'Beef' stroganoff

A while ago I bought some of those Lamyong TVP beef slice things for some reason. They aren't that good, but they aren't terrible and they are good for a bit of a protein change. Before we move I'm trying to use up as much of my pantry food as possible so I don't have to move it all. Next on the list was the beef style thingamees so I decided on a take on a traditional beef stroganoff! This recipe is much better than the first one I posted. Much much better.

'Beef' stroganoff

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 a packet Lamyong Beef strips (75g)

2 tbsp wholemeal plain flour

1 large onion, thinly sliced

3 large cloves garlic, crushed

450g portobello or swiss brown mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup white wine (I used sav blanc)

3/4 cup stock (I used chicken style but beef would be better)

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp mustard powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 cup silken tofu, blended smooth (important)

Pasta to serve

Method:

First, put the beef slices in a bowl and cover with freshly boiled water. Leave until it's soft. Use this water to make the stock.

Heat a little bit of oil in a stock pot and cook onions and garlic until they start to soften. Add mushrooms to pot and cook until they start to release the juice. Mix together the wine, stock and tomato paste in a jug or cup or something. Start water boiling to cook pasta.

Put the flour in the pot with the mushrooms and stir quickly. Once it has cooked for a minute, pour in the liquid and stir so no lumps form. Let simmer for a while, sauce should thicken. Add in softened beef slices, mustard and paprika. By now the water should be boiling. Continue cooking stroganoff until pasta is ready. A few minutes before serving, stir through the tofu. It's important that it's blended so it's smooth. As you can see in my photo mine wasn't, and therefore came out all lumpy!

Serve on pasta and enjoy.

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This is really good, even better the next day. however the tvp beef stuff does NOT freeze well. This would also be delicious with tofu chunks, tempeh, seitan, or some sort of bean, or double the mushrooms. For example, if I was serving to family I'd go for the beans or all mushroom version :)

Sometimes you just gotta make dessert

I love how this dessert makes it looks like I went all out and put in a heap of effort...but really it was a simple process of blending some stuff together and sticking it in the fridge.

I saw the recipe on Chococlate Covered Katie's blog and decided to make it then and there.

I made a basic sweet shortcrust pastry and blind baked it for about 20 minutes before pouring in the filling.

In the filling I used 2x100g blocks of Lindt 85% dark choclate, and 1 pkg and a bit of silken firm tofu. I also used about 1 tbsp maple syrup to sweeten just a tad as the choclate is quite bitter. Strawberries are still cheap (amazing this year!) so I cut a bunch in half and pressed them into the filling before I put it in the fridge. I left it the fridge all day and we ate it after dinner :) It was set perfectly - it still amazes me that I didn't have to bake it or use coconut oil or anything. I guess when the chocolate goes hard again...

This pie is so fine I have to force myself not to just go to the fridge and eat the lot. And it's good for you too! I think it'll be a great post-workout snack when you aren't quite ready for a meal yet. I might try that theory tomorrow ;)

Tasty tasty

Been on a bit of a Veganomicon kick this week (spicy tempeh pasta) and the Asparagus and Lemongrass Risotto on page 198 was also freakin fantastic. It took forever to make (though I was making bread by hand at the same time so that may have held me up a tad) and I didn't have any basil or mint or peanut oil, ooor enough arborio rice but I don't know if I'll make risotto any other way again (jk). I used about 1 cup of arborio and half a cup of regular brown rice, skipped the basil/mint and did serve it with the suggested Tangerine Baked Tofu but used oranges and whiskey instead of tangerines and rum. Amazing. Served with lime zest, pan roasted cashew nuts and extra marinade from the tofu.

All the flavours worked really well together but I think next time I'll slice the tofu a little thinner and marinate for longer because it didn't pick up the flavour it could have.

Another one we've made is the 'Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelised onion and Sage Crumb Topping'  (phew long title!) on page 194. (I obviously didn't go further than the pasta and risotto chapter.) I used wholewheat spirals instead of the ziti and I'm pretty sure that's the only edit I made to it! I could eat the cashew ricotta with a spoon and the breadcrumbs on top were to die for (though I wish I'd used some wholemeal bread instead of the white baguette we got for 50c since it gave both of us a stomachache!) and the whole thing was quite moreish. It was better the next day for lunch too.

