the political kitchen

Vegan Apple & Blackberry Pie

2008-02-08T09:48:00.000+11:00

A couple of lovely new friends invited us over to brunch the other weekend and so we decided to make a fruit pie to take along with us.

That morning at the Farmers Markets we picked up a punnet of lovely fresh blackberries and so we thought that it would be fun to bake a blackberry pie. We also had a few apples in the fridge and so we threw them in (along with a pear that we thought would add a nice sweetness to the mix).

The result was delicious. The apricot pie might still be my favourite, but really I'd put them neck and neck. The apples and pear were all warm and cinnamon-y, while the blackberries just exploded in your mouth with their tart sweetness. mmmm

Ingredients:
One punnet of blackberries
3 small apples (peeled, cored and chopped)
1 pear (cored and chopped)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 cup of almond meal (or LSA)

Pastry:
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup cold water

Essentially just make the pastry and roll it flat. Then line a pie dish and dry bake it for about 10 minutes on 200-220 C.

Then mix the apple and pear with the dry ingredients and place them in the baked pastry. Cover with blackberries and then make a lid with the remaining pastry - or chop it up into strips in order to make a thatched lid.

Bake for another 35-40 minutes on 200-220C (or until golden brown on top).

Here's a picture of the inside before we baked it:

Animal Biscuits (cookies)

2008-02-07T10:39:00.000+11:00

It was our nephew's second birthday the other weekend and so I decided to try out my animal cookie cutters and my new icing piper.

The result was fun and yummy, but next time I think that I will use a few more colours - maybe some yellows or greens would have brightened up the over-all effect a little...

The biscuits (or cookies if you live in North America) are just a simple sugar biscuit recipe - with flour, canola oil, sugar, vanilla, baking powder and water. I liked the flavour of them though - not to sweet, but still quite more-ish.

Friday night pizza

2008-02-06T09:53:00.000+11:00

Over the last few weeks P and I have decided that Friday night will be pizza night. This started on the same day that we realised how easy it was to make our own pizza dough.

Since then we have been experimenting with toppings and I thought that I would share a few of them with you.

Tomato paste, fresh basil, rosemary roast pumpkin, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes.

Tomato paste, fresh basil and baby spinach, green olive tapenade, marinated artichoke hearts, mushrooms, kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes.

Tomato paste, fresh basil, mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and fresh tomatoes.

Yes, yes, I know that I ought to be more inventive, but when you like something...

Last weekend we did one with grilled eggplant, roast pumpkin, sweet potato & pumpkin, and most of the usual suspects, but I didn't get around to taking a picture.

Maybe this week I will be a little more radical.

Food photos - recipes to follow

2008-01-08T15:34:00.000+11:00

I've been terribly slack on the food blogging front (well on the blogging front in general) and so I thought that I would share a few photos of what we have been cooking (and eating) and that this might prompt me to get some recipes up to go with the images.

Beans on toast (with parsley, tomatoes and spices)

Lentil and rocket salad (with a tahini and lemon juice dressing)

Grilled veggies (mushrooms, zucchini and eggplant)

Rosemary roast veggies (pumpkin and sweet potato)

Polenta encrusted tofu (with mushrooms, asparagus and fried polenta)

Choc-chip cookies

Coconut sticky rice

Vegan Apricot Pie

2007-12-04T11:13:00.001+11:00

Now that Summer is upon us, I am trying to focus even more on eating seasonally. And so, starting with the A's, we took advantage of the gorgeous apricots that are now well and truly in season (P picked up a 1kg bag of them for $3 at the farmers markets) and made a scrumptious apricot pie for desert last night.

INGREDIENTS

Pastry
1 & 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine (or non-GM canola oil)
1/2 cup cold water

Filling
500g fresh apricot halves
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 210C.

Start with the pastry. Sift the flour, almond meal, brown sugar and salt together. Knead the margarine into the dry ingredients until it is like bread crumbs. Add the cold water slowly and mix together. Hold back on some of the cold water to ensure that the mixture doesn't get too damp. Roll into two balls of equal size. Then flatten them and roll them into flat circles.

Place one pastry circle into a pie pan or an round oven-proof dish. Press in the corners and the edges so that it is evenly distributed across the base and the sides of the dish. Poke a few holes in the base of the pastry with a fork and place in the pre-heated oven for around 10 minutes or until slightly browned.

Now mix together the sugar, flour, almond meal, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl.

Place apricots in a separate large bowl and stir in the lemon juice. Add the dry mixture to the apricots and stir thoroughly so that the apricots are all coated.

Pour the apricot mixture into the partially-baked pastry. Place the unbaked pastry circle on top to form a lid, carefully squeezing down the edges to create a seal. Cut some vents into the top in order to let out the heat during baking.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Leave to cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting or it will collapse on itself and be too hot to eat!

Turkish dinner

2007-11-28T13:55:00.000+11:00

This post is dedicated to Isil who finally gave me the confidence to make İmam Bayildi - one of my favourite dishes in the world.

Since my Mum was in town, I also made Fasulye, a cannelini bean salad and couscous.

Cannelini beans may seem a bit odd, but it was supposed to be a chickpea salad until I realised that I had completely run out of chickpeas...

I make Fasulye a little differently from the recipes that I have seen online, so here is my recipe if you want to try it.

