Cupcake Kitteh - vegan, gluten free, soy free

Vegan Valentine's Day Chocolates + giveaway!

2012-01-24T12:49:00.001+11:00

Late last year I posted about a new range of vegan chocolate bars available in Australia from Sjaak's Organic Chocolates. Now their Valentine's Day range is here too! The range is vegan, fair trade, organic and gluten free.

Dark Chocolate Heart - filled with chocolates

Nuts and Chews - nine assorted milk chocolates

Birdie Truffle Gift Box - assorted truffles in a tree-free, hand made box

You can purchase these products from:

The Cruelty Free Shop
The Green Edge
Vegan Online
The Vegan Store
Bliss Organic Cafe

GIVEAWAY!

I have one box of the gorgeous Birdie Tuffles Gift Box to giveaway! The giveaway is open to Aussie residents only and all you have to do is leave me a comment below (leave me a contact email if yours doesn't show up on your profile). The winner will be announced Tuesday, February 7, 2012.

Jo's Gluten Free Pantry

2012-01-09T10:02:00.001+11:00

Just before Christmas I was excited to see a sign in a new store nearby, advertising a gluten free shop that would be opening soon called Jo's Gluten Free Pantry.

We dropped by the store on the day it opened to check out the products. They have the well-known gluten free/vegan brands like Orgran, Schar and Eskal plus a few brands I hadn't seen before.

Here's a look at what we got

Ice cream cones, bread rolls, almond milk, frozen butterscotch cookie dough, Bourbon biscuits (not soy free), pancake mix, Soyatoo rice cream, chocolate cake mix, chocolate crackers, sour worms and gummi bears.

The Choc Pockets are a new Orgran product, they're not strongly flavoured and they taste like their crackers with a little bit of added chocolate. The Bourbon biccies were for my Mum because I know she loves them and the cookie dough is in the freezer section, it's from a company called The Bikkie Dough Co (cute name!) and only two of the flavours were vegan so we grabbed one to try but I haven't baked them yet.

I'm really happy to have another store nearby where I can buy gleegan products easily and I hope they do well because even though the number of gluten intolerant and coeliacs are growing, it's still a bit of a niche market.

Jo's Gluten Free Pantry
Shop 8/2 Durham Ave
St Ives NSW 2075

Sjaak's Organic Chocolates

2011-11-24T10:42:00.001+11:00

Good news Aussie vegans! There's a new range of vegan chocolate now available here in Australia from Sjaak's Organic Chocolates.

Eli's Earth Bars - organic, fair trade and gluten free. These bars come in 3 flavours:

Celebrate - chewy coconut caramel, topped with whole almonds and covered in vegan milk chocolate

Dream Big - caramel and peanut butter topped with whole peanuts and covered in vegan milk chocolate

Treasure - crunchy peanut butter topped with caramel and covered in vegan rice milk chocolate

These are now available at The Cruelty Free Shop, The Green Edge, Bliss Organic Cafe, The Vegan Store and Vegan Online.

Christmas Nuts and Chews - nine assorted organic, fair trade, gluten free dark chocolates

Christmas Truffles - assorted organic, fair trade, gluten free truffles in a hand made, tree-free box

Chocolate Covered Hazelnuts - mini tub of organic, fair trade, gluten free chocolate covered hazelnuts

The Christmas boxes and the hazelnuts are available in limited quantities from The Green Edge and Bliss Organic Cafe.

Viva Vegan!: Tortilla Casserole and Gluten Free Crêpes

2011-11-22T12:47:00.000+11:00

Hi all! I've really enjoyed taking a break from blogging now that VeganMoFo is over for 2011. But now I'm back with some more meals from Viva Vegan!

Spicy Tortilla Casserole with Poblanos

I'd been waiting to make this until I could get some poblano chillis to use and recently I ordered some so I could finally make these dish.

This recipe is already gluten free and to make the Pine Nut Crema soy free I used a tin of white beans instead of tofu and it worked out really well.

This was great and the perfect comfort food. If you make it, be sure to serve it with the lime, it just adds a nice zing to the meal.

Mofongo

Mofongo is like a stuffing made with tostones and it's another recipe I kept forgetting about because I needed to have green plantains to make it. It was really easy to put together and I used mushroom chicharrones instead of tofu.

This was pretty good, I served it with some vegetable broth as suggested and it was like a warm, smoky stuffing mixture.

Crêpes with Un-Dulce De Leche and Sweet Plantains

I'd put off making these crêpes because I thought they'd be a big ol' mess once I de-glutened them but with the help of buckwheat flour they turned out brilliantly!

I used all buckwheat flour and rice milk for the milk and I didn't bother refrigerating the mix, I just let it sit for about 15 minutes before I started making the crêpes. And the plantains were easy to put together too.

This was delicious and such a nice dessert. It was really sweet but the lime helped to cut through that and I added some strawberries because they always go well with crêpes.

I'm so impressed with how well the crêpes worked out, none of them stuck to the pan or fell apart and I got about 6 medium-large sized crêpes from the batter. So if you're looking to try gluten free crêpes, use buckwheat flour and you'll have good results.

Amaranth Polenta with Roasted Chillis
I recently bought some amaranth and knew I had to try this recipe. It's already gluten and soy free so I didn't make any changes.

I served it was some garlicky mushrooms and home-grown kale as well as some steamed broccoli. The polenta was soft in the middle with a crispy outside and it was really delicious and a bit spicy. Sometimes I find polenta a bit bland but this definitely wasn't.

Reading back over this post, I've realised that all of these recipes were ones I put off making either because I need a specific ingredient or because I thought it wouldn't work out but now that I've made them I'm really glad I did because they were all fantastic and if you have Viva Vegan! you should give them a go.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 31: Viva Vegan! Sopes and Empanadas

2011-10-31T20:14:00.001+11:00

Today is the last day of VeganMoFo for 2011! Congratulations to everyone who participated, it's been a lot of fun, as usual!

For my last post I have some more meals from Viva Vegan! plus a recipe for vegan, gluten free, soy free chorizo.

Chorizo-Spinach Sopes

Sopes are small tortillas with a raised edge and the filling for these ones includes chorizo so I this time I wrote down what I did so I can share it with you guys.

Chorizo - vegan, gluten free, soy free

Adapted from this recipe + the chorizo recipe in Viva Vegan! - makes 3 links of chorizo

1/2 C chickpea flour

1/2 C brown rice flour

1/4 C tapioca starch

2 t salt

3 t paprika

3 t chilli powder (I used durango this time)

2 t dried oregano

2 t cumin

1 t ground coriander

1/4 C stock

2 T tomato paste

2 T annatto oil

2 T red wine vinegar

3 garlic cloves, minced

In separate bowls mix together the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients. Add the dry to the wet and mix to combine.

Lay out three pieces of aluminium foil, each about half the size of an A4 sheet of paper. Divide the mix into three and place onto the foil in a log shape. Roll each piece of foil up and twist the ends like bonbons.

Steam for 20 minutes then remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes then unwrap and slice.

I don't know what texture seitan is supposed to have, you can let me know in the comments if you like, but I think these make a decent substitute for most recipes that call for chorizo/sausages made from seitan. You can also bake them but I think they dry out a little more.

Bake to the sopes, I'm definitely not going to win any sopes-shaping contests as I had trouble with mine. I think I might have made the mix too wet as I found they kept sticking to my hands so I gave up trying to make them perfect, I fried them and then set them on a baking tray while I made the rest. After sitting on the tray for a while, the mix dried and I was able to shape them a bit better, so if you have trouble, just wait for them to dry out and then pinch the sides up more.

I was hesitant to use spinach in the filling because I think cooked spinach is gross and slimy but I did it anyway and I'm happy I did. I used baby spinach and I added some red cabbage, avocado and cashew crema for the toppings.

These were delicious and I really, really liked the spinach - it's a miracle! The filling was garlicky, limey and so they made for a very satisfying dinner.

Empandas Humitas (Creamy Corn-filled Empanadas)

I'd only made one of the empanada recipes from Viva Vegan! so I was keen to try some more. I decided to try two more of them again using the corn-based dough.

I used fresh corn, shallots and rice milk instead of creamer and this filling was really easy to whip up.

I thought I might not like the filling as corn is quite sweet but this was really yummy, soft and I liked the addition of lemon juice and cayenne.

Bolivian Salteñas (Sweet and Spicy Mushroom-Potato Empanadas)
These empanadas are meant to be made with wheat dough and shaped standing up with a crimped edge but I used the same corn dough as I used for the corn-filled empanadas so I shaped them the same way and I fried them too. For the filling I used mushrooms instead of seitan and I left out the olives.

These were also great, they are sweet and spicy but again I didn't mind the sweetness as it really worked.

I just got interrupted by some trick-or-treaters, yay! I thought we might not get any like most years but we did. I really wanted to carve a pumpkin for the first time this year but I didn't get around to it, maybe next year. If you're celebrating Halloween this year, I hope you have fun.

So that's it for VeganMoFo2011! It's been awesome but I am ready for a blog-holiday for a week or so. I've enjoyed reading so many blogs and discovering new ones and I've appreciated every single comment left on my posts too.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 30: Cookbook Challenge - Vegan With A Vengeance

2011-10-30T17:47:00.000+11:00

We're up to week 7 of the Cookbook Challenge and the book this week is Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

It seems I only ever use this book during VeganMoFo and I really should use it more often as I have so many recipes bookmarked. For the challenge I chose to make a cake and some muffins.

Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut-Carrot Cake

I saw this cake on Susan's blog this month and I knew they I had to make it for the cookbook challenge.

I made the cake gluten free using 1 cup of brown rice flour, 3/4 cup of quinoa and 1/4 cup of coconut and I added in a tablespoon of ground flax seeds.

This flour combination worked really well and the cake held together while sliced. It's a really sweet cake but a small slice isn't too overwhelming and it tastes delicious. I also agree with Susan, it's really filling.

Cherry Almond Muffins
I wanted to make these because I love the Cherry Almond Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar so much.

I used the same flour combination as I used for the cake and I used dried cherries instead of fresh. I also left out the yoghurt and added 220ml of rice milk instead.

I liked these muffins but I don't think the flours worked as well in the muffins as they did in the cake. The muffins were a little dense and the almond flavour isn't as strong as it is in the cookies. I think next time I'd leave out the coconut flour and use a starch like arrowroot or tapioca.

I'm used most vegans have a well-used copy of VWAV - what are some of your favourite recipes from it?

VeganMoFo2011 Day 29: Allergy free cookbook

2011-10-29T10:24:00.001+11:00

We recently bought this cookbook, Allergy-free Cooking for Kids. The books is full of dairy, egg and gluten free recipes and we figured they'd all be really easy to make. And while there's no use of the word vegan, there are quite a few vegan recipes and most of the non-vegan recipes require only one or two simple substitutions to make them vegan.

It's a small hardback, ring-bound book with lots of colour photos. There's a brief intro in the book about how more and more kids have food sensitivities and/or allergies these days and then the book is dived into three chapters: gluten free, dairy free and egg free. Within those chapters there are sections called Brekkie, My Lunchbox, After-school Snacks, Dinner for Everyone, Seriously Sweet and Party Time.

Self-saucing Jaffa Pudding

This was the first recipe I wanted to try, I've never made a pudding and I was interested to see if this would work. It's from the gluten free Seriously Sweet section.

I replaced the butter and milk with Nuttelex and rice milk and instead of soy flour I used coconut. The ingredients included gluten free self-raising flour but they don't mention a brand name so I used Orgran.

As you can see the top got a little burnt, but the inside was perfect. Before putting the mixture in the oven, the instructions say to sprinkle the remaining cocoa and sugar over the mixture and then pour in the boiling water so I think the cocoa on top burnt and that's why it's so black.

It was delicious and I was really happy it worked out. The pudding had a strong chocolate and orange flavour and the sauce was delicious but it was really sweet so a small serving was more than enough.

Potato Pizza

Chris chose this as our next recipe, it's from the dairy free Party Time section and it's one of the vegan recipes.

Some of the recipes in each chapter cross over so this recipe was already gluten free as the ingredients say to use gluten free bread mix. Again there was no brand name so I used Orgran Easy Bake Mix.

The Orgran bread mix was a bit difficult to work with, I felt like I was mixing up marshmallow mix, it was so stretchy and fluffy and hard to flatten onto the baking tray. I topped it with thinly sliced potatoes & olive oil but had to leave off the suggested oregano for Chris.

This was good and it made a lot but it was a little plain. I'd definitely add some herbs next time and I might consider using another type of gluten free bread flour or I'd add some flavour to the dough because it was really plain. But it was a quick and easy way to make gluten free pizza which was great.

I keep meaning to try a few more recipes from this book so hopefully I'll have time once VeganMoFo is over.

Do you have a favourite non-vegan cookbook that you still like to use?

VeganMoFo2011 Day 28: More Cookies!

2011-10-28T19:37:00.000+11:00

Today's post is going to be short and sweet as I've had killer hay fever this week and it's resulted in a headache that won't go away.

I realised I had some more cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar that I forgot to share in my previous cookie post.

Carrot Raisin Spice Chewies

I forgot to write down my flour ratio for these cookies but I know it was mostly brown rice with smaller, equal parts of potato and tapioca.

They were quite flat, sweet and chewy and I like the touch of spice too.

Tahini Lime Cookies

I used my usual flour combo for these cookies and I really liked them. This is the first time I've used tahini in a sweet baked good and it adds such a good flavour.

