Playing VeganMoFo Elsewhere ~ Day 16

This weekend two events came together: a ladies only family weekend and the Greece-themed Kookgrrls’ cookalong. Oh, and VeganMoFo of course. ;) Efficient woman I am, I combined as much as possible and chose a courgette fritters recipe from A Vegan Taste of Greece.

One of the first things I learned to cook as a vegetarian -we’re talking about 21 years ago- were Greek zucchini patties. I miss those now. So I’m on a quest to find a recipe without cheese, eggs or dairy. The recipe in this cookbook makes use of faux parmesan. That’s not ideal but it was worth a try! And yes, they were quite a success. Mr Gnoe and I made them again for dinner tonight, with the addition of a soygurt-based garlic-dill sauce. I will keep looking but for now this recipe will certainly do!

I posted it in Dutch on the Kookgrrls’ Blog, so that’s where you can find me today!

 

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A taste of Greece: tzatziki

Here’s the recipe for the tzatziki that I took in bento #58. I’ts really easy to make and tastes great. A fresh dish that will make you think of vacation on any summer day!

Ingredients

• 1 organic cucumber
• salt
• 3,5 dl Greek yoghurt
  (I like it full-cream)
• 1 piece of garlic
  (2 if you wish)
  
• 2 table spoons of olive oil (extra virgine)
  
• pepper
• 2 table spoons of fresh dill (finely cut); see Gnoe’s tip for cutting herbs below!

Preparation
Wash and roughly grate the cucumber (including the skin). Because you’re not peeling the cuke, it’s really best to use organic! Put in a colander, sprinkle with salt en put a weight on it for half an hour. I often use a saucer and small pan filled with water to weigh something down.

In the meantime crush the garlic. Mix yoghurt with garlic, olive oil, dill and pepper to taste (blend by mixing). When the cucumber is ready it can be added to the mixture.

You can make tzatziki a while in advance if it’s kept refrigerated.

Use
Use as a starter or side dish with salad and black olives (think mezze!), as vegetable dip, for a picnic or buffet — you can even put it on your sandwhich, but it will get soggy ;) I like to serve it with Turkish pide bread.

To give you an idea of the quantity: it’s about 4 servings as entree.

Gnoe’s tip for cutting herbs
An easy way to cut dill (or parsley) is putting the leaves in a cup and snip-snap with your kitchen scissors! You can’t use this method for all herbs though; e.g. basil leaves should be torn to allow their fragrances to appear.

Last but not least: I like the smoothness of a tzatziki that’s low on garlic but some people might want to use 2 pieces of garlic :-o In that case, remember my post with natural tips against garlic smell ;)

Last bento of June (#58)

I had a nice crunchy summer salad for lunch today!

Bento #58 contained:

Lower tier

• summer fruit (cherries & raspberries)
• scrambled eggs with tomato and shallot (this sweet type of onion fits the egg dish really well)
• homemade tzatziki
• whole-wheat croutons and chermoula dressing both for the summer salad

Upper tier

• Romaine leaves
• homegrown bean sprouts
• radishes
• tomato
• basil

A perfect bento to start the week with! And to end the month, since I’ll be working at home tomorrow.

The tzatziki came out really well so fortunately there was no need for Gnoe’s tips against garlic breath ;)

The chermoula dressing was a diluted version of our freshly made coriander chermoula for the Moroccan carrot soup we ate this weekend. I promise to post all recipes some other day :)

Charon bento #57 (RIP MJ)

Elma from Chasing Chatwin gave me some chocolate euros to use in my bento. How appropriate on the day Michael Jackson died! The ancient Greeks put money in the mouth of a deceased, for paying Charon (ferryman of the river Styx) to bring his / her soul to the world of the dead.

I didn’t have much preparation time so I had to get through the day with just one tier of food in bento #57 :\

Contents
Chocolate money (obviously), radishes with gherkin, raspberry vinegar and dill, mushroom noodles, broccoli with black & white sesame seeds, walnut and nori seaweed.

Having just admitted to being a teenager in the Eighties, you might have guessed I was a Michael Jackson fan in those days. I even had a poster hanging on the wall (among many others though ;) No matter what came of him in later years, he was and still is an icon. I find it a fascinating idea that on Friday June 26th, a huge part of the world population has been playing Wacko Jacko’s songs all day on the radio, television, internet and at home. It’s so profound it’s almost unimaginable.

RIP MJ. And now, life goes on.

Summer bento (#56)

Last weekend summer officially started and we’ve been having some fine weather in Holland since then! So on Thursday it was time for a mediterranean bento (#56).

Upper tier

• currants
• black olives
• dressing for Greek salad
• cashews with Provencal herbs
• basil

Lower tier

• Romaine leaves
• basil
• black olive
• mix of feta goat’s cheese, tomato, spring onion, sundried tomato and red bell pepper

The salad leaves, paprika, basil and red currants all came from our weekly organic veggie bag!