No Meat-Meatless

Enough is enough, we have been overeating meat, I think it is time to have a rest from it.  No meat for lunches and dinners or at least meatless.  Here are a few meatless dishes from my kitchen, which are delicious and some of their recipes.

Mix Vegetable Pancake

Ideally, I should cook vegetable dishes substantially this week, and no extra food intake.  For lunch today I cooked mix vegetable pancake based on bakwan - deep-fried vegetables (Javanese cooking), instead of frying in deep hot oil, I pan fried with very little fat.
Put the mixed vegetables mixture (cabbage, celery, mung beans, flour, egg mix them together) onto hot fry pan with a little oil and cover, cook for 7 minutes over a low heat, then turn it over to cook the other side for 7 minutes, cover!,  after that bring the fire onto high heat and cook for a minute. It is cooked now,  leave it in the pan with the cover on for a few minutes longer.  Serve hot.

Vegetable Pancake cut into Wedges

You may want to cook this dish, here is the shopping list: cabbage, celery, mung beans, egg, flour and oil.  However, you could use any vegetables that you like.

Susy Pan fry bakwan (Pan fry mixed vegetable pancake)

The ingredients:

2 cups shredded cabbage

1/2 cup chopped celery and also the leaves

1/2 cup mung beans

1/2 cup plain flour

1 egg and salt to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil for pan frying

(Mix all the above ingredients together, you will have a sticky mixture) 

Bakmi Goreng Pasar

Bakmi Goreng is stir-fried noodles Javanese style,  often they are added with sliced meat and eggs.  Bakmi Goreng Pasar, is a simple version of it, with no meat and it is sold in the market places. There are two types of noodles for bakmi Pasar, egg noodles and rice noodles.

Noodles are one of my favourite foods, I could enjoy the very most ordinary dish of noodles and also the luxurious/fancy one; usually it has meat, egg and seafood.

Bakmi Goreng Pasar using rice noodles.

Bakmi  garnished with stuffed mushrooms

This bakmi goreng is the Pasar version with the twist, as I added sliced stuffed mushrooms for the garnish.  No, it is not very traditional.   But the flavour of truffle is good for the dish.

You can add any of your favourite vegetables or meat in bakmi.  The flavour is yours.

Rich bread for a treat.

Often I bake bread for the family, especially bread that is hard to get in the shops.  Brioche, we love brioches.   

Stuffed sweet brioche is delicious.  Brioche is a light, and buttery bread, for a change, I baked stuffed brioche with cherry and sweet bean paste.

Freshly Baked Stuffed Brioches

Cottage Cheese in Brioche is a delicious savoury using lower fat cheese, it is good to serve warm or have it cold with a salad.  Using ricotta cheese is also good.

Cottage Cheese in Brioche

Brioche recipe, please look up an older post

Pumpkin Date Scones

Pumpkin and date scones are another treat for a healthy sweet treat, serve it as morning or afternoon tea. Simply split the scone into halves, buttered or add pumpkin jam on top and sprinkle with almond flakes.  For this scone you don't need a scone cutter, simply shape it into a round and slash into four or six before baking.  A rustic and straightforward scone.

Scones recipe, please look older post.

Tofu is vegetable protein, it is made from beans and is suitable for our diet.  It is very versatile you could prepare it in so many ways, from steamed, pan-fried to deep fried to serve them as garnishes.  I like to have it for a mixed salad with other vegetables.   My best tofu dish is Tahu Guling, it is a Javanese dish made from pan-fried tofu mixed with mung beans dressed with sweet and sour dressing and garnished with krupuk (prawn crackers).  The recipe is for next time.

Tofu with Eggs

Sauteed Tofu with Boiled Eggs

2 hard boil eggs

175 g organic tofu, diced

1 garlic crushed or chopped

1 tablespoon light soy

1 tablespoon oil and sliced one fresh chilli for garnish

Saute the tofu with oil until the tofu becomes hot, add in the spices and toss them around, add in the boil eggs, keep on cooking for 2 minutes.  Place the spicy dish onto a serving bowl and garnish with the fresh chilli.  It serves for two.

Braised Tofu, eggs in sweet soy

Another tofu dish that the family loves is braised tofu with egg, the flavour is sweetish, but it is delicious to be served with rice.  The tofu is braised with sweet soy (ABC) and water (vegetable stock if you wish) flavour with onion, pepper and garnish with sweet potato and parsley.

Salad and Rice

Mung Beans Sprouts

Substantial salads are needed for meatless dishes.  I use sprouts mixed with leafy greens, add some egg or tofu and tempeh.  Using fresh nuts or roasted nuts is very good too, often I add almond flakes, cashews, walnuts or pine nuts.

