tomato and macadami mozzarella pasta

Another winner from the Raw Chef - Russell James' free e-book. I really loved this dish, it was quite light (I find a lot of raw dishes to be heavy) and was really easy to prepare. I'm still getting the hang of my mandoline so my 'linguine' was thicker and harder to handle but it still tasted delicious and even better the next day. The kicker? I have found a way to eat parsnip that I LOVE!

ingredients
yields 4 dishes

linguine
4 medium carrots, peeled
4 medium parsnips, peeled
1/2 tbsp salt
15 large basil leaves, sliced thinly
2 tbsp dried italian seasoning
2c baby plum tomatoes, cut into small sections

macadamia mozzarella
3/4 cup macadamias
3/4 cup cashews
1 tbsp tamari
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

capsicum sauce
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 capsicum
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp agave (I used maple syrup)

method
1. Slice the carrot and parsnip thinly on a mandoline (or make spaghetti on a spiraler). With the thin strips slice them vertically to make linguine. Combine linguine with salt and let stand whilst you make the mozzarella.

2. Combine mozzarella ingredients in a food processor and blend until creamy. Add extra water if needed to help blend, the mozz should still be thick.

3. Combine all the capsicum sauce ingredients in a food processor until liquified. Add extra water if needed to get a sauce consistency.

4. Rinse the linguine and dry in paper towel or a salad spinner. The linguine should be softer and appear 'cooked'. Toss with the remaining linguine ingredients.

5. Mix in the mozz with the linguine until well combined.

6. Serve with the capsicum sauce drizzled over the stack.

cherry pie

Cherry pie to make Dale Cooper blush. On my recent trip down a portion of the Great Ocean Road we stopped at a servo hawking $10 boxes of mangoes, cherries and other deliciousness and picked up some goodies. No prizes for guessing what I got. These cherries were unreal, so fresh, plump and firm, they didn't really need *anything* to make it into this pie. I kept it plain with a tiny bit of sugar and it was out of this world. That's damn fine cherry pie.

ingredients
1 kg of pitted, halved cherries
1/8 cup of sweetner (liquid or dry is fine)
2 x frozen pastry sheets, defrosted (short crust is best)

method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Line a 9 inch pie pan with a sheet of pastry. Mine doesn't make it all the way around so either use a smaller pie pan, roll out the pastry a little thinner or do what I do which is pinch a few strips from the other sheet and make up the difference. Prick the base of the pie about 10 times with a fork. At this point you can "blind bake" your crust, I didn't (I didn't have any baking paper) and it turned out ok for me.

3. Toss the pitted cherries in the sweetner and spread over the pie base. Make the lattice top, sprinkle with some sugar and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with a traditional scoop of vanilla ice cream.

raw fettucine with cashew alfredo

Inspired by the Vegie Bars raw menu I have started experimenting at home. I had a raw uncookbook about 8 years ago, put it in storage when I went overseas and it never surfaced again (seriously where did it go?). I also had a dehydrator for 3 years but used it twice and sold it. So the interest has been there, but much like veganism in the beginning it just seemed too hard.

This recipe is ridiculously easy, though I have to admit I don't know what I'm doing wrong because all of the vegan alfredo recipes I've made I've found them too thin. So I subtracted 1/2 a cup of water from the recipe if you find it too thick you can always add more. This recipe has been adapted from The Rawtarian.

ingredients - serves 3-4 people

2 cups soaked cashews (soaked for 20 minutes)
1/2 cup pine nuts (or just use more cashews if you don’t have pine nuts)
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cups water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tbsp miso*
1 tbsp nooch
4 medium zucchinis
1/2 cup of packet, washed, spinach leaves
5 large basil leaves, shredded (I roll really tighter and snip with a pair of scissors)

method
1. Whizz the cashews, pine nuts, lemon juice, garlic, water, salt, miso and nooch in a food processor until smooth. Add another handful of raw cashews if its too thin for your tastes.

2. To make the zucchini 'noodles' peel the skin and slice the whole zucchini thinly on a mandolin or use a vegetable peeler. If you use a vegie peeler, peel down to the seed core - don't use.

3. Toss the noodles, spinach and basil in a 1/4 cup of sauce, adding more if you need it.

note: omit miso paste to make meal soy free. This made A TONNE of sauce which I later used for a mac'n'cheese bake, you might want to halve the recipe if you only intend on making one meal out of it.

corn fritters

There is just something about putting something in batter and frying it on a griddle. As you're all aware I've been travelling TONNES this year, there's something about turning 30 that makes you break your back in trying to get quite a few things ticked off before you turn 31. So most of my cooking lately has been about using up whatever food is in my fridge, what I can freeze etc, wasting food is the worst thing in the WHOLE WORLD to me. So these were knocked up quickly but what a deeeeelight. Enjoy.