Ingredients
500g green beans (with ends cut off)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
4 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup water

Heat the olive oil over a low/medium heat, add the garlic and stir for about a minute. Add the spices and stir again for 30 seconds. Add the beans and stir so that they get covered in the spice/garlic mix. Add the tomatoes and raise the heat to medium/high. Stir in the water and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

Turn down the heat to medium/low and cover. Leave it to simmer for about 45 minutes, checking periodically to stir and add water if it gets a little dry.

It should be really soft and melt-in-your-mouth-y when it is ready.

See Veggie Way for the Imam Bayildi recipe.

Ginger soy 'fish'

2007-11-23T09:32:00.000+11:00

We had some of the soy 'fish' left over and so I decided to do a variation on the theme that P had done so successfully the other day. This time I did a ginger sauce, steamed some asparagus and puk choy, and made brown rice.

Ingredients

Ginger sauce
1/2 tblp canola oil (or any light vegetable oil)
2 tblp fresh grated ginger
1 tblp chilli sauce
1 tblp lemon juice
1 tblp soy sauce

soy 'fish' (2 or 3 per person)
asparagus
puk choy
brown rice

Cook the brown rice. (We use a rice cooker).

Heat the oil over a medium heat and add the ginger. Stir for about a minute and add the chilli, lemon juice and soy sauce. Stir for a couple of minutes and then lower the heat and let it simmer for a little. Add some hot water if it starts getting too thick.

Brush a fry pan with a small amount of oil and lightly fry the soy 'fish' on both sides.

Steam the asparagus and puk choy for about a minute (or until slightly wilted).

Serve all ingredients on to a plate and drizzle the ginger sauce to taste.

White bean & mint dip

2007-11-18T09:54:00.000+11:00

The other day I decided to give Lily some cannellini beans for lunch and so I had to figure out what to do with the rest of the can (I know, I should use the dried beans, but I am simply not that organised at the moment). So, I grabbed a bunch of mint from the garden, added the juice of half a fresh lemon, a little salt and some olive oil and blended them all together to make a white bean & mint dip. And, it was really yummy.

It tasted really fresh and minty and just perfect for a sandwich of tempeh, tomatoes and lettuce (from the garden). It also made a good dipping sauce the next day when I was feeling snacky.

Rosemary roast pumpkin salad

2007-11-17T17:05:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was hot hot hot and so we decided to have salad for dinner.
I roasted up some left over pumpkin with some rosemary from the garden. Added some mixed beans, a bunch of parsley (also from the garden), some tomatoes, snowpeas, asparagus and avocado and topped it with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and some Iku salad dressing. Yum.

Lily was quite taken with it, but had to settle for her own meal of avocado, butter beans and pumpkin.

Fresh tomato & basil soup

2007-11-15T12:53:00.000+11:00

We bought a big bag of fresh tomatoes and a bunch of basil at the Farmers Market last weekend because I was going to make Bruschetta for the party. I ran out of time, however, and so I was left with having to think of something else to do with the food. And so we ended up with fresh tomato and basil soup.

I had forgotten just how delicious fresh tomato soup could be and so I thought that I would share the recipe with you. It is extremely simple.

Ingredients
1 kg fresh tomato, peeled and roughly chopped
a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 tblsp olive oil
3 cups of boiling water
salt & pepper to taste
(a couple of cloves of garlic would be yummy too, if you can eat it).

Slice a cross in the base of the tomatoes and blanch them in boiling water to make it easier to peel them.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based stock pot over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes (or the diced garlic first if you are using it) and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the salt (I used about 1/2 teaspoon) and the basil and stir for a minute. Add the boiling water, stir and cover. Leave to simmer over a low heat for around 10-15 minutes.

Serve with crusty toast covered in pesto. (A dollop of pesto in the soup would also be tasty).

Eat outside, if possible.

Spring rolls

2007-11-12T09:59:00.000+11:00

One of the foods that we served at the party on Saturday was a recent addition to our cooking repertoire, but it is fast becoming a party favourite. So, I thought that I would share the recipe with you.

Spring Rolls

Ingredients
One wombok (Chinese cabbage), shredded
4 medium carrots, chopped into matchstick size pieces
200g firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 cup of dried Shitake mushrooms, rehydrated & chopped
2 cups mung bean shoots
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 packet of spring roll wrappers

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Heat the canola oil in a wok (or fry pan) over a medium heat. Add the ginger and tofu and stir for a minute or two. Add the mushrooms and carrots, bring up the heat a little and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except the sesame oil or wrappers!) and stir for a few more minutes (partially covered).

Take off the heat and stir through the sesame oil.

Once the mixture has cooled place it in the spring roll wrappers. Basically place a line of mixture along one edge (leaving some space above and below). Fold the wrapper down at the top and bottom and then roll.

Place the spring rolls on a oven tray (or two). Brush lightly with canola oil and place in the preheated oven for 15-25 minutes (or until lightly brown and crispy). [They will probably take at least 20 minutes, but do check them at 15 just in case... it is not like they need to rise or anything]

Serve to admiring guests with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, lemon juice, sesame oil, fresh coriander and diced fresh chillies. [Save a few for yourself or you may miss out]

Pesto pasta

2007-11-11T19:09:00.000+11:00

Ingredients:

Pesto
1/2 cup basil leaves (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of rocket (tightly packed)
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp salt

The rest
Penne pasta
1/2 cup marinated artichokes (roughly chopped)
1/3 cup Kalamata olives (pitted & halved)
1 cup button mushrooms (cubed)
1 tbp olive oil
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped) [optional if your little one doesn't like garlicky milk - like Lily)

Boil water and cook the pasta.

