Recipe Round-Up: But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan

Part two of this round of round-ups from But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan by Kristy Turner! See part one, and other posts about this book, here.

Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal: Heading back into oatmeal territory from the breakfast chapter with this classic combination. The oats are cooked with extra cinnamon, raisins, and molasses. And topped off with more raisins and chopped peanuts. I find raisins to be incredibly sweet, so I was a bit sparing with them compared to what the recipe calls for.
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter and Banana Oatmeal: Another classic combo, I just love PB&B! This has sliced banana and peanut butter cooked with the oats, and is topped with more of the same plus maple syrup and crushed peanuts. With all the peanut butter, this makes this breakfast extra filling! I should mention that the base recipe of this starts with a cup of rolled oats for one serve, so they don't skimp on the serving sizes.
Rating: :)



Smoky Shroom Sausage and Red Potato Goulash: Back to the homestyle cooking chapter with this offering. The mushrooms are sauteed with sausage-style seasonings before being roasted. I could have used extra mushrooms, and it ended up a bit dry, but the flavours were good. Especially with the optional sour cream on top! I used a silken-tofu based sour cream recipe I had leftover from another cookbook.
Rating: :)



Butternut Squash Risotto with Sage Butter: This is from the impressive meals chapter, designed to impress your inlaws apparently. It is a wonderful autumny-risotto, using roasted butternut to give a wonderful flavour. Ths sage butter and crispy sage on their own I wasn't a fan of, but they go great with the flavours of the risotto. I also sauteed some Field Roast Apple Sage sausage, and also used some Pepita Parmesan from the book on top as well. Served over baby spinach, I got three big servings from this recipe (it says it serves 6). And I think it looks pretty!
Rating: :)



Kung Pao Cauliflower: This is a quick sautee style recipe, with an easy to make at home kung pao sauce (I skipped the sriracha though, so I guess it is not really kung pao anymore). I also left out the chilli flakes and I used celery rather than capsicum. Tis made three serves. I didn't bother to cut the green parts of my scallions into fancy thin strands, because I wasn't trying to 'impress' anyone with the appearance. Sorry, Dad.


The Portobello Philly Reuben: Remember that smoked gouda cheese and mushroom I opened the last post with? That was for this recipe. I hope I can be forgiven by reuben afficiandos for making this on regular bread, but it was what I had to work with. This has a lovely made at home russian dressing, and uses grilled mushrooms. I just used normal field mushrooms, as I couldn't find portobellos. All topped off with a bunch of sauerkraut, these were great.
Rating: :)



The Avocado Melt: This great sandwich used up some of the leftover gouda sauce and sauerkraut from above. It also had tomato and mayo in it. The combination of the avocado and the gouda was quite rich, so it definitely needed the sauerkraut and tomato in it to help cut through that.
Rating: :)



Lemongrass Tofu Banh Mi: I love a banh mi! This one was a wonderful marinated tofu (I let mind marinate for a little bit longer), which is worth making on its own even without the rest. After marinating, the tofu is cooked and then glazed in the left over marinade. I strained the marinade first, as it still had lots of fibrous strings from the lemongrass. There is also a quick pickled carrot and daikon salad, which is very nice. I left out the sriracha in the aioli, making it into just a regular aioli, and I also left out the jalapenos from the sandwich itself. The crusty roll was also stuffed with cucumber slices and fresh coriander (aka cilantro for my US friends).
Rating: :)



Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies: Moving into the vegan baking isn't all hippy chapter. I made a half recipe of these cookies, and got 16 cookies using a 20mL scoop. The recipe calls for apple sauce of mashed banana, I used the former so there was a subtle flavour from that. The peanut butter flavour itself was also fairly subtle. But these were a nice cookie.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Boo loves sitting on the windowsill getting the sun and watching out for anything that might be moving around out there.

Recipe Round-Up: But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan

But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan is the follow-up to Kristy Turner's first book, But I Could Never Go Vegan. Once again, it is split into chapters based around an excuse people might give, and covers a wider variety of food for all occasions! I have really enjoyed making things from this cookbook, and I would recommend it. You can see previous posts I've made from this book here... and I just realised that those posts were from four years ago! Where does the time go? Why do I have so many cookbooks? Rounding them up here is going to be a never ending task. At least I'll have something to do for years? Anyway, back to the round-up! This is part one of three.

Smoked Gouda Melty Cheese Sauce: The book has a selection of pantry staples, including a very versatile cashew cheese sauce that has a lot of variations. This is the melty smoked gouda variety, which is thickened with cornstarch and flavoured with smoked paprika, garlic, and dill. It has a great flavour, and is wonderful to make a grilled cheese with. This is after it has been melted for another recipe, which you will here about in the next post.
Rating: :)



Everyone's Favourite Oatmeal is from the breakfast chapter, and is a good basic recipe with a bunch of variations. The original recipe is a little bland, but very filling. Although already sweetened with a little bit of maple syrup, I added a good spoonful of some vegan honey I had to use up on top. As well as an extra generous sprinkling of cinnamon. I increased the mild:water ratio for cooking the oats, I just prefer my oats creamier.
Rating: :| a just a little bland



