Salad - mania 2

Todays salad is a little less salad, a little more veggies.

1 eggplant cut into 1cm thick slices
3 spring onions sliced
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 brown onion sliced
1 small red capsicum cubed
300g sugar snap peas, washed and de-ended
Cous cous, cooked
Chilli powder
Coriander powder
Cumin powder
Olive oil

Place eggplant slices in a container with the oil and chilli powder and shake until well covered. Allow to sit for a few minutes.

Heat a grill pan and place a single layer of eggplant.  Once cooked on one side flip to cook the other.

Meanwhile heat some oil in a pan and when hot, add the peas. Stir constantly to avoid sticking. Add the spices. After a minute or so add the capsicum and onion. Stir for a further minute then add the spring onion and garlic.

Remove from the heat and place in a large bowl with the cous cous.

Serve with the eggplant.

I had the left overs for lunch with some light sour cream, very tasty however not required.

Happy eating,

Odette.

Restaurant Review - The Terrace Lounge

The Terrace Lounge on St Georges Terrace,  Perth.

Now these guys went above and beyond. After my initial email I got a not so helpful response. Another example that if you don't have the allergy you have no idea what it's in. 

However, they turned it around when the heaf chef called me to find out what I'd like for lunch.

The meal I got was tasty and I was very impressed. Two thumbs up.

Happy eating.

Odette.

Restaurant Review - Grill'd

Grill'd in Shafto lane, Perth.

Grill'd is a burger joint, and according to my co-diners does very good burgers. They have 3 veggie burgers on their menu, unfortunately 2 contain soy and the third is a mushroom. 

I know what you're thinking, if I can't eat the burgers what did I have? Well, I emailed Grill'd a few days before my meal. After it was established that I couldn't eat the burgers I was ready to give up entirely and resign myself to a lunch of hot chips. 

However, when talking to them on the phone, they suggested a salad and told me to explain my situation when I got there. On arrival I dealt with the same nice girl who I had talked to on the phone. Together, using their very handy list (which details the ingredients in everything on their menu) we came up with a salad. It was delicious, huge and they didn't skimp on the good stuff. I was very impressed. 

So even though I didn't have a burger, I still managed a very tasty lunch. But the nicest thing about the whole situation, they didn't make me feel like I was being annoying. In fact they were happy to take a detailed look through their list of ingredients for my salad, even though there was a line out the door of people behind me.

So from this soy free vego Grill'd gets 4 stars and a smile for their customer service.

Happy Eating,

Odette.

Perth Restaurant Review

As a soy and mushroom allergic vegetarian I sometimes find eating out difficult. I dislike putting others out so I usually have my meal chosen (via a string of emails with restaurants) before I get there. My experience with restaurants and how they handle a difficult eater has been VERY varied, as I'm sure anyone with an annoying in-everything-allergy will tell you.

My biggest issue is that many people don't realize how much soy they eat every day. Many restaurants assume if there's no Soya sauce or tofu I'm good. It's not until I start asking them specifics do they realise (and in some cases, actually bother to look).

In fact, I've been very surprised how nonchalantly some restaurants have approached my actually quiet serious allergy. Now, if I were in America, I think they'd take it more seriously. America is a country where people understand that if you tell someone a product/meal does not contain a specific allergen, and they have an allergic reaction,  that's grounds to sue! (If you can sue McDonalds for making you fat anything is possible :) ).

So I've decided to keep a record / review of restaurants I go to and how they handle my annoying eating habits  In the hopes to help other allergic affected individuals, regardless of your allergy.  Because if they'll cater for me, they should for you too.

Do let me know if there is a restaurant near you that has gone out of it's way to help you eat, or even gone out of it's way to make things difficult for you. Doesn't matter if it's not here in Perth.  

Happy Eating,

Odette.

Salad -mania

How many different salads can a girl make before she just can't stand it anymore.
My first salad was strangely really tasty and very simple.

300g green beans, washed and ends sliced off
1/2 an onion
1 green apple
Olive Oil
Balsamic vinegar.

