Veggie Teens

Culinary Techniques: How to Break an Egg

Post by Elyse May (aka Veggie Teen) from Veggie Teens: A Cookbook and Guide for Vegetarian Teenagers.

In addition to hundreds of recipes, there are 21 "Veggie Teens Culinary How To" instructions in Veggie Teens Cookbook and Guide for Vegetarian Teenagers, each with three-step photos.

Here's how to crack an egg:

Tap the side of the egg on a flat surface. 

Hold the egg over a bowl as you separate the two halves.

Allow the egg to drop gently into the bowl. If any egg shell falls in, scoop it out with a clean spoon. 

Meatless Monday: Get out of the box

My family signed up to pick up a box of fresh, local produce from the farmers' market each week. We get whatever comes in the box so it challenges us to get out of our box and try new recipes! (Check out our recipe at the bottom of this post. It might sound too healthy or even too strange to taste good - but it does!)

Here's what we got in our first box:

• 8 assorted citrus
• Head of purple and speckled leaf romaine lettuce
• 2 baby fennel
• 3 bulbs of spring garlic
• Bunch of bright lights swiss chard
• 2 small sweet potatoes 
• Tuscano kale
• Spaghetti squash

Recipe: Winter Veg Korma

This is a vegan Indian dish made with garam masala - a fragrant mixture of up to 12 spices like black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, cardamom, dried chiles, fennel, ginger, mace, or nutmeg. It is a lot easier to buy a mixture than measuring out a bunch of different spices.

Culinary Technique: Keep fresh ginger root in the freezer. Just peel it and store it in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer. Cut off pieces as needed; grate, slice, or finely dice.

Sauce:

1/2 onion, diced
1 small tomato, diced
1 inch of fresh ginger, finely diced
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons of garam masala 
1/2 teaspoon salt

Winter Veg:

1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 small sweet potatoes (1 pound)
1/2 small butternut squash (3/4 pound)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 bunch of kale; remove leaves from stem and chop
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained 
1/2 cup of light coconut milk 

Directions

1. Combine first six sauce ingredients (onion, tomato, ginger, water, garam masala, salt) in a small food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.
2. Heat large sauté pan then add 1 tablespoon of the oil. When oil is hot, add diced sweet potato and butternut squash. Cook until vegetables start to soften then move them to the edge of the pan.
3. Add another tablespoon of oil to the center of the pan, and when hot, add sliced red onion and sauté, combining vegetables when onion is soft. 
4. Remove vegetables to a plate.
5. Add 1/2 tablespoon of oil to pan; add sauce and cook until thickened, approximately 5 to 6 minutes.
6. Return vegetables to the pan and add 1 1/2 cups of water.
7. When mixture is simmering, stir in kale and chickpeas.
8. Cook until sauce is thickened then add cocunut milk and heat through.
9. Serve over brown rice.

Rosemary Focaccia with Red Onion and Olives

This is an easy recipe that is great as an appetizer or with soup or beans. Experiment with other toppings too. For more vegetarian recipes, check out Veggie Teens: A Cookbook and Guide for Vegetarian Teenagers by Elyse May (aka Veggie Teen).

Rosemary Focaccia with Red Onion and Olives

Ingredients

1 tube of refrigerated pizza crust
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup green or black olives, sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, removed from stems and chopped (see How to Strip the Leaves from Fresh Rosemary below)
Pinch of kosher salt

Directions

1. Unroll pizza crust on baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.
2. Poke crust all over with your fingers to make shallow dimples.
3. Brush with olive oil.
4. Top with olives and red onion.
5. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary then salt to taste.
6. Bake according to packaged directions until crust is golden.

Culinary Technique:

How to Strip the Leaves from Fresh Rosemary

Pinch the top of the rosemary stem with one hand and run the fingers of your other hand from top to bottom, pulling the leaves off the woody stem. Use whole leaves or coarsely chop.

Culinary Techniques: How to Cut a Red Pepper

Post by Elyse May (aka Veggie Teen) from my book, Veggie Teens: A Cookbook and Guide for Vegetarian Teenagers.

In addition to hundreds of recipes, there are 21 "Veggie Teens Culinary How To" instructions in Veggie Teens, each with three-step photos. Here is an easy way to cut and slice a red pepper.

Wash pepper then stand it upright on a cutting board.Slice off one flat side, rotate and repeat until you have four flat pieces.

Dispose of stem and seeds. Trim white pith from the slices with a knife or your fingers.

You can leave the flat piece whole to roast it or you can cut into thin strips or dice it for salad, pasta and stir fry.

Culinary Techniques: How to Dice an Onion

Post by Elyse May (aka Veggie Teen) from my book, Veggie Teens: A Cookbook and Guide for Vegetarian Teenagers. 

In addition to hundreds of recipes, there are 21 "Veggie Teens Culinary How To" instructions in Veggie Teens, each with three-step photos. Here is an easy way to dice an onion.

Slice off the top of the onion then peel off the papery skin. Set the onion upright on the root end and hold it firmly with your fingers. Make sure your fingers stay behind the knife blade. 

Make parallel slices in the onion without cutting all the way through (the closer the slices, the smaller the dice will be). Turn the onion ¼ turn and repeat so you end up with a criss-cross pattern in the onion.

Turn the onion on its side and cut thin slices which will fall apart, giving you diced onion.

Culinary Techniques: How to Chiffonade Basil

Post by Elyse May (aka Veggie Teen) from my book, Veggie Teens: A Cookbook and Guide for Vegetarian Teenagers.

In addition to hundreds of recipes, there are 21 "Veggie Teens Culinary How To" instructions in Veggie Teens, each with three-step photos. This one is a fun and easy way to cut strips of basil or other large flat leaves like spinach. The technique is called "chiffonade."

Stack several washed basil leaves.

Roll them tightly.

Cut them into 1/4 inch slices and separate them into thin strips.

Add fresh strips of basil to pasta dishes, like my easy recipe for Cherry Tomato Pasta.