People for dinner.

I live at home with my parents at the moment. While I love them, and enjoy cooking for them on a regular basis, it does make having friends over for dinner when they are home a bit awkward. It feels wrong to banish them away from the table when we are eating up a vegan storm of nom, but who wants to have their parents at every dinner party? Every now and then, however, they will go away or go out and I will not be on call. When this happens, it is dinner party time!

The last time this happened was a couple of months ago, and I had the lovely Jen and Freddy (soon to be a Mr and Mrs on the 6th of June!) over for dinner. I've cooked dinner for them a few times before, and it is always a lot of fun!

This is what was for dinner this most recent time:


Artichoke and Root Vegetable Gratin from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. Pretty nice, but not particularly filling on its own - even after I added some extra potatoes and parsnips. But makes a great side!


Which it did! I served it with Garlicky-Herb Marinated Tofu (also from Vegan Planet), a green salad and fresh bread rolls.


Dessert was Apple and Berry Crumble from Now Vegan by Lynda Stoner. Which didn't really crumble! The topping mixture is WAY to runny to ever be considered a crumble. So I hoped maybe it would turn out sort of like a cobbler instead. But it didn't quite, it never truly seemed to bake and was still a bit gloopy even after baking for a bit longer than required. It was still nice and yummy, but it just didn't have the texture one wants.


Served with So Good Vanilla Chai soy ice-cream, which is a perfect complement to every dessert! Hee.

Just a short post today because it is late and I have to work in the morning (an on-call weekend, boo), but lots more still to come!

Menu: Early Autumn Supper from The Complete Vegan Cookbook

Another day, another menu, as I do. To celebrate the start of Autumn I decided to make this Early Autumn Supper menu from The Complete Vegan Cookbook (my second ever vegan cookbook and the first one I started using regularly).

Here's what it has to offer.



Grilled Butternut Squash Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms. Sadness, I'm afraid. The recipe called for such a teeny amount of pumpkin, by the time you add the stock and the soy milk it is very pale and the flavour is so very faint. I didn't have the facilities to grill the pumpkin, so I roasted it. Maybe that had some great influence on the intensity of flavour? It also had cute little soup pasta in it, which added some bulk. Alas, the mushrooms ended up being flavourless and squidgy. *sigh* I served it with fresh wholemeal bread rolls, which were tasty!



Green Bean Salad with Asian Seasonings is much more tasty. I've made this before and it is very tasty. The only problem is that it only makes quite a small amount. Unfortunately, but the time the soup and rolls and salad were done, people were asking if there was a main course. Alas, the answer is no. But there was...



Dried Apricot and Coconut Pudding! The undoubted winner of this menu. It is SO yummy and creamy and sweet. A blog of soy ice cream would go really nice with it.

So, we had a wishy washy pumpkin soup, a lovely but too small salad and an amazing dessert. Not the biggest success, but the dessert is certainly worth repeating and the salad is a great little side.

Summer Al Fresco Menu from Vegan Planet

I made this earlier this week for family night, to mark the end of summer. Well, technically I made this menu on the second day of autumn. But I had been on call and working the last few days of summer, and in all honesty it was a 30 degree day, so it was still feeling summery to us! Unfortunately, this was not eaten al fresco, as my mother is so heat-phobic that as the night was pretty warm we had to stay in with the airconditioning. *brrrrrrr*



The first course was Roasted Corn Chowder. It is made by roasting cobs of corn and then cutting off the kernels to put into the soup, and it is so yummy! The smell of corn roasting in the oven is sensational. It keeps really well too, and I had the left overs two days later for lunch with a grilled cheese sandwich to dip. Yum! I highly recommend this.



The first component of the main course was Rosemary-Lemon Potatoes with Black Olives and Sundried Tomatoes. This is really great, possibly because I am addicted to all things potato, but I think everyone would love it! The potatoes are boiled, cut and then fried until starting to brown. It makes a fairly small amount to split for side dishes.



The other part of the main course was Garlic and Herb-Marinated Vegetable Kabobs. The vegetables were mushrooms, fennel, zucchini, golden shallots and cherry tomatoes. The original recipe called for capsicum, but to that I saw ewwww and I subbed the tomatoes. It is also only the second time I have used fresh fennel, which I am really liking! The recipe calls to make eight kabobs - one of each vegetable on each skewer. Maybe my skewers are really long, but it looked ridiculous so I made 4 skewers with two of each on it. The combination of the vegetables and the marinade was fabulous.



And here it is all together with some nice leafy greens, because there must always be green stuff. If I made this again I would double the amount of vegetables so everyone could have two big kabobs. The single kabob on each plate looked a bit lonely. Plus I am a hungry little vegan and I need my foodage!



