ribollita! (dorothy's favorite soup! ;-)

it's snowy here in geneva, and one of the only consolations i have suffering through winter is: SOUP.

as i mentioned in my last post, i had some great soups while visiting tuscany. i was chatting with dorothy about a great ribollita i had, and she said that it's her favorite soup! apparently, when she was backpacking through tuscany more than a decade ago, she was told by the locals to have this soup.. she loved it, and it's held a special place in her heart ever since (and lemme tell you, dorothy loves soups...) i was so lucky to have serendipitously tried it last week in pisa! (shameless plug: this story should probably also go on our other blog, http://freakishwondertwins.blogspot.com/, where we document all of our freakish-wonder-twin experiences.)

the ribollita that i had was really fantastic, and it's inspired me. from the soup i had in pisa, i'm gathering that the essential ingredients are: kale (cavolo nero), beans (cannellini), and bread! geneva sucks and kale is noooo where to be found, so i had to wait for a friend to bring some up from italy for me :-P

btw, ribollita apparently means "reboiled"! the server at the restaurant in pisa said that they spent days cooking their ribollita.. not sure if he was joking or not, but i guess the point is that it should be cooked for a long time...

anyway, here goes my first attempt... (it came out really good, actually.. and not too far from what i had tasted in pisa :-)

ingredients:

extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

several small potatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces

1 bunch of dinosaur kale (cavolo nero?), chopped into bite-size pieces

1 can of tomatoes

cannellini beans (dried or canned), however much you want

salt & pepper

bread (several slides of good, dry bread)

1. prepare the beans (if you're using dried beans). i cooked my cannellini beans in a pressure cooker, for 30 minutes, until they were good and tender.

2. prepare the vegetables. sautee the onion, carrot, and celery in a stock pot. when tender, add the garlic, potatoes, and kale. add the canned tomatoes and let simmer until the potatoes and kale are tender (about 30 minutes?)

3. add the beans and let it simmer for another 10-20 minutes. add salt and pepper to taste.

4. take half the soup and puree it in your blender (adding water as needed), and return it to the stock pot. (if you have an immersion blender, just use that and puree as much as you like.. as i mentioned in my last post, i kinda like my soups to maintain their vegetable integrity, so i don't puree too much.)

5. prepare the bread. cut the bread into bite-size pieces and toast it in the oven until just toasted. when serving the soup, put the bread into the bottom of the bowl, and then ladle the soup on top of the bread. (btw, i got the impression from other recipes i perused and also from the soup i had in italy that the bread should be cooked into the soup. for some reason, that idea grosses me out, so i just added the bread just before serving!)

6. voila! delicious soup. enjoy!

pasta & bean soup

i had some great soups while i was in pisa last week... in particular, i had an amazing ribollita and also a great farro & fagioli soup. as for the former, i couldn't find any cavolo nero (tuscan kale) in geneva, and i'm consequently awaiting a shipment from NC, who'll bring some for me from italy. (ribollita recipe coming soon... :-P)

as for the latter, i didn't have any farro on hand, and instead, i tried making a similar soup with pasta. the farro & fagioli soup i had in pisa was creamier than this one (since all the vegetables were puréed). however, i like keeping some integrity to the vegetables in my soup, and i refrained from puréeing it all. also, i probably added too much pasta; i always feel like too much pasta dilutes the quality of a good soup.

the point of this soup was to be simple, but delicious.. which it indeed turned out to be!

borlotti beans, dry or canned (if you can't find borlotti, i bet cannellini beans would work well)

small pasta (i used "mezze penne rigate")

olive oil

carrot, chopped

celery, chopped

onion, choppd

garlic, minceed

rosemary

thyme

salt & pepper

1. prepare the beans. i used dried beans and cooked them in the pressure cooker with salt, for about 30minutes. i cooked the beans until they were really tender. be sure to save the water that the beans were cooked in; we'll use this as the soup stock.

2. prepare the pasta; i decided to boil the pasta half-way before putting it into the soup, to prevent the soup from becoming too thick & starchy.. however, i think it'd turn out fine with the pasta cooked in the soup stock directly (in step 5).