Cook the green beans by placing them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes. Very important not to over cook.
Slice the onion and dice the apple.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and drissle over the oil and vinegar. Now let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Really simple and really good.

Happy eating.

Roast Veggies with Squash Sauce

Yummy yummy veggies in my tummy. I really enjoy roast veggies, well I think by now it's evident that there is very few kinds of veggies I don't like. But I'm attempting to try new things with them. So I've decided to try an old favourite (roast veggies) with a new twist (squash sauce).

Roast Veggies

Ingredients

1/2 eggplant, cubed

1/2 zucchini, cubed

1 head broccoli, cut into little trees

1 large onion, cubed

4 cloves garlic

5 potatoes, cubed

1/4 C olive oil

1 tsp basil

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp chives

1 tsp sage

1 tsp oregano

Method:

Mix the oil and herbs in a bowl. Place all the veggies into a large bowl and toss in oil mix. Let it sit in the fridge over night. 

Heat oven and cook the veggies to your liking. 

Note: as something different I piled the veggies into two pyrax dishes and poured a bottle (330 mL) of beer over them. Then I placed al-foil over the top and cook in the oven like this until the potatoes were soft. Then I took the al-foil off and let them crisp a little. Turned out really well, they weren't as crunchy as roast veggies often are but so full of flavour. Well worth a try. 

Squash Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 kg yellow squash

2 small onions (or one large ones)

2 cloves garlic

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tsp vegemite

3/4 C oat milk

1/4 C white wine

salt and pepper to taste

sprinkle paprika and turmeric

Method

Boil the squash until cooked, drain and set aside to cool. Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Add additional liquid if required. Drizzle sauce over roast veggies.

Happy Eating!

Potato Bake

Another of my favs and definitely one of my go to recipes. Potato bake is an excellent meal for when you really can't be bothered. And that really can't be bother moment happened for me the other night, luckily I had a heap of freshly made cauliflower sauce in the fridge (see other post). So using my trusty food processor with slicing attachment this became a very easy meal. This meal made a LOT of food, great for us as we can't always be bothered to cook and enjoy left overs for lunch. If you'd like less just scale everything down by how much potato you use, i.e. half the potato half everything else.

Ingredients

1 kg of potato, we used the yellow flesh pink skin ones but any will work

1 zucchini

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

Cauliflower sauce

sprinkling of cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Slice the potato, zucchini and onion. I cheated and used the slicing attachment on my super doper food processor (mainly because I like the sound it makes when slicing "zooomp" as the veggies go down the spout.)

Crush / dice the garlic into little bits and combine all the veggies into a bowl. Place a light coat of cauliflower sauce in a pyrax and layer the veggie mix on top. Repeat the process until the pyrax is full / you run out of ingredients. If desired place a very fine layer of cheese on the top. This is not strictly needed but it does make a nice crust on the meal. Place in hot oven until cooked through. You'll know when everything is cooked because the potatoes will be soft, if not a bit crunchy  This will take a while (30 - 40 mins) so I suggest getting this meal on earlier rather than later. 

This made one big pyrax (dinner and lunch) and one smaller pyrax (dinner), all for the low low cost of a bag of potatoes (the cheapest ones they had), and some cauliflower. Meat could also be incorporated into this meal if required, I'd suggest boiled chicken (free-range, because well let's face it, it always tastes better) mixed through. Or just have something on the side. 

Happy Eating!

Broccoli balls with cauliflower sauce

I made broccoli balls ages ago and have been meaning to try them again ever since. So in this veggie order I got some broccoli and set about making balls.

For the sauce I used cauliflower,  just about every blog I follow seems to have a cauliflower sauce recipe these days, and when you make a good one you'll know why. The sauce was creamy and full of flavour without any cream or butter, so great for the waist line too. Plus cauliflower is an inexpensive veggie making this meal nice on the pocket too.

The cauliflower sauce made a LOT, so if you have nothing else to use it on I suggest half / quarter the recipe. However, I used the rest to make a very tasty potato bake (see post), which is a great way to use up some left overs.