Walnut Blueberry Thumbprint Cookies

I saw this recipe on one of my favourite blogs, Vegan Kitchen Diaries. I didn't have cherry jam so I used blueberry and instead of using my usual flour combo, I used some Orgran All Purpose flour just to see what it would be like in cookies.

They were chewy and a touch dry but still yummy and this was my first time making thumbprint cookies and now I want to make more.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 27: A Mexican Meal

2011-10-27T07:54:00.001+11:00

By now regular readers will know of my love for the cookbook Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero. I've posted about it many times but I know there are still a lot of vegans who don't own it, yet!

If you don't own it but you'd like to have a Latin-themed get together, I have a few recipes that would make the perfect lunch or dinner with friends or family.

This menu serves 4 and all the recipes are also gluten and soy free.

Jalapeño Black Beans

Prep + cooking time: 40 minutes

These beans are a great filler for tortillas or gorditas (recipe below). Feel free to alter the amount of chilli to suit your tastes.

2 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 jalapeño, de-seeded and sliced

1 red capsicum, de-seeded and diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 t ground cumin

2 t dried oregano

2 C cooked black beans

1 C vegetable stock

salt to taste

¼ C coriander, chopped

Heat the oil in a large fry pan over medium heat. Add theonion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the jalapeño andcapsicum cook for another 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin and oregano and cookfor 2 minutes.

Add the black beans to the pan along with the vegetablestock. Simmer for 20 minutes or until most of the stock has been absorbed,stirring every 5 minutes or so.

Remove from heat, add salt and coriander.

Gorditas

Prep and cooking time: 20 minutes

Gorditas are thick corn tortillas that you can cut open andfill. You can find the pre-cooked corn meal needed to make them at some veggieshops and ethnic grocers, if you can’t find it just use corn tortillas.

2 C P.A.N pre-cooked corn meal

2 C warm water

1 t salt

½ t baking soda

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, the dough should befirm and easy to handle, if it’s too dry and crumbly add more water, a teaspoonat a time until it holds together. Divide the dough into 8 and roll into balls,place on a plate and cover with a damp piece of paper towel.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a grill pan. Wet yourhands then flatten a ball of dough into a disk about 7 - 8cm wide, using yourfingers to smooth any cracks that appear. Once the pan is hot, add to the panand cook 4 at a time. Fry for 6-8 minutes then flip and cook for another 6-8minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the pan, place on a plate lined withpaper towel.

To serve with gorditas:

Tomato salsa – chop baby tomatoes and shallots, combine with1 T of lime juice and 1 T of olive oil.

Cashew cheese - soak 1 cup of cashews for an hour. Add to a food processor with 1/2 cup of water and a pinch of salt. Blend until smooth.

Avocado – mash two avocados and add a squeeze of lime juice

Coriander – chop roughly

To assemble: cut open a gordita, spread the lower half withavocado, add some black beans, top with salsa, cashew cheese and coriander,push the top of the gordita down then eat and enjoy!

Strawberry Nieve

Prep time: 10 minutes, freezer time: 2 hours +

Nieve is a type of sorbet that you'll find being sold from street vendors in Mexico. You could use any other berries or fruit that you'd prefer.

1 C caster sugar

150ml water

500g strawberries, washed and hulled

1 T lime juice

1 T tequila

In a small saucepan combine ¾ C of the sugar with the water.Stir until sugar dissolves then allow to simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from theheat and set aside.

In a food processor combine the strawberries and theremaining ¼ C of sugar. Process until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.

Pour the strawberry mixture into a sieve over a bowl. Use aspoon to help push the mixture through until you’re left with a small amount ofseeds in the sieve, discard the seeds.

Pour the sugar syrup and the lime juice into the strawberrymixture and combine. Pour into your ice cream maker* and set according to themanufacturer’s instructions.

Once the machine has finished, pour the sorbet into acontainer, add the tequila and give it a good stir before putting the containerinto the freezer.

After 2 hours the sorbet will be firmer but still softenough to scoop. Serve with a wedge of lime.

* If you don’t have an ice cream maker, add thetequila along with the syrup and lime then pour into a container and put itstraight into the freezer. Remove from freezer 5 - 10 minutes before serving so it's easy to scoop and serve.

This sorbet is one of my favourites, the strawberry flavour is so strong and the extra lime helps to break up the sweetness. This will make more then enough for 4 so you'll have plenty left over.

This menu would be great for a summer bbq and you could also make some limeade or sangria to go with the meal as well as a salad and some rice.

Enjoy!

VeganMoFo2011 Day 26: Viva Vegan! Quinoa Salad and Arepas

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000+11:00

It's pretty clear that if you're invited to our house for a bbq, you're going to be fed food from Viva Vegan! I've mentioned a few other times when we've had friends or family over and here's the food I made for another recent bbq.

Quinoa Salad with Spinach and Roasted Peanuts

I'd really been looking forward to making this salad as I love quinoa-based salads. I left out the olives and that was the only change I made. It was really easy to throw together and kept well for a few days after the bbq.

Arepas Stuffed with Mushrooms and Pimiento Peppers
Arepas are a great choice for bbqs so I chose this recipe to go with the salad. I couldn't find pimiento peppers so I used jarred sweet piquant peppers and other than that I didn't have to make any changes. The filling is easy to make too.

The salad is fantastic, it has a great nutty taste thanks to the quinoa and the peanuts. And the mushroom pimiento filling was delicious, our friends loved it so much they asked for the recipe. To go with the meal I also made some limeade, always a good drink for a bbq.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 25: Cookbook Challenge - The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000+11:00

We're up to week 6 of the Cookbook Challenge and the book for this week is The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Marie Newman.

I don't own this book because I didn't know how many recipes I'd be able to make without soy and gluten but luckily Joni has a lot of recipes available on her fantastic blog, there's a list on the right hand side.

Sundried Tomato and Pesto Burgers

This recipe got my attention because it's already soy and gluten free as the burgers are based on brown rice. I didn't have to make any substitutions but I did use Doongara rice as I'd cooked some the day before and had enough left to use in these burgers.

While the onions and mushrooms were cooking, I made the pesto and added the rest of the ingredients to the food processor. Once the veggies were cooked, I blended them with everything else, the mix smelt so good. I only used 1/2 cup of brown rice flour and I chilled the mix for 15 minutes.

The burgers were easy to form and held together really well while cooking. I chose to fry them because it was far too hot yesterday to have the oven on. I made mini burgers to suit my bread roll and I got 10 of them.

These burgers are delicious, I love the flavour combination of sundried tomatoes and pesto and they had a nice, soft texture.

I cut open a Schär gluten & soy free bread panini roll and I added avocado, Plamil rice mayo, tomato and baby spinach and one burger pattie plus I ate another on it's own. This was such a good dinner and now I have an awesome lunch for tomorrow too.

I'm considering buying the Kindle version of The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, do you have the book and if so, what's your favourite burger?

VeganMoFo2011 Day 24: Viva Vegan! Yellow Chilli Mushrooms and Fruity Chilli Slaw

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000+11:00

I'm still cooking my way through Viva Vegan! by Terry Hope Romero and I have another meal to share with you VeganMoFoers today.

Yellow Chilli Grilled Mushrooms with Ají Amarillo

This is a recipe I really wanted to make but it took me a while to find a jar of ají amarillo. I used mushrooms instead of tempeh and they suited this meal really well, I think mushrooms can be subbed in easily for all of the recipes involving a marinade like this.

Fruity Chilli Slaw

I knew the mushrooms would be spicy so I thought a sweet salad would go well with them. This was really easy to throw together and I love any excuse to make the creamy chipotle chilli dressing.

I grilled some arepas and added some avocado for a really tasty lunch. The mushrooms were tender, really spicy and delicious. The salad was nice, I'm not usually a fan of sweet and savoury and I don't often eat oranges so this was a nice change for me.

I've got less than 50 recipes to go before I'm done with Viva Vegan! so I'll definitely be continuing these posts long after VeganMoFo is over for 2011!

VeganMoFo2011 Day 23: Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals

2011-10-23T08:57:00.003+11:00

Earlier in the year, Chris and I watched Jamie's 30 Minute Meals. I liked the idea of preparing meals in 30 minutes or less and a lot of the recipes looked easy to veganise. Each 30 minute meal menu features 3 - 4 dishes, usually an entrée or a salad, a main, a side and a dessert or a drink.

My mum went to England in March and she got me a copy of the book while she was there. We haven't cooked much from it but what we have made has been pretty good.

Portuguese Custard Tarts

These tarts were the first thing we made and we've made them at least a dozen times since then. I use vegan custard mix and gluten free puff pastry from The Pastry Pantry. Because of the store bought ingredients these are a really quick dessert and they make for a great treat during winter.

Mustard mushrooms and quick Dauphinoise

I switched mushrooms for chicken in this recipe and I used a cashew cream for the potatoes. Instead of the suggested greens I served it with broccoli.

I liked the flavours but I think this would have worked better with gluten free chickpea cutlets instead of mushrooms.

Mushroom Pasta Bake

This recipe isn't from the book it from his website but it was a great meal during winter. I used portobello mushrooms, some IsoLa Bio rice cream in place of cream, cashew cheese on top and gluten free spaghetti.

It was really filling and it made so much, I had lunch for the whole week.

This is the only Jamie Oliver cookbook I own but I really like the layout and there are photos of every meal which is a fantastic feature and while I haven't tried a whole menu yet, it looks easy enough to substitute a meal from another menu to suit your tastes or ingredients on hand.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 22: Viva Vegan! Cake and sorbet

2011-10-22T09:16:00.000+11:00

Today the fourth week of VeganMoFo begins. It always goes by so fast but we've got nine more days to go so it's not quite over yet.

I've got some more Viva Vegan! goodness to share with you all today. The dessert chapter in Viva Vegan! is the chapter I've made the least from so far. I decided to start working on them and even though I have other Viva Vegan! meals to share before these next two, I wanted to post about them because they are fantástico!

Dulce de Batata (Sweet potato sweet mash)

I didn't have to make any substitutions for this recipe and it's really easy to make although I didn't cook it for as long as suggested because it began to stick to the bottom of the pan and turn brown.

I wasn't sure if I'd like it as I don't like sweetened sweet potatoes when they're served with savoury meals but this is delicious, it's sweet and sticky and I'm wondering what else it would go well with just so I can make it again.

Chocolate Orange Spice Cake with Dulce de Batata
This cake was really easy to make soy and gluten free. I used rice milk for the milk and for the flour I used 1 cup brown rice, 3/4 cup quinoa and 1/4 cup coconut. I also added in 2 teaspoons of ground flax seeds.

The recipe says to cut each cake into two layers but I knew I'd break the cake as soon as I attempted to cut one in half. Instead I just sandwiched a thick layer of dulce de batata in the middle of the two cakes. I'm sure four layers would have looked better but two worked just as well.

The flavour of the spices is what I notice first and it reminds me of something, maybe some sort of Christmas cake. The chocolate and orange work really well together and with the spices too, it's so much better than plain ol' chocolate cake. The flours I used made this cake soft and fluffy and it held together well when sliced.

I didn't know what I'd think of sweet potato with chocolate cake but it's really, really good. Also the cats think dulce de batata is the best thing ever created. Every time I get the cake out of the fridge they go crazy mewing at me until I share a little bit with each of them.

I LOVE this so much, it's my new favourite cake and I want to make it for every occasion: birthdays, Christmas, Wednesdays, weekends, whenever! I'd also like to try making this recipe into cupcakes for our future bake sales so everyone can try this amazing cake.

Papaya Lime Sorbet

We've been making sorbet since the weather has been warming up, in the freezer we already had strawberry and mango so I decided it was time to try this recipe too.

The recipe is really easy and it doesn't take long at all and the only substitution I made was to use tequila in place of vodka. I put the mixture into our ice cream maker for 40 minutes before adding the tequila and pouring the mixture into a container and putting it in the freezer.

We really enjoyed this sorbet, I liked the extra kick of lime and the delicious papaya flavour. It froze really well but thanks to the alcohol it's not rock hard and it's scoopable after it's been out of the freezer for a couple of minutes.

I spent the day at the beach yesterday and it was so good to come home and enjoy a scoop of this with a slice of fresh lime.

If you haven't tried these desserts from Viva Vegan! I cannot recommend them enough and I hope you love them as much as I do!

VeganMoFo2011 Day 21: Life Bars and Sweet Freedom Syrup

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000+11:00

I thought for today I'd review some new products that I really like, starting with Emma and Tom's Life Bars.

Life Bars are raw fruit and nut bars with no added sugar or preservatives. They all contain dates, almonds and cashews as well as the other fruits used to flavour them.

Originally these bars were available in three flavours: Fig and Lemon with Chia, Cacaoo and Orange and Cherry and Goji.

All of the bars have a soft texture with the added crunch from the almonds and cashews. My favourite is the Cacao and Orange which surprised me because I never liked the chocolate LaraBars and these bars are a little similar to Larabars.

Recently I discovered they have a new flavour Banana with Chia! I love bananas so I was really excited to try this flavour. I finally found some and while they're not as banana-y as I'd hoped they'd be, they're still delicious.

Life Bars are available in supermarkets and fruit and veggie stores.

A couple of months ago I bought a bottle of Sweet Freedom Natural Syrup. It's made from apples, grapes and carob and it can be used as a honey replacement.

Now I know a lot of new vegans miss certain foods like cheese or eggs but for me, the only thing I missed at first was honey. I used to love honey by the spoonful, on bananas, in banana smoothies and on toast. So the first thing I did was try it on a slice of toasted Schär gluten & soy free bread and it was so good. It is a bit honey like and also similar to agave.

