Recipe Round-Up: Bowls of Goodness

Hi friends, here is a recipe round-up post. I had it sitting in drafts mostly written for ages, so I just added a couple of other ones I had made so I could post it. This is the second half of my 'recent' round ups from this book, the first half I posted on the 22nd of November... who would know that five days later my world would crumble so completely.

Anyway, please enjoy this post of recipes rounded up from Bowls of Goodness by Nina Olsson, which is a very good book. I realised that this is quite a long post, so feel free to just scroll down and look at the photos as you go. You can see my other posts from this book here.

Asian Coleslaw: I had some wombok (aka napa) cabbage to use up, and happened to have all the ingredients on hand for this. The slaw itself is made from white cabbage (wombok in my case) and apples, but I also added some carrot. It is tossed with a coleslaw dressing that includes peanut butter and lime for a bit of a difference. The dressing combined with the shredded apple made it all very liquid. I served this with some roasted green beans and some BBQ sausages.
Rating: :)



Gado Gado: The peanut sauce in this recipe called for both tamarind and lime, and as a result was really sour. I wonder if the recipe should have read one of either. I added some leftover marinade from the tempeh (which was garlic/ginger/soy/maple) to try and smooth out the sour, plus some extra agave, but it was still so sour and the peanut taste was lost. The rest of this bowl has marinated tempeh, black rice, green beans, toasted coconut, bean sprouts, papaya, and coriander. The bowl itself was good, but the sauce needs a major reworking.
Rating: :| due to sauce



Masala and Millet Bowl: Millet is one of those grains that doesn't get enough love, but I am here to love it. In this case, the millet is mixed with roasted vegetables (I used cauliflower, radish, carrot, and cherry tomatoes) and chickpeas. The vegetables and chickpeas are tossed with spices (I left out the chili powder) before roasting. The bowl is topped with avocado, nuts or seeds (I used pepitas) and a herbed yoghurt sauce. The avocado and sauce were essential, as it would have been a bit dry without it. But lovely when all mixed up. I also served this over some baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Laksa Noodles: It's your girl, here making laksa without chili and not as coconutty! This recipe includes making your own laksa paste, and seems a bit fussy but once you have made the paste and prepped the rest it comes together very fast. Obviously I left out the sambal oelek in the paste, to get all that gingery garlicky lemongrassy goodness without the spicy, so I understand that I made it not really a laksa, but it worked for me. The noodles also have tofu,mushroom, broccoli, green beans, and beansprouts on top. My amounts were a bit different to what the recipe called for, but overall it added up to about the same. I also used light coconut milk further diluted with some water in the broth, so I could enjoy the creamy without making myself sick. The noodles are topped with a quick pickled cucumber, that was also meant to have onions in it but I left them out.
Rating: :)



Slutty Pasta: I love puttanesca. It is tasty and normally comes together very quickly. This one is a bit more time intensice, as it involves roasting some tomatoes, onions, and garlic that are blended to make the sauce with basil and olives (and chili, which I left out). I didn't add any extra pasta water to the sauce, as it was already plenty of sauce. And I am glad I didn't as the sauce could have been a bit richer as it was so adding water would have made it quite dilute. As it was I had about twice the amount of sauce I needed, so I froze the rest for an easy meal at a later time. I added some kidney beans to this to bulk it out, as well as some kalamata olives and capers, and topped with nooch.
Rating: :)



Royal Korma: Another recipe where you make your own paste, and another instance where I left out the chili!The paste uses toasted almonds, but next time I would just use almond meal for ease. The paste is cooked with red onion, coconut milk (it calls for 800mL, so I used a mix of light coconut milk, oat milk, and water), and tiny diced carrots and cauliflower (I used a bag of ready made cauliflower rice). Served with brown rice, a simple raita, naan bread, and an apple and onion pickle (that I of course left the onion out of). This made big serves, but wasn't super filling.
Rating: :)



The Loyal Lentil Chilli: An old standby but given a few fun twists. By now you know, this was not actual chilli, because I left out the chillies! My chillies are chill in the sense of having no heat. As well as lentils, the chilli also has butternut squash (which I love and gave a really nice sweetness). It also has coconut milk, so of course I did my as described above dilution trick. Do chillies have coconut milk> Does that really make it more of a curry? Oh, I also used some tinned lentils because making things more convenient is a good thing some days. This was served with a simple yoghurt sauce, a quick pickled cucumber, rice, and coriander. It was a lovely combination.
Rating: :)



Back To The Roots: This bowl is a comforting mix of broccoli mash, roasted veggies, sauteed kale, and carrot, tahini, and miso dressing. I used half the amount of broccoli and got three serves. The broccoli is mashed with tahini, lemon juice, and hemp seeds, so isn't very smooth! The roasted veggies are sweet potato and red onion as well as including some pumpkin seeds in the mix. The bowl is also served with some 'clean salad'... whatever, anyway, I only used spinach for my salad (not sprouts or herbs), which was lightly tossed in sesame oil and vinegar. But the real star was the sauce, which was SO YUM! Worth making on its own.
Rating: :), but :D for the sauce alone



Pulled Jackfruit Bowl: This recipe uses a homemade BBQ sauce to cook down jackfruit and shiitake mushrooms. It ended up being very liquid, so I had to simmer it enthusiastically for several minutes at the end to get the sauce to thicken up. No one wants watery jackfruit! The bowl is also served with some coleslaw (which was nice but had a strong taste of olive oil in the dressing), and some sweet potato fries. I also served it over some baby spinach. A nice combination.
Rating: :)



Herbed Potatoes: I made a half recipe of this lovely side, which is roasted baby potatoes tossed with baby spinach and a dill pesto sauce. The pesto sauce was meant to be mostly based on chives, but all that raw chive action would not be good for my tummy. So I used extra parsley and some baby spinach in place of the chives. I also used some Vegenaise in the pesto in place of the optional creme fraiche. I roasted the potatoes a bit longer in my oven to get them nice and brown on the outside. Served with some store-bought BBQ tofu for a nice dinner.
Rating: :)

Recipe Round-Up: Bowls of Goodness

I first became away of Bowls of Goodness by Nina Olsson after seeing someone posting about it on Instagram, and the food looked really good. I can't resist a bowl! This book is not all vegan, it is vegetarian, but anything that is not vegan has a vegan sub suggested. I don't normally buy vegetarian cookbooks because they are very heavy on dairy and eggs, but this one is an exception. Plus I found it on sale at a bookstore, so it was fate! And I am glad I did, because the recipes are amazing. This is my first Recipe Round-Up post for this book, but I have posted about one recipe I made from it before, which you can see here.

Blueberry Acai Bowl: I have had some frozen acai packets in my freezer for so long, so this was a good change to use them up! This bowl uses acai, blueberries, banana, and avocado. I reduced the avocado because I am not a huge fan of it in smoothies, so I used 1/4 of a large avocado instead of a whole one. Even so, I would leave it out next time. It has almond butter in it as well, so you have something nice a fatty and thickening added regardless. I used frozen acai and blueberries, but my banana was just cold. I would use a frozen banana next time because I like my smoothie bowls THICK. It has a range of options for topping, but use whatever you want. I used coconut flakes, pepitas, and fresh blueberries.
Rating: :)



Overnight Oats: Always a classic! This recipe uses a blend of apple juice, oat milk, and yoghurt to soak. I didn't have plain apple juice, but instead used some Impressed Juice Co Jack Rose juice, which is apple, strawberry, and mint - so yum. The oats have chia in them, which I like to bulk it out a bit. The recipe here is fairly basic, with the option to stir-in or top with anything you like really. I mixed in some cinnamon, and topped mine with peanut butter and berries.
Rating: :)



Miso Happy: Described as miso woup with ginger, tofu, soba noodles, and shiitake mushrooms. It is also meant to have broccolini in it, but my broccolini was going bad so instead I just added some baby spinach. You make your own dashi, simply by soaking some water and kombu together and then simmering. I topped mine with fresh coriander and sesame seeds. You can't really go wrong with a good miso soup.
Rating: :)



Dhal Tadhka: A bit beyond your standard dhal, this one uses a homemade tadka spice mix to bring the flavour, which also includes lime, shallots, and almonds in it as well. I left out the chili, which is why I think I ultimately found it the be a bit bland. The flavour entirely relies on the spice mix, so if you are leaving out the chili I would double the spice mix next time. Topped with some natural yoghurt, a small reserved amount of the tadhka (as advised), and coriander, and served with some toasted naan.
Rating: :|



Smoked Tofu and Green Pea Salad: What a magnificent and giant salad! Described as 'faux fish', it isn't really fishy at all. More the smoked tofu is standing in for smoked fish, and it is also sauteed with some nori shreds. I left out the raw cabbage and rocket in the greens, using a higher mix of spinach and cos instead. I also roasted the zucchini rather than spiralising it raw because I don't like raw zucchini much. This also had avocado, apple, and pumpkin seeds and is topped with a horseradish cream. The cream calls for creme fraiche, and the book has a recipe for a cashew-based vegan version to use. This was a wonderful and refreshing salad.
Rating: :)



Beetroot Falafel, Dukkah, and Mint Salad: This is a wonderful falafel recipe, it is a bit sweet and earthy from the beetroot, and is fairy easy to make. It also has carrot in it! It said it makes 15 small falafels, I got 14 small ones and then I had enough left over to make a burger-patty sized one that I used to make a sandwich for work another day. The salad has a lot of fresh mint and parsley in it, as well as the greens. I halved the dukka, which was right for us for two serves. It too is very easy to make, and is based on whatever nut you have to hand. I left out the chili flakes in it, of course. I also left out the raw red onion from the salad. I served it with some toasted pita.
Rating: :)



Buddha Bowl: The subtitle for this recipe is spicy chickpeas, tofu, quinoa and sprouts with turmeric dressing, though it is a lot more than that! This bowl is a wonderful mix of flavour and texture. It also has melon, radishes, and spiralised carrots in it for a wonderful raw freshness, as well as sweet potato. I roasted the sweet potato rather than sauteed it. The chickpeas are sauteed with spices, though I left out the chili, and the tofu is sauteed and glazed with a soy, ginger, and maple mix that is just lovely. It is meant to have fresh sprouts, but I didn't have any so I used coriander instead. The dressing is quite thick, so I added some extra water to help mix it through everything. Lovely.
Rating: :)



Donburi: This is a Japanese-style rice bowl, which has a wonderful mix of sauteed eggplants and shiitake as the main event. It also has a lovely quick-pickled cabbage that marinates and pickles while you are cooking everything else. I only got three serves out of this, rather than four, and I served it with some sauteed spinach underneath the brown rice.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim had her recheck appointment on Thursday, and it went as well as we could expect. The tumour hasn't gotten bigger on ultrasound, and her blood work seems OK after starting the chemo. We carry on until her next appointment, week after next.

Assorted Christmas Eats (with bonus I Made A Thing)

Believe it or not, my Christmas wasn't all eating out. And while we didn't do the traditional Christmas lunch this year, there were still a few things that I made.

Midsummer Salad from Bowls of Goodness by Nina Olsson: While all my US friends were deep in winter, here we are in summer. For my witchy pals, that means Yule in the Northern Hemisphere, but Litha down here in the Southern Hemisphere. This salad seemed appropriately named to make on the longest day of the year (or close enough, I think I worked all day on the actual day). Potatoes, lots of dill, spinach, cucumber, capers, chives, and some apple were all mixed in with a creamy mustard dressing. The apple was a wonderful addition, as its sweetness went great with the tangy dressing. The recipe calls for red onion, but as I don't do raw onion I added some celery for the crunch and it was great. This book is not all vegan, but has a vegan option for everything. The vegetarian version had eggs, which it says to leave out for vegans. I added some white beans to the mix as well instead. Served over some chopped baby cos.
Rating: :)



Party Nacho Platter from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: The last few years I have taken to making nachos for dinner on Christmas Eve. This year, that was delayed until Boxing Day as I was unwell on Christmas Eve and couldn't cook. But I had all the stuff, so I was glad I could still make it at some point! Corn chips are topped with a Buckwheat Taco Meat, queso (made using a Butternut Cheese Sauce base with some extras added in and some pinto beans, and I left out the jalapenos), tomatoes, avocado, coriander, and sour cream (I used natural almond yoghurt, which I forgot to put on until after the photos. I also left off the radishes and cos lettuce that the recipe suggested as they aren't my preferred nacho toppings. I also served them individually rather than on a big platter, so that my parents could top as they desired. I found the buckwheat taco meat a little underwhelming, I had to add extra water and cook for extra time to get it soft enough, so perhaps the flavours got too diluted. But it worked well witht he stronger flavours of the nachos.
Rating: :)



Banana Eggnog Pancakes from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I made these for breakfast on Boxing Day, as there was no morning yoga class and I had a bottle of delicious, locally made nutnog in the fridge. The stars aligned. These had a lovely, sweet, mild flavour and were a fabulous way to start the day. I used a 1/4 cup as my scoop (rather than 1/3 cup) and got 11 pancakes (rather than 8). Served with some dried cranberries and some maple syrup.
Rating: :)



Nutnog Overnight Oats: Bonus recipe from me! Not that overnight oats really count as making a recipe? Anyway, I thought it would be a fun way to use my nutnog. And it was. I consulted the internet oracles for some inspiration, as well as following my own heart. This is what I did.

Mix 1C of rolled oats, 1TBS of chia seeds, 1.5C of your vegan nut/eggnog, 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (you can add more or less, I probably added more because I am a cinnamon fiend). Leave overnight to soak and get delicious. In the morning, top with slivered almonds, pomegranate arils, and nutmeg. Eat! I don't add any additional sweetener, but you could mix in some maple syrup if you like things sweet.



And the other stuff...

Of course there were some delicious other eats as well. Such as this plate of cherries and vegan stollen (I love stollen, thanks Aldi!), with a glass of nutnog. And my first ever viewing of Die Hard.



A ham and cheese toasted croissant, using Tofurky Ham and Fenn Smoked Sesame Cheese. Other non-pictured things I made with the Tofurky included a ham and Daiya smoked gouda toasted sandwich, and also out traditional Christmas sandwich of ham, sweet mustard pickles, cheese (a Tofutti cheese slice), and a bit of Nuttelex.



And of course, some Christmas Pudding with Custard. I actually bought the pudding in January on a 50% off sale. It had a really long expiry date, so why not save some dollars and buy it super early. This pudding is delicious, especially with loads of custard.



There were of course other snacks and bits and pieces, but these were the most Christmas-related of them all. So, until next year... this year... whatever. Until next time it is Christmas.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Gizmo looking like the perfect present under the Christmas tree. This was also her last Christmas. What I wouldn't give to wake up one morning and find her under there again.