Around the world - Stopover 33 - Zimbabwe

African countries have had a low profile during my random virtual travels so far. Madagascar and South Africa are the only destinations I've covered to date so I was pleased when Zimbabwe was the next country drawn. Zimbabwean food is mainly based on traditional recipes although there are also some influences from British and Portuguese cuisines. Most of the Zimbabwean population rely on a handful of staple foods - cornmeal, rice, beans, peanuts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, a selection of green leafy vegetables as well as some meat and sardines. 

When I began my hunt for recipes I was drawn to some Zimbabwean sweet potato biscuits/cookies with lemon icing on food.com. These biscuits were simple to veganise using dairy-free margarine in place of butter, agave nectar instead of honey and a flax egg. Another minor modification I made was to halve the amount of ground nutmeg as I feared that the full amount may be too strong. I was happy with this decision as the nutmeg seemed to be perfect in this quantity, any more and it would have overwhelmed. The original recipe stated that it made 60 biscuits although they must have been tiny morsels, I used a slightly larger quantity of mixture from my half batch which resulted in 16 small biscuits with a lovely soft interior. Prior to being iced they weren't terribly sweet and after topping them with lemon icing they were perfect. I found them to be very moreish and polished off more than my fair share.

African peanut stews have filled me with fear for many years. Due to allergies with some of my family members, I grew up in a nut-free household and never consumed nuts until my adult years. Although I adore most types of nuts these days, I still find the flavour of peanuts to be quite strong and have never embraced peanut butter. As there was a recipe for a Zimbabwean peanut stew called Huku ne Dovi in my copy of World Vegetarian Classics I figured it was time to be brave and try out this type of meal.

The stew contained chunks of sweet potatoes and carrots, onions, chillies, okra, tinned tomatoes and spinach - some green beans that needed using up were added to the mix as well. I reduced the amount of ground peanuts from 150g to 100g and didn't find the peanut flavour to be overly strong this way. The stew was very flavourful given it didn't contain any spices apart from the chillies and the ground peanuts made it thick and extremely hearty. The leftovers held up well which I happily devoured for a few days in a row afterwards.

The man generally dislikes stews as well as most meals containing sweet potatoes, so to make this meal more enjoyable I whipped up a batch of African baked tofu from Vegan Eats World to have as an accompaniment. The tofu was marinated in orange and lime juice, garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, salt and a Persian spice mix called Baharat prior to being baked in the oven. We've enjoyed all of the baked tofu dishes I've made from Vegan Eats World and this was another wonderful recipe I would be happy to make again. It packed a decent amount of heat and paired well with the peanut stew.


Zimbabwean sweet potato biscuits/cookies (Adapted from food.com)
Makes approximately 16 small biscuits

70g dairy-free margarine
30g sugar
1½ teaspoons ground flaxseed
1½ tablespoons water
zest of ½ a small lemon
40g agave nectar
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup grated sweet potato
1¼ cup plain flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt

¾ cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon dairy-free margarine
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 to 3 teaspoons (or more) water

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Whisk the ground flaxseed with water in a small bowl then mix it thoroughly into the butter and sugar. Add the lemon zest, agave nectar and nutmeg and beat well. Fold through the grated sweet potato then add the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and stir until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Place tablespoons of the mixture onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until slightly browned, then remove the tray from the oven and allow them to cool down completely.

Mix the icing sugar, dairy-free margarine and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Drizzle in enough water to make a spreadable icing. Top the biscuits with a generous dollop of icing.

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Did you know?

There are 16 official languages in Zimbabwe. English is one of the official languages but only 2% of the population is fluent in it.

Vegan MoFo Day 13 - Free Fridays - Creamy green pasta sauce with homemade gnocchi

This week my theme for Free Friday is called Flashback Friday. Back in my vegetarian days I used to make a decadent cream and parmesan based pasta sauce to serve over potato gnocchi on a semi-regular basis which was a favourite meal with my fellows. The gnocchi was hand made if I could afford the time as it was so much softer and lighter than any gnocchi that came out of a packet. In my early vegan days and prior to discovering the almighty powers of cashews I made a vegan version of the pasta sauce which turned out rather well. This dish had slipped my mind until I started to crave gnocchi recently (my gnocchi cravings are similar to pizza and taco cravings, once they resurface they have to be fuelled).

The creamy sauce used to be stirred through sautéed garlic, mushrooms, spring onions, sun-dried tomatoes and wilted spinach leaves before it was poured on top of the gnocchi. I was all set to recreate it this way until Kari from Bite-sized thoughts posted a recipe for a pureed spinach and white bean pasta sauce recently. I adored the colour in Kari's pasta sauce and even though I still made my own cashew based sauce I changed up the method and blended the spinach in with the rest of the sauce ingredients which resulted in a vibrant green sauce.

The mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes were hidden by this colourful sauce and I will be tempted to omit them next time I make this as the sauce is flavourful enough without them. I loved this sauce so much I won't be waiting until I can bothered making gnocchi again as the sauce would be great with any type of pasta. As I don't have time to post a version of the gnocchi recipe right now, here is the link to the recipe I have referred to for many years which always results in extremely soft gnocchi that almost melts in your mouth.

