Vegan MoFo Day 12 - Tidy-up Thursdays - Green Chili Stew

This Green Chili Stew posted on Tales of a Vegan Food Fetishist a couple of MoFos ago was initially supposed to be a part of my first MoFo Mondays post. After scanning through the recipe I realised that it was going to utilise two sorely neglected ingredients in my pantry - tinned tomatillos and hominy. It's safe to say they had been sitting there unloved for a couple of years and although I did go through a period of cooking with tomatillos a while back I had never eaten hominy before.

I made a few substitutions to Leigh's recipe to suit the vegetables I had on hand and included cooked black beans in place of crumbled tofu. I wasn't sure about the quantity of tomatillos that was used in her recipe as the tin size wasn't specified but I'm tipping it was larger than my small tin which meant that my stew didn't end up with a green colour. On the other hand I had more than enough hominy in my giant sized tin and after doubling the amount there was still plenty leftover.

The man loved the aroma of this meal when he arrived home from work and enquired what I was making for dinner. I warned him that the meal contained quinoa as he isn't the biggest fan and cleverly marketed it as a "Mexican meal" rather than a stew to keep him interested. Stews are one of his least favourite kinds of meals so I always keep the liquid to a minimum as he really doesn't enjoy soupy styled dishes. I adored the strong smoky flavours from the ancho chilli and smoked paprika throughout this dish and also enjoyed the mild corn flavour and chewy texture of the hominy. The only bothersome aspect was that the meal contained a slight metallic undertone which was most likely due to using such old tinned ingredients.

Susan from Kittens Gone Lentil posted about recipe testing for Leigh Drew's new cookbok "Veganissimo! Beautiful Vegan Food" last week, which will be released on the 15th of November and can be pre-ordered from booktopia now. I couldn't finish a post about one of Leigh's recipes without mentioning her book as I was also involved in some of the phases of recipe testing. As well as many of the curries and tandoori cauliflower cheese that Susan mentioned in her post, I was most excited by the above dish - Tostada Tofu Rancheros with Scrambled Tofu, Blackened Tofu and Roast Potatoes accompanied by Mint Salsa Verde and Guacamole. This meal was amazing! For a sneak peek of other delicious foods from Leigh's new cookbook, make sure you check out Susan's post.

Vegan MoFo Day 5 - Tidy-up Thursdays - Black Bean Dip for Taco Pizzas

Does anyone else have black bean flour in their pantry? I picked up a bag on a whim a couple of years ago and it's been collecting dust ever since. There was absolutely no reason for this impulse purchase (apart from the fact that I love black beans) as I had never seen it used in a recipe before. I've spotted the black bean flour during minor pantry clean ups and sighed about it's presence without giving much thought as to what I would ever do with the darn stuff.

When I decided to incorporate Tidy-up Thursdays into my weekly Vegan MoFo themes, black bean flour was the first ingredient that sprang to mind. After I dug it out of the pantry and inspected the packet I was excited to find a few recipes printed on the back - one of which was for black bean taco pizza and another for the bean dip to spread on the pizzas. Black bean taco pizzas were not a new concept as the delightful Cadry from Cadry's Kitchen introduced me to this wonderful concoction last year which have since become one of our favourite styles of pizzas to make at home - I posted about my love for them last year too.

My usual method of making a black bean taco pizza involves cooking up a batch of spicy black beans which are half mashed and mixed with some napoli sauce to spread on the base of the pizza. This time was a little different as I used the black bean flour to create an adaptation of the bean dip recipe on the flour packet. This had a nice smooth texture and was more ideal for spreading on a pizza base even though it didn't look very appetising. The main thing that concerned me whilst making up the bean dip was the extremely strong earthy flavour from the bean flour so I added more seasonings to try to tone the earthiness. The man really loves his black bean taco pizza and gets annoyed when I mess with meals that he adores so I was certain he wasn't going to be impressed with this version. This is a snippet of our conversation while I was assembling the pizza...

The Man: "You don't normally put refried beans on the taco pizza, do you?"

Me: "They aren't refried beans but this isn't what I usually do either. I'm trying something different for Vegan MoFo."

The Man: Goes into a bit of a rant involving some minor expletives about Vegan MoFo and how I shouldn't mess with perfection.

Me: Sigh!

Thankfully the bean dip on the pizza didn't spoil the experience and there were plenty of other flavours in the toppings to further tone down the flavour of the bean flour. After the bean dip was spread on the pizza base it was layered with minced garlic, sliced red onions, mushroom, red capsicum/bell pepper, olives, crumbled plain corn chips and cheezly. We always top our cooked slices with some hot sauce for extra kick too.

Only 3/4 cup of flour was used to create the bean dip of which I only used half to spread on a large pizza base. The remaining portion of the bean dip was successfully hidden in a big pot of chilli. There is still a heap of the flour remaining so I would love to know if anyone has used it before and can point me in the direction of some other recipes that use black bean flour.

Black Bean Dip (Adapted from Bob's Red Mill Black Bean Flour packet)

¾ cup black bean flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder

½ teaspoon cumin

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups hot water

1/3 cup salsa (I used a Fonterra tomatillo salsa purchased from USA Foods)

½ batch Napoli sauce

Place the black bean flour, salt, chipotle chilli powder, cumin and cayenne pepper in a saucepan and slowly add the water, whisking constantly to ensure there are no lumps. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and stir through the salsa and napoli sauce. Allow it to rest for 15 minutes, the mixture will thicken further as it cools down.

