Vegan MoFo - French Toast

Is there anything better than french toast for breakfast?  I have tried making a few different french toast recipes in the past & when I was googling recipes for the best french toast I came across a few recipes that featured nutritional yeast which I found odd but I decided to go with it.  Luckily, you can't taste the nutritional yeast in the end result at all as I was not looking forward to cheesy toast!

I used slices of baguette & soaked them in the following mixture:

• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• decent shake of cinnamon

They were then pan fried in a frypan just lightly sprayed with some canola oil.  I served these with blueberries & some tofutti cream cheese mixed with maple syrup. 

This is an awesome meal.

Vegan MoFo - Eggplant Gratin

E is for eggplant - one of my favourite vegetables!  I love eggplant when it is cooked until it is soft & silky & this is exactly how it turned out in this eggplant gratin.  It is not the most photogenic meal, but it was well liked - even by my mother in law! 

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 eggplant sliced
• 1 onion diced
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Fresh chopped sage to taste
• Fresh chopped basil to taste
• 1 1/2 cups tomato passata
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 cup panko
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Heat olive oil in frypan over medium heat
3. Add onion & garlic, cook stirring until onion is translucent & cooked through
4. Add tomato paste & cook stirring for a minute
5. Add the red wine & allow to simmer to cook off the alcohol
6. Add the passata & leave to simmer for around 10 minutes or longer if you want
7. Season to taste & add in the fresh herbs
8. Get your cooking dish out & spread a thin layer of sauce over the base of it - I cooked my gratin in a loaf pan, but you can also use a casserole/lasagne dish
9. Place a layer of eggplant slices on top & top with a layer of sauce
10. Repeat the layers until you have used all the ingredients up or reached the top of your dish, finishing with a layer of sauce
11. Mix together the panko & nutritional yeast in a small bowl & spread it over the top layer of sauce
12. Place in oven for around 45 minutes or until the eggplant is really soft & well cooked through - the breadcrumb topping of mine browned quite quickly so I covered it with foil for the reemainder of the cooking time.

Vegan MoFo - Dumplings

There is a lot of love for dumplings in my household & we usually just buy the frozen ones, but on the odd occasion I do make them as well.  The one thing that makes dumpling making a whole lot easier is a dumpling press, it seals the edges really well so that your dumplings stay together & you don't get filling leaking out everywhere.

For the filling of my dumplings, I chopped up some button mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, silverbeet & water chestnuts which I cooked off in a frying pan with garlic, ginger, some silken tofu & a splash of veg oyster sauce.  Once it was all cooked through I put a teaspoon of the filling in a dumpling wrapper & pressed - easy!  They were then steamed for around 5-10 minutes until the wrappers were looking translucent.  I drizzled them with a mixture of soy sauce, black vinegar & chilli paste & served these with scallion flatbread which I also made last MoFo.

Vegan MoFo - Caesar Salad

There is so much good food that I could have made starting with C, but in the end I decided on a caesar salad since it has been a long time since I ate one & I do love them.  I had some tofu that needed using so I  made a "chicken" caesar salad.

This is an easy meal - crunchy cos lettuce leaves topped with creamy caesar dressing, croutons, bacon bits & crumbed tofu.  The dressing was really easy, I used the one from Veganomicon & I used this recipe from The Fat-Fueled Vegan for the crumbed tofu.  The croutons were just squares of bread I had cut from a multigrain bread roll & fried in a little bit of olive oil.

Without tofu

Vegan MoFo - Banana Bread

I have been doing some recipe testing for the lovely Carla from Easy as Vegan Pie recently & made her gluten free banana bread.  This recipe is such a winner!  Ever since I made it Greg has been not so subtly suggesting that I make it again because it was so good.  I don't often make the same thing twice but this is the second time I made this & it will now be my go to banana bread recipe.

Vegan MoFo - Apple & Strawberry Crumble

I don't often make crumbles because my mum makes the best crumbles ever & mine pale into comparison, but it is a very quick & easy to veganise dessert option & you can mix it up by using different fruits or putting different nuts & spices in the topping.

Apple & Strawberry Crumble 

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 apples peeled & diced
• 10 strawberries, halved & stems removed 
• Juice of half lemon
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup nuttelex

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Place apples in frypan or saucepan over medium heat with the lemon juice & a couple of tablespoons of water
3. Cook apples until softened, keep adding water when it dries up
4. As the apples are cooking, add all the rest of the ingredients to a medium sized bowl & rub together until well mixed & resembling breadcrumbs
5. Transfer apples to a baking dish & top with the strawberries, or if you have cooked your apples in an oven proof saucepan like I did you can use that as your baking dish
6. Top the fruit with the crumble mix & place in the oven until browned (about 15 minutes)

Vegan MoFo - An A-Z of deliciousness

I have been a bit slack blogging lately, but I have ben saving myself for Vegan Mofo which I will be participating in again this year.  My plan for the month of November is to do an A-Z of vegan food that I will be cooking - starting tomorrow with an apple & strawberry crumble for A.  I love reading all the Vegan Mofo blogs & am looking forward to it kicking off.  You can read more about Vegan Mofo here.