If you are visiting Spain, be sure to try the sangria recipe at your favourite restaurant or bar. This is a traditional Spanish drink and you will find it served in most bars and restaurants. Recipes vary from place to place, so be sure to try it with a few meals in different locations. The ingredients used in the recipe can also vary according to the food that is being served.
Sangria is served throughout the country in the summer. In the northern areas, it is considered a summer drink. In the eastern and southern areas of the country, the drink is served all year round. These areas have a warmer climate and tend to have mild temperatures even in the winter. The strength of the drink varies from place to place. In general, it is stronger in bars and tends to be weaker at dance clubs or discos.
Origins of the Sangria Recipe
Sangria originated in Spain. The word sangria is the Spanish word for bleeding. The drink gets its name from the red color of the wine used in a traditional sangria recipe. The drink is also made with white wine. This is called sangria blanco.
Sangria is basically a mix of wine, juices, soda water and fruit. Any young red wine can be used in a traditional recipe. Good, quality ingredients are important in this drink. Wine is the dominant ingredient, so care is taken to use a good wine.
Sangria is often served in one liter pitchers. The pitcher used should have a strainer on the lid. This strains out ice and fruit, keeping them in the pitcher and out of the glass. You can order the beverage by the glass, but it is usually served in pitchers. At parties, it is usually served in a punch bowl.
Creating Your Own Sangria Recipe
The typical recipe contains red wine, sliced fruit, a sweetener such as honey or sugar and a small amount to triple sec or brandy. A basic recipe is one bottle red wine; two cups clear soda, two cups orange juice, one half cup triple sec and sliced oranges.
The type of fruit can vary according to your taste or with the type of food that will be served. White wine can be substituted for red, if you are making sangria blanco. Be sure to use a quality white wine for this variation. Whether or not carbonation is used in the recipe is another common variation of the basic recipe.
With any recipe, it’s important to allow time for the liquid to blend with the fruit. This enhances the flavour. To allow time for this, mix all the ingredients except ice and soda. Adjust ingredients in the recipe to suit your tastes. Pour into a pitcher and leave in the refrigerator for several hours or over night.
Add soda and ice just before serving. If desired, more fresh fruit can be added just prior to serving the beverage. For parties, pour sangria into a punch bowl. Add ice, soda and more fresh fruit. Add these ingredients just before serving. Serve the beverage just after the final ingredients are added.
Try a variety of good quality red and white wines when creating this beverage. Experiment with a variety of fruits, clear sodas and fruit juices to come up with a few different recipes for different occasions. Make a note of each one and keep these notes for future reference. Try a different recipe at each party or to go with different foods you may be serving.
By: Clinton K. Maxwell
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 21st, 2010. 
Cooking for vegetarians can be a bit of a challenge if you are used to cooking meat, poultry and fish but it is possible to make delicious vegetarian starter recipes. You might like to make a vegetarian pate, using mushrooms, cheese or other ingredients instead of meat. Another option is to make baked eggs or mini quiches.
If you want to serve something cold, you can make a fruit and vegetable salad with a homemade dressing or what about a vegetarian soup? Chilled soups are really popular at the moment and you can make a fruit soup if you like. Here are some more ideas to tantalise your taste buds:
Cheesy Vegetarian Pate
To make an easy pear and stilton pate, beat 225g cream cheese and 170g grated stilton cheese with a tablespoon of dry white wine and some salt and black pepper.
Shape this mixture into a roll and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Slice three ripe pears and dip them in the juice of one lemon to stop them turning brown.
Arrange the pear slices and pate on a platter and garnish with walnut halves and watercress. You can serve any kind of crackers you like with this.
Baked Eggs with Tarragon
What about making tarragon baked eggs? Tarragon is often used in chicken recipes but its aniseed-like flavour is also good with egg dishes. You can serve this with crusty bread or garlic bread.
Grease four ramekins with melted butter and stir together a tablespoon of finely chopped tarragon, four tablespoons of cream and a little salt and black pepper. Break an egg into each ramekin and spoon the tarragon mixture over the top. Bake for seven minutes (or until the eggs are set) at 180 degrees C.
Quick Leek Nicoise
This is a great starter recipe idea for a dinner party. Cut eight leeks into five centimetre lengths and put them in a pan. Add 120ml olive oil, 300ml water, a teaspoon of white sugar and a tablespoon of tomato puree.
Season with salt and black pepper and cook covered for fifteen minutes or until the leeks are soft. Add some lemon juice and serve the leeks hot with some chopped fresh parsley and a handful of small black olives.