Favourite foods from 2012

Happy belated new year to all my readers! I hope everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable and restful festive season full of delicious food.

Apologies for such a lengthy break between posts, it feels like ages since my last post was published and I'm also way behind in responding to reader comments as well as reading other blogs. After my family Christmas obligations ended, we spent a few days away camping in the bush which was relaxing as we spent our days swimming, playing with Ollie and watching the different native birds in the area. Instead of being rejuvenated by the camping experience, I picked up a bug just after we got home (the first illness I've had in over 2.5 years!) and have been feeling extremely worn out after dragging myself back to work last week. Now that my head is finally feeling clearer, it's time to get back on track with the first of a couple of posts I've been working on to sum up 2012 in my kitchen.

Favourite soup - Smoky cauliflower (and tofu bacon) soup. With or without tofu bacon this simple blended soup has become a household favourite. Red lentils are a sneaky ingredient to provide the soup with added protein and make it a more substantial bowl.

Favourite Mexican meal - Tofu adobe with refried beans. This has become our standard Mexican meal, when Mexican is requested this is what my fellows are after! We pile refried beans from Viva Vegan along with Tofu with adobe paste (from the Tofu Xpress recipe booklet) onto tortillas with some lettuce, tomato, cashew cream, guacamole and hot sauce. There's an art to how much filling you can load in the tortillas before they become a very messy eating experience.

Favourite meal that can be served anytime of the day - Mexican inspired tofu scramble. I've been making this scramble for such a long time and it never fails to satisfy our taste buds. It's loaded up with heaps of veggies and beans and pairs well with toast for an easy dinner or wrapped into tortillas for breakfast burritos.

Favourite fried food - Tofu “fish” fingers with tartare sauce. We adore Bryanna Clark Grogan's tofu "fish" recipe and have scoffed them down on a few occasions. I also tried a baked version with a polenta coating but they turned out rather dry so I recommend shallow or deep frying them for the the ultimate eating experience.

Favourite finger food - Gobi (cauliflower) pakoras are superb when paired with a coriander chutney from Vegan Eats World. I made these a few times by frying them in a wok and have been meaning to make them again in our relatively new deep fryer.

Favourite noodles - Steph from vegan about town's Char Kueh Teow recipe isn't actually restricted to our favourite noodle dish of 2012, it first appeared in my kitchen in 2011 and has been on semi-regular rotation since. It's a super tasty meal for minimal effort.

Favourite quick meal – Smoky Alfred with broccoli, asparagus, spinach or broad beans. I've been making this pasta dish for years (originally based on Hurry Up Alfredo in Vegan Yum Yum) and we never tire of it for a speedy weeknight meal. I change it up frequently by adding in some seasonal greens and enjoy it with tofu bacon on occasion too.

Favourite from around the world posts - Sri Lankan pan rolls. Although they took a couple of attempts to perfect, I've been very happy with my version of these deep fried snacks that we used to enjoy years ago. Stay tuned for another delicious Sri Lankan snack soon which I've been playing around with recently.

Favourite sweet - Sfoof (Semolina cake) and Chocolate chip cookies. As I rarely feel the urge to eat sweet things I'm leaving this one up to my fellows. Bryanna Clark Grogan's semolina cake with lemon or lime syrup from World Vegan Feast was the definite winner for the man last year, when he is craving a cake this is what he always asks me to make. The young man's choice is slightly more mundane, chocolate chip cookies are his fave which is fairly predictable coming from a teenage boy.

Number 1 household favourite - Calzones. The regularity of our calzone nights has dropped back from fortnightly to about once a month but they are still without a doubt the recipe I am requested to make if I ask the others what they feel like eating. I can't imagine them disappearing from meal rotations in the near future either!

Soup, casserole, cake and a new family member

Life has been a little crazy over the past couple of weeks which means that blogging has taken a backseat. There are so many posts I would love to be writing as I've been cooking up plenty of interesting meals, unfortunately there aren't enough hours in the day so I haven't had the time to follow most of them up with a blog post.

Our time has largely been devoted to our new family member Ollie. Long time readers of my blog may remember the heartache we experienced last year with our dog Jasper after he was diagnosed with a bone cancer. Jasper successfully went through a hind leg amputation and lived an active and happy 6 months before deteriorating rapidly when the cancer spread to his lungs. It was a devastating experience and has taken almost a year for us to feel ready to accept another dog into our home.

We went through a lengthy period of attempting to adopt a dog via various rescue organisations. After a lot of waiting, red tape and many close calls we ended up finding an older puppy outside of these organisations that was in just as much need, if not more, of a good caring home. A group of young international students had purchased a border collie puppy from a breeder obviously without having any knowledge of dogs or this particular breed of working dog. The pup had been confined to the inside of their house for 5 months, was never walked, trained or even desexed and had developed into a bundle of frenetic energy that just wanted to jump all over people. They were so desperate to get rid of the problem they had unknowingly created and didn't even bother to say goodbye when we took him off their hands!

In just over a week with us Ollie has learnt to stop jumping on people (most of the time), walk on the lead, sit, stay, drop and go to his bed. He is a sweet pup that is very eager to please but there are still a lot of areas where he needs work, including learning not to chase our dear old cat Monty! It has been an exhausting period as he can be the equivalent of a badly behaved toddler at times although it is wonderful to have a canine companion around the house again.

