Christmas Eats

Christmas lunch is always held at my mum's house & whilst she is fearless with veganising desserts she sometimes gets a bit confused about what vegan main meals to make us so I like to take something along.  It is especially important to make it incredibly delicious so that my omni family realise how delicious vegan eating can be.  After reading a thread on PPK about what people were making for Christmas I read about a Jamie Oliver recipe in the December/January issue of Delicious magazine for Pumpkin & Mushroom Wellington & knew immediately that this was going to be what I brought to lunch.
This recipe incorporates lots of ingredients that I love - pumpkin, mushrooms, chestnuts, sage, pine nuts, lemon, rosemary...  This is not a difficult recipe, but there are a lot of steps so it does take awhile.  I am not going to type out the recipe because it is loooong, but someone has done it here with beautiful photos to boot.  I did really enjoy this, as did my family bit I found the cinnamon flavour a bit overpowering so would reduce that by half if I were to make it again.
I hope everyone has had as wonderful and delicious Christmases as I was lucky enough to.

Christmas Eve Eats

This year since it was Holly's first Christmas and we would be spending all of Christmas Day with my family I decided that it would be good to have a nice meal for just the three of us on Christmas Eve.  I ended up spending a lot of time on Christmas Eve preparing my lunch for the next day so decided to go the easiest option & get a Sanitarium vegie roast.  It was my first time eating this & I actually didn't mind it except the glaze on it was waaaaay too sweet so I would definitely leave it off next time.  To go with this I made Vegan Dad's scalloped potatoes & butternut pumpkin with roasted chestnuts.  This is ugly but it is so, so good!!!!  I followed the recipe exactly except that I added in a bit of nooch to the sauce & I used canned chestnuts since fresh aren't in season.  I will definitely make this again. I also just steamed since green beans as Holly loves them so we have them with most meals & served them with this mushroom gravy but I found it to be way to strong in molasses flavour.

I made an easy dessert from ice cream which I softened & then mixed in chopped dark chocolate & dried fruit which I macerated in Grand Marnier overnight - very easy & very tasty. 

Vegan MoFo - Zucchini stuffed with quinoa

Last day of Vegan MoFo!  I think it has really helped doing an A-Z because it forced me to do a certain number of posts.  I have enjoyed doing my alphabet mofo & have loved having so many blogs to read.

For the last meal of Vegan MoFo 2010 it is zucchini stuffed with quinoa, this is a good weeknight meal & is healthy & tasty.

Ingredients (the filling makes enough for about 4 halves depending on the size of your zucchini)

• 2 zucchinis
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup plain pasta sauce
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup tvp (I would leave this out next time because you couldn't even tell it was in there)
• 2 cups water or staock (I used water)
• 3 tablespoons sliced olives
• 6 sage leaves chopped
• Cheezly

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
2. Cut zucchini in half & scoop out the insides & put aside, leaving about 1cm around the edges
3. Put the zucchini in a lightly greased oven dish skin side down, cover with foil & cook for about 15 minutes on until tender
4. Heat the oil in a frypan that has a lid & add onion
5. Roughly chop the zucchini flesh & add to frypan with the mushrooms
6. When the vegetables have softened add the rest of the ingredients (except the cheezly), cover & cook for 20-30 minutes but keep checking, stirring & add more water if needed until the quinoa is cooked
7. Season to taste
8. Fill the zucchini with the quinoa mixture & top with grated or thinly sliced cheezly & bake for another 15 minutes

 I think I overcooked mine a bit & the cheezly went a bit funny.  This is what happens when you go off to feed a baby with dinner cooking in the oven.

Vegan MoFo - Yakisoba

Happy second last day of Vegan MoFo!  I think I have now officially lost my mofo mojo & will be happy to have a few days off blogging coming up.

Yakisoba is essentially a soba noodle stir fry & the sauce that I used was 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar & 1 tsp sugar.  I used tofu, zucchini, carrot, cabbage & ginger in with the noodles.  I didn't like this at first but as I kept eating it grew on me & I quite liked the vinegary flavour.

Vegan MoFo - Xacuti 'chicken'

There are not many meals starting with X so I was pretty limited for choices for today.  Xacuti is a Goan curry & is extremely delicious.  This is possibly my favourite meal of the month & it is the first time I have ever made a curry  from scratch & it was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be.

I used this recipe for the xacuti chicken & subbed canola oil for ghee & mock chicken & potatoes for the actual chicken & I didn't garnish with coriander because it is foul.  I served my curry with this rice which I also subbed canola oil for ghee & which was also super delicious.  I am always making my rice this way from now on when we are eating Indian food.

Vegan MoFo - Waldorf Salad

I haven't eaten a waldorf salad for years so I was looking forward to this & I actually really enjoyed it even though it is super simple.
I just mixed some vegan mayo with lemon juice & tossed diced pink lady apple, toasted walnuts & chopped celery in it & then put it all on top of some cos lettuce leaves.