Now a non Vgeanomicon related thing - my breakfast for the past few days! I had a tiny bit of whole oat groats leftover in a jar that was annoying me by being there so I cooked it up in some soy milk with handful of chopped dates and chopped brazil nuts. I didn't measure the dry grain but I ended up with 2 cups of cooked oats. I divided it in two and stuck it in the fridge. In the morning I heated it up, added sliced strawberries (on special at Coles hooray!) some chia seeds and a drizzle of brown rice syrup. Yum. Filled me up for ages which is really good since I have to wait 4 hours since I eat breakfast before I get to eat again. I highly reccomend a whole grain for breakfast - brown rice, wheat, oats, spelt (omg yum), buckwheat, barley. Just cook it up the night before, or on Sunday cook enough for your whole work week, it should keep in the fridge.

Now I am going to sit and watch the Gruen Transfer with a cup of hot red clover tea. Apparently it helps reduce hot flashes (cuz I get those! haha), healp relieve rheumatic or gout pain, contains vitamin E and can help sore throats. [source] Good o :)

A day of cooking

I couldn't go to work again today because my car is yes, still broken. And unfortunately my previous assessment of it not costing too much has changed.

So today I decided to cook up food for the week! Mostly as a way to relax, and also to try and make some food without buying anything. It worked :) I even cleaned my oven, organised the crockery cupboard and did all the dishes!

The above picture is tomorrow nights dinner and Friday's lunch. I was inspired to make it after seeing this recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad on Oh She Glows. I changed it up a bit to suit what I had, and I sort of mated it with another salad on her blog.

I roasted together 1 diced small sweet potato, 1 large onion and a whole thing of garlic for about 1/2 an hour. I defrosted two can's worth of black beans that I cooked up last week. Meanwhile I was cooking 1 cup of dry wheat berries in 3 cups of water (this took about 40 mins). When it was all done I put the sweet potato, onion, black beans and wheat in a bowl and squeezed out the garlic cloves and mixed it together well.

It's really delicious just like that without any spices or dressing, but I might go with some lime juice tomorrow, and maybe some fresh herbs. I have all sorts in the garden right now. Wheat berries are awesome, by the way. I've never used them before, but now I may never cook rice again! Nah, kidding since rice doesn't take as long! But they are chewy and sort of pop in your mouth. And taste really really good.

I made up some whole wheat pastry on Monday, intending to make these little pies that afternoon but got distracted, so they had to wait until today. Last week I made a large pie with the same filling (red lentils, mushroom gravy, broad beans, peas, tofu) and I made too much filling so I froze it to use for little ones. I think these ones are better than my original 'family' pie! Maybe it's the pastry/filling ratio. I made 6, had two for lunch and froze the other 4 to have as emergency lunches in case I forget to make enough dinner for leftovers.

At the same time I made dinner for tonight and lunch for tomorrow! It's essentially a chana masala type dish. I threw together in my awesome red frypan rescued from mum's house: 1 sliced onion, 4 cloves garlic, 3cm ginger, 1 can's worth of frozen chickpeas, 1 pkt frozen tofu, 1 small carrot, 2 tbsp tomato paste, 400g can crushed tomatoes, 1 tbsp garam masala, 2 tsp coriander seed ground, 1 tsp chilli powder and black pepper.

And so now I'll be doing the dishes I made by cooking while waiting for the mechanic to tell me my stupid car is ready to be picked up.

On the upside, all I have to do all week now is turn on the microwave.

Enchiladas + Lentil Loaf

We have been very busy doing nothing. On Sunday I made a big pot of chili (black bean and kidney bean and quinoa) and we've been eating that. Last night we turned it into a sort of enchilada thing:

We wrapped the chili mix up in flat bread things, topped it with tomato sauce/salsa (tin tomatoes, garlic, olives, onion, sliced fresh jalapeno) and grated a little bit of Cheezly cheddar on top with a heaping of nutritional yeast.

It tasted like pizza. Mmm. Cheezly white cheddar style is quite good.

Tonight Nadine made dinner: a Lentil and tofu loaf from Easy Vegan Cooking by Leah Leneman, with roasted potatoes and chunky mushroom gravy from Vegan on the Cheap. I steamed up some edamame to put on the side for something green on the plate. The loaf was pretty damn good (ingredients: red lentils, onion, tahini, miso paste).

(I've been slack in adding up serving prices! I really haven't bought much.)

Mum got me a new digital camera for my birthday! I've been playing with it. It's a sony Cybershot 14.1 mega pixel. I went and bought it myself - Myer had them really, really cheap. Really cheap.

Blurry Bob. Bob wasn't feeling well for a few days and enjoyed lots of scracthes. :) She usually stalks off or glares at the mention of a cuddle!

And grumpy Charlee doesn't like being picked up. Heh heh.

Homemade Tofu Failure :(

I bought myself a few kitchen goodies for my birthday (asking mum to get me a tofu press would be just weird!!) I'm all about using less packaging in our household, so homemade tofu is a great idea! (And in theory would save money, and trips to the shop...which is only across the road, but I'm very lazy.)

