Meatless Monday: Zeronic cooks Pumpkin lasagna

Heey all, it is time for Uniflame’s boyfriend, Zeronic, to write another recipe. Uniflame found this recipe in a book from the library called: Het Pompoenenboekje (The Little Pumpkin Book) by Sonja Edelaar. We both decided that making a Pumpkin Lasagna was a good idea. It is a great book by the way, giving you tips and information about pumpkins besides vegetarian recipes. The recipes themselves are writing into several paragraphs telling you what to do step by step. Unfortunately the book isn't translated to English.

For this Pumpkin / Tomato / Basil Lasagna you'll need these ingredients:
- 425 gr of Pumpkin
- 2 onions ( we used spring onions)
- 500 gr of tomatoes (we used canned crushed tomatoes in juice, to make it easier)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3 tbsp of chopped basil
- Some Olive oil
- 325 gr Tofu crumbs (if you aren't a vegetarian you could use minced meat)
- 3 tbsp sweet soy saus (ketjap manis)
- 400 gr Lasagna sheets
- 2 tsp of herb salt
- 200 gr grated cheese

Preperation: Clean the 425 grams of Pumpkin, if done correctly you should have 300 gram of clean pumpkin. Cut them in pieces of about 1 cm each. Cut the onions and garlic. Wash the Basil and cut them into tiny pieces so you have about 3 spoons of freshly chopped basil.

Cooking: Cook the Pumpkin in about 100 ml water for around 15 min. In the meantime, put some olive oil in a pan and glace the onions until done. Remove them from the pan, put some new olive oil in there if needed and put in the Tofu or minced meat. Let it heat for a bit and then add 3 spoons of sweet soy sauce. Put some warm (not hot!) water in a bowl and add the lasagna sheets, wait until they are soft

Combining: Drain the water from the pumpkins and add the Tomatoes. Purée them, but be careful not to make it too smooth. Then stir in the tofu or minced meat and add the herb salt. If you think the sauce is too thin you can always add a bit of flour. Finally add the basil and garlic and stir well. Heat an oven to 200 degrees Celsius and grease the oven dish. Add some of the sauce, then the lasagna sheets, then some sauce etc. Make sure that the sheets are not on top, so finish with sauce. After that add some grated cheese. Put the dish in the oven. Since we have a microwave oven the dish needed around 1 hour. The book said it was only 20 minutes though, so I advise you to start with that.

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Meatless Monday Recipe: Lemonies

A long while back, my BF and I made these lemon brownies and we thought they were delicious! Somehow they never ended up on the blog, so that need to change! For the American readers, just head over to Rita's recipes (she also made up the name Lemonies, very clever!), but for the European readers, I will post the recipe here, because we don't have sticks of butter and some other things. It makes things easier for myself too, when I don't have to recalculate everything over and over ;)

Lemon Brownies (Lemonies): 
- 3/4 cup flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 115 gr butter, soft
- 2 eggs
- juice and zest from 1/2 a lemon

Combine sugar, salt and flour in a large bowl. Mix in the soft butter. In another bowl whisk the eggs and add the lemon juice and zest, stir trough. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well. Pour the batter into a brownie pan (or a small oven dish if you don't own a brownie pan like I do). Bake in a pre heated oven for about 25 minutes on 180 degrees. Remove and let it cool. Meanwhile make the glaze.

Glaze:
- 1/2 c powdered sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- some additional zest

Stir it together. This is all a matter of taste and how sweet or sour you want everything to be. Spread the glaze over the lemonies and let it set.

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Meatless Monday: Italian Brussel Sprouts

I have to say that both Nick and I don't like Brussel Sprouts, but as you could see in my weekly menu I posted last Thursday, there were Brussel Sprouts in the veggie bag. So I was recipe hunting to see if there was a way that we can tolerate them. And I ended up with these Italian stir fry. I did adjust a few things, like shredding the sprouts in the food processor because I just couldn't stand the thought of biting into one.... Yes, my dislike for sprouts runs deep. Now I wouldn't say this is the best thing I ever tasted and it was still too bitter for my taste, but I did manage to eat half from what was on my plate and Nick gave me a big plate, while I normally eat from a small plate, so I guess I ate my regular portion. Either way.... this recipe to us could still use some more sweetness or something else to cover up the bitterness, but this is a start we can work from. The original Dutch recipe comes from Vegatopia.

Italian Brussel Sprouts: (serves 3)
- 500gr Brussel Sprouts
- 500gr potatoes
- 1 red bell pepper, cubed
- 1 small broccoli, in small florets
- 1 ball of mozzarella
- Italian herbs

The original recipes states to cook your Brussel Sprouts and potato together, but I took the easy route and bought potato cubes, which went in the microwave (poke holes in the plastic bag) for about 2-3 minutes. The Brussel Sprouts I cleaned (which took me about 30 minutes, damn what a job!) and shredded, so those don't need to be cooked either. So I only cooked the broccoli shortly for about 5 minutes. Then I put some oil in a frying pan, put the bell pepper in until softened. Then I added the broccoli, sprouts and potatoes and stir fried them shortly, adding Italian herbs to taste. Then I transferred everything to an ovendish, put slices of mozzarella on top and placed it under the grill for a couple of minutes.

