Kitchen adventures: the results are in (almost)
- Joyous Sparks
- Jul 20
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 21
Hello, hello! Welcome to another week of kitchen adventures!
This week's are a work in progress, actually, because two things are still waiting to go in the oven. They are waiting because I am waiting for temperatures to maybe, hopefully, go down a little in the evening. Please? I'd rather not sit in a sauna.
Honestly, this strange weather of heat-but-no-sun-only-clouds is taking my desire for kitchen adventures away, and that does not spark joy.
However! Some adventures were had, so let's dive into all the fun things I made with the veggies shown in the unboxing video!
Number One:
This is not the viral cucumber salad you are looking for.
It is, however, slightly-maybe based on those cucumber salad recipes floating around the internet. Joyous style. Featuring:
1/2 cucumber
1/2 kohlrabi
and a dressing:
3 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 teaspoon chilisauce (because a little spice is nice, but too much is not, and since I didn't know HOW hot the chilisauce is ... better start with a little)
Verra nice. And crunchy. I like crunchy.
Number Two:
... comes in several steps, actually ...
Here's the first step - in itself actually a combination. It's sauted onions and aubergine (in the pan), mixed with green lentils (cooked in a separate pot). Add salt and pepper and, randomly, two sprigs of dried rosemary.
Rosemary is actually very much recommended, here, because it adds a nice flavour to the "pie filling".
While the onions, aubergines, and lentils were chilling and getting to know each other, I reused the pot to cook potatoes to make a cheezy potato mash. Remember that recipe from a couple of weeks ago? Yep. Use less pantbased milk, and the whole thing becomes mash instead of sauce.
What for, you ask?
This:
Vegan shepherd's pie, but make it Kitchen adventures style. Here pictured before going in the oven.
And this is after.
Not really pictured: The onion-aubergine-lentil mix went in the bottom of the dish, the cheezy potato mash on top. 33 minutes at 200°C (or about 395°F), or until the top is gently golden brown.
Yes, it's a lot of work and causes lots more dishes to clean. But worth it. Very much worth it.
Number Three:
Is it potato salad with green beans? Is it a green bean salad with potatoes?
It's green-bean-potato salad with smoked tofu!
Also, onions. Because I still have A LOT of onions.
Recipe doesn't really exist. Like, cook potatoes and beans together in one pot, for about six minutes (or more, or less, depending on your stove; use fork to check cooked-ness!).
In a separate pan, sauté onions and when translucent, add tofu. Fry until you decide it's done. Drain content of pot and mix with content of pan.
Might want some more spices in there, I don't remember what I used, sorry!
...
And NUMBER FOUR - because since starting this post, the promised thunderstorm hit and temperatures dropped:
Beetroot falafel, in progress.
Original recipe here - but of course it's kitchen adventures! So, I forgot the garlic. But I did throw in three tiny, chopped onions (... still so very many onions ...). The blended mixture tasted very nice, almost sweet. Now, I know you can use beetroot in sweet recipes, like cake and brownies (... hm, might try that next ...). But I didn't really expect a more savoury recipe to taste sweet.
Great stuff!
For the taste, at least. The baking ... it's not really going well, so far, because the mixture was a bit too liquid-y, and so now the falafel patties aren't really setting. They've been in the oven now for twice as long as the recipe said, and - I've just checked because the timer went off - they are firming sliiightly. But not really.
Doesnt't help that the original recipe is a bit vague oven temperature.
Eh. This is why we're having kitchen adventures. We'll see how the falafel thingies want to turn out.
And finally, once they're out of the oven, this will go in:
Mystery!
Totally an experiment, combining a new recipe with kitchen-adventure-vibes, so we'll see how this turns out. Spoilers: contains quinoa and zucchini. Is also gluten free. Fingers crossed, I might randomly post an update later on that.
Concluding this week's adventures: dessert!
blackberry yoghurt clusters, with (leftover) lemon zest.
"Where did the blackberries come from?" I hear you ask. "They weren't in the box, were they? Did she go and buy more fruit after all??"
You are right, they weren't in the box, and no, I didn't buy them: Nature gave them to me!
Yep, I went out to forage! Went for wild mirabelle plums - and came home with some mirabelle plums, some more plum-looking plums, randomly two tiny apples, and a heap of blackberries.
Used blackberries to make dessert.
The learning from this one is, that if you use unsweetened yoghurt in your yoghurt clusters, you need to add more sweetener than the one tablespoon the recipe recommended. Okay, they also used raspberries, which tend to be sweeter than blackberries anyway. So, if you use blackberries? And would like dessert to be just a bit sweeter than blackberry-sweet? Add some more sweetener of your choice than one tablespoon.
Yeah, it's a bit sour. On the other hand, lemony-icy-sour-fresh? In summer? Not such a bad thing at all ...
Right, and that's it for this week's adventures!
Hope you enjoyed this kitchen-creativity journey with me.
And if you ever try one of the things I make here? Let me know how you fare with it!
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