Holiday vegetarianism

Being vegetarians in a big city is already quite difficult, but it's true that the veggie choice,, when on holiday, sometimes can be considered a test for strenght of  will. Depending on the place you choose to relax and recreational moments that help us facing the year with renewed energy, you have to face a number of difficulties that sometimes make it complicated to keep a balance with vitamines, proteines and nourishing elements. Many pastries, cakes and baked goods, such as pizza, focaccia, piada, quite often use the lard, so it's always good to ask and read carefully the ingredient lists in the shops. In restaurants many recipes apparently vegetable based are actually cooked with pancetta, speck, bacon, lardo or 'savoured' with fish based sauces and, if the simple pasta with fresh tomato and basil or the typical grilled scamorza with grilled vegetables might be a good solution for one evening, surely they cannot be considered the basis of the holiday diet. Here some suggestions on how to survive to holidays without dismantling your faith in the possibility of a vegetarian diet. For a start, a bakery and a supermarket are everywhere to be found, so it is possible to buy easy to use canned legumes, fresh bread, cheese and in oil vegetables. Then it is always possible to find a pizzeria that prepare the focaccia without lard and also in the farest holiday resort it will be possible to find a place where it's possible to find eggs for breakfast. Holidays are also BBQ time, the company, that nice summer tradition impossible to skip and among Italian salsicce and fish, it'll be possible to find a small part of clean grill on which laying a summer vegetarian triumph.

©2010.2020

Gazpacho provinciale

Medditerranean cuisine is an inspiration for a number of recipes that fit a balanced and tasty vegetarian diet, perfect also for the hot summer season. One of those is the Spanish gazpacho, a cold soup of bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, filling, refreshing and low-calorie. This version mixes the traditional recipe and the flavours of the Italian provincia, a bit more delicate compared to the Spanish ones. For this not-to-be-cooked recipe the freshness of the ingredients is essential.

Freshly picked sun ripened tomato 

Freshly picked bell peppers
Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Herbs provinciali (thyme, savory)
Extra virgin olive oil with chilli

Cucumber

Mill the bell peppers and the peeled cucumber to create a liquid cream, grind the tomatoes (with the grinder) to separate the seeds and the skin. On a side prepare a mince of herbs provinciali and regular and chilli spiced extra virgin olive oil. Mix all the ingredients, salt, refrigerate for at least one hour, serve with savory flowers.

 

©2010.2020

Cucumbers and yogurth salad

If you like the fresh flavour, cucumbers are a real resource for the vegetarian diet, with almost 0 calorie, no fear of gaining weight, depurate the organism and have a high concentration of certain vitamins such as K, C and B6. Perfect also for cosmetics are the main ingredient of tasty and refreshing Mediterranean recipes.

Freshly picked cucumbers
Greek or home-made yogurth
Salt
Extr virgin olive oil
Fresh peppermint
Fresh pennyroyal

Freshly crushed black, green and red pepper

Wash and chop the cucumbers in cubes, if from certified crop do not peel them to keep the K vitamine. In a bowl cream the yogurth, the minced peppermint and pennyroyal, PDO extravirgin olive oil, salt.  Add the cucumbers, stir  and sprinkle with pepper, settle in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and serve garnished with peppermint and pennyroyal tops.

©2010.2020

Aromatic cabbage

When starting a vegetarian diet, you start noticing the number of calories, and the satiety index (or fullness factor), to obtain a balaced diet not forgetting to keep fit. Cabbage is a low-calorie ingredient, just 20 Kcal/100gr, with a high sense of satiety. Delicious raw, it is possible to eat it in great quantities, even if often is savoured in the cooking process with fats that nullify the low-calorie element. A good advice is to use extra virgin olive oil instead of butter, preferring low-alcohol wines, trying to use as less as possible, savour with spices and herbs more than using vegetable stock cubes or other preparations.

