This jar of Hot Ajvar has been lurking in our pantry, taking up valuable real estate, for a bit too long now. Overstaying its welcome. I think Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats must have picked it up, because I would never pick out hot ajvar (as compared with regular ajvar). We first discovered Ajvar when we were in Croatia & Bosnia, and I was looking for something (anything!) vegan to put on my bread. I ate so much bread on that trip. Well, we were super stoked to discover ajvar - a bright red sauce of roasted peppers, tomatoes & eggplants.
I didn't really want to eat a whole loaf of bread with dinner, so I turned to the Internets for other ideas about how to use up a giant jar of Ajvar. Bread was the clear winner, but kabobs were mentioned, as was cheese... so I came up with a free-form dinner idea. First, I made a giant batch of veggie kabobs (as long as I'm grilling veggies, I may as well go crazy). I don't know if you can tell, but I did my best to arrange the veggies in rainbow order.
Here they are, all grilled up!
And here's the final dinner - a big bowl of tofu ricotta, a few slices of bread, the ajvar, and copious grilled veggies.
Dinner analysis: not really a great hit. The ricotta was tasty, but not really a good combo with the ajvar. And the hot ajvar was just too damn hot to be enjoyable. We both trudged through, but we decided - unceremoniously - to just throw out the rest of the jar. Luckily, the veggies were great, and they went really well with the ricotta... which I probably never would have thought of otherwise. Obviously, I usually just put the tofu cubes on the kabobs, so it was fun to try out something new. As for the bread, well, it was delicious of course. What did you expect!?
In other news - for the last 4 weeks I've been teaching a yoga philosophy course, and all my "free time" has been consumed with reading and preparing for my talks. The course ended yesterday, and I celebrated by spending some time in the back yard, basking in the autumn sun and reading some of the many new vegan cookbooks I've acquired recently. I think I have 5-6 new cookbooks to start exploring. Stay tuned for exciting new recipes!
Lying in the sun reading cookbooks sounds just about perfect! It's a shame when you to throw away food but it's better than eating something crappy!
ReplyDeleteI love ajvar, but I never buy the hot one, simply because I want to be able to load on loads and loads of it on whatever I'm eating (bread!!)
ReplyDeleteOh gosh I love ajvar. I feel like I probably WOULD pick out the hot flavor but I don't recall the one I had being super spicy. maybe ours got switched in the coast to coast pantry hiding tunnel. The grilled veggies look fantastic; too bad they weren't great with the sauce.
ReplyDeleteThose are the most delicious looking kabobs I have ever seen! Too bad the Ajvar was too hot to enjoy. I can definitely relate because I am a heat-wimp. Enjoy your free time!
ReplyDeleteYumm! I lived on Ajvar in Serbia... that and beans, cabbage, rice and bread. Not my fave diet of all time, but I'll take that Ajvar any day!
ReplyDeletethese look so flavorful!
ReplyDeleteOh man, I totally forgot about avjar! I used to love that stuff: with a spoon, on everything, whatever. It's so good!
ReplyDeleteLove your drawings, by the way :)
Kabobs! I have only had kabobs once in my life. Yours look exceptional!! Maybe you can mail me some? I am pretty certain I know the titles of a few of your new cookbooks... :)
ReplyDeleteI am sorry this didn't work out for you! I am a huge fan of ajvar, too. I also use it plain for bread mostly.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say I love your drawings! You are insanely talented.
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