A couple of weekends ago I pulled up some more borage plants to make soup. This dark green soup was very basic and adapted from an old celtic recipe which we initially enjoyed and likened the flavour of the borage to spinach. Unfortunately the leftovers didn't fare as well! The following day the soup was very thick and set like jelly. It thinned out a little after it was reheated although the flavour wasn't as nice as it had been on the first day. The man thought that it tasted like egg yolk and although we did finish our bowls I'm not sure that I would use borage this way again.

The other night I baked a tortilla casserole to use up some very old corn tortillas that had been in the fridge for ages. I made the tortilla casserole from Viva Vegan a while ago and didn't have the right ingredients for it this time so I created my own version. Rather than topping it with a creamy nut/tofu based sauce, I crumbled some plain corn chips followed by grated cheezly. The sauce that was spread within the tortillas included pinto beans, corn kernels and diced mushrooms. I love the concept of a tortilla casserole as it's like a Mexican styled lasagne, this recipe is simple and versatile as it could be changed up to suit whatever vegetables or beans happen to be on hand. This meal was fantastic and just as tasty as I recall the one in Viva Vegan, it's definitely something I'll be repeating again as it was a hit with all of us.

A recent acquisition to my ever growing pile of cookbooks is World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan. I wrote about Bryanna's delicious tofu "fish" fingers recently which is a recipe that is posted on her blog. I have made a handful of recipes from World Vegan Feast recently and they have all been fantastic. I had been eyeing off a recipe for a lebanese semolina cake with lemon syrup from the book and ended up making it with limes as my mother in law gave me heaps from her tree. The semolina cake which is also known as sfoof was supposed to be topped with slivered almonds and as there were none in the house I used some chopped pistachios instead. This cake had a nice tangy flavour from the syrup, a different texture from the semolina and it was so lovely and moist. The syrup is supposed to keep the cake fresher for a longer period. I'm not sure we will be able to test that theory as I have a feeling that it won't last long around here.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into more regular blogging soon, for the time being I'll leave you with these three recipes.

Borage soup (Adapted from a recipe on celtnet)

2 tablespoons dairy free margarine
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup basmati rice
4 cups vegan chicken stock (I used Massel stock powder)
450g borage leaves, washed thoroughly
½ cup cashews
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
Salt and pepper, to taste
Garnish borage flowers

Melt the margarine in a stockpot over medium heat and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the rice and stir thoroughly so that all of the grains are coated. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Stir through the borage leaves and allow to cook for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the cashews, water, lemon juice and salt in a blender and process until a smooth paste results. Stop the blender and scraping down the sides a few times if necessary. Transfer the contents to a bowl and refrigerate. Rinse out the blender with warm water.

When the borage has cooked for 20 minutes, transfer the contents of the pot to the blender and process in batches until it is completely smooth. Return the blended soup to the stockpot and reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the soup ladled into bowl with a dollop of the cashew cream, garnished with borage flowers.


Tortilla casserole (Inspired by Viva Vegan)

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
150 g mushrooms, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 heaped teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 x 400g tin pinto beans, drained and rinsed
400g fresh tomatoes, chopped (or use a tin)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup water
½ teaspoon smoked salt (or use regular)
6 small corn tortillas (15cm diameter), cut into halves
Large handful of plain corn chips
100g cheezly, grated
Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and salsa picante

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat the oil in a deep sided frying pan over medium heat, add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the garlic for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook until softened. Add the cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika and stir until fragrant then add the corn kernels, pinto beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, water and smoked salt. Allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Spread a thin layer of the sauce in the bottom of a 20cm x 20cm baking dish and layer a couple of tortillas on top. Repeat the layering another 2 times finishing with the sauce on top. Crumble a large handful of corn chips on top followed by grated cheezly. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes. Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and salsa picante.


Sfoof - Lebanese semolina cake with lime syrup (Adapted from World Vegan Feast)

¾ cup raw sugar
¾ cup water
grated zest of 1 lime
juice of 4 limes (about 2/3 cup)
½ cup pastry flour (low gluten)
1½ cups fine semolina
1 teaspoon turmeric
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups raw sugar
1 cup soy milk
zest of 1 lime
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup pistachios, chopped roughly

Place the sugar, water and lime zest in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir through the lime juice thoroughly, then pour the contents into a jug and refrigerate until required.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper and grease lightly with dairy free margarine. Combine the pastry flour, semolina, turmeric, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. With a hand held mixer, beat together the soy milk, sugar and lime zest in a large bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the contents of the small bowl and the oil and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes. Pour the batter into the cake tin and sprinkle the chopped pistachios on top. Bake for 35 minutes on until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 10 minutes, then remove carefully from the tin. Using a bamboo skewer, pierce small holes all over the top of the cake then pour the cooled lime syrup on top.

A series of scrambles (part 1)

Tofu scrambles are one of the most popular meals in our house so I make them on a fairly regular basis. I hardly ever cook them for brunches these days and prefer to whip one up as a casual dinner. If it's a tried, tested and previously loved formula then I usually make an enormous batch as the leftovers are fantastic for work lunches throughout the week.

I haven't blogged much about tofu scrambles before so I figured it was time to start posting a few of my scramble recipes starting with the household favourite, a Mexican inspired tofu scramble. This scramble has been made several times over the past year with many tweaks along the way and I'm pleased to have recorded the recipe now so I can refer back to it next time I'm making a batch.

