Roast tomato and mushroom cashew pasta

Ingredients

6-12 Roma tomatoes

4 - 6 serves of fettuccini or spaghetti

1 cup raw cashews (soaked in water for an hour prior, optional)

1/2 cup nutritional yeast 

1tsp oregano

1/2 tsp stock powder

1/2 cup of boiling water

1 large brown onion 

200g mushrooms

1 or 2 cups baby spinach leaves

Method

1. Roast Roma tomatoes in halves with garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
2. Cook your pasta in big pot 
3. Blitz raw cashews (soaking optional but I didn’t) in thermomix or food processor
4. Add nutritional yeast, oregano, stock powder, boiling water or more to make it a thickish sauce (it will thin out later with the pasta and a bit of pasta water). Cook over medium heat in saucepan for a few minutes. 
5. In a frying pan, cook onion till soft. Add chopped up mushrooms and fry until cooked. 
6. Drain pasta. Reserve a bit of liquid. 
7. Add pasta to the sauce and add some pasta water. Stir through onion and mushrooms. Toss through baby spinach leaves. Serve and enjoy! 

Lentil and root veggie slaw

This is so good, perfect on it’s own or with many other things. This is based on a My Foodie Box recipe that we used and goes with cauliflower ‘wings’. 

Ingredients

1 medium/large lemon

1 large clove of garlic

1 medium bunch of parsley

1 shallot

1 TBS red wine vinegar 

1 tsp maple syrup

1.5 TBS olive oil

1 - 2 large carrot

1 large beetroot

1 green apple

400g tin lentils (or you could sub for chick peas)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 large red chilli (optional)

Method

1. Into a large bowl; peel and crush garlic, zest lemon, place picked and finely chopped parsley leaves and finely chop shallot with red wine vinegar, maple syrup, juice of half the lemon, olive oil and salt and pepper. Stir well
2. Peel beetroot. Grate beetroot, carrot and apple into same large bowl. Add drained and rinsed tinned lentil. Mix well. Finely chop chilli if desired ajd use to garnish. 
3. Serve on its own or with cauliflower “wings”, smashed potato and fennel salad and/ or mashed avocado. Best meal EVER. 

Simone’s Fennel Salad

My vegetarian workmate Simone has been sighted eating only this salad for her lunch. She so obsessed. I prefer it along with other salads, such as the lentil and root veggie slaw I had, subbing chick peas instead of lentils, tonight. But it’s def a winner. It reminds me of having tuna ceviche, but for vegans and vegetarians! 

Here’s Simone’s fairly vague recipe she shared with me, with approximate measurements added by me:

 Fennel ‘ceviche’ salad

Ingredients

-finely sliced fennel, 1 large 

-Lemon juice, of 1 large

-Lots and lots of salt (it draws the moisture out of the fennel and makes it softer), about 2 tsp

-Generous splashes of olive oil; about 1 TBS

-Sprinkling of sesame seeds; about 2 tsp

Method

Cover and stir the fennel in the other ingredients, then let it sit for approx 30 mins (if you have the time), stirring regularly. 

Enjoy! 😃💫

Vegan Cheese Sauce mmmmmm

Get ready coz this one is TOO GOOD!

Ingredients 

• 3 medium potatoes 
• 2 medium carrots
• 1/2 a medium brown onion
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1.5 tsp salt
• Juice of 1 small lemon (about 1 or 2 TBS) 
• 1/4 cup and 1 TBS olive oil 
• 1/3 cup soy milk (or water or any milk of choice)

Method

1. Steam potatoes and carrot in the basket (with 2 cups of water in the thermomix bowl) for 15mins on caramel, speed 1
2. Sautée garlic, onion and 1 TBS olive oil for 6 mins, 100 degrees C, speed 2 
3. Blend all ingredients together speed 10, 30secs.
4. Add extra milk or water if needed to ensure a good consistency and easy blending.  Add any extra salt, lemon juice or nutritional yeast to taste. If needed, scrape down sides and repeat blending until smooth and desired consistency. 

Add these onto nachos, use for vegan fondue, in lasagne, as a cheese dip, or frankly you’ll probly just want to eat it like soup with some bread - it’s sooooo good!

