Ultimate Vegan Chocolate Biscuits!!

Want the ultimate decadent chocolate biscuit that's vegan and super quick to make?! Here you go :) 

Ingredients

1/2cup / 100g cacao butter

3/4cup / 150g brown sugar

6 Tbsp aquafaba 

3/4 cup/ 75g cocoa powder

3/4cup / 50g shredded coconut

3/4 cup SR Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup dark choc chips (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius. Soften cacao butter until almost melted. Whisk in sugar, aquafaba and vanilla until creamed. Sift in and stir rest of ingredients. Use wet teaspoon to place teaspoons of mixture onto grease proof paper. Top with shaved Almonds if desired.

Bake for 8-10 mins. They will be soft when removed from oven so leave to cool. Makes 16. 

This recipe was adapted from one posted on the 'Vegan is the New Black' fb page in August  2015. 

Ratatouille!! STAPLE

This vegan ratatouille bake is such an easy but amazing, not to mention cheap and versatile dish that will feed plenty (serves 6/8). 

I'm usually happy with just this and some bread, maybe some fresh avocado on top, or just some steamed corn and/or green beans (we love Jamie Oliver's Lemony Green Beans recipe!! http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/lemony-green-beans/#gviU8W0YilIm15t2.97 ) on the side. Though we did make this along with a Xmas nut loaf (recipe to come!) and salad as our Xmas lunch spread last year and it was a treat!

We basically cook variations of this A Clean Bake recipe 

http://acleanbake.com/ratatouille/

It's all about the veggies you use so be sure to get good quality ones.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup crushed tomatoes
2. 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3. 1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
4. 1 teaspoon minced garlic
5. 1 Tablespoon fresh basil, sliced (about 3-4 large leaves), plus more for garnish
6. 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence spice mix (or 1/4 teaspoon each of dried or fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme)
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. 1/4 teaspoon pepper
9. 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
10. 1 medium sweet or red onion, sliced
11. 1 large zucchini, sliced (about 1 1/2 cups slices)
12. 1 large japanese eggplant, sliced (about 3 cups slices)
13. 3 large roma tomatoes, sliced (about 3 cups slices)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Lightly grease a 6"x9" baking dish and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the crushed tomatoes, oil and vinegar. Stir in the garlic, basil, herbs de Provence, salt, pepper, and chili powder.
3. Pour the tomato mixture into the prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer on the bottom of the pan.
4. Stack the veggie slices in alternating patters (e.g.: onion, zucchini, eggplant, tomato; repeat) and place them on their side in the pan, leaning against the edge of the pan. Repeat until you've formed a couple of rows of veggies, filled the pan, and used up all of the veggie slices.
5. Optionally, spray or brush the exposed tops of the veggies with oil to encourage browning in the oven. This is more for appearance, so feel free to skip this step if you want.
6. Bake for about an hour, until the tomato sauce at the bottom is bubbling and the veggies are tender.
7. Garnish with additional chopped fresh basil before serving (optional). Serve hot or cold.

We actually mix the sauce and herbs (step 2) in the Baking dish to reduce dishes and you could add mushroom as part of the veggies quantities too/instead.

New improved Breakfast Smoothie!

Since having small human who is vegetarian and averse to swallowing solid food, we have come to rely even more on the sustenance of our BREAKFAST SMOOTHIES.

Further, we acquired a thermomix last year which increases our easy options with a good or decor and blender in one, though those two applicants could be used for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 TB oats

2 TB raw almonds

2 TB raw cashews

1TB chia seeds 

2 cups/handfuls English/baby spinach / silverbeet / kale leaves 

16 strawberries

4 bananas

1 or 2 apple or pear or stone fruit or other berry - whatever you prefer cored/ chopped into blend-able pieces

2 cups water

Method

Food process the nuts, oats and chia seed until fine (20 seconds on speed 10 on the thermomix)

Add all other ingredients and blend (1 min on speed 10 in the thermomix)

Enjoy!! 

This recipe is totally adaptable with other seeds, nuts, nutritional powders and other fruits that can be included or swapped, though the cashews and bananas are important to make it smooth and creamy :)

Serves 4 as a breakfast or more as a snack!

Chocolate Brownie - gluten free and vegan!!