Creamy green pasta sauce 

½ cup raw unsalted cashews
1 1/3 cups soy milk
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
30 fresh basil leaves
100g baby spinach leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Optional extras
100-150g button mushrooms, sliced
50g sundried tomatoes, drained of oil and cut into thin strips
4 spring onions, sliced
freshly cracked black pepper

Place the cashews, soy milk, nutritional yeast, sea salt, Dijon mustard and lemon juice in a blender and process until no chunks of cashews remain and the sauce is smooth. Add the basil and spinach leaves and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides a few times of necessary to incorporate any stray pieces of basil and spinach.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and fry the garlic for 30 seconds or until fragrant and starting to colour slightly. If using mushrooms, add them to the pan and saute until they have softened and released their juices. Pour in the contents of the blender then rinse out the blender jar with ¼ - ½ cup of water and add this to the pan. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and spring onions (if using) and allow the sauce to heat through. Serve with pasta of your choice garnished with freshly cracked black pepper.

Vegan MoFo Day 4 - Worldly Wednesdays - Stopover 29 - Marshall Islands

Last year for Vegan MoFo my theme involved virtually travelling around the world in 20 days, stopping in at 20 randomly selected countries to cook a dish or two. The research and cooking was more time consuming than I gave it credit but I thoroughly enjoyed exploring different cuisines and expanding my limited knowledge of global food. Although my plan was to continue cooking around the world regularly I've only managed to complete another eight countries in the year that has passed and have been stuck on my most recent selection for quite some time.

The Marshall Islands are a small island country in the Pacific Ocean which are geographically a part of Micronesia. Politically this group of islands are a presidential republic in free association with the United States which means the US provides defence, funding grants and access to social services to the Marshallese. This connection to the United States is an indicator as to why the only recipe I could find linked to these islands was a Macadamia nut pie similar to a pecan pie that is popular throughout the United States.

My biggest challenge in recreating this dish was sourcing a suitable replacement for light corn syrup which is not widely available in Australia. I read many conflicting opinions on various cooking forums and had wanted to use liquid glucose as it was suggested as the best replacement. I'm sure that liquid glucose used to be stocked at supermarkets but it seems to have vanished these days. After wasting a lot of time with attempting to track down ingredients, I bit the bullet and used some good old golden syrup. When it comes to replacing eggs in recipes I use ground flaxseeds more often than not but I don't think I've ever veganised a recipe originally made with more than 1 or 2 eggs and was a bit nervous that this recipe called for 4 eggs. I wasn't sure how flax would perform in a larger quantity and subbed in some silken tofu with a bit of cornflour instead.

After my pastry dough had rested and been rolled out the filling didn't take much time to beat together. I was slightly concerned that the centre of the pie was a bit wobbly after being baked for the recommended time and didn't want to bake it for any longer as the pastry had browned and the top of the filling caramelised. The filling appeared to have set up properly after it cooled down but it was still a little oozy after it was sliced. The pie accompanied us to a Father's Day dinner last weekend and everyone really enjoyed it despite my woes about it not being quite right. I don't have much of a sweet tooth and found that this was way too sweet for me - I struggled to finish a small slice.

As this isn't something I'm likely to revisit I won't bother posting the recipe for now. I'm looking forward to my next stopover after being stuck in the Marshall Islands for so long!

Did you know?

The Marshall Islands have the highest incidence of leprosy in the world. Apart from humans the only animal in the world that can contract leprosy is the armadillo.

Tikka Masala - two ways

Sometimes it can be worthwhile delaying a post. Earlier this year I began tinkering with a tikka masala recipe from one of my favourite omnivorous cookbooks – The Food of India. My original efforts used tofu in place of chicken which is the usually the main ingredient in this type of curry. An equally delicious version using cauliflower found it's way onto our plates several months later. Due to the tardiness of this post I am now able to provide you with two versions of this curry we have enjoyed many times and will continue to remain on our rotation of curry dishes.

The tofu for the tikka masala was prepared three different ways before deciding I preferred the latter method most. I followed a part of the original recipe too closely on my first two attempts, by threading the marinated tofu cubes onto skewers and frying them in a grill pan or broiling them in the top rack of my oven. Using skewers added more time to the dish without any benefit so my final method simply baked the marinated tofu cubes in the oven.

The beetroot powder in the marinade is not essential to the flavour of the curry, it's purely there to impart a colour similar to tandoori. I wasn't able to ascertain the ingredients of a tandoori colouring I bought many years ago from an Indian grocer so it went into the bin in case it contained cochineal. Experimenting with beetroot powder was initially a learning curve - it took a while for me to work out that the colour turned out less brilliant the longer the tofu or cauliflower was left to marinate.

Tofu tikka masala became a frequent request which I usually serve alongside a vegetable curry. The cauliflower alternative was instigated as I wanted to eat tikka masala with dal but felt we didn't really need another high protein dish on our plates and I always enjoy a good vegetable curry. Cauliflower seemed like a perfect vegetable to put to the tikka masala test as it is so lovely when roasted. And it most definitely passed the test!

Tikka masala is usually a mild creamy curry although the original version in The Food of India is very spicy like most of the recipes in this cookbook. I have lowered the spice quantities a little and would rate my version as a medium spicy dish. The creaminess is achieved by blending cashews with water into a thin liquid which tends to thicken when it is added to the curry sauce.

