Kitchen Adventures Mini-Milestone

Happy birthday, Kitchen Adventures!

My little, spur-of-the-moment idea to combine a cooking marathon with babbling about it, is turning ten weeks old, and it's still growing beautifully. ❤️

So if that sounds like something you might enjoy, or are curious about vegan and gluten-free cooking, grab your handkerchief and join me on an Adventure!

Kitchen Adventures with Joy

This week's adventure started out slow and sedate like, with a salad:

a little salad

A small late summer/autumn salad, make from tomatoes, cucumber, and celery. I cheated a little on the sauce and used the vegan chili mayo I'd ordered from Sirplus.

It is actually a little weird, this mayo, because it's very bland, and then kicks like a horse. If one adds more spices, salt, and pepper, though, it becomes quite nice. Creamy, spicy ... and then kicks like a horse. 😃

Now, because the veggie situation in this week's etepetete box was a little ... distressing, only the tomatoes in the salad above came from the box. The cucumber and celery I bought at the supermarket.

Also bought some arugula, and made another salad, with arugula, cucumber, and celery (and then promptly forgot to take a picture, sorry). That one's sauce was a little more Kitchen-Adventure-style:

• 3 tablespoons neutral protein powder

• 2 tablespoons sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon apple vinegar

• 1 teaspoons of baobab powder

• 1/2 teaspoon moringa powder

• salt & pepper

• water

All mixed together in a jar. It almost sounds as if it shouldn't work, but it does, and the salad is delicious.

Then it was time to tackle the actually-from-the-box veggies: carrots, butternut pumpkin, and a massive aubergine.

So here's what happened:

autumn curry with lentil-coconut sauce

The butternut, 4 carrots, and half of the aubergine were chopped into pieces, and then went into this curry.

A curry Kitchen-Adventures-style, because the sauce is ... unusual.

See, one of my current inquiries in cooking is: "How can I sneak more protein into a dish?"

In this case, I'd decided on lentils with the curry ~ and then my brain hiccoughed, and I cooked red lentils until they were mush, then puree'd them with a handheld blender, mixed in about 1/3 of a can of coconut milk (leftover from Thursday), 2 heaped teaspoons of baobab powder, because the sauce was very runny, added salt and pepper and another teaspoon of curry powder, and ended up with a nice sauce for the veggies.

And the pasta. Because I'd decided on chickpea pasta with the curry ~ more protein! ~ and then this is the result:

more autumn curry with pasta :-)

Haven't tried it yet, but I think it's going to be pretty amazing, and I'm looking forward to tasting it!

Once all of that was combined in the pasta pot, and I'd scrubbed the pan, I went on to make this:

veggie dish and millet

A veggie dish, made from the other half of the aubergine, four more carrots, some leftover frozen green beans, and smoked tofu. Served with millet, obviously.

The veggie dish got seasoned simple, with salt & pepper, and then I added the "coconut seasoning". In combination with the millet, it's fantaastic. Bit weird with the smoked tofu, but hey! Kitchen Adventures are also Adventures in Taste! And overall? It's good!

Sometimes, unusual is the best. Wakes up your tastebuds, and the surprise will bring consciousness back from where it drifted ~ because let's be honest, conscious eating is a bit of a dying art ~ right to the present moment, and the gift of the food in front of you.

Those blessings from Mother Nature.

And it's always good to be aware of her gifts, and her blessings.

Blessed be. 😃

Until next time!