Easy Rosemary Roast Potatoes and Pumpkin, Chickpea and Zucchini Burgers

Once again I am sorry for not posting very often. Full time work is taking up a lot of time.

But enough of that - For christmas I got given Now Vegan by Lynda Stoner. I had seen the cookbook before but had not really had a good chance to have a look - until now. It looks awesome. I haven't had much of a chance to cook much out of it (I plan to over the next month or two) - but the photos are beautiful - the recipes look easy but also very presentable to dinner guests and she even has gluten free and sugar free recipes.
Last week I was having some friends over and I planned to make Veganomican's Lemony Roasted Potatoes (as this has been a hit every time I make it) - but I didn't have any lemons. I remembered seeing a recipe for Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Potatoes - and within 40-50 mins they were done. All my dinner guests went back for seconds and Nat requested that I make it again very soon. Two nights later I made it again (so I could take a photo and for Nat to enjoy). I served it up with some Pumpkin, Chickpea and Zucchini Burgers. This recipe was annoying and I had to make a lot of alterations. The finished product was wonderful though.

Rosemary and garlic roast potatoes with pumpkin,
zucchini and chickpea burgers

The changes I made to the burgers were: replaced the egg with Organ No-egg egg replacer. I also added about 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed and about 1/2-1 cup of flour because the mixture was just WAY too runny. Next time I make them I think I will roast rather than boil the pumpkin.

Anyway the meal was a lovely one. More posts soon - I promise!!

Vegan Mayo Recipe - finally!!

Potato Salad with corn, spring onions, seitan and vegan mayonnaise (recipe below)

Well the day has finally arrived where I put down my mayo recipe.
It is not as thick as regular mayo - but the taste is pretty good (having said that - I haven't eaten real mayo for a VERY long time so I think it tastes like what I imagine it would taste like and Nat loves it so it works for us.

The reason I have had to come up with a mayo recipe is that all the ones I have seen use so much oil - and I am sure that it would make a better texture - but with the amount of mayo that we eat - it would not be healthy at all.

We mainly use this on sandwiches and potato salad.

Anyway - here is the recipe. I kind of based it on Vegan Dad's recipe but used silken tofu instead of soymilk and oil.

Low-fat vegan mayo recipe
1 300g silken tofu
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (I use raw sugar)*
1/2 tsp mustard powder*
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp vinegar (I use white wine vinegar)

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process for 1-2mins. Adjust seasonings to taste (I sometimes add a little more salt and sugar and lemon juice. Chill before serving. I have stored this in the fridge for up to a week. Sometimes water forms on the top - just stir it back in before using it.

*I have used dijon mustard as well but I reduced the sugar a little bit when I did that.

If you are not afraid of adding oil to your mayo, you might want to also check out Vegan Dad's Recipe.

Sorry for my absence

Hi all, I realise that I haven't blogged here for ages - things have just been crazy.
I started work at the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. The people are all really lovely which is nice - what wasn't so nice was that on my first day of work I had to go to a work lunch and there was NOTHING vegan on the menu apart from "lettuce leaves with citrus dressing". How embarrassing to only be able to eat lettuce (thus perpetrating the image that vegans only eat rabbit food). So because I didn't want to eat only lettuce I ordered some sourdough bread which came with butter - so I ended up spending a forking fortune for some lettuce and a few pieces of bread. I was really angry and rather embarrassed. Next week is another lunch - and as I know about it before hand I got the menu - and once again all I can eat are the side dishes of salad or vegetables (and once again I will be paying about $10 per side dish). I hate eating out in Hobart :(

Nat and I have been eating (which is a good start) - but at the end of the day I have just been too tired to take a photo of what I make - Nat and I also had Nat's mum down for two nights and then my brother down for one night and so we have hardly had any time to breath - let alone cook and blog.

I just thought I would show you a few pictures of some dishes that we have had over the last fortnight. Then I think I will go and have a nap - I am so tired (I worked at the Organic Market Stall from 5.30am this morning and only just got back home). Tara nominated me for a blog award- but I think I will do that a bit later tonight.

So onto the eating!!

Pumpkin Oat Patties (made up recipe that needs
a lot of tweaking before I post it), wedges and green beans.

Zucchini Mozzarella Sticks from Happy Herbivore. These were really good. A healthy snack - I was a little lazy and didn't crush up the bread crumbs as much as I should have but it still worked well.

Chickpea and Spinach Curry from VWaV. I thought this was nice. But I have simpler chickpea spinach Marsala recipe that I enjoy much better.

I don't know how often I will be able to blog until Christmas - but I try to be a little bit more diligent. I hope you stay sane over the Christmas period.

Finally blogging about our indian feast

Clockwise from top: Tamarind Lentils, Chickpea Masala,
Aloo Mutter Gobi (Spicy Pea Potato and Cauliflower Curry), brown rice.

Well I was going to blog about this meal a while ago but I have been rather busy recovering. Who would have thought that I would sleep so much?!?!?! Granted the pain killers I was taking initially totally knocked me out - they also made me feel very nauseous - so I stopped taking them. I am still spending the majority of my time in bed or on the couch.

