Broken Finger Foods

Since Z broke his finger, I have been serving food that is easy to eat with one hand. Anything that can be eaten with fingers or a spoon is popular.

On Saturday night, we tried the lovely Char Siu Rice from Vegan About Town. I served the fragrant savoury rice with Lamyong roast “pork” on lettuce, tomato, and stir fried gai choy. To make the food more child and finger friendly, I also added store bought spring rolls, money bags, mini samosas, turnip cakes and “drumsticks”. Everyone loved the meal. Thanks to Vegan About Town, the rice was a great hit.

Sunday night was Veganomnicon and Vegan With a Vengeance night. Both are recipe books by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. We had the chickpea cutlets, with mustard sauce (both V’con), with garlicky kale with tahini sauce (VWAV), roast pumpkin and sweet potato chips.

This time I did not have any gluten flour and the shops were shut before I started cooking the chickpea cutlets. I decided to try plain (all-purpose) flour and to bake the cutlets. It worked almost as well as the gluten flour, though it would not pack the same protein punch. I also made smaller medallions (one was already eaten before I took the picture, because I couldn’t resist). Isa is right, the tangy mustard sauce is delicious with it. The children always like these cutlets.

They also like the sauce, to my surprise. I had thought that it might be a bit too tangy and spicy for the younger two, who tend to be a bit cautious about that sort of food. I should have known that their love of capers would win over all other considerations.

The garlicky kale with tahina sauce was simply delicious. My omni, greens-loving husband was quite impressed by it. The younger children were not fond of it, but then they are not overly fond of many types of leafy green. 13 year old J will eat anything that an adult would eat. Though he didn’t rave over the kale, he ate it all.

The sweet potato chips are a bit of child vegetable psychology that I have been using for a while. If called “chips” and cut in batons, the younger, fussier kids will happily eat sweet potato. If it is served in chunks or medallions, they are not so enthusiastic.

Monday night I served a Middle Eastern style platter. On the plate was pita bread wedges, baba gannouj, hommous, caperberries, baked stuffed olives, baked mushrooms, baked chickpeas with tomato, spring onions, coriander seed, cumin and time, and chickpea balls. When I made the chickpea cutlets, I doubled the recipe and made these balls at the same time, so that I could use them for this meal. The baked chickpeas were left overs from the cutlets.

This sort of food is always a favourite with my family. They love Middle Eastern dips. We ate an entire jar of caperberries, which was no surprise. The children love caperberries and capers.

Both hommous and bab gannouj are naturally vegan. These were both shop bought versions. They can easily be made at home, but I was being lazy. If you buy these dips, make sure you check the ingredients, as some brands might include non-vegan ingredients, which are not traditional or necessary.

We have also had some rather boring bangers and mash and pies and chips for the football, though I didn't take photos of them. So far the invalid has not starved!