Foxy Falafel - Restaurant

After finally making it over to the Foxy Falafel food truck, I knew I had to try out their brick-and-mortar restaurant soon.

I was able to pop in for happy hour with a friend, which features an incredibly exciting $0.25 falafel ball special. That's right, all the falafel balls you could want at a mere twenty-five cents a piece. The happy hour also includes a dollar off most sides and drinks.



We ordered two of each type of falafel (curry, regular, and beet) two sauces (spicy Harissa and green tahini) and a pickle plate.



I ordered the hard lemonade habanero Bellini, while my friend had a mimosa. Yum! I really want to go back and try some of the other dishes, like Harissa potatoes.

Mock Duck in Yellow Coconut Curry

Yum yum yum.  Just another easy-peasy curry.  One 15 oz can of coconut milk.  Some curry powder, veg broth = sauce done.

Mock duck fried up in a pan with soy sauce, garlic, hoisin, ginger, onion.  Broccoli and pineapple added, served over brown rice.

It only seems complicated because there are a few different parts to it, but really it's one of those simple "cook while watching TV" type of dishes that just satisfies and can leave leftovers for lunch tomorrow!  (Or breakfast.)

Coconut Curry with Wild Rice and Okra

This was AWESOME. I made some wild rice first. Then I started some onion sauteing in oil, added garbanzos, the wild rice, and coconut milk. LOTS of vegetable broth, curry paste and frozen carrots and okra. It was a thick stew more than anything else. I loved it, so did Mr. Coconut. It was one of those days where we did not have much food left in the house and what was left did not seem to mix. This is yet another example of how coconut milk and curry paste or powder is the great equalizer and makes anything delicious together.

Another shot:

Peanut Curry Sauce from Ruam Mit Thai

Not the best picture, from inside a box of takeout, but this is one of the BEST dishes around. Pha Ram Long Song from Ruam Mit Thai in Saint Paul. DROOL: Red curry, coconut milk, crushed peanits, served over steamed spinach and (the way we order) with fried tofu. Can also be done with mock duck, but they fry the tofu to order, so it's always delicious. Plus, they separate everything out for takeout so nothing gets soggy. yum yum yum yum

What's in the Pantry: Saturday Night Edition

There's nothing to eat! I hear and think that a lot. In truth, I have a lot of staples in my pantry and fridge/freezer and when pasta just won't cut it, the tried and true become the stars.

This Saturday's dish? I am calling it "Broc-Caul-Lentil Curry" - pretty much what it sounds like. I started with about half an onion diced (small-medium dice), 4 cloves fresh garlic minced, 4-5 cloves roasted garlic minced, 1/2 cup (dry) brown lentils cooked separately until tender, 1 (10oz?) bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, 10-12 pieces frozen pineapple, 1 can coconut milk, 1/2 can red curry paste, and some fresh ginger as well as some ground ginger.

Served over brown rice and wild rice. (I cooked wild rice while making this dish and already had brown rice ready to eat.)

So as stated above, I cooked some lentils separately with a veggie bouillon cube for flavor.

I diced and minced the onion and garlic, respectively. In a large saute pan, saute onion until tender, add a sprinkle of curry powder and some salt along with the roasted and fresh garlic. At this point I also shredded up some ginger and added that as well as some ground ginger. Stir lentils, perhaps add some more liquid to the lentils.

Next, I added to the large saute pan the bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I added a little veggie broth that I had in the fridge to help steam the veggies. I added some frozen pineapple after a few minutes. I then added the can of coconut milk. The red curry paste I buy comes in cans the size of tuna fish cans, and it is REALLY spicy, so I added about 1/3-1/2 of the can of curry paste.

I dumped in the lentils, and stirred everything. Let cook until the pineapple and frozen veggies are heated through. Serve over rice of some kind. Orzo or cous cous would work too, or on it's own.

Broccoli & Cauliflower with Baked Tofu in Curry Sauce

This was dinner earlier tonight.

