Saturday, June 5, 2010

First post with Mushroom Stroganoff!

Welcome!

I based this on a recipe from Leah Leneman's 'Easy Vegan Cooking' . I added a few things which I'll put in bold.
Mushroom Stroganoff

455g mushrooms
4tbs vegetable oil
1 clove garlic (I used at least 3)
1 onion
1/2 cup wholewheat flour
2 cups vegetable stock (I used Massel's Salt Reduced Chicken stock)
340g tofu (I find Nutrisoy to be the best tasting)
Sea salt, black pepper, mustard powder to taste

I added to the original ingredients:
1 large carrot, diced
3 birdseye chillies (I grow my own, they're quite hot)
About 200g of green beans
About 2/3 cup of whole pitted olives

Method:


Slice mushrooms. I used portobello mushrooms. (At least that's what the label at woolworths said. They like to chop and change). You can slice them as big or as small as you like. You could even puree them if you wanted, if you don't like chunky mushroom.


Chop up the vegetables.


Add vegetables (minus the mushrooms) to a large cooking pot with a little bit of oil (or you could use a bit of water if you don't want to use oil). Fry them on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, while you make the tofu cream.

Chop up the tofu into chunks (I just used the whole 350g packet). Blend it until smooth. (This type of tofu takes a little longer because it's firm, but you can buy soft or silken tofu as well, which will make it a bit more smoother, but this one works fine for me.)

Add enough water while blending to make about 600mL of tofu 'cream'. I added about 1 1/2 cups of water. Try not to add too much, because the cream will be watery and runny. I did that once and the meal tasted mainly of liquid tofu rather than mushrooms.
Meanwhile, add mushrooms to the pot and cook until soft.

After that, add the 1/2 cup of flour and stir, then slowly pour in the 2 cups of stock. Stir constantly to avoid lumps.

Pour in the tofu cream and stir through. Turn heat down to low when it starts to boil. Cover, and leave to cook, but stir it occasionally, while you cook the pasta. You can add the seasonings here if you like. I think I used a very large tablespoon of mustard powder, and a fair bit of black pepper. No salt. Instead of mustard powder, I'm sure you can use a little bit of whatever mustard you have in the fridge. This is where you can add olives too, if using.



This time we used these fancy pasta shells. We only ever buy this stuff if it's on the $1 stand at the local gourmet market. (This is how we also get loaves of spelt bread, organic bread, random jams and spreads, snack food etc). Any type of pasta will go with this dish. (I usually buy home brand spaghetti or fettuchine from Woolies, or make my own.)

It is finished! For some reason the picture makes it look un-appetising but I assure you it is delicious.

This made enough for 2 people to eat 4 times each (but once we added rice to it and made it into a pie) so I'd say it's a 6 - serving dish. You can freeze it, so if you don't want to eat the same thing four days in a row (or for lunch and tea twice in a row) then you can have it later :) I wouldn't freeze pasta, though.

Enjoy!

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