Lammas 2020

My only real food goal for this year is to still make food to celebrate each of the sabbats as they occur. It is a nice way that I can mark them, and the progress of the year (I'd say seasons... but where I live barely has seasons any more... sigh). You can see my previous sabbat posts here. This post brings my calendar year around full circle, as I started this goal with Lammas last year.

Lammas (2nd February, 2020):

Corn, grains, bread, seasonal fruits and berries... these are some of the foods associated with Lammas. Lammas is a harvest festival, celebrating the wheat harvest. It is also the time of the height of summer, and the knowledge that things are changing, and the days are getting shorter. Of course, here in Brisbane, the height of summer tends to be about 6 months of the year... so, you know. At least the days are getting shorter!

Roasted Corn and Sorghum Salad with Chipotle Dressing from The Great Vegan Grains Book by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes: While sorghum isn't typically a grain you think of, I had some to use up and it seemed like this summery corn-filled salad was perfect to mark this time of year. I cooked my sorghum in some stock (rather than water) and used my rice cooker to do so (less fuss and out stove is half broken at the moment). I also increased the amount of sorghum a little, and added a tin of white beans to bulk this up into a proper dinner. Frozen corn (I can't get white corn so I used yellow) is roasted in the overn to give a lovely sweetness. Of course I didn't use chipotle in my dressing, but rather used smoked paprika and it was delightful! I left out the scallions from the salad, and used garlic powder rather than raw garlic in the dressing to keep it Susan tummy friendly.
Rating: :)



As you can see, I served it with some slices of sourdough bread spread with smoked sesame cheese. (Yes, the smoked sesame cheese is back and in supermarkets! Fenn has sold or rebranded it as Made From Plants. Unfortunately, while good, it is not as good as the original Fenn version. They have switched from smoking the sesame seeds to using liquid smoke, and it is a bit runnier as well. I guess something had to give in the change from small batch to mass production.) While baking bread is a traditional Lammas activity, I just didn't have time or energy. So this lovely sourdough on the side was my nod to that.

Blackberry-Sunflower Crisp from Blissful Basil by Ashley Melillo: Blackberries are a traditional Lammas fruit, and this blackberry crumble was a wonderful way to finish up a symbolic meal. I made a half recipe in and 8x8 inch pan. I used frozen blackberries rather than fresh, because although fresh blackberries are around and on sale and delicious at the moment, it would still cost a lot to buy enough fresh blackberries for this. But my frozen blackberries were deliciously sweet. As I was using frozen fruit, I increased the amount of arrowroot starch a bit in the filling. The topping is a blend of ground sunflower seeds and oats, with more oats, cardamom, maple syrup, and oil. It called for melted coconut oil (gross), I used canola. This was wonderful served with some vanilla raspberry ice cream.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Speaking of blackberries, I think we all know who my favourite blackberry is. And she is so sweet as well!

Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Grains Book

The Great Vegan Grains Book is a fun adventure through all sorts of grains. From the common, to the more unusual. However, you are also able to sub in easier to find and cheaper alternatives for most of the recipes. Fancy grains can be expensive, and sometimes impossible to get! You can see my other round up from this book here.

Teff and Amaranth Porridge: When the shops give you both teff and amaranth on super sale, this recipe is a great way to use them! This recipe says it gives two large serves, but it was really one serve. Rather than using coconut milk, I used oat milk with a smidge of coconut essence. Filled with raisins and spices (I used cinnamon), and topped with strawberries, coconut flakes, and slivered almonds, it was a tasty breakfast and there is something fun about eating tiny grains.
Rating: :)



Apricot Oats: This recipe uses steel cut oats, and comes together pretty quickly on the stove. It has chopped dried apricots and apricot jam mixed in to give a good apricot flavour. I made a 1/2 recipe, which is meant to be one serve. It was a smallish serve, fairly filling initially, but I was hungry again soon after. So consider the whole recipe for one serve.
Rating: :)



Creamy Amaranth Polenta with Marinara: I made a half recipe of the grain, but a full recipe of the sauce with this. I added some broth powder to the water when I cooked the amaranth, which then has a creamy cashew carrot sauce cooked through. Rather than chopping and steaming carrots to blend into the sauce, I just grated a raw carrot and added a little bit of extra cashew cream to blend up a lovely smooth sauce. For the marinara sauce, I left out the capsicum and added some kidney beans. I took the option of adding Italian seasoning (the other suggestion was Herbes de Provence, and I topped it with some baby capers rather than mincing capers. A nice contrast with the creamy amaranth and the savoury sauce. With spinach, I got two serves.
Rating: :)



Chickpea Millet Curry: This recipe says it makes 2-3 servings, and I got 2.5 serves. I did decrease the amount of millet by half though, so if you made the full amount you'd be closer to 3-4 serves. I left out the jalapeno and capsicum, of course, and I added some peas. The recipe calls for 1 cup of chickpeas, but I used the whole tin (about 1 1/2 cups) to bulk it out. I also used light coconut milk. Because I am sensitive to spice, I did decrease the amount of curry powder in it, so it ended up being a bit bland. If you need to make it like me, probably add some extra spices and seasoning in as well.
Rating: :|



