Zesty & Spicy

If you like food, we'll get along *^_^*

  • Recipes
  • #FoodieLife
  • Urban Gardening

Roasted carrots with sumac

May 1, 2020 by Ariel 2 Comments

Some nights where I don’t feel like cooking, roasted vegetable become my best friends.

Often, just on their own, they make an amazing lunch but paired with a soft boiled or poached egg, they become a dinner worthy dish.  Today’s recipe is for the sumac dressing which is super simple to make and taught me that old fashion mustard and sumac goes really well together.  Hope you enjoy this very lazy recipe for lazy quarantine days that never seem to end.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Popular Diets, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: recipe, roasted carrots, roasted vegetables, salad, salad dressing, sumac

Brown rice salad with whey dressing

April 8, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

A fun salad that you can eat warmed up or cold with a nice crunch and a sweet whey dressing.

Top it with a poached egg and make it a meal or enjoy it on it’s own or as a side.  Personally, the version with the poached egg is my favorite and with a few droplet of hot sauce it’s even better!

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Eggs, Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, Salads, Vegetarian Tagged With: black olives, brown rice salad, corn bits, dressing, fresh basil, lemon juice, mirin, poached egg, whey

Hot Chocolate mix, gluten free brownies

March 25, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

The end texture of the mixed almond flour and chickpea flour is INCREDIBLE.

Soft, almost melt in your mouth but still a bit chewy and cakey at the same time.  The idea was to make a worthy chocolate afternoon binge while using a minimum amount of ressources as we all know what’s happening in the world today.  Since this new reality, my cooking has switched a bit and is focussing even more on managing waste and using limited produce to create delicious meals and snacks.  Follow me on Instagram, if you’re not already, to see what I come out with almost every day.

When coming up with this recipe, I remember looking at the thin choice of chocolate snacks in the pantry.  Truth to be told, I try not to have chocolate in the house because I’m too immature for that and ALWAYS end up eating almost all in one sitting.  People that are close to be know that I still prefer a fruit tart over a chocolate cake but it’s hard to say no when it comes to brownies.

Also because eating too much high in gluten ingredients hurt my stomach a little, it’s been fun to experiment with gluten free baking.  This recipe is a great success, hope you get to try it.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Brownies, Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Recipes, Sweets Tagged With: almond flour, baking, brownies, Chickpea Flour, easy, hot chocolate mix, quarantine food, recipe, simple

Oranges & tahini breakfast bowl

July 29, 2019 by Ariel 2 Comments

My new obsession is those fancy breakfast bowls we can all admire on instagram.  It’s not something new, I’m just late to the party.

Hours and hours “wasted” or “invested” looking at those edible art pieces until finally finding the motivation to make one.  This is a savoury version with a creamy and garlic infused polenta dressed with green onions, Italian parsley, a sunny side up egg, grilled shiitake mushrooms & plantains.  To complete the look, you top it with an oranges & tahini dressing that has a hint of harissa, soy sauce and honey.

The black sesame seeds are optional but they look pretty sooo… the choice is yours.  Enjoy!

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Breakfast, Comfort Food, Eggs, Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: black sesame seeds, bowl, breakfast, brunch, dish, garlic, green onions, harissa, healthy, honey, Italian parsley, orange juice, plantains, polenta, recipe, shiitake, soy sauce, tahini

Grilled King oyster mushroom salad

June 27, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

Don’t get me wrong, I love making sweets.  There’s something really happy about making something full of sugar because you know most people will be happy to eat it and you’ll get the satisfaction of watching them stuffing their faces with something you made with love.  Now, thing is, we can’t really eat sweets all the time (that’s a tragedy if you ask me) so this recipe is coming just at the right time to balance all the sweetness I’ve published on the blog lately.

King oyster mushrooms are one of my favourites because they are super meaty and they look beautiful in a plate.  Paring them with roasted tomatoes (aka: umami bomb – thank you Ivan Ramen for coining the term) and miso, you’ll quickly understand why I decided to post this recipe on here.

Sooooooo…. this sentence is getting redundant but, I really hope you get too try this quick and easy grilled king oyster salad with miso dressing on days where it’s too hot to eat anything to complexed or when you’re just too lazy to break your head in the kitchen.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Popular Diets, Recipes, Salads, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: baby spinach, cilantro, coriander, grilled, King Oyster mushroom, miso, rice vinegar, roasted tomatoes, salad, sesame oil, Sesame seeds

Apple & ginger crumble

June 27, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

This is actually a pretty easy recipe.  Although, when I first made it on Twitch, it wasn’t optimal.  There was not enough fruit to crumble ratio but the result became some delicious “cereal” that kept me well fed and happy for the few days after the stream.  Yesterday, I made it again to tweak the recipe and take photos. The result is a wonderful dessert that I’m eating with a spoon as we speak!

Hope you get to try it and if even if you’re not a fan of apples or ginger, you can make it with pretty much any fruits you like.  This is the kind of easy going recipe that you’ll learn to love because the possibilities are endless.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Crisps, Popular Diets, Recipes, Sweets, Vegetarian Tagged With: apple, crumble, dessert, easy, ginger, recipe, saigon cinnamon, sweet, vietnamese cinnamon

My ultimate vegan sandwich

March 26, 2019 by Ariel 1 Comment

This is another amazing way to use the seitan we’ve created the other day.