The meal ended with Fresh Peach Crisp with Almond Butter Cream. Delicious. I really like the fresh peach taste in the crisp, much better than using tinned peaches! The almond cream was also really nice, but use a food processor rather than the blender mentioned in the recipe to smoosh it up or it won't be creamy enough. I also had some with my waffles this morning, and it was yummy!

It was pretty fun to make. Just don't forget to marinate the vegetables ahead of time! I got a little distracted. And it was very nice to eat.

So farewell summer, and hello autumn.

A tale of two chilis, part one.

Every time I have some left over dinner, I put it in the freezer so that I have a ready stash of dinners for when I am on call at the clinic. Sometimes though, it is nice to reuse leftovers in different ways rather than the old reheat. Vegan Planet (which I seem to be quite into at the moment) has a whole stack of chili recipes, and a whole stack of recipes that use the chili recipes



A couple of weeks ago, I made Backyard BBQ Chili. It was a very tasty chili, with a hint of sweet and smoky from the BBQ sauce. I served it with Mum's Apple Coleslaw (from How It All Vegan), green leaves (because I can't get enough of the green stuff) and some corn chips. It was a great dinner! Fastforward to earlier this week...



Jalapeno Rice and Chili Stuffed Squash, served here with some tasty roasted brussel sprouts. I used butternut pumpkin, as called for in the recipe. But I found the amount of the chili/rice mixture was way too much to fit in the cavities of these cute little guys I found. To get a cavity big enough, you would need to have a HUGE butternut, which would be too much for one to eat. In the suggestions, it mentions trying with a kabocha pumpkin. I think this would work better, as you can get an adorable cute little kabocha and still have a really good space for stuffing.

Earlier this year I had another tasty chili retake experience. I think I have blogged these two recipes randomly at some point previously, but I'm posting the photos again. So ha!



This is East Coast Chili. What makes it East Coast, I have no idea! The book also has a West Coast Chili, which has avodaco (apparently avocado = west coast USA). Anyone have any suggestions as to why this is East Coast? Anyway, it is super yummy. It calls for 2 cups of burger crumbles, but I used 1 1/2 cups of dry TVP, and all was well. The dry TVP absorbs the flavours fabulously. I served it over macaroni (apparently the thing to do on the East Coast) with some steamed carrots.



And here it is reborn as the fantabulous Chili Macaroni Bake. It is SO good. It definitely deserves a repost. Creamy, cheesy macaroni topped with the left over chili and sprinkled with vegan cheese. So fabulous! I could eat it all day!

I am looking forward to future adventures with the many uses of chilis. So stay tuned!

Homemade FTW!

Making stuff from scratch is fun! I've been having lots of fun the last few days in the kitchen with that trusty stand-by Vegan Planet.

My basil plant has several huge bunches on it just screaming to be picked and used before they get too old. Of course, the natural thing to do is to make pesto! I have to say that the Vegan Planet recipe is not my favourite, I found it too salty and a bit too oily, even when I added extra basil to dilute out the salt. It was meant to make 1 1/2 cups I think, but it made closer to half that volume. No pictures of the pesto, but here is a picture of what I did with it...



Here is Pesto-Stuffed Tofu Steaks with Summertime Tomato Sauce! I was a bit worried about the tofu slabs breaking when I tried to stuff them, but there were no problems. The Summertime Tomato Sauce recipe is sensational! Fresh tasting, a little bit sweet, full of flavour. So yummy! It sugested serving the tofu with pasta, so I made the Simple Spaghetti Sicilian Style from The Vegan Gourmet. Really easy to make and full of garlic and chili! I also had some mixed leaves with it. A great dinner!

The pesto made enough for one other recipe, which led me to my next homemade adventure - Basic Vegetable Stock. For some reason, I had never made stock before. I have no idea why. I guess it is like seitan - I didn't make that for ages. And then I did. And now I do. So why did I not make stock before? Easy and tasty and really so little effort involved. The recipe said it made 6 cups, but it ended up making 5 cups.



OK, so it is not the most beautiful looking picture. But it is stock! What I did with it next...



Farm Stand Vegetable Stew with Basil Pesto. It is loaded with fabulous summertime vegetables - tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green beans, fresh corn - yum! The pest is stirred through at the end of cooking giving a beautiful, creamy and tasty finish. I served it with some grilled turkish bread. Grilled on the George Foreman Grill to give it pretty stripes.

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.

Veganomicon 'Picnic' Menu

As previously stated, I have an exreme compulsion to make any menu suggestion that I come across. It's like a sickness. Anyway, seeing as it is summer and apricots are overflowing the stores (mmmm... my favourite stone fruit!), I decided to make the 'Picnic Menu' from Vcon that I had been eyeing off all winter.



