Recipe Category Archives: Garden Vegetable Levana Meal Replacement

Vegetable Tofu Stir Fry with Miso Sauce Recipe

Adapted from Levana Cooks using Garden Vegetable Levana Nourishments

Vegetable Tofu Stir Fry: the Perfect Dinner!

You don’t need to wait until Meatless Monday to enjoy it. It is quite a substantial one-dish main course any time. You could swear you’re having a steak dinner: It’s that hearty!

The miso sauce and Sake yield a rich, silky and luxurious sauce. I took my recipe Asian all the way. Pretty easy to take your dish in any direction with a well stocked pantry!

For this Vegetable Tofu Stir Fry, I love to use Super Firm Tofu!

That’s the firmest textured tofu in the whole tofu gamut, and is becoming increasingly available. It lends itself beautifully to grilling and stir-frying. Firm and reliable, it won’t let you down or break apart: You will enjoy it more often. It only needs a few drops of oil to sear on each side.

You have plenty of room to play!

Although I was very happy with my vegetable selection, on another shopping day I might find something else more inviting. So this week it was tiny, and I mean tiny rainbow baby potatoes, less than an inch in diameter. They were impossibly cute, so of course I knew better than to leave them behind. Then I found small cremini, small baby bok choy, and small baby peppers. But many other choices will do: Small Brussels sprouts, asparagus chunks, thin zucchini, sliced shiitake, sliced nappa cabbage, even diced kohlrabi, butternut squash chunks, and so on. Likewise, you could skip the potatoes and serve the whole dish on a bed of soba or rice noodles.

Do not add any salt to the dish!

Once you put in the miso, you will find the dish amply seasoned without any added salt. You don’t want to ruin your dish by making it too salty!

Always have some exotic spices on hand!

I always have chipotle powder and truffle salt on hand: Accessible, exotic and low maintenance luxuries that help turn your pantry into a real treasure trove. (Enjoy the truffle salt in another dish though, we have enough salt in the sauce)

Use a large nonstick skillet!

That’s a must-have utensil. As usual with stir fry dishes, the wider the bottom of the skillet, the less oil you will need, and the faster your dish will come together, even while it keeps its vibrant color and crunch. Stir-fry the vegetables that have a comparable cooking time together. For example: stir-fry nappa, mushrooms and baby peppers together. Stir fry baby potatoes and tofu together, and so on.

 

Continue Reading 0

Cornmeal-Crusted Tilapia Fillets

Adapted from Levana Cooks, using Garden Vegetable Levana Nourishments

cornmeal-crusted tilapia

Tilapia might suffer from mild neglect in the States.

It is so underrated! I suspect one of the reasons is because tilapia raised in China gets a reputation for being farmed quite recklessly, and in less than sanitary conditions. But we can still enjoy tilapia from all other sources.

Tilapia is economical, versatile and flavorful: there’s nothing I don’t do with it!

This is one of the few recipes I fry, and it is a real treat. For a crust, I find cornmeal gives matzah meal a good shove. The crust you obtain using it is much more flaky and tender (I’ll bet our gluten-free friends are happy to hear this!)

Tilapia has two halves, marked right down its center:

A thinner half, and a thicker half. This is why I prefer to halve the fillets, so each half cooks no longer than its thickness requires. Likewise, look for larger fillets, 7 to 9 ounces each, they are moist and meaty.

Try this delicious Cornmeal-Crusted Tilapia recipe

There’s plenty of room to play with this Cornmeal-Crusted Tilapia recipe: any other kind of milk can be substituted for the coconut milk, including buttermilk for a dairy treat; other herbs and spices (oregano, cumin, red pepper flakes, etc); other nice thick white flesh fish fillet can be substituted for tilapia (cod, scrod, bass etc)

Continue Reading 26

Chopped Salad with Tehina Zaatar Recipe

Adapted from Levana Cooks, using Garden Vegetable Levana Nourishments

chopped salad with tehina zaatar

My favorite Chopped Salad is based on the classic Israeli Salad

I enrich with lots of good herbs, and dress it with a terrific Tehina Zaatar Dressing. More chopping than I like to do, but the good news is, my chopped salad can be easily elevated to main course status.

This chopped salad recipe is quite elastic, but here are some pointers if you are trying to make it in advance:

Do not use any fragile salad greens (romaine, Boston lettuce) until serving time. Add the tomatoes and avocados just before serving.
As long as the pre-made salad does not include salad greens, avocados or tomatoes, it is perfectly all right to make it and even dress it a few hours before serving.

Chopped salad as main course?

Here’s your chance to throw in whatever interesting leftovers you might have handy. Throw in a choice of:
Small dice Feta or Haloumi cheese (in this case no added salt) for a dairy salad
Cooked (good quality canned OK) chickpeas
Sliced seared tuna slices, or canned tuna or sardines
Diced cooked chicken or smoked chicken
Sliced seared steak

Continue Reading 27

Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe

Adapted from Levana Cooks, using Garden Vegetable Levana Nourishments

roasted tomato soup

My roasted tomato soup is strictly for tomato lovers!

And there are lots of us tomato lovers out there! Who knew the modest tomato could produce such a luxurious dish? Vegetarian to boot. Don’t change anything: Every single ingredient does its magic in this heavenly tomato soup. I often serve it at Seder dinners, or other long and elaborate dinners, not only to knock their socks off but also to mitigate the length and richness of the feast. Try the tomato soup cold too sometime!

Only plum tomatoes or beefsteak tomatoes will do.

They are the meatiest and contain the least moisture. Do not attempt to make the tomato soup with other varieties of tomatoes, as they won’t stand up to roasting.

Continue Reading 28

Pumpkin Corn Pudding Recipe

Adapted from Levana Cooks, using Garden Vegetable Levana Nourishments

pumpkin corn pudding

In this pumpkin corn pudding, pumpkin and corn are an amazing match.

Pumpkin corn pudding is a wonderful comfort food, and super easy to make. You will be pleased to see that in my new cookbook I make extensive use of pumpkin all shapes and sizes, for this pumpkin corn pudding and many other savory and sweet dishes.  I even use this corn pudding as stuffing. I should also tell you I never like stuffing turkey directly, so I make my stuffing “outside”, in a separate dish.

This pumpkin corn pudding will go beautifully with your turkey on Thanksgiving!

Moreover, because it is made with natural canned pumpkin and frozen corn, you can enjoy it year round. A gluten-free treat, too!
You will find canned or frozen pumpkin, even when pumpkin is in season, very useful, for pies, muffins, puddings, even in a pinch to add in a quick soup. Just one piece of advice: Make sure that what you buy is 100% pumpkin – which is totally pure and unprocessed: Just mashed pumpkin – and not the infamous pumpkin pie filling -which is highly processed and full of bad-for-you stuff. It will take you only a minute to add the sweeteners and seasonings you need for a pie: Just look at my Pumpkin Pecan Pie: Delish!
I am spreading the layers of corn flavor really thick: Corn meal, corn kernels, corn flakes: you just can’t miss!

Continue Reading 21

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

  Join our email list today, and get a 30% discount on all our flavors! Enter your information on the bottom right of this page
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.