This is the second time I tried to make it. For some reason there's hardly anything! I don't know what I did wrong. I followed the directions on the coagulator packet to the letter! Oh well, trial and error. It's not as bad as the first one. I managed somehow to pour my entire mixture down the sink before I could even begin to press! Duh. Good thing I bought two lots of the coagulator!

This one tastes like tofu, it's a little crumbly, but solid.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

And again.

:)

Passionfruit Baked Cheesecake

I've just been cooking reruns lately and throwing stuff together from my stash of leftovers in the freezer, so I'm posting other stuff I just haven't got aroud to yet. Like this delicious cheesecake :)

Passionfruit Baked Cheesecake
Serves 8 - 10

Ingredients
Cheesecake
125g vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti but another brand will work too)
300g firm silken tofu
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 tbsp rice syrup or maple syrup
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Passionfruit glaze
1/4 cup passionfruit  pulp (from about 6 small fruit)
1 tsp agar agar flakes, soaking in some water
1/4 cup additional water

(Plus your favourite cheesecake crust recipe - mine wasn't very good! I sort of made an oatmeal shortcrust pastry)

 Put the first 6 ingredients in a food processor and blend until very smooth.

Like so. Try not to eat it all. It is pretty good.

Pour into your prepared crust and bake in a 180 degree oven for about an hour. Mine took a little bit more. It should be firm around the outside and almost set in the middle. Set aside to cool while you make the passionfruit glaze to put on top.

Combine the passionfruit pulp, drained soaked agar agar, and 1/4 cup water in a small sauce pan. Cook on a low heat until reduced to about 1/4 cup. Pour mixture over the cheesecake (it doesn't have to be cold) and put it in the fridge at least 3 hours before slicing and eating!

I used a springform cake pan to make mine. I just find it easier to take out and slice then.

The passionfruit seeds got a little crunchy. You can just pour the pulp over the top without cooking it at all if you can't be bothered. I won't bother next time! The glaze part was mainly just an experiment.

This cheesecake is so awesome. We ate it all in about 2 days (gluttons!!).

I will refine the recipe and next time I make it I'll post it again including the crust, if I actually make a good one. Mine always seem to turn out like tough pastry! Which I like, but Nadine likes biscuit crumb bases :)

Homemade Wholemeal Orecchiette

Homemade Wholemeal Orecchiette with Brocolli
Serves 4 (small)

This is adapted from the Kitchen Garden Companion recipe by Stephanie Alexander called Orecchiette and Brocolli on page 180.
Ingredients

For the Pasta:

50g (about ½ cup) chickpea flour
200g (1 cup) wholemeal plain flour
½ tsp salt
100g (½ cup) tofu ricotta
Almost half a cup of water

For the Brocolli:

500g brocolli, cut into even sized pieces
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tsp capers
2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
vegan margarine (I use Nuttelex Lite) optional
2 tbsp Nutritional Yeast

Method:

First, make the pasta. If you can live without it, trim the thumb nail on whichever hand you use most real short.

In a small bowl mix together the flour, chickpea flour and salt. If you want you can sift it all (I'm too lazy to do this!), but make sure you add the bran back in afterwards otherwise it isn't really wholemeal any more!

Stir in the Tofu Ricotta until it starts to clump together in lumps of dough. Add water a little bit at a time (I started with ¼ cup) until dough comes together cohesively. I ended up using almost a ½ cup. This depends on how moist your 'ricotta' is.

Turn out onto a floured bench and knead for about 5 minutes. Wrap up in cling wrap or a plastic bag and leave at room temperature for 15 minutes.

After that (I ended up leaving mine for more like half an hour because I got distracted) take dough out of the plastic wrap (keep it!) and knead again on a floured surface until very smooth and supple. Break away a small lump (about the size of an egg) and re-wrap the remaining dough in plastic (so it doesn't dry out). Roll out the dough into a long snake shape, about 1cm thick. You should do this in a bit of flour so it doesn't stick to the knife too much in the next step.

Get a sharp knife and slice little bits of dough off the snake at about 3mm intervals. This is like making tiny gnocchi! Once you've done that, pick up a bit of dough and press with your (trimmed nail) thumb into the palm of your other hand and twist slightly. Put your first orecchiette on a baking tray lined with baking paper and continue repeating until all your dough has become little pasta shapes. (I'd have taken a photo of how to do this step, but I'm home alone and no one really wants to see my hands anyway! Maybe there is something on google.)

