Polenta and spinach lasagne

I bookmarked Susan's recipe for Polenta lasagne with Portabellas and Kale ages ago.
I have to laugh - I remember reading that she made it twice in the one week and I thought that it sounded like too much work - and then this last week I made it once and Nat decided that I had to make it again for a dinner party that we were having 2 nights later.

Oh my goodness this recipe ROCKS - it was so easy and so yummy. The photo isn't that great because the light isn't the greatest in our kitchen and its getting darker earlier. Also, this is the leftovers as I didn't want to be taking photos while everyone was waiting to eat. Susan has some beautiful photos though.

I made the quick microwave polenta using Susans directions and used frozen spinach instead of kale. I also used my own pasta sauce which is simple and very yummy.

This recipe was also great for the dinner party because I could make the marinara sauce, the cheese sauce and the polenta the night before and as soon as I got home from work I just put the whole thing together in no time flat!!!

I recommend this recipe to anyone!!! I think this is going to be a regular dish in our house from now on!!

6 month anniversary and PIZZA

Sorry I have been neglecting the blog - camera went MIA for a little while and so although I was cooking a fair bit, I didn't take any photos of it.

But I am back - welcome to 2009. I am going to try and be a little healthier in my cooking for the next little while (trying to shed xmas festivity weight).

But first - today Nat and I celebrated our 6month wedding anniversary!!! The time has just flown by.

I asked Nat what he wanted for dinner to celebrate and he wanted pizza. I had never made pizza before - and I had the recipe from VWaV so I decided to give it a go.

IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!
For all those people like me who think that pizza is too hard its not!! I don't like any of the soy cheeses available in Aussie and so I didn't think it would be so good without cheese - it was so yummy.

It is easy and so SO worth it. We are going to be eating pizza a lot more in this house (at least once a month) - and once we have got a few nice pizza combinations going we are going to have a pizza party!! I need to get another pizza tray first though!!




I used the VWaV pizza dough and sauce recipes and then topped it with the following:
sundried tomatoes
olives
onion rings
pineapple
kittee's seitan, cubed
capsicum
vegan parmesan cheese (I don't think this is necessary for a good pizza - we just had some in our cupboard)
BBQ sauce
mushrooms

The finished product - isn't it awesome!!

I would love to hear your favourite topping combinations for pizza (especially if you don't use fake cheese).
Have a great 2009

Easy Pea-zy fried rice

First of all, I want to apologise for the crappy photo - I had a hungry husband and both of us had had a long day and frankly this smelt SO good that it didn't hang around for long on the table getting photographed. I have never made fried rice before, but after having Nat's mum and brother and sister in law over for dinner a few nights ago, Nat and I found ourselves with a lot of leftover rice (I over estimated how hungry people would be!!)

Anyway - I had to go to a staff meeting and end of year party yesterday and Nat was working all day so by the time both of us were home it was late and I didn't have anything prepared. I looked in the fridge and the rice was staring back at me and so I decided to make fried rice.

Fried Rice is SO easy if you have left over rice - and while I don't usually cook with so much oil - it was nice for a treat. Although the ingredient list looks long, this meal was whipped up in under 30 minutes, and I was going slowly - I could have had it on the table in much less time if I had really been bothered. I used a recipe that I was given in grade 7 cooking class - but I modified the amount of oil and the spices and ingredients other than the rice. You can modify the ingredients with what you have on hand. Other veggies could include - cauliflower, corn, broccoli, finely diced cabbage, capsicum, asparagus - just make sure that everything is chopped quite small.

I used little pieces of Kittee's Seitan (which I think is marvelous!!) chopped up - but you could also easily use chickpeas, cashews or re hydrated TVP.

There should have been leftovers for this dish but we were both so hungry (and it was so Delicious) that it only fed the two of us (Nat went back for seconds). So I would say that this dish serves 2 hungry very hungry people, or 2 moderately hungry people with some left-overs for the next day.

Easy Pea-zy Fried Rice

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion - diced
3-4 garlic cloves - minced
1 stalk celery - diced
2-3 medium carrots - chopped
2 spring onions - chopped
2 medium sized mushrooms - chopped (I used the normal white button mushies - any mushroom would do though)
1/2 cup seitan/re hydrated TVP*/chickpeas
4 tbsp soy sauce
2-3 cups of cooked rice (I used medium grain brown - use whatever cooked rice you have on hand)
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup water

Pour about 2 tbsp of oil into a large (non-stick) frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough (a piece of onion will cause bubbles in the oil when dropped in), put in the onion, garlic, carrots and celery. Stir for 2-3 minutes
Add 2 tbsp of soy sauce and then the spring onions and mushrooms. Continue to stir until the onions are almost done (they will become opaque).
Scrape all the vegetables to one side of the frying pan and then add the cooked rice to the cleared side. Press down on the rice using the back of your wooden spoon (or stirring implement) and then pour 1 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp of soy sauce onto the rice. After a minute stir the rice and then pat down again.
Add the spices and mix rice again.
When rice is heated through - mix it in with the vegetables. Add the peas and then cook until peas are heated through. Serve.