Creamy Pesto Asparagus Barley: This recipe is meant to be made with einkorn, but I have never found that grain so I took the more common alternative suggested. I had some pre-cooked barley in the fridge, so this came together very easily. The recipe calls for red onion to be added to the grain in the last few minutes of cooking, but as I had precooked grain I sauteed my onion in the pan. The asparagus can either be roasted or steamed before adding it, so of course I roasted it. The sauce is a mix of pesto and cashew cream, for a nice coating. I was using up some jarred pesto, so it was a bit oilier than I would have liked. I also added some cannellini beans to make a more complete meal.
Rating: :)



Saucy Peanut Eggplant and Brown Rice: This was another grain substitution, the original recipe calling for freekeh. At the time, freekeh was proving a bit hard to find (and also was super expensive), so brown basmati rice provided a great stand in. Of course tasted lovely, anything with peanut sauce would! As well as crunchy peanut butter, the sauce also has tomato paste, lime, and seasonings. I got three serves of this, rather than four.
Rating: :)



Quinoa and Veggies Stir-Fry: Straight up, this has fairly simple flavours (tamari, garlic, sesame oil), but the garnishes help bring it out a bit. I left out capsicum from the veggie mix, but I also added 250g of smoked tofu for extra bulk to the meal. I used ume plum vinegar, sesame seeds, scallions, and pickled ginger as my toppings. This recipe uses pre-cooked quinoa, so comes together very fast.
Rating: :)



Easy Cheesy Baked Grits: These are so good. I used regular polenta (I know that is different from grits, but I can't get grits here, and the recipe says you can use polenta). The polenta is cooked in a creamy cashew based sauce that also has sauerkraut, miso, and nutritional yeast in it. I subbed garlic and onion powder into the sauce instead of using fresh. Then you bake it, and it comes out amazing! I served it with some steamed broccoli, and these vegan chicken strips that were new in the supermarkets but were kind of terrible. Thank goodness I had these amazing grits to make up for it!
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim's results are back and looks like we have the all clear!

VeganMoFo 2017 #22: Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Grains Book

22nd: Unconventional grains – Cooking with freekeh, buckwheat, sorghum, etc – try something you wouldn’t usually!

I enjoy using all sorts of different ingredients, and I love playing with different grains. When The Great Vegan Grains Book came out, it was a natural fit for me. This book covers all sorts of grains! There are your old standards like rice, polenta, barley and quinoa, as well as a huge array of others - freekeh, farro, millet, buckwheat, sorghum, rye... and a lot of something called einkorn. I have never found einkorn, and I can only imagine the cost of it if I ever did, but the book has plenty of suggestions for alternative grains to use in most recipes.

Cost is also an issue when playing with fancy ingredients. Years ago, I used to be able to buy boxes of freekeh at Coles for a pretty reasonable price, however since it has become a 'super grain', it is now harder to find and much more expensive. There has been a bag of cracked freekeh sitting at the health food market near my work for many months now... it costs $16 for 350g. No thank you! So it becomes a matter or finding some good deals on certain grains where you can. I wanted to play around with some new to me grains for this challenge, and I was very happy to find both sorghum and rye berries at super reasonable prices last month.

So let's see what I have been making in this mini-round-up for MoFo. I haven't blogged about this book before, so there aren't any other posts to check out, but there will be more in the future. I have chosen recipes with four different grains.

Tempeh and Buckwheat Bowl: I was sold on this bowl because of the peanut sauce, plus the earthy buckwheat and tempeh. It sounds like a great combination. The sauce is nice, but you need at least a double batch to make it saucy enough for me. I added a splash of veggie broth and Braggs to the tempeh and vegetables while they were cooking to give a bit more flavour and so it wasn't too dry. I got three servings from this.
Rating: :)



Roasted Radish Freekeh Bowl with Mustard Miso Sauce: Holy yum this is good. I had never roasted radishes before, but I am a convert of it now. The radishes are roasted with the broccoli, served on top of cooked freekeh, and then topped with a delicious sauce. I also added some chickpeas to bulk it up a bit, and got two very filling serves. I also made a double batch of the sauce, it was so good.
Rating: :D



Rye Shakshuka: This is a tasty, warming dinner. Cooked rye is added to a tomatoey sauce and topped with eggy fried cubes of tofu. The sauce is meant to have capsicum in it, I used carrots. I also decreased the heat by using just 1/4 tsp of harissa rather than the full 2 tsp. I followed the suggestion of making this with double the rye, rather than serving with bread, as I wanted to have a decent amount to get leftovers. As you can see, even with double the rye it was still very saucy! I liked the rye a lot, it was a nice and chewy grain.
Rating: :)



Hearty Sweet Potato Sorghum Curry: The recipe says to cook the sorghum first until it is completely tender, with no chewiness, but after an hour mine was still a bit chewy. I ate it and it was fine, I liked it. This is a comforting curry, I made it mild by using 2 tsp of mild curry powder and just a sprinkle or harissa. It gets thick pretty quickly, so I had to add a bit of extra liquid. I had already added some water by diluting out a 270mL tin of light coconut milk to 400mL (the recipe actually calls for full fat, but not for my intolerances), so I added some oat milk as the extra liquid to keep it creamy. I also added some peas, and lots of cilantro (rather than just using the cilantro as garnish). This made 3.5 smallish serves.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post - Month of Sahara



Sahara absolutely loved her Kickaroo! I allowed her to release the wild cat within, and she would grip it and chew it and kick it with so much joy.