Anyway, it was okay and normally I don't share just okay dishes on my blog, but okay is the best you will get from me when it involves Brussel Sprouts, so I guess people who actually like them will enjoy the recipe :) As for me.... can I have applesauce with that? Lots and lots of it, please ;)

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Meatless Monday: Caprese Risotto

It has been a while since I last posted. And while I can't make any promises that I will post within my regular posting schedule again any time soon, I wanted to share this recipe with you that I made last week and loved.

I am a sucker for risotto and I think they are one of the ultimate comfort foods. So I try a lot of different risottos and so far there hasn't been one risotto I tried and did not like. This is a risotto with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil and it tasted great! Normally I always share a recipe directly on the blog but today it is going to be a bit different because the recipe is already on an English language blog, I am just going to direct you there. You can find the recipe for this Caprese Risotto on Amuse your Bouche.

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Meatless Monday: Lemon Cheesecake

It was my b-day on the last weekend of August, but because I was out, my mom dropped by last weekend instead. So I decided to make my own cheesecake for the first time from scratch. I love lemony flavours in cakes, pies and cookies so when I found this easy looking recipe on Goddelijke Huisvrouw, I just had to try it. I doubled and adjusted the crust recipe because I only have a large springform. But a smaller springform would be better.

Lemon Cheesecake (serves 8)
- about 20 cookies (I used bastogne)
- 150gr butter
- 40gr sugar (optional)
- 397gr (1 tin) sweet condensed milk
- 150ml whipped cream
- 175gr cream cheese
- 2 lemons

First make the crust. Place the cookies in the food processor until you have nice small crumbs. Melt the butter and add it to the cookie crumbs. Optionally you can add sugar too, but that depends on how sweet you like it. Fold everything together with your hands until it sticks together and spread the crust in the bottom of the springform. Let it cool down.
Now grate and juice the lemons. Mix the milk, cream and cheese together in a bowl with the lemon zest. Stir out most of the lumbs. Now add the lemon juice bit by bit while stirring. It will make your batter thicker. Scoop the batter onto the crust and place the cheesecake into the fridge overnight. (at least 4 hours)

Optionally you can decorate the cheesecake with red fruit and whipped cream. I only did half of mine, because not everyone did like strawberries.

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Meatless Monday: Couscous salad

After cooking with quinoa, other crazy grains came into the picture. Like couscous for example. Roxanne, who I know from twitter and her blog called Smiling Beauties recommended this dish to me when I asked for easy and quick summer dishes. I am very happy that she did because this dish is so yummy!

Couscous Salad: (serves 4-6)
- 350gr couscous
- 250gr feta
- 400gr canned peas (280gr without water)
- 1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper
- 1tbsp couscous spices (I bought mine at a toko)
- some olive oil

First I cut up the bell peppers and I fry them shortly in some oil. Boil about 2 litre water for the couscous. Add water in a pan and then the couscous, stir for about one minute until the couscous is done. (it really takes only one minute). Then drain the couscous from water and place it back in the pan and drizzle with some olive oil. Cover the pan with a lid and leave the couscous for about 3 minutes. Then transfer it to a large bowl and mix it with 1tbsp of couscous spices. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Add the bell pepper and the peas. I always drain and rinse my canned peas to get rid of the can taste. Lastly crumble the feta over the salad and mix it all. It can be served luke-warm or cold. Both taste great! It is also a very good lunch and easy to bring with you in a bento.

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Meatless Monday: Zucchini Quiche

I encountered this recipe on the Dutch website Culy and it looked so easy and yummy, I just had to make it :) It is one of the better quiches I made and it tastes great for dinner and lunch.

Zucchini Quiche (serves 4)
- 700gr zucchini
- 5 eggs
- 125ml olive oil
- a bunch of chives, chopped
- a bunch of basil, chopped
- 220gr feta cheese
- 150gr grated Parmazan
- 150 gr self rising flour
- 8-12 cherry tomatoes
- salt and pepper

Grate the zucchini. I used the food processor for this. Place the zucchini in a colander and press all the moist out. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with the olive oil, chives and basil. Add the zucchini, salt, pepper, feta (but save some for on top), Parmazan, and mix well. Then add the flour and mix again. Place a baking sheet in an oven dish and add the batter. On top crumble some more of the feta and press in the cherry tomato halves with the seedy side up. Place it in a pre heated oven on 180 degrees for about 45-50 minutes. Let it cool down for about 15 minutes before you lift it from the oven dish. The quiche tastes best on room temperature.

