Dare To Dream Creative Cooking

Mamma Mia

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: DDCC

Program Code: DDCC000018A


00:21 Hola! Bonjour and Benvenuto!
00:25 Welcome to Creative Cooking.
00:27 My name is Nicole Braxton,
00:28 and I'm super excited to be here with you
00:31 as we journey around the world one bite at a time.
00:35 Today, our episode is called Mamma Mia!
00:38 As we journey to Italy,
00:40 we'll be making three amazing and delicious dishes.
00:43 They include lasagna,
00:45 eggplant paramagiana, and asparagus.
00:49 For our lasagna,
00:50 some of the ingredients include...
01:23 Now let's get started.
01:24 I'm super excited, I love Italian food.
01:28 And this is a nice plant-based spin
01:30 on the average and the normal lasagna
01:33 that we grew up with.
01:35 So we're going to start off by taking some tofu
01:41 and put it in a bowl.
01:43 You can get a tofu that is non-GMO.
01:49 So this is a part of the recipe,
01:50 you like to roll your sleeves up
01:51 and get messy
01:53 because we're going to crumble our tofu
01:56 to make it symbolize a ricotta cheese.
01:58 So this is a vegan ricotta cheese
02:00 by just putting it together with our hands.
02:04 And if you want, you can also do this with,
02:06 you know, a spoon or things like that.
02:08 This is a very hands-on process to say the least.
02:13 All right, so here is our lasagna.
02:18 This is one of my favorite recipes because it's simple,
02:21 like, once you cook it,
02:23 you can eat off a bit through the week,
02:25 most people love this recipe.
02:27 So I'm really happy to share it with you today.
02:30 Okay, so now
02:31 we have our tofu ready.
02:36 And if you look, now it has a consistency,
02:39 a little similar to like a vegan ricotta.
02:44 Now only thing that's left is the flavor.
02:47 So one of the things
02:49 that I found of eating plant-based
02:52 is that you can be really healthy
02:56 and also have delicious meals
02:58 if you put a lot of fresh herbs and spices in it.
03:01 And I didn't always eat this way, not at all.
03:04 I grew up eating all different types of food,
03:08 and so it's really nice to find food
03:10 that I'm used to, but that's healthier.
03:13 And once I try different meals,
03:17 you know, vegetables weren't necessarily seasoned
03:20 when I try different types of meals.
03:21 So I was wondering,
03:23 "Is it possible to eat a healthy food
03:25 that actually tastes good?"
03:27 And luckily, I'm very thankful
03:30 that I was introduced to a chef that taught and trained me.
03:33 And I realize
03:35 that all the different foods that you use,
03:37 it's really good
03:38 to put fresh herbs such as basil,
03:41 like we will put in today and thyme into the food,
03:44 because it really...
03:46 the food absorbs it.
03:48 For example, tofu acts like a sponge,
03:50 whatever types of ingredients and different sausage
03:53 you put on top of your tofu, it directly absorbs it.
03:57 So that's a great thing about tofu.
03:59 So now, I'm going to add
04:03 some just mayo into the tofu.
04:10 Okay.
04:12 And I will mix it around.
04:25 Can I add a little bit more?
04:27 You can add less, it's all up to you.
04:30 Because, remember, it's my goal to empower you
04:33 to be an excellent chef in your kitchen.
04:39 Okay.
04:41 So this is just giving us some texture of a ricotta.
04:45 Now to give it its flavor,
04:47 I'm gonna put some chicken style seasoning.
04:54 Alrighty.
05:00 And as you are stirring it,
05:01 although it's cold and it's not warm yet,
05:06 you're able to still smell all the good spices.
05:09 Because in the chicken style seasoning,
05:10 it has a mixture of herbs and spices.
05:12 So by putting it in it, it really activates your senses
05:16 which I enjoy in this vegan ricotta.
05:19 So if you look at that, we're starting to mix it.
05:22 Now I want to add some fresh spices
05:25 or fresh herbs in there, just one moment.
05:28 Okay.
