Vegan MoFo - G is for Glamorgan Sausages

Glamorgan Sausages or Selsig Morgannwg in the Welsh tongue are credited with being the first vegetarian sausages according to my copy of World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown. They can be traced back to 1862 where they were highly regarded by George Burrows in his diary about his travels through Wales. The original cookbook recipe consists of breadcrumbs, leeks, parsley, eggs, cheese, mustard and seasonings which is obviously not vegan. My husband and son adored these sausages during our period as vegetarians so I took it upon myself to attempt a vegan version several months ago which they both deemed to be a success.

By substituting a vegan cheese for dairy cheese with a bit of nutritional yeast thrown in for good measure and ground flaxseeds mixed with water for eggs, the mixture actually binds together better than the original version. They are not strongly flavoured so I recommend serving them with a nicely spiced tomato chutney or mustard. Tomato sauce/ketchup or BBQ sauce is another condiment that works well with them.

I actually prefer my meals to have a bit more oomph than these snags and mash but they have been requested for quite some time so I made them to please the man and son. To keep it interesting for me this time, I stir-fried some julienned carrots and shredded cabbage with garlic, chilli and vegan mushroom oyster sauce to have on the side. Next time around I may try adding a bit of smoked paprika to the sausage mixture as it's a spice I adore and feel could make them more interesting.

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

Vegan MoFo - F is for Ful Medames

Ful Medames is something I have wanted to make ever since sampling it a Middle Eastern cafe last year. It's an Egyptian dish consisting of fava beans, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic which is traditionally served for breakfast with eggs and pita bread. When I tried ful medames, it was served with salad and pita bread which was a nice combination. I wanted to replicate this for our meal at home and had already prepared a batch of pita bread for my Ethiopian soup which meant some of the groundwork was already done.

I searched high and low for a recipe containing the right balance of elements that were etched into my memory but none of them seemed quite right. There were also conflicting methods around how the beans were served as several recipes left them whole whilst others mashed them into a refried bean consistency. The ones I had tried in the cafe were whole beans but I had a feeling that my bean-loathing son would prefer them mashed.

I ended up not following any of these recipes, used my intuition and taste tested along the way instead. After cooking the beans, I started with liberal amounts of the seasonings, tasted and then added more lemon and garlic as these were the flavours I could recall as standing out and were the ones that I adored. There was one hiccup in the meal which I will admit to, some of my beans were undercooked which meant they didn't mash well and were a little bit chewy. This was the first time I had cooked dried fava beans so I will remember to taste test more than one bean before declaring them ready next time around!

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


Ful Medames 

1 1/2 cups dried fava beans, soaked for at least 8 hours
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves crushed garlic (or less if you aren't that keen on garlic)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
pepper, to taste
flat leaved parsley, for garnish

After the beans have been soaking for 8 hours, drain them in a colander and rinse well. Place the beans into a pot and fill with water until the beans are covered with at least 2cm of water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 2 hours or until all of your beans are cooked through.

Drain into a colander, reserving the bean cooking liquid, then return the beans to the pot. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and cumin and mash well with a potato masher. You may need to add some of the bean cooking liquid if they are too dry. Reheat the beans on a low temperature and serve garnished with parsley.

Vegan MoFo - E is for Ethiopian Soup

So I'm sharing another old recipe today which makes it 4 oldies in a row! If you are hanging out to see something new, bear with me as I promise there will be a brand new recipe tomorrow plus plenty more coming up over the next week.

Ethiopian food has been a passion of mine for several years. World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown was the first vegetarian cookbook given to me which contains an extensive section on Ethiopian cuisine. The moment I tried these recipes I fell in love with the unique flavours. For those who are unfamiliar with Ethiopian food, there are two crucial ingredients that are used in the wats (stews), a spiced clarified butter called niter kibbeh and a spice mix called berbere.

Soup is another love of mine. I'm not much of a cold weather person although one of the things I enjoy most about the cooler months is cooking up a batch (or two) of soup on a weekly basis. Over the last few months I have tried 19 new soup recipes, some of which were concoctions of my own. My Ethiopian soup is the recipe I am most proud of, because it started as an idea to use up the remaining vegetables in an almost bare fridge and resulted in the most delicious soup I have ever created.

After the success of my first batch, I have made this a couple of other times using niter kibbeh in place of the dairy-free margarine, cloves, cinnamon and cardamon which results in a superior overall taste. I usually serve it with pita bread as I have been making this a lot since finding a great recipe earlier this year. Injera would be a more appropriate accompaniment although it does takes longer to prepare than pita.

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

Vegan MoFo - D is for Dal Makhani

When it came to the letter D there was no question about what I was going to make - Dal Makhani! I used to make Indian food on a weekly basis until my husband and son started losing interest in all curries apart from "butter chicken" and koftas. There is something about those little balls that my boys can't get enough of. Personally, my love has always been for dal and although I have tried so many different varieties over the years it is difficult to pick a favourite.

Dal Makhani was chosen for Vegan MoFo as it is one of my most treasured dal recipes and judging from my post where you can find the recipe, it has been over 6 months since I last made it! Black lentils and kidney beans mixed with tomatoes and spices, finished off with a cashew cream is such a divine combination. The man isn't usually very enthused about dal but last night he totally enjoyed the meal and commented several times about how good it was. As we have eaten a fair bit of rice recently, I served the dal with frozen store-bought parathas which puffed up beautifully after a quick fry in the pan. We enjoyed the dal and bread with one of our regular Indian vegetable side dishes which also appeared in my dal makhani post, punjabi cabbage.

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

Vegan MoFo - C is for Chow Mein

My original idea for the letter C was a little different to what I have ending up posting but the result was still equally delicious. A lack of vital ingredients for the planned meal changed my focus onto Chow Mein which is a great way to use up bits and pieces of food. That is precisely the type of meal I needed to cook.

I had never made chow mein prior to my post back in May but since trying Johanna's recipe it has been back on the menu on a few subsequent occasions. It's a great one-pot meal made up of noodles, rice and vegetables cooked with soy sauce, "chicken" stock and chilli. It also has the bonus of being quick to prepare. After my first attempt I have always added a couple of teaspoons of curry powder which makes it taste even better.

This time I had some fresh pho noodles that needed to be used so I added these instead of dried rice vermicelli and replaced the TVP with what is rapidly becoming one of my favourite meat substitutes - a ground "meat" recipe from Ricki of Diet, Dessert and Dogs. I have plans to make more meals with Ricki's ground "meat" throughout Vegan Mofo and will discuss this wonderful concoction of cauliflower and nuts in more detail then.

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

Vegan MoFo - B is for "Butter Chicken"

Butter chicken was a favourite meal of ours back when we were omnis. Once I discovered that I could nail this dish and provide us with such a close vegan rendition of what we used to adore so much, it was a huge comfort. Before I knew of the existence of asian mock meats I tried to make this curry with vegetables and tofu which worked well enough but did not live up to the taste and texture of a butter chicken made with mock meat. We don't eat mock meat very often but when we do the temptation is always there to whip up another batch of this delicious "butter chicken".

The original recipe was given to my husband by a work colleague as stated in my previous post where you can find the recipe. I made it a little differently last night due to being out of Tofutti cream cheese and only used about 300g of mock meat and added a touch more soy milk and dairy-free margarine than usual. Some other vegetable side dishes I usually serve with this meal are gajar matar (carrots and peas) or punjabi cabbage. Last night was an exception as we ate this simply with rice and pappadums. It wasn't the healthiest of meals but it was extremely tasty!

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

Vegan MoFo - A is for Apple Sponge

The time has come for Vegan MoFo (Vegan month of food) with the aim of the game to blog as much as possible through the month of October with a minimum of 20 posts being the benchmark. I have set the bar a little higher and decided to try an alphabet theme as I enjoyed following quite a few bloggers who went with this last year.