Vegan MoFo - Vermicelli Salad & Vegan Croissants!

Today's MoFo post for V was just supposed to be about my vermicelli salad but then I discovered something very, very exciting today. 

La Panella now sell vegan croissants!!! 

Even more excitingly they have plain & chocolate!!!  I haven't visited La Panella for awhile so I am unsure how long they have had them, but I did of course have to buy one to try it.  I went for a plain one & I tried a bit & I didn't love it, but then I heated it up & added some jam & I did love it.  I now think that I must go back & try a chocolate one.

My vermicelli salad was a bit boring in comparison, I prepare my noodles & then toss in a mixture of sweet chilli sauce & rice wine vinegar & then top with lots of vegies.  I used lettuce, carrot, snow peas, blanched broccoli & peanuts.

Vegan MoFo - Udon Noodle Stir Fry

I don't often make stir fries because I don't think I make them particularly well, but this was really nice.  Of course I didn't measure anything so I will never be able to replicate it again.

In my stir fry was:

• Garlic
• Ginger
• Tofu
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Snow peas
• Mushrooms
• Chopped peanuts as a topping

For the sauce I used:

• Vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce
• Soy sauce
• Mysterious seasoning sauce that is in my sauce cupboard
• Sweet soy sauce
• Water
• Cornflour

Vegan MoFo - Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs

I was looking for a good tempeh recipe so decided to make the tempeh sausage pastry puffs from Vegan Brunch.  These are quite nice & really easy.  It makes quite a lot of the tempeh mix so you can do as I did & just make some squares & use the leftover tempeh in sandwiches - yum.

Vegn MoFo - Soba Noodle Sushi (and Sweet Potato for Holly)

I saw this on Courtney's blog awhile ago & immediately wanted to make it since I love both soba noodles & sushi.  This is super easy & really good & it is an amazingly fast meal from starting to eating was only about 15 minutes.  My sushi contained tofu which had been marinated in soy sauce & hoisin, red capsicum & avocado.  The recipe is here.  Courtney is also doing an A-Z for Vegan MoFo so check out her blog to see what she is doing for the month.

And, while we are on food starting with S, we gave Holly some sweet potato yesterday for her first foray into the world of solid food!  She was not super interested & I think she might still be a bit too young but it was very, very cute.

Vegan Mofo - Roasted Vegetable Salad

I love a roasted vegetable salad & this one was a winner, I think it was the best I have ever made.  I roasted up some vegetables that were cut into chunks - sweet potato, pumpkin, eggplant, red capsicum & zucchini & then mixed a pesto dressing through them.  For the pesto dressing I made a pesto with basil, garlic, toasted cashews, olive oil & nutritional yeast all blended in the food processor & then thinned it out a bit with some red wine vinegar.  Then served it all on a bed of mixed salad leaves - healthy & delicious!

Vegan Mofo - Quinoa Salad

I am always looking for more ways to use quinoa & this was an awesome salad so I will be making it again.  It is just cooked quinoa with blanched asparagus, blanched broccoli, chickpeas, halved cherry tomatoes & roasted capsicum.  I based the dressing on this recipe from Gluten Free Goddess, I don't know what golden balsamic is so I used regular balsamic vinegar.  I topped the salad with some pistachios & it was super, super delicious.

Vegan MoFo - Pistachio Crusted Tofu

I wanted to make something with pistachios for P because I love them & I came up with the idea of pistachio crusted tofu.  I marinated the tofu in a mix of cranberry sauce, apple cider vinegar & olive oil & then topped it with finely chopped pistachios mixed with panko breadcrumbs & then baked it for about 15 minutes.  I really liked the flavour of this, but the topping did not stay on very well.  I served this with the most delicious salad of tomato, roasted red capsicum, avocado & edamame.

Vegan MoFo - Orange Marmalade Oat Bread

For O I made this bread, which has heaps of good reviews.  However, I found it quite bland as the marmalade flavour is very, very subtle.  I do like that it isn't super sweet and I think that it might make great french toast though so I will give that a go.

Vegan MoFo - Noodle Soup

I have mentioned before that I don't often make the same thing twice, but this soup is an exception.  This is on regular rotation in our house, we usually have it once every week to two weeks.  It is delicious & best of all it makes hardly any dishes unlike pretty much everything else I cook!

Ingredients (makes 2 big servings)

• 5 cups stock (I use massel chicken stock)
• 2/3 cups dried shitake mushrooms
• 90 gms dried soba noodles
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 12 dumplings (I use frozen bought ones)
• 1 bunch pak choy

Method

1. Heat the stock in a large saucepan & add the shitake mushrooms
2. Simmer until the mushrooms have softened, about 10 minutes
3. Add the soy sauce & miso paste
4. Add the dumplings which take about 15 minutes to cook from frozen
5. Add the noodles & the pak choy& cook for about 4 minutes further until the noodles are cooked
6. Serve & top with a couple of drops of sesame oil if desired or some chilli sauce

Vegan MoFo - Mushrooms 3 ways!

