vegan - Obscure Journey

Pumpkin soup -vegan!

Publié le 23 Février 2020 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #soup, #recipe, #vegan, #faith, #food, #life experience, #life lesson, #main dish

Is it Halloween? No, it's the lent before Pascha (or Easter, depending on who you're asking), and pumpkin soup is a vegan dish. We're supposed to eat vegan dishes during lent.

It's also one of the easiest dishes I came across! And honestly, i have no idea why I waited for so long to make it! No, I do know why: I thought it's sweet, since I associate pumpkin with the pie. I was wrong, or at least this soup didn't turn out sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

pumpkin
carrots
salt
powder black pepper
water (of course)
the tool to mash potatoes (in this case, pumpkin)

METHOD:

You need to peel the carrots and dice them.

Throw the carrot cubes in a large enough pot, with water and salt. Place the pot on fire. Carrots cook slower than many other vegetables, hence it's ok to have them on the fire for a little longer.

Cut the pumpkin in smaller pieces, and remove the skin. I used my knife for this part. You might want to cut the pieces even smaller, to help with the cooking time.

Throw your smaller pumpkin pieces into the pot as well. Hopefully you can tell the pumpkin pieces in the pot are smaller than on the cutting board.

Turn the heat up, and make the whole think boil for some 20 minutes. You might want to adjust the time, depending on the quantity. You have to make sure the pumpkin is cooked. It has to be soft when you poke it with a fork.

Now you want to take the tool you use for mashing potatoes, and use it to mash the boiled carrots and pumpkin.

When you're done, you might want to add more salt, and some pepper. You can serve hot or cold.

Bon appetit!

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Recipe for Roasted Potatoes

Publié le 17 Avril 2019 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #advice, #baking, #customs, #food, #recipe, #romanian tradition, #tips, #vegan

Hello everyone!

The Great Lent started in Romania - this is the lent before Pascha (or Easter). It lasts for 7 weeks and is the longest of them all, hence the name. OK, now it's close to the end, as I kept on delaying editing pictures and writing. The article is finally here!

During any Lent, Romanians are supposed to fast by eating a vegan diet - so no meats including fish, no eggs and no dairy products. (hmm, I actually don't know if honey is forbidden or allowed.) This page explains better the rules of fasting. It also makes no mention of honey, and thus I think it's allowed.

In any case, when buying premade foods in Romania, we should pay attention to the packaging to say "de post" - this means the product is vegan-friendly. If you don't want to eat honey, search for the word "miere" (=honey) in the ingredients. Fish is allowed for consumption on certain days during the Lent (fasting period).

Romanians don't celebrate Fat Tuesday nor Ash Wednesday. Good Friday is not a public holiday either, but the 2nd day of Pascha (Monday) is a bank holiday, and only hospitals, police, public transportation, and a few shops still stay in business.

I already have a few vegan-friendly recipes posted, and I want to share with you the recipe for Roasted Potatoes as well - this is an important recipe to know how to make if you love potatoes because they're awesome when roasted.

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 larger potatoes, preferably suited for baking
salt
oil
powder black pepper
other herbs or condiments you like
also, a baking tray

METHOD:

Peel and slice your potatoes. Make sure to have rather thick slices and not thin. If they're thin, reduce the cooking time by 15 minutes to avoid burning them.

Take a baking tray, smear it with cooking oil, place your potato slices in it.

Smear your potato slices with cooking oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and all the condiments and herbs.

Let bake in the oven for some 45 minutes, on medium heat, preferably on the middle rack of the oven.

You can now serve!

I made this recipe over and over, and I didn't always take pictures. This is why some of them are dated "December 2018." The light is bad because I usually cook in the evening and therefore the artificial light is not great.

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General and vegan stew with potatoes

Publié le 25 Février 2019 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #food, #recipe, #tips, #main dish, #vegan

Today I decided to make a stew and also share the process as well. This stew is 100% vegan, as i made sure not to use anything that was made by animals, or with their meat.

I'm hungry, so let's start the recipe already. Here are the ingredients:

potatoes -more than 1 kg (2.5 lbs? 3 lbs?)
2 medium carrots
some 300 grams of green beans (less than 1 lbs)
1 bell pepper (any color)
1 teaspoon of salt ? (depending on how salty you want it)
1 or 2 spoons of cooking oil
sweet or hot paprika (powder)
black pepper (you can use both powder and whole, or either one)
aromatic herbs - packed individually. -see the image below

You can also add a small eggplant in this stew, if you want. I don't recommend zucchini nor baby pumpkins - I tried and I found the experiment rather unpleasant.

METHOD:

Take the beans and 2 spoons of oil, and put them in a large enough pot, that you place on a small fire or heat source.

Peel and dice your carrots, and place them on top of the beans. Also pour some water and some salt, and cover with a lid.

It's time to peel, wash and dice your potatoes. Potatoes cook much faster than carrots, and if the fire or heat is on medium to low, there won't be much to worry about.

Once this is done, drop the cubed potatoes into the pot, and fill with water just enough to cover everything,much like in the image below. Now leave the pot to cook over medium heat for some 45 minutes.

When the time is up, you add the condiments, herbs, chopped bell pepper (mine was frozen, so you can't see it well), and 2 spoons of tomato sauce.

Now, after you added all that, mix and let sit on the fire for some 15 minutes more. This is enough time for the bell pepper to cook and for the aromas to mix up, and flavor the dish.

Next, you can serve lava hot if you feel like it, but I recommend you wait some 30 minutes for it to cool down a little - it will still be delicious. You can serve it as is or with lettuce or Greek salad, fried tofu or fried soy meat substitute.

