Simple cabbage salad

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Go Vegan!

I used to get this salad in the kindergarten as a kid. It’s simple , yet nutritious. It’s considered that raw cabbage helps fight cancer cells, therefore you should eat it more often.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes.

Serves 2 pesprinkle the salad. ople.

White cabbage shredded- 2 cups

Carrot shredded – 1/3 cup

Onion choppped- 1/4 cup

Vinegar – 1 tablespoon

Sugar -1 teaspoon

Salt – 2 pinches

Dill – 1/4 cup

Olive il – 2 tablespoons.

Shred the cabbage and the carrot, add the chopped onion. Squeeze the cabbage well and add sugar , salt and vinegar. Chop the dill and  add it to teh salad. Sprinkle with olive oil, mix well and serve.

Tastes amazingly delicious with any dish or if you are dieting it’s a great snack.

Enjoy!

Love,

Ukrainian borscht vegan style

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Soups

Ukrainian borscht is normally cooked with meat )pork or beef) and is eaten with sour cream of course.

I think that sometimes it comes out way too rich and fatty.

I love to lighten the food and avoid cholesterol and its derivatives by all means.

Vegan borscht is a great analogue of Ukrainian vegan borscht that I published some time ago on my blog.

This soup doesn’t include anything meaty or fried. It’s a great comfort recipe for every day.

Cooking time: 55 minutes 

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Serves: 6 people 

Ingredients:

Pinto beans – 1 cup

Cabbage shredded – 2  cups

Beet shredded – 1 pcs

Carrot shredded – 1 pcs

Potatoes peeled – 6 pcs

Tomato juice – 2 cups

Red bell pepper – 1 pcs

Onion – 1 pcs

Dill – 1/2 cup

Garlic – 2 cloves

Salt and pepper – per your taste

Preparation:

Pre-soak the pinto beans before going to work or going to bed. So that when you are ready to cook the they will be pre-soaked and ready for boiling. Set the pre-soaked beans to boil, pick  4 qt sauce pan for this soup . Meanwhile: peel the beets, potato and carrot. Clean the red bell pepper out of seeds.

Shred the beets and carrots and add it to the boiling beans, then add to the sauce pan the peeled potatoes cut in cubes.

Chop the onion and red bell pepper and add it to the boiling veggies. Pour 2-3 cups of tomato juice into the soup.  Season according to your taste. I normally add 2-3 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.

While the veggies are boiling shred the cabbage and add it to the saucepan. Stir the boiling soup well.

The soup should be cooking for 25-30 minutes by now.

Let it boil for more 20-25 minutes and when all the veggies ready, finely chop the garlic and dill.

When serving the soup sprinkle the garlic and dill  on top of the soup. It will be just delicious.

This soup is served with special biscuits , but ordinary buttermilk biscuits will also work fine.

I served it with Uzbek flatbread. It’s very delicious and you can find it in pretty much any Asian or Russian store.

You can sprinkle the flatbread with garlic and dill as well.

Serve the soup warm and enjoy the flavors!

I pictured this recipe on my handmade tablecloth. The embroidery is unique  and made by my Grandmother for my 30-th birthday. I just love the colors of it and it’s very traditional pattern for Ukraine. Hope you  love it same as I do and enjoy the vegan Ukrainian borscht!

Love,

Teriyaki Pork, broccoli and rice dinner in 20 minutes

Simple, fast and delicious recipe.

You can get this dinner on the table in 20 minutes. What cam be better for a working woman? Only the dinner in 5 minutes, which would most probably be the oats:-)

Cooking Time : 15 minutes 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Serves : 3 people

This teriyaki sauce may be used with pork, chicken or beef.

For teriyaki sauce: 

soy sauce- 1/2 cup

flour – 1 teaspoon

honey – 1 teaspoon

garlic powder – 1/3 teaspoon

ginger – 1 teaspoon

vinegar – 1 teaspoon

Meat:

pork- 1 lb finely chopped

In 1/3 cup of soy sauce mix honey, ginger powder and garlic powder, stir well, add vinegar and flour stir well.

Chop the pork in 1 in X 0.5 in chunks. pour the sauce in the wok pan, add pork and simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens. Don’t let the sauce become too thick, add water if necessary. I didn’t add the salt here as the soy sauce is saulty, but if you need salt, you definitely should add it here.

Broccoli:

1 lb of broccoli

Cut the broccoli flowers off,wash. put on a frying pan, add 1/2 cup of water, add salt and steam for 2 minutes.

Rice:

1 cup of white rice

Wash and roil rice until cooked (15-20 minutes).

Rinse with cold water, add 1 tablespoon of butter , 1 teaspoon of salt and stir well.

Your dinner is ready, serve warm and enjoy!

Love,

 

Light cauliflower soup with chicken

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Soup

This soup is light  and is a great comfort food. I like to have this warm soup for dinner after a very busy day.The best thing is that you can prepare all the necessary veggies when you have time (or buy the ready mix) and just enjoy the soup in 20-40 minutes. You can also prepare the chicken broth a day (or an evening before). All in all it’s agreat comfort food for the whole family.

