Black bean and Wasabi mayo chargrilled wraps

Sooooooo….. I have had a long hiatus from recipes! Thanks to the loyal followers for the messages and prompts to show up again! I think as life got busy, we retreated into our favourite recipes and I needed a little dose of space (which found me today 🙂 ) to get back into a creative groove!

And I’m SO glad. SO SO glad.

I know nothing about wasabi… except once I tasted it and it was zingy and different and delicious. So I thought I’d roll with that today and went on the hunt for some wasabi paste (turns out it is at any supermarket!). This recipe is not as simple as it looks but it is worth EVERY second. Love to hear your thoughts.

 

Wasabi Mayonnaise:

1 pkt organic silken tofu

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 crushed garlic clove

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)

1 tsp wasabi paste (this will make it spicy! Decrease if you don’t love the zing)

1 squeeze of lemon

salt

 

Blend all these ingredients together and refrigerate.

 

For the salad:

mixed leaf lettuce

snow peas (julienned)

shredded carrot

cucumber

avocado

chargrilled corn (fresh corn, cut off the cob and chargrilled)

spring onion

corriander

 

For the black beans:
I used canned black beans this time, for ease:

rinse, add to 1/2 sautéed onion and some diced capsicum.

Add a sprinkle of smoked paprika and garlic.

 

For the tortillas: 

Simply spray oil and place tortillas onto a skillet to chargrill.

 

Wrap away!
I do enjoy these DIY meals where everyone can serve out their favourite bits. Be sure to add some lime to the platter so you can add a little squeeze.

The wasabi mayonnaise is a total hit! It is a unique flavour and this meal ticks all boxes – the beans give a boost of nutrition, whilst the salad is fresh and light and healthy, and the wasabi gives a beautiful zing.
Enjoy!

 

Thai noodle bowl with almond butter tofu

I want to give a major shout out to Minimalist Baker today – not just because her site is awesome as a whole, but also because I made one of her recipes last night and I swear, it was the best thing I have ever eaten!

I don’t know how to repost her post so you’ll have to trust me and just check out this link. It’s amazing.

The tofu was absolutely unique and delicious and the rest…well… it all just works!

 

Even the boys liked it 🙂

<—- This one loves mint and coriander so he has a lot of herbs!  (We added mint)

Dana at Minimalist Baker has a much better photo too.. go see. You won’t be disappointed 🙂

Garlic almond and broccoli bowl

I wish there was a way to convey the tastiness and simplicity of this through a photo! Truly, this is so easy and so delicious! You can whip this up in 15 minutes.

 

1 head of broccoli, chopped

3/4 cup almonds

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 spring onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

3 Tablespoons coconut amino

 

Stir fry the garlic, onions and celery. Add in the broccoli and amino sauce.

Serve on fresh spinach with fresh avocado – or on rice or pasta if you prefer.
So simple…so delicious 🙂

Crispy vegetable dumplings

These dumplings were an accident that went amazingly well! I wanted to create a dumpling filling of walnuts and mushroom base, but, lacking the right ingredients and not being well at the moment (and unable to venture to the shops), I did what I could with what I had. And ooooohhhh my goodness, they are yummy!

The dumplings in this picture is not gluten free, but uses dumpling wonton wrappers (because…not well at the moment). If you would like to make your own dumpling case gluten free, see here.

Ingredients:

1 cup finely shredded wombok cabbage

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

3 spring onions, finely diced

2 mushrooms, finely diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 Tablespoon tamari

1 Tablespoon mushroom “oyster” sauce

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes

 

Combine all ingredients and mix the flavours through. Place a spoonful of mixture on to dumpling wrapper and fold together in desired shape. Perfect for frying or steaming. * Served with Asian greens.

*We did have both steamed and deep fried to try. The steamed ones were just as tasty but stuck to my steamer so they were not in good shape when I peeled them off! The picture dumplings were deep fried in rice bran oil.

Satay lentils and veg

So you know I love basically anything peanuty right? Except for peanut butter on toast. Because peanuts do not belong on bread! I’m weird, I know.

We realised recently that lentils were escaping our diet, in the rush from here there and everywhere. So I decided to branch out in lentil land and try some new things… this is a sort of satay/curry/dahl mix. It’s great…Actually I think next time I would keep the satay dahl as one dish and stir fry some veg on the side as a second dish. But husband-of-mine liked it just like this and I have to say, it was very tasty 🙂 I just prefer crunchy vegetables! But the satay dahl is a grand idea 🙂

1 cup red lentils, rinsed, picked, and boiled according to instructions

1 cup chopped veg as you wish – I used zucchini, snow peas, capsicum and broccoli.

 

1/4 cup 100% peanut butter

1/2 cup coconut cream

1/4 cup water

2 Tablespoons tamari

2 garlic cloves

1 chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

pinch of cumin

pinch of tumeric

Juice of 1 lime (and zest of 1/2 lime if you enjoy)

 

Blend the sauce ingredients up in a mini blender.

