Vegan Pizza Margherita

David Rocco's Dolce Vita is a new find for me. I loved the episode on pizzas. I just wonder when I will find a guy who feeds me freshly made pizzas?!

So, when I saw there was fresh basil available at Nature's Basket, thats when I decided to buy a couple of ready-made pizza bread from there as well. I don't have a really good  oven - everything takes at least twice as long to bake as is prescribed in a recipe, despite the fact that the oven is at its highest setting. David Rocco baked his pizzas in a wood burning oven for 10 minutes. If you're lucky to have one, bake it for 10 minutes. Else, just go with your gut. I baked mine for approximately 45 minutes at 250 degrees celcius.

I've used silken tofu - the softest variety you can get. Mush it up with your fingers to get a cottage cheese like texture. The tofu  - or any manner of vegan cheese - isn't going to melt and go all gooey like cheese. No one said being vegan was without its sacrifices. :)

Vegan Pizza Margherita
Ingredients

• 1 tomato
• Handful of silken tofu
• 4-5 fresh basil leaves
• 1 pizza crust
• Tablespoon of olive oil
• Salt, per taste

To make:

• Pre-heat the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes so its nice and hot.
• Slice the tomato finely and lay over the pizza crust.
• Spread the tofu on top.
• Season with salt.
• Lay the basil leaves on top.
• Top off with olive oil.
• Bake until slightly brown on top.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Lettuce, Grape, Almond and Basil Salad

As far as salads go, this one is a keeper, as far as I am concerned. Real easy to put together (but so are all my salads!) and yummy enough to polish off an entire bowl in one sitting.

Lettuce, Grape, Almond and Basil Salad

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups of loosely packed iceberg lettuce
• 2 cups green grapes
• 5-7 leaves of basil
• 12-15 almonds
• About a handful of sunflower seeds
• Dash of olive oil

To make:

• Tear up the lettuce and basil.
• Combine all ingredients except the oil and sunflower seeds.
• Drizzle with olive oil.
• Top off with the sunflower seeds.

Beet Salad with Peppers and Lettuce

Eating a lot of beetroot turns your pee pink/red, eating more makes your poo pink as well. That's right. And on that rather appetizing thought, here's the recipe - Its really quick and simple to make, and is wholesome and filling.

Beetroot Salad with Peppers and Lettuce

Ingredients:

• 1 beet
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 2 cups of iceberg lettuce
• Handful of sunflower seeds

Dressing:

• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon of dry basil

To make:
Chop the peppers and lettuce into thin slivers.

Chop the beets into circular discs, so that they remain the star of the salad and get their moment in the sun.

Mix all the salad ingredients.

Add the salad dressing when you want to eat the salad. Garnish with sunflower seeds.

Home-Made Sun Dried Tomatoes

I've never been a fan of raw tomatoes and seldom use them in my salads because I dont appreciate the raw tartness of a tomato. So, I was looking for a way to make sun dried tomatoes when, seeing this recipe on PurpleFoodie, I was completely sold over into making these little babies at home.

Mine is a bit different, in that I didn't take the lazy shortcut of putting my tomatoes into an oven to speed up the drying process. Mine are lying in the bare goodness of the sun on my window sill. I'm blessed with over 5 hours of direct sunlight in the morning-afternoon on my window, so might as well use nature's oven than waste electricity or gas. It also used to be my personal tanning bed until a taller building next door sprung up and ruined the fun of having no prying eyes. I used normal tomatoes that we get in India, not the recommended meaty variety, used rock salt, and lastly used basil instead of oregano because basil and tomatoes are best buds, flavorwise.

I do not have pix of the final product yet and I have only just laid out my tomatoes for drying - I'd imagine they'd take about 2 days to dry out in the sun. But am so excited for them - they smell delicious already and I keep using the excuse of stray birds landing on my window to keep checking on my tomatoes, when really, I just want another whiff.

Update on 21st Dec: I now have my gorgeous sun dried tomatoes ready with me - after 2 whole days of the Indian sun to scorch the tomatoes into 1/4th of their original size. But size isn't everything. The flavor is so concentrated!

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 5 small-medium tomatoes
• Teaspoon of rock/black salt
• 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 5-10 black pepper corns
• 2 teaspoons of dried basil

To make:
Cut the tomatoes into quarters (If they are really tiny, cut them into halves). You may want to remove the seedy pulpy center of the tomato - I haven't.

Pat each quarter with a tissue to take away any excess moisture.

Pummel your rock salt into smithereens and make about 1 teaspoon of rock salt powder.

Smash up your garlic cloves and pepper corns.

Combine the garlic, basil, pepper, and salt. Add the olive oil and mix well.

Dip each tomato quarter into your oily mixture and lay on a tray.

Cover with a net or fine cloth and lay out in the sun to dry.

After 8 hours in the sun:

After 2 days of sunning:

Next time, I'll make a bigger - much bigger - batch, for sure. My twenty tomato slivers are going to be gone in no time! :)

Zesty Spinach Salad 2

Well, this one's just another twist of my original zesty spinach salad recipe, since Mr. Spinach doesn't just eat itself and goes bad real quick.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of spinach
• 1 cup cabbage
• ½ a large pomegranate
• 1/2 a sweet lime
• 1 spring onion (onion, plus the entire green stalk)

Dressing:

• Teaspoon of olive oil
• Juice of half a sweet lime
• Roughly 10 black pepper corns
• Dash of basil

To make:
Wash and chop all the ingredients roughly the same size. Make the salad dressing and pour over the salad ingredients.