Imbolc 2021

Imbolc (1st August, 2021) Imbolc is one of my favourite Sabbats. Within the seasons, it celebrates the mid point between winter and spring. Now, I am not so keen for spring to come back here these days, because spring basically equals summer which equals hot. But this is also a celebration associated with the goddess Bridig, who I have always felt an affinity with. Foods special to Imbolc include (non)dairy, seeds, breads, winter vegetables, blackberries, and red food. It fell on a Sunday this year, and even though I was working a few hours in the morning, I was still able to work in a themed day of food.

I started with some Weetbix porridge (the laziest of all porridges, just cover some weetbix with milk and zap in the microwave and it will go hot and mushy). I topped with with some almond butter, blackberries, kiwi fruit, and pepitas.



For lunch I had a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich with wholegrain mustard, on pumpkin five seed bread. I served it with some vegan aioli and fresh cucumber slices.



Gingery Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Tamarind Cilantro Sauce from Cafe Flora Cookbook: I made this for dinner. The original recipe in the book had some 'ocean cakes' served with it, but instead I used some BBQ tofu. The masked sweet potatoes have pickled sushi ginger mashed into them! Yum! I would increase the amount next time though because the flavour wasn't gingery enough for me. The tamarind sauce was quite tart, so I mixed a bit of extra brown sugar into it. It went well with the sweetness of the mash. Served over some baby spinach.
Rating: Sweet Potatoes :), Sauce :)



Lemon and Blackberry Self-Saucing Pudding from Vegan With Bite by Shannon Martinez: This was a lovely dessert! I love self saucing puddings, and I think lemon is my favourite variety of those. This also has blackberries (I used frozen) mixed into the batter. And it has some basil in the sauce for a fun bright flavour. I served it with some vanilla ice cream. Leftovers were also very nice eaten cold out of the fridge the next day when I got home from work and needed a snack.
Rating: :)

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