Red or white cabbage

Fresh onion (very little)
Salt

Extra virgin DOP olive oil
White wine for the white cabbage and red low-alcohol for the red cabbage

Spices (cardamom, caraway seeds, ginger, curry, etc.)

 

Brown the minced fresh onion and  the tiny sliced ginger in oil, add the cabbage cut into strips, salt, cook untill winted, add the wine  and the spices, evaporate the alcohol, cover and cook at a low-heat. Instead of wine it is possible to use beer, possibly a diet beer, adding caraway seed instead of ginger.

©2010.2020

Salad of cereals and legumes with lemon and herbs 'provinciali'

Salads are a great resource in hot summer days or for a light but nutritious lunch during a long day, and can also be a good solution for quick supper, and a perfect choice at the restaurant to avoid the usual grilled vegetable and pasta with fresh tomato sauce easy to find almost everywhere in Italy. To keep a good protein balance, it is possible to prepare salads with eggs, cheese, or tofu, or eventually combine cereals and legumes as in this recipe that mix American and Mediterranean flavours.

Red kidney beans, boiled or canned
Maize, boiled or canned

Fresh tomatoes
Oranges

Home grown lemon grind
Salt
Herbs provinciali
Dried tomatoes

Chop the orange and some tomatoe in cubes, add the beans and the maize, mince the herbs, soften up the tomatoes and wash generously, then shred, grate the lemon grind, season with oil and salt, eventually add an apple chopped in cubes immediately before serving.

©2010.2020

Seitan and tofu stew with pears, cinnamon, savory and potatoes

Before turning vegetarian I elaborated a number of meat-based recipes that, with some imagination can be readjusted, replacing for instance a veal stew with seitan and tofu cubes. It won't taste the same, obviously, also because meat flavours the other ingredients pretty much, but it will still be savory, highlighting unexpected tastes. .

Seitan

Tofu

Potatoes

Fresh pears

Cinnamon

Shoyu

Sesame

Onion

Chilli spiced salt
Sparkling white wine 

Extra virgin  PDO olive oil
Fresh savory

Lightly warm a part of the finely chopped onion in oil, add the seitan stew and the tofu pre-seasoned in shoyu and sesame seeds in cubes,  brown, add the pears chopped in cubes, the savory  and the cinnamon, lower the flame, salt, raise the flame and add wine, evaporate the alcohool, lower the flame, add potatoes previously peeled and chopped in small cubes, salt with the chilli spiced salt, cover and cook on low heat stirring from time to time. When the potatoes are ready, raise the flame, add wine and other spices or serve garnished with pear slices and  savory branches.

©2010.2020

Lasagne ortolane bianche

Lasagne are one of the Italian traditional dishes that can, with some variation on the main meat based recipe, be adapted to the vegetarian diet. For vegans it is possible to prepare a sfoglia with semolina and water, even if it might be more difficult to prepare than the one with eggs. A summer version of this holiday Italian supper is the one with kitchen garden season vegetables and the almond cream, that is the same as the milk based one but with a much lower number of calorie and fatty acids, creating a nourishing and quite light dish. Ortolane in Italian is referred to the seasons vegetables that could be found in a well organised kitchen garden, bianco (white) or rosso (red) is referred to the tomato sauce, while white is with bechamel, cream and similar ingredients.

Sfoglia regular (6)

Zucchini
Bell peppers

Oregano

Almond cream

Butter

Onion

Chilli

Extra virgin DOP olive oil
Herbs 'provinciali' (savory, thyme) 
 

Light brown in a pan some onion and chilli, add the zucchine chopped in cubes, the bell peppers in tiny slices, cook at medium heat. On a side prepare the sfoglia, make it dry but not too much, parboil in hot salted water (for a few seconds, dip and out), oil a bakery pan and prepare a layer of sfoglia, add the bell peppers and the zucchini to the almond salty cream and, on the layer of pasta pour a layer of vegetables than alayer of sfoglia for 2 or 3 layers, the latter of sfoglia, almond salty cream and  some butter (or margarine for vegans).

©2010.2020