White Vegetables - Mushroom, White Bean and Cauliflower soup

Things got a bit involved on this site. The dishes became very involved and fancy. But things got very busy at work, and out of work. And it got really cold at night times quite suddenly. So now there is flannelette sheets on the bed and there is this soup. Creamy and comforting and incredibly simple to make. I got home from the gym, 10 minutes of prep cooking. Leave it to simmer while I showered, came back and blended it up and voila. Perfect soup for sitting on the couch snuggled under my quilt.

This is naturally vegan and gluten free. It’s full of protein and things that are good for you. I added diced fried chorizo bits on top of mine because it is amazingly delicious but somewhat takes away from the vegan status. Bacon bits would be equally delicious. But the chopped toasted almonds are pretty amazing if you want to keep it vegan/vegetarian.

Mushroom, White Bean and Cauliflower Soup

Olive oil
1 – 2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper
500g mushrooms of choice, thinly sliced
1 brown onion, diced
1 small head of cauliflower, broken roughly into large florets.
1 litre vegetable stock
1 litre water
1 cup of almond meal
Tin white beans, rinsed

Garnish

Diced, fried salami
Toasted almonds
Dried oregano
More black pepper

Drizzle a good glug of olive oil into your soup pot and heat to medium. Add the garlic, and cook 1-2 minutes until softened and fragrant. Thinly slice the mushrooms and add to the pot, and a good few cracks of pepper and fat pinch of sea salt. Stir well to mix through the garlicky oil across all the mushroom slices. Fry until the mushrooms release their liquid, then it absorbs/evaporates back again. Remove from the pot and set aside.

Add a tablespoon more olive oil to the pot and add the onion, cook 5 minutes until translucent but not browned. Add the stock, water and cauliflower. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender. Add the white beans.

Remove from heat, then puree with a stick blender. Add the almond meal and blend it in, too.

Add mushrooms back to pot, place back over low heat. Cook 2 minutes so that the mushrooms heat up again. Check for seasoning.

Serve, garnished with oregano flakes, plenty of black pepper and toasted almond bits.

If you don’t mind breaking the vegan-ness of this dish, serve with fried diced salami pieces or bacon bits

Pickled Pink - Pickled Beetroot and Red Onion

I was originally going to put the recipe for this at the end of another recipe, as it is an accompaniment, rather than a meal. But it has turned out so versatile that I’ve used it in so many dishes since then, so I thought I would give it it’s own post, which makes it my easier to just link here for the future. I call this pickled pink – a really simple combination of pickled beetroot and red onion. I was going to add radishes to the mix too, but completely forgot when I came around to making it. I am going to add radishes next time.

It only takes about 10 minutes to make, but then a few hours to cool so factor that in for when you want to eat it. It should last a good few weeks in the fridge.

 

Pickled Beetroot and Red Onion.
1 red onion, sliced into thin half moons
3 medium beetroot, sliced into matchsticks
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup water
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp sea salt
5 allspice berries
½ tsp peppercorns
½ tsp caraway seeds

 

Slice the onion and beetroot as directed and layer slices in the jar(s) you wish to store it in.

Place the vinegars, water, honey and salt in a small pot and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes then take off the heat.

Add the allspice berries, pepper corns and caraway seeds to the vinegar mix. Stir to mix through.

Pour the vinegar over the top of the veges. Leave on the bench top to come to room temperature.

Store in the fridge

 

Restaurant Inspired - Sweet Potato and Coconut Gnocchi with Cashew Basil Crema

I recently had a lunch date with my husband at Solomon’s Café in Highgate. It was on the to-visit list for a while and the menu item that most put it there was the famed sweet potato and coconut gnocchi. When we got there, we ordered out meals with a side of sweet potato and coconut gnocchi. And we were told…it’s actually beetroot gnocchi now. They haven’t been able to source any organic sweet potatoes for a while, so they’ve had to amend it. The whole restaurant is organic (and gluten and dairy free), so obviously this is an issue for them. And the gnocchi was soooo good. Everything was delicious, but the gnocchi was definitely the stand-out.

