Quarantine Cooking, Week 1

[starlady]

• Vegan Tarka Dal – I used lime zest + basil because I wasn't able to get to Berkeley Bowl for curry leaves. Maybe next week. And for some reason I thought "finger chilis" were jalapeños but apparently they aren't. Whatever, it was good with two jalapeños in the tarka too.
• Spicy Creamy Chickpeas with Eggs and Prosciutto – Good concept, needs a LOT more tomato paste + spices. I omitted the prosciutto and I would use soy milk next time.
• Sweet Potato Salad with Pepita Dressing – Not a bad way to use up the canned black beans that I got at the bodega which had been sitting on the shelf for who knows how long.
• Lentil Soup with Sausage and Chard – I make this vegan now, and I use fire roasted tomatoes to boost the flavor. 
• Cozy Cabbage Soup with Farro – I make this once a week normally; I switched it up with chicken stock last time, but it's delicious either way and it doesn't need the parmesan either if you want it to be fully vegan. Particularly delicious with the Penzeys Tsardust Memories spice blend.
• Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie – This was delicious. I used up the half-can of golden syrup that I'd had lying around forever and the corn syrup, ditto. It was delicious. You can't skip the syrup if you want that custard-y filling. So good.
• Weeknight Beans on Toast – A very good way to treat canned beans that have been on the shelf for, again, who knows how long. I used chicken sausage, because that was what my bodega had, but I think it would be delicious with vegan sausage too.

I bought the Four and Twenty Blackbirds cookbook (where the oatmeal pie recipe came from), so expect more pies in the future.

Comments

[ruric]

Oh thanks for those links - a pal at the allotment just gave me a large pile of chard! I see a soup in my future. I also have a cabbage to use up. :)

[starlady]

You're welcome! The thing that is good about this soup in particular is it doesn't matter if the chard has been sitting in your fridge for a few days because it is going straight into the soup.

[rilina]

That lentil, sausage, chard soup is one that I have on regular rotation. When you make it vegan, do you use a sausage substitute or just the difference of fire roasted tomatoes?

I definitely see the cabbage and farro soup in my future!

[starlady]

I have been making it without any sausage substitute, but I am sure it would taste good with vegan sausage if you tried it that way! If I didn't have fire roasted tomatoes I would probably want vegan sausage.

[thistleingrey]

The dal recipe looks good! Thanks.

[via_ostiense]

I made the chickpeas with eggs & prosciutto at some point in 2018 (probably whenever that issue of Bon Appetit came out) and also found it appealing on paper but underwhelming on a plate. I can't remember why - too much cream, maybe, and not enough flavor?

[starlady]

Yeah, it was definitely too much cream.