Now, either let your fresh pasta dry out, or freeze it until you need it for the meal. Or you can cook it straight away in boiling water. It shouldn't take too long fresh – about 5 minutes. Just keep tasting until it's ready for you :) They should float when done, like gnocchi does.

Put a large pot of water on to boil for cooking the pasta.

Then in a frying pan, start to fry your finely chopped garlic and thinly sliced red chilli in a fair amount of oil on med-low heat until the garlic is softened.

If the water is not yet boiling, take garlic and chilli off the heat until it is.

Once water is boiling, add your chopped brocolli pieces to the frying pan and return to the heat. Put your orecchiette into the boiling water and give it a stir. Don't forget about it! Mushy pasta isn't really fun. Especially since you just spent a fair bit of time making it!

Cook your brocolli on a higher heat until it turns bright green and starts to soften. Add in your 3 tsp of capers and let cook until the pasta is done.

Drain pasta and serve out equally into four bowls. (We had our two bowls then some containers for lunch the next day). Stir through the brocolli 2 tbsp of nutritional yeast and stir until it dissolves/goes soft. Divide evenly between bowls, top with a little blob of vegan margarine (if you want) and stir through pasta.

These seem to be really small serves so we had a bit of garlic toast with it. A salad would be better as the pasta is actually pretty filling!

I believe the tofu 'ricotta' really made a difference to the pasta. It resulted in a chewy texture and the herbs in it added a little bit of flavour. I was worried I'd put too much chickpea flour in because that's all I could smell when I was kneading it but it was perfect :) I'll definitely be making pasta like this again. The process didn't actually take that long, once I got the hang of twisting the little shapes. It probably took me an hour to make them all, not including kneading and sitting time. :)

Tofu Ricotta

Just a basic staple recipe I like to make every now and then. I actually made it today for use in a recipe I'm making for dinner, but the recipe only uses half a cup, so I had plenty left to eat as a snack!

Ingredients:

300g firm tofu (I use Nutrisoy and did not press it)

1.5 tbsp rice bran oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
half tsp dried oregano
Freshly ground salt to taste

Put it all into a blender/food processor. Crumble the tofu up a bit.

Blend until thick and smooth!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week. I doubt it'll last that long, this stuff is just that damn tasty!

I couldn't resist it being in the fridge so I cut up a small carrot, celery stick and a tiny little granny smith apple and used it as a dip. I ate it outside in the nice cool breeze with a cup of coffee :)



Vegetable Quiche

Who says you can't have quiche as a vegan?

Well, not many since there are five million recipes for vegan quiche on the net, but whatever :)

I remember my mum's potato flan was a favourite, and this isn't a potato flan but it could be. I might get her recipe and give it a go. I got this recipe from Squirrel's New Vegetarian Cookbook. There used to be a restaurant (connected to the book) just up the road from my house but it apparently closed in 2006, which I am sad to discover. This 'Corn and Vegetable Flan' on page 60 of the book is the best one I've tried so far. It's definitely the closest in flavour and texture to a 'real' quiche thing made with eggs. Since I followed the recipe pretty much exactly I'd better not post the recipe :( However the ingredients are as follows: wholemeal shortcrust pastry, tofu, vegetable oil, soy sauce, onion, tomatoes (for top), 1 grated carrot and grated zucchini, frozen corn kernels. I also put in some garlic because I have trouble cooking without it!

This made a flan in a 9inch tart pan (or whatever is quite small – I couldn't find a ruler! Guessed) and served 4 (and could have served 6 if I cut the slices smaller and served potatoes or something on the side. It cost about $2.20 per serve (4) not including the side salad, which I took home after a barbecue at my dad's house.

It held together beautifully, and tasted even better the next day cold! The pastry was pretty fantastic too. I could get used to shortcrust pastry in my pies and tarts and things. I usually buy supermarket puff pastry because it well, puffs, but the white flour really gives me a belly ache. Perhaps this week I'll try a full pie with this pastry. (It's just your basic wholemeal shortcrust recipe – plain flour, salt, vegan margarine and water. I rolled it out between two sheets of baking paper because I accidentally made it too wet, but it worked fine.) Yum. Very good for summer dinners, lunches, breakfasts...:)

Valentine's day dinner

We aren't really big on the whole goopy lovey dovey crap associated with Valentine's Day, so we usually cook up a particularly special meal and dessert. Sometime we go out or buy presents but we are very broke this month :) Also this year Nadine had a nasty cold so there was no wine :( very sad. But the food was so so so delicious!

