Spring rolls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.