I couldn't find a Microwave Vegan Cook Book so I decided
to share some ideas and recipes.
The first tip is to use glass. Not plastic. Glass.
The second tip to learn your oven's settings.
I went out of my way to get the cheapest simplest
Microwave oven I could find; there is 'warm' 'defrost'
'low' 'medium' 'medium high' and 'high' with a time
dial beneath.
Once you know how long it takes to boil pasta, or
to get a 'toast' look to your bread, all recipes
can be devised to suit.
Where top of the stove cooking is heat applied to
the container, the container transmitting the heat
to the contents, the contents reacting to the heat
from the outside in, microwave cooking is cooking
from the inside out.
The 'frying' concept has to be turned on its head.
In 'wrapper' foods where one often stuffs cooked food
into the wrapper, then fries, in microwave cooking,
the contents will burn before the wrapper is 'fried'.
Hence, one would often adopt a recipe where the wrapper
is stuffed with uncooked potato, pop into the micro until
almost done, then removed, opened, the desired uncooked
contents inserted, then finished.
Where in conventional stews you simmer a long time to
bring out the flavours, you partially cook in a microwave,
put the stew in the fridge overnight, then on a lower
setting, finish the next day.
Where you want that 'fried' flavour, you add olive oil
to the recipe, inside instead of the usual egg white
binder, and outside to collect the breadcrumbs.
In short, it's a new style of cooking, and the old
rules do not apply.
As you are going to actually be tasting the food, since
microwave cooking brings out the natural flavour, you
have to buy the best. You can't buy the cheapest pasta
or use second quality. Everything you use you are going
to taste, so yes, that does push up the expense a bit,
but! always prepare more than you intend to eat now.
If something is to be microwaved for five minutes, do it
for three, remove, freeze. When you are ready for it,
you finish cooking it.
In this way you have your very own 'instant' meals, taking
less then five minutes from fridge to plate.
This cuts the cost per serving and you throw away nothing,
as many 'scraps' are useful in other meals; that bit of
left over curried potato is fabulous in a stuffed pepper,
for one of the things about micro wave cooking is that
it turns 'left overs' into the best meals.
Many vegan 'alternatives' to meat are tasteless or unpleasant.
You can make them delicious by pretreating them.
For example, soy protein used as mince tastes like seasoned
cardboard. It is simplicity to make it taste fabulous.
Your usual 'treatment' should be cut up brocolli stems
and jerk seasoning. Jerk is a mixture of onion, pimento,
garlic, pepper, vinegar, etc. Depending on how much you
use it can go from well seasoned to peppery to really hot.
However as it contains everything you need, a little jerk
seasoning in the water you will use to 'boil' the brocolli
stems goes far.
Put the stems and seasoning into the right amount of rehydration
water, pop that into the micro at high for about three minutes,
pour over the 'mince' cover tight, let sit for about twenty
minutes. The 'mince' will absorb the flavours, taste really
good, and can be used in a wide array of dishes.
Now here is a very simple recipe; stuffed peppers.
Get a few medium sized sweet peppers, carefully pull out
the stems, clean out the seeds. Pack the bottom with
cheese, (vegecheese) then you mince mixture, then fresh
cut up tomatos, tiny slivers of carrot, and whatever other
veges you have around, making different layers, adding cheese
to bind, a little tomato sauce if you want, ending with cheese
at the top.
Pop into a micro at high from five minutes. Take out, collect
the gravey, this is so good it is illegal, save it for you
next batch of vege mince.
As the contents of your pepper will shrink, pack it again with
mince, veges, ending with cheese, tomato pieces and some
parsley or oregano or basil, back in for two minutes at high.
The pepper should be slightly puckered.
As with any micro wave meal, you make more than you intend to
eat now. This means that you might have made three or four
peppers but only plan to eat one now.
This means that you would not put the three back into the
the micro for the last few minutes, but into the container
where you have saved the gravy. You would put that in the
fridge for next time.