Broccoli Balls

Ingredients

1 head broccoli

1/2 large onion (or one small one)

3 cloves garlic

1/4 C chia seeds

1/4 C boiling water

1/4 C fresh coriander

Method

Preheat the oven to about 180 C. Mix the chia seeds and boiling water to make egg sub. Add all ingredients into a food processor until combined. Using a dessert spoon scoop the mixture into hands and roll into a ball. Place the balls in a hot pan with some olive oil. Once nicely browned remove and place into a hot oven for about 10 mins until cooked through but not dried out. 

Enjoy. 

Cauliflower Sauce

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower

4 cloves of garlic

3 tbs olive oil

1 tsp basil

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbs corn flower

salt and pepper to taste

oat milk, as required to get the desired texture.

Method

Cut the cauliflower up and lightly steam it until cooked. (If you are not set up to steam, you can boil it). Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the oat milk about a 1/4 C at a time until the desired texture is reached. I had mine so it was the texture of syrup. 

Once the sauce is made place over the broccoli balls and enjoy. 

Cauliflower sauce is also very tasty over rice / pasta / mash potatoes / well really anything. 

Happy Eating!

Burgers

Burgers are one of the foods I've avoided since the soy discovery. Mainly because I've always enjoyed a meat burger and was worried I'd try a vegetarian one and it just wouldn't be the same. But after almost a year without a burger I finally caved. So, with the help of Chuck, I set about making a lentil patty better than most meat ones.
I chose lentils because on their own they don't have a strong flavour, giving me more freedom with the herbs and spices. This recipe has been adapted from one of Jamie Oliver's.

Note: we also made soy free meat ones for chuck which were so good he's requested I add them here.
 

Lentil Burgers

Ingredients

1 can lentils drained (or fresh if you have them)

1 small onion grated

1/2 C Carrot grated

1/4 C chia seeds

1/4 C boiling water

1/4 C oats

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of garlic granuals

1/4 C beer

2 tbs tomato sauce

1/2 tsp vegemite

1/2 tsp pepper

Method:

Pre-heat oven to about 180C. Mix the lentils, carrot and onion in a bowl. Place in some muslin cloth and squeeze out all the moisture. This is important otherwise the patties wont stick together. Mix the Chia seeds and boiling water to make egg sub.

In a large bowl mix all the other ingredients, with the drained lentil mix and egg sub. Once well combined form into patties and fry in a hot pan. Once nicely browned on the outside place in hot oven for about 10 mins until cooked through but not dried out.

Enjoy on a bun with your favourite burger ingredients. 

Note: There were really good the next day for lunch burger.

Meat Burgers

Ingredients

400 g mince

swig of beer

1/2 C carrot grated

1 small onion grated

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tbs tomato sauce

1 tsp dijon mustard

sprinkle of mustard seeds

1/2 tsp of the following: cayenne pepper, thyme, oregano, vegemite

Method

Squeeze the juice out of the carrot and onion as per above. Mix all ingredients into a big bowl and using your hands (yes it is the only way this works well), mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Cook in a hot pan until done. Serve with burger fillings and enjoy.

I hope you enjoy this meal, it's a great one for households with different eating (veggies and non-veggeis) because everyone is eating the same thing (mostly). And there is little extra effort to make two patty types. Esp. if you have two people doing it :).

Happy Eating!

Silver Beet Quinoa Wrap

So in an attempt to eat more veggies I decided to try something a bit different. Now I'm sure there are plenty of herbivores out there who don't believe a silver beet wrap is anything out of the ordinary. But as I'm still learning about veggies, only becoming a herbivore from a very serious carnivore about a year ago, it's new to me.

As seems to be the trend atm , this meal is made in parts. Having it in parts is good for you though, if you don't like one of the ingredients or want to add something completely different it's very easy to do. The parts are: salad, cooked veggies, quinoa and sauce.

