What I eat in a "Vegetarian Day" (Western style)

I used to be a big meat lover and never thought about going vegetarian or vegan at all. However, since I started to work in a sustainability job, I have been inspired to gradually incorporate vegetarian meals into my eating habit. Now I have vegan/ vegetarian breakfast everyday plus eat vegan at least one full day per week. I have realised that vegan food can be as delicious and diverse as any other meaty dish; moreover, it helps us feel our inner-peace and motivates us to live a sustainable lifestyle. I started to search for more vegan/ vegetarian recipe and found out that each cuisine boasts diverse choices for people who want to pursue this lifestyle. So today I will start my Vegetarian series with Western style cooking.

Breakfast - Apple Pancake

Ingredients:

- 2 Apples

- 3/4 cup flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- A pinch of salt

- 1 tbsp lemon juice +

- 1/2 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk, or milk if you're not vegan)

- 2 tbsp sugar

Making: With this recipe I can make 2 types of apple pancake. I will show you both types, but for a quick breakfast, you might only want to make one type to save type (cut down the ingredients into half for one type)

- First, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Pour the milk and lemon juice in and mix until they are all well incorporated.

- With the first apple, peel, slice then dice it into small cubes; we're gonna the make the apple sauce with this. In a small pot, put the apple cubes it with 2tbsp of sugar (I actually went with my instinct, it's all up to personal favourite, I don't like anything too sweet so I added little by little and kept tasting it). Add a little bit of water. Boil until the mixture reduced to apple sauce.

- Take out 1/4 of that apple sauce and keep it for decoration later.

- Blending the remained apple sauce in the pot with a stick mixer or blender until you see no crumbs. Add the sauce to the pancake mixture above and mix well; the apple sauce will sweeten the batter.

- With the second apple, peel and slide them into round thin slices. Use an apple corer, or anything similar to cut out the holes in the middle of all the slices.

(Source: Pinterest)

- The prep is done, let's make our pancake! In a non-stick pan, drizzle some veggie oil or olive oil, scoop the first batter into the pan. Fry until the pancake is golden brown and keep repeating the process until there is only half of the batter left. There you have the normal type of pancakes.

- Using the apple slices that have been de-cored, dipping them into the batter, make sure you do not fill the hole with the batter so it can look nicely. Fry the slices until golden brown and you have the second type of apple pancake.

- Serve them with the 1/4 apple sauce we reserved before, maple syrup, ice cream, etc. anything you like.

Lunch - Creamy Celery Soup

Ingredients:

- 1 onion

- 3 stalks of celery (we all know that we can measure it by looking, just use as much as you want)

- 1 cup Vegetable stock

- 3 tbsp Soy milk

- 2tbsp Corn starch

Making:

- Dice the onion and celery into small pieces. In a pot, add a little bit of oil, then sautee onion until fragrant. Add the celery in and sautee for about 5 mins (seasoning with salt and pepper)

- Add vegetable stock into the pot and boil until celery is well cooked. For veggie stock (you can make it from scratch with onion, daikon, carrot or just buy it from the supermaket)

- Use a stick mixer to blend the soup until you see a creamy mixture and no crumbs left

- Add a little bit of milk until (or cream if you're not vegan). Taste the soup and season it with salt and pepper if needed.

- Mix the corn starch with a little bit of water, stir well. Pour the mixture into our soup to thicken the soup. Keep doing this until you're satisfied with the thickness of the soup.

- Enjoy your creamy celery soup with some slices of bread or baguette.

Dinner - Aglio e olio

(The most popular spaghetti dish in Italy should be aglio e olio, literally translated to garlic and olive oil)

Ingredients:

- Spaghetti (for 2 servings)

- 7 cloves of garlic

- Olive oil

- Italian herbs

- Chilli flakes (optional)

- Parmesan (optional, if you're not vegan)

Making:

- Boil spaghetti for around 8 mins to get al dente texture (make sure you put some salt and oil into the boiling water)

- Peel garlic and slice them thinly.

- In a pan, drizzle some olive oil, wait until the oil starts to bubble then add garlic slices into the hot oil. Fry the garlic until it starts to look golden brown then put cooked spaghetti in right away.

- Seasoning spaghetti with salt and pepper, Italian herbs and chilli flakes (optional, I just find it would spice up the whole dish so I added it)

- Mix the spaghetti well with the oil and garlic for 1 min then serve in a plate immediately.

- If you want sprinkle some cheese then this will be the time to do that.

- Enjoy your aglio e olio with some salad or side dishes.

That's it, Aglio e Olio is a dish that you can make within 10 mins and it turns out so so delicious; maybe that's why it's the national spaghetti in Italy?

That's it for the first post of my Vegetarian diary. See you next time with another cuisine, maybe Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Mexican? I am falling deep in love with vegetarian food so I'll try out a lot of recipes and share with everyone soon.

#internationalfood #vegetarian #vegan #Italianfood #Australianfood #Cooking #FoodIMake