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.