Sabbat Catch Up 2023: Mabon, Samhain, Yule, Imbolc

Hello, It's been a while since I've posted about any of the sabbats and the food I have made for them. In part due to not being very consistent with blogging, in part due to not being very aware of the passage of time or having a lot of energy. Anyway, here is a bit of a catch up.

Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (20th March, 2023)

I bought a bunch of stuff for snacking throughout the week, to live my best autumn snacking life. The Fix and Fogg Pumpkin Pie Butter was a gift from a friend who brought it back from New Zealand with me, and it is so incredible! Absolutely delicious. Fantastic on apple slices. I also had some apple cinnamon jam, which was very sweet. Some pumpkin bread, pink lady apples, and some cashew mushroom cheese for fun. I made a lot of different and excellent snacks with these.



Vegan Tagine with Butternut Squash from Lazy Cat Kitchen: I also made an actual dinner, sticking with the autumn theme. This tagine with butternut squash was full of flavour, though I of course left out the chili flakes. I served it over some buttered cous cous. I hardly ever eat cous cous, but it is always delightful when I do.
Rating: :)



Samhain (30th April - 1st May 2023)

Halloween gets a lot of its pagan roots from Samhain, which is also consider the beginning of the new year in the sabbat cycle. I kept things seasonal and also kept it colour themed with black and orange for fun.

Roasted Red Onion & Butternut Squash Salad from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: This is a lovely salad, which I served warm. It was meant to be served with black quinoa, but I used black rice instead. It has a bunch of different ingredients to give a lovely flavour, though I left out the figs because I don't like them and it really didn't need it. The salad is a mix of cooked savoy cabbage and the rice, the roasted vegetables, and is topped with a creamy sunflower seed dressing.
Rating: :)



Yule aka Winter Solstice (22nd June 2023)

This was in the lead up to my PhD being due, and I had zero energy for anything. But my mum happened to make a Japanese Curry that night, and what a perfect way to celebrate the longest night of the year. A steaming bowl of Japanese Curry and rice was just right. We use the S&B Mild Japanese Curry paste, which is so good and has zero heat in it.



Imbolc (1st August 2023)

Confession, I totally missed this date. Imbolc is meant to celebrate the midpoint of winter. I had nothing planned because I didn't even realise it was happening. But when I looked back I realised that I did make something kind of appropriate for it. Red is a traditional colour for Imbolc, and I just so happened to make a kidney bean and red wine slow cooker stew! I used a Masterfoods recipe base for it (substituting kidney beans for the dead animals it called for), and it also had mushrooms and carrots in it. Served over some spinach and brown rice, this was very yummy and I would absolutely make it again.





We are two days away from Beltane, so let's see if I manage anything for that. Hope everyone is hanging in there, the year seems to be going so quickly.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Beautiful Boo doing a tiny blep.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook Share Eat Vegan

Hello!!!! I am here!!! And with a cookbook round-up no less. Finishing off sharing some of the things I have made from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin. But before that, how are you? I hope everyone is holding in there. Things are tough, be gentle with yourselves. I have had some pretty big things of late, which I will share once I have made a bit more sense of things in my brain. But I am still here, plugging away at my PhD between working and playing too much Stardew Valley. Anyway, let's get on to the food! You can see the rest of the things I have cooked from Cook Share Eat Vegan here.

Wasabi-Roasted Sprouts: While I can't eat chilli, I love wasabi! I took this into main dish territory by adding some Soyco Japanese marinated tofu in with my Brussels sprouts and baby corn. The veggies are marinated in a orange juice, soy, and wasabi concoction. But I would definitely add in more wasabi because once it was cooked I could hardly tell it was there! This says it serves four, but as a tiny side dish. I ate the whole thing over spinach and brown rice and topped it with a dollop of tahini and black sesame seeds.
Rating: :)



Fragrant Fried Rice: The rice in this case is cooked with lemon and a variety of spices to give it the some wonderful flavours. Before being added to stir-fried veggies, raisins, and toasted almonds. I left out the chilli. The recipe does not call for the rice to be chilled before using with the rest of the things, so if you want a more traditional fried-rice texture I'd make the rice the day before so you can add it to the pan cold. I served this with some hoisin tofu and some spinach.
Rating: :)