There are plenty more ideas for starter recipes that you can choose from if you really want to impress your guests and leave them talking about your dinner party for all the right reasons.
Now all you will need to do is work out what to serve for the main course!
By: Victoria Raw
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 20th, 2010.
When you’re hosting a party or asked to bring an appetizer to someone else’s house, you have a huge selection of easy and delicious vegetarian appetizer recipes to choose from. These vegetarian appetizer recipes are not only easy to make on your own, but can be made with basic ingredients you can find in your local grocery store. Also, you can add different vegetables to a lot of these recipes to make them unique.
One great option when you are searching for vegetarian appetizer recipes is to make bite-size grilled cheese sandwiches. For these adult-friendly grilled cheese sandwiches, you don’t need sandwich bread and slices of American cheese individually wrapped in plastic. Instead, buy some thin loves of fancier bread, like French bread, baguettes, or even mini rye bread, and pair with your choice of cheese, although gruyere or Swiss are delicious, mild cheeses that most people like. Also include a small slice of a ripe tomato inside of this sandwich, as well. Lightly grill the sandwiches in a pan on the oven until the bread starts to brown and the cheese melts and becomes gooey.
Another option for vegetarian appetizer recipes is a variety of phyllo pastries stuffed with a variety of vegetables. Phyllo dough is usually sold in the frozen foods aisle at your local grocery store, and is very easy to use. When working with phyllo dough to make vegetarian appetizers, you have a lot of different options. One option is to create a more traditional spinakopita, which is a Greek cheese pie made with fresh spinach mixed with garlic and feta cheese. Cut your phyllo dough into large squares and brush with a little bit of melted butter or olive oil. Then, mix the filling together and spread over half of each square of dough. Fold the phyllo in half to make triangles and pinch shut. Bake in the oven until the phyllo dough turns brown and crispy and the filling gets hot. You can follow the same instructions with other types of vegetables. Try adding shredded zucchini and carrots to cheese and garlic and add to the phyllo dough. Or, if you don’t want to include any vegetables, you can also just pair garlic with feta cheese and use that as your filling.
A third option for great vegetarian appetizer recipes is to make mini quiche. You can buy pre-made tart shells, or you can use pre-made pie crust that you can cut to fit in a mini-muffin pan. You have to read the ingredients, though, and avoid buying a pre-sweetened pie crust or one made with animal lard instead of vegetable shortening. Pour your eggs, cream, and cheese, along with your choice of vegetable, into the mini quiche shells. Some great options for vegetables include a variety of mushrooms, small pieces of broccoli or cauliflower, or cut up some bell pepper and onions. Make sure the mini-quiche are cooked through and have set before serving these bite-size morsels.
By: Werner Wichmann
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 20th, 2010.
You can learn to fix delicious vegetarian meals for even the most discriminative folks.
Being a vegetarian can sometimes have it’s drawbacks. Trying to find new recipes to fill the meals you eat everyday, with out fixing the same ‘ole boring ones can sometimes become a challenge. People who are vegetarians need to make sure that they are getting the right amount of proteins to support their muscle mass as well as keeping a healthy bone density. So make sure and check with your physician to discuss both your vegetarian diet and your health.
Do you find yourself struggling to keep up with finding new recipes so that you don’t get bored eating the same old thing day in and day out? When you want to try something new you will have to spend more of your time to find vegetarian recipes. There are some great vegetarian recipe cookbooks out there.
Say you are having a few of your vegetarian friends over and you want to surprise them with a great tasting meal. Then you can take the guess work of what to fix out of the equation. Just take a look through your vegetarian cookbook, get the ingredients to make the meal and follow the simple cooking instructions, it’s that easy. You wont have to make the same meal twice unless you want to. You will have all the great variety that you want and have fun while you learn to make great tasting meals for you and your family.
By: Sunny James
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visit us at http://www.sunnyjames.com/vegetarian.html
Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 20th, 2010.
This vegetarian chicken is prepared by using mashed vegetables including cabbage, spring onion, green/red chilies and tomatoes. This mixture of mashed vegetables give unique flavor in this curry and the combination of red and green chilies make it a bit spicy but you can always adjust the spice level according to your taste. This vegetarian chicken is served in sizzling hot dish which makes it more attractive for foodies. It is prepared in just 30 minutes and can be served for 4-5 persons. Nearly all the vegetarians are going to enjoy this dish.
