Vegetation

Now, for those of you who have been reading for a while, you know that I am an absolute soup hater. I've tried a billion soups, canned, packet, home made, bought home made style and I've never really liked any of them.

But for some reason, Chris always makes me feel like soup and when I saw this one the other day I just knew I had to try it despite my loathing of soup. Besides, fennel is good for digestion and bad tummies and I love spinach so I at least had to like this, right?

Wrong.


I LOVED it! My photo isn't nearly as pretty as Chris's at Vegalicious but I'll post it up here anyway (the sun needs to stop setting at 4:40 in the afternoon :P)
I used dairy yoghurt for the soy because I had some in the fridge and because I can't have soy and I have run out of cashews until pay day (at $20 a bag, they have to wait for dicount day) but next time I'll make it with a dollop of cashew cream with lemon juice.

With it I made some gluten free biscuits, just subbing some gluten free all purpose flour for the wheat flour and used the recipe from VwaV. Gluten free flour doesn't rise as high or get quite as fluffy as wheat flour, or maybe I did something wrong...they were still delicious though and the kids munched down all the ones I didn't eat so they can't have been too bad :P

Posted by Vegetation at 2:47 PM | 8 Remarkable Remarks Links to this post    

Labels: Gluten Free, Mains, Vegetables, VwaV

In my previous blog post I said I was trying something and luckily it turned out pretty yummy! Even the kids liked it (well one of them did, the other 2 ate the pastry and picked out the middle :P)

Veggie Rolls~adapted from a recipe from Super Food Ideas

1 Red Onion, halved
2 medium Carrots, peeled
2 small Zucchini, trimmed
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Oil of choice
1 Corn Cob, kernals removed
1 cup Sweet Potato (or plain potato would work too, maybe even pumpkin), cooked and mashed
1 1/2 cups Quick Cooking Rolled Oats
1/4 tsp dried Thyme
1/4 tsp dried Majoram
1/2 tsp dried Basil
1/2 tsp dried Oregano
1/2 tsp dried Sage
3 tsp Hot Chilli, Tomato or BBQ Sauce
2 Egg Replacers (I used 2 tsp Orgran Egg Free with 4 Tbsp Water)
3 sheets frozen, ready rolled vegan Puff Pastry, partially thawed
1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Use the grater on your food processor to coarsely grate the onion, carrot and zucchini. Heat oil in a large non stick frying pan and add this mixture plus the corn and the garlic and cook over medium heat, stirring, until softened. About 5 minutes. If there is liquid in the pan strain it off but my mixture was pretty dry.

Put this in a large bowl and add remaining ingredients but only half the egg replacers, stirring until well mixed.

Cut each pastry sheet in half and spoon 1/6 of the mixture onto the long edge of the pastry. Roll to encase it, brush the edge with remaining egg replacer to seal and cut each vegetable log into 3. Place onto oiled baking trays. Brush tops with the leftover egg replacer, making more if you need to and sprinkle the tops with the sesame seeds.

Bake at 220C for 10-20 minutes or until rolls are puffed and golden. Be careful to leave room between them on the trays so the sides can brown up as well otherwise you end up with soggy pastry on the sides!

Enjoy with more sauce and either steamed veggies or a salad.

In other news (I appear to like saying that, I think I say it a lot) I am trying to cut down/out wheat on some advice for my stomach so you might be seeing a few different things around here in the future. I won't be gluten free, but I will be making some gluten free things.

I got enthusiastic at 8pm the other night and made some gluten free vegan brownies from a recipe I found on Recipe Zaar. They were okay, the middle was good, it probably didn't help that I only made half a batch in case I mucked them up so I cooked them in my mini cake tins, meant there were lots of crispy edges. They went soft once you heated them up again though and the kids LOVED them. I dished them up with some of Dreenas Cashew Banana Ice Cream for them. Sorry about the picture, 8:40pm does not make for good food porn :P
Last night I happened to discover a gluten free bakery/cafe/grocery store just in the suburb over from mine. I went for a visit today and the place is wonderful! I only got a couple of things but I plan to head back there for more! Lunch today was a gluten free roll:

I slathered it in peanut butter and strawberry jam and while it was the teeniest bit more heavy than wheat bread you would have never known the difference! In the past the gluten free breads I have tried have always been crumbly, way too dense and awful...but this was REALLY good! I'll definitely be buying more of them in the future.

