Menu: Indian Menu from 1000 Vegan Recipes (Father's Day 2016 Edition)

Due to business with the BrisVeganFest and Sydney and Brisbane OzComicCon, we had to delay Father's Day celebrations for a few weeks. My dad loves Indian food, so I decided to pull out 1000 Vegan Recipes for the first time in a while and make the Indian menu from there. I did leave off the Vegetable Pakoras and the Mint Coconut Chutney, just from a time and stove top space perspective. But the meal itself was still pretty great!

Potato Samosas: The dough for these samosas gave me the worst time. It was way too sticky using the amount of water called for, and no matter how much flour I added it never really went right. There was no rolling and cutting the dough. There was smooshing out rounds of dough and trying to fill them and close them the best I could. The recipe said it makes 4 samosas, but these would have been huge! As it is I got six, and they were pretty big. The filling is delicious, but I only needed half of it to fill them. I fried them, a little, then finished them in the oven. They were really big, and the pastry was pretty stodgy. We discovered they were best to eat with your hands rather than cutting them up, just pick them up and take a big bite, then you got a nice mix of filling and pastry. I also had one cold the next day, which was really good.
Rating: :| - :) because of pastry issues but still pretty nice.




Tamarind Sauce: As I wasn't making the mint chutney, I served the samosas with Tamarind Sauce. This was delicious! Drinkable, really. It is based on tamarind, dates and spices. I soaked my dates in the water for a bit first to soften, and then I was able to easily blend this smooth using my handheld blender rather than having to dirty my big blender. This is so quick and easy to make, bu was delicious. Perfect with the samosas.
Rating: :D



Indian-Style Pizza: This is a version of uttappam, a savoury pancake based on yoghurt and semolina flour. The recipe makes 2 servings, but I split the batter into thirds initially, rather than half, because there were three of us. After cooking up the first pizza using a third of the batter, I knew there was no way we could all eat something of that size plus all the other things. These are a meal on their own! So with the remaining batter I made three smaller ones so we could each have a cute little personal sides uttappam along with everything else. I served it with coconut sambal (from Vegan Without Borders), jarred mango chutney and coriander.
Rating: :)



Three Lentil Dal: This was meant to have green, brown and red lentils. But I couldn't find any brown lentils so I used yellow split peas in their place. I had to add more water during the cooking time to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan and to get the lentils all nice and soft. It has a subtle flavour, but was good proper comfort dal.
Rating: :)



Mango Lassi: This wasn't an official part of the menu, but it seemed like a fun and easy addition. Vanilla yoghurt, mango and soy milk. I used frozen mango, which made for a lovely thick drink. I skipped adding ice cubes and needed to add a bit extra milk!
Rating: :)



A table and plate full of Indian deliciousness!





Paradise Pudding: The meal finishes with a sweet dessert, and this was wonderful. It is based on semolina, and gets really thick. I used a blend of mango and pineapple juice, and is also has pineapple chunks, sultanas (meant to be golden raisins but I didn't have any) and roasted cashews. It was a hot day, and I had made these that morning, so we enjoyed these cold straight out of the fridge. Really great.
Rating: :D



Bonus photo! Remember that first Indian-Style Pizza I made that was too big to serve? I wrapped it in foil and popped it in the fridge. The next day I made it into an actual pizza for lunch. I topped it with a yoghurt and tamarind base, then baby spinach and roasted cashews, then Daiya Smoked Gouda cheese. After it came out of the oven, I topped it with leftover coconut sambal and mango chutney. SO GOOD!



(% 1000 Vegan Recipes blogged: 27.9%)

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sahara's preferred sleeping position at night is between my legs. Terrible for my lower back, but delightfully snuggly and who am I to say no to her?