Nadine made dinner, a recipe she found in Tal Ronnen's 'The Concious Cook' (Old Bay Tofu Cakes with Pan Roasted Summer Vegetables, Horseradish cream, Apples and Beets) Jeez this guy has long meal titles. However long it takes you to read the title, it was fantastic. We thought the cakes wouldn't work because they were so mushy but they did, we just had to be extra careful, which is fine. I used the 'Horseradish cream' as a salad dressing on today's lunch at work. Yum. It's definately a comfort meal, for some reason it reminded me of when we got to eat fish fingers as kids.

I made dessert :) As soon as I saw the recipe on PPK (Berry Creme Tart with Cocoa Olive Oil Crust) I knew I had to make it. I made it up on Sunday afternoon when Nadine wasn't home and hid it in the fridge. We had one each for dessert then cut the other one in half and ate it with work lunches the next day :) Amazingly good. Make them :) The filling is especially good on it's own. I had to eat the leftover filling in the morning for breakfast so Nadine wouldn't see it and eat it and the delicous surprise would be ruined! Tragic. It's like the best pudding you've ever had.

So even though Nadine was blowing snot out of her nose all night and I had to get up at 5:30am the next morning to go work, it was a very nice relaxing Valentine's day for us :)

Agave-lime grilled tofu with asian slaw and mashed sweet potatoes

From the conscious cook by Tal Ronnen

Yuuummm.

I mixed parsnip with the sweet potatoes, used purple cabbage instead of napa, used rice syrup instead of agave and sprinkled the zest of lime on top of it all as I don't know when the next time limes will be $40 a kilo again :)

Happy 2011 :)

We don't like to venture into the city on New Year's Eve. It's a frightening place, so we opted to stay home inside :) We made it into a date night (which seems to be becoming a tradition) so I cooked a simple 3 course meal and we bought some pink bubbly to drink in our fancy glasses :) It was nice.

I had been up since 4:30am because I had to start work early (and finish early because the boss wanted to get ready to party haha) so I was exhausted by 9:30pm. So we crashed and went to sleep. However, technically we were awake to ring in the new year because the fireworks from the city woke us up! We could see them from our front stairs, but there's one stupid tree that's in the way so we couldn't :( Oh well.

We started off with a little bowl of cleansing cucumber and ginger soup, recipe from Boy George's Karma Cookbook. It was surprisingly delicious! Not very flavourful, but it wasn't intended to be a main dish. Put a bit of chilli in this and it'd be perfect if you have a cold! (The ingredients are: cucumber, leek, lots of ginger, shiitake mushrooms, kombu seaweed, water, tofu and parsley for decoration.)

The main was the best. The recipe is from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap. Fusilli with Potatoes, Green Beans and Lemon Basil Creme. The creamy sauce was made from cashews, soy milk and lemon juice, basically. It's a pity I can't post the recipe. Maybe just buy the book, it's brilliant.

Now this is truly a crap picture. We have more for dessert tonight so I'll try to take a better photo! Ijust threw this together off the top of my head. I'll call it...Summer Fruit Freeform Tart with Balsamic Reduction. Yum.

Summer Fruit Freeform Tart with Balsamic Reduction

Ingredients
1 sheet square vegan puff pastry (I use Borg's)
*1 small nectarine, thinly sliced
*1 small peach, thinly sliced
*1 apricot, thinly sliced
*4 mulberries cut into thirds
Vegan margarine, for brushing on pastry before cooking

Half a cup of regular balsamic vinegar

Method
While letting the pastry defrost on the bench, pour the half cup of balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan. Turn element to it's lowest heat, and let vinegar reduce until thick. (Mine actually reduced all the way down to barely 2 tablespoons. It was very rich and sweet!) Set aside when it's done. I don't know how long it will take, just keep an eye on it.

When pastry is defrosted, cut across and down to make 4 squares.

Arrage slices of fruit in a fan (like in the photo) and top with the little bits of mulberry.

Smoosh sides of the squares of pastry up to surround the fruit so it won't go everywhere. Brush with melted margarine and put on a baking tray lined with baking paper. (I even buttered my paper because I was paranoid it would stick. It shouldn't.)

Turn oven to 200 degrees C. Cook pastries for about 25 minutes (I checked mine after 15, then every five minutes after that).

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and drizzle with the balsamic reduction!

* Any fruit would work, really. Apples and strawberries? Banana and blueberries? Yum. Use whatever is in season and slice it thinly so it cooks in the oven :)

My mulberries were labelled as blackberries in the shops. They aren't :S Perhaps they are some sort of cross? Whatever they are, they were on special for $4.80 or something at Woolworths so I couldn't resist. Frozen berries would work perfectly as well.