Makes 1-2 servings

Ingredients

1 tbsp of besan (chickpea flour)
1 tbsp of flour
4 tbsp of water
2 large fresh corn cobs with the kernels cut off
a grind of fresh salt and pepper

1. Mix the flour and water until the batter is smooth and of a pancake consistency (you might have to add some more water). Add the corn kernals and combine well.

2. Heat a heavy bottom fry pan on high (or just regular pan but on a medium heat) and wait until the pan is quite hot (a few drops of water should sizzle when dripped onto the surface). Carefully ladle in mixture to form a couple of fritters. Only flip when completely cooked and browned on the first side (like a pancake, the mixture on the top is almost completely cooked before you flip it over).

3. Smear with vegan mayo and relish of some kind (I used green tomato relish - mm yum!)

Notes: You can you plain flour instead of chickpea, you may just need less water. I used white flour but whole wheat would be nice too. You can you plain flour instead of chickpea, you may just need less water. I used white flour but whole wheat would be nice too.

roast pumpkin, cranberry, pinenut and bulghur salad

This was my first time using bulghur and its pretty delicious. I don't know why I didn't read the packet when I bought it, its almost raw wheat hulls, its toasted cracked wheat and I'm not eating wheat anymore (not being strict about it but yeah trying to avoid as much as possible). ANNNYYWAAAYYY I'm not into wasting ANYTHING so I will use it up and then not buy anymore, but its given me an opportunity to try out a few new things.

ingredients
1/4 cup of bulghur
1/4 medium pumpkin, cut small and roasted
2 tbsp of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup of chopped, dried cranberries
1/4 cup of cooked lentils
1/4 cup of chopped fresh herbs... I used parsley but mint on its own or with parley would be good too
Squeeze of lemon juice and a glug of olive oil for dressing

method
1. Cook the bulghur just like you would white rice, 1:2 bulghur to water in a small pot over medium heat with the lid on. It took about 20 minutes, just stir and test at the 15 minute mark to see how its going.

2. In the meantime toast the pinenuts and roast the pumpkin, chop up the dried cranberries and fresh herbs.

3. When everything is ready toss in a large bowl with the dressing and serve immediately.

Notes: I sprinkled in a little vegie stock with the bulghur, bulghur has a lovely nutty earthy flavour much like quinoa.

strawberry jam

I bought some massive bags of frozen berries some time ago and they were really REALLY heavy on the strawberries so I separated them out and kept them aside with the intention of making them into jam. This was SO EASY. Basically its equal parts berries to sugar with a squeeze of lemon juice. Chop up the berries in a rough chop and let sit with the sugar for an hour or so then cook slowly on medium heat until the jam thickens and 'coats' the back of a spoon. Ladle into sterilised jars.

Notes: *Sorry for the stock photo, mine was too appalling to post (but I assure you mine actually looked EXACTLY like this). I don't know whether it was because they were frozen berries and released some water but I found it took AGES to boil down, like an hour. I also dont properly sterilise jars and I've never had a problem, I clean the jar thoroughly and boil in water for about half an hour then let cool. Wipe the insides of the lids and the mouth of the jars with vinegar before sealing the lids tight. I've also just filled the jars in the past with boiled water and let sit and never had a problem. I think proper steralisation is advisable if you are storing preserves for extended periods of time (over 6 months). For information on safe canning/jarring practices see thislink.

for other preserves see: nanna pats tomato relish and Chilli Oil

guacamole

Fresh. Divine.

ingredients
2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup of diced tomato
1/4 cup of diced spanish onion
Juice of one lime
Salt, pepper
Tabasco for serving
a handful of chopped coriander if you're into it

method
1. Mash the avocado and stir in the other ingredients. Add salt to taste.

rocket pesto

We got a tonne of rocket in this weeks vegie box (if you are interested in joining the Moreland Organic Fruit and Veg CoOp please let me know!) so I had to find a way of using it all up.

ingredients
2 bunches of rocket (this filled my standard food processor bowl)
2/3 cup of almonds lightly toasted
1 tsp of miso paste (mellow barley or white - do not use if you want soy free)
juice of one lemon
1 to 2 cloves of raw garlic
1/4 olive oil (though you may want more)
fresh pepper

method
1. Lightly toast the almonds in a fry pan and then whizz all ingredients in food processor.

