Easy BBQ Vegan Skewers
Hey everyone! I hope you all are doing fantastically. I've been really excited to begin my new recipe series exclusive to my website since moving! I'm gonna start off with about five or so and see how things go, if you guys enjoy them, we can get it popppppping later and let me know what you think!
So let's talk about this meal! I am a huge fan of colourful looking food, I like including as much in a meal as I can but when I was talking to my friends about vegetarian foods, we all came back to the thing of... oh my god. A stuffed pepper and some bbq skewers whilst everyone else is chomping on a leg of some animal covered in indulgent sauces and spices and it's never done well. That was the inspiration behind this and I love Greek food, I cook it a lot for my family who eats halloumi, this is a meal that I made to be vegetarian for my fam, but I will describe how to substitute the cheese for tofu to keep it vegan!
Stuffed Pepper
Large pepper of your choice
Quinoa
Vegetable Stock
Salt
Chilli Oil
Garlic Yogurt
Onion Salt
Vegan Cream Cheese
Easy Chopped Garlic
Chilli Flakes
Garlic Powder
Plain Vegan Yogurt
Hot Sauce of your choice for extra spice
Skewers
Sweet Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Light Halumi (Can be substituted for marinated tofu frozen overnight)
Brocolli (Courgettes can be substituted but they're not my fav)
Red Onion
Soaked Skewers
Now the key with this is that every single time people cook stuffed peppers, they leave the pepper literally like a raw pepper and it comes out gross and flavourless. I chose to use quinoa in vegetable stock, I put the deseeded pepper in with the stock. So it takes about 15 minutes to cook out the quinoa and then another 15 to soak up the water and fluff up, I would say put the pepper in for about 10 minutes so it softens. That way it has some of that stock, but it also is cooked more than if you went straight into a hot oven.
With the garlic yoghurt, this one is a really amazing alternative to anyone who can't have dairy or dips. I know a lot of people break out after certain condiments. I use plain Alpro yoghurt, this has a distinct taste to it so what you can do is add the yeast products which cut through the flavour, or use a spoonful of ready-made vegan cream cheese. I used the Sainsburys own one as they are really surprisingly great. I then added a spoon full of easy chopped garlic, chilli flakes, garlic powder, onion salt and seasoning. I also added a splash of my fav ghost pepper sauce and stirred it in before serving to make it as spicy as the queen enjoys.
In a second pan, I again wanted to focus on the sweet peppers for the skewers. Now again I find that most peppers are not great unless you cook them a couple of ways. If you throw them in they can be squeaky and flavourless. So I prepped all the veg, fried some onions which I really wanted to crisp and almost caramelise so it adds some more texture and flavour to the quinoa. I simply fried the peppers for a hot minute and we were good!
So I have assembled the skewers that I left soaking in water for about 25 minutes, this stops them burning. I added halloumi and filled up the peppers with the combination of the fried onions and quinoa, drain any excess stock, I think to do it by eye because some grains absorb more than others. Drain if needed. And then throw it all in the oven with some olive oil and seasoning. I normally keep my oven on 220, but the two houses I just moved from had fan ovens and one cooked like Pompei and the other was like a small kiln. So just throw it on pretty hot and check it for about 20 minutes until you see the pepper slightly crisp and the tofu or halloumi cook out.
Now I served these together with the garlic yogurt, some diet tonic water with two pieces of frozen pineapple, this is like a boojy ass drink if anyone is looking for something to sweeten tonic water and keep it super refreshing for the summer. You can easily do this with frozen tofu, make sure not to use fresh as it will fall apart. Now if you have cooked this well enough, the peppers should melt, the onions should be sweet and crispy, the tofu should be chewy with a crisped edge and the other vegetables should be melting together. The tomatoes have to be super sweet otherwise they can have a tang that is a bit of a mess with some vegetationz but this is a bomb ass meal. The lid of the pepper will literally melt off the stalk and the nutty crispy ness of the onion quinoa is a great alternative to traditional rice!
Super easy, fun vegan style skewers! I love the new kitchen as the background so let me know what you think!
Joseph
Hey guys, I wanted to amend this recipe to get a vegan Hallumi that I heard about! It came out great and here is the amended final. Let me know what you think!
Joe