My A-Z theme is going to be based on golden oldies as well as some newbies. The reasoning behind this was to lighten the load for some posts as the oldies will be shorter posts with links back to the recipes. The rules I have set for myself are:

• all of the food needs to be cooked in October
• a minimum a 2 new recipes per week to be posted
• a minimum of 12 new recipes for the month

I really want to be able to see this through until the end of the month and hope you will enjoy me for the ride!

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When I was a child it was always exciting to hear that my uncles were coming over for dinner as mum would usually make their favourite dessert which was also a favourite of mine - Apple Sponge. The title is rather misleading as it gives the impression of a cake rather a baked dessert that is usually served hot. The other misnomer is that the topping is based on a plain cupcake mixture rather than a lighter sponge cake that the name leads you to believe.  

It's been ages since I last ate Apple Sponge and had totally forgotten about it until I starting planning out this month of cooking. I looked up a basic cupcake recipe on taste.com.au and swapped a few ingredients to make it vegan. Dairy-free margarine for butter, soy milk for milk and ground flaxseeds to replace the eggs. This dessert is very easy to make taking only 15-20 of preparation time. It would really taste better served with some soy ice-cream or a dollop of cashew cream, the latter will be prepared for us to enjoy the leftovers.

Edited to add: After having some leftovers the following night, the apple to cake ratio didn't seem quite right. Next time around I would probably use 2 more apples or even halve the cake quantity below.

Apple Sponge (Cupcake mixture adapted from taste.com.au)

4 apples, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/4 cup water
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup soy milk
125g dairy-free margarine, melted
2 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanillla essense

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Place the apples, cinnamon, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the apples are soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix through the caster sugar. Add the soy milk, margarine, flaxseed/water mixture and vanilla essense and stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are combined.

Spread the apple mixture into a pie dish then cover with the cake mixture. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Poke the cake with a skewer and when it comes out clean it is ready.

Serve hot out of the oven or cold with a scoop of soy ice-cream or cashew cream.

100th post - My Veg*n story

I have been a bit slack on the blogging front in the latter part of this month which is partly due to Vegan MoFo preparations. Before we enter into October being the Vegan Month of Food I felt the need to reach a milestone – 100 posts! I planned this post some time ago as I thought it would be a good time to share my story of how and why I became vegetarian and my progression to veganism.  I would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone who has been reading and commenting on my posts as it means a lot and gives me motivation to keep blogging.

As a child I adored animals, my favourite toy was an enormous plush dog aptly named “Doggie” who was just one of many cherished “pets” in my soft toy animal collection. Dolls were never of interest to me and I don’t recall owning one. I grew up in a house where there was always a pet (if not several) around and I was always trying to add to our brood by bringing strays home. I adored the country and watching animals peacefully grazing on our way to visit my Nanna in Gippsland was the highlight of the journey there.

Meat was on the table every night of the week, as a child I loved eating it and never really made the connection between what was on my plate to the furry friends I cherished so much. In a home economics class at secondary school we made veal schnitzels and our teacher always encouraged us to take the recipes home and cook them for our families. Veal was something that had never been served at home and I remember being totally repulsed at finding out that it was flesh of a baby cow when I questioned my mother about it. I cooked the schnitzels that night and somehow managed to eat, although there was no enjoyment in the meal whatsoever. I only ate veal on a couple of other occasions after this, simply to be polite when eating at someone else’s house. Calves have always had a special place in my heart and I could never deal with the thought of eating such a gorgeous innocent creature.

I flirted with half-arsed vegetarianism when studying at Uni for a brief period however this was limited to not eating red meat. This was brought to an end during my pregnancy when I caved into intense cravings. I fell back into the habit of eating meat on a daily basis for many more years.

The middle of 2008 was the last time I ate meat. Surprisingly, my decision to stop eating meat wasn't really my idea but was brought on by several discussions and a bit of gentle prompting from my husband. This was mainly due to his concerns about factory farming which we had been blissfully unaware of up until then. I resisted for a while as my primary concern was how on earth I was going to cook different interesting tasty meals every night of the week. So we began by having a meatless dinner once or twice a week for a short time and building up a small repertoire of meals that we all enjoyed I agreed to give vegetarianism a try. We never looked back...

In fact, I totally embraced vegetarian food, became enthralled with trying out new recipes and the interest I always had in cooking was taken to a whole new level. I discovered veg*n blogs and was amazed and inspired with the creativity that these amazing people applied to their cooking.  I became even more interested in factory farming issues and animal rights. I stopped purchasing leather, wool, etc. and changed household products to cruelty-free brands.

After reading “Eating Animals” by Johnathon Safran Foer I wanted to go vegan straight away. I had loved not eating meat up until then as my conscience felt clean however this was no longer the case when I discovered more shocking truths about egg and dairy production. I wanted to stop consuming these nasties straight away and not contribute to the life-long suffering of these poor animals. It did not happen this way as I decided that more research into a balanced vegan diet was required. I had read stories of people that were unable to sustain veganism due to various reasons and wanted to ensure that I was covering all bases when it came to nutritional requirements.

This transitional period lasted for a while, much longer than I would have liked as we moved out of our house for renovations and in with my accommodating in-laws. I didn’t feel that it was going to be feasible to commit to a vegan diet until I was back at home and in my own kitchen. It was difficult enough to impose our vegetarian ways on our gracious hosts by needing to prepare our own meals every night as well as storing the food we required. Over the months, I kept decreasing the amount of dairy in my diet and wasn’t interested in eating eggs at all. Vegan meals were on the menu the majority of the time and food containing dairy wasn’t enjoyable for me anymore.

The renovations became complicated and drawn out and as well as being frustrated with them I just couldn’t wait any longer to go vegan. Milk in my daily coffee was one of the last things to be substituted which was something I was certain was going to be very hard to adapt to. After I bit the bullet and tried a few different varieties of soy milk, my taste buds adapted in a couple of days. There was to be no more waiting now, renovations or no renovations I was going vegan!

The man was the only person that initially knew and was very supportive of my decision. I never expected that he would follow my path as he has always been a bit of a sweet tooth and a total sucker for ice-cream and chocolate. When we moved back home, he secretly went for a week without eggs or dairy, proudly announced that he was joining me and has never looked back either.

It has been almost a year which has been a very happy and delicious time. Whenever I sit down to eat I don’t have to think about contributing towards the suffering of farmed animals which makes every meal a positive experience.

Tofu quiches and apricot delights for potluck plus Singapore noodles

Spring was well and truly in the air last weekend making it perfect weather to celebrate Planet VegMel's 2nd anniversary with a potluck in the Edinburgh Gardens. It was a bit daunting to turn up to an unfamiliar park that was crawling with numerous groups of people enjoying the sun whilst trying to locate a bunch of people I hadn't met before. After a quick stroll around I thankfully recognised a couple of blogging faces and made my way over to the friendly welcoming group.

My stomach was still rather full from a late breakfast so I didn't sample as many of the wonderful selection of vegan delights as I would have liked, and ended up snacking on more sweet things than savoury which is quite out of character for me. I enjoyed K's refreshing iced tea and Fat Fueled Vegan's deliciously creamy mango lassi for drinks and tucked into some of Michael's potato-chickpea enchiladas from Viva Vegan. The enchiladas were not new to me as I have made them a few times before, but I was intrigued to try them to compare.

When it was time for the sweets, Johanna's cake pops were extremely popular and rightfully so. Steph's chocolate caramel slice was delicious as were Emily's chocolate truffles. I took home some of Cindy's peanut butter cookies with ganache filling amongst other goodies and tried one later that night. My relationship with peanuts is rather quirky (peanuts = yum, anything containing peanut butter = yuck) so I didn't expect to enjoy these cookies. The peanut flavour paired with chocolate wasn't too overpowering so I was pleasantly surprised to find the cookie enjoyable as did my son who devoured the remaining two.