The next morning I was trying to work out what to make for breakfast. The idea of toast wasn’t thrilling me, so in spite of telling Lance that I was going to make some form of ratatouille with the almost-too-ripe tomatoes in the fridge…I wasn’t really in the mood. So I still made the ratatouille (which we had for lunch), and I thought I’d give the sweet potato gnocchi a go.

This isn’t gnocchi in the traditional boiled pasta route, I just fried the pieces until crispy. And I already had some cashews soaking, so I made a kale, basil and cashew crema to go with it. To make it more breakfast-y, I served it with an egg and a few zucchini chips as more of a garnish. To keep the dish quick, I microwaved the sweet potato instead of roasting it.

All in all, not a bad breakfast – and it all came together before 8:30am! Unfortunately, it was too early for me to bother with many photos, so there’s only a couple of the finished product.

Sweet Potato and Coconut Gnocchi with Cashew Basil Crema.
(serves 2)

1 medium sweet potato
3 tbsp coconut flour (depending on how big your sweet potato is)
Pinch sea salt
Pinch black pepper
pinch cinnamon
¼ tsp sweet paprika
Coconut oil for frying.

2 handfuls cashews, soaked overnight

2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 kale leaves, stripped off the rib
Big handful basil
Big handful parsley
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ cup olive oil
Water for thinning

Prick the sweet potato a few times, put in a glass bowl, cover with a piece of paper towel and microwave for around 6 minutes until soft. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, blend the all the ingredients except the olive oil and water. Pulse at first, scrape down the sides, then run on low, adding the oil and water to reach your desired consistency. Check for seasoning and adjust as necessary.

When the sweet potato is cool enough to handle, peel and discard the skin. Mash well with a fork. Add the salt, pepper, cinnamon and sweet paprika, and mix through with the fork. Add coconut flour 1 tbsp at a time until it makes a dough. I only needed 3 tbsp for my sweet potato.

Scoop teaspoonsful of dough and roll into gnocchi shapes, flatten slightly with the tines of the fork to shape.

Heat a nob of coconut oil in a fry pan to medium high heat. Fry the gnocchi pieces for a few minutes until golden – around 3 minutes, then flip over and cook that side. Don’t crowd the pan. I did mine in 2 loads, moving the first to a plate in the microwave to keep warm.

Drizzle the sauce onto your serving plates, then top with sweet potato gnocchi.

Serve with an egg if you’d like.

 

The Lost Ice Cream - Vegan Pina Colada Ice Cream

I was going through my various food photos and I discovered I'd missed a post! So, completely coincidentally, I am now posting two vegan recipes in a row. Given that it is still definitely summer in Perth, it's not too late for another ice cream recipe. This is a coconut ice cream, with pineapple added to make it pina colada. That's now two pina colada desserts, one for winter, one for summer!

This freezes quite hard if you leave it in the freezer for too long. If it's gone hard, simply pop it in the fridge for about an hour before serving. I have heard that arrowroot powder is good for preventing overhardening, but I haven't tried it myself. Maybe next time. Likewise, adding the rum to the ice cream mixture would help - but i quite like it drizzled over the top. Feels that little bit more naughty and decadent!

Vegan Pina Colada Ice Cream

440g tin pineapple pieces in juice, separated into fruit/juice

½ tsp vanilla paste
2x 400ml tins coconut cream
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
To serve
toasted coconut
dark rum

 

Puree half the pineapple pieces in a food processor. Put pineapple juice, puree and dark brown sugar and vanilla into a medium saucepan and heat to medium, bubble it away on a simmer until it reduces by half and becomes syrupy. Add the coconut cream and whisk to combine. Whisk and heat on a gentle simmer for 10 minutes to infuse. Pour into a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap pressed to the surface to stop a skin forming and refrigerate until completely cold. Overnight is good.

 

Churn according to your ice cream makers instructions. Transfer to a sealed container and freeze to harden a further 2 hours or so before serving. Serve with leftover pineapple pieces, a shot of dark rum and some toasted coconut!