Sweet and Sour Vegetables and home style salad

Sweet and Sour Stirfry

Mum has been following the posts on my blog and was very excited when I said I would like to blog about our dinner last night. She said she had the perfect dish (ie. a new dish that I had not had before). So we set about cooking this dish together. The recipe comes from this awesome cookbook that mum bought from the New Internationalist - Quick and Easy - Vegetarian Recipes from around the World for the Western Kitchen. Unfortunately it is out of publication and I have been unable to get my own copy (very very sad about this). Due to the fact that you (or I) are not going to be able to run out and get a copy of this awesome book I will put our version of the recipe (we have changed a few things).

It was really yummy - I haven't really ventured into many sweet and sour dishes - but I really like this - and it was really easy - I chopped the vegetables as I needed to add them (to reduce the total time needed). We had this on the table really quickly.

Sweet and Sour Vegetables
Serves:4
Time: 20mins

600g chopped vegetables (we used 1 red and 1 green capsicum, 1/4 cauliflower, 2 carrots, 1/2 zucchini, 1 stick celery, 1/4 cup cabbage, 5 mushrooms and 1/2 cup pineapple - other possibiliteis could be baby sweetcorn, bok choi, bean sprouts, snowpeas).
1 onion - sliced into cresent moons
4 cloves garlic - minced
1/2 - 1 red chili - deseeded and chopped finely
450g extra firm tofu - cubed and marinated in a marinade (we were lazy and just used some tamari).

Sauce
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp agave syrup
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp tomato sauce (we used Muir Glen Tomato Ketchup)
2 tbsp pineapple juice
1/2 tsp cornflour

1. Saute onion in oil or broth until it begins to soften. Then add garlic and stir fry for another minute.
2. Add the vegetables that will take the longest to cook (like carrots and capsicum). Stirfry these for 3-4 mins.
3. Add the chili and the rest of the vegetables, stiring until they are cooked.
4. Mix the sauce ingredients together and pour over vegetables. Add tofu and stir to coat everything in sauce. Leave for a few minutes so that the flavours can sink in.
5. Serve over rice or noodles (we served it over thin rice noodles)

**********
There are many different things that are exclusive to my parents home (where I spent the first 18 years of my life). One of these is the Vita Mix. I remember my brother and I convincing our parents to buy a vita mix at an Organic Gardening Festival in Penguin when I was about 10years old. I think we used the line that it would help us to eat lots of fruits.
Since then - every morning we would share a fruit smoothie (with banana, orange, apple, kiwi, avocado, and other fruits when in season - eg. pears, pineapples, berries etc etc).
Also - and this is a little more unusal - mum and dad would make themselve a whizzed salad. This is because dad's teath make it difficult for him to eat really crunchy vegetables. I used to frown upon this green smoothie - but now I really love sharing it with them when I come home - it tastes surprisingly good - it usually includes - beetroot tomato, carrot, different types of salad greenery, celery, parsley, capsicum, cucumber and a little bit of salt water. So as I am home - I thought I would document the making of the whizzed salad. It can't be called a green smoothie as the beetroot makes it pink at the moment.

The salad before it is whizzed.

The salad after it is whizzed up.

Roasted Asparagus, tofu and portabella mushrooms

Well - it happened again. I was at the local grocery store and I found two bunches of asparagus had been put into the quick sell box. They looked alright - and I just couldn't help myself - so I changed my plans for dinner and decided to try a version of a dish I had been eyeing off on Fat Free Vegan. Every one of Susan's recipes that I have used has just been amazing and this was no exception.

As it was going to be our main meal I added some Chinese style firm tofu (which is softer than the extra firm tofu that I normally buy). I was trying to work out how to cook this type of tofu and I found a website that talked about pressing, freezing or boiling the tofu. Well I have never boiled tofu and I was curious to try it so I boiled it in some left over broth from making seitan. The tofu didn't change much in texture but it did soak up the broth - so I just stuck the cubes in the oven to roast with the asparagus and mushrooms and that crisped up the outside just a little - it was quite nice - I don't know whether I would do it like that again - but it wasn't bad.

I also didn't have any horseradish - but I did have horseradish mustard - so I used that instead of the horseradish. I also just realised that I forgot to put in the pepper - it tasted fine without it. I suggest you check out Susan's original version of the recipe - it rocks.