Buckwheat spirals with kale and dandelion greens

At the farmers market last Sunday I also got some Kale and dandelion greens. I thought the dandelion greens were beetroot greens, but the guy told me what they were so I had to buy them anyway. He said people who like flavour use them as a bitter ingredient in salad :) I don't like salad very much so I went online to supercook.com (awesome website - you type in what you have in your pantry and it comes up with things you can make, it's a good way to stay on budget) and searched. The first thing that came up was this from the Martha Stewart website so I decided to change it (as I do) to make it vegan.

Mmm healthy. Haha no really, I really like kale. Tonight was the first time I ate it cooked - I've only had it in raw juices. It adds a nice flavour to fresh granny smith apple juice. :) Try it.

Buckwheat spirals with kale and dandelion greens

Serves 2

Ingredients

5 cloves garlic, crushed (I grate mine)

1 cup stock (I use Massel Chicken Style)

300g roughly chopped kale and dandelion greens (I had about half an half)

Handful of frozen peas

2 cubes frozen spinach (because more green is always a good thing!)

Tofu 'ricotta' (I made one recipe worth of the one in Skinny Bitch in the Kitch but you can use whatever one you like)

Pasta for 2

Method

1. Bring garlic and stock to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for a little while.

2. Add all the green and cook until it's all wilted down. I can't remember how long it took - kale takes longer so you can put them in separately if you like.

3. Cook the pasta.

4. Meanwhile add tofu ricotta in little bits (couple of tablespoons at a time) until it looks like what you like. I added about 6 tablespoons worth. It won't go creamy though. (Unless maybe if you use silken tofu to make the ricotta...I used extra hard 'I'm a brick' tofu which didn't exactly have the consistency I wanted...)

5. Stir cooked pasta into sauce and serve at once :)

It doesn't look very nice in the picture but it was! We've been eating loads of beans and lentils lately so I thought it'd be a nice lighter change.

I chose buckwheat noodles because I was curious about what they were like. They were pretty good - a little grainy in texture though, but fine.

We washed it down with a hot cocoa made with almond and soy milk :)

Macaroni Cheese, Tamale pie, red curry

Recipe from FatFreeVegan kitchen blog. I have tried other nutritional yeast based 'cheese' sauces and been dissapointed. This one, however, was exactly what I wanted :) I added some mushrooms, used fresh onion and garlic, and added some thin slices of vegan sausage. I also baked it in the oven, because that's what grandad used to do. I could eat this all day.

Tamale pie from Easy Vegan Cooking by Leah Leneman. We will be making this if ever we have company :) it's really delicious and easy to eat. Basically your favourite bean chilli recipe in a polenta pie. Mmm polenta. 

I made a thai red curry from the Organically me blog. I made twice the amount so we could have leftovers, used cauliflower instead of eggplant because that's what I had in the fridge. Adding the lime juice and zest was really different (I don't normally do that) and overall it was a very delicious and cheap to make. I had tofu in the freezer so I used that - I've never used it frozen before and the experience was quite odd - in a good way. It was kind of spongy and chewy.

I made a split pea and cauliflower soup for tea tonight but I forgot to take a picture :( It kind of looked like vomit anyway! But tasty :) I've never cooked split peas before.

Riding a bike is terrifying on the road. I took it for a practise run today. Just got to remember to look beore going around parked cars! My bum bones hurt (it has been years since I rode a bike properly! I did a day bike tour in Europe last year but that was different :P) but I'll get used to it. There isn't much suspension in a bike from yesteryear :D

Creten stew (red wine, seitan, onion and orange stew)

This screamed at me to cook it the other night. I love red wine, I love tofu how could I say no? (From what the hell does a vegan eat anyway? blog)

I was going to make it in my tagine...but I exploded it. Stupid me decided to pour some cold water on it when the oil ran out for frying tofu in. Big crack, thought I was going to die. But it's okay, no shrapnel actually flew at me. Heh. I was extremely pissed off though, I shall have to buy a replacement. It was a gift that I only got to use once! SO I made it in a large stock pot with a tight fitting lid on the stove top.

I couldn't find small white pearl onions so I used brown pickling onions instead, and cut them in half because they were quite big. Ideally I'd have liked to leave them whole, but oh well. I also used tofu, because I've never seen seitan here, or vital wheat gluten to make it. Yet. I'm getting there.

As you can see from the top picture I used Yalumba Y Series Merlot to cook this with. It's a medium bodied wine which I love - but it was probabaly too strong for this dish. However, as I said - I love red wine! So to me, it was perfect. If I was to cook this for family I might use half wine/half stock.

