Creamy Polenta with Sautéed Mixed Mushrooms

In just 30 minutes, what I thought was to be a side dish ended up so satisfying and hard to stop eating that it ended up serving as the main dish for dinner. I was looking to fill out a meal of leftovers from the night before, but what remained ended up as dinner for the next night. You'll want to enjoy this polenta hot right from the pan, though if you are making it for only two, as I did, you will have leftovers. But the leftover polenta can then be pressed into small discs and pan-fried until golden and topped with any remaining mushrooms or some tomato sauce for another delightful meal.

The polenta is delectably creamy, enhanced by the addition of butter stirred in at the end of the cooking time. The polenta itself is only seasoned with some salt, making it a perfect backdrop to succulent and earthy sautéed mushrooms and a simple red wine and herb sauce that contrasts beautifully in flavor and texture with the polenta. There is nothing fancy going on here, just basic staple ingredients that come together quickly, yet they work their magic and you are left with a beautiful plate that could proudly stand on its own among more fancy and time consuming preparations.

Other recipes featuring polenta from Lisa's Kitchen:

Polenta with Mushroom Ragout

Mushroom Polenta Pizza

Tomato Soup with Polenta Croutons and Chive Oil

Artichoke Tart with Polenta Crust and Fresh Rosemary

Audio accompaniment: Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings

Urad Bean and Quinoa Kofta with Coconut Fenugreek Sauce

Served all the manner from the Middle East via India to valuable Asia, there are as many versions of koftas as there are tastes and alternatives. Although at first made from floor meat, there are endless vegetarian variations of those little "meatballs" to be located too, many made with cooked beans, potatoes or paneer cheese as opposed to meat, however usually with herbs and spices.

I've used chickpeas, potatoes and paneer cheese to make Indian-style vegetarian koftas within the past, but this time I've used entire black urad beans, additionally called black gram. These beans have a creamy texture and slight taste whilst cooked that make it a high-quality automobile for spices and seasonings, however have to be soaked in a single day to ensure the little jewels cook via. In addition to the black urad beans and an array of hot spices, I've delivered quinoa to provide those koftas added texture in addition to nourishment.

In India, koftas are typically served in a creamy sauce, and for these urad bean and quinoa koftas I made a sauce that isn't always only creamy but fragrant with coconut milk, tomatoes, spices and seeds and dried fenugreek leaves. You will possibly be keen to apply this sauce for plenty different dishes, along with meatballs themselves in case you take place no longer to be a vegetarian. If you wish most effective to make the kofta, you may serve them as filling appetizers together with your favourite chutneys and sauces.

Dried fenugreek leaves ? Also referred to as methi ? Have a barely sweet nutty taste that is reminescent of maple syrup however extra sour ? In truth, they may be a commonplace component in artificial maple syrups. On their own, dried fenugreek leaves are sour and not precisely nice but whilst cooked with aromatic seeds and spices, they introduce a unique but subtle sweet and sour flavor to cream sauces, a taste that is distinctive of the very pleasant creamy curries in Indian home cooking however one that is very difficult to find in eating place sauces. I continually have dried fenugreek leaves on hand, in addition to the seeds and powder, and really often collapse a few leaves into my Indian dishes.

You can locate black urad beans and dried fenugreek leaves in any Indian grocer or on-line. Fresh fenugreek leaves are treat and in case you appear to stay close to an Asian or Indian grocer, you may likely be capable of attain these as well to in contain into your dishes.

Other kofta recipes to strive from Lisa's Kitchen:

Spicy Baked Chickpea Koftas

Mali Kofta (Potato and Paneer Kofta in a Rich Tomato Cream Sauce)

Chickpea Potato Koftas with Ricotta Cheese

Baked Chickpea Kofta Tacos with Avocado and Harissa

On the top of the studying stack: BOSH!: Simple Recipes * Amazing Food * All Plants

Audio accompaniment: Sonic Being via Lingua Lustra

Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese {Vegan}

As a vegetarian who also loves to explore and create inside the kitchen, I usually find it fascinating to provide you with vegetarian variations of classic dishes in which meat is a signature detail of the dish. Spaghetti bolognese is one such popular dish determined in eating places all over the international wherein it is also served as a plate of spaghetti topped with a more-or-less thick tomato and meat sauce.