To make the pesto place all the ingredients in the blender and blend together until smooth. If it is too dry then add a little more lemon juice or olive oil.

Heat the olive oil over a medium/low heat. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir for 4 minutes. Throw in the artichokes and olives and mix together. Add the pasta and stir through several large tablespoons of the pesto.

Serve with a dollop of pesto on top.

Eat.

Choc-Orange Cupcakes

2007-10-28T18:46:00.000+11:00

This weekend we had two parties to attend - one for each afternoon - and so I baked up a big batch of these yummy choc-orange cupcakes.

I just used the recipe for vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and topped them with icing made with organic fair trade cocoa and orange zest. They were a hit at both parties. Several people commented on how yummy they were and were surprised to be informed that they were vegan.

Vegan Chili - my new favourite dinner

2007-10-09T19:42:00.000+10:00

Lately P and I have decided that vegan chili served on fried polenta is our new favourite dinner food.

This version has kidney beans, borlotti beans, green lentils, tvp, herbs, spices and tomatoes - and it is yummy!

To cook fried polenta you need to make sure that you cook it in the right amount of water:

Pour 2 cups of polenta into a medium saucepan
Add 2.5 cups of cold water and place on the stove over a medium heat
Add a little salt
Add 2 cups of boiling water
Stir continuously until it starts to boil
Turn down the heat to low
Keep stirring continuously until it is thick and almost (but not quite) sticking to the pan
Turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan
After about 5 minutes, pour the polenta into a baking tray and spread it so that it is about 2 cms thick
Leave to cool
Chop into pieces and fry over medium heat (with some olive oil).

That looks like lots of steps, doesn't it? It shouldn't though - it really is very easy.

Mezze Lunch Box

2007-09-02T08:54:00.000+10:00

It was my brother's 30th birthday this week and since he was in town we were able to have him around to have a celebratory dinner. This lunch box is the 'morning after' result:

It contains a grilled mushroom, some baba ganoush, some stuffed green olives, some kalamata olives, some tabouli, some Moroccan chickpeas on couscous, some pitta bread and a slice of orange & almond cake covered in chocolate ganache.

Some recipes to follow.

Have a lovely day!

Lentil barley soup

2007-06-01T15:29:00.000+10:00

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of olive oil
*1 small onion (finely diced)
*2 cloves of garlic (finely diced)
a handful of button mushrooms (quartered)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
3 carrots (diced)
1/2 celery (diced)
3 zucchinis (diced)
2/3 cup of red lentils
1/2 cup pearled barley
the juice of two fresh lemons
water (or *vegetable stock if you can eat it)
salt & pepper to taste

[*Obviously I didn't add these, but I think that it would have been even yummier if I had.]

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pot over a medium heat for a few minutes. Add the onion (if you are lucky enough to be able to eat it) and fry for about 5 minutes (until it becomes translucent). Add the garlic and spices and stir thoroughly. Add the mushroom and stir so that it becomes coated in the spices (if you cannot eat onion - like me - then cook the mushroom first and then add the spices to it).

Once the mushroom has browned slightly, add the other vegetables and stir together. Leave the vegetables to sweat over the heat for about five minutes.

Add the lentils and barley and stir through. Then add about a cup of water (or vegetable stock) and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon juice and more water (the amount can vary depending on how liquidy you would like your soup to be). Raise the heat in order to bring to a boil, and then cover and let it simmer over a medium-low heat for about 20 minutes.

It is ready when the lentils are mushy and the barley is soft to chew. Add salt & pepper to taste and serve with some yummy crusty bread.

Spinach and tofu pie

2007-06-01T14:26:00.000+10:00

I made this yummy tofu and spinach pie with lots of nutritional yeast, lemon juice and herbs. It makes a great dinner (with a side salad if you have the energy) and also saves well for a yummy lunch the next day.

Vegan Brownie Cupcakes

2007-06-01T13:05:00.000+10:00

It was my friend Elissa's 30th birthday last week, and so I decided to bake her cupcakes. I poured over my new book for days beforehand and felt so confused about which recipe to try out first, but in the end I decided to go for "Vegan Brownie Cupcakes" - which I made with organic fair trade chocolate, cocoa and sugar and organic flour.

I must say: they were a success - dense, chocolatey and rich, mmm...

Apple-raspberry tart lunch box

2007-02-23T09:41:00.000+11:00

Today's lunch box contains two soy sausage, tahini, pesto, tomato, carrot, shallot & spinach sandwiches, a container of 'cheezy chickpeas', a container of red grapes, raisins & dried apricots and a slice of apple-raspberry & coconut tart (recipe below).

The tart was an idea that came to me early yesterday morning as I lay there wondering whether to get up at 5am or hope for a little more sleep. I remembered that we had some apples that needed using and thought that they would be yummy with a bit of cinnamon, coconut, almond meal & raspberries. Turns out that I was right. P. and I gobbled up a quarter of it last night and only stopped in order to avoid making ourselves sick.