 

Serves: 4 people

Preparation time 20-30 minutes

Cooking time 20 minutes

Ready in 40-50 minutes

For the soup you will need:

Veggies:

1 finely chopped onion

1/2 big shredded carrot (or you can just slice it width-wise)

1 medium bell pepper (yellow or orange)

4-5 medium potatoes cut in cubes

1/2 of large cauliflower (flowers cut separately into a mid-sized chunks)

Poultry (not  a must , but I cooked it  as a non vegan soup. You can easily eliminate all animal based food if you’d like to).

2 chicken thighs ( skinless)

Herbs:

1/4 cup of dill

1/4 cup of chives

Salt

Pepper

Preparation:

Wash the chicken thighs,take off the skin and cut off the fat.

Set to boil in a 3-4 quart saucepan, add the salt and pepper (I add about 1-2 tablespoons of salt and 1/2 of black pepper).Boil for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the veggies: Peel the potatoes, onion and carrot,  wash carrot, potatoes, bell pepper and onion.

After the 20 minutes are up and you see that the chicken thighs are cooked, take them out of the saucepan and let them cool down on a plane. (So that you could cut then in cubes as well)

Cut the potatoes in cubes (mid-sized) and add to the saucepan. Shred the carrot and chop the pepper and onion.  Put everything  in the saucepan. At this time, turn the gas down to medium-low and continue simmering your soup.

Take the cauliflower, cut the flowers of , wash them and them cut the flowers in quarters or halves (depending on their size).  Set the cauliflower aside, you will throw them in 10 minutes before turning the gas off).

Now work with your cooked chiken- just cut off some meat from the chicken thighs, so that they wouldn’t be so huge and  impossible to serve in a plate.

After cooking the veggies for another 20 minutes, add the cauliflower and the chicken into the saucepan; wash and chop the hers.

Stir everything well , taste for salt and spices.

The soup will be ready in 10 minutes after you have added the cauluflower.

Serve warm!

Simple country salad

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Go Vegan!

This salad is cooked in Ukrainian country very often. It is cheap, delicious and easy to cook. Great for an everyday meal. This salad is also cooked for Christmas eve,because according to Christian orthodox tradition, the table has to consist of 12 vegetarian dishes.  This dish was one of 12 for my Christmas Eve, of course.

Yield: 4 people.

Preparation time: 15 min

Cooking time: 30 min

For the salad you will need:

3 big potatoes ( boiled and sliced);

1 small white onion ( raw, peeled and sliced);

5-6 pickled cucumbers( sliced);

1 teaspoon of salt;

1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper;

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil;

Preparation:

Boil the potatoes. You can boil them overnight then drain and cook the salad next evening.

When you boiled the potatoes drain them and let then cool down, so that you coul peel them easily.P

Peel you potatoes and the slice them as shown in the picture.

Take the dills, and slice them. ***Note from Helen *** You can take the hamburger dills , but for me they are too sour, I prefer to buy Polish dills at the local vegetable store. You can stop by at Russian store and try to find nice looking pickles there:)

Peel and slice the onions.

Mix all the ingredients season with salt and pepper and add the sunflower oil. Mix everything very well.

You can decorate the dish with parsley or lemon basil.

The salad is goohe when it’s just cooked and the next day as well.

It’s so simple yet flavorful and delicious! I just love it. Hope you will too.

 

Catfish stuffed with crabmeat, cream cheese and Italian peppers.

This recipe is very delicious and is the invention to make an alternative to turkey or chicken for the holidays. Simple and fast to prepare, festive and  colorful , but mainly this dish is healthy and will vanish very fast from the plates.

For the recipe you can use whole catfish and catfish fillets. You can use any other fish like tilapia or flounder steaks, whole carp etc. This recipe is very low on cholesterol.

1 Catfish (4 lb.) cleaned, or catfish fillets (8)

½ pack of cream cheese

¼ of Italian pepper

¼ stick of sweet unsalted butter melted

½ onion chopped

1 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. black pepper

1 cup of crab meat (imitated or real crab meat)

½ cup of shrimps (optional)

3 tsp. salt

1 lemon

 

Step 1. Clean the catfish (if you are using whole fish). Wash in hot water and rub very well under the hot water to clean the skin better. (Or skin the fish, if you prefer)

Step 2. Prepare the stuffing:  finely chop the pepper and onion, add the cream cheese and mix very well. Cook the crab meat by boiling it in salt water for 3 minutes.  Cool the crab meat and shrimps, then drain and chop it. Add crab meat and shrimps to the rest of the stuffing, season and mix very well.

Step 3. Stuff the cleaned and seasoned fish. (Season the fish by rubbing into the skin 1 tsp. of cumin,1 tsp. pepper and 2 tsp. of salt). Sew the fish up and put on a greased baking dish.