The Salad

1 apple, cut into very small cubes (or to your liking)

2 tomatoes, cut into small cubes

2 tbs grated cheese (for vegan option either remove the cheese all together or use a vegan appropriate sub.)

Mix all ingredients into a bowl and place on the table.

Cooked Veggies

1 onion, sliced
1 C grated carrot
1 tbs olive oil

Heat oil in a pan, cook the onion and garlic until soft and cooked (but not burnt / brown). Place in bowl on the table.

Quinoa

1 C quinoa (I used red but any would do)

2 C water

1 preserved lemon, sliced thinly

1/2 tsp fennel powder

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried basil

Place all the ingredients into a pot and bring to the boil, turn down and allow to simmer until quinoa is cooked. Do watch it, there's not many things worse then dried out quinoa, if need be add some more liquid. Place in a bowl on the table. 

The Sauce

230 g cooked chick peas

20 g dijon mustard

4 dill gherkins

10 g olive oil

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tbs paprika

2 tbs lemon juice (my lemon juice is made from placing whole lemons in a food processor, much better flavour then the store bought stuff and a great way to use lots of lemons during lemon season.)

water

Place all the ingredients (except the water) into a blender / food processor / stick blender and mix until combined. Add water as required to get the desired consistency  we like ours more like a paste but you could make it more saucy by adding extra water.

The Wrap

For this wrap I used silver beet from our garden (hence the snail bites, but don't worry we de-snailed before bringing them inside - no snails were hurt in the making of this meal!)

Wash the silver beet well and then remove the stalks by cutting down each side.

Place all the ingredients onto the silver beet wrap and roll up, then attempt to eat. Haha, I say attempt because it all looked (and smelt) so good that I put far too much on my wrap and after one bite it was all over the place. But where's the fun if your dinner is a little hard to eat. I recommend trying not to add so much filling with each one. 

Happy Eating!  

Lasagne, Veggie Style

I have always enjoyed a good lasagne. And it really is one of those things that seems really simple but is SOOO easy to stuff up. People seem to think it's just chuck the pasta, bol and cheese together with some white sauce and you're good to go but there is so much more to it then that. Since becaming a veggo lasagne is one of the meals I think I miss the most, not that greasy crappy thing you get from the corner store but the one my mum makes. It has taken me a while to find a lasagne recipe I enjoy as much as hers but, sorry mum, I think i've found it. Some of the ingredients may seem a bit unconventional for a lasagne but when all mixed together the flavour is amazing. 

This recipe comes in 3 parts as I made everything from scratch (well as scratch as I could, I didn't mill my own flour or anything). The three parts are the pasta, sauce and filling. 

The Pasta

If you've never made your own pasta you are missing out, very simple and extremely delicious. With the added benefit of knowing EXACTLY what goes into your food. This recipe is not vegan (I make egg pasta) but I'm sure there are ways around that using egg supp's or by making flour and water pasta. Alternatively you can just buy your fresh pasta sheets and use them, but the flavour will never be the same. 

To make this recipe vegan / gluten free just sub out the pasta for their vegan / gluten free alternatives. Or if you're feeling adventurous try making vegan / gluten free pasta yourself. Let me know if you find a recipe that works!

Ingredients:

400 g flour (I used 200 g whole wheat and 200 g bread flour, bread flour works better but I'm a fan of whole wheat)

4 eggs

1 tbs paprika

1 tbs basil

Method:

Mix the ingredients in a food processor using the dough hook. I had to add a bit of water to get it to come together nicely. If you do this add the water SLOWLY. if you add too much you have to add more flour and it just goes around and around like this until you've made enough pasta to feed a small army. 

Once the dough is mixed place it through the pasta maker as per it's instructions. If you don't have one ($15 from K-Mart), and feel like a good upper body work out you can roll it out by hand. To do this, break the dough up into small balls. dust a bench with flour (and keep some more handy). Roll out one of the balls onto the floured surface until as thin as you can make it. 