05:30 We're gonna take some basil,
05:33 and it's part of the mint family,
05:35 so it adds a nice taste to this.
05:39 I'll take my basil
05:40 and I'm gonna roll it up as such.
05:43 Can you see? There we go, rolled it up.
05:47 Now I'm gonna take my knife,
05:49 and I'm going to do a rocking motion like this.
05:59 Leafy greens, in general, outside of basil,
06:03 but leafy greens are really great things
06:05 to start incorporate in diet.
06:07 So the basil adds a nice flavor to this.
06:11 So I'll put some fresh basil in there,
06:12 and I might save a little to top at the end.
06:16 Okay. So now I'll mix that.
06:19 And it's amazing, just even cutting the basil,
06:22 I can really start smelling
06:24 the different oils being released,
06:27 and now it's in this vegan ricotta.
06:29 It's delicious, I can't wait. Okay.
06:31 So now for our next filler,
06:33 we're gonna put some spinach inside of it.
06:36 So I'm gonna take out a skillet.
06:44 And you can put a little bit
06:47 of extra virgin olive oil,
06:50 or you can use water.
06:52 And I'm going to now take my onions,
06:56 and I'm gonna let this heat,
06:59 great thing is that these pans heat really well.
07:01 So now I'm going to put onions in my skillet,
07:06 and I'm going to take the fresh garlic that we have.
07:11 A great thing is you can get fresh garlic at...
07:13 You can get fresh garlic at your local stores.
07:16 And also if you go to Asian markets,
07:18 they tend to have garlic cloves peeled, ready to go.
07:22 And I really like incorporating that in my dishes.
07:24 So I'm just gonna take some garlic
07:27 and chop some of this.
07:30 Okay.
07:41 Okay, so we're gonna put
07:42 some garlic inside of our onions.
07:49 To me, when I first started
07:50 being introduced to a plant-based diet,
07:53 the one way
07:54 that I was convinced was by watching people
07:57 eat it and live well.
08:00 I didn't know
08:02 that there are so many different products out
08:03 that are really good and delicious.
08:06 Nowadays, it's really easy actually
08:08 to eat plant-based.
08:10 It only requires essentially making a decision
08:13 and planning for it.
08:14 There's a lot of access to different products,
08:17 and there's a lot of information online.
08:19 And this is a good...
08:21 This show is a really good program
08:24 to be tuned into
08:25 so that you can learn different tips
08:27 when you're cooking your meals at home.
08:29 So we have onions and garlic right now
08:31 that are cooking.
08:33 Okay.
08:35 So as that is sautéing and cooking,
08:40 I'm also gonna add a little bit
08:42 of Italian seasoning inside of it.
08:47 I also put some Italian seasoning
08:50 inside of our vegan ricotta cheese.
08:56 The next herb that I'm really excited
08:59 to put in is thyme, I love thyme.
09:02 This is great for Italian dishes
09:04 and other dishes as well.
09:06 So I'm gonna take the thyme
09:07 and just going to chop it.
09:12 We have the rocking motion going on right now.
09:16 Okay.
09:21 You can hear the sizzle from the onions and the garlic.
09:24 Wow! That is amazing.
09:28 Really good.
09:31 So what I found when I lived abroad,
09:34 I had some really awesome Italian friends,
09:36 and we would all get together and try different food,
09:42 and we were able to try different things.
09:44 And one of the things that I really enjoyed
09:46 is they're really hospitable, and they really enjoyed food.
09:52 Food was something that connected us all,
09:54 and we were from all different countries.
09:57 And so I'm super excited to try this lasagna,
09:59 it reminds me my really kind friends
10:02 that I've met.
10:04 So now we have some fresh thyme inside of this bowl.
10:09 We have our basil,
10:10 we have our chicken style seasoning.
10:14 Now, I want to add some nutritional yeast flakes.
10:17 In previous episodes I shared with you, it has B12.
10:21 And it also has different protein inside it as well.
10:25 So it's really healthy,
10:26 a great thing to incorporate within your dishes.