Leafy green salad and bean shoots are served together for rice or noodles garnishes.  This salad is good to be served as a side dish of nasi goreng (fried rice).
Salads-vegetable protein and rice is a very healthy combination of food, and we have them often and loving it.

Garden salad to garnish stuffed mushrooms is a light meatless dish for any meals.

Cheese dishes from pizza with vegetables topping to pies, I love to bake a cake with water pastry and using low-fat cheeses for the filling, this pie is using ricotta and herbs

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Ricotta and Vegetable Pie

Recipe for water pastry, please look older post.

Another low-fat cheese cooking.  Poach cottage cheese mixed with eggs, slice when it is cold serve with salads: leafy, tomato, garden or pasta salads.  You have to remember that cottage cheese is low in fat, but it is high in potassium.  Small serve is always advisable.

Ingredients and poaching savoury cottage cheese

Pumpkin soup garnished with this poached cottage cheese is delicious.

Mixed Green Leafy Salad garnished with poached cottage cheese is one of my family favourite salads.

Pasta dishes are so popular, everyone knows how to cook them properly.  I did pasta with pesto, it's a simple pasta dish but delicious.

Pasta with pesto,  simply boil pasta that you like, toss them up with the pesto, serve it hot and add some cheeses-Parmesan cheese or fresh ricotta cheese.  Another beautiful and healthy dish for the family.

Layer savoury pancakes: another delicious vegetable dish.  You can use lasagna sheets instead of pancakes, the process of assembling is the same,  The filling is as you like. It is a beautiful looking dish to serve.

The fillings for this dish are pumpkin puree and cheese, eggplants pure with egg, and mixed green spinach puree with Parmesan cheese.  Added white cheese sauce on top before baking.  The white sauce was using oil instead of butter.

Freshly Baked Layer Savoury Pancakes

It is served warm or room temperature with a salad.

Last but not least for a tasty meatless dinner is mushroom ragu served on a bed of wet polenta.  I think it is a perfect dish for mid-Autumn.  I will share the recipe next time.

Bread

Bread is one of our diets, most of the time I get the bread from the shop, but these particularly steamed buns are easily prepared at home.  These steamed buns are with a sweet filling

Steamed Buns

Recipe, please look for an older post.

The sweet buns are delicious for breakfasts or brunches, they are suitable for freezing.  It is better to make a lot of them, freeze nicely and you can have it for next time.

Savoury bread, quick mixed bread with nuts is delicious just served with butter and soup.

Susy Mini Loaf with Nuts

2 cups self-rising flour

1 cup wholemeal

1 cup mixed nuts (walnuts, Brazil, almonds)

1/3 cup oil 

1 tablespoon sour cream

1 cup milk

1 egg

a pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients together, mix well and quickly.  You will have a sticky dough.

Rub your fingers onto flour to knead the dough, shaping the bread and putting it into a buttered individual mini loaf (in a large tin as pictured left)

Bake in a very hot oven 220 degrees (fan forced) C for 18 minutes until golden.

Sliced and buttered to serve.

The Preparation

Freshly baked Mini Loaf with Nuts.

Cakes

Rayner Mini Pumpkin Cake

Cakes for the sweet.  Mini pumpkin cake with cottage cheese is a beautiful small cake for a sweet indulgence.

I baked only the other day and shared/served for supper after playing a game of sport.

Recipe

A cup full self-rising flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon heap cottage cheese

Method: in a bowl place the flour and sugar together and in another bowl, mix all wet ingredients together (egg, oil, pumpkin, cheese and water)

Use a blender or food processor, blend and process the ingredients together to make a smooth and thick batter.  If it is too thick, adjust it by adding more milk.  

Spoon the cake batter and put onto buttered mini muffin/cake tin (almost full)

Bake in the preheated oven at 160 degrees C for 14-16 minutes

When it is cold, fill in with pumpkin jam and whipped cream.

Rayner did an excellent job blending/processing the cake, and without leaving any mess in the kitchen, he cleaned and put away the blender/equipment meticulously.  

For his honour, I call the cake, 'Rayner Mini Pumpkin Cake.' 

The cake looks pretty, and it is so delicate and delicious to be served on any occasion.

The Preparation

This post is about sharing ideas and recipes of my cooking from the past to present for the dish less meat or without meat.  Sometimes it is good to have less meat in our diet, and they can be tasty too.

Until Next Post

Thanks for Stopping By

Susy