SMOKED TOFU WITH MUSHROOMS IN A RED WINE-CREAM SAUCE AND HERB RICE

Ingredients:

• 1 block of smoked mushroom-tofu, cut into cubes
• about 100ml red wine (i had an italian merlot)
• 300g- 400g small brown champignons
• 1 pck of vegan cuisine
• 1 onion, chopped
• rice
• fresh herbs, like parsley, basil, chive... 
• vegetable stock

1. Heat some oil in a pot and add the onion. Sauté for about 2 minutes. Add rice and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
2. If you had 1-2 cups of rice, add twice the amount of vegetable stock. Let it cook until the rice is done.
3. Add chopped fresh herbs and season with salt (if needed)
4. Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Add tofu cubes and fry until golden brown. Take them out of the pan and set aside.
5. In the same pan sauté onion and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Add tofu cubes and pour in the red wine. Fry until the redwine is reduced.
7. Add soy cuisine and fresh chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper.
8. Serve with the herb rice and fresh salad.  

SPAGHETTI "BOLOGNESE"

Actually spaghetti bolognese is a meal that i make when i´m too lazy to cook anything complicated or uses a lot of time. But a friend of mine told me about his yummie bolognese sauce he made with red wine and other yummie ingredients. So i decided to do this aswell and..... this was a good desicion!!! This was definitely the best bolognese sauce i´ve ever had!!! It need´s a lot of time but the result was great!!


Ingredients:

• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1/4 - 1/2 piece of celery, finely chopped
• 1 onion + 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 4 - 5 brown champignons, finely chopped
• 160g granulated tvp
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• about 175 - 200ml red wine
• vegetable stock
• tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, paprika powder to taste
• spaghetti

1. Cook tvp according to package instruction. I cook my TVP in a strong vegetable stock, 1/2 fresh onion and a rosemary branch. Drain well!
2. Heat some oil in a pan and sauté the prepared veggies. Take it out of the pan and set aside. Now add the TVP to the pan and fry until brown. This will take some time, but it´s worth, i promise!! Season with salt, pepper and some paprika powder.
3. Add the veggies and deglaze with the red wine and let it boil briefly. 
4. Pour with the chopped tomatoes and some vegetable stock and add the bay leaf. And this is the part that needs a lot of time! Let it cook over low flame as long as possible. I think i was cooking the sauce for about 1 hour, but the longer the better!
5. Meantime pour a little broth. At the end, stir in tomato paste and season with salt and pepper!! I think i had 2-3 tbsp of tomato paste, but you can use as much as you want. It depends on how tomatoey you like it.
6. Serve with spaghetti and vegan parmesan!

SPICY GARLIC-THYME-MUSHROOMS

Ingredients:

• mushrooms, quartered
• good quality olive oil
• fresh garlic, finely sliced
• fresh thyme
• chili flakes and salt

1. Put mushrooms in a zip bag or a tupperware box. Sprinkle with olive oil, fresh thyme, chili flakes and some salt. Add the fresh garlic and mix well. Put it in the refrigerator and let it rest for at least 1 hour.
2. You can prepare the mushrooms on a grill or frying pan. Use medium to high heat to get nice brown color.

TIME FOR VEGAN BBQ !!!!

RECIPES WILL FOLLOW!!! =)

SPAGHETTI WITH LENTIL BOLOGNESE

Today it was pasta time!!!

Since weeks the red lentils in my pantry are smiling at me, but i hadn´t had any ideas to prepare them. To add them into a kind of bolognese sauce was a really good decision i think. I used red lentils, but you can use every sort of lentils you like. The convenience of red lentils is, that they don´t require a long cooking time. This is a cheap and easy recipe that everybody can cook!!! And the best thing of all is that it tastes absolutely delicious!!!

Ingredients: (Serves 3 - 4)

• 350g Spaghetti
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1-2 garlic cloves, chopped 
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 tsp powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 150g mushrooms, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 180g dried red lentils
• Tomato paste
• 1 can tomato puree
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 1 thyme branch + 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme or basil
• ca. 500ml vegetable stock
• some water
• Salt, Pepper and dried Chilis to taste

1. Cook your pasta according to package directions, drain, sprinkle with some olive oil and set aside. Don´t pour the pasta water away. You will need it for the sauce, cause the water contains starch which makes sure that the sauce clings to the pasta.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and carrot and the powdered sugar and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and the balsamic vinegar and cook for another 2 minutes or until the vinegar is reduced.
3. Add mushrooms and pepper and saute until the vegetables are soft.
4. Add the lentils and stir well. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Mix in some tomato paste and saute everything for about 2 minutes.
6. Now add the tomato puree, the vegetable stock, the thyme branch and the bay leaves and cook everything for 20-35 minutes or until the lentils are soft. If the sauce becomes too thick, add some pasta water to it.
7. Remove the thyme and the bay leaves and add some chopped fresh herbs. ( i used thyme and basil)
8. Season with salt, pepper and chili.
9. If you haven´t used the pasta water till now, than add some of it to the sauce, toss through the spaghetti and mix well
10. Serve it with parmesan cheese (vegan or vegetarian) and ready is your lentil bolognese!!

             !!BON APPETIT!!