Recipe Round-Up: Cafe Flora Cookbook

This is the final post in my current round up of the Cafe Flora Cookbook. See what else I've posted about from this book here.

Apple and Roasted Delicata Pizza with Sage Walnut Pesto and Smoked Mozzarella: This book has a whole chapter of pizzas! Most of them are not vegan, but they are so easy to veganise, like this one. First up though, I used butternut squash because I have never seen delicata squash here. The sage and walnut pesto was easy to make, but ended up being a bit bland and oily. It brought the overall experience of the pizza down, I'm afraid. Instead of mozzarella, I used cheddar shreds. I'm glad I did, as it needed a nice strong cheese flavour to cut through the sweetness and also the pesto. If you did have a vegan smoked mozzarella, that would be wonderful, but I only had plain so I went with cheddar. This pizza did improve the next day, when I ate a leftover piece cold.
Rating: :| (The pesto let it down)



Roasted Chanterelle and Leek Pizza with Roasted Garlic Pecan Pesto: Another easily veganised pizza! I should mention that each pizza recipe makes two pizzas, but I halved them all to make just one pizza. I had to substitute and use cremini mushrooms, I have never seen fresh chanterelle mushrooms here. But all mushrooms are good mushrooms! The pesto for this pizza was a lot better, giving a wonderful rich flavour! This recipe calls for two types of non-vegan cheese (smoked mozzarella and Jarlsberg), I just used some FYH mozzarella and it was great.
Rating: :)



Tropical Pizza: This is the only specified vegan pizza in the book. When I made this, I also made a half recipe of the Herbed Pizza Dough for the base. The other pizzas I just used the Coles pizza dough. It's a nice dough recipe, and you can add any herbs you want to it (I added coriander and parsley). The rest of this pizza has a base of macadamia roasted garlic spread, topped with sauteed shiitake, pineapple, and ginished off with coriander and a drizzle of sweet soy. It was a great pizza!
Rating: Dough :), Pizza :)



Cafe Flora French Dip Sandwich: This is one of the dishes I actually ate at Cafe Flora, so I was curious to see how it would turn out at home. First you need to make mushroom essence (very easy and I've made if a few times for different recipes, mushrooms and mushroom stems simmered to make a rich stock) and a french dip spread. The spread is a combination of sauteed shallots, garlic, and herbs mixed into some softened vegan butter, I used Nuttelex. The rolls are layered with sauteed portobellos and onions, the spread, and cheese (I used some Tofutti American slices), and served with the mushroom essence for dipping. These were very rich, but wonderfully savoury.
Rating: :)



Chickpea and Roasted Yam Wrap with Tahini Sauce: Obviously, in my world yam = sweet potato. This involves a mash of spiced chickpeas gently mixed with roasted sweet potato. The sweet potatoes were meant to be roaste with chili, I used paprika. A spinach wrap is spread with Tahini Sauce (a recipe from the staples chapter), then filled with the mash and, in my case, some baby spinach. I didn't bother serving with sweet chili dipping sauce, because spicy. This was a nice combination. I served it with some roasted broccoli, topped with extra Tahini Sauce.
Rating: Wrap :), Sauce :)



Teriyaki Tofu Wrap with Macadamia Roasted Garlic Spread: This recipe made use of some of the leftover spread from the tropical pizza I made above, as well as some more of the spinach wraps from the packet. I used a storebought teriyaki sauce to bake my tofu, and it was really super salty. I wouldn't use that one again, I think it was Ayam brand. After spreading the wraps with the macadamia spread, a layer of seasoned rice is added. The rice is seasoned with fresh coriader, ginger, garlic, mirin, and rice vinegar. I left out the japaleno. Then finished off with the tofu, shredded carrot, and sprouts (I used alfalfa).
Rating: :)



Cafe Flora Cheesy Grits: Another easy to veganise recipe! I used Flora Plant Cream and some grated Daiya Smoked Gouda instead of smoked mozzarella (the last of my Daiya stash, I didn't have any more to use on the pizzas above.. and Daiya doesn't seem to be here anymore. Please bring back my smoked gouda!). I also used polenta because we don't really have grits here and they seem like they are kind of the same? (I'm sorry Bianca, don't be mad!) I also left out the hot sauce. Served with some roasted zucchini and some breakfast patties I unearthed from the back of my freezer.
Rating: :)



Rosemary Lemonade: My fondest memory of eating at Cafe Flora was their delicious Rosemary Lemonade, so I was super excited to make some at home. I had a huge pile of juicy lemons from a friend's lemon tree, and I also have a large rosemary bush in the front yard, so the stage was set. And can I say, this was every bit as delicious as I remembered! The perfect flavour!
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Yesterday (so the 30th of January here in Australia) was Abby's sixth birthday!