These days I am smitten with cauliflower tikka masala and rarely make the tofu version any more – not because I don't enjoy tofu tikka masala, merely as I love a combination of dal with a vegetable curry so much more.

Cauliflower or Tofu Tikka Masala (Adapted from The Food of India)

Marinade

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets OR 500g firm tofu, drained, pressed and cut into 2cm cubes
1½ teaspoons paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon beetroot powder (optional)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cloves garlic
5 cm piece ginger
½ cup coriander leaves
½ cup soy yoghurt
½ teaspoon sea salt

Curry sauce

½ cup cashews, soaked in water for a couple of hours, then drained and rinsed well
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
2 cardamom pods
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 x 400g tin crushed tomatoes
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped for garnish

Place the paprika, cayenne pepper, garam masala, beetroot powder, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, coriander, soy yoghurt and salt in a blender or food processor and blend until it becomes a smooth paste, scraping down the sides a few times as necessary. Spread the cauliflower florets or tofu cubes in a single layer in a baking dish, pour over the marinade and mix thoroughly. Allow cauliflower to marinate for 30 minutes or the tofu for an hour or two.

Preheat oven to 200C. Bake cauliflower for 30 minutes or tofu for 40 minutes flipping the pieces over at the halfway mark.

Blend cashews and water until it becomes a smooth watery consistency.

Heat oil in a large deep sided pan over medium heat. Add the cardamom pods and onion and cook until the onions are soft and starting to brown. Stir through the garlic for a minute, then add the tinned tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until slightly thickened. Stir through the ground cinnamon, cayenne pepper, brown sugar and garam masala for a minute then pour in the thin cashew cream. Combine throughly then add the cooked caulifower florets or tofu cubes and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the cardamom pods before serving if you can find them! Serve garnished with chopped coriander leaves.

Magical okara loaf

My initial success with home made tofu had me keen to continue making the odd batch on an occasional basis. I'm not sure why it took seven months to dig out the bag of soy beans from the pantry but I've been back in the swing of tofu making lately and have produced a couple of delicious batches this month.

After making tofu or soy milk you are left with a large quantity of okara (soy bean pulp) which can be used in burgers, loaves, cakes, biscuits and as a thickener in stews. I've also come across some other interesting recipes I would like to attempt one day like okara gnocchi and a Japanese stir-fry called Unohana. I was in the mood to try out a veggie loaf and turned to the Magical Loaf Studio on the Vegan Lunch Box blog for a bit of fun.

I've checked out the Magical Loaf Studio previously and loved the concept yet I hadn't put it to test before. The criteria for generating a loaf recipe is to select a protein, carbohydrate, nuts or seeds, liquid, binder, seasonings, oil and as many vegetables and herbs as you desire. The beauty of it is that your loaf can be tailored to suit any leftover cooked grains you have on hand, vegetables that need using up and items you have in the pantry.

The ingredients listed in each section of the tool are limited so I made a few substitutions where I saw fit. Okara wasn't listed as a protein so I selected soy beans to get an idea of the quantity required. After looking over my generated recipe I changed it up a little by using chickpea flour as my binder (which wasn't an option in the tool), a larger quantity of nutritional yeast and also added in some smoked paprika.

The loaf took around 15 minutes to construct and while it was baking there was plenty of time to organise other vegetable side dishes and gravy. It browned nicely on top and even though I rebelled against the instructions to allow some cooling time before slicing it up, it had a firm enough texture which held together wonderfully. I had also lined my dish with baking paper to ensure it would lift out easily. We were all impressed with the taste of the loaf so I can see myself using future batches of okara this way again.

Magical okara loaf (Adapted from the Magical Loaf Studio on Vegan Lunch Box)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots (200g), peeled and grated
2 cups wet okara
1 cup cooked rice
½ cup almond meal
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons chickpea flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
¼ cup minced fresh parsley
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 teaspoons vegan worcestershire sauce
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 20 x 20 cm square baking dish with baking paper or spray with olive oil spray.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion, garlic and carrot over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until softened. Place the remaining ingredients in a large bowl along with the contents of the frying pan and stir together thoroughly.

Press the mixture into the baking dish and bake for 45 minutes, or until the loaf is firm and browned on top. Turn the loaf out onto a chopping board, remove the baking paper (if used) and slice. Serve with gravy and other vegetables.

Almond and pistachio fingers

Branching out and making new sweets and desserts is somewhat of a rarity in my usual cooking routine. I'm not inclined to eat sugary food often and the guys always request their favourites (rum balls and choc chip cookies) so I always enjoy delving into something different when we have guests over. Last week I borrowed a few North African cookbooks from my local library to seek out recipes. There were many I was keen on trying but once I spotted some fancy looking Tunisian almond fingers my mind was made up.

The filling consisted of almonds, pistachios, sugar, cinnamon and rosewater which was a breeze to put together. The part that wasn't as straight forward was cutting sheets of filo, brushing them with melted margarine and rolling each one up with my clumsy fingers. There may have been a small sigh of relief after I had constructed about 40 little pastries and they were ready to go in the oven.