You can buy Sweet Freedom from online vegan stores like Vegan Online.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 20: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookies Jar - Gluten Free

2011-10-20T07:15:00.000+11:00

Since purchasing Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar two years ago, cookies have definitely invaded my kitchen. They're the quickest baked goods to make and they're easy to share with family and friends. Here's a bunch I've recently de-glutenised:

Quinoa Raisin Cookies

To make these gluten free I used 1/2 C brown rice flour and 1/8 C of both potato and tapioca and instead of oats I used quinoa flakes. There were chewy and sweet and I like the slight hint of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

For these cookies I used 1 C brown rice flour plus 1/4 C of both potato and tapioca and I used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips. These were good but I think they were even better after a day later. They're pictured with a pretty tea pot and matching mug that my mum gave me.

Cherry Almond Cookies - also know as the best cookies in the world

These are so good that I made them twice in two weeks. I'd been waiting to make them for so long but I was unable to find dried cherries. Then my sister-in-law found me some at Costco and I was finally able to bake them and all my cookies dreams came true at once.

I used the same amounts of flour as I used in the Quinoa Raisin Cookies above and I lowered the amount of dried cherries and slivered almonds to 1/2 C instead of 3/4 C. For the first batch I used coconut oil because I was out of canola.

These cookies are soft with a slight crispiness on the outside. The cherry and almond flavours are perfect, they taste like eat an almond croissant crossed with a cherry Danish, they are amazing!

For the second batch I used canola oil and the cookies were a few shades darker and a little crispier but I love both versions equally. If you haven't made these cookies, you should really try them!

Ginger Macadamia Crunch Drops

I used 1 1/2 C brown rice flour with 1/4 C of potato and tapioca for these cookies. Again I lessened the mix ins because I could tell they were going to overwhelm the cookies dough. I used 1 C macadamias and 1/2 C of crystallised ginger but I could have used a bit less.

The macadamias got a little burnt on top but these cookies were soft in the middle and packed with flavour.

All of the recipes from VCIYCJ are easy to make gluten free and they're all soy free by using rice milk or any other non-dairy milk that isn't soy.

I want to make so many more recipes from this book, what are some of your favourites?

VeanMoFo2011 Day 19: Viva Vegan! Cachapas and arepas

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000+11:00

It's been 6 days since my last post on Viva Vegan! so I think it's time for another look at my favourite cookbook.

I've realised that when posting about Viva Vegan! I've started to sound like a bit of a broken record, everything I try is fantastic, delicious and amazing, apart from a few recipes. This next meal falls into the small category of recipes I didn't enjoy.

Cachapas (Savoury Corn Pancakes)

To make them gluten free I used chickpea flour and I reduced the sugar to 1 tablespoon instead of 3 because I thought these would be too sweet.

It turns out they are super dooper sweet, far too sweet for me to enjoy as a savoury meal and they fell apart really easily when cooking (this may be due to the chickpea flour instead of wheat) although I managed to get a few that held together. I served them with some avocado salsa and I don't think I'd make them again.

And now onto another meal that I enjoyed:

Columbian Grilled Arepas with Corn and Cheese

I didn't have to make any changes to this recipe and I used soy free Cheezly for the cheese. They were easy to make and I liked the addition of the corn and cheese to flavour the arepas.

Shredded Carrot-Parsnip Salad

The only change I made was to use parsnip instead of jicama as we don't get that here. I thought this would go well with the arepas and it did, I liked the contrast of the cool, sweet and tangy salad with the oily arepas.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 18: VeganMoFo Gluten Free Survey

2011-10-18T07:00:00.000+11:00

For today's post I'm going to post my answers to this vegan gluten free survey that I first saw on Jessy's blog.

1. What's your favourite gluten free flour?
Brown rice flour, I use it in so many recipes.

2. What have you always wanted to deglutenise, but haven't yet?
Croissants!

3. What's one of your favourite xgfx meals to make?
Risotto, specifically mushroom risotto. Also arepas with mushrooms and avocado.

4. Your biggest gluten free success that makes ya most proud?
Hmm, I don't think I have anything particular dish but I am pretty happy that I can deglutenise a recipe and 99% of the time it turns out really well.

5. Most epic xgfx fail?
I tried making some gluten free cinnamon rolls from a recipe I found online a few years ago and they were inedible

6. What product do you wish was xgfx but isn't?
I wish all dumplings were xgfx! Really I wish everything was xgfx.

7. If you could pass along one gluten free tip to a gluten free newbie, what would it be?
Ok newbie, you just have to keep at it and I promise the longer you're gluten free, the easier it will get! The baking and cooking will become second nature and pretty soon you'll be like "gluten, schmooten" ;)

8. What's your favourite xgfx product?
Monster Muesli Free & Lo because I eat it every morning. And corn tortillas.

9. Is there anything you miss being gluten free?
I really am a very happy gluten free girl but I do miss pastry, like croissants and Danishes.

10. Any xgfx techniques you've learnt that have been most helpful?
That certain flour combos work for different baked goods

11. Have you found a favourite gluten free pizza dough recipe that makes your heart sing?
So far I've found a few that call for packet gluten free mixes that work out well like Jamie Oliver's Cheat's Pizza

12. Xanthum gum. Do you or don't you? Love it or leave it?
I don't use it in baking very often but I will buy products that contain it if I want to try a new product.

13. Favourite gluten free pre-packaged bread?
Schär but also Naturally Gluten Free and Dovedale Rice Chia Loaf.

14. What's your favourite way to nosh on quinoa?
I like using it in place of rice to serve meals with and I like using the flakes in baked goods.

15. Name five of your most coveted pantry staples
Gluten free flour, stock powder, gluten free pasta, dried beans, corn tortillas

16. If you could only buy three gluten free flours to last you for three months, what would they be?
Brown rice flour, quinoa flour and either potato or tapioca.

17. Any xgfx ingredients you are intimidated by trying?
Nope!

18. Favourite place to buy foods?
My local health food store.

19. Favourite meal when dining out?
We don't eat out a lot but when we do, I'm always happy with risotto.

20. Freebie - create your own question and have fun with it!: What do you love most about being gluten free?
I love experimenting with new recipes and trying to make things work and enjoying the results!

While we're here, Carrie over at the awesome blog Vegan For The Win! has nominated me for a Liebster (German for favourite, beloved or dearest) Award - thank you, Carrie! If you haven't checked out her blog during VeganMoFo, head there now.

The idea of the award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers but if you can't see how many followers a blog has, just nominate whoever you like!

1. Show you thanks by linking to the person who nominated you.
2. Link to 5 of your top picks and leave a comment on their blog to let them know.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the interweb!

1. Mel from Veganise This!
2. Isobele from VGANJAR
3. Alicia from Cookies for Alligator
4. Caitlin from The Vegan Chickpea
5. Stef and Jennifer from Beans, Figs and Katz

VeganMoFo2011 Day 17: Cookbook Challenge - 500 Vegan Recipes

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000+11:00

Happy Monday VeganMoFers! I had a fun weekend that involved lots of cooking, baking and sorbet-making. I hope you all had excellent weekends too.

We're up to week five of the Cookbook Challenge and the book for this week is 500 Vegan Recipes by Joni Marie Newman and Celine Steen. I don't own the book but there are some recipes available on the website.

Peanut Brittle Cookies

To make these gluten free I used 3/4 cup of brown rice flour and 1/8 cup of both tapioca and potato plus quinoa flakes instead of oats.

I had the oven on so I didn't bother chilling the mixture, I just dropped tablespoons of it onto trays and put them straight into the oven and I got 14 instead of 16.

These cookies are really peanutty plus they're crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Mushroom Spinach Rustic Pie
I made quite a few changes for this pie, I replaced the tempeh with portobello mushrooms and I left out the soy and marmalade from the marinade. I used olive oil instead of sesame and minced ginger instead of ground. I also halved the amount of orange juice and zest.

Instead of making gluten free dough I used the gluten free puff pastry from The Pastry Pantry. It shrunk a little when blind baked but the mushrooms reduced in size once cooked so it all worked out. I added a teaspoon of cornstarch to the marinade while cooking to thicken it up a little and I included some fresh baby spinach instead of frozen spinach.

This really was delicious! I didn't know if I was going to like it, I thought the orange flavour would be too much but because I halved it, it was fine and even though I dislike cooked spinach I didn't mind it in this pie. I think this is a dish I'll make for Christmas this year.

After trying these recipes I'm considering buying 500 Vegan Recipes. If you have it, let me know what you think of it - ta!

VeganMoFo2011 Day 16: Soy free vegan products

2011-10-16T06:00:00.000+11:00

As a vegan it's always getting easier to find products that are vegan friendly but as a vegan who doesn't consume gluten or soy it can be a bit more difficult. Luckily for me there are companies that manufacture allergen-free foods.

Recently my favourite new products are Plamil Rice Mayo, Redwood Soy Free Cheezly and Bonvita Rice Milk Fruit and Nut Chocolate. Bonvita make delicious rice milk chocolate and I really love this new variety as I miss being able to buy chocolate covered fruit and nut mix.

The first thing I did when I first got the soy free Cheezly was make a toasted cheeze sandwich using Schär gluten free bread and it was fantastic, the cheeze really melted and it reminded me of being a kid.

The new rice mayo from Plamil is lovely and creamy with a slightly zingy flavour. It's great on burgers and sandwiches and it's perfect with roasted sweet potato chips.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 15: Appetite for Reduction

2011-10-15T06:00:00.000+11:00

Appetite for Reduction is the latest cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowtz and it seems like everyone now has a copy of this great cookbook. Here are a few meals I've made from it so far:

Chickpea Piccata

For this meal I left out the wine and the capers. I didn't have time to make the Caulipots to go with this so I served it with rice.

It was delicious, zingy and filling. I made this while we were painting the house and it was a great lunch to have after painting for hours all morning.

Carribbean Curried Black-Eyed Peas
I used black beans instead of black-eyed peas and I didn't have any plantains so I left them out. This was another meal I made when we were painting the house and again it was great to have something really tasty and satisfying for lunch.

Red Lentil and Root Vegetable Dal

I love making dal so as soon as I saw this I had to make it. I used potatoes instead of parsnip and turnip because that's what I had at home and I didn't have to make any other changes.

This was really filling and the flavours were perfect, I'll be making this a lot.

Tamarind BBQ Portobellos and Sweet Potatoes

For the main part of the meal I only had to make a few changes, I replaced the tempeh with portobellos and the soy sauce with a pinch of salt and some balsamic vinegar.

Polenta Stuffing and Shaved Brussells Sprouts

Both of these were suggested side dishes for the tamarind bbq portobellos and they were really easy to prepare and made it a really well-rounded meal.

I didn't make any changes to either of them and they were both great

I think everyone who has Appetite for Reduction loves it because it's filled with fantastic, flavourful recipes and I'm looking forward to cooking a lot more from it. If you have it, what's your favourite recipe?

VeganMoFo2011 Day 14: Arlingtons Fruit Tapioca

2011-10-14T06:00:00.000+11:00

At the beginning of the year while we were painting our house we took a break to check out the stores in our new suburb and we found Arlingtons Fruit Tapiocas. The funny thing is for years I worked right near the Arlingtons store and I never knew they had them. As well as being vegan they're also gluten and soy free.

The fruit tapiocas come in 7 flavours: apple cinnamon, passionfruit, coco mango, raspberry, lemon lime as well as peach and coconut (not pictured here).

All of them are delicious, creamy and sweet but not overly so. My favourite flavour is most definitely the passionfruit, it's amazingly passionfruity and I love the raspberry too.

Here's a look at the raspberry, it's such a pretty pink colour and has a rich and natural raspberry flavour.

The apple cinnamon would make a great breakfast treat as would the coconut and the coco mango is good for a summery treat. The peach is my least favourite as the flavour is not as strong as the others, especially compared to the passionfruit and the lemon lime.

They're available in fruit and veggie stores as well as delis and I read at In The Mood For Noodles that they're now available in Melbourne so if you see them be sure to grab a few flavours to try.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 13: A vegan meal at a wedding

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000+11:00

A couple of months ago we went to Chris' cousin's wedding. The bride was happy to arrange for the restaurant to make a vegan and gluten free meal for me.

At our table were these cute Lego-themed place cards. We knew straight away who Chris' was, it was Neo from The Matrix but we had no idea who mine was, it turns out she's from a movie called The Last Airbender and she's very organic and nature-loving or something (their words not mine!) and that's why I got her.

This card was also at my place so the waiters knew where to find me

My entrée was roasted vegetables with a delicious roasted tomato sauce and lots of herbs. It was really good and full of flavour, I loved the roasted potatoes the most.

My main was a saffron risotto with lots of vegetables. I loved the risotto, it was really tasty and very filling.

And for dessert I got sorbet! I think it was tropical flavoured and it was pretty good but a bit too sweet for me. However it was nice to get a dessert rather than nothing or a few pieces of fruit.

I was really impressed with my meal, it was delicious and filling and I felt like the chef actually went to some effort with which was excellent.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 12: Viva Vegan! Taquitos and mushrooms

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000+11:00

Good morning, VeganMoFoers, today I have another post about Viva Vegan!

Taquitos with chorizo and potatoes

I'd never made taquitos before so I'd been looking forward to trying this recipe. To make them gluten free I made my own gluten free chorizo by playing around with this recipe for gluten free seitan. They were really filling and super tasty.

Braised Brazilian Shredded Kale

I made this to go along side the taquitos and I was able to use kale from my garden. I'm not really a fan of cooked leafy greens but I didn't mind this.