Apple-raspberry and coconut tart

Ingredients

Pastry
2/3 cup plain flour
2/3 cup almond meal
1.5 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of sugar (optional)
water

Filling
3 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
2/3 cup raspberries
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon of allspice
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Egg replacer equivalent of 3 eggs

Instructions

Pastry
Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Combine the ingredients together and knead into a ball. Roll flat with a rolling pin (sprinkle some extra flour on top if it feels too sticky) and then press evenly into a greased shallow pie dish (or a pyrex one - they don't stick, which is nice).

Bake for around 8 minutes or until slightly brown (start preparing the filling while the pastry is baking).

Remove from the oven, but leave the oven on.

Filling
Sprinkle one of the teaspoons of cinnamon over the slices of apple and stir through. Place half of the apple slices on the base of the tart in a spiral pattern.

Combine the remaining dry ingredients together in a bowl and stir thoroughly. Add the vegetable oil, egg replacer and stir together. Add water if the mixture is too dry. When well combined, add the raspberries and stir through gently.

Pour the mixture over the apple and spread it out so that it covers the tart evenly.

Place the remaining half of the apple slices on top of the mixture in a spiral pattern, pushing gently so that they sit into the filling. Sprinkle with a small amount of sugar if desired.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the apples are browning and the filling is starting to become crumbly (it will be more sticky than a cake though and so your knife will not come out clean if you stick it in the centre of the tart).

Beans, rice & Muhamarra dip lunch box

2007-02-22T08:40:00.000+11:00

Today's lunchbox contains a spicy bean and vegetable soup over brown rice, a container of Muhamarra dip (recipe below), some celery & carrot sticks, some corn crackers and an apple crumb-cake muffin.

The Muhamarra dip is something that we always used to eat at Cafe Mint and it was a real favourite of mine. I have been wanting to make it myself for quite some time and was really happy with the results. It takes just the way I wanted it to. The apple crumb-cake muffin is from Vegan with a Vengeance. It is yummy, but, again, I think that the recipe is too sweet (especially the topping) and you could halve the sugar and receive better results.

Muhamarra
(Roasted Red Capsicum and Walnut Dip)

3 roasted red capsicums, rinsed and partly drained, coarsely chopped
1 & 1/2 cups broken walnuts
1 slice of crusty bread (crumbed)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 small red chili (diced)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat your oven to 180 C and then place three whole red capsicums inside, in an oven proof dish. Bake for around 40 minutes or until sunken and soft, turning regularly (say every 15 minutes). Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Peel the skin off the capsicums (if they are properly cooked, this should be very easy), remove the core and the seeds and chop into one inch slices. Allow it to drain, but keep some of the liquid for the dip.

Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. (You may wish to add the walnuts and olive oil slowly as the mixture reduces in size). Add extra olive oil if it looks too dry.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Yummy as a dip with pita bread, crackers or veggies, or as a spread for sandwiches etc.

Penne, pumpkin muffin & chickpea lunch box

2007-02-19T16:22:00.000+11:00

Today's lunch box contains penne with a tomato, garlic, basil & olive sauce, a pumpkin muffin, and some 'cheezy chickpeas'.

The pumpkin muffin recipe came from Vegan with a Vengeance and they are delicious. I would recommend using far less sugar than suggested in the recipe though. I cut it down a little and they were still sweeter than they needed to me.

The 'cheezy chickpeas' recipe came from Vegan Lunch Box. They are basically just chickpeas, nutritional yeast, sea salt & canola oil baked in the oven for 30 minutes, but they really are very yummy.

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T14:07:00.000+11:00

I hope that you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day.

In a moment of intense 'cheesiness' I decided to bake (coconut) cupcakes for P. and take them to him at work. (He works only one block from our apartment).

The recipe is in Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World.

Orange & almond cake with chocolate ganache

2007-02-11T13:37:00.000+11:00

When we got married, Paul and I wanted to make sure that everyone who attended our wedding was well catered for at the reception. The food itself was vegan yum cha (at Bodhi in the Park) and we spent some time chatting with the events coordinator to make sure that many of the dishes were gluten-free (including the dipping sauces etc) because several of our guests suffered from coeliac disease. However, Bodhi didn't do cakes, so we had to organise this separately and were delighted to find the perfect solution at O Organics just down the road from our place (at the time) in Surry Hills - an organic, vegan, gluten-free Orange & Almond Cake covered in dark chocolate. The bonus was that it was absolutely delicious - the yummiest cake that I have ever tasted.

Anyway, ever since then (two years ago tomorrow as a matter of fact) I have contemplated purchasing another cake from them, but have always held back feeling that I really ought just make one myself. The problem has always been that I didn't have a recipe and couldn't find one anywhere on the internet or in my recipe books. However, after finding a recipe for a vegan orange cake recently (that didn't work out particularly well), I started thinking that I could probably experiment and make one up that would do just fine. So, when my brother was in town for his 30th birthday last week I decided that I would take the plunge.

I am very happy to report that it was a total and complete success. I was very lucky - the cake turned out to be absolutely perfect (well, perfect for my taste at least).

So, now that I have got it just right, I thought that I would share it with you.