The rest of my loot? Well, you'll just have to wait for that :P

ETA: Someone remind me NEVER to decide to change my blog template!!! For some reason I got it in my head that I would, but then it wouldn't let me, then I realized I hadn't backed up my template so I couldn't revert it back! I finally managed to get mine back up but I had to wipe all my blog links and stuff and now it won't let me import my blog subcriptions from my google reader, it's trying to tell me I don't have any. I'm going through by hand and adding them one by one but with 75+ subscriptions it's taking some time and I'm cranky and frustrated. So if you notice your blog missing from my links, I promise you, it's coming back! Eventually :P ARRRRRRRGHHHHH!

Posted by Vegetation at 12:34 PM | 16 Remarkable Remarks Links to this post    

Labels: Gluten Free, Mains, Sweet Stuff, Vegan, Vegetables

I'm really tempted to say I haven't blogged for so long because I've been busy, but that's just not true :P I've been lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy. Cooking different dinners for everyone every night gets very tiring and I guess I've also been in a slump, although I'm starting to feel like being in a cooking slump is the norm for me! I have baked, but they've all been family favourites and I've eaten lots of reheated UFO's (unidentified frozen objects) from my freezer and many many nights of things like rice and beans, repeats and dinners of just plain processsed cr%p!

Some of the highlights however were Vegan Dad's Chicken Wings in patty form, the kids just love these:
Sausage Bean Patties which were yummy but not as good as the ones we had last night:
I had an absolute disaster with these:
Purple Kohlrabi. Beautiful to look at, but not recommended to steam then shallow fry. They were so awful I LET us all throw them out!

In between all those I managed to kill my computer and needed to do a reinstall which meant that all my photos got moved over to the portable hard drive and I think this only suceeded in making me even lazier to take and upload photos!

Then I lost my camera cord, but I managed to dig it up today :)

Last night I decided to pull myself together a little and make something I saw blogged about the other day here. I had no old bay seasoning (I've never seen it in Australia) and wouldn't probably eat it because of the cayenne pepper so I googled away and came across this which I followed exactly minus the cayenne pepper. I made the burgers as the recipe states only omitting the cayenne pepper from them and using whole rye flour instead of whole wheat and using fresh cooked mushrooms instead of tinned. They were really yummy! The kids weren't so keen but I'll definitely be having these again:
Tonight I'm whipping up something new that will hopefully be yummy so stay tuned :P

Posted by Vegetation at 3:52 PM | 9 Remarkable Remarks Links to this post    

Labels: Grains, Mains, Patties, Seitan, Sides, Vegan, Vegetarian

I found this recipe in a rice cooker book from the library. As you might remember, I made the Asparagus Risotto from Veganomicon a little while back and deemed risotto not worth all the stirring. Then I found a rice cooker on sale for half price and at a mere $14 I couldn't say no!

First things first. Risotto in the rice cooker is dead easy and means that we'll be having a lot more risottos around here in the future! And it was every bit as creamy as the one I made stirring, stirring, stirring but...well...without the stirring!

The best bit of all is that it was all done in the rice cooker so the rice cooker was the only thing I needed to wash up (yay for one pot wonders!)

I was also really happy to find a Lemon and Dill combination. When I went veg, I had really liked Lemon and Dill on fish (although I wasn't a huge fan of the fish underneath, I loved the lemon and dill). I didn't really know what else I could incorporate my favourite seasonings into and this was perfect. Please excuse the flashy photo. It starts getting dark here about 4:45pm so by dinnertime there's no where to photograph (plus it was getting cold!). I know loads of people say that you shouldn't share food porn if it's got a flash but meh :P
Lemon and Dill Risotto
Serves 4 (but I think more like 4 side dishes)
From Rice Cooker by Brigid Treloar

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, crushed
1 Leek, sliced across to make rings
1 1/2 cups Aborio Rice
1/2 cup Dry White Wine
2-3 cups Vegetable Stock (I used this amount for half though, so have extra handy!)
1/2 tsp Salt Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated (I think this is optional really)
1-2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp finely grated Lemon Zest
2 Tbsp chopped fresh Dill

Set up your rice cooker and hit the "cook" button. Heat the olive oil for 1 minute then add the leeks and garlic and cook stirring until softened. About 3-5 minutes.

Add rice and stir to coat it in the oil. Add the wine, stock, salt and pepper, replace the lid and be sure it is still in cook mode. Cook for 10 minutes, stir, then cook a further 10.

Stir rice again, fold in lemon juice and zest and cheese if using and replace lid. Let stand on the warm function for 10 minutes, then stir through dill (alternatively you can just sprinkle the dill on top but I love dill).

Yesterday, I got my benchtop oven replaced. Same brand as my last post, so fingers crossed this one doesn't explode on me! So far so good.

