This hearty combination of chickpeas and sweet potatoes is a wonderful vegan comfort food for cold (and warm) days. ingredients: serves 1-2 people 1 pink sweet potato (around 300g), chopped 200g of cauliflower freshly ground black pepper 1 tsp of garam masala - curry powder 3-5 tbsp of cooked chickpeas 1/2 brown onion, chopped a little bit of lemon zest parsley, chopped 100ml of water - (start with a little and add more if needed) 100g of canned tomatoes a little bit of lemon juice 1/4 tsp of chili flakes more fresh parsley for garnish preparation: Put the cauliflower into boiling water and let it cook for about 3-5 minutes. It should still be a little firm when you drain it. Meanwhile put the onion, sweet potato, parsley, black pepper and curry powder into a pot and let them cook on medium heat. Slowly add about half a cup of water and let the veggies cook -lid on- for about 10 - 15 minutes. (Be careful not to add too much water. The veggies should be able to soak up all the water you add (!).) The sweet potato should be really soft before you add the cauliflower and the chickpeas. After adding those let it cook until they too are relatively soft, then add the tomatoes, lemon juice, zest and the chili flakes and cook until the tomatoes are fully incorporated. Enjoy with fresh parsley.
For people who do not cook asian food very often, this dish may seem a little complicated, because it calls for a lot of different condiments not everybody has ready at hand. If you do not possess ponzu, you can substitute it with plain soy sauce, and instead of mirin, you could try 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar. But ultimately the taste will not be the same, and these condiments can be used in a great variety of all possible asian recipes, so although some of them are a tad expensive, they are definitely worth the investment. At least from my point of view. I have linked pictures to the least well known ingredients, if you want to know, what the things look like, you would have to buy for this recipe. I hope you will give it a try and enjoy it as much as my family did.
ingredients: 2-3 people dashi (soup base) 20g kombu 1 litre of water soup 1 cup of freshly brewed green tea
2 umeboshi plums, pitted 3 tbsp of sake (good quality) 3 tbsp of ponzu or shoyu (salt reduced is best) 3 tbsp of ume su 3-4 tbsp of mirin 1 tbsp of rice vinegar
1 dried shitake mushroom 1/3 tsp of whole szechuan pepper 1/4 tsp of chili flakes a very small pinch of nutmeg 1 tsp of dries cremini (or other) mushroom powder
200g of enoki mushrooms 200g of Bunashimeji mushrooms brown 150g of Bunashimeji, white 200g of shiitake mushrooms, quartered
200g of dry soba noodles
optional: chopped spring onion for garnish preparation:
Soak the kombu in cold water for about 10-12 hours, then remove the algae and use the drained (through colander+cheesecloth) soaking water as your soup base later on. Prepare 1 cup of freshly brewed light green tea. In a big pot put the umeboshi plums, sake, mirin, rice vinegar, ume su and ponzu. Put a lid onto the pot and let the "sauce" reduce for a while, occasionally stirring to keep the sauce from sticking to the pot. Prepare the shiitake mushrooms by stemming them and cutting them into quarters, then wash them and squish the water out of them with your hands. Put them into the pot with the reduced sauce and let them glaze for about 5 minutes. Stem the other mushrooms and add them together with the green tea and the spices. Let the mix cook for about 20 minutes before you slowly add in the kombu. Add as much or little as you want according to your taste buds. Let the mushrooms cook through very well and add some more mirin, shoyu and ume su to taste. Cook the soba noodles in boiling water for about 6-10 minutes and rinse them thoroughly before adding them to the soup, which can be enjoyed hot or cold and topped up with some chopped spring onion.
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