Recipe Round-Up: Bed & Broccoli

Back in 2014, I had the chance to stay at Australia's first vegan B&B, Bed & Broccoli with my friend Leigh, you can read more about that visit here. It was a wonderful couple of days, with delicious food, wonderful animals, and some very bad movies. I should note that Bed & Broccoli has moved to a new property since we have visited. A few days after our visit, we met up with the owners again at World Vegan Day markets in Melbourne, and we each bought a copy of their book. It is a combination of recipes, photos, and stories of the animals and their rescue. To be honest, after that day the book just sort of sat on my shelf for six years. But its turn was coming up in the recipe round-up blogging alphabetical list (you will notice that I am just working through my recipe books in alphabetical order), so it was time to Make Some Stuff!

Butter Bean Dip: This was very quick to make and a good little snack with veggie sticks or spread onto sandwiches. Basil and parsley give the green flavour. As this was in the depth of my isolating, I had some fresh parsley but no basil. So I used a combination of frozen basil cubes and some lightly dried basil flakes to make the most of what I could. I also left out the spring onion and the cayenne. It had quite a strong lemony flavour, so I'd maybe ease off on that to let the herbs shine through a bit more, I assume it would have been better balanced with the onions and the cayenne. I needed to add a bit of water to help this blend up and smooth out.
Rating: :)



Spiced Dhal Soup: This dhal wasn't so much spiced. It had some ginger and cumin and turmeric. I had to leave out the cayenne, so maybe that was where the spice was? The night we ate it, it was bland... but not in that comforting bland dhal way. Just meh. But it definitely improved when reheated the next day. This is a very soupy soup! I decreased the stock to 1.5L (from 2L) and it was still very runny. Served with some yoghurt, coriander, mango chutney, and also some garlic naan.
Rating: :|



A Mushroom Must: Their take on osso buco, using brown mushrooms as the base. I used a mix of halved cremini and large chunks of portobello. I also used carrot instead of capsicum. This simmers for a while, smells lovely, and the mushrooms stayed nice and chunky. Served over spinach and mashed potatoes.
Rating: :)



Mushroom Stroganoff: The problem with this recipe was that it was just far too soupy, I wanted it to really thicken up and it did not. For this one, I couldn't get cremini mushrooms so I just used regular white ones, and I added peas instead of green capsicum. I used a bit of natural yoghurt that I needed to use up instead of some of the soymilk to give it an extra oomph. It was meant to get thick and creamy using flour to thicken, but it just never did. It needs a lot less liquid! Because it was so liquidy, it was just bland, sadly. Served over polenta and spinach.
Rating: :|



Creamy Penne with Veggies: I made a half recipe of this (using 250g of penne) and it made about 3-4 serves. This pasta is cooked in a creamy, curried sauce. I used a heaped tsp of mild curry powder, and I used a mix of light coconut milk and water rather than full fat coconut milk so I didn't die. You can add any vegetables you want, so I chose broccoli and peas (cooked with the pasta), sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, and baby spinach. It wasn't required in the recipe, but I also mixed through some nutritional yeast. I had some leftovers, which I turned into a pasta salad (Food for Dissertating-style) by adding some mayo, celery, olives, and cucumber the next day.
Rating: :)





Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding: I made this for afternoon tea one chilly, rainy afternoon. I baked it in a square, rather than round, casserole dish. It is very quick and easy to put together. After the 30 minutes baking time, it was maybe not quite cooked through? But it didn't taste raw and it is all meant to be pudding anyway, it was just a bit gloopier than I was used to. But the taste was excellent, especially with some vanilla ice cream.
Rating: :)





Carrot & Coconut Slice: I actually made this twice. The first time I was eating it thinking 'this is great, if only it had some sultanas', and then I realised that I had forgotten to put sultanas in it. So I made it again, including the sultanas. This recipe is so easy to make. It uses self raising flour (as does the pudding above... US friends... I don't think you have self-raising flour over there?). Everything is mixed together in a bowl, and the only liquid used is non-dairy milk. As well as grated carrot and sultanas, it also has shredded coconut and chopped walnuts in it. This was so easy to make, and so delicious to eat, I can definitely see this going into a regular rotation.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Remember Marigold the adoption kitten from a few weeks ago? She got a home. But this is her beautiful mum, Mali. Mali is such a beautiful sassy sweetheart, and we are hoping to find the best home ever for her.