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!