Flour the top surface and fold the dough in half, this is called laminating and is an important step. Then roll the newly folded dough until as thin (evenly) as you can make it and re-laminate. Repeat. You only want to laminate 2 - 3 times, once complete roll as thin as you can and then cut into lasagne sheets. Repeat the process with the other balls.

While making the sheets it's important to not let them dry out, if you live in the tropics this may not be an issue, however if you do not i recommend placing a damp tea towel under and above the lasagne sheets to keep them moist. 

The filling

For this recipe I used the left over pesto (see post on creamy pesto pasta) as the filling of the lasagne. I didn't have quiet enough so I blended some nuts and silver beet to make extra filling. Any dark green leafy veggie would do, I used silver beet because it grows a little wild in my garden and there's no point letting it go to waste. 

I also cut up 1/4 of a pumpkin and grilled it (without any oil) using my grill pan. The trick is to get the pan hot and then turn the temp right down. Then place a single layer of pumpkin on the pan, once soft and to your liking flip over. This process too me about 30 minutes as I had to do it in batches. But you can be doing other parts of the recipe while this is cooking away. 

The Sauce

Ingredients:

1 kg roma tomatoes
3 carrots (leave the skin on)
2 onions (or one really big one)
1 tbs paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs ground oregano
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbs basil
1 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 preserved lemon
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
3/4 C red wine
1 can coconut milk

Method:

First, wash the roma tomatoes and then in on the pointy end cut a small cross in each one. Bring a big pot of water to boil and add the roma tomatoes, leave for a few minutes (until their skin starts to come off and they are a bit soft). Then drain and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, grate the carrots and onions, leaving the carrot skin on, into a large bowl. Add the herbs and spices and a preserved lemon, sliced thinly. 

Note: I don't tend to measure when I cook (takes the fun out of it) so the amounts of the herbs and spices have been 'guesstimated', feel free to alter depending on your taste.

Once cooled (at least enough so you can handle them) de-skin the tomatoes. Their skin should slip off easily. Place the skinned tomatoes into a bowl and mash roughly with a fork. You don't want them to be too smooth or the mixture will loose textile but also don't want giant chunks of tomato. 

Add the oil to a hot pan and fry the carrot and onion mixture, once the pan is hot turn down the heat so the carrot and onion do not burn. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, wine salt and pepper to taste and mix. Turn the temp right down and allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes. If there is not enough liquid feel free to add some more wine (or stock or just water).  Turn off the heat, and stir though the coconut milk, then allow to sit for about 10 minutes. Don't worry if the mixture is a bit watery, the coconut milk will thicken up. 

Lasagne

Method:

Get a nice big pyrax (or other glass oven proof dish). Place a small amount of the tomato sauce along the base and then add a layer of pasta. Onto this add some of the pesto filling, some pumpkin and more sauce. Then add another layer of pasta and repeat until the dish is full / you've used everything. Make sure there is enough sauce to have a top layer of just pasta and sauce. 

Once all together I like to let it sit for about 30 minutes to allow the flavours to mix but if you're really hungry just put it into a hot oven (about 180C) for about 10-15 minutes. The best way to tell if it's done is to stick a fork in the middle and leave it for a second, then pull it out and put the fork on your tongue, if it hurts, the lasagne is done. :) 

Happy Eating!

Creamy Pesto Pasta, without the cream

So last night I had one of those nights where all I wanted was creamy comfort food pasta. I'd had a long day and wanted something really quick and easy to make but still tasty and healthy. So after a bit of thought and a quick assessment of the cupboards I came up with this creamy pesto pasta, made without cream. Now obviously if you have cream on hand and would prefer it you can easily sub it in. Also as one commenter has stated they prefer zero fat yoghurt, this can be sub'd in as well. But as the recipe stands it is very tasty vegan creamy pesto pasta. This makes about 3 - 4 nice sized servings so alter the recipe depending on your family size and appetite. 