Broccoli is hardly an authentic Mexican ingredient but try telling that to the man who insists that it goes into almost every scramble I make! I love to include lots of vegetables and find that sliced mushrooms, grated carrot (sometimes also zucchini) and spinach leaves thrown in at the end are barely noticeable. The equivalent of a tin of red kidney, black or pinto beans are always an addition which give the meal an even bigger protein boost. As you can see in the photo below, my large deep sided frying pan is so full at the end it can be quite a struggle to stir the final ingredients through without making a mess.

The recipe has been written with a few variations in the ingredients. I don't always have smoked tofu on hand but the scramble works just as well with plain tofu and some extra smoked paprika. I normally use 2 teaspoons of chipotle chilli powder which makes it fairly hot, 1 teaspoon is quite mild if you are not a spice fiend. A hot sauce like salsa picante or sriracha is wonderful drizzled over your serve if you require an extra kick.

So that's it for part 1! I haven't set myself a timeline nor do I know how many of these posts I'll be writing at this stage. There are a few more that are ready to go in the recipe sense and plenty of other different scramble ideas floating around in my head.


Mexican inspired tofu scramble

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets and stalk sliced into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, sliced into half moons
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
250g button or portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-2 teaspoons chipotle chilli powder
1-2 teaspoons smoked paprika (use 1 teaspoon if using smoked tofu, 2 if using plain tofu)
2 x 350g packets firm tofu (or 1 x 350g plain tofu, 1 x 300g smoked tofu)
2 medium carrots, grated
1/3 cup tomato paste
½ cup water
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans, pinto or black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon salt (it may need a little more salt if not using smoked tofu)
freshly ground black pepper
75g baby spinach leaves

Lightly steam the broccoli and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large deep sided frying pan, add the onions and fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the garlic for a minute then add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft and beginning to release liquid. Add the cumin, oregano, chipotle chilli powder and smoked paprika and stir for a minute, then crumble in the tofu with your hands. If using smoked tofu, chop this into very small cubes as it doesn't crumble well.

Add the carrot, tomato paste and water and stir thoroughly. Allow the liquid to cook off which should take between 3 to 5 minutes, then stir through your choice of beans, steamed broccoli, lime juice, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Finally stir through the spinach leaves until just wilted and serve immediately.

Roasted chipotle sprouts

First of all, I would like to apologise to anyone who read this post in it's half completed state. I'm going to blame my error of hitting the "Publish" button rather than "Preview" on post earthquake jitters! Needless to say I was rather embarrassed about releasing an incomplete post. Oh well, it's a reminder that accidents happen and we all make mistakes from time to time. ;-) 

We had a mix match Mexican inspired dinner last Friday night. I wanted to use up the rest of Cadry's black beans in soft tacos but there were only enough beans for a single taco each. I thought about my available ingredients for a while and came up with the following simple solution - spicy roasted vegetables. It had been a while since I made a batch of my Mexe wedges so they were definitely going to be in and I also recalled how delicious the chipotle carrots chips from where's the beef had been when I had tried them recently.

On this night I really felt like eating some greens so instead of carrots I decided to test the recipe out with brussel sprouts. I've enjoyed smoky sprouts before and spicy ones shredded into stir frys although I've never combined these two wonderful flavours with sprouts. Another bonus of using sprouts was the shortened cooking time as they take less time to roast than carrots.


It's a very simple recipe to prepare, after prepping your veggies it's just a matter of mixing through some finely chopped chipotle chillies in adobo sauce along with a bit of oil and salt before roasting in the oven. I used 2 chipotle chillies which gave the sprouts a decent amount of heat and added a bit of lime juice to the mix this time as I had been squeezing limes for guacamole and had a little bit of juice leftover. It's difficult to pick a favourite of these two vegetables roasted in this tasty blend as they are both unique in their own way. This is a different way to prepare roasted vegetables and they pair well with any Mexican themed meal, especially in cold weather when salad items aren't as appetising.

Before I leave you with the recipe, Kari of Bite-sized thoughts kindly nominated me for the Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling. Many thanks Kari! I feel honoured to receive this award and am even more excited to hand it out to others who I believe are better storytellers than myself. The bloggers I would like to nominate are:

• Cadry - Cadry's Kitchen
• Joey - Flicking the Vs
• Johanna - Green Gourmet Giraffe
• Jojo - Vegan in Brighton
• Theresa - The Tropical Vegan 

The Food Stories Award requires the recipient to share a random fact about themselves as well as passing the award onto 5 other bloggers. Here is my fact.

I don't wear any make-up at all and have never used moisturisers, hand lotions, etc. There was a stage in my late teens when I did wear make-up and I have popped a little bit on for an occasion like a wedding but I don't enjoy the heavy fake feel of it. I'm sure my skin is thankful for this and the other bonus was that I didn't need to consider product changes when transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.

Roasted chipotle sprouts (Adapted from where's the beef, originally from Tofu for Two)

500g brussell sprouts
1-2 chipotle chillies in adobo sauce, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼-½ teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons lime juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 200C.

Trim the sprouts of their outer leaves and cut into halves. Place the sprouts in a bowl, toss the rest of the ingredients over the top and use your hands to coat the sprouts in the mixture evenly.

Bake in the oven on a roasting tray lined with baking paper for 20 minutes, flipping the sprouts after about 10 minutes.