Latin Baked Mushrooms
I used mushrooms instead of tofu for this recipe and it was really easy to prepare. The mushrooms came out of the oven soft and full of the flavours from the marinade.

Swiss Chard with Raisins
I'm growing chard (silverbeet) so I used some from the garden and I left out the capers. I liked this as a side dish for the mushrooms and I really liked the inclusion of raisins even though I'm not usually a fan of sweet ingredients in savoury meals.

Both of these meals made for great weeknight dinners.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 11: Cookbook Challenge - Vegan Soul Kitchen

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000+11:00

We're up to week four of the Cookbook Challenge and this week the book is one of my favourites, Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry. I bought this book because of a previous cookbook challenge so I was really happy to see it was part of this challenge too.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Ginger Peanut Dipping Sauce

I chose this recipe because a friend recently gave me some sweet potatoes she got at her local farmers' market and I needed ways to use them up. The process for the fries was a little more involved because you boil them before roasting them but it was totally worth it as these were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

The sauce was really simple to blend together and it's delicious. It went really well with the fries but I bet it would be great with rice paper rolls too.

Black-Eyed Pea Fritters

When I first read this recipe I thought there was a mistake as the dried black-eyes peas are soaked, drained and then put into the food processor without being boiled which I didn't think was possible. Luckily Anna and Sarah told me it's ok to use them in this way so I went ahead with the recipe.

I didn't make any substitutions and these worked out really well. I used our mini deep fryer to cook them on the highest setting (190C) and I served them with the ginger peanut dipping sauce instead of the hot pepper sauce suggested but they were also really good with tomato sauce.

Roasted Root Vegetable Ital Stew
I chose this recipe because it included sweet potatoes so I could use up the last two I had left. I roasted them along with the other veggies before adding to the stew and I could tell as soon as I added the veggies to the beans and stock that this was going to be good and it really was. The coconut milk made it creamy and rich, I used a jalapeño instead of a habanero and it gave the stew a spicy kick and the lime and coriander were a great addition. Plus it made a lot and I get to enjoy some more today for lunch!

If you don't have a copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen I suggest you treat yourself to a copy and check out some of these recipes plus some of my other favourites like the Cajun Creole Spiced Mushrooms (Tempeh) with Creamy Grits, the Open-faced BBQ Mushrooms (Tempeh) Sandwich with Carrot-Cayenne Coleslaw and the Pan-fried Grit Cakes with Caramelised Shallots, Garlic and Thyme.

VeganMofo2011 Day 10: Viva Vegan! Yuca with Mojo sauce and Mexican Caesar Salad

2011-10-10T08:06:00.000+11:00

I posted about a couple of Viva Vega! recipes featuring yuca (cassava) last week and since I have more yuca I decided to try another way of preparing it.

Yuca with Cuban Garlic-Lime-Mojo Sauce

I didn't make any changes to this recipe, it was simple to follow, the only part that takes a while is boiling the cassava. The sauce is fantastic and so full of flavour, I think it would go well with roasted or steamed veggies too.

Pan-fried Mushrooms with Sofrito

This dish is suggested to go along with the yuca so I made it with mushrooms instead of tempeh, stock instead of wine or beer and I left out the soy sauce.

The mushrooms were really tender and I love sofrito, so anything cooked with it tastes amazingly good.

Chipotle Mexican Caesar
I thought my plate was lacking in greens so I made this salad to go along with the yuca and mushrooms and now it's one of my favourite salads. The dressing was delicious and creamy and had a nice hint of heat from the chipotles, I'll definitely be making it a lot over summer.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 9: Gluten Free Expo

2011-10-09T06:00:00.000+11:00

About a month ago the Gluten Free Expo was on and we went along as we've never been to one before and I wanted to see how many vegan options there'd be.

We arrived to see people exiting the expo holding dozens of shopping bags and I felt like I was at the Easter show, outside the show bag pavillion. Inside it was just as busy but it was well set out and we spent more time there than we'd thought we would.

Here's a look at what we bought (missing from the photo are some frozen pizza bases)

We've tried some Piranha products before but these are my new favourite, they definitely have a potato-y flavour but they made a great snack.

I love the range of Mrs May's nut products so these weren't a new find but they had an awesome deal on, I think it was 6 bars for $5 which was a bargain. My favourite flavour is blueberry but they're all good.

Monster Muesli make my favourite gluten free muesli and they had samples of their new muesli bars available. I bought one of each and while I found them a bit sweet and very crunchy, I think I would give them another go if I saw them on the shelf at the supermarket.

We found these fruit chips at one stall and my only regret is that we didn't buy more of them because they are really good, they even had okra chips plus at least another one or two varieties. I haven't seen them in stores yet but I will be on the look out for these.

We bought a show bag from Diego's who make great corn-based tortillas and now their new tortilla crumbs too. I think they've been dropped from the two major supermarkets which is a shame because sometimes I go to 3 supermarkets and still can't find any corn tortillas. I also bought a bottle of Louisiana Gold Green Sauce which is really good.

Tasty Bite was the first stall we visited and I was really surprised to find out that their entire range is vegetarian and they have quite a few vegan options.

They had a deal on: 5 of the heat & serve meals for $12 but unfortunately they were out of one flavour and the deal didn't include the vegan ready meal so I doubled up on two of the flavours. When the woman serving me realised I was vegan she threw in the ready meal for free and said "I always feel for the vegans" which was really sweet.

I've tried 2 so far & I've enjoyed them but I'll do a review once I've taken some photos and tried all of them.

And finally we have O'Chocos by LoveMore. I've purchased their Custard Creams for my mum before but I'd never seen their Oreo-style cookie. The biscuits are more crunchy but they're a great gf version my only issue was that they're not soy free.

I was really impressed with the event and I will definitely go again next year.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 8: Cooking Viva Vegan! for gluten free vegans

2011-10-08T08:00:00.000+11:00

As a vegan who is also gluten and soy free, the first thing I think about when buying a cookbook is whether or not I'll be able to make the meals in a cookbook with substitutions. A lot of people ask if Viva Vegan! is gluten free friendly and I really do think it is, as long as you have something that you can substitute. Mushrooms are my favourite substitute for seitan as well as for tofu/tempeh. If you don't like mushrooms and you can eat soy then you could use tofu/tempeh or you could try making some chickpea tofu or use chickpeas, lentils or beans instead.

Arroz con hongos

This dish worked really well with mushrooms. I marinated them before cooking just like the recipe says to do with the seitan and the rice component was easy enough to make as well. I used vegetable stock instead of beer and I left out the olives and capers. I liked how fluffy the rice was by the time the meal was done and it was really tasty and filling.

Chipotle, mushroom and potato tacos

Again I used mushrooms instead of seitan and I used vegetable stock in the marinade instead of beer. I loved the flavour and texture the roast potatos gave to these tacos and I topped them with some shallots, tomato and avocado alongside some chard and kale picked from my garden.

If you're gluten free and unsure of whether or not you should buy Viva Vegan!, I say go for it. So many of the recipes are already gluten free and the rest you can alter to suit yourself.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 7: Viva Vegan! Super Fantástico Latin Soups

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000+11:00

The first week of Vegan MoFo is over already, it feels like it's going by really quickly this year.

There are 8 recipes in the soup chapter of Viva Vegan! and over winter I made the last 6 so I am done with that chapter.

Locro (Creamy Potato Soup)

I really like the idea of potato soup and every time I find a new recipe I try it but I'm usually disappointed by the gluey texture that blended potato gives to soup. This soup was a lot better and I didn't find it was gluey at all.

Quinoa-Corn chowder with Limas and Ají

I've only made corn chowder once before and I wasn't a fan but this soup was different from regular chowder. I liked the spiciness from the ají paste plus I loved the topping of peanuts and avocado. It was really filling thanks to the quinoa and potatoes and made a great dinner.

Sancocho (Vegetable, roots and plantain soup)
This was my least favourite soup and consequently it made for the worst photo but I like photo evidence of every recipe I've made so I've included it here. It's also my least favourite recipe of the entire book, I've been going on and on about how much I love every other recipe I've made but this one was just not for me and you know what, I knew I wouldn't like it before I'd even made it.

It's packed full of veggies but I didn't like how sweet it was due to the pumpkin and plantains plus the plantains went all stringy and gloopy. But if you love pumpkin you'll probably love this so don't let me put you off!

Tropical Pumpkin Soup

I wasn't sure I would like this soup because of the pumpkin, I just don't like super sweet veggies, so I used less pumpkin and I really enjoyed it, the coconut milk made it creamy and the addition of coconut oil and lime juice helped the soup live up to it's name.

Potato-Kale Soup with Sizzling Chorizo
This was another soup that felt like a meal, the soup was really thick and I used kale picked from my garden. I made the chorizo gluten free by playing around with the ingredients in this recipe for gluten free seitan.

Porotos Granados (Hearty Pumpkin and Cranberry Bean Stew)
Borlotti beans are what cranberry beans are known as here and I found some dried beans at my local veggie shop. Again I used less pumpkin and found I enjoyed the soup because it wasn't overly pumpkin-y. I also really liked the heat the chilli added to this soup.

Overall I really liked the soup recipes in Viva Vegan! - they were all satisfying and full of great flavour combinations and I know I'll make them again next year over autumn and winter.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 6: Cookbook Challenge - Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000+11:00

I'm up to week 3 of the Cookbook Challenge and for this week we could choose any cookbook by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I don't own any of Colleen's books but I've heard a lot about her and her podcasts and there are sample recipes available on her website for each book.

Better Than Tuna Salad

I got this recipe from the fourth video on the main page of her website, it's originally from The Vegan Table.

2 tins chickpeas, drained

1/2 C mayo (I used Plamil rice mayo)

2 carrots, peeled & chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 red capsicum, chopped

1/2 C walnuts

1 t dijon mustard

salt & pepper

Pulse the chickpeas in a food processor then add them to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

I threw the veggies in the food processor with the chickpeas to make it easier and served the salad in corn tortillas with lettuce. It was super simple to put together and it's delicious and really filling too.

Caramalised Bananas from Color Me Vegan
I love bananas and they make a really great dessert when baked. This was another simple recipe and I liked the addition of cinnamon too.

Seeing as the weather has been warming up recently we got our ice cream maker out and made some of the French vanilla ice cream from À La Mode by Hannah Kaminsky - I used rice milk to make it soy free. It's by far the best texture we've had with homemade vegan ice cream so far and the rice vanilla flavour went perfectly with the bananas.

I'd like to buy one of Colleen's book but I can't decide which one I should start with so let me know what book of hers is your favourite.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 5: Viva Vegan! Yuca frita and salad

2011-10-05T07:00:00.000+11:00

Yuca is an ingredient in quite a few of the recipes in Viva Vegan! I've eaten yuca or cassava as it's known here, as a child but I've never cooked it myself. I haven't been able to find it fresh but I found some frozen cassava at a local grocer.

The good thing about buying it frozen is that it's already been peeled and chopped but it still has to be boiled before being eaten.

Hearty Warm Yuca and Cabbage Salad

Boiling the cassava is the only step that takes a bit of time in this recipe, the rest is really easy. I used the chickpea option but I bet this would have been great with chicharrones. Boiled cassava has a firmer texture than potatoes and I always find it has a nutty smell while cooking and a slight nutty taste as well. This is a great winter/autumn salad because it's warm and filling.

Yuca Frita (crunchy fried yuca)
I saved some of the boiled cassava so I could also make the yuca frita. Earlier in the year we bought a mini deep fryer so I used it for these.

After frying the yuca frita were crispy on the outside and still firm on the inside. They were delicious with a squeeze of lime and some Plamil rice mayonnaise.

I've still got plenty of cassava left so I'm going to look for some other ways to use it, let me know if you have a favourite recipe that includes cassava/yuca!

VeganMoFo2011 Day4: Viva Vegan! Chicharrones and Calabacitas

2011-10-04T09:03:00.000+11:00

A couple of months ago we had some friends round for dinner. One of them is vegetarian and at the time they were planning their honeymoon to South America so I knew I had to make some food from Viva Vegan! for them.

Sangria (non-alcoholic) - I don't like wine at all so I couldn't bring myself to make this the traditional way. Luckily there are lots of non-alcoholic versions online and I went with this one, they use a juice made from Cabernet grapes but I just used grape juice, red grapefruit juice, orange juice and lots of lime and lemons.

My friend was really happy that I'd made a non-alcoholic version and it wasn't until their wedding a few weeks later that they revealed she was pregnant and she's sure I must have known all along.

Tofu and mushroom Chicharrones - I made two batches of chicharrones, I did tofu and included tamari in the marinade and I did mushrooms for me without tamari.

Calabacitas (mixed squash saute) - this was really easy to make, I used zucchini, squash and a small amount of pumpkin. I cooked it just before they arrived and kept it warm while I made the chicharrones.

Green Onion Salsa - another quick recipe, everything went into the food processor and it was done in minutes

I included some radishes, coriander, limes, cashew cheeze, red cabbage and avocado and we had corn tortillas to wrap it all up in.

Here's a look at my lunch the next day: corn tortilla, avocado, calabacitas, radish, chicharrones

Then I topped that with cabbage, green onion salsa & cashew cheeze

This was a seriously delicious meal! I could eat the chicharrones every day, they are so good. I liked the calabacitas and the green onion salsa added a great flavour too. I keep wanting to go back and re-make recipe from VV! but I am determined to finish the book before I revisit recipes.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 3: Cookbook Challenge - American Vegan Kitchen

2011-10-03T09:15:00.000+11:00

Week 2 of the Cookbook Challenge just ended and the book was American Vegan Kitchen. I don't own it but I was able to participate thanks to Dawn who shared some recipes with me.

