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.

Vegan French Toast

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2/3 cup nondairy milk
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• bread

Method:

1. Mix together bananas, milk, cinnamon and vanilla.
2. Soak bread in mixture on both sides.
3. Fry in pan at medium heat with a bit of butter or oil.

Makes: 4-5 slices of bread

Sausage, Spinach and Onion Quiche

You may have seen my previous attempt at making a quiche here.  This is my latest attempt which, I must admit, is a lot yummier and just better all round haha.

Ingredients:
*1 onion, chopped  
*2 cloves garlic
*4 vegan sausages, chopped
*2 blocks silken tofu (300g each)
*1/4 cup nondairy milk
*~50g fresh spinach, chopped 
*2 tsp basil
*1/2 tsp thyme

*1 tsp turmeric
*1/2 tsp paprika
*1/2 cup nutritional yeast

*salt and pepper to taste
*1 sheet of puff pastry

Method:
1.  Fry onion, chopped sausages and garlic in a little oil until the onion is translucent.
2.  Blend tofu (crumble first, might be easier) and nondairy milk.
3.  Put in bowl and mix in nutritional yeast, finely chopped spinach, onions, sausages, garlic, herbs and spices.
4.  Place puff pastry in bottom of a pan and heat in oven for ten minutes
5.  Pour the mix on top and put back in the oven.
6.  Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until middle has set.

(I forgot to pre-cook the pastry and just cooked the whole lot for 25 minutes, leaving the pastry at the bottom a little undercooked - d'oh!)

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.

Jam Filled Donut Muffins

I've yet to find any normal store that makes vegan donuts, so I searched around for recipes and found this one on vegweb.  I fiddled with it a little and you can find the results below:

Ingredients:
Muffins

• 2/3 cup nondairy milk
• 1.5 cups self raising flour
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup Nuttelex (vegan butter)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup raw sugar

Topping

• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Filling

• about 6 tbsp of your choice of jam - I use strawberry.

Method:

1. Mix all muffin ingredients together.  You may want to add a little more milk to make it a bit easier to spoon into patties.  You may also want to add more nutmeg if that's how you roll.
2. Spoon into the muffin tray; about 1/4 - 1/3 full.  Make a small hollow in the batter.
3. Spoon some jam into the hollow.
4. Cover with more muffin mix.
5. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes.
6. Mix together topping ingredients and sprinkle on top.

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!

Mac N Cheese

I have never had mac and cheese, due to being lactose intolerant, so I never thought about making a vegan version.  Until now.

It was a bit yellower than this, but my camera is not great :(

Ingredients:

• 250grams pasta
• 2.5 cups nondairy milk
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1.5 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 cauliflower
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper
• various herbs and spices at your discretion: we added paprika, thyme, ginger and chili powder

Method:

1. Cook pasta in one pot.
2. Combine milk and butter in another pot, turn down to simmer, add soy sauce, garlic and flour.  Try your best to destroy any lumps.  You may want to add more flour to make it thicker.
3. Add cauliflower to the pasta pot for the last five minutes to let it get tender.
4. Drain pasta and cauliflower.
5. Mix in sauce, add herbs and spices.

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.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

I was looking for something to make for a good friend of mine who loves white chocolate.  It seems that there are a lot of chocolate-based recipes out there, but less for white chocolate. I found a few different cheesecake ideas for milk chocolate and decided to make a white chocolate version.

I decided to simplify (as I tend to do) and also use measurments based on what packages the foods actually come in here in Australia.

Ingredients:

Crust

*1/2 packet of Nice biscuits (there were 23 biscuits; I used 12)
*1/4 cup vegan butter, melted

Filling
*1 x 350g packs of soft tofu      
*1 x 227g tub of Tofutti cream cheese 
*2/3 cup raw sugar                   
*1 tbsp vanilla
*2 x 100g blocks Sweet Williams white chocolate    
*1/8 cup milk

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 180C.
2.  Blend together tofu and cheese.
3.  Grate/chop white chocolate into a bowl.
4.  Mix tofu, milk, chocolate, vanilla and sugar in bowl.
5.  Make crust, put in pan.
6.  Pour mix on top.
7.  Bake for 55-70 minutes, or until edges are set but centre is soft.  Refridgerate 8-12 hours before serving.

Makes:  Six serves.

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.

Chocolate Cake

This is a combination of an altered chocolate cake recipe cobbled together from a few different sites and a chocolate icing recipe that I made up after looking at a few different non-vegan sites.  I made it for a friend's birthday and they really enjoyed it and got lots of positive feedback from all of their friends.  The batter is pretty delicious as well!

Cake Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups self raising flour
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup Nuttelex
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Icing Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp warm water
• 2 tsp vegan butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa

Method:

1. Mix cake ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Pour into cake tin.
3. Bake at 180C for ~35 minutes, until knife or skewer comes out clean.
4. Allow to cool for at least an hour or your icing will melt!
5. Make your icing by mixing all ingredients together.  You may need to adjust the amount of liquid to get the right consistency.
6. Serve and eat!

Banana Cupcakes

I was heading off with my friend to go to dinner at one of their friend's houses.  I've been raised to always take something when going to someone's house.  So I desperately scrambled around the kitchen in last minute haste, looking for something I could bake.  I found four bananas and some flour and sugar.  Using the choconana muffin and banana bread recipes, I created banana cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 4 bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/3 cup vegan butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinammon
• 1/2 cup non dairy milk

 Method:

1. Mix everything in a bowl.
2. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes.

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.

Spiced Chocolate Cookies

I had a lot of random ingredients laying around the house so I tried to make some cookies using a recipe that I made up on the spot.  They ended up being a bit bland, but could probably be helped along with nuts/chocolate chips.  My friends suggested that they would make good cookies for dipping in soy milk.  Let me know what you think and how they go!  Any suggestions would be great too of course :).

 Ingredients:
*1 tsp cinnamon
*1 tsp cloves
*1 tsp ginger
*1/3 cup + 1 tbsp Nuttelex
*1/4 cup raw sugar
*1 cup flour
*2 tbsp cocoa
*2tbsp non-dairy milk

Method:
1.  Mix all ingredients together.
2.  Roll into balls and squish down.
3.  Bake 180C for 15-20mins

Makes:  About 12.

Want to do a guest spot recipe?  Contact me at kommonerkraft@yahoo.com.au!

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
Cake
*2.5 cups self raising flour
*4 tsp baking powder
*3 tsp vanilla
*2/3 cup oil
*2/3 cup sugar
*1 & 3/4 cup water

Icing
*2 cups icing sugar
*1.5 tbsp Nuttelex
*3-4 tbsp nondairy milk
*1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:
1.  Mix cake ingredients together.  If you feel the need, adjust the amount of flour/water.
2.  Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
3. Let cool.  Prepare icing.
4.  Once cake is cool, spread icing over.

Note: I coloured it red with grey icing.  I just went from an old recipe from somewhere but altered the amounts of things slightly.  If you have any alterations to the recipe add them in the comments and let me know how it goes!