Orange & Almond Cake

1 1/4 cups plain flour (sifted)*
1 1/4 cups almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder**
3/4 cup light soft brown sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Juice of 1 orange
Zest of 1 orange

Preheat the oven to 180C
Combine the flour and almond meal in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, soy milk, oil, orange juice and zest.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a cake tin (I use the flexi ones because nothing ever sticks to them, but you can just use a normal tin and grease it well).
Bake for about 25-30 minutes (in a new fan-forced oven - longer if not), or until the cake browns very slightly on top and a knife comes out clean with poked into the middle of it.
Leave the cake in the the tin for around 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for an hour or so.

*If you would prefer to make this recipe gluten-free then slmply replace the flour with almond meal or a gluten-free flour (like rice flour).
**This is quite a dense low-rise cake. If you want it to be a little fluffy then you could add another teaspoon of baking powder.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 1/2 tablespoons soy milk
100grams dark chocolate (preferably fair trade & organic), chopped up into small pieces

Heat the oil and soy milk in a double burner (or just a metal bowl placed over a pot of slightly boiling water on the stove).
Once they are warm (but not too hot, you don't want the soy milk to boil), add the chocolate and stir until melted.
Remove from heat and let it cool (stirring the mixture every now and then).

Once the ganache is mostly cool, then you can pour it over the cake and smooth it around so that it covers it all over.

Leave the cake for a little while to set and then eat it (or serve it to others if you are feeling generous).

Tofu burger lunch box

2007-02-07T12:37:00.000+11:00

Sorry about the presentation, I wrapped the tofu burger up in a paper bag before remembering to take a photo. Anyway, I can tell you what was in it - a sourdough roll with tahini, strips of tofu dry fried with garlic, ginger and Braggs, tomato, baby spinach, shredded carrot, shallots, fresh chilli, and grilled mushroom.

The rest of the lunch is a baby version of the tofu burger on sour dough olive bread (for that hungry time around 11am), some corn crackers, baby tomatoes, almonds, dried apricots and a lemon poppy seed muffin.

Salad & baba ghanoush lunchbox

2007-02-06T08:46:00.000+11:00

I started maternity leave yesterday and suddenly everything seems easier again despite my enormous belly. So, to get back on track again, here is another lunch box for you (because I know that you were all having withdrawal symptoms):

The salads are wholemeal penne, a mixed bean salad (with red kidney beans, cannellini beans, chickpeas, butter beans, baby spinach, baby tomatoes, carrot, celery and shallots topped with olive oil & balsalmic vinegar) and a potato salad with tahini dressing (chat potatoes, celery, green beans and shallots with a delicious tahini dressing from Vegan with a Vengeance).

In the other container there is a little tub of baba ganoush, some corn crackers and a lemon-poppyseed muffin (also from Vegan with a Vengeance).

I hope that you all have a lovely day.

Apple-cinnamon muffins

2007-01-10T10:00:00.000+11:00

Ingredients
3 granny smith apples, peeled & cored
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup vegan margarine (preferably non-hydrogenated)
1 cup plain organic flour
1/2 teaspoon baking power
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond meal
egg replacer equivalent of 4 eggs
1/4 cup of water or soy milk

Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.

Sift the flour, almond meal, baking powder and egg replacer into a bowl.

Cream the margarine with the sugar and add to the dry mixture. Add the soy milk (or water).

Chop up two of the apples into cubes of around 2cms square. Grate the other one. Place in a large bowl and add the spices. Stir the apple pieces so that they are completely coated in the spices for a little. Add to the rest of the ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into a muffin tray and place in oven for around 10-15 minutes, or until cooked (i.e. slightly brown on top and springs back when you touch it).

Makes around 12 muffins.

Lentil-rice balls lunch box

2007-01-10T09:37:00.000+11:00

Lentil-rice balls, tomato sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onion, chilli & parsley), potato scone, apple-cinnamon muffin, and strawberries.

Pesto pasta lunch box

2007-01-09T14:36:00.000+11:00

OK, so the pesto pasta is not the most photogenic thing that I have ever seen, but it was yummy. P made it with basil, tomatoes and chilli from our balcony, plus some store-bought rocket, garlic, walnuts and olive oil.

The rest of the lunch box consists of corn crackers, baba ghanoush, green grapes and an orange cupcake.

The orange cake was fairly yummy, but tasted slightly baking soda-y so I will have to play with the recipe. Once I have, I will post it here. Next time I am contemplating coating it in chocolate and making it into a birthday cake...

Weekend cooking fest and baba ghanoush

2007-01-09T09:15:00.000+11:00

In keeping with our new mission to get organised about food, P. and I had our first cook up this weekend in order to prepare for the week.

It took a few hours, but by the end we had made orange cupcakes, potato scones, baba ghanoush, spinach and chickpea curry, and lentil-rice balls with pasta & tomato sauce (the last of which we also decided to have for dinner). They all worked out pretty well, but I was particularly happy with the baba ghanoush (recipe below) and the lentil-rice balls (from Vegan Lunch Box).

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients
One large eggplant (washed)
3 tablespoons of tahini
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 180c.
Poke a few holes in the eggplant with a fork and place in preheated oven for about 45 minutes (or until it sort of collapses).
Remove eggplant from oven and let it cool.
Cut the eggplant in half, remove the seeds and discard them. With a spoon, remove the remaining flesh from inside the skin (it should be soft and gooey) and place in a blender or food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

This was our dinner after the cook up - lentil-rice balls with wholemeal pasta and tomato sauce (tomatoes, onions and garlic). It was delicious!