Ingredients

BASE

1.75 cups almond meal

0.5 cup cocoa powder

0.75 cup brown sugar

0.25 tspn salt 

1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)

4 TBspns Aqua faba

1 tspn vanilla extract

TOPPING

4 TBspn brown sugar

2 TBSpn Cocoa powder

2 TBSpn coconut oil 

4 TBSpn soy milk

Method for base

1. Preheat oven. Combine dry ingredients and then add wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. 

2. Put into a small cake/ slice tin that's lined with baking paper. 

3. Bake 35mins on 160 degrees Celsius.

Method for topping

1. Combine ingredients in a small saucepans til bubbling constantly while being stirred

2. Pour over base to serve. 

 

Coconut & Sultana Rice Pudding

Everyone loves a good pudding as the ultimate comfort food and this one isn't too sweet to feel the guilts about nomming it down for dessert or a snack or any time you feel like delicious coconut-y, sultana-y rice-y goodness. Adapted to have sultanas instead of added sugar, from this Quirky Cooking Thermomix recipe: http://www.quirkycooking.com.au/2011/05/creamy-coconut-vanilla-rice-pudding , we cook it like so...

Ingredients

1. 1 whole vanilla bean, snipped in pieces or 1 tspn vanilla extract
2. 200g arborio rice (or 250g if you like it thicker)
3. 400g organic coconut cream
4. 60g sultanas 
5. 600g water

Method

1. Combine all ingredients in thermomix. Cook for 20 minutes at 90 degrees, reverse, speed 1 1/2. (If you're using vanilla bean, grind it up for 1 minute on speed 9 prior to adding all other ingredients).
2. The rice pudding will still be quite runny - don't worry, it thickens after a few minutes. You can pour it straight into a serving dish (a Thermoserver is ideal) and leave it for 5 minutes before serving, and it will be perfect.

Frankie's Pikelets

Feeding a 10month old banana porridge was proving to be messy and challenging, particularly because the little person is determined to feed himself. So I decided to turn his porridge into pikelets and let him munch on them on his own terms. 

To give him a bit more protein and omega 3 I've added a few extra nuts and seeds. This recipe makes about 12 little piklets so there's plenty to feed us too :) They're definitely worth eating even if you don't have a small human to feed!

Ingredients

1/3 cup of oats (could use quinoa flakes instead or as well but I haven't tried this yet)

1/2 tbs chia seeds (you could add some flaxseeds too)

10 almonds

10 cashews

1 banana

1/2 to 2/3 cup of water (could use a plant or nut milk)

Handful of blueberries 

Method

Put oats, nuts and seeds in a blender and wizz until fine - the consistency of almond meal or finer.

Add banana and water and blend until smooth - start with the 1/2 cup of water then add more if needed.

Add the blueberries and pulse through so they remain chunky.

Heat a pan with a little coconut oil or similar or nothing if your pan is super dooper nonstick etc. Once your pan is ready pour piklet sized amount of batter into your pan and cook until bubbles start to appear and they are getting brown on the bottom then flip and cook for maybe another minute or 2 until brown. My belief is that cooking pancakes and pikelets is all intuition and no science so good luck with the cooking process!

Vegan ANZAC COOKIES!!!

The ANZAC cookies are one of my favourite treats and many people avoid eating vegan because they think it'll mean forsaking their favourite treats or having inferior versions of them. THIS IS FALSE and this recipe is proof! The coconut oil in them makes them BETTER than the non-vegan version. So even if this is the only vegan thing you make, it's definitely worth it :)

This is based on this recipe but went easy on the sugar, used coconut oil instead of nuttalex, wholemeal self raising flour and added sultanas because I like my ANZACS with sultanas but you could leave them out if you don't/are ridiculous.

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil or vegan margarine/butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp boiling water

1/3 cup sultanas (optional)

Method

Heat oven to 180 C. Grease 2 baking trays.

In a large bowl mix together the oats, flour, coconut and sugar.

Melt the margarine and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat.

Place the bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl and mix with the boiling water. Add this mixture to the melted margarine and syrup.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Roll the mixture into 20 balls (about a tablespoon per ball). 
Place on baking trays and flatten slightly.

Bake in oven for approximately 15 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown.

They will still be very soft when you remove them from the oven so let them cool slightly on the tray first before placing on a cooling rack.