Lightly stir fry the vegetables, add the sauce and lentils and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Serve with rice 🙂

 

EASY, fast and tasty!

Baked Mexican spiced potatoes

…enough said!

As per usual with my recipes, these are super flexible. Do what works for you – but hopefully this will give you some inspiration to begin with. We LOVE these.

You need to start with some large potatoes – either sweet potato or white is fine. I tend to like the big white ones for this recipe but you choose for yourself 🙂

 

Ingredients

6-8 large white potatoes

Favourite mexican toppings

 

 

Spice mix:

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

Halve the potatoes lengthways and boil. Once softening (not super soft), scoop out the centres and allow the skins to cool. Gently toss in oil to coat them and rub/sprinkle spice mix all over them. Bake them on a lined tray at 200 dec Celsius for 30 minutes or until crispy.

Top with the above toppings – or any of your favourite mexican toppings.

(NB I sauteed onion and black beans together with garlic, smoked paprika and a diced tomato. I also used chopped salad ingredients – lettuce, corn, capsicum, cucumber, grated carrot, celery, and guacamole. I finished it off with a dollop of Mythos garlic dip (DELICIOUS) but you can use salsa or anything that suits).

Mushroom & walnut San Choi Bow

Wow where have the months been going? Time seems to be passing so quickly at the moment (that, and I am currently working full time! :/) – and I do apologise for not blogging more regularly!

I have posted a recipe for San Choi Bow in the past but it was a lentil one and nowhere near as good I might say. I really think this recipe is perfect. It has the perfect balance of softness and crunch. It is rich and delicious with the fresh outer iceberg lettuce. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

1 cup finely diced walnuts

1 cup finely diced mushrooms

1 cup finely diced water chestnuts

1 iceberg lettuce

2 cups cooked quinoa (or rice, optional)

Sauce ingredients:

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup almond butter

1/4 cup tamari sauce

1 Tblspn brown rice syrup

dash chilli flakes

dash onion powder

dash smoked paprika

 

Saute mushrooms and after a few minutes, add in walnuts and water chestnuts. Blend all sauce ingredients together and stir through mushroom mix and allow to cook further for a few minutes.

Serve in fresh iceberg lettuce cups (the outer leaves are best) with quinoa or rice.

Enjoy!

Pesto primavera pasta

Try saying that 5 times quickly! 😛 I sooo love this dish. It is homely and nutritious and comforting and above all, very tasty! It amounts to some delicious, finely chopped green veggies, homemade pesto and pasta. Mmmm.

Pesto

1 cup basil leaves

2 Tablespoons semi dried tomatoes

3 garlic cloves

2 Tablespoons oil

juice of 1 small lemon

salt and pepper

 

Primavera

1/2 zucchini

3 mushrooms

1 leek or onion

1/2 cup broccoli (chopped)

2 celery stalks

1/2 cup snow peas

 

Plus 2 cups gluten free pasta

 

For the pesto:

Blend all ingredients together in a mini food processor (or the like) to form a paste.

For the pasta
Cook gluten free pasta as per instructions.

For the primevera:

Roughly chop vegetables and sauté them together, beginning with the onion/leek and keeping the broccoli to last because it will overcook quickly. Add in pesto mix and stir through drained, cooked pasta.

Enjoy!

Chocolate self-saucing pudding

Yesterday was mothers day. And in honour of my own mother’s awesome desserts and the fact that it was Mothers Day so I decided I “deserve” whatever i felt like 🙂 I made chocolate self saucing puddings. It suits the cold wintery weather and the huge weekend we had had – warm, decadent comfort food!

As you know, I really really ‘hate’ ordinary food photography so I find myself once again apologising for the photo. It was late when we ate and we were all keen to get into it, so I took a quick snap on the dining table before digging in. Hopefully you get the gist – and next time I’ll have to try again with better lighting and effort!

My goodness, these were amazingly rich and decadent and delicious! And Mr 5 and I who made them up were surprised that they work so well. Mr 7 moaned and groaned in heaven for a while and then said “Did you make these up? You need to blog them!”.

Gluten free, totally plant based and sugar free. They just shouldn’t taste this good.

The little hole in the top is because I put a square of dark chocolate in the middle of them before baking (that bit is not sugar free) so it made an indentation in the top. You can take or leave that idea. They would look more impressive without it but it was a good surprise for the kids.

 

Ingredients

1 cup buckwheat flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup cacao

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

3/4 cup non dairy milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup brown rice syrup or agave

2 Tablespoons of grape seed or melted coconut oil

1 Tablespoon chia seeds soaked in 1/4 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Sauce:

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup cacao

1/4 cup brown rice syrup or agave

 

Mix the dry ingredients and mix in wet ingredients. Divide into lightly greased ramekins. (Add in a piece of dark chocolate or raspberries into the centre now if you wish). Hold a spoon above the ramekins and poor sauce mixture onto spoon (So as not to cause a pooling in the middle- aka, the spoon will make the liquid spread out) until the sauce mixture is evenly spread across the ramekins.

 

Bake in 180 deg C oven for 30 minutes.
The kids served theirs with vanilla soy ice cream and Dave and I enjoyed a coconut milk-coffee ice cream with ours! Delicious – but we were each defeated! The left overs are in the fridge for todays enjoyment!!

 

 

 

Roast pumpkin, sun dried tomato and spinach risotto

 

As the weather warms up in some parts of the world, it is cooling down in Australia! We are in crisp, Autumn beauty right now and a warming risotto is just what is needed!

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Arborio rice

5 cups vegetable stock

2 cups roasted, cubed pumpkin pieces

1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomato pieces

1 1/2 cups chopped baby spinach leaves

1/4 cup white wine

1 leek, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

salt and pepper

dried italian herbs

chilli flakes

 

Directions:

Saute the leek, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs until soft. Stir in Arborio rice (until coated with oil film from the sauté).

Stir through white wine (to cook off the alcohol content).

Using hot vegetable stock, pour in 1/2 cup of stock at a time and continue stirring the risotto. It is the slow addition of hot stock that absorbs that makes the risotto creamy. When the 1/2 cup addition has absorbed each time, add another one. After 3 cups of stock have been added, stir in the pumpkin pieces, sun dried tomato and spinach leaves and continue with the stock process until all absorbed.

Hot cross buns

It’s Good Friday! Thank you to my brilliant husband, Dave, for having hot, gluten free vegan hot cross buns waiting for me on my arrival home from church on this Good Friday! Wooo! And I can attest to the winning combination these tasty treats are.

Firstly, it’s probably important to understand a little about how flours work when cooking with gluten free combinations. These buns have 50% medium flours, 25% light and 25% heavy. If you don’t have the exact flours, you can look here for more suggestions on how this works and use your own combinations. I think it is always safe to use more tapioca flour rather than less so feel free to use more light flour and less medium/heavy if you want to play with it.

Or…you can just follow this recipe. De-licious!

Dry ingredients: 

Medium:                   1 cup  red sorghum flour and ½ cup brown rice flour

Light:                        ½ cup tapioca flour and ¼ cup potato starch

Heavy:                       ½ cup buckwheat flour and ¼ cup almond meal flour

2 tsp xanthan gum

½ tsp salt

1/2 tsp all spice

1 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients:

4 dates blended in ¼ cup hot water

2 Tablespoons coconut palm sugar

2 teaspoons melted coconut oil

1 ½ cup warm water

¾ cup sultanas

Combine flour mix, xanthan gum, salt, sugar and dry yeast and mix together in a bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the coconut oil, warm water and pureed dates. Add in dry ingredients and mix on high with hand beaters until well mixed. Add sultanas and mix through.

Shape into a long thick roll and chop into sections of
roughly equal size to form into rolls.

Place rolls on a greased & floured tray, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

For the crosses, mix some brown rice flour and water together to form a paste and squeeze onto rolls in a cross formation. (You can do this by putting the paste in a snap lock bag and cutting one corner off to squeeze through)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake in 200 deg Celsius oven for 40 minutes.

Brush the tops of buns with a light coating of melted coconut oil after they come out for a gloss.

Our buns were brown and crunchy (which we enjoyed) but if you prefer them softer and less crunchy, put foil over the tray after 15 minutes of cooking.

 

Happy Easter everyone!

Cauliflower pakoras

Cauliflower pakoras

 

Once upon a time I had dinner at a lovely woman’s house who made an incredible vegan spread. With minimal fuss it seemed! And on the table were some incredible little cauliflower morsels. I’m not sure if this is true to what she did but I’ve played with it and tried to recreate it and oh my, we love these. I’ve discovered they actually work beautifully to make and take on a picnic too because they are great cold.

What I will note is that I make these by intuition and that’s difficult when it comes to a recipe. But basically, if you want the cauliflower chunkier or smoother, do what works; if you like more/less spice, do what works; if you can’t have chick peas (the besan flour), do what works…you know how it goes. The possibilities, as always, are endless. Use it and go with your instincts. And try not to overcook the base like I did in this pic 🙂

 

1/2 cauliflower

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup besan flour

1 1/2 cups water

2 Tblspn chia seeds (soaked in 1/3 cup water)

For the spices, I have used either a combination of garam masala/cumin/ginger/tumeric

OR  a basic Indian curry powder, plus a bit more turmeric for colour.

You can also add in onion powder for a bit more taste, and chilli.

Be sure to salt the mix well.