notes: This was seriously DELICIOUS. I served on toasted ciabatta with fresh chilli and chipotle. I ended up eating this by the spoonful. Soooo lovely!

grape, corn, spinach and candied walnut salad

Lets talk about salads. Salads are unreal. I try working on the Ayuverda 5 tastes principle of sweet, salty, sour, bitter and hot/pungent (spicy) for all meals, but this particularly works well with salads.

sweet
Sultanas
Grapes
Candied walnuts/almonds
Apple
Pear
Orange segments
roasted pumpkin
roasted beets
melon slices
fresh corn off the cob

salty
I usually add some salt to the salad dressing or sprinkle on top of the salad
Capers
Olives

sour
I usually sprinkle some lemon juice into my salad dressing or just straight onto the leaves
Cranberries
capers

bitter
A lot of salad greens can be bitter:

witlof
radicchio
rocket
endive
baby spinach
kale

hot/spicy/pungent
A grind of pepper
Some finely diced salad onion
some radish
some mustard in your salad dressing
fennel
rocket
some thinly sliced chilli

and then I try to have some grains in it like wild rice or quinoa or lentils or butter beans.

how to candy nuts: I make a sugar syrup with 1/4 sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Cook in high heat until the syrup starts to turn a light honey colour. Throw in your chopped nuts and toss until all the syrup is absorbed/reduces to a crusty mess in your pan. Wait until the nuts cool down to just warm and move to a chopping board. The sugar syrup should not sticky and you should be able to chop up the nuts easily. If its still sticky wait. The pan looks like a mess but some hot water will wash of the sugar easily.

Try having one of each tastes in your next salad. You can always make up some tastes in your salad dressing.

low fat banana bread

Another winner from Veganomicon

ingredients
2 large or 3 small very ripe bananas
1/4 cup of applesauce
1/4 cup of oil
1/2 sugar
2 tbsp molasses
2 cups of flour
3/4 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas really, really well. Add the sugar, apple sauce, oil and molasses, and whisk briskly to incorporate.

3. Sift in the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips if using.

4. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the centre should come out clean. Remove from the oven and invert onto a cooling rack; flip the bread right side up and cool.

nanna pats tomato relish

My nanna passed away two years ago and this was one of her signature goodies that she would make the family. She told me this was the first thing she learned to cook when she was just married, "I couldn’t boil water before that darl". She always closely guarded the recipe and was designated relish maker in the family. I think she loved feeling useful and loved making something that was so coveted by everyone. On my birthday I made her relish so I could feel close to her, its no where near as good as she made it but it made me happy. She used slather this on bread and toast it with cheese. I'm sure cheezly in this will be awesome. Its making me sad I gave away my jaffle iron! I'm sharing this with you so you all can have a piece of my nanna.

ingredients
16 medium tomatoes
1.5 cups of malt vinegar
1.5 cups brown sugar
1.5 tbsp of mustard
1.5 curry
1 tsp ginger, cumin, chilli powder, pepper
2 tsp salt
4 onions
2tsp cornflour

method
1. In a large bowl submerge tomatoes in just boiled water for 5 minutes. Carefully tip out the water and replace with cold water. Let sit for another 5 minutes. The skins should come off the tomatoes easily, peel all tomatoes, "top and tail" them and the roughly chop.

2. In a large stock pot, sweat onions until clear. Add all ingredients and simmer for about 40 minutes.

3. In a small bowl make a slurry with the cornflour and a few tbsp of water. Then add to the relish and cook on a high boil for a few minutes, the cornflour should thicken the relish.

4. Prepare your jars while the relish is cooling down. Clean all jars and lids really well making sure there is no leftovers from what was in the jar before. Fill to the brim with boiled water and let cool until you can handle jar easily. Tip out boiled water. For most jams and chutneys, they are already preserved and should be ok without proper sterilisation of the jars. I've been doing this for a while and have had no jams or relish spoil, its only with canning and preserving fruits in liquids that you should really worry about proper sterilisation. Fill the jars and clean off any spillage. With a clean cloth wipe the lips of the jars and inside the lids with vinegar and seal tightly. Should keep 3 months in the fridge no worries, though I did find a jar that I'd made a year ago and it was fine so use your judgement.

