Recipe Round-Up: Big Vegan

Big Vegan, by Robin Asbell, was a book I bought when I had a spurt of buying vegan cookbooks several years ago. I had seen a couple of people posting about it. But it is a book I haven't used that much, as witnessed by the fact that the last (and only) recipe round-up I did from it was almost five years ago! Since then, I've posted a couple of other random recipes from it on the blog, but it was time to really dig in to this book a bit. Because it does have recipes that appeal to me, I just had kind of forgotten about it on the shelf. You can see what I have already posted from this book here.

Strawberry-Banana Blender: This is very thick, you could almost make a smoothie bowl out of it. All the fruit is frozen, and it also has some rolled oats in it for extra staying power. I used pain oat milk (rather than vanilla) and added a touch of vanilla extract. I also left out the almond extract it called for, because I find it just makes everything taste like marzipan. Australian almond extract may be different to the ones in the US? Who knows. This also has the option of adding some straberry jam to it, which I did. I used St Dalfours, which is fruit sweetened, because I find sugar sweetened jam too sweet for me.
Rating: :)



Hemp-Cherry Muesli: I made a half batch of this supposedly four serve recipe, but two serves served one me. Granted it was a very filling serve. This is an overnight oats kind of deal, but as well as rolled oats it has rolled rye (which I used instead of rolled barley, which I do not have), and some toasted hemp seeds. I find too much hemp can make me feel a bit icky, so instead of using 1/4 cup I just used a 20mL Australian TBS. Again, I didn't have vanilla milk so I used plain oat milk with a smidge of vanilla paste, and I also added a drizzle of maple and agave (using up a few drips from the end of some bottles). It uses dried cherries, which plump up after soaking overnight. You can eat this cold, of heat it up in the microwave, I ate it cold. Also very nice with a bit of PB drizzled over it, and some fresh fruit. You can see I also added some slivered almonds for a bit of crunch.
Rating: :)



Sunshine Carrot-Tofu Scramble: I love eating scrambled tofu as brinner! But if you are making it in the morning, you can mix most of the tofu mixture together the night before and pop it in the fridge overnight, ready for you to cook in the morning. This scramble has some cooked quinoa added for extra protein, as well as grated carrots and spinach (I added a bit extra of both those veggies). I left out the yellow capsicum, and added some celery instead. It recommends serving with some sunflower seeds on top. This was nice, but could have done with a smidge more seasoning. It has quite a nice seasoning mix, but maybe just increase it a bit. I served this with some potato gems.
Rating: :)



Warm Teriyaki Tofu and Wilted Spinach Salad: This is really more like a sautee than a salad, as everything gets put in a pan at some point. The tofu is glazed with a mix of soy sauce and mirin. I sauteed the scallions with the tofu, as I prefer them well cooked. Once the tofu is cooked, you wilt the spinach in the pan with some carrot and celery, which I used in place of water chestnuts (I am not the biggest fan of them). I got three dinner sized serves from this, and served it with some rice.
Rating: :)



Indonesian Fried Rice: This is in the side dishes chapter, but I turned it into a main by adding a 200g block of Japanese-marinated tofu. I also mixed up the veggies a bit, ditching the capsicum and fresh chile for carrots and celery. This has curry powder in it, and because I am me I decreased it from 2tsp to just 1/2tsp and used a mild curry powder, which was just right. This was a bit dry though, so I'd suggest adding more soy sauce when cooking.
Rating: :)



Sweet Moroccan-Glazed Tofu with Couscous: This is a lovely combination. The tofu is rubbed in spices, and then cooked in a mix of oil and agave to give a lovely glaze. The couscous is seasoned and full of peas and carrots. I also served this over some baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Szechuan Eggplant with Peanuts: This recipe as made way back in the earlier days of me using this book, when I had a little bit more heat tolerance than I do now. Still, I used sririacha instead of red chile paste because straight up chile paste is just way too much. The recipe is a mix of eggplant and tofu, but instead of using plain tofu I used my trusty Soyco Japanese-Marinated Tofu. Served over jasmine rice and baby spinach, this was two big looking servings, though it wasn't that filling.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Every second Friday I start work at 2pm. And every second Friday Dim Sim climbs onto my lap and I have to move her off to leave for work, which is a tragedy for both of us.