I wanted to blend Eastern European recipes, á la my grandma, along with traditional Israeli and middle Eastern staples. I ended up making my old standby Moroccan stew over Israeli couscous (which you can find in earlier posts), potato and onion borek, eggless challah, cabbage rolls, apple strudel, and falafel with hummus. I found the excellent recipes for the challah and apple strudel on this post by vegkitchen.com What was crazy and I did NOT realize while I was planning this menu, was that I made a ton of "wrapped" foods. Two foods wrapped in pastry and one wrapped in cabbage. Both of these recipes below require some tuck-n-roll.
The recipes I adapted were all either dairy or parve, and some of them require a lot of prep, so be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen! I took some shortcuts like buying microwavable wild rice (I always screw up wild rice anyway) and jarred tomato sauce (I found one with green olives which is what the recipe called for... not having to make sauce saves you a good 40 minutes)! I was terrified I was going to screw up the cabbage rolls but they were easy to assemble and were the standout success of the dinner. You will need a food processor!
Cabbage Rolls
6 large cabbage leaves
4 Tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 large carrots, grated
5 oz mushrooms (I used portabello)
1/2 precooked brown rice
1/2 cup precooked wild rice
1/4 cup black beans (the original recipe called for lentils which you could also use)
2 cups veggie stock
3 1/2 oz vegan cream cheese
salt and pepper to taste
premade tomato or pasta sauce with olives
Boil a large pot of water and blanche the leaves for about 5-10 minutes. While you're waiting, combine the two rices and set aside.
Chop the onions in a food processor, and sauté them in a pan heated with olive oil, until they are translucent. Process the carrots and mushrooms together in the processor, then add them to the pan and cook until soft. Finally add the rice mixture, beans (or lentils) and herbs as well as salt and pepper to taste, until everything is incorporated and heated through. Transfer mixture to a bowl and mix with the vegan cream cheese.
Borek is similar to a spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) because its a savory pie wrapped in a puff pastry. Awesome fact- Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry is VEGAN! Use that information wisely, because its not exactly low-fat, low-calorie or very good for you, even though it makes some amazing treats and is easy to use. Borek is traditionally served with a tzaziki (yogurt-dill) sauce, but they are totally decadent enough on their own!
Potato, Onion and "Cheese" Borek
1 Pepperidge Farm puff pastry
1 Tbsp Earth Balance, melted
1 onion, finely chopped or processed
3 1/2 oz vegan garlic-chive cream cheese
7 oz cooked mashed potato (I actually boiled my potatoes, peeled and mashed them... time-consuming!)
1/2 chopped italian parsley
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 450 (original recipe says to heat to "446 degrees," which I found so funny! Old recipe books are so odd, especially when they have been translated from another language or converted into different forms of measurement).
Mix all the ingredients except the puff pastry and Earth Balance into a bowl. Lay the puff pastry on a flat surface and cut into 9 squares. This is pretty easy because it's folded into thirds, so if you cut that, and then cut it the other way, you'll have 9.
Fill each square at its base, tuck in the sides and roll up. Be careful not to overfill the pastry, and seal it by pinching the seam after rolling. Place them all on a baking sheet and brush each one with Earth Balance.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment