Vegan MoFo - Stopover 3 - Croatia

There were so many options when it came to choosing something to cook for Croatia. Like many other European countries there are several regional based dishes which differ greatly between the coastal areas and inland. A dish from the coastal region of Istria called fritaja with wild asparagus grabbed my attention as asparagus has just come into season in Australia and I love finding new ways to enjoy it. Fritaja is essentially a frittata although during my research I also saw photos of some versions that were served like scrambled eggs.

I haven't made a vegan frittata previously as it's not the type of dish my fellows are usually into and even though I had a few ideas about how to make one, I turned to a bookmarked recipe from the Fat Free Vegan blog for a zucchini frittata. Susan's recipe appealed to me as she used firm and silken tofu in the mixture to create varying textures - genius! I adapted her recipe slightly to cater for my asparagus, slight differences in tofu packages and used fresh chives rather than oregano.

Everything was going according to plan until we had a power outage that lasted 6 hours! I was pretty much beside myself because the frittata wasn't going to happen without an electric oven, my post for Sri Lanka wasn't going to get finished that night and I couldn't keep up to date with the frenetic pace of reading mofo posts. Oh, and then my phone ran out of power too! My frittata plans eventually went out the window, leftovers were heated on the gas stove and as all of the ingredients were prepared, I decided to get out of bed earlier the next day to finish baking it. When the power finally came back on at 9:30pm, I hastily finished my post and called it a night.

The upside of this debacle was that we were able to enjoy delicious freshly made food for lunch today and it's probably more suited for this purpose as it's quite a light dish. Another positive was that it got the tick of approval from the man after he told me this morning yet again that it wasn't going to be his type of thing. I won't pretend that this is an authentic version of a Croatian fritaja given it doesn't contain eggs or wild asparagus but it does taste pretty damn good.

Vegan Asparagus Fritaja (Adapted from Fat Free Vegan's frittata recipe)

16 stalks asparagus
300g silken tofu, drained
¼ cup soy milk
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 heaped tablespoon cornflour
¼ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
200g firm tofu, drained and pressed
¼ teaspoon black salt (kala namak)
¼ cup chopped chives

Line a 24cm pie dish with baking paper and lightly grease. Preheat oven to 200C.

Cut about 6-7cm off the top of 12 of the asparagus spears. Lightly steam the tips, then pat dry with paper towels. Finely chop the rest of the uncooked asparagus.

Place the silken tofu, soy milk, nutritional yeast, cornflour, turmeric, salt and pepper in a blender and process until it becomes smooth.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the shallots until they soften. Stir through the garlic, followed by the tofu sprinkled with black salt. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. When the tofu begins to brown, add the chopped asparagus and fry for a couple of minutes until the asparagus is tender.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour the contents of the blender into the pan followed by the chives. Stir to combine the ingredients then pour the mixture into the prepared pie dish. Smooth out the top and arrange the tips of the steamed asparagus on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set.

Run a butter knife around the edges of the pie dish then invert the fritaja onto a chopping board. Carefully peel off the baking paper, then place a serving plate on the bottom and invert once again. Serve the fritaja cut into wedges.

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Did you know?

The Dalmatian dog breed originated from the Dalmatian coastal region in Croatia. It was only a matter of time before some animal related trivia made it's way here!

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

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.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 1 - St Kitts and Nevis

It was a rude awakening to my Vegan MoFo challenge when the first country drawn was St Kitts and Nevis, a couple of small islands located in the Caribbean Sea. After discovering that the most famed dishes on these islands were seafood or goat based, I saw mention of a roti filled with curried potatoes and chickpeas. I wasn't able to track down a recipe that was particularly attached to St Kitts and Nevis so I used a bit of my amateur knowledge in Caribbean cooking I picked up during recipe testing for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook Vegan Eats World. This is a perfect time to remind you that Terry's amazing cookbook containing fantastic recipes from around the globe is due for release at the end of this month and can be pre-ordered from Amazon now.

For the filling, I fried up some onions, garlic and chilli and later added some Jamaican curry powder (Terry's recipe), dried thyme, and salt. This was combined with pre-cooked and slightly mashed potatoes and chickpeas. The mixture was spooned into the centres of some roti bread bought from an Indian grocer which were sealed and browned in a grill pan. I struggled to find an authentic green vegetable recipe to have as an accompaniment and simply served broccoli steamed with garlic on the side. The rotis were on the fairly spicy side which didn't mind us as we don't mind a bit heat, for a milder version the amount of curry powder could be reduced and/or the chilli omitted.

These rotis were fairly simple to put together and tasted great. If the food this month keeps turning out as delicious as this meal was tonight, it's going to be a wonderful month of eating!


Caribbean rotis filled with curried potatoes and chickpeas

600g potatoes, peeled and diced small
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 birds eye chilli, minced
4 teaspoons Jamaican curry powder
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon allspice
1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup water
6 x 20 cm pieces of roti bread

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

Heat the olive oil in a deep sided frying pan over medium heat. Fry the onions, garlic and chillies for 5 minutes until soft then stir through the curry powder, salt and thyme for a minute or until fragrant. Add the potatoes, chickpeas and water and cover and cook a couple of minutes on a slightly lowered heat until the water is almost absorbed. Using a wooden spoon, gently mash the potatoes until they are mostly broken down. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Place 1/6 of the mixture in the centre of each roti and fold the rotis up like parcels. Heat a grill pan over medium heat and cook the rotis in batches for a couple of minutes seam side down first until lightly browned then flip and brown lightly on the other side.

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Did you know?

St Kitts and Nevis were discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1498 and they were one of the first Caribbean islands to be settled by Europeans.

Vegan MoFo 2012 - Around the world in 20 days

Yes, it's that time of year again, Vegan MoFo! I had a lot of fun last year contributing and reading so many amazing posts and even though I was exhausted by the end of the month, I began plotting away another another theme for 2012 straight away. This year I'm inviting you to come travelling with me, virtually of course! I'm going around the world in 20 days and have no idea where the stopovers are going to be (apart from the first week) which could be challenging at times.

The names of 196* countries have been placed into a hat and at the end of every week my man and young man will be drawing out the next 5 countries that I'll cook some dishes from and post about. The idea of a random challenge really appealed to me although when I sat down and thought about it, I realised that I would need a bit of time up my sleeve to investigate dishes to cook and plan shopping so that's why I'm drawing the countries a week in advance.

Hope you are looking forward to a month of eating around the globe. I'll be back soon reporting from my first stopover which wasn't the easiest country to be faced with first up!
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* According to worldatlas.com, there is no single correct answer as many sources offer different figures which can range between 189 - 196 independent countries. After a bit of indecision, I used this country list from wikianswers.

Asparagus and kale with leeks and basil

It took such a long time for me to jump onto the kale bandwagon and lately I've been loving it! I purchased a bunch of organic kale from the Vic Market a few years ago for what I thought was an exorbitant price for such a limp, miserable looking bunch of greens. The meal I used it in was underwhelming so I grumpily put kale in the too-hard basket for a while as it also wasn't available around my local area at the time. Kale seems to have been growing in popularity over the years and as I've recently seen it appear at my local green grocer, farmers markets and even some supermarkets, it was well and truly time to cast my former doubts aside and give it another try.

When I purchased some baby leeks and kale recently and the first asparagus of the season, a long lost recipe sprang to mind to try with these vegetables. The recipe originated from a fairly uninteresting mini cookbook I impulsively bought from a supermarket that ultimately ended up being sent to charity during a spring clean along with many other unloved cookbooks. Although it's been years since I've made this side dish, the ingredients were still clear in my mind - leek, garlic, asparagus, spinach, basil and cream. The cream was never a big selling point for me, the combination of leeks, garlic and basil is the highlight which works beautifully with the greens.

After serving this up I was amazed that my fellows actually remembered the dish and happy that we all enjoyed it just as much as the original. I've since made this with silverbeet/chard leaves in place of kale and added both these greens at the same time because silverbeet leaves don't take as long to cook as kale. As long as you are familiar with the cooking times for your chosen greens, I'm sure this could be adapted with a variety of different green vegetables. Just don't leave out the leeks, garlic or basil and don't think about substituting onion for leek either!

Asparagus and kale with leeks and basil

1 tablespoon dairy-free margarine
4 baby leeks (or use 1-2 regular leeks), thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
8-10 asparagus spears
1/2 bunch tuscan kale
10-12 basil leaves, roughly chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and cut each spear in half. Remove the tough centre stalks from each piece of kale then roll the leaves up and roughly chop.

Heat the dairy-free margarine in a large frying pan over medium heat. Fry the leeks and garlic for 3 minutes or until softened, then add the kale and a splash of water. Cover and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the asparagus. Cover again and cook for a further 3 minutes or until the asparagus is tender then stir through the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

Planet VeGMeL 3rd birthday picnic and Vegan MoFo 2012

Just a reminder that the picnic potluck to celebrate the 3rd birthday of Planet VeGMeL is on tomorrow at the Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy at 1pm. Bloggers and readers are welcome to attend and bring a plate of vegan food (gluten-free if possible). Check the Facebook page for last minute updates before you head out there if the weather is looking sketchy. Last year's event was a lot of fun and I'm sure this one will be even bigger and better than the last!

The past year has flown by and it's almost time for Vegan MoFo again! The sign up form has just been launched which is available here. For the uninitiated, the aim of Vegan MoFo is to write a minimum of 20 posts for the month of October which is a lot of work but it's also rewarding and fun, especially if you set yourself a theme to work with. Even if you're not up for participating in the event, it's a fantastic month for blog reading as there were around 700 worldwide bloggers participating last year! I'll post a link to the rss feed when it's available for anyone interested in having their reader inundated with non-stop salivating vegan posts for the month. The deadline for participants wishing to sign up is the 26th September.  

Here's a summary of my A-Z themed posts from Vegan MoFo 2011.

Buffalo tofu with ranch dipping sauce

A couple of weeks ago, the man and I went back to Gasometer as we heard that the menu had changed again! I was delighted to find buffalo tofu strips back on the menu as I never had the chance to try them previously. We were both smitten with the spicy dense sticks of tofu and their accompanying dipping sauce so I wanted to try and replicate them at home. I had a secret ingredient up my sleeve to make life easier, a buffalo wing spice mix I had purchased from USA Foods ages ago which contained four simple ingredients - chile, red jalapeno, salt and garlic.

The buffalo wing mix came with a recipe for making wings which didn't really suit my purpose although it wasn't entirely useless either. I scaled down the marinade quantities to suit my block of tofu and when I couldn't make up my mind about frying or baking the tofu, I split the batch in half and put both methods to the test. There didn't turn out to be a lot of difference between these methods, I would say the baked tofu was slightly chewier and firmer than the fried version. I sought out a vegan ranch dipping sauce recipe to have with the tofu on VegWeb which was a breeze to mix together and the perfect cooling condiment to tone down the spices a little.

Recently we have made concerted efforts to seek out local farmers markets on weekends when time permits (stay tuned for another post on this soon). Last weekend I was pleased to bring home a bunch of organic baby purple carrots, baby leeks and kale amongst other things. The buffalo tofu was teamed up with some baked potato wedges with smoked paprika and salt, sauteed baby carrots with garlic and parsley and sauteed kale with baby leeks and a dash of lemon. Everyone agreed that the side dishes were just as delicious as the tofu. The buffalo tofu was really tasty and spicy yet not quite on the same level as Gasometer's fantastic version. As there is a large portion of the packet mix remaining this will definitely be on the menu again.


Buffalo Tofu (Adapted from Los Chileros buffalo wing mix)

350g firm tofu
1 tablespoon Los Chileros buffalo wing mix
1 ½ tablespoons vegan worchestershire sauce
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

Press tofu for 30 minutes. Cut the block of tofu into thirds lengthwise then cut each piece into six equal sized sticks. Whisk together the buffalo tofu mix, worchestershire sauce and olive oil in a bowl. Add the tofu to the bowl and coat thoroughly with the marinade. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.

Bake the strips in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes. Alternatively, fry in a pan with a little oil over medium heat until browned on both sides. Serve with ranch dressing.


Ranch dipping sauce (Adapted from VegWeb)

½ cup vegan mayonnaise (I used Praise 97% fat free)
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
½ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients together in a small bowl and refrigerate until required.

A series of scrambles (part 3)

I've been going through a slightly less productive period in the kitchen recently due to time constraints. Instead of being motivated to cook new meals 3 to 4 times a week, this figure has dwindled down to 1 or 2. Old favourites like pot pies, adobe tofu with refried beans, smoky alfred and a few curries have happily made their way back into our tummies whilst the new meals haven't been worthy of a post. This seemed like a perfect time to continue on with my series of scrambles.

A curried tofu scramble was created earlier this year to appease the man. He requested a tofu scramble flavoured with curry powder that would be somewhat reminiscent of curried eggs. I loaded this up with vegetables and also added some beans in a similar fashion to my Mexican scramble. Kala namak (black salt) is used in place of regular salt to replicate the eggy flavour. The amount of curry powder in the recipe could be adjusted to suit various tastes, I'm not shy when using spices so I would recommended adding a teaspoon or two at a time until you are satisfied with the spice level. This makes a huge batch which is enough to feed the three of us for dinner as well as providing ample leftovers for lunches.

If you have missed the first two parts of my series of scrambles, click here to read part 1 and here for part 2.


Curried tofu scramble

1 head broccoli, stalk cut into pieces and small florets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, sliced into thin half moons
3 cloves garlic, minced
150g button mushrooms, sliced
700g firm tofu
5 teaspoons curry powder (use less curry powder for a milder version)
¼ cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 ½ teaspoons black salt (kala namak)
½ cup water
3 small carrots (200g), grated
1 large zucchini (400g), grated
1 x 400g tin black eyed beans or red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
75g baby spinach

Lightly steam the broccoli and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large deep sided frying pan, add the onion 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 juices. Crumble in the tofu with your hands then stir through the curry powder, nutritional yeast and black salt.

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

Deconstructed shepherds pie

Deconstructed seems to be a buzz-word in the foodie arena these days. I'm not usually the type of person to keep up with the latest trendy terms yet it seemed to be the perfect description for a dinner we had recently. I had been hunting around for a recipe that used silverbeet (aka. swiss chard) and lentils and then threw in pie as an extra search term for good measure. A recipe for a lentil and swiss chard shepherds pie with onion gravy that Joanne from Eats Well With Others had posted sounded interesting although the recipe was calling out for me to deconstruct it.

Shepherds or cottage pies are very popular at home with everyone but me! I make them fairly regularly to please the boys even though they never really enthuse me. I don't mind these pies on the the night but there are always leftovers and the mashed potato topping tastes pretty awful when it's not freshly made in my opinion. When I discovered this recipe I thought to myself why bother going to the trouble of constructing and baking the pie when the individual components could just as easily be served on their own. The beauty of this idea was that I could make enough mashed potatoes to serve on the night without there being a need for any leftover spuds.

Joanne mentioned that the onion gravy was the highlight of the dish which had grabbed my attention. My gravy making endeavours often end up in the garbage and then the packet mix comes out to ease my frustration. Even though I subbed in dried thyme for fresh, I was very pleased that this turned out to be one of the nicest gravies I have made from scratch. This onion gravy is a recipe I will definitely come back to again and am looking forward to trying with fresh thyme!

Another minor change I made to the process was to utilise the stems of the silverbeet and cook them and the leaves in with the lentils rather than cooking the silverbeet leaves separately and dirtying another pan. The overall meal was hearty and satisfying and I was happy to have leftovers of the lentils and silverbeet and onion gravy and no mashed spuds for a change. Perhaps I won't bother with a fully baked shepherds/cottage pie in the future, deconstructed pies of this kind could be here to stay!


Deconstructed lentil and silverbeet shepherds pie with onion gravy
(Adapted from Eats Well With Others, originally from The Meatlover's Meatless Cookbook)

Wine braised lentils and silverbeet

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 French shallots, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, diced
½ teaspoon dried thyme (or use 1 spring of fresh thyme)
½ cup puy lentils (or use brown/green lentils)
2 tablespoons red wine
¾ - 1 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
400g silverbeet, stalks diced and leaves roughly chopped

Heat the olive oil in a deep sided frying pan on medium heat, add the shallots, garlic, carrot and thyme and fry for about 5 minutes or until slightly softened. Stir through the lentils followed by the red wine and increase the heat to cook off the wine. Pour in ¾ cup of water, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add more water if the lentils are drying out during this time. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add the silverbeet stalks. When the lentils are tender, add the salt, stir through the silverbeet leaves and cook for a couple of minutes until just wilted.

Onion Gravy

3 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
2 large onions, sliced into thin half moons
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or use 2 sprigs of fresh thyme)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cups water
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Melt the dairy free margarine in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Stir though the onions and thyme and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the water and increase the heat to an active simmer. After the liquid has reduced by half, stir through the cornflour/water mixture and turn the heat to low. Cook for another 5 minutes then season with salt, sugar and soy sauce.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

700g potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups water
1 tablespoon dairy-free margarine
couple of splashes of soy milk

Place the potatoes in a saucepan with the garlic, salt and water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Drain the potatoes in a colander. If you have a potato ricer, press the potatoes and the garlic through a potato ricer into a large bowl. Stir through the dairy free margarine and a few splashes of soy milk. Alternatively use a potato masher to mash the potatoes, garlic, dairy free margarine and soy milk together.