I was very pleased with how they turned out, the flavours of the cinnamon and rosewater worked together wonderfully without being too overwhelming. Everyone else enjoyed them too so it was well worth the effort. Surprisingly the pastry has retained it's crispiness throughout the week and the few remaining ones that have been kept at room temperature in an airtight container are just as lovely as on the day they were baked.

Almond and pistachio fingers (Adapted from Illustrated Food and Cooking of Africa and The Middle East)
Makes 40-50

200g almond meal
50g shelled pistachios
50g raw sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon rosewater
10 – 12 sheets filo pastry
115g dairy free margarine, melted
Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 160C.

Process the pistachios in a coffee/spice grinder or food processor until they are broken down into a medium-fine powder. Place the almond meal, pistachios, sugar, cinnamon and rosewater in a bowl and stir well until thoroughly combined.

Lay the sheets of filo on your bench covered with a damp tea towel to stop them drying out. Work with one sheet of pastry at a time. Cut the sheet into 4 even rectangular pieces, brush each one with melted dairy free margarine and place a heaped teaspoon of the mixture on the end of each piece of pastry. Roll each piece of pastry into a finger shape, folding in the sides as your go to ensure the filling is enclosed completely.

Place the rolled up pastries on a tray lined with baking paper and brush the tops with the remaining dairy free margarine. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow them to cool down then dust lightly with icing sugar.

Store at room temperature in a sealed container, the pastry has stayed nice and crispy on the few remaining ones five days later.

2012 - The unblogged edition

The 18th January marks the anniversary of my blog which has been going for two years now. During 2012 I only managed to publish 101 posts, which was a bit lower than 138 posts in 2011. Challenges on and off throughout the year prevented me from writing as much as I would have have liked and ever since Ollie's arrival in July a lot of my usual free time has been devoted to training and exercising him (which is very rewarding, good exercise and lots of fun). Although it wasn't the most productive year in the blogging sense, there were many recipes from other blogs I tried along the way so here's a round up of a few I can recall (with photos of ones I've been able to locate).  

Post Punk Kitchen - Chesapeake tempeh cakes. Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe posted about this recipe at a time when I was struggling to like tempeh much at all. I found the tempeh in these tasty little "crab" cakes to be very enjoyable although I wasn't particularly fond of the remoulade drizzled on top. I must make these again soon!

Seitan is my motor - Pasta with walnut, mushroom and tempeh sauce. This recipe was given high praise from vegan about town and where's the beef so I was keen to give it a try. Unfortunately it wasn't a winner for us, we didn't enjoy the tempeh in this meal and the flavour of the walnuts in the sauce were too strong for our tastes, so I'll stick to using cashews in creamy pasta sauces.

Holy Cow - Aloo posto. The man and I have a similar distaste for potatoes in curries so I generally steer clear of these types of recipes. I was intrigued by Vaishali's potato based curry as I had never seen a poppy seed paste in a curry previously so I made the recipe with cabbage instead. Even though my blender struggled to break down the poppy seeds completely it was still a very enjoyable dish which my extended family enjoyed too.

Fat Free Vegan - Okara crab cakes. This is an older recipe from Susan V's archives I stumbled upon when searching for okara recipe ideas after making home made tofu. I added the upper end of the stated amount of Old Bay Seasoning (purchased from USA Foods) which resulted in a strong peppery flavour that none of us were particularly fond of.

Inspired eats- Pan fried shiitake mushroom bacon. I was curious to see if a recipe that listed so few ingredients (mushrooms, oil, salt) would actually taste like bacon. The flavour was quite impressive given there was no liquid smoke or smoked paprika involved and they tasted great on baked potatoes with a spicy noochy sauce. It hasn't replaced my favourite tofu bacon but it was fun to try out another facon recipe.

Diet, dessert and dogs - Greek inspired chickpea scramble and Quinoa pizza balls. Both of these recipes tasted fantastic, the chickpea scramble made with besan was full of delicious Mediterranean flavours and is a great alternative to a regular tofu scramble. The quinoa and bean based pizza balls flavoured with tomato paste and herbs turned out a little softer than I expected but they were still lovely to snack on.

Sweet Roots - Coconut milk cheddar - There is something about coconut products that just doesn't work with my palate and I really need to stop experimenting. Heavily spiced coconut based curries are about the only savoury meals where I enjoy coconut and anything else just doesn't appeal. The coconut flavour in this cheese was way too strong for my liking and put me off vegan cheese making for a while.

Wheres the beef - Kentucky Fried Tofu. Cindy's not so secret blend of herbs and spices in this recipe that was written up in the Planet VeGMeL zine last year was really delicious and rather simple to prepare for a slightly indulgent nostalgic meal.

Tales of a Vegan Food Fetishist / Wrapped in Pastry - I'm a huge fan of Leigh Drew's recipes and was rapt to get my guys on board with split peas in her garlic lemon dal recipe as they usually associate split peas with soup. The man and young man were also highly impressed with the Subway style "meatball" subs I made early last year. Pate en croute and pissaldiere (bottom right in the photo above) from Leigh's latest cookbook Wrapped in Pastry were popular at family Christmas gatherings last year. I loved both of these recipes but the man wasn't crazy about the pate en croute.