Movie Night Potato Skins - I've never made potato skins before so this was the first recipe that caught my eye. I used Red Delight potatoes and they held up well and didn't fall apart when I scooped out the insides.

Coconut 'Bacon' Bits - I've wanted to try coconut bacon but until now I hadn't tried it. This recipe was really quick and simple, I just left out the soy sauce and added a bit of extra salt and a dash of balsamic for colour.

I served them with some Plamil rice mayo instead of the sour cream suggested in the book and some of the coconut bacon bits. They were really filling and made the perfect lunch on a rainy day. The coconut bacon was salty & a little bit sweet and added a nice crunch to the potato filling.

I'm going to move on to week 3 but I have a few more recipes I'd like to try from AVK and I think I'll be purchasing the book too.

VeganMoFo2011 Day 2: Viva Vegan! Curdito and Pupusas

2011-10-02T08:46:00.000+11:00

A while back we had some friends over for a bbq and I planned some vegan eats for them to try, all from Viva Vegan!

Salvadorian Marinated Slaw (Curdito) - this was a really good salad for a bbq, the dressing was tangy and it was easy to throw together.

Pupusas stuffed with black beans - this was my first time making pupusas, I thought they'd be more difficult than arepas but they weren't and they were a lot of fun to make. I left out the plantains as I didn't have any at the time.

I also made a chipotle tomato sauce to go with the pupusas as well as another batch of the limeade, a friend loved it so much she asked for the recipe and another friend really enjoyed the pupusas and thought they tasted like burritos.

This was such a tasty plate of food, Viva Vegan! is a great cookbook for when you have a bunch of friends coming round for a bbq or dinner.

VeganMoFo 2011 Day 1: Cookbook Challenge - Viva Vegan!

2011-10-01T10:48:00.000+10:00

Happy VeganMofo! This is my fourth year of MoFoing and it's always a really fun time of year, I love discovering new blogs to read and seeing all the fantastic ideas people come up with.

Last year I did the E.A.T World Challenge, I cooked meals from a different country each day but I want to be a bit more flexible this year so I'll be doing a combination of posts for a cookbook challenge as well as continuing to cook my way through Viva Vegan! as well as an assortment of other posts.

The first book for week one of the cookbook challenge was our choice of any cookbook by Isa and/or Terry, naturally my choice was Viva Vegan! Week one also coincided with a vegan picnic a bunch of us organised so I chose some picnicky foods.

Chayote and Potato Salad - chayotes are called chokos here and this was the first time I'd ever tried one. The salad was simple to put together and I left out the capers and the peas. The choko had a squash/zucchini like texture and the salad was tangy and filling.

Farmers' Market Tamales - these tamales were really easy to put together as instead of filling the tamales, the vegetables are mixed in with the corn dough, it really cut down on the time it took to make 24 of them. Instead of using the masa dough recipe in the book I used the olive oil-based dough from Terry's blog.

I managed to keep the tamales and the salad warm by using a new Pyrex carry case I was given, it's insulated and comes with hot/cold packs so I'd definitely make tamales again for future picnics/pot lucks.

Here's my plate of food: a tamale with a spicy chipotle tomato sauce I made to serve with the tamales, some salad and a rice paper roll with mango sauce that Belinda made.

Here's a look at some of the other food: rice paper rolls, papaya salad, raw donut holes made by Belinda (everything shown is gluten free apart from the cakes in the top right hand corner)

Chocolate raspberry muffins made by Leigh, quinoa salad and curried carrot dip made by Ingrid

We had heaps of food and the rain managed to hold off & it was great to catch up with everyone seeing as our bake sales have been put on hold until 2012.

Join the SVBS crew for a picnic potluck!

2011-09-05T11:11:00.004+10:00

Image source

I have bad news, there's work being done in the square in Newtown where the markets are usually held so the markets aren't running and probably won't be back until the end of the year/early next year.

So unfortunately our June bake sale was our last for 2011. To make up for this, we've decided to organise a picnic pot luck for our friends and supporters:

Date: Saturday, September 24, 2011

Time: 12pm

Where: Camperdown Memorial Rest Park (just down the road from the markets)

Bring: a vegan dish to share and any picnic gear you have (blanket, plates, containers etc)

Check the blog/twitter for updates if it rains on the day.

Cooking my way through Viva Vegan!

2011-06-08T12:50:00.006+10:00

Last year I cooked a lot of recipes from Viva Vegan! but after moving into our new place I didn't use my cookbooks for a few months but I dug them out a couple of months ago and have decided I will cook my way through Viva Vegan! These recipes bring my total to 75, only another 75 to go!

All of the meals below are gluten free and soy free.

Chimichurri mushrooms, pickled red onions, black bean, corn salsa salad

I loved the chimichurri sauce and I used portobello mushrooms instead of tofu.

I've never pickled anything before but the recipe for the pickled red onions was really easy and I loved them, I used them in a few more meals below, they add great flavour.

The black bean corn salsa salad was really fresh and summery

Mushroom saltado

I used portobello mushroom instead of seitan and I really loved this meal, it was so filling thanks to the potato

Alfajores (buttery cookies with thick Dulce de Leche filling)

These cookies are similar to shortbread and turned out really well gluten free, I used a mix of brown rice, potato and tapioca flours.

I used Mimic Creme in the filling and it was delicious! It reminded me of a caramel spread we used to eat as kids.

Eggplant Torta sandwich with spinach, Brail nut, gazpacho salad

I used a Schar gluten free roll for the torta and Plamil rice mayonnaise for the mayo. These sandwiches made such a good lunch, especially with the salad.

The salad was another really refreshing salad thanks to the gazpacho salad dressing, it is so good.

Quinotto (quinoa mushroom risotto)

This was one of those meals that I want to make every night for dinner! I used button mushrooms instead of oyster or cremini and aji panca because I can't find aji amarillo (I'd really like to get a jar to use in some other VV! recipes)

Black-eyed butternut tostadas with fresh tomato salsa and pan grilled chilli lime vegetables

Let's start with the tostadas, holy macaroni with pepperjack, these are good! I don't really enjoy pumpkin, I find it too sweet but when it was combined with the beans and all the onion, chilli and spice, it was delicious. And I loved the addition of the salsa and pickled red onions.

For the vegetables I used stock instead of beer and I added some jarred nopalitos (cactus paddles) as suggested in the recipe and I really liked the taste and texture of them. The veggies made a great side dish.

Cuban black bean soup

This was a soup full of flavour and super filling, it also made a lot and it was the perfect lunch for the rainy weather we had a week or two ago.

Peruvian potatoes with spicy, cheezy sauce

This is the only dish that I haven't absolutely loved from VV! but that's because I don't like nutritional yeast which is a main ingredient in the sauce. It was still a great dish and nooch-loves would probably eat the sauce by the spoonful.

Real brown sugar limeade

This was delicious! I made it for a bbq we had on the weekend and I've been asked for the recipe. It was sweet but the lime cut through it and I added some mint which was a great garnish. I can imagine it would be even better during summer.

Tomato salad with sweet, crisp onions

This was a really great salad, the onions weren't over powering and the dressing was really sharp and zesty

Mushroom anticuchos (Peruvian mushroom and potato skewers)

I used button mushrooms instead of seitan and marinated them for an hour or two before making the skewers. I loved the marinade, it wasn't too spicy but added a lot of flavour to the veggies

You can expect more Viva Vegan! posts from me as well as some photos from my garden which I'm planning at the moment!

Vegan and gluten free Kingston biscuits

2011-04-13T11:48:00.001+10:00

Kingston biscuits are something I remember enjoying as a child, I loved their crunchy, chewy texture and their delicious oaty flavour. Unfortunately they're not vegan or gluten free so I decided to make some. The inspiration came from a review by K at In The Mood For Noodles and a comment from Susan at Kittens Gone Lentils. K reviewed the Macro Golden Choc Filled biscuits and Susan didn't think they were Kingston-y enough and neither do I, they're a bit too floury and soft. After that discussion I couldn't stop thinking about baking some.

I was going to bake some ANZAC biscuits but then I found a recipe online at Melanger Baking which I used with 1-2 changes.

Golden quinoa flake biscuits with a chocolate filling - gluten and soy free

Makes 34 individual biscuits

180g Nuttelex (vegan margarine)

90g treacle

120g demerara sugar

150g gluten free flour

60g dessicated coconut

60g quinoa flakes

1t baking soda

150g Bonvita rice milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C

Mix together the Nuttelex, treacle and sugar. Mix the dry ingredients together then add to the Nuttelex mixture, combine well.

Roll the mixture into small balls, a bit bigger than a macadamia nut, place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and press down to flatten a little bit.

They won't spread too much so you don't have to leave too much space between them.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on the tray for a minute then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Once the biscuits have cooled add a teaspoon of chocolate to the centre of a biscuit and press another on top. Repeat with remaining biscuits.

I would have liked the biscuits a bit thinner and a bit crunchier but the are close to what I remember Kingston biscuits tasting like, but it has been a long time since I've had one.

I also noticed that the Bonvita rice milk chocolate soaked into the biscuits because it was quite thin so then I melted some Tropical Source chocolate chips (not soy free) and I put that between a few biscuits. It was much thicker and more visible in between the biscuits, probably because they contain soy flour.

I'll probably make some for our next bake sale which is on Saturday April 30 as part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale! I hope to see you all there.

Sydney Vegan Bake Sale March 2011

2011-03-16T10:40:00.001+11:00

2 weeks ago we had our bake sale to raise funds for the Queensland Disaster Appeal, despite the rain we had lots of customers and thanks to them we raised $869.40!

We'll be back in April for the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale!

I made gluten free cupakes

Banana split

Choc mint

Chocolate agave with cashew cream

And gingerbread echidnas!

Sydney Vegan Bake Sale for the floods

2011-02-14T09:33:00.003+11:00

The Sydney Vegan Bake Sale returns for 2011 with a bake sale to raise money for the flooding in Queensland. We'll be donating proceeds to the Premier's Fund.

We'll be at the Newtown Square Markets, Saturday March 5 from 8am until 1pm (unless sold out earlier).

We always have plenty of baked goods for sale but if you are interested in contributing, please email me first (sydneyveganbakesale at gmail dot com)

I hope to see you there!

Vegan, gluten free, xgfx community

2011-02-02T08:34:00.004+11:00

The number of vegan and gluten free bloggers is growing but it can still be difficult to find vegan and gluten free recipes and resources.

To bring our vegan and gluten free community together, Kittee has created the xgfx community blog! The blog will feature vegan and gluten free blogs, recipes and it will be a place to go if you need some tips.

Being a gleegan I've joined up and so has K from In The Mood For Noodles, Jessy from HappyVeganFace, Allyson from Manifest Vegan and Scrumptious from In My Box.

Peppermint Ice Cream

2011-01-26T10:44:00.000+11:00

Hello there! Long time, no blog. Things have been crazy-busy for me in the best possible way. We were set to move in to our new house but we decided it needed a fresh coat of paint and new flooring, so for the past two weeks I've been cleaning and painting, I'm exhausted but super happy as well. I've been living on copious cups of tea, bananas and avocado sushi and I can't wait to get into my new kitchen and cook a meal!

If you're in Australia I'm sure you're in the need for something to cool you down, so here's some ice cream Chris and I made a few weeks ago. It wasn't perfect but it was very minty (2 teaspoons of mint essence is too much!) We used 1 1/2 C of almond milk and 1C of agave. I liked the texture but the mint was a bit too strong. Plus we added a tiny touch of green food colouring.

River has requested a photo of the apron I received for Christmas but this photo will have to do for now, it features one of the new cupcake spoons my Mum gave me, so adorable!

Hopefully I'll be back to blogging regularly in the near future and I'll also be announcing the date of our Sydney Vegan Bake Sale to raise money for the floods very soon.

Christmas Lunch

2010-12-31T15:40:00.000+11:00

On Christmas Day, Chris and I had lunch with my parents. Mum and Dad insisted on preparing most of the food including vegan options for me which was so lovely.

We'd all exchanged gifts in the weeks leading up to Christmas, Chris bought me a gorgeous KitchenAid food processor and Mum & Dad got me some very cute Peter Alexander pjs, a cupcake apron, a matching tea towel and a book.

For our entrée we had a risotto-stuffed portobello mushroom topped with pine nuts plus asparagus.

For my main I had some more risotto, roast veggies and a slice of the garden loaf I made, Mum and Dad really liked it too. I made it a few weeks ago for my E.A.T World Challenge, the recipe is from the Gluten Free Goddess blog.

Our traditional Christmas dessert is usually pudding with chestnut cream but I haven't had that in years so I made a gluten free & soy free pecan pie instead!

Lunch was relaxing and in the afternoon Chris and I went to the beach for some sun and a swim, it doesn't get better than that!

Christmas cookies

2010-12-27T18:08:00.002+11:00

Happy Christmas to everyone that celebrates it! Each year I bake some biscuits or cupcakes to give as gifts. Two years ago I made gluten free gingerbread biccies, speculaas and candy cane cupcakes and last year I made gluten free amaretti biscuits.

This year I decided to go with gingerbread and choc chip cookies as I know some people don't like ginger (crazy!)

I used a range of Christmas-themed cookie cutters for my gingerbread before participating in a facebook conversation between Dawn and her family & friends. I know some people think gingerbread should only be people-shaped but I couldn't resist all the different cutters I have, I especially love the mini-men and the dachshunds! I was a tad lazy this year, I didn't ice them but they're always sweet enough.