Ingredients:
250 gm boneless chicken (cut in small pieces)
1/4 piece of medium size cabbage (or 1 cup roughly chopped)
2 medium size tomatoes
4-5 green chilies
10-12 dry red pepper (soaked in boiled water for 15 minutes)
2 spring onions (coarsely chopped)
1/2 cup tomato paste
3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
2 tbsp ginger (finely chopped)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp mix spice powder (2 cinnamon sticks, 3 cloves, 2 green cardamom, 1 black cardamom)
Salt to taste
1 cup oil
Cooking Instructions:
At first put chopped cabbage, spring onions, green chilies, dry red chilies and half cup of water, blend all these ingredients together and make smooth paste. In a sauce pan, fry ginger garlic in half cup of oil on medium heat until they become light brown in color. It would take at least 5-8 minutes. After that add the blended mixture of vegetables and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. When the mixture starts bubbling add pinch of salt, tomato paste, black pepper and allow the mixture to simmer for 8-10 minutes until oil starts to separate from the gravy.
In the mean time when the gravy is cooking, fry chicken pieces in the remaining oil for at least ten minutes or until all the water of chicken has dried and its turns white in color. When the gravy is done put the fried chicken pieces in it and give final flavors to the gravy by adding cumin powder and mix spice powder. Let the chicken cook for 10 minutes so that it absorbs the flavor of gravy and becomes tender. This vegetarian chicken is served in sizzling hot dish giving a splendid taste particularly with fried rice.
By: Kashif Mahmood
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 19th, 2010.
Today I’d like to introduce you to two popular vegetarian dishes in my house, oft-requested favorites even though none of us are officially vegetarians.
Instead, we chose to incorporate some vegetarian meals into our diets purely because of the health and environmental benefits of not eating so much meat. At least, my wife decided – if it was up to me, we’d have steak everyday. Still, the benefits of eating vegetarian are obvious, but there’s a heavy social stigma still attached to anything labeled ‘vegetarian’ and I’d like to dispel that today by showing you vegetarian food can actually be just as delicious as meat, too!
Firstly, let me say I won’t be using Quorn or Tofu as a meat substitute, because it isn’t a meat substitute and never will be. Anyone who tells you they “honestly can’t tell the difference” probably shouldn’t be trusted. Instead, learn to appreciate Tofu in it’s naturally form, not reconstituted and flavored to look like meat. It took me until I was 25 to learn that Tofu actually tastes nice just as it is, thanks to a devout meat-eating upbringing and vegetarianism ridiculed at the dinner table.
So what are we going to make?
Tofu BBQ Skewers:
I like this recipe because nothing can really taste bad once it’s been BBQed and got a little sauce on it. It’s easy to prepare, all fresh ingredients, and oh so healthy. Oh, and the kids will eat it too!
Ingredients:
- 1 pack of Tofu (may be labeled “hydrated soy” – how delicious sounding!)
- 1 punnet of button mushrooms
- 1 red and 1 yellow pepper
- Some garlic
- Olive oil
- BBQ Skewers
If you’re having trouble finding real Tofu and not the imitation meat stuff, try the local Asian supermarket. They sell little packs that are the perfect size for 2 people. It comes in white squares, about an inch deep, and usually swimming in it’s own juices. Lovely…
Prep is simple for this one, just chop it all up and stick it onto a skewer. Crush the garlic into the olive oil, then drizzle and coat the skewers all around (not too much). Salt and pepper to taste.
Parsnip and Parmesan Bruschetta:
An Italian snack favorite, this one is also super easy.
Ingredients:
- 1 mini ciabatta or panini roll, cut into 12 smaller sli
- 1 garlic clove
- 50g butter
- 3 large parsnips, cored and cut into 1cm cubed.
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- A handful of rocket leaves
- 50g parmesan cheese (or a vegaternative if you prefer)
Preparation:
Heat a griddle pan and toast the bread for about 2 minutes until golden and marked. Rub a clove of garlic over each piece.
Heat some butter in a large frying pan then fry the parsnips over a medium heat for about 20 minutes until they are softened. Add a little if you need. Remove and mash to a puree in a mixer. Should be served at a room temperature, so leave it to cool down if needed (or warm up if you already prepared it).
Spread the parsnip on the toast, and garnish with some rocket leaves and parmesan. Voila! A deliciously easy canapee for your party!
You can find more easy ones like this at Vegetarian Recipes.
By: James A Bruce
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 19th, 2010.
This vegetarian wraps recipe is so easy to make, you’ll wonder why you’ve never made it before. You can use any bean, but I used aduki, or adzuki, beans that are small and reddish-brown. They are one of the fastest beans to cook, making them one of my favorites for quick and healthy vegan recipes.
