I like my food, in fact one of the few labels I am happy to self describe myself by is a “foodie”. Back in London that was mainly acted out by heading to every new vegan establishment that opened. Over here -even without a pandemic -there are few opportunities of that nature. If you were vegan back in the the 80’s you will remember the excitement of finding a new product you can eat when out shopping, that is what it’s like here. For those of you wondering how I now survive without the benefits of working for Marigold let alone living in a vegan mecca like the UK capital, I decided to post a few of my meals.
These are just what I make for myself and Sanja, paying guests will get a slightly more fancy fayre!
My favourite quick dish! Button mushrooms, or any mushrooms! sauteed with chunks of broccoli with garlic and soya sauce added. This meal had some green beans added too.A tomato sauce version of my mush n’ broc dish with a leftover roast potato salad and a portion of Sanja’s instant noodles just to make sure I don’t get hungry!Chunky fried tofu and some seitan slices with a steaming mushroom and courgette dish and rice.Mushroom fried rice with tofu covered with a garlic courgette sauce.Penne pasta with seitan, green peppers and mushroom covered with parmesan cheese courtesy of Interspar eaten alfresco under the gazebo.Jacket potatoes, 3 for today 3 for tomorrow, I don’t like using the oven for just one meal seems to me to be too much energy usage.Jacket potatoes – with good flavoured chewy thick skins – with parmesan and mushrooms mixed in and a broad bean and seitan dish. I do love spuds and jacket potatoes are the best way to eat them, even better than chips!One of the joys of jacket potatoes is what to do with the ones you don’t eat on the first day! I often dice them up and put them in a salad but here they were sauteed – that just means put in a frying pan with a little oil on a low heat and the top left on so they heat up but don’t dry out. The mushrooms, peppers, tofu and spinach were done in a separate pan and then mixed together.This is one of the Next Level Burgers” bought from Lidl. They are usually about £1.50 each – 25Kn for two- which is a bit much even for a superior burger like this one. However Lidl occasionally reduce items by up to 30% and when these are reduced I buy a load of them! This one is sitting on a layer of onion and spinach.A cheese and tomato polenta slop with my fave tofu, mush and spinach dish. It looks a bit unappealing but it was actually rather good!Garlic mashed potatoes, with fried tofu and a broccoli, red cabbage dish.A variation on my fave broc ‘n’ mush dish with garlic fried cubes of bread. I usually buy my bread from Kaufland which is about the only place one can get a good solid loaf of bread. Croatian breads are almost all white and light on substance. Kaufland , thankfully, does a fair range of german style breads. When you let a solid german bread go hard it is quite a challenge to cut it up but I find it worth the risk to make these little cubes. Taken in the evening sunset with one of the recently used snow sledges in the background.A rice dish with a red cabbage, carrot and courgette mix on top and a heavy lashing of a very strong garlic peanut – gado gado !? – sauce all over it!Two dinner portions heading up to her ladyship from the kitchens below. These are green beans, fried tofu and milinci! Milinci is a Balkan “delicacy” that is usually part of a meat dish. It is a thin flat crisp bread that traditionally has the juices of meat poured over it and then is eaten as a side dish a bit like potatoes. I find that is works well with Marigold gravy poured over it or indeed a thin tomato sauce as with this meal and then add things to taste.
