Delicious raw vegan fennel, orange and avocado salad

A very tasty, whole food, quick and easy new salad to share today! Don't worry, there's a chocolate ganache and strawberry pie recipe coming up soon to compensate for for all this healthiness :-)

Serves 1 as a full meal, or 2-4 as a side dish

Ingredients: 

• 1 large fennel bulb, very thinly sliced (use a mandolin if you have one)
• 2 oranges, peeled and pith removed, halved and segmented 
• 1 avocado, peeled and roughly chopped
• 30 grams of rocket (I'm sure more would be tasty too, this was all I had) 
• 40 grams of currants (or raisins or sultanas, but note these are often coated in vegetable oil if you want to avoid that)
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped (optional) 
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Put all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them thoroughly, and season to taste. There is no separate dressing for this: The oranges, which will give off some of their juice, provide the acid you would usually add in the form of vinegar or lemon juice, the avocado provides the fat in stead of oil. If your avocado is nice and ripe it will partly 'dissolve' and form a creamy dressing together with the orange juice. I didn't have any, but I imagine some chopped toasted walnuts or toasted almond flakes would be very nice with this too! 

Easy vegan Sushi Salad recipe

During the summer, I eat a *lot* of salads, especially for lunch at work. I have quite a variety, but this remains one of my absolute favourites: I call it my sushi salad as the combination of flavours reminds me of sushi. You can up the sushi-ness by adding some shredded nori, leaving out the orange juice, and adding a small amount of wasabi to the dressing, also very tasty!

Serves: full meal for one hungry person

Indredients:

Salad:

1 cup cooked brown rice, cooled

1 avocado, diced

2 spring onions, chopped

75 g grated carrot

1/2 cucumber, finely chopped

75g bean sprouts (mung or soy)

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

dressing:

juice of one orange

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

(adjust to taste)

Preparation:

1) Mix salad ingredients.

2) Mix dressing ingredients.

3) Stir dressing into salad.

4) NOM :)  

Vegan Olive Tapenade Recipe

I love olives and olive tapenade, but almost all the supermarket varieties contain anchovies, so I decided to make my own, and it turned out raaaather good:


Olive-rocket tapenade
Ingredients:
115 g pitted black olives
30 g rocket (rucola) leaves
40 g raw unsalted cashew nuts
heaping tablespoon nutritional yeast
heaping teaspoon miso

Preparation:
Put it all in a deep bowl, and blend. YUM.

Be sure to store in the refrigerator. I finished this amount in about a week, and my guess would be that it wouldn't have kept much longer than that with the rocket... oh well, I suppose I'll just have to make more :)

Vegan pumpkin and broad bean pilav

I just made this up today based on a few different things I was craving, and it turned out surprisingly tasty, so I thought I'd share it with you. 

I love risottos and pilavs - basically, it's baby food for grownups, so comforting! Also - WOOHOO!!! - pumpkin season is here! And, okay, it is very much not broadbean season, but they're delicious, so I cheated with a pack of frozen ones. 

If you do not use brown basmati rice for this, you probably need to drastically shorten the cooking time or it will turn to mush - check the packet instructions of the rice you are using. If you do need a shorter cooking time for the rice, get the pumpkin in the oven first (step 4), and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.

If you would like a pumpkin desert to follow your pumpkin entrée (and why would you not!?), do yourself a huuuuuge favour and head on over to Allyson's wonderful blog Manifest:Vegan, and try her amazing Chocolate Acorn Squash Baked Custard. I couldn't find an acorn squash, so I used a regular little orange pumpkin in stead. I'm not gluten-intolerant and didn't have sorghum or buckwheat flour, so I used regular wholemeal wheat flour in stead - worked perfectly.   

Enjoy! 

Pumpkin and broad bean pilav

(serves 3-4)

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 200g brown basmati rice, thoroughly rinsed
• large pinch of saffron, about 50 strands
• 1 veg stock cube
• 1 small pumpkin (ca. 1 kg, 700g when deseeded and peeled), peeled and cut into 2x2 cm cubes
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 300g frozen broad beans
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

preheat oven to 180C 

1) Fry the onions in a large (ca. 4 litre) pan in 1tbsp of the olive oil over a medium heat until it is turning translucent, about 5 minutes, then add garlic

2) After a further five minutes, once the onion and garlic are just starting to brown, add the basmati rice and briefly toss with the onions and garlic

3) Add about 750 ml of water and the saffron strands to the pan, and crumble in the stock cube. Bring to the boil, then turn heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes

4) Meanwhile, toss the pumpkin with the remaining olive oil, some salt, and the allspice in an oven dish, and arrange in a single layer. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes.

5) Give the rice a stir, and scatter the broadbeans on top of the rice. Spread the chunks of pumpkin on top of the beans, cover the pan, and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the beans are fully defrosted and heated.  

