Category: No-meat (Page 5 of 9)
Brussels Sprouts in Tomato and Soy Sauce
December 1st, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat, Sides by Julia Volhina
I got probably my last catch of brussels sprouts for this year and had to throw away some of it, that is why I only had three quarter of a pound left. If you manage to get whole pound, just increase ingredients proportionally.
In this recipe tomato can be replaced with tomato paste with water, but I like fresh tomatoes more than canned substitutes.
A note: recipe doesn’t call for salt for a reason: the soy sauce is salty enough.
Yeast Pancakes (Russian Oladi)
September 22nd, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Using yeast in batter is pretty common in Russian cuisine. They not only make batter fluffy but gives it a distinctive taste.
Yeast are very picky about temperature: if it is too cold yeast will not start fermenting and if it is too hot yeast will die. Temperature of mixture should be warm and stable.
That is why I usually set my plastic mixing bowl in a cooking pot filled with hot water and I make sure bowl doesn’t touch water so it isn’t too hot to ensure comfortable conditions for yeast to ferment.
Consistency of the oladi batter should be a bit more stiff than kefir. If you fry pancakes and they don’t rise upon frying that may mean the batter is too liquid, to fix it mix in a bit more flour and let batter rise for 10-15 mins before trying again.
Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Basil Sauce
September 15th, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat, Sides by Julia Volhina
Cooking spaghetti squash was yet another food-related discovery for me since we arrived to US.
What makes it interesting is spaghetti-like strands of pulp which can be scooped out with a fork after squash is cooked.
That gives so much room for creativity 🙂 . My first attempt was an easy choice: roast spaghetti squash and mix its pulp with simple tomato and basil sauce.
I hope you will like it.
Kefir Crepes
May 12th, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Kefir based crepes have more tender than milk based ones, but they are also harder to do.
Amount of flour to use will depend on thickness of the kefir you have (an that will vary based on brand), somewhere between 2 cups and 2 and half that is what I usually use. If you have choice – use more runny kefir.
There are couple of things you can do if crepes tear when you try to flip them: one of them is to add more flour – but that will not work good if kefir you are using is too thick, then you can put more eggs, and the last resort it to use smaller skillet – then flipping will be easier.
Zucchini Pancakes with Sheep Cheese
April 28th, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
These are zucchini based vegetable pancakes with a bit of fresh sheep cheese, which can be optional if you don’t like sheep cheese, but to my opinion it benefits a lot to the taste.
You can use zucchini or other kind of summer squash; remove seeds they already formed before cooking.
Vegetable pancakes are good choice for breakfast, brunch or lunch. Serve them warm with sour cream or sour cream and garlic dip how I did.
Oven-Roasted Herbed Redskin Potatoes
January 21st, 2012 in Main Dishes, No-meat, Sides by Julia Volhina
I think any kind of potatoes can be cooked this way, however red skin ones are the best here. You can take big potatoes and slice them in smaller wedges or smaller ones and cook them whole or sliced in halves.
Vary amount of herbs as well as herbs themselves to your taste, in additional to rosemary, thyme, oregano you can use parsley, dill, black pepper, etc; I would just advise to keep rosemary in – it goes great with potatoes.
Over-roasted herbed redskin potatoes can be a no-meat dish on itself or you can accompany a meat entry with it as a side dish.
Semolina Porridge (Mannaya Kasha)
December 17th, 2011 in Main Dishes, No-meat by Julia Volhina
Mannaya Kasha is one of foods associated for russian people with their childhood. When I was little I was always told it is rich on nutrients and required for healthy kid growth – every kid knew that to grow strong and healthy they need to finish up their plate with semolina porridge.
Just as a note: while researching for proper translation for this recipe, I stumbled on information that semolina porridge isn’t recommended for kids younger than 3 years (which was new to me) as it contains high amount of gluten and also phytin. But because it also has a lot of proteins and high content of vitamins E and B1 it is very good for kids after 3 year old who have no gluten intolerance.
While cooking it is important to stir mannaya kasha all the time (I use whisk for this and it helps a lot), or you will get clots and no kid likes them in their mannaya kasha.