Weekly Meal Plan: Vegan Sushi & Tomato Gruyere Tart
This was a very successful week in my food life. Which is, basically, 80% of my life. There are two recipes that I'm so insanely excited about- one of which I've already made again!
MONDAY: WHISKEY BURGERS
Photo by Mantitlement
I took the basic concept of this recipe and tried it two different ways. I soaked the patties in whiskey (Jameson) and garlic as the recipe called for. On my burger I added ketchup, tomatoes, and lettuce. On Killian's I swapped the ketchup for BBQ sauce and the veggies for caramelised onions. I of course kept the cheese and bacon as the recipe called for, on both! Both burgers came out super yummy! The whiskey gave the meat some really nice but subtle flavour.
TUESDAY: GRILLED CHEESE AND TOMATO SOUP
Photo from Recipes Hubs
There's never going to be anything that beats a good, classic grilled cheese and tomato soup in my eyes. It's easy enough to change up over time, as well. This time I went as classic as it gets. I like to roast 6+ tomatoes, half an onion, and garlic with olive oil before blending them all together with some veggie broth and fresh basil. I've heard that adding a carrot can help bulk up the consistency and flavour but of tomato soup, but it's not something that I've tried yet. If you've given it a go yourself, how did it turn out? Was it noticeable? Awesome?
For the best grilled cheese, the only way to go is the most unhealthy route. Although sometimes I like a good whole-grain seeded bread. But load that pan up with butter and let it soak in every ounce of that golden goodness while it fries to a perfect golden brown. I like to mix half cheddar and mozzarella for the perfect cheese combo on my grilled cheese. I'd love to play around with more gourmet cheeses or cheese combos. What's your fave?
There's no going wrong here!
WEDNESDAY: VEGAN TERIYAKI SUSHI
Photo by Sweetened By Plants
Okay this is the recipe guys. This will win over sushi nay-sayers and sushi fans alike. Plus, it's vegan, so friend of all dietary persuasions can dig in! The blog that this website comes from serves up this sushi in burrito form, but I chose to make mine regular sushi. I've actually never rolled sushi before, so this was a whole new experiment in cooking for me. I cut up my eggplant pretty thinly and it came out just as the picture above shows. For anyone who worries about the texture (or flavour) of eggplant, have no worries here- you wouldn't even be able to tell it's eggplant if you didn't know beforehand! The only change I made to the ingredients was swapping agave out for honey, since it's what I had on hand. I sucked at rolling, so it looked super messy, but OH MY GOSH it was SO GOOD! Try this tonight. Or tomorrow, you know, once you've gotten the ingredients. But you've got to try this straight away!
THURSDAY: STEAK ROLLS
Photo by Picture the Recipe
If you've kept up with my blog for a while now, you've seen this recipe pop up several times. It's definitely been in my regular rotation ever since I discovered it a year ago when I first started my food blog. The rolls may look small, but they're pretty filling. Serving them with some steamed veggies on the side never hurts, though. It's relatively quick and easy, particularly if you've chopped the veggies up beforehand. Once you've gotten past that single time-consuming step, it's smooth sailing from there!
FRIDAY: TORTELLINI SOUP WITH GRUYERE TOMATO TART
Tart photo by Taste and Tell and BHG
While perusing Pinterest one day, I spotted the above photo, titled Tomato Tart with Bacon and Gruyere. Sold. Sold sold sold. But realistically, I knew it was a side dish, not a main course. So I knew I had to make it alongside something. Our preferred grocery store does some really amazing pre-made tortellini with lots of fillings to choose from. With this knowledge, I figured I'd try out a tortellini soup. Cue some blog stalking and I found this recipe for a creamy soup with mushrooms and spinach.
My only hesitation was that I have pretty crummy luck with puff pastry. I can never get it to puff just the right amount. It always ends up puffing up to the high heavens like a hairdo straight from Texas. And that is just not what I need 97.6% of the time. So with this tart, I rolled all of the Texas right out of that puff pastry until it was as thin as I felt comfortable making it. It took some time, but was well worth it. I made mine comparatively small since it was only for 2 people.
My one change was to make the edges/walls of the tart into braids. That was much harder than I anticipated. As a girl who's had long hair most of her life, I'm used to braiding at lightning speed, and it's kind of an automatic motor skill that I've developed. I do it without thinking. I'm not really sure what the methodology is, and I certainly couldn't explain it at gunpoint (because I'd be scared out of my mind and obviously unable to picture a braid without doing one, I'm a goner). I just do it. But when dealing with feather-weighted puff pastry that's also pretty sticky, it's not a walk in the park. Also, I learned that laziness does not go as well here as it does with hair. You really should have perfectly even "strands" to work with. Even though it'll puff up a bit, it'll still show through.
The soup I could give or take, it was the tortellini that made it (I'd rather just have the tortellini to be honest) but we ate that entire tart in one sitting it was so good. Piglets? Yes. Happy? Hell yes. Just look at that beauty of a tart below. That was my very first attempt! I've never made any type of pastry before, so it was fun to try something new in that department. It was even more fun to succeed. Boast boat boast. I'd love to serve this when having guests over because it's both beautiful and delicious. The best possible combo when dealing with food.
That's all for this week. Try them all. Well, maybe not the tortellini soup. But everything else was so dang good.