Simple Fruit and Nut Oatmeal: As I mentioned, there are a bunch of variations. I'll just share one in this post, and spread the others out in the future round up posts so you don't just get overwhelmed by oatmeal. This one is the basic recipe just topped with fruit and nuts and drizzled with extra maple syrup. These additions definitely fix the blandness! I used strawberries and sliced almonds on mine.
Rating: :)



Mushroom-Kale Skillet Hash: A savoury breakfast option, this is very quick to make. It is a hash of red onion, red potatoes, mushrooms, and greens. I had ordered kale to be delivered, but they sent basil by mistake, so I used baby spinach leaves as the greens in this. It is seasoned with Old Bay seasoning, so it was good to use up some of the packet that I bought ages ago. I got two dinner sized serves out of this, and would recommend topping with some ketchup as well!
Rating: :)



Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs: Thisrecipe is a bit fiddly, but well worth it. It is from the 'vegan food for your meat and potatoes family members'. The 'meat' of the meatballs is made from mushrooms, kidney beans, and panko, and they are stuffed with some of the melty smoked gouda cheese sauce I posted about above. Although a bit soft, the meatballs worked perfectly. Once the cheese cools after you make it, it is very easy to scoop for stuffing into the meatballs. Served on spaghetti and topped with a Sun-Dried Tomato Marinara Sauce (more on that in another post as it is from another recipe in the book).
Rating: :)



Beer-Marinated Portobello Tacos with Avocado-Corn Salsa: Sometimes I use beer for a recipe and then I have some leftover because I don't drink it, so I scour my books for another recipe. Thus, these tacos, also from the meat and potatoes chapter. I made a half recipe of these with three field mushrooms (portobellos were not available). The marinade needed a but more flavour to it other than just the beer, which ended up being the overwhelming taste. It is served with an avocado-corn salsa, which was nice. I used celery rather than raw onion, and left out the jalapeno. I served these with a side of roasted zucchini and potatoes.
Rating: :| (though would be fine if you liked beer taste more than me I imagine)



No-Bake Zucchini Manicotti: From the 'health nut' chapter, but guess what. I totally roasted my zucchini slices first. Take that! I just don't like raw zucchini, nor does my body. Once roasted, it was great. They are rolled with some lovely herbed macadamia ricotta and topped with some more of that sun-dried tomato marinara (still not the main recipe to talk about that, it is just a sauce used in quite a few things). I served it with some roasted sliced potato. This is a nice flavour, but is absolutely not a filling meal. Be prepared to have some other stuff to eat with it.
Rating: :)



Shiitake Stroganoff: From the 'homestyle vegan food' chapter, this creamy sauce gets its base from silken tofu. Despite the addition of some seasonings and a lot of delicious shiitake mushrooms, it is just a bit meh. It manages to be too lemony and also a bit bland all at once. I served it with half the amount of pasta called for, and a tin of white beans mixed through for protein.
Rating: :| A bit bland, nooch fixes all though



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Abby would like you to know that she is being held against her will! As part of make Abby and Boo get along plan 3.0, she is now confined to my study so Boo can have the run of the house. She is being very dramatic about it, and is a master of the tiny little sad squeak. Even though I've been sitting in here with her for the last two hours on my laptop, she takes that as an invitation to show me just how pitiful she is. Be brave Abby!

VeganMoFo 2017 #20: Sushi Bowls

20th: Deconstructed dish – Hipster style food. Serving it on a slate is optional.

Super deconstructed hipster food leaves me a bit meh. Not to say it can't be good, and often does look very pretty. But I don't have time for fussing like that at home. So here are a few sushi bowl recipes I have made from different books. I love sushi, and it is not that hard to make, but for a quick and easy meal, a big sushi-inspired bowl is certainly welcome. No slates here, just big bowls. I that these three recipes all sound very similar, because they are, but it is a classic combination!

(Spicy) Sushi Bowl from Vegan Bowl Attack by Jackie Sobon: Of course I made this unspicy. The spicy comes from a homemade spicy silken tofu based mayo. I skipped this all together, and used some kewpie mayo and a sprinkle of shichimi for a subtle spice. As well as the usual suspects (cucumber, radish, avocado, nori, edamame), this also includes mango, which was a lovely fresh addition. Served over seasoned sushi rice. The recipe calls for daikon radish, but I just used some sliced regular radishes (I needed some for another MoFo challenge). This says it makes 4 servings, but we finished it off between two of us, served over baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Sushi Roll Edamame Salad from Appetite For Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: This yummy, big salad has chopped cos lettuce, brown rice, cucumber, carrot, edamame, nori and avocado. It also calls for quite a lot of sliced green onion, but I just used a sprinkle. It is topped with a Green-Onion Miso Vinaigrette, which has 1-2 cups green onions (I used the lower amount). This dressing is made using red miso, but I have made it a couple of times and it also works well with white miso, so whatever you have on hand.
Rating: Salad: :), Vinaigrette: :)



Deconstructed Sushi Bowl from But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan by Kristy Turner: Sushi rice is topped with our regular friends: carrots, cucumber, avocado, nori and radishes (though these radishes are lightly salted first). The radishes were meant to be watermelon radishes, but we don't have anything that pretty here, so regular radishes it was. Instead of edamame, this bowl calls for lemongrass or chile-roasted tofu. I chose the lemongrass option, and it was lovely. It also has a simple dressing of tamari, vinegar and mirin, and was topped with pickled ginger and sesame seeds.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post - Month of Sahara



As well as sitting not-on-tables, Sahara also sat on the bathroom sink every morning to supervise me having a shower. Also to make sure I could never forget that she was waiting for her breakfast. It is strange showering now without her presence.

