Vegan, gluten free, soy free lasagne.

Filling mix:  Two tins of brown lentils, two small tins of diced tomatoes, 2 shredded carrots, some mushrooms, 4 cloves garlic, one onion diced, two tbsp curry powder, salt, pepper, dill, chili powder.

Pasta: Cooked strips of zucchini.

Sauce:  Just under 1L of rice milk, 4-6 tbsp nooch, 4-6tbsp cornflour, 2-4 tbsp Nuttelex.

1. Put filling mix in pot and cook til mushrooms are tender.
2. Make sauce by melting Nuttelex, adding milk, then flour and nooch, stir on high heat til thick.
3. Cook zucchini strips til about to go tender.
4. Layer: filling, strips, sauce, filling, strips, sauce.
5. Bake in oven at 180C for 30-40 minutes, til you can poke through the zucchini with ease and the sauce is cooked on top.

Chickpea Omelettes

It actually looked better than this once we watered it down more - I've put the better recipe below.  Inspiration from Holy Cow! and Julia's Kitchen.

Ingredients:
*1 cup besan/chickpea flour
*1/4 tomato diced
*1/4 cup nutritional yeast
*1/2 onion finely chopped (might be better with red onion)
*1/4 green capsicum, finely chopped
*4 button mushrooms, finely chopped
*2 cloves garlic
*3 tsp dill
*2 tsp chili powder
*2 tsp paprika
*~ 2 cups water (you want it a bit runnier than a pancake)

Method:
1.  Mix dry ingredients, then add water as you stir :).
2.  Cook on medium heat in a fry pan.

Makes about 4.

Thai Dinner Party

M arrived back from the States recently so B threw a party to celebrate their homecoming.  It was a Thai themed dinner party and I was really anxious about making something.  I quickly perused the internet, searching through pages and pages of dinner ideas and settled on making corn fritters and fish cakes (both gluten free as one of my friends who was going is gluten intolerant).

Fish cakes

Corn fritters

I made the fish cakes by altering this recipe (400g beans, less paste, no mint, chickpea flour instead of spelt, lime juice instead of rind) a bit and simply baking them in the oven at about 180C for 20 minutes instead of frying them.

I altered the corn fritter recipe by VeganDad by adding a lot more chickpea flour (perhaps another cup) and baking instead of frying and didn't use any corn starch.

When I got there, I was blown away (and made very hungry) by the sight of all the delicious vegan food that has been prepared.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the berry ice cupsor seitan, but they were delicious too!  See the peanut dip up there?  IT WAS AMAZING.  We just used brocolli to scoop it up and eat it (there was cucumber too but I'm not a fan).

Stir fry

Laksa

Check out the cute necklace M brought along for each of us!  It was lovely to catch up with everyone and hear M's stories :). 

Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice
• 2 cubes veggie stock
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 3 cups mushroom (or less, depends on how much you love mushroom really - we used Portabello and Button)
• 1 tbsp Nuttelex
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion finely chopped (we used red as that's all we had)
• pinch salt and pepper

Method:

1. Fry mushrooms, onion and garlic in butter.
2. Cook brown rice in water with veggie stock, until just cooked.  I used about 2 cups of water and it turned out okay.  We put the parsley, salt and pepper in this.  All up, the rice took about half an hour to cook.  It depends on the type of rice you use.
3. Add mushrooms to rice, along with nutritional yeast.

Makes about 2 serves.

Potato and Spinach Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 2 tsp ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 packet of fresh spinach, chopped
• 4 large potatoes, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup of brown rice

Method:

1. Put rice on to boil.
2. Put potatoes on to cook.
3. Fry up onion and garlic in pan.
4. Drain potatoes, add onion and garlic mix, add some water, add herbs and spices, allow to simmer.
5. Add spinach for the last few minutes.
6. Mix in rice and eat.

Green Lentil Curry

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup green lentils
• 1 tsp each garam masala, turmeric, cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tin coconut milk
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper

Optional: add chopped spinach, vegetable stock and/or onion.