These are the orange cupcakes and potato scones (which are just mashed potato, flour and a bit of salt kneaded together and baked at 240c for 10 minutes). We haven't actually tried either of these yet - I put them straight in the freezer once they were cool - but the orange cake looked (and smelt) particularly yummy.

Finally, here is the curry - which is supposed to last us for three meals (one lunch, one dinner and one for the freezer for later). The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance, but it was a pretty standard curry recipe really.

Sushi lunch box

2007-01-04T16:47:00.000+11:00

P and I have our first 'parenting' class this evening. We were supposed to start last year, but had to postpone the classes because neither of us were in Canberra. Today's class is about 'normal' labour (we get to hear about complications next week - yay!).

Since I am incapable of going for more than a few hours without food, I thought that I would pack a snack. I also thought that I would go overboard simply to keep having fun with making creative 'lunch boxes'.

And so I present you with brown rice sushi, baby tomatoes, mango and a gingerbread person.

I hope that you all have a lovely evening.

Pasta salad w/ cannellini beans

2007-01-04T09:55:00.000+11:00

Last night I made one of my favourite summer meals - pasta salad - and it was made all the more exciting because we were able to use our own freshly ripened tomatoes, basil and chilli from our little balcony on the garden.

Ingredients
250g wholemeal penne
1 tin of organic cannellini beans (well washed)
3 fresh tomatoes (finely diced)
large handful of baby spinach (torn into small pieces)
large handful of rocket (torn into small pieces)
large handful of fresh basil (torn into small pieces)
juice of one large lemon
2 cloves garlic (finely diced)
1 fresh chilli (finely diced)
extra virgin olive oil

Cook the penne in boiling water until it is al dente. Drain and set aside to cool.

Heat a pan over medium heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and one of the cloves of garlic. Stir for about a minute and add the cannellini beans. Heat over medium/high for about 5 minutes. Take out of the pan and set aside to cool.

Combine 2/3 tablespoon of olive oil with the lemon juice, garlic and chilli in a small jar and shake to combine.

Combine all the ingredients in a large salad bowl.

Serve and eat.

p.s. I hope you like this little corner of our balcony. We are pretty happy with how our plants are coming along - particularly since we face West.

Rice paper lunch box

2007-01-03T11:06:00.000+11:00

Ingredients:
Rice paper (from an Asian grocer, or the supermarket)
1/4 pack of Vermincilli rice noodles
150g Firm tofu (sliced into narrow strips)
1 cup small button mushrooms (quartered)
1/2 bunch of shallots (chopped finely)
1 carrot (cut into thin julienne strips)
1/2 bunch baby buk choy (chopped finely)
1 cup mung bean sprouts (washed well)
1 clove garlic (diced finely)
small square of fresh ginger (diced finely)
1 fresh chilli (diced finely)
vegetable oil
sesame seeds

Sauces:
sesame oil
lemon juice
fresh chilli - diced finely
Braggs (or soy sauce)

Brush a wok or pan with a small amount of vegetable oil and heat over medium. Add half of the garlic, ginger & chilli. Stir for a couple of minutes and add the mushrooms. Raise heat and fry for up to five minutes adding some Braggs or soy sauce towards the end.

Repeat this process with the tofu.

Cover the carrots with a small amount of lemon juice and sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Fill a wide bowl or serving dish with about an inch of cold water and slide in one sheet of rice paper. Remove after about 30 seconds, it should still be a little stiff (it will soften afterwards). Lay flat on a clean surface and place a small amount of each of the ingredients in a narrow strip along the centre, leaving space up the top and bottom of the strip.

Dribble a teaspoon of the sauce over the ingredients so that you don't have to dip them later for flavour (this makes them more portable).

Fold the top and bottom over and then pick up one side and bring it over the strip to lay on to the other side, before rolling the remaining package into a roll.

Set aside and repeat the process.

Christmas gingerbread

2006-12-29T08:03:00.000+11:00

Ingredients
4 cups of plain flour
1 & 1/3 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoons of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
½ teaspoon of allspice
½ teaspoon of cloves
1/3 cup of vegan margarine
2/3 cup of brown sugar
2/3 cup of molasses
1/2 cup of water

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves together. In a separate bowl, cream the brown sugar, molasses, and 1/4 cup of water into the margarine.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and add enough of the remaining water so that it all forms a dough that holds together without being sticky. Break the dough in half and roll into two balls. Place each ball inside a plastic bag and put them in the fridge for an hour or so.

Preheat the oven to 180º C. Grease a few baking sheets with margarine and cover with a thin layer of flour.

Cover (part of) your kitchen bench with flour and roll out the dough, one ball at a time, on to the surface. (A rolling pin makes this easier, but you can also just use a glass jar.) The dough should be fairly even and a little under 1-cm thick. (If it crumbles in place, rub a small amount of margarine into the crumbly area to help smooth it together).

Use 'cookie cutters' to cut the dough into your preferred shapes and peal away the excess dough from around the edges. Use a butter knife to help remove the cut dough from the bench to avoid breaking your baby cookies.

