Borscht, easy vegan version
Posted: 6 December 2020 Filed under: Aash and Soups, Uncategorized | Tags: autumn vibes, Borscht Leave a commentNothing beats a hot bowl of borscht in a cold humid autumn evening – especially if it is vegan and smells heavenly too. The following is my recipe for a simple vegetarian or vegan borscht.

Ingredients
- 3-4 tbsp. oil
- 4 cups green cabbage, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1-2 clove of garlic, minced
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup V8 or thick tomato juice
- Salt and black powder pepper, as desired
- Lukewarm water
- 1 tbsp. dried dill
- 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup plant based yogurt, thickened
Method
Fry cabbage in hot oil over medium heat until it turns soft and changes color. Put aside.
In a medium pot, Sauté onion in 1 tbsp. hot oil till transparent. Add the garlic and sauté one more minute
Add fried cabbage to the pot and mix well. Add salt, pepper, tomatoes and V8 (or tomato juice) and mix. Now add enough water to cover your mixed ingredients.
Cook on low heat with closed lid for about an hour or until it is thoroughly cooked.
Ten minutes before serving, add lime juice and dill. Taste for adjustment.
Place 2 scoops of thick yogurt on each serving bowl. The Yogurt must be taken out of the fridge at least 1 hour in advance. Garnish with extra dills if you like.
Enjoy!
Sour cherries-mixed rice
Posted: 13 August 2019 Filed under: Sour cherries-mixed rice | Tags: meatballs, shiraz, sour cherries Leave a commentFresh sour cherries are really hard to find in my city Montreal. This year however I was lucky enough to get my hands on a sour cherry farm in the suburb and hand pick them for one of my favorite Persian dishes of all times: albaloo polow, آلبالو پلو a beautiful summary rice mixed with tasty meatballs, sweetened sour cherries and topped with silvered pistachio and almond.
In my old hometown, Shiraz, my family used to buy loads of fresh cherries each summer to make jams, drinks, fruit rolls, dried fruits and of course many meals of sour cherries mix rice. Here is how this delicious dish is made: Read the rest of this entry »
Shrimp-beans-quinoa with nasturtium
Posted: 7 July 2019 Filed under: Shrimp-beans-quinoa with nasturtium, Uncategorized | Tags: black beans, edible_flower, nasturtium, quinoa, shrimp Leave a commentI am making the most of our short summer here in Montreal , making good use of my edible flowers grown in my beloved patio. Here is an idea if you fancy nasturtium in your shrimp dish as a beautiful summer side dish.
Ingredients (serves 4-6 as a side dish) Read the rest of this entry »
Celery Root, Green Apple and Pistachio Salad
Posted: 16 June 2019 Filed under: Celery Root, Green Apple and Pistachio Salad, Uncategorized | Tags: celery_root, easy and fast, edible_flower, summer_salad 2 CommentsThis is an extremely easy, tasty and summery salad with lots of room for creativity! I serve this as a side when I have a small party: I also enjoy having it on hot summer days as a light lunch.
Ingredients (serving 3-4 for a salad or side) Read the rest of this entry »
Loaf cake, with raisins and walnuts
Posted: 22 May 2019 Filed under: Loaf cake, Uncategorized, with raisins and walnuts | Tags: cake-e ghaalebi, Loaf cake, raisins, walnuts Leave a commentA classic loaf cake is by far my favorite type of cake nice for breakfast, afternoon tea and easy to bake. I realize there are so many varieties out there but this one – with raisins and walnuts – is an extremely good combination and my recipe here makes a light and fluffy cake. I have tried a gluten-free version of this cake by replacing the regular flour with Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all-purpose flour. The cake did not get as fluffy but everything else was just about perfect!
Ingredients Read the rest of this entry »
Fesenjoon Stew
Posted: 1 April 2019 Filed under: Fesenjoon | Tags: Fesenjoon, pomegranate, pomegranate molasses, walnuts Leave a commentI cannot believe I have not included khoresh fesenjoon خورشت فسنجون in my Iranian stews yet! This traditional stew, made primarily with ground walnuts and pomegranate paste or molasses, with a sweet-sour taste, deep aroma and rich flavor is quite unique among other Iranian stews and is regarded a fancy dish served at special occasions and for special guests.