3. in a stock pot, sautee the chopped onion, carrot, and celery with olive oil.. toss in the minced garlic, rosemary & thyme (to taste; i put about 1 tsp dried rosemary and just a dash of thyme). once everything is tender, add the beans, bean "stock", salt and pepper (to taste) to the sauteed vegetables.

4. then, take half of this soupy mixture and puree it in your food processor, adding water if needed.. then put it back into your stock pot. (or if you have an immersion blender, just blend it directly in the soup pot). let it simmer for a while, until your soup attains the desired consistency and flavor.

5. now (if you haven't already added pasta), add the half-way cooked pasta now. let it simmer until the pasta is done!

tofu sunshine spread

I started off thinking to make a tofu egg-salad sandwich type of thing, but what I ended up creating was nothing like egg-salad! Probably for the best, as why do I want it to taste like eggs anyway? Eggs are disgusting!

Ingredients:

1 block of tofu

1/4-1/2 C tahini or raw cashews

fresh parsley, chopped

1-2 T dijon mustard

1-2 T olive oil

1-2 T fresh lemon juice

1-2 grated carrots

1-2 celery stalks, grated

1/4-1/2 C of sunflower seeds (optional)

1-2 tsp curry powder (optional)

1/2 tsp tumeric (optional)

salt & pepper

(optional: minced garlic, diced onion, chives, whatever you like in your tofu spread!)

Procedure:

If you want to add cashews, soak them in warm water first, and then blend them in your food processor; otherwise add tahini to your food processor. Add also the fresh parsley, dijon mustard, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Then add the tofu and blend it all together. (Alternatively, you could also just crumble the tofu by hand, if you want a more chunky egg-salad like texture.)

Throw in the grated carrot, chopped celery, sunflower seeds, etc. And season with salt and pepper. You can also add curry powder for a curried tofu spread, and tumeric if you want to brighten your spread.

Serve with bread, carrot or celery sticks, etc. It seems to stay fresh for a few days in the fridge.

Oatmeal Cookies

Priyanka Kanth
alex!
u there?

Alex Penson
hey
what's up?

Priyanka Kanth
can u give me ur oatmeal cookie recipe

Alex Penson
yes
certainly
i should put it on toyo's blog

Priyanka Kanth
toyo has a blog?
but can u tell me now?!

Alex Penson
http://vegfriends.blogspot.com/
sure
ok
ingredients:
more flour than oats
(but you can also make em oaty)
cocoa powder
a surprisingly small amount compared to the flour (say a tenth)
goes a long way

Priyanka Kanth
ok

Alex Penson
but if you want em black
then more like 1/3 as much cocoa as flour
add sugar in proportion to the cocoa cos it's bitter
even if you don't add cocoa still put in a fair amount
seems like you can't really over do it

Priyanka Kanth
ok

Alex Penson
then raisins
erm

Priyanka Kanth


Alex Penson
nuts and stuff are good if you've got em

Priyanka Kanth
no butter? milk? eggs?

Alex Penson
i guess you can figure that stuff out
nope

Priyanka Kanth
how do u make it gooeu?

Alex Penson
vegan
vegtable oil

Priyanka Kanth
aaahhh that's what
ok
cos u need something to make it goooeey

Alex Penson
just any old oil

Priyanka Kanth
are u also vegan
?

Alex Penson
nope
but i've always done it like that
not sure why
they always turn out brittle
and i think that would be improved by butter and eggs

Priyanka Kanth
yeah...
i think so too

Alex Penson
kerstin and gwen make vegan cookies that are not brittle
positively gooey in fact

Priyanka Kanth
maybe they add milk..

Alex Penson
but i've never been able to figure it out
might do
really important it baking powder
'levure chimique'
packets at coop are 15g
and orange
(yeast is blue)

Priyanka Kanth
to make oatmeal cookies?

Alex Penson
huh?
yeah
you need raising agent
i forgot it once and they were pretty hard
still alright though
and not so brittle!

Priyanka Kanth
for the cookies? did u put it that day when we were at urs?