Eating Out: Mt Gravatt Showground Events

Again, this was in that brief delightful lull when things in Queensland were safe enough to do things like go to the markets. No more, no more. At least, not for me! This post is a mish mash of a few different events I attended at the Mount Gravatt Showgrounds, which are very close to where I live.

Once a week the showgrounds are home to the Mount Gravatt Street Food Markets on a Saturday evening. Back in October, they had a special Japanese-themed Matsuri festival. Matsuri means festival in Japanese, so I guess they were calling it a festival festival! I was excited at the prospect of some vegan Japanese food, after confirming with the markets that there would be vegan food there. Unfortunately, the vegan offerings were extremely slim, not Japanese, and somewhat meh. I was at least able to find a lovely Tofu Satay Bowl (with tofu puffs, slaw, flatbread, and a delicious peanut sauce), and a grapefruit bubble tea.



One Friday afternoon a month, they host the Vegan Twighlight Markets there. I arrived a bit after opening, and a lot of places already had huge lines or had sold out of things. I still had some fun options though! I got a lovely Cheeseburger Gyros (with veggie pattie, sweet potato fries, cheese, salad, and sauce) from a place called Cocos. I also had a fun crepe from the crepe stall... I can never remember their name. But if you ever go to a Brisbane Vegan Markets, they are the only crepe stall. I got a classic, lemon and sugar. It was good, but I wish they used regular sugar instead of icing sugar, I love the crunch it gives.





A month later, I was back. But even though the vegan twilight markets were on, I was attending a Drag Bingo Fundraiser for Farm Animal Rescue. It was a lot of fun, though very loud and interactive! It also included dinner. My friend and I both got the roast with beans, potatoes, and gravy, and it was really lovely. They also had a buritto bowl option, and a pesto pasta option.



I don't drink, but my friend does and got the special cocktail of the night. It had midori, malibu, and pineapple juice, as was topped with coconut cream. There might have been bacardi in there as well? I don't know. But it reminded me so much of the sorts of cocktails we used to get back in the early 2000s. My friend said it was really nice, like a pina colada but with a bit of melon from the midori.



After the Drag Bingo finished, the markets still had a little while to go outside. We hit up I Should Coco for their Christmas Candy Sundae. It had snickerdoodle cookie dough, sprinkles, and a fruity candy cane. It was absurd and far too sweet, but it was fun. This was the last twilight market of the year in December, so there were lots of Christmas themed things going on.



I long for a time when I can safely go to the twilight vegan markets there again... Maybe in about four or five years?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Boo continues to love her catnip tomato!

Midweek Munchies

I'm tired. How are you all hanging in there?

I am not a huge spring rolls fan, I can't tolerate stuff that is too oily. But I still bought these Coles Nature's Kitchen Spring Rolls because they were half price and why not. They were okay! Nice flavours. I think if you weren't me, these would be very enjoyable spring rolls! Served with my favourite plum sauce.



A new to meal frozen supermarket meal. I guess these meals are meant to be for athletes? Nice of them to have a vegan one. It was nice, a good bolognese sauce. And I do enjoy wholewheat pasta every now and then. I served it over some baby spinach.



I was excited to try these Smoked Tofu Tortellini! I went simple, pairing it with one of my favourite easy stir-through pasta sauces. And I also added some FYH parmesan, peas, and baby spinach to the finished product. Unfortunately, these tortellini were hugely underwhelming. The filling was just so bland.





Love a delicious sounding fun drink! And this one was really lovely. I always prefer kefir to kombucha, but it is harder to find. I loved this rosella flavour.



I was suspicious that this dried drangonfruit would just taste like nothing and be full of seeds. I was half right, it was full of seeds! But the seeds gave it this delicious tahini-like flavour, with a sweet subtle flavour of the flesh. I really liked it, and I would definitely buy it again!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby being very gorgeous and showing that while she is a stocky solid little cat, she can have long legs if she wants! Well, with the right perspective.

Recipe Round-Up: Cafe Flora Cookbook

Diving back in to my Cafe Flora Cookbook round-up, with the second of three posts. You can catch up on my other posts about this book here.