If you're prepared, soak your lentil overnight so that you don't have to cook them for as long.

Method:

1. Put lentils, 1 cup of water, spices, coconut milk and garlic in one pot.  You may need to add more water as it cooks.  Cook for about 35-45 minutes, until lentils are tender.
2. Cook rice as per packet instructions.
3. Mix together and nom!

Garden Pie

Ingredients:

• 5 medium potatoes
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1/2 onion, finely diced
• 1 broccoli floret, chopped
• 1 cup TVP
• some frozen peas and corn
• paprika, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano
• 1 tbsp vegan butter
• 2 cups water 

 Method:

1. Slice potatoes and cook.
2. Mix TVP, water, herbs, spices, carrots, broccoli, onion, peas and corn in a pot and cook until onion is see-through and vegies are at desired softness.  You may need to add more water, but not too much or your base will be too watery in the dish.
3. When potatoes are done, drain and add vegan butter and a dash of nondairy milk to make mashed potato.
4. Turn oven to 180C.  Put TVP mix in dish, spoon potato over the top.
5. Cook until top is golden.

Optional: Add nutritional yeast to potato mix.

Pumpkin Chips

It's that part of the week again; there's almost nothing in my fridge.  I decided to make pumpkin chips out of the 1/4 of a pumpkin I had in there.  They're really yummy, but not as firm as the potato chips.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Butternut pumpkin
• 1-2tbsp oil
• 2tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 cloves garlic
• paprika, oregano, thyme, any other herbs & spices you want to add

Method:

1. Chop up pumpkin.
2. Put in a container with herbs and spices.  Shake until evenly coated.
3. Bake at 220C for 20 minutes.

Mung Bean Dahl

The co-op at uni had a sale on mung beans (I got just under a cup for 55c; I'm horrible at guesstimating weights) so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to finally try some out, after having a delicious mung bean dahl at Vege Rama.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp each turmeric, pepper and cumin
• 1/2 tsp chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 an onion
• 1 cup dried mung beans
• 1 cup brown rice
• 1 tbsp parsley
• 2 handfulls spinach
• 1 cube vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 cups of water

Method:

1. Put mung beans,water, vegetable stock, herbs and spices into a large pot on high, then turn down to let simmer.  You may need to add more water to keep it nice and liquidy.
2. Put brown rice and water in another pot to cook.
3. Fry onion and garlic in a pan with oil until onion is see-through.  Add to mung bean mix.
4. Take brown rice off heat once cooked.
5. Add finely chopped spinach to mung bean mix once there are 10 minutes to go (should have been cooking for about 25 minutes now, no need to worry about being exact, we only want the spinach to be wilted).
6. Take mung beans off heat, serve with rice.

Split Pea Dahl

My best friend absolutely hates chickpeas (I know, I know, how could you hate them?!) so I had to find something easy and cheap to make for them while they were over.  I found this recipe and modified it a little below, and added the price of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow split peas, uncooked      80c
• 3-4 cups water
• 2 cubes veggie stock                           40c
• 10 mushrooms                                   $2.20
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp Nuttelex
• 1/2 onion, diced                                  30c
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 cloves garlic                                     5c
• dash pepper and salt, to taste
• 1 cup rice                                           90c

Method:

1. Place water, stock, peas, chopped mushrooms and turmeric in a large pot and let simmer for 25 minutes. You may need to continue adding water to ensure it's not too dry.
2. Cook rice in water in seperate pot. 
3. Fry onion, garlic, Nuttelex and cumin.
4. Add onion mix to pea mix.  Allow to simmer for another 10 minutes, until peas are soft.
5. Serve with rice.

Makes: 2-3 serves

Total: $4.65

Potato Chips

Ingredients

• Two big potatoes
• One sweet potato
• Oregano, dill, paprika, pepper, salt 1tsp
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp oil

Method

1. Chop the normal potatoes into chip size, chop sweet potato half the size.
2. Mix together herbs and spices with oil in a large container.
3. Preheat oven to 210C
4. Put the chips in the container and shake til evenly coated.
5. Put on tray in oven and cook for 35-40 minutes, turning once.

