Italian cuisine – Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Ground “Beef” and Chickpea Stuffed Peppers, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Give these stuffed peppers a try – they are easy and simple to make, and very satisfying. I can’t promise that the youngsters in your live will will be thrilled with them, but I hope you’

Ground “Beef” and Chickpea Stuffed Peppers

(serves 2-4)

What you’ll need:

2 large stuffing peppers, split lengthwise, seeds removed

1/2 lbs (225 g) ground beef substitute (store bought or home made)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 14.5 oz (411 g) can stewed tomatoes (or diced tomatoes)

1 14.5 oz (411 g) can chickpeas

2 teaspoons fresh, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried) oregano

2 teaspoon fresh, finely chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried) basil

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/2 cup water

Optional: fresh tomato slices for topping.

What you’ll do:

Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C).
Wash the peppers and split them lengthwise. Remove the seeds and devein the halves, then place in the oven safe baking dish, cut side down. Roast for 10-15 minutes until soft. Edges will be slightly browned. Take out of the oven and let cool just slightly to allow you to handle them.
Lower the heat in the oven to 375 F (190 C).
While the peppers are roasting, place a large pan (cast iron pan preferred but not required) over the medium high heat. Add the oil and the ground beef substitute. Brown the “beef” for 8-10 minutes.
When the “beef” is browned, add the tomato paste, stewed tomatoes, and the chickpeas. Mix well, lower the heat to medium-low and sauté for another 5-10 minutes.
Turn the heat off, then add the chopped oregano and basil, and mix well.
Flip the roasted peppers over, and fill them generously with the ground “beef” and chickpea stuffing. Add any leftover stuffing and the water to the bottom of the baking dish.
Optional: top each pepper with a slice of fresh tomato and perhaps a fresh oregano and/or basil.
Optional: drizzle olive oil on top.
Place the peppers back into a 375 F (190 C) oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the peppers are softened and the top of the stuffing is nice and deeply browned.
Take the stuffed peppers out, let them rest for 10 minutes before serving with your favorite salad, maybe some freshly baked bread, a dollop of sour cream or yogurt… Enjoy!

Vegan Caprese Salad in a Sandwich, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

In my other life, as the editor of two leading journals for chemical and structural biology (I know, sounds intimidating!), I once used Caprese Salad – tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella – as an example of how simple is incredibly powerful, beautiful and irresistible, in an emphatic attempt to convince scientists to implement principles of simplicity when writing their scientific papers.

Here, my interests are purely culinary as I set out to recreate the Caprese salad out of plant based ingredients only. I started from a batch of vegan fresh mozzarella, following a recipe developed by Jules Aron and included in her “Vegan Cheese: Simple, Delicious, Plant-Based Recipes” book.

The path to fabulous vegan fresh mozzarella is long and slippery- meaning that it will take you about two to three days to have ready to eat batch of cheese on your hands, and there are few places along the way where a little mistake can derail your cheese making process. Having said that, I found Jules’s recipe to be clear and helpful, and the final result AMAZING!

I made only some minor adjustments to the recipe, as I used cashew yogurt for fermentation stage of the mozzarella, and agar powder and tapioca starch to firm it up – Jules recommends Kappa carrageenan powder and tapioca flour (which I think is the same thing as tapioca starch but it’s worth mentioning as a point of difference)!

The process starts, as many vegan cheeses do, by soaking some nuts. I usually cover the nuts, in this case cashews, with water and leave them in the fridge overnight. The next step for this cheese is blending the well soaked cashews, that have been drained and rinsed, with some almond milk or water until nice and smooth – I used almond milk.

Then, you add yogurt – here I used an amazing Cashew Yogurt by Forager – cover with cheese cloth and leave on the kitchen counter for a day or so. Make sure that your yogurt contains live cultures as you want the bacteria to start the process of fermentation and acidification, yielding a nice, subtly tangy flavor.

Making of vegan mozzarella, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

The penultimate step is adding the thickener to the cheese mix, cooking it until it starts to thicken to a consistency of very thick oatmeal, porridge or polenta.

While the cheese was cooking, with frequent stirring, I made the brine. I used tap water and ice cubes, plus a tablespoon of plain kitchen salt since that’s what I had handy, and mixed it all until salt was fully dissolved.

Once the cheese was cooked, I used my measuring spoon (tablespoon size) to measure out cheese balls, formed a bit with hand – watch out here as it may be hot, so you can form the balls using two spoons at the same time. Dump the balls into ice/water/salt mixture, cover with cheese cloth and leave in the fridge overnight. Jules recommends at least 4 hours, so I just left my fresh mozzarella cheese balls to rest until the next day.

Vegan Fresh Mozarella Balls in Brine, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Waiting wasn’t easy but it was worth it!!! I got some fresh baguette, fresh basil, a ripe tomato, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and my homemade vegan fresh mozzarella, and made myself a phenomenal sandwich for lunch.

I transferred the fresh mozzarella with the brine and all into a container with a tight lid, and stored it in the refrigerator. It lasted for about one week, at which point it was all gone!!! I will be making some more soon, but next one from Jules’s book I want to try is an almond-based baked feta!!!

Since this post is all about another person’s recipe, I am not sharing the notes, but encourage you to go visit Jules’s site, and get her book or better still borrow it from your local public library, which is what I did. I am happy to share what my Caprese Salad in a Sandwich looked like – it’s a real feast for your eyes!!!