Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Protein Book

The Great Vegan Protein Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes has your 'where do you get your protein from' needs covered. No weird protein powders, just tofu, seitan, tempeh, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Let's get ripped! Or whatever it is all this protein people are so obsessed about is meant to do. You can see other recipes I've made from the book here.

Butter Bean Gravy: This gravy is very thick and hearty, involving a full tin of pureed butter beans, but I found it a bit bland. And this was even after I blended in some mushrooms. You soak shiitakes in broth to get a mushroom flavour to it, and I just added in the mushrooms themselves to the gravy as well. A splash of soy sauce definitely helps with the flavour. It also has shallots, garlic, nutritional yeast, and fresh herbs (I used sage).
Rating: :|



Broccoli and Mushroom Freekehzotto: This uses a mix of fresh and dried mushrooms (I used a 'gourmet' mix), as well as freekeh as the grain. I took the option to use cracked freekeh, and it cooked in about 30 minutes (the recipe says 40 minutes for cracked freekeh). This is made creamy with a blend of nutritional yeast and cashews, and is filly, creamy, and tasty.
Rating: :)



Do the Cocoa Shake: A full recipe of this uses a full block of silken tofu, but it is easy to scale down if you just have a bit of silken tofu that you'd like to use up. I made a one third amount, which was a small single serve (the full recipe says it makes four serves). It also has frozen banana and peanut butter, which gives it a sweet flavour.
Rating: :)



Fiesta Scramble: This bright and colourful scramble has scallion, red onion, drained fire roasted tomatoes (I didn't have quite enough so I used some chopped fresh tomatoes with smoked paprika to make up to volume), corn, and coriander. It made quite a bit, and has a lot of corn in it, so decrease the corn if you are not such a fan. I took the head down bu omitting the jalapeno and just using a scrape of adobo sauce.
Rating: :)



Reuben Scramble 'Wiches: I'm a fan of the Reuben. This version uses a seasoned tofu scramble, that includes sauerkraut . It is served open faced, on toast spread with dijon and topped with spinach and dill pickles. Certainly not really a Reuben in the traditional sense of ingredients, but still fun and tasty. The onions and tomatoes in the scramble added a nice sweetness to is as well. I left out the capsicum, of course.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Kitten blep! I was trying to take a pretty posed photo of our adoption kitten Sabrina, this is what I got. Sabrina, as well as her three brothers, have already been adopted into their new homes!

VeganMoFo 2017 # 21: Potato Wedges from My Cat Loves Daiya

21st: Making the humble potato the star of the show

If you ask me, potatoes are always the star of the show. They are definitely one of my favourite foods, in all their forms. Potato is queen!

And the queen of potatoes has to My Cat Loves Daiya! So for MoFo I thought I would make these tasty Potato Wedges. I was just serving me, so I used two large potatoes cut into six-eight wedges (one was larger than the other). I used grapeseed oil rather than coconut oil, and I did have my oven a little hotter (just because I know how my oven works). Oh my gosh, these were perfect! I had seasoned them with a seasoning blend I had made previously and had kicking about. They were crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside.



I made some Green Dip from The Great Vegan Protein Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes to dip them into. I just made a half batch. It is a silken tofu based dip, with onions and herbs. Because I don't like lots of raw onion, I used some onion powder instead of raw onion and I only used 1 scallion instead of the full amount. I also used garlic powder, and added extra dill because I love dill. I used baby spinach instead of arugula, and left out the hot sauce. It was really nice. Good with the hot chips, and I also dipper some cucumber and celery in as well.
Rating: :)



Here they are together, a very nice dinner.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post - Month of Sahara



Sahara was always an active kitty, and she loved to play with toys. When she got older, she couldn't play quite as much due to arthritis in her elbows, but she still played where she could. This is a photo of her and her ladybug on her 7th birthday.

VeganMoFo 2017 #3: Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Protein Book

3rd: But where do you get your protein? – Make a protein packed meal.

I'll be doing quite a few recipe round-ups during MoFo where the book fits the prompt, however I will be making them mini for this month. Instead of the usual 6-10 recipes I round up in a post, I'll just be doing four for each book. We all have a lot of reading to do this month!

If you are looking for a good source of protein-filled recipes, you can't go past The Great Vegan Protein Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes. They have you covered! The book is divided into sections based on the protein source - legumes, nuts and seeds, tofu and tempeh, and seitan. It also doesn't require any protein powders. You can see what else I have made from this book here.

