UEFA Euro 2024 Special - Romania

 On my Euro tour I am next up in Romania.... it was a bit tough to find any Romanian vegetable dishes until I found The Romanian Cookbook.  I decided on a rather great pan fried courgettes dish - Dovlecei Pane and a white bean dip - Fasole Batuta with a tomato salad to finish off. 

Dovlecei Pane, Fasole Batuta and Salată de Roșii

Romanian Pan Fried Courgettes – Dovlecei Pane

I took the recipe from The Romanian Cookbook and veganised it by using gram flour, water and polenta.

Ingredients

2 courgettes

Gram flour (sorry do not have the measurements)

Polenta (probably about 30g)

Vegan yoghurt (3 tbsp)

1 Garlic clove crushed with salt

Instructions

1. Slice the courgettes - about 5 mm each slice.

2. Transfer to a colandar and sprinkle with salt (this is to remove some of the water).

3. Leave for 15 minutes and then pat dry.

4. Prepare a bowl of gram flour and water to create a thickish batter.

5. On a plate sprinkle some polenta and if you have some a little dried mint.

6. Take each courgette slice and first pass through the gram flour batter and then roll in the polenta and mint.

 

7. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and pan fry each slice for about 2 minutes each . Take the slices out and place on kitchen towel.

8. Meanwhile crush the garlic clove  and put in the yoghurt.  Finish the yoghurt off with some dried dill if you have some.

9. Serve the courgettes with the yoghurt.

Romanian White Bean Dip - Fasole Batuta

Ingredients

 

200g White beans (I used some cannelleli beans that I had already cooked)

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 onion sliced thinly

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp paprika

Olive oil

Instructions

1. In a blender mix up the white beans if they are already cooked with the garlic and some water (use the cooking water if you have just cooked them).

2. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry your onions on a low heat which should take about 10 minutes.

3. When the onions are almost done add the tomato paste, a pinch of salt and mix well.

4. Turn the heat off the onions and add the paprika (do not add the paprika whilst still on the heat as it will make the dish bitter.)

5. Serve the dip with the onion mix on top.

Salată de roșii

I took this recipe from https://www.tasteatlas.com/best-rated-vegetarian-dishes-in-romania. Essentially the ingredients are good tomatoes (deseeded and cut into bite size chunks), 1/2 a red onion finely sliced, garlic clove crushed, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and basil and thyme.  Combine the tomato and onion and in a separate bowl combine the olive oil, vinegar, basil and thyme.  Dress the tomato and onion mix and serve.

 

 

 

 

Dovlecei Pane, Fasole Batuta and Salată de Roșii

 

 Score: Romania 1  Slovakia 1

Football Score :4 (Close run thing between Romania and Slovakia, some great football and beautiful goals. )

Food: 3 (The white bean dip was not really successful... perhaps less paprika is needed. The pan fried courgettes were rather great but did not eat so well with the yoghurt... perhaps a tomato based dip would have been better )