Wild Mushroom Curry: This includes a recipe for making your own red curry paste, but I am tired and also don't like spicy foods, so I just used a smaller amount that written of a storebought one that I have kicking around in my fridge. I also used a mix of light coconut milk and water so it wasn't too rich for me. The recipe calls for a mix of mushrooms, carrots, and capsicum. I left out the capsicum, and I could only get cremini mushrooms. I added some Soyco Japanese marinated tofu. Served over rice and garnished with some tinned beansprouts, dehydrated coriander, and crushed peanuts. In these times, you take what shelf-stable ingredients you can get!
Rating: :)



Indian Chickpea Stew: This is a rich, tomato and chickpea stew that has plenty of spiceys (of course I left out the jalapeno), potatoes, and greens. I used tinned chickpeas rather than cooking from scratch, because I am tired. Served over some basmati rice and with a big dollop of mango ginger chutney.
Rating: :)



Seitan and Vegetables Mu Shu Style: I did not use seitan here, I used some Soyco Japanese marinated tofu because it is easy and I love tofu. I left out the capsicum from the rest of the vegetables, which included carrots, shiitakes, cabbage, and bean sprouts. I also sauteed my scallions with the rest of the veggies because raw scallions don't suit my tummy. The stir-fry itself needed a bit more flavour to it. But once it was in a wrap (this calls for the easy version - flour tortillas) and smothered in hoisin sauce, it all worked out.
Rating: :)



Seitan Jambalaya: I did use seitan here, as I had picked up some Suzie Spoon seitan fillets. I made a half recipe of this, and I left out the capsicum, chile and the hot sauce. Instead I added carrots and used extra celery. Served this over some brown rice and baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Spicy Seitan Fajitas: Of course I made this non-spicy, by leaving out the hot sauce in the vegetables and seitan marinade. I also left out the capsicum in the vetables, using zucchini instead, and I used some more Suzie Spoon seitan fillets. This recipe has a few components, there is the marinade for the seitan, then the vegetable stir-fry, and then to serve it recommends a bunch of optional other recipes you can make from the book including chipotle pinto puree, pico de gallo salsa, and guacamole. In a fit of enthusiasm, I made all of these! For the bean puree I used tinned beans, left out the chipotle and hot sauce, and added smoked paprika. The pico de gallo salsa was a lovely fresh mix of tomatoes, coriander, and lime. I left out the chile and garlic, and added celery for crunch. And finally, the guac was a mix of avocado, tomatoe, lime and coriander. I found this a bit too heavy on the lime as written.
Rating: Fajitas: :), Bean Puree :), Salsa :), Guac :| (too much lime!)



Turmeric Basmati Rice and Spiced Coconut Sauce: Being a cookbook from a restaurant, some of the recipes have a lot of components (see above), and sometimes just one or two of those sound promising, but the others sound like effort or not something I'm interested in. So, just make the bits I want to! This duo was meant to be served with some Black Eyed Pea Fritters. But instead I served them together and sauteed up some vegetables and chickpeas to mix with the sauce. Spiced coconut sauce may surprise you as a choice I made, but I used a mix of light coconut milk, soy cream, and water instead of regular coconut milk. I left out the chiles and added paprika. It had a lovely mix of spices in it, and was great as a sauce for vegetables. The turmeric basmati rice was super easy, especially as I through it in a rice cooker, and had a great savoury taste and pretty colour.
Rating: Rice :), Sauce :)



Moussaka with Mushrooms, Lentils, and Walnuts: Sometimes, I have the time and energy to dive on into a recipe with several parts. This had a mushroom-lentil-walnut mix, roasted eggplant, cinnamon tomato sauce, and bechamel. The bechamel in the book is a ricotta bechamel, so I just subbed it out for the bechamel from another vegan cookbook. You could do this and just crumble some tofu through it if you wanted as well. It also calls for cheese to add to the layerings, I used some Sheese Mozzarella. This recipe was... nice. I have no issues with the flavour, but for the amount of effort you would want it to blow your mind. And it didn't quite do that. Still, it was a day of distract myself in the kitchen!
Rating: :)





Black Bean Stew: Another example of picking out a component of a recipe. This was a component of Oaxaca Tangos with Black Bean Stgew and Tangy Swiss Chard. The potato/cheesy tacos did sound amazing, and perhaps something I will make one day, but I was after something quick and easy. It's a very simple stew when you use tinned beans, and has corn and coriander in it. Of course I left out the spicy stuff and added some paprika. I served it as a bowl with some white rice, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. It was a but on the blander side, at least when you leave out the spicy! But it was still just what I wanted.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



What I wouldn't give to be able to curl up next to my cinnamon scroll angel again.

