Odeliza Jacoba Recipes

Mahalo Chicos,

One of my favorite and oh so universal vegetable is the spinach. One can incorporate spinach in just about any dish from around the globe.

I like to buy the spinach fresh from the Tuesday Farmer’s Market and then prep it for cooking through out the week.

Luckily its one of the vegetables my other half eats. Although I am not quite sure he favors spinach over peas which are much sweeter. Digressing.

My Spinach Coconut Brown Rice is a perfect dish for all seasons. Summer you can pair it with my vegetable loaf and winter a hearty root vegetable soup.

Prep time: Less than 5 minutes

Cook time: About 60 minutes

Serves: Up to 4 people

What you’ll need:

1. A rice cooker
2. 1 packet of fresh cleaned spinach about 3 cups
3. 1 can or 2 cups of coconut milk
4. 4 c of brown rice
5. 6-8 c of home made vegetable broth
6. fresh ground sea salt and black pepper

What to do:

1. Thoroughly rinse the brown rice. Let soak for 10 minutes in clean water.
2. After 10 minutes, add fresh ground salt and black pepper to taste along with 6 cups of the vegetable broth.
3. Turn on the rice cooker and make the necessary settings to cook the brown rice.
4. Meanwhile, chop the freshly cleaned spinach and set aside.
5. Once the rice is almost done, add the coconut milk and let sit without mixing in.
6. Finally, when the rice is complete and on warm setting, place the spinach on top and add a bit more fresh ground sea salt and black pepper.
7. Turn off and serve warm. If you are planning on serving a bit later in the day, don’t add the spinach until ready to serve. Cover the already cooked rice with the coconut milk and place in the fridge until ready to serve.
8. Once you are ready to serve it, warm it up in the microwave then place a the spinach after a few seconds to cook a bit.

Enjoy.

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Most legumes are a great source for both protein and carbohydrates, chic peas ranks pretty high on the list for vegan and vegetarian protein sources. Not to mention how universal and simple chic peas are to prepare.

Welcome to another addition of my series on Healthy Vegetarian Indian Cooking. My chic pea and vegetable curry can be made into many different meals for your family. More said, the longer the curry sits in the fridge the more the flavors absorb into the chic peas and vegetables.

I like to accompany this curry dish with simple home made pitas, some brown rice cooked in jeera and home made vegan broth, and some simply cut cucumbers and tomatoes. Its healthy, delicious, and can take you back to that quaint Indian dive you miss.

Prep Time: less than5 minutes

Cook time: about 60 minutes or less depending if you have rice cooked already

Serves: up to 4 people

What you’ll need:

1. a large deep dish pan or large shallow pan
2. 2 cans of chic peas drained and rinsed
3. 1 medium carrot peeled and cubed
4. 1 large yellow potato peeled and cubed
5. 1 large onion diced finely (I used my food processor)
6. 2 cloves garlic diced finely (I like to mix the onion with the garlic in my food processor)
7. 1-2 c plain no sugar yogurt
8. 2-3 T Home Made Curry
9. 1 t Hot chili powder or 1 fresh red chili diced finely
10. 3 cardamom pods
11. fresh ground sea salt
12. ghee or plain butter

What to do:

1. Bring the pan of your choice to low heat and add a little of the ghee or plain butter. Don’t let the butter burn.
2. Add the already diced onions and garlic and mix well into the butter. Add a little salt and mix well.
3. Add 1 T Home Made Curry sauce and mix well. Then add the already cubed fresh vegetables and mix well. Salt a bit more then add some more butter.
4. Tip the chic peas in the pan then mix the remaining tablespoons of Home Made Curry, cardamom pods, and chili powder or if using fresh chilies the already diced.
5. Fold in the yogurt and let simmer on very low heat for 3 minutes.
6. Turn off and cover and let sit until ready to serve to allow the flavors to soak in more. And remember the longer the curry sits the better in taste. If you are planing on serving this dish at a much later time, place it covered in the fridge since its got yogurt.

Enjoy!

Namaste,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Welcome to one of my many recipes on healthy Indian vegetarian cooking. Chic pea pancakes are quick, easy to make and so easy to store that a batch can take you a long way.