Black bean taco pizza

There are so many different pizza recipes around the blogosphere. Pizza seems to be one of those things that is very open to experimentation which makes a lot of sense to me. When you make your own pizza from scratch, the base is like a blank canvas waiting for creativity to happen. Pizza experiments are by no means guaranteed to succeed every time but when I read Cadry's entertaining post about black bean taco pizza, I certainly felt like I was onto a winning combination.

When I mentioned this pizza as a dinner prospect, the man was interested in the black bean topping. The young man didn't care about the rest of the pizza toppings, he was just delighted that there were going to be corn chips on top.

I made half a batch of my usual pizza dough and a batch of Cadry's black beans. When it comes to pizza, I'm a bit lax with making my own sauce and normally use Leggos pizza sauce with garlic and herbs. The corn chips I used for the topping were Mission brand lime and chilli tortilla chips which had a nice kick to them. This was one of the nicest pizzas we have had recently, the spice from the beans and a bit of crunch from the corn chips made it completely unique to pizzas we normally eat. We liked it so much it will definitely be repeated again. 

Black bean taco pizza (Adapted from Cadry's Kitchen)

½ quantity pizza dough
Leggos pizza sauce with garlic and herbs or tomato paste
½ quantity Cadry's spicy black beans
½ small red onion, sliced into thin half moons
150g button mushrooms, sliced
½ red capsicum, thinly sliced
½ green capsicum, thinly sliced
12 kalamata olives, cut in halves
handful of mission lime and chilli tortilla chips, crumbled
150g cheezly, grated

Prepare the pizza dough. While the dough is resting make the spicy black beans and prepare the rest of the toppings.

Preheat oven to 230C.

After the dough has doubled in size (approx 1 hour), punch it down on a floured surface. Roll the dough out to the size of a pizza tray. Place the dough on your tray then spread the pizza sauce/tomato paste evenly on top followed by the black beans. Add the onion, mushrooms, capsicum and olives then scatter the corn chips on top followed by the cheezly.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the dough is cooked.

Tofu with adobe paste

When I ordered the TofuXpress I was only expecting to receive a pressing tool, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that the accompanying instruction booklet also contained a few recipes. There was one recipe that immediately stood out from the rest but I had so many other things lined up to try with my new tool that it was forgotten for a while.

The man and I decided it was time to have refried beans this week as it's something we love, the trouble is the young man is not so much a fan. Viva Vegan contains a few sections which gives you ideas for matching different elements and when I repeatedly saw tofu paired with beans, it sounded like a great idea to get the young man enthused. I still hadn't tried the Tofu with adobe paste recipe from the TofuXpress booklet which seemed like the perfect match to complete our meal.

I made a few alterations to the marinade, reducing the quantities of ingredients down a smidgen due to the size difference in my block of tofu. Another minor tweak I made was to cut back on some of the sweet paprika and add a bit of smoked paprika. The lime, garlic and chilli flavours really stood out in the marinade and my initial thought was that it would be slightly too spicy. If the tofu was eaten on it's own that could have been the case. After it was wrapped in a tortilla with refried beans, lettuce, tomato, guacamole and cashew cream we found ourselves reaching for the hot sauce for some extra kick.

The young man hasn't been that enthused about Mexican food previously because he really isn't a lover of beans. This meal was requested by everyone to be repeated regularly so I'm happy to have found a way that we can all enjoy Mexican food.


Tofu with adobe paste (Adapted from the TofuXpress recipe booklet)

350g firm tofu
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
zest of 1 lime
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Drain the tofu and press it using paper towels and heavy weights or a tofu press for at least 30 minutes.

Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl/shallow dish. Cut the tofu into small cubes and toss them well in the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and spray lightly with olive oil. Add the tofu and cook in batches over medium heat for about 8 minutes, stirring often until the tofu is browned on all sides.

Enjoy in tortillas with refried beans, guacamole, cashew cream, hot sauce and salad toppings of your choice.

A bunch of brunches

Tofu scrambles have been a habitual weekend brunch item for such a long period when I have the time to cook something up. Although I adore a good scramble and love how it can be changed up in a multitude of ways, I reached the point where I grew tired of cooking and eating scrambles. My last few brunches have been a lot more interesting to eat and photograph so I decided to post about them.

My first effort was centred around trying out some Mexican styled home-made baked beans. The beans had a great flavour although they were tainted by the odd chewy bean here and there. Making up the rest of the plate was avocado, steamed spinach with a drizzle of lime and garlic, a grilled home-grown tomato and some delicious mushroom chicharrones. Last year I made tofu chicharrones from Viva Vegan and loved their taste but not how oily they were. Mandee from Cupcake Kitteh gave me inspiration to try this wonderful marinade out with mushrooms and I have been making them like this since as they are seriously delicious without the guilt.      

I gave the home-made baked beans a miss the following weekend and opted to use some tinned ones instead. The man prefers the sweet chilli variety with a bit of hot sauce added. Some of the same elements from the following week were on our plates again and there was also tofu bacon and some fantastic faux eggs. The faux eggs are adapted from one of Terry Hope Romero's testing recipes so I won't be sharing my version of this until the book is released.

On Australia Day, I decided to cook us up an Egyptian styled breakfast for something even more different. I bought some tins of ful medames from a Middle Eastern store a while ago after being slightly disappointed with my previous ful medames attempt when I cooked fava beans from scratch. The instructions on this tin said to "heat and eat" but I found that the beans needed some lemon and garlic to perk them up. The ful medames were topped with faux eggs, chopped home-grown tomatoes and parsley with some home-made pita bread on the side. The man wanted to know why he wasn't getting the full spread he was becoming accustomed to but I really loved this breakfast.

