Recipe Round-Up: Forks Over Knives

Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook is a trusty volume that I often head to when I am feeling the need for something a little bit lighter, but not lacking in flavour. I have also done a round-up for this book before. Here is some more from it!

Chinese Brown Sauce: This sauce comes together quickly, and has a rich and garlicky flavour. I never have date molasses and found myself unexpectedly out of rice syrup, so I used some maple syrup mixed with a touch of water instead. This is a base for several recipes in the book, but is also handy for a quick stir-fry sauce on its own.
Rating: :)



Spicy Tropical Green Smoothie: I was not a big fan of this, and I normally love green smoothies. I found this thin (even with frozen fruit), kind of grassy and it had an odd smell. I used the lime juice option, and added a sprinkle of cayenne as suggested.
Rating: :/



Chilean Bean Stew: This was nice, though quite sweet because it has a lot of corn and is also based on pumpkin. It has basil stirred through which gives a lovely accent. It is great with nooch added to make it a bit cheesy.
Rating: :)



Brown Lentil Stew with Avocado Salsa: It is funny how some dishes you remember because of what happened while you were eating them. I had just sat down to a bowl of this when a large glass door panel shattered. Not the fault of the stew, of course, which was exactly what I needed to get through. I needed to add an extra cup of water to get the lentils to cook all the way through, and I left out the capsicum. I doubled the salsa, which you will definitely want to do as well. Served with quinoa, baby spinach and a side of glass-door related angst.
Rating: :)



Bean and Mushroom Chili: I made a half batch of this (a full recipe says it serves six), and I got one dinner and one lunch out of it, so I think I eat more than they think you should eat. I served it with avocado, some nooch, a baked sweet potato and baby spinach. After simmering covered, I had to simmer for a bit longer at the end without a cover to thicken up.
Rating: :)



Penne with Spicy Eggplant: This was yum. I used only half the penne (so 250g instead of 1 pound... 1 pound of pasta makes too much for me, and I like my pasta on the saucier side) and added a tin of kidney beans and some frozen peas, and served over spinach. Even with only using half the pasta I still got five serves out it! The recipe says that full amount of pasta will serve 4!
Rating: :)



'Penne' with Swiss Chard, Olives and Currants: When I was shopping for this recipe I could have sworn that I had penne at home in the cupboard, but when it came time to cook it turned out that it was rotini. Oh well! Still good. Once again I used 250g pasta, rather than 1 pound, and I added kidney beans. I didn't have fresh thyme, so I used dry. I also sliced my shallots in quarter moons rather than dicing them small. Overall this was a little lacking in flavour, so I added some veggie stock to it and topped with nooch and it was good. I would suggest adding veggie stock powder to the reserved pasta water when it comes to that step.
Rating: :)



Sicilian Cauliflower Linguine: This recipe again calls for 1 pound, I happened to have 12 oz/375g left in my cupboard so I used it all, but it was really a bit too much pasta for the sauce, I would use 250g next time. I also added in some chopped spinach as well for greens. This has a nice flavour, with lots of garlic and miso in the sauce.
Rating: :)



Stir-Fried Noodles with Spring Vegetables: This uses a recipe of the Chinese Brown Sauce from the beginning of this post. it calls for onion, carrot, asparagus and snow peas, I also added some sauteed tofu. I got three and a half serves of this, serving over wholewheat noodles because I couldn't find the brown rice ones the recipe called for.
Rating: :)



Peanut Noodles with Broccoli: Peanut sauce, noodles and broccoli have to be one of my favourite combinations. The sauce here is super awesome, using refreshing coconut water as a base. I served this over baby spinach leaves. Highly recommend.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



A few weeks ago Dim Sim had to go to the clinic because she was off her food. Everything ended up being fine! But I popped out of the room to go pay my bill and when I came back had a moment of panic - where was Dim Sim? She was hiding under the flap of my bag, but poked her nose out when she realised I was back.