Vegan Dad - Corned Beef. The man used to have a penchant for corned beef back in the day so I gave this version a try. I wasn't able to track down all of the ingredients and made a couple of substitutions which may have contributed to it's failure. The accompanying white sauce with capers I whipped up wasn't fantastic either. I was sad to read recently that Vegan Dad has farewelled the blogging world as I've enjoyed several recipes from his blog over the years.

Vegan about town - Dan dan mian. I was really disappointed that the man didn't share my enthusiasm for this delicious bowl of noodles and tempeh in a super spicy broth as I was so happy to find another tempeh dish that I enjoyed. We usually have similar tolerances to chilli but on this occasion it was too spicy for him and perfect for me. Perhaps if it's toned down a fraction I may have better success next time?

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I would like to finish this post with a huge thank you to all readers of this blog, everyone who has tried a recipe or two, readers that have left me a comment during these years and the many people I have connected with through regular comments on my blog as well as their own. It really means a lot and all of the feedback I receive is much appreciated. I hope you are looking forward to another year of posts with plenty more stopovers from around the world to come!

Vegan MoFo - Aussie Stopover - Jelly Cakes

When I was planning my round the world theme for the month I thought it would be a good idea to finish off with a recipe from Australia. It was tempting to make an Aussie classic like a vegan meat pie or lamingtons yet I've had a childhood recipe in mind to try for some time. Although jelly cakes may not be the most well known recipe, they were my mum's speciality when I was growing up and would always be present at parties and school fundraising fetes. Friends would pre-order them before she arrived at the cake stall and the remaining cakes would sell out very quickly. Jelly cakes are similar to lamingtons but the small patty cakes are dunked into a wobbly half-set jelly rather than chocolate icing prior to being rolled in coconut.

Patty cakes were common when I was growing up which are a much smaller version of a cupcake. We never had anything larger than patty cakes in those days and their miniature size meant that you could eat two or three in a sitting. I found a jelly cake recipe on taste.com.au which used patty cakes and made a few vegan substitutions to the cake batter. This recipe called for self-raising flour which I was out of, although a quick search showed that plain flour, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda could be used in it's place.

A packet of vegan jelly crystals had been sitting in my pantry for months which I bought for the sole purpose of making this recipe. The trickiest part to making jelly cakes is getting the consistency of the jelly perfect for dunking. If it's too runny the jelly won't adhere to the cake, if it's too firm the cakes are likely to break up during the dunking. My cakes turned out a lighter colour than I expected and I'm not sure whether this was due to a slightly runny jelly or just a different product. The jelly that mum used to buy was probably full of artificial colourings as it was a lot darker than the vegan jelly.

I've heard many people rave about coconut whipped cream which I tried recently and thought it tasted overwhelmingly like coconut so I used cashews to make cream for the filling. After soaking and rinsing the cashews, they were blended with water, maple syrup and some vanilla essence. I prefer this type of cream as it has a more neutral taste and even though it's runnier, a quick spell in the refrigerator firms it up a little.

I was pleased with how the jelly cakes turned out and they have been popular with my fellows at home. Revisiting recipes from childhood is always an enjoyable experience, especially when the vegan recipes work out tasting just as good as the original.


Jelly Cakes (Adapted from taste.com.au)
Makes 18 cakes

1 packet raspberry or strawberry vegan jelly crystals
60g dairy-free margarine
½ cup raw castor sugar
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons water
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour (or use self-raising and skip the next 2 ingredients)
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy)
1 cup cashews (soaked in hot water for an hour)
½ cup water
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 180C.

Prepare jelly according to package directions and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. The jelly should be set enough to be able to coat the cakes with jelly but not too firm otherwise the cakes will fall apart.

Cream the butter and sugar together using a hand held mixer. Add the flaxseed mixture and vanilla essence and beat until combined. Fold the flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and soy milk through the mixture with a metal spoon.

Place patty pan cake wrappers in a muffin tray. Add a heaped tablespoon of cake batter to each of of the cake wrappers, they should be about half full. Bake for 20 minutes in the oven until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the cakes are golden on top. Remove the cakes from the tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Drain the soaked cashews and rise well with cold water. Place the cashews in a blender with 1/2 cup of water, maple syrup and vanilla essence and process until it becomes smooth and creamy. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow it to thicken up a little.

Remove the cake wrappers from the cakes. Submerge each of the cakes into the jelly then drain off the excess jelly and roll them in coconut. Cut 3/4 of the way through the centre of the cakes and place a teaspoon or two of cashew cream inside.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 19 - Italy

Italy was an inspiring country to draw as so many delicious dishes sprang to mind straight away, I could have easily spent a week cooking Italian meals without scratching the surface of it's regional foods. Even though there was an abundance to choose from one of the meals I ended up making is not a traditional Italian meal but an American-Italian creation called stromboli. My young man has really been enjoying doing the weekly random draws and over this time he wanted Italy to appear more than any other country so I could cook his favourite meal of calzones. His initial excitement after drawing Italy turned to dismay when I said calzones were not going to be on the menu as I wasn't going to cook anything I had already made before. To ease his pain, I mentioned stromboli as a compromise prior to realising that it isn't traditional Italian cuisine.

