Eating Out: Grill'd

Burger chain Grill'd has long been a haunt of vegans, with the ability to make some of their burgers vegan by leaving things off, and especially for their delicious chips. But Grill'd has lately really embraced the vegan revolution. First up, they introduced a 100% vegan veggie burger with salad. Not the most exciting, I know, but really delicious. But this year they also announced two new burgers - the all vegan Vegan Cheese Burger, and the misleadingly vegetarian but not actually vegan Hemp Therapea burger. To make way for these two new burgers, they did take some other vegetarian burgers off the menu. So there are currently three veg*n burgers (one 100% vegan and two easy to veganise) on their menu. Plus their chips, did I mention their chips?

Vegan Cheeseburger:

This burger actually had to be retinkered, into a vegan cheeseburger 2.0. The first version had a super weird patty, that was kind of chalky. It was not the greatest, and I honestly don't know how anyone ever approved it in the first place. It is the first photo below, and you can see that the patty looks a bit dry and weird. In an amazing turn of events, Grill'd actually listened to their consumers and reformulated their patty, so now all the cheeseburgers are the 2.0 variety. The new patty (which you can see in the second photo) is much better, though still not quite as good as a lot of the other burger patties out there (such as Fenn and Fries). It is a bit soft, and relatively thick. If they smooshed it a bit flatter to get a better grill and crispy edges, it would be better. But still good. The burger also has ketchup, mustard, vegan cheese, vegan mayo, onions, and dill pickles. Get extra pickles.





Hemp Therapea Burger:

When they announced the new vegan cheeseburger, they also announced this burger. They were prominently advertised as plant based, however it turns out that in the original form this one is not completely so. Early on, several vegans got caught out because it has a non-vegan tzatziki on it. You need to request them to use vegan mayo instead. It was quite misleading marketing on their part. The patty on this is hemp and pea, and is quite nice and sweet. It also has avocado, lettuce, beetroot, basil, and vegan mayo when you ask them to make it vegan. I had it on good authority that it is best with pineapple added, so that is what I did. I really enjoyed this burger, it is a nice fresh change from the cheeseburger. And I like the pea in the patty. This time I foolishly tried their sweet potato fries, which are always overcooked and soggy. I don't know why I ever stray from their perfect perfect potato chips, see above photos.



Veggie Vitality (RIP):

This was actually my favourite burger, but just in writing this post I have discovered that it is off the menu. So consider this in its memory. It was a patty made from beetroot, sweet potato, spinach, and quinoa, and also had avocado, pineapple, carrot and cos lettuce. This was before they had vegan mayo or vegan cheese. I would add some beetroot and some pickle to it as well. It was just such a lovely fresh burger. And now, it is no more. RIP, my burger friend. (A moment silence as well for the falafel burger and mushroom burger that also have gone. I didn't eat either of them, but I have friends who miss them).



Garden Goodness Burger:

This is one of their original vegetarian burgers. A veggie patty with beetroot, avocado, salad, relish, mayo, and cheese. As a vegan, you would take of the mayo and the cheese. So, I haven't actually had this burger since they introduced vegan cheese and mayo. In my head, I thought the veggie vitality was still on the menu, and this one had gone. But writing this post has taught me otherwise. As a vegan, you would now be able to get vegan cheese and mayo on it. Before they introduced veggie vitality, this was the main burger I got from them. And it is a good veggie burger. At some point, I will try it again with the vegan options on it. Here is a badly lit photo of the burger from a time I had it before (minus cheese and mayo). With pineapple and dill pickle added, of course!



Grill'd has lot of locations, check their website.

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We had this little kid in at work a couple of weeks ago and they were just too cute!

Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Grains Book

The Great Vegan Grains Book is a fun adventure through all sorts of grains. From the common, to the more unusual. However, you are also able to sub in easier to find and cheaper alternatives for most of the recipes. Fancy grains can be expensive, and sometimes impossible to get! You can see my other round up from this book here.

Teff and Amaranth Porridge: When the shops give you both teff and amaranth on super sale, this recipe is a great way to use them! This recipe says it gives two large serves, but it was really one serve. Rather than using coconut milk, I used oat milk with a smidge of coconut essence. Filled with raisins and spices (I used cinnamon), and topped with strawberries, coconut flakes, and slivered almonds, it was a tasty breakfast and there is something fun about eating tiny grains.
Rating: :)



Apricot Oats: This recipe uses steel cut oats, and comes together pretty quickly on the stove. It has chopped dried apricots and apricot jam mixed in to give a good apricot flavour. I made a 1/2 recipe, which is meant to be one serve. It was a smallish serve, fairly filling initially, but I was hungry again soon after. So consider the whole recipe for one serve.
Rating: :)



Creamy Amaranth Polenta with Marinara: I made a half recipe of the grain, but a full recipe of the sauce with this. I added some broth powder to the water when I cooked the amaranth, which then has a creamy cashew carrot sauce cooked through. Rather than chopping and steaming carrots to blend into the sauce, I just grated a raw carrot and added a little bit of extra cashew cream to blend up a lovely smooth sauce. For the marinara sauce, I left out the capsicum and added some kidney beans. I took the option of adding Italian seasoning (the other suggestion was Herbes de Provence, and I topped it with some baby capers rather than mincing capers. A nice contrast with the creamy amaranth and the savoury sauce. With spinach, I got two serves.
Rating: :)



Chickpea Millet Curry: This recipe says it makes 2-3 servings, and I got 2.5 serves. I did decrease the amount of millet by half though, so if you made the full amount you'd be closer to 3-4 serves. I left out the jalapeno and capsicum, of course, and I added some peas. The recipe calls for 1 cup of chickpeas, but I used the whole tin (about 1 1/2 cups) to bulk it out. I also used light coconut milk. Because I am sensitive to spice, I did decrease the amount of curry powder in it, so it ended up being a bit bland. If you need to make it like me, probably add some extra spices and seasoning in as well.
Rating: :|



Creamy Pesto Asparagus Barley: This recipe is meant to be made with einkorn, but I have never found that grain so I took the more common alternative suggested. I had some pre-cooked barley in the fridge, so this came together very easily. The recipe calls for red onion to be added to the grain in the last few minutes of cooking, but as I had precooked grain I sauteed my onion in the pan. The asparagus can either be roasted or steamed before adding it, so of course I roasted it. The sauce is a mix of pesto and cashew cream, for a nice coating. I was using up some jarred pesto, so it was a bit oilier than I would have liked. I also added some cannellini beans to make a more complete meal.
Rating: :)



Saucy Peanut Eggplant and Brown Rice: This was another grain substitution, the original recipe calling for freekeh. At the time, freekeh was proving a bit hard to find (and also was super expensive), so brown basmati rice provided a great stand in. Of course tasted lovely, anything with peanut sauce would! As well as crunchy peanut butter, the sauce also has tomato paste, lime, and seasonings. I got three serves of this, rather than four.
Rating: :)



Quinoa and Veggies Stir-Fry: Straight up, this has fairly simple flavours (tamari, garlic, sesame oil), but the garnishes help bring it out a bit. I left out capsicum from the veggie mix, but I also added 250g of smoked tofu for extra bulk to the meal. I used ume plum vinegar, sesame seeds, scallions, and pickled ginger as my toppings. This recipe uses pre-cooked quinoa, so comes together very fast.
Rating: :)



Easy Cheesy Baked Grits: These are so good. I used regular polenta (I know that is different from grits, but I can't get grits here, and the recipe says you can use polenta). The polenta is cooked in a creamy cashew based sauce that also has sauerkraut, miso, and nutritional yeast in it. I subbed garlic and onion powder into the sauce instead of using fresh. Then you bake it, and it comes out amazing! I served it with some steamed broccoli, and these vegan chicken strips that were new in the supermarkets but were kind of terrible. Thank goodness I had these amazing grits to make up for it!
Rating: :D



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Dim Sim's results are back and looks like we have the all clear!

Eating Out: Two Tables Cafe (Pizza for Dinner edition)

I've posted before about my love of Two Tables Cafe. They recently changed their opening hours during the week from breakfast/lunch to dinner time. The highlight of their dinner menu is definitely the pizzas! There are three flavours, plus their garlic bread. The menu also has burgers, acai bowls, desserts, and there are normally a couple of pasta specials. But let's talk about pizza.

