Dad's Birthday Dinner

My dad's birthday is at the start of July, and as per usual I made him a special birthday dinner. He surprised me with his choice of asking for something with couscous and lots of vegetables for the main, but I was happy to oblige!

Seitan Coriander Cutlets from Vegan Eats World by Terry Hope Romero: The couscous recipe I picked out (from another book, see below) called for chickpeas, but I know my dad's favourite is seitan so I thought I'd make some to use instead. Seitan is something that always seems like an effort to make, but then once I make it I remember it is generally pretty easy. This was no exception. It has a lovely flavour from the cumin in it (there are also some other flavour variations you can try), and was easy to mix and knead. Cutlets are wrapped in foil and baked, and it ended up having a great texture. It made a bunch, so I had some leftover to freeze for other recipes.
Rating: :)



Seven Vegetable Couscous from Vegan Fire & Spice by Robin Robertson: Behold the couscous! The seven vegetables here are onions, sweet potato, carrots, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, and peas. I made it eight by also using some baby spinach. As mentioned, I added some chopped and browned seitan from the recipe above in place of chickpeas. The vegetable stew part itself was quite watery, I'd use less vegetable broth next time. You don't want to boil it off too much because the vegeteables will turn totally mushy. It is served over some couscous with sultanas and parsley mixed through, which was nice. This recipe is meant to be served with Harissa sauce, though we skipped that but, but that made it a little bit bland overall. If you are doing it chili free, like I did, I'd suggest upping the spices and salt a bit more.
Rating: :)



Finally, a birthday must have CAKE! My dad was wondering what other sorts of cake there were besides chocolate and vanilla. Ummmm.... like... a million different types. After I spent several minutes going through all sorts of cake flavours, he settled on apricot. Which was excellent because it meant I finally got to make a recipe I'd been eyeing off for ages...

Apricot Crumble Cake from Vegan With Bite by Shannon Martinez: I've been wanting to make this cake since I first got this book, especially after hearing so many other people raving about it. And it does not disappoint. It is a spiced cake, topped with apricot halves, then topped with a crumble and baked. The recipe calls for tinned apricots, making it super winter friendly. I did have to bake my cake quite a bit longer to get it cooked through. Instead of sprinkling it with icing sugar on top, I sprinkled it with some chair-spiced raw sugar I have for a great crunch and flavour. This cake was awesome! I served it on the night with a dollop of Vanilla Hazelnut yoghurt, and some of the leftover apricot halves. It also keeps well for a few days.
Rating: :D

Recipe Round-Up: Vegan Fire & Spice

I was gifted this book by my lovely friend Amy. She had this on her shelf, as well as Hot Vegan, which is the renamed and newer released version of Fire & Spice, and she kindly gave me this old copy. Both are by Robin Robertson. I was thrilled, because I love Robin Robertson but was understandably weary about purchasing a book devoted to spicy food. I can hear you right now wondering what I would even do with such a gift. Well, I just make things but not spicy. And most of the time it works out great! The book is divided into sections of the world: The Americas, Mediterranean Europe, The Middle East & Africa, India, and Asia. As always, the Asian section is the one that has drawn me in most. But I have made a couple of things from other regions. Anyway, please enjoy my version of 'Fire & Spice'... without the fire or the spice. This is the first time I have posted about this book on my blog!

Penne Arrabbiata: This is a simple dinner of penne in a tomato sauce. The recipe calls for it to be spiced up with either dried peperoncino chiles or red pepper flakes. I gave a teeny sprinkle of some fancy fruity Sicilian chili powder my brother brought home once, which gave it just the slightest warmth. I also decreased the amount of pasta, using 8 oz instead of one pound, and I added a tin of red kidney beans.
Rating: :)



Vindaloo Vegetables with Mint Chutney: I left out the chili and the capsicum in this, instead adding extra cauliflower. Other vegetables included green beans, carrots, and potatoes. This gave bit serves over some spinach, I didn't need any rice. Overall the flavour was a bit bland though, I guess it really relied on the chili! I served it with yoghurt, some mango chuntey, and the mint chutney. The mint chutney I was not a fan of, it was too minty and made everything taste like toothpaste, though again I had left out the chili. There is a much better version of this recipe in her other book Vegan Without Borders.
Rating: Vindaloo :|, Chutney :/



Five Spice Tofu and Vegetable Salad: Cubed tofu is pan-fried with garlic and ginger, then cooled and mixed with vegetables to make a refreshing salad. The dressing is made from vinegar, five spice, and sesame oil. It is meant to have chile oil as well, but I left that out (if people wanted extra heat there was some sriracha at serving time). The recipe calls fro the tofu to be mixed with carrot, blanced snow peas, and capsicum, I left out the capsicum. I also did not drain the salad before serving, instead using that as extra dressing to toss with some cos lettuce. I would have liked a bit of a stronger five spice flavour in the dressing, I am a five spice fiend!
Rating: :)



Gingered Broccoli: This was delicious! To make it a main, I doubled the sauce and added some diced Soyco Japanese flavoured tofu, and served it over spinach and rice. The only sad part was that I didn't have enough broccoli! Make sure to get a big head so you have a lot to soak up all the sauce!
Rating: :D



Szechuan Vegetables: Szechuan without the heat? YES! I go there and I do that! I made this with zero spice at all, leaving out the hot red chiles the recipe called for. I also left out the capsicum and replaced it with some celery for crunch. The rest of the vegetables were carrots, shiitake, and wombok. Without the chile, it was a very nice sauce! I got two serves out of this,s erving it with some rice and some steamed gyoza.
Rating: :)



Slivered 'Seitan' and Vegetable Stir-Fry: I used slivered Soyco Japanese flavoured tofu in this rather than seitan, because I didn't feel like making seitan and I really just love tofu, so why not. I changed up a few things with the vegetables, using broccoli stem and diced carrot instead of red and green capsicum and using celery instead of water chestnuts (I'm just not a big water chestnut fan). And of course I left out the red pepper flakes for a heat-free dish. This was delicious! I got three serves from it with rice and baby spinach.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim's kissable little toe beans. We have had a whole week of stable health, so go Dim Sim!