I made some tofu quiches originally from Fat Free Vegan and previously blogged by Johanna GGG and Vicki Vegan which seemed to be popular. My only gripe was they were nice and fluffy when they were being baked and then shrunk a little after they were cooled. Unfortunately K was unable to try them as I had included miso which can contain gluten. I also made some apricot delights from Johanna's blog which were also blogged about at In the Mood for Noodles; they are a nice and healthy sweet although they did become rather soft after spending some time out of the fridge.

It was a fantastic experience to meet and share food with other veg*n bloggers I have been following for a few years although it was also a little overwhelming for a shy person like me.

A few nights before the potluck, I finally made Toby's Singapore noodles which were fantastically easy to prepare for such a tasty dinner so I decided to add this into the post for another 'that recipe seems very familiar...' submission. The only changes I made were to add some different veggies and I also crumbled the tofu which is something I loved in Steph's awesome Char Kueh Teow recipe and have since used in other dishes. Oh yes, and like others who have also tried this recipe we preferred it with additional soy sauce too! Singapore noodles will definitely be part of our mid-week noodle rotation meals from now on.


Tofu quiches
(Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe and Vicki Vegan, originally posted at Fat Free Vegan)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100g button mushrooms, finely chopped
100g baby spinach leaves, finely chopped
2 x 300g silken tofu, drained
2 tablespoons tahini
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tablespoon white miso
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons tamari
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1/4 cup soy milk
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onions for about 5 minutes until soft. Stir through the garlic and mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked. Add the spinach and cook, stirring until the leaves have just wilted.

Place the tofu, tahini, nutritional yeast flakes, miso, smoked paprika and tamari in a food processor bowl and pulse until well combined, scraping down the sides if necessary.

In a small bowl, mix the chickpea flour with the soy milk thoroughly to obtain a smooth paste with no lumps. Mix together the ingredients from the frying pan, food processor and chickpea flour/soy milk paste. Stir through the sun-dried tomatoes and chives.

Place spoonfuls of the mixture into a muffin tray lined with papers and bake at 190C for about 30 minutes.


Apricot Delight 
(Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe, originally from Australian Women's Weekly)

250g dried apricots, chopped
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons agave nectar
extra coconut, for coating

Soak half of the apricots in a saucepan with the boiling water for about an hour. Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat, uncovered for 10 minutes.

Puree the apricots in a food processor. Add the remaining apricots, coconut and agave and process until well combined. You may need to scrape down the sides a couple of times to ensure that all of the ingredients are blended in.

Spread the mixture into a small tin lined with baking paper, cover the top with baking paper and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the tin, cut into squares and roll the squares in extra coconut. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.


Singapore Noodles (Adapted from In the Mood for Noodles)

250g rice vermicelli noodles
250g firm tofu, crumbled
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 small red capsicum, thinly sliced
2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 small head broccoli, cut into small florets
splash of soy sauce
slash of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1/4 cup vegetable stock
extra soy sauce and white pepper to taste

Soak the noodles in hot water for about 10 minutes until the noodles are tender. Drain and set aside.

Place the crumbled tofu, carrot, capsicum, mushrooms, broccoli in a bowl and marinate with soy sauce, sesame oil and chilli flakes.

Toast the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over a medium high heat, then set aside.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok over the highest heat and stir-fry the onion until soft. Stir through the curry powder then add the marinated tofu and vegetables and stir-fry until the vegetables are softening. Add the noodles and stock and stir-fry until the stock has been absorbed. Season with extra soy sauce and white pepper and serve garnished with sesame seeds.

Vegan MoFo 2011

Vegan MoFo is being held in October this year.

I have loved discovering many new blogs through Vegan MoFo in the past and vowed when I started my own blog that I would definitely participate in this event. The sign-up form is here and the submission deadline is the 28th September for those who are interested in participating.

There are only 2 weeks to go so it's time to start planning!