Recipe Round-Up: Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan

Eat, Dink, & Be Vegan is my favourite of Dreena Burton's many books. I've already shared a lot of things from this book, which you can see by clicking here. This post has some that I realised I hadn't shared yet. Apologies that some of the photos are not great, some of them are quite old and were taken with a previous camera.

Kid's Dynamo Hummus: Dreena loves making hummus-inspired dips. This one is designed for kids, it is meant to have a mellow flavour that is full of nutrition. Cashews and chickpeas make up the base, and it has some nooch in it as well for cheeziness. It has some flax oil in it, and I have discovered that I am just not a fan of this oil. I could taste it quite strongly. It might be better with some more lemon juice to cancel it out.
Rating: :|



Olive & Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus: This was some amazing dip, combining both green and kalamata olives. It also has a heft dose of raw garlic, though the flavour mellowed a bit with sitting. (This was before I started becoming intolerant to raw garlic, sad face.) The recipe calls of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, but I am not a fan of those (they are always too oily), so I used rehydrated vacuum packed tomatoes.
Rating: :D



Palak Soyabini Pinira: This is a version of Palak Paneer, an Indian spiced spinach and cheese dish. The recipe uses tofu seasoned with lemon juice and tamari in place of the cheese, which would make a tasty snack all on its own. Unfortunately, the overall dish was just a bit bland, granted I did skip the jalapeno. But I would like to think that the spices in this would have help up without the chili. Dreena suggests keeping some of the tofu aside for snacking, because she prefers the dish with less tofu, but I used it all to bulk up the meal and add more flavour. I got 3.5 serves out of this, with lots of rice.
Rating: :|



Sweet & Sour Chipotle Tempeh: This was made back in the days when I could tolerate more spicy than I could now, so it was made with the full dose of chipotle! It had a lovely and smoky flavour, and was not too sweet. As well as tempeh it had sweet potatoes and pineapple, and was meant to have green capsicum, but I used zucchini and peas.
Rating: :)



Veggie-Sizzle Burritos: These are packed full of beans, zucchini, mushroom, and onion. Also capsicum, if you follow the recipe, but I left this out. Using a large burrito, a 400g tin of beans and 4 large portobello caps, I had lots of filling to go around! The filling would also be tasty just served over rice or greens.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies: Dreena excels at recipes for cookies that are a little on the healthier side, though let's not fool ourselves - they are still cookies. These cookies use barley flour (though there is the option to use plain white flour), with maple syrup and raw sugar for sweetening and a range of spices for a lovely flavour. These cookies were delicate coming out of the oven, so be careful if you move them before they have completely cooled. The unrefined sugar gave them a slightly crunchy texture as well. Rating: :)



Chocolate Chip Melties: These cookies used spelt as the flour, but also had most of a chocolate mint bar chopped up and mixed through the batter, plus some left for decoration on top. I am not normally a huge chocolate-mint fan, but these were nice and a good way to use the chocolate bar.
Rating: :)



Drink Your Greens Smoothie: This is a versatile recipe, using OJ and water as the liquid, frozen banana and avocado for creaminess, and your choice of melons or mangoes (I used frozen mangoes). It is lightly sweetened with a touch of agave. It calls for kale as the green, but I am not a fan of kale in smoothies, so I used baby spinach. I decreased the amount of avocado slightly, as I find too much avocado in smoothies makes me feel a bit icky (though I can eat avocado in other ways non-stop). This was a lovely, creamy and fruity start to my day.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This sweetie was in hospital for a few days, following an accident. She was the sweetest little girl. She just wanted your pats and love, and we were happy to give them!