Beltane 2019

See this post for the meaning of the sabbats for me, and see my food celebrations of the other sabbats this year here.

Beltane (31st October - 1st November, 2019)

Beltane is one of the major sabbats of the year, the point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, the peak of spring. Traditionally, it has always been one of my favourite holidays, I used to love spring. However now, when Brisbane is just summer about 80% of the year, I find that I now yearn for cooler months. In the Southern Hemisphere, Beltane falls on what is culturally Halloween (which has origins in the sabbat Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere, which is on the 31st of October). Halloween has become a little more popular in Australia every year. So it is a bit of mind trip celebrating Beltane while a lot of Halloween stuff is going on!

My way of marking the sabbats and the wheel of the year is through food, so this is what I did.

Basic Creamy Garlic Sauce from The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton: Beltane food is based on spring, which means lots of spring vegetables. Also baby sheep, but they are not food, they are friends! Don't eat them ever. I made this spring based pasta dish, using some fresh vegan chickpea linguine, roasted asparagus, peas, portobello mushrooms (save sheep, eat a mushroom), and this basic creamy garlic sauce. I made half batch of the sauce, which is based on roasted garlic. It uses a lot of garlic, and my tummy no longer handles large amounts of cooked garlic (and no raw garlic at all), so I did decrease the amount down to six cloves. It is a simple sauce once the garlic is roasted and pureed. I didn't have any fresh herbs, so I used some dried thyme, and I used nutritional yeast instead of vegan parmesan. It was tasty, though I don't know that I would call it creamy? Still, a nice spring based pasta dish.
Rating: :)



'Honey' Mustard Vinaigrette from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton: Honey is another traditional food of Beltane, but honey belongs to bees, not to me. I made a lovely spring salad with this dressing, which uses agave instead of honey. I made a third of a recipe, for one salad, and used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. I also used a mix of water with a pinch of guar gum instead of the oil, not because I think oil is bad, but because oily dressings can make me feel a bit ill. I tossed it through a salad of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, and roasted asparagus.
Rating: :)





Raisin Bannocks from Wholegrain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes: Oatcakes known as bannocks are also traditional for Beltane. This recipe uses a blend of oat, spelt, barley flour, and pastry flour. I halved the recipe to make two bannocks rather than four, and baked them in my cute 10 cm springform cake tins. These are very dense little cakes, and not too sweet, making them excellent for any time of day. I had one fresh with a cup of tea. The second one I had the next day, sliced, lightly toasted, and spread with a smidge of Nuttelex and strawberry jam.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This little sweetie is Pansy, who is hanging out in their tunnel in this photo. I have to confess, Pansy is my favourite. She is a chonky little floof of black and white. She has a cute little white spot on her butt, which you can kind of see here.

VeganMoFo 2019 #6: D is for Dreena Burton

I thought it would be fun during MoFo to highlight a few vegan cookbook authors and show a recipe I have made from each of their books, or at least each of the books that I have. Starting off with Dreena Burton, a well known vegan cookbook author who has published a number of cookbooks. I came to know her through her earlier cookbooks, and I have her first four, and I also follow her blog (which has a lot of recipes). I'll post the recipes in order of book publication. For two of these books (her first two), this will be their first appearance on my blog!

Orange Ginger Miso Vinaigrette from The Everyday Vegan (which seems to be out of print in a lot of places): This is a simple recipe that came together quickly. The recipe calls for dry ginger, but I used a big chunk of grated fresh ginger because fresh ginger is amazing! I did find it a bit sweet, and had to add a bit of extra tamari. The recipe calls for agave (or any sweetener of your choice), but I think it only needed the slightest smidge. At least if you are using fresh ginger. I used this to mix through pasta, veggies, and tofu puffs and it was great. Works well on a warm dish as well as chilled!
Rating: :)



Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive le Vegan: You can't go wrong with cookies, and Dreena loves making cookies. While a lot of her cookie recipes tend towards wholegrain flours or natural sweeteners, this recipe is 100% classic cookie (well, she does call for raw sugar, but whatever you feel like using). It has the smallest touch of blackstrap molasses, which gives a really lovely flavour to it. All up a quick and easy recipe that will have you cookies in no time.
Rating: :)



Acai Antioxidant Smoothie from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan: When life gives you those little frozen packets of acai, you make a smoothie. This book is my favourite Dreena book, and I have posted extensively about other recipes that you can see here. This smoothie was a lovely start to my morning, though I made a few changes. I decreased the amount of oatmilk to 1 cup, because I like my smoothies thick. This smoothie has frozen berries, bananas, and acai in it so it is nice and cold. The frozen packet of acai was in a rectangle that would fit in my blender, so I left it out for 20 minutes to defrost so I could break it up. But it half melted in that time, so remember it really only needs a few minutes to soften! This smoothie also has some cocoa powder, which gives it a nice undertone.
Rating: :)



Creamy Barley Risotto with Thyme and Star Anise from Let Them Eat Vegan: I have made many things from this book, including the famous Berry Patch Brownies, and you can see those round ups here. As for this recipe, I love star anise and this sounded like a perfect dinner for a cold evening. I love barley, and I feel it often gets forgotten with all the fancy grains available now. But barley is easy, tasty, and filling. I always soak mine for a few hours before hand to make sure it cooks in the allotted time. This was a lovely dinner, and I served it with some roasted broccoli for greens.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sahara in her favourite basket bed again, as you can see she is sleeping a bit more comfortably this time! She really was the most perfect cinnamon scroll.