Mujadarra: This is one of my favourite comfort foods. At once savoury, yet bland in the best way, soft and hot. I just love the mix of lentils, rice and caramelised onions. This recipe calls for cooking lentils and brown jasmine rice in the rice cooker. I can't find brown jasmine rice here, so I just used regular, and I also soaked my lentils for about 8 hours prior to cooking. I wasn't convinced they would cook at the same rate as the rice in the cooker. Everything turned out perfect doing it like this. I also didn't have quite enough lentils (only by a tablespoon or so), so mine was ever so slightly skewed towards the rice. The onions are a mix of leek and white onions. My leek was very large, and I couldn't find any white onions, so I ended up using more leek than required and only half the amount of yellow onion. I also left out the cayenne.
Rating: :)



Sesame Berry Squares: Sweets can be protein-filled as well! I made these for a family dinner last year when my brother was here. Strawberry jam is mixed with chia to form the middle layer. The crust and crumble has hemp and tahini in it. They were a lovely, not too sweet end to a meal. The recipe says it makes 16 squares in an 8x8 inch tray. I cut them into eight bars instead, and we had two each, so between the four of us there were no leftovers and we could have had some more.
Rating: :)



High Brown Hash: This recipe is in the tofu section, but I think they meant it for the seitan section. There is no tofu in it, but there is some sausage. The recipe calls for using some of their Smoky Sausage (another recipe), but I had a Tofurky kielbasa kicking around and it filled the brief. It also has potato, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, shallots (I used some scallions as well) and mushrooms. I ended up adding 1/2 cup stock during the potato stage, and another 1/2 cup during the cauliflower stage, to make sure that everything cooked through and didn't stick. I also used double the cauliflower, because I love cauliflower, and instead of chives and thyme for the fresh herbs I used chives and dill. It was a great dinner (especially with some ketchup, which all hash loves), and my mum was a particular fan.
Rating: :)



Green Beans with Peanut-Tofu Sauce: This recipe is meant to be made with shisto peppers, but I don't do peppers or spicy, so I replaced them with seared green beans served with some jasmine rice and baby spinach. The sauce is based on silken tofu with peanut butter. It has 2 tablespoons of tamari in it, and I found it to be quite salty so I might use less if I made it again. I warmed the sauce slightly to serve, so it wouldn't be cold. Left over sauce is also good as a dip or sandwich spread.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post - Month of Sahara



A young Sahara in her basket. That looks comfortable, right? She had that basket since she was a kitten, and it was delivered to my house with her when she came to live with me. She loved it so much!

Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Protein Book

Towards the end of last year, when I lifted the great cookbook ban of 2015 (I was saving for my US trip), this was one of the first new books I bought. The Great Vegan Protein Book shows you exactly where vegans get their protein. It is split into four sections: beans, nuts/seeds, tofu/tempeh and seitan. This is the first time I have done a full round-up for this book, so let's see what I've done!

Pudla and Eggplant Balela: This was a great combination. I have seen pudla popping up in many cookbooks and blogs lately, and have been enjoying trying different once, but this is hands down my favourite. It is just super delicious and savoury! I failed cookbook reading 101 with the balela and somehow, even though I read through the recipe four times, didn't notice until that afternoon that it was meant to chill overnight, so it was only marinated for four hours. It was still really good though, and the leftovers were even better! Instead of marinating, roasting and then dicing sliced eggplant, I just marinated and roasted diced eggplant. I also realised I was out of white balsamic, so I used a mix of regular balsamic and water, and I summed corn kernels instead of capsicum. I served it all with a drizzle of tahini.
Rating: Pudla :D, Balela :)



Sushi Rice and Bean Stew: This was like a nice miso stew or soup, but I felt it just needed a little something extra to really take it to extra yummy. I loved the sushi rice component of this recipe, it is a very handy recipe to have. I chopped up the mushrooms from the mushroom soaking broth and added them back to the stew, because you can never have too many mushrooms.
Rating: :)



Giardiniera Chili: This is a very yummy chilli, packed with veggies and beans and nooch. Yum! I served it over baked potatoes and baby spinach and topped it with avocado. The recipe says it makes 8 servings, but I got 5 out of it.
Rating: :)



BBQ Lentils: This recipe uses a quick homemade BBQ sauce, that I found to be quite sweet. Next time I would cut down on the maple syrup. It is baked in the oven and makes the kitchen smell like a happy place! This recipe says it serves 8-10, I made a half batch and got 3 serves out of it.
Rating: :)



Wild Rice Pilaf with Spicy Cashews: The cashews in this recipe are so tasty, you could just make them as a snack on their own. They coating is a bit clumpy, but means it is full of flavour, though it did wash off and dilute down in the pilaf a little bit. Overall, this dish was quite sweet, but has a nice combination of textures with the crunchy cashews and chewy wild rice.
Rating: :)



20 Minute Tofu Soup: I was feeling pretty sick one day, so I made this yummy vinegary soup to help me feel better. And it did. I don't have a lot of different chili sauces lying around, so I used sriracha rather than sambal oelek. This said it makes 3 to 4 servings, but I had a cold to feed and got one and a half servings out of it.
Rating: :)