To appease the man, I went back to a full spread last weekend. Tinned baked beans, tofu bacon, spinach and home-grown tomatoes with a huge dollop of home-made pesto. I usually photograph my own plate but had been snacking along the way and wasn't very hungry by the time everything was prepared, so this is the man's enormous serve of the lot.

Instead of making up a chiccharone marinade for the mushrooms this time, I threw them into the remaining tofu bacon marinade which worked quite well. I also made some tattie scones which I have seen Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe and more recently Theresa of The Tropical Vegan post recipes for. I loosely followed Theresa's recipe although I didn't measure any of the ingredients and just made them by feel. Tattie scones are served for breakfast in Scotland and are made up of mashed potato, flour, salt and oil which are rolled out flat and fried on each side. Tattie scones will included in these types of brunches every so often as they were really nice and quite easy to make.      

These brunches haven't been the fastest meals to prepare but I have enjoyed having so much variety on my plate. They are generally consumed very late in the morning which means there is no need for lunch, a small afternoon snack normally sees us through until dinner. And after all this time without a scramble, I'm really starting to crave one again!

Breakfast burritos

Breakfast burritos have always sounded like a fantastic idea to me although I must admit to never eating one before. Last weekend I decided it was time to give them a try with a tofu scramble filling. Smoked tofu seasoned with cumin, oregano, chipotle chilli powder and lime juice felt like a good combination of ingredients, along with some mushrooms and the man's favourite vegetable - broccoli. The broccoli seemed a little out of place but it was purely there to keep a promise.

After making the scramble, it was just a matter of filling the tortillas, folding them up and then grilling for a minute or two on each side. I had some sofrito, cashew cream and guacamole leftover from dinner which were perfect condiments for the burritos. This was a slightly different kind of brunch to ones I usually make on weekends but it is a meal I am very likely to make again as it was fairly quick to prepare and we loved it!

Mexican inspired tofu scramble burritos

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
1/2 cup water
1 large shallot or 1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100g button mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder
300g smoked tofu, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2-4 teaspoons lime juice (I used 4 which I might reduce to 3 next time)
salt and pepper, to taste
4 flour tortillas

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan, add the broccoli and cook, stirring for a few minutes until browned. Pour in 1/4 cup water, cover and steam for another minute. Transfer the broccoli to a plate.

Add the other tablespoon of oil to the pan and fry the shallots/onions and garlic on medium for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the mushrooms with a pinch of salt and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and juicy. Add the cumin, oregano, chipotle chilli powder, smoked tofu, tomato paste and 1/4 cup water and stir well to combine. Cook for a few minutes until the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the heat and add the lime juice to your desired taste. Season with salt and pepper.

Place spoonfuls of the filling in the centre of the tortillas and then wrap them up to enclose the filling. Heat a non-stick grill pan or frying pan over medium heat and cook the burritos for a minute or two on each side. The burritos should be cooked seam side down first and carefully flipped over when slightly browned. Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and hot sauce.

Tamales with refried beans, mushrooms and corn

Last Saturday was perfect weather to stay indoors as it was an extremely rainy old day in Melbourne. This wasn't to be the case as the man and I had several errands to run which included a visit to USA Foods in Moorabbin. The main reason for our visit to USA Foods was to purchase some more liquid smoke but I was also delighted to find some Maseca flour for making tamales. As soon as I had this wonderful flour in my hands, I knew we would be having tamales for dinner that night.

Tamales have been intriguing me since I purchased Viva Vegan. They are parcels of masa dough filled with savoury or sweet items which are wrapped in corn husks and steamed. As I had no idea where to buy corn husks, I decided to forgo this part and wrap my tamales in foil instead. The man loves his refried beans so to please him I made up a refried bean filling and added some mushrooms and corn rather than following one of the tamale recipes from Viva Vegan.

When it was time to make the masa dough, I let out a big sigh. I didn't have any vegetable shortening! The rain was still bucketing down and I couldn't bear the thought of going out in the weather again. Instead I spent of bit of time reading about masa dough recipes for tamales and discovered that any type of fat can really be used so I settled upon using some olive oil in it's place.  

After the filling and masa dough were prepared, I set up an assembly line of sheets of aluminium foil. The dough was placed onto each sheet and shaped by hand, then spoonfuls of the filling were placed down the middle of the dough. The trickiest part was the rolling. There's a lot of great tamale making advice and tips in Viva Vegan but it is centred around using corn husks so I just did what felt right and hoped for the best. Next time I would use slightly smaller sheets of foil as they were a bit cumbersome to roll.

The refried bean filling on it's own was rather spicy although the heat level dropped considerably when it was combined with the masa dough. Never mind, a few splashes of hot sauce took the spiciness back up to how we like it. I really enjoyed the soft but hearty texture of the tamales and the flavour of the corn in the masa dough was delicious. The tamales were served with a simple side salad drizzled with Creamy Ancho Chile dressing which is also from Viva Vegan. I'm looking forward to trying out some other tamale recipes now that there is a big bag of Maseca flour in my pantry.


Tamales with refried beans, mushrooms and corn
Makes 10 tamales

Refried beans with mushrooms and corn

1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small onion, finely diced
2 teaspoons finely chopped pickled jalapenos
100g mushrooms, finely diced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon ancho chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup water
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels

Heat the peanut oil in a large saucepan over medium. Fry the garlic for about 10 seconds, then add the onion and jalapeno and cook for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the cumin, oregano, ancho chilli powder, salt and bay leaf. Place the kidney beans and water in the pot, bring to the boil then reduce the heat slightly.