Experimenting with Tofu - Almond Butter and Dukkah Crumbed Tofu

I love meat. A lot. But I’ve been trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals into our average weeknights. Both because it’s cheaper to not have meat every day, and also because it’s good health-wise to be meat-free occasionally. Most frequently my vegetarian meals use tinned beans, because they’re already a pantry staple. Or some form of stir-fry or salad with every vegetable under the sun in them. I don’t tend to buy anything specific like tofu or tempeh to make a vegetarian dish – I tend to just omit the meat. In fact, the last time I cooked with tofu was about this time last year. And I included bacon. I don’t even tend to eat tofu out unless it is in miso soup. But for some reason, shopping the other day I swung past the aisle that has tofu and added a packet to my trolley.

So when I didn’t get meat out to defrost today (the usual motivation behind what day is now vegetarian day), I was going to hit the shops on the way home from work to buy some. I have been feeling fairly run down the last few days and wanted a high protein meal. When I remembered the tofu. Hello protein! The rest of the idea came from my current favourite snack. Carrot sticks, dipped in almond butter, dipped in dukkah. Seriously good. So addictive. To make the almond butter suitable for coating, you need to thin it out – I used water but almond milk would be better to prevent the flavour diluting too much. I also added salt as my nut butter didn’t have any, and the dukkah I used didn’t have a great deal of salt either. You should check both of these things before adding salt to yours. You can substitute the cornmeal for dry breadcrumbs (panko), I just thought I’d make it gluten-free as per a reader request! And realising this was also vegan up to this point, I decided to leave out the pecorino I was planning on adding. You can choose whether or not to add that.

The salad I’ve served with it was decided on the colours of the vegetables (purple cauliflower!), and then a bright lime and maple dressing because I find that tofu can verge on a little dry. You could also serve these as a vegetarian version of chicken nuggets and serve with a dipping sauce. And whilst I really enjoyed this dish, I do think that I’m still not the hugest fan of tofu. So this will probably be my last tofu dish on this site for another 12 months!

Do you have a recipe that will change my mind? Send me an email!

 

Almond Butter and Dukkah Crumbed Tofu

3 heaped tbsp. almond butter
¼ cup water (almond milk would be better)
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup fine cornmeal
¼ cup dukkah
300g firm tofu
Grapeseed oil or similar for frying
Lime wedges, maple for serving.

 

Put the tofu on a plate lined with paper towels. Add more paper towels on top, put a second plate on top of this, then something heavy on top of this to squeeze the packaging water out of the tofu. Leave it for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, add almond butter and water to a blender and blend until completely homogenised, if needed, add the salt and blend this in too. You want the almond butter to be a sauce-like consistency.

If the tofu is in one big block, cut in half to make two thinner rectangles, then each of those into 3 strips.

Grab two shallow bowls and a plate. Pour the thinned almond butter into the first one. Mix the cornmeal and dukkah together in the second. Coat each slice of tofu in almond butter, then the dukkah mix, then put on the plate ready for frying.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a frypan to medium-high. Working in two batches, cook the tofu for 3-5 minutes on each side until golden. Drain on paper towel and keep warm while you do the second layer.

Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup, a lime wedge and salad.

 

 

Quick Post - Grilled Honeydew and Corn Salsa

One of my favourite new cooking-based discoveries this summer – after cold-brewed coffee – is grilling melon. Sure, chilled melon is super-appealing on a hot summers day. Not to mention fruit slushees and icy poles and whatnot. It’s seriously refreshing. But grilled melon now has a special place in my heart, too. My favourite melon to grill is the honeydew melon. The heat intensifies the sweetness and caramelises the outside. Perfect to add to a summer salad. Or just by itself, sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt, chili flakes and sumac. Or in this salsa

I served this texturally diverse salsa alongside some of leftover lentil patties for a quick and delicious weekday dinner. It’d also go really well served alongside tacos or in burgers.

 

Grilled Honeydew and Corn Salsa

¼ honeydew, de-seeded and cut into slices

¾ cup corn kernels (frozen or fresh)
1 roma tomato, diced
½ red capsicum, diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced
1 tsp balsamic
Salt and pepper to taste

Grill the honeydew on the three big sides for 1-2 minutes per side.  Cut into smaller pieces when cool enough to handle. Toast the corn kernels for 3-5 minutes per side. Set aside to cool.

Add all the chopped vegetables together, mix in the balsamic and season.