Tofu Fried Rice: This was a bit meh, I could have done with more flavour. I subbed snow peas for sugar snap peas and carrots for capsicum, and also had extra bok choy. I didn't use the bean sprouts because I can only buy them in large bags and they always go off before I can use them again, so I skipped them.
Rating: :|



Well-Dressed Tofu Bowls: Yes and Yum. Sushi Rice (from the above mentioned Sushi Rice and Bean Stew) with sauteed tofu cubes and Brussels sprouts and a yummy peanut sauce... what is not to enjoy here? My mum thought the sauce was a bit too vinegary, but I had no issue with it (I do love vinegar).
Rating: :)



Caribbean Tofu: I made this as a mixture of both slabs and cubes for different uses. It is tasty, though goes quite soft when baked in the liquid as the recipe instructs. I only used half the amount of mild curry powder because I don't like things to get too hot!
Rating: :)



Caribbean Tofu and Pasta: The cubes of the above tofu I used for this pasta dish. I only used 8 oz of pasta (rather than 12), which makes for a chunky sauce to pasta ratio and four servings. I left out the capsicum and jalapeno, and again only used half the amount of mild curry powder called for.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Where you see a tea towel, we see a cape! Fun with SuperMo at the clinic. ;)

VeganMoFo 2015 #11: Magnificent Magnesium

11. Focus on a nutrient.

I'll be honest, I wanted to do carbs and just eat a giant pile of tater tots and mac and cheese and toasted sandwiches. That day will come. But for today, let's learn about magnesium!

Magnesium is a very important mineral that does many, many things in the body, and is potential important in the prevention and management of many diseases, however I have been interested in magnesium due to experiencing muscle cramps (both in my legs after long days and also menstrual cramps). I remember hearing once that the reason menstrual women crave chocolate is that they are craving magnesium, which is also in dates so you should have dates instead. I don't know if the reason for the craving is true or not, however I would say that if you are craving some chocolate then have the damn chocolate, unless you really feel like a date! I also knew that molasses is meant to be very high in magnesium. I have been a lover of molasses since I was a kid due to weekly horse riding lessons (I don't ride horses now!!!).

So I thought this post was the perfect excuse to make something chocolately in the name of magnesium! But first I looked into magnesium a little more and discovered that it is in theory abundant in many foods, and most of them are vegan! And now my disclaimer, I have no human nutrition training in anyway, so this is just a summary of things I found through about ten minutes of googling. Magnesium rich foods include dark leafy greens, nuts and seeds (especially pepitas), legumes (especially soy), whole grains, avocados, dried fruits (turns out figs, apricots and prunes have more than dates!) and dark chocolate and cocoa powder. And it is in a lot of other foods as well. However, apparently magnesium is stripped out by processing foods, so it is important to eat them in their whole state, and due to the fact that many people eat a highly processed diet magnesium deficiency has become more common in recent times. Interesting things!

But really, let's make some food!

Beans and Greens Bowls from The Great Vegan Protein Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes: This was a recipe I just had planned to make (I needed some beans and greens in between some of my other MoFo creations), however after reading about magnesium I realised this had quite a few magnesium foods in it! For a start, you make a pepita pesto, which also includes baby spinach. This is stirred through a mix of Brussels sprouts, broccoli and magnesium-rich edamame, and served over barley (I also put some more baby spinach underneath it all). Technically brown rice has more magnesium than barley, but whatever. This is just an example of how magnesium can pop up all over the place, when you least expect it! This was a tasty dinner as well, though I only got three servings rather than four (but I didn't make anywhere near as much barley as the recipe called for and I was really craving a lot of vegetables).
Rating: :)



No Bake, No Stovetop Cookie Bites from The Abundance Diet by Somer McCowan: However, getting back to the real reason I chose magnesium, chocolate and dates. Oh yes! This recipe is really quick and simple, just blend everything in the food processor, press into a pan and chill until ready. On the magnesium side this has dates, cocoa powder, dark chocolate chips, rolled oats, cashews and peanut butter (which is not too shabby with its magnesium either), as well as vanilla and maple syrup (in retrospect maybe I should have used molasses... hee hee). These are easy and very yummy, though even after setting are still quite sticky to touch! So make sure you can wash your hands.
Rating: :)



So there you have it, magnesium! Oh, and in case you were wondering my favourite way to eat molasses is just off a spoon (though it turns up in lots of baking recipes as well). I sometimes see in US cookbooks 'light molasses', we only have black strap here (I use treacle or a mix of black strap and golden syrup for those recipes). Black strap is how I like it. I will take some if I have some cramps brewing.

Looking forward to learning about lots of nutrients reading all the posts today!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo



This photo is of Gizmo when she stayed overnight with me when I was on call at the clinic in my early years. Tune in tomorrow to see what happened the next day!