Cauliflower Pilaf

This is a simple, healthy, flavourful pilaf rice dish. It is good enough to be the starring dish of the meal, but it can also be served as a side dish.

Ingredients:
2 onions
oil
100 g puy lentils
water
1 sweet potato
1 cauliflower
25 g coconut
2-4 tbsp green curry paste
onion seeds
100 g brown basmati rice
1 vegetable stock cube
yogurt

Instructions:
1. Chop the onions and fry them lightly in the oil in a large pan.
2. Rinse the lentils and boil them in water for about 20 minutes, then drain.
3. Peel and dice the sweet potato and chop the cauliflower. Add them, the coconut, the curry paste, and the onion seeds to the onions and fry for a few minutes.
4. Rinse the rice and add it to the pan along with the stock cube and enough water to cover everything.
5. Simmer until the water mostly boils away, adding the lentils towards the end.
6. Serve with yogurt.

Coconut Macaroons

I’m a teacher and as it’s the last week of the semester, I baked for my students, as I always do. I made two types of cookies for them; young people tend to go for sweet treats. The first kind I made was coconut macaroons. They taste just like the macaroons I remember from Passover when I was a child and they’re so easy to make.

Ingredients:
5 1/2 cups (or about 400 g) flaked coconut
1 (14 ounce or 400 g) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine coconut, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla; mix well.
3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto aluminium foil-lined and generously greased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.

Kale, Tofu, and Coconut

Greens are great. I’m especially partial to spinach (I don’t agree with Douglas Florian’s anti-spinach poem, funny though it is!), but sometimes I think I should try some other greens. They’re healthy and flavourful. So the other day, I was tempted by a package of kale at the supermarket. I fried it lightly in rice bran oil and mixed it with toasted coconut and tofu, then served it over whole-grain rice. Kale and coconut go well together, crispy with just a touch of sweetness. I added chilli sauce, of course, but it was good and hearty without it too.

Ingredients:
1 package tofu
½ cup unsweetened coconut pieces
1 package (about 200 g) kale or other green
oil
rice to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Bake the tofu at 200 C for 15 minutes. You can also skip this step and just add the tofu to the pan later, but I like baked tofu.
2. Lightly toast the coconut in a dry frying pan over low heat for a few minutes.
3. Wash the kale and fry it in the oil in a pan until slightly crispy. Mix it with the coconut and add the tofu.
4. Stir-fry for another 5-10 minutes, then serve over rice.