Mum's Zucchini and corn stew

I have for you all another of those 'mum' recipes. There are recipes that my mum used to cook all the time and are tried and true and just yum. This is the first time I have made this since I moved out of home (about 3 years ago) - I don't know why I haven't made it for Nat yet - I guess I have had other things to make - or never had all three main ingredients (kidney beans, zucchini and corn) on hand together. My kidney beans were a little different in colour to what you find in cans (more purple) but they are still wonderful.

I served the stew over some quinoa but it is also wonderful over rice or cous cous. Nat cleaned up his plate and by the time I was home from work the next day he had also devoured all the left overs.

The copy of the recipe that I have is handwritten and I don't know where it came from - so apologies for not giving credit where credit is due (that includes if mum is the creator)

Mum's Zucchini and Sweet-corn Stew
1 onion - chopped finely
2 cloves garlic- crushed or minced
3-4 medium zucchini's - sliced (mum had written 450g of zucchini)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cummin
1 cup sweet corn kernels
2 cups (or 1 can) red kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1/2 large or 1 small red capsicum cut into 1cm cubes
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 - 1 tsp chili paste (to taste)
sea salt to taste

1. Heat a small amount of oil (or water) in a large saucepan and saute onion 5-10mins until soft and transparent.
2. Add garlic, spices, red capsicum and zucchini and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans and chili paste.
4. Simmer for 10-15mins.
5. Serve over rice, cous cous or quinoa.

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!!

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.

Creamy Pumpkin Quinoa

This morning, I had every intention to make one of my favourite quinoa dishes - Susan V's farmer's market quinoa. I would highly recommend this dish to anyone - I have made it numerous times.

As the day progressed, however, I began to feel like pumpkin. I still wanted quinoa but I also wanted pumpkin. This dish just progressed from there. I used Susan's recipe as a guide but made a sauce of roasted pumpkin, red capsicum and soy milk. The result was really good - a lovely creamy quinoa dish. The flavours were quite mild - but it really hit the spot for me. I think it would be really easy to adjust the spices and have a few totally different tasting dishes. I will put a few ideas below the recipe.

Creamy Pumpkin Quinoa
800g pumpkin or butternut pumpkin (squash)
1 red capsicum - halved (dice one half and leave the other half for roasting)
1 onion - diced
2 medium zucchini - chopped
1/2 green capsicum - diced
2-3 cloves garlic - minced
1x400g tin diced tomatoes
1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tbsp basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar or agave
2 cups cooked quinoa

Directions

Preheat oven to 180degrees Celsius. Slice the pumpkin into wedges and place on a greased baking tray. Place a red capsicum half on the baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and take the capsicum off the tray and flip the pumpkin before putting it back in the oven for another 20-30 mins or until tender. Place the roasted capsicum in a paper bag or wrap in aliminum foil until it is cool - then remove the skin.
Remove the pumpkin from the oven and allow to cool. Once cool, remove the skin and chop into 2cm cubes.
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan or wok, saute the onion for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, zucchini, green capsicum, the uncooked half of the red capsicum, and half of the pumpkin cubes.
Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently but keeping the dish covered in between stirring. Add a little water if it is starting to stick.
While the vegetables are cooking, place the other half of the pumpkin cubes, the roasted capsicum, the spices and the soymilk in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Add the tomatoes and pumpkin mix to the vegetables and stir to combine. Add the quinoa and stir until mixed through. Serve immediately.

**I didn't serve mine immediately - so when I reheated the dish when Nat came home I added another 1/4cup soy milk to moisten it up again**

Some possible variations:

Possible Additions: green beans, eggplant, chickpeas, tofu cubes

Possible Spice combinations that I will be trying in the future (I will use them to taste- if you want to use them, have an idea about what quantities usually go into dishes):
Curry - cumin, corriander, turmeric.
Moroccan - tomato paste, cinnamon, bayleaves, raisins, turmeric, corriander, cumin.

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.

Having my lovely husband cook me anniversary dinner

This morning I got woken up with Nat proclaiming "Happy 6year anniversary". So it was that 6 years ago Nat and I were sitting on the beach on the east coast when he told me he liked me (I can't tell you how happy I was that day until I ended up with the most severe sunstroke that night and had to go to bed at about 8pm with a fever). I had really liked him from the moment I met him (about 8 months previously) and so we started to date - for the first 5 years of the relationship we didn't live in the same city (and sometimes even the same country). On Friday it will be a year since Nat proposed. It would be lovely to do something for that but we will be travelling to the north of the state to celebrate his nephews first birthday the next day. Oh well.

So what did we do for our anniversary - not much really. It was pretty miserable weather here :( Typical spring weather in Tassie - 4 seasons in one day (and sometimes 1 hour). I am the treasurer of a local animal welfare group and we had a meeting this evening and so I had to prepare the books and go to the meeting. This meant that I didn't have time to cook dinner. Not to fear - when I came home Nat was cooking one of my favourite dishes - Ratatouille. The flavours are subtle - I think I like that sometimes. He served it with tri-colour cous cous.

I love the dish - but I realised that Nat had cooked it just for me because he doesn't really like it that much - so sweet (in more ways then one cause it means that I don't have to fight with him for the leftovers).

