There’s no reason your isolation menu should be boring; you can just as easily recycle leftover veggies for something interesting and healthy without using up your pantry supplies. While vegan culinary expert and Instagram sensation Sebastien Kardinal was in town, he shared a bunch of green and hassle-free recipes with us which are not just delicious but also superbly healthy and cruelty-free.
The vegan activist is famous for revisiting French and international culinary specialities and re-imagining their vegan versions. Kardinal, who’s also an author, revealed to us that since he embarked upon a vegan lifestyle in 2007, he has gotten a lot healthier. “In just a few months I could notice the difference, I was a lot fitter and I lost some weight, I was living a better life. I’m Italian, so I love food, I used to eat cheese and eggs a lot, but now with a plant-based diet, it’s amazing the things you can do without being cruel towards animals,” Kardinal tells us. The chef is known for his quirky re-inventions, which replace meat and uses something really scrumptious and plant-based instead.
His Tomates Farcies recipe, for instance, is a total vegan hit; the dish is designed to re-uses leftover meat. But Kardinal’s version focuses on recycling leftover veggies from your kitchen and some fresh herbs.
Ingredients:
6 large tomatoes with firm flesh
1 onion
1 garlic clove
200 g tempeh
200g mushrooms Paris
1 c-to-c smoked paprika
1 Espelette chilli
Some fresh thyme
Salt unrefined
Olive oil
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 160 ° C
Clean the tomatoes and cut the cap keeping the stalk. Using a teaspoon, gently flush the entire
Pulp and dig a little flesh tomato to produce a cavity roughly spherical. Keep the pulp and flesh into a bowl.
Crumble the tempeh and cut the mushrooms duxelles. Peel the onion, the garlic and chop everything finely.
Combine tempeh, tomato pulp with smoked paprika, Espelette pepper and fresh thyme.
In a hot pan well, for 5 minutes, cook together: mushrooms, garlic and onion with a drizzle of olive oil. Add salt and mix with the preparation tempeh.
Garnish generously inside tomatoes with stuffing, place the cap and place the tomatoes in a baking dish.
Sprinkle each tomato with a drizzle of olive oil and cook for 60 minutes.
Serve with Camargue rice for example.
Chef’s tip: To give more softness to the stuffing, you can also add some sliced bread soaked in natural soy milk. If the amount of tomato pulp is tight, this trick allows you to make the necessary moisture without soaking the stuffing.