Creamy Pesto Pasta

Ingredients: 

4 big handfuls of dried pasta

1 can Coconut milk

1 tbs Corn flour

Pesto:

1 Carrot
2 handfuls spinach
1 Onion

1 red apple
2 handfuls of mixed nuts
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbs Oil (I used olive)
1 tbs Chilli (ground or flakes)
2 tbs dried basil

Method:

Cook the pasta as per the instructions. Once cooked drain and set aside.

Place all the pesto ingredients into a blender / small food processor and blend until well mixed. (Don't blend until smooth or you loose the great texture of the nuts.)

Place a small amount of olive oil in a pan, once hot add the pasta, pesto, coconut milk and cornflour. Stir until well heated and the sauce has thickened.

Serve and enjoy. 

Variations:

- The pesto can be made with a variety of different greens depending on what you have on hand. This includes fresh herbs like coriander, basil, parsley etc. Even a mixture with some mint would give it a sharp fresh flavour. 

- Meat can be easily added to this recipe, Chuck put some of the left over sausages (see the Curry recipe) in his and said it was very good.  

- Also for the gluten intolerant, this can be easily made with gluten free pasta. 

Happy Eating!

Addit:

I had some of the left overs for lunch yesterday, I mixed in some chickpeas with extra chilli and basil. Made a wonderful lunch, filling and tasty.

Today I'm having the very last of it with a carrot, tomato, onion and some chickpeas. kind of like a pasta salad, very excited. 

Happy eating!

Potato Curry

I'm a big fan of curry. I think I've learnt to love them even more now I'm a vegetarian. There's something truly satisfying about devouring a big delicious vegetable curry. So naturally, I decided to make one for dinner (which I'm currently eating for lunch). As a note, for Chuck I cooked up some sausages he had in the freezer, sliced them up, tossed them in some curry paste (see below) and lightly fried them. This way he was able to add meat as he wished. Apparently they were delicious. 
So here it is, potato curry:

Potato Curry

Rice:

2 cups uncooked rice

2 tsp tumeric

1 preserved lemon sliced + some juice

Curry:

7 large potatoes, skin on and cubed
1/2 head cauliflower, roughly chopped
1 onion, sliced 
10 tsp korma spice
1 tbs oil (i used olive)
7 tbs water
1 can coconut milk

Method:

Place all the rice ingredients into a rice cooker and cook. Or cook manually on the stove as per the rice cooking instructions.

Boil the potatoes until tender but not too soft. When almost done, add the cauliflower to boil for a few minutes. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a bowl mix together the korma spice, oil and water to form a paste.

Heat oil in a large frying pan, and gently fry the onions until soft. Add the potatoes, cauliflower, korma paste and coconut milk and mix well. Allow to boil for a minute and then serve. 

Hope you enjoy, this was very tasty and quiet easy to make. It is not a hot curry so if you prefer a bit of spice add some chilli with the onion. 

Happy eating!

PIZZA!!

I LOVE pizza, it is one of my favourite meals. Since discovering my food allergies pizza has become harder. I can no longer order anything from my local pizza place. Nor can I just grab a pizza base from the shops to add my own toppings. :(
To combat my soy allergies my wonderful finance bought me a bread maker. One of my favourite kitchen appliances, this thing can make all kinda of bread, cakes, jam, and dough. So now we just make up a batch of pizza bases and put them in the freezer, ready for that pizza craving. 
You can imagine my excitement when, hiding in the freezer, I find a pizza base. This week has been fun with the food but it just wouldn't feel right without a pizza. But then the questions become, what on earth am I going to put on my pizza? Unfortunately we've completely run out of fresh produce (luckily our veggie box comes tomorrow).  

*Panic*

Ok so after a few minutes of panic, debating whether or not I should just go and buy some ingredients, or just save the pizza for another time, I came up with a plan!

1. I found some cashews (about 1 cup) hiding in the cupboard. With these I made cashew cheese (see below). 

2. After having pulled everything out of my fridge and scrutinizing each item to see if I could use it on a pizza (Vegemite and  chutney pizza didn't sound right). I finally found the almost forgotten olives and artichokes. Both jars are mostly empty, but if I cut them up fine and spread it out I may just be ok. 