Stir-Fried Broccoli: This calls for sprouting broccoli (aka Broccolini, but apparently Broccolini is a trademarked name!), and is a very simple and quick dish. I added in some tofu to make it into a main course over rice and baby spinach. I left out the raw spring onion garlic, but I did double the sauce because I like my stir-fries saucy.
Rating: :)



Garlicky Pan-Fried Mushrooms: I increased the recipe a bit, scaling up to use 600g of mushrooms rather than 400g, which gave me three servings that were quite filling! I was boring and just used plain white mushrooms, because that was what I could get easily and without paying $40 for fancy mushrooms for a single dish. Instead of the homemade cashew soured cream option, I used Made With Plants sour cream, and I added some smoked paprika because it called to me. I served this with some toasted olive sourdough with avocado, and some roasted asparagus.
Rating: :)



TLT Sourdough Sandwich: The star of this sandwich is the tofu bacon, which is easy to make but could be a bit smokier. But then I just love smoky foods. Once that is made, it all comes together with mayo, mustard, tomato and greens (I used baby spinach instead of baby gem lettuce). I also added some avocado, because why wouldn't you?
Rating: :)



Mushroom Stroganoff Sauce: This sauce recipe is part of another recipe, as it is meant to be servec over celeriac steaks. But I just made it to serve over pasta. I used the Flora Plant Cream to make this recipe, which is wonderfully thick. I also used some paprika instead of cayenne. This recipe had quite a bit of lemon juice in it, which turned it into more like a lemon cream sauce. It was good! But if you are after a more traditional stroganoff then cut back on the lemon. I served it with peas and spiral pasta, over baby spinach.
Rating: :)



Pan-Fried Red Cabbage with Herby Tofu Mayo: Cabbage is someting I have really come to love, and this one is a very quick version that has great flavours. You also add some radishes at the end, though I did add mine a little bit earlier because I love cooked radish. The mayo is silken-tofu based, and easy to make. The herbs called for in the recipe are chives, but I used dill instead because dill is the best! I also did not use melted coconut oil in it, I used grapeseed oil, and I used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. I served these with some baked potato wedges, and pan-fried slices of Field Roast apple sage sausage.
Rating: :)



Sweet Potato Pasta Bake: This recipe is actually call sweet potato stuffed shells, and I'd had it marked for ages but the thought of stuffing shells just made me feel so tired. Then I realised I could just make it as a pasta bake, so I did! Skipping the shell stuffing and instead just mixing the sauce with some cooked penne. I also added some chopped up sausage because I had one kicking around in the fridge that needed usin up. The sweet potato sauce has leek and plant-cream and lemon in it. I'm really glad I made the adjustment because the sauce is lovely. I served it with some sauteed kale, for a change in greens!
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Eloise the other night, fast asleep on the guest bed. Her eyes are open a little here because I came in to turn on the light and take a photo, but then she just went right back to sleep.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook Share Eat Vegan

Time for some more recipes I made from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin. See previous posts from this book here.

Mega Miso Freekeh Bowl: This was a great way to use up some random freekeh I had lurking in my pantry. Freekeh, carrot, parsnip, and kale form the base, which is ten topped with some broccolini and tahini sauce. The Goes-With-Everything Tahini Sauce is a separate recipe in the book, but is super easy to make. The freekeh also has some chopped dates in it, which goes nicely with the salty miso. This makes quite big serves, though is not super filling.
Rating: Bowl: :), Tahini Sauce :)



Pearl Barley Paella with Paprika-Roasted Tempeh: To make this easier for myself, I soaked the barley for about 6 hours then I added it, plus sauteed onion, celery, and carrot into a rice cooker and hit cook. It also has green beans and peas in it, and I blanched these and just added them in at the end. The paella itself is OK, but needed a bit more seasoning. The tempeh, however, is definitely the star of the show! It is incredibly lovely.
Rating: Overall :), Tempeh :D



Puy Lentil Ragu: This has a recipe included to serve it over homemade tagliatelle, but I don't have the equipment or energy for making pasta by hand. I served it over some pre-bought gnocchi. The ragu is a very thick sauce, a lot of the liquid simmered away, but it has a lovely flavour. Lentils, red wine, tomatoes, mushrooms and more. This is wonderful on a cold night.
Rating: :)



Turmeric & Ginger Sweet Potato Soup with Roasted Tamari Tofu Pieces: I made a half recipe of this for one very delicious serving. The soup itself is very thick and has a wonderful flavour. The tofu is meant to be baked in its marinade until the marinade is absorbed, but mine never did. I ended up taking it out of the marinade to finish baking. The whole thing is absolutely delicious! I served it with some roasted broccoli and bread with cashew cheese.
Rating: :D



Get-Up-And-Go Shake: This is meant to be a coffee shake, but I don't do coffee. I just left it out, and I also decreased the amount of dates required from three down to one. In the absence of coffee (which I made up with more oat milk), this is a lovely banana, oat, almond butter and maca smoothie. It was incredibly thick though, and a very small serving. While I do love a thick smoothie, this was a bit too thick and sludgy, so I would increase the amount of oat milk to your preference.
Rating: :)



Griddled Cobb-Style Salad with a Creamy Dressing: This salad is LOVELY! Corn cobs and cherry tomatoes are grilled (or in my case pan-fried) until a bit charred. Then served with a salad of cos and cucumber. I replaced the avocado it called for with butter beans, to make it more of a meal, and also left out the spring onions and cress. The salad is served with an easy to make, delicious coconut bacon. And topped with a hummus-based dressing. In the dressing, I used dill instead of chives and white pepper instead of black pepper. Definitely make this.
Rating: :D



Sweet Potato Mash with Pesto-Coated Cannellini Beans: This is a nice combination, combining mashed sweet potato and carrot with roasted cherry tomatoes and pesto beans. The beans and cooked with spinach, pesto and water, which ended up quite watery. I'd leave out the water or only add a little at a time.
Rating: :)



Creamy Curried Chickpeas with Teriyaki Tofu Steaks: I left out all the spicy parts of this curry, leaving me with a nice milkd chickpea curry, and of course I used a blend of light coconut milk and oat milk. The recipe calls for a handful of kale, but I used a whole bunch because it cooks down so much. The tofu didn't get a very thick glaze on it during the grilling, so I ended up heating up the leftover marinade and drizzling it over the top before serving. Served over some rice, this is a filling dinner.
Rating: :)



Cripsy Potato Chips: There is a parsley and almond sauce you can make to serve these with, but I just went for the potatoes themselves. They are seasoned with a mix of garlic poweder, pepper, and I used smoked paprika instead of chili. While they didn't really get crispy, they were absolutely delicious!
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Kitten with milk mouf.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook Share Eat Vegan

Let's get back into a cookbook, shall we? Continuing on with Cook Share Eat Vegan, by Aine Carlin. You can see previous posts about this book here.

Warm Potato Salad: This recipe is meant to have samphire in it, but I cannot find that anywhere here. Instead I did some googling and replaced it with some asparagus. The potatoes are first cooked until soft, then are cut and seared on a hot pan to get them a bit crispy. It is lightly seasoned and dressed with lemon juice. I left out the fresh raw spring onions as garnish but used extra fresh dill.
Rating: :)



Stir-Fried Soba Noodles with Aubergine Medallions: This is from the spicy chapter, but of course I left out the chili and sriracha from the noodles. The soba noodles have a light citrus sauce, and have onion and green vegetables cooked with them. It is topped with eggplant slices, that I baked rather than grilled, that are smeared with a lovely miso sauce.
Rating: :)



Falafel Shakshuka: This recipe calls for ready made falafels, which I appreciated from a time perspective, an simmers them in a spiced tomato and eggplant sauce. I of course left out the spicy parts! It is served with flatbreads (I used store bought pita) and a lovely tahini and poomegranate sauce. I didn't have any taragon to serve, so I just used parsley.
Rating: :)



My Favourite Penne ala Norma: This is a wonderful simple dish of penne, tomatoes, and eggplant. Punched up with some capers, though I left out the chili as per usual. What makes it extra special is the homemade tofu ricotta that you top it with. You will have left over ricotta, and it is fantastic on crackers or sandwiches as well. Overall, this is a really fantastic meal.
Rating: :D



Easy Korean Ramen Bowl: Most of the recipes in today's post come from the spicy chapter, so just assume I am leaving out the spicy part. I did have to do a little sub magic for this recipe, which called for gochujang. I didn't have time to make my own spice-free version, so I just added a bit of tomato paste with some extra soy sauce and miso. This recipe also has a but of peanut butter in the broth, yum! The noodles are loaded up with a bunch of different veggies and tofu, and topped with a very easy quick pickled cucumber recipe.
Rating: :)



'Chip-Shop' Vegetable Curry: This is inspired by UK takeaway food, apparently inauthentic curry served over rice and hot chips. This recipe calls for vegetables, but I also added some chickpeas to bulk it up a bit. You can serve it over whatever you wish, I did not go the hot chips option, instead being more basic for dinner with rice and spinach.
Rating: :)



BBQ-Coated Tofu Kebabs: These were meant to be coated with Harissa, but absolutely not. I went for the much more friendly BBQ option. The tofu does need to be marinated for at least a couple of hours before hand, so make sure to leave time!
Rating: :)



Quinoa-Stuffed Tomatoes: Moving out of the spice chapter, into the grain chapter. The quinoa mix includes corn, peas, onion, zucchini, and pesto. I could barely taste the pesto, and I ended up adding some nutritional yeast to the mix to get a bit more flavour. It makes way more than you will need to stuffing your tomatoes, so I served the stuffed and baked tomatoes over baby spinach, cauliflower, and the leftover quinoa mix. This is a very light meal.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Mirabelle on her ladybug cushion.

Recipe Round-Up: Cook Share Eat Vegan

Time to move on to a whole new cookbook to round-up! And this one we'll be staying with for a while, because I have a lot to share. Stick with me and maybe in about 20 years I'll have finished rounding them up and will be back to the start of the alphabet again. It's good to have a long term goal, right? Anyway, the cookbook in question is Cook Share Eat Vegan, the third cookbook by Aine Carlin. I definitely recommend this book, it is really fun and full of great food. It is split into loose flavour themes: Zesty, Fresh, Spicy, Grains & Goodness, Nuts n Seeds, Earthy, Sweets, and Baking. This is the first actual round-up post I've made for this book, but you can see some recipes I've already featured on the blog here.

Crispy Tofu Salad: This is a fantastic salad that is great for a hot day. Crispy fried tofu with carrot, cucumber (which I used instead of raw zucchini), persimmon, and salad leaves. It is topped with a lovely yuzu and miso dressing, which I recommend making a double batch of.
Rating: :)



Sweet Potato Gratin: I made a half recipe of this and got two servings along side some green beans and sausages. The recipe calls for the potatoes to be sliced into 1cm thick slices, which I fid found a bit too chunky to overlap, I ended up just sort of stacking them. It is easy to make, with za'atar and soy cream for the bake and topped with some lemony panko crumbs.
Rating: :)



Cripsy Cinnamon Potato Tacos: This recipe has a few components, including the potatoes, a sweetcorn and radish salsa, and a lime cashew sour cream, but it all comes together beautifully and is worth the work. I left out a few things, of course, such as the jalapenos in the sour cream and the raw onion and chili in the salsa. But it didn't suffer for it. The lime sour cream in particular is excellent.
Rating: :)



Angel Hair Pasta: I love angel hair, and this is erved with a delicious lemon, dill, and walnut sauce. I also love dill. I made an entire batch of sauce, used 200g (rather than 300g) of pasta, and also added a tin of white beans. The sauce also has capers and mustard in it, so is wonderful and zingy.
Rating: :)



Za'atar Roasted Vegetable Platter: Cauliflower, broccoli, and zucchini are roasted with lemon and za'atar, before being topped with a great carrot pesto. I haven't made carrot pesto before, but it was really good. The recipe also has a basil oil component, but I left that out and just topped it with some minced basil instead. This is perfect for those days you just want a giant pile of vegetables.
Rating: :)



Peaches and Oats Smoothie Bowl: This is a mix between a smoothie and overnight oats. It has nectarines or peaches (I used peaches), raspberries, oats, amond butter, non-dairy milk (I used oat), yoghurt (I used almond) and some lemon. It also had dates in it, which I decreased the amount of. I did end up adding a tiny bit of maple syrup to drizzle when serving. This is blended and then left overnight to thicken up. I topped it with slivered almonds, frozen raspberries, and freeze-dried peaches.
Rating: :)



Back-To-Front Bibimbap Bowl: This recipe definitely takes time, there are several components, but it makes for a lovely combination! There is some lemony broccoli rice, seasoned baby spinach, pickled carrots, and scrambled tofu. I left out the chilli wherever it was called for. It is topped off with some fresh cucumber, parsley, and sesame seeds. The recipe says it makes two serves, but I got three from it.



Glass Noodle Salad Bowl: This is just the perfect thing for a hot day. I swapped out the edamame for tofu, and it also has sugar snap peas (that I blanched) and cucumber ribbons. The dressing is lovely and zesty with lime, I left out the chilli.
Rating: :)



Made In Minutes Minted Pea Mash: I love mushy peas! No shame. And this is a lovely version that include leek and mint, but still is super easy by using frozen peas. It does call for coconut cream, which I am against, so I used a bit of soy milk. I also used garlic powder rather than fresh garlic, and white pepper rather than black. This is simple, but was the star of the show! I served it with a pie.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



What's with the face, Eloise??

Beltane 2022

While the 31st of October is known as Halloween throughout the world, it gets its origins from the pagan festival of Samhain. This is a sabbat that is very much seasonal and meant to be celebrated in Autumn. So here in Australia, we are celebrating Beltane!

Beltane (31st October - 1st November, 2022)

Beltane is between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, and is a celebration life and fertility. As often happens, I was working on the night itself. I made my special Beltane dinner the following day.

Red Pesto Risotto with Asparagus from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: This fit the Beltane theme for because it has asparagus. Which... ahem... has certain associations. The pesto itself is incredible, with a mix of sundried and cherry tomatoes, almond, and basil. It doesn't go super red though. It makes more than the recipe calls for to add into the risotto, but I added extra into it and also had some left over to make a great sandwich with later. The asparagus were meant to be blanched, shaved into thin strips, and fried but that was a bit in the too much basket for me and I just roasted them. Served with an extra dollop of pesto on top as well.
Rating: :)



Mixed Berry Cobbler from One Pot Three Ways by Rachel Ama: I stuck with the red theme (representing the element of fire... though green is also a Beltane colour) and made this lovely Mixed Berry Cobbler. First you make the base recipe, which is Stewed Berries. I used a frozen mix from Woolworths called Rube Red Mix (strawberries, cherries, and redcurrents).



One recipe of this made about two cups, and one cup is required for the cobbler. It was unusual in that you mix up a batter, then add that to melted butter in the hot baking pan (butter is also a Beltane food), and finally dollops the stewed berries on top. Normally when I make cobblers you put the topping on top! But when it came out of the oven, the berries were at the bottom! It was really nice, though did have quite a strong butter flavour.
Rating: :)



Mixed Berry Chia Jam from One Pot Three Ways by Rachel Ama: Bonus recipe! As mentioned above, the cobbler used half of the stewed berries. Leaving me the other half to make one of the other two ways to use it in the book. I went with the very easy chia jam, which I had never made before. Just simmer the stewed berries, add a little bit more maple syrup, and then stir in some chia seeds and water, let sit. I was a bit worried when I made it because it just seemed like there were SO MANY chia seeds. But they really did absorb all the flavour wonderfully. Also, it had a good texture, not like chia pudding which is weird. I enjoyed this on crumpets, on top of yoghurt and granola, and I even mixed the last bit of it in to some overnight oats that ended up with a great flavour.
Rating: :)





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Here is a fun action shot of Boo with her Jackolantern toy. Getting photos of her was hard, because she often just wanted to smooch and play with it!