So without further ado - here is Nat's ratatoullie

Ratatouille Cous Cous

1 medium onion, sliced or diced (depending how chunky you want it)
2 cloves garlic -crushed
1 large red capsicum - chopped
1 large green capsicum - chopped
2 medium zucchini - chopped
1 medium/large eggplant - chopped
1 x 400g dices tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups chickpeas - cooked (or 1 can)
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp fresh basil - chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
2 tbsp fresh parsley -chopped (optional)

2 cups boiling water
2 cups cous cous
salt to taste

parsley (or other herbs) to garnish

1. Saute onion, garlic, capsicum, zucchini and eggplants in oil or water, cook stirring until vegetables are lightly browned.
2. Add undrained crushed tomatoes, stock and dried herbs - bring to the boil, simmer covered for about 30 mins or until vegetables are tender- stir in chickpeas.
3. Combine water, cous cous and salt in a medium bowl, mix well. Leave cous cous until the liquid is absorbed, fluff with a fork and stir in basil and parsley.
4. Serve ratatouille over cous cous and garnish with fresh herbs.

The most ecclectic Zucchini Bread recipe ever

So... we have all these zucchini's - I got them cheap at the market a little while ago. When I was talking about what I could make, Nat thought I was joking when I mentioned zucchini bread.

Well, to enlighten him on the wonders of zucchini bread, I had to first find a recipe. I found a couple of lovely ones - particularly Lindsay at Happy Herbivore's fat free fruity zucchini bread and one on Vegan Food: More than Tofu and Sprouts which just looks so versatile.

I decided that the fruity one looked good - but that was too much for nat (he has an aversion to fruit cake and I think a zucchini loaf with dried fruit was just too way out there) so I settled for looking at the other recipe.

I changed the recipe quite considerably - sometimes because I didn't have enough of the ingredients (I ran out of sugar and apple sauce) and I did a few of my own substitutions just because I wanted to make it oil free.

The loaf was awesome - I used Tofu mum's recipe as a base - and forgot to look at how many loaves it made (which is two) - I don't have two loaf pans and so I made 6 muffins and one loaf.


The verdict. Nat loves them. I think I have dispelled his fear of a vegetable being the base of a sweet bread and maybe next time I will stick in a few sultanas or chopped dates... when he doesn't get a choice he usually finds out that he likes it.
So without further ado my version of the zucchini loaf.
Ecclectic moist oil-free zucchini bread

1 tbsp ground flax seeds
3 tbsp water
300g silken tofu
1/4 cup applesauce
2 large ripe bananas - mashed

1 medium-large zucchini - grated
1 1/4 cup unprocessed sugar (cause thats all I use in the house)
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups unbleached spelt flour (just cause thats what I cook with)
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F)
2. Grease two loaf tins (or 1 loaf tin and 1 6x muffin pan)
3. Mix flax meal with water and set aside to expand
4. Place tofu, banana, applesauce and flax mix into a food processor and blend till smooth
5. In a large bowl mix zucchini with the sugar, vinegar and vanilla. Add the tofu mixture and mix well.
6. In a separate bowl, mix flours, salt, bicarb, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder.
7. Mix a little bit of the dry mix with the zucchini mix. Continue to add dry mix a little bit at a time until it is combined. (The mix will be very heavy - don't worry it worked really well for me)
8. Pour into loaf tins or spoon into muffin pan.
9. Cook for 30-40 mins (mine was done at 30) for the loaf and about 10-12mins for the muffins.
10. Let cool and then enjoy

Optional variations
choc chips
dried fruit pieces
you can replace applesauce or banana (or both) with oil - you might need a bit more sugar
use any egg replacer for 3 eggs (instead of tofu and flax)
use any vegetable or fruit in place of zucchini (I guess within reason - carrot would go well)

Vegan MoFo - #2 - I have an assignment due... so instead I make a stew

Ok, so my rhyme isn't the greatest. But it's true. Whenever I have assignments and tests and exams where will you find me?? In the kitchen of course!! I find cooking is the best form of procrastination as I get the most lovely hugs and kisses from nat when he comes home from work to a house that is filled with yummy smells. Speaking of smells - the worst thing about our unit is that we get to smell what the unit downstairs are cooking for breakfast or dinner (or lunch if it is a weekend). That wouldn't be so bad if they baked nice things - but they live on the SAD (Standard Australian Diet - very closely related to the Standard American Diet) and so all we smell is fried foods - be it chips, fish, beef, lamb - its aweful. This morning at 7am it smelt like fish - and this evening it smelt like they hadn't changed the oil in their deep fryer for a while - yuck!

Wow I got off track. This dish has different flavours to what I usually make. I loosely based it on a recipe I found in a magazine a while back but I added the beans and changed the spices slightly. It tasted wonderful. There are heaps of leftovers and since I am going out tomorrow night - nat is more than happy to have leftovers tomorrow night which is a good indicator of how good a recipe is (usually I get leftovers if it is not so great).

Sweet potato, corn and bean stew

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 medium zucchini, cubed
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 green capsicum, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2x 400g cans diced tomatoes, drained (reserve the liquid in case it needs moistening)
• 1 can of kidney beans, drained (or equivalent soaked and cooked)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, to taste
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels

1. Saute onion, garlic, pepper and celery in oil or water, stirring, until onion begins to brown, about 7 minutes.
2. Add the kidney beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, bay leaf, paprika, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 6 minutes.
4. Add the zucchini and cook covered about 20mins.
5. Remove the bay leaf.
6. Add the oregano, thyme and hot sauce to taste.
7. Add the corn.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. Simmer uncovered for 10-15 mins until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick.
10. Serve over rice.

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).

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.