It has been raining here solidly for the last 2 days and is set to rain for at least another 3. I felt like baking but was torn between making an old favourite and making something new. When I went through the freezer I only had 1/2 a cup of pureed pumpkin, not a whole cup like I thought so that made my decision a lot easier!

6 VwaV Best Ever Pumpkin Muffins. Perfect as always and 6 Raisin Carrot Muffins with sultanas instead of raisins cause I didn't have any. These are awesome. Just sweet enough but not too sweet and low in fat too! (on a paper towel because I forgot to take a photo until there were about 4 left, this is the Carrot Raisin one, given the tick of yumminess by the Unvegettes)

Posted by Vegetation at 10:20 AM | 11 Remarkable Remarks Links to this post    

Labels: Grains, Mains, Sides, Sweet Stuff, VwaV

My oven that won't heat above 200C (providing you turn it on for at least an hour and 15 minutes and don't open the door for anything or it drops immediately to 150C) was driving me crazy! I made some chicken wings from Vegan Dad the other night and ended up with wings that were black on the bottom and raw on the top (which seems to be the case with this oven). So after much ahhhming and ahhhing I bought myself one of these.

Many many thanks to the wonderful Celine who was kind enough to answer the barrage of questions I emailed her with about the pros and cons of a benchtop oven. I have to say, I love it! I can heat it up to 180C in 10 minutes, I can put the time on so I don't burn stuff and best of all I can see stuff being cooked! And the one I got also fits a 30cm pizza (woo hoo!).

Anyway, I had to of course break it in so last night decided on some sweet potato and bean enchiladas which I've blogged about before here. No photo because it was super dark and my flash turned them blindingly white! (Huh, turns out my photo skills were just as bad back then!)

The day after I needed to break it in properly (read I needed to bake junk food). I just didn't know what I wanted to cook. Anyway, I remembered that my Grandma had bought me a little cupcake and cookies cookbook for Christmas that is sadly not vegan, but I decided it was time to crack it open and found these Chocolate Lace Crisp Cookies. The only veganizing they needed was a single egg and being a complete dingbat at veganizing I just subbed with egg replacer. I don't know if that was why but mine spread horrendously so they don't look super pretty (unlike the photo in the book of the petite, perfectly circular cookies) but mmmmm they are good! Crispy on the outside yet chewy in the middle and full of chocolatey goodness.
I will share the recipe, but I want to try and figure out why the spread and how to stop it first. I suspect it was the sugar I used.

Anyway, other than playing with my new toy, I have actually cooked some other food. Mr Unveg bought back a bag of Lamyong Mushroom Chunks for me on his last trip away. Sadly they were defrosted by the time he got here so I had to cook them the next morning. I cooked up the two casseroles here and here that I've blogged before and had one for dinner that night and now have 7 more waiting for me in the freezer. I missed these so much!
I made some Lemony Garlic Pasta which I believe is from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan but I found the recipe blogged here. It sounded delicious and it was super simple and very quick. And it was good. So good in fact that the smallest in the house ate 3, yes, that's 3 big bowls full of it and demanded I keep the leftovers for her (not that there were many by that stage). The eldest liked it too but only ate one bowl and one complained and wouldn't eat it (but there's always one who does :P)
I decided to try again with Terry's Oatmeal Cookies from Veganomicon only this time I timesed (is that a word?) the spices by 1 1/2 and added choc chips to the mix. They were perfect! I think they'd actually be fine without the choc chips like I made before as long as you add more spice to them. These disappeared very quickly.
Last but not least I tried Vegan Dads breakfast sausages. They are yummy but I'm not sure on the maple glaze (personal taste, there was nothing at all wrong with it). I'm not much of a sweet sausage person but I enjoyed them a lot (and I love the sausage without the glaze!) With them I had VwaV baking powder biscuits, steamed carrot, broccoli and couscous (no I couldn't eat it all!).
Last nights dinner was the most exciting of all. I was preheating the grill in the new toaster oven to cook the kids dinner and and a flash of white light burst out of the thing and it made a sharp electrical sound. Then it worked no more :( So back it went today, but they didn't have any more so I am ovenless again until they get more in.

I did cook, though I had to change plans suddenly. I decided on the Tomato and Caper Couscous from Veganomicon which I've had before, but I used my millet couscous (which is really just like fine millet), cooked it a bit longer in the tomato juice and it lent a beautiful creaminess to this dish that I loved. I also threw in some sliced olives because I love those too and decided last time I would. It was perfect!

Posted by Vegetation at 1:48 PM | 15 Remarkable Remarks Links to this post    

Labels: Casseroles/Stews, Grains, Legumes, Mains, Off Topic Stuff, Seitan, Sweet Stuff, The Everyday Vegan, Veganomicon, Vegetarian