Fat Free vegan Quesadillas - Quick and easy yumminess!!

As it is the weekend, my husband was at home for lunch today (yay!!) and so when it came to lunch I decided to make one of his favourite meals which we have aptly named zucchini-beany quesadillas.

This recipe started out as an attempt to creatively use up leftovers (extra stuffing from a stuffed zucchini recipe to be exact). But it has been honed down, both because of my laziness when I cook lunches and because I haven't always had the ingredients on hand. What we have now is a quesadilla that is easy and cheesy (without the cheese) and upon presenting it to nat at lunch today he proclaimed it to be his most favourite dish for lunch. High praise from someone who is really only learning the many textures and flavours of vegan cooking.

And the best thing is... it is SO damn easy... it takes a max of 20mins to prepare and most of that is sitting and waiting for the zucchini to cook (and that can be left to its own devices really - I only give it maybe one stir during cooking).





Zucchini-beany quesadillas.

serves 4 - prep time 20mins

1 medium-large zucchini diced (optional - peeled - it will give the filling a smoother texture, but I am lazy and leave the skin on).
1 onion - diced
1 clove of garlic - minced
2 tomatoes diced (or equivalent canned)
1 cup cooked kidney beans
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (the more you use the more cheesy it becomes)
dash of hot sauce
salt to taste
4 tortillas

1. Sauté onion and garlic in oil or water until browned.
2. Add tomatoes and zucchini and simmer (on low-medium) until they are soft and most of the liquid has evaporated.
3. In a bowl, mash the kidney beans. Add the zucchini mixture, nutritional yeast, salt and hot sauce. Mash until it forms a paste (peeled zucchini will make a lot smoother mixture).
4. Heat tortilla in a non-stick frypan. Once it is soft spoon about 1/4 of bean mixture onto the tortilla and fold in half.
5. Cook on both sides until the mixture is heated through and the tortilla is a little crispy.
6. Serve on its own or with a salad (I usually eat serve them with chopped avocado and tomato).

Banana and date slice - a homecoming treat

Nat was away for the weekend for work and so I have been busy cleaning, doing assignments and this afternoon I have been baking. I try to bake at least once a week so that we have something to nibble on and take to work and uni. There were a couple of bananas that were slightly overripe but I had already made banana bread in the last few weeks. I settled instead on making a banana and date slice. I have an amazing recipe for a fat free banana and date loaf - so I thought that the combination would work equally well as a slice. I veganised a recipe I found from the Australian Women's Weekly website. I also tried to reduce the fat content by substitution apple sauce for half the oil. I am relatively new to working with apple sauce - I am sure that the recipe would be fine without any oil at all (and more apple sauce) - but I just wanted to do half half to make sure.

Banana and Date Slice

• ½ cup dried dates, chopped coarsely
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ apple sauce
• ¾ cup raw sugar
• 1 cup wholemeal flour, sifted
• ¼ cup (35g) plain flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 medium bananas - mashed
• ¼ tsp salt

METHOD

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Grease 25cm x 30cm pan.

Combine dates and the water in small saucepan; bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened stirring constantly. Set aside to cool.

Place flour, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in bananas, date mixture and oil. Spread the batter evenly into the tin.

Bake in moderate oven about 30 minutes or until firm; stand 20 minutes.

Home alone with Zucchini soup

Well my boy has gone away to work for the weekend. Last night was my first night alone in our house since the wedding - so it was a bit weird trying to work out what to eat. The wind has been wild and crazy lately and I felt like something warming but not too heavy. I had found some cheep zucchinis at the market yesterday and so, without too much thought, I opted to make another of my favourite "mum" recipes. This soup is so easy and if you have the zucchini, all the other ingredients are staples in my house. The flavour is very mild - but I like that. Its very different from the curries that I often consume.

I made enough so that I could have some for lunch today. Ahhh the joys of leftovers.



Mum's Zucchini Soup

3 medium zucchini (about 1-1.5kg) chopped
2 stalks of celery - chopped
1/2 piece wakame, broken into smaller pieces (optional)
1tsp dried basil or 1 tablespoon fresh
1 large onion - dices
2-3 cloves garlic - minced
enough water just to cover the vegetables
salt to taste

1. Fry onions, garlic and celery in water or oil until soft
2. Add zucchini, basil and wakame, cover with water and bring to the boil
3. Reduce heat and simer until zucchini looks cooker, approx 5-8 mins
4. Blend gently and season with salt and pepper.

My husbands favourite meal

Nat and my dad have an "in joke" surrounding dinner and Baked Beans. They believe that all their Christmas's have come at once when they get Baked Beans for dinner. I can proudly say that the only time nat had baked beans for dinner what after driving home from a week with our parents up the north of the state and we arrived home at 6pm with nothing fresh in the fridge.