10:28 So now I'm gonna take the nutritional yeast
10:30 and put this over
10:32 our vegan ricotta.
10:37 The onions and garlic are talking to me right now.
10:39 They're like, "Put the spinach inside of me,"
10:43 'cause they're ready.
10:44 So I'm just gonna give it a toss.
10:47 Oops! All right.
10:49 So you can take a look,
10:50 the onions and the garlic are being sautéing, it's hot.
10:53 All right.
10:54 So now I'm gonna put the spinach in there.
11:08 Okay.
11:24 It's beautiful.
11:25 So the spinach is a rich green.
11:28 And then you have,
11:29 from the onions, there is a purple,
11:31 a deep purple inside,
11:33 so it's really nice to mix those two.
11:38 All right.
11:40 This is a nice healthy component
11:42 to add to our lasagna.
11:44 So we have mixed the vegan ricotta
11:48 with nutritional yeast
11:49 and all these great ingredients.
11:51 Now let's give it a taste.
11:57 It's good.
11:59 I will add a little bit more chicken style seasoning,
12:04 pour a little bit more.
12:05 So with the chicken style season,
12:08 make sure to taste.
12:12 And that it's not too salty
12:15 nor bland, so just taste it.
12:21 I will put a little in here
12:22 so I can taste it with my other spoon.
12:28 Okay, that's what I'm talking about, so good.
12:34 It's fresh, full of flavor,
12:39 and delicious.
12:41 Okay, so now our spinach, that's sautéing.
12:44 And I want to add
12:45 some garlic powder over our spinach as well.
12:49 All right.
12:51 Okay.
13:00 All right.
13:01 So now our spinach is done,
13:02 you can add a little salt to taste.
13:12 Okay.
13:15 And I'm going to add
13:16 the rest of the Italian seasoning
13:19 in this too.
13:21 Well, majority of it, mix it up.
13:25 Now it's time to add the spinach into our mixture.
13:30 So we'll pour this inside.
13:35 All right.
13:41 Now you can either do...
13:43 Each layer, you can do spinach, and then you can do the tofu,
13:49 you can break it up like that, or you can mix it together.
13:52 It's very flexible,
13:53 so you choose what you like the most.
13:56 Each layer and each dish that we just did,
14:00 the spinach and the tofu, they're already ready to go,
14:02 so you can do it individually, put the noodle,
14:05 spinach or noodle, tofu,
14:08 or you can mix them together like we're doing today.
14:10 This is Creative Cooking, remember,
14:12 so I encourage you to be creative
14:15 when you cook these recipes.
14:18 All right, so now I'm just mixing these together.
14:27 Okay, so if you take a look, that is what it looks like.
14:32 This is a vegan ricotta with spinach
14:34 which is really, really good.
14:37 And just to make sure,
14:39 I'm gonna give it another taste.
14:41 I want to adjust my seasoning, since we add this spinach in.
14:51 That's good. That is very good.
14:55 Maybe I might add just a little chicken seasoning.
15:00 But that is very good.
15:01 So now it's time to layer our lasagna.
15:07 I'm gonna take some tomato sauce
15:09 and put it at the base.
15:10 Now oftentimes, we make lasagna.
15:13 A lot of times, we boil the noodles before
15:15 and then we put it into the baking dish,
15:18 but we don't need to do that today.
15:20 I'll show you a cool trick.
15:23 So you'll pour...
15:28 The sauce at the bottom.
15:32 It's a deep red color, it's beautiful.
15:36 Okay.
15:38 So you can make your own sauce, or you can purchase it.
15:42 So we have our tomato sauce at the bottom,
15:44 then we're gonna put our noodles.
15:57 Okay.
15:58 Now we're going to put the vegan ricotta
16:02 and spinach in there.
16:10 And you'll spread it out.
16:13 Okay, it's really beautiful
16:16 and colorful with the red, white, and green.
16:21 Okay.
16:26 So you just spread it out like so
16:28 and make sure it's flat.
16:33 By putting this mixture on top of the noodles,
16:35 it gives it a moisture.