Before I tell you about this meal I want to apologise for not commenting on all of your lovely blog posts. I have been reading about all of your thanksgiving festivities but have not really had the energy to type much.

So the night before my surgery I had a group of friends over for dinner (8 friends to be precise). I thought that an Indian meal would be an easy way to serve so many people.

I served the curry with brown rice and this garlic naan. The whole meal all went down a treat. I personally loved the chickpea masala and the lentils, however most of my guests thought that the best dish was the Aloo Mutter Gobi when I found that to be the blandest of all the dishes - it goes to show how people's taste buds are different.

I finally made the Tamarind Lentils from VCon. They are so GOOD - I can't believe that it took this long for me to make them - they are easy and tasty.

Chickpea and Spinach Masala (adapted from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook).
Preparation : 15 mins
Total cooking: 30mins
Serves: 4

2 onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2tsp olive oil
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground corriander
4 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 tins) - drained
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 tsp garam masala
150g frozen spinach

1. Heat oil in a large pan, add onion and garlic and cook over medium heat, stirring until soft.
2. Add the chili powder, salt, turmeric, paprika, cumin and coriander. Stir for 1 minute.
3. Add chickpeas and undrained tomatoes, stir until combined. Simmer, covered over low heat for 15minutes, stiring occasionally. Add spinach and garam masala and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.
4. Serve over rice or wrapped in chapattis or naan bread.
   

Aloo Mutter Gobi (Spicy Potato Pea and Cauliflower curry)
Cooking Time: 45mins
Serves 4
800g potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion - diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
900g cauliflower florets (approx. one small cauliflower)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala
400g (1 can) diced tomatoes
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup frozen peas

1. In a large pan add oil, onions and garlic and cook until soft.
2. Add potatoes and spices and stir until the potatoes are covered. Add the tomatoes and vegetable stock and simmer 10-15 minutes. Add cauliflower and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes until cauliflower and potatoes are tender. Add peas and continue to simmer uncover until the peas are tender and all the liquid is absorbed.

Chickpea cutlets, exams and a new dawn for America

Chickpea cutlets with lemon drizzled potatoes,
green beans and corn kernels.

So tonight I finally got round to making chickpea cutlets from Veganomican. I have been wanting to make these since I got the book - but just when I planned to make it Nat got sick - but last night his appetite was back (and with a vengeance!) So after my exam (which went better than I thought possible - I remembered things that an hour previously I thought I was never going to get) and walking out of the exam and turning on my phone to get a text message from nat saying "president Obama", I rushed (well walked quickly) home and was there just in time to watch his victory speech. I had tears in my eyes - there is hope for the world yet.

I was in such a good mood that I thought that chickpea cutlets should be for dinner - and they were FANTASTIC. After reading a number of blogs and the PPK forums I saw that people like them better if they are baked - which is good for me because I am a fry-a-phobe. I was going to make some lemony roasted potatoes, but I ran out of time and I also thought that lots of oil might not be good for Nat's tummy - so instead I just steamed some potatoes, green beans and corn kernels and then drizzled them with lemon juice and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

My stomach didn't feel like anything as heavy as a cutlet - but I did take a bite out of Nat's and it was good. I just had the veggies and they were simple and hit the spot.

A great dinner to finish a stressfull (from exams and election waiting) but very good day.

Vegan MoFo - Soup to cure sickness

You must think that all I eat is soup. Now I think soup is one of my favourite types of food. Especially over winter - but now the weather is warming up I am more inclined to make a bean salad than a bean soup. However, Nat got home from guiding two nights ago coughing and spluttering. After a pretty restless sleep he stayed in bed for most of the day. He wasn't incredibly hungry during the day but I asked him what he thought he would like for dinner. His unequivocal answer was soup.

Now soup was not really what I felt like as it was quite a warm day (it got to 20 degrees - which isn't hot but when you have had a week or so of 13 degrees I was in tshirt and thai fishermans pants).

Anyway - I borrowed a copy of La Dolce Vegan from the library and so I sifted through the soup recipes and I came up with cauliflower and potato. I tweaked the recipe a fair bit so I will put it here.

It was really good - I had to add some more of the spices (this is just an estimate of what I added - just use your own judgement). I think I am not the biggest fan of cauliflower soup - so I don't think that what I can say about it would really do this soup justice - I mean it was really nice, but I prefer other types of soup flavours.

Nat on the other hand, was thrilled with the soup and said that it was one of the best he's had. He is wanting me to make it again very soon.

So maybe if you like milder soups and cauliflower, this is for you. I will be making this again purely because Nat was so happy with it.

Soup with Cauliflower and potatoes

1 onion - diced
2 carrots - chopped
1 stalk celery - chopped
3/4 large cauliflower head - chopped
2 medium potatoes- chopped (didn't peel because it was organic)
1 medium sweet potato - chopped (I didn't peel this as it was organic)
enough broth to just cover vegetables
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup soymilk (I used fat free)

1. Saute onion, carrot and celery in oil or broth until onion is translucent
2. Add the cauliflower, potato, sweet potato, broth, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
3. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15mins until the potatoes are cooked.
4. Stir in milk and then blend the mixture with a hand blender to the desired consistency (I love chunky soups with bits of potatoes). You can also use a blender or food processor to puree half or all of the soup.
5. Return to the heat and its ready to serve.
6. We served it with crusty homemade toast.

