Instant Pot Mac and Cheese

This was a weird one.  I was craving mac and cheez and I wanted to do something in the Instant Pot.  I was going to do a dal, but then looked up Instant Pot Mac and Cheese and lo and behold I found one. by Detoxinista. The instructions say to set the thing at zero, but I found that really didn't work for me, so after I got the burn error, I set it for 2 minutes on high pressure.  That seemed to work and it was not as runny as I thought it would be.  I added roasted broccoli with garlic. right after I depressurized the pot and stirred it up.  It was quite tasty and unlike other mac and cheese recipes I have tried my husband ate this one. That's always a plus.

Imam Batildi

This eggplant dish is from Turkey apparently.  It is divine.  The recipe is from Feed Me Phoebe and I followed it somewhat close to the written recipe.  I decided however, that instead of frying the eggplant in a pan, I used by baby frier.  That seemed to do the trick and it was faster to make that way.  The pieces were cut totally wrong for this dish but they were cut up when I got them as they were from a friend's garden and she gave me what she didn't use when doing fried eggplant. I served them with rice putting a few arugula leaves on the top to make it look good.

Tofu and Artichoke Scampi

This scampi was pretty good.  I added spinach because I was confused and thought the recipe called for it, but it worked.  Of course, if you ask me, spinach works for almost everything. That and avocado, but I digress.

The recipe was from Connoisseurusveg, whose recipes I generally really like.  They are fairly simple and always delicious.  This was as well and even my husband liked it, which is my key that it is good.  I generally like anything vegan, but hubby, not so much. 

Give this one a try.

Jungle Curry

This was very tasty to me.  My husband was so-so about it. I usually like the ones from the Happy Pear and this one was one that I have done a few times, but not always following the recipe as it is written.

I didn't make too many changes.  I used some different veggies.  I had a yellow squash from the garden - the first harvest! - so I had to add that.  The other change is one that I have made before and that is instead of using a Serrano chili, which I rarely buy (I am growing them in my garden so that will change, I'm sure). Instead I used my old standard red chili flakes in an amount that I think will equal the heat of the pepper. The other change was noodles.  I used the linguine rice noodles, which I added to the pot after the curry itself was ready.  I found that it soaked up the liquid and really made the whole dish come together. 

Instant Pot Dal Tadka

This turned out really good.  I had heard of Dal from friends of mine but never made one.  My sister-in-law made a fantastic one and said she was going to give me the recipe but haven't gotten around to. 

I got this from Caitlin Shoemaker's blog.  It is not her own, as she collaborated on this with Nisha Vota (the link is in Caitlin's blog).  I am always on the lookout for Instant Pot vegan recipes and when I saw this I knew I had to try it.  I am so glad I did.

I made a few changes mostly because I didn't have the ingredient.  I didn't use the serrano pepper but simply used chili flakes.  It was still quite spicy, but not overly so. I also didn't have curry leaves as I forgot to look for them on the last grocery trip. Finally, the recipe calls for black mustard seeds.  I didn't have them either, but had regular mustard seeds.  But otherwise it turned out great.

Generally it was a simple, easy recipe and was very good as a leftover.

Frittata

I was invited to a brunch the other day and decided to make this to take with me. It was very well received in a room of mostly omnivores.

This recipe was by Minimalist Baker and it was very good. I followed it exactly, well mostly.  I added a bunch of fresh herbs from my garden (dill, basil, and parsley) after I took it out of the oven because it looked so good in the picture on her site and because I wanted to brag about my bountiful garden.

As I said, it was very well received.  Several people asked about it and could not believe that one could make a frittata without eggs.  The mung beans the recipe calls for were a very different ingredient for me. I found them at Wegman's in my area in the Asian section and used them in a Instant Pot Dahl recipe (which I will post in another entry).

Mushroom Frajitas

Still on the Mexican kick.  Seems like that is my favorite type of food, but I digress. 

This was a very tasty recipe by Forks over Knives. I saw this come up on my Instagram feed and thought it looked good.  Interestingly enough, the video shared was not the same as the printed recipe and I liked those ingredients more so I more or less followed them. This included tamari sauce (or low salt soy sauce) and maple syrup. That touch of sweetness really made this dish.

It calls for grilled portobello mushrooms, which I didn't really have.  I got sliced baby portobello at the store and they worked just fine.  I served the mushroom mixture with chipotle salsa, hot sauce, and of course, avocados. I think using grilled mushrooms would greatly reduce the amount of liquid released by the mushrooms as they cooked.  I did drain it because I was impatient and didn't want to overcook everything.  I guess if I cooked the mushrooms separately, I could have added them once they had released their liquid.I also forgot to add the cilantro.  I have fresh growing in my garden and I simply forgot to go out and cut it. 

The one thing I really like about Forks over Knives recipes is that they use no fat.  Cleanup is a breeze - at least I find that to be true.