While this was cooking, the whole house smelled of...sangria! The orange/wine combination was definately dominating. Deliciously dominating. I can't wait until spring, or just a warm day when I can make up some sangria! We bought a nice glass jug (which accidentally turned out to be made in Spain, har har) months ago specifically to make said sangria, but it got cold. :( I make a gooooood sangria. When I do make it, I'll be sure to post a recipe.

We served the stew on top of penne pasta, because that's what I have. It would be good on any shape of pasta, or some other grain. I think pasta would be best though.

Even better than the real thing - 'ricotta' + spinach stuffed pasta shells

We suddenly have kitchen cupboards and jars overflowing with various shaped pasta...which is good because I'll never need to buy pasta again, and it's all fancy brands haha. For about a week Nadine was bringing home packets that had holes in them etc, can't be sold but can still be eaten! One of the shapes were these giant shells, perfect for stuffing. So I followed a recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch for vegan stuffed shells. Fantabulous. The 'ricotta' is literally just firm tofu, olive oil, oregano and garlic whizzed in a blender until smooth. It literally tastes like and has the same texture as the real thing - only difference was that it didn't give me a stomach ache as soon as I ate some.

I know it's pretty much just a recreation of the only option a lot of restaurants (particularly pubs) offer vegetarians, but you know, sometimes you just want squishy cheese and spinach stuffed pasta. This is just a tastier and healthier version of it. Good to give to omnivorous family and friends. You can't even tell the difference. I'll be using this ricotta recipe for my homemade ravioli next time I decide to pull out the machine. I don't why I haven't before :)

I have been juicing up a storm since I got my juicer last week. I've got all sorts of vegetables in the fridge to use (I read somewhere that if you have too much of one thing too often you can actually become allergic to it - wouldn't it be tragic if I was allergic to carrots?) from carrots to fennel. I found a delicious sounding recipe with celery, fennel and cucumber juiced together. I know you are supposed to avoid mixing (according to a fresh fruit and veg guide to women's health I picked up in the fruit shop), but I don't know if I could do straight fennel. I'm not really the biggest licorice fan - then again, I've never eaten fennel in my life so who knows, I might love it.

Anyway this juice is beetroot, carrot and celery. (Root vegetables are ok together). I think this is my favourite combination so far, I just love beetroot juice. The carrot and the celery seem to take away the 'earthy' taste that people (Nadine) don't seem to like about raw beetroot.

Recipe:

1/2 large beetroot, peeled and cut to fit in juicer

3 med/large carrots

1 large stick celery

Juice each vegetable. Mix together. Drink :) Makes enough for one.

This morning I decided to adapt a recipe I found in Karma Cookbook 'Agar Agar Drink'. It's supposed to help relieve constipation, and let me tell you, it works. The original recipe called for 600ml sugar free organic apple juice, but I can't afford to buy that and I can't stand the regular kind you get in the supermarket. Way too sweet. So I juiced two large fresh granny smith apples with my juicer - this made about 250ml, and then I diluted it with 50ml of water. I made half the recipe.

Note: nothing compares to the deliciousness of freshly squeezed apple juice. Nothing.

Ingredients:

300ml apple juice

pinch of salt

1 tsp agar agar flakes

Pour into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes. Drink hot.

Now, I forgot to read the whole thing so I didn't simmer it for ten minutes and therefore my agar agar wasn't quite fully dissolved. But I just ate it with a spoon when I got to the end :) This was so delicious. It took a few minutes to get used to hot apple juice, but it tasted kind of like apple pie without the spices.

With the vegetable pulp left in the juicer at the end I made these burger patties. I can't remember what exactly I put in them (I really should have written it down) but next time I make them I will. I hate wastage. Other things I could do with the pulp could be adding it to pasta sauces or stir frys, or muffins. I've read somewhere that the pulp is tasteless because all the taste and nutrients come out with the juice, but I think because my juicer is old and second hand it doesn't quite get all the juice it could out so the pulp is still quite tasteful. Obviously not as much as if the vegetable was whole, but doesn't taste of cardboard. So I may as well use it :)

I've always wanted a juicer!

I made 'vegan takoyaki' for dinner last night. We had them with mayonnaise drizzled on top, with a side of stir fried vegetables (brocolli, carrot, cauliflower, mushrooms, onion, garlic) in a peanut butter/soy sauce/miso paste sauce. It was a little bit salty but really good. Next time I'll put less miso in, I went a bit overboard.

