IMBB#19: I Can't Believe I Ate Vegan! - Vegan Tapas

This time round other than cooking up a challenge, Sam of Becks & Posh threw us a challenge of cooking up something vegan and NOT to spill the vegan beans until after they've finished their meal. Sounds easy peasy but I had a hard time thinking what to cook...

Thanks to our local newspaper The Star, they featured something vegan a few weeks back in their Clove pull-out that got me inspired to cook them up in addition to some other recipes I scoured through the net.

For this round of Is My Blog Burning (IMBB), I've cooked up a storm of Vegan Tapas. According to that article... "TAPAS consists of a selection of small dishes of food eaten with bread. It is considered common fare throughout Spain and served in most cafes, bars and restaurants."

Here's what I've cooked up, all in all 6 types of vegan tapas served with crusty bread.



From The Clove, I've made the Avocado Dip which tasted the best of the lot. I served it cold which is so refreshing.

Avocado Dip

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
1 tomato diced
¼ green pepper diced
Chopped parsley
1 avocado
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper
Lemon juice

Method:

1. Mix the chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes and green peppers in a mixing bowl with olive oil and lemon juice.

2. Cut the avocado in half and remove the flesh.

3. Mix the flesh with the chopped ingredients.

4. Add the seasoning and serve chilled.


The next recipe was Mushroom and Garlic with loads of chopped garlic and onion. Slightly on the sour side, maybe I've squeezed too much lemon juice in there. So please use lemon juice sparingly hehehe.

Mushroom and Garlic

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
Chopped parsley
250g mushrooms sliced
Salt & pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
Squeeze of lemon juice

Method:

1. Heat up the olive oil.

2. Put in the chopped garlic and onions and sauté.

3. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender.

4. Add the chopped parsley, lemon juice and seasoning.

5. Serve warm.


Next up, I cooked Aubergine in Tomato Sauce. Lovely taste but next round I'll cook my aubergine first as it took longer to cook them up. The tomatoes and onions sorta dried out whilst waiting for the aubergine to cooked up. Nevertheless, they tasted superb!

Aubergine in Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
1 aubergine sliced in rounds
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
1 chopped tomato
1 tsp mixed herbs
Salt & pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Fry chopped garlic and onion in olive oil.

2. When cooked, add the chopped tomatoes and mixed herbs.

3. Add sliced aubergine.

4. Add seasoning.

5. Serve warm.

The three recipes below I got them in the net here and there. Of the lot the mushrooms tasted great that my boiboi whacked 4 whole mushrooms in a row! Greedy boi! I let him taste the rest but he only picked this! As for the asparagus, I wished we could get those plump ones but those sold here were so slim. Anyway, this tasted great too when it was hot. Next I found a chick pea based cold tapas. I liked this especially after leaving it over night in the fridge.


Marinated Mushrooms

Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
1/2 small glass of white wine
1/2 small glass of water
salt and pepper
350g mushrooms (preferably small)

Method:
1. Heat the oil in a heavy based pan.

2. Add the finely chopped onion and garlic season with salt and pepper and sauté for 5 - 10 mins until the onion has softened.

3. Add the wine and water and simmer for 20 mins.

4. Clean the mushrooms and slice thinly then add them to the pan and cook for a further 10 mins.

5. Place everything in a serving dish and set aside to cool before placing it in the fridge - serve cold. Decorate with some chopped fresh parsley or chives.


Fried Asparagus

Ingredients:
1 bunch of fresh green asparagus
1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
salt

Method:
1. Wash the asparagus and cut off the rough ends then cut into pieces about 8cms long.

2. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and lightly fry the asparagus pieces for about 5 mins.

3. When the asparagus pieces start to turn golden brown remove from the heat season with salt and squeeze some lemon juice over them.

4. Place on a plate and serve.


Chick Peas and Spinach Tapas

Ingredients:
10 ounces fresh spinach leaves, rinsed, or 1 (10-ounce) package frozen leaf spinach
19-ounce can (2 cups) chick-peas, drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon snipped fresh chives
1 to 2 lemons, juiced or to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:
1. If using fresh spinach: Cook the spinach in a saucepan with the water clinging to its leaves, stirring, until wilted. Drain, squeeze dry, and finely chop. If using frozen spinach, follow package directions, drain, squeeze dry, and finely chop.

2. In a bowl combine the spinach with the chick peas, pepper, chives, lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper.

3. Serve as is or chilled with toasted bread.


When I served to hubby, he asked me whether those dishes are served with rice or not?? OMG silly guy, I told him they're tapas and to be eaten with bread hahahaha... So he happily devoured the tapas and I asked him for feedback. He don't like chick peas and when he first saw it, he asked me how come got kacang putih (a type of Indian snacks)??? Arrrghhh I really feel like piaking (beat) him!!!

He was okay with the rest except for the Mushroom and Garlic which he complained too sour. As expected the Marinated Mushrooms were wiped clean.

Once he finished eating, I check with him if he have noticed anything about the tapas. You know what was his reply? "SOUR" Ahahahaha which is true cos other than 2 dishes the rest used lemon juice. Seems like he didn't noticed they were all vegetables. Great test on him since he's really a "meat" person.

So there... gotcha!!!! I Can't Believe I Ate Vegan!

Thank you Sam for thinking up such a creative theme and method in rounding up.

Check out the hi-tech round up for this IMBB#19. The entries are slowly rolling in!



Tagged with: IMBB # 19 + Vegan