Eggplant and Tomato Spaghetti

Alright, this one is actually about food. I had an eggplant sitting out and getting a bit spotty, so I of course went to pinterest to find a new recipe. I came across this vegan spicy eggplant pasta recipe. I modified it because I only had one eggplant, and I also only had whole wheat pasta, and fresh on the vine tomatoes. Below is the modified recipe.

1 Medium Eggplant
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil, divided
1 small/medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper (or more to make it spicy)
1/2 tsp of dry basil
1/2+ tsp salt
1/2 pound of the pasta of your choice




Slice eggplant crosswise into 1 inch slices, salt them on both sides and let them sit for 30 mins (I actually only did 10 mins)

Chop up onions, garlic, and tomatoes while the eggplants are busy getting salty and preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Use 1 T of the olive oil and coat the eggplant slices, salt and pepper them thoroughly and pop in the oven to roast for about 20-30 minutes.

While the eggplant is roasting, heat the other T of olive oil in a medium sauce pan and cook onions and garlic until soft/slightly golden, add oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and salt, and tomatoes. Gently simmer.

Bring pot of water to a boil and cook pasta of choice until el dente.

When the eggplant is nice and cooked take it out of the oven, and chop it into aprox. 1 inch cubes (I peeled it because the skin was spotty) and throw them in with the tomatoes and onions. Simmer together until pasta is done, or longer if you want.

Drain pasta and combine with the sauce. Serve, top with more pepper flakes and eat.

I will note, I think that if I made this again I would add more chili, maybe... just more spice in general. Since I've eaten so much Indian food all my food needs to be super flavourful and spicy all the time haha. I also think that it would be really tasty over quinoa instead.

I am about to start a new instagram and post my food pics there, so please go give me a follow @cinnamonheartvegan. You can also find me on twitter @cinnamonheartv.

I also wanted to note, I have zero cooking training and all my pictures are taken with my Samsung S3. So yeah, it's a novice blog :P

Keep it spicy,

Cinnamon
xx

Indian Inspired Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup

This soup is a modified version of the recipe here.

The recipe on that site is for a nice basic carrot soup but I wanted one that had more spices and depth. So I made it in a bit more of an Indian style, with more spices and cooked more the way Indian food is cooked. Making a sort of tarka to start, where you add the onion, garlic, ginger and spices to hot oil, and then adding the veg and liquid.  This soup is dairy free and gluten free if you don't eat it with any tasty tasty bread. 

I love anything with coconut. Except piña coladas. Tangent: one time, when my family was in hawaii we were thirsty and went into a little shop and I had no idea what a piña colada was but coconut and pineapple sounded delicious so I got a virgin piña colada. (I was like 8). One sip and I knew it was disgusting. But I felt too bad to tell my parents that I didn't like it. So, my brilliant self thought that I would just "accidentally" drop it. It made such a mess. I felt so bad. And then! The shop people offered to make me a new one and I was like no no no no please no. So we said sorry and left. Whoops. 

To me, the coconut in this soup is what really makes it. This soup is warm, creamy and spicy. A great soup for a chilly day. I don't pretend to be a chef or particularly knowledgeable but I've been cooking for my self since I was 17, experimenting with vegetarian and now vegan recipes. I used to be really scared  to stray away from recipes, but now (thanks to my boyfriend telling me to stop trusting google so much haha) I have the confidence to change recipes and adapt them to either my dietary requirements, or to my taste. Every ingredient in this recipe I would say, add more, or less, if you want! Totally dependent on your taste. This isn't too hot spice wise but you could totally add more chili, or none if you aren't a fan of heat. 

This time round I actually made it specifically to freeze, which I haven't done before with this soup so I hope it freezes ok. This soup is great for lunches. I can put it in a mason jar and eat it without a spoon. Cause obviously if I'm vegan I HAVE to put as many things as possible in mason jars. It's at thing.

Indian Inspired Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup

2 T Olive Oil

2 pounds of Carrots (about 8 medium/large)

1 medium Onion

4 cloves of Garlic

2 inches of Ginger (2 tsp ground)

1 Bay Leaf

2 Veggie Broth Cubes + 5 cups water (or just 5 cups of broth of your choice)

1 can Coconut Milk

4 tsp Curry Powder

1 tsp Ground Cumin

1 tsp Red Chili Powder

1 tsp Garam Masala

1. Add olive oil to sauce pan and heat up. Add ONION, GARLIC, and GINGER. Saute until soft/lightly browned.

2. Add CURRY POWDER, CUMIN, RED CHILI, and GARAM MASALA and mix. Add water if necessary.

3.  Add chopped CARROTS and BAYLEAF and mix, then add water and bouillon cubes.

If your me, proceed to drop at least a handful of the carrots on the floor and employ the 5 second rule.

4.  Bring to a boil, then lower to medium/low and simmer until carrots are soft. 

5.When they are soft turn off heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. 

If your me just leave it until you remember that you shouldn't be playing dragon worldon your phone and should probably blend the soup now! 

6.  After it has cooled down a bit, take out the bay leaf, pour soup into blender. If it doesn't all fit, do in multiple batches. If you own an immersion blender use that instead.

7.Pour blended soup back into sauce pan, re-warm and add coconut milk. Taste and add salt if necessary.

8. Garnish with pepper and enjoy. It's super delicious with a piece of crusty bread or with a freshly made naan bread. Yum!

What was I listening to while I made this? Glad you asked.

A little bit of this:

A little bit of that: