No waste post: Japanese style pickled radishes - and eat the leaves too!

I picked some lovely radishes from the vegetable garden, did you know that you can eat the leaves too? They are full of nutrients, as well as delicious!

Wash the radishes well, then cut in halves (or quarters if big), keeping attached some of the centre leaves. Set the outer leaves aside to use later.

These are the radishes (with the tender centre leaves) ready to pickle.

Add some salt, I used Japanese unrefined salt because I had it, but ordinary kitchen salt is fine.

Put another bowl over the radishes and then a weight on top (a rock, or anything heavy that you may have in the kitchen). Leave for a day and night, move the radishes from time to time if you like, to get them pressed. They will put out lots of water and create a brine.

This is what they will look like the day after.

Put into a jar with their brine and keep in the fridge (they will last a couple of weeks... maybe more but I don't know, we eat them quite quickly!

And now for the remaining leaves: since I had the above raw I decided to cook the rest for a few minutes in boiling water. 

Then I drained them and when cool I dressed them with soy sauce (gluten free readers can use tamari) and lemon juice. The portion looks small, but they are a perfect addition to a Japanese meal...

 like this one!

Vegan Japanese dinner with produce from my veggie garden

Clockwise from top left: rice with vegetable furikake, nimono of radish leaves, silken tofu with chrysanthemum leaves, rice with spinach, gari (pickled ginger). In the centre pickled radishes. Radishes, ginger, spinach and chrysanthemum all came from my garden

Yes chrysanthemum leaves are also edible (I was given a variety that only seems to make leaves, I like to eat them young). and if you want to know how to grow ginger and make your own gari click here. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Japanese Vegan bento

Leftovers from Japanese dinner make good a bento (lunchbox). Here from the bottom right there is tofu, pan fried with vegetable oil and sesame oil, then finished with soy sauce (gluten free, use tamari) and lemon juice. The Asian eggplants had a similar treatment (minus the sesame oil): at home we just love the soy sauce + lemon juice combo! Next to it some seaweed salad, this was bought ready made, something that I would happy do more often if I didn't think that they overdo it with artificial colouring! But I love seaweed and you can use the dried types - dried wakame soaked in water will make a nice salad. Finally there is leftover rice, topped with vegetable, nori and sesame seeds furikake (Japanese seasoning for rice, look for it in Asian stores, and choose the one without fish or other animal products).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Bread stuffed cabbage leaves, step by step

Cabbages are cheap and healthy, and when I buy one I can cook with it for a family of four for three days! Usually I start with cabbage rolls, to use the larger leaves, and these can be done in a zillion ways! I have another  good Vegan recipe here, but today for the filling I used stale bread. But first thing first:

Wash the cabbage leaves (the bigger outer leaves, about 15, and steam or boil until soft but not too soft! In the meantime put one onion, one carrot, two celery sticks with leaves and a little parsley in the food processor and mince.

Heat two tbsp of olive oil in a pan and sauté the vegetables, stirring often, for 10 minutes.

Soak some old bread in water, doesn't matter what kind of bread, I had two white bread rolls and some seed sourdough, so I used those. 

Squeeze the water out of the bread and crumble it into the pot with the cooking vegetables. Add a little vegetable stock if necessary and cook everything for about 15 minutes. Stir often and make sure that the mixture is quite thick and not too watery or runny. Adjust with salt and pepper (I quite like to use smoked salt here).

Spread the cooked cabbage leaves on clean tea towels.

Divide the vegetable and bread mixture between the leaves.

Roll up the leaves.

They look so pretty!!

In a capable pan heat some olive oil (about 3-4 tbsp) and sizzle a couple of garlic cloves and 1 heap tbsp of tomato puree.

Pack the cabbage rolls in the pot tightly,

 if there is not enough space put some on top, during cooking they will 'reduce' and you will be able to move them down into a single layer.

Add about half a litre of vegetable stock, cover and simmer on low for about 40 minutes.

Serve hot (I had mine on polenta!)

The leftovers rolls and sauce I wrapped in filo pastry and made a pie for the second day, and on the third day I still had the centre of the cabbage to use (quite a lot in fact, I had it after a few days though, for variety) for a Vegan Cabbage Bolognese Sauce.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Zuppa alla Cipolla Rossa, Timo e crosta di Parmigiano - Red onion, thyme and parmesan crust soup

This is real 'cucina povera', a simple dish made with humble ingredients and leftovers. Chop two red onions and sauté with a couple of tbsp of olive oil and some fresh thyme. Add 1 litre of vegetable stock and one or two crusts of parmesan cheese. Simmer until the onions and the parmesan crusts are soft.

