Tag: rice

12 Days of Christmas: Spicy Peruvian Arab Rice

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No Christmas dinner in Perú is complete without at least one rice dish being present. A common rice side dish at the Christmas dinner table is Arab rice containing raisins a Coca Cola which sweetens the rice a bit and darkens it to a pale brown colour. As expected, we will not be pouring Coca Cola into this recipe. Instead, we will be using some soy sauce to tan the rice and brown sugar to sweeten it. This idea was not originally ours. We were inspired by Lorena of Cravings Journal‘s choice to use those to serve the aforementioned purposes while we doing our research into this dish.

The spicy component in this recipe is habanero chillies. However, if you can’t handle the heat of the chilli (which is heavily cut down and counteracted by the sweetness of the raisins), take out the seeds in them and just use them for colour and flavour purposes. Also, exclude the chilli flakes garnish or just use as much of it as you can handle.

As rice during Christmas is usually colourful, as aforementioned, we added the chillies, not just for their heat and flavour, but for their colour too. We also worked with a bag of dried fruits containing raisins, sultanas, currants and candied peels as opposed to just raisins and we added some kale which is ever so lightly cooked during that last few minutes of the rice cooking.

This is a delicious side dish which you will love to add to your Christmas dinner and it only takes about 25mins to cook making it relatively quick and easy to make.

Buen Provencho!

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12 Days of Christmas: Nigerian Party Rice

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No celebration or holiday meal in Nigeria, or amongst Nigerians, is complete without one or two of these party rice dishes. Jollof Rice and Nigerian Fried Rice are easy-to-make, yet absolutely delicious rice dishes that everyone will enjoy eating. These dishes are usually never served alone. Most of the time, they are served with sides of fried plantains, a salad/coleslaw and some meat. In order to keep your Christmas meal plant-based, you can substitute the meat with your preferred vegan alternative, tofu or tempeh.

We should mention that our jollof rice is made following an Igbo (Nigerian tribe) recipe which tend to feature visible bell peppers in the final dish. Our fried rice is also a bit paler than that which is more common due to the colour intensity of the stock we used (as we’re not using meat stock or Nigerian chicken seasoning cubes which tend to be a relatively yellow). However, our fried rice tasted like and authentic Nigerian fried rice.

We hope you enjoy our vegan jollof rice and fried rice recipes!

Bon Appétit!

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Colombian Black Bean Stew

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Colombian black bean stew is an easy-to-make delicious protein-rich stew. It is also very affordable and all its ingredients are relatively easy to source. This dish is traditionally non-vegan and is served as part of a bandeja paisa, which is a platter dish featuring a variety of foods – beans cooked with meats, white rice, plantains, avocado slices, chilli sauce or flakes,  fried eggs and a variety of other meats.

Although this stew is traditionally non-vegan. We are sharing our vegan version of it with you. Trust us, it is very flavoursome and it will become a go-to meal for you on both the days you have the time and energy to cook and when you don’t.

Without further ado, here’s our recipe.

¡Buen Provecho!

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Julienned Aubergines (Eggplants)

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This is an absolutely delicious and versatile dish. It also is extremely easy to make! Therefore, it can be your go-to for a healthy delicious meal any day and at any time.

We are aware that the term “julienne” is unfamiliar to a lot of home cooks. Some people think it is related to the name, Julian, and that confused them even more! Julienning is a method of cutting by which you slice fruits or vegetables into short thin strips. It takes a lot of practice to do this quickly. However, once you master it, it’s a skill you will love to show off!

To julienne aubergines, first, you will cut the top and bottom of an aubergine then slice it in half, lay the cut side on your chopping board and slice down the length of the aubergine to create thin strips. Next, you will lay the slices on their side with each slice overlapping the one next to it and you will make slices again to ake matchstick-like pieces. If the aubergine’s really tall, just cut the pieces in half while they’re stacked together.

Aubergines are very nutrient-dense. They contain good amounts of protein, fibre, vitamin A, pyridoxamine (vitamin B6), folate (vitamin B9), vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and potassium as well as other nutrients such as thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), vitamin E, choline, copper, phosphorus and zinc. Therefore, although so simple, this dish is really healthy. You can find more about the roles of the nutrients mentioned in our Nutrient Index.

Without further ado, here’s our Julienned Aubergine Recipe.

Bon Appétit!

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Vegan Tteokbokki

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Tteokbokki is a delicious Korean rice cake dish. Traditionally, it contains an anchovy stock and fish sauce. However, for this recipe, we will be using vegetable stock with the optional seaweed stock which provides a slight fishy/oceany taste. Additional non-vegan ingredient traditionally, but not always, found in tteokbokki are fish cakes and boiled eggs. For obvious reasons, we will not be including these ingredients. In place of them, we suggest serving the dish with some kimchi and/or spring (green) onions/scallions.

