What I Eat in a Day #7

Discover the entire series of posts “What I eat in a day” here .

Breakfast

Last weekend we had some friends over and that means I get plenty of leftover cheese for the coming week. 🙂 I always cook the most food-porn-ish meals when my friends come over because I want to show them how satisfying vegetarian meals can be. 🙂

This time I bought Raclette and Taleggio, two of my all-time favorite cheeses. I buy them from Carrefour and I find them to be quite decently-priced – but they’re not always in stock. This time I got lucky!

I discovered Taleggio cheese when I lived in Milan. It is one stinky cheese, but oh so worth it. If I think about it, I think it’s quite similar to Camembert but better! Taleggio cheese is a semi-soft Italian cheese that has a thin crust and an explosive aroma (fruity and mildly tangy) that I really love. By the way, did you know that Taleggio is also one of the oldest semi-soft cheeses that are still produced today? I find that’s such an awesome fun fact!

The Swiss-French Raclette cheese may be familiar to you, as you’ve probably seen those social media videos with melting cheese pouring over potatoes. It melts creamy, not stretchy like other cheeses and it has a subtle “moldy” flavor, similar to Brie or Camembert. Raclette is a semi-hard cheese and it’s the traditional Swiss cheese used for melting. In fact, its name means “to scrape”, which is the technique used to pour the cheese (on top of potatoes, for example, as I mentioned above) after melting.

So, in short, I wanted to start the week with a super-comfy breakfast and this is the result: poached eggs with melted Raclette and Taleggio on top, chili flakes, garden greens, everything on a toasted brioche bun. Looks amazing and it tastes even better, trust me.

Lunch

For lunch, I peeled, chopped, and boiled two celeriac roots which were forgotten for some time in my pantry (oops!). I mashed them in the food processor with some salt and butter and made some amazingly delicious mashed celeriac puree. I’m always so pleasantly surprised to see how quick and easy it is to cook with scraps, leftovers, and stuff left in the fridge or pantry!

I served the puree with a generous side of garden greens – mizuna and arugula – and two Naturli schnitzels. The Naturli schnitzels are pretty amazing, my favorite vegan schnitzels to date.

Naturli schnitzels are extremely similar to the real deal, only they’re 100% plant-based. They’re soy-based, gluten-free and they’re extremely easy to cook: just take them out of the freezer and fry them in oil for 10 minutes. They’re already heat-treated, so they’re ready in no time. Plus, 100g of Naturli schnitzels contain 13g of protein, so they’re ideal for those following a vegan diet, looking for a delicious daily intake of proteins.

Dinner

The dinner was high in proteins as well and just as comfortable. It was a cold day today, so we needed this culinary indulgence. 🙂

I peeled and cut some potatoes into wedges and sliced two carrots. Mixed them with some herbs, salt, and a little bit of olive oil and put them on an oven tray lined with parchment paper. I guess you can already see where this is going, right?

I served this roasted veggies side dish with oven-baked tempeh. I marinated the tempeh in some spices for an hour or so, then coated it in some smoked paprika (my favorite!) and a little bit of oil right before baking. Placed the tempeh on the same oven tray near the veggies and baked everything for 20-30 minutes.

I love the tempeh I bought from Gymbeam – Bio Tempeh VanaVita. It has a decent price compared to other brands and it is the best I’ve tried so far. I know that for some people tempeh may not be to their liking, but for us, it is absolutely delicious! We both love the subtle nutty flavor and, if you marinate it with the right spices, it is quite an amazing meal. It’s the same story with tofu too – the spices and condiments are what’s important!

Speaking of tofu, tempeh is pretty similar because it’s soy-based as well. Tempeh is, in fact, cooked fermented soybeans combined with other whole grains, beans, and flavorings. It has a firm, cake-like texture and, as I mentioned above, its taste is nutty and delicious. It’s nutrient-dense and it’s usually found in blocks. Tempeh was first made in Indonesia, thousands of years ago and I’m so happy we can easily finally find it here where I live as well!

To complete the meal, I added some crunchy pickles and a tablespoon of cream cheese. Delicious!