miso Archives | World Food

Perfect tofu kofta (Turkish meatball) feast!

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020
by Jono

Perfect tofu kofta (Turkish / Lebanese meatballs) with all the trimmings, from scratch.

Is it possible to make a perfect vegetarian kofta with tofu? We’ve been puzzling over this idea for a while, and we finally cracked it! The texture is very important here, you want something with that semi-meaty bite, not too squishy but also not dry and starchy.

This is a feast recipe – how to do each element that you’ll need for a great, easy, Turkish themed dinner party! We go through making the perfect tofu kofta, yoghurt flatbreads, sumac pickled onions, chopped salad and tahini sauce, all from scratch.

This is a great spread for friends – messy and delicious!

These are about as close to perfect as you can get with household ingredients – some companies like Beyond Meat have made virtually indistinguishable meat alternatives, but you’re not going to be able to replicate that in your home kitchen from scratch.

Kofta is a skinless meatball eaten over an enormous area – literally from Eastern Europe to India – but the most famous are the Turkish and Lebanese ones. This is more along the lines of a Lebanese kofta simply because of how we put it together, but there’s loads of overlap between cuisines in the area.

This is such a fun food to eat with your hands – makes for a great dinner party! Grab a few friends, break out the Raki, and make your own flatbreads. Messy, healthy, delicious – this is our kind of eating! Perfect for a casual supper where you want to show off your plant based cooking skills 😉

Jump to Recipe – Print Recipe

Perfect tofu meatballs, perfect tofu kofta, perfect tofu kofte, kofta, kofte, juicy, grilled, meat, vegan, vegetarian, Turkish, Lebanese, balkan, Indian, Japanese, miso, plant, based, plant based, quick, healthy, feast, spread, flat, breads, flatbreads, home, made, homemade, recipe, delicious, easy, dinner, party, dinner party, friends, summer, messy, healthy, wild, raki, Rakia, spread, sauce, tahini, Perfect tofu meatballs, perfect tofu kofta, perfect tofu kofte, kofta, kofte, juicy, grilled, meat, vegan, vegetarian, Turkish, Lebanese, balkan, Indian, Japanese, miso, plant, based, plant based, quick, healthy, feast, spread, flat, breads, flatbreads, home, made, homemade, recipe, delicious, easy, dinner, party, dinner party, friends, summer, messy, healthy, wild, raki, Rakia, spread, sauce, tahini,Perfect tofu meatballs, perfect tofu kofta, perfect tofu kofte, kofta, kofte, juicy, grilled, meat, vegan, vegetarian, Turkish, Lebanese, balkan, Indian, Japanese, miso, plant, based, plant based, quick, healthy, feast, spread, flat, breads, flatbreads, home, made, homemade, recipe, delicious, easy, dinner, party, dinner party, friends, summer, messy, healthy, wild, raki, Rakia, spread, sauce, tahini,

Fusion

Cauliflower ginger miso soup

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020
by Jono

Cauliflower ginger miso soup – Miso soup is one of those absolutely timeless classic dishes, perfect in its simplicity. We got the idea for this soup from a recipe in a vegan cookbook called Wicked Healthy, which does excellent, inventive vegan food – highly recommended! If you’re new to Miso Soup and would like to taste the original, here’s the classic.

The cauliflower seems like a strange addition if you’re familiar with the comforting flavours of miso soup, but trust us, it’s a revelation. So much so, in fact, that we think it’s actually better than the original – plain miso soup is ruined for us forever! The cauliflower gives a beautiful silkiness without overpowering, and the whole thing has a gorgeous earthy flavour – It literally tastes like a walk in the forest!

This is a very versatile recipe, and can be adapted to whatever you have on hand – use whatever protein source tickles your fancy, whatever veg you have in the house, and if you don’t have rice noodles – it’s still gonna be delicious!

Jump to Recipe – Print Recipe

European

Chickpea fusilli with basil pesto and asparagus

April 17, 2020April 18, 2020
by Jono

Chickpea fusilli with a cucumber basil pesto and raw asparagus – this incredibly healthy dinner also happens to be oil free, sugar free, and vegan! Fusilli (and trofie) is the traditional pasta to eat with pesto, since the pesto fills the grooves in a very satisfying way.

We understand that Chick Pea (and other pulse based pastas) are still an expensive food item in some parts of the world, and if you can’t get it, feel free to use regular pasta. We chose to use it because of the nutritional benefit of the extra protein (and it’s cheap in Ireland!), so bear in mind that if you’re using regular pasta you’ll need to fortify with a protein source (adding tofu into the pesto etc) to make it more nutritionally complete.

This raw, fresh pesto smells incredible – no oil or animal products, just incredibly healthy, fresh ingredients. There are one or 2 slightly more offbeat ingredients, but these are definitely items that can be used to add fantastic flavour to all sorts of things, so worth seeking them out.

Jump to Recipe – Print Recipe

Fusion

Instant teff bread with sumac and miso

June 5, 2018June 5, 2018
by Jono

This instant bread is seriously quick to whip up, requires no kneading or rising and will clinch any mezze-type dinner party with no extra effort.

We used teff flour here that we ground ourselves, but feel free to substitute for other grains or flours as you have available.

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

European

Whole roasted cauliflower with tahini, bacon and preserved lemons

April 19, 2018
by Jono

Let me start out by saying that this recipe contains pretty much all of my favourite ingredients, and is stunning.

It is also very adaptable, so feel free to chop and change according to what you have in your cupboards.

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Fusion

Sous vide chicken breast with oyster sauce, miso roasted…

January 22, 2018February 12, 2018
by Jono

This is our take on chicken, veg and gravy – taken to the next level of course.

You need a sous vide cooker for this, but you can do it manually if you have an accurate thermometer.

The espagnole sauce here is an absolute winner – easy, cheap, healthy and exploding with umami flavour; it goes perfectly with any meat or vegetable dish.

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Fusion

Mussel ragout with watercress and zucchini

January 21, 2018January 21, 2018
by Jono

Served with a fresh salad and grilled vegetables

We made this mussel ragout in the eastern cape coast of South Africa. The old idiom “Necessity is the mother of invention” is certainly true here – We pulled the mussels off the rocks, and the watercress was growing wild at a spring near the house. The japanese flavours work perfectly with tomato and seafood, and really lift a simple dish to amazing heights.

I wouldn’t recommend doing this with shop bought frozen mussels – if you can’t get this absolutely fresh, then rather do something else with your mussels – white wine and cream can cover up the unhappiness of frozen mussels quite nicely.

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Japan and China

Classic Miso Soup with homemade dashi

January 19, 2018February 12, 2018
by Jono

A friend requested a recipe for a classic miso soup, so here we are.

If you have the time, making your own dashi is effort, but oh-so-worth-it. You can harvest your own Konbu (Giant kelp) and dry it slowly in the oven, otherwise asian food supermarkets should have it. Katsoubushi or Bonito flakes are dry, shaved tuna flakes, difficult to make yourself but again, asian supermarkets will have.

With that said, freeze-dried dashi is actually not bad, and the convenience makes up for the compromise in flavour.

Wakame is a dried brown/green seaweed that is reconstituted in water and eaten as a sea vegetable. You can harvest fresh wakame if you are near the coast, just make sure you are not taking from any polluted areas.

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Fusion

Butterfish baked with white wine, miso and watercress

January 19, 2018January 19, 2018
by Jono

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Tag: miso

Perfect tofu kofta (Turkish / Lebanese meatballs) with all the trimmings, from scratch.