Cook uncovered for 20 minutes, then remove the bay leaf. Break the beans up with a potato masher and then cook for another 5 minutes. Stir through the frozen corn kernels 2 or 3 minutes before the filling is ready. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before filling the tamales.

Masa Dough (Adapted from Viva Vegan)

1/4 cup dairy-free margarine
1/4 cup olive oil
1 3/4 cups Maseca flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups warm vegetable stock

Place the margarine and olive oil in a bowl and use a hand-held mixer to combine the ingredients together. Add the maseca flour, baking powder, garlic powder and salt and beat for a few minutes until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Pour in the vegetable stock and beat until the liquid has been absorbed.

The dough should have a consistency that is comparable to thick mashed potatoes. If it appears too wet, mix through a couple of tablespoons of extra flour. If it's too dry, add a tablespoon or two of water and stir thoroughly.

Tamale assembly

Tear off sheets of aluminium foil or baking paper and spray lightly with olive oil. Place about 1/4 cup of the masa dough on the centre of each sheet and use your hands or a spatula to mould the dough into a rectangular    shape of approximately 12 x 8 cm. Place a couple of spoonfuls of the filling down the centre of the masa dough leaving 1 cm at each end without any filling.

Prepare each tamale by pinching the sheets of foil/baking paper together along the outsides of the masa dough, then roll up the foil and secure the ends. The parcel should be fairly tight but needs to allow a bit of room for the masa dough to expand whilst steaming.

Place the tamale parcels into a steamer basket and allow to steam for 55 minutes. To check whether the tamales are ready, remove one from the steamer and carefully peel back the wrapper. If the dough appears to be sticky, continue steaming for another 10-15 minutes.

Vegan MoFo - T is for Tortilla Chips and testing for Terry

I found it strangely coincidental after deciding to make tortillas for the letter T and a suite of accompanying Viva Vegan recipes that an email would land in my inbox notifying me that it was time to start testing recipes for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook! It was so exciting but the timing a little frustrating as I have come so far with my MoFo theme and still want to see it through. My remaining MoFo posts will be briefer and slightly altered from my original plan to compensate and may also include a couple of photos from recipe testing.

On Friday night, I made blue corn tortillas, refried beans, sofrito, guacamole and cashew crema although due to a mishap with the hot sauce I decided not to post the photo. Instead I whipped up another batch of blue corn tortillas to be made into tortilla chips. I tried a oven-baked version of tortilla chips a while ago which turned out alright but ever since I have wanted to try them again, this time deep fried.

I used a wok with peanut oil to fry the tortillas wedges in and after they were cooked, seasoned one batch with nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, chilli and salt and the other batch simply with salt. The texture of the tortillas chips turned out to be inconsistent with some a bit too soft whilst others had the right amount of crunchiness. I was a bit concerned about burning the chips initially and definitely undercooked the first batch or two. The ones that turned out the best spent about a minute in the wok.  

Since Friday I have tested three of Terry's recipes which have all been really good but this has meant that I haven't had time to catch up on MoFo posts or reply to comments for a while.

Click here to see my A - Z of Vegan MoFo posts.

Vegan MoFo - M is for Mexe Wedges

Mexe Wedges is the name I created for my favourite spiced wedges some time ago. I played around with the quantities in this recipe for the first few attempts and this is how I make them every time now. They have become one of our favourite ways to eat potatoes and when my son told me that he preferred them over deep fried hot chips I was delighted. They are very simple to prepare and dangerously addictive but are cooked with little oil so you can indulge to your heart's content.

They are coated with a combination of salt, smoked paprika, olive oil and a chilli seasoning mix based on this recipe prior to baking. I like to keep a container of the chilli seasoning prepared as I know exactly what is in it as opposed to a packet mix full of additives. The main change I make is to omit the flour from the recipe.

On this occasion we enjoyed our wedges with Chipotle Lentil burgers from Appetite for Reduction, Mushroom Chicharrones from Viva Vegan and some asparagus. The burgers did not live up to our expectations, they were nice but not as wonderful as I was expecting them to be. I actually preferred the leftover burgers straight out of the fridge the next day. Mandee from Cupcake Kitteh inspired me to give the tasty chicharrone marinade another try using mushrooms instead of tofu and they were a highlight of the meal. The man adored them so much that I am planning to follow Mandee's lead more often and use mushrooms in place of tofu.

This post brings me halfway through my alphabet of golden oldies and newbies. So far I have posted 7 new recipes and revisited 6 oldies. It feels like a good time to take a bit of a breather, go through some of my MoFo bookmarks and post about some of the exciting recipes I can't wait to try!

Click here to see my A - Z of Vegan MoFo posts.


Mexe Wedges

1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon chilli seasoning
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
pinch of cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 200C.

Place the potato wedges in a large bowl and sprinkle the salt, smoked paprika and chilli seasoning over the top. Drizzle in the olive oil, then mix thoroughly with your hands until well combined.

Line a roasting tray with baking paper and spray lightly with olive oil. Spread the wedges in a single layer on the tray and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the bottoms have browned. Flip the wedges over and cook for a further 15 minutes or until nice and crunchy.