Anyway - I am not going to spend too much time posting about baked beans - I am not the most fond of them - so, aside from baked beans - I think that variations of the dish tha tI cooked tonight are Nat's favourite meal. I came up with the savoury lentil dish when I had a lot of root vegetables from the garden that dad and I planted at their house. Now I cook this dish in the pressure cooker - I just put it all in and let it work its magic. It is also easy to cook it without a pressure cooker - it would just take a bit longer though. These lentils make the perfect base for a vegan shepherds pie - although I was being lazy tonight so I just whipped up some mashed potato/sweet potato as a side dish.

The dish is so versatile - you can put any veggies you want in with the lentils (capsicum, mushrooms, silverbeet, spinach, parsnip, potato, pumpkin - anything goes really - what I put in tonight was just a result of what I had in my fridge).

Savoury Lentils - serves 4-6
2 carrots, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 medium turnip, diced
1 medium Swede, diced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 broccoli stem, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4cup cabbage, shredded finely
1 1/2 - 2 cups brown lentils, soaked
1 vegetable stock cube
enough water or stock to cover

3tbsp tomato paste
1tsp dried basil
1tsp dried oregano
3tbsp gravox powder (I use the mushroom flavour)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In the pressure cooker, saute onion and garlic until soft, add all the vegetables and lentils and just cover with water or stock. (if not using a pressure cooker add the lentils and the firmer vegetables then continue to add the quicker cooking vegetables. Simmer until lentils and vegetables are tender. Cook for about 30+mins)
   
2. Bring to pressure and cook 10-15 mins. Turn off the stove and let the pressure come down naturally (this can take about 10+ mins).
   
3. Open the lid and add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook for a further 5 mins until peas are cooked through (but still a nice colour green).
4. Serve with rice, pasta, mashed potato or toast. This dish can be used as the base for a shepherd's pie.

Fat Free creamy mashed potato
To make creamy mashed potatos I usually use a mixture of potato and sweet potato (ratio of 2:1) and steam them until they are soft. Then I mix in some fatfree soy milk, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper and mash until soft and creamy.

An Aussie has a long way to go on the vegan 100.

As I was searching the bloggersphere I discovered the "vegan 100" compiled by Hannah from Bittersweet. I am intrigued by a lot of these dishes - in Tasmania we are quite isolated from processed vegan food. I have only seen Toffuti once but then it was gone the next time I was there... give it time - times are a changing and the situation is MUCH better than when it was when I was growing up. Anyway here is what I have eaten of the vegan 100.

1. Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (and mine are in blue)
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Post a comment on Hannah's blog once you’ve finished and link to her post
5. Pass it on!

1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie - I had the most amazing avocado smoothie at a street vendor in Kenya! My parents are addicted to what I call a salad smoothie and so I have that whenever I go home.
3. Tofu Scramble
4. Haggis
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush - one of the dips at our wedding
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles - thats 100% buckwheat right?
13. PB&J sandwich - although not really an Australian snack - I had to try it to see what it was like.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - I had a beautiful strawberry wine
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans - my staple dish in Uganda
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut -
50. Seaweed
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho - had a really interesting watermelon gazpacho when a chef friend designed a vegan meal for us at his restaurant for our engagement present.
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79 -
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips -
94. Yellow watermelon -
95. Chili with chocolate - does hot chocolate with chili count?
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough

Oh my goodness - there is so much that I haven't tried - There are a lot of products that are not in Australia - and a lot of dishes that I have not even heard of. I wonder what the Aussie vegan would put in instead.

Two of our favourite veggies in one dish!!

My husband and I were rudely awoken this morning (at about 5am) to hear someone trying to get into our unit with a key. When my husband went to see what was going on they sheepishly realised that they had the wrong unit. I wasn't too impressed - I mean there are only 8 units are in our block. Anyway - from there it was a busy day for both of us. My partner worked from 9am to 6pm and I had uni until 1pm and then was home writing an assignment for the afternoon. For dinner because I know that nat is SO hungry after a full day of work (and riding his bike home up a long hill). Sweet potato is one of nat's favourite vegetables and I had a few eggplants to use up (Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables) so I was incredibly excited when I found a recipe from Ashbury's Aubergines. I followed the recipe pretty well but did alter it a little. I have put my revisions below. I served this dish with an easy chickpea and silver beet side dish.

Sweet Potato Stuffed Eggplant

Stuffed Eggplant

2 medium eggplants
2 tablespoons soy sauce
oil
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large capsicum, diced

Spicy Peanut Sauce

• oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• 1/2 teaspoon chili paste, more to taste
• 3/4 cup natural unsalted crunchy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cups water
• salt to taste
  
  

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC. Spray a baking pan with oil.
   
2. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, brush the cut sides with soy sauce, and lay them flesh side up in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan and cover with foil. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Steam the sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes, until just tender.
   
4. In a non-stick fry pan, sauté the onions and garlic for 5 minutes, until the onions are soft. Add the capsicum and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir, cover, and set the filling aside.
   
5. Peanut Sauce: saute onions in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Add the ginger, chili paste and saute for another 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly until the peanut butter has melted and mixed with the remaining ingredients.
6. When the eggplants are done - remove them from the oven and scoop out the centre (leaving a little flesh attached to the skin), chop the removed flesh and add it to the sweet potato mixture.
   
7. Place the sweet potato mixture in the eggplant shells and return the eggplants to the oven and cook for 15mins.
8. Remove from the oven and top with the peanut sauce and serve.

Sauteed chickpeas and silver beet

• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 400g chickpeas, (either from a can or home cooked)
• 500g fresh silver beet, washed, stems removed and chopped. (or spinach)
  
• salt and pepper to taste.

1. Saute onion and garlic with either water or oil in a non-stick pan until onion is browned, about 5 mins
2. Add chickpeas and silver beet. Cover and heat until silver beet is wilted.
3. When silver beet is done, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
   

Turnips and spices

One of my favourite blogs is Susan Voisin's Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I remember Susan talking about Berbere spice mix and by chance I found a little premixed pack in my local spice shop. This was about 3 months ago and until tonight it had remained in my spice cupboard.
At the local market on Saturday I found some cheap turnips and as I was looking for turnip recipies online I came across Chickpea and Turnip Stew with Ethiopian Spices that used both turnips AND berbere. I followed Susan's recipe almost exactly, however I cooked my own chickpeas this afternoon and used the chickpea "stock" instead of the vegetable stock. I also used only two leeks and I used the green parts as well. The result was totally different to anything that I had tasted before. I love the spice combination and the dish was tasty. I served it with some toast. There is enough left over for our lunches tomorrow. YAY!!

What to do with left over silken tofu??

Well I had an assignment due yesterday and so I have spent today relaxing and looking at what in our fridge needs to be used up. I found some left over silken tofu from a package that I had to open a few nights ago. Since then I have been trying to use up the tofu including making a chocolate pudding for my hubby. I still had about a 1/2 cup left and so I looked through my cookbooks to get some inspiration. I found this recipe in a folder of recipies I have collected from magazines over the years and never cooked. I didn't have all the ingredients so what I have created is very different to the original (almost totally different - apart from the fact that both recipes had silken tofu, oats and sugar). These bars were a resounding success. They are chewy and a great protein filled energy bar. My husband came home from work and was immediatly after the source of the yummy smells wafting from our kitchen.

Easy chewy oatmeal bars

Prep time: 15mins

Ingredients

· 3/4 cup sultanas

· 1/3 cup walnut halves or pieces (optional)

· 1/4 cup white flour

· 1/4 cup wholemeal flour

· 1/2 tsp. bicarb soda

· 1/4 tsp. salt

· 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

· 1 cup rolled oats

· 1/2 cup silken tofu

· egg substitute for 1 egg (I use Organ No-egg)

· ¼ cup olive oil

· 1/3 cup brown sugar

· 1/3 cup maple syrup

· 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Spray a 20cm x 20cm glass baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Soak sultanas in boiling water and set aside for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. If using walnuts, spread in small baking pan and toast in oven until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. In a bowl, combine both flours, bicarb soda, salt, cinnamon and oats.
5. Drain sultanas and chop walnuts (if using). Set aside.
6. Blend tofu in a food processor until smooth. Add egg substitute, oil, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Process until mixture is smooth. Stop and scrape down the sides with rubber spatula in the middle.
7. Add flour mixture, sultanas and walnuts to the food processor. Pulse on/off until all the ingredients mixed.
8. Turn the mixture into the dish and spread into an even layer.
9. Bake until light golden and firm to the touch, approx 30-35 minutes.
10. When done, remove from oven and cool in the pan. Cut into bars.
11. Bars can be kept in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer for many months.

Beautiful Banana Bread

My husband loves the weekend. You may think that it is because he gets time off. Because of the nature of his job he isn't guaranteed the weekend off. No, my husband loves the weekend because I try to always bake him something sweet to get him through the week (or at least a few days). I have a couple of tried and true recipies that I will use, but this weekend I decided to try a new recipe I found in Lois Dieterly's book Sinfully Vegan. I modified the recipe to reduce the oil content and according to what I had in the cupboard - so I will post my version. I have not baked many recipes out of this book... don't ask me why, because every recipe I have baked has just been wonderful. This was no exception. An organic stall at the local market was giving away overripe banana's on Saturday and I took the opportunity to do some banana baking. (I have not made a banana sweet for a long time because banana's have been VERY expensive lately).