I used the Babycakes cookbook for the choc chip cookies as I hadn't used it in a while. I thought the mix was a bit runny so I added more flour before test-baking some. My cookies didn't end up as flat as the ones in the book, they were much cakier but they were still yummy.

What did you make as gifts this year?

Catering for a gluten free vegan

2010-12-23T10:59:00.005+11:00

A few weeks ago, Chris and I attended a work function so I contacted the caterers in advance to ask if they could make me a vegan & gluten free meal.

One the day I was pleasantly surprised with what they made for me. As an appetiser I received a small plate with some marinated vegetables and a shot of potato and leek soup. Once I finished I was given another portion which was great as I loved the soup and the stuffed mushrooms.

For my main I got a plate with a few different dishes on it.

Polenta-stuffed tomatoes

Roasted vegetables

Green beans, caramelised onions and tofu

I didn't specify soy free when I requested my meal as I thought it might freak them out, I didn't eat the tofu but the beans & onion were delicious as were the roasted veggies. The tomatoes were nice too, but the polenta was a little on the dry side.

Overall I was really impressed with the meal I received, it was better than a lot of the meals I've had at weddings/events in the past.

These are a few of my favourite things... from Viva Vegan!

2010-12-11T07:35:00.002+11:00

Well I don't know about you guys but I really enjoyed taking a little blog-break after VeganMoFo!

I thought I'd share a few more meals I've made from Viva Vegan, they're some of the most delicious recipes so far!

Portobello asado - gluten and soy free

I replaced the tempeh with portobello mushrooms, used vegetable stock instead of beer and I left out the soy sauce.

The flavour of the marinade was amazing! I grilled the mushrooms and they reminded me of bbqs when I was a kid, like a much healthier version of chicken wings, minus the cruelty! I served it with the spinach, avocado, chilli salad and made the creamy ancho chilli dressing with cashews. I plan on eating this a lot during summer, it was such a quick meal to prepare.

Sober beans with chorizo - gluten and soy free

This was the last recipe I had to try in the beans & rice chapter. I left out the beer and tequila hence the name change from drunken to sober beans and I made my own gluten and soy free chorizo! This was really good and so, so filling.

Plátanos (fried sweet plantains) - gluten and soy free

I'll start with saying "YOU MUST TRY THESE!" Seriously. I thought I loved tostones but now I've pledged my love to plátanos forever. After frying, the ripe plantains caramelise and get all gooey inside, they make the perfect side to any meal from Viva Vegan and I no longer consider a meal without them to be complete.

I'm pretty sure that most vegans now own a copy of this fantastic book, but if you don't, add it to the top of your Christmas wish list now!

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Zambia

2010-11-30T11:40:00.001+11:00

Today is the 30th and final day of VeganMoFo 2010! It's also day 25 of my E.A.T World Challenge, I'm in Zambia in Southern Africa.

Icele abuntele (groundnut porridge) - gluten and soy free

This is a popular breakfast meal in Zambia, where groundnuts (peanuts) are very common.

Ingredients

1/4 C rice

1 T peanut butter

1 1/4 C water

1/4 t salt

1/2 T maple syrup

Add the rice, water and peanut butter to a rice cooker or saucepan. Cover and cook until done using the rice cooker or for 15-20 minutes in a saucepan.

Stir in the salt, drizzle with maple syrup and eat while warm. Serves 1.

This was amazing! The rice was soft and creamy and it was just enough peanut butter to give it a delicious flavour but if you're a pb-fiend, add some more. Usually the recipe would use brown sugar but maple syrup worked really well. This is going to be a regular winter brekky for me.

Gbegiri (black-eye bean soup) - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

1T olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 C black-eye beans, cooked and partially mashed (I boiled them for an hour before adding to the stew)

1 T tomato paste

1 C tinned diced tomatoes

1 C vegetable stock

salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beans, tomato paste, tomatoes, stock and salt. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with rice or bread. Serves 4.

This was a filling and simple soup to prepare, perfect for this rainy weather we're having.

And we're done! 30 posts in 30 days, I am so ready for a blog-break! I love VeganMoFo and I definitely challenged myself this year, cooking 2 meals a day for 25 out of 30 days was a lot but I enjoyed it so much. My parents probably enjoyed it more than me as I took leftovers to them almost every day!

I visited 25 countries for the E.A.T World Challenge, my favourites were Algeria, England, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, New Caledonia, Portugal, Russia, U.S.A and Zambia but really I enjoyed every country. Here's a list of them in case you missed some:

Wallis and Futuna Islands

Yemen

Zambia

I also loved finding more vegan blogs to read and I appreciate every comment I received too! *hi5* to everyone who participated :)

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Yemen

2010-11-29T17:02:00.001+11:00

It's day 29 of VeganMoFo, 1 more day! And it's day 24 of my E.A.T World Challenge, today I'm in Yemen, located on the Arabian Peninsula. I had to skip the letter X as there are no countries that begin with X!

Zhug

This is a spicy relish added that can be added to lots of meals

Ingredients

1 t olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 T tomato paste

1/2 t salt

1/4 t of ground cardamom, caraway, coriander

1/8 t cayenne pepper

Heat the oil in a small pan, add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes over low heat. Combine the garlic with the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Usually the garlic is used raw so feel free to skip cooking it if you prefer.

Lentil Stew - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 T coriander, chopped

1/2 C Puy lentils, rinsed

3 C water

1 C tinned diced tomatoes

1/4 C rice

1 t salt

2 T zhug (recipe above)

Heat oil in a saucepan, add the onion and coriander, cook for 5 minutes. Add the lentils and water, cook for 20 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, rice and salt. Cook for 3o minutes. Stir through zhug and serve hot. Serves 4.

The stew had a great consistency and was good on it's own but the zhug added so much more flavour. It was also really filling thanks to the lentils and the rice.

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Wallis and Futuna Islands

2010-11-28T17:34:00.002+11:00

It's day 28 of VeganMoFo and day 23 of my E.A.T World Challenge! Today I am visiting the Wallis and Futuna Islands, in the South Pacific.

Coconut Chickpea Stew - gluten and soy free

Originally this recipe was included crab meat but I replaced it with chickpeas.

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 red onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 green capsicum, diced

2 T coriander, chopped

1/2 t oregano and salt

2 T tomato paste

1 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 270ml tin of coconut milk

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and capsicum, cook for another 5 minutes of medium heat. Add the coriander, oregano, salt and tomato paste, cook for 2 minutes.

Add the chickpeas and coconut milk. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until liquid has reduced. Serve with rice. Serves 2-3.

This dish reminded me a lot of akoho sy voani I made when visiting Madagascar. It was a lovely, coconutty stew and very filling.

Po'e - gluten and soy free

Po'e is a fruit pudding popular in many South Pacific countries. Tradionally it would be wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a fire pit but this method uses the oven.

Ingredients

4 medium-sized bananas

1/2 C cornstarch

1/8 C maple syrup

Preheat oven to 180C.

Break the banana into chunks, add to a food processor and blend until smooth. Sift in the cornstarch, add the maple syrup and blend again.

Spray a baking dish with oil, pour in the banana mixture, bake for 30-40 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool before covering with cling wrap and refrigerating until chilled.

Cute into squares, serve with a spoonful of coconut cream and a drizzle of maple syrup. Serves 8.

Originally the recipe called for brown sugar but I used maple syrup instead and reduced the amount as I used really ripe bananas. At first I felt like I was eating undercooked banana bread but the texture grew on me and it tasted like baked bananas which is always delicious.

VeganMoFo2010: Gluten free pecan pancakes with caramel sauce

2010-11-27T19:07:00.002+11:00

It's day 27 of VeganMoFo, only 3 more days to go! I've already mentioned feely burnt out and today I am literally burnt, I spent a little bit too long at the beach (I'm with Sookie Stackhouse on this one, lying in the sun is my only vice!) so instead of cooking for my E.A.T World Challenge, I decided to share something I made thanks to some blog-inspiration!

Earlier in the week vegan blogger, Francisco from Life of Happiness, mentioned that he wanted to make caramel pancakes with caramel sauce - sounds like a good idea, right? I thought so too and after exchanging ideas, I went home to make some.

I used the banana pecan pancakes recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance but I made them gluten free by using buckwheat flour. I also quartered the recipe as this recipe always makes heaps of pancakes. I made them small, like pikelets and got 7 from the quartered recipe.

Here's my cute mini stack o' pancakes

For the topping I used maple syrup in my caramel sauce rather than sugar and as a final touch I added a scoop of the salted caramel ice cream that I made using Cindy's recipe, it's not sugar free but is awesomely delicious.

This is my favourite gluten free pancake recipe, they always turn out well including the first pancake and I especially love that they contain bananas and pecans. The sauce was great and went well with the ice cream and I haven't had something like this in such a long time.

You can check out Francisco's version here, his caramel sauce looks well good plus he added slices of banana - yum!

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Vietnam

2010-11-26T17:39:00.001+11:00

It's day 26 of VeganMoFo! Only 4 more days after today, I'm sure I'm not the only excited MoFoer! It's also day 22 of my E.A.T World Challenge, today I'm in Vietnam!

I visited Vietnam 10 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long) and fell in love with what a beautiful country it is. I remember going on a boat trip along the Mekong and stopping to sample lots of delicious tropical fruit and eating lots of wonton soup. I also got really sick while I was there, I spent a week not eating and my history teacher said I'm the only person he's ever seen sleep through most of Halong Bay as I fell asleep on the bow of our boat while the others had a seafood lunch (which doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me now!) I have really fond memories of how friendly the people were and I wish I'd been back or had plans to visit in the near future.

Banh Xeo - gluten and soy free

Banh xeo are like crispy crepes or omelettes. This version was already vegan, gluten and soy free.

Ingredients

oil

1 part rice milk

2 parts rice flour

3-4 parts water

1/2 t turmeric powder

1 carrot, peeled and grated

4 mushrooms, sliced very thinly

4 French green shallots, diced

1/4 C coriander leaves, chopped

Heat some oil in a pan, add your veggies and cook until soft. Mix the flour, milk, water and turmeric together, the batter should be like crepe batter.

Pour some over the veggies, cook over medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Once the batter sets, flip one half over with a rubber spatula. Transfer to a plate, serve with coriander and your preferred dipping sauce. Serves 3-4.

Unfortunately for me I realised I was out of coconut milk so I used rice milk. I'm not sure if this is the reason why my crepes fell apart but they turned to mush as soon as I tried to flip them. I tried with less batter as I thought I'd made them too thick but the same thing happened. The photo above is before I attempted flipping it. The banh xeo mash that I ended up with was yummy, I loved the cooked green shallots. If I could get this to work I would make them all the time.

Phở - gluten and soy free

Phở is a traditional noodle soup served with rice noodles, bean sprouts, lime and basil.

Ingredients

4 C vegetable stock

1/2 C water

1 star anise

1 clove

1 t grated ginger

1/2 T olive oil

250g rice noodles

8 button mushrooms, quartered

1 lime

4 French green shallots, diced

1 small red chilli, deseeded and sliced

100g bean sprouts

1/4 C coriander and basil, diced

Heat the stock, water, star anise and clove in a saucepan, simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes.

Add the rice noodles to a pot of boiling water, cook for 6-8 minutes. Drain then scoop into serving bowls.

Heat some oil in a pan, add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add to noodles.

Slice the lime into wedges, squeeze a few into the stock. Pour stock over the noodles. Top noodles with shallots, chilli, bean sprouts and herbs. Serve with a wedge of lime. Serves 4.

I liked how quick this meal was to prepare and how light it was. I did find the star anise and cloves a bit strong even though I halved the number.

Making these recipes has reminded me that I've always wanted to cook Vietnamese food but never got around to it. I'm looking forward to the new season of Luke Nguyen's series, Vietnam. It starts Dec 2 on SBS for anyone else interested in Vietnamese culture and food.

VeganMoFo2010 - Thanksgiving-inspired eats!

2010-11-25T20:44:00.000+11:00

For the past month or so vegans have been talking of Thanksgiving meals and menu plans. Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada (October), the U.S.A (November) and in a region of the Netherlands (November).

Each year I see vegans posting their delicious meals so this year I decided to try a few vegan Thanksgiving recipes as a way of testing out meals for Christmas and because I have plenty to be thankful for: Chris, parents, family, friends, Maya & Myena as well as our new house which we'll be moving into in the new year!

I had an abundance of recipes to choose from so I used two as my E.A.T World Challenge: U.S.A post, yesterday.

Mushroom and Spinach Stuffing - gluten and soy free

I found this recipe on Leinana's blog, Vegan Good Things, a blog filled with very good vegan recipes!

Ingredients

1 T olive oil

200g button mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, sliced

2 T of fresh parsley, sage, thyme, chopped

1 C baby spinach

6 slices of Naturally Gluten Free Crunch loaf, toasted then cut into cubes

1 t Orgran No-Egg mixed with 2 T water

1 1/2 t salt

1/2 C vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, pop a lid on top and cook until mushrooms are tender. Add salt, celery and herbs, cook for 3 minutes. Add the baby spinach and cook until wilted about 1 minute.

Spray a baking dish with oil. Mix together bread and vegetables. Whisk egg replacer mixture with stock, pour over stuffing and combine. If it's dry add another 1/4 C of stock. Transfer to baking dish. Bake for 50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 4-6.

Roasted Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts - gluten and soy free

Roasted Brussels sprouts are something I've only come to love in the last year or so. As a child I thought sprouts were a bit icky but roasted they are absolutely delicious! I sort of followed this recipe but left out the sweetener as I'm not always a fan of sweet/savoury combinations especially when it comes to veggies.