Despite its recognition global, you will be tough pressed to discover spaghetti bolognese in Italy however. What passes for a bolognese sauce right here in North America ought to possibly be more well defined as a ragu sauce from southern Italy in which tomatoes grow in abundance. So whilst a bolognese sauce and a southern Italian ragu sauce each encompass minced meat (commonly pork, however on occasion red meat, hen or maybe fish) cooked with onions and carrots and often celery, a bolognese sauce relies upon a good deal much less or by no means on the addition of tomatoes and is likewise made with white wine. Moreover, a bolognese sauce is by no means served with spaghetti and is jumbled together with the pasta ? Generally tagliatelle however nearly continually a much broader shaped pasta ? Instead of served over top.

These distinctions aside, my main subject was to find a vegetarian opportunity that did no longer include meat of any kind however stayed true to the consistency and flavors of a spaghetti bolognese. Minced mushrooms are such an obvious preference to update the meat in this sauce to provide the earthy and meaty flavor and texture of minced meat. Red wine in preference to white wine additionally offers the sauce a depth of flavor. True to a few extra cutting-edge versions of bolognese sauce, I covered a minimal amount of tomato and a few garlic and herbs to spherical out the flavor. Mixed into the pasta as opposed to served over pinnacle, the sauce was very thick, rich and smoky, and became out to make it perhaps the most exciting spaghetti meal that I can don't forget.

I did use spaghetti constructed from kamut grains rather than durum wheat. Kamut spaghetti can typically be observed in maximum herbal meals shops and frequently in lots of supermarkets. If you could discover it, kamut spaghetti has a nutty taste on its very own that completely complemented the sauce ? In truth, it's delicious simply on its own ? However this vegan spaghetti bolognese will satisfaction your diners the usage of everyday spaghetti too. I will depart the question of whether this vegan sauce is a bolognese or ragu ? Or some thing else altogether ? Up to culinary connoisseurs.

Other pasta dishes to experience from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen:

Lemony Pasta with Broccoli and Chickpeas

Pasta Shells with Roasted Vegetables and Black Olives

Penne with a Spicy Eggplant and Mushroom Tomato Sauce

Spinach Pesto Pasta

Zesty Green Pea and Jalape?O Pesto Pasta

On the top of the reading stack: Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking

Audio Accompaniment: Shallow by Porya Hatami

Roasted Root Vegetables with Garlic, Mustard and Orange

When it comes to comfort foods, roasted greens are excessive on my list of favorites. They really want little adornment obvious from primary seasonings, however get dressed them up a chunk and they can without difficulty turn out to be the center-piece of a meal. As is the case here. A choice of blended root veggies are roasted in a garlic, mustard and orange sauce. Quite large already, the array of mingling and contrasting mustard, herb and citrus flavors in which they are dressed approach that they scouse borrow the show in any dinner, surely disturbing more attention and finishing up becoming lots more than a humble facet. My inspiration might be to characteristic those with a light lentil soup and a side clean green salad.

I used potatoes, parsnips and carrots to offer additional contrasts in flavor and coloration, but this dish would paintings similarly well in case you only use potatoes ? It's real that some people do no longer like parsnips, but they're candy and delightful whilst roasted and I assume a lamentably underrated vegetable. But if parsnips are simply now not for you and your desire is to handiest use potatoes, replacement a further pound of potatoes for the parsnips and carrots.

Other roasted vegetables dishes to strive from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen:

Oven-Roasted Winter Vegetables

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Roasted Vegetable Stuffed Omelette

Pasta Shells with Roasted Vegetables and Black Olives

Audio accompaniment: Puzzle Muteson - En Garde

Smoky Mixed Dal Tarka

If you have ever been to an Indian restaurant in North America, there may be a excellent danger which you've seen "tarka dal" on the menu. There's a great cause for this apart from the ease of training and cooking ? A terrific tarka dal might be the last Indian consolation meals for vegetarians. A accurate creamy tarka dal is one in every of my own favorites and a brilliant meal answer once I am pressed for time.