Before it went in the oven

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Egg Curry

I found this lovely recipe at Tes at home a while back and decided to make this a few weeks ago. It turned out lovely even though our portions were a bit on the small side,veg wise that is. I will add some more veggies next time to accompany this great curry. Normally I would post the recipe here, but because I didn't really change that much yet to the original, I will just post my pictures from the cooking process and result and link you all to the original recipe at Tes at home. We served this with stuffed roti from the local toko but Tes also shared a recipe for deep fried flatbread from scratch in the same post. We don't own a deep fryer though so we didn't try this.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Cajun Tarly by the boyfriend

Zeronic Cooks. Tarly with Cajun herbs.

Now usually I write blogposts about games but as you might have heard from Uniflame I like good food.
You can imagine how glad I am with her as a cook but she never even once mentioned tarly.
After a talk with my grandparents who cooked with tarly quite a lot I asked here why we never made this dish.
"I never thought about it," was the answer. So I decided to look for a vegetarian recepe for tarly and make it
myself. The result was very satisfying, and thus she asked me to make a post about it for her blog.

Cajun Tarly with quorn
- 250 grams of Tarly
- 350 gram quorn or chicken/beef/fish if you are not a vegetarian
- 1 or 2tbsp Cajun Herbs
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 courgette, cut into pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into pieces
- 350 grams of corn
- 200 ml Tomato fritto
- 2 tbsp of cut parsley

Start cooking the tarly. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and mix together the cajun herbs with the quorn. Bake the quorn till it starts turning brown.
Add the cut courgette and bell pepper and bake everything for about 5 minutes.
Once that is done you can add the Tomato Fritto and the corn. Let it boil for a while and add the cooked tarly. Stir it well and let it heat for a minute or 2. Put it on a plate and add the cut parsley aaaaannd you are done. If you think it needs a bit more spice you can always add some pepper and salt but in my opinion it isn't needed.

It is quite and easy recepe with ingredients that are easy to find, except perhaps for the tomato fritto.
In case you wonder what it is, tomato fritto is a form of tomato puree that was deepfried before it got pureed.
The result is a somewhat smoother and sweeter tomato puree under the name of tomato fritto.
I have heard you can also eat this dish cold in the summer as a salad but I have yet to try that.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Broccoli Mashpot with Pesto

I do love mashpot but mostly it is eaten during winter days. However in spring there are lighter versions of this typical Dutch dish that we can enjoy. Today I am sharing one with broccoli that I found on the Dutch site Lekker Eten Maken. However this one wasn't vegetarian so we used this recipe as inspiration and created our own version. 

As always with mashpot, it tastes better than it looks

Broccoli Mashpot with Pesto (serves 3)
- 1 broccoli
- 3 large potatoes (about 1kg)
- 100 ml milk
- 2 hard boiled eggs
- 3 tbsp red pesto
- a few sundried tomatoes, cut into stripes
- some black pepper

First peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks. Boil them in water until soft. Meanwhile cut the broccoli in florets and boil them for about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and make a mash from it using the milk and a handheld mixer. Mix in the pesto and some pepper to taste. Add the broccoli, eggs and sundried tomatoes. And that is it! Easy and filling with a hint of summer.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Potato Croquettes

I borrowed a Dutch cookbook from the library that is called "Koken met Karin zonder pakjes en zakjes" which means cooking with Karin without using pre bought mixes. I love cooking from scratch and it is something I prefer to do. While the book doesn't contain enough vegetarian recipes to convince me to buy the book, it does have some handy basic recipes for sauces and good ways to use leftovers. I made potato croquettes from this book using leftover mashed potatoes :) It was something I wanted to try for a long time already and it isn't that hard to do.

Potato Croquettes:
some leftover mashed potatoes
1 egg
bread crumbs
plant based oil
flour

If you have leftover mashed potatoes, store them in the fridge overnight so it gets nice and firm. Form small croquettes with your hands. They do get bigger because they get a double coating. Place a plate with flour, a plate with egg and a plate with bread crumbs on the counter. Take your croquette and cover with flour, then with egg and then bread crumbs. For the double coating go through egg and bread crumbs once more. Store them in the fridge until you are going to bake them. They can also be frozen at this point. Bake them golden brown in hot oil. Place them on some kitchen towels before serving.
As a variation you can also add some mustard, cheese, parsley or whatever you like in your potato mash before making the croquettes. But do so before storing the mashed poatoes in the fridge.

Now this sounds pretty easy but still it is a bit messy. I guess it will take some more practice before they get a nicer shape, but they taste great all the same.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Home Made Peanutbutter

I recently made my own peanut butter for the first time! Technically, it is more a nut paste because it features three different nuts. But you can make plenty of variations! This recipe is inspired by the book Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven, it makes enough for a large jar of peanut butter. And it is so easy, that I can hardly call it a recipe. Please make sure you get nuts unsalted!