Chickpea and Potato Curry

This photo is after it was refridgerated because I forgot :p

Ingredients:
*1 cup rice
*3 potatoes
*4 tsp curry powder
*1 tsp chili powder
*1 can coconut milk
*2 cans chickpeas
*6 mushrooms, sliced
*1/2 block tofu, cubed (neglect if soy free)
*1 onion, diced
 *1/2 head cauliflower, chopped
*2 cloves garlic

Method:
1.  Put rice on to cook.
2.  Put diced potato on to cook.
3.  Fry up onion, tofu, mushrooms and garlic until onion starts to go see-through.
4.  Add chickpeas, cauliflower, coconut milk and spices to the onion/tofu mix.
5.  Once potatoes are done, add to chickpea mix.
6.  Serve with the rice.

Serves: 4 to 6

Red Beans and Rice

I've found myself with an abundance of brown rice so I'm currently working my way through my bookmarked recipes (there are a lot).

I found a recipe entitled Carribean Red Beans and Rice and decided to give it a try.

I needed substantially more water; about 1 and 1/3 cup more.  I didn't include the onion either as I had none.  In my opinion, it needed more spice, more 'oomph', but all in all it was a pleasant dish.  I was also really lazy and just put everything in the pot together and it turned out fine.  It's a nice, simple dish that is yummy.

Total: $2.95, makes 2-3 serves.

Eggplant Steaks

This post is more of an idea starter than a recipe.

There are many ways that you can prepare the eggplant.  I sliced mine into 1cm thick 'fillets' and then put them on a tea towel.  I sprinkled them with salt to help drain the moisture away (the longer you leave it, the better their texture).

I then mixed together some paprika, vegetable oil and chili powder and covered them with it.

I put them in the oven (with my casserole) for 30-40 minutes at 180C until soft (I poked one with a fork to check).  Remember to flip over and brush with oil on the other side at the 15 minute mark!

You can use them on burgers, by themselves with some veggies, chopped up on a wrap...  They're very versatile!

"Egg" Salad

Ingredients:
*1/2 cup shallots (green onions)
*1/2 tsp turmeric
*2 tbsp parsley
*1 tsp pepper
*1 tsp salt
*1 tsp dill
*300grams tofu
*1/2 cup mayonnaise
*1/4 tsp paprika
*1/2 tsp garlic powder


Method:
1.  Drain tofu then crumble into a bowl.
2.  Chop up shallots.
3.  Add all ingredients to tofu and mix up.
4.  Taste test and adjust as required.

Potato and Corn Patties

Cooked without oil, gummy.

Fried in oil, crispy.

Ingredients:
*1/2 onion, finely chopped  $0.27
*1 clove garlic
*1 tin corn kernels               $1.46
*parsley, salt, pepper, oregano, paprika
*4 potatoes                          $1.68
*1 tbsp flaxseed
*1/4 cup water
*1/2 cup plain flour            $0.05

Method:
1.  Fry onion and garlic.
2.  Boil potatoes and then mash.
3.  Mix all ingredients together, spoon into fry pan and cook.

Makes: 10

Note:  I don't think that I made them quite thin enough.  If you make them thinner they're more likely to cook nicely through to the middle.  I have not tried baking them but I'd be interested to hear if you do!

Total: $3.46 or $0.35 each.

Lentil Spaghetti

I was scrounging through the remains of my food and discovered that I had enough left to make me some awesome lentil spaghetti.  I had originally intended to make spaghetti and meatballs but I used all my tvp on pies!  I used this recipe and this one for inspiration, as well as a few others I looked at.

With tin of tomatoes

Without tin of tomatoes.