First up, their garlic bread. Which is basically a garlic pizza. This is lovely, salty, and garlicky. It is basically an entire pizza on it's own though, which can be challenging if you are one person eating this and another pizza, but I can report that leftovers are excellent. All pizzas from here pass the important leftover test (they are excellent cold the next day).



My favourite pizza of all is the Melanzane. This has BBQ sauce, eggplant, pumpkin, and onion on it and it is divine! One of the best pizzas I have ever had. This is the one I definitely recommend that everyone must eat.



The Pomodori is a classic combination of tomato, olives, and sesame cheese. It is savoury and salty, with the sesame cheese giving a lovely creamy contrast.



And finally, the Carciofi. I got this to take away when they had a two for one special on World Vegan Day, so I got a couple of pizzas to take home to my family. This one is artichokes and mushrooms with pinenuts and aioli, and is really great.



This is my favourite cafe. They know me by name, we have good chats, the atmosphere is lovely, the food is great! I'll have a lot more posts about their food in the future, because they is the place I go to the most!

Two Tables Cafe - 475 Sandgate Road, Clayfield

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There's been a lot of Dim Sim talk with all her recent surgeries, but the first of November would have been Gizmo's birthday. I still miss her so much.

Recipe Round-Up: The Garden of Vegan

One of my earlier cookbooks, The Garden of Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. You can see what else I have blogged from this cookbook here.

Carrot Ginger Muffins: These muffins are reminiscent of carrot cake, though they are not that sweet. This makes them a good snack. The recipe says it made 6 muffins, but I got 10. I assume they must be using a giant muffin tin. These are also nice split and spread with a little butter when they are warm.
Rating: :)



Apple Streusel Muffins: If you promise me streusel topping, I want streusel topping. So I scaled up the streusel ingredients from 2TBS sugar as a base to 3TBS. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp on top of each muffin, and you have a nice, crunchy, sweet topping. Again, I assume they made theirs in a big muffin tin, as I got 12 muffins instead of 6.
Rating: :)



Nana Marg's Bran Muffin Mix in a Jar: This quick mix gives you enough for three batches of muffins, though a note it does need to be stored in the fridge. I scaled down for one batch of muffins. It is an equal mix of bran and flour, with cinnamon and other spices and raisins.
Rating: :)



Nana Marg's Quick Mix Bran Muffins: Take the above mix, make into muffins. The recipe does involve a mashed banana, apple sauce, oil, and water to be added. I did make 6 muffins with this one, but it filled my regular muffin cups right to the very top and they ended up very big! They are also quite substantial. Now that I write this, maybe the others were made in normal sized muffin tins, they just make them so they overflow when baking for big muffin tops.
Rating: :)



Blueberry Muffins: This is turning into quite the muffin edition! Though this is the last muffin for this round-up. These muffins also have rolled oats in them to make them a little more substantial. I used frozen blueberries, I almost always use frozen berries for these sorts of things. I made this 6 muffin recipe into 10 'normal' (or maybe snack would be the better word) sized muffins.
Rating: :)



The Most Amazing Chocolate Pudding: This pudding is based on silken tofu, though uses cocoa powder, sugar and olive oil rather than chocolate chips to bring the chocolate. The olive oil was just noticeable, but gave a nice flavour. It is great with some fresh berries.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Mint Mousse: Chocolate and mint are not so much my thing, but this one was pretty good. It falls into the silken tofu and melted chocolate category of mousses, and as such was very thick. I used the lesser amount of the mint extract, and also added some maple syrup to mellow it out.
Rating: :)



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Dim Sim had her surgery on Tuesday and came home on Wednesday morning. She slept so hard!!! And wanted to spend a lot of that sleeping time on my lap. She is the sweetest. She seems to be dealing well with recovery, still a bit wobbly, but otherwise her normal happy self and not bothering at her stitches. Hopefully we will get the results back this afternoon, and hopefully they will say all clear!

Eating Out: Grown

I have now been to Grown a number of times, and it is always a lovely experience. Often when I have gone, it has just happened to be cold and rainy, and sitting inside sipping a hot drink is delightful. Also, my mum loves this place, specifically their scrambled tofu. So we've been a few times on a Sunday morning (Saturday mornings are very hard to find a park because there are some markets on down the road) to enjoy the menu. You can see some of my other visits to Grown here.