The advantages of beans are that they’re low in fat, high in protein and loaded with fiber. Gram for gram, they’re a much more economical source of protein than meat. Topping off the wrap, sprouts (like alfalfa or clover) are one of the foods most packed with nutrient, and putting them in a wrap is a delicious way to eat a big portion of them.
This vegetarian wraps recipe makes enough for 6 large wraps.
Vegetarian Wraps Recipe Ingredients
1 cup canned or cooked aduki beans (or another bean) 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp olive oil Flat leaf parsley, chopped half of a sweet onion, sliced 2 tomatoes, chopped 1 cucumber, sliced with skin 1 cup sprouts (alfalfa, clover, broccoli, etc) 6 wraps
Vegetarian Wraps Recipe Directions
Dried aduki beans, if you’re using them, need to be fully cooked before you start. Soak half a cup of the dry beans overnight with lots of water. Drain them, add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Do not use salt during the cooking process. Putting a piece of kombu (seaweed) in the water while the beans cook will help make the beans more easily digested. Using canned aduki beans is less work, but be sure to look for beans that do not have any salt. Some brands actually cook the beans with kombu, which is ideal. Mix the olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice together, and you can add any herbs or spices you like, but be sure to add a pinch of salt. If you are using a vinaigrette from the store, make sure there’s salt in the ingredients. If not, add some! Since the beans are not cooked with any salt, they need a bit after cooking. Pour the vinaigrette over the cooked beans in a small bowl. Chop some parsley, then stir it into the beans. The beans will appreciate marinating for at least an hour, but they only get better the longer you leave them. To get dinner together once the beans are flavored, heat a small pan tp medium. Sauté the onions briefly in a small amount of olive oil, to soften their flavor. Feel free to can skip this step if you prefer your onions raw. There are a few ways to heat up your wraps: toaster oven, full-size oven, or heat briefly in the pan you used for the onions. Arrange some beans, vegetables and sprouts in the middle of the wrap, fold one end in, roll and enjoy your vegetarian wraps recipe!
By: Heather Nauta
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 19th, 2010.
If you’re like many vegetarians with children, finding a family friendly vegetarian restaurant can be challenging. Children often have picky eating habits and will turn up their little noses at foods with which they are not familiar. Additionally, some vegetarian restaurants cater to a very specific clientele, often one which is at odds with a boisterous family.
Unfortunately, this means that many vegetarian parents are relegated to ordering the same salad or side dish over and over at a traditional restaurant. But by taking just a few minutes to do some quick research on your local vegetarian restaurants, you can find dining options that both you and your children will enjoy.
Review the Menu for Family Friendly Clues
The first step in determining whether your local vegetarian restaurant promotes family dining is to check out the menu. Many vegetarian restaurants post their menu online for you to peruse, so you can scout out the options before you leave the house. If the menu has a kids’ section, you can bet that the restaurant promotes an environment that is family friendly.
Once you’ve found the kids’ menu, pay close attention to the options. Some vegetarian restaurants simply offer smaller portions of adult entrees for children. While this is a good start, every parent knows that kids like a little fun with their meal. Kids’ entrees should be typical of what most children enjoy, and if the menu even has some choices with silly names, you’ve hit the jackpot.
High priced restaurants are not geared toward kids
Next, look at the menu prices for adult entrees. If a typical entree runs $35 or more, the restaurant probably doesn’t cater to families. These establishments often have stricter behavioral expectations, making your child feel uncomfortable. Additionally, if your child should misbehave, you may be asked to leave the restaurant, spoiling the meal for everyone.
A family friendly restaurant has a casual, inviting atmosphere
Once you find a vegetarian restaurant menu that holds all these family friendly clues, the next step should be a quick visit to the restaurant itself, preferably during the dinner hour. As soon as you walk in the door, look around. Even if there are no children in the dining room, other features will offer clues. Casual dress, cheerful colors, and a warm, inviting atmosphere typically characterize a family friendly establishment. If the majority of the patrons are wearing formal or evening dress, or if the atmosphere is excessively professional, your kids may be happier dining somewhere else.
If the restaurant is not too busy, you may even ask the host/hostess or a member of the waitstaff whether the restaurant serves many families. A vegetarian restaurant that is popular with other families may very well be a hit with your family, too.
Finding a great, family friendly vegetarian restaurant is a win-win for your family. You get to enjoy fantastic dishes prepared specifically to appeal to your vegetarian tastes. Your kids get to enjoy the fun, eclectic environment that many vegetarian restaurants offer. By taking these few quick steps, you can ensure a great vegetarian dining experience for the whole family.