Halfway through the alphabet today!  So, in celebration here are three meals that I have made with mushrooms recently - yes, we are do like a mushroom in this house.

Mushroom Tart
I loved the idea of making a mushroom tart & topping it with asparagus but this was disappointing.  You know when you start making a recipe & you know immediately that it is not going to work but you have already committed to it so you decide to keep going anyway?  Well that is what happened here.  I used this recipe & as soon as I started making I realised that the quantities were no way near going to fill a normal size tart so I just added more of all the ingredients in & it just wasn't quite right & the filling was really dry.  The people that I made it for said that they liked it but they were possibly just being polite...

Mushroom Schnitzel
It never occurred to me before to make a mushroom schnitzel but when I read about it on Of the Kitten Kind I thought it was such a brilliant idea.  I used this recipe but mine obviously did not turn out as beautiful & golden as in that picture.  I did like these but I found them a bit boring, I think adding a gravy or turning them into a parma would be a better option.

Mushroom Sandwich
This is something that we eat quite a bit as they are easy & delicious.  This sandwich features tomato chuntney, marinated mushrooms, caramelised onion, tofutti cheese, tomato, baby spinach & avocado.
The mushrooms were enormous so I only needed half in each sandwich & I marinated the mushrooms in a mix of garlic, soy sauce & veg oyster sauce.
These sandwiches were the goods, but normally I prefer to use rolls as the mushrooms make the bread soggy in no time at all.

Vegan MoFo - Lasagne

I had this recipe bookmarked for awhile & finally made it last night.  It is not your traditional lasagne as it uses slices of zucchini for the pasta & I am a big pan of using zucchini in place in pasta & it worked really well here, as did the quinoa which was delicious.  The flavour was very strong, which may have been from the pasta sauce that I used, but I loved it & I am very happy to have lots of leftovers.

Vegan MoFo - Korma

I kept changing my mind on what to make for K and in the end I went with a korma.  I used this recipe from food.com but used light coconut milk instead of soaking the coconut & used broccoli & beans as my vegetables.  I just found this quite boring & wouldn't make it again, it is also pretty ugly looking! 

However, the star of the meal was the sweet potato naan which I had on the side.  I used this recipe & it was just as delicious as it sounds.

Vegan MoFo - Jambalaya

Day 10 already & I decided to make jambalaya.  This was delicious & easy, I loosely based it on a vegweb recipe & I made it using ingredients I had on hand - win!.

Ingredients (makes 4 large servings)

• 1 onion diced
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 red capsicum diced
• 1 medium zucchini diced
• 1 1/2 cups tomato passata
• 1/2 cups rice
• 3 cups stock (I used massel chicken stock)
• Cajun spice mix
• Artichoke hearts to serve
• Jalapenos to taste (optional)

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot which has a lid and saute garlic, onion, capsicum and zucchini until all cooked.
    
2. Add  spice mix, rice, passata and stock to pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally (uncovered).
    
3. Cover pot and reduce heat to low
    
4. Cook for 30 minutes or until rice is done, stirring occasionally.
    
5. Top with artichoke hearts & jalapenos

Vegan MoFo - Ice Cream

Day 9 & my first fail!
I decided to try making an ice cream & don't have an ice cream maker so when I stumbled across this recipe I thought it would be perfect & nothing sounds more delicious than peanut butter, coconut, maple syrup ice cream. I used regular soy milk rather than soy creamer & when I was putting it in the blender I did wonder if half a cup was too much & I should try a lesser amount but decided to live on the edge & use the full amount.  I shouldn't have.  This came out so, so runny!  It tastes divine but it is pretty much a milkshake rather than ice cream.  I have put it back into the freezer to see if it is ok when it freezes up, but as of now - this is what it looks like.

ETA - It froze up super hard so we waited until it softened & then ate it &it was sooooo good.  It got a bit icy but not too bad.  It was so delicious that I would make it again for sure.

Vegan MoFo - Hot Dogs

Ok, so today is bit of a cop out but sometimes you need a quick, easy trashtastic meal & this certainly fits the bill. 
It is a Sanitarium vegie sausage on a white roll with dijon mustard, tomato sauce & caramelised onions.

Vegan MoFo - Gozleme

Day 7 of Vegan MoFo & this was one of my favourite days so far.
When Greg asked what I was cooking &  said that it was gozlemes, the best way I could describe them was like a flat calzone that is pan fried - how can you go wrong with that?  These were great, I can't believe I have never made them before.  I based them on this recipe from taste.com.au.  For the filling I mixed up tofutti cream cheese with some of this sesame parmesan which I spread over the dough & topped with baby spinach leaves.