Ingredients

oil spray

20 Brussels sprouts, stems chopped off

1/2 t salt

1/4 C hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 180. Place the sprouts on a baking tray, spray with oil and sprinkle on the salt. Bake for 25 minutes. Add the hazelnuts to the tray and bake for another 5 minutes. Serves 2-3.

Festive Chickpea Tart - gluten and soy free

I saw this recipe by Dreena Burton and loved the idea of a chickpea-based tart.

Ingredients

1 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, sliced

4 garlic cloved, minced

1/2 t salt

2 C cooked chickpeas

1 T lemon juice

1/2 t ground sage

3/4 C walnuts, toasted

1 C baby spinach

1/4 C dried cranberries

1/4 C fresh parsley

1T fresh thyme

1 sheet of gluten free pastry, thawed (I used The Pastry Pantry's Rough Puff)

1/2 T olive oil

1/4 t salt

1/4 C walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 200C. Once pastry has thawed roll out and place in a pie or quiche tin that's been sprayed wil oil. Line with baking paper, weigh down with rice or beans and bake for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add the onion, cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, celery and salt, cook for another 3-5 minutes.

In a food processor add chickpeas, lemon juice, herbs, onion mixture blend but not until smooth, let it keep some texture. Add the walnuts and blend quickly just to break up the nuts.

Transfer to a bowl, add spinach and cranberries. Pour mixture into pie tin, smooth out with a spatula. Combine oil and salt, spread on top then add the walnuts.

Bake for 30-35 minutes and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6.

I had mixture left over as my quiche plate is smaller than a pie plate, I sprayed a muffin tray with oil and spooned in some mixture so I got 3 more mini muffins out of this recipe too.

Cranberry Sauce

There are lots of recipes online so after reading a few I just winged it ;) I boiled some water, added a tablespoon of maple syrup and some frozen cranberries, cooked them until they'd popped and then let it cool.

And here is one plate of deliciousness! My favourite thing was the stuffing, great flavours. I also loved the sprouts but I think the chickpea tart needed something, maybe it was lacking in flavour because I left out the tamari

Pumpkin Pie - gluten, soy free and sugar free

This recipe was already soy free and gluten free, it was like it was made for me, apart from the fact that it contains pumpkin. The thought of pumpkin-based desserts has never excited me but I wanted to try this because it's such a big thing to (most) US/Canadian vegans.

Ingredients

2 C cooked pumpkin

1/2 C rice milk

1/4 C maple syrup

1/4 C cornstarch

1 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla

1/2 t ginger, nutmeg, salt

1/4 t allspice

1 C brown rice flour

1 C almond meal

1/3 C Nuttelex

2 T water

For the crust, mix together the flour and meal. Rub through the Nuttelex. Add water then form into a dough. Crumble it up and add it to a pie tin that's been sprayed with oil. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

For the filling I bought a pumpkin, approx 1.8kg (including skin) and roasted it for about an hour. I scooped out the seeds and used about 3/4 of the flesh . 1.5kg of pumpkin would have been enough.

Once the pumpkin is done add it and the rest of the ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into the crust, smooth with a spatula then bake for 40 minutes. Keep an eye on your pie, if it's getting too dark, cover it with foil.

Remove from oven, cool and then refrigerate for a few hours.

Nope, this is not the dessert for me. It tasted like pumpkin and that's not what I want in a dessert. It was really sweet too so if you want to make it totally sugar free, leave out the syrup, I'm sure it'll be fine.

To go with the pie I made Cindy's salted caramel ice cream, all I can say is wow. The toffee was the best part, we found it hard not to eat it while waiting for the ice cream to finish and the ice cream was fantastic.

I really enjoyed this meal and all the herbs that go along with holiday food. I will definitely be making the stuffing, sprouts and ice cream again. I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving has a great day, filled with delicious, vegan food!

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: USA

2010-11-24T19:08:00.001+11:00

It's day 24 of VeganMofo and day 21 of my E.A.T World Challenge. Today I'm in the U.S.A!

Green Bean Casserole - gluten and soy free

Green bean casserole was originally invented by Campbells soup in the 50s and is now a very popular Thanksgiving side dish in America. I used Susan's recipe from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, it's call the Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole and even though I've never tried another version I am sure this is the best!

I halved the recipe, used button mushrooms, used arrowroot for the flour and rice milk instead of soy creamer. For the topping I used 2 thin slices of Naturally Gluten Free Crunch bread and I fried up a diced onion instead of using a tin of French fried onions, which I'm pretty sure we don't get here. It was pretty quick to put together and didn't need very long in the oven.

Garden Loaf - gluten and soy free

Meatloaf was created as a way to make meat last a bit longer, grains or flour were added to meat plus veggies and/or spices to create a loaf that was baked or steamed. It's always something I saw on American tv shows growing up so I thought I'd try a vegan version.

I used a recipe by Karina, the Gluten Free Goddess for her garden loaf. Again I used 2 thin slices of Naturally Gluten Free Crunch bread, I left out the molasses and instead of the apricot glaze I mixed together the balsamic and maple syrup and poured that on the loaf before baking. (Edited to add: I baked it in a regular loaf tin as I don't have a glass one.)

I was so happy when I turned this out of the tin and it kept it's shape. It was also easy to slice and each slice held together well.

I think these two dishes paired really well together and I loved both of them. The green bean casserole was delicious and garlicky and I loved the onions in the topping. The meatloaf was full of flavour and had a great texture.

Both of these will become winter regulars for me and they'd make great Christmas meals too.

VeganMoFo2010: Berry Sorbet

2010-11-23T20:26:00.002+11:00

It's day 23 of VeganMoFo and I'm taking a break from my E.A.T World Challenge to share a dessert with you guys instead!

Last week a friend and I went to see Harry Potter 7 Pt. 1 and when I returned home I found Chris in the kitchen whipping up a batch of sorbet! The week before he bought us a new CuisineArt ice cream maker on sale and we've been using it every other day since then.

Mixed Berry Sorbet

1 C water

1 1/4 C sugar

454g frozen berries, defrosted (Chris used half a packet of frozen raspberries and half a packet of frozen mixed berries)

2 T lemon juice

Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, remove from heat and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Pour into a bowl and chill in the fridge for an hour or until cool.

Places berries in a food processor and blend until pureed. Add the berry mixture to the cooled sugar syrup. Strain the mixture and then add the lemon juice. Place in the fridge and chill until completely cooled.

Once cool pour into your ice cream maker and proceed according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

Once done pour into a container and place in the freezer.

Makes about 4 cups.

The mixture was such a gorgeous ruby colour and it tasted like pure berries, absolutely delicious! The sorbet was very sweet, I'd like to cut down the sugar next time or try using agave and add another tablespoon of lemon juice too.

It has been such a nice treat in the evenings, especially on a summery evening like tonight. And I was impressed with Chris for making it, I think I'll leave all of our ice cream and sorbet making up to him from now on ;)

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Thailand

2010-11-22T21:44:00.001+11:00

It's the last week of VeganMoFo 2010! Today is day 22 and it's day 20 of my E.A.T World Challenge, today I'm coving Thailand.

As I was driving to my dentist last week, I noticed a bright yellow sign in the window of a restaurant, it said VEGAN! I looked up the restaurant, Jackie Khan Thai, but the menu I found wasn't vegan and there were no reviews online so I planned to go there and check it out.

Then it occurred to me that I was going to do Thailand for the letter T in my E.A.T World Challenge and I remembered that in the guidelines River says you can post about a restaurant if you're not in the mood to cook and after cooking 2 meals a day almost every day for 3 weeks I was definitely in the mood for take away!

I dropped by this afternoon, it's a small-sized restaurant in Crows Nest and lunch is served from 11.30am until 3.30pm (Mon-Sat) and dinner is 5 - 10pm (Mon-Sun). They offer a lunch special, you can pick 1-3 dishes from the ready-to-go meals plus rice. I chose the 3 + rice combo for $10.

Here's my delicious plate of Thai take away

This is the spicy eggplant with chilli. The eggplant was cooked perfectly and I liked the crispy basil leaves.

This is the green curry with chick'n pieces and vegetables. It was lovely and spicy but I only tried one of the chick'n pieces as they're soy based but the veggies were delicious too.

And this is the crispy soy pieces in black pepper sauce. Chris has been trying lots of different brands of chick'n strips/nuggets/pieces ever since we tried Lord of the Fries during our trip to Melbourne, so I chose this because a. I knew he'd want to try them and b. there was no chilli in this dish. I tried a piece and really liked the sauce they were coated in.

I grabbed a menu on my way out, they have a large range of dishes you can order and I gather they have taken over from the previous management and now everything is vegan, woo! The word vegan is all over the menu and I confirmed it with the friendly staff today as well. There is also an explanation of what vegan means and a list of foods that vegans do not consume including honey, gelatine, dairy and fish which is great to see. The menu is very soy and gluten based but there were a few dishes, like the chilli eggplant, that are veggie only.

We'll definitely be back to try some more of their meals soon and if you're in the area I suggest you go along for lunch/dinner or grab yourself some take away!

Jackie Khan Thai

18 Falcon St

Crows Nest NSW 2065

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Spain

2010-11-21T20:35:00.000+11:00

We're up to day 21 of VeganMofo and it's day 19 of my E.A.T World Challenge. Today I'm in Spain!

Tortillitas - gluten and soy free

River, the clever creator of the E.A.T World Challenge and the blog Wing-It Vegan made a totillita for her trip to Spain and I've been wanting to make one ever since!

Ingredients

olive oil

1 C chickpea flour

1/2 t baking powder

1 C water

2 mushrooms, diced very thinly

1/4 C French green shallots diced thinly

2 T coriander, chopped

salt, to taste

Mix together the flour, baking powder and water. Add the mushrooms, shallots, salt and coriander.

Heat a frying pan, add 1/2 T of oil. Add half the mixture to the pan and tilt pan to spread the mixture into one large pancake.

Cook for 3-4 minutes, flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the mix.

Serves 2.

River warned of how easily the pancake breaks and she was right, mine broke as I flipped it but I was able to get it back together again although it was a bit wonky. This was really tasty and would be great with a few more herbs added to the mix.

Paella - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 C rice

2 C vegetable stock

1 tomato, diced

1 T tomato paste

1/2 t dried tarragon

1 t dried basil

1 t dried oregano

1 red capsicum, deseeded and diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

6 mushrooms, sliced

salt to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add rice, cook for 1 minute.

Add stock, tomato, tomato paste, salt and herbs to the pot. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the vegetables, cover and cook for another 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Serves 4.

This was pretty quick to throw together and it was the first time I've made paella, vegan or non-vegan.

And now I've only got 6 more countries left to visit in this challenge, VeganMoFo has flown by!

VeganMoFo201 - E.A.T World Challenge: Russia

2010-11-20T20:35:00.000+11:00

It's day 20 of VeganMofo and day 18 of my E.A.T World Challenge. Today I am in Russia, a country I have loved reading about for years so I was excited to veganise some traditional recipes.

Kartoflyanki (small potatoes) - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

oil spray

3 potatoes (approx. 500g)

20g tapioca starch

salt, to taste

10g Nuttelex (vegan margaine)

2 French shallots, sliced thinly

100ml rice cream

Heat some water in a saucepan, add the potatoes and bring to a boil, cook for 30 minutes or until soft. Allow them to cool, then peel and grate them. Add the potato, tapioca, Nuttelex and salt to a bowl, mix together.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Take small amounts of potato mixture, roll into balls and place on the baking tray, bake for 20 minutes.

Spray a pan with oil, add the French shallots, cook for 2 minutes. Add the rice cream, cook for 4 minutes.

Once the potato balls are done, add to a plate and pour over the rice cream. Serves 2.

These were SO good! Soft, squishy potato balls covered in a creamy, oniony sauce. The kartoflyanki did lose their shape in the oven so I'd increase the tapioca next time to give them more shape.

Borsch - gluten and soy free

1 T oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and grated

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tomato, diced

2 sticks of celery, sliced

1 potato, peeled and cubed

1 beetroot, peeled and cubed

2 C vegetable stock

1/4 C cashews, soaked in water for 1 hour

4 T water

Heat oil in a saucepan. Add the onion, cook for 5 minutes. Add the carrot, garlic, tomato and celery, cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the potato, beetroot and stock. Bring a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour.

Blend the cashews with the water until smooth. Once borsch is cooked, ladle into bowls and serve with a spoon of cashew creme. Serves 3.

I didn't think I'd like this, don't get me wrong I thought the colour was amazing but I wasn't sure I'd like the taste. I'm happy to say I was wrong, I loved this! It was like a tastier version of vegetable soup and the cashew cream was a nice addition too.

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Qatar

2010-11-19T07:35:00.004+11:00

It's day 19 of VeganMoFo, only 11 days left! And it's day 17 of my E.A.T World Challenge, today I'm making recipes from Qatar, in the Middle East.

Moutabel (eggplant dip) - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

1 eggplant (approx. 425g)

2 garlic cloves

1 T olive oil

2 T tahini

1 t salt

1-2 small green chillis (I used 1 serrano, deseeded)

2 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180C. Place the whole eggplant on a baking tray and once the oven is hot, put the eggplant in for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes add the garlic cloves to the baking tray.

Remove eggplant and garlic from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Chop the top off the eggplant and peel the skin off, discard. Chop the flesh into large slices.

Peal the garlic cloves and add to a food processor with the rest of the ingredients excluding the lemon juice. Blend until smooth.