Alex Penson
yup
you might also want to add a little water as well
they can be too greasy if you use only oil
i usually also add cinnamon and chilli

Priyanka Kanth
ok...
oohh cinnamon

Alex Penson
kerstin's definitely added coconut before
that was pretty good
chocolate chips always popular
you want to add enough liquid that it goes sloppy but not runny
then when you spoon it out allow space for the blobs to double in size
then oven at 140-150 C
they should take 20-30 mins
depends how thick they are and stuff
let me know how it goes :D

Priyanka Kanth
omg yeah, coconut would be awesome!

Alex Penson
alright if i put this whole conversation on the blog?

Priyanka Kanth
sure :)

Calzone

Once again, I didn't take a photo. It looked pretty much like this though, but with more delicious red ooze.

It's like making a standard pizza except:

- bit more dough / less topping

- less forgiving if the dough's too dry

- more difficult to tell if it's done, you only have the brownness of the dough to go on.

- surprisingly good without cheese (although probably still nicer with!)

- mix yeast (7g packet from co-op) in small mug of warm water

- put 3 or 4 handfuls of four in a big bowl, keep the packet handy

- adding salt is good, fennel and chilli if you're feeling fancy

- add the water to the flour

- adding some oil's also good but not more than, say, a quarter as much as the water

- get one hand in there, because you'll presumably need to...

- add some more flour or water

- you can use the second hand once the dough's not too sticky

- if it's at all flaky add more water although this can be a pain, you're going to have to roll it and fold it

- make a nice ball and leave it to rise while you cut veg etc.

- spread flour on the worktop/table

- roll the base out thin, hopefully it will fold over easily

- put it on the baking tray before you...

- dump on the topping and fold

- wet the dough where top and bottom meet so they stick

When I did it, there was enough dough to roll over at the edges, like in the picture. These bits became kinda chewy and nice, not like non-foldy pizzas. I imagine they could easily become rock-hard though.

Things I screwed up:

- I put too much salt into the dough, I thought I'd try more than usual but then shook a bit too hard

- I rolled it, filled it and closed it right on the worktop. Then it nearly exploded trying to get it onto the baking tray

- I forgot to put cheese in, this actually worked out fine.

who doesn't love pancakes?

this recipe comes also comes from "vegan brunch". basic, but "perfect pancakes"! they're great with banana slices mixed in the batter.

• 1 1/4 C flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1/3 C water
• 1 C rice milk, soy milk, or other milk
• 2 T maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• banana slices, berries, chocolate chips, etc (optional)
  

preheat a large skillet over medium heat with some vegetable oil.

in a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. add the remaining ingredients and mix until just combined. (don't overmix, lumps are fine.)

pour pancakes into the hot pan one at a time, flipping over once bubbles form and bottom is cooked.

tofu-broccoli quiche

if you've ever come over to my place and eaten a quiche-like object, it was probably this tofu-broccoli quiche, inspired by a similar recipe in Vegan Brunch. this quiche seems to be successful with vegans and non-vegans alike. at clm, we are devotees of the cookbook series coming from the ladies of the post-punk kitchen. in particular, if you know me at all, you've likely tasted a cookie and cupcake inspired by their cookbooks.

• olive oil
• onion
• garlic
• 2 heads broccoli
• a bit of tumeric for color
  
• seasoning (i used thyme, but you can also try curry or other types of herbs/spices)
• salt/peper
• 1/2 C raw, unsalted cashews
• 1 lb extra firm tofu
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 prepared pie crust (i like the spelt crust sold at coop)
  

preheat your oven to 350 F. lay out the pie crust in whatever pie pan suits you.

sautee the onion and garlic, then add the broccoli, seasonings, salt and pepper to taste. cook until the broccoli is soft.

in the food processor, process the cashews into crubs. after squeezing the water out of the tofu, crumble into the food processor with the mustard. add half of the cooked broccoli mixture to the mix and process a bit further.

transfer to a mixing bowl, add the rest of the broccoli mixture and combine. once combined, transfer everything into the pie crust. bake for ~40 minutes.