Stromboli claims to have been invented by Romano's pizzeria just outside Philadelphia in 1950. It's quite similar to a calzone but instead of the dough being turned over once and sealed before baking, stromboli is rolled up like a log and when cut open it looks a bit like a savoury pinweel.

I used my standard pizza dough for the stromboli which is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. Stromboli dough is supposed to be rolled out in a square shape rather than rectangular, it's apparent that I've made way too many calzones in my lifetime and automatically rolled out calzone shapes without even thinking about it!

Our regular toppings we have for calzones were used for the strombolis - pizza sauce and home-made pesto mixed together on the base, onions, baby spinach, mushrooms, marinated red capsicums (bell peppers), sun-dried tomatoes, tofu bacon and some cheezly. The man and I usually like kalamata olives in this mix but had to go without this time as I had run out of them. Stromboli was stated to use layers of deli meat so I didn't bother chopping my tofu bacon into small pieces and left the slices whole this time.

When it came to rolling the stromboli, I realised that the internal bread swirl wasn't going to work out as perfectly with the rectangular dough and the crispy tofu bacon slices didn't assist with it's flexibility either. At least I know this for next time!

The strombolis were baked at 200C for 30 minutes which is a lower temperature and a longer cooking time than I use for calzones to ensure that the dough in the centre cooked through properly.

The guys thought that they were almost identical to the calzones I usually make which isn't a bad thing as we all adore them. I actually preferred the layer of bread in the centre, it made the strombolis more robust than calzones and prevented the fillings from oozing out everywhere. The beauty of their similarities means that I will be able to make calzones and strombolis on the same night depending on personal preferences. My choice is going to be stromboli for a while so I can continue practising the rolling technique.

I didn't feel like I had done justice to Italian cuisine yet so I pulled out my copy of World Vegan Feast and was thrilled to see that Bryanna had included heaps of Italian recipes. I headed straight to the sweets section and settled on a lemon and pistachio biscotti recipe straight away. I rarely eat or bake biscuits/cookies yet lemon and pistachio sounded perfect for my taste.

Biscotti are twice baked biscuits so the baking process is different to standard biscuits/cookies. The dough is rolled into a long thick log for the initial cooking. After a short cooling down period, slices are cut from the log, then these slices are briefly baked again. I really enjoyed the flavour of the lemon zest throughout the biscotti as well as the pistachios which are one of my favourite nuts. These biscotti are perfect with my daily strong soy latte and even though they are supposed to keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container, I can't see that happening!
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Did you know?

Italians are very passionate about their food. In 1986 food purists gave away free spaghetti outside the opening of a McDonalds store in Rome to remind people of their culinary heritage.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Vegan MoFo - Grand Final Day

Excuse the interruption in my whirlwind trip around the world. When I planned my theme I decided to select 20 countries and write about them Monday to Friday so I can go off theme on the weekends if I have enough energy to do so. I'm planning to post a summary of links that have caught my eye throughout the week on Sundays and if I have enough time I'll write about something else on Saturdays.

Last weekend the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final was held in Melbourne which could be compared with the American Super Bowl in terms of it being our biggest football event for the year. We didn't have any plans for the day and I knew my guys would be watching the game so I spent some time in the kitchen making football styled food to feed our faces with.

It had been ages since I last made a batch of these popular vegan sausage rolls from where's the beef. I couldn't stop thinking about these delicious morsels since being reacquainted with them at the recent Planet VeGMeL 3rd Anniversary potluck (check out the online zine here that was made for the occasion). The mixture of pecans, breadcrumbs, oats, silken tofu and seasonings is extremely tasty and quite easy to put together if you can get your hands on some vegan puff pastry sheets. I highly recommended these sausage rolls, they're pretty legendary around the Melbourne veg*n blogosphere.

We also enjoyed a Mexican styled pizza and I used my standard pizza base recipe topped with tomato paste mixed with Tapatio hot sauce, onions, garlic, mushrooms, Redwood cheatin' pepperoni, olives and mozzarella style Cheezly.

The man asked me to make mini dogs as well as many other things that didn't end up making the cut. We had them in mini rolls with Cheezly, caramelised onions, ketchup and American mustard. I never manage to take a decent shot of our hot dog meals, this is no exception but I thought I would include it anyway.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 2 - Sri Lanka

It was an exciting moment when the young man drew Sri Lanka out second, it was a country I really wanted to appear in this challenge because I knew exactly what I was going to make. Many years ago I worked as a travel agent and one of the companies I was employed with was a Sri Lankan family business. During my time there I was introduced to several of their fiery hot curries yet it was their greasy deep-fried snacks known as short eats that remain to this day as my favourite part of Sri Lankan cuisine.

After sampling many of these types of snacks, pan rolls became my favourite short eat and when I introduced the man to them he was hooked too. They resemble a large spring roll that has been crumbed and fried and the spiced, peppery filling inside is irresistible. Traditionally pan rolls are contained inside a pancake before being crumbed and fried which is where the name comes from. I took a shortcut with my version and used spring roll wrappers to cut down on preparation time and because I was fearful about pancakes falling apart.