At this point you can either remove the parmesan crusts and cut off the softest parts (to put back into the soup), or keep simmering the lot until the crusts are really really soft (you will need to add another half a litre of water). I usually use only the softest part and then cut the rest of the crust (which is a bit chewy) for the cats. Dogs also love it!  Blend everything with an immersion blender and serve with some home made bread!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Leftover rice: two Tians

When I have leftover risotto I make croquettes, when I have leftover short grain rice I make fried rice, and when I have leftover long grain, Thai or Basmati, I make tians. I am not sure why I only use long grain rice to make a tian, it is one of those thing that looks logical to me, maybe because long grain is not sticky enough and so I need to add an egg? Anyway, this is my classic tian recipe:

I grease a terracotta round pan with olive oil. Mix the leftover rice with some cooked spinach (or similar green leaves), add one or two eggs (depending on how much rice I have) and then salt, pepper and nutmeg. Put everything in the terracotta pan and bake until the top is crispy. A bit like a baked rice frittata really!


The other day I had some rice left, but no greens. Also, the rice wasn't Jasmine or Basmati but standard long grain and it was a little sticky. I thought that I could make a tian without egg, a pizza tian!



I greased my terracotta pan with olive oil, pressed the rice down, topped with Italian tomato sauce (recipe here), then mozzarella and oregano. Another drop of olive oil and into the oven to bake!
Certainly a bit more difficult to serve because it doesn't cut perfectly like a tian made with eggs, but nevertheless my kids, who like everything that smells like pizza, gulped it down in no time! Maybe a good gluten free variation to a pizza??

Happy weekend everyone!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Slow Food Waitakere and Canederli with Cheese and Onion Sauce

Yesterday we had the Slow Food Waitakere AGM at my place, followed by brunch, which was actually a long lunch! Everybody brought food and drinks, and it was such a great spread! So lovely to have so many good Slow Food friends who happen to be good cooks too!

And now for the recipe of the day: Canederli (Knödel in German) is something my Mum made often when I was a child. There is no strict recipe because they are made with left-overs, and the base is left-over bread. But here you can find my basic recipe, with step by step instructions. I really prefer them in a broth, but the other day I wanted to make them with onions and cheese, I didn't think of publishing them on the blog as the photos are not exactly pretty, but my husband loved them! He said that he actually preferred them served this way! Once again left over bread was put into good use!

Canederli with Cheese and Onion Sauce

Prepare the canederli and cook them in a light vegetables stock (instructions here). Peel and finely slice 4 onions (white or brown) and simmer them slowly with a little olive oil and salt. I cooked them in my Le Creuset pot, on low and keeping the lid on, for about 45 minutes. I added a little stock from the canederli from time to time, but just a drop. When the onions were as soft as butter I added the canederli (cooked and drained, keep the stock to drink!), I grated some edam cheese on top, added a sprig of fresh sage and put the lid back on for 5 minutes. Then I served them, with lots of sauce. Yes, they were perfect and filling for a winter evening!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Canederli, i.e. never throw away bread!

To Love Bread is to Love Life

I never throw away bread, I use it to make a variety of dishes, and in particular canederli, big bread dumplings typical of the North East of Italy. My mum used to make them often in winter for us, and serve them with broth. There is no fixed recipe, it depends on the kind of bread you have, and the other ingredients are always optional. I like to use a mixture of wholemeal and white bread, which gives best results, but any bread will do. Here I had some old white bread only, the resulting canederli tend to be a little pale, but the taste is good anyway.

Break the bread and soak it with milk for a few hours. Add the milk little by little, or you may risk to add too much. When the bread is soft, mush with a fork and add some finely chopped parsley, some salt and pepper, and other spices, if you like. I like to add smoked paprika and smoked salt, and small cubes of leftover cheese gone hard.

My mum used to add small pieces of speck, the smoked North Italian ham, for flavour. As a veggie I don't, but I did find these vegetarian slices which are very suited. Just cut a slice or two into small pieces and add to your mixture.

Non vegetarians often ask me what is the point of making vegetarian mock meat like 'mortadella' (in this case). I rarely eat this food, exactly as a meat eater should rarely eat the real meaty mortadella (certainly not every day!). But just like some non-vegetarians consider normal transforming an animal (in this case a pig) into a complex sausage like mortadella, some vegetarians see no problem in transforming some tofu or gluten into something similar to a sausage. Creating complex food is what man does in the search of different flavours, and to have more variety, and for versatility. These slices came handy when I had to make panini for mountain excursions, but I think that I will keep them as a 'once-in-a-while' treat :-)

In any case, this passage is not necessary for making canederli, instead of adding mock or real mortadella or speck, you can add cooked spinach, fennel seeds, grated carrots, peas, leftovers.... anything you like.

Next you have to add some flour and mix until you get a sticky dough. Keep a bowl of water on the side, wet your hands, and shape the canederli into balls.

The canederli are cooked in vegetable stock, but now be very careful: if the stock is boiling, when you add the canederli (which are quite soft) they will break into pieces. Make sure that you bring the stock down to a very light simmering (or turn off the heat for a few minutes). Add the canederli one by one and gently stir with a wooden spoon just to make sure that they are not breaking or sticking to the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 20 minutes (depending on the size of your canederli) and then serve hot, with some stock.

To eat just break in the plate, add some grated cheese if you like, and dig in! Real filling comfort food!

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini©