Father's Day

It was Father's Day last Sunday, and as always I made my dad a dinner of his choosing. This time he wanted to go back to his old favourite, Indian, and requested some sort of pumpkin curry with a vegan meat and also some Indian sweets. I decided to head online to the one and only Vegan Richa to look up some delicious vegan Indian food.

Pumpkin Curry: This curry hit the brief, with pumpkin puree used in the sauce (I used homemade butternut puree) and also butternut added to the curry itself. The curry is meant to be made with chickpeas, but I tried out some of the new Bird's Eye Plant Based Chicken-Style Strips. I decreased the amount of curry powder in it and used a mild version. For the vegetables I used butternut squash, zucchini, peas, and mushrooms, and I added some extra spinach. Instead of adding the chicken-style strips at the same time as you were meant to add the chickpeas, I had previously sauteed them to brown and I added them back at the end. I served this over basmati rice and with some mango chutney. Find the recipe here



As for those Bird's Eye strips, these are them! Bird's eye recently released a range of plant based meats in the freezer section. These are soy protein based, and have no coconut oil! I really liked them, they have a good flavout and a good texture. Maybe just a titch oily. But so good once sauteed up. You could use these in all kinds of things!





I also made a couple of Indian sweets. I made these the day before so that they had plenty of time to set, and because they were a bit fiddly. So it made the day of nice and easy, I just had to make the curry and then dessert was ready and waiting in the fridge.

Malai Ladoo (Cardamom Cream Fudge Balls): These delicious balls use cream cheese to help make them wonderfully creamy. I used Tofutti, still my favourite vegan cream cheese! At least of those that are available here in Australia. I realised that I hadn't really noted that it called for fine almond flour instead of meal, so mine were not quite as smooth. I used only ground cardamom. These have a lovely flavour, they are sweet and creamy without being too sweet. I did find them to be very soft and sticky though, I imagine the almond flour would have absorbed a bit more. But they still were lovely. Find the recipe here.

Mango Burfi (Mango Fudge Bars): These are very easy to make, and they set up really well. Because it is not mango season here, I used some tinned mango that I pureed up. The flavour was not quite as strong as it would be with fresh (or frozen, for that matter), and the mango was quite fibrous. I used some almond meal instead of grinding cashews, really just for ease, and for the same reason I used oat flour rather than grinding oats. I chose cardamom as my spice, to keep the theme going. You can find the recipe for these here

I served my sweets on a plate with some fresh strawberries, which made for a lovely after dinner selection!



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I've been feeling super sad and missing my girls so much lately, so here is my Gizmo. She was the first to leave me. I know I have other cats in my life now, but I will never stop wishing my girls and I could be back together.