The sauce was a hit as Nat immediately asked for some more after he tasted it as apparently I hadn't given him enough. That's as good enough as a thumbs up in my books!! The whole dish was easy, quick and really yummy!!

Roasted Asparagus, Tofu and Portabella Mushrooms with Horseradish Mustard Sauce
recipe: adapted from Susan from Fat Free Vegan
Serves 1-2

400g extra firm tofu
500g asparagus - trimmed
2 large portabella mushrooms - sliced
2 cloves garlic - minced

1 cup soymilk
1 tsp garlic
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp horseradish mustard
1 tsp dried basil
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in a little water.

Directions

If using extra firm tofu - chop into desired shape and marinate for a few hours in your favourite marinade. (If using Chinese firm tofu - either press and then follow the directions above OR cube and boil in broth for 10 mins.)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Place the asparagus, mushrooms and tofu in a large baking tray that has been lightly oiled (I sprayed it with cooking spray) and sprinkle with 2 cloves garlic. Roast, stirring every few mins for about 15mins or until the asparagus starts to brown.

While you are roasting, heat the soymilk in the saucepan, add the garlic, basil, salt, nutritional yeast and horseradish mustard. Stir the mixture until it boils then add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir until the sauce thickens.

Serve the vegetables and tofu over brown rice and drizzle with the sauce.

VCON sauteed seitan with mushrooms and spinach

And so my quest to discover the many faces of seitan continues... Let me just briefly say that personally - I don't go so much for the faux meats - I am much more happy with chickpeas and beans etc. I think Nat misses some of that stuff and so I have been doing a lot of experimenting on/for him. I guess that it will also be useful to show my omni friends that they don't have to go without meat if they don't want to.

So back to seitan...So far I have baked the seitan o' greatness and I steamed some seitan sausages (didn't look that pretty as I used cloth instead of al. foil - so I didn't bother blogging about it).

Today I tried boiled seitan. I used the recipe from VCON as it was titled 'Simple Seitan'. Out of all the seitans I have made this was NOT simple. I had to watch it and stress about it not boiling and also stress about all the failures that I have heard about this type of seitan.

Well, as it was cooking I was worried... really worried. It looked like one of those natural sponges that you find in the sea (all bobbly and holey and stuff). I accidentally let it boil (whoops - my stove is old and a bit temperamental - it was on the lowest setting for the 'simmer' but then it boiled).

Anyhow - I charged on with my plan to make another recipe from VCON, sauteed seitan with spinach and mushrooms. Except at the local grocery store I found some local silverbeet on special and so I decided to use that. Apart from that I didn't make many changes apart from omitting the wine and not adding as much vegetable broth as it called for as I found the seitan to be REALLY salty. I served the dish with mashed potato and sweet potato (just cause we had run out of rice)

When nat came home from guiding he couldn't believe that it was seitan (he had only seen the sausage type). He really liked the texture and said that it was nice and chewy. Mission accomplished.

Vegan MoFo #11 - Homemade bread and rolls - Portabello and seitan burgers for dinner

Well, I must confess. Although I love homemade bread I have only ever used a breadmaker to make it (which doesn't really have the same quality as homemade - but it is better than store bought). Well, as I felt it was Vegan MoFo and I didn't feel like studying - I decided that I would try my hand at baking a loaf of bread (which was yesterday) and some wholewheat hamburger rolls (which was today).

They went down really well. I am not a big bread eater but over the last two days nat has polished off most of the loaf and half of the rolls (I tend to stack on the kgs if I eat a lot of refined carbs - which is a shame because I think carbs are my favourite food - btw - just because I try not to eat a lot of refined carbs doesn't mean that I am not chubby!!)

I based the bread recipe on the basic wholewheat loaf in The Big Book of Bread. I think the bread would have done better if I had let it rise a little bit more - I started to run out of time and I hadn't found the best place to leave the dough to rise. The bread turned out ok - it just didn't rise as much as I had hoped - so it was a little heavy - but the flavour was really good - so I think I will try the recipe again.

The rolls on the other hand were GREAT! I used Vegan Dad's Recipe.

My first attempt at baking bread rolls -
I think it turned out pretty good - thanks to Vegan Dad

It takes a heck of a long time - but it doesn't involve a lot of hands on work - in fact while I left it rising today I walked into town to the local veggie shop and bulk foods health store and then came back and finished off the recipe. I halved the recipe and used spelt flour instead of plain flour.

ok - so it doesn't look that flash we were getting hungry

- but trust me -
at the end of the day it was yummy, quick and filling.

Nat came home from his guiding trip late this evening and so I was able to quickly make a burger using this seitan, tomato, lettuce and a grilled portabello mushroom based on this recipe ( it is grilled with garlic, balsamic vinegar, oregano, salt and oil). It was tasty and very filling.