A few more recent meals.

These ones nearly got lost in the mess of my pictures file at home, so lest they be lost forever I will do another mostly-photos post.

This is Urban Vegan's recipe for Cameroon Mafe from her upcoming cookbook. Testing has officially been over for months, but we really love a lot of the dishes we've made so we keep revisiting them! I can't wait for the cookbook to come out. You may recall that I've made this once before; that time I used TVP chunks, this time TVP mince. I think I prefer the chunks.

For breakfast one lazy Saturday morning, we whipped up a batch of pancakes with raspberry-apple sauce. A great way to start the day!

Deconstructed sushi salad--for that delicious sushi-ness without all the rolling. This was my first attempt at making sushi rice, and I followed the method provided in The Tropical Vegan Kitchen cookbook... and it was a bit of a dud. Maybe dud is too strong a term, but the rice was still super sticky. I've downloaded some instructions from an authentic looking website for my next attempt. The sushi rice was mixed with roasted nori flakes and then topped with avocado, shredded carrot, cucumber and pickled ginger. I made a salad dressing from mayo, wasabi, brown rice vinegar and soy sauce that accompanied the salad perfectly.

More fried gnocchi. This time, prior to adding the gnocchi to the skillet, I sauted some onions, mushrooms and seitan. After the gnocchi fried for about 8 minutes I added some baby endive and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Very quick but delicious.

This last meal was a joint effort. I made the brown rice. Andy made a rendition of 'Chickpeas and Lentils' from The Alternative Vegan. And I made eggplant bharta with the addition of radish greens at Andy's request. The chickpeas and lentils combination was SO good. The smoky spices and tomato were subtle yet sexy, and made love to my tastebuds. The bharta was only okay. From now on we'll leave out the radish greens.

If anyone needs proof that a non-vegan can survive on plant-based meals, I'll leave you with Andy's opinion of our vegan lifestyle:

Nom.

More recent meals. We seem to be eating really well lately, with new recipes that are a hit and old favourites that turn out well, so I am collecting a backlog of photos. So I'll just put them up here without too much word-age from me...

Falafels (made from a just-add-water packet) with avocado. Bulgur salad with lemon juice, raw corn, loads of parsley, cucumber and green capsicum. And sesame-soy green beans and asparagus.

Mexican lasanga (aka "deconstructed enchiladas")--a mexican-ish sweet potato and bean mixture layered between tortillas and baked. Smashed potatoes, which didn't work out perfectly but were still yummy, method stolen from BrisVegan. Roasted garlicky green beans. And avocado-coriander salsa.
Twice baked potatoes. The filling is blended up potato and chickpeas with roasted nori, sauteed onion and spinach. Roasted garlicky green beans with cherry tomatoes. And in the back a salad of leafy lettuce, avocado, and raw corn. You can also see Andy impatiently stabbing away at a cherry tomato as I take my photo.

From La Dolce Vegan, 'Stuffed Cabbage Rolls'. I mostly followed this recipe, but subbed seitan for the mushrooms and sunflower seeds for the walnuts. Also, I doubled the recipe because Andy and I have huge appetites. These were really freaking good. The cumin-orange glazed sweet potatoes we served them with were only okay. Look at the steam!
During a seitan-making extravaganza, Andy wiped his hands on his bum, leaving floury fingerprints all over his boardies that I thought were cute...
For dessert one night I whipped up a half-recipe of Vegetation's mother-in-law's self-saucing choc pudding. This was the perfect amount for the two of us and the saucy chocolately goodness was the perfect end to a meal.
While we keep warm with oven food, Nacho keeps warm by napping next to the fishtank light. This sleep-spot has an added bonus--no need to go anywhere if she gets thirsty.

Winter dinners

Winter is the best time of year in Townsville for fresh local veggies. It’s finally cool enough and dry enough for flowers to set into fruit and vege, and since Townsville gets an average of 320 sunny days per year, plants tend to go well here.

Thus, our dinners have been chock full of veggies lately. They’ve also been very comfort food-ish...

Vegan mac and yeast with peas and carrots, and topped with whole meal bread crumbs.

Served with a leafy green salad with tomato, cucumber, raw corn and tofu fetta (from the Uncheese cookbook).

Lentil soup with tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and green peas, and topped with toasted sunflower seeds.

Pie, veggies and salad. The pie is filled with a mixture of eggplant, potato, carrot, rocket and radish greens, tied together with vegemite gravy. On one side of the meat pie are garlicky green beans. The other side is potato and sweet potato baked with kalamata olives. And the meal was finished off with a salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado, alfalfa sprouts and roasted garlic. This was a very filling and satisfying meal.

For a wintery dessert I made the Banana Crumble from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I followed the optional suggestion and added some frozen mixed berries to the banana filling. This recipe was pretty good, but if I make it again I will use less sugar, because this was sickly sweet. I’ll probably also use a different recipe for the topping—Vaala’s crumble recipe is hard to beat.

Gnocchi two ways.

A quick dinner we have every now and then is gnocchi. I’ve never tried to make my own, although I’d like to, some time. This is the “quick and nasty” store bought kind—which is actually not that nasty, but rather chewy and carby and delicious.

We usually just cook gnocchi the usual way—boil it for a minute and then cover with sauce. This sauce was really good, and a labour of love. Our basil plants were clearly dying, so Andy picked off the last of the usable leaves. I got the mortar and pestle from the cupboard and pounded the basil leaves with some garlic, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper, and nutritional yeast. Once it was mostly smooth, I mixed it into some crushed tomatoes for a cheesy, basilly sauce.

Served up with a big ol’ salad, full of sprouts, raw corn, tomatoes, avocado, tofu fetta (from the Uncheese cookbook), cucumber, and lettuce from a friend’s garden, this was a well-rounded meal.

Recently, however, I have become switched on to the phenomenon of fried gnocchi. Instead of boiling, they get cooked in a skillet with some oil and whatever veggies are on hand.

In this case, I combined the gnocchi with some chopped green olives and garlic. Then at the last minute I stirred through some balsamic vinegar, which kind of caramelised in a yummy way.

Boiled gnocchi are light and fluffy and fantastic, while fried gnocchi are chewy and hearty, but either way they are really good.

Plate o' curry

It's cold here. Last night it was 8 degrees. To keep warm, we have been eating lots of oven food and thick, hearty stews.

Indian food is always a good way to keep warm. This plate is super full because I eat a lot. At the front is dhal, made along the lines of Peter Singer's recipe. Red lentils, tomatoes, lots of spices, coconut cream and lemon juice make a great combination. I added a bit too much coconut cream and made it soupier than it should have been, but it was still yummy. To the right of the dhal is some eggplant bharta. Or at least, that's what I call it. It's actually just eggplant cooked for a long time with some oil and curry paste. It gets really soft and delicious. Both curries were served with some brown rice, and I put on some soy yogurt at the table. This was a very good meal.

Nacho keeps warm by cozying up with Andy's dirty laundry.