Unlike our other recipes, for this recipe, you might be unable to find every ingredient in your local supermarket. Some of the ingredients would require you to go an East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Japanese….) supermarket or to order the ingredients from Amazon. By clicking on the hyperlinked (coloured) ingredients, you will be directed straight to an Amazon page for the exact ingredients we used in making this dish.

This dish is on the spicier side. So, if you can’t handle spicy food, this might not be the tteokbokki recipe for you. If you can handle spicy food or you still want to give this dish a try, it’s extremely easy to prepare, results in very little to clean up, it takes less than 15mins to cook and it’s absolutely delicious.

Without further ado, here’s our recipe!

Bon Appétit! Continue reading “Vegan Tteokbokki” →

Know Your Milk: Your Guide to Plant Milks

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Over the years, people have become more aware of the negative environmental, health and animal welfare impacts of the dairy industry and dairy consumption. This has lead to more research into alternatives for dairy products such as beverages consumed for centuries that look or perform similarly to dairy for particular uses. These beverages include the coconut milk used in Asian curries, soy milk, which has been produced and used in China for the last 7 centuries and tiger nut milk and rice milk which have been used in the western and northern parts of Africa, and in Spain, to make kuunu aya, horchata de chufa and horchata de arroz before 1000AD. As a matter of fact, the white liquid formed from blending grains, tubers, seeds and some fruits with water has been referred to as “milk” for the last 8 centuries!

Whether you are allergic to dairy, lactose-intolerant, vegan or just looking to reduce your consumption of animal products/by-products, there is a plant milk for you. Some of these kinds of milk compare closely with the nutritional value of dairy, without the potential negative health effects, while others contain nutrients that can not be found in dairy making them healthier or more suitable for certain purposes.

In this article, we are going to introduce you to a few plant milks to give you a better idea of what they are and make it a bit easier for you to find the most suitable milk for you.

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Buddha Bowl (“Balanced Meals In A Bowl”)

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fBuddha bowls are a collection of various, usually vegan or vegetarian, meals foods served together in a wide pasta bowl or high-rimmed plate. They usually consist of grains, a protein source, a fat source, cooked vegetables and raw vegetables. Some times, they also include a bit of a sauce. Basically, they are balanced meals in a bowl.

Buddha bowls are not something we created. They have been growing in popularity, especially in the plant-based community, since 2013. According to the author of Buddha’s Diet, Zen priest, Dan Zigmond, the name is derived from the act of Buddha walking through the streets with his bowl and eating whatever the local people would place in his bowl as alms.

We would like to share a simple, yet very nutritious recipe for a Buddha bowl with you today. No measurements are given as it’s expected to be made to taste and with as much or as little of each ingredient as you would like.

Bon Appétit! Continue reading “Buddha Bowl (“Balanced Meals In A Bowl”)” →

Holidays Specials: Jollof Rice

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Christmas Day in Nigeria is not normal without Jollof Rice. Jollof rice is the traditional celebration food of Nigeria. There’s party jollof, funeral jollof, thanksgiving jollof, I-woke-up-this-morning jollof, the-sun-is-shining jollof. Okay, we’re getting carried away now!

Nigerian love celebrating with jollof, fried rice, plantain and so on. So, if you’re not Nigerian and you’ll like a little switch up on your Christmas dinner, why you try our simple jollof recipe. Serve with a side of fried plantains, a salad and tofu or seitan.

Bon Appétit!

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Coconut Rice (New Recipe)

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Coconut rice! A very delightful dish to eat, full of flavour, full of nutrients and full of goodness!

Today, we are going to share our second version of coconut rice with you. This version is more like the West African coconut rice dishes as the final result is not creamy and the final dish looks quite simple, although it does not taste plain. The dish is a bit on the spicier side, but you can control the level of heat from the peppers by taking out the seeds or not using a green chilli pepper as those are actually spicier than red peppers.

Coconuts are one of our favourite things to add to dishes here at LickYourPlates. They always take dishes to a whole new level so, if you’re ready for a delicious meal, try out our coconut rice recipes.

Bon Appetit!

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Nigerian Fried Rice

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I am not saying this out of bias, but Nigerians make one of the best fried rice dishes in the world!

Nigerian fried rice is so easy to make, yet it tastes so good. It is easily adaptable for a vegan. However, unlike quite a number of foods, you do not lose the flavour by making the recipe vegan! Isn’t that just wonderful!

I am going to take you down to my West African roots with this vegan version of the wonderful, the beautiful, Nigerian fried rice.

Bon Appétit!

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