Ingredients:
*1 cup dry red lentils        $1.00
*1 onion, chopped            $0.54
*1 zucchini, grated           $0.84
*1 carrot, grated                $0.34
*2 garlic cloves, minced   $0.10
*2 cubes vegetable stock  $0.54
*basil, oregano, thyme
*handfull of spaghetti      $0.35
*1 can diced tomatoes      $0.80

Variations:  Add chopped celery, mushrooms, make some tvpballs.

Method:
1.  Prepare 2 cups of water with the veggie stock, boiling.
2.  Add the lentils, zucchini, carrot (and/or celery, mushrooms) and tomatoes.
3.  Fry onion and garlic in pan.
4.  Cook pasta.
5.  Add onion and garlic to lentil mix.
6.  Pour lentil mix onto drained pasta (add tvpballs if you made some).

Makes:  Two serves.

Total: $4.51 or $2.25 per serve.

Banana Pudding

This recipe is mainly based off another of Chooseveg.com's recipes.  It's a pretty healthy dessert, all things considered.

Ingredients:
*300g tofu                      $3.24
*2 tsp vanilla
*3 large ripe bananas      $1.08
*1/2 cup raw sugar         $0.29
*1/4 cup nondairy milk  $0.25

Optional: I reckon you could add banana chunks if you wanted to.  Want it chocolatey?   Add a few tbsps of cocoa.  You could add some cinnamon or maple syrup if you wanted to as well.

Method:
1.  Blend.
2.  Taste.
3.  Adjust.
4.  Chill.
5.  Eat.

Total: $4.86

Calories: 1206
Protein: 44.5 grams

Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
*500g mix frozen broccoli and cauliflower  $2.66
*250g pasta  $0.50
*1 jar pasta sauce  $1.07
*basil
*white sauce: 4tbsp flour, 2.5 cups nondairy milk, 2 tbsp Nuttelex, 1 tsp paprika  ~$1.95

Method:
1.  Cook brocolli, cauliflower, basil and pasta in a pot.
2.  Make white sauce in another pot, stirring until thick.  Add in order: Nuttelex, milk, flour, paprika.
3.  Drain pasta mix.
4.  Combine all ingredients.
5.  Put in baking dish.  Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

Makes:  Two serves.

Total:  $6.18 or $3.09 per serve.

Calories: 1297 or 648.5 per serve.
Protein: 61.9 or 30.95 per serve.

Lentil Lasagne

I have not had lasagne once since I became vegan.  Total bummer.  Also, I am laaaaazy when it comes to trying out a new recipe and a lot of the recipes out there require nutritional yeast which is out of my grasp financially.  I found this recipe up on the Sanitarium website and played around with it a bit.  I also looked at about 10 different white sauce recipes in order to make a vegan one.

Ingredients:
Filling
*2 cans brown lentils            $3.10
*1 large carrot, grated           $0.24
*2 medium zucchini, grated  $1.26
*1 onion, sliced                     $0.54
*1 can diced tomatoes           $0.69
*1.5 tsp curry powder
*2 cloves garlic
*pepper and salt
*dash of oil

White Sauce

*3.5 cups non-dairy milk   $2.20
*6 tbsp plain flour             $0.06  (use gluten free flour if that's how you roll)
*2 tbsp Nuttelex                $0.43  (this is vegan margarine)
*dash of salt

*1 pack lasagne sheets   $2.19  (gluten free $4.26)


Optional:  Add some celery and if you have nutritional yeast, add about 1/3 cup of that to the white sauce.

Method:
1.  Mix together onion, a dash of oil, zucchini and carrot and saute for ~10 minutes.
2.  Mix in the rest of the filling ingredients and cook.
3.  Make white sauce by first melting the butter in a pot then adding the milk and flour - stir as it thickens.
4.  Layer lasagne sheets, then filling, then sauce.  Repeat til you run out.
5.  Spread any left over white sauce on top.
6.  Bake for 30-40 minutes at 180C or until lasagne sheets are soft.

Makes:  6 serves.

Total:  $10.65 or $1.78 per serve.