I like to bring fun and health to our little family meals for my other half and I. Often times I have themes for my meals. I like to plan it out ahead and it usually turns out rather well. It gets a bit boring eating the same old dishes over and over again, I mean food is suppose to be fuel for the body and fuel for the soul.

I pair my chic pea pancakes with fluffy spinach brown rice, home made pita bread and some artichoke hearts in olive oil.

For dessert its my home made baklava. This is the very first dish I ever made by myself at the tender age of 10 or was I 8 at the time?

So hope you enjoy and I’ll be sure to add my other dishes in this menu on other posts.

Prep time: less than 20 minutes

Cooke time: less than 40 minutes

Serves: Up to 16 patties

What you’ll need:

1. a stir fry skillet or any skillet pan
2. baking sheet
3. food processor or medium bowl with potato masher
4. cooking spray (oil not butter)
5. olive oil
6. 1/2 c home made vegetarian broth
7. 2 cans of chic peas drained and rinsed
8. 2 celery sticks chopped into small pieces
9. 1 c mushrooms of any kind roughly chopped
10. 1 small yellow onion
11. 1/2 c sunflower seeds
12. 2 T garlic powder
13. 2 T Home Made Curry Powder
14. 1 T paprika powder
15. 1 T  cumin powder
16. 1 t chili powder
17. 1 c to 1 1/2 c bread crumbs
18. 3 egg whites

What to do:

1. preheat over to 200 c
2. bring the pan to low heat addthe olive oil and saute the onions, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, and chic peas for about 3 minutes.
3. add the herbs in the pan with a little vegetarian broth and ensure the herbs are thoroughly mixed in. Turn off heat and let sit for 2 minutes.
4. take the sauteed ingredients and process until lightly blended together (clumpy not creamy).
5. tip processed ingredients in a bowl and mix already chopped celery sticks.
6. add the bread crumbs and mix.
7. add the egg whites and mix ensuring the mixture holds well. If not add a little bit of whole wheat flour.
8. cover with film and place in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes or until mixture sets a bit.
9. spray baking pan with cooking oil.
10. form mixture into 16 small balls and flatten on an already pre-oiled baking pan.
11. bake for about (ensuring that you flip sides) 15-20 minutes or until golden on both sides.

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

Bambu on San Jose 1290 telephone number 902-7720 located in the down town area of Montevideo, Uruguay.

The only Vegan Asian grocery store in the country. Though limited in selection as majority of the habitants eat meat like crazy here. They offer some staples.

Just a few staples I pick up there:

1. Home made tofu
2. Vegan mushroom sauce
3. Vegan BBQ sauce
4. Mirin
5. Fish Sauce
6. Coconut milk
7. Rice wine
8. Soy sauce
9. Wasabi

Enjoy,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Hola Chicos,

Welcome to my first part of a series on Vegetarian Indian Cooking. Let’s start off with the basic-home made curry powder. This powder is used basically with most of my healthy and delicious Indian meals.

I adore Indian food. When we lived in North America I befriended the owners of a popular authentic Indian restaurant.

Unfortunately, Montevideo, Uruguay is not yet offering authentic Indian food. Happy to say, I can make my own dishes just by using key ingredients-coriander seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric and chili powder.

Most or even all of these key ingredients can be purchased in a country in South America. Especially Montevideo, Uruguay there are a few herb shops in the Centro District that I have listed on my sister site http://www.odeliza.com under Super mercados.

Prep time: Less than 5 minutes

Cook time: Less than 5 minutes

Serves: Up to 8 dishes

What you’ll need:

1. Mortar and Pestle, spice grinder or coffee bean grinder
2. Pan or non stick pan
3. Fresh ground sea salt
4. 1 T turmeric powder
5. 1/2 c fresh coriander seeds
6. 3 T cumin seeds
7. 2 T fennel seeds
8. 2 T fenugreek seeds (omit if not available)
9. 5 C dried red chili flakes
10. 1 c crushed sea salt

What to do:

1. grind all the seeds and mix the already ground ingredients inside your selected grinder tool.
2. Store in an air tight container for up to a month.
3. Stay tuned as I will take you on an amazing journey to India’s finest flavors and street fetes.

Namaste,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Mahalo Chicos,

I love noodles as you can see I’ve already posted one on this site. Noodles are considered to be long life fortunes for most South Asian and Asian countries so imagine how many times I’ve eaten.