Season to taste (I enjoyed a good twist of black pepper with mine), and presto! 

Vegan grilled aubergine & roast tomato pasta recipe

Aubergines (eggplants) are among my favourite vegetables in the entire world, and grilling them is one of my favourite methods of preparation - and then the classic combination of aubergine, tomato and basil is just.... * swoons * :)

I can't remember exactly how I developed this recipe, but I think it's safe to say it was born from a love of that particular combination. In the days before the vegan experiment (which is becoming less and less of an experiment and more of a lifestyle as time goes on - and one I'm feeling extremely good about both mentally and physically) I used to add a cup of crumbled feta to this dish, which, if you eat cheese, works very well. If you want to include it, it just goes in when you combine all the ingredients at the end. These days however, I'm using a very basic vegan 'Parmesan' - recipe below.

Grilled aubergine & roast tomato pasta
serves 2

Ingredients:

• 3 large cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 15 medium-sized ripe sweet tomatoes, quartered 
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 small aubergines (eggplants), sliced lengthwise into 0.5 cm slices
• 200 grams of dry pasta  (I usually use spaghetti, but short pasta types work very well too)
• generous handful of fresh basil, shredded
• 2 tbsp of toasted flaked almonds 
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
• salt 
• black pepper
• Vegan parmesan (recipe below) to taste 

Preparation:
1) Preheat oven to 180*C

2) Place the tomatoes in a baking tray, sprinkle the garlic over them and drizzle with the olive oil

3) Toss the tomatoes in the dish until they are well-coated in olive oil, place them in the oven, and roast for an hour or until they just start to char a little around the edges. I love them that way, but eating burnt anything probably isn't good for you, so turn off the oven a little earlier than I do if you're concerned :). If the other ingredients aren't ready yet, just leave the tomatoes in the turned-off oven to keep warm.

4) While the tomatoes are roasting, sprinkle the aubergine slices generously with salt (you'll be rinsing this off later), and place in a colander to drain for half an hour - this leeches out the bitterness aubergines can have.

5) After half an hour, thoroughly rinse each of the aubergine slices to get the salt off, and pat dry with kitchen towel. Lightly oil a griddle pan and grill the aubergine slices in it until they are cooked and have a nice dark criss-cross pattern. Once they are grilled, cut each of the aubergine slices into bite size pieces.

6) While the aubergine slices are grilling, set a pan of water to boil for the pasta, and cook it according to packet instructions


7) Remove the tomatoes from the oven and put them in a large bowl, also pouring in all the olive oil and juices in the baking tray with them

8) Add the basil, pasta, and aubergine to the bowl and drizzle with a bit of balsamic vinegar, add salt and pepper to taste, and toss everything together. I usually also stir in a tablespoon of the vegan Parmesan, and put the remaining Parmesan on the table for anyone who wants more. 

9) finally, garnish with the toasted almonds, and presto!


Vegan 'Parmesan' 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast
• 1/4 cup of peeled almonds
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp sea salt

Preparation: 

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until the mix has a light, crumbly fine-grated parmesan-like texture.

Spicy vegan roast tomato and bell pepper soup recipe

This is an old favourite of mine, I've been making it for years and have recently switched the cream cheese I used to use in it for soy cooking cream. I'm not a big fan of many soy products and have not been able to get even this soy cream to work for me in any other recipes yet, but in this soup it is just fine! I really do make it quite spicy, just cut down on the garlic and chili if you prefer a milder taste (or have a date the night you're eating it :)). This soup freezes well, so I always make a large quantity regardless of how many people I'm cooking for.


Spicy Tomato and Bell Pepper Soup
(serves 4-6 as a main meal with bread)

Ingredients

• 15 ripe medium-sized tomatoes, quartered
• 2 red bell peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks
• 2 yellow bell peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2-3 small dried red chili peppers, crushed
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 medium onions, roughly chopped
• water as needed
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 250 ml of soy single cream alternative (unsweetened)
• salt and pepper to taste
• handful of roughly chopped rocket for garnishing (optional)

Preparation

1) Preheat the oven to 180*C, and place the chopped tomatoes and bell peppers in a large baking tray. Sprinkle with the garlic and chili, drizzle with 2 tbs of the olive oil, and toss until the vegetables are lightly coated with the oil. Roast in the oven until cooked and just beginning to char at the corners, about 45 minutes. Toss the vegetables again once or twice while they are cooking.

2) When the tomatoes and peppers have been in the oven for about 20 minutes, heat the remaining olive oil in a large pan (big enough to hold all the vegetables with some space to spare), and gently saute the onions over a medium heat until they turn glassy.

3) When the tomatoes and peppers are roasted, add them to the pan with the onions, also pouring in the cooking juices from the baking dish. Add enough water to just cover the vegetables, crumble in the stock cubes, and bring to the boil.

4) When the stock cubes have dissolved, remove the pan from the heat, add the soy cream, and puree the soup using a blender.

5) Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with the rocket, and serve with bread and anything else you fancy!

Recipes for vegan spicy stuffed aubergines, sweet potatoes and mango and avocado salad

My recent forays into veganism are forcing me to experiment and learn a lot of new recipes and techniques, and I'm really enjoying it! I've been using the Fitday Calorie Counter, not to count calories since I don't want to lose weight, but to track nutrients. So far, this has told me that I am quite lacking in potassium, calcium and protein today, so I will be doing a squash and spinach risotto, briefly baked in the oven with a pine nut and almond 'cheese' topping - if it turns out well I'll post it here. It's an interesting way to plan meals - fill out the counter throughout the day, and then plan dinner based on your deficiencies. It's educational, too - until I had to go googling "vegetarian potassium sources" I had no idea squashes and leafy greens were potassium-rich - or that significant amounts of potassium can be lost in the cooking process. That's okay, I'll just eat more :-)  

Since my first attempt at a cashew-based sauce I've done quite a few more, including an adaptation of this recipe for asparagus linguine alfredo: I used cashews since macadamias cost  a fortune, and it turned out rather delicious, I'll have to make it again before asparagus season is out! I also found this great recipe for a faux-cheese sauce which tastes remarkably cheesy: I've used it as a pizza topping, as a sandwich topping, in pasta sauces, and on one of today's recipes, the stuffed aubergines.

Three recipes today, which between them make a very nice 4 person meal.

Spicy stuffed aubergines
This recipe developed from an attempt to recreate a very nice takeaway lunch I got from a Turkish restaurant in The Hague. It doesn't much resemble the original anymore, but I rather like the result :)

Ingredients

• 4 large aubergines (eggplants), halved lengthwise
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 150 grams finely chopped carrots 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or more, or less, depending on how much of a garlic-head you are... I ADORE garlic myself :))
• 6 finely chopped plum tomatoes (a 400 gram can of chopped tomatoes also works fine) 
• 1 can of tomato puree
• 3/4 cup of dried green lentils (I'm sure it would work just fine with other lentils, too, this is just what I happened to have in the house) 
• 1 bayleaf (optional) 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 small dried chili, crushed
• 7 - 8 green peppercorns in vinegar (like this, I think you can get them in brine, too), crushed
• handful of flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• Optional toppings: vegan cashew cheese, vegetarian cheese of your choice or toasted breadcrumbs - also fine without any topping though

Preparation:

1) Preheat the oven to 200*C, and place the aubergines cut-side up in a lightly greased baking tray. Roast them until they are mostly cooked and lightly browned on top - about half an hour - and while they are roasting prepare the other ingredients

2) put the lentils in a pan with plenty of water with the bay leaf (do not add salt), bring to the boil, and simmer until the lentils are quite soft (20-30 minutes). When they are done, remove from heat and pour off excess water

3) Meanwhile, in a large pan saute the onions in olive oil with a little salt for about five minutes, then add the carrots. Continue to saute until the onions are soft and sweet, then add the garlic and saute for a couple more minutes - don't let the garlic burn

4) Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, spices, crushed green peppercorns and salt to the mix, heat through and adjust spices to taste

5) When the aubergines are done, carefully scoop out the flesh, leaving the shell at least 1/2 inch thick. Finely chop the flesh, and add it, the lentils and the flat leaf parsley to the tomato sauce. Mix it all together, taste for final seasoning, and fill the aubergine shells. (I usually have some stuffing left over, and have it with toast for lunch the next day)

6) Top the stuffed aubergines with the topping of your choice or leave them as they are, and bake them in the oven for a final ten minutes - or slightly longer if your topping needs it.  

Avocado and Mango salad
This is again a recipe improvised based on a dish I had in a restaurant - the lovely Moorings restaurant in Mtwapa, Kenya, to be precise: if you ever find yourself near Mombasa, I heartily recommend it for the lovely food, incredibly friendly service, relaxed atmosphere and gorgeous location!

Ingredients:

• 2 very ripe mangoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 4 ripe avocados, cut into same chunks as mango
• bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro) 
• small red onion or spring onion, very finely chopped  
• olive oil to taste
• salt and pepper to taste 

Preparation:  Mix it all together :)
Fresh coriander is one of those love-or-hate foods, so check with your fellow diners, and leave it on the side if anyone can't stand the stuff.

Finally, I accompanied these dishes with roast sweet potato - I can't even really call it a recipe, I just scrubbed them (1 large sweet potato per person), cut them into small chunks, and roasted them in the oven at the same time as the aubergines, tossed with some olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of dried thyme.

I thought the three worked really well together!