16:37 So when you cook it, it will also cook the noodles.
16:42 So make sure you cover your noodles
16:43 with this second layer, just like so.
16:47 Do you see how it looks?
16:51 It almost looks like a spinach dip,
16:52 but it's a beautiful vegan ricotta.
16:54 So you just make sure you do it like that.
16:57 If you want it to be fancy
17:00 and add some different herbs in between,
17:02 you can do that as well.
17:04 Next, you'll put another layer of noodles.
17:07 One, two.
17:13 Okay.
17:14 Then you'll put a layer of sauce.
17:19 Now you can make your lasagna
17:20 as many layers as you would like it to be.
17:26 I'll put a little bit more sauce.
17:33 Okay.
17:35 So this, now you get the concept
17:39 of how to make the lasagna.
17:40 And you, at home, can go ahead
17:42 and make all the different layers
17:45 that you like.
17:47 What you will do now
17:49 as you put the fresh basil on top,
17:52 sprinkle that.
17:54 You can also take some Italian seasoning...
18:01 Like so.
18:07 And then you'll just cover this,
18:09 and bake this in the oven,
18:11 and get ready to bring all your friends together
18:14 to try your delicious lasagna.
18:17 Now let's go to our next recipe.
18:18 We have eggplant paramagiana.
18:21 The ingredients are...
18:49 So let's get started.
18:51 Now for the eggplant paramagiana,
18:54 all you do is just start cutting it
18:57 into the one-eighth inches.
19:02 Okay.
19:05 And as you continuously cut the eggplant,
19:09 and you will get significantly larger
19:11 because of the shape, so you just keep cutting.
19:14 Okay.
19:18 I like eggplant because you can put
19:19 this in all different types of dishes.
19:22 And it has a nice texture and consistency
19:25 that can be a great meat replacement.
19:27 It can be a good filler,
19:29 and it's really good and packed with different nutrients.
19:32 So I like eggplant,
19:33 it's really great to add to this dish.
19:37 Eggplant paramagiana coming right up.
19:39 So we continuously cut. Okay.
19:45 So now we have our eggplant slices.
19:48 We're going to make the sauce.
19:50 So the sauce consists of the olive oil,
19:54 we'll pour this into the bowl.
19:57 Okay.
19:59 We have our olive oil,
20:02 we'll also put
20:04 our fresh spices or herbs.
20:10 Then we will add some nutritional yeast flakes.
20:16 Okay.
20:18 Then I will also chop some garlic.
20:26 Okay.
20:27 Like so, really great thing to have
20:31 to help build your immune system,
20:33 doing the rocking boat motion as always.
20:36 You can also finish it off like this.
20:39 Chop your garlic. Okay.
20:42 So now we have our garlic in there.
20:47 And we're going to add this into our mixture,
20:49 it gives it another dimension of flavor.
20:51 So remember, I really love flavorful cuisines,
20:54 so make sure
20:56 you add different fresh ingredients
20:59 to give it that extra flavor.
21:01 And especially when it comes to putting different salts
21:03 in your food,
21:05 you want to have more fresher food,
21:06 so you need it less.
21:08 Okay.
21:10 So now we have that,
21:11 and I'm going to just mix everything.
21:22 As you can see, it all starts to come together,
21:24 the nutritional yeast acts like a binder
21:27 and brings it all together.
21:29 We have the garlic in there. Okay.
21:33 So now we're going to take our eggplant.
21:39 And on each side...
21:41 Before that, we're gonna take our baking sheet,
21:47 and we're going to brush it.
21:50 You can brush it with a little bit of water.
21:53 Just want to make sure that it doesn't stick.
21:58 Here we go. Okay.
22:01 So now we're gonna take our eggplant,
22:03 and we're gonna place it on the baking sheet.
22:10 It's really cool, it's a nice round
22:12 baking sheet.
22:13 Now, we're gonna brush each side with our mixture.
22:20 Flip it over.
22:23 There you go.
22:26 This gives it a nice crust
22:28 on this outside of the eggplant.
22:34 There you go.