I mentioned hot drinks, and Grown has a nice selection. I don't drink coffee, but they have lots of options. Here is a Dark Hot Chocolate and a Spiced Chai, both on soy milk. The hot chocolate is particularly amazing, and another one of my mum's favourites.



Here is the famed scrambled tofu, which is served with toast and smoked sesame cheese. Also a hash brown added on, because you should always potato.



I was curious as what their homemade Vegemite would be, so I ordered toast and Vegemite. It was nice, but not Vegemite. It was some sort of sesame based product again, but didn't have that strong salty flavour that I want from when I am having Vegemite.



I enjoyed this lovely dish of polenta and braised french lentils. It was warming, and the flavour was lovely. They've recently redone their menu for summer, and sadly this has been taken off. Hopefully they will bring it back at some stage.



My dad tried the Housemade Hash Brown the one time he has come with us. While they do have the option to add a hash brown as a side to anything, they also make a feature meal of it. It had roasted tomato, avocado, greens, cannellini beans, and capsicum sauce. They have changed the accompaniments slightly in the new menu.



While there is a regular toastie on their menu, sometimes they have specials. I got this amazing Tempeh Toastie, which had sesame cheese, spinach, caramelised onions, and aioli in it... and I got a hash brown on the side of course!



Grown is a lovely place, and I definitely recommend it. I've been a couple of times since these visits as well, and I am hoping to make it back sometime soon for their dinner menu.

Grown - 21 Buchanan Street, West End - 07 3036 7213

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Dim Sim has been such a good perfect girl with her stitches, she hasn't been bothering them at all. Unfortunately the results came back to say that they couldn't be sure that the tumours were completely removed. So next week she will go back to the clinic, but will have to have a full general anaesthetic to remove more tissue. She will also have another lump on the back of her neck removed, and her teeth cleaned up, given that if we are going under we are going to do everything that needs doing. She has the best team of vets looking after her, but I am still a very worried mum.

Recipe Round-Up: The Easy Vegan Cookbook

Generally these days I stay away from more 'basic' vegan cookbooks. Not a slight on them, I just have so many cookbooks now that I don't really need the same recipes over and over again, I look for something with a bit of a different take. But I saw some reviews on other blogs about The Easy Vegan Cookbook by Kathy Hester and it looked like it had some interesting recipes. Though once I got it, I found it hard to get inspired and I didn't anything for ages. I have made a few things, and there are definitely some more I want to make. I haven't done a round-up from this book before, but I did make some blondies from it for a bake sale once.

Maple Walnut Sausage Patties: Breakfast sausage isn't really a thing here in Australian (sausages at breakfast, yes, but not in the US sense). So this recipe is actually really handy as a fast way to make some breakfast sausage patties. I wanted them for some breakfast sandwiches, and a 1/2 recipe made three biscuit-sized patties. The recipe says it makes 16 sausage patties, so I imagine they must be very small. These were fairly sweet, so you may want to cut down on the maple a smidge.
Rating: :)



Mapo Tofu: I had some leftover silken tofu to use up, so I made a half batch of this recipe. Of course, I cut way back on anything spicy to just a teeny smidge of sriracha. Although I made a reduced amount of the solid ingredients, I still made the full recipe of the sauce because I like things saucy. This sauce was really lovely, tangy, and gingery. Served with some rice and baby spinach, I got two serves.
Rating: :)



Broccoli with Spicy Garlic Sauce: This vegetable based stir-fry claims to serve four, but I got only two serves from it over rice. I added some cashews as well, and I think some tofu would be a great addition. I made the sauce not spicy by leaving out the chili flakes. The sauce was a little sweet because of this, so I might decrease the amount of agave if you are taking this route, but it was nice and made plenty.
Rating: :)



Ann's Vegetable Fried Rice with Tofu: The reason this looks so dramatically dark is because I used dark soy sauce, which made everything very very moody. But it was still a delightful dinner. I used brown basmati rice as my base, as that is what I had leftover from another dinner. I replaced the capsicum with grated carrot, and used 2 packs of the Soyco Japanese marinated tofu that I love. I also cooked the scallions with the onion rather than adding at the end, as raw scallions don't always suit my tummy.
Rating: :)