This recipe is based on this one from gastromony.com and this one from Fit Green Mind 

Kimchi and tofu stew

 This is my current favourite meal. It’s got so many health and nutrition benefits, comes together quickly, is versatile, and feels like an indulgent treat of a meal. TICK ✅ 

I first tried this (https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/tofu-and-kimchi-stew) recipe but have tweaked it to this below recipe I’ve written up:

Makes 4-6 serves

Ingredients

1TBS olive oil

6 cloves of garlic, sliced and diced

One one-inch piece of ginger, diced

6-8 spring onions, sliced finely

4 cups of vegetable stock

2 cups boiling water

2TBS miso paste

2tsp korean (fine) chilli flakes 

1TBS soy sauce

1/2 cup Kim chi

2-3 cups veggies of choice, finely sliced. My faves are mushrooms, cabbage, carrot, daikon radish, pak choy, Kai lan, or other asian greens.

~200g Tofu of choice, sliced. I love Beijing chilli tofu. Silken tofu is also recommended. 

*you could replace the miso paste and chilli flakes with 3-4TBS of gochujang (Korean hot pepper) paste 

Method

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over high. Cook white and pale-green parts of spring onions (reserve the rest to garnish), garlic, and ginger, stirring often, until softened and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add veggie stock and water, then stir in miso paste, chilli flakes and soy sauce. Add vegetables and gently simmer until veggies are tender, 15–20 minutes.

• Add kimchi and tofu. Simmer until tofu is heated through. Carefully divide among bowls. Scatter reserved spring onions over.

Vegan Rainbow Kim Chi

I went to a Kim Chi making workshop hosted by Environment House (Bayswater, Western Australia) last year and was delighted by the laid back, knowledgeable education I got from the volunteer facilitator, Miho. To make it even more enjoyable we got to take a jar home! I haven’t since gotten around to making it at home until yesterday. I can almost eat this by the jar!

It is so good for you - can reduce the risk of cancer, support the control of diabetes, promotes digestion, prevents constipation, protects against colds and flus, aids in weight management, helps control high cholesterol and generally promotes gut health! Of course like most things, the quality of your ingredients determines the quality of what you’re making so get organic local fresh produce to make this winner of a recipe.

I’ve photographed the recipe we were given at the workshop but this is the slight variation did that made it RAINBOW KIM CHI

Ingredients

• 1/4 a white cabbage
• 1/4 a purple cabbage
• Half a white cabbage
• 80g sea salt
• Enough water to cover this mix
• 10 spring onion
• 2-3TBS Korean chilli flakes
• 1 green apple
• 1 white or brown onion
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 1 large piece of ginger (I used about 4 thumb sized pieces worth)
• 2 large carrots and/ or daikon radish
• 1 bunch pak choy

Method

1. quarter the cabbages lengthwise ways and slice.

2. Place cabbage, salt and water in a large bowl or other container, mix through a bit and then weigh the cabbage down so it’s immersed in the water under a clean plate (and possibly put a heavy jar on top to keep it down and leave for 1-2hrs in summer or 5-6hrs in winter.

3. Slice the spring onions and pak choy. Finely slice the onion. Grate the carrots and apple and finely grate the ginger. Finely grate, mince or crush the garlic and add these ingredients all together into a large bowl along with the chilli flakes.

Alternatively you could food process the onion, garlic, ginger, apple and chilli flakes together and then combine with the rest. 

4. Drain the cabbage (though not until fully dry - we need a little bit of the salt/ cabbage water left as liquid) and add to the rest of the ingredients mixing well by hand. At the workshop Miho encouraged getting the whole family to have a go at mixing to contribute a good mix of bacteria! 😂 We all had a go at the workshop. - Obviously with clean hands!

5. Scoop into clean, sterilised jars and press the contents down firmly so they are all submerged in the juices. This crucial as it is how they ferment. 

6. Leave jars in room temperature (20-22 degrees Celsius is ideal) for 6 hrs and then move to the fridge. You can eat immediately or leave for longer and eat as desired! 

If you’re like me you’ll eat half of it in the first day! A fun tip Miho gave us was that if it’s starting to look a bit long in the tooth, use it to make a delicious Asian soup or stir fry. 

Next time I’d probably try to include Chinese cabbage and the daikon radish too. And possibly add 4TBS of vegan ‘fish’ sauce. 

Here’s the recipe we were given at the workshop:

I did also find this vegan Kim chi recipe by the Minimalist baker that looks good and has a vegan fish sauce recipe that looks worth a go. It has lots of helpful pics for each step too, though is a little more complex than this one. 

Here’s some photos from the workshop Where we made it in bulk in huge buckets!

SOUP season faves

This is a collection of recipes for soups that we love or want to try:

https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-pumpkin-soup/

This soup has basically been the main form of vegetables our vegetarian kid has been willing to have! Such a winner and brings me back to my childhood favourite.

We haven’t done this one yet but plan to adapt it to be vegan so will update when we do with what adaptations we do:

https://smittenkitchen.com/2006/08/a-44-clove-ticket-to-a-happier-place/