Summary

Ingredients

• 1 ½ onion (s)
• 200 g smoked tofu or bacon
• 3 tablespoon rapeseed oil or other neutral oil
• 3 stewed cucumber (s), approx. 20 cm long
• 2 clove (s) garlic, optional
• 70 g tomato paste, 3 tablespoon
• 200 ml vegetable stock
• 200 ml vegetable cream (vegetable cream Cuisine) or cow cream
• 1 bunch dill
• salt and pepper
• Chili powder, optional
• 1 tablespoon, heaped potato starch or flour
• water

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Instructions

1. You need a large pan, a casserole with a lid or a wok with a lid for the recipe.
2. Dice the onions and smoked tofu or bacon and fry in oil at maximum temperature until everything has turned color and the tofu or bacon is crispy and browned. This takes about 8-10 minutes. Stir often.
3. Dice the cucumber and chop the garlic. The cucumbers are only washed and not peeled before dicing. I leave soft seeds on; if the kernels are harder, they can be scraped out with a spoon.
4. Put the cucumbers with the garlic in the casserole and stir-fry for 10 minutes. Then push the cucumbers to one side, fry the tomato paste on the bottom of the pot and deglaze with the vegetable stock after 2 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and, if you like it spicy, some chili powder. Add 1 tablespoon of chopped dill, stir and put the lid on. Simmer over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the cucumbers are soft but still have a bite. I keep the shell on for the bite.
5. Up to this point, the dish can also be prepared the day before.
6. Then pour the cream into the hot dish. I mostly use oat cream; these should not be brought to the boil any more, just let them warm up briefly. I thicken the sauce a little with a mixture of 1 tablespoon potato starch dissolved in a little water. Normal flour is also possible, but has to be whisked well with the water, otherwise the sauce will get lumps.
7. Now add the remaining bunch of chopped dill and season again to taste.
8. In Brandenburg they eat new potatoes with it.
9. The dish is a very old dish that is cooked a lot in Brandenburg. Of course, it`s not originally vegan. Since living with a vegan, I`ve developed this version in several attempts. It tastes better to me now than the meat one. The smoked tofu is a wonderful substitute for the bacon.
10. Important: Cucumbers that hang for a long time develop a bitter taste, so you should cut and taste both ends of the cucumber. If they are bitter, you have to cut more, as the bitter taste remains when cooked and the dish does not taste good.
11. Remarks:
12. The amount of cucumbers depends on their size. Medium-sized stewed cucumbers are about 20 cm long. I prefer this size as there is less chance of them being bitter in my experience.
13. Stewed cucumbers are, so to speak, larger pickled cucumbers that grow on the ground and not snake cucumbers, cucumbers or snack cucumbers. Their skin is harder, so supermarket cucumbers are not a good substitute. In summer you can often buy them in markets. In winter you can cook the recipe with zucchini, but it tastes different.
14. I usually use instant stock dissolved in water. Homemade broth is great too, of course.