Eating In: Starbucks Edition

A Starbucks opened near me. I never went, until a friend I was with wanted to get a drink, so I went along with her. And then it opened my eyes to the number of vegan options I could pick up from there and take to my nice, safe home.

Udpate: I have since found out since posting this that Starbucks in the US is engaging in union busting activities! Uncool.

The one thing I new I could get from Starbucks was the matcha on soy. I'd had lattes and iced matchas, but Starbucks in Australian also recently introduced vegan rice whip. That means matcha frappuccinos! My goodness, they are so tasty! I loved mine so much that I went back to get another one a few days later, but then my body reminded me quite forcefully about my low caffeine tolerance, so it was a brief love affair that now must return to being unrequired.



They also have quite a few vegan food options now, like these muffins! I tried the Blueberry Crumble and the Orange Poppyseed. They were both good, I think the blueberry was my favourite. (They also have bagels, and a vegan chocolate cake.)





Then came the Christmas flavours, and Starbucks in Australia was very clean on what was vegan... which was most of it! I started off with a Gingerbread Frappuccino, soy milk, no coffee, use vegan whip instead of the spiced dairy whip. This was delicious. It also has a brown sugar drizzle on top. I wish this was available year round, it would definitely be what I would order again.



The Confetti Cooki Frappuccino was my next try. Again, soy milk, no coffee, vegan whip. This one was a bit meh for me, it had a certain aftertaste that, while not actively unpleasant, was just a but odd.



Not pictured, I also tried the Toffee Nut Crunch Frappuccino, so milk, no coffee, vegan whip, and hold the non-vegan toffee nut crunch topping. It basically looked like the above drink, but without the sprinkles. Very white and milky. But it was nice. My second favourite of the three. They also had a Peppermint Mocha one, but I didn't get that.

They also offer a Vegan Roasted Vegetable Roll in the hot foods section. I grabbed one to take home. I served it with some cucumber, grape tomatoes, and tomato chutney. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was pleasant enough and a good option to have.



Cute Kitty Photos of the Post



Sahara has been in my dreams a bit the last few nights. I wish they were happy dreams of us being together, but they are stressful dreams about me trying not to lose her. Thanks brain!

Midweek Munchies

I know it is Monday and not midweek, but these are the easiest posts to write, so here we are.

I've been trying out different frozen meals for when I get home late from work, and I was excited to try this new Veef Three Cheese Lasagne. However, it was a total letdown. As you can see, it just looks kind of watery. I guess there was some cheese in there? Will not buy again.



A more successful frozen meal option was this Fable American BBQ meal. It was lovely, with the mashed sweet potato and BBQ sauced Fable chunks. The corn you see in the photo on the box was a serving suggestion, and I didn't have time or energy to do anything about corn, so I just had mine as is over some baby spinach. Would buy again.



I love Fry's products, and these Boerie Sausages were a hit! They actually had a casing on them that wasn't gross and didn't turn into a gelatinous mess or peel off in big sheets. You bit in to them and there was that little pop as you bit through the casing. The flavour was nice too, not spicy, just nicely spiced.



Pikelets! It has been ages since I have had some pikelets. Golden Crumpet brand pikelets and pancakes have recently changed their ingredients to be all vegan! Yes, I know, pikelets or pancakes out of a bag will never be as good as freshly made. But who care when you can have a fun and nostalgic snack! Of course jam and cream is the classic pikelet topping, but I am not one for cream. I made this fun little pikelet plate with Nuttelex and jam, Nuttelex and chocolate spread, and Biscoff and marmalade. Not going to lie, I also ate some of these straight out of the packet with nothing.





Ages ago my friend Amy and I had a dumpling making day at her house, but there was some leftover filling that didn't fit in the wrappers. I took some home and had it lurking in my freezer, until the day came where I used it to make some pineapple fried rice. I also added some grated carrot and some bok choy. So fast, so nice.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Some more Gizmo for you to appreciate. How has she been gone 10 years? I will never understand.