Vegan Mofo #10- Ultimate comfort - Pumpkin-lentil Soup and La Dolce Vegan.

**I just got La Dolce Vegan from the library (I am now in the habit of borrowing cookbooks before I buy them so I can see if it is my sort of cookbook). If you have some favourites from there I would love to hear them as there are just SO many recipes. I am rather excited about trying as many as possible. Your suggestions would be appreciated. **

Thick and spicy soup on a windy night... could it get any better?? I don't think so. I discovered this soup in winter this year and Nat and I make it at least once every couple of weeks. The recipe is an adaptation of a recipe I found on recipezaar. It is thick, it is spicy, it has protein because of the lentils - and it is easy to make a large batch so that we are guaranteed leftovers. I make this differently every time and every time it just turns out yummy. For instance, tonight I used 2 turnips and 2 potatoes (usually I just use potatoes) as the turnips needed to be used up.

Indian style pumpkin soup

1 onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic - minced
1 - 2 red chillies- chopped (or 1-2 tsp chilli paste)
2 tsp curry powder
2 cups pumpkin - chopped
2 stalks celery - (I omitted this tonight as I didn't have any)
1 sweet potato - chopped
4 potatoes (I used 2 turnips and 2 potatoes and it turned out just fine)
1 cup red lentils
1 1/2 litres vegetable stock (I used stock powder and water)

1. Saute onion, garlic and chilli in water
2. Add vegetables, stock and lentils and bring to the boil
3. Lower heat and simmer soup until vegetables are tender (about 20mins)
4. Blend the soup and serve. If its too thin, simmer until it is reduced. If it is too thick add extra stock or water.

Vegan Mofo #9 - Talking about my first time... seitan

Well, I set myself one major challenge during Vegan mofo for 2008 and that was to make my first seitan. The only time I have ever eaten seitan was once in a vegetarian chinese restaurant in Melbourne. I was the only vegan (there were also two vegetarians) but the omnis found it highly amuzing that they were ordering steak and sweet and sour chicken and the like.

My first seitan after it was cooked. Sorry its just on our chopping board - it was 8pm and we still hadn't had dinner and were starving (I decided to make the Seitan a little late in the afternoon. Whoops).

So.... I have been reading all these amazing seitan recipes but I was nervous. Despite looking at seitan recipes for a few weeks, it wasn't until about 10mins before I started making the seitan that I had decided whether I was going to steam or bake or wrap in foil or boil... oh goodness me - there is so much variety out there.

I ended up tossing up between the seitan recipe from VWaV and Seitan O'Greatness. After asking nat - we decided that we would attempt a baked seitan and so my seitan challenge began in earnest.

Me kneeding seitan

It was really good - my aliminum foil ripped on the bottom so it was a little tough underneath (Tip: don't ever buy cheap al. foil) I actually couldn't believe how easy it was (I was imagining it to be some kind of horrible difficult multitasking thing that took hours (maybe because the first time I ever saw a recipe it called for ordinary flour and a heck of a lot of kneeding).

And what did we do with the seitan. Well we chopped it up and put it on some baked spuds with some corn, spinach leaves (the only greens I had in the garden) and a cheesy sauce that I make when I make cauliflower cheese (its made from soymilk, nutritional yeast, arrowroot flour, onion powder and salt). I was desperate to try another type of "cheese" but I just thought that too many experiments was asking for trouble.

The best bit about the spuds was that I was able to fit the potatoes with the seitan into our little toaster oven so that we were using a lot less power.

I enjoyed my first time with seitan and hope to make at least one other type before mofo finishes. Does anyone have a good recipe for a chicken style seitan - or their favourite seitan recipe that they would like to share?? I am very open to suggestions!!

Vegan MoFo #7 - Call them what you like... black eyed peas rock

I bought some dried black eyed peas (or black eyed beans or cow peas) from the health food shop the other day with a stew in mind. Anyway - I started soaking them last night and then asked my husband what he would like for dinner only to hear him say soup... well the only black-eyed pea soup recipe I could find was more of a broth than a nice chunky soup... so I decided to create my own soup. Now when I start getting creative - the results are usually so so. But this soup was amazing. It was warming, spicy and just the perfect texture for sitting listening to the windy night outside.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. I think I will be making it again rather soon.


Thick and Spicy Black Eyed Pea Soup

2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tsps chili paste (or 2-3 mild fresh chillies)
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 large potato diced
2 cups of black eyed peas cooked (or 1 can)
1 can tomatoes, diced (or equivalent fresh)
2 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped (optional)

1. Saute the onion, garlic and chilli in oil or water until the onion is browned.
2. Add tumeric, cumin and coriander and combine with the onion mix
3. Add the beans, potato, tomatoes and stock and simmer 20-30 mins or until potato is soft.
4. Blend with a hand blender- don't puree too much - leave it a little bit chunky - just make sure you get the bits of potato blended.
   
5. Stir in coriander (if using) just before serving.
   

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.