do! Thanks for offering! :)

Just made the Orange & Fennel Tempeh, omg it was the most delicious thing ever! I love tempeh but all the juicy recipes take so long, this was simple and quick and so damn tasty. A keeper.

I've been on a big root vegetable kick lately so I made the borscht, but used a small rutabaga for the potato/turnip and added a can of butter beans I had laying around. It's just perfect and made a boatload, so I froze half and have eaten all but a bowl or 2 of the rest. It definitely tastes better today (3rd day) and I think needs the dollop of creamy something - I had no soygurt so I made the dilly cream pretty fatty-but-yummy by mixing some Tofutti sour cream and Veganaise. Oh, and a major added bonus is I had half of a celeriac left over so I cubed and sauteed it and wow, we have a new favorite root veg over here!

Oooo, I've been trying to find tempeh recipes that will make it appealing to my omni sweetheart (who doesn't like the texture of things like tempeh bacon very much). Perhaps this is the answer to my prayers! I even picked up some fennel this weekend!

I'm not mad about the adobo but I think it's the seitan in it (I don't like seitan much). I'd prolly like it better wtih tofu.

Score!

I just made the Beer-bathed Seitan Stew (my first dish from this cookbook), served over mashed potatoes, and my very picky, vegan-food-shy, omni boyfriend loved it! He's Belgian and has a very traditional meat-and-potatoes Belgian palate, so it's been a struggle getting him to try any of my cooking, which tends towards tofu scrambles and bowls. This hasn't been a huge problem until now because it's a long-distance relationship, so the four days we eat together out of every two weeks, we either eat separately, or have a boring routine of pan-fried potatoes, microwave-braised veggies, and meat for him and a store-bought meat analogue for me. But I'm moving down there soon, and I was really worried that we would never be able to enjoy a homemade vegan meal together.

He was so enthusiastic about this - both the stew itself and the homemade seitan I used in it - that I'm now confident that he'll be more willing to try more of my cooking! I'm really excited that the seitan seems to have gone down well too, as he looks askew at both tofu and tempeh (I think they're too foreign to his palate) and because he has Crohn's, beans are really difficult for him. I'm going to have to try out more seitan recipes on him.

I can't begin to explain what a victory this is! I'm so excited! Thank you, Terry!!

ETA: I was so excited about his reaction that I forgot to mention that I also loved it!! It's going into the regular rotation.

yay! go seitan!

yay!!!!

Yay, lepelaar!

Has anyone made the biryani? I was super confused by not adding any liquid to it. My rice definitely didn't cook in the time is said in the recipe and started burning, so I added about 10-15 minutes of cooking time and about 2 cups of water... Tasted good though!