Ingredients (roughly):
119g onion, small-fine dice
156g tofu (this was one 12oz package, weighed after baking)
1.5T curry powder
.75c frozen peas
1 package (16oz) of frozen broccoli and cauliflower
(comes to about 225g of broccoli, 225g cauliflower)
.13c ginger, minced
14g garlic, sliced thinly
1can (14oz) coconut milk
1/4can veggie broth
1T olive oil

Serve with:
Brown Rice or plain or noodles

1. I started this whole endeavor by cubing the tofu and setting onto a foiled and oiled pan. I used my toaster oven. Set at 350 degrees F, bake for 20 mins. Flip, then bake another 20 mins. I flipped one last time and baked another 20 mins, and it came to the perfect consistency (in my opinion)

2. Near the end of the second 20 minute baking of the tofu, I started dicing my onion and slicing my garlic. [This is where the ginger should be minced, but I forgot all about it until much later on.] I heated up a pan on the stove and poured about one tablespoon of olive oil. Check the tofu and flip and bake again as needed.

3. Put the onion in the pan, saute for a bit until onion is soft. Add garlic. [again, this is ideally where the ginger would be added, but I added it later because I forgot about it for a while.]

4. Add baked tofu cubes, saute in pan. Add curry powder, mix everything together well, then add some veggie broth to help the curry really get into the ingredients.

5. Add broccoli and cauliflower, adding veggie broth as needed to help cook the frozen vegetables.

6. Add coconut milk, stirring everything together. Add frozen peas.

7. Simmer until everything is cooked to your liking. Serve over brown rice.

Chickpea & Couscous Curry

Simple curry/stew that was quite delicious and lasted for several days. I just made it up as I went along, so I don't have exact measurements.

Ingredients:
1 28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
same can filled with water
1c dry cous cous
half of a large onion, medium-large dice
2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of chickpeas (15oz size?)
variety of frozen vegetables
curry powder, 1-2 Tablespoons (or to taste)
salt, to taste
olive oil, 1t

directions:

1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. In a large-ish stockpot, saute the onion in the olive oil. Add curry powder and continue to saute until onion is soft. Add garlic and saute a little more.

2. Add tomatoes and chickpeas. I also added some frozen vegetables. I just dumped in whatever looked like it would be tasty in this dish. I had a big bag of California Blend" which had cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. I also added some frozen peas. Many vegetables, fresh or frozen, would be great. Potatoes, mixed veggies, etc. Next time, however, I am going to add the veggies later on.

3. Add water. I just used the same can of tomatoes and filled it up with water and added it to the stew. Simmer for 20 minutes or so.

4. Add couscous. I just threw it in dry and let it cook in the stew.

5. After couscous is finished cooking, the dish should be done. I enjoyed with sriracha but it was also fine on it's own.

It thickened up quite a bit the next day. I might add less couscous next time, and try not to overcook the veggies as they did this time. I personally wanted more curry flavor and some more spice to the dish. It was still delicious.

VWAV: Curried Split Pea Soup 2, served with roasted vegetables and melba toast

I've made this before, and it is the only thing I've made from Vegan With a Vengeance the popular vegan cookbook that is ubiquitous in the vegan food blogosphere and beyond. I actually may have made a few other recipes, but this is the only one I always have the ingredients for by default and it is SO EASY to make, I keep going back to it.

This time around, I served it with roasted vegetables that I tossed and marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The vegetables I used: red, yellow, and green bell peppers; zucchini and yellow squash. I cut all the veggies into as Placed on cookie sheet and roasted in oven until tender then placed under broiler to get some of that charred roasted flavor.


I garnished the soup with shredded carrot, which is how it is recommended to serve in the cookbook. I highly recommend this because it gives a great added texture and flavor layer to the soup. I also served with pieces of melba toast, which I am always in love with because they are miniature in size and adorable.