3. Now for some protein, I like eggs on a pizza but we only have a couple left and I really want eggs on toast for tomorrows breaky. (Tonight I'm going to tare apart my freezer for the forgotten bread end pieces for tomorrows toast.) But hidden in the back of one cupboard I found a packet of dried chickpeas. :) I'm saved! 

So in the end I have an olive, artichoke and chickpea pizza with cashew cheese/pizza sauce.  My pizza is not vegan, but if you were to use a vegan pizza base it would be. 

Cashew Cheese

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews, soaked for at least 1 hour1/4 cups water
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Drain and rinse the cashews. Place in blender / food processor with all other ingredients and combine. Once combined, taste to make sure the flavour is what you want. 

Cous cous salad

So to continue on with the challenge, it's getting towards the end of my fresh food supply. This is the time when food becomes a bit more interesting. But so far it's turned out well. So I give you my cous cous salad, may sound a bit weird but this was SOOOO tasty, I found it hard to save some for lunch the next day.

Cous Cous Salad

Ingredients:

For the salad:

1/4 C quinoa

1 C whole grain cous cous

1/2 Onion

1 cob of corn

1 zucchini, grated

3 eggs, hard boiled

For the dressing:

5 cloves of garlic, diced

1 tbs spice mix (whichever you like)

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs tahini

2 1/2 tbs thickened cream

3 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp brown sugar

Method:

Cook the cous cous and quinoa as per their cooking instructions. (See below if you don't have the cooking instructions). Place the grated zucchini, hard boiled eggs, cous cous, quinoa, sliced onion and corn from the cob into a large bowl.

Heat the oil in a saucepan until just hot, turn down the heat to low and stir in the garlic. Make sure you don't let it burn. After about 1 minute remove the pan from the heat and add the other dressing ingredients. Replace the pan on a low heat and stir until well combined and heated through. Do NOT let it burn or boil. 

Pour the dressing over the salad and season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

Happy Eating!

Variations:

- This is very much a "whatever is in my fridge" recipe. The veggies in the salad can all be substituted with others, or add more if you have them. 

- The eggs can be replaced by any protein source, chicken would work well for the meat eaters. Otherwise chickpeas would also be tasty. 

- The dressing could be played around with as well, just be careful not to over power the flavour, tahini can be quiet bitter (hence the brown sugar). But if a lighter more summer feel is what you're after try removing the tahini and sugar and add some orange zest. 

Cooking Cous Cous: I cook cous cous by putting it in a plastic container with equal parts cous cous and boiling water. Then put the lid on to keep it air tight for about 10 minutes. 

Cooking Quinoa: I place 1 part quinoa to 3-4 parts liquid in a microwave safe bowl, cook for about 10 mins on high. After about 8 minutes it's advisable to watch it, more liquid may be required.

As always, please let me know if you try this. I'd love to hear feed back. And Happy Eating!

Panna Cotta, only slightly failed and then saved!

So Chuck really REALLY likes panna cotta, so I decided to make it for him last night. I use the recipe from the Philly cream cheese cook book "Simply Heaven Vol. 1". Last time I made this we both went into sugar overload so this time I decided to decrease the amount of sugar. Unfortunately that has meant that the coffee syrup did not syrup. This is a common problem of mine, I really enjoy cooking, but for some reason when I tackle desserts they always fail slightly. 

I think it stems from a deep seeded desire to not follow recipes :). My sister Emma is an excellent baker and desert cook and she nearly cries every time I tell her I'm making deserts off script. 

So I've come up with a solution which I really hope shall save this recipe, and if it does I have a panna cotta recipe which uses less sugar :). I'll shall try fixing it and let you know how it goes, I'll also put the panna cotta recipe up in case you're a better dessert cook then I am. 

Happy eating!

UPDATE:
So my plan worked and I saved the panna cotta! For your information, should you ever run into this problem this is how I fixed it:
1. place the cream and coffee mixtures into a big bowl
2. make up some gelatine
3. add gelatine to the panna cotta
4. pour back into the containers and return to the fridge. 