Place cut dough on baking sheets (leaving around 3-cms between them so they don't stick together) and put into over for around 6-10 minutes (depending on how hot your oven is - mine only take 6 minutes). Check them regularly because they can burn easily.

Remove the gingerbread from the oven when it is firm to touch and place on a cooling rack to cool down.

Once cool, decorate your gingerbread with icing, sultanas, lollies, or leave them plain because they are yummy just as they are.
I hope that everyone had a lovely day on the 25th!

Vegan Chocolate Pie

2006-11-21T21:21:00.000+11:00

This was such a simple recipe that I didn't really have very high expectations, but I must say this pie was simply delicious!

Ingredients
1/4 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
water
500g silken tofu
150g dark chocolate (preferably organic and fair trade)

Mix flour, almond meal and oil together and add water until you get the right consistency - it should stick together without being sticky. Press the pastry evenly into a pie dish or a shallow cake tin with the pastry and bake in oven for around 8 minutes on 180 celcius. (I placed some chickpeas on the base for the last few minutes to stop it from rising up too much)

Melt the chocolate and then combine with tofu in a blender. Blend the mixture together and pour onto baked pie crust. Place in fridge for at least two hours while it hardens.

Serve with strawberries or other yummy fruit.

Chinese eggplant and greens

2006-11-17T09:11:00.000+11:00

Chinese Eggplant

Ingredients
1 whole eggplant chopped into cubes of about 5 cm2*
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil (or veg oil)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or Bragg's)
Water
Sprinkle of sesame oil to taste
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
*[Several chinese eggplants would also work here if available]

Heat a heavy-based pan over medium high. Add oil, chilli and garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the eggplant and stir so that the ingredients mix together well.

Allow the eggplant to start to brown, add soy sauce and stir. Add sesame seeds and stir through. Turn up the heat to high and add a small amount of water, and stir as the water steams off and then add some more. Repeat several times allowing the bitter juices to evaporate.

Add a small amount of water, turn down heat to medium and cover with lid. Remove lid every now and then to stir and make sure that it is not sticking. Remove from heat when mixture is goey (but still has some shape).

Sprinkle small amount of sesame oil to taste.

Greens

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
Small bunch of shallots, diced (remove ends)
1 small red chilli, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
Ginger, finely sliced
Button mushrooms, chopped in half or quarters
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or Bragg's)
Asparagus, chopped in thirds (remove botton end)
Snowpeas, chopped in half (remove ends)
Baby buk choy, chopped coarsely (remove base)

Heat wok over a medium heat. Add oil, shallots, chilli, garlic and ginger and stir together for about 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and stir until lightly brown.

Add soy sauce, asparagus and snowpeas and stir for a few minutes. Add buk choy and turn off the heat.

Mix the ingredients together and serve.

Serve over brown rice.

Lunchtime Pitta Pizza

2006-11-15T14:07:00.000+11:00

Not sure of what to have for lunch today, I decided to make a quick pizza on pitta bread. Since it turned out to be quite yummy, I thought that I would share it with you.

Ingredients:
2 x pitta bread
2 large tablespoons of tomato paste
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
2 small red chillies, diced
5 sprigs of spring onions, diced
150 grams of firm tofu, crumbled
teaspoon of Bragg's
teaspoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 tomato, sliced
A few slices of red capsicum
4 button mushrooms, sliced thinly
6 kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Preheat oven to about 180 degrees Celsius.

Fry half of the garlic, chili and spring onions in olive oil for about a minutes over medium heat before adding crumbled tofu. Let it brown and add Bragg's and nutritional yeast (optional, it would be yummy, but I had run out and didn't use it). Set aside.

Spread tomato paste evenly over the two pitta bread pieces. Top with remaining garlic, chili and spring onions - spread them around. Cover based with baby spinach, top with mushrooms, olives, tomato, and capsicum (I only used this on P's - I am not a capsicum fan). Sprinkle tofu mix on top and put into the oven for around 8 minutes.

Slice into quarters and serve.

Can I just add that the little one in my tummy appears to like the pizza very much. S/he is kicking up a storm right now...

Vegetarian Dumplings

2006-09-10T18:24:00.000+10:00

I mentioned recently that I have been craving dumplings lately and had come to the realisation that I was going to have to make them myself if I was to be able to satisfy my craving. So, last night we did just that and I thought that I would share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:
250gms firm tofu
a dash of vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped or minced
a dash of soy sauce (or Braggs)
2 teaspoons of finely minced or grated fresh ginger [or less if you are not a big ginger fan - it does give the dumplings quite a bite!]
1 small red chilli finely chopped
one small bunch of spring onions finely chopped
small bunch of fresh coriander finely chopped (we didn't have this and it didn't matter too much, but it is yummy)
1/2 cup carrot (grated or cut in short, thin julienne strips)
half a bunch of baby buk choy finely chopped (including lots of the stalk)
one stick of celery finely chopped
small bunch of enoki mushrooms (or button if you prefer) finely chopped
a decent dash of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce (or Braggs)
40-60 small dumpling (wonton) wrappers [available at most asian grocers for around $2)
a bowl of cold water

Tools:
a wok (or fry pan)
a pastry brush
a teaspoon
a large mixing bowl
a small bowl
a bamboo steamer (or metal if that is all you have) and fitted saucepan

Wash the tofu and then chop into very small squares (about 1/2 centimeter sqaured) or just crumble it. [We chopped it and would crumble it next time - it is easier to use.]