Recipe Round-Up: But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan

But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan is the second cookbook by Kristy Turner, a follow up to But I Could Never Go Vegan (you can read my posts about that book here.) Once again, the chapters are broken up into different reasons why people might think that vegan food is not for them, and Kristy addresses each excuse with a huge range of yummy recipes. Let's see what I made!

Maple Peanut Butter Pancakes: I always start the first day of the new year with pancakes, and these were the ones I started this year with. The recipe as written is 'GF' (it does have oat-flour in it, and in Australia it is super hard to find GF-certified oat flour), however as I am not GF I took the G-full option and used all purpose flour. It says it makes 8 pancakes, I got about 10. The peanut butter gives them a lovely flavour, and makes them very filling!
Rating: :)



Quick Cauliflower Curry: This is a saucy curry that provides generous serves over rice (the recipe says it serves 4-6). Cauliflower, mushrooms and chickpeas are in the creamy tomato sauce, which is very tasty. The recipe calls for coconut yoghurt, I used soy yoghurt instead, and I also decreased the amount of curry powder from 1T to 1t and used a mild curry powder. The recipe calls for fire roasted tinned tomatoes, but they are infinity dollars here so I just used a regular tin.
Rating: :)



BBQ Chickpea Salad: This salad is so good! BBQ saucy chickpeas top a crunchy pile of cos, red cabbage and carrot, with cherry tomatoes and sweet nectarines. It is delightful! It is all topped off with some Pickled Red Cabbage Relish and Avocado Ranch Dressing. The relish is meant to have both cabbage and onion, however as raw or pickled onions no longer suit my stomach I left them out and just made it with cabbage. It is very easy (though uses up a lot of apple cider vinegar, I have since bough a cheap one for cases where large amounts are required). The Avocado Ranch Dressing is creamy and refreshing, and uses all dried herbs and spices which makes it pantry friendly.
Rating: Salad :D, Relish :), Dressing :)





Spicy Sesame Soba Noodle Bowl: These were my version of spicy, which meat that instead of 1-2 TBS of sriracha in the sauce I added but the merest spritz. The soba noodles are mixed with a lovely tahini based sauce, with lots of veggies included. I found the sauce was very thick, so did thin it out a little with some pasta water.
Rating: :)



Cheese Quinoa and Veggies: This makes a huge amount (it says it serves 4-6), but it is cheesy wholefood goodness, and leftovers keep really well, so there will be no complaints. The veggies are onions (it said to use half an onion but I used a whole one so I didn't have a remaining bit of onion kicking about), cauliflower, green beans, mushroom and zucchini. It calls for 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast but I used 1/2 cup because the more the better. The finished product is topped with parmesan. I used a packaged parmesan mix that I had kicking around from my last US trip, though there is also a recipe in the book.
Rating: :)



Tater Totchos: I can't say no to anything involving potato gems aka tots. These gems are topped with some sauteed black beans (with onion and spices, I left out the capsicum and chiles), a nacho sauce, and then whatever toppings you wish (I used tomato and avocado). The nacho sauce is made out of potato and carrot, and it was OK but not as good as a cashew based cream sauce. For the sauce I doubled the nooch and skipped the oil and the chile. The recipe serves 6-8, and this sort of thing doesn't keep well, so I scaled down for three people. I used 3/4 bag of potato gems, a 1/2 recipe of beans, and a full recipe of sauce. There was some sauce leftover, but it is always better to have too much sauce rather than too little.
Rating: :)



Jackfruit Carnitas Burrito Bowl: This bowl is a great combination of flavours! Rice, simmered jackfruit, black beans, salad, avocado and a yummy lime crema. The jackfruit was still a bit too liquid at the end of the specified cooking time, so I simmered a bit longer with the lid of. I also needed to add a little bit of extra water to the cashew-based crema for consistency. The bowl calls for white rice, but I used brown because that is what I had and also I like it. The bowl is also topped off with some of the picked red cabbage.
Rating: :)



Buddha Bowl: This is a lovely bowl with a great blend of components that go really nicely together. Sweet potatoes are roasted with paprika, and then combined with brown rice (the recipe calls for kasha but I didn't have any), spinach, kidney beans, cucumber and avocado, topped with yet more of the pickled cabbage and also a very lovely Lemon Tahini Sauce (though there is also the option to use the Avocado Ranch). The sauce comes together so quickly, and is a perfect sweet and tangy blend.
Rating: Bowl :), Sauce :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Cradled in my arms like a baby, looking very pensive.