A specialty of Northern Iran, fesenjoon is traditionally cooked using duck meat. Nowadays people use chicken breast or tights instead. Or for a vegan version simply skip the meat step and still get a rich and flavorful stew. There are certainly more than one method in making a good fesenjoon, but below is just one of them! Read the rest of this entry »
Baghlava for Norooz
Posted: 12 March 2019 Filed under: Baghlava | Tags: Baghlava, baklava, homemade_sweets, Norooz 1 CommentOnce again Norooz, “new day”, spring, the Persian New Year is upon us; so is the earth’s rejuvenation and the hope! Hope for more sun, more warmth, more kindness, more peace – hope for better days. It is that time of the year we prepare for our new year by doing a lot of things including baking delicacies for our new year sofreh.
This year I decided to try my hands on a rather complicated homemade sweet, called baghlava, باقلوا in Persian – an extremely delicious walnut-almond rich layers brought together by fragrant honey-rosewater syrup.
Pomegranate soup, Aash-e anar, for Yalda
Posted: 17 December 2018 Filed under: Aash-e anar, Pomegranate soup, Uncategorized | Tags: anaar, pomegranate molasses, Pomegranate soup, yalda 1 CommentOnce again Yalda, one of Iranian’s much loved and cherished celestial moments and rituals is round the corner. We celebrate Yalda on winter solstice on Dec. 20th as the longest and darkest night of the year by getting together, reciting poetry and feasting over a colorful spread of dried fruits and nuts, aajil, specific fruits namely pomegranate, persimmon and watermelon, cozy heartwarming dishes and lots of light, hope and energy to get through the long but increasingly brighter winter ahead. See my precious posts for Yalda night here and here.
The Persian “Pomegranate Soup” or ash-e anar آش انار, will forever resonate with me the excellent culinary fiction by the same name written by Marsha Mehran, an eloquent Iranian-Irish author who passed too soon but whose novels depicted Persian cuisine enchanting as a fairy-tale full of texture, fragrance and mystery always ready to haut, charm and welcome those unfamiliar with it. Read the rest of this entry »
Tahchin, Persian upside down yogurt-saffron rice with chicken
Posted: 11 December 2018 Filed under: Persian upside down yogurt-saffron rice with chicken, Tahchin | Tags: tah cheen, tah chin, Tahchin Leave a commentTahchin تهچین is a traditional Persian dish which is very unique in its taste and texture – a dense dish flavored with yogurt, saffron and thick yogurt and typically layered with chicken chunks. The delicious thick golden rice crust (tahdig) formed at the bottom and around the cooked tahchin is its shining feature.
An original tahchin is stem-cooked in a pot (a non-stick one in this case) over gas or electric stove just like any other Persian mix rice; however since the amount of liquid in the rice makes its cooking behaviour a bit different and complicated, a lot of recipes advise you to “bake” the dish instead using Pyrex dishes in the oven. Well, I never went with baking style and after many years of trying and failing the traditional pot style, last summer I finally succeeded in getting it right – thanks to my beloved auntie visiting form my old hometown Shiraz. Read the rest of this entry »
One-Bowl Vegan, GF Fruits-Nut Muffins
Posted: 15 November 2018 Filed under: GF Fruits-Nut Muffins, One-Bowl Vegan | Tags: Fruit-Mixed muffins, gluten free, vegan, walnuts Leave a commentI ran into this gluten free, vegan recipe for carrot-banana-apple-walnuts muffins on Minimalist Baker and absolutely loved it. The list of ingredients may look long, but the preparation is much easier than your average cake or muffin and the result is tender, fruity sweet muffins with the added chewiness of walnuts and oats.
I tried both non-vegan (with 1 egg) and vegan (with flax eggs) versions and both turned equally nice. Actually, I was very excited to have found a substitute for egg and quite impressed by how well flax eggs worked to stick everything together in these muffins. Read the rest of this entry »