But a tarka dal is simplest a common term for yellow or red lentils cooked with turmeric and tempered with a final addition of seeds and spices fried in hot oil or ghee ? The tarka ? To give it a easy however elegant finish. Toor dal (cut up pigeon peas), chana dal (split black chickpeas) and masoor dal (red lentils) are the most usually used and all are cooked until creamy before the tempering. The variations of seeds and spices in the tarka or the additions of different elements like chilies, onion and ginger suggest that there are countless approaches of getting ready a tarka dal.

This tarka dal uses all three of the dals that may normally be found in this dish, and capabilities a delicious collection of both hot and fragrant seeds and spices. What makes this tarka dal extraordinary than many is using a small piece of burning charcoal added for a couple of minutes in a bowl this is placed in the pot in which the dals are cooking. This method provides a fragrant and tantalizing smokiness to the dish that complements all the other flavors and will depart your diners craving more.

You can bypass the smoking method and you will still have a high-quality tarka dal to serve together with a few Indian flatbreads or hot fesh cooked rice. Although it might not have that particular smokiness that simplest the charcoal touch gives, there will still be some smoky flavor from the ghee and the final addition of the fried tarka on the quit of the cooking time.

Other dal recipes to strive from Lisa's Kitchen:

Creamy Mung Dal Curry

Simple Lemon Dal

Indian-Style Yellow Split Pea Curry (Matar Dal)

Mixed Lentil Dal

Urad Dal with Spices

Audio accompaniment: Purl - Stillpoint

Asparagus with Spiced Tomato and Crumbled Paneer

Asparagus isn't always a vegetable that historically or generally functions in Indian dishes, however when you pair it with creamy and delectable paneer cheese and Indian spicing, you'd swear that asparagus became just supposed to be a part of Indian cuisine.

This recipe in inspired from Raghavan Iyer's treasure collection of Indian recipes, so enticingly titled 660 Curries , because you will find that many recipes in this mammoth book that have occupied a treasured space on my cookbook shelf ever since it was published. Fittingly, the recipe appears in the section of the book entitled "Contemporary Curries" where recipes are featured that meld together foods and flavors native to Indian with those of other cultures.

This is so desirable that it's the second one time that I've made this recipe, however I've changed it pretty plenty for the reason that first time so I'm posting it as a brand new recipe. It's a quick and easy enjoyable side, so much so you may want to pair it with lighter dishes, which include a broth dal or soup.

Other asparagus recipes to strive from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen:

Asparagus and Oriental Tamari Dressing with Pine Nuts

Fried Halloumi Saganaki and Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus and Mushroom Quesadillas with Goat Cheese

Warm Baby Potato and Asparagus Salad

Asparagus Mimosa

Audio accompaniment: bvdub - Drowning in Daylight

Staple Corner: Homemade Harissa Recipe

Harissa is a conventional dried crimson chili based totally sauce in North African cooking, and it is often what offers the nearby vegetable dishes, soups and stews their awesome fieriness. It's extensively utilized as a spicy warm condiment to get dressed eggs, couscous and flatbreads or to whisk into salad dressings. But harissa is extra than simply warmth, regardless of the massive quantity of chilies that pass into it. Harissa has a completely unique flavor all of its own from garlic, cumin and caraway seeds, and on occasion tomatoes as well.

Like most traditional foods, there are infinite variations of harissa made in kitchens all across North Africa, and I even have shared one such version formerly. This one is specific, however, and has a deeper flavor due to the addition of sun-dried tomatoes and some lemon juice for a piece of clean zest to compliment the fragrant and fiery warmness of the chilies. Other non-obligatory upgrades which are often brought are roasted red peppers, saffron, mint, or maybe rose petals.

However you are making harissa, be sparing with it in the beginning until you are used to the heat. This harissa is easy to put together in case you use a blender or food processor instead of the conventional technique of grinding the components with a mortar and pestle. It keeps properly for up to 2 months while stored in a jar with a decent-fitting lid and with olive oil poured over the top.

Other ethnic condiments and spice blends from Lisa's Kitchen:

Homemade Za'atar

Classic Tamarind Chutney

Fresh Coconut Chutney with Tamarind and Cilantro

Basic Fresh Salsa

Mexican Tomato and Jalape?O Salsa