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Series Code: DDCC
Program Code: DDCC000018A
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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. |
Revised 2018-04-09