As promised here is my panna cotta recipe adapted from Simply Heaven vol. 1

Panna Cotta

Ingredients:

5 nice sized espresso shots

6 teaspoons of sugar

1 cup cream

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

250 g block of cream cheese

4 tsp gelatine dissolved in 4 tbs boiling water, then cool.

Method:

Dissolve the sugar (6 tsp) into the coffee mixture, once dissolved pour the mixture into a bowl to cool.

Heat the cream, sugar and vanilla essence until almost boiling (Do NOT allow to boil!). 

Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and then slowly add the cream mixture, coffee and gelatine. Once well combined spoon into small cups / bowls. Place in the fridge for a few hours until set.

Some variations:

- Try adding honey to the coffee instead of sugar

- Try adding some spices to the mixture, cinnamon, cardamom, all spice etc. Make sure they are not too over powering though.

- Could be made vegan if you are capable of making / have access to vegan cream and cream cheese.  

- Try making it into the inside for a no-bake pie / cheese cake. 

Let me know if you try a variation on this recipe, I'd love to know what works and what doesn't. 

Happy Eating!

Potato Salad

So the pantry challenge is going well, we're still excited about cooking. Which is good, in the past when I've tried this sort of thing by day 3 I get so annoyed with not having the ingredients I want I tend to cave. Unfortunately the truth of pantry challenges is you have to have a well stocked pantry to begin with. Otherwise you just end up eating baked beans on toast for 2 days. Anywhoo, it was curry the first night, last night I decided to try making potato salad.

I've never made potato salad before, I'm really not sure why as I've always enjoyed it. So as we had a huge bag of potatoes in the cupboard I decided to give it a go. As a note, I forgot to add the eggs, so should it tickle your fancy add as many hard boiled eggs as you can stand. Alternatively some bacon strips which have been cooked in the oven would go nicely as well, for the non-vegetarians.

Pantry Potato Salad

Ingredients:

10 medium potatoes (about fist size), cubed

1 red capsicum, cubed

2 small onions, sliced

5 cloves of garlic, diced

1 tbs olive oil

4 tbs thickened cream

1 tbs Dijon mustard

1 tbs wholegrain mustard 

Note: I really like garlic, if you are less of a fan feel free to add less.

Method:

Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Boil until cooked but not too soft, drain and set aside.

Heat a olive oil over a medium / low heat then add the onions. Once they start to go brown add the capsicum and garlic. Stir through and cook for about 1 min (until the garlic starts to go brown). Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl mix together the cream and two mustards to make a sauce. Combine everything in a big bowl and enjoy, salt and pepper to taste.

Pantry Challenge

Food is such a major part of my budget that we've decided to take on a new challenge, the pantry challenge. 

The pantry challenge is simple, instead of going to the shops you see how long you can live off the food in your pantry right now. Sounds a bit daunting i know, but i'm really excited to give it a try. I love experimental cooking and although some of it ends up as dog food, most is pretty good. So for this week the challenge is on. 

It began last night with a delicious cauliflower and potato dry curry. Unfortunately i'm still new to this and completely forgot to write down what went in it. But man it was good! :) 

Through out the week i shall be posting the interesting (and hopefully tasty) things we're coming up with. Pictures included.

Enjoy.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!! 
My name's Odette and i live a soy-free existence in Perth, Western Australia. After years of troubles and doctors i finally got an answer and have been living without soy ever since. For those who are unaware, most packaged foods contain soy, as do many meat products. This has lead to a new way of cooking and thinking about food in my house. To start, we (my fiance Chuck and i) make almost everything ourselves. I've also had to give up meat, this is because soy is used on meat to make it look fresher and is not always declared. 

So i've decided to start this blog as a place where i can store all my soy-free recipes (mainly just the good ones). Although I am a vegetarian Chuck is not and i still cook meat, so the board will be vegetable heavy, but not vegetarian. 

I hope you find it useful and if you have any questions please email me or just post on the board.