The centre piece for the menu - Apricot Baked BBQ Tofu. The sauce is the Apricot BBQ Sauce recipe, which uses fresh apricots in place of tinned tomatoes. It is fabulous. Tangy and smokey, with just a hint of apricot sweetness. The sauce recipe makes WAY more than you need for the tofu, so I have a couple of containers in my freezer awaiting their future fate. The tofu is baked initially, then smothered in the sauce and baked some more. I've made this with the more traditional Backyard BBQ Sauce recipe from Vcon as well, and it is just fabulous everytime.



Its picnic-themed side is the Prospect Park Potato Salad recipe. The recipe claims to make enough for a boatload, and I only used a quarter of the ingredients to make a smaller batch. Which made plenty for a hungry picnic party of four, so unless you want loads of left overs to eat for the next month, definitely look at cutting it down to suit your numbers! It was really delicious.

And here is the final plate:



So, we have obviously our BBQ Baked Tofu and our Prospect Park Potato Salad. We also have the suggested side of corn on the cob. Grilled corn was suggested, but I didn't have time or facilities on this night, so I just did it the regular way. I also added some leafy green salad, because you can never have too much green.

I didn't make the suggested dessert of lower fat banana bread, because I didn't think far enough ahead. I have made it before, but I can't find a photo of it. It's really good though!

Thai Style Tofu With Butternut Pumpkin

Dinner tonight came thanks to Tofu 1-2-3, a great little book that I picked up a while ago. Every recipe contains some form of tofu, and the recipes range from snacks to desserts to breakfasts to soups to mains.

The 'Thai Style' I can only assume comes from the coconut milk involved. A mix of curry and chili powder plus ginger, garlic and some other spice that evades my memory make up the main flavour of the dish. It is also nice and chunky with tofu, butternut pumpkin and broccoli! The recipe also called for red capsicum, but as I rarely if ever actually enjoy this vegetable I left it out. I served it over brown basmati rice.

It was pretty easy to make. There was some chopping involved in the prep work, but once everything is all lined up and ready to go there is very little effort. All up the cooking time is about 40-50 minutes, but a lot of this is simmering while covered time and it only needs occasional stirring.

The verdict was pretty tasty. My parents both enjoyed it.

And for an added bonus, here is another dinner I recently made from the same book. Captain Tofu!



Apparently it is based on some East Indian Chicken Curry thing, according to the little blurb in the book. The tofu is coated and fried first, and then mixed in to a yummy tomato sauce and baked. I left out the green capsicum (foul under any circumstances) and put in some zucchini instead.

VeganMoFo: A week of dinners!

The end of another week - which means another weekly dinner round up! Be aware gentle dial up viewers - lots of pics ahead!

Monday
A night at the clinic, which meant dipping to the freezer of awesome left overs! Tonight I enjoyed some Spicy Peanut Noodles from Tofu 1-2-3. OK, so this picture is from when I actually made them, but they were still damn tasty!



Tuesday
Tonight I went to the awesome The Forest in West End. Alas, no pictures, but here's a round up! While waiting for my friend I enjoyed a yummy Banana Smoothie. Dinner itself was a Forest Plate, for which I chose Tempeh Bolognaise, Potato and Pumpkin Filo Pie, Roasted Spuds (they are the best!) and Pasta Pesto Salad. Finished off with a slice of Mango Cheesecake and a Soy Hot Chocolate. And for takeaway fun - a Raspberry And White Chocolate Cupcake and a Chocolate And Pecan Cupcake. 5 star meal!

Wednesday
On call at the clinic, and for the life of me I can't remember what leftovers I enjoyed! So I thought I'd post a picture of Spaghetti And Beanballs with roasted brussel sprouts, fro Veganomicon.



Thursday
Burger Night! Jerk Spiced Portobello Mushrooms (huge, courtesy of the market mushroom man) with Green Apple Salsa, both from Vegan Planet, popped between some wholemeal rolls. And served with Zesty Coleslaw, from The New Vegan. All I can say is - hurrah for the glory of the shredder on the food processor! I've been enjoying the coleslaw for lunch for the last couple of days as well.



Friday
First up was Chili Macaroni Bake from Vegan Planet. I made this using some leftover East Coast Chili. It is awesome - a macaroni cheese base, chili on top and then sprinkled with Cheezly.


And then, a salad dressed with the yummy Raspberry and Lime Vinaigrette from Veganomicon. The salad was a mix of baby spinach and mesculin leaves, lightly steamed asparagus and chunks of mango. Scrummy!



Saturday
On call... into the left overs! Tonight I enjoyed Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms, with Tomato Cous Cous with Capers, both from Veganomicon. A wonderful combination!



Sunday
Again on call... what is it with this week? At this very moment of blogging, I am enjoying Vegan Planet's Shredded Seitan with Green Beans and Shallots.

So ends my week of dindins!