A second photo, this time of the whole plate. (I LOVE the lighting I was able to get for this photo. I've found it is still hard for me to get decent lighting for most of my photos, but I'm working on a makeshift lightbox for the future.)

Thanksgiving 2009

From the bottom left: Fiery Sweet Potatoes[recipe from NYTimes], Chik'n Tofu Triangles, stuffing with onions, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts. There is also an apple slice on the far left.

The sweet potatoes were great! (click on "Fiery Sweet Potatoes" above for the link to the NYTimes Recipe) Blending coconut milk & curry paste into the sweet potatoes was a great idea, and I would make these again. Next time, I will give them enough time to really crisp once in the baking pan so a crust of sugar can be more formed. I became too impatient and took them out of the broiler a little early.

I've made Chik'n Tofu many times before. This was yet another experiment. I used firm tofu (water packed kind), and drained/pressed for a while longer than I normally do. I made a mixture of flour, poultry seasoning (a mix of dry herbs like thyme and rosemary) and some chicken seasoning (another mix of seasonings: salt, garlic, etc.) I sliced the tofu into triangles and then coated each piece with the mix and baked in the toaster oven for 45 minutes. They came out too dry and not seasoned enough -- too much flour. They were still tasty, just not awesome as the last few times.

The rest of the items were pretty straight forward. I roasted a head of garlic in the toaster oven with olive oil and kosher salt for 40 minutes -- or until soft. The garlic just scoops right out. I boiled red potatoes until soft, drained, then added the garlic and a little soymilk and a lot of vegan butter until at the consistency I wanted. I'm a fan of potato skin, so I leave it on.

Brussels sprouts were not as tasty as I've made in the past but again, still delicious. Stuffing was from a bag of bread cubes and my own diced onion and some seasonings.

I love that my plate isn't all brown/beige!

Curried Split Pea Soup from Vegan With a Vengeance

Homemade curried split pea soup, recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance. I dressed the soup up with dulse flakes, spicy tamari roasted pumpkin seeds, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The soup was paired with an apple and a small spinach salad with cherry tomatoes and balsamic/olive oil vinaigrette.

Curried Broccoli with Carrots, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa

I usually make this with cauliflower and will again in the future. Not that this dish is bad with broccoli, but I think cauliflower works much better.

What You Need:
(serves 2)
1c cooked quinoa
300g sweet potato, cubed
200g carrots, baby, sliced in half lengthwise
150g broccoli
80g onion, large dice
2t curry powder
2t ginger paste
2 cloves garlic, minced

For The Quinoa:
I made extra, because it's always useful for any number of dishes. The directions are simple: one cup quinoa, two cups water. I add some salt for flavor, you could also cook in broth of some sort for flavor. Bring to boil on stovetop, bring down to simmer, COVER! DO NOT TOUCH for 15-20 minutes!!!!!! Seriously. It'll be done.

The Rest of the Dish:
(Apologies, I made this a couple weeks ago and my notes are missing the cooking times.)

1. Lightly steam carrots, until just barely tender.

2. While the carrots are steaming, sautée onions (I just use a little spray oil so the fat content is extremely low in this dish) and cubed potatoes until the potatoes get tender and can almost slide a fork through.

3. Add carrots to the pan, mix thoroughly.

4. Add broccoli, ginger, garlic, curry powder. Add a little bit of liquid (water, .25-.5c) and stir everything together. Cover until the liquid is nearly gone. This helps to steam everything a little. Stir, Stir, Stir until everything is mixed together and evenly distributed.

5. Plate up. 1/2c of quinoa and about half of the veggie mixture per serving.

The calories for each serving (NOT including Quinoa) is HERE. The 1/2c quinoa info is HERE.

Curried Potato Apple Burrito

Weird, right? But tasty, I swear. So, going off my idea for curried mashed potatoes, I decided to continue testing my theory that everything is good in sandwich form. Soups are about the only thing unable to really be in sandwich form, but bread is usually good with soups, and soup can be served in a breadbowl which is almost a sandwich.