The result before we transferred it to a jar

Peanut butter:
- 100 gr peanuts
- 100 gr hazelnuts
- 100 gr almonds
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp apple syrup with cinnamon

Add all the ingredients into the kitchen machine and let the machine do the work. You can make it creamy or chunky, whatever you prefer. If it is too dry, add some more oil. Make sure you taste when it is done if it is to your taste, adjust accordingly.

This does make a sweeter peanut butter than I am used to. I think because the almonds and the apple syrup and sugar are all sweet. I think we will use cashews next time instead of almonds and I think it will be even better then. Feel free to use whatever nuts you like, as long as it makes 300 gr total, it should be fine. As suggestion it is also given that you can add a bit of chocolate for a nutty chocolate paste, but I haven't tried that yet.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Bell Pepper Cake

When I encountered this recipe in a Dutch magazine called Vegetarisch Fit, I knew I had to make this! I just loved the sound of it and I never made a hearty cake before unlike plenty of muffins ;) This recipe does take quite a while to make but it is mostly unattended. And it is just great in a bento too!

Bell Pepper Cake (makes 12 servings)
- 2-3 bell peppers (red, yellow and/or orange, green is not suitable)
- 200gr self rising flour
- a dash of sea salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp paprika powder or chili powder
- 5-6  tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 6 large organic eggs
- 4 tbsp olive oil (and some extra)
- 100gr old cheese, grated

First we are going to grill the bell peppers. For the people who have never done this (like me before making this recipe) here is how. Halve the bell peppers, remove the seeds and place them with the peel up. Sprinkle some olive oil on top and place them in the oven for about 60 minutes on 160 degrees in a grill-oven. At least those were the settings for my combination microwave oven. You have to grill them until the peel forms blisters, then they are done. The key is to do this slowly or else you might burn the bell peppers.Let the bell pepper cool down until you can handle them, and them remove the peel under cold water. Now cut the bell peppers into small cubes.

Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder in a bowl. Mix with paprika powder and parsley. In another bowl beat the eggs and mix in the oil. Then add to the flour mixture with the bell pepper and the grated cheese. Cover the cake tin with a sheet of baking paper and add the batter in the tin. Place in a pre heated oven on 200 degrees (180 microwave-oven) for 50 minutes.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Arretjescake

Today I have a real treat for you: It is a typical Dutch recipe that is called Arretjescake. It is a no bake chocolate cake with biscuits on the inside. It is very filling and heavy on the calories, so only take a small portion of the cake and share it with friends. It tastes really good!

These are two slices for two persons

Arretjescake (serves 10-12)
- 125 gr butter
- 125 gr margarine
- 200 gr caster sugar
- 200 gr plain biscuits (Maria koekjes for the Dutchies)
- 2 eggs
- 5 tbsp Dutch processed cacao powder

Melt the butter and the margarine together in a covered bowl in the microwave for about a minute. Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl. Mix in cacao and butter. Crumble the cookies (for example in a plastic bag with a rolling pin) and stir those in the batter. Grease a cake tin with a bit of butter or line up a baking sheet in the cake tin. Pour the batter in and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours but overnight is better.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

And also part of Meatless Monday on Vegetarische Blogs. 

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Meatless Monday: Kale Fritatta

I usually only use kale in mashpot but I was looking for another way to use kale for some variation. I found this recipe for kale frittata in the cook book Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven and adjusted the recipe somewhat to my taste and replaced the bacon for a vegetarian one. The recipe has a long cook time, but it is largely unattended.

Kale Frittata (serves 4)
- 500 gr kale, chopped
- 200 gr vegetarian bacon
- 8 eggs
- 100ml cream
- 100gr grated cheese
- salt, pepper and other herbs you want to add
- some oil

Heat some oil in a pan and bake the vegetarian bacon bits shortly. Add the kale and a bit of water and leave it be for about 25 minutes. Stir occasionally. Meanwhile beat the eggs. Then add the cream, salt, pepper, herbs (I used thyme) and cheese and stir through. Cover an oven dish with a baking sheet. Drain the kale and press out as much fluid as you can. Then place the kale in the oven dish and cover with the egg mixture. Place this in a pre heated oven on 180 degrees (170 with a microwave oven) for another 25 minutes and serve.

This post is part of Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays.
MMMM is a weekly carnival dedicated to those interested in improving their personal health and the health of the planet by reducing meat consumption one day a week. Every Monday you have a chance to feature a link to something meatless. It doesn’t have to be a recipe {although that would be nice}, it can be a picture of a meatless meal you ate that week, an interesting article you read about meat consumption, a post on your blog about going meatless, perhaps a post on someone else’s blog you found helpful, anything Meatless Monday appropriate.

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