caramalised spanish onion quiche

Another winner from Vegan Brunch. This quiche was bursting with deliciousness, I couldn't stop eating it or fantasising about eating it. I used the Pampas 25% less fat short crust pastry sheets (ninja vegan) though you can of course make your own. I find the sheets don’t exactly line a 9" pan but a little bit of creative trimming and pasting gets it filled. I added a few splashes of liquid smoke (hickory flavour) and a tsp of chipotle which gave this quiche a tongue tingling flavour burst. Le swoon le sigh. I really really want to get Veganomicon now.

ingredients
2 tbsp of olive oil
4 large spanish onions, medium dice
3/4 cup of raw cashews
1 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
200gm extra firm tofu
 
method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Prepare the pie crust into your pie dish and poke the bottom with a fork about five times to prevent from puffing up. Blind bake for 10 minutes until the crust takes on a little colour.


2. In the heaviest bottom pan you have cook the onions in a little oil until they go translucent. Cover with a lid and cook for 20 minutes (with a little hole for the steam to escape). Check on the onions and give them a little stir every 5 minutes or so. By the 20 minute mark they should be a light pink colour (or deep golden brown for regular onions). Take off the lid and cook on medium until all the water has mostly evaporated.

3. Meanwhile, process the cashews in a food processor into fine crumbs. Add the salt and nutmeg. Give the tofu a squeeze to get rid of some of the moisture, then crumble into the food processor. Process until relatively smooth then add about half the cooked onions and pulse a few  times. At this point I also added liquid smoke and chipotle.

4. Mix  the remainder of the onions through by hand and them smooth into the prepared pie crust. Bake for 40 minutes, until the edges of the pie are lightly browned.

This pie is great cold, room temperature, warm or hot. Seriously, and the flavours change at each temperature. Addictive. You could also sprinkle a heaping of Cheezly on the top if you're feeling extra decadent.

burritos/generic mexican goodness

Mexican, so full of freshness! Salty, hot, bitter, sour, smokey, TASTY.

Fry up a torilla in a pan until it goes a bit brown and puffy, turn over and spread some cheezly over the top and let it melt yum yum! Then:

Beans

As you cant get black beans in a can here (wtf) I soak a cup of them overnight, rinse and then cook until tender. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Black beans are SO good for you! If you cant get black beans I cook up some kidney beans in a can of diced tomatos and splash in some tabasco/lime juice/chipotle/liquid smoke/whatever.

then

Some cooked brown rice (I dont, but its traditional)

then:

guacamole

2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup of diced tomato
1/4 cup of diced spanish onion
Juice of one lime
Salt

Mash the avacado and stir in the other ingrediants. Add salt to taste.

then:

pico de gallo (or salsa whatever)

10 roma tomatoes (or whatever kind you like), I gut them then dice
2 cloves of garlic, slice/crushed/diced/whatever
Handful of fresh corriander (I just roll up and snip with a pair of scissors)
A splash of tabasco or chipotle
1/4 cup of spanish onion, diced
Squeeze of lime juice
Salt and pepper

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, season to taste.

Top with tofu sour cream, serve with tabasco, chiptole and a wedge of lime.

grilled asparagus

This was unsurprisingly really tasty. Asparagus is in season and bountiful right now, snap it up!

Recipe from Vegan Brunch.

ingredients
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste (a tsp each)
2-3 garlic cloves minced

method
1. I used 2 bunches of asparagus. Try and pick bunches that look really fresh and have soft stalks (the stalks go wooden and white if they are old). Trim the ends off the aspargus until the knife goes through easily (like cutting broccoli). I sealed in a water tight container and shook around. Refrigerate overnight or at least an hour. Grill, turning once.

handful salad

I love this salad, its quick and easy, tasty and gets better the longer you have it in the fridge! I call it handful salad because I use a handful (or two) of whats lying around.

ingredients
1/2 cup cous cous
1/2 boiled water
1 tbsp of oil
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (I just snip in with scissors)
handful of fresh mint (I just snip in with scissors)
handful or two of sultanas
handful or two of dried cranberries
handful or two of chopped almonds
handful or two of sliced sundried tomatoes

method
1. Put the cous cous, oil and boiling water into a bowl and let sit for a few minutes.

2. Fluff the cous cous then throw in all the ingredients and toss. Salad is better left overnight as the sultanas and the cranberries plump up with the moisture from the cous cous.

notes: I love the sultanas and cranberries, creating the perfect blend of sweet and tart. Also most of these items sit in jars in my cupboard so its a quick and easy meal if you cant be bothered going to the shops.