Miso/Peanut stir fry sauce

Serves two

About 2 large tbsp crunchy peanut butter (or whatever peanut butter you like best)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp miso paste (I used white miso)

Mix together until it's a paste/liquid. Add to vegetables which have already been cooked a little bit and stir. Add water until it's the consistency you want. (I made mine a bit too watery last night, I ended up finishing it as a soup, sort of). Serve vegetables as a side, on top of rice, on top of noodles, whatever :)

I found the recipe for vegan takoyaki here. They aren't exactly like real takoyaki, but then again, I haven't eaten real takoyaki for a long time now so who am I to say? Anyway, they are really really good! Even though they are deep fried (well, I deep/shallow fried them - I don't have a proper deep fryer) they don't seem too oily and heavy. The tofu batter sort of comes away from the mushroom to form a kind of puff. Totally awesome. Except you need to use a knife and fork at first because when I bit into it it kind of exploded hot liquid. They are a little fiddly, but totally worth it when you have time. They could be made earlier I reckon.

I blended the tofu in my food processor to make it as smooth as possible, and I used white flour because it's all I had. Next time I'll use wholemeal, I think it'll taste even better. :)

I found this gem at the local salvation army. Actually, I found about 3! I've always wanted a juicer but they are just too expensive. I never thought of looking in op shops, I've always been a bit wary of buying electricals from them. However, this one was only $10 and I figured if it didn't really work or exploded, I wouldn't lose too much. There were other newer models there but this one actually looked the best and still had all the bits.

I tested it yesterday and it works fine! Only thing is, every couple of carrots the pulp blocked the whatsit (no idea what to call it) and the motor would stress out and...spark a little. So I figure I've just got to stop it as soon as the thingee gets blocked, and unblock it! So it's probabaly a little more time consuming than a brand new one, but I just want to try it out. I guess that's why it was donated.

I made carrot and ginger juice first. I put way too much ginger in though, but look at that orange!

I've been thinking of doing a short juice detox one day soon. Maybe when it gets a little warmer. Just to rid the body of any toxins :) Alcohol, sugar, etc. I shall see.

Beetroot chips, Sweet Millet soup, and Tofu sausages!

I decided today was the day I would try to make my beetroot chips :) Yesterday I bought a little pack of discounted baby beetroot for $1.50, it's perfectly fresh. We've mainly been having it steamed with potatoes as a side dish.

So I sliced the beetroot as thinly as possible (I thought I got it quite thin but apparently not thin enough) and lay them out on a piece of baking paper on the glass dish inside the microwave, ground a little bit of salt on it and zapped it on high for about 2 minutes before it started to smoke so I turned it off for a few minutes. Then zapped it again, and turned it off...flipped over the slices and repeated. If I zapped it for longer they probabaly would have been perfect, but I think little sections of beetroot caught fire...well I didn't see fire but when I got them out there were little circles of burnt =D

They tasted fine though, they tasted almost raw (good thing I like raw beetroot), but chewy instead of crunchy. It was odd, and I will try again another day. I think I'll put them under the grill instead of the microwave next time! I had them with a banana smoothie (pink from the extra bits of beetroot I chucked in) with wheat germ and whole oats. Tasty :)

For tonight I decided to make a 2 course meal with a light soup as a starter. I made Sweet Millet Soup from Karma Cookbook by Boy George and Dragana G. Brown. Yeah Boy George wrote a macrobiotic vegan cookbook! Who knew? I didn't, until I saw it when I was scouring through the cookbook section in one of those cheap cheap book sale stores, hoping to stumble upon a gem...I did. This book is great! I got it for $3!

 Anyway, the soup is just millet, pumpkin, parsnip, carrot and onion boiled in water until vegetables are soft and millet cooked properly. Sprinkle some green onions on top and you have yourself a tasty soup! Apparently it helps any digestive problems you may have. It's very light and naturally sweet. The only 'flavouring' is a sprinkle of salt. Perfect starter.

As soon as I saw this recipe for tofu sausages, I knew I wanted to make them. So I did :) I blended the tofu to make it as smooth as possible (it feels like a sticky dough!) and cooked the cracked wheat (recipe didn't specify but I didn't want to break my teeth :P). I used almonds instead of walnuts because I don't like walnuts,but almonds worked fine. While they were cooking they smelled like peanut butter for some reason!

We had them with steamed brocolli, Steamed-and-then-grilled potato and beetroot (this makes the potato taste like a baked potato!), hummus, and this amazing beetroot and orange relish Nadine picked up for $1 at her work (discount rack, yerrrr!).

The sausages held together very well (I refrigerated them for about an hour before cooking too, only because I made them earlier. I don't think it would make too much of a difference.) I made them quite a bit larger than the recipe says, too. I made 12 out of the mix. 3 would have been enough for one person :) As you cut into them they do crumble but that's fine. You gotta like tofu to like these! I wouldn't give them to someone who didn't really, like my dad :) We loved them. I will make them again.