*NB the last time I made this I added in fresh coriander and it was beautiful! You could also add in fresh mint for something different too.

 

Either chop the cauliflower finely, or put cauliflower, onion and garlic into food processor and loosely process until it’s finely chopped. Stir in besan flour, chia and water and add spices.

Drop spoonfuls into hot oil (best in a non-stick pan) and fry on both sides.

 

Delicious!!

Alfredo penne pasta with salted tomatoes

Alfredo pasta with salted tomatoes

I don’t often eat gluten free pasta-type products but some days, I just crave that old pasta fix that holds something homely and comforting (comfort eating, isn’t it!). There are gluten free pastas and there are gluten free pastas! All I can suggest, if you are gluten free, is to read the labels and check that you are getting that which you are happy eating. Some are corn based, some are potato based and some are rice based. And they are all different, for sure.

Anyway onto this simple, gorgeous recipe. It’s the sort of meal that suits after an exhausting day when you can flop down on the couch in front of the TV with a bowl of pasta. (And for those of you who have small kids like I do, it’s not that straight forward, I know!).

 

Alfredo sauce: See here for an alternate cashew-based alfredo sauce…or below for my cauliflower one. I really love everything about cauliflower and its diversity at the moment, and it makes for a lovely, light, creamy, garlic-y sauce too!    (This is worth double or tripling if you are feeding a whole family).

2 cups cauliflower florets

2 garlic cloves, diced

1/2 leek, diced

1/3 cup non dairy milk

1/4 tsp onion powder

salt and pepper

 

Steam the cauliflower florets until well cooked. In a separate saucepan, saute the garlic and leek for a couple of minutes. Add cooked cauliflower florets, followed by seasoning and milk. Simmer for 10 minutes, and blend thoroughly into a creamy sauce.

*This is great to make in big batches (using  a whole cauliflower and freezing in portions so you can sneak it out for pasta, potato bakes or anything like that).

 

Pasta dish

Gluten free pasta

1/2 cup chopped fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

3/4 cup cherry tomatoes

salt

Alfredo sauce

 

Toss 3/4 cup of cherry tomatoes in a hot, dry saucepan with a generous sprinkling of rock salt until they begin to blister or show signs of cooking. (I like mine quite well cooked and soft, you may prefer yours less so).

Cook the gluten free pasta, drain, and toss in the pan with the tomatoes, fresh basil and spinach and stir through your alfredo sauce. Delicious and simple! 🙂

 

 

Cucumber “sushi” rolls

Cucumber ‘sushi’ rolls

Ok so there’s nothing really sushi about this except it’s bits of stuff rolled up in more stuff. But hey. I’m not even really sharing a recipe today per se but more so an idea. You can make it in whatever way works best for you.

I made these little cucumber rolls for a dinner party as an appetiser. They were so lovely and I like the idea and how fresh and adaptable they are.

Get a long cucumber (in Australia, they are called Continental cucumbers) and finely slice it length ways (or use a peeler if that works for you). The idea then is to spread a filling along the length and then roll it up. Simple!

I used two fillings. You can see the cashew cheese which is an absolute favourite of mine, although it is orange because I have taken to adding 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes into the mix as well. Divine!

The second filling was a simple caper guacamole. Capers are not something I am used to but I quite enjoyed it! A salty little zing in a creamy avocado with lemon. Our dinner party differed in favourites of the two. Although I liked the caper guacamole, I preferred the texture of the cashew cheese (less slimy!) but others preferred that. So go with what you love, I say.

I think it would be great to do a beetroot dip and get that beautiful pink colour. Maybe next time.

Enjoy, and let me know what great ideas you come up with for this!

Savoury vege pancake

Savoury Vege pancake

Kudos to my lovely friend Kirsty who introduced me to lunch at LOVE ON in Adelaide recently. I perused the menu and saw not much by way of vegan gluten-free eating, but was delighted to find savoury pancakes on the specials board. I had no idea what this was but the cook is Indian, the pancakes are gluten free and vegan and all up, whatever it is in those bounds is great by me!

It turned out to be such awesomeness that I had to give it a go myself.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 carrot, peeled and grated

1/2 brown onion, finely diced

1/2 zucchini, grated

2 small spring onions, finely diced

1/2 cup besan (chick pea) flour

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp tumeric (gives yellow colour, but optional)

1/2 tsp garam masala (also optional)

1/4 tsp garlic powder

sprinkle paprika

salt and pepper

 

Whisk batter of began flour and water, adding in all other ingredients and mix.

Heat a non stick pan, give a splash or spray of oil, and when medium-hot, ladle a spoonful into the middle of the pan, and using the base of the ladle, spread the mix in a circular motion from the inside to the outer (thus, creating a thin spread of pancake in a large circle).

When browned, flip over and brown the other side. Serve topped with any fresh salad and hummus.

 

This has become a quick, delicious staple for us.