Ok. Here's what you need. I'm only going to link to the picture, because something happened to the pic and it turned a bizarre violet-pink. I have no idea what happened, but it is blinding and somehow replaced the original. Whatever.

What You Need (also link to pic)

mashed potatoes, I used instant
curry powder
raisins
coriander chutney
apples
tortilla, I used French Meadow small Fat Flush tortilla

Put about 1/3c potatoes, mix in 1/4t or less of curry powder (a little goes a long way). Mix in a tiny amount of coriander chutney and add some raisins:



Slice some apples thinly, add to tortilla. Fold like burrito and enjoy. I recommend more apples for better texture. I thought this was quite tasty.

Curried Mashed Potatoes with Raisins

Simple. Tasty. I just made a lot of instant mashed potatoes, and decided to come up with some more interesting things to do with them.

I simply added a little bit of curry powder, 1/2t or 1/4t, and a bunch of raisins. Stir until thoroughly mixed and enjoy.

Second Post: Coconut Curry Noodles

Only the second post and I'm already getting serious. I just made up this recipe tonight with what I had in my cupboards and fridge. It's coconut curry bean thread noodles with Morningstar mock beef strips, bok choy, green bell pepper, onion, garlic. Simple, tasty and filling. Serves two, maybe 3-4 with smaller portions.

Behold, the finished plated dinner:



Not necessarily the best looking dish in the world, but darn tasty. Next time, I might just sauce the noodles, plate them first and then lay everything else on top for a better picture. My camera isn't the best, either.

So, you wanna make this dish? Let's go:


Software:
60g onion, sliced in half moon strips
5-10g garlic (one big clove) minced
50g bok choy, roughly chopped
100g green bell pepper, cut in squares/rough chop
2oz bean thread noodlesHere's what 2oz looks like (rice noodles would work ok, too)
1T Green Curry Paste
1 small can (5.5oz) coconut milk
1 package Morningstar Meal Starters Steak Strips

Hardware:
one 5-6c pot to boil water for noodles
one 12-14 inch wide, 2 inch deep pan
one heat resistant silicone spatula (or whatever device you use. I have a big one in orange and a small one in green. And a spoonula in green.)
one pasta spoon
one strainer of some sort

What to do:
1. Prep! Or, as chefs say, mise en place. This helps everything go smoothly. (Don't worry, I don't always do this, but I should!) What do you need to prep or set your mise? Chop the veggies, open the coconut milk and curry paste, get the noodles out and ready to pop in the water, open the mock beef strips.
2. Fill the pot with water, cover, and set on burner to boil.
3. On medium heat, use about one Tablespoon or less of oil (just enough to coat bottom of pan. Cooking spray is even better, but I'm out.)
4. Once pan is heated, add onions and cook until they start to brown.
5. Once the onions are starting to brown, add the whole package of Morningstar Beef Strips. Cook these for 10-15 minutes until quite brown, like this:


6. Sometime while the strips are cooking with the onions, the water should be boiling and ready for noodle action.
7. Once strips are brown enough for you, add bok choy, green peppers and garlic.
8. Stir these ingredients and cook for 2-3 minutes.
9. Drain and rinse the bean threads, add to rest of ingredients in pan.
10. Now add in the coconut milk. Note: I went for more of a thick flavoring rather than an actual liquidy curry. Feel free to add more coconut milk if you wish. Lite coconut milk works well, too.
11. Stir in the 1T of curry paste, more or less to taste. once dissolved, you're done!!!

Click Here for Full Nutrition Information. This Info is for one serving where the whole recipe equals 2 servings. So, if you made this into four recipes, make sure you cut the nutrition info in half. Make sense? Good.

So that was dinner tonight. I am not sure if I will have more photos, less photos, or lots and lots of links. We'll see how this goes. Hope you enjoyed.