Lately, it’s my go to sandwich at either breakfast (I ate one a few minutes ago), lunch or dinner when I don’t feel like breaking my head much and want something that will keep me full for hours.  It’s honestly massive and kind of hard to bite through it but, obviously, nothing worth having comes easy in life right? XD

Joke aside, when I get sandwiches this high in restaurants, it makes giggle because there’s no way to look proper while eating this and it becomes a great exercise of “no giving a shit” because nobody looks cute trying open their mouth way too wide to fit an enormous sandwich in it.  You clearly don’t have to make it that big but, like they say…. go big or go home!? XD

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, seitan, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian Tagged With: easy, grilled vegetable, quick, recipe, sandwich, seitan, simple, vegan, vegetarian

Under 20 minutes seitan pasta for one

March 19, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

After throwing you in to the seitan world, it would be a good idea to give you a little inspiration on what you can make it it.  If you’ve made a batch of my homemade seitan recipe already, this super quick pasta dish might be right up your alley.  It literally took me under 20 minutes to get everything ready and it was also eaten in a record time.

Some things in life shouldn’t be complicated and this is the perfect example.  Hope you enjoy this dish.

20 minutes seitan pasta for one
 
Print
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
10 mins
Total time
20 mins
 
Author: ZestyandSpicy.com
Recipe type: Quick & Easy
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Serves: 1-2 portions
Ingredients
  • ½ tablespoon of oil (I used avocado)
  • 1 green onion, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
  • 3 tablespoons of fresh cream
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • ⅛ cup of chopped sun dried tomatoes
  • ½ heaping cup of small cubes of homemade seitan
  • 1 tightly packed cup of cooked buckwheat penne (or any cooked pasta you like)
Instructions
  1. - Start with heating the oil in the pan and drop the seitan cubes. Grill for 3 minutes.
  2. - Add the onions and garlic, keep grilling for another 3 minutes
  3. - drop the rest of the ingredients, cook for an extra 3-4 minutes
  4. - serve and enjoy!
  5. makes 1 big portion or 2 small ones
3.5.3251

 

Filed Under: Pasta, Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, seitan, Vegetarian Tagged With: cooked pasta, dinner, dish, easy, fresh cream, fresh garlic, green onions, pasta, quick, recipe, seitan, tomato paste, vegetarian

Basic, baked seitan recipe

March 19, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

If you’re an adept of vegetarian or vegan dishes, you’ve probably came across seitan at least once in your life.  It’s a very versatile animal free protein made with vital wheat gluten (basically straight gluten flour) and it can be flavoured countless of ways to make it taste like chicken, beef, unicorn (lol)…you name it.

This is my personal baked seitan recipe that I use in almost everything but, I don’t think I could classify the taste under “beef” or “chicken” because it really has it’s own flavour profile.  It’s beyond amazing in a vegan gyros, in stir fry and even as a bacon replacement.  You can freeze it easily and it will keep for a decent amount of time in the fridge.  If you’ve already made a batch of my homemade vegetable broth, you’re already half way there for this one.

The classic way to make seitan is to boil it in the broth but I’ve had better results doing it this way because the end result is nice and soft compare to many other recipes out there who give you a very hard like rock seitan.

So let’s start!

Basic seitan recipe
 
Print
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
1 hour 30 mins
Total time
1 hour 40 mins
 
*As you mix, time is important because the flour will start absorbing the liquid and you want to make sure that all the flavours are well mixed in and there's no more white clumps of flour. It's totally ok to use your hands, at the end, to really mix everything in.
Author: ZestyandSpicy.com
Cuisine: Vegetarian / Vegan
Serves: 1 loaf
Ingredients
  • Spice mix:
  • - the seeds of 1 black cardamom pod
  • - ½ teaspoon of dried, minced onions
  • - 1 teaspoon of dried, minced garlic
  • - ½ teaspoon of dried marjoram
  • - 1 teaspoon of dried basil
  • - 1 teaspoon of regular paprika
  • - 1 teaspoon of smoked Spanish paprika
  • - ½ teaspoon of salt

  • 1½ cup of vita wheat gluten flour
  • 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
  • 2 cups of homemade vegetable broth
Instructions
  1. - Pre-heat your oven at 325F, line a GLASS loaf pan with parchment paper.
  2. - In a mortar, crush the spice mix until powdered.
  3. - In a mixing bowl, add the vital wheat gluten flour and mix in the crushed spiced BEFORE adding the last two wet ingredients.
  4. - Add the tomato paste and the broth, start mixing*
  5. - Transfer the mixture in the loaf pan and press it gently with your hands to form the loaf and remove as many air pockets as possible. This is not an exact science but you just need to shape it a bit. The mixture will keep a very soft like texture and will harden once cooked.
  6. - Bake for 1h covered and then an extra 30minutes uncovered.
3.5.3251

 

Filed Under: Popular Diets, Proteins, Recipes, seitan, Vegan, Vegetarian Tagged With: baked, protein, seitan, vegan, vegetarian

Soy milk

March 25, 2018 by Ariel Leave a Comment

A great bonus from making your own soy milk is the okara (aka: soy bean pulp) left after draining.  It’s a resource most factories will either discard or feed to farm animals but, this protein packed ingredient can be added to baked goods, use to make vegetarian/vegan sausages (yup… that’s going to be for a future recipe) or dried up and reduced in powder to add to almost everything.  It is versatile, delicious and using the okara is leaving you with no kitchen waste.  Something to think about…

As you will see, the process for making soy milk is very simple.  If you wanted to make soy cream, bring back the drained milk on the stove top and let it simmer down to half of it’s original quantity.  As the water will evaporate, the mixture will thicken and become a nice and silky cream.  A thickening agent can be used to make the process faster, I would recommend tapioca starch for it’s light taste.

…

Read More »

Filed Under: Gluten Free, Popular Diets, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian Tagged With: dairy alternative, DYI project, homemade, No waste kitchen, okara, soy beans, soy milk

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Photography tale of an urban gardener…

Spring gardening in isolation

Winter gardening, years later.

Winter gardening…

my food gawker gallery my food gawker gallery my food gawker gallery

Copyright © 2011-2017 · ZestyandSpicy.com