Spicy, savory and sweet would best describe my Asian Spicy Noodles dish. It is Vegetarian but can easily accommodate the meat eater in your family. I often make my own Tofu, but this time I did not for this dish, so the protein source that I use is egg whites.

I like my noodles cold in the summer and warm in the winter. This dish tastes great either temperature.

Prep time: about 5 minutes

Cook time: about 10 minutes

Serves: 4 people

What you’ll need:

1. a wok or large frying pan
2. a large pot to boil the noodles
3. 6 egg whites
4. 1 c frozen green peas
5. 1/2 yellow onion diced
6. a hand full of of green beans stems removed and cut in half
7. 1/2 large or 1 medium red bell pepper
8. 1/2 c baby corn cut in bite size pieces
9. 1 medium tomato cubed
10. 1 250 g tagliatelle pasta
11. 1 T dark sesame oil
12. 1/2 c low sodium soy sauce or normal soy sauce if you so choose
13. 1 T lemon grass paste
14. 1 T honey
15. 1 t dried chili flakes more if you so desire
16. salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. Bring the large pot to high and as soon as it starts to bubble add some salt to flavor the pasta. Shortly after, add the pasta and cook for less than 5 minutes. If the pasta is not el dente its okay, but do not over cook it as you will be cooking it for another time. Set aside and let cool without the water.
2. Cook the egg whites on low heat with the onion and sesame oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside on a separate bowl.
3. Cook the remaining vegetables on low to medium heat and add the soy sauce, lemon grass paste chili flakes and honey. Add a tiny bit of water if necessary. Turn on low and add the already cooked egg whites and already cooked pasta. Toss for a minute or less. Serve warm of room temp.

Enjoy!

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza

Swadika Chicos,

As a female would greet someone in Thailand. Shesh, I miss the place so much, I have to go back soon. We’ll see… With the gas prices so high now, a first class or even business class ticket is way way over the budget. For that matter, economy is way way over too!

So instead, I thought I’d recreate some of my favorite Thai staples that my Thai brother used to prepare for me in his restaurant. Surprisingly, I never ate Thai fried rice in Thailand, I ate just simple steamed jasmine rice. But still oh so yummy. In memory of my romantic Thai get way with my other half I wore my black south sea pear earrings on the Playa today. Along with a hand painted batik I purchased from a really sweet Thai lady that wrote my name out in Thai.

I hope you enjoy my Thai fried rice. It’s vegetarian but oh so hearty that even a meat eater would appreciate it.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: About 30 minutes

Serves: Up to 4 people (1/2 to 3/4 c)

What you’ll need:

1. A large frying pan such as a wok
2. sesame oil or olive oil for frying
3. 6 c of day old brown or white long grain rice
4. 4 egg white omelette’s
5. 1/2 bag of frozen peas
6. 1 bushel of cilantro
7. 1 bushel of scallion cut into 1/2 inches
8. 1 large purple or yellow onion cubed
9. 2 cloves of garlic minced
10. 1 large tomato cubed
11. 1 medium cucumber skin and seeds removed and cut into circles
12. 1 c chili powder or more if you so desire
13. 1/2 T fish sauce (omit if you don’t like the flavor)
14. 1 c soy sauce
15. 1/2 c of fresh mung beans
16. 2 limes
17. 1 c lemon juice
18. salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. Warm the work to low heat
2. add a little oil
3. lightly saute the onions, garlic, tomato and frozen peas for about two minutes ensuring that the garlic does not brown. Remove and place in a bowl or container for later.
4. add a little more oil and keep on medium heat while you fry the egg whites. Remove and place in the same bowl as the vegetables.
5. add a little more oil and add the rice in the wok, pan fry for about 1 minute. Add the fish sauce if you are using, chili powder, lemon juice, chili powder, 1/2 c soy sauce (reserving the other half for later). Fold all ingredients ensuring the flavors coat the rice.
6. after about 2 minutes turn off heat. Add already sauteed ingredients in the wok and fold into the rice.
7. I like to use a pretty serving dish, you can use what ever you like. Plate the rice, decorate with scallions, mung beans, cilantro, cucumbers and wedged lime. Add salt and pepper and remaining soy sauce to taste.

Kar poon kai

Ciao,

Odeliza Jacoba

Odeliza