Heat the wok over a low/medium heat and then add the oil and the garlic and stir. After a minute or so, add the tofu and turn up the heat to medium high. Keep stirring and add the soy sauce as the tofu starts to brown slightly. Stir in for a couple of minutes and remove from heat and allow it to cool for a little while.

Combine the ginger, chilli, spring onions, coriander, carrot, buk choy, celery, enoki mushrooms, sesame oil, and soy sauce in a bowl.

Add the tofu once it has cooled a little and stir it all together.

Place one wonton wrapper on a plastic chopping board and cover the rest with a damp cloth. (This is faster if you have a few people doing the wrapping.) Use the pastry brush to dampen the edges of the wrapper with water. Place a small amount of the mixture into the middle of the wrapper (about one level teaspoon, any more and it will be difficult to get the edges to stick together). Fold the wrapper in half and use your fingers to press the edges together. (You can try trickier shapes too, but I would start with this one.)

Place the dumplings into the bamboo steamer, making sure that they do not touch each other. You may only be able to steam 10-12 at a time unless you have several steamers. Brunch the steamer(s) with a little oil to prevent the dumplings from sticking.

Place the steamer over a pot of boiling water and leave to steam (covered) for around 15 minutes. (We tried steaming them over the wok, but the steam wasn't concentrated enough and we had to transfer them to a fitted saucepan.)

Serve the dumplings in mini courses or keep them warm in the oven while you wait for them all to finish. A mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, lemon juice and minced chilli makes a nice dipping sauce.

ENJOY! They are yummy

Moroccan chickpeas

2006-07-28T18:08:00.000+10:00

This is one of my favourites recipes and, like the minestrone, I learned it from my Mum.

Ingredients:
1 tbl of olive oil
½ an onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 small fresh red chilli, diced
2 teaspoons of harissa spice
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
½ tsp hot chilli
6-8 button mushrooms, diced
1 quarter of a preserved lemon, chopped finely
1 tin of chickpeas (or equivalent of dried beans soaked overnight), rinsed thoroughly in boiling water*
2 medium tomatoes, diced
8 baby tomatoes, quartered
Several handfuls of snowpeas, chopped into thirds
Lemon and/or lime juice to taste
Couscous or basmati rice to serve

*I also take off some of the skins so that they are softer, but this is probably unnecessary.

Heat the olive oil over a medium low heat. Add the onion and stir until translucent (5-10 minutes). Add garlic and chilli to the onion and stir together. Add spices, ensuring that they remain moist.

Add the mushrooms, stirring thoroughly so that the mushrooms get coated in spices and a little oil. Raise the heat slightly and add some of the tomatoes and the preserved lemon to avoid the mixture becoming dry. Stir for around 5 minutes.

Add chickpeas and stir for around 5 minutes. Add the rest of the diced tomatoes and a little water to create a sauce. Finally add the baby tomatoes, snowpeas and lemon/lime juice.

This should be served on couscous, but I am avoiding wheat at the moment so we used basmati rice instead.

Minestrone

2006-07-06T15:42:00.000+10:00

This is one of my favourite recipes - particularly when it gets cold outside.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion
4 large cloves of garlic
3 small red chillies
8-12 button mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
2 zucchinis
1/2 a head of broccoli
4 small/medium carrots
1/2 a bunch of celery
1/2 sweet potato
1 tin of mixed beans (or soaked dried beans)
1 tin of kidney beans (or soaked dried beans)
1 tin of tomatoes (blended)
1 litre of vegetable stock
1 litre of water

*You can also add potato or pasta to this recipe, but it makes it a little heavier.
*A blend of fresh basil and olive oil also makes a really yummy side dish to stir in at the end.

Heat a heavy-based stockpot on low-medium heat. Dice the onion and add to pot with the olive oil. Stir over the heat for 3-5 minutes so that it starts to go translucent. Dice the garlic and chillies and add to the pot and stir. Dice the mushrooms and add to the pot with the chilli powder and stir. Peel, wash and dice the sweet potato and steam separately. Wash and dice the remaining vegetables and add to the pot with a small amount of water. Stir and turn up the heat to medium.

Wash the tinned beans and add to the pot. Blend the tinned tomatoes and add to the pot. Stir together. Add in the steamed sweet potato and stir. Slowly add the vegetable stock and the remaining water. Cover and leave to simmer on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes.

Remove 3 cups of the soup (mostly the solids) and blend. Add the blended vegetables back into the soup and cover. Leave to simmer on low heat until ready to eat.

Scrambled Tofu

2006-05-20T04:14:00.000+10:00

Ingredients:
1/2 tblp olive oil
Firm tofu, crumbled
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tblp Braggs
1 tblp lemon juice
1 tblp nutritional yeast
1/2 bunch of baby buk choy, coarsely chopped

Heat the olive oil over a medium/high heat and add the tofu. Stir for a few minutes, lower the heat to medium and add the garlic. Stir for about a minute and add the Braggs, lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Stir together for a few minutes and add the buk choy. Allow to wilt slightly and remove from heat.

Serve with garlic mushrooms & tomatoes on sough dough toast.