FOR MEAT EATERS:

You can also serve with chicken, with fried eggs, fish, and even with steak - basically anything that can be fried or roasted. You can put smoked bacon in it during cooking, if you really want to, for more flavor.

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Oriental salad - Romanian version

Publié le 13 Décembre 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #recipe, #tips, #salad, #vegetarian, #food, #vegan

I haven't posted a recipe in a very long time, i believe. I think it's time I shared something - a salad this time! It's easy to make, pretty good for the upcoming holidays, delicious in my opinion, and is also vegan friendly!

Well, ok, what I'll share is not vegan friendly because I used eggs, BUT keep the eggs out and you can safely enjoy it! If you're wondering why I had to specify this is a Romanian version of the salad, is because Google showed me a different type of salad when I searched for the name of this dish.

I'm not exactly sure what's the story behind this salad, all I know is that it's pretty easy to make, and that it's never enough.

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg potatoes
200 g black olives (for color; use seedless ones)
200 g pickles
1 red bell pepper
2 eggs (you can skip them for a vegan salad)
aromatic herbs - parsley (fresh or dry), dill (i skipped it)
some salt and ground black pepper
oil and vinegar

This is the list of ingredients for a basic salad I found on a Romanian website. I know some people add more stuff in this salad. One of the most common ingredients is sliced onion, but you must know we don't eat it. Other ingredients I noticed were shredded cabbage, raw cucumbers (along the pickled ones), and pickled beet, and the salad becomes a bit pinkish.

Do not add any type of meat in this salad, because then you'll make something else.

METHOD

Start by peeling and dicing the potatoes. Then throw them in a pot with water, and place on medium heat. Don't forget to add some salt - I used some pink salt, not that it really matters, but we were curious. I boiled the potatoes for some 30 minutes, but I don't think I had 1 kg.

The next step is to slice or dice the rest of the ingredients, including the olives and eggs. Don't forget about the other ingredients you want to add.

Next, when the potatoes are done, rinse them with some cold water, and mix them with the ingredients. Of course,don't forget to add oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and the herbs.

Look at those vibrant colors! This salad is eaten usually by itself or sometimes maybe with steak or chicken. There's no need for bread when eating this dish. You might need to eat other dishes before or after it to feel completely full.

I hope you like it if you make it!

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Roasting eggplant - vegan friendly!

Publié le 16 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life lesson, #Cooking, #recipe, #life experience, #tips, #advice, #tricks, #health, #vegan, #food

I have to post this, because for the first time I managed to roast eggplant in a way that worked, is healthy, and I actually enjoyed eating. Oh, and yea! It's vegan friendly!

So i had these eggplants [aubergines] about to go bad. So wondered what to do with them. Roasting them sounded really good. Here is how I did it!

Ingredients:

eggplants [as many as you like]
condiments [i used black pepper, basil, and thyme]
some salt
some cooking oil [unflavored is best]

I first washed and peeled the eggplants. Then I sliced them as evenly as i could - i'm really bad at this task. Their thickness was about 1cm - i didn't measure.

I realized that using a long-bladed knife helped a lot with this task.

I used the brush usually useful when baking, to lightly spread some oil on my baking pan.

I realized that the baking pan is quite important - I had some non-stick types, but they burned by foods as they were too thin, and the non-stick coating peeled.

The pan i used this time is thicker and rather shiny, but I can't tell what type it is, or what it's made of. All i know is that i can scrub it quite a lot and it won't peel. It's not really enamel either, or at least i don't think it is enamel.

After I sliced the eggplants, and after i had lightly oiled the pan, I placed as many slices of eggplant as i could in the pan. I then tried to smudge a bit of oil on each slice, and sprinkled with salt and the condiments, and then i put the pan in the preheated oven.

I let the slices stay for some 25 to 30 minutes, and then i flipped them over. I proceeded to still let them cook for some 15-20 minutes.

Unlike with the non-stick pans, the slices did NOT stick to this pan - they did stick to the non-stick ones when i tried the recipe before. I have no idea how it happened. All i know is that i got rid of the so called non-stick ones, but mostly because they started peeling.

I cook with gas, hence fire, and this may be a reason for my previous attempts at roasting to turn into failures. Vegetables turned mushy, or burned. I guess this baking pan is specially made for cooking and roasting with gas.

Bottom line is that if your roasts are not like the expectation, try to change your pan - it might just do the trick.

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raw carrot salad - vegan friendly

Publié le 28 Avril 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #Cooking, #salad, #vegan, #raw, #food, #tips, #hungry, #snack, #yummy, #recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 or 2 large carrots, or maybe 2 to 4 smaller ones
some vinegar
some salt
some oil – the default cooking oil here is made from sunflower seeds. I remember using olive oil once, but it was too heavy and the taste was not the one I was used to.

For instructions, read below the images. ;)

I used a pretty big carrot.

peel and wash the carrot(s)

Shred the carrots. Julienne works nicely too.

season with salt, add oil, add vinegar, in no particular order, and mix.

season with salt, add oil, add vinegar, in no particular order, and mix.

NOTES

You can add a green (or more sour) apple as well.
You can also add shredded raw white cabbage.
You can use mayonnaise instead of salt, oil, and vinegar. [not vegan anymore, and heavier]
I don’t think the apple and mayonnaise go well together, but you can try if you are that curious.

This salad is perfect throughout the year. I can’t say I like it more plain than I like it with mayonnaise, but the one with apples is my least favorite. I usually feel bloated after having this one. It tastes pretty nice by itself.

Bon Apetit~~

in between stages.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not vegan, but this doesn't mean I eat meat all the time. Yes, I used the tag [hoping] for more exposure, but I think it's connected or relevant.

This salad can be enjoyed by those who follow a vegan diet or lifestyle as well.

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