Most of the ingredients are easy to come by although there are a couple of unique components to the dish like pepper powder and pandan or rampe leaves. I purchased pepper powder from a Sri Lankan spice shop ages ago for the sole purpose of using it in these rolls but I haven't been able to determine whether it is a different type of pepper to the standard black variety that is widely used around the world. Pandan leaves have a mild flavour and aroma and are often used to flavour desserts. There is one across the back of the top photo if you are interested in what they look like.

A few months ago I had my first attempt at making pan rolls which were a huge success even though I had been a little heavy handed with the spices. I didn't post the recipe at the time as I wanted to fine tune it a little but when I came to making them this time I couldn't locate my notes! This time around the pan rolls weren't spicy enough so at least I have recorded this effort now and will get the spices perfect next time around. I couldn't bear to serve up just fried food for dinner so I went served this with a fantastic Sri Lankan cashew curry from the soon to be released Vegan Eats World.

Edited to add (29/10/2012): The recipe has been modified slightly after making a better version and I have also included cooking times for a deep fryer. 


Sri Lankan pan rolls
Makes 10-12 

750g potatoes, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2cm piece ginger, minced
3 birds eye chillies, finely chopped (reduce the amount for a milder version)
300g carrots, finely diced
1 ½ - 2 teaspoons pepper powder (depending on your pepper tolerance)
1 ½ - 2 teaspoons salt
12 curry leaves
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh pandan (rampe) leaves OR
2 stalks frozen pandan leaves cut into 5cm pieces
½ cup water
1 cup frozen peas
10-12 25cm spring roll wrappers
soy milk (or other non-dairy milk) and breadcrumbs, for coating
peanut oil, for shallow or deep frying

Place the potatoes in a saucepan filled with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until very soft. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a deep sided frying pan over medium heat. Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli for 5 minutes or until the onions have softened. Stir through the carrots, pepper powder, salt, curry leaves, pandan leaves and water, cover and cook on low for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and mash them lightly into the mixture with a wooden spoon, then stir through the peas and allow them to cook until thawed. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly. If using frozen pandan leaves, remove the stalks from the mixture.

Spoon about ¼ cup of the mixture into each spring roll sheet. Roll each one up to enclose the filling. Dunk each roll into soy milk then the breadcrumbs and transfer to a clean plate.

Heat the peanut oil in a deep sided frying pan, wok or deep fryer. If not using a deep fryer, test the readiness of the oil by sprinkling in some breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs will sizzle immediately when the oil is ready. In you have a deep fryer, set the temperature to 180C.

Fry the pan rolls in batches for a couple of minutes on each side until lightly browned or deep fry for 5 minutes. Drain the excess oil on paper towels and enjoy!

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Did you know?

Sri Lanka was the first country in the world to have a democratically elected head of state who was a woman.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Gluten free polenta cake for potluck

Gluten free baking is something I've been meaning to try for ages. Unfamiliar cooking styles like this can seem rather daunting at first and failures in the kitchen are never fun which is probably why I had put it off for so long. A vegan, gluten free potluck to celebrate the 3rd birthday of Planet VeGMeL was exactly the motivation I needed to delve into the world of gluten free baking (Planet VeGMeL is a site containing an aggregated feed of 57 Melbourne based veg*n bloggers which my blog has proudly been a part of since it's inception).

Last year I mistakenly included miso in what I thought were going to be gluten free tofu quiches for the potluck so I was extra careful to check every single ingredient that went into this cake. I was also mindful to ensure my cake tin was free of traces of crumbs from previous baking. Bryanna Clark Grogan's semolina cake has been enjoyed by us a few times now so I decided to attempt a gluten free version of this for the potluck.

After spending time looking up substitutes on gluten free baking sites, fine polenta appeared to be the best replacement for semolina. There were many options as a cake/pastry flour alternative and as I had an unopened packet of a gluten free flour mix in the pantry I decided to give this a shot. This cake took 5 minutes longer to bake than the semolina version and came out with a few cracks on top which wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it provided extra areas for the syrup to drizzle into.

As a initial gluten free baking experience it wasn't a bad effort yet I wasn't entirely impressed as I preferred the original version so much more. Having said that, I'm not the biggest fan of polenta and didn't really appreciate the texture. Regardless of how I felt about the cake, it was lovely to catch up with other bloggers again and share some delicious food. If you haven't done so already, check out the fantastic zine which a few bloggers contributed to and Danni did a wonderful job of editing. Happy birthday Planet VeGMeL and here's to many more!


Gluten free polenta cake with lemon syrup (Adapted from World Vegan Feast)

¾ cup raw sugar
¾ cup water
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1½ cups fine polenta
½ cup gluten free flour mix
1 teaspoon turmeric
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups raw sugar
1 cup soy milk
zest of 1 lemon
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup pistachios, chopped roughly

Place the sugar, water and lemon zest in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir through the lemon 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 or spray lightly with olive oil. Combine the gluten free flour, polenta, turmeric, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. With a hand held mixer, beat together the soy milk, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the dry ingredients as well as 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 35-40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool 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 approximately half of the cooled lemon syrup on top. The remainder of the syrup can be refrigerated in a sealed container for later use.