Chilli bean crepes

Some leftover chilli beans were found hiding in the fridge just before Father's Day which gave me an idea for Sunday brunch. I would reheat the chilli beans, make some guacamole, grate some cheezly and serve all of this in crepes!

We were smitten with savoury crepes a couple of years ago, first made for us by my sister in Cairns and then at a market stall she recommended when we headed over to Darwin. My sister's crepes were filled with goat's cheese and tomato which was a variation of her feta and tomato market stall favourite. Another type of crepe we sampled from the market contained chilli beans, cheese and sour cream which was another delicious combination. After we arrived home, both varieties were on our weekend brunch menu for a while before other things took over and they were forgotten.

I hadn't really thought about making crepes after going vegan, mainly because our beloved fillings had been so heavy in dairy products. The time had come for our weekend brunches to have a shake-up, tofu scrambles and baked beans had been standard fare for a while and were becoming a little mundane. After looking through several cookbooks, I decided to try the savoury crepe recipe from Veganomicon.  

The mixture is simple to prepare although like many other crepe recipes, the batter needs to sit for a least an hour before it's ready for making crepes. Our growling stomachs couldn't quite wait for an hour to pass (we made it to about 45 minutes) but this had no detrimental effect as the crepes still turned out perfectly. It was a different way to use up left over chilli beans and we also managed to consume one or two crepes topped with lemon juice and sugar as well!

Savoury Wheat Crepes (Adapted from Veganomicon)

3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup water

Place the flours and salt in a bowl and combine well. Pour in the soy milk and water and whisk until a smooth mixture results and no lumps remain. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Prior to making crepes, give the mixture a quick stir.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high and lightly brush with melted dairy-free margarine. Pour about 1/3 cup of the mixture into the frying pan, swirling the pan to ensure that the batter spreads out into a thin layer. When the mixture has set, flip the crepe over and cook for another minute. Remove the cooked crepe and repeat the process until the mixture has been used up.    

Chilli beans

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red capsicum, chopped
2 teaspoons chilli seasoning mix (based on this recipe which I'm constantly tweaking)
1 x 400g tin diced tomatoes
1 x 400g tin kidney beans, rinsed and drained
salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion until soft. Stir through the garlic, red capsicum and chilli seasoning mix and cook for a minute. Add the tomatoes and kidney beans and simmer for about 10 minutes until the capsicum is tender. Season with salt and serve.

Chilli bean crepes

For each crepe, add spoonfuls of the chilli beans onto one half of the crepe. Sprinkle with grated cheezly and add dollops of guacamole and/or vegan sour cream. Fold over and serve!

Experiments with ground "meat"

Whilst preparing my VOTM post about cauliflower last month I stumbled across some interesting recipes in my bookmarks and there was one in particular I couldn't wait any longer to try. Ricki of Diet, Dessert & Dogs posted a recipe for ground "meat" about a year ago using cauliflower and walnuts as the main ingredients. It sounded like a healthier alternative to TVP which is something I don't like to use on a regular basis. 

The ground "meat" is very simple to prepare. After processing the nuts and cauliflower, seasonings are stirred through the mixture, then it is baked in oven. There were some interested people peering in the oven to see what on earth I was up to although no-one was overly surprised by my statement that it was ground "meat". The man and son are fully aware that I love to try new things and how creative some veg recipes can be. 

I decided to put half of the ground "meat" to the test the following day in a good old spaghetti bolognese. The one thing I did notice was that the "meat" devoured the tin of tomatoes, the sauce had a brown colour rather than red and didn't taste tomatoey enough so I added half a jar of tomato passata as well. 

When we sat down to eat, the boys declared it as my best veg spag bol effort to date and I have to agree with them.  The ground "meat" is quite hearty and filling which is probably due to the amount of walnuts that are included. This bolognese sauce reminded me of the flavours that were present in the lasagne I made with nut roast leftovers not so long ago.      

A couple of nights later, I used the remaining ground "meat" in another favourite meal of ours - chilli con "carne". Once again I used more tomatoes than usual as I felt it was required. This was served simply on some brown rice and topped with the cashew crema recipe from Viva Vegan. After the success with the bolognese sauce, I wasn't surprised to find that the chilli con "carne" was delicious too.  

There was still some remnants of chilli con "carne" so I decided to give the ground "meat" batch one last meal. Baked potatoes are something that I don't cook often and it seemed like the perfect way to finish off the chilli con "carne".   

I am thoroughly impressed with Ricki's inventive recipe and will definitely be making more batches of this in the future. 

Chili con "carne"

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 heaped teaspoon cumin
1 scant teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

350ml tomato passata

1 carrot, diced

1/2 quantity ground "meat"

1 x 400g tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed well

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion until soft. Add the garlic and stir for a minute then add the oregano, smoked paprika, cumin, chilli powder and salt. Add the tinned tomatoes, passata, carrot, ground "meat" and kidney beans. Simmer until the carrots are tender, then season with salt and pepper. Serve on a bed of rice and top with cashew cream or guacamole. 

Spaghetti bolognese with ground "meat"

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot, diced
1 x 400g tin crushed tomatoes
350ml tomato passata
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 quantity ground "meat"
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion until soft. Add the garlic and stir for a minute then add the carrots, tinned tomatoes, passata, basil, oregano and ground "meat". Simmer until the carrots are tender. 

Season with salt and pepper. Serve on cooked spaghetti or other pasta of your choice, topped with cheezly or vegan parmesan.