Veggie Quinoa Drop Biscuits: When life gives you leftover quinoa, make biscuits. This recipe calls for 1/2 cup of either vegan butter, shortening, or coconut oil. I used a jar of vegan onion lard (that didn't have any coconut oil) that I got from a Cruelty Free Shop mystery box for this, as I needed somewhere to use it. These biscuits are very tasty, but also quite soft (maybe because of the lard?). I also froze some of them and, after defrosting, reheated them at 180dC in the oven for 20 minutes and then they went very crunchy!
Rating: :)



Pecan Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars: I made these fun bars for a bake sale. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup melted coconut oil, or apple puree for an oil free option. I used slightly less than 1/2 cup of canola oil (mainly because I couldn't be bothered melting down margerine). The recipe calls for whole-wheat pastry flour, which can be hard to find here, so I used a mix of wholemeal spelt and regular plain white flour. The batter has pecans, chocolate chips, and shredded coconut mixed through it (I added some extra coconut). While I do have a mixer, which the recipe is written for, I did it by hand and it was easy and fine. I did need to bake it for an extra 5-10 minutes, though that is not unusual in my oven.
Rating: :)



Applesauce Spice Cake: I made this for some work snacks. The batter, which includes a hefty amount of applesauce as well as a lovely mix of spices, tasted amazing! Unfortunately this was lost a bit once it was baked. It was still good, but I expected more from the batter. I didn't have a 9 inch cake pan, so I used an 8 inch one. I was expecting it to rise a lot, as the recipe calls for a tall pan, but it didn't rise much at all and was quite dense.
Rating: :)



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Dim Sim had surgery yesterday. Last week she had her senior check and vaccination. Thankfully her blood results came back showing that her kidney disease is pretty stable, but she had two skin lumps and cytology on one came back as a mast cell tumour. Yesterday she was the bravest girl, and had them removed with just sedation and a local anaesthetic. Hopefully the results will come back from the lab showing clean margins, otherwise she will need to have a full GA to cut out more. So fingers crossed!

Eating Out: Brewski and Miss Bliss (a tale of two jackfruit burgers)

Another little combination post. Jackfruit is a fickle friend. In the right hands it can be made awesome, but sometimes it just falls flat. Jackfruit in burgers is definitely a trend at the moment, and I don't mind at all. A good BBQ jackfruit burger is a delight. Here are two I tried, from two very different places.

Brewski:

I've been to Brewski a couple of times before, it is less than 10 minutes walk from my work, or an even shorter drive. The menu there runs the range from omnivore to vegan, so it is a good place for mixed groups. It is a bar, with a large beer selection if that is your thing. The last time I went (on a Tuesday for their $10 burger special), they had changed the menu a bit and introduced their Pulled Jackfruit Burger: Stout infused & applewood smoked jackfruit, rainbow slaw, and smokey BBQ sauce on a maple toasted bun. It was so good! Though very messy, as these things tend to be. But I loved the flavour on the jackfruit and the crunchy slaw. With some fries on the side, of course. I highly recommend.



Miss Bliss:

By contrast to the Brewski pub vibe, Miss Bliss is a 'wholefoods' cafe in West End. Again, this is not all vegan, but always has some sweet and savoury vegan options. I've been there once before. Each menu has a Herbivore Burger, and this was the version from earlier this year. They have since changed the menu, and I cannot remember all the particulars, but I feel that it had a mushroom, rocket, jackfruit, pickled onions, and aioli. Served with some sweet potato fries. It was OK. The jackfruit here was in bigger chunks, and was just kind of tomato-ish and didn't have a huge flavour. It was a nice enough burger, but clearly came in second place in this story.



I also had a Pumpkin Spice smoothie while I was there, which was fun. I'm afraid I can't remember exactly what was in it... pumpkin and spices I imagine!



Brewski - 22 Caxton St, Petrie Terrace, QLD, 4059 -(07) 3369 2198

Miss Bliss Wholefoods Kitchen - 85 Vulture St, West End, 4101 - (07) 3844 3208

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A follow on from the silly adoption kitten series.