Lois's Moist Banana Bread

1 cup white spelt flour (Lois uses unbleached plain flour)
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour (see above note)
1 tsp bicarb (baking) soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup agave syrup - I like the Loving Earth Brand
3 medium ripe bananas - mashed
2 tsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup water
30mls extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup applesauce (no added sugar)
3/4 cup walnuts - roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 175degrees C.
2. Prepare a loaf tin by greasing it or lining it with baking paper
3. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt
4. In a small cup, mix flax with water.
5. In another bowl mix banana with the agave syrup and then add the flax mixture and stir until mixed well.
6. Add the oil, applesauce and walnuts to the banana mixture.
7. Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.
8. Pour mixture into the loaf pan and bake for about 60 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven.
9. Leave bread in tin for 10 mins before removing and allowing to cool completely

15 servings
Preparation time: 15 mins
Baking time: approx 60 mins

Broccoli Dahl and a Friday night at home

Well last night it felt like the wind was going to take off the roof of our unit. We kept the curtains open last night so we could see the trees being whipped around outside. It was wonderful (ok, I am one of these people who LOVES thunderstorms - so in lieu of not having one since we have been in this new house, this came a close second).

My partner and I felt like something simple for tea last night and so we reverted back to one of my favourite foods, dahl.

We did, however, have some broccoli to use up so I thought I would chuck that into the mix as well.
It was a wonderful warming dish. The spice combination was a little different to my normal dahl recipe (I had run out of garam masala and so I played around a bit). I am a bit of a lazy cook when it comes to cooking for just the two of us. If I was to serve it to someone else I might steam the broccoli and then add it into the pan just before serving so it retains its bright green colour.


Broccoli Dahl

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 cup red lentils - rinsed
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 cups chicken style broth
• 2 medium heads of broccoli, chopped
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (optional)
• salt to taste
• 1 cup cashews, coarsely chopped (optional)

1. Saute onion in water or oil until softened
   
2. Add chili powder, pepper, cumin, coriander and turmeric and stir for a minute.
3. Add lentils, lemon juice and broth.
4. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes (if mixture is too thick, you may need to add a little hot water).
5. Add broccoli to the saucepan (or steam in a seperate saucepan until it is done to your liking and set aside until later).
6. Cook for a futher 15-20 mins, or until broccoli and lentils are tender
   
7. add salt, coconut milk and cashews (if using). (Add broccoli if you decided to steam it seperatly).
   
8. Simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Serve over rice and serve with your favourite Indian condiments (we like pappadams cooked in the microwave so as to limit our oil consumption).
   

Dessert heaven

I was browsing blogs the other day and discovered that the online Desserts Magazine has published a Vegan edition. It looks fantastic!!!

It has recipies from some of my favourite vegan bloggers, including Susan from Fat Free Vegan, Dreena from Eat Drink and Be Vegan, Emilie from the Conscious Kitchen, Hanna from Bittersweet and Isa from The Post Punk Kitchen.

I can't wait to try some of the recipies out and post them up here.... I think my partner is more excited then me about it though ;)

Spring, showers and pumpkin soup

I have been thinking about starting up a blog for some time now. Don't ask me why I have started now... I think the main reason was that the camera was sitting on the kitchen table while I was cooking tea... so I took a few photos and here I am. I was lucky enough to grow up in a vegan household and mum was always cooking wonderful creative recipes. Dinner tonight was one of "mum's recipes". Its a pumpkin soup. I have another pumpkin soup recipe that is much heavier (which I will post here when I next cook it), but this one is lighter and perfect with some freshly baked bread. My husband and I prefer a little more spice than what mum used to use so I added a few extra things.
Mmmmmmm...

Mum's Pumpkin Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp curry powder (I use a madras curry powder)
1 tsp sambal olek (optional)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1.5kg pumpkin, chopped (about one medium sized butternut pumpkin)
1 1/2 litres water
1 tbsp chicken STYLE stock powder
fresh herbs to garnish (optional)
hot sauce to taste (optional)

• saute onion in oil or water, add spices when onion is soft.
• Add remaining ingredients (except garnish). Bring to boil and then simmer until pumkin is tender (about 30mins)
• Blend the soup until smooth.
• Serve with fresh bread

Mum's Homemade Breadmaker Bread
2cups wholemeal spelt flour
2 cups white spelt flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
420ml water

Place ingredients in breadpan in the order that your breadmaker specifies. Set cycle to rapid with a light crust.

Makes 1kg loaf