Recipe Round-Up: Cafe Flora Cookbook

Time to keep moving through these cookbooks. Today the alphabetical order brings us to Cafe Flora Cookbook. I am pretty sure someone gave me this during a clean out they were doing, and I took it because I have been to Cafe Flora several times before. And now I'm feeling sad looking through these blog posts, I miss my friends. Not just my Seattle friends, but my everywhere friends. The friends I haven't even had a chance to meet yet. Sigh. Let's look at some food. This cookbook, like the restaurant, is vegetarian with lots of vegan options. And honestly plenty of the vegetarian recipes can be easily subbed to make vegan. This is the first official round-up of this cookbook, but I've posted about a few individual recipes before

Roasted Vegetable Tofu Scramble with Cafe Flora Fu Sauce and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes: A pretty classic brunch plate. The scramble has a mix of roasted vegetables (I didn't have onion or yam, so I added extra of the carrots broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini), that are mixed into a pretty basic scramble. A lot of the flavour comes from the Fu Sauce, which has sesame seeds, soy, mirin, cinegar, ginger, mustard, garlic, and sesame oil (I left out the red pepper flakes). I also added spinach to the scramble. The potatoes are simple but a classic. Parboiled and then roasted until crispy on the outside.
Rating: Scramble :), Potatoes :)



Dill Caper Tofu Aioli: Dill and capers? Sign me up. This is simply blended up using silken tofu as the base, I used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic, and added extra dill and capers because obviously. This is meant to be served with a selection of crudites. I went slightly off script, with some nuggets along side my cucumber, celery, and grape tomatoes for a fun dinner.
Rating: :)



Sesame Vegetable Soup With Miso: I was excited for this, because I love a good miso soup! But unfortunately the flavour just fell a little flat. I did enjoy making my own dashi with dried mushrooms and kombu. Despite it having red miso and soy sauce, it just needed a bit more of both of those. As you can see, it also had leek, celery, carrot, and silken tofu in it. I made a half recipe, and got just over two serves.
Rating: :|



Smoky Split Pea Soup: Again, another soup that fell just a little bit flat. I found i needed to cook it for longer, because even soaking my split peas overnight they were still a bit firm at the end of the cooking time. The recipe calls for smoked mushrooms, but as I don't have my own smoking abilities I went for some smoky tofu bacon instead. I pureed it a little bit at the end to thicken it up.
Rating: :|



Ginger Miso Dressing and Garlicky Sweet Shiitaki Mushrooms: Both of these were elements of a salad that I didn't really feel like making, I just wanted to make these parts. So I did, and I turned it into a little bowl. The dressing is lovely with misop. roce vinegar, and garlic. I replaced the oil in the dressing with water and guar gum, as I just can't handle really oily dressings. The mushrooms are simply sauteed and then doused in dry sherry and sweet soy sauce. I added a little bit of tofu to them as well. Rather than letting the mushrooms cool, I had them hot with rice white, baby spinach, avocado, and pickled carrot and ginger. Poured the dressing all over the top, and sprinkled with some black sesame seeds.
Rating: Dressing :), Mushrooms :)



Soba Salad with Peanut Sauce and Vegetables: I love noodle salads with peanut sauces. This one has a couple of components, with a quick pickled red cabbage and the peanut sauce. For the cabbage, I didn't have any raspberry vinegar so I just used rice wine vingar instead. The peanut sauce was meant to be spicy, but of course I left out the spicy part! Rather than blanch broccoli florets separately, I added them to the soba in the final minutes of cooking and then drained them and ran them under cold water together. I also didn't bother to serve the noodles and the broccoli separate, I just mixed them together. And I added some Soyco Japanese Marinated Tofu as well. Topped with the cabbage, pickled ginger, and some Seaweed Salad Topper I had hanging out in my cupboard. The recipe suggests topping with pistachios and seaweed salad, but you do you!
Rating: :)



Janine's Wasabi Potato Salad: This is a lovely mix of regular and sweet potatoes. It is meant to be purple potatoes rather than white, but we do what we can with what we have. I took a shortcut on the wasabi dressing and used Vegenaise in place of the silken tofu, rice vinegar, soy milk, and vegetable oil. Mainly because it required such a tiny amount of silken tofu that and I didn't have any immediate plans to make anything with the rest of a packet if I opened one for this. It also has baby spinach, snow peas, and cashews. I really enjoyed this, but I would increase the wasabi powder in the dressing because I like a bit more of a kick.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Yesterday was ten years since Gizmo passed away, which seems impossible. I miss my sweet, caring, tabby girl.