Plantbased food by Mimmi Kvist
A quick pasta dish with Mediterranean flavours. Garlic and onions, sliced mushrooms and zucchini, white cabbage, baby spinach leaves and green olives. Then I added some ajvar relish, fresh rosemary, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Served it with pasta (shaped as wild animals – the kids’ choice and the only animals we eat!), topped it with more olives, flat-leaf parsley and a spoonful of ajvar. Easy peasy!
Ready to get your oven do the job for you?
Slice peeled butternut squash and fennel in 1,5 cm thick slices. Cut a handful of cocktail tomatoes in half. Put everything on an oven tray covered with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper and roast in the oven at 225 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
While waiting, coarsely chop hazelnuts and two cloves of garlic. Toast in a pan with a generous amount of olive oil.
Serve the roasted vegetables with spaghetti, hazelnuts and garlic oil. Top with fresh sage.
What better food for a hot day than summer rolls? Vermicelli rice noodles, red cabbage, alfalfa sprouts, mango, salted peanuts and green soy beans, all wrapped in a thin rice paper. A simple dip sauce with lime, soy sauce, chili and ginger on the side. And the crispy tofu sticks that I prepared but forgot to add to the rolls… Better luck next time – but these rolls were pretty great anyway!
A deep green, healthy pesto with lots of iron and flavour. Use 1 dl each of lightly roasted natural cashews and sunflower seeds and 2 handfuls of fresh basil leaves and double the amount of baby spinach. Sauté 3 sliced cloves of garlic in olive oil until just soft. Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender. Add 0,75 dl of olive oil, 0,5 dl of nutritional yeast and 0,5 tsp salt. Blend until smooth but still a bit crunchy. Serve with spaghetti and sprinkle with nutritional yeast.
A simple yet flavourful pasta dish with salty capers and olives and lots of garlic, perfect for a weeknight dinner.
250 g cocktail tomatoes
1 large tomato
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
20 kalamata olives
50 g capers
2 tsp miso paste
2 tbsp white wine
fresh basil
Finely chop garlic and sauté in olive oil on medium heat.
Cut the large tomato in pieces. This will add extra juice to the sauce. Add tomato chunks and cocktail tomatoes to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes until soft.
Add miso paste and wine to the pan, together with olives and capers. Simmer for 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.
Serve with spaghetti and fresh basil.
I finally tried making cashew cream. I liked the texture of it, but it does need a bit of seasoning. Here’s a cheesy one with a lemon twist that worked well with the asparagus.
Cashew cream
Soak 2 dl of natural cashews for a few hours. Drain and mix with 1 dl cold water, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 clove of garlic, 2 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 0,5 tsp salt. Blend until you’ve got a smooth cream.
Asparagus Pasta
Fry finely chopped garlic with pieces of fresh asparagus, green peas and sunflower seeds. Add a few sliced dried tomatoes. Serve with spaghetti, cashew cream and top with capers and a drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and lemon zest.
This is like mash-up of Pad Thai and satay. Good? Yes, indeed! Especially if you like peanuts, and who doesn’t? You can add any veggies you like to the stir fry, just make sure to fry them quickly on high heat so they don’t go too soft. Start with the sauce, so the stir fry is hot and fresh from the pan when serving.
Peanut sauce
200 ml creamy coconut milk
1 dl crunchy peanut butter
2 cloves of garlic
3 cm fresh ginger
2 tsp red or green curry paste
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp Japanese soy
10 drops of sriracha or 0,5 tsp red chili, finely chopped
Noodle Stir Fry
300 g rice noodles
100 g cabbage, thinly sliced
2 carrots, coarsely grated
10 cm leek, thinly sliced
100 g fresh bean sprouts
100 g baby corn, cut in pieces
300 g tofu, marinated and fried
salted peanuts, coriander and lime for serving
Pho is a new acquaintance for me. Vietnamese noodle soup with lots of spices and fresh vegetables sounds like something I’d really like. So I tried a recipe from Green Kitchen Travels, and I must admit that it wasn’t really what I expected. With spices like cinnamon and cardamom it smelled more like a drink for Christmas than Asian street food. But lime, thai basil and coriander balanced it up, and when I tasted it I was pleasantly surprised. The best bit is pouring the steaming broth over the fresh veggies!
Let’s do it step by step.
Cut the tofu block in cubes, and marinate in soy, sesame oil and sweet chili sauce.
Then start with the broth:
Quickly fry all the spices in a dry pot. Make sure they don’t burn. Add vegetable stock and soy together with onions, ginger, carrot and fennel. Bring to boil and let simmer for at least 30 minutes.
Prepare the veg and noodles:
Take the marinated tofu, roll it sesame seeds and fry it in oil.
Now pour the broth through a fine sieve to get rid of the vegetables and spices, then heat the broth again.
Prepare bowls with noodles, pak choy, carrot, bean sprouts, tofu, Thai basil and lime quarters. At the table, pour the steaming broth into the bowl, squeeze over lime juice and tuck in!