It's day 4 of my virtual trip to Spain and I've cooked up another couple of tapas recipes.
I love both mushrooms and garlic so when I found a recipe that combined them both I had to try it out. Some of the recipes for Champiñones al ajillo called for dry sherry. I couldn't find any definitely vegan sherry locally so I used dry white wine instead. In this recipe I replaced the olive oil with some mushroom stock. I used half a Kallo organic mushroom stock cube. They're not fat-free but I figure they have to contain less fat than a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
Champiñones al ajillo
200 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced or cut into quarters
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
50 ml mushroom stock
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp dry sherry or white wine
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Saute the garlic in a small amount of the mushroom stock for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add mushrooms, remaining stock, lemon juice, sherry or white wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Season to taste and top with a garnish of chopped parsley.
The other dish I cooked was a cauliflower and paprika dish - I love cauliflower but for some reason this was my least favourite dish so far this week.
Ajoarriero
1 large cauliflower, washed and broken into florets
6 cloves of garlic
1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped
3 Tbsp vegetable stock, plus extra for frying
2 tsp sweet or hot smoked paprika
1 splash of white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sea salt
Cook the cauliflower for about 7 or 8 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside in a serving dish to keep warm. Meanwhile crush 3 cloves of garlic and slice the other 3. in a mortar and pestle mix together the crushed garlic, parsley and salt and stir in 3 Tbsp of vegetable stock. Saute the sliced garlic in a little vegetable stock until it begins to turn golden. Turn down the heat and add the crushed garlic parsley mix, paprika, white wine vinegar and a little water. Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower and serve immediately.
Still on my virtual tour to Spain and today I'm making tapas. I have 2 recipes today.
I found fresh broad beans at the supermarket and decided to use them in a Minted Broad Bean (Fava Bean) salad. I found the recipe on the Vegetarian Times website. It brings together garlic, lemon and mint - a fabulous combination of flavours. I halved the recipe and made just one change to make it Eat To Live-friendly by replacing the olive oil in the dressing with vegetable stock. This worked surprisingly well as an adaptation. I really liked this recipe and will definitely make it again. It would be great with edamame in place of the broad beans. I've never cooked or eaten broad beans before. I decided to remove the skins after cooking, because they seemed a bit tough and I've seen them being removed on Masterchef. It was a bit fiddly and another good reason to use edamame in the future!
Minted Fava Bean Salad
Juice of half a lemon
1/8 cup vegetable stock
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 cup of fresh or frozen shelled broad beans (fava beans)
2 cups lettuce, torn into small pieces
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, cut into thin strips
Mix together lemon juice, olive oil and garlic, season with freshly ground black pepper and set aside. Cook the shelled broad beans for 3 minutes in boiling water. Drain, rinse under cold water and remove the skins (optional). Mix the broad beans and mint together and put onto a bed of lettuce. Toss with the lemon dressing.
My second recipe is Alubias con Salsa Vinagreta or white beans with a vinaigrette dressing. I found this recipe on a website for Spanish recipes after Googling for tapas recipes. Once again I replaced the olive oil in the dressing with some vegetable stock. This is a great recipe and will transform my salads from now on. One of the things I have really struggled with on Eat to Live is all of the raw vegetables I am supposed to eat. Adding some of these beans with their tangy dressing would liven up any salad.
Alubias con Salsa Vinagreta
1 can of cannellini or other white beans (1 cup of cooked beans)
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/4 cup vegetable stock
6 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Combine the drained and rinsed beans together with the pepper, onion and garlic. Mix together the vegetable stock and wine vinegar and pour over the bean mix. Season to taste if necessary.
Ajoarriero