Four ways with bratwursts

Over the past month we have become smitten with bratwursts, vegan ones of course! My interest in bratwursts began when Joey of Flicking the V's posted about a tasty sounding European stew she had made based on a recipe in The Guardian. A few months later Cindy and Michael of where's the beef wrote a post from their travels in Berlin that gave me a severe case of food envy. They had eaten doner kebabs where the seitan was cooked on a spit and currywurst. I had never heard of currywurst previously but vegan sausages covered with a curry ketchup sauce sounded pretty darn tasty to me.

Now that there were two recipes using bratwurst I was keen on trying, a decent vegan bratwurst recipe was all that I needed. Mihl of Seitan is my Motor came through with the goods in a single post, a currywurst recipe plus seitan bratwurst. The seitan was a little different to others I have made as it included tofu in the mixture, I've seen plenty that incorporate mashed beans but never tofu and my eyes brightened even more when I noticed that it called for smoked tofu! I'm not fond of mashing things to put into seitan as the texture of the dough can be uneven and harder to work with so I chose to whizz the tofu up in my blender with some water instead. The smoked tofu gave the bratwursts a wonderful aroma as well as adding to the flavour.

The bratwurst stew recipe from The Guardian was full of many elements that we usually enjoy although I don't recall pairing mustard with sun-dried tomatoes before. This was a very hearty meal and apart from using finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes rather than a paste, vegan sausages and vegan chicken stock, I didn't change a thing about it. Stews don't usually get my gents enthused although anything with seitan is usually popular so we all enjoyed this meal.

Next up on the cooking agenda was currywurst and chips. It's not meant to be the healthiest of meals and is usually served with fried chips. I lightened it up by serving the saucy sausages with some oven baked potato fries and peas on the side. The currywurst sauce was rather spicy using only a pinch of cayenne so perhaps the curry powder I used gave it some extra heat. This meal was another household success!

A few weeks after the batch of sausages were used up, the man asked if I could make bratwursts for a special request. He was keen to have one of these sausages in a hot dog roll loaded with fried onions, vegan cheese, ketchup and american mustard. This turned out to be a wonderful idea and it was perfect for a quick, not so healthy dinner on a Friday night. I wasn't in the mood to style the hot dog nicely which is why I don't have a photo of this.

I was out of smoked tofu when the second batch of bratwursts were made so I used plain tofu instead and added smoked paprika to the dry ingredient mix which worked out fine. A recipe for bratwurst stroganoff from taste.com.au landed in my rss reader just after I had made the batch and given the perfection of the timing, I had to give it a try. When I read the ingredient list I smirked a little as it was so far from being vegan yet I had bits of leftover cashew cream, tofu bacon in the fridge and of course the seitan sausages to stand in for the animal based products. The man adored my recent attempt at tempeh stroganoff although the young man and I weren't as keen on it so it was great that we all loved this version equally.

All of these recipes were very quick to prepare as the seitan had been prepared at least a day in advance.  Next time I make a batch it will be difficult to decide which way to serve these bratwursts as these 4 ways were all fantastic.


Seitan bratwurst (Adapted from seitan is my motor)
Makes 8 large sausages

2 cups gluten flour
4 tablespoons chickpea flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
4 teaspoons dried marjoram
2 teaspoons onion flakes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (if not using smoked tofu)
130g firm tofu (use smoked if possible)
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
400ml cold water

Combine the gluten flour, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, marjoram, onion flakes, salt, pepper and smoked paprika (if using) together in a large bowl. Place the tofu, garlic and water in a blender and process until no lumps remain. Pour the contents of the blender into the bowl and mix everything together thoroughly.  Knead the dough until it becomes smooth then allow it to rest for 5 minutes.

Briefly knead for 30 seconds then divide the dough into 8 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a thin sausage shape, place it in a piece of aluminium foil and wrap it up securely. It's important that there is some room for the sausages to expand whilst cooking so don't wrap them too tightly otherwise they may burst out of the foil.

Place the sausages into a steamer and cook for 30 minutes or cook in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes. Allow them to cool completely then refrigerate overnight before using in recipes.


Currywurst (Adapted from seitan is my motor)

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 seitan bratwurst sausages, cut into 2cm pieces
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons curry powder
pinch cayenne pepper

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add the sausages. Cook until lightly browned then flip over and cook on the other side until browned.

Mix the ketchup, water, soy sauce, curry powder and cayenne pepper together in a small saucepan and cook on a low heat for 1 minute.

Serve the fried sausages topped with the curry ketchup sauce and chips on the side.


Sausage stroganoff (Adapted from taste.com.au)

olive oil spray
4 seitan bratwurst sausages, cut into 2cm pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, sliced into thin half moons
3 cloves garlic, minced
350g mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ cup tomato paste
1 cup vegan beef or vegetable stock (I used Massel beef stock)
8 slices pre-cooked tofu bacon, chopped
¼ cup cashew cream
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Heat a deep sided frying pan over medium heat and spray lightly with olive oil. Cook the sausages until lightly browned on one side then flip over and brown lightly on the other side. Transfer the cooked sausages to a plate.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir through the garlic for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft and beginning to release liquid. Add the paprika, tomato paste, beef/vegetable stock, pre-cooked sausages and tofu bacon and stir thoroughly. Allow it to cook until bubbling then stir though the cashew cream and dill. Season with salt and pepper.

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.