By: Vladimir Grinberg
About the Author:
Vladmir Grinberg has been involved in the natural food industry since 2001. He has made it his mission to promote healthy food choices by educating readers about the benefits of natural and organic foods. To help make healthy food more convenient for busy people, Mr. Grinberg also started OrganicDirect, an organic food delivery service for the New York Metro area. For more information, visit https://www.OrganicDirect.comMr. Grinberg’s organic, vegetarian restaurant in the East Village, The Organic Grill , is proud of its family friendly atmosphere. The menu includes such favorites as grilled cheese, pizza, and the “Eggy,” a simple organic egg and home fries to appeal to its youthful patrons. To learn more go to http://www.theorganicgrill.com.
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 17th, 2010.
It is supposed common knowledge by now that Omega-3 fish oil has a positive impact on our physical and emotional well being. In a recent Norwegian Study some problems concerning salmon grown on a vegetarian diet and the quality of their fatty acids was raised. It seems that more and more salmon is grown on a diet consisting of on a diet of vegetable fats. These are cheaper, more convenient and a good marketing argument then their natural counterparts.
A salmon fish is not a vegetarian by nature, its a carnivore, a hunter. Still the health of the Salmon seems to be unaffected is you feed them vegetables. Salmon grown that way are ecological friendly, great for vegetarian humans who understand their need for Omega-3 fatty acids and more profitable for those that grow them. Looks like a triple or quadruple win, but is it?
The same Norwegian study puts great question marks at the quality of the Omega-3 oils in fish grown this way. They studied patients with bloodvessel problems that where given either Fish that was grown on a normal diet or the vegetarian variety.
Their results where not all conclusive and further research is necessary but it seemed that the health benefits of the alternatively grown fat fish was significantly lower than that of normal animals.
For the moment the conclusion can be that feeding salmon vegetable fats is beneficial for all involved, the salmon farm reduces cost, the fish itself doesn’t seem to care and the producers of these special made food. But the consumer who thinks to buy a slice of healthy fish is the one who looses.
It’s possible that he or she now buys a ineffective variety of health beneficial fish. Since further investigations are underway we need not jump to conclusions, but it sounds logical that when you feed a carnivore vegetables its meat changes. It is a nice thought experiment to imagine feeding a cow only fish and see what happens to the milk.
By: Barbara Wibault
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 16th, 2010.
Perfect as any hearty soup in cold weather, this Vietnamese-style Pho soup is also light enough to stand in for a perfect warm weather meal. Made with fresh organic vegetables and vegetable broth, it’s simple to put together, and can work in a pinch when you are entertaining guests or after work when you want to throw together a quick, complete meal in less than a half hour.
For a recipe yield of about 2-3 complete servings of Vietnamese Pho (fairly large bowls), follow these instructions.
Ingredients for Making Vietnamese Pho Broth
1 (32-ounce) box of organic vegetable broth
2-3 Whole organic garlic cloves
3 Tbsp of organic Shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
3 Organic Ginger coins
1/2 Tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp organic rice wine vinegar
1 Cinnamon stick
2 Tbsp Sriracha Brand Hot chili sauce
1 Half of an organic yellow onion
Other Ingredients for Making Vietnamese Pho
2 Organic green onions, chopped
1/2 Pack of rice noodles (Soba will also substitute fine)
1 Square of Thai flavor baked tofu (sliced)
1/2 Cup of mushrooms (Shiitake are nice)
1 Head of organic bok choy
1 Cup of organic red cabbage, cut into small, salad-sized pieces
Ingredients for Making Vietnamese Pho Garnish
4-6 Fresh organic basil leaves
4-6 Fresh organic cilantro stems & leaves
1 Organic lime cut in 1/2
1/2 Cup of organic soybean sprouts
Directions for Making Vietnamese Pho for Two
1. First make the broth: Place all broth ingredients listed above in a large pot; cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Let simmer for about 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, cut up your vegetables. Bring water to boil in a separate pot and cook your noodles during this time, as well.
3. Next, drain the broth of its contents, removing the whole garlic cloves, ginger coins, cinnamon stick and chunk of onion. Return the broth to its original pot and add all vegetables. Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are at their desired tenderness.
4. Add noodles to the soup, serve with garnish on top (to be stirred into the soup) and enjoy.
By: Matty Byloos
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Filed under Food And Drink by on Nov 16th, 2010.