Step 4.  Preheat the stove at 350F. Bake the fish for 25 min, pouring the melted butter on it after 10 min of baking and squeezing in half of the lemon onto it 20 minutes after the baking was started.

If you are using fish fillets just put the stuffing between the fillets and bake the fillets for 20 minutes pouring the melted butter and lemon juice 10 and 15 minutes after the baking started accordingly.

After the fish is ready let it sit in an oven fir the next 5 minutes. Put on a large plate, and take the threads before serving.

Top 5 holiday vegan dishes. Pick yours!

This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Holidays

Christmas is when you spend a lot of time with your family, give a lot of presents and cook  a lot of food. Even if you have a vegan or vegetarian family member or friend there’s virtually million of dishes you can treat them with. I chose my 5 favorite Christmas vegan dishes for the holiday table.I y will have them on mine. If you have any other favorite dishes you want to share with me post the picture of the dish and recipe link below! Happy holidays!

Green beans with sesame seeds.

Simple, yet delicious, this dish is great for holiday table.Sesame seeds and olive oil give the dish rich taste and doesn’t matter if you are vegan or not, you will anyway enjoy it a lot!

Healthy and Easy Vegan beet salad with prunes.

Beets with prunes have sweet taste, if you add a little garlic the dish will be more  more salty and this contrast will be very appealing to your senses. In addition to this this dish possesses  many healthy benefits, so don’t leave it behind. Enjoy!

Read the recipe

 

Pickled eggplants with carrots, garlic and herbs

Goes well with mashed potatoes and with broccoli, with rice and beans. Great contrast dish, but takes time to prepare.

See the recipe

Delicious braised cabbage with raisins

Great as the main and side dish, sweet raisins and bell

pepper and salty cabbage go well together.

There won’t be too much of this dish it will vanish fast!

 

 

Read the recipe

Vegan spicy sautéed mushrooms in 10 minutes.

This is a very fast to cook dish chop mix and saute and you have a great dish in matter of minutes. It’s up to you to decide if you wanna make it spicy or not! I like it spice with saurkraut `and cranberries on the side. Read the recipe

Apple and prunes mustard stuffing for turkey chicken or duck.

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Holidays

This stuffing “lives” in my family for decades. I remember my grandmother cooking it since I was a little child.

Preparation time: 5 minutes.

Cooking tome: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 apples (peeled and cored)

1/2 of white onion

1 carrot

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

1 pinch of cumin

1 pinch of oregano

8 prunes

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of prepared honey mustard

Step 1. Peel carrot, apples and onion.

Step 2. Cut the apples in quarters and cut the core with seeds.

Step 3. Shred the carrot and  Finely chop the onions.

Step 4. Wash the prunes.

Step 5. preheat the frying pan at max heat. Then turn it to medium, add the olive oil, put the apple quarters, cover with shredded carrots and onion. Braise for 5 minutes at medium heat.

Step 5. in 5 minutes add the salt, peppel and spices. mix everything, add the mustard and braise for another 3 minutes.

Step 6. 2 minutes before turning the heat off add your prunes, mix everything and braise for another 2 minutes.

Done!

This stuffing may be used for any bird. It will be good with duck and chicken and with turkey. It may be cooked overnight or the day when you plan to roast your bird. Just  remember to not use too much stuffing in your bird!

Have a great holiday and  a great time with your family!

 

 

 

Sweet and sour turkey, chicken or pork flavorful marinade.

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Holidays

Easy sweet and sour marinade for the turkey, chicken or pork chops. You will never buy marinade after you try this recipe. it’s so simple, flavorful and everything is under yourcontrol: the amount of herbs and garlic, the sweetness, the sourness…Enjoy!

1 cup of olive oil (good for one 12 lb hen turkey)

½ cup of fresh lemon  basil  leaves;

½ cup of fresh chives;

½ cup of parsley (optional)

2  oranges

2 lemons

2 cloves of garlic (large, optional)

1 tablespoon of dry oregano

1 tablespoon of  dry paprika

1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning (optional)

1 tablespoon of cumin

2 tablespoons of white wine and herbs mix (optional).

Mix olive oil and lemon and orange juice. Whisk in dry herbs and freshly chopped chives, lemon basil and parsley.

Let the marinade stand for 15-20 minutes.

Then marinade your turkey or chicken by at first rubbing in the mix and then pouring it on top of the bird and turning it in the marinade couple times.

Don’t forget to turn your bird every 4-5 hours, this way the meat will absorb more juices.

Don’t use not boiled marinade in other dishes as it may be dangerous.

If you want to incorporate the rest of the marinade in the other dishes boil it first.

Soup with meatballs, mushrooms,spaghetti and cheese.

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Soup

This is a great warm winter soup. It takes only 30 minutes to cook, but it vanishes even faster than it took you to cook

 

it.

Cooking time 30 minutes.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves 4 people.

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