Pour into a bowl, add the lemon juice. Serve with pita bread, carrot sticks or rice crackers. Serves 4-6.

This was a really lovely, light and fluffy dip. Moutabel is very similar to baba ghanouj but it's spicer due to the chilli, although I could have increased the chilli to two and it still would have been mild.

Stuffed zucchini - gluten and soy free

The original recipe suggests chickpeas for a vegetarian version but I used mushrooms. I think lentils would work well here to.

Ingredients

6 medium sized zucchini (approx. 600g)

1/4 C rice

2 T olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

8 button mushrooms, diced

2 T coriander, chopped

1/4 t chilli powder

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t cumin

1/2 tomato, diced

1 t salt

Preheat the oven to 180C. Add the rice to a rice cooker with 3/4 C of water. Cook until soft and fluffy.

Rinse the zucchini, chop off the top and bottom then cut the them into equal lengths, about 3cm long. Using an apple corer or melon baller, scoop out the flesh in the centre. Add the zucchini flesh to your filling or save to make stock or add to another dish.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and mushrooms, cook for 5-8 minutes or until soft & browned. Add the spices, salt and the tomato paste, cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add to a food processor and blend until minced.

Add to a bowl with the chopped tomato and rice, mix together. Fill the zucchini with small spoonfuls, leaving a small amount on top.

Spray a baking dish and then add the zucchini. Spray the tops with oil then bake for 25 minutes. Serves 4.

I changed the method for this recipe, the original leaves the filling raw and the zucchinis are filled and boiled. I was worried the filling would fall out into the water so I baked them instead and cooked the filling beforehand.

I think these look a bit funny, like little sea cucumbers but the filling was delicious, I don't use allspice nearly enough as I should and I loved the cumin too. The zucchini was just right, still slightly firm and not too mushy.

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Portugal

2010-11-18T08:57:00.000+11:00

It's day 18 of VeganMofo and day 16 of my E.A.T World Challenge! Today I'm in Portugal in south western Europe.

Piri Piri Portobellos - gluten and soy free

Portugese-style burgers are very popular here, although I'm not sure how authentic they are. Why not make your own marinade and use it on tofu, tempeh or portobellos!

Ingredients

1 t salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t sweet paprika

2 T coriander, chopped

1 T red wine vinegar

2 piri piri chillis, deseeded and diced

1 - 2 T olive oil

5-6 small portobello mushrooms (if the ones you find are large, use 2-3)

Mix together all ingredients in a bowl or in a mortar and pestle until it's the consistency of a liquidy paste.

Place the mushrooms in a dish and cover with marinade. Place in the fridge for an hour.

Heat a grill pan and spray with oil. Place mushrooms in the pan and grill for 4 minutes over medium heat. Flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Serves 2.

I found a jar of piri piri chillis at my local fruit and veggie shop. If you can't find them use a teaspoon or two of hot sauce instead. This was an amazing marinade and it wasn't too spicy, I might add another chilli next time.

Sweet Potato Soup with green beans - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 tomato, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 t cumin

3 cups of water

2 white sweet potatoes (600g), peeled and diced

2 T coriander, chopped

150g green beans, chopped into 2cm pieces

salt to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomato, garlic and cumin, cover and cook for 10 minutes over low heat.

Add the water and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer then cover and cook until potatoes are soft, about an hour.

Use a stick blender in the pot or transfer soup to a blender in batches. Blend until smooth. Return soup to the pot, add the green beans, half the coriander and salt. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, serve and garnish with coriander. Serves 4.

I loved the gorgeous rockmelon-colour of this soup but I found it too sweet for me. I did like the addition of coriander and green beans and it would make a great meal for autumn or winter.

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Oman

2010-11-17T10:23:00.000+11:00

It's day 17 of VeganMoFo and day 15 of my E.A.T World Challenge. Today I'm in Oman, in the Middle East

Kofta with zucchini sauce - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

1 T olive oil

1 red onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 shallots (French green onions), diced

1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 T coriander, chopped

1/4 C chickpea flour

1 T tomato paste

1 t cinnamon

1 t salt

1 T olive oil

2 zucchinis, sliced then chopped into quarters

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 t red chilli flakes

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 tin of diced tomatoes

1 T coriander, chopped

salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, once hot, add the onions, cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and

cook for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add to a food processor with the rest of the

Remove from heat and add to a food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Blend a few

times until it forms a smooth paste.

Roll the mixture into small balls or patties and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Spray with oil and place try in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

In a saucepan heat the olive oil then add the garlic and red chilli. Cook for 2 minutes then add the balsamic vinegar and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, bring to a boil then lower the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Add the zucchini to the frying pan you used to cook the onion mixture. Fry for 5 minutes then add to the sauce along with the coriander and salt. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve the sauce over the kofta. Serves 2-3.

This has to be one of my favourite meals from the challenge so far! The kofta were delicious and I'm pretty happy with the texture of the bean balls and the flavour. The sauce was fantastic and would also be great over pasta or rice.

Foul medames - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 green capsicum, de-seeded and diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tomato, diced

4 T coriander, chopped

1 tin of broad beans, drained, rinsed and mashed lightly

1 T tomato paste

1/2 t cumin

1/4 t cayenne

1/4 C water

Heat 1 T of olive oil in a pan. Add 3/4 of the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and capsicum and cook for another 3-4 minutes. And half the tomato and coriander, cook until softened.

Add the beans, tomato paste, cumin and cayenne along with the water. Simmer for 5 minutes.

To serve, remove from heat, top with remaining onion, tomato, olive oil and garnish with coriander.

Serve with bread. Serves 4.

Another delicious and flavour-packed meal. This made a great lunch with some Naturally Gluten Free Crunch bread but you could serve it with pita bread or even tortillas.

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: New Caledonia

2010-11-16T16:39:00.003+11:00

It's day 16 of VeganMofo and day 14 of my E.A.T World Challenge! Today I'm in New Caledonia, which is comprised of several islands in the southwest Pacific, about a 2 hour flight from Sydney.

My Dad was born in Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia but he moved here when he about 20 years old. We travelled there often as children but I'm sad to say I haven't been since I was about 12! I have lots of fond memories of our family, going to the beach, spending time on our great uncle's boat (I'm ignoring the fishing that happened while on the boat!), visiting the school our aunty taught at, spending days at the local swimming pool, eating half baguettes for lunch, coconut ice cream and fried bananas and of course flamboyánt trees which are everywhere.

Fried Bananas - gluten and soy free

When we visited New Cal, we would always stay with my great aunt and one of our favourite treats was fried bananas.

Ingredients

oil spray

1 banana, sliced in half lengthways and then in half

1 T agave syrup

1 lemon wedge

Heat a small frying pan, spray with oil. Once hot add the bananas and fry for 2-3 minutes of medium heat. Flip the banana pieces and add the agave. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the pan, squeeze the lemon over the banana pieces. Serve with coconut ice cream.

Serves 1.

I replaced the sugar that's usually used with agave syrup and I loved the results. The agave caramelised like sugar does and the bananas were perfect without being too sweet.

Coconut Ice Cream - gluten and soy free

Last week Chris bought us a new ice cream maker! Our old one never worked well and our new one has a compressor and we've been making ice cream almost every day! So I was going to do another traditional New Caledonian recipe but seeing as I had the means I went ahead with coconut ice cream. It's sold everywhere in New Cal and I always remember being disappointed when we returned to Sydney as I could never find coconut ice cream and when I did it was just not as good.

Ingredients

540ml coconut cream

1/2 C maple syrup

1 T arrowroot

1/2 t vanilla extract

1/2 t coconut extract

1/4 C dessicated coconut, optional

Mix 1/4 C of coconut cream with the arrowroot, set aside.

Heat the rest of the coconut cream and the maple syrup in a saucepan. Once the mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and whisk in the arrowroot mixture. Add the vanilla and coconut extracts.

Pour into a bowl, cover with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for a few hours or over night. Once chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Add coconut in the last 5 minutes.

Pour into a container and put it in the freezer for 1-2 hours.

Here's the fried bananas and the ice cream together, the perfect dessert! When the ice cream came out of the ice cream maker I quite liked it, it was coconutty, probably not as sweet because I didn't use sugar and it was soft. Unfortunately it went rock hard after it had been in the freezer overnight and it was really hard to scoop some out the following day. This has happened in the past with coconut ice cream for me, so I'll be trying out new recipes very soon in my quest to make the best coconut ice cream!

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Madagascar

2010-11-15T16:24:00.002+11:00

We're halfway through VeganMofo, kids! It's day 15, time has flown by! It's also day 13 of my E.A.T World Challenge - I'm travelling the world alphabetically, veganising traditional meals from different countries around the world.

Today I'm in Madagascar, an island located in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. The cuisine is a mix of African, Arab and French.

Sakay - gluten and soy free

A lot of Madagascan food is mild in flavour so this is a way to spice up food by serving a hot sauce on the side of a meal.

Ingredients

1 small red chilli, de-seeded and diced

25g ginger, peeled and grated

1 garlic clove, minced

2 T olive oil

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend or grind in a mortar and pestle.

Serve in a small bowl with your meal. Serves 2.

This was a great condiment but I always regret eating raw garlic, I find it gives me a sore throat so in the future I would cook the garlic for 1-2 minutes before adding it.

Akoho sy voani - gluten and soy free

This is usually made with chicken but I replaced that with button mushrooms.

Ingredients

1 T olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

25g ginger, peeled and grated

12 button mushrooms, quartered

2 tomatoes, diced

1 tin of coconut cream (270ml)

salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and tomatoes, cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add the coconut cream and stir. Cook for 30 minutes over low heat.

Serve with rice. Serves 2-3.

This was a really delicious meal and while it wasn't strongly flavoured the sakay added more flavour once added. It was also really quick to cook making it a meal I will definitely go back to.

VeganMoFo2010 - E.A.T World Challenge: Lebanon

2010-11-14T19:46:00.004+11:00

It's day 14 of VeganMofo and day 12 of my E.A.T World Challenge! Today I'm in Lebanon located in the Middle East.

Batata Harra - gluten and soy free

This is a recipe for spicy potatoes

Ingredients

Canola or olive oil for frying

3-4 potatoes (about 600-800g), peeled and diced into cubes

2 T olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 red capsicum, diced

1 small green chilli, seeded and diced

1 T coriander, chopped

salt, to taste

1/2 t ground coriander

Heat enough all in a saucepan so that the potato cubes will be covered. Once hot enough, add some potato cubes to the oil, lower the heat and cook for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and place on some paper towel to drain. Repeat with the rest of the potato cubes.

In a frying pan heat the olive oil, add the onion and fry for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, capsicum, chilli cook for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the fresh coriander, salt and ground coriander and add in the potatoes.

Serves 3-4.

This was full of flavour, the topping was like a sofrito and it went so well with the potatoes.

Balila - gluten and soy free

Ingredients

400g chickpeas

5 T olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 T cumin powder

20g pine nuts

2T coriander, chopped

salt, to taste

Add 1 T of olive oil to a frying pan, once hot, lower the heat and add the cumin and garlic, cook for one minute. Add the cooked chickpeas and another 2 T of olive oil. Stir to coat and then cover the pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

In another small fry pan, toast the pine nuts over low heat. As soon as a few turn golden, remove from the heat, set aside.

Once the chickpeas are done, mash half of them with the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher. Stir in the pine nuts, olive oil, the coriander and salt. Serve with flat bread or corn tortillas.

Serves 4

Chickpeas and cumin, what's not to love about this dish? It was delicious and the pine nuts and coriander were the perfect addition. I don't know why it's never occurred to me to add cumin to hummus, I will have to try that next time I make hummus!

VeganMoFo2010 - Survey

2010-11-13T11:10:00.003+11:00

Every year there's a VeganMoFo survey (or two) floating around so I thought it was time for me to answer one!

What is one food you thought you'd miss when you went vegan, but don't?

Honey

What is a food or dish that you wouldn't touch as a child, but enjoy now?

I wasn't good at trying new foods when I was a kid but I'm over that now and eat a much wider variety of food than I ever did as an omni.

What vegan food or dish do you feel like you should like but you don't?

Kale chips! When I finally tried them I didn't like them at all, sorry kale-chip-lovers!

What beverage do you consume the most of each day?

Water

What dish are you famous for bringing to gatherings?

Cupcakes!

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?

Nope

What's one food or dish that you eat too much off when it's in your home?

Bonvita rice milk chocolate and Tings (which I don't have very often)

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available repackaged?

Hummus

What ingredient or food is worth spending extra money on to get the good stuff?

Chocolate, blueberries, mangoes

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favourite snacks?

I like snacking, I usually go with bananas, green smoothies, hummus with carrot sticks or rice crackers and tahini on rice thins.

What are your favourite vegan pizza toppings?

Tomatoes, mushrooms, basil and cashew cheese or a veggie supreme with pineapple

What's your favourite fruit and vegetable?

Bananas and broccoli

What is the best salad dressing?

The green tahini dressing from Get It Ripe or balsamic and olive oil.

What is your favourite thing to put on toasted bread?

Pb or tahini

What kind of soup do you turn to on a chilly day or when you don't feel well?

Pea soup!

What is your favourite cupcake and icing flavour?

Banana cupcake with coconut icing

What is your favourite type of cookie?

Gingerbread

What is your most-loved weeknight meal?

Anything with beans and/or rice

What is one food or dish you enjoy but can't get anyone else in your house to eat?

Anything with chilli in it!

How long on average do you spend in the kitchen each day?

2 hours

And we're done! If you haven't done a survey yet, you should! Happy weekending, VeganMoFoers :)