22:40 Okay.
22:43 So this mixture is filled with different spices
22:49 and nutritional yeast flakes
22:51 which is really good for you as well as garlic.
22:54 So I really enjoy putting over the eggplant,
22:56 and it just observes the flavor,
22:59 and it seasons it really well.
23:06 Continue to put it on each side.
23:13 And the last thing we'll add are breadcrumbs,
23:15 this adds another dimension
23:18 of flavor to it
23:22 and also texture.
23:24 So you can also add your vegan parmesan cheese as well,
23:29 you can sprinkle it
23:30 or you can add it in the mixture.
23:39 Okay.
23:40 Now we will add our breadcrumbs.
23:42 We're gonna take a little bit of this
23:47 and just sprinkle it over our eggplant paramagiana.
23:56 Okay.
23:57 Now, we're gonna put it in the oven,
23:59 and we're gonna put it on broil for about 15 minutes, okay.
24:09 I cannot wait to taste that. Okay.
24:12 So as that is cooking,
24:14 we're gonna go to our last recipe for today
24:16 which is the asparagus.
24:18 And the ingredients consists of...
24:38 Let's get started.
24:39 For our asparagus,
24:41 we're gonna start out
24:43 with a few different asparagus.
24:47 And before we put it in,
24:49 you can put a little bit of olive oil or water.
24:53 Say, let's put some water at the base.
24:56 Let the pan heat.
25:00 Then we'll take our asparagus...
25:06 And ration it up.
25:11 Okay.
25:12 And if you want to put a little bit of olive oil,
25:15 you can do so.
25:17 Just drizzle it. All right.
25:21 Now we're gonna put
25:23 some garlic cloves in there as well.
25:26 So I'll chop up some garlic cloves.
25:35 Alrighty.
25:39 All right.
25:41 So now we're ready
25:42 to add our garlic into the mixture,
25:45 pour it over it.
25:49 Now, the great thing about the garlic
25:51 is it perfectly accents the asparagus.
25:54 It brings now lot of flavor,
25:56 and it makes them very delicious.
25:59 I like the texture of asparagus.
26:00 As soon as you cook it down,
26:02 you still have the crunch on the outside,
26:03 and it's a little bit tender as well.
26:05 So that's the great thing about this dish.
26:08 Then I'm gonna put some chicken style seasoning,
26:10 sprinkle it over.
26:12 Now you're starting to hear it cook, I love that.
26:15 We're gonna put some garlic powder.
26:22 Mix that in there. Okay.
26:26 Next, we'll put some Italian seasoning...
26:32 Some oregano.
26:38 We'll cut up a lemon.
26:41 And if you find as you're cooking,
26:42 hey, just to make sure to keep tossing it
26:47 and the different spices.
26:50 You see, the more that you cook the asparagus,
26:52 the deeper the green gets.
26:54 It's really beautiful, it brings the color out.
26:58 Let that continuously cook.
27:00 You can put a little more chicken style seasoning,
27:02 taste it as you're cooking.
27:05 Remember, I'm inviting you to experiment and try.
27:08 And last but not least,
27:09 we're gonna put some lemon juice on top.
27:12 This is a great accent to the asparagus.
27:15 Okay.
27:16 There we go.
27:18 So you let that cook for a little bit
27:20 and then your asparagus will be done.
27:22 So we have cooked a lot today. Let's go over our dishes.
27:26 We have the lasagna
27:29 which was our first dish that we made.
27:31 It's delicious, it's filled with the vegan ricotta cheese
27:34 we made out of spinach.
27:36 Then we made the eggplant paramagiana
27:40 which is a great accent,
27:41 you can also add some chopped
27:43 or sliced tomatoes to accent the eggplants.
27:47 So on the recipe you'll see that,
27:48 you can add that in there as well.
27:50 And last but not least, we have the asparagus.
27:53 So thank you so much for tuning in
27:56 and making these delicious meals with me.
27:58 I can't wait to see you again on the next episode.
28:01 Thanks for joining Creative Cooking.


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Revised 2018-04-09