Thursday 12 February 2009

Menu: Summer Harvets Feast from The Vegan Gourmet

Yes, I have been a little menu fiend again. Monday night was family night and I had the day off. I started out the day with a bit of factory outlet shopping in the morning, during which I managed to buy almost nothing of use for my trip to England save a pair of awesome jeans that may not stretch out quite enough (oh, the trauma of buying jeans), and yet I did manage to come home with a set of pastel sundae dishes... well, you know... priorities. The, home to the kitchen! I decided to make the 'Summer Harvest Feast' menu from 'The Vegan Gourmet'



This is Crostini With Greek Eggplant Topping, not assembled at this stage so as not to get soggy. The bread that I used is the delicious Pumpkin and Pepita bread from Sol Breads, which has to be one of my favourite breads. It went really well and added a nice bit of chewy bulk to the meal as opposed to cardboardy white stuff. The Greek Eggplant Topping is quite nice, though being a Baba Ganoush lover I did note the lack of tahini and found it a bit washed out in comparison. But that is just me. Left overs keep well, and are great as a dip or on rice crackers. In fact, I just finished off the last of it while typing this on a nice rice and corn cake. Mmmmm.



Soft Polenta With Corn Kernels and Sage was a bit of a let down. The polenta is cooked with water and was sadly a bit watery even though the texture was right. It just needed a bit more taste to it. Next time I would add some veggie stock to the cooking liquid. The sweet corn kernels and onion were nice additions. I have some of this left over in the freezer. Eventually I plan on slicing it, grilling it and topping it with some sort of fabulous and super tasty sauce.



This was my favourite part of the menu. It is Green Beans with Watercress and Orange-Mint Dressing. It's such a refreshing salad, and the dressing is seriously addictive. it makes a fairly small amount all up, but I had a little bit left over for lunch the next day. I have to admit I love the dressing so much that when I finished the salad for lunch, I drank the rest of the dressing left in the container. Oh. The same. Hee.



And here it is, all plated up and begging to be in your belly.

5 comments:

  1. I hate when polenta tastes watery. You have loads of other yummies though! Have an awesome trip! I'm very jealous of all the new foods you're going to get to try and to eat!!!

    Don't worry about sporadic blogging. I don't even have an excuse (other than kids and errr....kids and errr...cats) and my updates have been less than frequent lately. I just loving drooling over your posts when they come :D

    Good luck too with the super busy life you have ahead of you!

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  2. your polenta looks awesome - sorry it was disappointing.

    Yes 3D Jensen is a very happy thing indeed - that man is one fine specimen! I'm green with envy that you get to seem him in the flesh (so to speak) by the way!!

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  3. Mmmm that Salad looks the biz. Oh, and I drink salad dressing too, but I won't tell anybody if you don't.
    hee hee hee
    :)

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  4. I'm sorry the polenta was a let down, but it really looks so creamy and good in the picture!
    I can see why the green beans were your favorite part, they look terrific!

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  5. I wish I could get Sol Bread still. Pure in Manly had it once and the next week the owner said something about it being too hard to get. Looking at their website I think I could get it at a hfs in Surry Hills, ha!

    And I went to Spotlight for fabric and sewing goodies and ended up also buying 2 baby pink pie dishes! Got to love the pastel cookware :)

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